“La Bonita she hear the great scream and run quick to Chiquita. She find her on the floor like one who is dead. The Englishman he is not there—he is gone, but on the floor is the devil looking-glass. La Bonita made the curse, and crush the glass into the thousand pieces, so! If the Englishman he had not gone she sure would have kill him, that old woman! She with the poniard could aim true, that Bonita, and for the blood of Milord was she thirsty.
“When he have the work to do, el Mexicano make not the hurry, but when he must kill his enemy, Señor, then does he never say mañana—the to-morrow. To-day is the time he must kill.
“Juan stayed not long at the hacienda. He leave Chiquita with the old woman, and saddle his mustang and ride—swift as the bird flies, rode Juan. The vaqueros they tell him the Englishman he have ride through Sonora, and so Juan he go that way.
“Does el Señor know where is the ferry on the Stanislaus?”
“Yes,” I said, “I know the place well.”
“Then, the Señor he will remember that the mountains are at the ferry high, very high and steep like the wall. The Stanislaus in the spring is so swift that in it a man could not live one second. The rocks, ah! Señor, the rocks in the canyon of the Stanislaus they are plenty, and they are sharp and cruel.
“It was not then as now. There was no ferry, and one must cross by a foot-bridge. The freshet of the spring-time it had washed the bridge away. Very high was then the Stanislaus! When the foot-bridge it was go, one must wait, and wait, and wait—he must wait for the going down of the water and for the mineros a new bridge to build.
“In the cabin of a minero away up on the mountain side the Englishman was wait for the water to go down and the bridge to be built. Here it was that Juan find him.
“He could fight, could that cursed Inglés, and he was so strong that in his hands only a child was that little Juan! But the boy he have the courage, and the right—and, Señor, he have the poniard. It is the poniard that makes the strength as nothing.
“In the cabin of the minero the fight began, and so weak was Juan in the hands of el Inglés that he was by him push through the door and to the edge of the canyon. It is very deep, that canyon, and to the bottom a very long way, and Juan he know what happen if he is not quick and sure.