a long time. "We are moving into
trouble from to-night, and I'll need you now."

"What makes you think so, Jondo?" I asked.

"That train we met going east at noon."

"Mexicans with silver and skins worth double our stuff, what have they
to do with us?" I inquired.

"One of the best men I have ever known is a Mexican in Santa Fe. The
worst man I have ever known is an American there. But I've never yet
trusted a Mexican when you bunch them together. They don't fit into
American harness, and it will be a hundred years before the Mexican in
our country will really love the Stars and Stripes. Deep down in his
heart he will hate it."

"I remember Felix Narveo and Ferdinand Ramero mighty well," I commented.

Jondo stared at me.

"Can't a boy remember things?" I inquired.

"It takes a boy to remember; and they grow up and we forget they have
had eyes, ears, feelings, memories, all keener than we can ever have in
later years. Gail, the Mexican train comes from Felix Narveo, and Narveo
is a man of a thousand. They bring word, however, that the Kiowas are
unusually friendly and that we have nothing to fear this side of the
Cimarron. They don't feel sure of the Utes and Apaches."

"Good enough!" I exclaimed.

"Yes, only they lie when they say it. It's a trap to get us. No Kiowa on
the plains will let a Clarenden train through peacefully, because we
took their captive, Little Blue Flower. It's a hatred kept alive in the
Kiowas by one man in Santa Fe through his Mexican agents with Narveo's
train."

"And that man is Ramero?" I questioned.

"That man is Ramero, and his capacity for hate is appalling. Gail,
there's only one thing in the world that is stronger than hate, and that
is love."

Jondo looked out over the moonlit plains, his fine head erect, even in
his meditative moods.

"When a Mexican says a Kiowa has turned friendly, don't believe him.
And when a Kiowa says it himself--kill him. It's your only safe course,"
Jondo said, presently.

"Jondo, why does Ramero stir up the Indians and Mexicans against Uncle
Esmond?" I asked.

"Because Clarenden drove him into exile in New Mexico before it was
United States territory," Jondo replied.

"What did he do that for?" I asked.

"Because of what Ramero had done to me," Jondo replied.

"Well, New Mexico is United States territory now. What keeps this Ramero
in Santa Fe, if he is there?"

"I keep him there. It's safer to know just where a man like that is. So
I