The
outrage was a casus belli such as no self-respecting people could
ignore; so ran the popular verdict. Then when that ominous mailed
serpent which lay coiled along the Rio Grande stirred itself,
warlike Americans prepared themselves to hear of big events.
A motive for Ricardo Guzman's murder was not lacking, for it was
generally known that President Potosi had long resented Yankee
enmity, particularly as that enmity was directed at him
personally. A succession of irritating diplomatic skirmishes, an
unsatisfactory series of verbal sparring matches, had roused the
old Indian's anger, and it was considered likely that he had
adopted this means of permanently severing his relations with
Washington.
Of course, the people of Texas were delighted that the long-
delayed hour had struck; accordingly, when the State Department
seemed strangely loath to investigate the matter, when, in fact,
it manifested a willingness to allow Don Ricardo ample time in
which to come to life in preference to putting a further strain
upon international relations, they were both surprised and
enraged. Telegraph wires began to buzz; the governor of the state
sent a crisply sarcastic message to the national capital, offering
to despatch a company of Rangers after Guzman's body just to prove
that he was indeed dead and that the Mexican authorities were
lying when they professed ignorance of the fact.
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