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diff --git a/2185-h/2185-h.htm b/2185-h/2185-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7b9ad40 --- /dev/null +++ b/2185-h/2185-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,6744 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<HTML> +<HEAD> + +<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> + +<TITLE> +The Project Gutenberg E-text of Maruja, by Bret Harte +</TITLE> + +<STYLE TYPE="text/css"> +BODY { color: Black; + background: White; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + text-align: justify } + +P {text-indent: 4% } + +P.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +P.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: small } + +P.letter {text-indent: 0%; + font-size: small ; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.footnote {text-indent: 0%; + font-size: smaller ; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.finis { text-align: center ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +</STYLE> + +</HEAD> + +<BODY> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Maruja, by Bret Harte + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Maruja + +Author: Bret Harte + +Posting Date: October 28, 2008 [EBook #2185] +Release Date: May, 2000 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARUJA *** + + + + + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +MARUJA +</H1> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +by +</H3> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +BRET HARTE +</H2> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CONTENTS +</H2> + +<P> +<TABLE ALIGN="center" WIDTH="100%"> +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="20%"> +<A HREF="#chap01">CHAPTER I</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="20%"> +<A HREF="#chap02">CHAPTER II</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="20%"> +<A HREF="#chap03">CHAPTER III</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="20%"> +<A HREF="#chap04">CHAPTER IV</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="20%"> +<A HREF="#chap05">CHAPTER V</A> +</TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap06">CHAPTER VI</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap07">CHAPTER VII</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap08">CHAPTER VIII</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap09">CHAPTER IX</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap10">CHAPTER X</A> +</TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap11">CHAPTER XI</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap12">CHAPTER XII</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap13">CHAPTER XIII</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +</TR> + +</TABLE> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap01"></A> +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +MARUJA +</H1> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER I +</H3> + +<P> +Morning was breaking on the high road to San Jose. The long lines of +dusty, level track were beginning to extend their vanishing point in +the growing light; on either side the awakening fields of wheat and +oats were stretching out and broadening to the sky. In the east and +south the stars were receding before the coming day; in the west a few +still glimmered, caught among the bosky hills of the canada del +Raimundo, where night seemed to linger. Thither some obscure, +low-flying birds were slowly winging; thither a gray coyote, overtaken +by the morning, was awkwardly limping. And thither a tramping wayfarer +turned, plowing through the dust of the highway still unslaked by the +dewless night, to climb the fence and likewise seek the distant cover. +</P> + +<P> +For some moments man and beast kept an equal pace and gait with a +strange similarity of appearance and expression; the coyote bearing +that resemblance to his more civilized and harmless congener, the dog, +which the tramp bore to the ordinary pedestrians, but both exhibiting +the same characteristics of lazy vagabondage and semi-lawlessness; the +coyote's slouching amble and uneasy stealthiness being repeated in the +tramp's shuffling step and sidelong glances. Both were young, and +physically vigorous, but both displayed the same vacillating and +awkward disinclination to direct effort. They continued thus half a +mile apart unconscious of each other, until the superior faculties of +the brute warned him of the contiguity of aggressive civilization, and +he cantered off suddenly to the right, fully five minutes before the +barking of dogs caused the man to make a detour to the left to avoid +entrance upon a cultivated domain that lay before him. +</P> + +<P> +The trail he took led to one of the scant water-courses that issued, +half spent, from the canada, to fade out utterly on the hot June plain. +It was thickly bordered with willows and alders, that made an arbored +and feasible path through the dense woods and undergrowth. He +continued along it as if aimlessly; stopping from time to time to look +at different objects in a dull mechanical fashion, as if rather to +prolong his useless hours, than from any curious instinct, and to +occasionally dip in the unfrequent pools of water the few crusts of +bread he had taken from his pocket. Even this appeared to be suggested +more by coincidence of material in the bread and water, than from the +promptings of hunger. At last he reached a cup-like hollow in the +hills lined with wild clover and thick with resinous odors. Here he +crept under a manzanita-bush and disposed himself to sleep. The act +showed he was already familiar with the local habits of his class, who +used the unfailing dry starlit nights for their wanderings, and spent +the hours of glaring sunshine asleep or resting in some wayside shadow. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile the light quickened, and gradually disclosed the form and +outline of the adjacent domain. An avenue cut through a park-like +wood, carefully cleared of the undergrowth of gigantic ferns peculiar +to the locality, led to the entrance of the canada. Here began a vast +terrace of lawn, broken up by enormous bouquets of flower-beds +bewildering in color and profusion, from which again rose the flowering +vines and trailing shrubs that hid pillars, veranda, and even the long +facade of a great and dominant mansion. But the delicacy of floral +outlines running to the capitals of columns and at times mounting to +the pediment of the roof, the opulence of flashing color or the massing +of tropical foliage, could not deprive it of the imperious dignity of +size and space. Much of this was due to the fact that the original +casa—an adobe house of no mean pretensions, dating back to the early +Spanish occupation—had been kept intact, sheathed in a shell of +dark-red wood, and still retaining its patio; or inner court-yard, +surrounded by low galleries, while additions, greater in extent than +the main building, had been erected—not as wings and projections, but +massed upon it on either side, changing its rigid square outlines to a +vague parallelogram. While the patio retained the Spanish conception +of al fresco seclusion, a vast colonnade of veranda on the southern +side was a concession to American taste, and its breadth gave that +depth of shadow to the inner rooms which had been lost in the thinner +shell of the new erection. Its cloistered gloom was lightened by the +red fires of cardinal flowers dropping from the roof, by the yellow +sunshine of the jessamine creeping up the columns, by billows of +heliotropes breaking over its base as a purple sea. Nowhere else did +the opulence of this climate of blossoms show itself as vividly. Even +the Castilian roses, that grew as vines along the east front, the +fuchsias, that attained the dignity of trees, in the patio, or the four +or five monster passion-vines that bestarred the low western wall, and +told over and over again their mystic story—paled before the sensuous +glory of the south veranda. +</P> + +<P> +As the sun arose, that part of the quiet house first touched by its +light seemed to waken. A few lounging peons and servants made their +appearance at the entrance of the patio, occasionally reinforced by an +earlier life from the gardens and stables. But the south facade of the +building had not apparently gone to bed at all: lights were still +burning dimly in the large ball-room; a tray with glasses stood upon +the veranda near one of the open French windows, and further on, a +half-shut yellow fan lay like a fallen leaf. The sound of +carriage-wheels on the gravel terrace brought with it voices and +laughter and the swiftly passing vision of a char-a-bancs filled with +muffled figures bending low to avoid the direct advances of the sun. +</P> + +<P> +As the carriage rolled away, four men lounged out of a window on the +veranda, shading their eyes against the level beams. One was still in +evening dress, and one in the uniform of a captain of artillery; the +others had already changed their gala attire, the elder of the party +having assumed those extravagant tweeds which the tourist from Great +Britain usually offers as a gentle concession to inferior yet more +florid civilization. Nevertheless, he beamed back heartily on the sun, +and remarked, in a pleasant Scotch accent, that: Did they know it was +very extraordinary how clear the morning was, so free from clouds and +mist and fog? The young man in evening dress fluently agreed to the +facts, and suggested, in idiomatic French-English, that one +comprehended that the bed was an insult to one's higher nature and an +ingratitude to their gracious hostess, who had spread out this lovely +garden and walks for their pleasure; that nothing was more beautiful +than the dew sparkling on the rose, or the matin song of the little +birds. +</P> + +<P> +The other young man here felt called upon to point out the fact that +there was no dew in California, and that the birds did not sing in that +part of the country. The foreign young gentleman received this +statement with pain and astonishment as to the fact, with passionate +remorse as to his own ignorance. But still, as it was a charming day, +would not his gallant friend, the Captain here, accept the challenge of +the brave Englishman, and "walk him" for the glory of his flag and a +thousand pounds? +</P> + +<P> +The gallant Captain, unfortunately, believed that if he walked out in +his uniform he would suffer some delay from being interrogated by +wayfarers as to the locality of the circus he would be pleasantly +supposed to represent, even if he escaped being shot as a rare +California bird by the foreign sporting contingent. In these +circumstances, he would simply lounge around the house until his +carriage was ready. +</P> + +<P> +Much as it pained him to withdraw from such amusing companions, the +foreign young gentleman here felt that he, too, would retire for the +present to change his garments, and glided back through the window at +the same moment that the young officer carelessly stepped from the +veranda and lounged towards the shrubbery. +</P> + +<P> +"They've been watching each other for the last hour. I wonder what's +up?" said the young man who remained. +</P> + +<P> +The remark, without being confidential, was so clearly the first +sentence of natural conversation that the Scotchman, although relieved, +said, "Eh, man?" a little cautiously. +</P> + +<P> +"It's as clear as this sunshine that Captain Carroll and Garnier are +each particularly anxious to know what the other is doing or intends to +do this morning." +</P> + +<P> +"Why did they separate, then?" asked the other. +</P> + +<P> +"That's a mere blind. Garnier's looking through his window now at +Carroll, and Carroll is aware of it." +</P> + +<P> +"Eh!" said the Scotchman, with good-humored curiosity. "Is it a +quarrel? Nothing serious, I hope. No revolvers and bowie-knives, man, +before breakfast, eh?" +</P> + +<P> +"No," laughed the younger man. "No! To do Maruja justice, she +generally makes a fellow too preposterous to fight. I see you don't +understand. You're a stranger; I'm an old habitue of the house—let me +explain. Both of these men are in love with Maruja; or, worse than +that, they firmly believe her to be in love with THEM." +</P> + +<P> +"But Miss Maruja is the eldest daughter of our hostess, is she not?" +said the Scotchman; "and I understood from one of the young ladies that +the Captain had come down from the Fort particularly to pay court to +Miss Amita, the beauty." +</P> + +<P> +"Possibly. But that wouldn't prevent Maruja from flirting with him." +</P> + +<P> +"Eh! but are you not mistaken, Mr. Raymond? Certainly a more quiet, +modest, and demure young lassie I never met." +</P> + +<P> +"That's because she sat out two waltzes with you, and let you do the +talking, while she simply listened." +</P> + +<P> +The elder man's fresh color for an instant heightened, but he recovered +himself with a good-humored laugh. "Likely—likely. She's a capital +good listener." +</P> + +<P> +"You're not the first man that found her eloquent. Stanton, your +banking friend, who never talks of anything but mines and stocks, says +she's the only woman who has any conversation; and we can all swear +that she never said two words to him the whole time she sat next to him +at dinner. But she looked at him as if she had. Why, man, woman, and +child all give her credit for any grace that pleases themselves. And +why? Because she's clever enough not to practice any one of them—as +graces. I don't know the girl that claims less and gets more. For +instance, you don't call her pretty?" ... +</P> + +<P> +"Wait a bit. Ye'll not get on so fast, my young friend; I'm not +prepared to say that she's not," returned the Scotchman, with +good-humored yet serious caution. +</P> + +<P> +"But you would have been prepared yesterday, and have said it. She can +produce the effect of the prettiest girl here, and without challenging +comparison. Nobody thinks of her—everybody experiences her." +</P> + +<P> +"You're an enthusiast, Mr. Raymond. As an habitue of the house, of +course, you—" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, my time came with the rest," laughed the young man, with +unaffected frankness. "It's about two years ago now." +</P> + +<P> +"I see—you were not a marrying man." +</P> + +<P> +"Pardon me—it was because I was." +</P> + +<P> +The Scotchman looked at him curiously. +</P> + +<P> +"Maruja is an heiress. I am a mining engineer." +</P> + +<P> +"But, my dear fellow, I thought that in your country—" +</P> + +<P> +"In MY country, yes. But we are standing on a bit of old Spain. This +land was given to Dona Maria Saltonstall's ancestors by Charles V. +Look around you. This veranda, this larger shell of the ancient casa, +is the work of the old Salem whaling captain that she married, and is +all that is American here. But the heart of the house, as well as the +life that circles around the old patio, is Spanish. The Dona's family, +the Estudillos and Guitierrez, always looked down upon this alliance +with the Yankee captain, though it brought improvement to the land, and +increased its value forty-fold, and since his death ever opposed any +further foreign intervention. Not that that would weigh much with +Maruja if she took a fancy to any one; Spanish as she is throughout, in +thought and grace and feature, there is enough of the old Salem +witches' blood in her to defy law and authority in following an +unhallowed worship. There are no sons; she is the sole heiress of the +house and estate—though, according to the native custom, her sisters +will be separately portioned from the other property, which is very +large." +</P> + +<P> +"Then the Captain might still make a pretty penny on Amita," said the +Scotchman. +</P> + +<P> +"If he did not risk and lose it all on Maruja. There is enough of the +old Spanish jealousy in the blood to make even the gentle Amita never +forgive his momentary defection." +</P> + +<P> +Something in his manner made the Scotchman think that Raymond spoke +from baleful experience. How else could this attractive young fellow, +educated abroad and a rising man in his profession, have failed to +profit by his contiguity to such advantages, and the fact of his being +an evident favorite? +</P> + +<P> +"But with this opposition on the part of the relatives to any further +alliances with your countrymen, why does our hostess expose her +daughters to their fascinating influence?" said the elder man, glancing +at his companion. "The girls seem to have the usual American freedom." +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps they are therefore the less likely to give it up to the first +man who asks them. But the Spanish duenna still survives in the +family—the more awful because invisible. It's a mysterious fact that +as soon as a fellow becomes particularly attached to any one—except +Maruja—he receives some intimation from Pereo." +</P> + +<P> +"What! the butler? That Indian-looking fellow? A servant?" +</P> + +<P> +"Pardon me—the mayordomo. The old confidential servitor who stands in +loco parentis. No one knows what he says. If the victim appeals to +the mistress, she is indisposed; you know she has such bad health. If +in his madness he makes a confidante of Maruja, that finishes him." +</P> + +<P> +"How?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, he ends by transferring his young affections to her—with the +usual result." +</P> + +<P> +"Then you don't think our friend the Captain has had this confidential +butler ask his intentions yet?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't think it will be necessary," said the other, dryly. +</P> + +<P> +"Umph! Meantime, the Captain has just vanished through yon shrubbery. +I suppose that's the end of the mysterious espionage you have +discovered. No! De'il take it! but there's that Frenchman popping out +of the myrtlebush. How did the fellow get there? And, bless me! +here's our lassie, too!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes!" said Raymond, in a changed voice, "It's Maruja!" +</P> + +<P> +She had approached so noiselessly along the bank that bordered the +veranda, gliding from pillar to pillar as she paused before each to +search for some particular flower, that both men felt an uneasy +consciousness. But she betrayed no indication of their presence by +look or gesture. So absorbed and abstracted she seemed that, by a +common instinct, they both drew nearer the window, and silently waited +for her to pass or recognize them. +</P> + +<P> +She halted a few paces off to fasten a flower in her girdle. A small +youthful figure, in a pale yellow dress, lacking even the maturity of +womanly outline. The full oval of her face, the straight line of her +back, a slight boyishness in the contour of her hips, the infantine +smallness of her sandaled feet and narrow hands, were all suggestive of +fresh, innocent, amiable youth—and nothing more. +</P> + +<P> +Forgetting himself, the elder man mischievously crushed his companion +against the wall in mock virtuous indignation. "Eh, sir," he +whispered, with an accent that broadened with his feelings. "Eh, but +look at the puir wee lassie! Will ye no be ashamed o' yerself for +putting the tricks of a Circe on sic a honest gentle bairn? Why, man, +you'll be seein' the sign of a limb of Satan in a bit thing with the +mother's milk not yet out of her! She a flirt, speerin' at men, with +that modest downcast air? I'm ashamed of ye, Mister Raymond. She's +only thinking of her breakfast, puir thing, and not of yon callant. +Another sacrilegious word and I'll expose you to her. Have ye no pity +on youth and innocence?" +</P> + +<P> +"Let me up," groaned Raymond, feebly, "and I'll tell you how old she +is. Hush—she's looking." +</P> + +<P> +The two men straightened themselves. She had, indeed, lifted her eyes +towards the window. They were beautiful eyes, and charged with +something more than their own beauty. With a deep brunette setting +even to the darkened cornea, the pupils were blue as the sky above +them. But they were lit with another intelligence. The soul of the +Salem whaler looked out of the passion-darkened orbits of the mother, +and was resistless. +</P> + +<P> +She smiled recognition of the two men with sedate girlishness and a +foreign inclination of the head over the flowers she was holding. Her +straight, curveless mouth became suddenly charming with the parting of +her lips over her white teeth, and left the impress of the smile in a +lighting of the whole face even after it had passed. Then she moved +away. At the same moment Garnier approached her. +</P> + +<P> +"Come away, man, and have our walk," said the Scotchman, seizing +Raymond's arm. "We'll not spoil that fellow's sport." +</P> + +<P> +"No; but she will, I fear. Look, Mr. Buchanan, if she hasn't given him +her flowers to carry to the house while she waits here for the Captain!" +</P> + +<P> +"Come away, scoffer!" said Buchanan, good-humoredly, locking his arm in +the young man's and dragging him from the veranda towards the avenue, +"and keep your observations for breakfast." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap02"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER II +</H3> + +<P> +In the mean time, the young officer, who had disappeared in the +shrubbery, whether he had or had not been a spectator of the scene, +exhibited some signs of agitation. He walked rapidly on, occasionally +switching the air with a wand of willow, from which he had impatiently +plucked the leaves, through an alley of ceanothus, until he reached a +little thicket of evergreens, which seemed to oppose his further +progress. Turning to one side, however, he quickly found an entrance +to a labyrinthine walk, which led him at last to an open space and a +rustic summer-house that stood beneath a gnarled and venerable +pear-tree. The summerhouse was a quaint stockade of dark madrono +boughs thatched with red-wood bark, strongly suggestive of deeper +woodland shadow. But in strange contrast, the floor, table, and +benches were thickly strewn with faded rose-leaves, scattered as if in +some riotous play of children. Captain Carroll brushed them aside +hurriedly with his impatient foot, glanced around hastily, then threw +himself on the rustic bench at full length and twisted his mustache +between his nervous fingers. Then he rose as suddenly, with a few +white petals impaled on his gilded spurs and stepped quickly into the +open sunlight. +</P> + +<P> +He must have been mistaken! Everything was quiet around him, the +far-off sound of wheels in the avenue came faintly, but nothing more. +</P> + +<P> +His eye fell upon the pear-tree, and even in his preoccupation he was +struck with the signs of its extraordinary age. Twisted out of all +proportion, and knotted with excrescences, it was supported by iron +bands and heavy stakes, as if to prop up its senile decay. He tried to +interest himself in the various initials and symbols deeply carved in +bark, now swollen and half obliterated. As he turned back to the +summer-house, he for the first time noticed that the ground rose behind +it into a long undulation, on the crest of which the same singular +profusion of rose-leaves were scattered. It struck him as being +strangely like a gigantic grave, and that the same idea had occurred to +the fantastic dispenser of the withered flowers. He was still looking +at it, when a rustle in the undergrowth made his heart beat +expectantly. A slinking gray shadow crossed the undulation and +disappeared in the thicket. It was a coyote. At any other time the +extraordinary appearance of this vivid impersonation of the wilderness, +so near a centre of human civilization and habitation, would have +filled him with wonder. But he had room for only a single thought now. +Would SHE come? +</P> + +<P> +Five minutes passed. He no longer waited in the summer-house, but +paced impatiently before the entrance to the labyrinth. Another five +minutes. He was deceived, undoubtedly. She and her sisters were +probably waiting for him and laughing at him on the lawn. He ground +his heel into the clover, and threw his switch into the thicket. Yet +he would give her one—only one moment more. +</P> + +<P> +"Captain Carroll!" +</P> + +<P> +The voice had been and was to HIM the sweetest in the world; but even a +stranger could not have resisted the spell of its musical inflection. +He turned quickly. She was advancing towards him from the summer-house. +</P> + +<P> +"Did you think I was coming that way—where everybody could follow me?" +she laughed, softly. "No; I came through the thicket over there," +indicating the direction with her flexible shoulder, "and nearly lost +my slipper and my eyes—look!" She threw back the inseparable lace +shawl from her blond head, and showed a spray of myrtle clinging like a +broken wreath to her forehead. The young officer remained gazing at +her silently. +</P> + +<P> +"I like to hear you speak my name," he said, with a slight hesitation +in his breath. "Say it again." +</P> + +<P> +"Car-roll, Car-roll, Car-roll," she murmured gently to herself two or +three times, as if enjoying her own native trilling of the r's. "It's a +pretty name. It sounds like a song. Don Carroll, eh! El Capitan Don +Carroll." +</P> + +<P> +"But my first name is Henry," he said, faintly. +</P> + +<P> +"'Enry—that's not so good. Don Enrico will do. But El Capitan +Carroll is best of all. I must have it always: El Capitan Carroll!" +</P> + +<P> +"Always?" He colored like a boy. +</P> + +<P> +"Why not?" He was confusedly trying to look through her brown lashes; +she was parrying him with the steel of her father's glance. "Come! +Well! Captain Carroll! It was not to tell me your name—that I knew +already was pretty—Car-roll!" she murmured again, caressing him with +her lashes; "it was not for this that you asked me to meet you face to +face in this—cold"—she made a movement of drawing her lace over her +shoulders—"cold daylight. That belonged to the lights and the dance +and the music of last night. It is not for this you expect me to leave +my guests, to run away from Monsieur Garnier, who pays compliments, but +whose name is not pretty—from Mr. Raymond, who talks OF me when he +can't talk TO me. They will say, This Captain Carroll could say all +that before them." +</P> + +<P> +"But if they knew," said the young officer, drawing closer to her with +a paling face but brightening eyes, "if they knew I had anything else +to say, Miss Saltonstall—something—pardon me—did I hurt your +hand?—something for HER alone—is there one of them that would have +the right to object? Do not think me foolish, Miss Saltonstall—but—I +beg—I implore you to tell me before I say more." +</P> + +<P> +"Who would have a right?" said Maruja, withdrawing her hand but not her +dangerous eyes. "Who would dare forbid you talking to me of my sister? +I have told you that Amita is free—as we all are." +</P> + +<P> +Captain Carroll fell back a few steps and gazed at her with a troubled +face. "It is possible that you have misunderstood, Miss Saltonstall?" +he faltered. "Do you still think it is Amita that I"—he stopped and +added passionately, "Do you remember what I told you?—have you +forgotten last night?" +</P> + +<P> +"Last night was—last night!" said Maruja, slightly lifting her +shoulders. "One makes love at night—one marries in daylight. In the +music, in the flowers, in the moonlight, one says everything; in the +morning one has breakfast—when one is not asked to have councils of +war with captains and commandantes. You would speak of my sister, +Captain Car-roll—go on. Dona Amita Carroll sounds very, very pretty. +I shall not object." She held out both her hands to him, threw her +head back, and smiled. +</P> + +<P> +He seized her hands passionately. "No, no! you shall hear me—you +shall understand me. I love YOU, Maruja—you, and you alone. God +knows I can not help it—God knows I would not help it if I could. Hear +me. I will be calm. No one can hear us where we stand. I am not mad. +I am not a traitor! I frankly admired your sister. I came here to see +her. Beyond that, I swear to you, I am guiltless to her—to you. Even +she knows no more of me than that. I saw you, Maruja. From that +moment I have thought of nothing—dreamed of nothing else." +</P> + +<P> +"That is—three, four, five days and one afternoon ago! You see, I +remember. And now you want—what?" +</P> + +<P> +"To let me love you, and you only. To let me be with you. To let me +win you in time, as you should be won. I am not mad, though I am +desperate. I know what is due to your station and mine—even while I +dare to say I love you. Let me hope, Maruja, I only ask to hope." +</P> + +<P> +She looked at him until she had absorbed all the burning fever of his +eyes, until her ears tingled with his passionate voice, and then—she +shook her head. +</P> + +<P> +"It can not be, Carroll—no! never!" +</P> + +<P> +He drew himself up under the blow with such simple and manly dignity +that her eyes dropped for the moment. "There is another, then?" he +said, sadly. +</P> + +<P> +"There is no one I care for better than you. No! Do not be foolish. +Let me go. I tell you that because you can be nothing to me—you +understand, to ME. To my sister Amita, yes." +</P> + +<P> +The young soldier raised his head coldly. "I have pressed you hard, +Miss Saltonstall—too hard, I know, for a man who has already had his +answer; but I did not deserve this. Good-by." +</P> + +<P> +"Stop," she said, gently. "I meant not to hurt you, Captain Carroll. +If I had, it is not thus I would have done. I need not have met you +here. Would you have loved me the less if I had avoided this meeting?" +</P> + +<P> +He could not reply. In the depths of his miserable heart, he knew that +he would have loved her the same. +</P> + +<P> +"Come," she said, laying her hand softly on his arm, "do not be angry +with me for putting you back only five days to where you were when you +first entered our house. Five days is not much of happiness or sorrow +to forget, is it, Carroll—Captain Carroll?" Her voice died away in a +faint sigh. "Do not be angry with me, if—knowing you could be nothing +more—I wanted you to love my sister, and my sister to love you. We +should have been good friends—such good friends." +</P> + +<P> +"Why do you say, 'Knowing it could he nothing more'?" said Carroll, +grasping her hand suddenly. "In the name of Heaven, tell me what you +mean!" +</P> + +<P> +"I mean I can not marry unless I marry one of my mother's race. That is +my mother's wish, and the will of her relations. You are an American, +not of Spanish blood." +</P> + +<P> +"But surely this is not your determination?" +</P> + +<P> +She shrugged her shoulders. "What would you? It is the determination +of my people." +</P> + +<P> +"But knowing this"—he stopped; the quick blood rose to his face. +</P> + +<P> +"Go on, Captain Carroll. You would say, Knowing this, why did I not +warn you? Why did I not say to you when we first met, You have come to +address my sister; do not fall in love with me—I can not marry a +foreigner." +</P> + +<P> +"You are cruel, Maruja. But, if that is all, surely this prejudice can +be removed? Why, your mother married a foreigner—an American." +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps that is why," said the girl, quietly. She cast down her long +lashes, and with the point of her satin slipper smoothed out the soft +leaves of the clover at her feet. "Listen; shall I tell you the story +of our house? Stop! some one is coming. Don't move; remain as you +are. If you care for me, Carroll, collect yourself, and don't let that +man think he has found US ridiculous." Her voice changed from its tone +of slight caressing pleading to one of suppressed pride. "HE will not +laugh much, Captain Carroll; truly, no." +</P> + +<P> +The figure of Garnier, bright, self-possessed, courteous, appeared at +the opening of the labyrinth. Too well-bred to suggest, even in +complimentary raillery, a possible sentimental situation, his +politeness went further. It was so kind in them to guide an awkward +stranger by their voices to the places where he could not stupidly +intrude! +</P> + +<P> +"You are just in time to interrupt or to hear a story that I have been +threatening to tell," she said, composedly; "an old Spanish legend of +this house. You are in the majority now, you two, and can stop me if +you choose. Thank you. I warn you it is stupid; it isn't new; but it +has the excuse of being suggested by this very spot." She cast a quick +look of subtle meaning at Carroll, and throughout her recital appealed +more directly to him, in a manner delicately yet sufficiently marked to +partly soothe his troubled spirit. +</P> + +<P> +"Far back, in the very old times, Caballeros," said Maruja, standing by +the table in mock solemnity, and rapping upon it with her fan, "this +place was the home of the coyote. Big and little, father and mother, +Senor and Senora Coyotes, and the little muchacho coyotes had their +home in the dark canada, and came out over these fields, yellow with +wild oats and red with poppies, to seek their prey. They were happy. +For why? They were the first; they had no history, you comprehend, no +tradition. They married as they liked" (with a glance at Carroll), +"nobody objected; they increased and multiplied. But the plains were +fertile; the game was plentiful; it was not fit that it should be for +the beasts alone. And so, in the course of time, an Indian chief, a +heathen, Koorotora, built his wigwam here." +</P> + +<P> +"I beg your pardon," said Garnier, in apparent distress, "but I caught +the gentleman's name imperfectly." +</P> + +<P> +Fully aware that the questioner only wished to hear again her musical +enunciation of the consonants, she repeated, "Koorotora," with an +apologetic glance at Carroll, and went on. "This gentleman had no +history or tradition to bother him, either; whatever Senor Coyote +thought of the matter, he contented himself with robbing Senor +Koorotora's wigwam when he could, and skulking around the Indian's camp +at night. The old chief prospered, and made many journeys round the +country, but always kept his camp here. This lasted until the time +when the holy Fathers came from the South, and Portala, as you have all +read, uplifted the wooden Cross on the sea-coast over there, and left +it for the heathens to wonder at. Koorotora saw it on one of his +journeys, and came back to the canada full of this wonder. Now, +Koorotora had a wife." