“‘It is not for me, that my cousin he waits. In his eyes is there murder, but it is not for his Chiquita that he sees red. Is my cousin Juan a coward, that he lies in ambush? Does he love me no longer? Is it that he would kill one whom I love? Go, and go quickly, that he may not see you--that he may not know that my little Juan has put upon Chiquita and the house of Salvia the great shame.’ “The Englishman he was not come to the bend of the road before Juan was gone. And Juan came not back to the _hacienda_ for the many, many days. No one knew where he had gone, but he was not far. He was near in the mountains; like the cougar and the grizzly he was hiding. Far from Chiquita he could not go. Many the times she have passed him as he crouched in the _mésquite_, but she did not know. Always was her Englishman to ride beside her. Three, four, ten times could Juan have killed him, but would not! Was it not that Chiquita had said she have come to love the Milord? And she have said, too, that it is coward to shoot from the ambush. Juan loved Chiquita; her heart he would not make to ache, and, _Señor_, he was not coward, that little Juan! [Illustration: “IS MY COUSIN JUAN A COWARD, THAT HE LIES IN AMBUSH?”] “Every day, for many, many days, Juan, from his hiding could see of the rides, the starting--Chiquita and the Englishman--always the cursed _Inglés_! Not always would they ride near Juan. One way sometimes, then next day another way, but every day some way they ride--Chiquita and her Englishman. And they ride so close, so very close--so close together they ride that Juan sometimes forgets almost, and then he looks at the rifle. So hungry he looks at it, and how the itching it is in the fingers! Always is it loaded, the rifle, and it carries far and true the bullet when Juan fires it. He is fine shot, that little Juan. “One day Chiquita and the Englishman they not ride together. The Milord is alone. Next day is he alone once more. He does not ride the way of Juan. That is good, for Chiquita is not there, and to remember is hard when she is not there, and the gun it is loaded. “Two days, then, the Englishman he ride alone. The second day, in the evening, Juan sees the _vaqueros_ and the women run, and run--they run about like jack-rabbits. And then they gather together and talk, talk, always they talk; like _el loro_, the parrot, they talk. There is no work. For two days, Juan has not seen Don Pedro. “The third day, in the morning, everything is like dead at the _hacienda_. No one is stir, only sometimes the dogs they bark. By and by comes the Englishman out of the house, springs quick on his mustang and like the wind he is off. He rides close by Juan, so near that the boy he could have plucked him off his horse. And the Englishman’s face it was white--white just like a corpse. He ride like he is scared--like _el diablo_--like the devil he ride!