THE COMING OF EL NEGRITO
When he entered the Blue Chip that night, Thode found play already in
full blast. The tables were crowded, smoke hung in low-banked clouds
below the flaring oil lamps, and the glittering bar at the far end of
the room was phalanxed three deep by a jostling, good-natured throng.
Soft-footed, wooden-faced Chinese mozos glided about, and the whining
monotone of the croupier came from a distant corner.
The scene was not an unfamiliar one to the young engineer, but he
glanced about him with quickened interest. The walls of the huge room,
like the exterior, were painted a garish blue, the floor bare but
scrubbed clean, and the chairs and tables had been obviously selected
with a view to utility and strength rather than ornamentation. No
attempt had been made to render the place attractive and in this
Gentleman Geoff's psychology was sound; Limasito wanted its play, like
its liquor, without frills.
Leisurely, Thode approached the roulette-table and stood looking over
the shoulder of a burly drill-shirted tool-dresser as the little ball
spun in the whirling wheel and dropped into seventeen. The
tool-dresser grunted with satisfaction and raked in the heap of silver
pushed toward him by the croupier, but one or two of the watchers
turned away. The play was evidently not yet high enough to hold their
interest, and Thode was on the point of following when a hand clapped
his arm.
Turning, he found a tall, lean figure beside him clad in immaculate
white duck from top to toe, with a drooping gray mustache beneath a
high, thin nose, keen, twinkling eyes and a mass of grizzled, waving
hair. He might have been anywhere between forty-five and sixty, and in
a flash his identity was disclosed to the young engineer.
"Howdy!" The hand which had rested on his arm clasped his in a hearty
grip. "Glad to see you here, Sir. My daughter told me to expect you."
"You're Gentleman Geoff?" the younger man asked quickly, smiling in
return. "My name is Thode. I met your daughter yesterday----"
"So she told me." The twinkle brightened in the genial eyes. "I'm
glad of a chance to thank you for helping her with that poor little
cuss, José. He's a special favorite of hers. Were you thinking of
sitting in right now, Mr. Thode?"
"Not just yet. I was having a look around----"
"Then come out where it's cool, and have a man-sized drink."
His surprising host led the way to the patio where they found a little
table close by the plashing fountain and a hovering mozo attended to
their needs. When the servant had departed, Gentleman Geoff folded his
arms on the table and leaned forward.
"You're a newcomer, Mr. Thode, and down here we don't ask a man where
he came from or the nature of his business, as long as he attends to it
strictly and doesn't interfere with others. There is no objection to
his playing a tight game providing he is on the level, but when he
makes a crooked move, it's time for the rest of us to take a hand. My
Billie tells me you are an old acquaintance of this man Wiley and I am
going to ask you one question straight, Sir. Do you know anything good
of him?"
"Well," Thode temporized, "he's rated a millionaire in New York and his
father was one of the pioneer Pennsylvania oil men. He is a partner of
Harrington Chase, and together they hold some of the best leases in
this part of the country, I understand."
"They do. But I was speaking of the man himself." Gentleman Geoff's
eyes smiled a perfect understanding. "I was wondering if there could
be some point in his favor that I'd overlooked."
"In that case, we've been mutually blind," said Thode, frankly. "I met
him first out in Oklahoma two years ago, and I've run across him more
than once since, and I don't mind telling you candidly that each
meeting has given me less pleasure. I didn't expect to encounter him
down here, and I guess Limasito is big enough to hold us both, but if
he wants to see me after to-day he knows where to find me."
The older man nodded, slowly.
"I reckoned as much. He hasn't been any favorite since he blew in
here, to draw it mild, but he's getting just a little bit too offensive
for the good of the community. I know his breed, but I didn't think
even he would snap at my Billie's heels. I would have looked you up at
the hotel to-night to shake hands with you for what you did this
afternoon, Mr. Thode, but Billie told me you intended to pay us a
little visit."
"It was a pleasure," the other responded with sincerity. "It has been
coming to Wiley for a long time. But your daughter had the situation
well in hand. She is a remarkable young woman."
"She is an honest one, honest with herself and the world. There wasn't
much else I could teach her and it hasn't been possible for her to have
regular schooling and the influence of women. I've always reckoned
fair play was about the biggest thing in life, and woman-like she's
gone further than my teachings and worked out an eye-for-an-eye creed
of justice for herself that would shame a vigilance committee, but
she's wholesome and sound in mind and limb."