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, we shall commence now. We are at the beginning. This is better +than Senora Coyota," said Garnier, cheerfully. +</P> + +<P> +"Naturally, she was anxious to see the wonderful object. She saw it, +and she saw the holy Fathers, and they converted her against the +superstitious heathenish wishes of her husband. And more than that, +they came here—" +</P> + +<P> +"And converted the land also; is it not so? It was a lovely site for a +mission," interpolated Garnier, politely. +</P> + +<P> +"They built a mission and brought as many of Koorotora's people as they +could into the sacred fold. They brought them in in a queer fashion +sometimes, it is said; dragoons from the Presidio, Captain Carroll, +lassoing them and bringing them in at the tails of their horses. All +except Koorotora. He defied them; he cursed them and his wife in his +wicked heathenish fashion, and said that they too should lose the +mission through the treachery of some woman, and that the coyote should +yet prowl through the ruined walls of the church. The holy Fathers +pitied the wicked man—and built themselves a lovely garden. Look at +that pear-tree! There is all that is left of it!" +</P> + +<P> +She turned with a mock heroic gesture, and pointed her fan to the +pear-tree. Garnier lifted his hands in equally simulated wonder. A +sudden recollection of the coyote of the morning recurred to Carroll +uneasily. "And the Indians," he said, with an effort to shake off the +feeling; "they, too, have vanished." +</P> + +<P> +"All that remained of them is in yonder mound. It is the grave of the +chief and his people. He never lived to see the fulfillment of his +prophecy. For it was a year after his death that our ancestor, Manuel +Guitierrez, came from old Spain to the Presidio with a grant of twenty +leagues to settle where he chose. Dona Maria Guitierrez took a fancy +to the canada. But it was a site already in possession of the Holy +Church. One night, through treachery, it was said, the guards were +withdrawn and the Indians entered the mission, slaughtered the lay +brethren, and drove away the priests. The Commandant at the Presidio +retook the place from the heathens, but on representation to the +Governor that it was indefensible for the peaceful Fathers without a +large military guard, the official ordered the removal of the mission +to Santa Cruz, and Don Manuel settled his twenty leagues grant in the +canada. Whether he or Dona Maria had anything to do with the Indian +uprising, no one knows; but Father Pedro never forgave them. He is +said to have declared at the foot of the altar that the curse of the +Church was on the land, and that it should always pass into the hands +of the stranger." +</P> + +<P> +"And that was long ago, and the property is still in the family," said +Carroll, hurriedly, answering Maruja's eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"In the last hundred years there have been no male heirs," continued +Maruja, still regarding Carroll. "When my mother, who was the eldest +daughter, married Don Jose Saltonstall against the wishes of the +family, it was said that the curse would fall. Sure enough, +Caballeros, it was that year that the forged grants of Micheltorrena +were discovered; and in our lawsuit your government, Captain, handed +over ten leagues of the llano land to the Doctor West, our neighbor." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, the gray-headed gentleman who lunched here the other day? You are +friends, then? You bear no malice?" said Garnier. +</P> + +<P> +"What would you?" said Maruja, with a slight shrug of her shoulders. +"He paid his money to the forger. Your corregidores upheld him, and +said it was no forgery," she continued, to Carroll. +</P> + +<P> +In spite of the implied reproach, Carroll felt relieved. He began to +be impatient of Garnier's presence, and longed to renew his suit. +Perhaps his face showed something of this, for Maruja added, with mock +demureness, "It's always dreadful to be the eldest sister; but think +what it is to be in the direct line of a curse! Now, there's +Amita—SHE'S free to do as she likes, with no family responsibility; +while poor me!" She dropped her eyes, but not until they had again +sought and half-reproved the brightening eyes of Carroll. +</P> + +<P> +"But," said Garnier, with a sudden change from his easy security and +courteous indifference to an almost harsh impatience, "you do not mean +to say, Mademoiselle, that you have the least belief in this rubbish, +this ridiculous canard?" +</P> + +<P> +Maruja's straight mouth quickly tightened over her teeth. She shot a +significant glance at Carroll, but instantly resumed her former manner. +</P> + +<P> +"It matters little what a foolish girl like myself believes. The rest +of the family, even the servants and children, all believe it. It is a +part of their religion. Look at these flowers around the pear-tree, +and scattered on that Indian mound. They regularly find their way +there on saints' days and festas. THEY are not rubbish, Monsieur +Garnier; they are propitiatory sacrifices. Pereo would believe that a +temblor would swallow up the casa if we should ever forego these +customary rites. Is it a mere absurdity that forced my father to build +these modern additions around the heart of the old adobe house, leaving +it untouched, so that the curse might not be fulfilled even by +implication?" +</P> + +<P> +She had assumed an air of such pretty earnestness and passion; her +satin face was illuminated as by some softly sensuous light within more +bewildering than mere color, that Garnier, all devoted eyes and +courteous blandishment, broke out: "But this curse must fall harmlessly +before the incarnation of blessing; Miss Saltonstall has no more to +fear than the angels. She is the one predestined through her charm, +through her goodness, to lift it forever." +</P> + +<P> +Carroll could not have helped echoing the aspirations of his rival, had +not the next words of his mistress thrilled him with superstitious +terror. +</P> + +<P> +"A thousand thanks, Senor. Who knows? But I shall have warning when +it falls. A day or two before the awful invader arrives, a coyote +suddenly appears in broad daylight, mysteriously, near the casa. This +midnight marauder, now banished to the thickest canyon, comes again to +prowl around the home of his ancestors. Caramba! Senor Captain, what +are you staring at? You frighten me! Stop it, I say!" +</P> + +<P> +She had turned upon him, stamping her little foot in quite a +frightened, childlike way. +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing," laughed Carroll, the quick blood returning to his cheek. +"But you must not be angry with one for being quite carried away with +your dramatic intensity. By Jove! I thought I could see the WHOLE +thing while you were speaking—the old Indian, the priest, and the +coyote!" His eyes sparkled. The wild thought had occurred to him that +perhaps, in spite of himself, he was the young woman's predestined +fate; and in the very selfishness of his passion he smiled at the mere +material loss of lands and prestige that would follow it. "Then the +coyote has always preceded some change in the family fortunes?" he +asked, boldly. +</P> + +<P> +"On my mother's wedding-day," said Maruja, in a lower voice, "after the +party had come from church to supper in the old casa, my father asked, +'What dog is that under the table?' When they lifted the cloth to +look, a coyote rushed from the very midst of the guests and dashed out +across the patio. No one knew how or when he entered." +</P> + +<P> +"Heaven grant that we do not find he has eaten our breakfast!" said +Garnier, gayly, "for I judge it is waiting us. I hear your sister's +voice among the others crossing the lawn. Shall we tear ourselves away +from the tombs of our ancestors, and join them?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not as I am looking now, thank you," said Maruja, throwing the lace +over her head. "I shall not submit myself to a comparison of their +fresher faces and toilets by you two gentlemen. Go you both and join +them. I shall wait and say an Ave for the soul of Koorotora, and slip +back alone the way I came." +</P> + +<P> +She had steadily evaded the pleading glance of Carroll, and though her +bright face and unblemished toilet showed the inefficiency of her +excuse, it was evident that her wish to be alone was genuine and +without coquetry. They could only lift their hats and turn regretfully +away. +</P> + +<P> +As the red cap of the young officer disappeared amidst the evergreen +foliage, the young woman uttered a faint sigh, which she repeated a +moment after as a slight nervous yawn. Then she opened and shut her +fan once or twice, striking the sticks against her little pale palm, +and then, gathering the lace under her oval chin with one hand, and +catching her fan and skirt with the other, bent her head and dipped +into the bushes. She came out on the other side near a low fence, that +separated the park from a narrow lane which communicated with the high +road beyond. As she neared the fence, a slinking figure limped along +the lane before her. It was the tramp of the early morning. +</P> + +<P> +They raised their heads at the same moment and their eyes met. The +tramp, in that clearer light, showed a spare, but bent figure, roughly +clad in a miner's shirt and canvas trousers, splashed and streaked with +soil, and half hidden in a ragged blue cast-off army overcoat lazily +hanging from one shoulder. His thin sun-burnt face was not without a +certain sullen, suspicious intelligence, and a look of half-sneering +defiance. He stopped, as a startled, surly animal might have stopped +at some unusual object, but did not exhibit any other discomposure. +Maruja stopped at the same moment on her side of the fence. +</P> + +<P> +The tramp looked at her deliberately, and then slowly lowered his eyes. +"I'm looking for the San Jose road, hereabouts. Ye don't happen to +know it?" he said, addressing himself to the top of the fence. +</P> + +<P> +It had been said that it was not Maruja's way to encounter man, woman, +or child, old or young, without an attempt at subjugation. Strong in +her power and salient with fascination, she leaned gently over the +fence, and with the fan raised to her delicate ear, made him repeat his +question under the soft fire of her fringed eyes. He did so, but +incompletely, and with querulous laziness. +</P> + +<P> +"Lookin'—for—San Jose road—here'bouts." +</P> + +<P> +"The road to San Jose," said Maruja, with gentle slowness, as if not +unwilling to protract the conversation, "is about two miles from here. +It is the high road to the left fronting the plain. There is another +way, if—" +</P> + +<P> +"Don't want it! Mornin'." +</P> + +<P> +He dropped his head suddenly forward, and limped away in the sunlight. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap03"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER III +</H3> + +<P> +Breakfast, usually a movable feast at La Mision Perdida, had been +prolonged until past midday; the last of the dance guests had flown, +and the home party—with the exception of Captain Carroll, who had +returned to duty at his distant post—were dispersing; some as riding +cavalcades to neighboring points of interest; some to visit certain +notable mansions which the wealth of a rapid civilization had erected +in that fertile valley. One of these in particular, the work of a +breathless millionaire, was famous for the spontaneity of its growth +and the reckless extravagance of its appointments. +</P> + +<P> +"If you go to Aladdin's Palace," said Maruja, from the top step of the +south porch, to a wagonette of guests, "after you've seen the stables +with mahogany fittings for one hundred horses, ask Aladdin to show you +the enchanted chamber, inlaid with California woods and paved with gold +quartz." +</P> + +<P> +"We would have a better chance if the Princess of China would only go +with us," pleaded Garnier, gallantly. +</P> + +<P> +"The Princess will stay at home with her mother, like a good girl," +returned Maruja, demurely. +</P> + +<P> +"A bad shot of Garnier's this time," whispered Raymond to Buchanan, as +the vehicle rolled away with them. "The Princess is not likely to +visit Aladdin again." +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" +</P> + +<P> +"The last time she was there, Aladdin was a little too Persian in his +extravagance: offered her his house, stables, and himself." +</P> + +<P> +"Not a bad catch—why, he's worth two millions, I hear." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; but his wife is as extravagant as himself." +</P> + +<P> +"His WIFE, eh? Ah, are you serious; or must you say something +derogatory of the lassie's admirers too?" said Buchanan, playfully +threatening him with his cane. "Another word, and I'll throw you from +the wagon." +</P> + +<P> +After their departure, the outer shell of the great house fell into a +profound silence, so hollow and deserted that one might have thought +the curse of Koorotora had already descended upon it. Dead leaves of +roses and fallen blossoms from the long line of vine-wreathed columns +lay thick on the empty stretch of brown veranda, or rustled and crept +against the sides of the house, where the regular breath of the +afternoon "trades" began to arise. A few cardinal flowers fell like +drops of blood before the open windows of the vacant ball-room, in +which the step of a solitary servant echoed faintly. It was Maruja's +maid, bringing a note to her young mistress, who, in a flounced morning +dress, leaned against the window. Maruja took it, glanced at it +quietly, folded it in a long fold, and put it openly in her belt. +Captain Carroll, from whom it came, might have carried one of his +despatches as methodically. The waiting-woman noticed the act, and was +moved to suggest some more exciting confidences. +</P> + +<P> +"The Dona Maruja has, without doubt, noticed the bouquet on her +dressing-room table from the Senor Garnier?" +</P> + +<P> +The Dona Maruja had. The Dona Maruja had also learned with pain that, +bribed by Judas-like coin, Faquita had betrayed the secrets of her +wardrobe to the extent of furnishing a ribbon from a certain yellow +dress to the Senor Buchanan to match with a Chinese fan. This was +intolerable! +</P> + +<P> +Faquita writhed in remorse, and averred that through this solitary act +she had dishonored her family. +</P> + +<P> +The Dona Maruja, however, since it was so, felt that the only thing +left to do was to give her the polluted dress, and trust that the Devil +might not fly away with her. +</P> + +<P> +Leaving the perfectly consoled Faquita, Maruja crossed the large hall, +and, opening a small door, entered a dark passage through the thick +adobe wall of the old casa, and apparently left the present century +behind her. A peaceful atmosphere of the past surrounded her not only +in the low vaulted halls terminating in grilles or barred windows; not +only in the square chambers whose dark rich but scanty furniture was +only a foil to the central elegance of the lace-bordered bed and +pillows; but in a certain mysterious odor of dried and desiccated +religious respectability that penetrated everywhere, and made the +grateful twilight redolent of the generations of forgotten Guitierrez +who had quietly exhaled in the old house. A mist as of incense and +flowers that had lost their first bloom veiled the vista of the long +corridor, and made the staring blue sky, seen through narrow windows +and loopholes, glitter like mirrors let into the walls. The chamber +assigned to the young ladies seemed half oratory and half +sleeping-room, with a strange mingling of the convent in the bare white +walls, hung only with crucifixes and religious emblems, and of the +seraglio in the glimpses of lazy figures, reclining in the deshabille +of short silken saya, low camisa, and dropping slippers. In a broad +angle of the corridor giving upon the patio, its balustrade hung with +brightly colored serapes and shawls, surrounded by voluble domestics +and relations, the mistress of the casa half reclined in a hammock and +gave her noonday audience. +</P> + +<P> +Maruja pushed her way through the clustered stools and cushions to her +mother's side, kissed her on the forehead, and then lightly perched +herself like a white dove on the railing. Mrs. Saltonstall, a dark, +corpulent woman, redeemed only from coarseness by a certain softness of +expression and refinement of gesture, raised her heavy brown eyes to +her daughter's face. +</P> + +<P> +"You have not been to bed, Mara?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, dear. Do I look it?" +</P> + +<P> +"You must lie down presently. They tell me that Captain Carroll +returned suddenly this morning." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you care?" +</P> + +<P> +"Who knows? Amita does not seem to fancy Jose, Esteban, Jorge, or any +of her cousins. She won't look at Juan Estudillo. The Captain is not +bad. He is of the government. He is—" +</P> + +<P> +"Not more than ten leagues from here," said Maruja, playing with the +Captain's note in her belt. "You can send for him, dear little mother. +He will be glad." +</P> + +<P> +"You will ever talk lightly—like your father! She was not then +grieved—our Amita—eh?" +</P> + +<P> +"She and Dorotea and the two Wilsons went off with Raymond and your +Scotch friend in the wagonette. She did not cry—to Raymond." +</P> + +<P> +"Good," said Mrs. Saltonstall, leaning back in her hammock. "Raymond is +an old friend. You had better take your siesta now, child, to be +bright for dinner. I expect a visitor this afternoon—Dr. West." +</P> + +<P> +"Again! What will Pereo say, little mother?" +</P> + +<P> +"Pereo," said the widow, sitting up again in her hammock, with +impatience, "Pereo is becoming intolerable. The man is as mad as Don +Quixote; it is impossible to conceal his eccentric impertinence and +interference from strangers, who can not understand his confidential +position in our house or his long service. There are no more +mayordomos, child. The Vallejos, the Briones, the Castros, do without +them now. Dr. West says, wisely, they are ridiculous survivals of the +patriarchal system." +</P> + +<P> +"And can be replaced by intelligent strangers," interrupted Maruja, +demurely. +</P> + +<P> +"The more easily if the patriarchal system has not been able to +preserve the respect due from children to parents. No, Maruja! No; I +am offended. Do not touch me! And your hair is coming down, and your +eyes have rings like owls. You uphold this fanatical Pereo because he +leaves YOU alone and stalks your poor sisters and their escorts like +the Indian, whose blood is in his veins. The saints only can tell if +he did not disgust this Captain Carroll into flight. He believes +himself the sole custodian of the honor of our family—that he has a +sacred mission from this Don Fulano of Koorotora to avert its fate. +Without doubt he keeps up his delusions with aguardiente, and passes +for a prophet among the silly peons and servants. He frightens the +children with his ridiculous stories, and teaches them to decorate that +heathen mound as if it were a shrine of Our Lady of Sorrows. He was +almost rude to Dr. West yesterday." +</P> + +<P> +"But you have encouraged him in his confidential position here," said +Maruja. "You forget, my mother, how you got him to 'duena' Euriqueta +with the Colonel Brown; how you let him frighten the young Englishman +who was too attentive to Dorotea; how you set him even upon poor +Raymond, and failed so dismally that I had to take him myself in hand." +</P> + +<P> +"But if I choose to charge him with explanations that I can not make +myself without derogating from the time-honored hospitality of the +casa, that is another thing. It is not," said Dona Maria, with a +certain massive dignity, that, inconsistent as it was with the weakness +of her argument, was not without impressiveness, "it is not yet, +Blessed Santa Maria, that we are obliged to take notice ourself of the +pretensions of every guest beneath our roof like the match-making, +daughter-selling English and Americans. And THEN Pereo had tact and +discrimination. Now he is mad! There are strangers and strangers. +The whole valley is full of them—one can discriminate, since the old +families year by year are growing less." +</P> + +<P> +"Surely not," said Maruja, innocently. "There is the excellent +Ramierrez, who has lately almost taken him a wife from the singing-hall +in San Francisco; he may yet be snatched from the fire. There is the +youthful Jose Castro, the sole padrono of our national bull-fight at +Soquel, the famous horse-breaker, and the winner of I know not how many +races. And have we not Vincente Peralta, who will run, it is said, for +the American Congress. He can read and write—truly I have a letter +from him here." She turned back the folded slip of Captain Carroll's +note and discovered another below. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Saltonstall tapped her daughter's hand with her fan. "You jest at +them, yet you uphold Pereo! Go, now, and sleep yourself into a better +frame of mind. Stop! I hear the Doctor's horse. Run and see that +Pereo receives him properly." +</P> + +<P> +Maruja had barely entered the dark corridor when she came upon the +visitor,—a gray, hard-featured man of sixty,—who had evidently +entered without ceremony. "I see you did not wait to be announced," +she said, sweetly. "My mother will be flattered by your impatience. +You will find her in the patio." +</P> + +<P> +"Pereo did not announce me, as he was probably still under the effect +of the aguardiente he swallowed yesterday," said the Doctor, dryly. "I +met him outside the tienda on the highway the other night, talking to a +pair of cut-throats that I would shoot on sight." +</P> + +<P> +"The mayordomo has many purchases to make, and must meet a great many +people," said Maruju. "What would you? We can not select HIS +acquaintances; we can hardly choose our own," she added, sweetly. +</P> + +<P> +The Doctor hesitated, as if to reply, and then, with a grim +"Good-morning," passed on towards the patio. Maruja did not follow +him. Her attention was suddenly absorbed by a hitherto unnoticed +motionless figure, that seemed to be hiding in the shadow of an angle +of the passage, as if waiting for her to pass. The keen eyes of the +daughter of Joseph Saltonstall were not deceived. She walked directly +towards the figure, and said, sharply, "Pereo!" +</P> + +<P> +The figure came hesitatingly forward into the light of the grated +window. It was that of an old man, still tall and erect, though the +hair had disappeared from his temples, and hung in two or three +straight, long dark elf-locks on his neck. His face, over which one of +the bars threw a sinister shadow, was the yellow of a dried +tobacco-leaf, and veined as strongly. His garb was a strange mingling +of the vaquero and the ecclesiastic—velvet trousers, open from the +knee down, and fringed with bullion buttons; a broad red sash around +his waist, partly hidden by a long, straight chaqueta; with a circular +sacerdotal cape of black broadcloth slipped over his head through a +slit-like opening braided with gold. His restless yellow eyes fell +before the young girl's; and the stiff, varnished, hard-brimmed +sombrero he held in his wrinkled hands trembled. +</P> + +<P> +"You are spying again, Pereo," said Maruja, in another dialect than the +one she had used to her mother. "It is unworthy of my father's trusted +servant." +</P> + +<P> +"It is that man—that coyote, Dona Maruja, that is unworthy of your +father, of your mother, of YOU!" he gesticulated, in a fierce whisper. +"I, Pereo, do not spy. I follow, follow the track of the prowling, +stealing brute until I run him down. Yes, it was I, Pereo, who warned +your father he would not be content with the half of the land he stole! +It was I, Pereo, who warned your mother that each time he trod the soil +of La Mision Perdida he measured the land he could take away!" He +stopped pantingly, with the insane abstraction of a fixed idea +glittering in his eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"And it was YOU, Pereo," she said, caressingly, laying her soft hand on +his heaving breast, "YOU who carried me in your arms when I was a +child. It was you, Pereo, who took me before you on your pinto horse +to the rodeo, when no one knew it but ourselves, my Pereo, was it not?" +He nodded his head violently. "It was you who showed me the gallant +caballeros, the Pachecos, the Castros, the Alvarados, the Estudillos, +the Peraltas, the Vallejos." His head kept time with each name as the +fire dimmed in his wet eyes. "You made me promise I would not forget +them for the Americanos who were here. Good! That was years ago! I +am older now. I have seen many Americans. Well, I am still free!" +</P> + +<P> +He caught her hand, and raised it to his lips with a gesture almost +devotional. His eyes softened; as the exaltation of passion passed, +his voice dropped into the querulousness of privileged age. "Ah, +yes!—you, the first-born, the heiress—of a verity, yes! You were +ever a Guitierrez. But the others? Eh, where are they now? And it was +always: 'Eh, Pereo, what shall we do to-day? Pereo, good Pereo, we are +asked to ride here and there; we are expected to visit the new people +in the valley—what say you, Pereo? Who shall we dine to-day?' Or: +'Enquire me of this or that strange caballero—and if we may speak.' +Ah, it is but yesterday that Amita would say: 'Lend me thine own horse, +Pereo, that I may outstrip this swaggering Americano that clings ever +to my side,' ha! ha! Or the grave Dorotea would whisper: 'Convey to +this Senor Presumptuous Pomposo that the daughters of Guitierrez do not +ride alone with strangers!' Or even the little Liseta would say, he! +he! 'Why does the stranger press my foot in his great hand when he +helps me into the saddle? Tell him that is not the way, Pereo.' Ha! +ha!" He laughed childishly, and stopped. "And why does Senorita Amita +now—look—complain that Pereo, old Pereo, comes between her and this +Senor Raymond—-this maquinista? Eh, and why does SHE, the lady +mother, the Castellana, shut Pereo from her councils?" he went on, with +rising excitement. "What are these secret meetings, eh?