"But oh, you marrying Mexican," he continued, relapsing into his mother tongue as El Tuerto disappeared; "you certainly have dished us right!" IX Not the least of the causes which have brought Mexico to the brink of the abyss is the endless quarrel between church and state, which has almost destroyed the sanctity of marriage and left, besides, a pitiful heritage of deserted women and fatherless children as its toll. Many an honest laborer has peoned himself to pay the priest for his marriage, only to be told that it is not legal in the eyes of the law; and many another, married by the judge, has been gravely informed by the _padre_ that the woman is only his mistress, and the children born out of wedlock. So that now, to be sure that she is wedded, a woman must be married twice, and many a couple, on account of the prohibitive fees, are never married at all. Cruz Mendez was no different from the men of his class, and he believed honestly that he was married to the comely Maria; but Hooker could have enlightened him on that point if he had cared to do it. Bud was playing a game, with the Eagle Tail mine for a stake; and, being experienced at poker, he stood pat and studied his hand. Without doubt Mendez had lost his usefulness as a locator of the mine, since Maria was not his legal wife and could not sign the transfer papers as such. According to the law of the land, the woman now living with Aragon's _mayordomo_ was the "legitimate" wife of the contract, and she alone could release the title to the mine once Mendez denounced the claim. But Mendez had not yet denounced the claim--though for a period of some thirty days yet he had the exclusive privilege of doing so--and Bud did not intend that he should. Meanwhile they must walk softly, leaving Aragon still to hug the delusion that he would soon, through his _mayordomo_, have them in his power--and when the full sixty days of Cruz Mendez's mining permit had expired they could locate the mine again. But how--and through whom? That was the question that Bud was studying upon when Phil rode up the trail, and in his abstraction he barely returned his gay greeting. "Well, cheer up, old top!" cried De Lancey, throwing his bridle-reins to the ground and striding up to the tent. "What ho, let down the portcullis, me lord seneschal! And cease your vain repining, Algernon--our papers are all O.K. and the lawyer says to go ahead. But that isn't half the news! Say, we had a dance up at the hotel last night and I met--" "Yes--sure you did," broke in Bud; "but listen to this!" And he told him of El Tuerto's matrimonial entanglements. "Why, the crooked devil!" exclaimed De Lancey, leaping up at the finish. "_Oyez!_ Mendez!" "Don't say a word," warned Bud, springing to the tent door to intercept him, "or you'll put us out of business! It is nothing," he continued in Spanish as Mendez came out of his house, "but put Don Felipe's horse in the corral when he is cool."