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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Their Mariposa Legend, by Charlotte Herr
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Their Mariposa Legend
+
+Author: Charlotte Herr
+
+Release Date: February, 2004  [EBook #5196]
+Posting Date: April 19, 2009
+Last Updated: March 15, 2018
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THEIR MARIPOSA LEGEND ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Schwan
+
+
+
+
+
+THEIR MARIPOSA LEGEND
+
+A Romance of Santa Catalina
+
+
+By Charlotte Herr
+
+
+     To Little Bruce Parker
+     Who Loved Stories
+
+
+
+
+Part I. Sir Francis Starts It
+
+
+It began to happen a long time ago, centuries ago, when, in a fragrant
+rush of rain, spring came one day to Punagwandah, fairest of the Channel
+Islands. Beneath the golden mists of sunrise danced a radiant sea. On
+steeply sloping hillsides where thickets of wild lilac bloomed, the lark
+shook from his tiny throat a tumult of glad music. In shadowed niches of
+the canyons lilies waited to fill with light their gleaming ivory cups.
+Spring in very truth was there.
+
+And looking down upon it from her cavern bower high above the beach,
+watched the Princess Wildenai. Kneeling there, the light of dawn shining
+on her long black hair, she was, herself, the sweetest blossom of the
+spring. Loveliest was she among all the maidens of the Mariposa and of
+royal blood besides; although of this the great chief Torquam, who even
+at that moment lay sleeping in his lodge of deerskin on the crescent
+beach below, knew more than he had ever told.
+
+With eyes rapt, her breath scarcely stirring the folds of softest
+fawnskin drawn across her breast, the princess bent her gaze to where
+the waves ran silver on the ocean's distant rim. There she knew the sun
+must rise and, as the first dazzling ray sparkled across the water, she
+rose slowly until she stood erect, a slender, graceful figure against
+the dim, gray rocks, and stretching her arms toward the East, spoke in
+the musical words of her people.
+
+“Oh, Waken-ate, great spirit-father,” she pleaded, “have mercy on me.
+Grant to me, thy humble daughter, one only boon. Grant, I pray thee,
+that it need not be I wed with Torquam's friend, the pale-face stranger.
+Well knowest thou I would not disobey my father, him the bravest and
+most powerful of all thy warriors, him whom his people delight to honor,
+and whom I strive to please. All the more I feel my duty since, many
+moons ago, they laid my mother underneath the flowers. Yet, even so, I
+cannot find it in my heart to wed with Don Cabrillo, dearly as does
+my father wish it. Can'st thou not then, in thy great power, turn his
+heart, oh lord of spirits, that he no longer may desire it? Help me in
+this, my only trial, I pray thee, and in all else will I be indeed his
+loyal daughter,--in all else save alone in this one thing!”
+
+Her arms fell. Slowly she sank again to her knees, bending her head
+until her forehead touched the ground. For many minutes she lay thus
+prostrate while the glory of the rising sun bathed the sea in splendor.
+Yet, when at last she rose, her eyes were dim with tears.
+
+But now from the beach below there drifted up to her the sounds of a
+village astir. Shrill voices of women mingled with the crackling of
+freshly kindled fires. A canoe, pushed hastily into the water, grated
+harshly on the pebbles. Still the maiden did not stir. Leaning against
+the rocky ledge, her chin in her hands, she gazed listlessly out over
+the shining sea. If any interests lived for her among the dark-skinned
+people beneath the cliffs, for the moment at least she gave no sign.
+
+Then, suddenly, above the ordinary din of the Indian village, rose the
+hoarse shouting of men. Wildenai lifted her eyes,--eyes that widened
+first with wonder, then with fear. For there, far down the shoreline to
+the south, her sails gleaming white against the walls of rock behind
+her as she rounded a distant point, a ship came slowly into view. With
+wildly beating heart the young girl watched the vessel tack to clear the
+long curve of the coast. But once before in all her life had she seen
+such another monster winged canoe, and that had been when Senor Don
+Cabrillo first cast anchor in the Bay of Moons below, now almost a year
+ago. For many a week had the young man lingered, renewing the friendship
+with the Mariposa cemented more than eighteen years before when his
+father, hindered by storms in his adventurous journey up the coast, cast
+anchor off the shore,--the first white man to see their island. Nor was
+the lingering without result. Torquam he taught to speak the Spanish
+tongue, learning in his turn safer and easier routes to the gold fields
+of the north, while not the least among the treasures carried with him
+when at last he sailed away did he hold the promise that the beautiful
+daughter of the chief should become his bride when next he touched upon
+that shore. Could this, then, be the Spaniard's fleet returning? Was the
+Great Spirit powerless, after all, to save her? In sore bewilderment and
+terror Wildenai watched the distant ship.
+
+Nearer and nearer it came. But, as its outline grew each moment more
+distinct, gradually her fears departed. For this was not the clumsy
+Spanish galleon she remembered. The prow was not nearly so high, nor was
+the incoming vessel as large in any respect as had been that other. Yet,
+though fear died, wonder grew. What new variety of strangers, then, was
+about to visit them? For that the ship intended to anchor she was by
+this time sure. Steadily it bore on until within a scant half mile of
+the crescent shaped beach where lay the royal village of the tribe. At
+length, as if in fear to trust themselves closer to the rocky shore,
+the crew were seen to bring the vessel sharply about. An anchor was
+cast over, the creaking of the hawsers distinctly audible in the clear
+morning air, and a few moments later a small boat was lowered. Into
+this boat immediately several sailors swung themselves and after a
+short delay, amidst the shouting of the Indians, now running in wild
+excitement up and down the beach, the men picked up their oars and
+started for the land.
+
+“Alla-hoa, Wildenai!”
+
+Up the stony trail leading to her cavern scrambled an Indian runner, a
+lithe youth who flung himself breathless at her feet.
+
+“Thy father, oh princess, sends me to summon thee to his lodge.
+Strangers,--paleface strangers,--enemies, who can tell, are coming.
+See,--the ship!” With dark forefinger he pointed toward the sea.
+“Torquam would have thee hide with the rest of the women in the cave at
+the Great Rock. There Kathah-galwa wilt keep thee safe, he says. Make
+haste, oh Wildenai!”
+
+“And am I not as safe up here?” returned the princess, calmly. “Be not
+so lost in thy terror, oh Norqua. I, too, have seen the ship and I fear
+not. Yet will I obey if so my father bids,” she added quickly. “Go thou
+ahead. I follow.” And hastily gathering together some reeds and colored
+grasses lying on the ledge, parts of an unfinished basket upon which,
+evidently, she had during some previous visit been at work, she flung
+them into a corner of the cavern and ran lightly down the narrow path
+leading to the village.
+
+Here all by this time was tense excitement, the dramatic, ungoverned
+excitement of children. While with shrill cries two or three of the
+women gathered the little ones together, the rest pulled frantically at
+the poles holding each tepee in place. Still apparently quite unmoved,
+Wildenai sought first her father standing surprised but unafraid in the
+doorway of his lodge. Tall and spare and stern he looked, straight as
+some lonely pine on the slopes of distant San Jacinto. Yet even in
+the stress of such a moment a tender light stole into his eyes as they
+rested upon his motherless daughter.
+
+Wildenai made obeisance and for a brief moment the two surveyed each
+other in silence. Then,
+
+“It is well thou art come, my beloved one,” spoke the chief. “Stranger
+pale-faces will soon be amongst us.”
+
+“Wildenai feels no fear, my father,” quietly answered the girl.
+
+“If they come in friendship,” quickly Torquam replied, “then indeed may
+all be well. But the ship is not of the Senor's fleet, and if so be that
+we must fight, thou wert better hidden in the cave. We shall see.”
+
+Bending her head in mute acquiescence the girl moved away to join the
+group of women now almost ready to depart.
+
+
+
+Meantime the vessel's long boat, driven onward by the stout arms of
+three strong sailors, steadily approached the bay.
+
+“What think'st thou then, Rufus Broadmead, of this fool's errand to the
+savages?” inquired one of these, resting upon his oars for a moment that
+he might the better listen to the tumult on the shore. “Wot ye not that
+if water had been the only boon he craves the captain had fared much
+better on the mainland? Besides, did not I myself overhear the Apache
+only yesterday tell him of a certainty that the tribes over there were
+away on the warpath? But no, by the mass, here must we risk our precious
+scalps to row into the very teeth of the heathen, and that to humor the
+whim of as obstinate an Englishman as ever sailed aboard Her Majesty's
+fleets!” and without awaiting any reply he lowered his oars in disgust.
+
+The others laughed.
+
+“Hast been, then, so stupid, brother Giles, for all thy listening with
+thy big ears, as not to know 'tis Spanish treasure ever and naught else
+our captain seeks? Water,--pouf!” the speaker made a rough grimace,
+“water may well serve as an excuse, and what to bold Sir Francis were
+the lives of half a dozen seamen when booty for the queen lies in the
+balance? The Apache told him, too,--thou see'st thou hast not played the
+listening game alone, for, hiding behind the fo'castle door myself, I
+heard him say it,--that here lay that famous island, San--how is't they
+call it? San Catlina--I know not how 'tis spoken,--some Spanish lingo
+not fit for English tongues! At any rate 'twas here your Spanish robber,
+Don Cabrillo, and, for the matter of that, his precious son as well,
+stopped to seek direction ere they found the land of gold. The savage
+sware besides they were a gentle tribe, not given to war and murder like
+the rest. I hearkened well, forsooth, knowing past doubt I would be
+een one o' those chosen to try 'em out. The devil take the Apache an
+he lied,” he added fiercely, “I'll break his head across till even he
+shrieks out for help when I get back!”
+
+He paused to gaze fearfully at the stern cliffs now looming close
+at hand, beneath which the excited natives still ran back and forth,
+pointing with frantic gestures at the boat.
+
+The third man spoke. He was smaller than the other two and darker, with
+a sly look about his eyes and mouth in strong contrast to the bluff
+frankness of his comrades. So far he had appeared content to listen in
+amused silence, but now with a short laugh he interrupted.
+
+“The Apache did not lie. This is the island Santa Catalina, though that,
+mark you, is not the Indian name. And right well can the chief who
+rules here direct our captain also to the goldfields of the north. But
+hearkee, comrades. 'Tis not Drake will reap the profits this time!” He
+lowered his voice mysteriously as though fearful of being overheard,
+albeit nothing was nearer than his two companions and the clear, green
+stretch of water. “Have ye not observed the boy who travels with the
+captain?--the boy I serve,--the one they call Sir Harry? To my mind,
+cub though he be, 'tis he who rules the ship. Hast never noticed how the
+great Drake himself bends to his slightest wish?”
+
+“Aye, marry, that have I! And who, then, is he, think'st thou?” inquired
+the man who had spoken first.
+
+“Some close kin to the queen,--that much I know,” the other answered
+quickly, “the heir to some great dukedom, mayhap, in disguise to see the
+world and make a fortune. 'Tis his desire we land, so much he told
+me, and 'tis to learn more than directions, my hearties, and that I'll
+warrant ye! But, look ye, the water grows too shallow! We can use the
+oars no longer.”
+
+And even as he spoke the boat grated upon the pebbles. An incoming
+breaker would have carried it ashore, but before the sailors could take
+advantage of this help or even so much as ship their oars, half a dozen
+swarthy youths had waded out and, with shouts and gestures, whether of
+welcome or hostility the Englishmen had no means of knowing, pushed it
+high upon the beach. At once, then, for well they realized the danger
+of delay, and with a stolid courage born of many a like adventure, the
+seamen leaped fearlessly out upon the sand. In their hands they held
+aloft bolts of brightly colored cloth snatched on the instant from the
+bottom of the boat. These they offered for the wondering inspection of
+the women who, observing the small number of invaders, were cautiously
+returning. To the warriors grouped about the chief they proffered knives
+of which the steel blades, set in strong handles of bone, glistened
+in the sun. Eagerly, yet with a certain unexpected formality, the men
+accepted these, passing them for examination from one to another with
+many a grunt of satisfaction. To be sure, no brave among them but
+might the next moment decide to try out the merits of his gift upon the
+bestower, but this danger the adventurers had to risk. More timidly the
+women, their eyes fixed wistfully upon the gaudy red and yellow cloth,
+approached the strangers, offering in their turn bits of abalone shell
+polished to iridescent beauty.
+
+They seemed in truth a gentle, friendly people, so much so that at
+length the sailors, deeming it safe to undertake the second part of
+their errand, began to plead for water and to request, besides, an
+interview between their captain and the chief. All this by means of
+signs in which they displayed no little wit and skill, the Englishmen
+accomplished until, well on toward the middle of the morning, they made
+ready to return to the ship, the casks they had brought brimming with
+sweet mountain water, while with them they bore as well the promise of
+an interview of state between the great chief Torquam and Sir Francis
+Drake, to take place upon the beach at sunset.
+
+And then at once the little village of Toyobet seethed again with
+excitement. For these good paleface friends and their god-like commander
+a fitting welcome must be prepared. Fleet-footed messengers, bearing
+flaming torches, sped in hot haste along the mountain trails that all
+who saw might know without words spoken of the assembling of the tribe.
+To the distant village at the isthmus they hurried, and to the cove on
+the western coast, some twenty miles away, to which a band of warriors
+had gone several days before to hunt the otter. That no one among his
+people might remain in ignorance of his command, Torquam even caused
+signal fires to be kindled on each of the twin peaks, extinct volcanoes,
+near the center of the island. Smoke rising there was visible from every
+corner of his land, and woe to any subject who dared to disregard that
+warning!
+
+Throughout the long bright day the women toiled, preparing a ceremonial
+feast. Three antelope, a deer, and half a dozen of the wild sheep which
+roamed the hills were killed and placed for roasting over deep pits dug
+in the sand. Nor did any member of the tribe forget in his own crude
+fashion to deck himself for the occasion. The warriors adorned their
+heads with feathers and daubed their cheeks and lips with ochre. The
+women clothed themselves in loose-hanging tunics of doeskin girt with
+strings of wampum, and hung about their tawny shoulders the lovely
+greens and blues of uncut turquoise. Meanwhile, also, the great chief
+Torquam donned his ceremonial dress, a string of eagle feathers held by
+the crimsoned quills of the porcupine and extending down his back
+until almost it touched the ground. About his neck, as token of his
+priesthood, he threw the bear-claw necklace, known far and wide among
+the tribes for its famous powers of healing. Wildenai alone made no
+change except to bind the satin black of her hair still more smoothly
+within a fillet of silver. In the center of the band, so that it rested
+just above her brow, a strange device appeared, a circle enclosing many
+rays,--the royal insignia of the tribe which only the daughter of the
+chief might wear.
+
+
+
+Then at last when, in the sunset, level rays of light rested golden on
+the bay and turned to amethyst the distant mountains on the mainland,
+all was ready. Once again, this time to the weird music of tom-toms
+and the beating of drums, a boat was lowered from the ship while on the
+shore the Indians watched.
+
+It was in truth a picture not soon to be forgotten. Behind the mirrored
+Bay of Moons, its crescent of sand gleaming white against the rocks, the
+bands of dusky men and women stood motionless as statues in the quiet
+light of the setting sun, while in the doorway of his lodge, his
+daughter close beside him, Torquam waited with simple dignity to receive
+his guests, the fair-skinned strangers.
+
+At length along the beach advanced the little group of English, friends
+and fellow adventurers with the most renowned of all their great queen's
+buccaneers. Beside Sir Francis himself marched young Harold of Wessex,
+little more than a boy in years, yet dreaded and feared in his own land
+even then--a possible heir to Elizabeth's throne. Some short distance in
+front of these two, standard bearers carried the flags of Merry England,
+each glorious with fringes and tassels of gold. Well might such banners
+dazzle the eyes and wits of simple savages.
+
+Yet, possibly, for all that, had it not been for the lengthy ceremonial
+of the peace-pipe, Wildenai could not have taken time to observe so
+closely, in stolen glances from beneath her long black lashes, the
+splendor of the young noble standing proudly erect beside his captain;
+nor could he have stared so often, with no attempt to hide his
+admiration, at the dark beauty of the princess.
+
+Perhaps, too, if fate had not contrived to place them side by side at
+the feast which followed, young Harold might never have discovered that
+an Indian girl, however beautiful, possessed the wit to learn a foreign
+language. Yet it was certainly Spanish and that well spoken in which, at
+length, she softly asked of her father a question intended obviously for
+himself.
+
+Under cover of one of the Indian dances with which, from time to time,
+the feast was enlivened, he leaned impulsively toward her.
+
+“Can'st speak the Spanish tongue?” he hastily inquired.
+
+The princess dropped her eyes. For a moment she remained silent as if
+debating to what extent such boldness might involve her. Then, with a
+glance as shy as if some deer gazed at him startled from the thicket,
+
+“Yes, mon senor,” she answered simply. “I learned it when Don Cabrillo
+came to Punagwandah many moons ago.”
+
+After that it was only that one thing led to another, as was sometimes
+true of men and maidens even in the days so long gone by. For, as if
+by common consent, then, they drew a little apart from the rest, where,
+throwing himself on the sand beside her while the firelight threw
+flickering shadows among the rocks, the young man related fragments of
+his story,--of the long journey across the sea, something of his home
+in England, and of the brilliant court of the great queen wherein he had
+served as gentleman-in-waiting. So had he served, yet soon, but here her
+guest had suddenly flushed and paused as though he spoke too hastily
+or of what he should not. To all of it the princess listened with
+fast-beating heart and a desire, ever growing, to make herself a place
+in this splendid stranger's world. Was not she then, also, the daughter
+of a king? Yet how different and how unimportant beside that wonderful
+woman of whom he spoke! For father she boasted the great chief Torquam,
+feared by every tribe in the north and rich because of the gold hidden
+in many a canyon among the distant mountains; yet her woman's instinct
+told her that to this proud Englishman her people were at best little
+more than a curiosity, almost, indeed, a cause for laughter.
