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Show Under Pressure By George Agnew Chamberlain - - ZZZT. CHAPTER XI 12 Dirk went to bed in the grip of a mild elation which made it difficult to distinguish between sleep and dreams. He awoke to a sense of commotion. A messenger was having hav-ing trouble rousing Leonardo from much-needed sleep and presently the two of them were closeted with Don Jorge. Arnaldo joined Dirk at coffee and told him what was up: Dorado was doing his stuff two hours earlier than usual. The next moment Senor Maximiliano and his companions came out and started for the northeastern bastion. Dirk and Adan hurried to their rooms, Adan to get a pair of binoculars and Dirk to fetch his Springfield. They caught up with Don Jorge and his party while the blind man was still groping his way up the turret stairs. Emerging into the glare of the morning sun Leonardo's glance fell on Dirk's rifle and immediately turned moist with envy. He caressed ca-ressed the blue-black barrel as though he touched a woman's cheek, then looked up pleadingly. Dirk laughed, let him test the gun for balance, but promptly took it back again. Arrived beside the bastion, Arnaldo Ar-naldo leaned against it and focused his field-glasses on a slowly moving pillar of dust. Presently the horsemen horse-men strung out along a ledge of rocky soil and he could count them. "Three more than yesterday," he announced. "And four more yesterday than the day before,", muttered Leonardo. Leonar-do. "If that's so," said Don Jorge, "Dorado must have escaped with more cash than I thought. As long as it holds out his troop will continue con-tinue to grow." "Do they always ride on the other side of the barranca?" asked Dirk. "Of course," answered two voices at once. "Why?" "For the same reason we would be fools not to stay on this side," said Don Jorge. "The barranca is a barrier that runs for 20 miles. A child would have more sense than to lay himself open to getting trapped with an impassable ditch at his back." "It was a stupid question," said Dirk, "but since we have plenty of time let me ask another. What's the sense of the daily ride? What does Dorado get out of it?" "The tactical idea," said Don Jorge patiently, "is to intercept both reinforcements and escape. Incidentally Inci-dentally Pepe wouldn't be averse to plunder in the way of ransom." "He's holding a package now," murmured Arnaldo. "What package?" asked Don .Jorge quickly. "Yesterday I watched him capture cap-ture a gringo by the name of Black-adder." Black-adder." "Blackadder!" cried Dirk. "Why, Blackadder " He stopped and caught his breath. "Blackadder is the name of Miss Sewell's stepfather!" step-father!" Glancing around he saw a rough table and two rusted iron chairs. He pushed the table so it stood end on against the parapet which was several inches higher. "How far are they?" he asked. "What are you doing?" said Arnaldo, Ar-naldo, looking down. "Never mind what I'm doing," said Dirk. "How far off are they?" "Between one and two kilometers, senor," answered Leonardo mourn fully. - "Eight kilometers make five miles," calculated Dirk aloud. "Leonardo, "Le-onardo, when you're sure they're under a thousand meters, sing out What about it, Adan can you spot Dorado? Is he riding at the head?' "I'll tell you in a minute," said Adan, only half interested. "There's a bunch of three in the lead and 1 think he's on the alazon. Yes, that'? Pcpe; he's riding the big sorrel." Dirk gauged the wind, set his sights for a thousand yards, loaded his riile and stretched out, face down, on the table. Not wishing tc scratch the barrel he made a wad ol his felt hat and fixed it for a rest m the angle made by the parapet with the bastion. "Don't forget. Leonardo; the min ute you're sure they're under a kilometer." What's me use?" said Leonardc gloomily. "They won't come withu. "'Never mind about that," said Dirk sharply. "You do as I say." Several minutes elapsed before Leonardo murmured, "When they come to the first row of the maguey plantation it will beonly S00 meters and they will turn." Damn!" muttered Dirk but promptly relaxed all his "niscles. drew a Ion? slow breath and hold it H-s cheek caressed the smooth oiled oak of the stock, his finger closed on the rough grips. Taking a full bend, he lircd. The bullet sang Le high song of a bullet that Unas no mark. A second can seem lo...;-. sometimes it can be ri.v.rie.l mo ocUn An age after Lcoimmo had given up hope of a V 'IT'Z' v,.hl0h by a miracle m,:n ' ,-ado on die bounce a pau ol u- came back at his astonished eyes from far beyond the riders. While amazement still paralyzed his vocal chords he saw every horse sink on its haunches and come to a slithering slither-ing stop. It was what Dirk had planned. In that instant of suspended suspend-ed movement he drew the foresight down to the vanishing point, steadied stead-ied and fired again. There came the answering thud of a