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diff --git a/old/maruj10.txt b/old/maruj10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a87377e --- /dev/null +++ b/old/maruj10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5133 @@ +******The Project Gutenberg Etext of Maruja, by Bret Harte****** +#6 in our series by Bret Harte + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. 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If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Association/Carnegie-Mellon + University" within the 60 days following each + date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare) + your annual (or equivalent periodic) tax return. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time, +scanning machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty +free copyright licenses, and every other sort of contribution +you can think of. Money should be paid to "Project Gutenberg +Association / Carnegie-Mellon University". + +*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +MARUJA + +by BRET HARTE + + + + +MARUJA + + +CHAPTER I + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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? + +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. + +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. + +"They've been watching each other for the last hour. I wonder +what's up?" said the young man who remained. + +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. + +"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." + +"Why did they separate, then?" asked the other. + +"That's a mere blind. Garnier's looking through his window now at +Carroll, and Carroll is aware of it." + +"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?" + +"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." + +"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." + +"Possibly. But that wouldn't prevent Maruja from flirting with +him." + +"Eh! but are you not mistaken, Mr. Raymond? Certainly a more +quiet, modest, and demure young lassie I never met." + +"That's because she sat out two waltzes with you, and let you do +the talking, while she simply listened." + +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." + +"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?" . . . + +"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. + +"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." + +"You're an enthusiast, Mr. Raymond. As an habitue of the house, of +course, you--" + +"Oh, my time came with the rest," laughed the young man, with +unaffected frankness. "It's about two years ago now." + +"I see--you were not a marrying man." + +"Pardon me--it was because I was." + +The Scotchman looked at him curiously. + +"Maruja is an heiress. I am a mining engineer." + +"But, my dear fellow, I thought that in your country--" + +"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." + +"Then the Captain might still make a pretty penny on Amita," said +the Scotchman. + +"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." + +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? + +"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." + +"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." + +"What! the butler? That Indian-looking fellow? A servant?" + +"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." + +"How?" + +"Why, he ends by transferring his young affections to her--with the +usual result." + +"Then you don't think our friend the Captain has had this +confidential butler ask his intentions yet?" + +"I don't think it will be necessary," said the other, dryly. + +"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!" + +"Yes!" said Raymond, in a changed voice, "It's Maruja!" + +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. + +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. + +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?" + +"Let me up," groaned Raymond, feebly, "and I'll tell you how old +she is. Hush--she's looking." + +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. + +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. + +"Come away, man, and have our walk," said the Scotchman, seizing +Raymond's arm. "We'll not spoil that fellow's sport." + +"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!" + +"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." + + +CHAPTER II + + +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. + +He must have been mistaken! Everything was quiet around him, the +far-off sound of wheels in the avenue came faintly, but nothing +more. + +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? + +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. + +"Captain Carroll!" + +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. + +"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. + +"I like to hear you speak my name," he said, with a slight +hesitation in his breath. "Say it again." + +"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." + +"But my first name is Henry," he said, faintly. + +"'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!" + +"Always?" He colored like a boy. + +"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." + +"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." + +"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." + +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?" + +"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. + +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." + +"That is--three, four, five days and one afternoon ago! You see, I +remember. And now you want--what?" + +"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." + +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. + +"It can not be, Carroll--no! never!" + +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. + +"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." + +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." + +"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?" + +He could not reply. In the depths of his miserable heart, he knew +that he would have loved her the same. + +"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." + +"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!" + +"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." + +"But surely this is not your determination?" + +She shrugged her shoulders. "What would you? It is the +determination of my people." + +"But knowing this"--he stopped; the quick blood rose to his face. + +"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." + +"You are cruel, Maruja. But, if that is all, surely this prejudice +can be removed? Why, your mother married a foreigner--an +American." + +"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." + +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! + +"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. + +"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." + +"I beg your pardon," said Garnier, in apparent distress, "but I +caught the gentleman's name imperfectly." + +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." + +"Ah, we shall commence now. We are at the beginning. This is +better than Senora Coyota," said Garnier, cheerfully. + +"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--" + +"And converted the land also; is it not so? It was a lovely site +for a mission," interpolated Garnier, politely. + +"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!" + +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." + +"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." + +"And that was long ago, and the property is still in the family," +said Carroll, hurriedly, answering Maruja's eyes. + +"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." + +"Ah, the gray-headed gentleman who lunched here the other day? You +are