Chapter 11

CHAPTER XI - SEVERAL MONTHS LATER. ANTONIO AND THORNDIKE

"Thorndike, isn't that Plug you're riding an assert of the scrap
you and Buffalo Bill had with the late Blake Haskins and his pal a
few months back?"

"Yes, this is Mongrel - and not a half-bad horse, either."

"I've noticed he keeps up his lick first-rate. Say - isn't it a
gaudy morning?"

"Right you are!"

"Thorndike, it's Andalusian! and when that's said, all's said."

"Andalusian AND Oregonian, Antonio! Put it that way, and you have
my vote. Being a native up there, I know. You being Andalusian-
born - "

"Can speak with authority for that patch of paradise? Well, I can.
Like the Don! like Sancho! This is the correct Andalusian dawn now
- crisp, fresh, dewy, fragrant, pungent - "

"'What though the spicy breezes
Blow soft o'er Ceylon's isle - '

- GIT up, you old cow! stumbling like that when we've just been
praising you! out on a scout and can't live up to the honor any
better than that? Antonio, how long have you been out here in the
Plains and the Rockies?"

"More than thirteen years."

"It's a long time. Don't you ever get homesick?"

"Not till now."

"Why NOW? - after such a long cure."

"These preparations of the retiring commandant's have started it
up."

"Of course. It's natural."

"It keeps me thinking about Spain. I know the region where the
Seventh's child's aunt lives; I know all the lovely country for
miles around; I'll bet I've seen her aunt's villa many a time; I'll
bet I've been in it in those pleasant old times when I was a
Spanish gentleman."

"They say the child is wild to see Spain."

"It's so; I know it from what I hear."

"Haven't you talked with her about it?"

"No. I've avoided it. I should soon be as wild as she is. That
would not be comfortable."

"I wish I was going, Antonio. There's two things I'd give a lot to
see. One's a railroad."

"She'll see one when she strikes Missouri."

"The other's a bull-fight."

"I've seen lots of them; I wish I could see another."

"I don't know anything about it, except in a mixed-up, foggy way,
Antonio, but I know enough to know it's grand sport."

"The grandest in the world! There's no other sport that begins
with it. I'll tell you what I've seen, then you can judge. It was
my first, and it's as vivid to me now as it was when I saw it. It
was a Sunday afternoon, and beautiful weather, and my uncle, the
priest, took me as a reward for being a good boy and because of my
own accord and without anybody asking me I had bankrupted my
savings-box and given the money to a mission that was civilizing
the Chinese and