hit. Dorado's Dora-do's big sorrel squatted, rushed from under his rider and fell dead. "I missed him!" groaned Dirk. "I killed the horse!" Joyce came racing along the esplanade. es-planade. "Who did that?" she asked angrily. "Who fired that shot?" Already Dorado had been swept up by two of his followers and the whole troop was riding away at a gallop; behind remained the still mound of the sorrel, a dark monument mon-ument suddenly erected against the shimmering gold of the desert. Dirk -rolled over and sat up. "I did." "You're a butcher!" cried Joyce, her eyes blazing. "You come to my house, an uninvited guest, and amuse yourself by shooting horses! " Dirk's cheeks flushed with anger. "The man out there shot me up lAm If Joyce and Adan Were Nowhere to Be Seen. without the slightest provocation; why shouldn't I pay him back in his own coin?" "But you didn't hit him," cried Joyce, "you shot a horse you killed a poor horse." "What bunk!" intervened Arnaldo, Arnal-do, lowering his field-glasses. "For one thing I'm sure he did hit Dorado though it may have been only through the leg. Add to that he just missed freeing you of all your troubles and has a bomb-proof alibi besides shooting at a bandit who's holding an American for ransom. Bunk to you and the dead horse!" "What American?" asked Joyce, her attention seized. "Man named Blackadder." said Dirk. "Ever hear of hirr.?" "Blackadder!" gasped Joyce, "Mr. Helm Blackadder? Why" "I've thought of one more for the list!" interrupted Arnaldo excitedly, excit-edly, laying an affectionate hand on Dirk's shoulder. "He's lifted the siege. You, he, and I for a day or two anyway we can go anywhere." any-where." He turned to Leonardo. "What's become of Dorado's silver-plated car?" "It's in Toluca where he always sent it," explained Leonardo, "to save the time it takes to drive around the barranca." "So," said Adan. "We can go whenever we like on foot or a horse." Don Jorge lifted his chin. "Leonardo?" "Leo-nardo?" "Senor." "Tell all the men they can take a six hours' sleep and the women to prepare a big feed for them when they wake. Open the gates and let .the children go out to round up whatever small stock was left outside. out-side. As for you. Adan, give a blind man your arm; I want to have a talk with you." Dirk was left alone with Joyce. "Fine kettle of fish." he muttered "Now that I've fixed things so we could go for a gallop on the huntersperhaps hunt-ersperhaps even jump them you have to be sore! How long dccsjj take you to snap out of a crouch? ' "I'm cut now." said Joyce, checks and eyes already alight with ar.'.ici-pation. ar.'.ici-pation. "Come along." j Ten minutes later, with the help : of Tohahto. he had sn.idleci the tx:::i-e-s and was ready to give her a le-i-p He faced her ana sr :e fvc- "I itii. this horse is ca .e.1 lro-rvda'a'n.i lro-rvda'a'n.i that one's R.tyo i,"- nVr'.-''V-'i i". ; Joyce. "Are y.:u tr; .0 - r.'O?" . . . . No: ci.'y ' ' '-' w ; " 1 fore we start You're going to ride Eayo because he's a shade lighter and not so touchy in the mouth. If you do what I say, you'll be all right; if you don't you may break a neck the horse's or yours." "I'll be good," said Joyce, impressed im-pressed by his earnestness. "What are your orders?" "Walk a mannered horse for half a mile," said Dirk, "and you can do anything with him; start him off with a rush and he'll ride your arms out of their sockets. So we're going to take them away slow." As they passed through the great gate there was a bit of prancing and champing on the bit but with soothing words and a light hand Dirk coaxed Tronido back into a walk and a moment later Joyce persuaded per-suaded Rayo to follow suit. They rode along the faint trail, scarcely used save by ox-carts, which provided pro-vided the sole access for cars to the hacienda. The road meandered more or less parallel to the barranca bar-ranca which widened by almost imperceptible im-perceptible gradations the farther they went. At last Dirk permitted a trot and turned amused eyes on Joyce. . To his amazement she took it quite easily, leaned to it, caught its rhythm and laughed a happy laugh. "Oh, Dirk!" "Joyce!" On the same impulse they slowed the horses again and stared at each other. "That was funny," said Joyce. "Wasn't it?" agreed Dirk. He urged Tronido into a trot, then lifted him into an easy canter and held him there. "How are you making mak-ing it?" he asked. "Fine," said Joyce, "but you tell me." 1 "Ease your back a bit and sit into the saddle. That's the stuff. Are you game for a gallop while we're still headed away from home." "Go ahead," said Joyce, and they did. The horse under her seemed to flatten out. No jouncing up and down, no swerving from a stright line only the feel of mighty muscles mus-cles rippling rhythmically. They rode back more slowly and as they approached the hacienda she turned on him a face so glowing he felt his heart skip a beat and then do three in