+
+When at last the feast was finished, Torquam rose, and removing with
+slow solemnity his crest of eagle feathers, he placed it upon the head
+of Sir Francis, a seal of everlasting friendship. With difficulty young
+Harold suppressed a smile. But the older man, as well aware of what the
+situation demanded as he was keenly alive to its danger, received the
+attention with a gravity fully equal to that of his host. Indeed, he
+went still further.
+
+“Most gracious hast thou been, oh Torquam, all wise chief of the
+Mariposa,” he began in carefully chosen Spanish, “nor shall thy kingly
+gift remain unrequited. Listen, oh Torquam! On yonder vessel I carry
+steeds like those of which I told you. For a journey over the mountains
+of the north we have brought them. One there is, swifter of foot than
+all the rest. Him will I cause my men to lower into the boat and bring
+to you after our return tonight.”
+
+In silence Torquam inclined his head. Nothing could have pleased him
+more. He would be the first then, of all his tribe to own one of those
+strange yet wondrous creatures never before seen in his world until
+the Spanish landed! Yet only the eager gleam in his eyes betrayed
+his pleasure. But Harold of Wessex stared at his captain in blank
+astonishment, for the gift he had just bestowed with such apparent
+carelessness was the most valuable bit of cargo in the ship, a costly
+Arabian horse intended for the young noble's own special comfort and
+convenience during the search for gold on which they were bound. Was
+Drake gone suddenly mad, then, thus to throw away, and that without
+permission, his choicest property on a mere savage? Hot with resentment
+he was about to interfere; but before he could obey the rash impulse
+his better judgment prevailed, and just in time he remembered how, on
+several other such occasions, his very life had been saved by some swift
+expedient of Drake's and his tact in handling the natives.
+
+Slowly Sir Francis continued, and now one watching intently might have
+sensed from the gleam in his eyes that he had reached the real point in
+the interview.
+
+“One question, nevertheless, would I ask of all-wise Torquam before we
+part.” He hesitated, searching the impassive face of the Indian. “Can'st
+tell me of a Spaniard, one Cabrillo, son to that arch pirate of Spain,
+who, since his father's death, still sails upon these waters? To him I
+bear a message,”--again he paused while the heart of Wildenai beat in
+sudden panic beneath her fawnskin tunic; but Torquam's face remained
+blank as a page unwritten,--“a message from our queen,” added Drake. The
+last words were uttered with significance.
+
+The Indian slowly shook his head.
+
+“The noble white chief asks what is unknown to any man,” he answered.
+“The young Cabrillo once landed, 'tis true, on Punagwandah. Many moons
+ago it was. Where he is now, how should Torquam know?”
+
+In his bitter disappointment the hand of the Englishman sought the
+hilt of his sword. Instantly a ring of warriors closed darkly about the
+chief.
+
+Drake laughed.
+
+“Nay then, 'tis but by chance I asked thee, thinking thou mightst tell
+me. It matters not. The gift I promised thee will come, as I said,
+tonight.”
+
+He turned to go and young Harold rose to follow. Then, perceiving the
+dark eyes of the princess fixed wistfully upon him, he hesitated and,
+obeying a sudden impulse, he stepped hastily to her side.
+
+“When they return with the gift for thy father,” he whispered, “I will
+come with them,” he smiled into her soft eyes shining with pleased
+surprise, “and I will bring a gift to thee as well, oh Wildenai, fairest
+of maidens!”
+
+Drake gave a sharp command. His followers sprang to their feet, and
+without further ceremony the party passed quickly down the beach to
+their boat.
+
+But the princess Wildenai did not leave the feasting ground. Hidden
+by deepening shadows she watched the ship's lights glimmer across the
+water. Glad indeed was she of the darkness, for a warm flush glowed
+in her cheeks and her heart throbbed with a strange new pleasure, a
+pleasure bordering close on fear, yet wholly sweet.
+
+But when, at length, the quiet of sleep had descended upon the village,
+once again she sought her father. He, too, within the open doorway of
+his lodge, watched intently the distant ship. Without surprise he saw
+his daughter enter and, as she knelt upon the blanket beside him, he
+stretched a hand and drew her close.
+
+“It grows cold. The wind is rising. 'Twere best to wait inside.” He
+spoke in the musical Indian tongue. For a moment he stroked her hair in
+silence, then--
+
+“What think'st thou by now of the English, Wildenai, my little wild
+rose?” he asked.
+
+But the princess seemed not to have heard his question.
+
+“My father,” she began after another short silence, “I have a favor to
+ask of thee.”
+
+“And what may that be, my daughter?” he returned gravely.
+
+But again the young girl made no answer and for many minutes they
+watched the tremulous paths of light in the wake of the vessel.
+
+After a time he felt her hand tighten upon his arm.
+
+“It is but the old boon over again, my father.” Her voice was low as
+the sighing of the wind among the oak trees. “I would be freed from my
+promise to wed with Don Cabrillo.”
+
+An Indian is not given to caresses. Much more used was Torquam's hand to
+wield the war-club or the hatchet. Yet it was with fingers gentle as any
+woman's that he stroked the smooth black head at his knee.
+
+“Doubtest thou then, my motherless one, the judgment of him who loves
+thee?” he asked.
+
+“I doubt it not, my father,” answered his daughter. “Yet would I not wed
+with the Spaniard,” she added stubbornly.
+
+“The blue-eyed senor from England”--there was a hint of humor in his
+tone,--“he it is who steals thy fancy! Is it not so, my Wildenai?”
+
+Then, after a moment: “Right well knowest thou my only wish is to make
+thee happy.” Again his voice, though gentle, grew serious almost to
+sadness. “No mere whim it is that counsels me to wed thee to Cabrillo.
+There is something--” He paused, continuing with effort,--“a reason I
+have never told thee why it seems most fitting. Now I will tell thee.
+That reason is because, because, my Wildenai, thou art Spanish born
+thyself.”
+
+The princess drew a hasty breath. In the darkness he felt rather than
+saw her startled eyes upon him.
+
+“My father!” The exclamation, filled with pain as well as astonishment,
+touched him to the quick. Tenderly he drew her to him. Then briefly,
+as was the Indian way, yet with the pictured phrasing which caused each
+scene to spring into vivid life before the young girl's eyes, he told
+her of the day, already more than eighteen years gone by, when, in the
+wake of a long midwinter storm, the first sailing vessel ever beheld
+by his people had fled for refuge to their bay; and of the little girl
+carefully brought to shore by her old nurse in the first boat to
+touch the beach. A mere baby she was, too young to know aught of her
+misfortune, yet a princess royal, rudely dispossessed of her right to
+the throne of Spain, and smuggled aboard the adventurer Cabrillo's ship
+to be dropped in some out-of-the-way corner of the western world. Even
+then, he made it clear, she might have perished,--since little recked
+the Spanish explorer what should happen, well knowing that upon his
+return no questions would be asked,--had it not been for his Indian
+wife. She, lacking children of her own, had taken an instant fancy to
+the dark-eyed little girl, a fancy so strong that nothing would do
+but they must adopt her as their own daughter into the tribe to belong
+forever, according to their law, she and her children, to the Mariposa.
+
+“Nor, because thy mother--for ever was she a true mother to
+thee--thought that it might grieve thee, have any of my people ever
+given thee cause to doubt that thou wert native born,” he finished
+proudly. “Loyal have they been, doing all they could to make thee happy.
+But now that thy Indian mother is dead, and I myself grow old, I thought
+to wed thee, knowing his desire, to the son of that same Cabrillo who
+brought thee to us, for I long to be sure, when at length I go, that
+thou art safe,--at home.”
+
+He waited then and in the silence only the low weeping of the girl was
+heard. At length the old chief spoke again, and now in his voice love
+conquered disappointment.
+
+“Much do I desire it, but that matters not. I would not have thee
+unhappy. I myself will tell the senor that what he hopes for cannot be.”
+
+Slowly Wildenai bent her head until it touched his feet. Then she
+nestled close against him.
+
+“I thank thee, oh my father!” she cried, and all her voice was
+music because of her joy. “And thou art still my father,” she added,
+earnestly. “What care I to go to Spain? I will stay always with thee.”
+
+“For a time, it may be. Yet have a care, little wild rose,” he
+cautioned, smiling, “Let not the Englishman lure thee away! He, too, may
+not be all that thou thinkest.”
+
+And even as he spoke, in mocking confirmation of his words, there came
+to them suddenly from across the water, the distant creaking of
+ropes, the snapping of sails flung hastily to the wind. Before their
+unbelieving eyes the vessel swung about and put slowly out to sea. Dumb
+with amazement they watched until the last faint light flickered into
+darkness. Not until the remotest chance of a mistake was past did the
+old chief rise, trembling with rage, to his feet.
+
+“See'st thou now what I meant, my daughter? The English pale-faces know
+not the meaning of honor,--no, nor of gratitude either!”
+
+He lifted his long spear from the ground and shook it fiercely.
+
+“The words of the Mariposa are few,” he cried, “but their revenge is
+sure. Let but an Englishman set foot again on Punagwandah and, swifter
+than the arrow leaves the bowstring, he dies!”
+
+And at once, without answer, in the silence of suffering which only the
+wild things of the earth understand, Wildenai crept from the lodge, her
+heart heavy with its own bitter disappointment. Noiselessly she passed
+among the tepees where her father's people slept. Not one of them should
+ever know how far dwelt slumber from her own eyes that night. Up the
+steep trail beyond the Bay of Moons she climbed and flung herself
+weeping on the bed of skins within the cavern.
+
+“Oh, thou false one,” she moaned, “why did'st thou promise then, when
+never did'st thou mean to keep it?”
+
+
+
+Yet nothing had been farther from the young Englishman's thoughts when
+he left her than faithlessness to his word. On reaching the ship again
+he had gone directly to his cabin. Here he took from its small but
+richly embroidered case a slender chain of gold, threaded so closely
+with garnets that even in the dim light of the one flaring lantern, the
+only illumination the room could boast, it glowed, a glancing stream of
+crimson, in his hand. This he carried to the light and as he examined it
+under the lantern he smiled.
+
+“Never saw the little maid such jewels before, I'll warrant me! Yet,
+beshrew my heart, but she deserves them. Indian though she be, still is
+she, nevertheless, the loveliest woman that ever mine eyes have looked
+upon!”
+
+Then, stowing the necklace carefully away in his belt, he went at once
+in search of the commander.
+
+But at this point an unexpected difficulty had presented itself. He
+found Sir Francis in close conversation with his pilot.
+
+“Marry, Sir, an it fit n'er so ill with thy wish,” the keen-eyed old
+mariner was saying. “I still maintain it were a shame to lose this wind.
+Gift or no gift, I've sailed these latitudes before, my lord, and by
+heaven I swear we're not like to have such another breeze, no, not
+till the change of the moon, and that you know yourself, sir, is a good
+fortnight hence.”
+
+Sir Francis, striding back and forth within the narrow confines of the
+quarter deck, appeared to be weighing the old man's words with unusual
+care. At length, however, he turned as one who has made his decision.
+
+“By the mass and it shall be even as you say, Jarvis,” he declared. “I
+think myself 'twere well to push on at once. At the most they be but
+Indians!” The last words were spoken in a lower tone as if to himself.
+“'Twill matter little either way!”
+
+It was at this point that young Harold stepped hastily forward. For,
+strangely enough, although on the morning of that same day such a
+proceeding would scarcely have appealed to him as being at all unfitting
+or out of the ordinary, yet now it seemed unthinkable.
+
+“But, good sir,” he interrupted, “you would not so belie your promise!
+To do as Jarvis here advises,--by heaven, 'twould be neither truthful
+nor honorable! 'Tis not like you, Sir Francis!”
+
+Drake shot at him a surprised glance from under his bushy eyebrows, then
+shrugged his shoulders.
+
+“Prate not to me, my lord, of truth or honor amongst these savages,” he
+replied. “Did not their chief himself but even now lie to me? Well knew
+the rascally heathen where the Spaniard hides! The truth indeed! They
+know not the meaning of such words.”
+
+In vain the younger man petitioned to be allowed to deliver the promised
+gift with the aid of his own retinue.
+
+“Thou can'st not get under way for two hours at best, sir,” he pleaded,
+“and well within that time I will be back. 'Tis but a stone's throw to
+the shore!”
+
+But Drake first scoffed at his rashness, then, finally losing patience,
+as commander of the expedition he sternly forbade him or any of his men
+to leave the ship.
+
+“We dare not lose the wind,” he finished emphatically, “and are like to
+start at any minute.” Then, turning on his heel, he strode away to his
+cabin and shut the door behind him.
+
+Left in this unceremonious fashion, young Harold considered a moment,
+glancing with anxious eyes at the dim line of the coast just visible in
+the darkness. For some minutes he leaned upon the rail, lost in thought.
+
+“The old man will e'en have to bear his disappointment,” he muttered at
+length, “but, an' heaven help me, the maid shall not!”
+
+Then he, too, left the deck to seek out his favorite retainer, the dark,
+swarthy man who had sat that morning in the prow of the long boat. To
+him he explained his difficulty, adding grimly:
+
+“And so thou see'st, Mortimer, that I have work cut out for thee!”
+
+He threw an arm about the other's shoulders and in this familiar fashion
+the two men paced the deck together, conversing in low tones.
+
+“And besides,” observed the nobleman as they paused a moment before
+parting, “would'st know the truth about the matter? For all old Jarvis'
+prating, the Golden Hind is not like to sail before the dawn, no, nor
+even then! Jarvis is ever the man to make a show of much hurry, but--”
+ he snapped his fingers scornfully, “only aid me now, unseen by anyone,
+to launch the Zephir, and by our virgin queen herself I swear, when once
+again we see the shores of Merry England, thou shalt find 'twas well
+worth thy trouble.”
+
+His companion smiled even while, with the trained servility of the
+retainer, he doffed his cap.
+
+“Aye, truly, my lord,” he answered, “but, since it were an impossible
+feat to get so much as a colt into the Zephir, methinks thou hast a gift
+of thine own to bestow on yonder pretty Indian maid!”
+
+The blood leaped to Sir Harry's cheek. With a quick gesture he placed
+his hand upon his sword.
+
+“Presume not upon my favor, Mortimer, or by heaven!--” he began angrily,
+but stopped suddenly as, with a fearless laugh, the man beside him
+pushed the half-drawn weapon back into its place.
+
+“Nay then, not so fast, my lord,” he chuckled gaily. “Hearkee, my
+master. I did but use my eyes during their everlasting pow-wow. Surely
+ye would not grudge me that! And the maid is comely, well worth a
+trinket from thy store. Besides,” he laughed slyly, “I saw e'en more to
+thine interest, for methinks the princess is as much in love with thy
+looks as art thou with hers.”
+
+“Silence, fool! Thou hast said more than enough already. Think'st
+thou the son of a duke royal would look at a brown-skinned savage, an
+unbelieving pagan, no matter how comely, as thou call'st it, she might
+be!”
+
+But the flush remained, nevertheless, on the dark cheek of the young
+nobleman as he strode angrily from the deck.
+
+
+
+The moonlight had laid a quivering path of light across the water before
+Wildenai raised her bowed head from the ground. But, at length, drawing
+her blanket more closely about her, for into the night air the chill of
+the ocean had crept, she was about to leave the cave when a sudden sound
+from the beach below arrested her. For a moment she listened in silence
+while the shout was repeated, then stood dumb with amazement. A third
+time it came to her, borne on the rising wind, the terrified cry of a
+man in dire distress. Nor was it one of her own people who thus called
+out of the darkness for help. Swiftly she ran to an overhanging ledge
+of rock from which, by lying flat and peeping over, she could, without
+exposing herself, command a wide view of the sea.
+
+At the first glance there appeared to be nothing amiss. Far beneath her
+the noisy breakers spilled in liquid silver on the beach. Above their
+musical booming no other sound could be heard. Then suddenly she saw
+him. A tiny boat it was, tossing dangerously close to the great rounded
+boulder which, together with a still larger one from which it had at
+some distant time been broken off, formed the outermost boundary of
+the curving Beach of Moons. The dark figure standing erect in the boat
+strove with the aid of an oar to keep it from being dashed to pieces
+against the giant rock. Again there floated up to her the desperate call
+for help. The voice was that of the English noble!
+
+Instantly the girl sprang to her feet, and without the slightest
+hesitation ran lightly down the perilous incline, leaping fearlessly
+from rock to rock, until, within a few seconds, she stood poised above
+the seething surf on the top of the larger boulder. Here, balancing
+herself as easily and securely as a wild antelope, she raised her arms
+to dive. But now from the shadows below the white man called once more.
+
+“Attempt it not, oh Wildenai! 'Tis death to leap from there!”
+
+But without waiting even to reply, the Indian girl sprang into the
+waves. An instant later and he saw her arms gleam in the moonlight as,
+with the strong slow strokes of an experienced swimmer, she struck out
+for the boat. In spite of the perilous rocking of the little craft he
+rested on his oar to watch her for a moment in sheer admiration of her
+skill. But the maid knew well the danger of every instant's delay. In
+the very nick of time she seemed almost to throw herself between him and
+the rocks while, with a strength he would have believed impossible
+in one so small, she pulled the boat around. Then, still swimming and
+without a word to him, she began to push it ahead of her toward the
+shore. It was but a few minutes before they stood together on the beach.
+
+And now the young noble, overcome with gratitude, fell on his knees
+before her and caught her hand between his own. He would have kissed it
+in sheer joy at his escape, but the Indian girl drew sharply back.
+
+“Quick!” she whispered, yet remembering to speak in Spanish, “You must
+hide yourself at once. My father will kill you if he should find you
+here!”
+
+Swiftly she concealed the boat in a tiny cove behind the boulder, a
+hiding place he would never have seen though it was apparently perfectly
+familiar to her.
+
+“Sometimes my own canoe I keep there too,” she whispered. “Now come!”
+ and she hurried him along the beach and up an easier trail beyond the
+rocks to her cavern bower above.
+
+Nor did she pause for an instant's rest until they had passed safely
+behind the manzanita branches which concealed the entrance. Here,
+motioning him to do the same, she dropped upon a pile of skins. But
+instead, in real concern, the young Englishman knelt again beside her.
