le before him were nothing if not dramatic. He got his response in
the bravos and the applause that followed the silence of sheer
amazement. "Gracias!" they cried, in their impulsive appreciation of his
generosity.

"The horse which you offered for a prize, Don Andres, I will claim,"
Jack went on, when he could be heard--and he did not wait long, for
short-lived indeed is the applause given to an alien. "And I will ride
him as soon as you desire."

"Yes! Let us see him ride that caballo!" cried the fickle mass of
humanity. "By a trick of chance he won the duelo, and the medalla he
refused because he knows it was not won fairly. Where is that yellow
caballo which no man has ridden? Let him show us what he can do with
that yellow one!"

Dade, pushing his way exultantly toward him, saw the blaze of anger at
their fickleness leap into Jack's eyes.

"Si, I will show you!" he called out. "It is well that you should see
some horsemanship! Bring the yellow caballo, then. Truly, I will show
you what I can do."

"Come, Surry," called Dade, and the white horse walked up to him and
nibbled playfully his bearskin chaparejos. "Solano's in the little
corral, off this big one. I'll bring your saddle--"

"I don't want any saddle. I'm going to ride him bareback, with a rope
over his nose. Let me have your spurs, will you? Did you hear them say
I won the duel with luck? I'll show these greasers what a gringo can do!"
He spoke in Spanish, to show his contempt of their opinion of him, and
he curled his lip at the jibes they began to fling down at him; the
jibes and the taunts--and vague threats as well, when those who had
wagered much upon the duelo began to reckon mentally their losings.

In the adobe corral he stood with his riata coiled in his hand and
Dade's spurs upon his heels, and waited until Solano, with a fling of
heels into the air, rushed in from the pen where the big bull had waited
until he was let out to fight the grizzly.

"Bareback he says he will ride that son of Satanas!" jeered a
wine-roughened voice. "Boaster that he is, look you how he stands! He is
afraid even to lasso that yellow one!"

Jack was indeed deliberate in his movements. He stood still while the
horse circled him twice with head and tail held high. When Solano
brought up with a flourish on the far side of the corral, Jack turned to
Dade and Valencia standing guard at the main gate, their horses barring
the opening.

"See that it's kept clear ou