one. "Well?" ;she asked. "Do you want to know the truth?" "The whole truth." "I thought it would take you a month to learn what you already know." He jumped off, handed her his reins to hold, tore down a high bean pole and laid it like a bar between two maguey plants. "Made to order," he commented as he mounted. "Watch me, then do exactly ex-actly the same. Just stick on and leave the rest to Rayo." She jumped the bar once with a gasp of astonishment at her success, suc-cess, then ten times more with steadily increasing confidence and improving style. She would have been content to keep on for the rest of the day had not Dirk taken his revenge. "If you don't let up," he remarked dryly, "you're going to find out there are more ways than one of killing a horse." After an afternoon spent in grooming the horses for sheer love of the work he came to dinner aglow from what he called an earned bath. Already he regretted having brought no change beyond a single lounge suit but tonight Arnaldo, save for shoulders exaggerated beyond be-yond nature and a wasp-like waist, was dressed in like manner. Joyce had put on black not the semi-evening semi-evening frock of her first and last appearance at El Tenebroso, but it had an equal simplicity of line that gave her an almost sculptural appearance. ap-pearance. Changing her clothes had changed her mood. Gracious and 1 ready with her answers she yet was so distrait as to give an impression of inner stillness. Though she avoided avoid-ed looking directly at Dirk and Adan she was thinking of them, but thinking think-ing more of herself. What had come over her last night? Which person was she the woman of no age who had been kissed and had kissed back, or the girl who had sat shoulder shoul-der to shoulder on the parapet -with a companion to whom she had poured out her heart as though she talked to another self? Were there fibers within her that responded to music alone and others that reverberated re-verberated solely to the sidereal harmony of moon, planet and star? She wondered. Dirs was engrossed in a masterly discussion of agrarianism between Don Jorge and Arnaldo. Fresh from the capital, Adan was packed to the gills with theory and regarded the parceling out of all the land in the republic as an ultimate panacea for every UL Don Jorge, rooted in the soil, aware of its divergence and as close to the peon as he was to his tight-fitting charro breeches, admitted ad-mitted the cure only to damn it with a qualifying phrase "in a thousand years." "You can't overleap education the way you vault a mangy horse," he exploded. "You'd have to have a mildly educated people, but first catch your educated executive if you can. It isn't enough for a ruler to be honest, altruistic and stuffed with beneficent theories. Unless he's greater than God he can't bridge the gulf of ignorance between a peon and a tractor, nor grow enough gramma grass on a hundred hectares hec-tares to give that peon's babies milk, nor change the sweep of wheat lands into lush bottoms crammed with garden truck. You agrarians run around with a foot-rule foot-rule yelling, 'Behold the measure of all things!' You can measure a back yard with a footrule, but not a prairie. Our campesinos, dumb as they are, can see that. Do you know what they're saying?" "No," said Adan smilingly, for he loved discussion for the talk's sake alone. "Tell me." "They've heard what happened in. the north and they're giving it out they'll do the same here." "What's that?" asked Dirk. "Crop the ears off any agrarians who set foot on La Barranca. They'll do it too, for though the peon has no education he has his backlog of fundamental knowledge. He doesn't have to starve to death to see starvation on the way any more than he had to learn to read and write before he could make up his mind the three model houses put up by my master and friend. Cutler Sewell, were no good." Joyce looked up. "Why weren't they? I've always wondered." "Because your father's education led him into the belief three rooms are better than one, while tire peon's backlog of knowledge has taught him one room is infinitely better than three since the sum of the warmth of his kitchen fire, his milch goat, his wife, six children and a couple of pigs constitute, at no expense, ex-pense, exactly the sort of central heating system which is slowly making England a livable country." They laughed, rose and separated; separat-ed; it was already late, there was no need tonight to make the rounds. How does a girl, lacking long social so-cial training and apparently innocent inno-cent of finesse, leave one man in the lurch and walk off with another without either of them knowing how it happened? Dirk paused to ask Don Jorge a single unimportant question, but when he stepped out on the balcony Joyce and Adan were nowhere to be seen. He walked to the right hopefully until turning the angle opened a long empty vista. (TO UE COyTISULD) |