+
+“Thou art so wet and cold,” he began anxiously, “Will it not make thee
+ill? Yet 'twas a wondrous feat,” he added admiringly, “well conceived
+and carried out with skill such as any man might envy!”
+
+The princess laughed.
+
+“'Twas nothing,” she answered briefly. “I do it almost every day.”
+
+“I came to bring to thee the gift I promised,” explained Lord Harold
+then, and from his belt he drew the little case. Eagerly he flung the
+gleaming string of garnets about her slim brown throat.
+
+“Jewels brought by my father to my mother on the morning of their
+marriage,” he told her. “When she lay dying she gave them me and told me
+never to part with them except I gave them to my--” He paused suddenly,
+“But thou hast saved my life!” he added as quickly, “Who else could ever
+deserve them more? Well know I my mother would wish thee to have them.”
+
+Silently, though her eyes were bright with, pleasure, the princess
+lifted the beautiful necklace.
+
+“Wildenai will wear them always, senor lord,” she answered softly, “for
+now she knows that truly you did mean to keep your word!”
+
+And so, his mission accomplished, her guest rose hastily to his feet. He
+must return immediately to the ship.
+
+“Know you not, then, that it is gone?” exclaimed the girl, amazed.
+
+“Gone?” echoed young Harold, and stared at her astounded. He seemed not
+to have grasped her meaning. “Gone, said'st thou?”
+
+“The ship was out of sight a full hour or more ere ever I heard you
+call,” she explained.
+
+Still he continued to gaze at her fixedly as if totally unable to
+comprehend what she would have him know. Then it was plain to be seen
+that, for the moment at least, blank despair took hold upon him. Up and
+down the length of the cave he strode like some imprisoned wild thing.
+At length, standing quite still with folded arms, he seemed to lose
+himself in thought.
+
+“Battling with the surf I did not see nor hear,” he muttered at last.
+“But he could not sail without me!” he added. Fiercely he raised his
+head and his eyes flashed. “He dare not so betray me!”
+
+Wildenai, too, had been considering.
+
+“The great white captain knew, then, that you were not on board?” she
+asked suddenly.
+
+“No,” replied the young man reluctantly, “that did he not. I came
+without his knowledge. He would have prevented me,” he continued
+stubbornly, “and I had promised thee a gift. Never did I break my word,
+nor would not then. But I did not dream it possible they could get away
+so soon! By our virgin lady in Heaven I swear I know not what to do.”
+ And once more he seemed lost in despair.
+
+But only for a moment. Then he turned hastily to the entrance.
+
+“I must follow them at once,” he declared impatiently, “I can overtake
+them even yet.”
+
+Swift as lightning the girl threw herself between him and the opening in
+the cave.
+
+“No, no, senor Englishman,” she cried. “It is impossible! Listen, only
+listen to me! What have you, then, to steer by save the stars? And you
+see that, drowned in moonlight, they do not shine tonight. And, more
+than that, you do not even know what course the vessel takes. Remember,
+too, that there is neither food nor drink within your boat. You would
+surely die ere you could ever find the ship.”
+
+Gradually she compelled him to listen to reason until, seating himself
+again upon the skins, he challenged her still further.
+
+“But what, then, shall I do?” he demanded. “Can'st also tell me that?”
+
+And with equal readiness the princess replied:
+
+“If you will but let me I can hide you here. The cavern is my own. Here
+for many a moon have I worked and waited. No one would dare to enter.
+You will be safe. Besides, my father's anger will grow cold in time, and
+then I know that, if I ask him, he will help you.”
+
+His chin propped upon his hands, the young nobleman moodily considered.
+
+“Well, do then as thou deemest best,” he told her finally.
+
+And from that moment there began for the little princess a time so
+wonderful that for all the rest of her life she remembered each separate
+hour as though it had been some beautiful word in a poem learned by
+heart.
+
+With deft fingers she piled her softest doeskins for his bed.
+
+“But what wilt thou do, tell me, if I rob thee of thy nest?” he asked,
+watching her with amused eyes as she worked.
+
+“I go always to the village to sleep,” she answered simply, and so left
+him.
+
+But in the morning while yet the red of sunrise burned above the great
+peak Orazaba, she returned, bearing upon her head an olla of carved
+stone filled with water from a mountain spring. This in smiling silence
+she set before him and disappeared. Within the hour, however, she was
+back again and this time, kneeling on the ground, she laid at his feet
+the ripe fruit of the manzanita tree, lying like small red apples, dewy
+fresh, upon a wild-grape leaf.
+
+“Ala--ate, see! Are they not good?” she asked triumphantly.
+
+And so from day to day she ministered to him. Many a time as he
+sat, listless and moody, within his hiding-place, a handful of wild
+strawberries, steeped in the warm sweetness of the hills, would be
+pushed beneath the leafy branches that concealed the door. Sometimes
+she brought him bread baked from a curious kind of meal made of pounded
+seeds.
+
+Once, too, when a sudden storm had chilled the air, she kindled a fire
+for him within a smaller cave, receding like a fire-place into the rocky
+wall opposite the opening. It was a long and tedious process which
+the man watched curiously. First, kneeling on the ground, she rubbed
+together two dry willow sticks until a little pile of dust had gathered.
+Then, still stooping, she struck two flints together until at last a
+spark fell into the dust. Some dry leaves were dropped upon the tiny
+blaze, then twigs, and lo, a fire!
+
+In spite of himself the Englishman smiled, though a softer feeling shown
+in his eyes. How beautiful and yet how childish she looked kneeling
+there with the anxious pucker between her brows. Poor little princess,
+how very hard she worked to serve him!
+
+“It takes a long time, Wildenai,” he observed, “dost thou try it often?”
+
+“Never for myself,” she answered gravely. “I have no need. But I do it
+gladly for you.” She smiled brightly back at him, then rose and moved
+swiftly to the doorway. “Another thing I do for you today. Wait!”
+
+And when she returned a few minutes later she brought with her,
+carefully wrapped in cool green leaves, a fish freshly caught that
+morning.
+
+“A brook trout, on my word, such as I have often taken in the streams at
+home!” exclaimed Lord Harold, amazed.
+
+“I got it far up the canyon before the sun was risen,” she answered,
+delighted at his surprise.
+
+This, having quickly dressed it, she wrapped again in leaves and placed
+under the hot ashes to bake, and it being, evidently, a feast out of
+the ordinary, a merry-making to which a third guest might be bidden,
+suddenly Wildenai left the cavern again to return this time with a tiny
+gray fox perched familiarly upon her shoulder.
+
+“'Tis Onatoa, senor Englishman,” she announced, gently stroking the
+bushy tail of the little creature as it lay about her neck.
+
+But from his vantage point above his rival, Onatoa merely sniffed
+disdainfully with his sharp black nose. He looked far from friendly.
+
+The princess laughed softly.
+
+“He does not know you yet,” she defended her pet. “He will soon learn to
+love you, too.”
+
+“I will catch fish with thee next time thou goest,” declared young
+Harold later as they ate together. “There's no reason I can see why I
+should stay mewed up forever in this cave. I fear not Indians! No, not
+even Torquam, thy father, himself.”
+
+For an instant Wildenai seemed alarmed. Then she laughed.
+
+“You are afraid of nothing. I knew it!” she exclaimed with pride. “Nor
+would there be much danger. We will go to the other side of the island
+where the waves run high and the cliffs are tall and black. There will
+I show you the nests of the great eagles, and the antelope leaping
+among the rocks. And,--who can tell?” she laughed again with child-like
+pleasure, “perhaps we shall find a white otter!”
+
+And, true to her word, he heard at dawn next day outside the cavern
+the whistle of a blackbird, a signal early contrived between them. She
+deemed it best, she explained, to start thus early that the darkness
+might conceal them until they had passed well beyond the outskirts of
+the village. But this danger overcome, they spent the whole day rambling
+fearlessly among the hills,--a long, idle, happy day. Up many a dim
+trail winding back into the canyons the princess led him. Through golden
+thickets of wild mustard they passed, coming, when he least expected it,
+upon glimpses of the summer sea framed between the branches of knarled
+old oak trees.
+
+“They are low and crooked, and they spread themselves over the ground as
+do our English oaks,” the young nobleman informed her.
+
+As Wildenai had promised they discovered, poised high among the crags
+of the wild southern shore, the great eagles of which she had told him,
+measuring easily, from wing-tip to wing-tip, fully a dozen feet. The
+white otter, rarest and most valuable of all the game hunted by her
+people, eluded them, but many a small gray fox slipped away among the
+bushes, leaving the Englishman tingling for the chase.
+
+At twilight, as they made their way back to the cavern, they came upon
+a tiny lake lying asleep within the crater of a dead volcano. From the
+sides little clouds of ashes rose, floating softly away on the breezes
+of evening. The princess gathered a handful and murmuring some musical
+words in her own tongue she threw them into the air.
+
+“And would it be amiss for me to ask what 'tis you do?” questioned her
+companion, observing her closely.
+
+“I was sending a prayer to Wakan-ate, the Great Spirit,” she replied
+quietly.
+
+“A prayer,--and borne to heaven on the wings of ashes!” He seemed
+amused. “But what hast thou to pray for, oh fair princess?”
+
+Her cheeks glowing with quick color, she replied: “It were not fitting
+that any maiden tell for what she prays!”
+
+The words were spoken with such gravity that the young man flushed under
+the rebuke.
+
+When she left him at the doorway of the cavern that evening she said as
+she made a gay little gesture of farewell: “Today the land, but tomorrow
+we shall find still more beautiful things that lie hidden under the deep
+waters. You shall see!”
+
+And once again with dawn she came. This time it was the splash of a
+paddle that brought him to the opening in the rock.
+
+“Aloho-ate, lazy one!” she called gaily from below. “Make haste! The
+world is always loveliest while it lies waiting for the sun!”
+
+That day, perhaps, from among them all, lived longest within the memory
+of young Harold,--the porpoises playing fearlessly around her canoe
+as the princess, with graceful, effortless strokes, paddled around one
+after another of the pointed tongues of rock; the flying fish, skimming
+the surface of the ocean until, by virtue of their speed alone, they
+rose like gleaming bows of silver from the foam. Intent to show him all
+her treasures, Wildenai guided him to a quiet stretch of water lying
+close to shore within the shadow of tall cliffs which rose at that point
+with precipitous abruptness from the sea itself.
+
+“Here are my gardens that grow under the water,” she explained, as they
+glided above the spot. “Look well at them. They are most beautiful.”
+
+And gazing down at her command through the clear green into the luminous
+depths below, he caught glimpses of these gardens of the sea where
+goldfish darted like tropical birds among the branches of tall tree-like
+stalks of swaying seaweed, and strange shapes of jade and blue floated
+in the shadows.
+
+“Is it not wonderful?” she asked.
+
+“It is indeed, my Wildenai,” he answered earnestly. “Never in all my
+travels, methinks, have I seen aught before like this your island here!
+It seems to me indeed a charmed land, a kind of magic isle!”
+
+One day it rained, the last belated rain of winter. But even the storm
+brought pleasures of its own, for, seated on the pile of skins beside
+him, the little gray fox curled contentedly at her feet, Wildenai worked
+at her loom. Within its dull-colored warp a blanket, woven in a strange
+design of mingled red, and black, and white, grew slowly beneath her
+busy fingers.
+
+For hours the maiden drew the short woolen threads in and out while the
+young man, stretched lazily upon the ground, told her many a tale of the
+England he had left. Then, quite without warning, she ceased her work
+and sat pensively watching through the opening in the rocks the long
+gray swell of the sea.
+
+“And what is it now, my princess?” laughed young Harold. “The pattern is
+not yet finished, nor is the rain abated.”
+
+“Ah, senor Harold lord,” wistfully replied the girl, “I was but wishing
+I had been born one of those same fair English maids with the eyes of
+blue and golden hair you tell about. Then would you love me even as
+you do them!” she added artlessly, and leaned her chin upon her hand,
+considering. A secret trembled on her lips.
+
+“And how if I were Spanish born?” she questioned, and lifted hesitating,
+frightened eyes to his, “dark to look at, that I know well, but even so,
+the white man's kind of princess, who also has a throne?”
+
+And all unwitting Lord Harold answered scornfully, “Spanish! Say no
+such word to me! The English hate the Spanish!” Fiercely he caught up a
+pebble and sent it whirling out across the water. “Even now their robber
+king plans his huge armada to take our queen and rule our land, but
+that, by the holy virgin herself, shall never be! Sooner will every drop
+of blood in bonny England be spilt. Never could I make thee understand
+how much I hope to be at home before he comes! Spanish indeed! Nay,
+never let me hear the hateful word again!”
+
+Then, noting her puzzled, downcast face, with the impulsive
+changeableness which had so endeared him to her, he caught one little
+brown hand and raised it to his lips.
+
+“But I do love thee even as thou art, my Wildenai,” he told her with the
+careless assurance of one much older speaking to a child. “Is not a wild
+rose sweet as any garden bloom? Nay, methinks 'tis often sweeter!”
+
+Again he laughed and the little princess laughed with him now, for
+into her heart at his words had come a happiness so unlooked for and so
+wildly sweet as wholly to bewilder her. Quickly she rose, struck by a
+sudden thought, and running to the farthermost corner of the cavern she
+brushed aside a pile of leaves and lifted some stones, disclosing at
+length a box fashioned from the choicest cedar. Out of it, while the
+Englishman watched with wondering eyes, she drew a garment made of
+creamy doeskin, deeply fringed and trimmed besides with strings of
+wampum, the polished fragments of abalone shells and many-colored beads.
+Silently she brought it to him and when he touched it admiringly, for
+the dress was beautiful. “It is my marriage robe,” she told him gravely.
+
+That night, while the rain tapped softly at her tepee, the princess
+dreamed of a wondrous land beyond the sea where proudly she walked by
+her white chief's side and fair women with braided, golden hair spoke
+kind words of welcome, smiling at her out of sweet blue eyes.
+
+
+
+Then, without warning, came the end of all her dreams. Hurrying along
+the beach at sunset only a few days later, Wildenai caught the first
+glimpse of the returning vessel as it stole around a distant point. For
+the space of a second her heart stood still, then throbbed wildly, but
+whether with joy or pain she could not herself have told. One question
+only demanded all her thought. Should she let Lord Harold know? Perhaps
+the great white captain would not remember their bay. Perhaps,--her
+breath came fast,--perhaps the ship, unseen by anyone, would pass and
+Lord Harold remain behind content. With hands tight-clenched she watched
+the distant sail, fear growing in her eyes. Yet she knew that she would
+tell him. Nothing else was honorable. This, surely, he must decide for
+himself.
+
+But tidings of such moment outran even her swift feet. She found him
+buckling on his swordbelt, in his eyes the glad light of some trapped
+bird which sees the door of its cage suddenly open.
+
+“The ship--” she began with sinking heart.
+
+“Yes, yes, I know! I saw it!” he answered, a fever of impatience in his
+voice. “'Tis Drake. I knew he dared not leave me! 'Twill soon be too
+close in. Needs not he risk his safety. I must go before he gains the
+shore.”
+
+The princess hesitated. What meant that strange heaviness at her heart?
+Was he not still her brave, true warrior,--her great white chief? Had
+he not told her that he loved her? Crossing to where he stood she bowed
+herself before him until her silver fillet touched his feet.
+
+“I, too!” she whispered, “I shall go to England with thee!”
+
+And at her words, within the little cavern there came a silence to be
+felt. In undisguised dismay the Englishman gazed at her where she knelt.
+Then:
+
+“By the holyrood!” he muttered aghast, “She must have thought,--God only
+knows what she must have thought!”
+
+He glanced hurriedly toward the doorway and back again, ashamed. Then
+even such impatience as was his gave way, for the moment at least, to
+something more chivalric. He stooped and patted awkwardly the smooth
+black head.
+
+“Come, Wildenai, little wild rose, look up and speak to me. I must be
+going!”
+
+But still the maid lay prostrate, clasping close his rough buskins in
+her little brown hands. Never in all his life had Lord Harold been so
+sorely uncomfortable. How was it possible she had ever imagined that
+he could take her with him,--that he had meant so much? Resentment grew
+within him at the thought, yet strangely mingled always with something
+far more tender. Hastily he considered, his heart torn between the
+desire not to wound her and dread of what he knew she wanted. To be sure
+the maid was beautiful, with the softened beauty of a moonlit night in
+summer, her eyes beneath her dusky hair like stars between the branches
+of dark trees, her voice that of the forest stream when it sings itself
+to sleep. Yet past all doubt he knew that not one among the gorgeous
+throng that crowded about Elizabeth would ever see that beauty, no
+English ear take heed to hear the music of her voice. Nay, he could
+even, as he thought of it, picture the amazement of the great queen,
+could hear her scornful laughter, should he present, to help adorn her
+court, a savage Indian girl! No, a thousand times no! Such disgrace
+he could not suffer. Nor was the maid herself, so he defended himself,
+fitted for such a life. Soon would she be as unhappy in England as he
+would be to have her there. Besides, she was but a child. Else had she
+never so far forgot all womanly dignity as to force herself upon him,
+and being but a child she would soon forget. Gently he made to raise her
+to her feet.
+
+“Wildenai, little wild rose,” he began again, “what thou hast asked of
+me thou dost well know thyself is an unheard of thing. Much as I owe to
+thee, and well know I that 'tis so much I never can repay it; still for
+thine own sweet sake 'tis not in this way thy reward must come. The long
+journey and the strange new life would kill thee, Wildenai.” Having once
+begun he stumbled on, but half aware of how each word he uttered hurt
+her, eager only to have done with the whole sorry scene. “Thou art but
+a little wild flower. Thou couldst not live away from this, thy sunny
+island. Can'st thou not understand, my Wildenai?”
+
+He paused, waiting for a reply; but the maiden answered nothing. Silent
+she lay as though in very truth she were a wild flower tossed to earth
+and trampled upon by some uncaring foot.