—what these +appointments, alone with this Judas—without the family—without ME!" +</P> + +<P> +"Hearken, Pereo," said the young girl, again laying her hand on the old +man's shoulder; "you have spoken truly—but you forget—the years pass. +These are no longer strangers; old friends have gone—these have taken +their place. My father forgave the Doctor—why can not you? For the +rest, believe in me—me—Maruja"—she dramatically touched her heart +over the international complications of the letters of Captain Carroll +and Peralta. "I will see that the family honor does not suffer. And +now, good Pereo, calm thyself. Not with aguardiente, but with a bottle +of old wine from the Mision refectory that I will send to thee. It was +given to me by thy friend, Padre Miguel, and is from the old vines that +were here. Courage, Pereo! And thou sayest that Amita complains that +thou comest between her and Raymond. So! What matter? Let it cheer +thy heart to know that I have summoned the Peraltas, the Pachecos, the +Estudillos, all thy old friends, to dine here to-day. Thou wilt hear +the old names, even if the faces are young to thee. Courage! Do thy +duty, old friend; let them see that the hospitality of La Mision +Perdida does not grow old, if its mayordomo does. Faquita will bring +thee the wine. No; not that way; thou needest not pass the patio, nor +meet that man again. Here, give me thy hand. I will lead thee. It +trembles, Pereo! These are not the sinews that only two years ago +pulled down the bull at Soquel with thy single lasso! Why, look! I +can drag thee; see!" and with a light laugh and a boyish gesture, she +half pulled, half dragged him along, until their voices were lost in +the dark corridor. +</P> + +<P> +Maruja kept her word. When the sun began to cast long shadows along +the veranda, not only the outer shell of La Mision Perdida, but the +dark inner heart of the old casa, stirred with awakened life. Single +horsemen and carriages began to arrive; and, mingled with the modern +turnouts of the home party and the neighboring Americans, were a few of +the cumbrous vehicles and chariots of fifty years ago, drawn by gayly +trapped mules with bizarre postilions, and occasionally an outrider. +Dark faces looked from the balcony of the patio, a light cloud of +cigarette-smoke made the dark corridors the more obscure, and mingled +with the forgotten incense. Bare-headed pretty women, with roses +starring their dark hair, wandered with childish curiosity along the +broad veranda and in and out of the French windows that opened upon the +grand saloon. Scrupulously shaved men with olive complexion, stout men +with accurately curving whiskers meeting at their dimpled chins, +lounged about with a certain unconscious dignity that made them +contentedly indifferent to any novelty of their surroundings. For a +while the two races kept mechanically apart; but, through the tactful +gallantry of Garnier, the cynical familiarity of Raymond, and the +impulsive recklessness of Aladdin, who had forsaken his enchanted +Palace on the slightest of invitations, and returned with the party in +the hope of again seeing the Princess of China, an interchange of +civilities, of gallantries, and even of confidences, at last took +place. Jovita Castro had heard (who had not?) of the wonders of +Aladdin's Palace, and was it of actual truth that the ladies had a +bouquet and a fan to match their dress presented to them every morning, +and that the gentlemen had a champagne cocktail sent to their rooms +before breakfast? "Just you come, Miss, and bring your father and your +brothers, and stay a week and you'll see," responded Aladdin, +gallantly. "Hold on! What's your father's first name? I'll send a +team over there for you to-morrow." "And is it true that you +frightened the handsome Captain Carroll away from Amita?" said Dolores +Briones, over the edge of her fan to Raymond. "Perfectly," said +Raymond, with ingenuous frankness. "I made it a matter of life or +death. He was a soldier, and naturally preferred the former as giving +him a better chance for promotion." "Ah! we thought it was Maruja you +liked best." "That was two years ago," said Raymond, gravely. "And +you Americanos can change in that time?" "I have just experienced that +it can be done in less," he responded, over the fan, with bewildering +significance. Nor were these confidences confined to only one +nationality. "I always thought you Spanish gentlemen were very dark, +and wore long mustaches and a cloak," said pretty little Miss Walker, +gazing frankly into the smooth round face of the eldest Pacheco—"why, +you are as fair as I am," "Eaf I tink that, I am for ever mizzarable," +he replied, with grave melancholy. In the dead silence that followed +he was enabled to make his decorous point. "Because I shall not ezcape +ze fate of Narcissus." Mr. Buchanan, with the unrestrained and +irresponsible enjoyment of a traveler, entered fully into the spirit of +the scene. He even found words of praise for Aladdin, whose +extravagance had at first seemed to him almost impious. "Eh, but I'm +not prepared to say he is a fool, either," he remarked to his friend +the San Francisco banker. "Those who try to pick him up for one," +returned the banker, "will find themselves mistaken. His is the +prodigality that loosens others' purse-strings besides his own, +Everybody contents himself with criticising his way of spending money, +but is ready to follow his way of making it." +</P> + +<P> +The dinner was more formal, and when the mistress of the house, massive +in black silk, velvet and gold embroidery, moved like a pageant to the +head of her table, where she remained like a sacerdotal effigy, not +even the presence of the practical Scotchman at her side could remove +the prevailing sense of restraint. For a while the conversation of the +relatives might have been brought with them in their antique vehicles +of fifty years ago, so faded, so worn, and so springless it was. +General Pico related the festivities at Monterey, on the occasion of +the visit of Sir George Simpson early in the present century, of which +he was an eyewitness, with great precision of detail. Don Juan +Estudillo was comparatively frivolous, with anecdotes of Louis +Philippe, whom he had seen in Paris. Far-seeing Pedro Guitierrez was +gloomily impressed with a Mongolian invasion of California by the +Chinese, in which the prevailing religion would be supplanted by +heathen temples, and polygamy engrafted on the Constitution. Everybody +agreed however, that the vital question of the hour was the settlement +of land titles—Americans who claimed under preemption and the native +holders of Spanish grants were equally of the opinion. +</P> + +<P> +In the midst of this the musical voice of Maruja was heard saying, +"What is a tramp?" +</P> + +<P> +Raymond, on her right, was ready but not conclusive. +</P> + +<P> +A tramp, if he could sing, would be a troubadour; if he could pray, +would be a pilgrim friar—in either case a natural object of womanly +solicitude. But as he could do neither, he was simply a curse. +</P> + +<P> +"And you think that is not an object of womanly solicitude? But that +does not tell me WHAT he is." +</P> + +<P> +A dozen gentlemen, swept in the radius of those softly-inquiring eyes, +here started to explain. From them it appeared that there was no such +thing in California as a tramp, and there were also a dozen varieties +of tramp in California. +</P> + +<P> +"But is he always very uncivil?" asked Maruja. +</P> + +<P> +Again there were conflicting opinions. You might have to shoot him on +sight, and you might have him invariably run from you. When the +question was finally settled, Maruja was found to have become absorbed +in conversation with some one else. +</P> + +<P> +Amita, a taller copy of Maruja, and more regularly beautiful, had built +up a little pile of bread crumbs between herself and Raymond, and was +listening to him with a certain shy, girlish interest that was as +inconsistent with the serene regularity of her face as Maruja's +self-possessed, subtle intelligence was incongruous to her youthful +figure. Raymond's voice, when he addressed Amita, was low and earnest; +not from any significance of matter, but from its frank confidential +quality. +</P> + +<P> +"They are discussing the new railroad project, and your relations are +all opposed to it; to-morrow they will each apply privately to Aladdin +for the privilege of subscribing." +</P> + +<P> +"I have never seen a railroad," said Amita, slightly coloring; "but you +are an engineer, and I know they must be some thing very clever." +</P> + +<P> +Notwithstanding the coolness of the night, a full moon drew the guests +to the veranda, where coffee was served, and where, mysteriously +muffled in cloaks and shawls, the party took upon itself the appearance +of groups of dominoed masqueraders, scattered along the veranda and on +the broad steps of the porch in gypsy-like encampments, from whose +cloaked shadow the moonlight occasionally glittered upon a varnished +boot or peeping satin slipper. Two or three of these groups had +resolved themselves into detached couples, who wandered down the acacia +walk to the sound of a harp in the grand saloon or the occasional +uplifting of a thin Spanish tenor. Two of these couples were Maruja +and Garnier, followed by Amita and Raymond. +</P> + +<P> +"You are restless to-night, Maruja," said Amita, shyly endeavoring to +make a show of keeping up with her sister's boyish stride, in spite of +Raymond's reluctance. "You are paying for your wakefulness to-day." +</P> + +<P> +The same idea passed through the minds of both men. She was missing +the excitement of Captain Carroll's presence. +</P> + +<P> +"The air is so refreshing away from the house," responded Maruja, with +a bright energy that belied any suggestion of fatigue or moral +disquietude. "I'm tired of running against those turtle-doves in the +walks and bushes. Let us keep on to the lane. If you are tired, Mr. +Raymond will give you his arm." +</P> + +<P> +They kept on, led by the indomitable little figure, who, for once, did +not seem to linger over the attentions, both piquant and tender, with +which Garnier improved his opportunity. Given a shadowy lane, a +lovers' moon, a pair of bright and not unkindly eyes, a charming and +not distant figure—what more could he want? Yet he wished she hadn't +walked so fast. One might be vivacious, audacious, brilliant, at an +Indian trot; but impassioned—never! The pace increased; they were +actually hurrying. More than that, Maruja had struck into a little +trot; her lithe body swaying from side to side, her little feet +straight as an arrow before her; accompanying herself with a quaint +musical chant, which she obligingly explained had been taught her as a +child by Pereo. They stopped only at the hedge, where she had that +morning encountered the tramp. +</P> + +<P> +There is little doubt that the rest of the party was disconcerted: +Amita, whose figure was not adapted to this Camilla-like exercise; +Raymond, who was annoyed at the poor girl's discomfiture; and Garnier, +who had lost a golden opportunity, with the faint suspicion of having +looked ridiculous. Only Maruja's eyes, or rather the eyes of her +lamented father, seemed to enjoy it. +</P> + +<P> +"You are too effeminate," she said, leaning against the fence, and +shading her eyes with her fan, as she glanced around in the staring +moonlight. "Civilization has taken away your legs. A man ought to be +able to trust to his feet all day, and to nothing else." +</P> + +<P> +"In fact—a tramp," suggested Raymond. +</P> + +<P> +"Possibly. I think I should like to have been a gypsy, and to have +wandered about, finding a new home every night." +</P> + +<P> +"And a change of linen on the early morning hedges," said Raymond. "But +do you think seriously that you and your sister are suitably clad to +commence to-night. It is bitterly cold," he added, turning up his +collar. "Could you begin by showing a pal the nearest haystack or +hen-roost?" +</P> + +<P> +"Sybarite!" She cast a long look over the fields and down the lane. +Suddenly she started. "What is that?" +</P> + +<P> +She pointed to a tall erect figure slowly disappearing on the other +side of the hedge. +</P> + +<P> +"It's Pereo, only Pereo. I knew him by his long serape," said Garnier, +who was nearest the hedge, complacently. "But what is surprising, he +was not there when we came, nor did he come out of that open field. He +must have been walking behind us on the other side of the hedge." +</P> + +<P> +The eyes of the two girls sought each other simultaneously, but not +without Raymond's observant glance. Amita's brow darkened as she moved +to her sister's side, and took her arm with a confidential pressure +that was returned. The two men, with a vague consciousness of some +contretemps, dropped a pace behind, and began to talk to each other, +leaving the sisters to exchange a few words in a low tone as they +slowly returned to the house. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile, Pereo's tall figure had disappeared in the shrubbery, to +emerge again in the open area by the summer-house and the old +pear-tree. The red sparks of two or three cigarettes in the shadow of +the summer-house, and the crouching forms of two shawled women came +forward to greet him. +</P> + +<P> +"And what hast thou heard, Pereo?" said one of the women. +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing," said Pereo, impatiently. "I told thee I would answer for +this little primogenita with my life. She is but leading this +Frenchman a dance, as she has led the others, and the Dona Amita and +her Raymond are but wax in her hands. Besides, I have spoken with the +little 'Ruja to-day, and spoke my mind, Pepita, and she says there is +nothing." +</P> + +<P> +"And whilst thou wert speaking to her, my poor Pereo, the devil of an +American Doctor was speaking to her mother, thy mistress—our mistress, +Pereo! Wouldst thou know what he said? Oh, it was nothing." +</P> + +<P> +"Now, the curse of Koorotora on thee, Pepita!" said Pereo, excitedly. +"Speak, fool, if thou knowest anything!" +</P> + +<P> +"Of a verity, no. Let Faquita, then, speak: she heard it." She +reached out her hand, and dragged Maruja's maid, not unwilling, before +the old man. +</P> + +<P> +"Good! 'Tis Faquita, daughter of Gomez, and a child of the land. +Speak, little one. What said this coyote to the mother of thy +mistress?" +</P> + +<P> +"Truly, good Pereo, it was but accident that befriended me." +</P> + +<P> +"Truly, for thy mistress's sake, I hoped it had been more. But let +that go. Come, what said he, child?" +</P> + +<P> +"I was hanging up a robe behind the curtain in the oratory when Pepita +ushered in the Americano. I had no time to fly." +</P> + +<P> +"Why shouldst thou fly from a dog like this?" said one of the +cigarette-smokers who had drawn near. +</P> + +<P> +"Peace!" said the old man. +</P> + +<P> +"When the Dona Maria joined him they spoke of affairs. Yes, Pereo, +she, thy mistress, spoke of affairs to this man—ay, as she might have +talked to THEE. And, could he advise this? and could he counsel that? +and should the cattle be taken from the lower lands, and the fields +turned to grain? and had he a purchaser for Los Osos?" +</P> + +<P> +"Los Osos! It is the boundary land—the frontier—the line of the +arroyo—older than the Mision," muttered Pereo. +</P> + +<P> +"Ay, and he talked of the—the—I know not what it is!—the +r-r-rail-r-road." +</P> + +<P> +"The railroad," gasped the old man. "I will tell thee what it is! It +is the cut of a burning knife through La Mision Perdida—as long as +eternity, as dividing as death. On either side of that gash life is +blasted; wherever that cruel steel is laid the track of it is livid and +barren; it cuts down all barriers; leaps all boundaries, be they canada +or canyon; it is a torrent in the plain, a tornado in the forest; its +very pathway is destruction to whoso crosses it—man or beast; it is +the heathenish God of the Americanos; they build temples for it, and +flock there and worship it whenever it stops, breathing fire and flame +like a very Moloch." +</P> + +<P> +"Eh! St. Anthony preserve us!" said Faquita, shuddering; "and yet they +spoke of it as 'shares' and 'stocks,' and said it would double the +price of corn." +</P> + +<P> +"Now, Judas pursue thee and thy railroad, Pereo," said Pepita, +impatiently. "It is not such bagatela that Faquita is here to relate. +Go on, child, and tell all that happened." +</P> + +<P> +"And then," continued Faquita, with a slight affectation of maiden +bashfulness, in the closer-drawing circle of cigarettes, "and then they +talked of other things and of themselves; and, of a verity, this +gray-bearded Doctor will play the goat and utter gallant speeches, and +speak of a lifelong devotion and of the time he should have a right to +protect—" +</P> + +<P> +"The right, girl! Didst thou say the right? No, thou didst mistake. +It was not THAT he meant?" +</P> + +<P> +"Thy life to a quarter peso that the little Faquita does not mistake," +said the evident satirist of the household. "Trust to Gomez' muchacha +to understand a proposal." +</P> + +<P> +When the laugh was over, and the sparks of the cigarette, cleverly +whipped out of the speaker's lips by Faquita's fan, had disappeared in +the darkness, she resumed, pettishly, "I know not what you call it when +he kissed her hand and held it to his heart." +</P> + +<P> +"Judas!" gasped Pereo. "But," he added, feverishly, "she, the Dona +Maria, thy mistress, SHE summoned thee at once to call me to cast out +this dust into the open air; thou didst fly to her assistance? What! +thou sawest this, and did nothing—eh?" He stopped, and tried to peer +into the girl's face. "No! Ah, I see; I am an old fool. Yes; it was +Maruja's own mother that stood there. He! he! he!" he laughed +piteously; "and she smiled and smiled and broke the coward's heart, as +Maruja might. And when he was gone, she bade thee bring her water to +wash the filthy Judas stain from her hand." +</P> + +<P> +"Santa Ana!" said Faquita, shrugging her shoulders. "She did what the +veriest muchacha would have done. When he had gone, she sat down and +cried." +</P> + +<P> +The old man drew back a step, and steadied himself by the table. Then, +with a certain tremulous audacity, he began: "So! that is all you have +to tell—nothing! Bah! A lazy slut sleeps at her duty, and dreams +behind a curtain! Yes, dreams!—you understand—dreams! And for this +she leaves her occupations, and comes to gossip here! Come," he +continued, steadily working himself into a passion, "come, enough of +this! Get you gone!—you, and Pepita, and Andreas, and Victor—all of +you—back to your duty. Away! Am I not master here? Off! I say!" +</P> + +<P> +There was no mistaking the rising anger of his voice. The cowed group +rose in a frightened way and disappeared one by one silently through +the labyrinth. Pereo waited until the last had vanished, and then, +cramming his stiff sombrero over his eyes with an ejaculation, brushed +his way through the shrubbery in the direction of the stables. +</P> + +<P> +Later, when the full glory of the midnight moon had put out every +straggling light in the great house; when the long veranda slept in +massive bars of shadow, and even the tradewinds were hushed to repose, +Pereo silently issued from the stable-yard in vaquero's dress, mounted +and caparisoned. Picking his way cautiously along the turf-bordered +edge of the gravel path, he noiselessly reached a gate that led to the +lane. Walking his spirited mustang with difficulty until the house had +at last disappeared in the intervening foliage, he turned with an easy +canter into a border bridle-path that seemed to lead to the canada. In +a quarter of an hour he had reached a low amphitheatre of meadows, shut +in a half circle of grassy treeless hills. +</P> + +<P> +Here, putting spurs to his horse, he entered upon a singular exercise. +Twice he made a circuit of the meadow at a wild gallop, with flying +serape and loosened rein, and twice returned. The third time his speed +increased; the ground seemed to stream from under him; in the distance +the limbs of his steed became invisible in their furious action, and, +lying low forward on his mustang's neck, man and horse passed like an +arrowy bolt around the circle. Then something like a light ring of +smoke up-curved from the saddle before him, and, slowly uncoiling +itself in mid air, dropped gently to the ground as he passed. Again, +and once again, the shadowy coil sped upward and onward, slowly +detaching its snaky rings with a weird deliberation that was in strange +contrast to the impetuous onset of the rider, and yet seemed a part of +his fury. And then turning, Pereo trotted gently to the centre of the +circle. +</P> + +<P> +Here he divested himself of his serape, and, securing it in a +cylindrical roll, placed it upright on the ground and once more sped +away on his furious circuit. But this time he wheeled suddenly before +it was half completed and bore down directly upon the unconscious +object. Within a hundred feet he swerved slightly; the long detaching +rings again writhed in mid air and softly descended as he thundered +past. But when he had reached the line of circuit again, he turned and +made directly for the road he had entered. Fifty feet behind his +horse's heels, at the end of a shadowy cord, the luckless serape was +dragging and bounding after him! +</P> + +<P> +"The old man is quiet enough this morning," said Andreas, as he groomed +the sweat-dried skin of the mustang the next day. "It is easy to see, +friend Pinto, that he has worked off his madness on thee." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap04"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IV +</H3> + +<P> +The Rancho of San Antonio might have been a characteristic asylum for +its blessed patron, offering as it did a secure retreat from +temptations for the carnal eye, and affording every facility for +uninterrupted contemplation of the sky above, unbroken by tree or +elevation. Unlike La Mision Perdida, of which it had been part, it was +a level plain of rich adobe, half the year presenting a billowy sea of +tossing verdure breaking on the far-off horizon line, half the year +presenting a dry and dusty shore, from which the vernal sea had ebbed, +to the low sky that seemed to mock it with a visionary sea beyond. A +row of rough, irregular, and severely practical sheds and buildings +housed the machinery and the fifty or sixty men employed in the +cultivation of the soil, but neither residential mansion nor farmhouse +offered any nucleus of rural comfort or civilization in the midst of +this wild expanse of earth and sky. The simplest adjuncts of country +life were unknown: milk and butter were brought from the nearest town; +weekly supplies of fresh meat and vegetables came from the same place; +in the harvest season, the laborers and harvesters lodged and boarded +in the adjacent settlement and walked to their work. No cultivated +flower bloomed beside the unpainted tenement, though the fields were +starred in early spring with poppies and daisies; the humblest garden +plant or herb had no place in that prolific soil. The serried ranks of +wheat pressed closely round the straggling sheds and barns and hid the +lower windows. But the sheds were fitted with the latest agricultural +machinery; a telegraphic wire connected the nearest town with an office +in the wing of one of the buildings, where Dr. West sat, and in the +midst of the wilderness severely checked his accounts with nature. +</P> + +<P> +Whether this strict economy of domestic outlay arose from an +ostentatious contempt of country life and the luxurious habits of the +former landholders, or whether it was a purely business principle of +Dr. West, did not appear. Those who knew him best declared that it was +both. Certain it was that unqualified commercial success crowned and +dignified his method. A few survivors of the old native families came +to see his strange machinery, that did the work of so many idle men and +horses. It is said that he offered to "run" the distant estate of +Joaquin Padilla from his little office amidst the grain of San Antonio. +Some shook their heads, and declared that he only sucked the juices of +the land for a few brief years to throw it away again; that in his +fierce haste he skimmed the fatness of ages of gentle cultivation on a +soil that had been barely tickled with native oaken plowshares. +</P> + +<P> +His own personal tastes and habits were as severe and practical as his +business: the little wing he inhabited contained only his office, his +living room or library, his bedroom, and a bath-room. This last +inconsistent luxury was due to a certain cat-like cleanliness which was +part of his nature. His iron-gray hair—a novelty in this country of +young Americans—was always scrupulously brushed, and his linen +spotless. A slightly professional and somewhat old-fashioned +respectability in his black clothes was also characteristic. His one +concession to the customs of his neighbors was the possession of two or +three of the half-broken and spirited mustangs of the country, which he +rode with the fearlessness, if not the perfect security and ease, of a +native. Whether the subjection of this lawless and powerful survival +of a wild and unfettered nature around him was part of his plan, or +whether it was only a lingering trait of some younger prowess, no one +knew; but his grim and decorous figure, contrasting with the +picturesque and flowing freedom of the horse he bestrode, was a +frequent spectacle in road and field. +</P> + +<P> +It was the second day after his visit to La Mision Perdida. He was +sitting by his desk, at sunset, in the faint afterglow of the western +sky, which flooded the floor through the open door. He was writing, +but presently lifted his head, with an impatient air, and called out, +"Harrison!" +</P> + +<P> +The shadow of Dr. West's foreman appeared at the door. +</P> + +<P> +"Who's that you're talking to?" +</P> + +<P> +"Tramp, Sir." +</P> + +<P> +"Hire him, or send him about his business. Don't stand gabbling there." +</P> + +<P> +"That's just it, sir. He won't hire for a week or a day. He says +he'll do an odd job for his supper and a shakedown, but no more." +</P> + +<P> +"Pack him off! ... Stay.... What's he like?" +</P> + +<P> +"Like the rest of 'em, only a little lazier, I reckon." +</P> + +<P> +"Umph! Fetch him in." +</P> + +<P> +The foreman disappeared, and returned with the tramp already known to +the reader. He was a little dirtier and grimier than on the morning he +had addressed Maruja at La Mision Perdida; but he wore the same air of +sullen indifference, occasionally broken by furtive observation. His +laziness—or weariness—if the term could describe the lassitude of +perfect physical condition, seemed to have increased; and he leaned +against the door as the Doctor regarded him with slow contempt. The +silence continuing, he deliberately allowed himself to slip down into a +sitting position in the doorway, where he remained. +</P> + +<P> +"You seem to have been born tired," said the Doctor, grimly. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes." +</P> + +<P> +"What have you got to say for yourself?" +</P> + +<P> +"I told HIM," said the tramp, nodding his head towards the foreman, +"what I'd do for a supper and a bed. I don't want anything but that." +</P> + +<P> +"And if you don't get what you want on your own conditions, what'll you +do?" asked the Doctor, dryly. +</P> + +<P> +"Go." +</P> + +<P> +"Where did you come from?" +</P> + +<P> +"States." +</P> + +<P> +"Where are you going?" +</P> + +<P> +"On." +</P> + +<P> +"Leave him to me," said Dr. West to his foreman. The man smiled, and +withdrew. +</P> + +<P> +The Doctor bent his head again over his accounts. The tramp, sitting +in the doorway, reached out his hand, pulled a young wheat-stalk that +had sprung up near the doorstep, and slowly nibbled it. He did not +raise his eyes to the Doctor, but sat, a familiar culprit awaiting +sentence, without fear, without hope, yet not without a certain +philosophical endurance of the situation. +</P> + +<P> +"Go into that passage," said the Doctor, lifting his head as he turned +a page of his ledger, "and on the shelf you'll find some clothing +stores for the men. Pick out something to fit you." +</P> + +<P> +The tramp arose, moved towards the passage, and stopped. "It's for the +job only, you understand?" he said. +</P> + +<P> +"For the job," answered the Doctor. +</P> + +<P> +The tramp returned in a few moments with overalls and woolen shirt +hanging on his arm and a pair of boots and socks in his hand. The +Doctor had put aside his pen. "Now go into that room and change. Stop! +First wash the dust from your feet in that bath-room." +</P> + +<P> +The tramp obeyed, and entered the room. The Doctor walked to the door, +and looked out reflectively on the paling sky. When he turned again he +noticed that the door of the bath-room was opened, and the tramp, who +had changed his clothes by the fading light, was drying his feet. The +Doctor approached, and stood for a moment watching him. +</P> + +<P> +"What's the matter with your foot?"[1] he asked, after a pause. +</P> + +<P> +"Born so." +</P> + +<P> +The first and second toe were joined by a thin membrane. +</P> + +<P> +"Both alike?" asked the Doctor. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," said the young man, exhibiting the other foot. +</P> + +<P> +"What did you say your name was?" +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't say it. It's Henry Guest, same as my father's." +</P> + +<P> +"Where were you born?" +</P> + +<P> +"Dentville, Pike County, Missouri." +</P> + +<P> +"What was your mother's name?" +</P> + +<P> +"Spalding, I reckon." +</P> + +<P> +"Where are your parents now?" +</P> + +<P> +"Mother got divorced from father, and married again down South, +somewhere. Father left home twenty years ago. He's somewhere in +California—if he ain't dead." +</P> + +<P> +"He isn't dead." +</P> + +<P> +"How do you know?" +</P> + +<P> +"Because I am Henry Guest, of Dentville, and"—he stopped, and, shading +his eyes with his hand as he deliberately examined the tramp, added +coldly—"your father, I reckon." +</P> + +<P> +There was a slight pause. The young man put down the boot he had taken +up. "Then I'm to stay here?" +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly not. Here my name is only West, and I have no son. You'll +go on to San Jose, and stay there until I look into this thing. You +haven't got any money, of course?" he asked, with a scarcely suppressed +sneer. +</P> + +<P> +"I've got a little," returned the young man. +</P> + +<P> +"How much?" +</P> + +<P> +The tramp put his hand into his breast, and drew out a piece of folded +paper containing a single gold coin. +</P> + +<P> +"Five dollars. I've kept it a month; it doesn't cost much to live as I +do," he added, dryly. +</P> + +<P> +"There's fifty more. Go to some hotel in San Jose, and let me know +where you are. You've got to live, and you don't want to work. Well, +you don't seem to be a fool; so I needn't tell you that if you expect +anything from me, you must leave this matter in my hands. I have +chosen to acknowledge you to-day of my own free will: I can as easily +denounce you as an impostor to-morrow, if I choose. Have you told your +story to any one in the valley?" +</P> + +<P> +"No." +</P> + +<P> +"See that you don't, then. Before you go, you must answer me a few +more questions." +</P> + +<P> +He drew a chair to his table, and dipped a pen in the ink, as if to +take down the answers. The young man, finding the only chair thus +occupied, moved the Doctor's books aside, and sat down on the table +beside him. +</P> + +<P> +The questions were repetitions of those already asked, but more in +detail, and thoroughly practical in their nature. The answers were +given straightforwardly and unconcernedly, as if the subject was not +worth the trouble of invention or evasion. It was difficult to say +whether questioner or answerer took least pleasure in the +interrogation, which might have referred to the concerns of a third +party. Both, however, spoke disrespectfully of their common family, +with almost an approach to sympathetic interest. +</P> + +<P> +"You might as well be going now," said the Doctor, finally rising. "You +can stop at the fonda, about two miles further on, and get your supper +and bed, if you like." +</P> + +<P> +The young man slipped from the table, and lounged to the door. The +Doctor put his hands in his pockets and followed him. The young man, +as if in unconscious imitation, had put HIS hands in his pockets also, +and looked at him. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll hear from you, then, when you are in San Jose?" said Dr. West, +looking past him into the grain, with a slight approach to constraint +in his indifference. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes—if that's agreed upon," returned the young man, pausing on the +threshold. A faint sense of some purely conventional responsibility in +their position affected them both. They would have shaken hands if +either had offered the initiative. A sullen consciousness of +gratuitous rectitude in the selfish mind of the father; an equally +sullen conviction of twenty years of wrong in the son, withheld them +both. Unpleasantly observant of each other's awkwardness, they parted +with a feeling of relief. +</P> + +<P> +Dr. West closed the door, lit his lamp, and, going to his desk, folded +the paper containing the memoranda he had just written and placed it in +his pocket. Then he summoned his foreman. The man entered, and +glanced around the room as if expecting to see the Doctor's guest still +there. +</P> + +<P> +"Tell one of the men to bring round 'Buckeye.'" +</P> + +<P> +The foreman hesitated. "Going to ride to-night, sir?" +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly; I may go as far as Saltonstall's. If I do, you needn't +expect me back till morning." +</P> + +<P> +"Buckeye's mighty fresh to-night, boss. Regularly bucked his saddle +clean off an hour ago, and there ain't a man dare exercise him." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll bet he don't buck his saddle off with me on it," said the Doctor, +grimly. "Bring him along." +</P> + +<P> +The man turned to go. "You found the tramp pow'ful lazy, didn't ye?" +</P> + +<P> +"I found a heap more in him than in some that call themselves smart," +said Dr. West, unconsciously setting up an irritable defense of the +absent one. "Hurry up that horse!" +</P> + +<P> +The foreman vanished. The Doctor put on a pair of leather leggings, +large silver spurs, and a broad soft-brimmed hat, but made no other +change in his usual half-professional conventional garb. He then went +to the window and glanced in the direction of the highway. Now that +his son was gone, he felt a faint regret that he had not prolonged the +interview. Certain peculiarities in his manner, certain suggestions of +expression in his face, speech, and gesture, came back to him now with +unsatisfied curiosity. "No matter," he said to himself; "he'll turn up +soon again—as soon as I want him, if not sooner. He thinks he's got a +mighty soft thing here, and he isn't going to let it go. And there's +that same d—d sullen dirty pride of his mother, for all he doesn't +cotton to her. Wonder I didn't recognize it at first. And hoarding up +that five dollars! That's Jane's brat, all over! And, of course," he +added, bitterly, "nothing of ME in him. No; nothing! Well, well, +what's the difference?" He turned towards the door, with a certain +sullen defiance in his face so like the man he believed he did not +resemble, that his foreman, coming upon him suddenly, might have been +startled at the likeness. Fortunately, however, Harrison was too much +engrossed with the antics of the irrepressible Buckeye, which the +ostler had just brought to the door, to notice anything else. The +arrival of the horse changed the Doctor's expression to one of more +practical and significant resistance. With the assistance of two men +at the head of the restive brute, he managed to vault into the saddle. +A few wild plunges only seemed to settle him the firmer in his +seat—each plunge leaving its record in a thin red line on the animal's +flanks, made by the cruel spurs of its rider. Any lingering desire of +following his son's footsteps was quickly dissipated by Buckeye, who +promptly bolted in the opposite direction, and, before Dr. West could +gain active control over him, they were half a mile on their way to La +Mision Perdida. +</P> + +<P> +Dr. West did not regret it. Twenty years ago he had voluntarily +abandoned a legal union of mutual unfaithfulness and misconduct, and +allowed his wife to get the divorce he might have obtained for equal +cause. He had abandoned to her the issue of that union—an infant son. +Whatever he chose to do now was purely gratuitous; the only hold which +this young stranger had on his respect was that HE also recognized that +fact with a cold indifference equal to his own. At present the +half-savage brute he bestrode occupied all his attention. Yet he could +not help feeling his advancing years tell upon him more heavily that +evening; fearless as he was, his strength was no longer equal when +measured with the untiring youthful malevolence of his unbroken +mustang. For a moment he dwelt regretfully on the lazy half-developed +sinews of his son; for a briefer instant there flashed across him the +thought that those sinews ought to replace his own; ought to be HIS to +lean upon—that thus, and thus only, could he achieve the old miracle +of restoring his lost youth by perpetuating his own power in his own +blood; and he, whose profound belief in personality had rejected all +hereditary principle, felt this with a sudden exquisite pain. But his +horse, perhaps recognizing a relaxing grip, took that opportunity to +"buck." Curving his back like a cat, and throwing himself into the air +with an unexpected bound, he came down with four stiff, inflexible +legs, and a shock that might have burst the saddle-girths, had not the +wily old man as quickly brought the long rowels of his spurs together +and fairly locked his heels under Buckeye's collapsing barrel. It was +the mustang's last rebellions struggle. The discomfited brute gave in, +and darted meekly and apologetically forward, and, as it were, left all +its rider's doubts and fears far behind in the vanishing distance. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[1] This apparent classical plagiarism is actually a fact of +identification on record in the California Law Reports. It is +therefore unnecessary for me to add that the attendant circumstances +and characters are purely fictitious.—B. H. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap05"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER V +</H3> + +<P> +Meanwhile, the subject of Dr. West's meditations was slowly making his +way along the high-road towards the fonda. He walked more erect and +with less of a shuffle in his gait; but whether this was owing to his +having cast the old skin of garments adapted to his slouch, and because +he was more securely shod, or whether it was from the sudden +straightening of some warped moral quality, it would have been +difficult to say. The expression of his face certainly gave no +evidence of actual and prospective good fortune; if anything, the lines +of discontent around his brow and mouth were more strongly drawn. +Apparently, his interview with his father had only the effect of +reviving and stirring into greater activity a certain dogged sentiment +that, through long years, had become languidly mechanical. He was no +longer a beaten animal, but one roused by a chance success into a +dangerous knowledge of his power. In his honest workman's dress, he was +infinitely more to be feared than in his rags; in the lifting of his +downcast eye, there was the revelation of a baleful intelligence. In +his changed condition, civilization only seemed to have armed him +against itself. +</P> + +<P> +The fonda, a long low building, with a red-tiled roof extending over a +porch or whitewashed veranda, in which drunken vaqueros had been known +to occasionally disport their mustangs, did not offer a very reputable +appearance to the eye of young Guest as he approached it in the +gathering shadows. One or two half-broken horses were securely +fastened to the stout cross-beams of some heavy posts driven in the +roadway before it, and a primitive trough of roughly excavated stone +stood near it. Through a broken gate at the side there was a glimpse +of a grass-grown and deserted courtyard piled with the disused +packing-cases and barrels of the tienda, or general country shop, which +huddled under the same roof at the other end of the building. The +opened door of the fonda showed a low-studded room fitted up with a +rude imitation of an American bar on one side, and containing a few +small tables, at which half a dozen men were smoking, drinking, and +playing cards. The faded pictorial poster of the last bull-fight at +Monterey, and an American "Sheriff's notice" were hung on the wall and +in the door-way. A thick yellow atmosphere of cigarette smoke, through +which the inmates appeared like brown shadows, pervaded the room. +</P> + +<P> +The young man hesitated before this pestilential interior, and took a +seat on a bench on the veranda. After a moment's interval, the yellow +landlord came to the door with a look of inquiry, which Guest answered +by a demand for lodging and supper. When the landlord had vanished +again in the cigarette fog, the several other guests, one after the +other, appeared at the doorway, with their cigarettes in their mouths +and their cards still in their hands, and gazed upon him. +</P> + +<P> +There may have been some excuse for their curiosity. As before hinted, +Guest's appearance in his overalls and woolen shirt was somewhat +incongruous, and, for some inexplicable reason, the same face and +figure which did not look inconsistent in rags and extreme poverty now +at once suggested a higher social rank both of intellect and refinement +than his workman's dress indicated. This, added to his surliness of +manner and expression, strengthened a growing suspicion in the mind of +the party that he was a fugitive from justice—a forger, a derelict +banker, or possibly a murderer. It is only fair to say that the moral +sense of the spectators was not shocked at the suspicion, and that a +more active sympathy was only withheld by his reticence. An +unfortunate incident seemed to complete the evidence against him. In +impatiently responding to the landlord's curt demand for prepayment of +his supper, he allowed three or four pieces of gold to escape from his +pocket on the veranda. In the quick glances of the party, as he +stooped to pick them up, he read the danger of his carelessness. +</P> + +<P> +His sullen self-possession did not seem to be shaken. Calling to the +keeper of the tienda, who had appeared at his door in time to witness +the Danae-like shower, he bade him approach, in English. +</P> + +<P> +"What sort of knives have you got?" +</P> + +<P> +"Knives, Senor?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; bowie-knives or dirks. Knives like that," he said, making an +imaginary downward stroke at the table before him. +</P> + +<P> +The shopkeeper entered the tienda, and presently reappeared with three +or four dirks in red leather sheaths. Guest selected the heaviest, and +tried its point on the table. +</P> + +<P> +"How much?" +</P> + +<P> +"Tres pesos." +</P> + +<P> +The young man threw him one of his gold pieces, and slipped the knife +and its sheath in his boot. When he had received his change from the +shopkeeper, he folded his arms and leaned back against the wall in +quiet indifference. +</P> + +<P> +The simple act seemed to check aggressive, but not insinuating, +interference. In a few moments one of the men appeared at the doorway. +</P> + +<P> +"It is fine weather for the road, little comrade!" +</P> + +<P> +Guest did not reply. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah! the night, it ess splendid," he repeated, in broken English, +rubbing his hands, as if washing in the air. +</P> + +<P> +Still no reply. +</P> + +<P> +"You shall come from Sank Hosay?" +</P> + +<P> +"I sha'ant." +</P> + +<P> +The stranger muttered something in Spanish, but the landlord, who +reappeared to place Guest's supper on a table on the veranda, here felt +the obligation of interfering to protect a customer apparently so +aggressive and so opulent. He pushed the inquisitor aside, with a few +hasty words, and, after Guest had finished his meal, offered to show +him his room. It was a dark vaulted closet on the ground-floor, +gaining light from the stable-yard through a barred iron grating. At +the first glimpse it looked like a prison cell; looking more +deliberately at the black tresseled bed, and the votive images hanging +on the wall, it might have been a tomb. +</P> + +<P> +"It is the best," said the landlord. "The Padre Vincento will have +none other on his journey." +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose God protects him," said Guest; "that door don't." He +pointed to the worm-eaten door, without bolt or fastening. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, what matter! Are we not all friends?" +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly," responded Guest, with his surliest manner, as he returned +to the veranda. Nevertheless, he resolved not to occupy the cell of +the reverend Padre; not from any personal fear of his disreputable +neighbors, though he was fully alive to their peculiarities, but from +the nomadic instinct which was still strong in his blood. He felt he +could not yet bear the confinement of a close room or the propinquity +of his fellow-man. He would rest on the veranda until the moon was +fairly up, and then he would again take to the road. +</P> + +<P> +He was half reclining on the bench, with the slowly closing and opening +lids of some tired but watchful animal, when the sound of wheels, +voices, and clatter of hoofs on the highway arrested his attention, and +he sat upright. The moon was slowly lifting itself over the limitless +stretch of grain-fields before him on the other side of the road, and +dazzling him with its level lustre. He could barely discern a +cavalcade of dark figures and a large vehicle rapidly approaching, +before it drew up tumultuously in front of the fonda. +</P> + +<P> +It was a pleasure party of ladies and gentlemen on horseback and in a +four-horsed char-a-bancs returning to La Mision Perdida. Buchanan, +Raymond, and Garnier were there; Amita and Dorotea in the body of the +char-a-bancs, and Maruja seated on the box. Much to his own +astonishment and that of some others of the party, Captain Carroll was +among the riders. Only Maruja and her mother knew that he was recalled +to refute a repetition of the gossip already circulated regarding his +sudden withdrawal; only Maruja alone knew the subtle words which made +that call so potent yet so hopeless. +</P> + +<P> +Maruja's quick eyes, observant of everything, even under the double +fire of Captain Carroll and Garnier, instantly caught those of the +erect figure on the bench in the veranda. Surely that was the face of +the tramp she had spoken to! and yet there was a change, not only in +the dress but in the general resemblance. After the first glance, +Guest withdrew his eyes and gazed at the other figures in the +char-a-bancs without moving a muscle. +</P> + +<P> +Maruja's whims and caprices were many and original; and when, after a +sudden little cry and a declaration that she could stand her cramped +position no longer, she leaped from the box into the road, no one was +surprised. Garnier and Captain Carroll quickly followed. +</P> + +<P> +"I should like to look into the fonda while the horses are being +watered," she said, laughingly, "just to see what it is that attracts +Pereo there so often." Before any one could restrain this new caprice, +she was already upon the veranda. +</P> + +<P> +To reach the open door, she had to pass so near Guest that her soft +white flounces brushed his knees, and the flowers in her girdle left +their perfume in his face. But he neither moved nor raised his eyes. +When she had passed, he rose quietly and stepped into the road. +</P> + +<P> +On her nearer survey, Maruja was convinced it was the same man. She +remained for an instant, with a little hand on the door-post. "What a +horrid place, and what dreadful people!" she said in audible English as +she glanced quickly after Guest. "Really, Pereo ought to be warned +against keeping such company. Come, let us go." +</P> + +<P> +She contrived to pass Guest again in regaining the carriage; but in the +few moments' further delay he walked on down the road before them, and, +by the time they were ready to start, he was slowly sauntering some +hundred yards ahead. They passed him at a rapid trot, but the next +moment the char-a-bancs was suddenly pulled up. +</P> + +<P> +"My fan!" cried Maruja. "Blessed Santa Maria!—my fan!" +</P> + +<P> +A small black object, seen distinctly in the moonlight, was lying on +the road, directly in the track of the sauntering stranger. Garnier +attempted to alight; Carroll reined in his horse. +</P> + +<P> +"Stop, all of you!" said Maruja; "that man will bring it to me." +</P> + +<P> +It seemed as if he would. He stopped and picked it up, and approached +the carriage. Maruja stood up in her seat, with her veil thrown back, +her graceful hand extended, her eyes and mouth tremulous with an +irresistible smile. The stranger came nearer, singled out Captain +Carroll, tossed the fan to him with a slight nod, and passed on the +other side. +</P> + +<P> +"One moment," said Maruja, almost harshly, to the driver. "One +moment," she continued, drawing her purse from her pocket brusquely. +"Let me reward this civil gentleman of the road! Here, sir;" but, +before she could continue, Carroll wheeled to her side, and interposed. +"Pray collect yourself, Miss Saltonstall," he said, hurriedly; "you can +not tell who this man may be. He does not seem to be one who would +insult you, or whom YOU would insult gratuitously." +</P> + +<P> +"Give me the fan, Captain Carroll," she said, with a soft and caressing +smile. "Thank you." She took it, and, breaking it through the middle +between her gloved hands, tossed it into the highway. "You are +right—it smells of the fonda—and the road. Thank you, again. You are +so thoughtful for me, Captain Carroll," she murmured, raising her eyes +gently to his, and then suddenly withdrawing them with a half sigh. +"But I am keeping you all. Go on." +</P> + +<P> +The carriage rolled away and Guest returned from the hedge to the +middle of the road. San Jose lay in the opposite direction from the +disappearing cavalcade; but, on leaving the fonda, he had determined to +lead his inquisitors astray by doubling and making a circuit of the +hostelry through the fields hidden in the tall grain. This he did, +securely passing them within sound of their voices, and was soon well +on his way again. He avoided the highway, and, striking a trail +through the meadows, diverged to the right, where the low towers and +brown walls of a ruined mission church rose above the plain. This +would enable him to escape any direct pursuit on the high road, +besides, from its slight elevation, giving him a more extended view of +the plain. As he neared it, he was surprised to see that, although it +was partly dismantled, and the roof had fallen in the central aisle, a +part of it was still used as a chapel, and a light was burning behind a +narrow opening, partly window and partly shrine. He was almost upon +it, when the figure of a man who had been kneeling beneath, with his +back towards him, rose, crossed himself devoutly, and stood upright. +Before he could turn, Guest disappeared round the angle of the wall, +and the tall erect figure of the solitary worshiper passed on without +heeding him. +</P> + +<P> +But if Guest had been successful in evading the observation of the man +he had come so suddenly upon, he was utterly unconscious of another +figure that had been tracking HIM for the last ten minutes through the +tall grain, and had even succeeded in gaining the shadow of the wall +behind him; and it was this figure, and not his own, that eventually +attracted the attention of the tall stranger. The pursuing figure was +rapidly approaching the unconscious Guest; in another moment it would +have been upon him, when it was suddenly seized from behind by the tall +devotee. There was a momentary struggle, and then it freed itself, +with the exclamation, "Pereo!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes—Pereo!" said the old man, panting from his exertions. "And thou +art Miguel. So thou wouldst murder a man for a few pesos!" he said, +pointing to the knife which the desperado had hurriedly hid in his +jacket, "and callest thyself a Californian!" +</P> + +<P> +"'Tis only an Americano—a runaway, with some ill-gotten gold," said +Miguel, sullenly, yet with unmistakable fear of the old man. "Besides, +it was only to frighten him, the braggart. But since thou fearest to +touch a hair of those interlopers—" +</P> + +<P> +"Fearest!" said Pereo, fiercely, clutching him by the throat, and +forcing him against the wall. "Fearest! sayest thou. I, Pereo, fear? +Dost thou think I would soil these hands, that might strike a higher +quarry, with blood of thy game?" +</P> + +<P> +"Forgive me, padrono," gasped Miguel, now thoroughly alarmed at the old +man's awakened passion; "pardon; I meant that, since thou knowest him—" +</P> + +<P> +"I know him?" repeated Pereo scornfully, contemptuously throwing Miguel +aside, who at once took that opportunity to increase his distance from +the old man's arm. "I know him? Thou shalt see. Come hither, child," +he called, beckoning to Guest. "Come hither, thou hast nothing to fear +now." +</P> + +<P> +Guest, who had been attracted by the sound of altercation behind him, +but who was utterly unconscious of its origin or his own relation to +it, came forward impatiently. As he did so, Miguel took to his heels. +The act did not tend to mollify Guest's surly suspicions, and, pausing +a few feet from the old man, he roughly demanded his business with him. +</P> + +<P> +Pereo raised his head, with the dignity of years and habits of command. +The face of the young man confronting him was clearly illuminated by +the moonlight. Pereo's eyes suddenly dilated, his mouth stiffened, he +staggered back against the wall. +</P> + +<P> +"Who are you?" he gasped, in uncertain English. +</P> + +<P> +Believing himself the subject of some drunkard's pastime, Guest +replied, savagely, "One who has enough of this d—d nonsense, and will +stand no more of it from any one, young or old," and turned abruptly on +his heel. +</P> + +<P> +"Stay, one moment, Senor, for the love of God!" +</P> + +<P> +Some keen accent of agony in the old man's voice touched even Guest's +selfish nature. He halted. +</P> + +<P> +"You are—a stranger here?"—faltered Pereo. "Yes?" +</P> + +<P> +"I am." +</P> + +<P> +"You do not live here?—you have no friends?" +</P> + +<P> +"I told you I am a stranger. I never was here before in my life," said +Guest, impatiently. +</P> + +<P> +"True; I am a fool," said the old man, hurriedly, to himself. "I am +mad—mad! It is not HIS voice. No! It is not HIS look, now that his +face changes. I am crazy." He stopped, and passed his trembling hands +across his eyes. "Pardon, Senor," he continued, recalling himself with +a humility that was almost ironical in its extravagance. "Pardon, +pardon! Yet, perhaps it is not too much to have wanted to know who was +the man one has saved." +</P> + +<P> +"Saved!" repeated Guest, with incredulous contempt. +</P> + +<P> +"Ay!" said Pereo, haughtily, drawing his figure erect; "ay, saved! +Senor." He stopped and shrugged his shoulders. "But let it pass—I +say—let it pass. Take an old man's advice, friend: show not your gold +hereafter to strangers lightly, no matter how lightly you have come by +it. Good-night!" +</P> + +<P> +Guest for a moment hesitated whether to resent the old man's speech, or +to let it pass as the incoherent fancy of a brain maddened by drink. +Then he ended the discussion by turning his back abruptly and +continuing his way to the high-road. +</P> + +<P> +"So!" said Pereo, looking after him with abstracted eyes, "so! it was +only a fancy. And yet—even now, as he turned away, I saw the same +cold insolence in his eye. Caramba! Am I mad—mad—that I must keep +forever before my eyes, night and day, the image of that dog in every +outcast, every ruffian, every wayside bully that I meet? No, no, good +Pereo! Softly! this is mere madness, good Pereo," he murmured to +himself; "thou wilt have none of it; none, good Pereo. Come, come!" +He let his head fall slowly forward on his breast, and in that action, +seeming to take up again the burden of a score more years upon his +shoulders, he moved slowly away. +</P> + +<P> +When he entered the fonda half an hour later, the awe in which he was +held by the half superstitious ruffians appeared to have increased. +Whatever story the fugitive Miguel had told his companions regarding +Pereo's protection of the young stranger, it was certain that it had +its full effect. Obsequious to the last degree, the landlord was so +profoundly touched, when Pereo, not displeased with this evidence of +his power over his countrymen, condescendingly offered to click glasses +with him, that he endeavored to placate him still further. +</P> + +<P> +"It is a pity your worship was not here earlier," he began, with a +significant glance at the others, "to have seen a gallant young +stranger that was here. A spice of wickedness about him, truly—a kind +of Don Caesar—but bearing himself like a very caballero always. It +would have pleased your worship, who likes not those canting Puritans +such as our neighbor yonder." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah," said Pereo, reflectively, warming under the potent fires of +flattery and aguardiente, "possibly I HAVE seen him. He was like—" +</P> + +<P> +"Like none of the dogs thou hast seen about San Antonio," interrupted +the landlord. "Scarcely did he seem Americano, though he spoke no +Spanish." +</P> + +<P> +The old man chuckled to himself viciously. "And thou, thou old fool, +Pereo, must needs see a likeness to thine enemy in this poor runaway +child—this fugitive Don Juan! He! he!" Nevertheless, he still felt a +vague terror of the condition of mind which had produced this fancy, +and drank so deeply to dispel his nervousness that it was with +difficulty he could mount his horse again. The exaltation of liquor, +however, appeared only to intensify his characteristics: his face +became more lugubrious and melancholy; his manner more ceremonious and +dignified; and, erect and stiff in his saddle from the waist upwards, +but leaning from side to side with the motion of his horse, like the +tall mast of some laboring sloop, he "loped" away towards the House of +the Lost Mission. Once or twice he broke into sentimental song. +Strangely enough, his ditty was a popular Spanish refrain of some +matador's aristocratic inamorata:— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + Do you see my black eyes?<BR> + I am Manuel's Duchess,—<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +sang Pereo, with infinite gravity. His horse's hoofs seemed to keep +time with the refrain, and he occasionally waved in the air the long +leather thong of his bridle-rein. +</P> + +<P> +It was quite late when he reached La Mision Perdida. Turning into the +little lane that led to the stable-yard, he dismounted at a gate in the +hedge which led to the summerhouse of the old Mision garden, and, +throwing his reins on his mustang's neck, let the animal precede him to +the stables. The moon shone full on the inclosure as he emerged from +the labyrinth. With uncovered head he approached the Indian mound, and +sank on his knees before it. +</P> + +<P> +The next moment he rose, with an exclamation of terror, and his hat +dropped from his trembling hand. Directly before him, a small, gray, +wolfish-looking animal had stopped half-way down the mound on +encountering his motionless figure. Frightened by his outcry, and +unable to retreat, the shadowy depredator had fallen back on his +slinking haunches with a snarl, and bared teeth that glittered in the +moonlight. +</P> + +<P> +In an instant the expression of terror on the old man's ashen face +turned into a fixed look of insane exaltation. His white lips moved; +he advanced a step further, and held out both hands towards the +crouching animal. +</P> + +<P> +"So! It is thou—at last! And comest thou here thy tardy Pereo to +chide? Comest THOU, too, to tell the poor old man his heart is cold, +his limbs are feeble, his brain weak and dizzy? that he is no longer +fit to do thy master's work? Ay, gnash thy teeth at him! Curse +him!—curse him in thy throat! But listen!—listen, good friend—I +will tell thee a secret—ay, good gray friar, a secret—such a secret! +A plan, all mine—fresh from this old gray head; ha! ha!—all mine! To +be wrought by these poor old arms; ha! ha! All mine! Listen!" +</P> + +<P> +He stealthily made a step nearer the affrighted animal. With a sudden +sidelong snap, it swiftly bounded by his side, and vanished in the +thicket; and Pereo, turning wildly, with a moan sank down helplessly on +the grave of his forefathers. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap06"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VI +</H3> + +<P> +To the open chagrin of most of the gentlemen and the unexpected relief +of some of her own sex, Maruja, after an evening of more than usual +caprice and willfulness, retired early to her chamber. Here she +beguiled Enriquita, a younger sister, to share her solitude for an +hour, and with a new and charming melancholy presented her with mature +counsel and some younger trinkets and adornments. +</P> + +<P> +"Thou wilt find them but folly, 'Riquita; but thou art young, and wilt +outgrow them as I have. I am sick of the Indian beads, everybody wears +them; but they seem to suit thy complexion. Thou art not yet quite old +enough for jewelry; but take thy choice of these." "'Ruja," replied +Enriquita, eagerly, "surely thou wilt not give up this necklace of +carved amber, that was brought thee from Manilla—it becomes thee so! +Everybody says it. All the caballeros, Raymond and Victor, swear that +it sets off thy beauty like nothing else." "When thou knowest men +better," responded Maruja, in a deep voice, "thou wilt care less for +what they say, and despise what they do. Besides, I wore it +to-day—and—I hate it." "But what fan wilt thou keep thyself? The +one of sandal-wood thou hadst to-day?" continued Enriquita, timidly +eying the pretty things upon the table. "None," responded Maruja, +didactically, "but the simplest, which I shall buy myself. Truly, it +is time to set one's self against this extravagance. Girls think +nothing of spending as much upon a fan as would buy a horse and saddle +for a poor man." "But why so serious tonight, my sister?" said the +little Enriquita, her eyes filling with ready tears. "It grieves me," +responded Maruja, promptly, "to find thee, like the rest, giving thy +soul up to the mere glitter of the world. However, go, child, take the +heads, but leave the amber; it would make thee yellower than thou art; +which the blessed Virgin forbid! Good-night!" +</P> + +<P> +She kissed her affectionately, and pushed her from the room. +Nevertheless, after a moment's survey of her lonely chamber, she +hastily slipped on a pale satin dressing-gown, and, darting across the +passage, dashed into the bedroom of the youngest Miss Wilson, haled +that sentimental brunette from her night toilet, dragged her into her +own chamber, and, enwrapping her in a huge mantle of silk and gray fur, +fed her with chocolates and chestnuts, and, reclining on her +sympathetic shoulder, continued her arraignment of the world and its +follies until nearly daybreak. +</P> + +<P> +It was past noon when Maruja awoke, to find Faquita standing by her +bedside with ill-concealed impatience. +</P> + +<P> +"I ventured to awaken the Dona Maruja," she said, with vivacious +alacrity, "for news! Terrible news! The American, Dr. West, is found +dead this morning in the San Jose road!" +</P> + +<P> +"Dr. West dead!" repeated Maruja, thoughtfully, but without emotion. +</P> + +<P> +"Surely dead—very dead. He was thrown from his horse and dragged by +the stirrups—how far, the Blessed Virgin only knows. But he is found +dead—this Dr. West—his foot in the broken stirrup, his hand holding a +piece of the bridle! I thought I would waken the Dona Maruja, that no +one else should break it to the Dona Maria." +</P> + +<P> +"That no one else should break it to my mother?" repeated Maruja, +coldly. "What mean you, girl?" +</P> + +<P> +"I mean that no stranger should tell her," stammered Faquita, lowering +her bold eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"You mean," said Maruja, slowly, "that no silly, staring, +tongue-wagging gossip should dare to break upon the morning devotions +of the lady mother with open-mouthed tales of horror! You are wise, +Faquita! I will tell her myself. Help me to dress." +</P> + +<P> +But the news had already touched the outer shell of the great house, +and little groups of the visitors were discussing it upon the veranda. +For once, the idle badinage of a pleasure-seeking existence was +suspended; stupid people with facts came to the fore; practical people +with inquiring minds became interesting; servants were confidentially +appealed to; the local expressman became a hero, and it was even +noticed that he was intelligent and good-looking. +</P> + +<P> +"What makes it more distressing," said Raymond, joining one of the +groups, "is, that it appears the Doctor visited Mrs. Saltonstall last +evening, and left the casa at eleven. Sanchez, who was perhaps the +last person who saw him alive, says that he noticed his horse was very +violent, and the Doctor did not seem able to control him. The accident +probably happened half an hour later, as he was picked up about three +miles from here, and from appearances must have been dragged, with his +foot in the stirrup, fully half a mile before the girth broke and freed +the saddle and stirrup together. The mustang, with nothing on but his +broken bridle, was found grazing at the rancho as early as four +o'clock, an hour before the body of his master was discovered by the +men sent from the rancho to look for him." +</P> + +<P> +"Eh, but the man must have been clean daft to have trusted himself to +one of those savage beasts of the country," said Mr. Buchanan. "And he +was no so young either—about sixty, I should say. It didna look even +respectable, I remember, when we met him the other day, careering over +the country for all the world like one of those crazy Mexicans. And +yet he seemed steady and sensible enough when he didna let his schemes +of 'improvements' run away with him like yon furious beastie. Eh well, +puir man—it was a sudden ending! And his family—eh?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't think he has one—at least here," said Raymond. "You can't +always tell in California. I believe he was a widower." +</P> + +<P> +"Ay, man, but the heirs; there must be considerable property?" said +Buchanan, impatiently. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, the heirs. If he's made no will, which doesn't look like so +prudent and practical a man as he was—the heirs will probably crop up +some day." +</P> + +<P> +"PROBABLY! crop up some day," repeated Buchanan, aghast. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. You must remember that WE don't take heirs quite as much into +account as you do in the old country. The loss of the MAN, and how to +replace HIM, is much more to us than the disposal of his property. +Now, Doctor West was a power far beyond his actual possessions—and we +will know very soon how much those were dependent upon him." +</P> + +<P> +"What do you mean?" asked Buchanan, anxiously. +</P> + +<P> +"I mean that five minutes after the news of the Doctor's death was +confirmed, your friend Mr. Stanton sent a messenger with a despatch to +the nearest telegraphic office, and that he himself drove over to catch +Aladdin before the news could reach him." +</P> + +<P> +Buchanan looked uneasy; so did one or two of the native Californians +who composed the group, and who had been listening attentively. "And +where is this same telegraphic office?" asked Buchanan, cautiously. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll drive you over there presently," responded Raymond, grimly. +"There'll be nothing doing here to-day. As Dr. West was a near +neighbor of the family, his death suspends our pleasure-seeking until +after the funeral." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Buchanan moved away. Captain Carroll and Garnier drew nearer the +speaker. "I trust it will not withdraw from us the society of Miss +Saltonstall," said Garnier, lightly—"at least, that she will not be +inconsolable." +</P> + +<P> +"She did not seem to be particularly sympathetic with Dr. West the +other day," said Captain Carroll, coloring slightly with the +recollection of the morning in the summer-house, yet willing, in his +hopeless passion, even to share that recollection with his rival. "Did +you not think so, Monsieur Garnier?" +</P> + +<P> +"Very possibly; and, as Miss Saltonstall is quite artless and childlike +in the expression of her likes and dislikes," said Raymond, with the +faintest touch of irony, "you can judge as well as I can." +</P> + +<P> +Garnier parried the thrust lightly. "You are no kinder to our follies +than you are to the grand passions of these gentlemen. Confess, you +frightened them horribly. You are—-what is called—a bear—eh? You +depreciate in the interests of business." +</P> + +<P> +Raymond did not at first appear to notice the sarcasm. "I only +stated," he said, gravely, "that which these gentlemen will find out +for themselves before they are many hours older. Dr. West was the +brain of the county, as Aladdin is its life-blood. It only remains to +be seen how far the loss of that brain affects the county. The Stock +Exchange market in San Francisco will indicate that today in the shares +of the San Antonio and Soquel Railroad and the West Mills and +Manufacturing Co. It is a matter that may affect even our friends +here. Whatever West's social standing was in this house, lately he was +in confidential business relations with Mrs. Saltonstall." He raised +his eyes for the first time to Garnier as he added, slowly, "It is to +be hoped that if our hostess has no social reasons to deplore the loss +of Dr. West, she at least will have no other." +</P> + +<P> +With a lover's instinct, conscious only of some annoyance to Maruja, in +all this, Carroll anxiously looked for her appearance among the others. +He was doomed to disappointment, however. His half-timid inquiries +only resulted in the information that Maruja was closeted with her +mother. The penetralia of the casa was only accessible to the family; +yet, as he wandered uneasily about, he could not help passing once or +twice before the quaint low archway, with its grated door, that opened +from the central hall. His surprise may be imagined when he suddenly +heard his name uttered in a low voice; and, looking up, he beheld the +soft eyes of Maruja at the grating. +</P> + +<P> +She held the door partly open with one little hand, and made a sign for +him to enter with the other. When he had done so, she said, "Come with +me," and preceded him down the dim corridor. His heart beat thickly; +the incense of this sacred inner life, with its faint suggestion of +dead rose-leaves, filled him with a voluptuous languor; his breath was +lost, as if a soft kiss had taken it away; his senses swam in the light +mist that seemed to suffuse everything. His step trembled as she +suddenly turned aside, and, opening a door, ushered him into a small +vaulted chamber. +</P> + +<P> +In the first glance it seemed to be an oratory or chapel. A large gold +and ebony crucifix hung on the wall. There was a prie-dieu of heavy +dark mahogany in the centre of the tiled floor; there was a low ottoman +or couch, covered with a mantle of dark violet velvet, like a pall; +there were two quaintly carved stiff chairs; a religious, almost +ascetic, air pervaded the apartment; but no dreamy eastern seraglio +could have affected him with an intoxication so profoundly and +mysteriously sensuous. +</P> + +<P> +Maruja pointed to a chair, and then, with a peculiarly feminine +movement, placed herself sideways upon the ottoman, half reclining on +her elbow on a high cushion, her deep billowy flounces partly veiling +the funereal velvet below. Her oval face was pale and melancholy, her +eyes moist as if with recent tears; an expression as of troubled +passion lurked in their depths and in the corners of her mouth. +Scarcely knowing why, Carroll fancied that thus she might appear if she +were in love; and the daring thought made him tremble. +</P> + +<P> +"I wanted to speak with you alone," she said, gently, as if in +explanation; "but don't look at me so. I have had a bad night, and now +this calamity"—she stopped and then added, softly, "I want you to do a +favor for—my mother?" +</P> + +<P> +Captain Carroll, with an effort, at last found his voice. "But YOU are +in trouble; YOU are suffering. I had no idea this unfortunate affair +came so near to you." +</P> + +<P> +"Nor did I," said Maruja, closing her fan with a slight snap. "I knew +nothing of it until my mother told me this morning. To be frank with +you, it now appears that Dr. West was her most intimate business +adviser. All her affairs were in his hands. I cannot explain how, or +why, or when; but it is so." +</P> + +<P> +"And is that all?" said Carroll, with boyish openness of relief. "And +you have no other sorrow?" +</P> + +<P> +In spite of herself, a tender smile, such as she might have bestowed on +an impulsive boy, broke on her lips. "And is that not enough? What +would you? No—sit where you are! We are here to talk seriously. And +you do not ask what is this favor my mother wishes?" +</P> + +<P> +"No matter what it is, it shall be done," said Carroll, quickly. "I am +your mother's slave if she will but let me serve at your side. Only," +he paused, "I wish it was not business—I know nothing of business." +</P> + +<P> +"If it were only business, Captain Carroll," said Maruja, slowly, "I +would have spoken to Raymond or the Senor Buchanan; if it were only +confidence, Pereo, our mayordomo, would have dragged himself from his +sick-bed this morning to do my mother's bidding. But it is more than +that—it is the functions of a gentleman—and my mother, Captain +Carroll, would like to say of—a friend." +</P> + +<P> +He seized her hand and covered it with kisses. She withdrew it gently. +</P> + +<P> +"What have I to do?" he asked, eagerly. +</P> + +<P> +She drew a note from her belt. "It is very simple. You must ride over +to Aladdin with that note. You must give it to him ALONE—more than +that, you must not let any one who may be there think you are making +any but a social call. If he keeps you to dine—you must stay—you +will bring back anything he may give you and deliver it to me secretly +for her." +</P> + +<P> +"Is that all?" asked Carroll, with a slight touch of disappointment in +his tone. +</P> + +<P> +"No," said Maruja, rising impulsively. "No, Captain Carroll—it is NOT +all! And you shall know all, if only to prove to you how we confide in +you—and to leave you free, after you have heard it, to do as you +please." She stood before him, quite white, opening and shutting her +fan quickly, and tapping the tiled floor with her little foot. "I have +told you Dr. West was my mother's business adviser. She looked upon +him as more—as a friend. Do you know what a dangerous thing it is for +a woman who has lost one protector to begin to rely upon another? +Well, my mother is not yet old. Dr. West appreciated her—Dr. West did +not depreciate himself—two things that go far with a woman, Captain +Carroll, and my mother is a woman." She paused, and then, with a light +toss of her fan, said: "Well, to make an end, but for this excellent +horse and this too ambitious rider, one knows not how far the old story +of my mother's first choice would have been repeated, and the curse of +Koorotora again fallen on the land." +</P> + +<P> +"And you tell me this—you, Maruja—you who warned me against my +hopeless passion for you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Could I foresee this?" she said, passionately; "and are you mad enough +not to see that this very act would have made YOUR suit intolerable to +my relations?" +</P> + +<P> +"Then you did think of my suit, Maruja," he said, grasping her hand. +</P> + +<P> +"Or any one's suit," she continued, hurriedly, turning away with a +slight increase of color in her cheeks. After a moment's pause, she +added, in a gentler and half-reproachful voice, "Do you think I have +confided my mother's story to you for this purpose only? Is this the +help you proffer?" +</P> + +<P> +"Forgive me, Maruja," said the young officer, earnestly. "I am +selfish, I know—for I love you. But you have not told me yet how I +could help your mother by delivering this letter, which any one could +do." +</P> + +<P> +"Let me finish then," said Maruja. "It is for you to judge what may be +done. Letters have passed between my mother and Dr. West. My mother is +imprudent; I know not what she may have written, or what she might not +write, in confidence. But you understand, they are not letters to be +made public nor to pass into any hands but hers. They are not to be +left to be bandied about by his American friends; to be commented upon +by strangers; to reach the ears of the Guitierrez. They belong to that +grave which lies between the Past and my mother; they must not rise +from it to haunt her." +</P> + +<P> +"I understand," said the young officer, quietly. "This letter, then, +is my authority to recover them?" +</P> + +<P> +"Partly, though it refers to other matters. This Mr. Prince, whom you +Americans call Aladdin, was a friend of Dr. West; they were associated +in business, and he will probably have access to his papers. The rest +we must leave to you." +</P> + +<P> +"I think you may," said Carroll, simply. +</P> + +<P> +Maruja stretched out her hand. The young man bent over it respectfully +and moved towards the door. +</P> + +<P> +She had expected him to make some protestation—perhaps even to claim +some reward. But the instinct which made him forbear even in thought +to take advantage of the duty laid upon him, which dominated even his +miserable passion for her, and made it subservient to his exaltation of +honor; this epaulet of the officer, and blood of the gentleman, this +simple possession of knighthood not laid on by perfunctory steel, but +springing from within—all this, I grieve to say, was partly +unintelligible to Maruja, and not entirely satisfactory. Since he had +entered the room they seemed to have changed their situations; he was +no longer the pleading lover that trembled at her feet. For one base +moment she thought it was the result of his knowledge of her mother's +weakness; but the next instant, meeting his clear glance, she colored +with shame. Yet she detained him vaguely a moment before the grated +door in the secure shadow of the arch. He might have kissed her there! +He did not. +</P> + +<P> +In the gloomy stagnation of the great house, it was natural that he +should escape from it for a while, and the saddling of his horse for a +solitary ride attracted no attention. But it might have been noticed +that his manner had lost much of that nervous susceptibility and +anxiety which indicates a lover; and it was with a return of his +professional coolness and precision that he rode out of the patio as if +on parade. Erect, observant, and self-possessed, he felt himself "on +duty," and, putting spurs to his horse, cantered along the high-road, +finding an inexpressible relief in motion. He was doing something in +the interest of helplessness and of HER. He had no doubt of his right +to interfere. He did not bother himself with the rights of others. +Like all self-contained men, he had no plan of action, except what the +occasion might suggest. +</P> + +<P> +He was more than two miles from La Mision Perdida, when his quick eye +was attracted by a saddle-blanket lying in the roadside ditch. A +recollection of the calamity of the previous night made him rein in his +horse and examine it. It was without doubt the saddle-blanket of Dr. +West's horse, lost when the saddle came off, after the Doctor's body +had been dragged by the runaway beast. But a second fact forced itself +equally upon the young officer. It was lying nearly a mile from the +spot where the body had been picked up. This certainly did not agree +with the accepted theory that the accident had taken place further on, +and that the body had been dragged until the saddle came off where it +was found. His professional knowledge of equitation and the technique +of accoutrements exploded the idea that the saddle could have slipped +here, the saddle-blanket fallen and the horse have run nearly a mile +hampered by the saddle hanging under him. Consequently, the saddle, +blanket, and unfortunate rider must have been precipitated together, +and at the same moment, on or near this very spot. Captain Carroll was +not a detective; he had no theory to establish, no motive to discover, +only as an officer, he would have simply rejected any excuse offered on +those terms by one of his troopers to account for a similar accident. +He troubled himself with no further deduction. Without dismounting, he +gave a closer attention to the marks of struggling hoofs near the edge +of the ditch, which had not yet been obliterated by the daily travel. +In doing so, his horse's hoof struck a small object partly hidden in +the thick dust of the highway. It seemed to be a leather letter or +memorandum case adapted for the breast pocket. Carroll instantly +dismounted and picked it up. The name and address of Dr. West were +legibly written on the inside. It contained a few papers and notes, +but nothing more. The possibility that it might disclose the letters +he was seeking was a hope quickly past. It was only a corroborative +fact that the accident had taken place on the spot where he was +standing. He was losing time; he hurriedly put the book in his pocket, +and once more spurred forward on his road. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap07"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VII +</H3> + +<P> +The exterior of Aladdin's Palace, familiar as it already was to +Carroll, struck him that afternoon as looking more than usually unreal, +ephemeral, and unsubstantial. The Moorish arches, of the thinnest +white pine; the arabesque screens and lattices that looked as if made +of pierced cardboard; the golden minarets that seemed to be glued to +the shell-like towers, and the hollow battlements that visibly warped +and cracked in the fierce sunlight,—all appeared more than ever like a +theatrical scene that might sink through the ground, or vanish on +either side to the sound of the prompter's whistle. Recalling +Raymond's cynical insinuations, he could not help fancying that the +house had been built by a conscientious genie with a view to the +possibility of the lamp and the ring passing, with other effects, into +the hands of the sheriff. +</P> + +<P> +Nevertheless, the servant who took Captain Carroll's horse summoned +another domestic, who preceded him into a small waiting-room off the +gorgeous central hall, which looked not unlike the private bar-room of +a first-class hotel, and presented him with a sherry cobbler. It was a +peculiarity of Aladdin's Palace that the host seldom did the honors of +his own house, but usually deputed the task to some friend, and +generally the last new-comer. Carroll was consequently not surprised +when he was presently joined by an utter stranger, who again pressed +upon him the refreshment he had just declined. "You see," said the +transitory host, "I'm a stranger myself here, and haven't got the ways +of the regular customers; but call for anything you like, and I'll see +it got for you. Jim" (the actual Christian name of Aladdin) "is +headin' a party through the stables. Would you like to join 'em—they +ain't more than half through now—or will you come right to the +billiard-room—the latest thing out in stained glass and iron—ez +pretty as fresh paint? or will you meander along to the bridal suite, +and see the bamboo and silver dressing-room, and the white satin and +crystal bed that cost fifteen thousand dollars as it stands. Or," he +added, confidentially, "would you like to cut the whole cussed thing, +and I'll get out Jim's 2.32 trotter and his spider-legged buggy and +we'll take a spin over to the Springs afore dinner?" It was, however, +more convenient to Carroll's purpose to conceal his familiarity with +the Aladdin treasures, and to politely offer to follow his guide +through the house. "I reckon Jim's pretty busy just now," continued +the stranger; "what with old Doc West going under so suddent, just ez +he'd got things boomin' with that railroad and his manufactory company. +The stocks went down to nothing this morning; and, 'twixt you and me, +the boys say," he added, mysteriously sinking his voice, "it was jest +the tightest squeeze there whether there wouldn't be a general burst-up +all round. But Jim was over at San Antonio afore the Doctor's body was +laid out; just ran that telegraph himself for about two hours; had a +meeting of trustees and directors afore the Coroner came; had the +Doctor's books and papers brought over here in a buggy, and another +meeting before luncheon. Why, by the time the other fellows began to +drop in to know if the Doctor was really dead, Jim Prince had +discounted the whole affair two years ahead. Why, bless you, nearly +everybody is in it. That Spanish woman over there, with the pretty +daughter—that high-toned Greaser with the big house—you know who I +mean." ... +</P> + +<P> +"I don't think I do," said Carroll, coldly. "I know a lady named +Saltonstall, with several daughters." +</P> + +<P> +"That's her; thought I'd seen you there once. Well, the Doctor's got +her into it, up to the eyes. I reckon she's mortgaged everything to +him." +</P> + +<P> +It required all Carroll's trained self-possession to prevent his +garrulous guide from reading his emotion in his face. This, then, was +the secret of Maruja's melancholy. Poor child! how bravely she had +borne up under it; and HE, in his utter selfishness, had never +suspected it. Perhaps that letter was her delicate way of breaking the +news to him, for he should certainly now hear it all from Aladdin's +lips. And this man, who evidently had succeeded to the control of Dr. +West's property, doubtless had possession of the letters too! Humph! +He shut his lips firmly together, and strode along by the side of his +innocent guide, erect and defiant. +</P> + +<P> +He did not have long to wait. The sound of voices, the opening of +doors, and the trampling of feet indicated that the other party were +being "shown over" that part of the building Carroll and his companion +were approaching. "There's Jim and his gang now," said his cicerone; +"I'll tell him you're here, and step out of this show business myself. +So long! I reckon I'll see you at dinner." At this moment Prince and +a number of ladies and gentlemen appeared at the further end of the +hall; his late guide joined them, and apparently indicated Carroll's +presence, as, with a certain lounging, off-duty, officer-like way, the +young man sauntered on. +</P> + +<P> +Aladdin, like others of his class, objected to the military, +theoretically and practically; but he was not above recognizing their +social importance in a country of no society, and of even being +fascinated by Carroll's quiet and secure self-possession and +self-contentment in a community of restless ambition and aggressive +assertion. He came forward to welcome him cordially; he introduced him +with an air of satisfaction; he would have preferred if he had been in +uniform, but he contented himself with the fact that Carroll, like all +men of disciplined limbs, carried himself equally well in mufti. +</P> + +<P> +"You have shown us everything," said Carroll, smiling, "except the +secret chamber where you keep the magic lamp and ring. Are we not to +see the spot where the incantation that produces these marvels is held, +even if we are forbidden to witness the ceremony? The ladies are dying +to see your sanctum—your study—your workshop—where you really live." +</P> + +<P> +"You'll find it a mere den, as plain as my bed-room," said Prince, who +prided himself on the Spartan simplicity of his own habits, and was not +averse to the exhibition. "Come this way." He crossed the hall, and +entered a small, plainly furnished room, containing a table piled with +papers, some of which were dusty and worn-looking. Carroll instantly +conceived the idea that these were Dr. West's property. He took his +letter quietly from his pocket; and, when the attention of the others +was diverted, laid it on the table, with the remark, in an undertone, +audible only to Prince, "From Mrs. Saltonstall." +</P> + +<P> +Aladdin had that sublime audacity which so often fills the place of +tact. Casting a rapid glance at Carroll, he cried, "Hallo!" and, +wheeling suddenly round on his following guests, with a bewildering +extravagance of playful brusqueness, actually bundled them from the +room. "The incantation is on!" he cried, waving his arms in the air; +"the genie is at work. No admittance except on business! Follow Miss +Wilson," he added, clapping both hands on the shoulders of the +prettiest and shyest young lady of the party, with an irresistible +paternal familiarity. "She's your hostess. I'll honor her drafts to +any amount;" and before they were aware of his purpose or that Carroll +was no longer among them, Aladdin had closed the door, that shut with a +spring lock, and was alone with the young man. He walked quickly to +his desk, took up the letter, and opened it. +</P> + +<P> +His face of dominant, self-satisfied good-humor became set and stern. +Without taking the least notice of Carroll, he rose, and, stepping to a +telegraph instrument at a side table, manipulated half a dozen ivory +knobs with a sudden energy. Then he returned to the table, and began +hurriedly to glance over the memoranda and indorsements of the files of +papers piled upon it. Carroll's quick eye caught sight of a small +packet of letters in a writing of unmistakable feminine delicacy, and +made certain they were the ones he was in quest of. Without raising +his eyes, Mr. Prince asked, almost rudely,— +</P> + +<P> +"Who else has she told this to?" +</P> + +<P> +"If you refer to the contents of that letter, it was written and handed +to me about three hours ago. It has not been out of my possession +since then." +</P> + +<P> +"Humph! Who's at the casa? There's Buchanan, and Raymond, and Victor +Guitierrez, eh?" +</P> + +<P> +"I think I can say almost positively that Mrs. Saltonstall has seen no +one but her daughter since the news reached her, if that is what you +wish to know," said Carroll, still following the particular package of +letters with his eyes, as Mr. Prince continued his examination. Prince +stopped. +</P> + +<P> +"Are you sure?" +</P> + +<P> +"Almost sure." +</P> + +<P> +Prince rose, this time with a greater ease of manner, and, going to the +table, ran his fingers over the knobs, as if mechanically. "One would +like to know at once all there is to know about a transaction that +changes the front of four millions of capital in about four hours, eh, +Captain?" he said, for the first time really regarding his guest. +"Just four hours ago, in this very room, we found out that the widow +Saltonstall owed Dr. West about a million, tied up in investments, and +we calculated to pull her through with perhaps the loss of half. If +she's got this assignment of the Doctor's property that she speaks of +in her letter, as collateral security, and it's all regular, and +she—so to speak—steps into Dr. West's place, by G-d, sir, we owe HIM +about three millions, and we've got to settle with HER—and that's all +about it. You've dropped a little bomb-shell in here, Captain, and the +splinters are flying around as far as San Francisco, now. I confess it +beats me regularly. I always thought the old man was a little keen +over there at the casa—but she was a woman, and he was a man for all +his sixty years, and THAT combination I never thought of. I only +wonder she hadn't gobbled him up before." +</P> + +<P> +Captain Carroll's face betrayed no trace of the bewilderment and +satisfaction at this news of which he had been the unconscious bearer, +nor of resentment at the coarseness of its translation. +</P> + +<P> +"There does not seem to be any memorandum of this assignment," +continued Prince, turning over the papers. +</P> + +<P> +"Have you looked here?" said Carroll, taking up the packet of letters. +</P> + +<P> +"No—they seem to me some private letters she refers to in this letter, +and that she wants back again." +</P> + +<P> +"Let us see," said Carroll, untying the packet. There were three or +four closely written notes in Spanish and English. +</P> + +<P> +"Love-letters, I reckon," said Prince—"that's why the old girl wants +'em back. She don't care to have the wheedling that fetched the Doctor +trotted out to the public." +</P> + +<P> +"Let us look more carefully," said Carroll, pleasantly, opening each +letter before Prince, yet so skillfully as to frustrate any attempt of +the latter to read them. "There does not seem to be any memorandum +here. They are evidently only private letters." +</P> + +<P> +"Quite so," said Prince. +</P> + +<P> +Captain Carroll retied the packet and put it in his pocket. "Then I'll +return them to her," he said, quietly. +</P> + +<P> +"Hullo!—here—I say," said Prince, starting to his feet. +</P> + +<P> +"I said I would return them to her," repeated Carroll, calmly. +</P> + +<P> +"But I never gave them to you! I never consented to their withdrawal +from the papers." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm sorry you did not," said Carroll, coldly; "it would have been more +polite." +</P> + +<P> +"Polite! D—n it, sir! I call this stealing." +</P> + +<P> +"Stealing, Mr. Prince, is a word that might be used by the person who +claims these letters to describe the act of any one who would keep them +from HER. It really can not apply to you or me." +</P> + +<P> +"Once for all, do you refuse to return them to me?" said Prince, pale +with anger. +</P> + +<P> +"Decidedly." +</P> + +<P> +"Very well, sir! We shall see." He stepped to the corner and rang a +bell. "I have summoned my manager, and will charge you with the theft +in his presence." +</P> + +<P> +"I think not." +</P> + +<P> +"And why, sir?" +</P> + +<P> +"Because the presence of a third party would enable me to throw this +glove in your face, which, as a gentleman, I couldn't do without +witnesses." Steps were heard along the passage; Prince was no coward +in a certain way; neither was he a fool. He knew that Carroll would +keep his word; he knew that he should have to fight him; that, whatever +the issue of the duel was, the cause of the quarrel would be known, and +scarcely redound to his credit. At present there were no witnesses to +the offered insult, and none would be wiser. The letters were not +worth it. He stepped to the door, opened it, said, "No matter," and +closed it again. +</P> + +<P> +He returned with an affectation of carelessness. "You are right. I +don't know that I'm called upon to make a scene here which the LAW can +do for me as well elsewhere. It will settle pretty quick whether +you've got the right to those letters, and whether you've taken the +right way to get them sir." +</P> + +<P> +"I have no desire to evade any responsibility in this matter, legal or +otherwise," said Carroll, coldly, rising to his feet. +</P> + +<P> +"Look here," said Prince, suddenly, with a return of his brusque +frankness; "you might have ASKED me for those letters, you know." +</P> + +<P> +"And you wouldn't have given them to me," said Carroll. +</P> + +<P> +Prince laughed. "That's so! I say, Captain. Did they teach you this +sort of strategy at West Point?" +</P> + +<P> +"They taught me that I could neither receive nor give an insult under a +white flag," said Carroll, pleasantly. "And they allowed me to make +exchanges under the same rule. I picked up this pocket-book on the +spot where the accident occurred to Dr. West. It is evidently his. I +leave it with you, who are his executor." +</P> + +<P> +The instinct of reticence before a man with whom he could never be +confidential kept him from alluding to his other discovery. +</P> + +<P> +Prince took the pocket-book, and opened it mechanically. After a +moment's scrutiny of the memoranda it contained, his face assumed +something of the same concentrated attention it wore at the beginning +of the interview. Raising his eyes suddenly to Carroll, he said, +quickly,— +</P> + +<P> +"You have examined it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Only so far as to see that it contained nothing of importance to the +person I represent," returned Carroll, simply. +</P> + +<P> +The capitalist looked at the young officer's clear eyes. Something of +embarrassment came into his own as he turned them away. +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly. Only memoranda of the Doctor's business. Quite important +to us, you know. But nothing referring to YOUR principal." He +laughed. "Thank you for the exchange. I say—take a drink!" +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you—no!" returned Carroll, going to the door. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, good-by." +</P> + +<P> +He held out his hand. Carroll, with his clear eyes still regarding +him, passed quietly by the outstretched hand, opened the door, bowed, +and made his exit. +</P> + +<P> +A slight flush came into Prince's cheek. Then, as the door closed, he +burst into a half-laugh. Had he been a dramatic villain, he would have +added to it several lines of soliloquy, in which he would have +rehearsed the fact that the opportunity for revenge had "come at last"; +that the "haughty victor who had just left with his ill-gotten spoil +had put into his hands the weapon of his friend's destruction"; that +the "hour had come"; and, possibly he might have said, "Ha! ha!" But, +being a practical, good-natured, selfish rascal, not much better or +worse than his neighbors, he sat himself down at his desk and began to +carefully consider how HE could best make use of the memoranda jotted +down by Dr. West of the proofs of the existence of his son, and the +consequent discovery of a legal heir to his property. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap08"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VIII +</H3> + +<P> +When Faquita had made sure that her young mistress was so securely +closeted with Dona Maria that morning as to be inaccessible to curious +eyes and ears, she saw fit to bewail to her fellow-servants this +further evidence of the decay of the old feudal and patriarchal mutual +family confidences. "Time was, thou rememberest, Pepita, when an +affair of this kind was openly discussed at chocolate with everybody +present, and before us all. When Joaquin Padilla was shot at Monterey, +it was the Dona herself who told us, who read aloud the letters +describing it and the bullet-holes in his clothes, and made it quite a +gala-day—and he was a first-cousin of Guitierrez. And now, when this +American goat of a doctor is kicked to death by a mule, the family must +shut themselves up, that never a question is asked or answered." "Ay," +responded Pepita; "and as regards that, Sanchez there knows as much as +they do, for it was he that almost saw the whole affair." +</P> + +<P> +"How?—sawest it?" inquired Faquita, eagerly. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, was it not he that was bringing home Pereo, who had been lying in +one of his trances or visions—blessed St. Antonio preserve us!" said +Pepita, hastily crossing herself—"on Kooratora's grave, when the +Doctor's mustang charged down upon them like a wild bull, and the +Doctor's foot half out of the stirrups, and he not yet fast in his +seat. And Pereo laughs a wild laugh and says: 'Watch if the coyote +does not drag yet at his mustang's heels;' and Sanchez ran and watched +the Doctor out of sight, careering and galloping to his death!—ay, as +Pereo prophesied. For it was only half an hour afterward that Sanchez +again heard the tramp of his hoofs—as if it were here—and knowing it +two miles away—thou understandest, he said to himself: 'It is over.'" +</P> + +<P> +The two women shuddered and crossed themselves. +</P> + +<P> +"And what says Pereo of the fulfillment of his prophecy?" asked +Faquita, hugging herself in her shawl with a certain titillating shrug +of fascinating horror. +</P> + +<P> +"It is even possible he understands it not. Thou knowest how dazed and +dumb he ever is after these visions—that he comes from them as one +from the grave, remembering nothing. He has lain like a log all the +morning." +</P> + +<P> +"Ay; but this news should awaken him, if aught can. He loved not this +sneaking Doctor. Let us seek him; mayhap, Sanchez may be there. Come! +The mistress lacks us not just now; the guests are provided for. Come!" +</P> + +<P> +She led the way to the eastern angle of the casa communicating by a low +corridor with the corral and stables. This was the old "gate-keep" or +quarters of the mayordomo, who, among his functions, was supposed to +exercise a supervision over the exits and entrances of the house. A +large steward's room or office, beyond it a room of general assembly, +half guard-room, half servants' hall, and Pereo's sleeping-room, +constituted his domain. A few peons were gathered in the hall near the +open door of the apartment where Pereo lay. +</P> + +<P> +Stretched on a low pallet, his face yellow as wax, a light burning +under a crucifix near his head, and a spray of blessed palm, popularly +supposed to avert the attempts of evil spirits to gain possession of +his suspended faculties, Pereo looked not unlike a corpse. Two muffled +and shawled domestics, who sat by his side, might have been mourners, +but for their voluble and incessant chattering. +</P> + +<P> +"So thou art here, Faquita," said a stout virago. "It is a wonder thou +couldst spare time from prayers for the repose of the American Doctor's +soul to look after the health of thy superior, poor Pereo! Is it, then, +true that Dona Maria said she would have naught more to do with the +drunken brute of her mayordomo?" +</P> + +<P> +The awful fascination of Pereo's upturned face did not prevent Faquita +from tossing her head as she replied, pertly, that she was not there to +defend her mistress from lazy gossip. "Nay, but WHAT said she?" asked +the other attendant. +</P> + +<P> +"She said Pereo was to want for nothing; but at present she could not +see him." +</P> + +<P> +A murmur of indignation and sympathy passed through the company. It was +followed by a long sigh from the insensible man. "His lips move," said +Faquita, still fascinated by curiosity. "Hush! he would speak." +</P> + +<P> +"His lips move, but his soul is still asleep," said Sanchez, +oracularly. "Thus they have moved since early morning, when I came to +speak with him, and found him lying here in a fit upon the floor. He +was half dressed, thou seest, as if he had risen to go forth, and had +been struck down so—" +</P> + +<P> +"Hush! I tell thee he speaks," said Faquita. +</P> + +<P> +The sick man was faintly articulating through a few tiny bubbles that +broke upon his rigid lips. "He—dared—me! He—said—I was old—too +old." +</P> + +<P> +"Who dared thee? Who said thou wast too old?" asked the eager Faquita, +bending over him. +</P> + +<P> +"He, Koorotora himself! in the shape of a coyote." +</P> + +<P> +Faquita fell back with a little giggle, half of shame, half of awe. +</P> + +<P> +"It is ever thus," said Sanchez, sententiously; "it is what he said +last night, when I picked him up on the mound. He will sleep now—thou +shalt see. He will get no further than Koorotora and the coyote—and +then he will sleep." +</P> + +<P> +And to the awe of the group, and the increased respect for Sanchez's +wisdom, Pereo seemed to fall again into a lethargic slumber. It was +late in the evening when he appeared to regain perfect consciousness. +"Ah—what is this?" he said, roughly, sitting up in bed, and eying the +watchers around him, some of whom had succumbed to sleep, and others +were engaged in playing cards. "Caramba! are ye mad? Thou, Sanchez, +here; who shouldst be at thy work in the stables! Thou, Pepita, is thy +mistress asleep or dead, that thou sittest here? Blessed San Antonio! +would ye drive me mad?" He lifted his hand to his head, with a dull +movement of pain, and attempted to rise from the bed. +</P> + +<P> +"Softly, good Pereo; lie still," said Sanchez, approaching him. "Thou +hast been ill—so ill. These, thy friends, have been waiting only for +this moment to be assured that thou art better. For this idleness +there is no blame—truly none. The Dona Maria has said that thou +shouldst lack no care; and, truly, since the terrible news there has +been little to do." +</P> + +<P> +"The terrible news?" repeated Pereo. +</P> + +<P> +Sanchez cast a meaning glance upon the others, as if to indicate this +coaffirmation of his diagnosis. +</P> + +<P> +"Ay, terrible news! The Doctor West was found this morning dead two +miles from the casa." +</P> + +<P> +"Dr. West dead!" repeated Pereo, slowly, as if endeavoring to master +the real meaning of the words. Then, seeing the vacuity of his +question reflected on the faces of those around him, he added, +hurriedly, with a feeble smile, "O—ay—dead! Yes! I remember. And he +has been ill—very ill, eh?" +</P> + +<P> +"It was an accident. He was thrown from his horse, and so killed," +returned Sanchez, gravely. +</P> + +<P> +"Killed—by his horse! sayest thou?" said Pereo, with a sudden fixed +look in his eye. +</P> + +<P> +"Ay, good Pereo. Dost thou not remember when the mustang bolted with +him down upon us in the lane, and then thou didst say he would come to +evil with the brute? He did—blessed San Antonio!—within half an +hour!" +</P> + +<P> +"How—thou sawest it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Nay; for the mustang was running away and I did not follow. Bueno! it +happened all the same. The Alcalde, Coroner, who knows all about it, +has said so an hour ago! Juan brought the news from the rancho where +the inquest was. There will be a funeral the day after to-morrow! and +so it is that some of the family will go. Fancy, Pereo, a Guitierrez at +the funeral of the Americano Doctor! Nay, I doubt not that the Dona +Maria will ask thee to say a prayer over his bier." +</P> + +<P> +"Peace, fool! and speak not of thy lady mistress," thundered the old +man, sitting upright. "Begone to the stables. Dost thou hear me? Go!" +</P> + +<P> +"Now, by the Mother of Miracles," said Sanchez, hastening from the room +as the gaunt figure of the old man rose, like a sheeted spectre, from +the bed, "that was his old self again! Blessed San Antonio! Pereo has +recovered." +</P> + +<P> +The next day he was at his usual duties, with perhaps a slight increase +of sternness in his manner. The fulfillment of his prophecy related by +Sanchez added to the superstitious reputation in which he was held, +although Faquita voiced the opinions of a growing skeptical party in +the statement that it was easy to prophesy the Doctor's accident, with +the spectacle of the horse actually running away before the prophet's +eyes. It was even said that Dona Maria's aversion to Pereo since the +accident arose from a belief that some assistance might have been +rendered by him. But it was pointed out by Sanchez that Pereo had, a +few moments before, fallen under one of those singular, epileptic-like +strokes to which he was subject, and not only was unfit, but even +required the entire care of Sanchez at the time. He did not attend the +funeral, nor did Mrs. Saltonstall; but the family was represented by +Maruja and Amita, accompanied by one or two dark-faced cousins, Captain +Carroll, and Raymond. A number of friends and business associates from +the neighboring towns, Aladdin and a party from his house, the farm +laborers, and a crowd of working men from his mills in the foot-hills, +swelled the assemblage that met in and around the rude agricultural +sheds and outhouses which formed the only pastoral habitation of the +Rancho of San Antonio. It had been a characteristic injunction of the +deceased that he should be buried in the midst of one of his most +prolific grain fields, as a grim return to that nature he was +impoverishing, with neither mark nor monument to indicate the spot; and +that even the temporary mound above him should, at the fitting season +of the year, be leveled with the rest of the field by the obliterating +plowshares. A grave was accordingly dug about a quarter of a mile from +his office amidst a "volunteer" crop so dense that the large space mown +around the narrow opening, to admit of the presence of the multitude, +seemed like a golden amphitheatre. +</P> + +<P> +A distinguished clergyman from San Francisco officiated. +</P> + +<P> +A man of tact and politic adaptation, he dwelt upon the blameless life +of the deceased, on his practical benefit for civilization in the +county, and even treated his grim Pantheism in the selection of his +grave as a formal recognition of the text, "dust to dust." He paid a +not ungrateful compliment to the business associates of the deceased, +and, without actually claiming in the usual terms "a continuance of +past favors" for their successors, managed to interpolate so strong a +recommendation of the late Doctor's commercial projects as to elicit +from Aladdin the expressive commendation that his sermon was "as good +as five per cent. in the stock." +</P> + +<P> +Maruja, who had been standing near the carriage, languidly silent and +abstracted even under the tender attentions of Carroll, suddenly felt +the consciousness of another pair of eyes fixed upon her. Looking up, +she was surprised to find herself regarded by the man she had twice +met, once as a tramp and once as a wayfarer at the fonda, who had +quietly joined a group not far from her. At once impressed by the idea +that this was the first time that he had really looked at her, she felt +a singular shyness creeping over her, until, to her own astonishment +and indignation, she was obliged to lower her eyes before his gaze. In +vain she tried to lift them, with her old supreme power of fascination. +If she had ever blushed, she felt she would have done so now. She knew +that her face must betray her consciousness; and at last she—Maruja, +the self-poised and all-sufficient goddess—actually turned, in +half-hysterical and girlish bashfulness, to Carroll for relief in an +affected and exaggerated absorption of his attentions. She scarcely +knew that the clergyman had finished speaking, when Raymond approached +them softly from behind. "Pray don't believe," he said, appealingly, +"that all the human virtues are about to be buried—I should say +sown—in that wheatfield. A few will still survive, and creep about +above the Doctor's grave. Listen to a story just told me, and +disbelieve—if you dare—in human gratitude. Do you see that +picturesque young ruffian over there?" +</P> + +<P> +Maruja did not lift her eyes. She felt herself breathlessly hanging on +the speaker's next words. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, that's the young man of the fonda, who picked up your fan," said +Carroll, "isn't it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps," said Maruja, indifferently. She would have given worlds to +have been able to turn coldly and stare at him at that moment with the +others, but she dared not. She contented herself with softly brushing +some dust from Captain Carroll's arm with her fan and a feminine +suggestion of tender care which thrilled that gentleman. +</P> + +<P> +"Well," continued Raymond, "that Robert Macaire over yonder came here +some three or four days ago as a tramp, in want of everything but +honest labor. Our lamented friend consented to parley with him, which +was something remarkable in the Doctor; still more remarkable, he gave +him a suit of clothes, and, it is said, some money, and sent him on his +way. Now, more remarkable than all, our friend, on hearing of his +benefactor's death, actually tramps back here to attend his funeral. +The Doctor being dead, his executors not of a kind to emulate the +Doctor's spasmodic generosity, and there being no chance of future +favors, the act must be recorded as purely and simply gratitude. By +Jove! I don't know but that he is the only one here who can be called a +real mourner. I'm here because your sister is here; Carroll comes +because YOU do, and you come because your mother can not." +</P> + +<P> +"And who tells you these pretty stories?" asked Maruja, with her face +still turned towards Carroll. +</P> + +<P> +"The foreman, Harrison, who, with an extensive practical experience of +tramps, was struck with this exception to the general rule." +</P> + +<P> +"Poor man; one ought to do something for him," said Amita, +compassionately. +</P> + +<P> +"What!" said Raymond, with affected terror, "and spoil this perfect +story? Never! If I should offer him ten dollars, I'd expect him to +kick me; if he took it, I'd expect to kick HIM." +</P> + +<P> +"He is not so bad-looking, is he, Maruja?" asked Amita of her sister. +But Maruja had already moved a few paces off with Carroll, and seemed +to be listening to him only. Raymond smiled at the pretty perplexity +of Amita's eyebrows over this pronounced indiscretion. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't mind them," he whispered; "you really cannot expect to duena +your elder sister. Tell me, would you actually like me to see if I +could assist the virtuous tramp? You have only to speak." But Amita's +interest appeared to be so completely appeased with Raymond's simple +offer that she only smiled, blushed, and said "No." +</P> + +<P> +Maruja's quick ears had taken in every word of these asides, and for an +instant she hated her sister for her aimless declination of Raymond's +proposal. But becoming conscious—under her eyelids—that the stranger +was moving away with the dispersing crowd, she rejoined Amita with her +usual manner. The others had re-entered the carriage, but Maruja took +it into her head to proceed on foot to the rude building whence the +mourners had issued. The foreman, Harrison, flushed and startled by +this apparition of inaccessible beauty at his threshold, came eagerly +forward. "I shall not trouble you now, Mr. Har-r-r-rison," she said, +with a polite exaggeration of the consonants; "but some day I shall +ride over here, and ask you to show me your wonderful machines." +</P> + +<P> +She smiled, and turned back to seek her carriage. But before she had +gone many yards she found that she had completely lost it in the +intervening billows of grain. She stopped, with an impatient little +Spanish ejaculation. The next moment the stalks of wheat parted before +her and a figure emerged. It was the stranger. +</P> + +<P> +She fell back a step in utter helplessness. +</P> + +<P> +He, on his side, retreated again into the wheat, holding it back with +extended arms to let her pass. As she moved forward mechanically, +without a word he moved backward, making a path for her until she was +able to discern the coachman's whip above the bending heads of the +grain just beyond her. He stopped here and drew to one side, his arms +still extended, to give her free passage. She tried to speak, but +could only bow her head, and slipped by him with a strange +feeling—suggested by his attitude—that she was evading his embrace. +But the next moment his arms were lowered, the grain closed around him, +and he was lost to her view. She reached the carriage almost +unperceived by the inmates, and pounced upon her sister with a laugh. +</P> + +<P> +"Blessed Virgin!" said Amita, "where did you come from?" +</P> + +<P> +"From there!" said Maruja, with a slight nervous shiver, pointing to +the clustering grain. +</P> + +<P> +"We were afraid you were lost." +</P> + +<P> +"So was I," said Maruja, raising her pretty lashes heavenwards, as she +drew a shawl tightly round her shoulders. +</P> + +<P> +"Has anything happened. You look strange," said Carroll, drawing +closer to her. +</P> + +<P> +Here eyes were sparkling, but she was very pale. +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing, nothing!" she said, hastily, glancing at the grain again. +</P> + +<P> +"If it were not that the haste would have been absolutely indecent, I +should say that the late Doctor had made you a ghostly visit," said +Raymond, looking at her curiously. +</P> + +<P> +"He would have been polite enough not to have commented on my looks," +said Maruja. "Am I really such a fright?" +</P> + +<P> +Carroll thought he had never seen her so beautiful. Her eyelids were +quivering over their fires as if they had been brushed by the passing +wing of a strong passion. +</P> + +<P> +"What are you thinking of?" said Carroll, as they drove on. +</P> + +<P> +She was thinking that the stranger had looked at her admiringly, and +that his eyes were blue. But she looked quietly into her lover's face, +and said, sweetly, "Nothing, I fear, that would interest you!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap09"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IX +</H3> + +<P> +The news of the assignment of Dr. West's property to Mrs. Saltonstall +was followed by the still more astonishing discovery that the Doctor's +will further bequeathed to her his entire property, after payment of +his debts and liabilities. It was given in recognition of her talents +and business integrity during their late association, and as an +evidence of the confidence and "undying affection" of the testator. +Nevertheless, after the first surprise, the fact was accepted by the +community as both natural and proper under that singular instinct of +humanity which acquiesces without scruple in the union of two large +fortunes, but sharply questions the conjunction of poverty and +affluence, and looks only for interested motives where there is +disparity of wealth. Had Mrs. Saltonstall been a poor widow instead of +a rich one; had she been the Doctor's housekeeper instead of his +business friend, the bequest would have been strongly criticised—if +not legally tested. But this combination, which placed the entire +valley of San Antonio in the control of a single individual, appeared +to be perfectly legitimate. More than that, some vague rumor of the +Doctor's past and his early entanglements only seemed to make this +eminently practical disposition of his property the more respectable, +and condoned for any moral irregularities of his youth. +</P> + +<P> +The effect upon the collateral branches of the Guitierrez family and +the servants and retainers was even more impressive. For once, it +seemed that the fortunes and traditions of the family were changed; the +female Guitierrez, instead of impoverishing the property, had augmented +it; the foreigner and intruder had been despoiled; the fate of La +Mision Perdida had been changed; the curse of Koorotora had proved a +blessing; his prophet and descendant, Pereo, the mayordomo, moved in an +atmosphere of superstitious adulation and respect among the domestics +and common people. This recognition of his power he received at times +with a certain exaltation of grandiloquent pride beyond the conception +of any but a Spanish servant, and at times with a certain dull, pained +vacancy of perception and an expression of frightened bewilderment +which also went far to establish his reputation as an unconscious seer +and thaumaturgist. "Thou seest," said Sanchez to the partly skeptical +Faquita, "he does not know more than an infant what is his power. That +is the proof of it." The Dona Maria alone did not participate in this +appreciation of Pereo, and when it was proposed that a feast or +celebration of rejoicing should be given under the old pear-tree by the +Indian's mound, her indignation was long remembered by those that +witnessed it. "It is not enough that we have been made ridiculous in +the past," she said to Maruja, "by the interference of this solemn +fool, but that the memory of our friend is to be insulted by his +generosity being made into a triumph of Pereo's idiotic ancestor. One +would have thought those coyotes and Koorotora's bones had been buried +with the cruel gossip of your relations"—(it had been the recent habit +of Dona Maria to allude to "the family" as being particularly related +to Maruja alone)—"over my poor friend. Let him beware that his +ancestor's mound is not uprooted with the pear-tree, and his heathenish +temple destroyed. If, as the engineer says, a branch of the new +railroad can be established for La Mision Perdida, I agree with him +that it can better pass at that point with less sacrifice to the +domain. It is the one uncultivated part of the park, and lies at the +proper angle." +</P> + +<P> +"You surely would not consent to this, my mother?" said Maruja, with a +sudden impression of a newly found force in her mother's character. +</P> + +<P> +"Why not, child?" said the relict of Mr. Saltonstall and the mourner of +Dr. West, coldly. "I admit it was discreet of thee in old times to +have thy sentimental passages there with caballeros who, like the +guests of the hidalgo that kept a skeleton at his feast, were reminded +of the mutability of their hopes by Koorotora's bones and the legend. +But with the explosion of this idea of a primal curse, like Eve's, on +the property," added the Dona Maria, with a slight bitterness, "thou +mayest have thy citas—elsewhere. Thou canst scarcely keep this +Captain Carroll any longer at a distance by rattling those bones of +Koorotora in his face. And of a truth, child, since the affair of the +letters, and his discreet and honorable conduct since, I see not why +thou shouldst. He has thy mother's reputation in his hands." +</P> + +<P> +"He is a gentleman, my mother," said Maruja, quietly. +</P> + +<P> +"And they are scarce, child, and should be rewarded and preserved. That +is what I meant, silly one; this Captain is not rich—but then, thou +hast enough for both." +</P> + +<P> +"But it was Amita that first brought him here," said Maruja, looking +down with an air of embarrassed thoughtfulness, which Dona Maria chose +to instantly accept as exaggerated coyness. +</P> + +<P> +"Do not think to deceive me or thyself, child, with this folly. Thou +art old enough to know a man's mind, if not thine own. Besides, I do +not know that I shall object to her liking for Raymond. He is very +clever, and would be a relief to some of thy relatives. He would be +invaluable to us in the emergencies that may grow out of these +mechanical affairs that I do not understand—such as the mill and the +railroad." +</P> + +<P> +"And you propose to take a few husbands as partners in the business?" +said Maruja, who had recovered her spirits. "I warn you that Captain +Carroll is as stupid as a gentleman could be. I wonder that he has not +blundered in other things as badly as he has in preferring me to Amita. +He confided to me only last night, that he had picked up a pocket-book +belonging to the Doctor and given it to Aladdin, without a witness or +receipt, and evidently of his own accord." +</P> + +<P> +"A pocket-book of the Doctor's?" repeated Dona Maria. +</P> + +<P> +"Ay; but it contained nothing of thine," said Maruja. "The poor child +had sense enough to think of that. But I am in no hurry to ask your +consent and your blessing yet, little mother. I could even bear that +Amita should precede me to the altar, if the exigencies of thy +'business' require it. It might also secure Captain Carroll for me. +Nay, look not at me in that cheapening, commercial way—with compound +interest in thine eyes. I am not so poor an investment, truly, of thy +original capital." +</P> + +<P> +"Thou art thy father's child," said her mother, suddenly kissing her; +"and that is saying enough, the Blessed Virgin knows. Go now," she +continued, gently pushing her from the room, "and send Amita hither." +She watched the disappearance of Maruja's slightly rebellious +shoulders, and added to herself, "And this is the child that Amita +really believes is pining with lovesickness for Carroll, so that she +can neither sleep nor eat. This is the girl that Faquita would have me +think hath no longer any heart in her dress or in her finery! Soul of +Joseph Saltonstall!" ejaculated the widow, lifting her shoulders and +her eyes together, "thou hast much to account for." +</P> + +<P> +Two weeks later she again astonished her daughter. "Why dost thou not +join the party that drives over to see the wonders of Aladdin's Palace +to-day? It would seem more proper that thou shouldst accompany thy +guests than Raymond and Amita." +</P> + +<P> +"I have never entered his doors since the day he was disrespectful to +my mother's daughter," said Maruja, in surprise. +</P> + +<P> +"Disrespectful!" repeated Dona Maria, impatiently. "Thy father's +daughter ought to know that such as he may be ignorant and vulgar, but +can not be disrespectful to her. And there are offenses, child, it is +much more crushing to forget than to remember. As long as he has not +the presumption to APOLOGIZE, I see no reason why thou mayst not go. +He has not been here since that affair of the letters. I shall not +permit him to be uncivil over THAT—dost thou understand? He is of use +to me in business. Thou mayst take Carroll with thee; he will +understand that." +</P> + +<P> +"But Carroll will not go," said Maruja. "He will not say what passed +between them, but I suspect they quarreled." +</P> + +<P> +"All the better, then, that thou goest alone. He need not be reminded +of it. Fear not but that he will be only too proud of thy visit to +think of aught else." +</P> + +<P> +Maruja, who seemed relieved at this prospect of being unaccompanied by +Captain Carroll, shrugged her shoulders and assented. +</P> + +<P> +When the party that afternoon drove into the courtyard of Aladdin's +Palace, the announcement that its hospitable proprietor was absent, and +would not return until dinner, did not abate either their pleasure or +their curiosity. As already intimated to the reader, Mr. Prince's +functions as host were characteristically irregular; and the servant's +suggestion, that Mr. Prince's private secretary would attend to do the +honors, created little interest, and was laughingly waived by Maruja. +"There really is not the slightest necessity to trouble the gentleman," +she said, politely. "I know the house thoroughly, and I think I have +shown it once or twice before for your master. Indeed," she added, +turning to her party, "I have been already complimented on my skill as +a cicerone." After a pause, she continued, with a slight exaggeration +of action and in her deepest contralto, "Ahem, ladies and gentlemen, +the ball and court in which we are now standing is a perfect copy of +the Court of Lions at the Alhambra, and was finished in fourteen days +in white pine, gold, and plaster, at a cost of ten thousand dollars. A +photograph of the original structure hangs on the wall: you will +observe, ladies and gentlemen, that the reproduction is perfect. The +Alhambra is in Granada, a province of Spain, which it is said in some +respects to resemble California, where you have probably observed the +Spanish language is still spoken by the old settlers. We now cross the +stable-yard on a bridge which is a facsimile in appearance and +dimensions of the Bridge of Sighs at Venice, connecting the Doge's +Palace with the State Prison. Here, on the contrary, instead of being +ushered into a dreary dungeon, as in the great original, a fresh +surprise awaits us. Allow me, ladies and gentlemen, to precede you for +the surprise. We open a door thus—and—presto!"— +</P> + +<P> +She stopped, speechless, on the threshold; the fan fell from her +gesticulating hand. +</P> + +<P> +In the centre of a brilliantly-lit conservatory, with golden columns, a +young man was standing. As her fan dropped on the tessellated +pavement, he came forward, picked it up, and put it in her rigid and +mechanical fingers. The party, who had applauded her apparently +artistic climax, laughingly pushed by her into the conservatory, +without noticing her agitation. +</P> + +<P> +It was the same face and figure she remembered as last standing before +her, holding back the crowding grain in the San Antonio field. But +here he was appareled and appointed like a gentleman, and even seemed +to be superior to the garish glitter of his new surroundings. +</P> + +<P> +"I believe I have the pleasure of speaking to Miss Saltonstall," he +said, with the faintest suggestion of his former manner in his +half-resentful sidelong glance. "I hear that you offered to dispense +with my services, but I knew that Mr. Prince would scarcely be +satisfied if I did not urge it once more upon you in person. I am his +private secretary." +</P> + +<P> +At the same moment, Amita and Raymond, attracted by the conversation, +turned towards him. Their recognition of the man they had seen at Dr. +West's was equally distinct. The silence became embarrassing. Two +pretty girls of the party pressed to Amita's side, with half-audible +whispers. "What is it?" "Who's your handsome and wicked-looking +friend?" "Is this the surprise?" +</P> + +<P> +At the sound of their voices, Maruja recovered herself coldly. +"Ladies," she said, with a slight wave of her fan, "this is Mr. +Prince's private secretary. I believe it is hardly fair to take up his +valuable time. Allow me to thank you, sir, FOR PICKING UP MY FAN." +</P> + +<P> +With a single subtle flash of the eye she swept by him, taking her +companions to the other end of the conservatory. When she turned, he +was gone. +</P> + +<P> +"This was certainly an unexpected climax," said Raymond, mischievously. +"Did you really arrange it beforehand? We leave a picturesque tramp at +the edge of a grave; we pass over six weeks and a Bridge of Sighs, and +hey, presto! we find a private secretary in a conservatory! This is +quite the regular Aladdin business." +</P> + +<P> +"You may laugh," said Maruja, who had recovered her spirits, "but if +you were really clever you'd find out what it all means. Don't you see +that Amita is dying of curiosity?" +</P> + +<P> +"Let us fly at once and discover the secret, then," said Raymond, +slipping Amita's arm through his. "We will consult the oracle in the +stables. Come." +</P> + +<P> +The others followed, leaving Maruja for an instant alone. She was +about to rejoin them when she heard footsteps in the passage they had +just crossed, and then perceived that the young stranger had merely +withdrawn to allow the party to precede him before he returned to the +other building through the conservatory, which he was just entering. +In turning quickly to escape, the black lace of her over-skirt caught +in the spines of a snaky-looking cactus. She stopped to disengage +herself with feverish haste in vain. She was about to sacrifice the +delicate material, in her impatience, when the young man stepped +quietly to her side. +</P> + +<P> +"Allow me. Perhaps I have more patience, even if I have less time," he +said, stooping down. Their ungloved hands touched. Maruja stopped in +her efforts and stood up. He continued until he had freed the luckless +flounce, conscious of the soft fire of her eyes on his head and neck. +</P> + +<P> +"There," he said, rising, and encountering her glance. As she did not +speak, he continued: "You are thinking, Miss Saltonstall, that you have +seen me before, are you not? Well—you HAVE; I asked you the road to +San Jose one morning when I was tramping by your hedge." +</P> + +<P> +"And as you probably were looking for something better—which you seem +to have found—you didn't care to listen to MY directions," said +Maruja, quickly. +</P> + +<P> +"I found a man—almost the only one who ever offered me a gratuitous +kindness—at whose grave I afterwards met you. I found another man who +befriended me here—where I meet you again." +</P> + +<P> +She was beginning to be hysterically nervous lest any one should return +and find them together. She was conscious of a tingling of vague +shame. Yet she lingered. The strange fascination of his half-savage +melancholy, and a reproachfulness that seemed to arraign her, with the +rest of the world, at the bar of his vague resentment, held the +delicate fibres of her sensitive being as cruelly and relentlessly as +the thorns of the cactus had gripped her silken lace. Without knowing +what she was saying, she stammered that she "was glad he connected her +with his better fortune," and began to move away. He noticed it with +his sidelong lids, and added, with a slight bitterness:— +</P> + +<P> +"I don't think I should have intruded here again, but I thought you had +gone. But I—I—am afraid you have not seen the last of me. It was the +intention of my employer, Mr. Prince, to introduce me to you and your +mother. I suppose he considers it part of my duties here. I must warn +you that, if you are here when he returns, he will insist upon it, and +upon your meeting me with these ladies at dinner." +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps so—he is my mother's friend," said Maruja; "but you have the +advantage of us—you can always take to the road, you know." +</P> + +<P> +The smile with which she had intended to accompany this speech did not +come as readily in execution as it had in conception, and she would +have given worlds to have recalled her words. But he said, "That's +so," quietly, and turned away, as if to give her an opportunity to +escape. She moved hesitatingly towards the passage and stopped. The +sound of the returning voices gave her a sudden courage. