"
Arguilla glanced at Ortez. "You have heard, senor?"
Ortez nodded dejectedly. He had heard, but he dare not speak. As the
trusted agent of the financiers backing Arguilla, he had but recently
been given the money for the purchase of these supplies, and almost on
the heels of the messenger bearing the money had come Arguilla, who at
once put Ortez under arrest, conveyed the money to his own coffers, and
told the helpless Ortez that he could settle with the Gringo Brent
according to the understanding between them.
Brevoort, silently eying Arguilla, saw through the scheme. Arguilla
had determined to have both the money and the cattle. This explained
his unwonted presence at the Ortez hacienda.
Arguilla took a stiff drink of whiskey, wiped his mustache and turned
to Brevoort. "You have heard?" he said.
Brevoort knew enough Mexican to understand the question. "We'll tell
Brent that everything is all right," he said easily. "But he's a dam'
liar," he added in an undertone to Pete. Brevoort had made the mistake
of assuming that because he did not understand Mexican, Arguilla did
not understand English.
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