+
+At last the man could bear it no longer. Forcibly he loosed her hands
+and stepped back. For a moment longer he lingered, looking down upon
+her in mingled impatience and regret; then, turning abruptly, he passed
+hastily out of the cavern and down the trail to the beach.
+
+Still the girl lay motionless. It was as if every sense were stunned,
+all power of thought suspended except to grasp the one fact that made
+her whole world empty,--he was gone! As in a dream she heard the grating
+of the pebbles when he pushed his boat into the water, heard the clank
+of the oars as they dropped into the oar-locks. Even yet she did not
+move. Then, after many minutes, she crept to the opening and searched
+the sea with eyes almost, too dim with tears to find that for which she
+sought. But yes, there it was,--a black speck against the golden sunset.
+She watched until she had seen the distant vessel put about, making for
+the open sea. Ah, now she knew that he was safe aboard,--no need had
+they to come farther into shore. Yet still she waited, straining her
+eyes to see the ship sink slowly beneath the horizon. One last glint of
+sunlight against a white sail, and it was gone.
+
+Then at once she rose, and moving quietly about the little cavern,
+she put all in perfect order with touch as tender as that of a mother
+preparing for its last sleep some little child. Here was the basket
+he had helped to weave, here the mat on which he had lain. Her fingers
+lingered caressingly on each thing that he had touched. There in the
+corner still stood the olla in which she had brought him water. How
+amused he had been that she could carry it on her head all the way up
+the hill from the spring without so much as spilling one drop! But that
+was all past now.
+
+When at last everything was finished she gave the little rock-walled
+room one long, lingering look, the look of one who would carry in his
+heart the image of what he beholds all the rest of his life. Then she,
+too, made her way through the doorway into the deepening dusk.
+
+
+
+On the beach below, squatted within the opened flap of his tepee,
+Torquam, mighty chief of the Mariposa, smoked his evening pipe. A
+wonderful pipe it was, long and delicately fashioned, inlaid with
+iridescent fragments of shell. Yet instantly he laid it aside as the
+slender form of his daughter darkened the doorway.
+
+“Ah, Wildenai, little wild rose, welcome art thou as sunshine after
+rain!” His eyes lighted with the tenderness never seen there by any
+other than this motherless girl. He stretched his hand to her and the
+princess came silently and knelt before him.
+
+“My father,” she said firmly, though in so low a tone that Torquam bent
+to hear. “Oh, father, thou art always wise! Thou only knowest best.
+I come to thee to tell that I will wed Cabrillo. I will wed with him
+whenever thou dost choose!”
+
+Taking her face between his hands, Torquam gazed long and searchingly
+into the sorrowful eyes of his daughter.
+
+“And thou art wise to do so, my beloved one,” he said at last. “He will
+make to thee a good husband.” In his voice was the keen understanding
+of a father. “He will be kind to thee and heal thy wounded heart, my
+daughter. Don Cabrillo is a good man,” he repeated solemnly.
+
+
+
+
+Part II. Miss Hastings Brings It to an End
+
+
+Centuries passed, and again, with the same sweet suddenness as in the
+days gone by, spring came to Catalina. Guests of the St. Catherine,
+lounging on its wide verandahs, gazed across a sunlit sea to where
+the faint cloud that was San Jacinto hovered, the merest ghost of a
+mountain, above the misty mainland. Along the broad board-walk leading
+down to Avalon benches, shaded by brightstriped awnings, flaunted an
+invitation to every passing tourist. Strings of Japanese lanterns bobbed
+merrily above the narrow village streets. Everywhere were laughter
+and movement and color from the bathing beaches, dotted with gay
+umbrellas--even to the last yacht anchored round the point.
+
+To the man making slow progress down the crowded wharf from the
+afternoon boat this holiday world into which he thus suddenly stepped,
+presented an appearance so different from that he had pictured as almost
+to bewilder him. At sight of the jaunty little motorbus waiting to haul
+him up the winding grade to the hotel, he actually hesitated. Yet seldom
+before, to his knowledge, had he found it difficult to adapt himself to
+an unexpected situation.
+
+“Hotel St. Catherine! Bus to the hotel, sir?”
+
+Other guests, more certain of their intentions, pushed impatiently
+against him, and presently he found himself, wedged well toward the
+middle of the long seat, chugging comfortably up the hill. Still
+half-daunted, he gazed about him. It was all of it charming to be sure,
+fascinating even; yet, could this festive summering place be the Avalon
+of his dreams? Was this the quaint village of Spanish times, reaching
+back still further through dimly remembered Indian lore to a world
+lost now except to legend? Yet it was for the sake of a mere legend, a
+fanciful tale handed down in his family through many a generation, that
+he had made the long journey from New York to California, nor--and here
+he set his lips with dogged determination, did he intend to return until
+he had found that for which he searched.
+
+It was now something over two years since Harrison Blair, then fresh
+from Yale, had astonished both those who wished him well and those
+who, for various envious reasons, did not, with the wholly unreasonable
+success of his first book. For, to those who did not understand, his
+sudden fame had seemed all the more surprising in that it rested upon
+nothing more substantial than a slender volume of Indian verse. So
+unusual, however, had been his treatment of this well-worn subject as to
+call forth more than a little comment from even the most conservative of
+critics. The Brush and Pen had hastened to confer upon him an honorary
+membership. Cadmon, magic weaver of Indian music, had written a warm
+letter of appreciation. And, most precious tribute of all, the Atlantic
+Monthly had become interested in his career.
+
+To be sure, it was nothing more than might have been expected of a man
+whose undergraduate work in English had aroused the reluctant wonder of
+more than one instructor. Nevertheless, the fact that he pulled stroke
+on the 'varsity crew had somewhat blinded other contemporaries to his
+more scholarly attainments. Nor had anyone thought it probable, because
+of his father's wealth, that Blair, in any event, would feel called upon
+to do much more than make a frolic of life. No one, indeed, had
+been more taken aback than had his father to find him, a year after
+graduation, drudging over the assistant editor's desk of a struggling
+magazine the payroll of which, to put it mildly, offered no financial
+inducements.
+
+“It's good practice for me, though,--quickest way to learn,” was all he
+vouchsafed when the older man remonstrated.
+
+Yet, had that same father, shrewd capitalist that he was, but taken the
+trouble to reason back from premises evident enough, he might have been
+the first to realize that this tall son of his, with the keen gray eyes
+and a face the strength of which was but increased by the high cheek
+bones and squarely molded chin, was scarcely the type of man to sit idly
+by enjoying the fruits of another's labor.
+
+And now, after two years more of grinding apprenticeship, he had in mind
+something much bigger than the slender volume of verse,--an adventure
+into authorship more suited to his metal,--a story for which an intense
+personal sympathy would furnish fitting atmosphere, with the final spur
+to his ambition a letter from the Atlantic even at the moment stowed
+safely away in his pocket.
+
+Some two hours later, after an unexpectedly excellent dinner in the
+luxurious dining room, he sauntered over to the hotel desk. There was
+no more than the faintest probability that a clerk of the St. Catherine
+would be able to tell him how to reach a secret cavern bower above the
+Bay of Moons; still, he had to enter an opening wedge somewhere. The one
+man on duty was for the moment occupied with another guest, and Blair,
+lighting his after-dinner cigar, prepared with leisurely patience to
+await his turn.
+
+The guest happened to be a young woman, rather pretty, he casually
+decided, although her greatest claim to beauty lay more, perhaps, in the
+swift changes in expression of which her face was capable, than in any
+actual regularity of line. For lack of anything better to do, Blair
+watched idly her encounter with the clerk. There appeared to be some
+kind of misunderstanding.
+
+“Awfully sorry it's happened that way, Miss Hastings,” the man behind
+the desk was saying. He lifted with genuine reluctance the key she had
+just laid down. “We'd be mighty sorry to interfere with your work, but
+those small rooms always do go first. You know that yourself.”
+
+“I hadn't heard about it, though. I didn't know they were all gone.” Her
+voice quivered with disappointment.
+
+Blair, whose vocation taught him a certain technical sympathy, shot
+a swift glance at her. She couldn't be more than twenty-two or
+thereabouts, he decided less casually, and went on to observe her still
+further. She wore a shabby, broad-brimmed hat much faded as if from
+constant exposure to the sun, but the shadows in the coil of hair
+beneath were warmly golden.
+
+“Couldn't you find a room down in the village somewhere,--at Mrs.
+Merrill's perhaps?” suggested the clerk.
+
+“But Mrs. Merrill isn't here this spring.” In spite of its quiver the
+voice was very sweet.
+
+“No,” she started to turn away, “I'll have to put it off again, I
+suppose. I've looked everywhere.”
+
+She took a step or two, hesitated, then returned to the desk.
+
+“You're positive there isn't a single one of the small rooms left?” she
+pleaded. “I wouldn't care how far back it was,--anything would do. You
+can't think how I hate to give up. I had so hoped to finish it this
+time!”
+
+The man shook his head.
+
+“No, we're absolutely full just now. Later on there might be
+something,--after the season is over.”
+
+“But that will be after school begins,” answered the girl bitterly. “I
+can't work at all then!” and catching up a bag fully as shabby as the
+hat, she hurried away.
+
+“Who is she?” asked Blair abruptly, overlooking for the moment his
+original purpose in seeking the man.
+
+“School-teacher from Pasadena,” replied the clerk briefly. “Teaches art
+in some private school over there, I believe.” He eyed Blair amusedly.
+“Think you've met her before somewhere?”
+
+Blair allowed his annoyance to show. “No, never laid eyes on her
+till just now. But I couldn't help feeling a bit sorry for her,” he
+persisted. “She seemed so sort of cut up. What's the trouble?”
+
+“I'm sorry for her myself,” declared the man on the other side as he
+hung the returned key on its board. “This is the third time that poor
+little woman's had to leave before she could finish what she came for on
+account of the expense. But what can we do?” He shrugged his shoulders.
+“The St. Catherine isn't exactly a Y. W. C. A.”
+
+“What is it she's trying to do?”
+
+Amusement deepened in the man's eyes.
+
+“She's supposed to be painting Indians.”
+
+“Indians!” To the amazement of the other man Blair suddenly leaned
+forward, his eyes agleam with interest.
+
+“But I didn't know there were any around here.”
+
+“There aren't.”
+
+“Then how--?”
+
+“Makes 'em up out of her head, I guess. I never heard that she had even
+a model.”
+
+“But--but what I want to know is why she comes here at all?” The
+situation seemed to Blair to offer possibilities, yet he was thoroughly
+puzzled. “I met a fellow on the train who does that sort of thing, but
+he always goes to the desert to paint,--at least he said he did.”
+
+“Yes, they do mostly. Probably he meant Taos,--whole nest of artists at
+Taos.”
+
+“Well, but why in thunder then--?”
+
+The clerk smiled skeptically.
+
+“Why, you see, it's something like this. Miss Hastings' bent on being
+an illustrator, pays better than teaching, I suppose, or--well, at any
+rate, that's what she's aiming for,--and she has an idea that if she can
+only get a series of pictures,--several of them on the same subject, you
+understand,--accepted by one of those Eastern magazines, she can soon
+work in with some big publisher and get an order. She told us all about
+it one night last winter when she was over.”
+
+“But in heaven's name, why Indians?” persisted Blair.
+
+“Because she thinks she's found some good material here. She told me
+about that, too. Seems there's an old legend connected with Catalina,
+about an Indian princess and a cavern. The princess died of a broken
+heart or something of the sort, I believe she said. I never heard the
+particulars myself. Nobody else, either, seems to know anything about
+it. But Miss Hastings says there's quite a story, and she's got it all
+down pat from A to Z. She's using it for her series.”
+
+A porter brought up some newcomers and Blair stepped aside. But the
+moment his man was at leisure again he cornered him at once. An idea had
+come to him, an idea almost dazzling in its possibilities.
+
+“You say she hasn't finished her series yet?”
+
+“Beg pardon? Oh, the teacher?” The man shook his head. “Evidently not
+from what she said just now. She never stays long enough really to put
+it over. Every few months she bobs up over a week-end, but that doesn't
+give her time even to visit some of the places she's after. She never
+seems to get much more than started before she has to go home again.”
+
+For a moment Blair smoked in silence. Then:
+
+“Look here,” he cut in abruptly, “You split my suite and give her one of
+my rooms.”
+
+The man's eyebrows rose in surprise.
+
+“Her? What do you mean?”
+
+Blair made an impatient gesture.
+
+“Why, this Miss--the teacher, you know. Didn't you just say you hadn't
+any room for her? Well, I've got three, you know.”
+
+“Yes, but that's altogether a different proposition. You made your
+reservation weeks ago.”
+
+“But you could still give her one of them, couldn't you?”
+
+Clerks in large hotels listen with patience to a vast number of
+strange proposals, but at this from Blair, the man opposite eyed him in
+unflattering amazement.
+
+“But you said, when you wired, you wanted the extra room to work in,” he
+objected, “and you'll remember, Mr. Blair, that you were pretty emphatic
+about it, too, at the time. We went to all kinds of trouble to fix that
+up for you.”
+
+“I can get along all right without it, though,” coolly observed his
+changeable guest, “and I'd rather she'd have it. It's possible to split
+suites here, isn't it?” he persisted. “They do at most hotels.”
+
+“It's possible, of course.” Across the desk the eyes of the two men met
+squarely. “That part of it's easy enough. But why? and who's going to
+pay for it?”
+
+“I'm going to pay for it! What did you suppose?” exploded Blair. “It's
+worth that and a lot more to me just now to keep her from getting away.
+Oh, I'm in earnest all right. I mean it! Look here! Can't you see how
+that woman can be a perfect gold mine to me? You know enough about my
+work to understand that I'm really out here after Indians myself, and
+she--well, I'll wager a cool thousand there isn't a spot on this whole
+island that ever dreamed of seeing an Indian that she doesn't know all
+about!”
+
+The clerk nodded. “But--”
+
+“But nothing!” Impatiently Blair brushed aside all objections. “Why, I
+hadn't the remotest idea how I was going to get started. It's a rattling
+piece of good luck, and we'll fix it up right now!”
+
+“Yes, but--” Still the other man hesitated. “It sounds all right
+enough,--from your end of it especially, but you'd better see her first.
+She's a proud little piece,--doesn't like obligations of any kind,--and
+a stranger,--a man--I'm sorry to discourage you, but I don't believe
+she'll have a thing to do with it.”
+
+In Blair's eyes impatience threatened to become something more emphatic.
+
+“It's a business proposition pure and simple,” he argued. “She gives
+me all the information she's been able to get together, and I pay her
+expenses while she does it. That gives her a chance to finish her own
+work, don't you see? A mighty good proposition for her, too, I should
+say, and if she doesn't see it that way herself,--why,--well, she isn't
+as intelligent as she looks, that's all!”
+
+“Providing you can persuade her it is just business. I'd advise you to
+talk with her first, just the same. And you'll have to be quick about
+it, too. She's planning to wait in the village tonight for the morning
+boat, and she'll be starting down about now.”
+
+
+
+Outside was one of those radiant nights intended for dreams and the
+makers of dreams. Over an ocean white with light long breakers rolled
+crests gleaming with silver that fell in soft thunder on the beach. Miss
+Hastings, hurrying along the board-walk to the village, glanced at them
+and looked quickly away.
+
+“Oh, I say!” came a voice out of the darkness behind her, “if you don't
+mind, hold on there a minute, will you? Wait for me, please!” The voice
+was that of a man, pleasant, but exceedingly determined. Without so much
+as turning her head Miss Hastings quickened her steps.
+
+But it was of no use. Whoever her pursuer might be, he was even then at
+her side.
+
+“I beg your pardon,” breathlessly he began again, “but I've been chasing
+you all the way down from the hotel. I want you to come right back there
+with me. I have a proposal to make to you.”
+
+Even in the darkness he could see how the girl's eyes blazed.
+
+“I never listen--” she began hotly, “to proposals from people I don't
+know,” she had meant to add, but he gave her no time.
+
+“It will mean the biggest chance for your pictures you've ever had,” he
+broke in. “Now, listen!”
+
+And, to her complete surprise, Miss Hastings suddenly found herself
+doing that very thing.
+
+“There are a lot of things I've got to find out right away,” continued
+the astonishing stranger, “and the clerk up there tells me you're
+painting a series of Indian portraits.”
+
+The little art teacher gazed at him fascinated. What manner of man could
+this be, she wondered.
+
+“I don't see the connection--” Coldness struggled with curiosity in her
+voice.
+
+“Listen!” With uplifted, peremptory hand again he stopped her. Nor is it
+safe to say that any book agent, watching the door slowly closing upon
+him, ever talked faster, or more rigidly to the point, than did Blair
+within the next few minutes.
+
+“Perhaps you won't understand it all right off. I wouldn't expect that.
+But it's this way. I'm representing Harper's, and Houghton and Mifflin,
+and Dodd and Mead, and--several other firms” (to satisfy his conscience
+Blair contended with himself that he might as well as not have been
+their representative--a mere oversight on their part ought not to
+be allowed to stand in his way), “and I'm out here to find the best
+illustrator I can lay hands on to do the pictures for some Indian stuff
+I'm getting into shape for one of 'em. I want to see your work. And,
+if I like it, I'll pay you well. And anyway, I'll pay every bit of the
+expense while you finish your series here if you'll tell me what you
+know about Wildenai!”
+
+But, at the name, the girl beside him had given a low cry of utter
+amazement. She stopped short.
+
+“Do you know it too, then?” she gasped. “How did you hear about it?”
+
+“Oh, I've known it for years,” replied Blair carelessly. “Some of it
+I've known all my life. But look here now. Is it a bargain?--about your
+helping me, I mean?”
+
+Before he left her, an hour or so later, every detail had been arranged.
+Miss Hastings had meekly agreed to return to the hotel in the morning.
