The man on the serape shrugged his shoulders and lifted his head, resting it on his hands to listen better. "Nordico? Oh, yes! the man with an eye for good horses." "If it were only an eye," grumbled Don Antonio, "but the devil seems to have a hundred hands, and his reata touches only the first stock on the Arteaga ranches." "Not only the Arteagas', I suppose?" "Oh, you not hearing that?" and the older man's tone expressed surprise. "It going with the curse, maybe, we not knowing. Old Don Vicente have the brother Ramon, but Vicente buy up all Ramon's land some way. Ramon goes crazy mad, _loco_, on that account. And then his son, Barto, he study for the priest, that is when the war comes, and he is only little yet. He running away from school to fight; but all he can do is to carry the letters, he is so little and can ride so like the devil. He never is content to the American flags, no more than Dona Luisa, so he just keeping on to fight, and the government no getting him." "Do they try?" asked the American. "Do they--do they try? Since he joined Juan Flores, one dozen men in Capistrano have the sword cut or the bullet mark, who have gone to try for that reward. It is good money, but no one getting it. He is a devil." "But I don't understand. You make him out an Arteaga, yet he is called Nordico?" "Oh, he hating the Arteagas, so he taking his mother's name. He take the government mail sometimes, and he takes the Arteaga horses always, and no one ever finds him any place. While men follow his trail for the mountains, he is out in a boat on the sea. The saints send that he does not meet the marriage gifts of Don Rafael." The man behind the cactus fairly held his breath. "Whew! would he attack the Mission or the town?" "It would not be the first time," returned Antonio, "but it is of the bride-chests on the journey that I speak. Sixty miles of land they must cover from San Diego, and they cost more than a herd of horses." "Rafael can replace the gifts," observed the American, "so long as his bandit cousin does not kidnap the bride; but even that, I suppose, might be done in this land of lonely ranges." The man under the cactus nodded and showed his teeth in an appreciative smile. He had met good fortune for his long vigil; it was a day of luck, and he crossed himself. The vaqueros had circled the rebellious animals, and headed them back. "It is true, the horses are in better condition this year," conceded the major-domo as they watched the horses loping along the river side. "Do you send them all together, or by the five hundred, across the range, Senor Bryton?" "By the five hundred, I think the lieutenant said," replied Bryton. "It is not easy to feed more in one bunch on the journey." The man behind the cactus arose stealthily and stretched his arms as the hoof-beats grew more faint.