"Very well, _senor_. The courts, I feel sure, will
sustain my words."
"Perhaps, and perhaps not."
"The law is an expensive arbiter, Senor Gordon. Your claim is slight.
The title has never been perfected by you. In fifteen years you have
paid no taxes. Still your claim, though worthless in itself, operates as
a cloud upon the title of my client, the Valdes heir."
Dick looked at him steadily and nodded. He began to see the purpose of
this visit. He waited silently, his mind very alert.
"_Senor_, I am here to ask of you a relinquishment. You are brave; no
doubt, chivalrous----"
"I'm a business man, Don Manuel," interrupted Gordon. "I don't see what
chivalry has got to do with it."
"Senorita Valdes is a woman, young and beautiful. This little estate is
her sole possession. To fight for it in court is a hardship that Senor
Gordon will not force upon her."
"So she's young and beautiful, is she?"
"The fairest daughter of Spain in all New Mexico," soared Don Manuel.
"You don't say. A regular case of beauty and the beast, ain't it?"
"As one of her friends, I ask of you not to oppose her lawful possession
of this little vineyard."
"In the grape business, is she?"
"I speak, _senor_, in metaphor. The land is barren, of no value except
for sheep grazing."
"Are you asking me to sell my title or give it?"
"It is a bagatelle--a mere nothing.
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