This offer not only caught the popular fancy north of the Rio
Grande, but it likewise had an effect on the other side of the
river, for on the very next day General Luis Longorio set out for
Romero to investigate personally the rancher's disappearance.
Now, throughout all this public clamor, truth, as usual, lay
hidden at the bottom of its well, and few even of Ricardo's
closest friends suspected the real reason for his murder.
Jonesville, of course, could think or talk of little else than
this outrage, and Blaze Jones, as befitted its leading citizen,
was loudest in his criticism of the government's weak-kneed
policy.
"It makes me right sore to think I'm an American," he confided to
Dave. "Why, if Ricardo had been an Englishman the British consul
at Mexico City would have called on Potosi the minute the news
came. He'd have stuck a six-shooter under the President's nose and
made him locate Don Ricardo, or pay an indemnity and kiss the
Union Jack." Blaze's conception of diplomacy was peculiar. "If
Potosi didn't talk straight that British consul would have bent a
gun-bar'l over the old ruffian's bean and telephoned for a couple
hundred battle-ships.
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