"Oh!" again came from the distracted Angela.
"But he want you. And so ..."
"You're going to force me to marry him. I see!" She turned to the listening
"Red." "And you'd let him force you on me, like this?"
"It ain't my fault, Angela," the foreman assured her. "I didn't know he was
going to do this! You know that."
Lopez issued his ultimatum.
"I am not going to force you to marry 'im. You are going to choose to marry
'im."
The girl was on the brink of despair.
"Never! Never! Never!" she screamed, and stamped her foot vigorously.
"Ah! my young lady. We shall see." He turned abruptly, and called, "Pedro!"
"_Si_," the faithful one answered, and came to his master.
Lopez then addressed Angela: "I shall not force you to marry 'im,"
indicating "Red" with a wave of the hand. "I shall insist only zat if you
do not marry wiz 'im, you shall marry wiz Pedro."
Directly behind the girl stood the fearful Pedro. His face was the dirtiest
that had ever crossed the border into Arizona. His teeth were sparse, his
hair a tangled mass of grit and dirt; his hands like violent mud-pies. The
suit he wore was stained and greasy--he had slept in it for many nights.
Altogether, he was about the most hopeless-looking individual a girl could
be asked to look upon. At his master's words, he grinned a fiendishly happy
grin, spread out his arms as if to embrace the charming Angela, and, if
possible, press a kiss upon her rosy cheek. But Angela, with one look at
him, collapsed into "Red's" waiting arms. He seemed like heaven to her now.
"Ah!" yelled Lopez.
"'Red'! save me, save me!" Angela cried in melodramatic fashion.
Pedro, seeing how far from popular he was with the young lady, walked
disconsolately to the door.
"So! You do love 'im, after all!" the bandit said to Angela.
"I never thought I could love anybody so much!" the girl replied. "Oh,
'Red'!" And she hugged him again.
"You mean it?" asked the delighted "Red." "You're not saying it
because..."
But Lopez broke in: "She is saying it because it is ze truth. In pleasure,
a woman go to ze man she sink she love. In fear, she go to ze man she
really love.... Well, you really want her? She is yours. And I 'ope you
will be 'appy. At least, I 'ave done my part." He smiled his most
enchanting smile.
"You have--you certainly have, and I am mighty obliged to you," said the
grateful "Red."
"You are welcome. I like you. But remember zis: Eet is your wish--not
mine.... Don't blame me."
"Red" could stand this now: he had his Angela. And tucked in his big arm,
he took her outdoors.
As soon as they had gone, Hardy turned to Lopez. "Look here!" he shouted,
"I guess I've got something to say about this. That's my daughter, whose
affairs you've been so kindly fixing up, and--"
Lopez gave him one look that closed his mouth suddenly. "Don't shoot,
Pedro," he said. "Well?"
Hardy cast one eye at Pedro's lifted gun, and got out only one word,
"Nothing." A meeker man never lived.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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