The Caballero's Way Page: 86

                                
By O. HENRY
.' ,",   A/i s  T I "   /

Illustrations by W. Herbert Dunton

r'llEtt' (iscoi Kiel hl killed six men in moire
or less fair -crimnlages, halt murdered
twice as mania (imostcl Mexicans), and hld
winged a larger number whom he moildestly
forbore tio count.  Therefore a \oman loved
him.
TI'he Kidl \as tenty-tie, looked twenty;
andi a careful insurance company would have
estimated the  ,    iobabile time itf his tdmise
at sa' tienty-six. Ilis haliitat was any
where blctwccn the Frio ani the Rio (;rande.
le killed for tihe love of it-biecau;se he was
quick-temlpered-to axvoid arrest-for his own
aiml seinlt lt- y reasonill that came tl  his
mind Would sutli C. Hle had escaped capture
lecaulse he could shoot five-sixths of a second
sooner than ianyl sheriff or ranger in tile scv-
ice, antd because Ihe rodle a speckled roanIt
horse that kneiv. every cow-path in tile nmes-
quite and peiar thickets from San Antonio to
Matimi oras.
Tonia Perez, the girl \who loved the Cisco
Kid, was half Carmen, half Madonna, and
the rest-il, yes, a woman w\\ho is half Car-
men and half Maldionna can al\a\ys lie somne-
thing more-the rest, let u; say, \\ia hum-
ming-bird. She lived in ai gras-rioofed jacal
near a little Mexican settlement at the Loine
Wolf crossing of the FIrio. With her lived a
father or grandfather, a lineal Aztec, siime-
lwhat lessC than ita thousand  ear.s  ii l, who
herded a hundred goats and li\edii in a con-
tinuous, drunken drteam from drinking mes-
al. Back o1f tile jtlcal a tremendious forest
of bristling pear, twenty feet hliglh at its woir t,
crowded almost to its dour. It was alng the
Ibexxildlering miaze if this spinnus thicket that
the ispeckled ioan would ring the Kid toi sec
his girl. a\nd once, clinging like ia lizard to
the ridtge-pole high up under the pealked grass
roof, he had hearl Tonia, with her Mldxinna
face and C'rmen beauty and humming-birdl
soul, parley \\with the sheriff's Iposse, denying

knowledge of her man in her soft niiilne
Spanlish and English.
()ne dal the adjutant general of the St ac
\who is, ex-officio, commander of the ra <
forces, wrotee some sarcas-tic lines toi Ca(p':t
1)uval of Complany X, statioined at Lard
relative to) the serene and undlitured  -
ence led by murderers and dlesperadue-
the said c:apltain's territory.
The captain turned the color of brick-6>
under his tan and forwarded the letter. A
adding a fei comments, per ranger I'ril,
Bill Adamson, to ranger Lieutenant :
dricdge, caimpled it a \\ter I-hole on the Nue
with a squad of five men in preservation
law and order.
Lieutenant Sandridge turned ii beautiful
muil/cur de rose through his ordinary sr
herry comlplexion, tucked the letter in hi-
hip-plcket, and chcewcd i!f the Cend of i.h
gaimboge mustache.
The next morning lie sa;lid liis horse n
rode al,ne to the MIexican scttilenent at tlh
Lone Wolf Crossing of the Irio, txvenvlymii
Six feet two, blond as ia viking, quiet a.
deacon, dangerous as a machine gun, S:
bridge moved among the jacals, patients'
seeking news of the Cisco Iid.
Far more than the l;l\, tihe Miexic?
dreaded the cold and certain vengeance
the 1one rider that the ranger sought. Ith
Seenll ,e of the lid's palitimi- tio sho. t Muk.
icans "to see them kick": if he demand
from  them  moribund I'erpiicorean f rcI
simll  that he might he  ntertained, ii.
terrible aind extreme Ipenaies would be-
trin to follow should the\  ler hinm'
and all they lounged \xitii uijturned p1::
and shrugging shoulders, iing the air
""iqiin sahcs" and denials if the Kid'i
quatita nce.
But there was a man nxamlei F_"ink xwhik i

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