The Blood of the Conquerors

him to be the object of his attention during the journey. If the woman were reserved or well-chaperoned, or if she obviously belonged to another man, this attention might

ontact the possibility of a more or less covert prejudice against his blood, and that he faced it with an unduly proud and sensitive spirit concealed beneath a manner of aristocratic indifference. In the little southwestern town where he had lived all his life, except the [pg 8] last three years, his social

h blood in his Spanish ancestry, but he was no darker than are many Americans bearing Anglo-Saxon names, and his eyes were grey. His features were aquiline and plea

disappointed. The raw spots in his consciousness, if a little less irritated at the college, were by no means healed. Some persons, it is true, seemed to think nothing of his race one way or the

of team politics, he made a reputation by the merciless fashion

eal for him, and he had no definite ambitions, but he had a good head and a great desire to show the gringos what he could do. So h

ere an unusually attractive lot, for most of the passengers were wealthy easterners on their way to California. Ramon had never before seen together so many women of the kind that devotes time and money and good taste to the business of creating charm. Perfectly gowned and groomed, delicately scented, they filled him

he number of different costumes which she managed to don in two days filled him with amazement and gave her person an ever-varying charm and interest. She appeared always accompanied by a very placid-looking and portly woman, who was evidently her mother, and a tall, cadaverous sick man, whose indifferent and pettish attitude towa

n any other girl he had ever seen. He discreetly followed her about the train, watching for the opportunity that never came, and consoling himself with the fact that no one else seemed more fortunate in winning her favour than he. The only strange male w

f his boyhood he had been sent to one of the sheep ranches which belonged to the various branches of his numerous family. Each of these ranches was merely a headquarters where the sheep were annually dipped and sheared and from which the herds set out on their long wanderings across the [pg 12] open range. Often Ramon had followed them-across the deserts where the heat shimmered and the yellow dust hung like a great pale plume

free wanderings had been always with him. He had come to hate the city with its hard walled-in ways and its dirty air, and also the eastern country-side with its little green

quickly with eagerness. When he [pg 13] saw a group of Mexicans jogging along the road on their scrawny mounts he wanted to call out to them: "Como lo va, amigos?" He would have liked to salute this whole co

in the seat beh

anything so deso

country if they gave it

d upon the country their impressive disapproval, they opened newspapers and shut it away f

e aisle all by herself at last, came the girl of his fruitless choice. His eyes, deep with drea

ad noticed him after all. She had been waiting for a chance, as well as he. And now that it had come,

g