friends, then? You bear no malice?" said Garnier. + +"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. + +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. + +"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?" + +Maruja's straight mouth quickly tightened over her teeth. She shot +a significant glance at Carroll, but instantly resumed her former +manner. + +"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?" + +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." + +Carroll could not have helped echoing the aspirations of his rival, +had not the next words of his mistress thrilled him with +superstitious terror. + +"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!" + +She had turned upon him, stamping her little foot in quite a +frightened, childlike way. + +"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. + +"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." + +"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?" + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"Lookin'--for--San Jose road--here'bouts." + +"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--" + +"Don't want it! Mornin'." + +He dropped his head suddenly forward, and limped away in the +sunlight. + + +CHAPTER III + + +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. + +"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." + +"We would have a better chance if the Princess of China would only +go with us," pleaded Garnier, gallantly. + +"The Princess will stay at home with her mother, like a good girl," +returned Maruja, demurely. + +"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." + +"Why?" + +"The last time she was there, Aladdin was a little too Persian in +his extravagance: offered her his house, stables, and himself." + +"Not a bad catch--why, he's worth two millions, I hear." + +"Yes; but his wife is as extravagant as himself." + +"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." + +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. + +"The Dona Maruja has, without doubt, noticed the bouquet on her +dressing-room table from the Senor Garnier?" + +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! + +Faquita writhed in remorse, and averred that through this solitary +act she had dishonored her family. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"You have not been to bed, Mara?" + +"No, dear. Do I look it?" + +"You must lie down presently. They tell me that Captain Carroll +returned suddenly this morning." + +"Do you care?" + +"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--" + +"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." + +"You will ever talk lightly--like your father! She was not then +grieved--our Amita--eh?" + +"She and Dorotea and the two Wilsons went off with Raymond and your +Scotch friend in the wagonette. She did not cry--to Raymond." + +"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." + +"Again! What will Pereo say, little mother?" + +"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." + +"And can be replaced by intelligent strangers," interrupted Maruja, +demurely. + +"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." + +"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." + +"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." + +"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. + +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." + +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." + +"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." + +"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. + +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!" + +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. + +"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." + +"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. + +"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!" + +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!" + +"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. + +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 ezeape 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." + +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. + +In the midst of this the musical voice of Maruja was heard saying, +"What is a tramp?" + +Raymond, on her right, was ready but not conclusive. + +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. + +"And you think that is not an object of womanly solicitude? But +that does not tell me WHAT he is." + +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. + +"But is he always very uncivil?" asked Maruja. + +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. + +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. + +"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." + +"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." + +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. + +"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." + +The same idea passed through the minds of both men. She was +missing the excitement of Captain Carroll's presence. + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +"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." + +"In fact--a tramp," suggested Raymond. + +"Possibly. I think I should like to have been a gypsy, and to have +wandered about, finding a new home every night." + +"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?" + +"Sybarite!" She cast a long look over the fields and down the +lane. Suddenly she started. "What is that?" + +She pointed to a tall erect figure slowly disappearing on the other +side of the hedge. + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +"And what hast thou heard, Pereo?" said one of the women. + +"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." + +"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." + +"Now, the curse of Koorotora on thee, Pepita!" said Pereo, +excitedly. "Speak, fool, if thou knowest anything!" + +"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. + +"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?" + +"Truly, good Pereo, it was but accident that befriended me." + +"Truly, for thy mistress's sake, I hoped it had been more. But let +that go. Come, what said he, child?" + +"I was hanging up a robe behind the curtain in the oratory when +Pepita ushered in the Americano. I had no time to fly." + +"Why shouldst thou fly from a dog like this?" said one of the +cigarette-smokers who had drawn near. + +"Peace!" said the old man. + +"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?" + +"Los Osos! It is the boundary land--the frontier--the line of the +arroyo--older than the Mision," muttered Pereo. + +"Ay, and he talked of the--the--I know not what it is!--the r-r- +rail-r-road." + +"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." + +"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." + +"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." + +"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--" + +"The right, girl! Didst thou say the right? No, thou didst +mistake. It was not THAT he meant?" + +"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." + +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." + +"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." + +"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." + +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!" + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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! + +"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." + + +CHAPTER IV + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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!" + +The shadow of Dr. West's foreman appeared at the door. + +"Who's that you're talking to?" + +"Tramp, Sir." + +"Hire him, or send him about his business. Don't stand gabbling +there." + +"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." + +"Pack him off! . . . Stay. . . . What's he like?" + +"Like the rest of 'em, only a little lazier, I reckon." + +"Umph! Fetch him in." + +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. + +"You seem to have been born tired," said the Doctor, grimly. + +"Yes." + +"What have you got to say for yourself?" + +"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." + +"And if you don't get what you want on your own conditions, what'll +you do?" asked the Doctor, dryly. + +"Go." + +"Where did you come from?" + +"States." + +"Where are you going?" + +"On." + +"Leave him to me," said Dr. West to his foreman. The man smiled, +and withdrew. + +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. + +"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." + +The tramp arose, moved towards the passage, and stopped. "It's for +the job only, you understand?" he said. + +"For the job," answered the Doctor. + +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." + +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. + +"What's the matter with your foot?"