The Bad Man Part 29

"Ah! but you do!" Lopez insisted.

"I do?" said Angela, wide-eyed.

"I have so decide!" the bandit stated.

"What?" cried Angela, not knowing what he could be driving at.

"Also you make love to my frand, Senor Jones."

"Oh!" cried the frightened girl now.

"And you have annoyed him in other ways."

"I have?" she wailed, terrified to the breaking point.

"Red" intervened. "Listen, Angela--" he began.

She stamped her little foot, and was peppery at once. "I won't!"

"You don't love him," "Red" affirmed, for her.

"Oh!" Angela burst out, all confusion.

"No more than you loved any of the rest of 'em," "Red" went on.

"Keep still!" the girl cried. "Keep still! I think you're dreadful!"

"It's because they're better looking than me," her slave went right on.

"I'm the one for you to marry, Angy, and you know it!" He had faith in himself at last--she couldn't stop him now.

"No!" Angela contradicted.

"Aw, come on!" poor "Red" begged.

But she stamped her foot again. "No--no--_no_!"

"Say you will!" "Red" pleaded, almost distracted.

But Angela was adamant. "I won't--I won't listen to you another minute!"

She turned her back on him, blus.h.i.+ng to the roots of her hair.

Lopez had been highly amused at the girl's pique and "Red's" honest interest in her. He came to his a.s.sistance. "We shall be patient. She is mad. And mad lady sink not wiz ze 'ead, but only wiz ze tongue." He faced the pouting Angela. "Senorita, leesten to me. 'Ow old are you?"

"None of your business!" was the instant answer.

"Twenty-eight? Twenty-nine?" Lopez pressed, smiling.

"Certainly not! I'm only twenty!" She was swift with the denial.

"Ah! I sought so," said Lopez, much pleased.

"What?" Angela said, not understanding him.

"In Mexico you would now be married five years--" the bandit explained.

"What?" screamed Angela.

"An' have six children."

"Oh!" The very thought made Angela ill.

"You are not pretty--none too pretty!" Lopez said.

The girl was now both hurt and amazed. "What's that?" she cried, all her feminine anger aroused.

"You will soon grow fat," Lopez continued, looking her over carefully.

Angela pulled out her handkerchief and brushed her eyes. "Oh!"

"Like ze tub!" said Lopez, inexorably, spreading his arms to indicate an immense diameter.

"Oh!" was all poor Angela could get out.

"Also, you 'ave ze bad temper."

"Oh! Oh!" Sobs now came from her.

"So, if you do not marry soon, it will be too late."

"What's that?" she looked up, not able to believe she had understood.

"Now, my frand 'ere, 'e wish to marry wiz you. Why, I do not know." Lopez grinned broadly. He knew this would be the last stroke. He was right.

"Oh!" gasped Angela.

"Shall he come wiz me to Mexico," the bandit piled it on, "I will give 'im planty wives, young, beautiful...."

"Oh!" again came from the distracted Angela.

"But he want you. And so ..."

"You're going to force me to marry him. I see!" She turned to the listening "Red." "And you'd let him force you on me, like this?"

"It ain't my fault, Angela," the foreman a.s.sured her. "I didn't know he was going to do this! You know that."

Lopez issued his ultimatum.

"I am not going to force you to marry 'im. You are going to choose to marry 'im."