"Should I waste my time listening to sings which are not true?" "Thank Gawd, I ain't got nothin' to lie about!" was Uncle Henry's relieved thought, expressed aloud. "H'm!" Lopez murmured. "You have given me a idea." He rubbed his hands together, and then pushed his big sombrero a little back on his forehead. "Better as my own. I shall use it." Uncle Henry wondered what he had suggested. "What's that?" he asked. Lopez took on the voice of an orator, or a man in court making an important announcement. "If anyone 'ere shall tell me a lie, zen you shall all be--" he paused dramatically once more--"shot." The final word rang out like a shot itself. A movement of despair ran through the group. "Geemoneddy!" Uncle Henry broke the tension. Lopez turned to Lucia. "All bot you," he graciously informed her. "I 'ave ozzer plans for you!" Her hair enraptured him--her youth and loveliness. The relief she felt at the first part of the sentence was quickly killed as the sinister meaning of the latter part rushed into her brain. "Other plans!" she cried. "_Si._" He was unmoved by her apprehension. He walked to the very center of the room, and looked about him, studying all their faces. It was as if he were a central pivot and their destinies revolved around him. They had no idea what he would say next, and they hung on his words. CHAPTER IX WHEREIN UNCLE HENRY CHATTERS SOME MORE, THERE IS AN AUCTION, AND THINGS LOOK BLACK INDEED "And now for business," Lopez said. "And remember zat he what tells a lie shall be right away shotted." In his excitement he lost the little English he had. "I only hope _he_ tells one!" Uncle Henry couldn't help saying, pointing to Hardy. "You wish him to be shot?" the bandit wanted to know. "Absolutely!" Uncle Henry was quick to answer. Angela was horrified. "You want him to kill my dad?" "I should enjoy it tremendous," Uncle Henry kept right on, and all but smacked his thin old lips. Lopez was interested. "Why," he said slowly, wishing to get at the bottom of things, "do you wish him to be shotted so tremendous?" Uncle Henry had no hesitation in answering: "Because he come to skin us out of this place, gol darn him!" And then, as if to save his skin, he pushed his chair far into the alcove, and, from this vantage point, watched to see what Hardy would do and say. He was aware that he had gotten him in a devilish stew. It served him right. He was a robber, a thief, and he didn't care what became of him. If Lopez took him out and had him shot at once he wouldn't have felt a qualm. The bandit weighed what Smith had said; then he spoke directly to Hardy. "Zis is so? Zis is true?" "No." The monosyllable was more emphatic than any long explanation could have been. A scowl on his brow, Hardy came close to Lopez, fearlessly. "I came to foreclose a mortgage I hold on this place. That is all."