+Blair would pay her expenses and something he called a retaining fee
+besides. That would make an extra fifty dollars,--she smiled to herself
+in the dark,--a new winter suit at least, and perhaps one or two
+matinees if she managed! All this for the information she could give him
+about the island and its history. The various points in their contract
+spun dizzily in her dazed brain. No spot known to legend to which it was
+possible to conduct him should remain unvisited. Four hours out of every
+day were pledged without fail to his interests. The rest of the time she
+might have for her own work. It had all come about so unexpectedly,
+and was altogether so extraordinary that, after he had gone, his new
+employee, stretched uncomfortably upon a narrow cot in the tent of a
+fellow teacher, spent the remainder of the night in imaginary interviews
+with Eastern publishers regarding impossible royalties. She was far too
+excited to sleep.
+
+And, for a week, the arrangement worked very well,--almost too well.
+Every day brought with it some new adventure, and every adventure became
+a pleasure.
+
+Mounted at Blair's expense on more or less energetic ponies, for from
+the first he had insisted that horses were a necessary part of their
+business equipment, they cantered gaily along the shady canyon trails,
+or over the sunlit slopes sheeted in pale lavender wherever the wild
+lilacs were in bloom. Often, emerging from some thicket of dwarf
+oak they caught glimpses of a sapphire sea held between red, twisted
+branches of manzanita as in a frame. About them rang the music of the
+meadow larks. Merry shouts of bathers floated up from the beaches far
+below, mingled with the distant click of golf balls on the greens.
+
+For the whole of a golden day they chartered a sailboat from one, Capt.
+Warren, and rounding the yellow headlands under his lazy guidance, they
+went to examine the Ning Po, the ancient Chinese barge stranded, no one
+knew how many hundreds of years before, among the rocks off the isthmus.
+
+“Fascinating old place,” observed Blair gazing, his eyes aglow with
+interest, around the mediaeval cabin. “Don't doubt a dozen murders at
+least were pulled off in this one room!”
+
+“Oh yes, of course,” eagerly echoed his assistant. “It's absolutely
+unique!”
+
+Her gaze, as bright with interest as his own, rested upon Blair himself.
+She was considering, absent-mindedly, how becoming white trousers can
+be to most men, especially when they are reasonably dark themselves.
+But,--her glance travelled upward,--how unusually dark he was, and his
+hair,--yes, without question, the straightest and blackest she had ever
+seen. Yet it seemed in some indefinable way to become him,--to belong,
+as it were, to his type. Leaning her elbows meditatively upon the rusty
+anchor, her chin in her hands, she silently appraised him. He really
+was a handsome man, she decided, and clever, too, of the sort who does
+things in the world! A dreamy light grew within her eyes.
+
+It was only two or three evenings later when, on their way back from the
+site of an historic Indian village on the other side of the island,
+they walked their horses slowly around the Wishbone Loop, the ostensible
+reason being that, as Blair had already discovered, it commanded the
+widest view of the ocean at sunset.
+
+He was the first to speak when they struck again into the main trail.
+
+“I wished for something about a rose, a wild rose,--want to guess?” He
+eyed her mischievously.
+
+“Hush,--mustn't tell!” she laughed. “Your wish won't come true if you
+tell.” Then, for no reason at all, she blushed.
+
+Never, in truth, during her twenty-three years of working, and
+scrimping, and going without, had life shown to the little art teacher
+so fair and generous a side, seemed so extravagantly joyous an affair as
+during that magic week. The spending of money, it was easy to see, meant
+little or nothing to Blair. But that was the least of his attractions,
+for, to the girl herself, mere wealth for its own sake had never
+appealed. The charm lay rather in the genial broadness of his view
+of things, the strength of reasoning behind the few opinions he put
+forward, his reticence, and quiet modesty. In these dwelt the spell that
+swept her into an almost delirious enjoyment of his society. For, all
+unknown to herself, like many another woman in like condition, she had
+needed a change of people. In the cramped life of a private school men
+played but little part, and the men who were most worth while, almost no
+part at all. Instinctively, in time, she had wearied of little girls
+and their lessons. Sorely had she craved the stimulus which only the
+companionship of congenial men can give. Of this fact, however, she had
+been even less aware.
+
+One crisp morning, seated in a diminutive wicker cart behind a
+discontented pony, they searched out Chicken John's cabin on the mesa
+behind the golf links.
+
+“Not that it has anything to do with Indians,” she apologized, “only
+I want you to see him. He's such a character, so nice and untidy and
+queer!”
+
+As a result of this expedition they brought away with them what old John
+designated a “plump little fry” to be served at the cosy table for two
+in the sunniest window of the dining room, a luxury which Blair had
+likewise confiscated in the interests of business.
+
+And so for seven glorious days they tramped the fragrant hills, or
+sailed a sea as softly blue as though fallen fresh that morning from
+the cloudless heaven above. In the warmth and glow of his friendship
+the starved heart of the little art teacher opened like some hot-house
+flower carried suddenly into the wide outdoors. And when at last
+the week drew to an end, their work, both his and hers, was still
+unfinished, so that there was nothing else to do but to live on through
+another fully as wonderful.
+
+Blair himself took things much more for granted, and even when their
+talk strayed farthest afield it was plain to the girl that his mind
+never fully lost sight of the purpose for which he had come. His work
+stood always first, while,--she blushed to own it even to herself,--she
+had sometimes entirely forgotten her own.
+
+At the end of the third week they had seen almost everything he
+considered essential and at times she sensed in his manner, even when he
+was least aware of it, a kind of repressed impatience. She knew what it
+meant and shivered. Presently he would leave her, and life would become
+again the same dull round of work. Only one spot of real importance
+remained unvisited,--the cavern bower above the Bay of Moons. Of this
+he had spoken frequently, and well she knew he held it the climax of his
+search.
+
+But for reasons best known to herself Miss Hastings put off from day to
+day this final expedition until Blair began to chaff at the delay.
+
+“That's really the one place I came to see!” he told her more than once.
+“After I've been there I think I can go.”
+
+“But we've planned Middle Ranch for today,” she would answer evasively,
+or, “This is the best time to see Orazaba; it's so clear this morning.
+That's the mountain, you know, where the Indians carved out their ollas.
+Some of them are still there, only half cut away. It would be too bad
+for you to miss that.”
+
+At length, however, there came a day when excuses would do no longer.
+
+“We've waited long enough,” he declared that morning over their coffee,
+“Besides, I may have to go now in a few days.”
+
+And although at his words the sunshine of her new world faded suddenly
+away, yet the little teacher kept a brave front. She even laughed
+carelessly.
+
+“Men are so impatient,” she teased, “But we'll go today.”
+
+Nevertheless, it was not until the rose of sunset rested among the hills
+that at last they found themselves on the crest of the tall cliff which
+commanded so wide a stretch of the ocean and the shimmering valleys
+below.
+
+“It reminds one of the Bay of Naples,” observed Blair, pausing to
+scan the rocky coastline against which, far beneath them, the foaming
+breakers threw themselves. He shaded his eyes with his hand and looked
+far out to sea. “What a wonderful place for a watch tower it would have
+made!”
+
+“It had one once,” softly replied the girl, “Wildenai's watch tower!”
+
+Blair turned, their eyes met, and he smiled.
+
+“It's been splendid to have you with me all these days,” he said, “I've
+been wanting to tell you. You've been more of a help than you'll ever
+know.” And then, after a pause, “It's because you care so much about the
+story yourself, I suppose, that you've been such an inspiration to me.”
+
+Something in the girl's heart seemed suddenly to snap.
+
+“It's because I care more about your work, and--and you. You are so
+wonderful!” she broke forth impulsively, and stood before him crimson
+with confusion. For a second, which seemed to her an age, there was
+silence. Then he spoke and, in her bitter humiliation, his voice sounded
+strained and cold.
+
+“Shall we go in?” he asked.
+
+Silently he parted the tangle of manzanita that for centuries had veiled
+the secrets of the princess, and stood aside for her to enter. Wildly
+the little art teacher glanced about her. This moment to which she had
+so looked forward, and yet had dreaded as much because it meant the
+end,--this moment which might, nevertheless, have meant much to them
+both even though it were the end, she herself had spoiled! All its
+delicate beauty changed to a sordid suspicion, it lay in ruins now
+because of her thoughtless words. She dared not guess at what he must be
+thinking! For a desperate second she considered flight. Then proudly
+she raised her head. One more thing, at least, about her now he should
+learn!
+
+“Did you know--?” she began, then broke off irresolute.
+
+Blair glanced at her and again their eyes met. This time he did not
+smile.
+
+“Know what?” he asked.
+
+She laughed with embarrassment.
+
+“It really isn't of any interest to you, but--” and again she paused.
+
+“Suppose you let me be the judge of that,” he suggested stiffly. “You're
+making me horribly curious, you know. You can't very well drop the
+subject now.” He was evidently making an effort at pleasantry.
+
+She flushed brightly.
+
+“Of course it couldn't be of the slightest importance to anyone except
+myself,” she explained. Then, as if doubting her courage to continue
+long, she hurried on, “but one reason I take such an interest in--your
+work is because I'm a direct descendant of Lord Harold myself. He became
+the Duke of Norfolk afterward, you know, but Hastings was always the
+family name.” She flashed him a haughty glance, a pride that changed to
+wide-eyed surprise as she noted his amazement.
+
+“Not really?” He had turned abruptly and in his eyes there was a
+curious expression, almost of alarm. “How extraordinary,--how perfectly
+extraordinary!”
+
+“Why extraordinary?” That her cup of humiliation might brim to the full,
+resentment was added to confusion. “You consider me unworthy, then, of
+having had nobility among my ancestry? But, just the same, there
+was nothing strange about it. The colonies were chiefly English,
+you remember!” He smiled at her sarcasm. “The duke married one of
+Elizabeth's ladies-in-waiting after he went home and there was a younger
+son, and he had a younger son, and after a long time one of them came
+over to Virginia just like anybody else. They have always been good,
+loyal, highly respected American citizens,” she told him fiercely, “and
+I'm proud of them! Besides--” with reckless emphasis, “I've always felt
+so sorry for Wildenai.”
+
+But at this point, quite incomprehensibly, Blair broke into peals of
+laughter.
+
+“And by and by, after a long, long time, one of these good, loyal,
+American citizens that we're both so proud of had a hot-tempered, most
+disloyal little daughter who intends to show her employer his proper
+place before she dismisses him! But why are you sorry for Wildenai?”
+
+With mischievous eyes he searched her face.
+
+She flushed, then, looking squarely at him, “Because she was impulsive
+like me, and just for that reason Lord Harold ran away and left her,”
+ she said. “He's the only one of them I never had any use for.”
+
+Blair wandered the length of the cavern and back before he replied.
+
+“You think him a coward, I suppose.” He still looked as though he wanted
+to laugh, yet something in his tone seared her outraged pride. He might
+as well have touched an iron to quivering flesh. “You ought to remember,
+however,--I mean every woman ought to remember,--that when a girl lets a
+man know that she cares for him she generally forfeits, then and there,
+whatever interest she may have had for him. Wildenai risked too much.
+Of course, in her case there was some excuse. She was only an untrained
+barbarian. But, under ordinary circumstances, I tell you there's nothing
+a man despises so much!”
+
+What was done or said after that Miss Hastings never could have told.
+She was possessed of but one desire,--to get away, to go back to the
+hotel,--home, anywhere beyond the reach of his voice and his eyes. For
+the moment she hated him, and although Blair, conscience smitten at
+he knew not what, waited in the lobby a full hour before going in to
+dinner, she did not come down.
+
+Up in her room, mechanically brushing her hair for the night, Miss
+Hastings stormily addressed the girl in the glass who stared so
+scornfully back at her.
+
+“I tell you I don't care a thing about it! He probably thought he was
+justified in every word he said. He's probably smiling this very minute
+because he thinks he managed it so well! But he's a coward just the
+same, and I despise him,--I do despise him!” Her eyes brimming with
+tears, she fiercely repeated the word. “Well, he'll soon find out how
+much I really meant!”
+
+Over and over she re-lived the short scene,--all of its humiliation, all
+of its hurt, seeking at every turn solace for her woman's pride.
+
+“Naturally I wanted to help him all I could, to appear, at least, to be
+interested, especially when he was paying so much for it! It was only
+a business arrangement anyway,” she continued bitterly, “nothing but
+business from start to finish, and if he doesn't know that yet, he'll
+find it out the very first thing tomorrow morning!”
+
+And having tumbled into bed she lay staring into the dark, planning
+the details of a campaign warranted either to cure or kill the enemy.
+Outside, a mocking bird, perched provokingly near her window, kept the
+night ringing with music. Resolutely she closed her ears to his song.
+But presently, through the faint fragrance of oleanders, other sounds
+began to penetrate,--the strains of the waltz to which they had danced
+only the night before. The little art teacher turned wearily over and
+cried herself to sleep.
+
+On the morning which followed she rose very early, however, much too
+early to breakfast with Blair at the little table in the sunny corner.
+Instead, she ordered some coffee and toast at Jim's Waffle Shop in
+the village and was hard at work sketching on the wharf before eight
+o'clock. She had suddenly remembered a promise to sketch Capt. Warren's
+dog holding the gaff, a feat of which both Pal and his master were
+justifiably proud. Indeed, so long had the arrangement been made and so
+entirely had it been neglected, that no one was more surprised than the
+Captain himself at her unexpected appearance.
+
+“But Pal and me ought to be at the Tuna Club in fifteen minutes, to take
+a party o' members out fishin',” he demurred. “You can't paint Pal in no
+quarter of an hour!”
+
+“I'm sorry to have had to put it off so long,” replied Miss Hastings
+crisply, “but I'm planning to go home in a few days now,--this afternoon
+probably. It's the only chance I shall have.” And she prepared to make
+good the belated promise with such determination that, after a wistful
+glance or two across the slapping white caps, the old skipper meekly
+succumbed.
+
+It was here Blair found her an hour or so later. Unceremoniously he
+placed himself in front of her, his hands in his pockets, and gave vent
+to a low whistle.
+
+“Well, of all the--!”
+
+“Oh, is it you, Mr. Blair?” she inquired in cool, sweet tones. “I
+thought most probably you'd gone! Didn't you say yesterday you intended
+to as soon as you'd seen the cavern?” Then, after a pause during which
+Blair said nothing, “I've been getting dreadfully behind with my own
+work, so I thought, if you didn't mind, I'd try to catch up a little
+this morning.”
+
+“Certainly not. Take all the time you want! We've about finished anyway,
+I guess.” His coolness matched her own.
+
+Another silence during which she painted furiously.
+
+“I'm making a sketch of Pal holding the gaff,” she ventured at length
+when the strain had become too uncomfortable.
+
+“So I see.”
+
+This second tentative effort at conversation having flickered and gone
+out she bent again to her work, while Blair remained, looking down at
+her, in his eyes mingled amusement and resentment. What had he done, he
+wondered, to account for such a change? Or, perhaps, it was something he
+had not done. He tried again.
+
+“Aren't we going for our ride this morning? It's a glorious day, and I
+have the refusal of the two best horses.”
+
+“No, I think not,--not this morning, thank you,” she answered. In her
+voice was the same crisp sweetness. “I haven't time!”
+
+With a shrug of pure bewilderment he backed away, then lingered a moment
+longer to watch the sketch take shape beneath her hurrying brush. That
+was the particular moment Miss Hastings chose for the final reckless
+stab.
+
+“You're standing in my light,” she said. “If you'd just as soon, please
+do go away, Mr. Blair. It makes me nervous to have people looking over
+my shoulder when I'm trying to paint.”
+
+This was just a trifle more than Blair at the moment was prepared to
+stand. His eyes grew dark.
+
+“Certainly,” he replied icily. “So sorry to have bothered you at all.
+I only came down to tell you that I've decided to leave today. There's
+nothing more to keep me now, I think, and I'm rather anxious to get
+home. You'll find your check at the desk.” And he sauntered away.
+
+She did not go back to the hotel for luncheon. She had finished her
+sketch, yet, somehow, when the time came, she discovered that it would
+be quite impossible to enter the dining room. She found it equally
+impossible to take the afternoon boat herself. Instead, having clambered
+half way up the steep slope to the cavern, she watched from behind
+a flaming riot of wild nasturtians while, preceded by a hotel porter
+bearing bags and suit-cases, Blair boarded the Avalon for Los Angeles.
+He was going away, then, without even a word of farewell.
+
+The heart of the little art teacher turned cold within her, so cold that
+she sank numbly into the red and gold tangle; nor did she look up again
+until the steamer, dipping below the horizon, had left only a trail of
+smoke to show where it disappeared. She had not believed that he would
+do quite that!
+
+When evening came she went stoically in to dinner. There was no reason
+any longer for staying away. Sternly she kept her eyes from the vacant
+place opposite. Yet somehow she could not persuade herself that he was
+really gone. More than once she caught herself watching the door, half
+expecting to see him stroll in with apologies for tardiness and take his
+empty chair. When again the orchestra drifted suddenly into the waltz to
+which they had danced, she rose abruptly and left the room.
+
+Well, she would go herself in the morning. She would settle everything
+and pack her things at once. She went to the desk to ask for the check.
+But there was nothing for her. No, the clerk assured her after much
+fumbling, Mr. Blair hadn't left anything, either in her box or his own.
+But,--the man stole a covert glance at her downcast face,--he was still
+holding his rooms. Probably he meant to attend to it when he returned.
+
+That he might not see the wild joy that leaped to her eyes, Miss
+Hastings turned with startling suddenness and fled upstairs. Safe in her
+own room she flung herself with tears and laughter on the bed. So that
+was the hand he was playing, was it?--the dear, wicked, unmanageable--!
+Of course he would have to be punished,--well punished! but--she laughed
+aloud for pure joy--the world was a radiant place once more, and nothing
+of any sort really mattered, because he was coming back.
+
+But the next day went by, and the next, and he had not come. Day after
+day passed in an empty procession, yet no one of them brought that for
+which she waited. And there was nothing else to do. Work was out of the
+question. She could not sit still long enough. It became, instead, her
+sole occupation to linger each morning and afternoon on the verandah
+until the steamer from Los Angeles had rounded the point and crossed the
+bay in front of the hotel. Then, hidden behind the palms she would watch
+until the last straggling tourist had left the pier. But still he did
+not come.
