by B. M. Bower
CHAPTER XXIII
THE DUEL OF RIATAS
"They're riding the last bull," announced Dade, coming into the roomagain where Jack was dressing for the supreme test of the day. "I've gotyour plan for the ground explained to Valencia and Pancho, and Diego'sshining Surry up till you can see your face in him. You ought to bethankful there's somebody on the lookout as faithful as that Injun. Ijust discovered he hasn't had a bite to eat since last night, because hewouldn't leave Surry long enough to get anything. I hope you'regrateful."
"I am," said Jack shortly. "But I've no business to be. Right now Idon't believe much in the sloppy whine of gratitude or the limber-backedprayer for mercy. Thankful or not, we get what we get. Fate hands it outto us; and we may as well take it and keep our mouths shut."
"That's the result of cooping yourself in here all day, just thinkingand smoking cigarettes," grumbled Dade, himself worried to the point ofnervous petulance. If he could have taken his own riata and foughtalso, he would have been much nearer his usual calm, humorous self.
"Say, I told Jose the rules you suggested, and he agreed to every onelike a gentleman. He just came, and Manuel with him leading the horseJose means to use; a big, black brute with a chest on him like a lion.His crowd stood on their hind legs and yelled themselves purple whenthey saw him come riding up."
"Well, that's what they've come for--to yell over Jose." Jack held threenew neckties to the light, trying to choose the one he would wear.
"Say--" Dade hesitated, looking doubtfully at the other.
"Well? Say it." Jack chose a deep crimson and flung the loop over hishead as if he were arraying himself for a ball.
"It may be some advantage to know ... I've watched Jose lasso cattle; healways uses--"
"Step right there!" Jack swung to face him. "I don't want to know howJose works with his riata. He don't know any of my little kinks, don'tyou see? I never," he added, after a little silence, "started out withthe deliberate intention of killing a man, before. I can't take anyadvantage, Dade; you know that, just as well as I do." He tried tosmile, to soften the rebuff--and he failed.
Dade went up and laid a contrite hand upon his shoulder. "You're abetter man than I am, Jack," he asserted humbly. "But it's hell for meto stand back and let you go into this thing alone. I've got piles ofconfidence in you, old boy--but Jose never got that medal by saying'pretty, please' and holding out his hand. The best lassoer inCalifornia means something. And he means to kill you--"
"If I'll let him," put in Jack, stretching his lips in what passed for agrin.
"I know--but you've been off the range for two years, just about; andyou've had a little over three weeks to make up for that lost practice."His eyes caught their two reflections in the glass, and something inJack's made him smile ruefully. "Kick me good," he advised. "I need it.I've got nerves worse than any old woman. I know you'll come out on top.You always do. But--what'n hell made you say riatas?"
"What'n hell made you brag about me to Manuel?" Jack came backinstantly, and was sorry for it when he saw how Dade winced. "Honest,I'm not a bit scared. I know what I can do, and I'm not worrying."
"You are. I never saw you so queer as you have been since I came back.You're no more like yourself than--"
"Well--but it ain't the duel altogether." Jack hesitated. "Say, Dade!Did--er--did Teresita take in all the sports? Bull fight and all?"
"Yes. She and that friend of hers from the Mission were in the front rowhaving the time of their lives. Is that talk true about--" Dade eyed himsharply.
"You go on and get things ready. In five minutes I'll expect to make mylittle bow to Fate."
Outside in the sunshine, men waited and clamored greedily for moreexcitement. All day they had waited for the duel, at most merelyappeased by the other sports; and now, with Jose actually among them,and with the wine they had drunk to heat their blood and themob-psychology working its will of them, they were scarce human, butrather a tremendous battle beast personified by dark, eager faces andtongues that wagged continually and with prejudice.
A group of spur-jingling vaqueros, chosen because of their well-brokenmounts, rode out in front of the adobe corral and the expectantaudience, halted and dispersed to their various stations as directed byDade, clear-voiced, steady of glance, unemotional, as if he were incharge of a bit of work from habit gone stale.
He might confess to "nerves" in private; in public, there were men whomarveled at his calm.
