Chapter 11:
The other customers became silent and watched the scene with interest.
When Maria went closer to them to serve some others customers, Ricardo hit the platter which fell on the floor, breaking pitchers and tumblers. Diego and the sergeant rose up straight away.
And while Diego, although furious but holding himself back, helped Maria by picking up the pieces, the sergeant chewed out the lancers which laughed devilishly.
"Gracias, Don Diego. But it would be to this boor's duty to do so."
"This boor, as you call him, won't move a single finger in spite of the sergeant's criticism." Diego says, helping then Maria to get up. "Will it be all right?" He asks her.
"Yes. Thanks again."
"You're welcome... Sergeant Garcia, I wish you a good day."
"Thank you, Don Diego. Good day to you too."
"You see, you're a coward; you're leaving in spite of all." Throws out Ricardo cantankerously.
"It seems to me, Señor, that the coward in this case is no one but you, by behaving that way. You make the garrison ashamed."
"After all, when we see the senile old man you have for a father, we understand easily your attitude." The second lancer intervenes devilish.
Diego saw red and he goes closer to this lancer briskly, making him step back and lose his smile.
"Take back your words and apologize instantly." Says Diego in a menacing voice that the sergeant didn't know he had.
Ruy, a little ashen-faced, regains the upper face on himself while Ricardo looked with a new eye the young De la Vega.
"Or else what? You will make me regret having come to Los Angeles?" Interrogates Ruy by taking it from high.
"Precisely!" Diego retorted.
"Señores, calm down, I beg you." Tries the innkeeper vainly.
"You're ridiculous. You think you impress me?" Throws Ruy before hitting violently Diego's face under the puzzled looks of the customers.
"Madre de Dios." Cries the innkeeper.
Ricardo looked tauntingly at the reactions of the young De la Vega which had nothing in common with those of a coward.
Diego raises his fingers to his bruised lip and goes back onto the offensive, knocking down the lancer on the ground, groggy, with a straight right.
Rather surprised by the aggressivity of the young don, Ricardo goes closer at his turn, wanting to give Diego a taste of his own medicine! But Diego dodges the blows with ease and the lancer falls on the ground without having been hit.
"Don Diego." The sergeant calls to him, trying to reason with him while Ricardo went to the offensive. He'd never seen his friend so furious.
Again, Diego dodges the blows, except for the last one, and hits at his turn the lancer which steps back under the collision. At the same time, the tavern's door opens on the magistrado and Don Alejandro, both of them astonished enough. Diego feels a presence behind him and turned suddenly ready to strike, but stops dead in his impulse.
"Sergeant Garcia!" He exclaims surprised, catching up over his temper.
Behind him, now, Ricardo takes advantage of this mistake, and grabbing his pistol, beats him with the butt. Diego collapses heavily under the worried looks of the sergeant and Don Alejandro. Ricardo wasn't done with him and began beating him with kicks.
Diego, half groggy and trying to protect his face, feels a sharp pain in his right shoulder. The sergeant grabs the soldier firmly behind him and makes him step back in order to avoid Diego receiving any other blows, that doesn't stop Ricardo to keep going a time. Diego rolls on his side after being hit in the right ribs.
That's when the magistrado intervenes, while from the corner of his eye, he saw Don Alejandro ready to take away his weapon.
"ENOUGH!" He says harshly.
The lancer stops straight away, ashen-faced, while the sergeant lets go of him immediately.
Don Alejandro lets go of his weapon and goes closer to Diego in a hurry.
"Diego?"
Diego, in haziness, was dizzy. He feels the presence of his father at his side. When the dizziness stopped, he heard again his father call him, and rising slowly, he raises his left hand behind his painful head. Then Don Alejandro helps him to stand up.
The first lancer knocked out, finally regains consciousness, aggressive. He looks around for the young De la Vega and found him next to his father. He took his gun and is ready to shoot when:
"I said ENOUGH!" The magistrado yells a second time, while he remarks him.
The lancers stops briskly, surprised to his turn and dropped his weapon under the looks, no less surprised of each.
"Ruy, Ricardo, I want to see you straight away in the commandante's office. Don Alejandro, Don Diego, follow me. And you, Sergeant Garcia, you come too. I want to clear up this case. Don Diego is no man to be rough with, the little lesser thing."
Though he feels a stabbing pain behind his head, Diego felt other pains appearing as they go close to the cuartel, under the look of the curious which observe the procession. His face, slightly bruised, was reflecting his anger yet there.
Bernardo, which just arrived and ended to tie the horses, hurries to his side while his legs nearly gave way under him.
"Gracias, my friend. Gracias, Padre." He says, feeling that his father was supporting him on his side
"Señor Galindo could have waited until you've been examined by Doctor Avila." Says Don Alejandro in a reproachful tone.
"Don't worry, Father, I've seen worse. And it's better to strike when the iron is hot." Diego explains more calmly, but half out of it.
That you've seen worse doesn't surprise me, Son, yet I should be. Don Alejandro thinks.
"You're wise, Son. I already told it to you."
Diego smiles to the comment while they arrived in the commandante's office.
"Don Alejandro, Don Diego, sit down, please. Ruy, Ricardo, I want to know what happened."
"This young cat pounced on us." Began Ruy.
The sergeant cleared his throat and the magistrado understood that it wasn't the beginning.
"Ruy!" He growls then.
"I may have called Señor De la Vega a coward..." Ricardo intervenes.
"What else?" the magistrado asks in front of the sergeant's face.
I should not have asked to the sergeant for coming. He thinks then.
"I... I..." Ricardo stammers.
"I'm listening."
In front of the silence of Ruy and Ricardo, the sergeant began.
"Though he was called a coward by Ricardo, Don Diego didn't pick up the affront.
"Ricardo has then turned upside down the platter Maria, the waitress, was carrying. Don Diego helped Maria to pick up the pieces, and then he wanted to leave; that's when Ruy made a very invidious remark on Don Diego's father. This latter asked for an apology, but instead of doing it, Ruy took it from high and hit Don Diego's face, which then knocked him down with a straight right... You should have seen this straight right, Señor Magistrado...
"Then Ricardo intervened, wanting to knock Don Diego who dodged all the blows like a torero... Well, almost all the blows. I wanted to stop Don Diego and I almost was hit, but he recognized me in time...
"That's when Ricardo beat him cowardly with the butt of his pistol before thrashing him with kicks. In spite of the fact that I was stepping him back... Then you intervened, with Don Alejandro." The sergeant finished explaining.
"Gracias, Sergeant... What was the invidious sentence?" Interrogates the magistrado.
"I... I called the father of Señor De la Vega a senile old man." Ruy admits bowing his head and in a whisper.
"What did you say?" Don Alejandro asked getting up straight away from his chair.
"Don Alejandro, please, sit down. Ruy, I demand that you apologize right now to Señores De la Vega, beginning with Don Alejandro. You will make three days of fatigue duty... Ricardo, I give you the same punishment too, since you also participated in this charade. Sergeant, you can go out, thank you for your witness."
The sergeant saluted and left the office while Ruy stuttered an apology before going out, not long preceded by Ricardo.
Then Don Alejandro saluted the magistrado and helped his son to stand up, but just when Diego was ready to follow his father outside, the magistrado calls him.
"Don Diego, a moment please."
"I will meet up with you outside, Father." He says to his attention.
Don Alejandro nodded and went out then.
"I'd like to come back on our earlier talk... Are these the lancers that you saw on the De Castillos lands?"