+
+Doubt in every tormenting guise assailed her. Perhaps he had changed his
+mind and decided later not to return. Yet the clerk had said he meant to
+come back! Perhaps her check, sent by mail, was even now in her box.
+But she had not the courage to go again to the desk. Driven by alternate
+hope and fear she lost color, and she could not sleep. During seven
+miserable nights she planned to go back to Pasadena by the morning boat,
+and as many times she put it off. Yet, if he did return to find her
+waiting, what, then, would she have given him the right to think? But,
+on the other hand, if she went she might never see him again!
+
+On the eighth day she took herself grimly in hand. No longer would she
+humiliate herself by any further delay. Wildenai had not waited, and
+even a school teacher can be as proud as an Indian princess! That very
+afternoon she would finish her sketch of the cavern. Then tomorrow she
+would go back to Pasadena and the long gray round of work. Desolately
+she wandered up the secret trail to Wildenai's bower. Never had her
+sympathy for the deserted princess been so keen. Perhaps, she mournfully
+considered, if the spirit of the Indian maiden still lingered there
+it might feel sympathy for her as well. Perhaps she, too, would find
+comfort in the spot where that other woman had paid an equal price for
+her impulsiveness.
+
+The shadows in the little cavern were dark and cool and, laying aside
+her box of colors, for a long time she sat quite motionless, staring out
+to where the gulls drifted and glinted against the blue. She heard after
+a while the whistle of the approaching steamer but gave no heed. Lying
+back against the moss she had almost dropped asleep when something in
+the corner opposite attracted her attention. She sat up nervously and
+stared into the shadows. Was it only that the darkness was deeper over
+there, or was that really something propped against the wall? And had it
+moved?
+
+In the years that followed she never knew how long she sat there after
+the stones had been lifted away, holding in her lap those shreds of torn
+white doeskin. Still caught together, though in tatters, by long strings
+of shells and beads, they shone, a ghostly film of white from out the
+dimness. A breath, and the whole would have crumbled into dust. Yet
+the beads, she noticed, were still perfect as when strung by slim brown
+fingers centuries before. Only half believing it was not all of it a
+dream, she lifted them strand after strand. Then, suddenly, she gave
+a little cry. Somewhere from out the torn folds a slender chain had
+slipped. Trembling with a curiosity that bordered close on terror,
+she carried it to the light, and there it glowed, a glancing stream of
+crimson, in her hand.
+
+“Wildenai's necklace!” she breathed, and hid her face.
+
+There came the sound of a step outside. The manzanita branches were
+pushed impatiently aside and he stood before her.
+
+The journey across the channel from Los Angeles had seemed twice as long
+as when he made it a few weeks before, and he had hurried all the way
+from the hotel straight to the little cavern. But now that he had found
+her again, there seemed to be plenty of time for everything, and he
+stood quite silent looking down at her. He was glad he had found her
+there, glad, in a curious, unreasoning way, for the quiet of the late
+afternoon, for the faint fragrance of the Mariposa lilies blooming just
+beyond the ledge. Yet he let her know nothing of this in what he said.
+
+“So here you are, after all! I thought I should find you here.”
+
+She had not heard him come and was startled into a cry.
+
+“You!” she gasped, and lifted eyes in which the telltale signs of tears
+were still quite evident, so evident that, with a woman's instinct to
+hide them, she caught up the necklace and held it toward him.
+
+“See what I've found!” she exclaimed.
+
+But he paid no heed. Instead, manlike, he proceeded, quite
+unconsciously, to say the one thing that could hurt her most.
+
+“I looked for you at the hotel first, then I came on up here. I knew you
+wouldn't go till I came!”
+
+The color that had flooded her face at the sound of his voice faded
+again. She was quite white as she asked quietly:
+
+“How could you know I would stay?”
+
+He laughed easily, settling himself confidently on the moss at her side.
+
+“Because I hadn't paid you yet,” he answered gaily. “Don't you think
+that was clever of me, Wildenai?”
+
+“I would rather you did not call me that,” she told him coldly, “It
+sounds irreverent.” And she dropped her eyes, which had filled again
+miserably, to the film of white in her lap. Then, with a pitiful attempt
+to hurt him in return: “Of course you realize that I really don't
+know much about you. I don't want you to think that I distrusted you
+exactly--” she marvelled at herself that she could say such things to
+him, but went recklessly on. “The check wasn't there,--and so, well, it
+seemed wisest to wait. They said you were coming back, and I couldn't
+afford to lose it; so I stayed. Just a matter of business, you see!”
+ She finished in a tone which, except for a suspicious tremble, was
+satisfactorily disagreeable.
+
+But Blair's armor, since his return, seemed proof against such thrusts
+as she could give.
+
+“Won't play Indian at all, then?” he retorted teasingly. “But of course
+not! How could you when you happen to come from the other side of the
+house? However,” he continued whimsically, “there are such things as
+English roses, you know. I've always loved them, too, even when they
+were thorny!”
+
+He pulled absently at a fern growing near, while, suddenly, for no
+particular reason, the color glowed again in the cheeks of the little
+art teacher. She smiled, half unwillingly.
+
+“But don't pull up the wild flowers here,” she warned him, “You'll have
+the forester after you! When did you get back?” she added. “Where have
+you been so long?” burned on her lips, but she scorned to ask it.
+
+“About an hour ago,” he replied amiably. “The boat was late.”
+
+“I was beginning to think you'd given up coming at all.” She could not
+keep it back. “The duke never bothered to, you know.”
+
+But this blow, like the first, failed to reach any vulnerable spot.
+Blair did not flinch.
+
+“No, naturally he didn't! He was English, and you can't depend upon
+the English, I've discovered. But there's not the slightest reason for
+linking me up with him. The princess never ran away now, did she? And
+I--” He paused, then without looking at her he began again.
+
+“Seriously, I'm sorry if I seemed to be deserting. I--well, honestly,
+I didn't know what else to do. You suggested it yourself, you remember!
+And I'd promised my father to look after some business for him in Los
+Angeles while I was out here. You see, he--our family, have lived in
+the East for a long time now, but we used to own pretty much all of Los
+Angeles county some three centuries ago, when the Spanish were here,
+and--” Again he broke off abruptly. “Do you want to know about me?” he
+demanded.
+
+Miss Hastings leaned breathlessly toward him. Her heart was beating
+wildly.
+
+“Oh, please!” she begged.
+
+“Perhaps I should have told you at the first,” he began, “or at least
+after you told me who you were, but--anyway, I didn't. I'd never told
+anyone before and I didn't much suppose I ever would. There's a reason,
+though, why I'm particularly interested in this legend, too, a reason
+just as good as you've got. I'm--well, I'm one of Wildenai's great,
+great grandsons!”
+
+And then, because she sat quite silent there in the shadows, and
+motionless except for fingering something white that lay in her lap, he
+waited uneasily. Was she angry again, he wondered, or perhaps she was
+only laughing!
+
+She was the first to break the silence.
+
+“Are you trying to be funny?” Her voice was very cold.
+
+“Not at all,” he answered hotly. “It must be all of ten generations back
+or even more, and of course it wasn't all Spanish afterward, but, just
+the same, I'm as much a descendant of the princess as you are of the
+duke,--always have been! I'm just as proud of it, too. Possibly you
+will remember that the Spanish beat the English to it, at least in
+California. Anyway,” he finished bitterly, “what difference does it
+make? So far as I can see, it only gives us one more good subject to
+quarrel about!”
+
+Then out of the dimness came a queer little sound, whether of tears or
+of laughter it was impossible to know. For the least part of a second a
+hand brushed his own.
+
+“Oh, no!” she whispered, “Let's not do that. It wouldn't be right! And
+see,” she laughed tremulously, “Isn't it strange I should have found it
+today, but,” she lifted the white thing in her lap, “here is Wildenai's
+wedding dress--and the chain of garnets!”
+
+The cavern was quite dark before they had finished talking about it, but
+at length they laid the poor little ghost of a garment reverently back
+among the stones and rose to go.
+
+“But the necklace?” Blair asked, hesitating, “do you think we ought to
+leave that here?”
+
+The girl considered a moment.
+
+“It's really yours,” she decided. “Nobody else could have the least
+claim to it.”
+
+“Except--” Suddenly his eyes shone with a strange expression before
+which the little art teacher instinctively shrank. He took a step toward
+her.
+
+“I believe I'll give the garnets back,” he announced. “I fancy that's
+what the princess would have liked to do if she'd had the chance.
+Besides,” his eyes grew still darker, “they were meant in the first
+place for a wedding gift, and so if you--”
+
+He would have clasped them about her neck, but Miss Hastings backed
+frantically away.
+
+“No!--not for worlds,” she cried. “You know you're only saying it
+because you think you can't get out of it!” And before he could realize
+just what was happening, she was gone.
+
+
+
+The boat for Los Angeles was unusually crowded that night. For either
+this reason, or some other she would not acknowledge, Miss Hastings
+found herself pushed aside by more impatient passengers every time she
+attempted to enter the gangway.
+
+“All aboard!” called a peremptory voice from somewhere on deck. She took
+a step forward, hesitated, drew back. The plank was hauled irrevocably
+away, and she turned to face Blair standing just behind her on the
+wharf.
+
+“I was sure you wouldn't run away,” he declared, “but if you had--!”
+
+She let him lead her back along the broad boardwalk toward the hotel
+until they stood within the shadow of the huge boulder which for
+centuries has marked the outer boundary of the Bay of Moons. Beyond them
+the lights of the St. Catherine glimmered down the hill and on over the
+water, rimming with golden bubbles the outlines of the pier.
+
+“Wildenai!” Out of the darkness his voice came to her, mocking, tender,
+wholly insistent. “Foolish, obstinate little lady! Can't you see how
+it's up to you,--up to the English to make amends? Honestly now, when
+he began it I don't imagine even that rascal Drake himself would have
+believed a family scrap could last the better part of four centuries.
+Don't you really think it's about time for you to call it off?”
+
+And flinging her scruples to the winds, Miss Hastings suddenly decided
+that it was.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Their Mariposa Legend, by Charlotte Herr
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THEIR MARIPOSA LEGEND ***
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+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
+
+<!DOCTYPE html
+   PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" >
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <title>
+      Their Mariposa Legend, by Charlotte Herr
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
+    blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    div.fig    { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
+    div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; }
+    .figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    .pagenum   {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal;
+               margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%;
+               text-align: right;}
+    pre        { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
+
+</style>
+  </head>
+  <body>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Their Mariposa Legend, by Charlotte Herr
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Their Mariposa Legend
+
+Author: Charlotte Herr
+
+Release Date: April 19, 2009 [EBook #5196]
+Last Updated: March 15, 2018
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THEIR MARIPOSA LEGEND ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Schwan, and David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <h1>
+      THEIR MARIPOSA LEGEND
+    </h1>
+    <h3>
+      A Romance of Santa Catalina
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      By Charlotte Herr
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h5>
+      To Little Bruce Parker<b></b> Who Loved Stories
+    </h5>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <table summary="" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto">
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_PART"> Part I. Sir Francis Starts It </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_PART2"> Part II. Miss Hastings Brings It to an End
+            </a>
+          </p>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_PART" id="link2H_PART">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      Part I. Sir Francis Starts It
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      It began to happen a long time ago, centuries ago, when, in a fragrant
+      rush of rain, spring came one day to Punagwandah, fairest of the Channel
+      Islands. Beneath the golden mists of sunrise danced a radiant sea. On
+      steeply sloping hillsides where thickets of wild lilac bloomed, the lark
+      shook from his tiny throat a tumult of glad music. In shadowed niches of
+      the canyons lilies waited to fill with light their gleaming ivory cups.
+      Spring in very truth was there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And looking down upon it from her cavern bower high above the beach,
+      watched the Princess Wildenai. Kneeling there, the light of dawn shining
+      on her long black hair, she was, herself, the sweetest blossom of the
+      spring. Loveliest was she among all the maidens of the Mariposa and of
+      royal blood besides; although of this the great chief Torquam, who even at
+      that moment lay sleeping in his lodge of deerskin on the crescent beach
+      below, knew more than he had ever told.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With eyes rapt, her breath scarcely stirring the folds of softest fawnskin
+      drawn across her breast, the princess bent her gaze to where the waves ran
+      silver on the ocean's distant rim. There she knew the sun must rise and,
+      as the first dazzling ray sparkled across the water, she rose slowly until
+      she stood erect, a slender, graceful figure against the dim, gray rocks,
+      and stretching her arms toward the East, spoke in the musical words of her
+      people.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, Waken-ate, great spirit-father,&rdquo; she pleaded, &ldquo;have mercy on me.
+      Grant to me, thy humble daughter, one only boon. Grant, I pray thee, that
+      it need not be I wed with Torquam's friend, the pale-face stranger. Well
+      knowest thou I would not disobey my father, him the bravest and most
+      powerful of all thy warriors, him whom his people delight to honor, and
+      whom I strive to please. All the more I feel my duty since, many moons
+      ago, they laid my mother underneath the flowers. Yet, even so, I cannot
+      find it in my heart to wed with Don Cabrillo, dearly as does my father
+      wish it. Can'st thou not then, in thy great power, turn his heart, oh lord
+      of spirits, that he no longer may desire it? Help me in this, my only
+      trial, I pray thee, and in all else will I be indeed his loyal daughter,&mdash;in
+      all else save alone in this one thing!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Her arms fell. Slowly she sank again to her knees, bending her head until
+      her forehead touched the ground. For many minutes she lay thus prostrate
+      while the glory of the rising sun bathed the sea in splendor. Yet, when at
+      last she rose, her eyes were dim with tears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But now from the beach below there drifted up to her the sounds of a
+      village astir. Shrill voices of women mingled with the crackling of
+      freshly kindled fires. A canoe, pushed hastily into the water, grated
+      harshly on the pebbles. Still the maiden did not stir. Leaning against the
+      rocky ledge, her chin in her hands, she gazed listlessly out over the
+      shining sea. If any interests lived for her among the dark-skinned people
+      beneath the cliffs, for the moment at least she gave no sign.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, suddenly, above the ordinary din of the Indian village, rose the
+      hoarse shouting of men. Wildenai lifted her eyes,&mdash;eyes that widened
+      first with wonder, then with fear. For there, far down the shoreline to
+      the south, her sails gleaming white against the walls of rock behind her
+      as she rounded a distant point, a ship came slowly into view. With wildly
+      beating heart the young girl watched the vessel tack to clear the long
+      curve of the coast. But once before in all her life had she seen such
+      another monster winged canoe, and that had been when Senor Don Cabrillo
+      first cast anchor in the Bay of Moons below, now almost a year ago. For
+      many a week had the young man lingered, renewing the friendship with the
+      Mariposa cemented more than eighteen years before when his father,
+      hindered by storms in his adventurous journey up the coast, cast anchor
+      off the shore,&mdash;the first white man to see their island. Nor was the
+      lingering without result. Torquam he taught to speak the Spanish tongue,
+      learning in his turn safer and easier routes to the gold fields of the
+      north, while not the least among the treasures carried with him when at
+      last he sailed away did he hold the promise that the beautiful daughter of
+      the chief should become his bride when next he touched upon that shore.
+      Could this, then, be the Spaniard's fleet returning? Was the Great Spirit
+      powerless, after all, to save her? In sore bewilderment and terror
+      Wildenai watched the distant ship.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nearer and nearer it came. But, as its outline grew each moment more
+      distinct, gradually her fears departed. For this was not the clumsy
+      Spanish galleon she remembered. The prow was not nearly so high, nor was
+      the incoming vessel as large in any respect as had been that other. Yet,
+      though fear died, wonder grew. What new variety of strangers, then, was
+      about to visit them? For that the ship intended to anchor she was by this
+      time sure. Steadily it bore on until within a scant half mile of the
+      crescent shaped beach where lay the royal village of the tribe. At length,
+      as if in fear to trust themselves closer to the rocky shore, the crew were
+      seen to bring the vessel sharply about. An anchor was cast over, the
+      creaking of the hawsers distinctly audible in the clear morning air, and a
+      few moments later a small boat was lowered. Into this boat immediately
+      several sailors swung themselves and after a short delay, amidst the
+      shouting of the Indians, now running in wild excitement up and down the
+      beach, the men picked up their oars and started for the land.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Alla-hoa, Wildenai!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Up the stony trail leading to her cavern scrambled an Indian runner, a
+      lithe youth who flung himself breathless at her feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thy father, oh princess, sends me to summon thee to his lodge. Strangers,&mdash;paleface
+      strangers,&mdash;enemies, who can tell, are coming. See,&mdash;the ship!&rdquo;
+       With dark forefinger he pointed toward the sea. &ldquo;Torquam would have thee
+      hide with the rest of the women in the cave at the Great Rock. There
+      Kathah-galwa wilt keep thee safe, he says. Make haste, oh Wildenai!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And am I not as safe up here?&rdquo; returned the princess, calmly. &ldquo;Be not so
+      lost in thy terror, oh Norqua. I, too, have seen the ship and I fear not.
+      Yet will I obey if so my father bids,&rdquo; she added quickly. &ldquo;Go thou ahead.