Riatas uncoiled and with each end fastened to a saddle horn, thevaqueros filed out from the corral in two straight lines, with Dade andValencia to lead the way. When they were placed to Dade's liking, theriatas fenced in a rectangle two hundred yards long, and one-third thatdistance across. At each riata length, all down the line, a vaquero satquiet upon his horse, a living fence-post holding the riata fence tightand straight. Down the middle of the arena thus formed easily withdefinite boundaries, peons were stretching, upon forked stakes, a ropespliced to reach the whole six hundred feet--save that a space of fiftyfeet was left open at each end so that the combatants might, uponoccasion, change sides easily.
Twice Dade paced the width of the area to make sure that the dividingline marked the exact center. When the last stake was driven deep andthe rope was knotted securely in place, he rode straight to the corraland pulled up before the judges' stand for his final announcement.
It was a quiet crowd now that he faced. A mass of men and women, tense,silent, ears and eyes strained to miss no smallest detail. He had noneed to lift his hand for their attention; he had it--had it to theextent that every man there was unconscious of his neighbor. That ropedarea was something new, something they had not been expecting. Also thething Dade told them sounded strange to these hot-blooded ones, who hadlooked forward to a whirlwind battle, with dust and swirling riatas andno law except the law of chance and superior skill and cunning.
"The two who will fight with riatas for the medalla oro and for theprize which Don Andres offers to the victor," he began, "have agreedupon certain rules which each has promised to observe faithfully, thatskill rather than luck may be the chief factor in the fight. These arethe rules of the contest:
"None but those two, Don Jose Pacheco and Senor Allen, will be permittedwithin the square we have marked off for them after the first signalshot is fired. They will toss a coin for first position and will startfrom opposite ends of the ground. At the signal, which will be a pistolshot, they will mount and ride with the center rope between them. Uponmeeting"--he stopped long enough for a quick smile--"they will try whatthey can do. If both miss, they will coil their riatas and hang themfrom the horn, and ride on to the end; there they will dismount and waitfor the second signal for starting.
"They will repeat these maneuvers until the contest is decided, one wayor the other, but at no time will they start before the signal is given.
"Remember, no one else will be permitted inside the line, at any time;also, neither of the contestants may pass the dividing line unless hehas the other at his mercy--when--he may cross if he chooses." It costDade something, that last sentence, but he said it firmly; repeated therules more briefly in English and rode out of the square, a vaqueroslackening the first riata of the line to leave a space for him to pass.And as he went, there was nothing in his manner to show how ticklish hefelt the situation to be.
Only, when he came upon Jack, just riding out from the stable uponSurry, his lips drew tight and thin. But he merely waved his hand andwent on to tell Jose that he wanted Manuel to give the signals, for thenall would be sure that there would be no unfairness.
He was gone perhaps two minutes; yet when he returned with Manuelglowering beside him, that fenced area was lined four deep with horsemenall around; and so had they segregated themselves instinctively, friendwith friend, that the northern side was a mass of bright colors to showthat there stood the Spanish caballeros; and opposite them, a moremotley showing and yet a more sinister one, stood the Americanos, withBill Wilson pressed against the rope half-way
down the line, and besidehim big Jerry Simpson, lounging upon Moll, his black mule.
Instinctively, Dade rode around to them, beckoning Manuel to follow; andplaced him between Jerry and Bill; explained that Manuel was to fire thestarting signals, and smiled his thanks when Jerry promptly produced oneof his "twins" and placed it in Manuel's hands.
"P'int her nose in the air, mister, when you turn her loose," he advisedsolemnly. "She's loaded fur b'ar!"
"Keep your eyes open," Dade warned Bill Wilson when he turned to rideback; and Bill nodded understandingly. Bill, for that matter, usuallydid keep his eyes open, and to such purpose that nothing escaped them.
Back at the corral, Dade saw Jack waiting upon Surry in the shade of theadobe wall until the moment came for entering the arena. Near to him,Jose calmed his big, black horse and waited also, cold hauteur thekeynote of his whole attitude. Dade waved his hand to them, and theyfollowed him into the empty rectangle. From the crowd came a rustle asof a gust of wind through tree-tops; then they were still again, watchingand waiting and listening.
