al birds."

"Oh, you are, are you?" queried Pike. "Well, take a warning. You'll
get a knife in your back from her man one of these fine nights, and
the song will be _Adios, adios amores_ for you!"

"Nothing doing, Cap! We play _malilla_ for the drinks, and I work it
so that he beats me two out of three. I'm so easy I'm not worth
watching. Women don't fancy fools, so I'm safe."

"Well, I'll be 'strafed' by the Dutch!" Pike stared at the young
fellow, frowning in perplexity. "You sure have me puzzled, Bub. Are
you a hopeless dunce by training or nature?"

"Natural product," grinned K. Rhodes cheerfully. "Beauty unadorned.
Say Cap, tell me something. What is the attraction for friend Conrad
south of La Partida? I seem to run against a stone wall when I try to
feel out the natives on that point. Now just what lies south, and
whose territory?"

The old man looked at him with a new keenness.

"For your sort of an idiot you've blundered on a big interrogation
point," he observed. "Did you meet him down there?"

"No, only heard his voice in the night. It's not very easy to mistake
that velvety blood-puddin' voice of his, and a team went down to meet
him. He seems to go down by another route, railroad I reckon, and
comes in by the south ranch. Now just what is south?"

"The ranches of Soledad grant join La Partida, or aim to. There are no
maps, and no one here knows how far down over the border the Partida
leagues do reach. Soledad was an old mission site, and a fortified
hacienda back in the days of Juarez. Its owner was convicted of
treason during Diaz' reign, executed, and the ranches confiscated. It
is now in the hands of a Federal politician who is safer in
Hermosillo. The revolutionists are thick even among the pacificos up
here, but the Federals have the most ammunition, and the gods of war
are with the guns."

"Sure; and who is the Federal politician? No, not that colt,
Marcito!"

"Perez, Don Jose Perez," stated Pike, giving no heed to corral
interpolations. "He claims more leagues than have ever been reckoned
or surveyed, took in several Indian rancherias last year when the
natives were rounded up and shipped to Yucatan."

"What?"

"Oh, he is in that slave trade good and plenty! They say he is sore on
the Yaquis because he lost a lot of money on a boat load that
committed suicide as they were sailing from Guaymas."

"A boat load of suicides! Now a couple of dozen would sound
reasonable, but a boat load