"I've learned a little of what they think of her in this town." Thode
hesitated, and then went on earnestly. "I know the strict code of even
the roughest mining camps up over the border, where good women are
concerned, but I'll own that it gave me a jolt to see how freely and
fearlessly she goes about down here. You may think, Sir, that I'm
exhibiting a lot of nerve, and it may be that I have a distorted
picture in my mind of the life in this part of the country for a young
girl like your daughter, but is she safe with all these low-caste
half-breeds about?"
"As safe as in a convent." Gentleman Geoff's eyes had narrowed. "I
appreciate your interest, Mr. Thode, but let me remind you that it was
a man from the States, a New York swell, who molested her this
afternoon. There isn't a low-caste Mex' who would take a chance, for
he'd know that every gun from here to the Sierra Madre would be cocked
for him, and even the hills couldn't give him a hiding-place! But as
to Wiley. I had a reason apart from his little attentions to Billie,
for asking about him. Whatever lies between you two is your own game,
but I know you better than you think, Mr. Thode. Your chief, Perry
Larkin, told me he was sending you down, and what manner of hombre you
were. If Larkin can trust you, I'm going to take a chance. I thought
I had Wiley's number, but I learned something to-day, aside from that
little fracas, that makes me doubt I've given him credit for his limit
of crookedness. Mr. Thode, do you figure that Starr Wiley is enough of
a man to be a very big rascal?"
Thode hesitated again.
"I think," he began at last, "that it would depend wholly on the size
of the stakes. He's a coward when it comes to a show-down, but money
and place and power are his gods. If it was a tremendous piece of
villainy with a big incentive he mightn't have the courage to see it
through himself, but he is quite capable of aiding and abetting it, or
hiring others to do it for him."
Gentleman Geoff's fists clenched and he drew a deep breath.
"That's it!" he cried. "You've struck it, Mr. Thode! Unless I'm
mistaken, he's dealing the biggest, crookedest hand of his life right
now, but we'll get him, Sir. We'll show him what fair play is below
the border--"
He broke off and for a minute the two men sat in silence, straining
their ears.
Above the click of glasses and sound of many voices in the
gambling-rooms had come the sharp, staccato clatter of a horse's hoofs
upon the hard-packed road. It was not unusual in a land where hooch
was cheap and stimulating and every drunken roysterer celebrated in the
saddle, but there was an ominous, tragic suggestion in the irregularity
of the hoof-beats as of an exhausted, failing beast urged on by grim
and vital need.
The young engineer leaped to his feet as the clatter ceased in a harsh
scraping thud, and with Gentleman Geoff beside him, he crossed the
patio and re-entered the gambling-room. The voices had hushed as if by
magic, and every motionless figure was turned toward the entrance door.
It was flung open and a man staggered blindly over the sill, reeling
and clutching at his breast with both gnarled, sinewy hands.
"El Negrito!" his voice rose in a smothered sob. "He's hit the trail
and coming fast. Look out for your----"
The stranger choked, caught at his throat and crumpled slowly to the
floor, a thin scarlet stream pouring from his lips. The silence held
for one tense moment and then pandemonium broke loose.
"A raid! A raid!"
Hoarse cries filled the room and a mad stampede ensued, but somehow
through the rampant throng, Kearn Thode found himself before that
fallen figure. Gentleman Geoff was still at his side, but another had
been quicker than they. Soft hands raised the dying man's head and
Billie knelt beside him, her pallor intensified but her eyes steady and
calm.
"Sam! can you speak to me? Where are the babies, and Mamie?"
"Gone!" The breath whistled through the tortured lips.
"Macheted--thank God, I saw them die. Tell Geoff--save you----"
The whisper died in a rattle and the head slumped inert against her
knee.
"It's over, Billie. Get on down to the cellar, quick----" Gentleman
Geoff's tones rang with command, but the girl shook her head.
"Where the liquor is stored?" she smiled. "Alvarez's men won't leave a
cask unturned. No, Dad, I'd rather take a chance with you, here. If
it comes to a showdown, they won't get me."
She made a significant gesture, and the lethargy of consternation fell
from Thode as he saw for the second time that day the glint of her
revolver.
"Good God!" he exclaimed. "Isn't there something to be done? We're
only a handful! Are we going to wait here for that black devil to come
and slaughter us?"