Those for whom they had watched all day at last stood side by sidebefore them; and the picture they made must have pleased the mostexacting eye that looked down upon them.
For Jose was all black and silver, from the tasseled, silver cord uponhis embroidered sombrero to the great silver rowels of his spurs. Blackvelvet jacket, black velvet breeches with silver braid glistening inheavy, intricate pattern; black hair, black eyes--and a black frown,withal, and for good reason, perhaps. For, thinking to win a smile fromher who had sent the glove and the message, Jose looked towards thenearest and most comfortable seat, where Teresita sat, smiling andresplendent, between her mother and Rosa. He had looked, had Jose, andhad seen her smile; but he saw that it was not at him she smiled, but atJack. It is true, the smile may have been merely scornful; but Jose wasin no mood for nice analysis, and the hurt was keen enough because shesmiled at all, and it made his mood a savage one.
Jack was all white and red save for the saddle, which was black withsilver trimmings; and Surry, milk white from ears to heel, served tocomplete the picture satisfyingly. Diego must have put an extra crimp inmane and tail, for the waves were beautiful to behold; he had surelypolished the hoofs so that they shone; and nature had done the rest,when she made Surry the proud, gentle, high-stepping animal he was. Jackwore breeches and jacket of soft, white leather--and none but BillWilson knew what they had cost in time, trouble, and money. A red, silksash was knotted about his middle; the flaming, crimson tie flutteredunder his chin; and he was bareheaded, so that his coppery hair liftedfrom his untanned forehead in the breeze, and made many a senorita'spulse quicken admiringly. For Jack, think what you will of himotherwise, was extremely good to look upon.
"Heads for Don Jose!" A Mexican dollar, spun high in air from Dade'sfingers, glittered and fell straight. Three heads bent to see which sidecame uppermost, and thousands of necks craned futilely.
"Don Jose will choose his starting-point," Dade called out. "But firstthe two will lead their horses over the ground, so that they may makesure that there are no holes or stones to trip them."
Even in that preliminary, they showed how differently two persons willgo about doing the same thing. Jose, trailing immense, silverspur-rowels, walked with the bridle reins looped over his arm, his eyesexamining critically every foot of the ground as he passed.
Jack, loosening his riata as he dismounted, caught the loop over thehigh horn and let the rope drop to the ground. He wore no spurs; and asfor Surry, he had no bridle and bit, but a hackamore instead.
Jack threw the reins over the neck of the horse. "Come, old fellow," hesaid, quite as if he were speaking to a person, and started off. AndSurry, his neck arched, his ears perked knowingly, stepped out after himwith that peculiar, springy gait that speaks eloquently of perfectmuscles and a body fairly vibrating with energy; the riata trailed afterhim, every little tendency towards a kink taken out of it.
"Dios! What a caballo is that white one!" Dade heard a Salinas manexclaim, and flushed at the praise.
Back they came, Jack and Surry, with Jack ten feet in advance of thehorse; for Jose had chosen to remain at the southern end, with the sunat his left shoulder. Jack, for all his eagerness to begin, found timeto shake hands with Bill and say a word to some others as he passed--andthose eyes up there that watched did not miss one single movement.
"Look, you! The gringo is telling his friends adios while he may!" someone shouted loudly from across the arena; and a great laugh roared fromthe throats that were dark, and handclapping at the witticism made thespeaker a self-conscious caballero indeed.
At the corral, which was his starting-point, Jack took up the draggingriata, and with his handkerchief wiped off the dust while he coiled itagain; hung it over the saddle horn and waited for the signal.
He was scowling now at certain remarks that came to his ears from theseats, with titters and chuckles to point their wit. But he sent acheering eye-signal to Dade, whose face was strained and noticeablywhite under the tan.
Half-way down the line, among the Americans, there was a little stir,and then a pistol barked with that loud crash which black powder makes.Jack, on the instant when the smoke curled up in a little, balloon-likepuff, turned and leaped into the saddle. The duel of riatas was begun.