The Wolf Cub

, Jacinto Quesada went with her both to lend her a hand and to ask her a question. She held

rly man to whom the p

e great P

of the pullet lay free from the body and still; the body flapped a

s, the b

lero, him hunted forever by

Guardia Civil murder him as t

ndisturbed by the police. He was a coward at heart as are most Spaniards who turn dishonest that they

h true Latin elo

is long of arm; he is deep-loined; and the strength of him is like the strength of the first Spaniard, Hispanus, the son of Hercules. But there is

They are like our ancestors, the Cristinos Viejos, the Old Rusty Christians, they who eradicated the Moors from Spain. They are like our ancestors, th

The men of the Guardia Civil would capture and slay him if they could; but when they come up to him on the high road, he turns and gives battle with laughter and taunt, with ardor, stren

but Jacinto stood by the dripp

ched the bandolero eat. What huge teeth he had and how white they were! Over each mouthful the who

to. But it was almost as though he considered poor Juanito's death a humorous mishap; at certain of the widow's remarks he

de la Sierra and wound through the lower gorges. It is never the habit of the bandolero to linger in a

now had fallen, the heads and shoulders of the mountains were so whi

e stone, or shy from the path, and plunge screaming into nothingness, Pernales continually cast wary quick glances toward the crags and boulders overhead, and continually bent his ear back the way he had come. It was almost

la Guard

down into the winding gorge below. Abruptly he halted his horse an

that stands b

er in a child

to Que

rras. With great surprise the bandolero recognized the child to whom

" The carbine s

maestro! But I am

, the little Jacinto was compelled to squeeze into the

son of the widow Quesada and measured, with his eyes, the boy's extreme youthfulne

kled; he smiled; he grinned, his lips working and twitching;

the ibex to gallop you from crag to crag, across gorges and gargantas and all? Or have you the griffon vu

desire, brushed his bantering words as

our horse, and I will go with you through Spain and be your compa?ero and your dorad

edit his own ears. He wa

n, would be a bandolero! And you came all the way do

he was beginning to see go

we are safer and stronger than if a troop of cabalgadores surrounded us. There is no one so swift and slippery and el

your business, I see,"

d discernment and a great air of mannish profundity. He had got

ou on your greater crimes, the Nino de Arahal? Certain folk have told me of the Nino; they said he shared the glory of those enterprises which made imperative a show of numbers and strengt

an insignificant frog! Your wish to ride unhindered and alone, of that I would speak! Maestro, when I

rnales

ou dispossess th

and replace him by my natural superiority of brain. But if that were not enough-Carajo! I would lock knives with him, I would lunge and slash and rip and sta

pped his hands to his stomach; he opened his mouth to its widest stretch; and he guffawed so tremendously

his stripling, this barefoot child, this suckling babe? Za! The Nino would make ten of him! Zape! The Nino would sw

laughter, slid Jacinto Q

eacherous way. Treachery is the strength of the weak who are yet strong. If there be no other way, the superior brain reso

his instant! Quick! Straighten your face, or Porvida! the Manchegan knife I have with me, I will use on your horse. I will

ame hard as blue bright pebbles. Without seeming to do so, he looked down at the child's hands; and true! there was in those hands

d reeling off the path, he could not strike down the child with a blow of his fist! And the child had but to turn aside his gun or dodge his hard fist, and crouch out of

for the Guardia Civil and guide a brace of policemen to where my body lies on the bottom of the gorge, and there aw

da put the Manchegan

fessed your fault. Now, soberly and with due respec

ration lit the

rce, finality; you are altogether masculine, altogether varonil; you are a m

ow was ver

d your body is still the puny, soft-boned body of a child. If you rode away with me, you of the weak bo

heir merit as fighting animals), this youngster shows superb courage and astounding ferocity. But he is only two years old; and five years old must be the age of Don Eduardo's animals before he exhibits them in the Plaza de Toros. Does Do

too much. And that is why I say, I cannot take you with me. No! Porvida, no! But, if you are resentf

k, thinking deeply. Something in the boy'

en you are more fully grown. Some day, I promise you, I shall again pass this way, and then if you are still of the mind to be my dorado, you may join out with me and we will murder th

eturn for me-a word is enough between men. Now, knowing you will come back, I will comp

"on the promise given and taken, let us strike hands! With a

chegan navaja and gripped claws with the bandolero. A

olero st

, compa?ero!" sai

rong, thou!" said