* he asked, after a pause. + + +* 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. + + +"Born so." + +The first and second toe were joined by a thin membrane. + +"Both alike?" asked the Doctor. + +"Yes," said the young man, exhibiting the other foot. + +"What did you say your name was?" + +"I didn't say it. It's Henry Guest, same as my father's." + +"Where were you born?" + +"Dentville, Pike County, Missouri." + +"What was your mother's name?" + +"Spalding, I reckon." + +"Where are your parents now?" + +"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." + +"He isn't dead." + +"How do you know?" + +"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." + +There was a slight pause. The young man put down the boot he had +taken up. "Then I'm to stay here?" + +"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. + +"I've got a little," returned the young man. + +"How much?" + +The tramp put his hand into his breast, and drew out a piece of +folded paper containing a single gold coin. + +"Five dollars. I've kept it a month; it doesn't cost much to live +as I do," he added, dryly. + +"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?" + +"No." + +"See that you don't, then. Before you go, you must answer me a few +more questions." + +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. + +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. + +"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." + +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. + +"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. + +"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. + +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. + +"Tell one of the men to bring round 'Buckeye.'" + +The foreman hesitated. "Going to ride to-night, sir?" + +"Certainly; I may go as far as Saltonstall's. If I do, you needn't +expect me back till morning." + +"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." + +"I'll bet he don't buck his saddle off with me on it," said the +Doctor, grimly. "Bring him along." + +The man turned to go. "You found the tramp pow'ful lazy, didn't +ye?" + +"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!" + +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. + +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. + + +CHAPTER V + + +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. + +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 court- +yard 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"What sort of knives have you got?" + +"Knives, Senor?" + +"Yes; bowie-knives or dirks. Knives like that," he said, making an +imaginary downward stroke at the table before him. + +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. + +"How much?" + +"Tres pesos." + +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. + +The simple act seemed to check aggressive, but not insinuating, +interference. In a few moments one of the men appeared at the +doorway. + +"It is fine weather for the road, little comrade!" + +Guest did not reply. + +"Ah! the night, it ess splendid," he repeated, in broken English, +rubbing his hands, as if washing in the air. + +Still no reply. + +"You shall come from Sank Hosay?" + +"I sha'ant." + +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. + +"It is the best," said the landlord. "The Padre Vincento will have +none other on his journey." + +"I suppose God protects him," said Guest; "that door don't." He +pointed to the worm-eaten door, without bolt or fastening. + +"Ah, what matter! Are we not all friends?" + +"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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +"My fan!" cried Maruja. "Blessed Santa Maria!--my fan!" + +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. + +"Stop, all of you!" said Maruja; "that man will bring it to me." + +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. + +"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." + +"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." + +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. + +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!" + +"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!" + +"'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--" + +"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?" + +"Forgive me, padrono," gasped Miguel, now thoroughly alarmed at the +old man's awakened passion; "pardon; I meant that, since thou +knowest him--" + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +"Who are you?" he gasped, in uncertain English. + +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. + +"Stay, one moment, Senor, for the love of God!" + +Some keen accent of agony in the old man's voice touched even +Guest's selfish nature. He halted. + +"You are--a stranger here?"--faltered Pereo. "Yes?" + +"I am." + +"You do not live here?--you have no friends?" + +"I told you I am a stranger. I never was here before in my life," +said Guest, impatiently. + +"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." + +"Saved!" repeated Guest, with incredulous contempt. + +"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!" + +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. + +"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. + +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. + +"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." + +"Ah," said Pereo, reflectively, warming under the potent fires of +flattery and aguardiente, "possibly I HAVE seen him. He was like--" + +"Like none of the dogs thou hast seen about San Antonio," +interrupted the landlord. "Scarcely did he seem Americano, though +he spoke no Spanish." + +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:-- + + + Do you see my black eyes? + I am Manuel's Duchess,-- + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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!" + +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. + + +CHAPTER VI + + +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. + +"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!" + +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. + +It was past noon when Maruja awoke, to find Faquita standing by her +bedside with ill-concealed impatience. + +"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!" + +"Dr. West dead!" repeated Maruja, thoughtfully, but without +emotion. + +"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." + +"That no one else should break it to my mother?" repeated Maruja, +coldly. "What mean you, girl?" + +"I mean that no stranger should tell her," stammered Faquita, +lowering her bold