CHAPTER V
Lola
STONE found himself in a whirl of people trying to drag him back up the alley, patting him on the back, shouting; others helped up the fallen Padilla. The musician struggled fiercely to get away from them, sputtering Carrambas! and Carrajos! As they got out of the shadows of the alley the crowd gathered round under the electrics in half-drunken excitement, calling for "Padilla" and "El Toro." Stone heard a dozen broken sentences above the gabble.
"What is it?"
"A fight!"
"He knocked El Toro flat!"
"Fight!" "Fight!"
While his seemingly friendly backers held him Padilla broke loose, sprang across the space between them, and thwacked Stone a sounding blow on his cheek with the palm of his hand.
"You damn Gringo," he said, his eyes glittering, blood trickling from his bitten lip. "I teach you, por Dios, to leave my girl alone! I geev you now one chance to run. Eef you stay, I keel you! With my feests. Gringo, with my feests!"
They had caught his arms again and he stood
55