"No, Son," Gentleman Geoff drawled. "We're going to put up the
stiffest fight we know how, but there's no help nearer than the
barracks at the oil refinery ten miles north, and El Negrito is on the
way."
As if in corroboration of his words a new sound broke all at once upon
their ears, distant at first but drawing rapidly close, a fusillade of
shots, and the pounding of a multitude of hoofs.
Gentleman Geoff drew one slim hand across his reeking forehead.
"It's come. Boys! Steady now, to the finish!"
"Look here, Sir! I'm going to try for it." Thode caught his host by
the arm. "I can slip out before they have the house surrounded and
find a horse somewhere. If they down me, one man more or less here
won't make any difference, and it's a chance!"
"Look!" Gentleman Geoff waved the young engineer to a narrow window
beside the entrance door.
Down the straight level expanse of the Calle Rivera clattered an
unending stream of horsemen, their accoutrements jingling a sinister
diapason as they poured helter-skelter across the plaza in the waning
moonlight. Tatterdemalion as they were, the ragged army were
well-organized as Thode saw at a glance; no haphazard, leaderless crew
was this, for at their head rode a diminutive, jockey-like figure, his
face glistening and ebony in the eerie radiance, his teeth flashing
white as he turned in the saddle. The Little Nigger had come!
His company halted in an irregular line against the eastern end of the
plaza, flung themselves from their horses and came on in a rushing,
yelling horde. A weak scattered volley rattled from the dwellings
about the square, but the raiders made unswervingly for what was
obviously their main objective, the Blue Chip, where most of the male
population, unlimited alcohol and a fabulous ransom in gold were theirs
for the taking.
They had reached the center of the Calle, when Gentleman Geoff barked a
brief command and a withering blast of shots rang forth from the
besieged garrison. The advancing line crumpled, wavered, then at a
cat-like yowl from its dusky leader, closed in and came forward with an
answering roar.
Kearn Thode sprang from his point of vantage and faced the other man
once more with undiminished determination in his eyes.
"I've got to get to the barracks--it means death to us all if I stay
here! Isn't there a door on the other side of the house somewhere back
of the patio?"
"Yes. It opens on a little alley that leads to the plaza." It was the
girl's eager voice which replied.
"And the Carranzistas, the government troops, are ten miles away to the
north. I'm going to ride for it, Sir, it's the only chance. I can
slip out of that alley and around the edge of the plaza to where their
horses are picketed. There'll be interference there, and I may have a
running fight for it, but I'll take the odds."
"Come then. You're a brave man, Mr. Thode!" Gentleman Geoff led the
way swiftly across the patio to a little door half hidden in the
creeping vines. But even as he laid his hand upon the rusty bolts,
there was a storm of feet in the alley and a rain of shot pattered
against the outer wall.
Gentleman Geoff stepped back with a gesture of defeat, but Thode cried
desperately:
"I can cut my way through them. I must, Man! Open the door!"
Instead, his companion shot the hasp of a small oblong look-out on a
level with their eyes, and Thode beheld the alley choked with figures,
their carbines bristling and maniacal, distorted faces pressed close.
"No use." Gentleman Geoff snapped the slide in place as a stray bullet
whistled past their ears. "It's too late. Even had you gone when Sam
first came, they would have cut you down in the plaza. You can only
lend a hand here."
Wordlessly, Thode stumbled back beside him to the gambling-room. That
which but a moment before had seemed like a wild, purposeless stampede
had resolved itself into an unorganized but determined defensive. Few
of the men had departed, those few who had ridden in from nearby
haciendas where unwarned families waited in ignorance of the menace
sweeping down upon them from the hills.
Thode worked with heaving chest and straining muscles, but his brain
was singularly clear and his observation acute. Gentleman Geoff seemed
to be everywhere at once, urging, exhorting, commanding. The mozos,
their yellow faces gray, were huddled in a corner, clucking like
dismayed fowl at the approach of a storm, but a word from Billie sent
them scurrying for the store of guns and ammunition.
She, too, it was who opened the door of an inner room where a group of
disheveled women, their faces ghastly beneath the cheap paint, cowered
about a roulette-table, and ranged them behind the shelter of the stout
mahogany bar, seeing to it that each was armed.
Her calm face in the tumult and smoke and dust seemed etherialized,
glorified to the wondering eyes of the young engineer; the marvel of
her strength and courage shone forth like a radiance, imbuing even the
panic-stricken Celestials with a spirit of defense.
