CHAPTER XII
"I BELIEVE YOU'RE IN LOVE WITH HER, TOO"
It was characteristic of Dick Gordon that he established at once alittle relation of friendliness between him and the young woman at theState House who waited upon him with the documents in the Valdes grantcase. She was a tall, slight girl with amazingly vivid eyes set in aface scarcely pretty. In her manner to the world at large there was anindifference amounting almost to insolence. She had a way of looking atpeople as if they were bits of the stage setting instead of individuals.
A flare of interest had sparkled in her eyes when Gordon's fussy littleattorney had mentioned the name of his client, but it had been Dick'sgenial manner of boyish comradeship that had really warmed MissUnderwood to him. She did not like many people, but when she gave herheart to a friend it was without stipulations. Dick was a man's man.Essentially he was masculine, virile, dominant. But the force of him wasusually masked either by his gay impudence or his sunny friendliness.Women were drawn to his flashing smile because they sensed the strengthbehind it.
Kate Underwood could have given a dozen reasons why she liked him. Therewere for instance the superficial ones. She liked the way he tossed backthe tawny sun-kissed hair from his eyes, the easy pantherish stride withwhich he covered ground so lightly, the set of his fine shoulders, thepeculiar tint of his lean, bronzed cheeks. His laugh was joyous as thesong of a bird in early spring. It made one want to shout with him.Then, too, she tremendously admired his efficiency. To look at the hard,clear eye, at the clean, well-packed build of the man, told the story.The movements of his strong, brown hands were sure and economical. Theydissipated no energy. Every detail of his personality expressed a mindthat did its own thinking swiftly and incisively.
"It's curious about these documents of the old Valdes and Moreno claims.They have lain here in the vaults--that is, here and at the oldGovernor's Palace--for twenty years and more untouched. Then all at oncetwenty people get interested in them. Scarce a day passes that lawyersare not up to look over some of the copies. You have certainly stirredthings up with your suit, Mr. Gordon."
Dick looked out of the window at the white adobe-lined streets restingin a placid coma of sun-beat.
"Don't you reckon Santa Fe can stand a little stirring up, MissUnderwood?"
"Goodness, yes. We all get to be three hundred years old if we live inthis atmosphere long enough."
The man's gaze shifted. "You'd have to live here a right long time, Ireckon."
A quick slant of her gay eyes reproached him. "You don't have to be sogallant, Mr. Gordon. The State pays me fifteen hundred dollars a year towait on you, anyhow."
"You don't say. As much as that? My, we're liable to go bankrupt in NewMexico, ain't we? And, if you want to know, I don't say nice things toyou because I have to, but because I want to."
She laughed with a pretense at incredulity. "In another day or two I'llfind out just what special favor I'm able to do Mr. Gordon. The regularthing is to bring flowers or candy, you know. Generally they say, too,that there never has been a clerk holding this job as fit for it as Iam."
"You're some clerk, all right. Say, where can I find the original ofthis _Agua Caliente_ grant, Miss Kate?"
She smiled to herself as she went to get him a certified copy. "Only twodays, and he's using my first name. Inside of a week he'll be calling me'Dearie,'" she thought. But she knew very well there was no danger. Thisyoung fellow was the kind of man that could be informal without theslightest idea of flirting or making love.
Kate Underwood's interest in the fight between the claimants for theValdes and Moreno grants was not based entirely upon her liking forDick. He learned this the fourth day of his stay in Santa Fe.
"Do you know that you were followed to the hotel last night, Mr.Gordon?" she asked him, as soon as he arrived at the State House.
His eyes met hers instantly. "Was I? How do you know?"
"I left the building just after you did. Two Mexicans followed you. Idon't know when I first suspected it, but I trailed along to make sure.There can be no doubt about it."
"Not a bit of doubt. Found it out the first day when I left the hotel,"he told her cheerfully.
"You knew it all the time," she cried, amazed.
"That doesn't prevent me from being properly grateful to you for yourkindness," he hastened to say.
"What are they following you for?" she wanted to know.
Dick told her something of his experiences in the Rio Chama Valleywithout mentioning that part of them which had to do with Miss Valdes.At the sound of Manuel Pesquiera's name the eyes of the girl flashed.Dick had already noticed that his name was always to her a signal forrepression of some emotion. The eyes contracted and hardened the leastin the world. Some men would not have noticed this, but more than onceGordon's life had hung upon the right reading of such signs.
"You think that Mr. Pesquiera has hired them to watch you?" shesuggested.
"Maybe he has and maybe he hasn't. Some of those willing lads of MissValdes don't need any hiring. They want to see what I'm up to. They'renot overlooking any bets."
