On the face of it, that looked as though Starr had gained a point.  In reality he felt that he had in some manner played into Elfigo’s hands.  Certainly he had not gained anything in the way of producing any buzzing of the Alliance leaders.  Not a Mexican had shown his face at the hearing, save Luis Medina and his mother, who had been called as witnesses.

Luis had been badly scared but stubborn, insisting that he had heard Elfigo call Estan from the house just before the shot was fired.  The mother also had been badly frightened, but not at all stubborn.  Indeed, she was not even certain of anything beyond the drear fact that her son was dead, and that he had fallen with the lamp in his hand, unarmed and unsuspecting.  She was frightened at the unknown, terrible Law that had brought her there before the judge, and not at anything tangible.

But Luis knew exactly what it was he feared.  Starr read that in his eyes whenever they turned toward the calm, inscrutably smiling Elfigo.  Hate was in the eyes of Luis, but the hate was almost submerged by the terror that filled him.  He shook when he stood up to take the oath.  His voice trembled in spite of him when he spoke; but he spoke boldly for all that—­falsely, too.  He had lied when he told of the quarrel over the old water right.  It was not a water right which the two had discussed, and Starr knew it.

But it was Elfigo that puzzled Starr most.  Elfigo had smiled, as though the whole thing amused him even though it annoyed him to be under arrest.  He denied, of course, that he had known anything at all about the murder until it was common news about town.  He had been somewhere else at the time Estan was shot, and he could and would prove, when the time came, that it would have been physically impossible for him to have shot Estan Medina.  He preferred not to produce any witnesses now, however.  Let it go to a jury trial, and then he would clear himself of the charge.  All through his lawyer, of course, while Elfigo sat back with his hands in his pockets and his feet thrust out before him, whimsically contemplating his tan shoes.

He had seemed confident that bail would be accepted, and he was unmistakably crestfallen when the judge, who acted under certain instructions from those above him, refused to accept bail.  But Elfigo had scored, nevertheless; he had not permitted any of his friends to become identified in any manner whatsoever with his movements, and he had withheld his side of the case altogether.

So Starr was left in the dark where he had expected to find the light he needed to direct him.  He had also permitted Luis to mark himself for another murder in the Medina family.  Well, Luis was a conspirator, for that matter; but he was a boy, and his judgment had not ripened.  It seemed a shame that a youngster like that should be drawn into such a mess.  Starr, determined to do what he could to protect Luis, had seen to it that Luis was locked up, for the purely technical reason that he was an important witness and they wanted to be sure of him; but really to protect him from the wrath of Elfigo.