ed a horse--and I'm _cleanin'_ the horse once in
a while, too!" Which was a lie, both as to the feeding and the cleaning,
as he well knew, and as, indeed, he well knew Pedro knew, who,
nevertheless, nodded grave assent.

"_Si_," admitted Pedro. "_Pero ustede--_"

"A horse!" thundered Felipe, interrupting, his neck cords dangerously
distended. "You give me a horse--you hear? I want a horse--a horse! I
don' coom here for thee talk!"

Pedro rose hastily from the keg. Also, he grunted quick consent. Then he
stepped inside the store, followed by Felipe, who made several needed
purchases, and, since he had his enemy cowed, and was troubled with
thirst created by the protracted harangue, to say nothing of the strong
inclination within him to celebrate the coming of the colt, he made a
purchase that was not needed--a bottle of _vino_, cool and dry from
Pedro's cellar. With these tucked securely under his arm, he then calmly
informed Pedro of the true state of his finances, and left the store,
returning across the settlement, which lay wrapped in pulsating noonday
quiet. In the shade of his adobe he sat upon the ground, with his back
comfortably against the wall. Directly the quiet was broken by two
distinct sounds--the pop of a cork out of the neck of a bottle, and the
gurgle of liquid into the mouth of a man.

Thus Felipe set out upon a protracted debauch. In this debauch he did
nothing worth while. He used neither the borrowed horse nor his own
sound one. Each day saw him redder of eye and more swollen of lip; each
day saw him increasingly heedless of his debts; each day saw him more
neglectful of his duties toward his animals. The one bottle became two
bottles, the two bottles became three, each secured only after
threatened assault upon the body of Pedro, each adding its store to the
already deep conviviality and reckless freedom from all cares now
Felipe's. He forgot everything--forgot the stolen money, forgot the
colt, forgot the needs of the mare--all in exhilarated pursuit of
phantoms.

Yet the colt did not suffer. Becoming ever more confident of himself as
the days passed, he soon revealed pronounced curiosity and an aptitude
for play. He would stare at strutting roosters, gaze after straddling
hens, blink quizzically at the burro, frown upon the grunting pigs, all
as if cataloguing these specimens, listing them in his thoughts, some
day to make good use of the knowledge. But most of all he showed
interest in and