eyes. + +"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." + +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. + +"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." + +"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?" + +"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." + +"Ay, man, but the heirs; there must be considerable property?" said +Buchanan, impatiently. + +"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." + +"PROBABLY! crop up some day," repeated Buchanan, aghast. + +"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." + +"What do you mean?" asked Buchanan, anxiously. + +"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." + +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. + +"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." + +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." + +"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?" + +"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." + +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." + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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?" + +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." + +"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 +expain how, or why, or when; but it is so." + +"And is that all?" said Carroll, with boyish openness of relief. +"And you have no other sorrow?" + +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?" + +"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." + +"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." + +He seized her hand and covered it with kisses. She withdrew it +gently. + +"What have I to do?" he asked, eagerly. + +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." + +"Is that all?" asked Carroll, with a slight touch of disappointment +in his tone. + +"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." + +"And you tell me this--you, Maruja--you who warned me against my +hopeless passion for you?" + +"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?" + +"Then you did think of my suit, Maruja," he said, grasping her +hand. + +"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?" + +"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." + +"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." + +"I understand," said the young officer, quietly. "This letter, +then, is my authority to recover them?" + +"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." + +"I think you may," said Carroll, simply. + +Maruja stretched out her hand. The young man bent over it +respectfully and moved towards the door. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + +CHAPTER VII + + +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. + +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." . . . + +"I don't think I do," said Carroll, coldly. "I know a lady named +Saltonstall, with several daughters." + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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." + +"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." + +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. + +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,-- + +"Who else has she told this to?" + +"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." + +"Humph! Who's at the casa? There's Buchanan, and Raymond, and +Victor Guitierrez, eh?" + +"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. + +"Are you sure?" + +"Almost sure." + +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." + +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. + +"There does not seem to be any memorandum of this assignment," +continued Prince, turning over the papers. + +"Have you looked here?" said Carroll, taking up the packet of +letters. + +"No--they seem to me some private letters she refers to in this +letter, and that she wants back again." + +"Let us see," said Carroll, untying the packet. There were three +or four closely written notes in Spanish and English. + +"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." + +"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." + +"Quite so," said Prince. + +Captain Carroll retied the packet and put it in his pocket. "Then +I'll return them to her," he said, quietly. + +"Hullo!--here--I say," said Prince, starting to his feet. + +"I said I would return them to her," repeated Carroll, calmly. + +"But I never gave them to you! I never consented to their +withdrawal from the papers." + +"I'm sorry you did not," said Carroll, coldly; "it would have been +more polite." + +"Polite! D--n it, sir! I call this stealing." + +"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." + +"Once for all, do you refuse to return them to me?" said Prince, +pale with anger. + +"Decidedly." + +"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." + +"I think not." + +"And why, sir?" + +"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. + +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." + +"I have no desire to evade any responsibility in this matter, legal +or otherwise," said Carroll, coldly, rising to his feet. + +"Look here," said Prince, suddenly, with a return of his brusque +frankness; "you might have ASKED me for those letters, you know." + +"And you wouldn't have given them to me," said Carroll. + +Prince laughed. "That's so! I say, Captain. Did they teach you +this sort of strategy at West Point?" + +"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." + +The instinct of reticence before a man with whom he could never be +confidential kept him from alluding to his other discovery. + +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,-- + +"You have examined it?" + +"Only so far as to see that it contained nothing of importance to +the person I represent," returned Carroll, simply. + +The capitalist looked at the young officer's clear eyes. Something +of embarrassment came into his own as he turned them away. + +"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!" + +"Thank you--no!" returned Carroll, going to the door. + +"Well, good-by." + +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. + +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. + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +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." + +"How?--sawest it?" inquired Faquita, eagerly. + +"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.'" + +The two women shuddered and crossed themselves. + +"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. + +"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." + +"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!" + +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. + +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. + +"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?" + +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. + +"She said Pereo was to want for nothing; but at present she could +not see him." + +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." + +"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--" + +"Hush! I tell thee he speaks," said Faquita. + +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." + +"Who dared thee? Who said thou wast too old?" asked the eager +Faquita, bending over him. + +"He, Koorotora himself! in the shape of a coyote." + +Faquita fell back with a little giggle, half of shame, half of awe. + +"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." + +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. + +"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." + +"The terrible news?" repeated Pereo. + +Sanchez cast a meaning glance upon the others, as if to indicate +this coafirmation of his diagnosis. + +"Ay, terrible news! The Doctor West was found this morning dead +two miles from the casa." + +"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?" + +"It was an accident. He was thrown from his