Marta threw herself upon him. The two cowboys
who had been dancing suddenly intervened. The girls screamed.
"It was Jose's fault!" Marta cried. "Jose was mad. He would have killed
me!"
Craig faced them all with sudden courage.
"As I came in," he explained, "that man had his knife raised to stab the
girl. You don't allow that sort of thing, do you, here?"
The two cowboys linked their arms through Jose's and led him off towards
the door.
"The stranger's right, Jose," one of them insisted. "You can't carve a
girl up in company."
The girl clutched at Craig's arm.
"Sit down here, please," she begged. "Wait."
She disappeared for a moment and came back with a glass full of wine,
which she set down on the table.
"Drink this," she invited. "And thank you for saving me."
Craig emptied the glass eagerly. He was beginning to be more than a little
conscious of his fatigue.
"I just happened to be the first to see him," he said. "They aren't quite
wild enough to allow that here, are they?"
"Quien sabe? The girls do not like me! The men do not care," she declared.
"Jose took me by surprise, though, or I would have killed him. But who are
you, and where did you come from?"
"I have just crossed the border," he replied.
She nodded understandingly.
"Were they after you?"
"Yes! with a warrant for my arrest!"
She patted his hand.
"You are safe now," she whispered. "We care that much for a United States
warrant," and she snapped her slim fingers.
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