nd is not my habit,
yet I will say that I would teach my people to respect good men,
whatever the race; and especially Americanos, who will be our
neighbors henceforth. I shall be greatly pleased when you tell me
that you will be my majordomo; more than ever one needs a man of
intelligence and tact--"

"And are none of our own people tactful or intelligent, Don Andres
Picardo?" demanded Manuel, having overheard the last sentence or two
from the doorway. He came out and stood before his beloved "patron,"
his whole fat body quivering with amazed indignation, so that the
bottle which the senora had filled for him shook in his hand. "Amongst
the gringos must you go to find one worthy? Truly it is as Don Jose
tells me; these gringos have come but to make trouble where all was
peace. To-day he told me all his thoughts, and me, I hardly believed
it was as he said. Would the patron have a majordomo who knows nothing
of rodeos, nothing of the cattle--"

"You're mistaken there, Manuel," Dade broke in calmly. "Whether I
become majordomo or not, I know cattle. They have a few in Texas,
where I came from. I can qualify in cowology any time. And," he added
loyally, "so can Jack. You thought he didn't know what he was talking
about, when he was looking at that riata; but I'll back him against
any man in California when it comes to riding and roping.

"But that needn't make us bad friends, Manuel. I didn't come to make
trouble, and I won't stay to make any. We've been friends; let's
stay that way. I'm a gringo, all right, but I've lived more with your
people than my own, and if you want the truth, I don't know but what
I feel more at home with them. And the same with Jack. We've eaten and
slept with Spaniards and worked with them and played with them, half
our lives."

"Still it is as Jose says," reiterated Manuel stubbornly. "Till the
gringos came all was well; when they came, trouble came also. Till
the gringos came, no watch was put over the cattle, for only those
who hungered killed and ate. Now they steal the patron's cattle by
hundreds, they steal his land, and if Jose speaks truly, they would
steal also--" He hesitated to speak what was on his tongue, and
finished lamely: "what is more precious still.

"And the patron will have a gringo for majordomo?" He returned to the
issue. "Then I, Manuel, must leave the patron's employ. I and half the
vaqueros. The patron," he added with what came close to a sneer, "had
best seek gr