“Possibly, O Senor Miguel Dominguez Perez (a profound courtesy here), it is as thou sayest.  Drunkard Concho may be; but, drunk or sober, he never turned his back on his friend—­or—­(the words grated a little here)—­his enemy.”

Miguel would have replied, but Victor was ready.  “Fool,” he said, pinching his arm, “’tis an old friend.  And—­and—­the application is still to be filled up.  Are you crazy?”

But on this point Miguel was not, and with the revenge of a rival added to his other instincts, he permitted Victor to lead him away.

On their return to the fonda, they found Master Manuel too far gone with aguardiente, and a general animosity to the average Americano, to be of any service.  So they worked alone, with pen, ink, and paper, in the stuffy, cigarrito-clouded back room of the fonda.  It was midnight, two hours after Concho had started, that Miguel clapped spurs to his horse for the village of Tres Pinos, with an application to Governor Micheltorena for a grant to the “Rancho of the Red Rocks” comfortably bestowed in his pocket.

CHAPTER VII

WHO PLEAD FOR IT

There can be little doubt the coroner’s jury of Fresno would have returned a verdict of “death from alcoholism,” as the result of their inquest into the cause of Concho’s death, had not Dr. Guild fought nobly in support of the law and his own convictions.  A majority of the jury objected to there being any inquest at all.  A sincere juryman thought it hard that whenever a Greaser pegged out in a sneakin’ kind o’ way, American citizens should be taken from their business to find out what ailed him.  “S’pose he was killed,” said another, “thar ain’t no time this thirty year he weren’t, so to speak, just sufferin’ for it, ez his nat’ral right ez a Mexican.”  The jury at last compromised by bringing in a verdict of homicide against certain parties unknown.  Yet it was understood tacitly that these unknown parties were severally Wiles and Pedro; Manuel, Miguel, and Roscommon proving an unmistakable alibi.  Wiles and Pedro had fled to lower California, and Manuel, Miguel, and Roscommon deemed it advisable, in the then excited state of the public mind, to withhold the forged application and claim from the courts and the public comment.  So that for a year after the murder of Concho and the flight of his assassins “The Blue Mass Mining Company” remained in undisturbed and actual possession of the mine, and reigned in their stead.

But the spirit of the murdered Concho would not down any more than that of the murdered Banquo, and so wrought, no doubt, in a quiet, Concho-like way, sore trouble with the “Blue Mass Company.”  For a great Capitalist and Master of Avarice came down to the mine and found it fair, and taking one of the Company aside, offered to lend his name and a certain amount of coin for a controlling interest, accompanying the generous offer with a suggestion