"Oh, she's wise!" declared Phil. "She's been to school twice in Los Angeles and seen the wild West show. Yes, sir, she's just like an American girl and speaks English perfectly. She told me she didn't like the Mexican men--they were too stuck on themselves--and say, Bud, when I told her you were a genuine Texas cowboy, what do you think she said?" "W'y, I don't know," answered Bud, smiling broadly in anticipation; "what did she say?" "She said she'd like to know you!" "She did not!" came back Bud with sudden spirit. Though he laughed the thought away, a great burden seemed to be lifted from his heart, and he found himself happy again. X To an American, accustomed to getting things done first and talking about it afterward, there is nothing so subtly irritating as the Old World formalism, the polite evasiveness of the Mexicans; and yet, at times, they can speak to the point with the best of us. For sixty days Don Cipriano Aragon had smiled and smiled and then, suddenly, as the last day of their mining permit passed by and there was no record of a denouncement by Cruz Mendez, he appeared at the Eagle Tail mine with a pistol in his belt and a triumphant sneer on his lips. Behind him rode four Mexicans, fully armed, and they made no reply to De Lancey's polite "_Buenos días!_" "Take your poor things," burst out Aragon, pointing contemptuously at their tent and beds, "and your low, _pelado_ Mexican--and go! This mine no longer stands in the name of Cruz Mendez, and I want it for myself! No, not a word!" he cried, as De Lancey opened his mouth to explain. "Nothing! Only go!" "No, _señor_," said Hooker, dropping his hand to his six-shooter which hung low by his leg and stepping forward, "we will not go!" "What?" stormed Aragon. "You--" "Be careful there!" warned Bud, suddenly fixing his eyes on one of the four retainers. "If you touch that gun I'll kill you!" There was a pause, in which the Mexicans sat frozen to their saddles, and then De Lancey broke the silence. "You must not think, Señor Aragon," he began, speaking with a certain bitterness, "that you can carry your point like this. My friend here is a Texan, and if your men stir he will kill them. But there is a law in this country for every man--what is it that you want?" "I want this mining claim," shouted Aragon, "that you have so unjustly taken from me through that scoundrel Mendez! And I want you to step aside, so that I can set up my monuments and take possession of it." "The Señor Aragon has not been to the _agente mineral_ to-day," suggested De Lancey suavely. "If he had taken the trouble he would not--" "Enough!" cried Aragon, still trying to carry it off cavalierly. "I sent my servant to the mining agent yesterday and he reported that the permit had lapsed." "If he had taken the pains to inquire for new permits, however," returned De Lancey, "he would have found that one has been issued to me. I am now a Mexican citizen, like yourself."