+      I follow.&rdquo; And hastily gathering together some reeds and colored grasses
+      lying on the ledge, parts of an unfinished basket upon which, evidently,
+      she had during some previous visit been at work, she flung them into a
+      corner of the cavern and ran lightly down the narrow path leading to the
+      village.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here all by this time was tense excitement, the dramatic, ungoverned
+      excitement of children. While with shrill cries two or three of the women
+      gathered the little ones together, the rest pulled frantically at the
+      poles holding each tepee in place. Still apparently quite unmoved,
+      Wildenai sought first her father standing surprised but unafraid in the
+      doorway of his lodge. Tall and spare and stern he looked, straight as some
+      lonely pine on the slopes of distant San Jacinto. Yet even in the stress
+      of such a moment a tender light stole into his eyes as they rested upon
+      his motherless daughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Wildenai made obeisance and for a brief moment the two surveyed each other
+      in silence. Then,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is well thou art come, my beloved one,&rdquo; spoke the chief. &ldquo;Stranger
+      pale-faces will soon be amongst us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wildenai feels no fear, my father,&rdquo; quietly answered the girl.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If they come in friendship,&rdquo; quickly Torquam replied, &ldquo;then indeed may
+      all be well. But the ship is not of the Senor's fleet, and if so be that
+      we must fight, thou wert better hidden in the cave. We shall see.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Bending her head in mute acquiescence the girl moved away to join the
+      group of women now almost ready to depart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Meantime the vessel's long boat, driven onward by the stout arms of three
+      strong sailors, steadily approached the bay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What think'st thou then, Rufus Broadmead, of this fool's errand to the
+      savages?&rdquo; inquired one of these, resting upon his oars for a moment that
+      he might the better listen to the tumult on the shore. &ldquo;Wot ye not that if
+      water had been the only boon he craves the captain had fared much better
+      on the mainland? Besides, did not I myself overhear the Apache only
+      yesterday tell him of a certainty that the tribes over there were away on
+      the warpath? But no, by the mass, here must we risk our precious scalps to
+      row into the very teeth of the heathen, and that to humor the whim of as
+      obstinate an Englishman as ever sailed aboard Her Majesty's fleets!&rdquo; and
+      without awaiting any reply he lowered his oars in disgust.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The others laughed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hast been, then, so stupid, brother Giles, for all thy listening with thy
+      big ears, as not to know 'tis Spanish treasure ever and naught else our
+      captain seeks? Water,&mdash;pouf!&rdquo; the speaker made a rough grimace,
+      &ldquo;water may well serve as an excuse, and what to bold Sir Francis were the
+      lives of half a dozen seamen when booty for the queen lies in the balance?
+      The Apache told him, too,&mdash;thou see'st thou hast not played the
+      listening game alone, for, hiding behind the fo'castle door myself, I
+      heard him say it,&mdash;that here lay that famous island, San&mdash;how
+      is't they call it? San Catlina&mdash;I know not how 'tis spoken,&mdash;some
+      Spanish lingo not fit for English tongues! At any rate 'twas here your
+      Spanish robber, Don Cabrillo, and, for the matter of that, his precious
+      son as well, stopped to seek direction ere they found the land of gold.
+      The savage sware besides they were a gentle tribe, not given to war and
+      murder like the rest. I hearkened well, forsooth, knowing past doubt I
+      would be een one o' those chosen to try 'em out. The devil take the Apache
+      an he lied,&rdquo; he added fiercely, &ldquo;I'll break his head across till even he
+      shrieks out for help when I get back!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He paused to gaze fearfully at the stern cliffs now looming close at hand,
+      beneath which the excited natives still ran back and forth, pointing with
+      frantic gestures at the boat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The third man spoke. He was smaller than the other two and darker, with a
+      sly look about his eyes and mouth in strong contrast to the bluff
+      frankness of his comrades. So far he had appeared content to listen in
+      amused silence, but now with a short laugh he interrupted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Apache did not lie. This is the island Santa Catalina, though that,
+      mark you, is not the Indian name. And right well can the chief who rules
+      here direct our captain also to the goldfields of the north. But hearkee,
+      comrades. 'Tis not Drake will reap the profits this time!&rdquo; He lowered his
+      voice mysteriously as though fearful of being overheard, albeit nothing
+      was nearer than his two companions and the clear, green stretch of water.
+      &ldquo;Have ye not observed the boy who travels with the captain?&mdash;the boy
+      I serve,&mdash;the one they call Sir Harry? To my mind, cub though he be,
+      'tis he who rules the ship. Hast never noticed how the great Drake himself
+      bends to his slightest wish?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aye, marry, that have I! And who, then, is he, think'st thou?&rdquo; inquired
+      the man who had spoken first.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Some close kin to the queen,&mdash;that much I know,&rdquo; the other answered
+      quickly, &ldquo;the heir to some great dukedom, mayhap, in disguise to see the
+      world and make a fortune. 'Tis his desire we land, so much he told me, and
+      'tis to learn more than directions, my hearties, and that I'll warrant ye!
+      But, look ye, the water grows too shallow! We can use the oars no longer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And even as he spoke the boat grated upon the pebbles. An incoming breaker
+      would have carried it ashore, but before the sailors could take advantage
+      of this help or even so much as ship their oars, half a dozen swarthy
+      youths had waded out and, with shouts and gestures, whether of welcome or
+      hostility the Englishmen had no means of knowing, pushed it high upon the
+      beach. At once, then, for well they realized the danger of delay, and with
+      a stolid courage born of many a like adventure, the seamen leaped
+      fearlessly out upon the sand. In their hands they held aloft bolts of
+      brightly colored cloth snatched on the instant from the bottom of the
+      boat. These they offered for the wondering inspection of the women who,
+      observing the small number of invaders, were cautiously returning. To the
+      warriors grouped about the chief they proffered knives of which the steel
+      blades, set in strong handles of bone, glistened in the sun. Eagerly, yet
+      with a certain unexpected formality, the men accepted these, passing them
+      for examination from one to another with many a grunt of satisfaction. To
+      be sure, no brave among them but might the next moment decide to try out
+      the merits of his gift upon the bestower, but this danger the adventurers
+      had to risk. More timidly the women, their eyes fixed wistfully upon the
+      gaudy red and yellow cloth, approached the strangers, offering in their
+      turn bits of abalone shell polished to iridescent beauty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They seemed in truth a gentle, friendly people, so much so that at length
+      the sailors, deeming it safe to undertake the second part of their errand,
+      began to plead for water and to request, besides, an interview between
+      their captain and the chief. All this by means of signs in which they
+      displayed no little wit and skill, the Englishmen accomplished until, well
+      on toward the middle of the morning, they made ready to return to the
+      ship, the casks they had brought brimming with sweet mountain water, while
+      with them they bore as well the promise of an interview of state between
+      the great chief Torquam and Sir Francis Drake, to take place upon the
+      beach at sunset.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And then at once the little village of Toyobet seethed again with
+      excitement. For these good paleface friends and their god-like commander a
+      fitting welcome must be prepared. Fleet-footed messengers, bearing flaming
+      torches, sped in hot haste along the mountain trails that all who saw
+      might know without words spoken of the assembling of the tribe. To the
+      distant village at the isthmus they hurried, and to the cove on the
+      western coast, some twenty miles away, to which a band of warriors had
+      gone several days before to hunt the otter. That no one among his people
+      might remain in ignorance of his command, Torquam even caused signal fires
+      to be kindled on each of the twin peaks, extinct volcanoes, near the
+      center of the island. Smoke rising there was visible from every corner of
+      his land, and woe to any subject who dared to disregard that warning!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Throughout the long bright day the women toiled, preparing a ceremonial
+      feast. Three antelope, a deer, and half a dozen of the wild sheep which
+      roamed the hills were killed and placed for roasting over deep pits dug in
+      the sand. Nor did any member of the tribe forget in his own crude fashion
+      to deck himself for the occasion. The warriors adorned their heads with
+      feathers and daubed their cheeks and lips with ochre. The women clothed
+      themselves in loose-hanging tunics of doeskin girt with strings of wampum,
+      and hung about their tawny shoulders the lovely greens and blues of uncut
+      turquoise. Meanwhile, also, the great chief Torquam donned his ceremonial
+      dress, a string of eagle feathers held by the crimsoned quills of the
+      porcupine and extending down his back until almost it touched the ground.
+      About his neck, as token of his priesthood, he threw the bear-claw
+      necklace, known far and wide among the tribes for its famous powers of
+      healing. Wildenai alone made no change except to bind the satin black of
+      her hair still more smoothly within a fillet of silver. In the center of
+      the band, so that it rested just above her brow, a strange device
+      appeared, a circle enclosing many rays,&mdash;the royal insignia of the
+      tribe which only the daughter of the chief might wear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then at last when, in the sunset, level rays of light rested golden on the
+      bay and turned to amethyst the distant mountains on the mainland, all was
+      ready. Once again, this time to the weird music of tom-toms and the
+      beating of drums, a boat was lowered from the ship while on the shore the
+      Indians watched.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was in truth a picture not soon to be forgotten. Behind the mirrored
+      Bay of Moons, its crescent of sand gleaming white against the rocks, the
+      bands of dusky men and women stood motionless as statues in the quiet
+      light of the setting sun, while in the doorway of his lodge, his daughter
+      close beside him, Torquam waited with simple dignity to receive his
+      guests, the fair-skinned strangers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length along the beach advanced the little group of English, friends
+      and fellow adventurers with the most renowned of all their great queen's
+      buccaneers. Beside Sir Francis himself marched young Harold of Wessex,
+      little more than a boy in years, yet dreaded and feared in his own land
+      even then&mdash;a possible heir to Elizabeth's throne. Some short distance
+      in front of these two, standard bearers carried the flags of Merry
+      England, each glorious with fringes and tassels of gold. Well might such
+      banners dazzle the eyes and wits of simple savages.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yet, possibly, for all that, had it not been for the lengthy ceremonial of
+      the peace-pipe, Wildenai could not have taken time to observe so closely,
+      in stolen glances from beneath her long black lashes, the splendor of the
+      young noble standing proudly erect beside his captain; nor could he have
+      stared so often, with no attempt to hide his admiration, at the dark
+      beauty of the princess.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Perhaps, too, if fate had not contrived to place them side by side at the
+      feast which followed, young Harold might never have discovered that an
+      Indian girl, however beautiful, possessed the wit to learn a foreign
+      language. Yet it was certainly Spanish and that well spoken in which, at
+      length, she softly asked of her father a question intended obviously for
+      himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Under cover of one of the Indian dances with which, from time to time, the
+      feast was enlivened, he leaned impulsively toward her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can'st speak the Spanish tongue?&rdquo; he hastily inquired.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The princess dropped her eyes. For a moment she remained silent as if
+      debating to what extent such boldness might involve her. Then, with a
+      glance as shy as if some deer gazed at him startled from the thicket,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, mon senor,&rdquo; she answered simply. &ldquo;I learned it when Don Cabrillo
+      came to Punagwandah many moons ago.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      After that it was only that one thing led to another, as was sometimes
+      true of men and maidens even in the days so long gone by. For, as if by
+      common consent, then, they drew a little apart from the rest, where,
+      throwing himself on the sand beside her while the firelight threw
+      flickering shadows among the rocks, the young man related fragments of his
+      story,&mdash;of the long journey across the sea, something of his home in
+      England, and of the brilliant court of the great queen wherein he had
+      served as gentleman-in-waiting. So had he served, yet soon, but here her
+      guest had suddenly flushed and paused as though he spoke too hastily or of
+      what he should not. To all of it the princess listened with fast-beating
+      heart and a desire, ever growing, to make herself a place in this splendid
+      stranger's world. Was not she then, also, the daughter of a king? Yet how
+      different and how unimportant beside that wonderful woman of whom he
+      spoke! For father she boasted the great chief Torquam, feared by every
+      tribe in the north and rich because of the gold hidden in many a canyon
+      among the distant mountains; yet her woman's instinct told her that to
+      this proud Englishman her people were at best little more than a
+      curiosity, almost, indeed, a cause for laughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When at last the feast was finished, Torquam rose, and removing with slow
+      solemnity his crest of eagle feathers, he placed it upon the head of Sir
+      Francis, a seal of everlasting friendship. With difficulty young Harold
+      suppressed a smile. But the older man, as well aware of what the situation
+      demanded as he was keenly alive to its danger, received the attention with
+      a gravity fully equal to that of his host. Indeed, he went still further.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Most gracious hast thou been, oh Torquam, all wise chief of the
+      Mariposa,&rdquo; he began in carefully chosen Spanish, &ldquo;nor shall thy kingly
+      gift remain unrequited. Listen, oh Torquam! On yonder vessel I carry
+      steeds like those of which I told you. For a journey over the mountains of
+      the north we have brought them. One there is, swifter of foot than all the
+      rest. Him will I cause my men to lower into the boat and bring to you
+      after our return tonight.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In silence Torquam inclined his head. Nothing could have pleased him more.
+      He would be the first then, of all his tribe to own one of those strange
+      yet wondrous creatures never before seen in his world until the Spanish
+      landed! Yet only the eager gleam in his eyes betrayed his pleasure. But
+      Harold of Wessex stared at his captain in blank astonishment, for the gift
+      he had just bestowed with such apparent carelessness was the most valuable
+      bit of cargo in the ship, a costly Arabian horse intended for the young
+      noble's own special comfort and convenience during the search for gold on
+      which they were bound. Was Drake gone suddenly mad, then, thus to throw
+      away, and that without permission, his choicest property on a mere savage?
+      Hot with resentment he was about to interfere; but before he could obey
+      the rash impulse his better judgment prevailed, and just in time he
+      remembered how, on several other such occasions, his very life had been
+      saved by some swift expedient of Drake's and his tact in handling the
+      natives.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Slowly Sir Francis continued, and now one watching intently might have
+      sensed from the gleam in his eyes that he had reached the real point in
+      the interview.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One question, nevertheless, would I ask of all-wise Torquam before we
+      part.&rdquo; He hesitated, searching the impassive face of the Indian. &ldquo;Can'st
+      tell me of a Spaniard, one Cabrillo, son to that arch pirate of Spain,
+      who, since his father's death, still sails upon these waters? To him I
+      bear a message,&rdquo;&mdash;again he paused while the heart of Wildenai beat in
+      sudden panic beneath her fawnskin tunic; but Torquam's face remained blank
+      as a page unwritten,&mdash;&ldquo;a message from our queen,&rdquo; added Drake. The
+      last words were uttered with significance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indian slowly shook his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The noble white chief asks what is unknown to any man,&rdquo; he answered. &ldquo;The
+      young Cabrillo once landed, 'tis true, on Punagwandah. Many moons ago it
+      was. Where he is now, how should Torquam know?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In his bitter disappointment the hand of the Englishman sought the hilt of
+      his sword. Instantly a ring of warriors closed darkly about the chief.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Drake laughed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay then, 'tis but by chance I asked thee, thinking thou mightst tell me.
+      It matters not. The gift I promised thee will come, as I said, tonight.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He turned to go and young Harold rose to follow. Then, perceiving the dark
+      eyes of the princess fixed wistfully upon him, he hesitated and, obeying a
+      sudden impulse, he stepped hastily to her side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When they return with the gift for thy father,&rdquo; he whispered, &ldquo;I will
+      come with them,&rdquo; he smiled into her soft eyes shining with pleased
+      surprise, &ldquo;and I will bring a gift to thee as well, oh Wildenai, fairest
+      of maidens!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Drake gave a sharp command. His followers sprang to their feet, and
+      without further ceremony the party passed quickly down the beach to their
+      boat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the princess Wildenai did not leave the feasting ground. Hidden by
+      deepening shadows she watched the ship's lights glimmer across the water.
+      Glad indeed was she of the darkness, for a warm flush glowed in her cheeks
+      and her heart throbbed with a strange new pleasure, a pleasure bordering
+      close on fear, yet wholly sweet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But when, at length, the quiet of sleep had descended upon the village,
+      once again she sought her father. He, too, within the open doorway of his
+      lodge, watched intently the distant ship. Without surprise he saw his
+      daughter enter and, as she knelt upon the blanket beside him, he stretched
+      a hand and drew her close.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It grows cold. The wind is rising. 'Twere best to wait inside.&rdquo; He spoke
+      in the musical Indian tongue. For a moment he stroked her hair in silence,
+      then&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What think'st thou by now of the English, Wildenai, my little wild rose?&rdquo;
+       he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the princess seemed not to have heard his question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My father,&rdquo; she began after another short silence, &ldquo;I have a favor to ask
+      of thee.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what may that be, my daughter?&rdquo; he returned gravely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But again the young girl made no answer and for many minutes they watched
+      the tremulous paths of light in the wake of the vessel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After a time he felt her hand tighten upon his arm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is but the old boon over again, my father.&rdquo; Her voice was low as the
+      sighing of the wind among the oak trees. &ldquo;I would be freed from my promise
+      to wed with Don Cabrillo.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      An Indian is not given to caresses. Much more used was Torquam's hand to
+      wield the war-club or the hatchet. Yet it was with fingers gentle as any
+      woman's that he stroked the smooth black head at his knee.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Doubtest thou then, my motherless one, the judgment of him who loves
+      thee?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I doubt it not, my father,&rdquo; answered his daughter. &ldquo;Yet would I not wed
+      with the Spaniard,&rdquo; she added stubbornly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The blue-eyed senor from England&rdquo;&mdash;there was a hint of humor in his
+      tone,&mdash;&ldquo;he it is who steals thy fancy! Is it not so, my Wildenai?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, after a moment: &ldquo;Right well knowest thou my only wish is to make
+      thee happy.&rdquo; Again his voice, though gentle, grew serious almost to
+      sadness. &ldquo;No mere whim it is that counsels me to wed thee to Cabrillo.
+      There is something&mdash;&rdquo; He paused, continuing with effort,&mdash;&ldquo;a
+      reason I have never told thee why it seems most fitting. Now I will tell
+      thee. That reason is because, because, my Wildenai, thou art Spanish born
+      thyself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The princess drew a hasty breath. In the darkness he felt rather than saw
+      her startled eyes upon him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My father!&rdquo; The exclamation, filled with pain as well as astonishment,
+      touched him to the quick. Tenderly he drew her to him. Then briefly, as
+      was the Indian way, yet with the pictured phrasing which caused each scene
+      to spring into vivid life before the young girl's eyes, he told her of the
+      day, already more than eighteen years gone by, when, in the wake of a long
+      midwinter storm, the first sailing vessel ever beheld by his people had
+      fled for refuge to their bay; and of the little girl carefully brought to
+      shore by her old nurse in the first boat to touch the beach. A mere baby
+      she was, too young to know aught of her misfortune, yet a princess royal,
+      rudely dispossessed of her right to the throne of Spain, and smuggled
+      aboard the adventurer Cabrillo's ship to be dropped in some out-of-the-way
+      corner of the western world. Even then, he made it clear, she might have
+      perished,&mdash;since little recked the Spanish explorer what should
+      happen, well knowing that upon his return no questions would be asked,&mdash;had
+      it not been for his Indian wife. She, lacking children of her own, had
+      taken an instant fancy to the dark-eyed little girl, a fancy so strong
+      that nothing would do but they must adopt her as their own daughter into
+      the tribe to belong forever, according to their law, she and her children,
+      to the Mariposa.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nor, because thy mother&mdash;for ever was she a true mother to thee&mdash;thought
+      that it might grieve thee, have any of my people ever given thee cause to
+      doubt that thou wert native born,&rdquo; he finished proudly. &ldquo;Loyal have they
+      been, doing all they could to make thee happy. But now that thy Indian
+      mother is dead, and I myself grow old, I thought to wed thee, knowing his
+      desire, to the son of that same Cabrillo who brought thee to us, for I
+      long to be sure, when at length I go, that thou art safe,&mdash;at home.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He waited then and in the silence only the low weeping of the girl was
+      heard. At length the old chief spoke again, and now in his voice love
+      conquered disappointment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Much do I desire it, but that matters not. I would not have thee unhappy.