horse, and so killed," +returned Sanchez, gravely. + +"Killed--by his horse! sayest thou?" said Pereo, with a sudden +fixed look in his eye. + +"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!" + +"How--thou sawest it?" + +"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." + +"Peace, fool! and speak not of thy lady mistress," thundered the +old man, sitting upright. "Begone to the stables. Dost thou hear +me? Go!" + +"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." + +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. + +A distinguished clergyman from San Francisco officiated. + +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." + +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?" + +Maruja did not lift her eyes. She felt herself breathlessly +hanging on the speaker's next words. + +"Why, that's the young man of the fonda, who picked up your fan," +said Carroll, "isn't it?" + +"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. + +"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." + +"And who tells you these pretty stories?" asked Maruja, with her +face still turned towards Carroll. + +"The foreman, Harrison, who, with an extensive practical experience +of tramps, was struck with this exception to the general rule." + +"Poor man; one ought to do something for him," said Amita, +compassionately. + +"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." + +"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. + +"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." + +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." + +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. + +She fell back a step in utter helplessness. + +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. + +"Blessed Virgin!" said Amita, "where did you come from?" + +"From there!" said Maruja, with a slight nervous shiver, pointing +to the clustering grain. + +"We were afraid you were lost." + +"So was I," said Maruja, raising her pretty lashes heavenwards, as +she drew a shawl tightly round her shoulders. + +"Has anything happened. You look strange," said Carroll, drawing +closer to her. + +Here eyes were sparkling, but she was very pale. + +"Nothing, nothing!" she said, hastily, glancing at the grain again. + +"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. + +"He would have been polite enough not to have commented on my +looks," said Maruja. "Am I really such a fright?" + +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. + +"What are you thinking of?" said Carroll, as they drove on. + +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!" + + +CHAPTER IX + + +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. + +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." + +"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. + +"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." + +"He is a gentleman, my mother," said Maruja, quietly. + +"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." + +"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. + +"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." + +"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." + +"A pocket-book of the Doctor's?" repeated Dona Maria. + +"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." + +"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." + +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." + +"I have never entered his doors since the day he was disrespectful +to my mother's daughter," said Maruja, in surprise. + +"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." + +"But Carroll will not go," said Maruja. "He will not say what +passed between them, but I suspect they quarreled." + +"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." + +Maruja, who seemed relieved at this prospect of being unaccompanied +by Captain Carroll, shrugged her shoulders and assented. + +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!"-- + +She stopped, speechless, on the threshold; the fan fell from her +gesticulating hand. + +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. + +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. + +"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." + +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?" + +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." + +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. + +"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." + +"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?" + +"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." + +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. + +"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. + +"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." + +"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. + +"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." + +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:-- + +"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." + +"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." + +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. + +"Mr.--" + +"Guest," said the young man. + +"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." + +He lifted his eyes to hers with a sudden flush. But she had fled. + +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!" + +"What is?" said Maruja, suddenly. + +"Why, the private tramp's." + +"The peripatetic secretary," suggested Raymond. + +"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?" + +"Yes." + +"You seem abstracted." + +"I am hungry." + +"Why not dine here; it's an hour earlier than at home. Aladdin +would fall at your feet for the honor. Do!" + +Maruja looked at them with innocent vagueness, as if the +possibility were just beginning to dawn upon her. + +"And Clara Wilson is just dying to see the mysterious unknown +again. Say yes, little Maruja." + +Little Maruja glanced at them with a large maternal compassion. +"We shall see." + +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!" + +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. + +"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." + +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. + +"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?" + +"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." + +"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. + +At last she raised her head, and said, gently but audibly, to the +waiting Prince,-- + +"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." + +"I did," said the gratified Prince, taking up the plate. "What +eyes you have, Miss Saltonstall. They see everything." + +"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. + +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." + +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. + +"You are forgiving," he said, admiringly. + +"YOU ought to know that," she returned, looking down. + +"I?