Out of the way there, and be off!" He spurred his horse past the frightened menial, and dashed down the narrow lane that led to the gate.

But, as Incarnacion had truly said, "It was an evil day," for at the bottom of the lane, ambling slowly along as he lazily puffed a yellow cigarette, appeared the figure of the erring Pedro.

Utterly unconscious of the accident, attributing the disappearance of his charges to the inequalities of the plain, and, in truth, little interested in what he firmly believed was his purely artificial function, he had even made a larger circuit to stop at a wayside fonda for refreshments.
Unfortunately, there is no more illogical sequence of human emotion than the exasperation produced by the bland manner of the unfortunate object who has excited it, although that very unconcern may be the convincing proof of innocence of intention.

Judge Peyton, already influenced, was furious at the comfortable obliviousness of his careless henchman, and rode angrily towards him.

Only a quick turn of Pedro's wrist kept the two men from coming into collision.
"Is this the way you attend to your duty ?" demanded Peyton, in a thick, suppressed voice, "Where is the buggy?
Where is my daughter ?" There was no mistaking Judge Peyton's manner, even if the reason of it was not so clear to Pedro's mind, and his hot Latin blood flew instinctively to his face.