Then can you meet Jose and not tremble so that the spur-bells tinkle." Jack went hot inside of him, but he made his lips smile at the jest; for so do brave men try to make light of torment, whether it be fire or flood or the tongue of the woman they love.
"All right," he said.

"And I think I'll have the judges rule that the fight shall be at fifty paces, as I would if we were to fight with pistols." He tried to keep his irritation out of his voice, but there must have been enough to betray him.
For Teresita smiled pleasedly and sent another barb.

"It would be wise.
For truly, Jose's equal has never been seen, and caballeros I have known who would swear that Jose's riata can stretch to fifty paces and more to find its mark." "Is it anxiety for me that makes you so solicitous ?" demanded Jack, speaking low so that the peons could not overhear.
"Perhaps--and perhaps it is pride; for I know well the skill and the bravery of my Jose." Again the twist of her pretty, pouting lips, blood-red and tempting.
Her Jose! For just a minute the face of Teresita showed vague to him before his wrathful eyes.
"When you tell your beads again, Senorita," he advised her crisply, "say a prayer or two for your Jose also.

For I promise you now that I will shame him before your face, and if he lives afterward to seek your sympathy, it will be by grace of my mercy!" "Santa Maria, what a fierce senor!" Her laughter mocked him.

"Till the fiesta I shall pray--for you!" Then she turned and ran, looking over her shoulder now and again to laugh at him.
Always before, when she had teased and flouted and fled laughing, Jack had pursued her with long strides, and in the first sequestered nook had made her lips pay a penalty.