"To her husband," amended the Mexican significantly, adding after an
instant--"who is a good friend of mine."
"You'll stand pat on that, will you?"
"It would be my purpose to reward my friends--those who have helped the
cause--if by any chance command of the Legion should fall to me."
Harrison glared at him suspiciously. "You're so smooth I don't know
whether I can believe you or not. You'd sell your own father out for the
right price."
"I pay my debts, senor--both kinds," suggested the Mexican, unmoved at
this outburst.
"See that you do."
"Be sure I shall, amigo," returned Culvera, looking straight at him from
narrowed eyes that told nothing.
The prizefighter took another turn up and down the room. He was anxious
and harassed as well as driven hard by hatred and jealousy.
"The wolf is having me watched. His orders are that I'm not to be
allowed to leave camp. I don't get any chance to see him alone. If you
ask me, I think he's fixing to have me knifed in the dark," Harrison
burst out.
"Shouldn't wonder," agreed the young officer with a pleasant smile. He
lived in an atmosphere where such things were not uncommon, and on
occasion could take a hand himself.
"Fat lot you care," complained the photoplay actor sullenly. "You
wouldn't lift a hand to save your pardner."
Culvera patted him on the shoulder cheerfully. "What can I do? Do I not
live under the shadow myself? Can I tell when the knife will fall on me?
He is without bowels of mercy, this son of a thief. But this I know: if
you are watched, you must not stay here. Gabriel will be suspicious lest
we are plotting something against him. Good luck, amigo."
The heavyweight took away with him a heavy heart. He had reached the
stage where his hand was against that of every man. Culvera he did not
trust at all out of his sight beyond the point where the interests of
the young Mexican were parallel to his. In the whole camp he had no
friend, not even the girl for whom he fought. As for Pasquale, Harrison
had told the truth. He believed the general had doomed him. Unless he
struck first, he was a lost man. Why had he been fool enough to boast
to the old scoundrel what he would do? His temper had robbed him of the
chance to kill and then escape.
He passed down the street toward the river. A dozen boys and young men
sat in the shadow of the adobe wall that fronted the road opposite one
of the corrals. It chanced that Harrison dropped his handkerchief at
this point and stooped to pick it up.
Thirty minutes later a barefooted youth came down to the river carrying
an olla for water. Harrison lay sleeping under a cottonwood that edged
the trail. One arm was outstretched so that the closed fist lay almost
across the path.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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