"And if Leddy overtakes him now, it's his own affair!"
"Yes, yes! He and his Wrath of God and Jag Ear are away to other worlds!"
"And other Leddys!"
"No doubt! No doubt!" concluded the Doge, in high good humor, all the vexation of his diary seemingly forgotten as he left the room.
But, as the Doge and Mary were to find, they were alone among Little Riversites in thinking that the breaking of Pedro Nogales's wrist was horrible. Jim Galway, who had witnessed the affair, took a radically contrary view, which everyone else not of the Leddy partisanship readily accepted. Despite the frequency of Jack's visits to the Ewold garden and all the happy exchange of pleasantries with his hosts, the community could not escape the thought of a certain latent hostility toward Jack on the part of the Doge, the more noticeable because it was so out of keeping with his nature.
"Doge, sometimes I think you are almost prejudiced against Jack Wingfield because he didn't let Leddy have his way," said Jim, with an outright frankness that was unprecedented in speaking to Jasper Ewold. "You're such a regular old Quaker!"
"But that little Mexican panting in abject fear against the hedge!" persisted the Doge.
"A nice, peaceful little Mexican with a knife, sneaking up to plant it in
Jack's neck!"
"But Jack is so powerful! And his look! I was so near I could see it well as he towered over Nogales!"
"Yes, no mistaking the look. I saw it in the arroyo. It made me think of what the look of one of those old sea-fighters might have been like when they lashed alongside and boarded the enemy."