“Do not kill him, Jose,” she begged caressingly.  “Truly he did not harm me!  I but ran from him because—­” She sent a smile straight to the leaping heart of Jose, and fumbled with her tossing banner of hair, and turned eyes of innocent surprise on the Senor Allen, who needed some punishment—­and was in fair way to get it.

“What is the pleasure of the senor?” Jose’s voice was as smooth and as keen as the dagger-blade under his sash.  “His message must indeed be urgent to warrant such haste!  You would do well to ride back as hastily as you came; for truly a blind man could see that the senorita has not the smallest desire for your presence.  As for me—­” As for him, he smiled a sneer and a threat together.

Jack looked to the girl for a rebuke of the man’s insult; but Teresita’s head was drooped and tilted sidewise while she made shift to braid her hair, and if she heard she surely did not seem to heed.

“As for you, it wouldn’t be a bad idea for you to mind your own business,” Jack retorted bluntly.  “The senorita doesn’t need any interpreter.  The senorita is perfectly well-qualified to speak for herself.  She knows—­”

“The senorita knows whom she can trust—­and it is not a low dog of a gringo, who would be rotting now with a neck stretched by the hangman’s rope, if he had but received his deserts; murderer of five men in one day, men of his own race at that!  Gambler! loafer—­”

At the press of silver rowels against his sides, Surry lunged forward.  But Teresita’s horse sidled suddenly between the two men.

“Senor Jack, we will go now, if this wicked caballo of mine will consent to do his running towards home.  Thank you, Jose, for stopping him for me; truly, I think he was minded to carry me to Santa Clara, whether I wished to go or not!  But doubtless Senor Jack would have overtaken him soon.  Adios, Jose.  Gracias, amigo mio!” Having put her hair into some sort of confinement, she picked up her reins and smiled at Jose and then at Jack in a way to tie the tongues of them both; though their brows were black with the hatred which must, if they met again, bear fruit of violence.

Fifty yards away, Teresita looked back and waved a hand at the gay horseman who still stood fair across the highway and stared blankly after them.

“Poor Jose!” she murmured mischievously.  “Very puzzled and unhappy he looks.  I wonder if the privilege of tearing you in pieces would not bring the smile to his lips?  Senor Jack, if so be you should ever desire death, will you let Jose do the killing?  To serve you thus would give him great pleasure, I am sure.”

Jack, usually so headlong in his speech and actions, rode a moody three minutes without replying.  He was not a fool, even though he was rather deeply in love; he felt in her that feline instinct to torment which wise men believe they can detect in all women; and angry as he was at Jose’s deliberate insults, he knew quite well in his heart that Teresita had purposely provoked them.