Thode's eyes were smarting, his veins on fire and in his nostrils the
reek of powder mingled with a strange, new, sweetish odor. The
table-top on which he stood was slippery where Rufe Terwilliger had
doubled up beside him and rolled to the floor. Others were falling,
too, stumbling and clutching vainly for support, but Billie's slim
white figure still stood unwavering beside her father and Thode turned
grimly to his task.
Twice more the bandits charged, and twice they were beaten back,
leaving augmented blotches of huddled bodies in the road, but the toll
had been heavy within. Groans and curses filled the air as men pitched
headlong from their loophole posts to writhe upon the floor and once a
woman's shrill scream rang out as a tawdrily clothed shape dropped
across the bar.
Thode's shoulder burned and a warm stream raced down his arm; his
forehead, too, was seared as if by a white-hot brand, but he dashed the
blood impatiently from his eyes that he might see what this sudden lull
in the hostilities portended. He was not long in doubt for a thin
skirmish line leaped across the road, yelling like demons and firing as
they ran, and close behind their protecting curtain of shot appeared a
double row of half-crouched forms, bearing a huge battering-ram.
Heroically the little garrison sought to stem the tide of destruction,
but as quickly as a gap appeared in the on-coming wave it was filled
and the flood swept irresistibly on. More than one narrow window now
was unmanned against the attack and as the bullets pattered like hail
through the unobstructed apertures, Thode heard a sharp little cry
which turned his heart to lead within him.
Wheeling, he saw through the murky reek that Gentleman Geoff was down
at last, his head cradled in Billie's arms, a spreading stain upon the
soft white silk of his shirt. Thrusting his rifle into the hands of a
neighbor, Thode leaped from the table, and as he reached the girl's
side a thunderous crash smote the heavy door.
"He isn't----?"
Billie shook her head and at the unfinished sentence Gentleman Geoff's
eyelids lifted and he gazed full and understandingly into the face of
the young engineer.
"Not yet, but I'm done for. See that--Billie--cashes in before----"
"Listen, Sir! Can you hear me? I'm going to make a break for it, do
you understand?" Thode's voice rang out clear above the strife. "How
long will that door hold?"
"An hour, maybe. It's as solid as a rock, and the bolts are steel, but
nothing could withstand that ramming for long." Gentleman Geoff had
rallied his waning strength to meet that new note of quickened impulse.
"It's the one chance left! They've found by this time that they
couldn't batter down that iron door at the back, set as it is in the
solid masonry, and it may be that they've concentrated all their
efforts here on this side. At least I'll have to try my luck and cut
through. We've got to have the troops! Ten level miles, and the dawn
is coming; I ought to make it and back in an hour, before the door
gives way."
Gentleman Geoff raised himself on one elbow and extended his hand.
"You're right! It's the last chance, and maybe your luck will hold.
Go to it, Thode, I know you'll play--to win!"
The girl was staring at him with shining eyes, and he paused only long
enough to lay his hand upon her arm.
"You have your revolver--if they break through before I get back----?"
"Don't be afraid for us." Her voice rang out steadily and clearly
above the roar of conflict. "I'll take care of myself and Dad until
you come! Hasta la vista!"
Thode drew a deep breath, and, turning, made for the door and across
the patio, miraculously cool and calm beneath the dimming stars. The
little door at the farther end of the house wall was guarded now by a
dark-skinned youth whose teeth chattered in his head, and Thode, with a
hasty explanation, shot the bolts and slipped through into the
rubbish-heaped alley.
Not a living thing was in sight but a yellow cur crouching under a
cask, and Thode reached the mouth of the narrow passage to see only the
backs of the mob clustered about the corner.
The moonlight was gone, and slipping into the darker shadows of the
wall, he sped off in the opposite direction around the square to where
the moving bulk of the line of picketed horses showed at the end of an
intersecting street.
Unnoted, he reached them and laid his hand upon the bridle of the
nearest. The beast plunged nervously and a dark figure sprang up with
a hoarse cry, which died in his throat as Thode brought his clubbed
rifle down upon his head.
Other shouts arose above the distant crash of the battering-ram; other
figures advanced, and in the patter of stray shots a horse screamed and
fell kicking among his terrorized fellows, but Thode had twitched free
the knot which haltered his mount and was off and away up the narrow
street, in a thunder of hoof-beats which outran the fusillade and
pounded steadily on into the silence of the coming dawn.