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr.—" +</P> + +<P> +"Guest," said the young man. +</P> + +<P> +"If we do conclude to stay to dinner as Mr. Prince has said nothing of +introducing you to my sister, you must let ME have that pleasure." +</P> + +<P> +He lifted his eyes to hers with a sudden flush. But she had fled. +</P> + +<P> +She reached her party, displaying her torn flounce as the cause of her +delay, and there was a slight quickness in her breathing and her speech +which was attributed to the same grave reason. "But, only listen," +said Amita, "we've got it all out of the butler and the grooms. It's +such a romantic story!" +</P> + +<P> +"What is?" said Maruja, suddenly. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, the private tramp's." +</P> + +<P> +"The peripatetic secretary," suggested Raymond. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," continued Amita, "Mr. Prince was so struck with his gratitude to +the old Doctor that he hunted him up in San Jose, and brought him here. +Since then Prince has been so interested in him—it appears he was +somebody in the States, or has rich relations—that he has been +telegraphing and making all sorts of inquiries about him, and has even +sent out his own lawyer to hunt up everything about him. Are you +listening?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes." +</P> + +<P> +"You seem abstracted." +</P> + +<P> +"I am hungry." +</P> + +<P> +"Why not dine here; it's an hour earlier than at home. Aladdin would +fall at your feet for the honor. Do!" +</P> + +<P> +Maruja looked at them with innocent vagueness, as if the possibility +were just beginning to dawn upon her. +</P> + +<P> +"And Clara Wilson is just dying to see the mysterious unknown again. +Say yes, little Maruja." +</P> + +<P> +Little Maruja glanced at them with a large maternal compassion. "We +shall see." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Prince, on his return an hour later, was unexpectedly delighted +with Maruja's gracious acceptance of his invitation to dinner. He was +thoroughly sensible of the significance which his neighbors had +attached to the avoidance by the Saltonstall heiress of his various +parties and gorgeous festivities ever since a certain act of +indiscretion—now alleged to have been produced by the exaltation of +wine—had placed him under ban. Whatever his feelings were towards her +mother, he could not fail to appreciate fully this act of the daughter, +which rehabilitated him. It was with more than his usual +extravagance—shown even in a certain exaggeration of respect towards +Maruja—that he welcomed the party, and made preparations for the +dinner. The telegraph and mounted messengers were put into rapid +requisition. The bridal suite was placed at the disposal of the young +ladies for a dressing-room. The attendant genii surpassed themselves. +The evening dresses of Maruja, Amita, and the Misses Wilson, summoned +by electricity from La Mision Perdida, and dispatched by the fleetest +conveyances, were placed in the arms of their maids, smothered with +bouquets, an hour before dinner. An operatic concert troupe, passing +through the nearest town, were diverted from their course by the slaves +of the ring to discourse hidden music in the music-room during dinner. +"Bite my finger, Sweetlips," said Miss Clara Wilson, who had a neat +taste for apt quotation, to Maruja, "that I may see if I am awake. It's +the Arabian Nights all over again!" +</P> + +<P> +The dinner was a marvel, even in a land of gastronomic marvels; the +dessert a miracle of fruits, even in a climate that bore the products +of two zones. Maruja, from her seat beside her satisfied host, looked +across a bank of yellow roses at her sister and Raymond, and was +timidly conscious of the eyes of young Guest, who was seated at the +other end of the table, between the two Misses Wilson. With a strange +haunting of his appearance on the day she first met him, she stole +glances of half-frightened curiosity at him while he was eating, and +was relieved to find that he used his knife and fork like the others, +and that his appetite was far from voracious. It was his employer who +was the first to recall the experiences of his past life, with a +certain enthusiasm and the air of a host anxious to contribute to the +entertainment of his guests. "You'd hardly believe, Miss Saltonstall, +that that young gentleman over there walked across the Continent—and +two thousand odd miles, wasn't it?—all alone, and with not much more +in the way of traps than he's got on now. Tell 'em, Harry, how the +Apaches nearly gobbled you up, and then let you go because they thought +you as good an Injun as any one of them, and how you lived a week in +the desert on two biscuits as big as that." A chorus of entreaty and +delighted anticipation followed the suggestion. The old expression of +being at bay returned for an instant to Guest's face, but, lifting his +eyes, he caught a look of almost sympathetic anxiety from Maruja's, who +had not spoken. +</P> + +<P> +"It became necessary for me, some time ago," said Guest, half +explanatorily, to Maruja, "to be rather explicit in the details of my +journey here, and I told Mr. Prince some things which he seems to think +interesting to others. That is all. To save my life on one occasion, +I was obliged to show myself as good as an Indian, in his own way, and +I lived among them and traveled with them for two weeks. I have been +hungry, as I suppose others have on like occasions, but nothing more." +</P> + +<P> +Nevertheless, in spite of his evident reticence, he was obliged to give +way to their entreaties, and, with a certain grim and uncompromising +truthfulness of statement, recounted some episodes of his journey. It +was none the less thrilling that he did it reluctantly, and in much the +same manner as he had answered his father's questions, and as he had +probably responded to the later cross-examination of Mr. Prince. He +did not tell it emotionally, but rather with the dogged air of one who +had been subjected to a personal grievance for which he neither asked +nor expected sympathy. When he did not raise his eyes to Maruja's, he +kept them fixed on his plate. +</P> + +<P> +"Well," said Prince, when a long-drawn sigh of suspended emotion among +the guests testified to his powers as a caterer to their amusement, +"what do you say to some music with our coffee to follow the story?" +</P> + +<P> +"It's more like a play," said Amita to Raymond. "What a pity Captain +Carroll, who knows all about Indians, isn't here to have enjoyed it. +But I suppose Maruja, who hasn't lost a word, will tell it to him." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't think she will," said Raymond, dryly, glancing at Maruja, who, +lost in some intricate pattern of her Chinese plate, was apparently +unconscious that her host was waiting her signal to withdraw. +</P> + +<P> +At last she raised her head, and said, gently but audibly, to the +waiting Prince,— +</P> + +<P> +"It is positively a newer pattern; the old one had not that delicate +straw line in the arabesque. You must have had it made for you." +</P> + +<P> +"I did," said the gratified Prince, taking up the plate. "What eyes +you have, Miss Saltonstall. They see everything." +</P> + +<P> +"Except that I'm keeping you all waiting," she returned, with a smile, +letting the eyes in question fall with a half-parting salutation on +Guest as she rose. It was the first exchange of a common instinct +between them, and left them as conscious as if they had pressed hands. +</P> + +<P> +The music gave an opportunity for some desultory conversation, in which +Mr. Prince and his young friend received an invitation from Maruja to +visit La Mision, and the party, by common consent, turned into the +conservatory, where the genial host begged them each to select a flower +from a few especially rare exotics. When Maruja received hers, she +said, laughingly, to Prince, "Will you think me very importunate if I +ask for another?" "Take what you like—you have only to name it," he +replied, gallantly. "But that's just what I can't do," responded the +young girl, "unless," she added, turning to Guest, "unless you can +assist me. It was the plant I was examining to-day." "I think I can +show it to you," said Guest, with a slight increase of color, as he +preceded her towards the memorable cactus near the door, "but I doubt +if it has any flower." +</P> + +<P> +Nevertheless, it had. A bright red blossom, like a spot of blood drawn +by one of its thorns. He plucked it for her, and she placed it in her +belt. +</P> + +<P> +"You are forgiving," he said, admiringly. +</P> + +<P> +"YOU ought to know that," she returned, looking down. +</P> + +<P> +"I?—why?" +</P> + +<P> +"You were rude to me twice." +</P> + +<P> +"Twice!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes—once at the Mision of La Perdida; once in the road at San +Antonio." +</P> + +<P> +His eyes became downcast and gloomy. "At the Mision that morning, I, a +wretched outcast, only saw in you a beautiful girl intent on overriding +me with her merciless beauty. At San Antonio I handed the fan I picked +up to the man whose eyes told me he loved you." +</P> + +<P> +She started impatiently. "You might have been more gallant, and found +more difficulty in the selection," she said, pertly. "But since when +have you gentlemen become so observant and so punctilious? Would you +expect him to be as considerate of others?" +</P> + +<P> +"I have few claims that any one seems bound to respect," he returned, +brusquely. Then, in a softer voice, he added, looking at her, gently,— +</P> + +<P> +"You were in mourning when you came here this afternoon, Miss +Saltonstall." +</P> + +<P> +"Was I? It was for Dr. West—my mother's friend." +</P> + +<P> +"It was very becoming to you." +</P> + +<P> +"You are complimenting me. But I warn you that Captain Carroll said +something better than that; he said mourning was not necessary for me. +I had only to 'put my eye-lashes at half-mast.' He is a soldier you +know." +</P> + +<P> +"He seems to be as witty as he is fortunate," said Guest, bitterly. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you think he is fortunate?" said Maruja, raising her eyes to his. +There was so much in this apparently simple question that Guest looked +in her eyes for a suggestion. What he saw there for an instant made +his heart stop beating. She apparently did not know it, for she began +to tremble too. +</P> + +<P> +"Is he not?" said Guest, in a low voice. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you think he ought to be?" she found herself whispering. +</P> + +<P> +A sudden silence fell upon them. The voices of their companions seemed +very far in the distance; the warm breath of the flowers appeared to be +drowning their senses; they tried to speak, but could not; they were so +near to each other that the two long blades of a palm served to hide +them. In the midst of this profound silence a voice that was like and +yet unlike Maruja's said twice, "Go! go!" but each time seemed hushed +in the stifling silence. The next moment the palms were pushed aside, +the dark figure of a young man slipped like some lithe animal through +the shrubbery, and Maruja found herself standing, pale and rigid, in +the middle of the walk, in the full glare of the light, and looking +down the corridor toward her approaching companions. She was furious +and frightened; she was triumphant and trembling; without thought, +sense, or reason, she had been kissed by Henry Guest, and—had returned +it. +</P> + +<P> +The fleetest horses of Aladdin's stud that night could not carry her +far enough or fast enough to take her away from that moment, that +scene, and that sensation. Wise and experienced, confident in her +beauty, secure in her selfishness, strong over others' weaknesses, +weighing accurately the deeds and words of men and women, recognizing +all there was in position and tradition, seeing with her father's clear +eyes the practical meaning of any divergence from that conventionality +which as a woman of the world she valued, she returned again and again +to the trembling joy of that intoxicating moment. She though of her +mother and sisters, of Raymond and Garnier, of Aladdin—she even forced +herself to think of Carroll—only to shut her eyes, with a faint smile, +and dream again the brief but thrilling dream of Guest that began and +ended in their joined and parted lips. Small wonder that, hidden and +silent in her enwrappings, as she lay back in the carriage, with her +pale face against the cold starry sky, two other stars came out and +glistened and trembled on her passion-fringed lashes. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap10"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER X +</H3> + +<P> +The rainy season had set in early. The last three weeks of summer +drought had drained the great valley of its lifeblood; the dead stalks +of grain rustled like dry bones over Dr. West's grave. The desiccating +wind and sun had wrought some disenchanting cracks and fissures in +Aladdin's Palace, and otherwise disjoined it, so that it not only +looked as if it were ready to be packed away, but had become finally +untenable in the furious onset of the southwesterly rains. The +gorgeous furniture of the reception-rooms was wrapped in mackintoshes, +the conservatory was changed into an aquarium, the Bridge of Sighs +crossed an actual canal in the stable-yard. Only the billiard-room and +Mr. Prince's bed-room and office remained intact, and in the latter, +one stormy afternoon, Mr. Prince himself sat busy over his books and +papers. His station-wagon, splashed and streaked with mud, stood in +the court-yard, just as it had been driven from the station, and the +smell of the smoke of newly-lit fires showed that the house had been +opened only for this hurried visit of its owner. +</P> + +<P> +The tramping of horse hoofs in the court-yard was soon followed by +steps along the corridor, and the servant ushered Captain Carroll into +the presence of his master. The Captain did not remove his military +overcoat, but remained standing erect in the centre of the room, with +his forage cap in his hand. +</P> + +<P> +"I could have given you a lift from the station," said Prince, "if you +had come that way. I've only just got in myself." +</P> + +<P> +"I preferred to ride," said Carroll, dryly. +</P> + +<P> +"Sit down by the fire," said Prince, motioning to a chair, "and dry +yourself." +</P> + +<P> +"I must ask you first the purport of this interview," said Carroll, +curtly, "before I prolong it further. You have asked me to come here +in reference to certain letters I returned to their rightful owner some +months ago. If you seek to reclaim them again, or to refer to a +subject which must remain forgotten, I decline to proceed further." +</P> + +<P> +"It DOES refer to the letters, and it rests with you whether they shall +be forgotten or not. It is not my fault if the subject has been +dropped. You must remember that until yesterday you have been absent +on a tour of inspection and could not be applied to before." +</P> + +<P> +Carroll cast a cold glance at Prince, and then threw himself into a +chair, with his overcoat still on and his long military boots crossed +before the fire. Sitting there in profile Prince could not but notice +that he looked older and sterner than at their last interview, and his +cheeks were thinned as if by something more than active service. +</P> + +<P> +"When you were here last summer," began Prince, leaning forward over +his desk, "you brought me a piece of news that astounded me, as it did +many others. It was the assignment of Dr. West's property to Mrs. +Saltonstall. That was something there was no gainsaying; it was a +purely business affair, and involved nobody's rights but the assignor. +But this was followed, a day or two after, by the announcement of the +Doctor's will, making the same lady the absolute and sole inheritor of +the same property. That seemed all right too; for there were, +apparently, no legal heirs. Since then, however, it has been discovered +that there is a legal heir—none other than the Doctor's only son. +Now, as no allusion to the son's existence was made in that will—which +was a great oversight of the Doctor's—it is a fiction of the law that +such an omission is an act of forgetfulness, and therefore leaves the +son the same rights as if there had been no will at all. In other +words, if the Doctor had seen fit to throw his scapegrace son a hundred +dollar bill, it would have been legal evidence that he remembered him. +As he did not, it's a fair legal presumption that he forgot him, or +that the will is incomplete." +</P> + +<P> +"This seems to be a question for Mrs. Saltonstall's lawyers—not for +her friends," said Carroll, coldly. +</P> + +<P> +"Excuse me; that remains for you to decide—when you hear all. You +understand at present, then, that Dr. West's property, both by +assignment and will, was made over, in the event of his death, not to +his legal heirs, but to a comparative stranger. It looked queer to a +good many people, but the only explanation was, that the Doctor had +fallen very much in love with the widow—that he would have probably +married her—had he lived." +</P> + +<P> +With an unpleasant recollection that this was almost exactly Maruja's +explanation of her mother's relations to Dr. West, Carroll returned, +impatiently, "If you mean that their private relations may be made the +subject of legal discussion, in the event of litigation in regard to +the property, that again is a matter for Mrs. Saltonstall to +decide—and not her friends. It is purely a matter of taste." +</P> + +<P> +"It may be a matter of discretion, Captain Carroll." +</P> + +<P> +"Of discretion!" repeated Carroll, superciliously. +</P> + +<P> +"Well," said Prince, leaving his desk and coming to the fire-place, +with his hands in his pockets, "what would you call it, if it could be +found that Dr. West, on leaving Mrs. Saltonstall's that night, did not +meet with an accident, was not thrown from his horse, but was coolly +and deliberately murdered!" +</P> + +<P> +Captain Carroll's swift recollection of the discovery he himself had +made in the road, and its inconsistency with the accepted theory of the +accident, unmistakably showed itself in his face. It was a moment +before he recovered himself. +</P> + +<P> +"But even if it can be proved to have been a murder and not an +accident, what has that to do with Mrs. Saltonstall or her claim to the +property?" +</P> + +<P> +"Only that she was the one person directly benefited by his death." +</P> + +<P> +Captain Carroll looked at him steadily, and then rose to his feet. "Do +I understand that you have called me here to listen to this infamous +aspersion of a lady?" +</P> + +<P> +"I have called you here, Captain Carroll, to listen to the arguments +that may be used to set aside Dr. West's will, and return the property +to the legal heir. You are to listen to them or not, as you choose; +but I warn you that your opportunity to hear them in confidence and +convey them to your friend will end here. I have no opinion in the +case. I only tell you that it will be argued that Dr. West was unduly +influenced to make a will in Mrs. Saltonstall's favor; that, after +having done so, it will be shown that, just before his death, he became +aware of the existence of his son and heir, and actually had an +interview with him; that he visited Mrs. Saltonstall that evening, with +the records of his son's identity and a memorandum of his interview in +his pocket-book; and that, an hour after leaving the house, he was +foully murdered. That is the theory which Mrs. Saltonstall has to +consider. I told you I have no opinion. I only know that there are +witnesses to the interview of the Doctor and his son; there is evidence +of murder, and the murderer is suspected; there is the evidence of the +pocket-book, with the memorandum picked up on the spot, which you +handed me yourself." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you mean to say that you will permit this pocketbook, handed you in +confidence, to be used for such an infamous purpose?" said Carroll. +</P> + +<P> +"I think you offered it to me in exchange for Dr. West's letters to +Mrs. Saltonstall," returned Prince, dryly. "The less said about that, +the less is likely to be said about compromising letters written by the +widow to the Doctor, which she got you to recover—letters which they +may claim had a bearing on the case, and even lured him to his fate." +</P> + +<P> +For an instant Captain Carroll recoiled before the gulf which seemed to +open at the feet of the unhappy family. For an instant a terrible +doubt possessed him, and in that doubt he found a new reason for a +certain changed and altered tone in Maruja's later correspondence with +him, and the vague hints she had thrown out of the impossibility of +their union. "I beg you will not press me to greater candor," she had +written, "and try to forget me before you learn to hate me." For an +instant he believed—and even took a miserable comfort in the +belief—that it was this hideous secret, and not some coquettish +caprice, to which she vaguely alluded. But it was only for a moment; +the next instant the monstrous doubt passed from the mind of the simple +gentleman, with only a slight flush of shame at his momentary +disloyalty. +</P> + +<P> +Prince, however, had noticed it, not without a faint sense of sympathy. +"Look here!" he said, with a certain brusqueness, which in a man of his +character was less dangerous than his smoothness. "I know your feelings +to that family—at least to one of them—and, if I've been playing it +pretty rough on you, it's only because you played it rather rough on ME +the last time you were here. Let's understand each other. I'll go so +far as to say I don't believe that Mrs. Saltonstall had anything to do +with that murder, but, as a business man, I'm bound to say that these +circumstances and her own indiscretion are quite enough to bring the +biggest pressure down on her. I wouldn't want any better 'bear' on the +market value of her rights than this. Take it at its best. Say that +the Coroner's verdict is set aside, and a charge of murder against +unknown parties is made—" +</P> + +<P> +"One moment, Mr. Prince," said Carroll. "I shall be one of the first +to insist that this is done, and I have confidence enough in Mrs. +Saltonstall's honest friendship for the Doctor to know that she will +lose no time in pursuing his murderers." +</P> + +<P> +Prince looked at Carroll with a feeling of half envy and half pity. "I +think not," he said, dryly; "for all suspicion points to one man as the +perpetrator, and that man was Mrs. Saltonstall's confidential +servant—the mayordomo, Pereo." He waited for a moment for the effect +of this announcement on Carroll, and then went on: "You now understand +that, even if Mrs. Saltonstall is acquitted of any connivance with or +even knowledge of the deed, she will hardly enjoy the prosecution of +her confidential servant for murder." +</P> + +<P> +"But how can this be prevented? If, as you say, there are actual +proofs, why have they not been acted upon before? What can keep them +from being acted upon now?" +</P> + +<P> +"The proofs have been collected by one man, have been in possession of +one man, and will only pass out of his possession when it is for the +benefit of the legal heir—who does not yet even know of their +existence." +</P> + +<P> +"And who is this one man?" +</P> + +<P> +"Myself." +</P> + +<P> +"You?—You?" said Carroll, advancing towards him. "Then this is YOUR +work!" +</P> + +<P> +"Captain Carroll," said Prince, without moving, but drawing his lips +tightly together and putting his head on one side, "I don't propose to +have another scene like the one we had at our last meeting. If you try +on anything of that kind, I shall put the whole matter into a lawyer's +hands. I don't say that you won't regret it; I don't say that I sha'nt +be disappointed, too, for I have been managing this thing purely as a +matter of business, with a view to profiting by it. It so happens that +we can both work to the same end, even if our motives are not the same. +I don't call myself an officer and a gentleman, but I reckon I've run +this affair about as delicately as the best of them, and with a d——d +sight more horse sense. I want this thing hushed up and compromised, +to get some control of the property again, and to prevent it +depreciating, as it would, in litigation; you want it hushed up for the +sake of the girl and your future mother-in-law. I don't know anything +about your laws of honor, but I've laid my cards on the table for you +to see, without asking what you've got in your hand. You can play the +game or leave the board, as you choose." He turned and walked to the +window—not without leaving on Carroll's mind a certain sense of +firmness, truthfulness, and sincerity which commanded his respect. +</P> + +<P> +"I withdraw any remark that might have seemed to reflect on your +business integrity, Mr. Prince," said Carroll, quietly. "I am willing +to admit that you have managed this thing better than I could, and, if +I join you in an act to suppress these revelations, I have no right to +judge of your intentions. What do you propose to have me do?" +</P> + +<P> +"To state the whole case to Mrs. Saltonstall, and to ask her to +acknowledge the young man's legal claim without litigation." +</P> + +<P> +"But how do you know that she would not do this without—excuse +me—without intimidation?" +</P> + +<P> +"I only reckon that a woman clever enough to get hold of a million, +would be clever enough to keep it—against others." +</P> + +<P> +"I hope to show you are mistaken. But where is this heir?" +</P> + +<P> +"Here." +</P> + +<P> +"Here?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. For the last six months he has been my private secretary. I +know what you are thinking of, Captain Carroll. You would consider it +indelicate—eh? Well, that's just where we differ. By this means I +have kept everything in my own hands—prevented him from getting into +the hands of outsiders—and I intend to dispose of just as much of the +facts to him as may be necessary for him to prove his title. What +bargain I make with HIM—is my affair." +</P> + +<P> +"Does he suspect the murder?" +</P> + +<P> +"No. I did not think it necessary for his good or mine. He can be an +ugly devil if he likes, and although there wasn't much love lost +between him and the old man, it wouldn't pay to have any revenge mixed +up with business. He knows nothing of it. It was only by accident +that, looking after his movements while he was here, I ran across the +tracks of the murderer." +</P> + +<P> +"But what has kept him from making known his claim to the Saltonstalls? +Are you sure he has not?" said Carroll, with a sudden thought that it +might account for Maruja's strangeness. +</P> + +<P> +"Positive. He's too proud to make a claim unless he could thoroughly +prove it, and only a month ago he made me promise to keep it dark. +He's too lazy to trouble himself about it much anyway—as far as I can +see. D——d if I don't think his being a tramp has made him lose his +taste for everything! Don't worry yourself about HIM. He isn't likely +to make confidences with the Saltonstalls, for he don't like 'em, and +never went there but once. Instinctively or not, the widow didn't +cotton to him; and I fancy Miss Maruja has some old grudge against him +for that fan business on the road. She isn't a girl to forgive or +forget anything, as I happen to know," he added, with an uneasy laugh. +</P> + +<P> +Carroll was too preoccupied with the danger that seemed to threaten his +friends from this surly pretender to resent Prince's tactless allusion. +He was thinking of Maruja's ominous agitation at his presence at Dr. +West's grave. "Do they suspect him at all?"—he asked, hurriedly. +</P> + +<P> +"How should they? He goes by the name of Guest—which was his father's +real name until changed by an act of legislation when he first came +here. Nobody remembers it. We only found it out from his papers. It +was quite legal, as all his property was acquired under the name of +West." +</P> + +<P> +Carroll rose and buttoned his overcoat. "I presume you are able to +offer conclusive proofs of everything you have asserted?" +</P> + +<P> +"Perfectly." +</P> + +<P> +"I am going to the Mision Perdida now," said Captain Carroll, quietly. +"To-morrow I will bring you the answer—Peace or War." He walked to the +door, lifted his hand to his cap, with a brief military salutation, and +disappeared. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap11"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XI +</H3> + +<P> +As Captain Carroll urged his horse along the miry road to La Mision +Perdida, he was struck with certain changes in the landscape before him +other than those wrought by the winter rains. There were the usual +deep gullies and trenches, half-filled with water, in the fields and +along the road, but there were ominous embankments and ridges of +freshly turned soil, and a scattered fringe of timbers following a +cruel, undeviating furrow on the broad grazing lands of the Mision. +But it was not until he had crossed the arroyo that he felt the full +extent of the late improvements. A quick rumbling in the distance, a +light flash of steam above the willow copse, that drifted across the +field on his right, and he knew that the railroad was already in +operation. Captain Carroll reined in his frightened charger, and +passed his hand across his brow with a dazed sense of loss. He had +been gone only four months—yet he already felt strange and forgotten. +</P> + +<P> +It was with a feeling of relief that he at last turned from the +high-road into the lane. Here everything was unchanged, except that +the ditches were more thickly strewn with the sodden leaves of fringing +oaks and sycamores. Giving his horse to a servant in the court-yard, +he did not enter the patio, but, crossing the lawn, stepped upon the +long veranda. The rain was dripping from its eaves and striking a +minute spray from the vines that clung to its columns; his footfall +awoke a hollow echo as he passed, as if the outer shell of the house +were deserted; the formal yews and hemlocks that in summer had relieved +the dazzling glare of six months' sunshine had now taken gloomy +possession of the garden, and the evening shadows, thickened by rain, +seemed to lie in wait at every corner. The servant, who had, with +old-fashioned courtesy, placed the keys and the "disposition" of that +wing of the house at his service, said that Dona Maria would wait upon +him in the salon before dinner. Knowing the difficulty of breaking the +usual rigid etiquette, and trusting to the happy intervention of +Maruja—though here, again, custom debarred him from asking for her—he +allowed the servant to remove his wet overcoat, and followed him to the +stately and solemn chamber prepared for him. The silence and gloom of +the great house, so grateful and impressive in the ardent summer, began +to weigh upon him under this shadow of an overcast sky. He walked to +the window and gazed out on the cloister-like veranda. A melancholy +willow at an angle of the stables seemed to be wringing its hands in +the rising wind. He turned for relief to the dim fire that flickered +like a votive taper in the vault-like hearth, and drew a chair towards +it. In spite of the impatience and preoccupation of a lover, he found +himself again and again recurring to the story he had just heard, until +the vengeful spirit of the murdered Doctor seemed to darken and possess +the house. He was striving to shake off the feeling, when his +attention was attracted to stealthy footsteps in the passage. Could it +be Maruja? He rose to his feet, with his eye upon the door. The +footsteps ceased—it remained closed. But another door, which had +escaped his attention in the darkened corner, slowly swung on its +hinges, and, with a stealthy step, Pereo, the mayordomo, entered the +room. +</P> + +<P> +Courageous and self-possessed as Captain Carroll was by nature and +education, this malevolent vision, and incarnation of the thought +uppermost in his mind, turned him cold. He had half drawn a derringer +from his breast, when his eye fell on the grizzled locks and wrinkled +face of the old man, and his hand dropped to his side. But Pereo, with +the quick observation of insanity, had noticed the weapon, and rubbed +his hands together, with a malicious laugh. +</P> + +<P> +"Good! good! good!" he whispered, rapidly, in a strange bodiless voice; +"'t will serve! 't will serve! And you are a soldier too—and know how +to use it! Good, it is a Providence!" He lifted his hollow eyes to +heaven, and then added, "Come! come!" +</P> + +<P> +Carroll stepped towards him. He was alone and in the presence of an +undoubted madman—one strong enough, in spite of his years, to inflict +a deadly injury, and one whom he now began to realize might have done +so once before. Nevertheless, he laid his hand on the old man's arm, +and, looking him calmly in the eye, said, quietly, "Come? Where, +Pereo? I have only just arrived." +</P> + +<P> +"I know it," whispered the old man, nodding his head violently. "I was +watching them, when you rode up. That is why I lost the scent; but +together we can track them still—we can track them. Eh, Captain, eh! +Come! Come!" and he moved slowly backward, waving his hand towards the +door. +</P> + +<P> +"Track whom, Pereo?" said Carroll, soothingly. "Whom do you seek?" +</P> + +<P> +"Whom?" said the old man, startled for a moment and passing his hand +over his wrinkled forehead. "Whom? Eh! Why, the Dona Maruja and the +little black cat—her maid—Faquita!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, but why seek them? Why track them?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" said the old man, with a sudden burst of impotent passion. "YOU +ask me why! Because they are going to the rendezvous again. They are +going to seek him. Do you understand—to seek HIM—the Coyote!" +</P> + +<P> +Carroll smiled a faint smile of relief—"So—the Coyote!" +</P> + +<P> +"Ay," said the old man, in a confidential whisper; "the Coyote! But not +the big one—you understand—the little one. The big one is +dead—dead—dead! But the little one lives yet. You shall do for HIM +what I, Pereo—listen—" he glanced around the room furtively—"what +I—the good old Pereo, did for the big one! Good, it is a Providence. +Come!" +</P> + +<P> +Of the terrible thoughts that crossed Carroll's mind at this unexpected +climax one alone was uppermost. The trembling irresponsible wretch +before him meditated some vague crime—and Maruja was in danger. He +did not allow himself to dwell upon any other suspicion suggested by +that speech; he quickly conceived a plan of action. To have rung the +bell and given Pereo into the hands of the servants would have only +exposed to them the lunatic's secret—if he had any—and he might +either escape in his fury or relapse into useless imbecility. To humor +him and follow him, and trust afterwards to his own quickness and +courage to avert any calamity, seemed to be the only plan. Captain +Carroll turned his clear glance on the restless eyes of Pereo, and +said, without emotion, "Let us go, then, and quickly. You shall track +them for me; but remember, good Pereo, you must leave the rest to me." +</P> + +<P> +In spite of himself, some accidental significance in this ostentatious +adjuration to lull Pereo's suspicions struck him with pain. But the old +man's eyes glittered with gratified passion as he said, "Ay, good! I +will keep my word. Thou shalt work thy will on the little one as I +have said. Truly it is a Providence! Come!" Seeing Captain Carroll +glance round for his overcoat, he seized a poncho from the wall, +wrapped it round him, and grasped his hand. Carroll, who would have +evaded this semblance of disguise, had no time to parley, and they +turned together, through the door by which Pereo had entered, into a +long dark passage, which seemed to be made through the outer shell of +the building that flanked the park. Following his guide in the profound +obscurity, perfectly conscious that any change in his madness might be +followed by a struggle in the dark, where no help could reach them, +they presently came to a door that opened upon the fresh smell of rain +and leaves. They were standing at the bottom of a secluded alley, +between two high hedges that hid it from the end of the garden. Its +grass-grown walk and untrimmed hedges showed that it was seldom used. +Carroll, still keeping close to Pereo's side, felt him suddenly stop +and tremble. "Look!" he said, pointing to a shadowy figure some +distance before them; "look, 'tis Maruja, and alone!" +</P> + +<P> +With a dexterous movement, Carroll managed to slip his arm securely +through the old man's, and even to throw himself before him, as if in +his eagerness to discern the figure. +</P> + +<P> +"'Tis Maruja—and alone!" said Pereo, trembling. "Alone! Eh! And the +Coyote is not here!" He passed his hand over his staring eyes. "So." +Suddenly he turned upon Carroll. "Ah, do you not see, it is a trick! +The Coyote is escaping with Faquita! Come! Nay; thou wilt not? Then +will I!" With an unexpected strength born of his madness, he freed his +arm from Carroll and darted down the alley. The figure of Maruja, +evidently alarmed at his approach, glided into the hedge, as Pereo +passed swiftly by, intent only on his one wild fancy. Without a +further thought of his companion or even the luckless Faquita, Carroll +also plunged through the hedge, to intercept Maruja. But by that time +she was already crossing the upper end of the lawn, hurrying towards +the entrance to the patio. Carroll did not hesitate to follow. Keeping +in view the lithe, dark, active little figure, now hidden by an +intervening cluster of bushes, now fading in the gathering evening +shadows, he nevertheless did not succeed in gaining upon her until she +had nearly reached the patio. Here he lost ground, as turning to the +right, instead of entering the court-yard, she kept her way toward the +stables. He was near enough, however, to speak. "One moment, Miss +Saltonstall," he said hurriedly; "there is no danger. I am alone. But +I must speak with you." +</P> + +<P> +The young girl seemed only to redouble her exertions. At last she +stopped before a narrow door hidden in the wall, and fumbled in her +pocket for a key. That moment Carroll was upon her. +</P> + +<P> +"Forgive me, Miss Saltonstall—Maruja; but you must hear me! You are +safe, but I fear for your maid, Faquita!" +</P> + +<P> +A little laugh followed his speech; the door yielded and opened to her +vanishing figure. For an instant the lace shawl muffling her face was +lifted, as the door closed and locked behind her. Carroll drew back in +consternation. It was the laughing eyes and saucy face of Faquita! +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap12"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XII +</H3> + +<P> +When Captain Carroll turned from the high-road into the lane, an hour +before, Maruja and Faquita had already left the house by the same +secret passage and garden-door that opened afterwards upon himself and +Pereo. The young women had evidently changed dresses: Maruja was +wearing the costume of her maid; Faquita was closely veiled and habited +like her mistress; but it was characteristic that, while Faquita +appeared awkward and over-dressed in her borrowed plumes, Maruja's +short saya and trim bodice, with the striped shawl that hid her fair +head, looked infinitely more coquettish and bewitching than on its +legitimate owner. +</P> + +<P> +They passed hurriedly down the long alley, and at its further end +turned at right angles to a small gate half hidden in the shrubbery. +It opened upon a venerable vineyard, that dated back to the occupation +of the padres, but was now given over to the chance cultivation of +peons and domestics. Its long, broken rows of low vines, knotted and +overgrown with age, reached to the thicketed hillside of buckeye that +marked the beginning of the canada. Here Maruja parted from her maid, +and, muffling the shawl more closely round her head, hastily passed +between the vine rows to a ruined adobe building near the hillside. It +was originally part of the refectory of the old Mision, but had been +more recently used as a vinadero's cottage. As she neared it, her +steps grew slower, until, reaching its door, she hesitated, with her +hand timidly on the latch. The next moment she opened it gently; it +was closed quickly behind her, and, with a little stifled cry, she +found herself in the arms of Henry Guest. +</P> + +<P> +It was only for an instant; the pleading of her white hands, disengaged +from his neck, where at first they had found themselves, and uplifted +before her face, touched him more than the petitioning eyes or the +sweet voiceless mouth, whose breath even was forgotten. Letting her +sink into the chair from which he had just risen, he drew back a step, +with his hands clasped before him, and his dark half-savage eyes bent +earnestly upon her. Well might he have gazed. It was no longer the +conscious beauty, proud and regnant, seated before him; but a timid, +frightened girl, struggling with her first deep passion. +</P> + +<P> +All that was wise and gentle that she had intended to say, all that her +clear intellect and experience had taught her, died upon her lips with +that kiss. And all that she could do of womanly dignity and high-bred +decorum was to tuck her small feet under her chair, in the desperate +attempt to lengthen her short skirt, and beg him not to look at her. +</P> + +<P> +"I have had to change dresses with Faquita, because we were watched," +she said, leaning forward in her chair and drawing the striped shawl +around her shoulders. "I have had to steal out of my mother's house +and through the fields, as if I was a gypsy. If I only were a gypsy, +Harry, and not—" +</P> + +<P> +"And not the proudest heiress in the land," he interrupted, with +something of his old bitterness. "True, I had forgot." +</P> + +<P> +"But I never reminded you of it," she said, lifting her eyes to his. +"I did not remind you of it on that day—in—in—in the conservatory, +nor at the time you first spoke of—of—love to me—nor from the time I +first consented to meet you here. It is YOU, Harry, who have spoken of +the difference of our condition, YOU who have talked of my wealth, my +family, my position—until I would gladly have changed places with +Faquita as I have garments, if I had thought it would make you happier." +</P> + +<P> +"Forgive me, darling!" he said, dropping on one knee before her and +bending over the cold little hand he had taken, until his dark head +almost rested in her lap. "Forgive me! You are too proud, Maruja, to +admit, even to yourself, that you have given your heart where your hand +and fortune could not follow. But others may not think so. I am +proud, too, and will not have it said that I have won you before I was +worthy of you." +</P> + +<P> +"You have no right to be more proud than I, sir," she said, rising to +her feet, with a touch of her old supreme assertion. "No—don't, +Harry—please, Harry—there!" Nevertheless, she succumbed; and, when +she went on, it was with her head resting on his shoulder. "It's this +deceit and secrecy that is so shameful, Harry. I think I could bear +everything with you, if it were all known—if you came to woo me +like—like—the others. Even if they abused you—if they spoke of your +doubtful origin—of your poverty—of your hardships! When they +aspersed you, I could fight them; when they spoke of your having no +father that you could claim, I could even lie for you, I think, Harry, +and say that you had; if they spoke of your poverty, I would speak of +my wealth; if they talked of your hardships, I should only be proud of +your endurance—if I could only keep the tears from my eyes!" They +were there now. He kissed them away. +</P> + +<P> +"But if they threatened you? If they drove me from the house?" +</P> + +<P> +"I should fly with you," she said, hiding her head in his breast. +</P> + +<P> +"What if I were to ask you to fly with me now?" he said, gloomily. +</P> + +<P> +"Now!" she repeated, lifting her frightened eyes to his. +</P> + +<P> +His face darkened, with its old look of savage resentment. "Hear me, +Maruja," he said, taking her hands tightly in his own. "When I forgot +myself—when I was mad that day in the conservatory, the only expiation +I could think of was to swear in my inmost soul that I would never take +advantage of your forgiveness, that I would never tempt you to forget +yourself, your friends, your family, for me, an unknown outcast. When +I found you pitied me, and listened to my love—I was too weak to +forego the one ray of sunshine in my wretched life—and, thinking that +I had a prospect before me in an idea I promised to reveal to you +later, I swore never to beguile you or myself in that hope by any act +that might bring you to repent it—or myself to dishonor. But I taxed +myself too much, Maruja. I have asked too much of you. You are right, +darling; this secrecy—this deceit—is unworthy of us! Every hour of +it—blest as it has been to me—every moment—sweet as it is—blackens +the purity of our only defense, makes you false and me a coward! It +must end here—to-day! Maruja, darling, my precious one! God knows +what may be the success of my plans. We have but one chance now. I +must leave here to-day, never to return, or I must take you with me. +Do not start, Maruja—but hear me out. Dare you risk all? Dare you +fly with me now, to-night, to the old Padre at the ruined Mision, and +let him bind us in those bonds that none dare break? We can take +Faquita with us—it is but a few miles—and we can return and throw +ourselves at your mother's feet. She can only drive us forth together. +Or we can fly from this cursed wealth, and all the misery it has +entailed—forever." +</P> + +<P> +She raised her head, and, with her two hands on his shoulders, gazed at +him with her father's searching eyes, as if to read his very soul. +</P> + +<P> +"Are you mad, Harry!—think what you propose! Is this not tempting me? +Think again, dearest," she said, half convulsively, seizing his arm +when her grasp had slipped from his shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +There was a momentary silence as she stood with her eyes fixed almost +wildly on his set face. But a sudden shock against the bolted door and +an inarticulate outcry startled them. With an instinctive movement, +Guest threw his arm round her. +</P> + +<P> +"It's Pereo," she said, in a hurried whisper, but once more mistress of +her strength and resolution. "He is seeking YOU! Fly at once. He is +mad, Harry; a raving lunatic. He watched us the last time. He has +tracked us here. He suspects you. You must not meet him. You can +escape through the other door, that opens upon the canada. If you love +me—fly!" +</P> + +<P> +"And leave YOU exposed to his fury—are you mad! No. Fly yourself by +the other door, lock it behind you, and alarm the servants. I will +open this door to him, secure him here, and then be gone. Do not fear +for me. There is no danger—and if I mistake not," he added, with a +strange significance, "he will hardly attack me!" +</P> + +<P> +"But he may have already alarmed the household. Hark!" +</P> + +<P> +There was the noise of a struggle outside the door, and then the voice +of Captain Carroll, calm and collected, rose clearly for an instant. +"You are quite safe, Miss Saltonstall. I think I have him secure, but +perhaps you had better not open the door until assistance comes." +</P> + +<P> +They gazed at each other, without a word. A grim challenge played on +Guest's lips. Maruja lifted her little hands deliberately, and clasped +them round his defiant neck. +</P> + +<P> +"Listen, darling," she said, softly and quietly, as if only the +security of silence and darkness encompassed them. "You asked me just +now if I would fly with you—if I would marry you, without the consent +of my family—against the protest of my friends—and at once! I +hesitated, Harry, for I was frightened and foolish. But I say to you +now that I will marry you when and where you like—for I love you, +Harry, and you alone." +</P> + +<P> +"Then let us go at once," he said, passionately seizing her; "we can +reach the road by the canada before assistance comes—before we are +discovered. Come!" +</P> + +<P> +"And you will remember in the years to come, Harry," she said, still +composedly, and with her arms still around his neck, "that I never +loved any but you—that I never knew what love was before, and that +since I have loved you—I have never thought of any other. Will you +not?" +</P> + +<P> +"I will—and now—" +</P> + +<P> +"And now," she said, with a superb gesture towards the barrier which +separated them from Carroll, "OPEN THE DOOR!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap13"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIII +</H3> + +<P> +With a swift glance of admiration at Maruja, Guest flung open the door. +The hastily-summoned servants were already bearing away the madman, +exhausted by his efforts. Captain Carroll alone remained there, erect +and motionless, before the threshold. +</P> + +<P> +At a sign from Maruja, he entered the room. In the flash of light made +by the opening door, he had been perfectly conscious of her companion, +but not a motion of his eye or the movement of a muscle of his face +betrayed it. The trained discipline of his youth stood him in good +service, and for the moment left him master of the situation. +</P> + +<P> +"I think no apology is needed for this intrusion," he said, with cool +composure. "Pereo seemed intent on murdering somebody or something, +and I followed him here. I suppose I might have got him away more +quietly, but I was afraid you might have thoughtlessly opened the +door." He stopped, and added, "I see now how unfounded was the +supposition." +</P> + +<P> +It was a fatal addition. In the next instant, the Maruja who had been +standing beside Guest, conscious-stricken and remorseful in the +presence of the man she had deceived, and calmly awaiting her +punishment, changed at this luckless exhibition of her own peculiar +womanly weapons. The old Maruja, supreme, ready, undaunted, and +passionless, returned to the fray. +</P> + +<P> +"You were wrong, Captain," she said, sweetly; "fortunately, Mr. +Guest—whom I see you have forgotten in your absence—was with me, and +I think would have felt it his duty to have protected me. But I thank +you all the same, and I think even Mr. Guest will not allow his envy of +your good fortune in coming so gallantly to my rescue to prevent his +appreciating its full value. I am only sorry that on your return to La +Mision Perdida you should have fallen into the arms of a madman before +extending your hands to your friends." +</P> + +<P> +Their eyes met. She saw that he hated her—and felt relieved. +</P> + +<P> +"It may not have been so entirely unfortunate," he said, with a +coldness strongly in contrast with his gradually blazing eyes, "for I +was charged with a message to you, in which this madman is supposed by +some to play an important part." +</P> + +<P> +"Is it a matter of business?" said Maruja, lightly, yet with a sudden +instinctive premonition of coming evil in the relentless tones of his +voice. +</P> + +<P> +"It is business, Miss Saltonstall—purely and simply business," said +Carroll, dryly, "under whatever OTHER name it may have been since +presented to you." +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps you have no objection to tell it before Mr. Guest," said +Maruja, with an inspiration of audacity; "it sounds so mysterious that +it must be interesting. Otherwise, Captain Carroll, who abhors +business, would not have undertaken it with more than his usual +enthusiasm." +</P> + +<P> +"As the business DOES interest Mr. Guest, or Mr. West, or whatever name +he may have decided upon since I had the pleasure of meeting him," said +Carroll—for the first time striking fire from the eyes of his +rival—"I see no reason why I should not, even at the risk of telling +you what you already know. Briefly, then, Mr. Prince charged me to +advise you and your mother to avoid litigation with this gentleman, and +admit his claim, as the son of Dr. West, to his share of the property." +</P> + +<P> +The utter consternation and bewilderment shown in the face of Maruja +convinced Carroll of his fatal error. She HAD received the addresses +of this man without knowing his real position! The wild theory that +had seemed to justify his resentment—that she had sold herself to +Guest to possess the property—now recoiled upon him in its utter +baseness. She had loved Guest for himself alone; by this base +revelation he had helped to throw her into his arms. +</P> + +<P> +But he did not even yet know Maruja. Turning to Guest, with flashing +eyes, she said, "Is it true—are you the son of Dr. West, and"—she +hesitated—"kept out of your inheritance by US?" +</P> + +<P> +"I AM the son of Dr. West," he said, earnestly, "though I alone had the +right to tell you that at the proper time and occasion. Believe me that +I have given no one the right—least of all any tool of Prince—to +TRADE upon it." +</P> + +<P> +"Then," said Carroll, fiercely, forgetting everything in his anger, +"perhaps you will disclaim before this young lady the charge made by +your employer that Pereo was instigated to Dr. West's murder by her +mother?" +</P> + +<P> +Again he had overshot the mark. The horror and indignation depicted in +Guest's face was too plainly visible to Maruja, as well as himself, to +permit a doubt that the idea was as new as the accusation. Forgetting +her bewilderment at these revelations, her wounded pride, a torturing +doubt suggested by Guest's want of confidence in her—indeed everything +but the outraged feelings of her lover, she flew to his side. "Not a +word," she said, proudly, lifting her little hand before his darkening +face. "Do not insult me by replying to such an accusation in my +presence. Captain Carroll," she continued, turning towards him, "I +cannot forget that you were introduced into my mother's house as an +officer and a gentleman. When you return to it as such, and not as a +MAN OF BUSINESS, you will be welcome. Until then, farewell!" +</P> + +<P> +She remained standing, erect and passionless, as Carroll, with a cold +salutation, stepped back and disappeared in the darkness; and then she +turned, and, with tottering step and a little cry, fell upon Guest's +breast. "O Harry—Harry!—why have you deceived me!" +</P> + +<P> +"I thought it for the best, darling," he said, lifting her face to his. +"You know now the prospect I spoke of—the hope that buoyed me up! I +wanted to win you myself alone, without appealing to your sense of +justice or even your sympathies! I did win you. God knows, if I had +not, you would never have learned through me that a son of Dr. West had +ever lived. But that was not enough. When I found that I could +establish my right to my father's property, I wanted you to marry me +before YOU knew it; so that it never could be said that you were +influenced by anything but love for me. That was why I came here +to-day. That was why I pressed you to fly with me!" +</P> + +<P> +He ceased. She was fumbling with the buttons of his waistcoat. +"Harry," she said, softly, "did you think of the property +when—when—you kissed me in the conservatory?" +</P> + +<P> +"I thought of nothing but YOU," he answered, tenderly. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly she started from his embrace. "But Pereo!—Harry—tell me +quick—no one-nobody can think that this poor demented old man +could—that Dr. West was—that—it's all a trick—isn't it? +Harry—speak!" +</P> + +<P> +He was silent for a moment, and then said, gravely, "There were strange +men at the fonda that night, and—my father was supposed to carry money +with him. My own life was attempted at the Mision the same evening for +the sake of some paltry gold pieces that I had imprudently shown. I +was saved solely by the interference of one man. That man was Pereo, +your mayordomo!" +</P> + +<P> +She seized his hand and raised it joyfully to her lips. "Thank you for +those words! And you will come to him with me at once; and he will +recognize you; and we will laugh at those lies; won't we, Harry?" +</P> + +<P> +He did not reply. Perhaps he was listening to a confused sound of +voices rapidly approaching the cottage. Together they stepped out into +the gathering night. A number of figures were coming towards them, +among them Faquita, who ran a little ahead to meet her mistress. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Dona Maruja, he has escaped!" +</P> + +<P> +"Who? Not Pereo!" +</P> + +<P> +"Truly. And on his horse. It was saddled and bridled in the stable +all day. One knew it not. He was walking like a cat, when suddenly he +parted the peons around him, like grain before a mad bull—and behold! +he was on the pinto's back and away. And, alas! there is no horse that +can keep up with the pinto. God grant he may not get in the way of the +r-r-railroad, that, in his very madness, he will even despise." +</P> + +<P> +"My own horse is in the thicket," whispered Guest, hurriedly, in +Maruja's ear. "I have measured him with the pinto before now. Give me +your blessing, and I will bring him back if he be alive." +</P> + +<P> +She pressed his hand and said, "Go." Before the astonished servants +could identify the strange escort of their mistress, he was gone. +</P> + +<P> +It was already quite dark. To any but Guest, who had made the +topography of La Mision Perdida a practical study, and who had known +the habitual circuit of the mayordomo in his efforts to avoid him, the +search would have been hopeless. But, rightly conjecturing that he +would in his demented condition follow the force of habit, he spurred +his horse along the high-road until he reached the lane leading to the +grassy amphitheatre already described, which was once his favorite +resort. Since then it had participated in the terrible transformation +already wrought in the valley by the railroad. A deep cutting through +one of the grassy hills had been made for the line that now crossed the +lower arc of the amphitheatre. +</P> + +<P> +His conjecture was justified on entering it by the appearance of a +shadowy horseman in full career round the circle, and he had no +difficulty in recognizing Pereo. As there was no other exit than the +one by which he came, the other being inaccessible by reason of the +railroad track, he calmly watched him twice make the circuit of the +arena, ready to ride towards him when he showed symptoms of slackening +his speed. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly he became aware of some strange exercise on the part of the +mysterious rider; and, as he swept by on the nearer side of the circle, +he saw that he was throwing a lasso! A horrible thought that he was +witnessing an insane rehearsal of the murder of his father flashed +across his mind. +</P> + +<P> +A far-off whistle from the distant woods recalled him to his calmer +senses at the same moment that it seemed also to check the evolutions +of the furious rider. Guest felt confident that the wretched man could +not escape him now. It was the approaching train, whose appearance +would undoubtedly frighten Pereo toward the entrance of the little +valley guarded by him. The hill-side was already alive with the +clattering echoes of the oncoming monster, when, to his horror, he saw +the madman advancing rapidly towards the cutting. He put spurs to his +horse, and started in pursuit; but the train was already emerging from +the narrow passage, followed by the furious rider, who had wheeled +abreast of the engine, and was, for a moment or two, madly keeping up +with it. Guest shouted to him, but his voice was lost in the roar of +the rushing caravan. +</P> + +<P> +Something seemed to fly from Pereo's hand. The next moment the train +had passed; rider and horse, crushed and battered out of all life, were +rolling in the ditch, while the murderer's empty saddle dangled at the +end of a lasso, caught on the smoke-stack of one of the murdered man's +avenging improvements! +</P> + +<HR ALIGN="center" WIDTH="60%"> + +<P> +The marriage of Maruja and the son of the late Dr. West was received in +the valley of San Antonio as one of the most admirably conceived and +skillfully matured plans of that lamented genius. There were many who +were ready to state that the Doctor had confided it to them years +before; and it was generally accepted that the widow Saltonstall had +been simply made a trustee for the benefit of the prospective young +couple. Only one person perhaps, did not entirely accept these views; +it was Mr. James Price—otherwise known as Aladdin. In later years, he +is said to have stated authoritatively "that the only combination in +business that was uncertain—was man and woman." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Maruja, by Bret Harte + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MARUJA *** + +***** This file should be named 2185-h.htm or 2185-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/8/2185/ + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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