"But they may shoot you."
He looked at her drolly. "They may, but I'll be there at the time. I'mnot sleeping on the job, Miss Kate."
"You didn't turn around once yesterday."
"Hmp! I saw them out of the edge of my eyes. And when I turned a cornerI always saw them mighty plain. They couldn't have come very closewithout my knowing it."
"Don Manuel is very anxious to have Miss Valdes win, isn't he?"
Dick observed that just below the eyes two spots were burning in theusually pale cheeks.
"Yes," he answered simply.
"Why?"
"He's her friend and a relative."
It seemed to Gordon that there was a touch of defiance in the eyes thatheld to his so steadily. She was going to find out the truth, no matterwhat he thought.
"Is that all--nothing more than a friend or a relative?"
The miner's boyish laugh rippled out. "You'd ought to have been alawyer, Miss Kate. No, that ain't all Don Manuel doesn't make any secretof it. I don't know why I should. He wants to be prince consort of theValdes kingdom."
"Because of ... the estate?"
"Lord, no! He's one man from the ground up, M. Pesquiera is. In spite ofthe estates."
"You mean that he ... loves Valencia Valdes?"
"Sure he does. Manuel doesn't care much who gets the kingdom if he getsthe princess."
"Is she so ... pretty?"
Dick stopped to consider this. "Why, yes, I reckon she is pretty, thoughI hadn't thought of it before. You see, pretty ain't just the word.She's a queen. That is, she looks like a queen ought to but don't. Takeher walk for instance: she steps out like as if in another moment shemight fly."
"That doesn't mean anything. It's almost silly," replied the downrightMiss Underwood, not without a tinge of spite.
"It means something to me. I'm trying to give you a picture of her. Butyou'd have to see her to understand. When she's around mean and littlethings crawl out of your mind. She's on the level and square and fine--athoroughbred if there ever was one."
"I believe you're in love with her, too."
The young man found himself blushing. "Now don't get to imaginingfoolishness. Miss Valdes hates the ground I walk on. She thinks I'm thelimit, and she hasn't forgotten to tell me so."
"Which, of course, makes you fonder of her," scoffed Miss Underwood."Does she hate the ground that Don Manuel walks on?"
"Now you've got me. I go to the foot of the class, because I don'tknow."
"But you wish you did," she flung at him, with a swift side glance.
"Guessing again, Miss Kate. I'll sure report you if you waste theState's time on such foolishness," he threatened gaily.
"Since you're in love with her, why don't you marry Miss Valdes andconsolidate the two claims?" demanded the girl.
Her chin was tilted impudently toward him, but Gordon guessed that therewas an undercur
rent of meaning in her audacity.
"What commission do you charge for running your matrimonial bureau?" heasked innocently.
"The service comes free to infants," she retorted sweetly.
She was called away to attend to other business. An hour later shepassed the desk where he was working.
"So you think I'm an infant at that game, do you?"
"I didn't mean to hurt your feelings," was her saucy answer.
"You haven't--not a mite. What about Don Manuel? Is he an infant at it,too?"
A sudden flame of color swept her face. The words she flung at Gordonseemed irrelevant, but he did not think them so. "I hate him."
And with that she was gone.
Dick's eyes twinkled. He had discovered another reason for her interestin his fortunes.
Later in the day, when the pressure of work had relaxed, the clerkdrifted his way again while searching for some papers.
"Your lawyers are paid to look up all this, aren't they? Why do you doit, then?" she asked.
"The case interests me. I want to know all about it."
"Would you like to see the old Valdes house here in Santa Fe? My fatherbought it when Alvaro Valdes built his new town house. One day I foundin the garret a bundle of old Spanish letters. They were written by oldBartolome to his son. I saved them. Would you care to see them?"
"Very much. The old chap was a great character. I suppose he was reallythe last of the great feudal barons. The French Revolution put an end tothem in Europe--that and the industrial revolution. It's rather amazingthat out here in the desert of this new land dedicated to democracy theidea was transplanted and survived so long."
"I'll bring the letters to-morrow and you can look them over. Any timeyou like I'll show you over the house. It's really ratherinteresting--much more so than their new one, which is so modern that itlooks like a thousand others. Valencia was born in the old house. Whatwill you give me to let you into the room?"
He brushed aside her impudence with a laugh. "Your boss is looking thisway. I think he's getting ready to fire you."
"He's more likely to be fired himself. I'm under civil service and heisn't. Will you take your shoes off when you go into the holy ofholies?"
"What happens to little girls when they ask too many questions? Go 'way.I'm busy."