--why?" + +"You were rude to me twice." + +"Twice!" + +"Yes--once at the Mision of La Perdida; once in the road at San +Antonio." + +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." + +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?" + +"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,-- + +"You were in mourning when you came here this afternoon, Miss +Saltonstall." + +"Was I? It was for Dr. West--my mother's friend." + +"It was very becoming to you." + +"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." + +"He seems to be as witty as he is fortunate," said Guest, bitterly. + +"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. + +"Is he not?" said Guest, in a low voice. + +"Do you think he ought to be?" she found herself whispering. + +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. + +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. + + +CHAPTER X + + +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. + +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. + +"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." + +"I preferred to ride," said Carroll, dryly. + +"Sit down by the fire," said Prince, motioning to a chair, "and dry +yourself." + +"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." + +"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." + +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. + +"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." + +"This seems to be a question for Mrs. Saltonstall's lawyers--not +for her friends," said Carroll, coldly. + +"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." + +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." + +"It may be a matter of discretion, Captain Carroll." + +"Of discretion!" repeated Carroll, superciliously. + +"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!" + +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. + +"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?" + +"Only that she was the one person directly benefited by his death." + +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?" + +"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." + +"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. + +"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." + +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. + +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--" + +"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." + +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." + +"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?" + +"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." + +"And who is this one man?" + +"Myself." + +"You?--You?" said Carroll, advancing towards him. "Then this is +YOUR work!" + +"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. + +"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?" + +"To state the whole case to Mrs. Saltonstall, and to ask her to +acknowledge the young man's legal claim without litigation." + +"But how do you know that she would not do this without--excuse me-- +without intimidation?" + +"I only reckon that a woman clever enough to get hold of a million, +would be clever enough to keep it--against others." + +"I hope to show you are mistaken. But where is this heir?" + +"Here." + +"Here?" + +"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." + +"Does he suspect the murder?" + +"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." + +"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. + +"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. + +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. + +"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." + +Carroll rose and buttoned his overcoat. "I presume you are able to +offer conclusive proofs of everything you have asserted?" + +"Perfectly." + +"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. + + +CHAPTER XI + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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!" + +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." + +"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. + +"Track whom, Pereo?" said Carroll, soothingly. "Whom do you seek?" + +"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!" + +"Yes, but why seek them? Why track them?" + +"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!" + +Carroll smiled a faint smile of relief--"So--the Coyote!" + +"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!" + +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." + +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!" + +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. + +"'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." + +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. + +"Forgive me, Miss Saltonstall--Maruja; but you must hear me! You +are safe, but I fear for your maid, Faquita!" + +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! + + +CHAPTER XII + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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--" + +"And not the proudest heiress in the land," he interrupted, with +something of his old bitterness. "True, I had forgot." + +"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." + +"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." + +"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. + +"But if they threatened you? If they drove me from the house?" + +"I should fly with you," she said, hiding her head in his breast. + +"What if I were to ask you to fly with me now?" he said, gloomily. + +"Now!" she repeated, lifting her frightened eyes to his. + +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." + +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. + +"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. + +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. + +"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!" + +"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!" + +"But he may have already alarmed the household. Hark!" + +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." + +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. + +"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." + +"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!" + +"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?" + +"I will--and now--" + +"And now," she said, with a superb gesture towards the barrier +which separated them from Carroll, "OPEN THE DOOR!" + + +CHAPTER XIII + + +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. + +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. + +"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." + +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. + +"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." + +Their eyes met. She saw that he hated her--and felt relieved. + +"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." + +"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. + +"It is business, Miss Saltonstall--purely and simply business," +said Carroll, dryly, "under whatever OTHER name it may have been +since presented to you." + +"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." + +"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." + +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. + +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?" + +"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." + +"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?" + +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!" + +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!" + +"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!" + +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?" + +"I thought of nothing but YOU," he answered, tenderly. + +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!" + +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!" + +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?" + +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. + +"Oh, Dona Maruja, he has escaped!" + +"Who? Not Pereo!" + +"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." + +"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." + +She pressed his hand and said, "Go." Before the astonished +servants could identify the strange escort of their mistress, he +was gone. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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! + + . . . . . . . . . + +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." + + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Maruja, by Bret Harte + diff --git a/old/maruj10.zip b/old/maruj10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..81669e2 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/maruj10.zip |