+      I myself will tell the senor that what he hopes for cannot be.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Slowly Wildenai bent her head until it touched his feet. Then she nestled
+      close against him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thank thee, oh my father!&rdquo; she cried, and all her voice was music
+      because of her joy. &ldquo;And thou art still my father,&rdquo; she added, earnestly.
+      &ldquo;What care I to go to Spain? I will stay always with thee.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For a time, it may be. Yet have a care, little wild rose,&rdquo; he cautioned,
+      smiling, &ldquo;Let not the Englishman lure thee away! He, too, may not be all
+      that thou thinkest.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And even as he spoke, in mocking confirmation of his words, there came to
+      them suddenly from across the water, the distant creaking of ropes, the
+      snapping of sails flung hastily to the wind. Before their unbelieving eyes
+      the vessel swung about and put slowly out to sea. Dumb with amazement they
+      watched until the last faint light flickered into darkness. Not until the
+      remotest chance of a mistake was past did the old chief rise, trembling
+      with rage, to his feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;See'st thou now what I meant, my daughter? The English pale-faces know
+      not the meaning of honor,&mdash;no, nor of gratitude either!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He lifted his long spear from the ground and shook it fiercely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The words of the Mariposa are few,&rdquo; he cried, &ldquo;but their revenge is sure.
+      Let but an Englishman set foot again on Punagwandah and, swifter than the
+      arrow leaves the bowstring, he dies!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And at once, without answer, in the silence of suffering which only the
+      wild things of the earth understand, Wildenai crept from the lodge, her
+      heart heavy with its own bitter disappointment. Noiselessly she passed
+      among the tepees where her father's people slept. Not one of them should
+      ever know how far dwelt slumber from her own eyes that night. Up the steep
+      trail beyond the Bay of Moons she climbed and flung herself weeping on the
+      bed of skins within the cavern.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, thou false one,&rdquo; she moaned, &ldquo;why did'st thou promise then, when
+      never did'st thou mean to keep it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Yet nothing had been farther from the young Englishman's thoughts when he
+      left her than faithlessness to his word. On reaching the ship again he had
+      gone directly to his cabin. Here he took from its small but richly
+      embroidered case a slender chain of gold, threaded so closely with garnets
+      that even in the dim light of the one flaring lantern, the only
+      illumination the room could boast, it glowed, a glancing stream of
+      crimson, in his hand. This he carried to the light and as he examined it
+      under the lantern he smiled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never saw the little maid such jewels before, I'll warrant me! Yet,
+      beshrew my heart, but she deserves them. Indian though she be, still is
+      she, nevertheless, the loveliest woman that ever mine eyes have looked
+      upon!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, stowing the necklace carefully away in his belt, he went at once in
+      search of the commander.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But at this point an unexpected difficulty had presented itself. He found
+      Sir Francis in close conversation with his pilot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Marry, Sir, an it fit n'er so ill with thy wish,&rdquo; the keen-eyed old
+      mariner was saying. &ldquo;I still maintain it were a shame to lose this wind.
+      Gift or no gift, I've sailed these latitudes before, my lord, and by
+      heaven I swear we're not like to have such another breeze, no, not till
+      the change of the moon, and that you know yourself, sir, is a good
+      fortnight hence.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sir Francis, striding back and forth within the narrow confines of the
+      quarter deck, appeared to be weighing the old man's words with unusual
+      care. At length, however, he turned as one who has made his decision.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By the mass and it shall be even as you say, Jarvis,&rdquo; he declared. &ldquo;I
+      think myself 'twere well to push on at once. At the most they be but
+      Indians!&rdquo; The last words were spoken in a lower tone as if to himself.
+      &ldquo;'Twill matter little either way!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was at this point that young Harold stepped hastily forward. For,
+      strangely enough, although on the morning of that same day such a
+      proceeding would scarcely have appealed to him as being at all unfitting
+      or out of the ordinary, yet now it seemed unthinkable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But, good sir,&rdquo; he interrupted, &ldquo;you would not so belie your promise! To
+      do as Jarvis here advises,&mdash;by heaven, 'twould be neither truthful
+      nor honorable! 'Tis not like you, Sir Francis!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Drake shot at him a surprised glance from under his bushy eyebrows, then
+      shrugged his shoulders.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Prate not to me, my lord, of truth or honor amongst these savages,&rdquo; he
+      replied. &ldquo;Did not their chief himself but even now lie to me? Well knew
+      the rascally heathen where the Spaniard hides! The truth indeed! They know
+      not the meaning of such words.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In vain the younger man petitioned to be allowed to deliver the promised
+      gift with the aid of his own retinue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou can'st not get under way for two hours at best, sir,&rdquo; he pleaded,
+      &ldquo;and well within that time I will be back. 'Tis but a stone's throw to the
+      shore!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But Drake first scoffed at his rashness, then, finally losing patience, as
+      commander of the expedition he sternly forbade him or any of his men to
+      leave the ship.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We dare not lose the wind,&rdquo; he finished emphatically, &ldquo;and are like to
+      start at any minute.&rdquo; Then, turning on his heel, he strode away to his
+      cabin and shut the door behind him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Left in this unceremonious fashion, young Harold considered a moment,
+      glancing with anxious eyes at the dim line of the coast just visible in
+      the darkness. For some minutes he leaned upon the rail, lost in thought.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The old man will e'en have to bear his disappointment,&rdquo; he muttered at
+      length, &ldquo;but, an' heaven help me, the maid shall not!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then he, too, left the deck to seek out his favorite retainer, the dark,
+      swarthy man who had sat that morning in the prow of the long boat. To him
+      he explained his difficulty, adding grimly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And so thou see'st, Mortimer, that I have work cut out for thee!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He threw an arm about the other's shoulders and in this familiar fashion
+      the two men paced the deck together, conversing in low tones.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And besides,&rdquo; observed the nobleman as they paused a moment before
+      parting, &ldquo;would'st know the truth about the matter? For all old Jarvis'
+      prating, the Golden Hind is not like to sail before the dawn, no, nor even
+      then! Jarvis is ever the man to make a show of much hurry, but&mdash;&rdquo; he
+      snapped his fingers scornfully, &ldquo;only aid me now, unseen by anyone, to
+      launch the Zephir, and by our virgin queen herself I swear, when once
+      again we see the shores of Merry England, thou shalt find 'twas well worth
+      thy trouble.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His companion smiled even while, with the trained servility of the
+      retainer, he doffed his cap.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aye, truly, my lord,&rdquo; he answered, &ldquo;but, since it were an impossible feat
+      to get so much as a colt into the Zephir, methinks thou hast a gift of
+      thine own to bestow on yonder pretty Indian maid!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The blood leaped to Sir Harry's cheek. With a quick gesture he placed his
+      hand upon his sword.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Presume not upon my favor, Mortimer, or by heaven!&mdash;&rdquo; he began
+      angrily, but stopped suddenly as, with a fearless laugh, the man beside
+      him pushed the half-drawn weapon back into its place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay then, not so fast, my lord,&rdquo; he chuckled gaily. &ldquo;Hearkee, my master.
+      I did but use my eyes during their everlasting pow-wow. Surely ye would
+      not grudge me that! And the maid is comely, well worth a trinket from thy
+      store. Besides,&rdquo; he laughed slyly, &ldquo;I saw e'en more to thine interest, for
+      methinks the princess is as much in love with thy looks as art thou with
+      hers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Silence, fool! Thou hast said more than enough already. Think'st thou the
+      son of a duke royal would look at a brown-skinned savage, an unbelieving
+      pagan, no matter how comely, as thou call'st it, she might be!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But the flush remained, nevertheless, on the dark cheek of the young
+      nobleman as he strode angrily from the deck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The moonlight had laid a quivering path of light across the water before
+      Wildenai raised her bowed head from the ground. But, at length, drawing
+      her blanket more closely about her, for into the night air the chill of
+      the ocean had crept, she was about to leave the cave when a sudden sound
+      from the beach below arrested her. For a moment she listened in silence
+      while the shout was repeated, then stood dumb with amazement. A third time
+      it came to her, borne on the rising wind, the terrified cry of a man in
+      dire distress. Nor was it one of her own people who thus called out of the
+      darkness for help. Swiftly she ran to an overhanging ledge of rock from
+      which, by lying flat and peeping over, she could, without exposing
+      herself, command a wide view of the sea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the first glance there appeared to be nothing amiss. Far beneath her
+      the noisy breakers spilled in liquid silver on the beach. Above their
+      musical booming no other sound could be heard. Then suddenly she saw him.
+      A tiny boat it was, tossing dangerously close to the great rounded boulder
+      which, together with a still larger one from which it had at some distant
+      time been broken off, formed the outermost boundary of the curving Beach
+      of Moons. The dark figure standing erect in the boat strove with the aid
+      of an oar to keep it from being dashed to pieces against the giant rock.
+      Again there floated up to her the desperate call for help. The voice was
+      that of the English noble!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Instantly the girl sprang to her feet, and without the slightest
+      hesitation ran lightly down the perilous incline, leaping fearlessly from
+      rock to rock, until, within a few seconds, she stood poised above the
+      seething surf on the top of the larger boulder. Here, balancing herself as
+      easily and securely as a wild antelope, she raised her arms to dive. But
+      now from the shadows below the white man called once more.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Attempt it not, oh Wildenai! 'Tis death to leap from there!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But without waiting even to reply, the Indian girl sprang into the waves.
+      An instant later and he saw her arms gleam in the moonlight as, with the
+      strong slow strokes of an experienced swimmer, she struck out for the
+      boat. In spite of the perilous rocking of the little craft he rested on
+      his oar to watch her for a moment in sheer admiration of her skill. But
+      the maid knew well the danger of every instant's delay. In the very nick
+      of time she seemed almost to throw herself between him and the rocks
+      while, with a strength he would have believed impossible in one so small,
+      she pulled the boat around. Then, still swimming and without a word to
+      him, she began to push it ahead of her toward the shore. It was but a few
+      minutes before they stood together on the beach.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now the young noble, overcome with gratitude, fell on his knees before
+      her and caught her hand between his own. He would have kissed it in sheer
+      joy at his escape, but the Indian girl drew sharply back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Quick!&rdquo; she whispered, yet remembering to speak in Spanish, &ldquo;You must
+      hide yourself at once. My father will kill you if he should find you
+      here!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Swiftly she concealed the boat in a tiny cove behind the boulder, a hiding
+      place he would never have seen though it was apparently perfectly familiar
+      to her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sometimes my own canoe I keep there too,&rdquo; she whispered. &ldquo;Now come!&rdquo; and
+      she hurried him along the beach and up an easier trail beyond the rocks to
+      her cavern bower above.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nor did she pause for an instant's rest until they had passed safely
+      behind the manzanita branches which concealed the entrance. Here,
+      motioning him to do the same, she dropped upon a pile of skins. But
+      instead, in real concern, the young Englishman knelt again beside her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thou art so wet and cold,&rdquo; he began anxiously, &ldquo;Will it not make thee
+      ill? Yet 'twas a wondrous feat,&rdquo; he added admiringly, &ldquo;well conceived and
+      carried out with skill such as any man might envy!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The princess laughed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Twas nothing,&rdquo; she answered briefly. &ldquo;I do it almost every day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I came to bring to thee the gift I promised,&rdquo; explained Lord Harold then,
+      and from his belt he drew the little case. Eagerly he flung the gleaming
+      string of garnets about her slim brown throat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Jewels brought by my father to my mother on the morning of their
+      marriage,&rdquo; he told her. &ldquo;When she lay dying she gave them me and told me
+      never to part with them except I gave them to my&mdash;&rdquo; He paused
+      suddenly, &ldquo;But thou hast saved my life!&rdquo; he added as quickly, &ldquo;Who else
+      could ever deserve them more? Well know I my mother would wish thee to
+      have them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Silently, though her eyes were bright with, pleasure, the princess lifted
+      the beautiful necklace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wildenai will wear them always, senor lord,&rdquo; she answered softly, &ldquo;for
+      now she knows that truly you did mean to keep your word!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And so, his mission accomplished, her guest rose hastily to his feet. He
+      must return immediately to the ship.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Know you not, then, that it is gone?&rdquo; exclaimed the girl, amazed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gone?&rdquo; echoed young Harold, and stared at her astounded. He seemed not to
+      have grasped her meaning. &ldquo;Gone, said'st thou?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The ship was out of sight a full hour or more ere ever I heard you call,&rdquo;
+       she explained.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Still he continued to gaze at her fixedly as if totally unable to
+      comprehend what she would have him know. Then it was plain to be seen
+      that, for the moment at least, blank despair took hold upon him. Up and
+      down the length of the cave he strode like some imprisoned wild thing. At
+      length, standing quite still with folded arms, he seemed to lose himself
+      in thought.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Battling with the surf I did not see nor hear,&rdquo; he muttered at last. &ldquo;But
+      he could not sail without me!&rdquo; he added. Fiercely he raised his head and
+      his eyes flashed. &ldquo;He dare not so betray me!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Wildenai, too, had been considering.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The great white captain knew, then, that you were not on board?&rdquo; she
+      asked suddenly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; replied the young man reluctantly, &ldquo;that did he not. I came without
+      his knowledge. He would have prevented me,&rdquo; he continued stubbornly, &ldquo;and
+      I had promised thee a gift. Never did I break my word, nor would not then.
+      But I did not dream it possible they could get away so soon! By our virgin
+      lady in Heaven I swear I know not what to do.&rdquo; And once more he seemed
+      lost in despair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But only for a moment. Then he turned hastily to the entrance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must follow them at once,&rdquo; he declared impatiently, &ldquo;I can overtake
+      them even yet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Swift as lightning the girl threw herself between him and the opening in
+      the cave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no, senor Englishman,&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;It is impossible! Listen, only
+      listen to me! What have you, then, to steer by save the stars? And you see
+      that, drowned in moonlight, they do not shine tonight. And, more than
+      that, you do not even know what course the vessel takes. Remember, too,
+      that there is neither food nor drink within your boat. You would surely
+      die ere you could ever find the ship.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Gradually she compelled him to listen to reason until, seating himself
+      again upon the skins, he challenged her still further.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what, then, shall I do?&rdquo; he demanded. &ldquo;Can'st also tell me that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And with equal readiness the princess replied:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you will but let me I can hide you here. The cavern is my own. Here
+      for many a moon have I worked and waited. No one would dare to enter. You
+      will be safe. Besides, my father's anger will grow cold in time, and then
+      I know that, if I ask him, he will help you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His chin propped upon his hands, the young nobleman moodily considered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, do then as thou deemest best,&rdquo; he told her finally.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And from that moment there began for the little princess a time so
+      wonderful that for all the rest of her life she remembered each separate
+      hour as though it had been some beautiful word in a poem learned by heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With deft fingers she piled her softest doeskins for his bed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what wilt thou do, tell me, if I rob thee of thy nest?&rdquo; he asked,
+      watching her with amused eyes as she worked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I go always to the village to sleep,&rdquo; she answered simply, and so left
+      him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But in the morning while yet the red of sunrise burned above the great
+      peak Orazaba, she returned, bearing upon her head an olla of carved stone
+      filled with water from a mountain spring. This in smiling silence she set
+      before him and disappeared. Within the hour, however, she was back again
+      and this time, kneeling on the ground, she laid at his feet the ripe fruit
+      of the manzanita tree, lying like small red apples, dewy fresh, upon a
+      wild-grape leaf.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ala&mdash;ate, see! Are they not good?&rdquo; she asked triumphantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And so from day to day she ministered to him. Many a time as he sat,
+      listless and moody, within his hiding-place, a handful of wild
+      strawberries, steeped in the warm sweetness of the hills, would be pushed
+      beneath the leafy branches that concealed the door. Sometimes she brought
+      him bread baked from a curious kind of meal made of pounded seeds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Once, too, when a sudden storm had chilled the air, she kindled a fire for
+      him within a smaller cave, receding like a fire-place into the rocky wall
+      opposite the opening. It was a long and tedious process which the man
+      watched curiously. First, kneeling on the ground, she rubbed together two
+      dry willow sticks until a little pile of dust had gathered. Then, still
+      stooping, she struck two flints together until at last a spark fell into
+      the dust. Some dry leaves were dropped upon the tiny blaze, then twigs,
+      and lo, a fire!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In spite of himself the Englishman smiled, though a softer feeling shown
+      in his eyes. How beautiful and yet how childish she looked kneeling there
+      with the anxious pucker between her brows. Poor little princess, how very
+      hard she worked to serve him!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It takes a long time, Wildenai,&rdquo; he observed, &ldquo;dost thou try it often?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never for myself,&rdquo; she answered gravely. &ldquo;I have no need. But I do it
+      gladly for you.&rdquo; She smiled brightly back at him, then rose and moved
+      swiftly to the doorway. &ldquo;Another thing I do for you today. Wait!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And when she returned a few minutes later she brought with her, carefully
+      wrapped in cool green leaves, a fish freshly caught that morning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A brook trout, on my word, such as I have often taken in the streams at
+      home!&rdquo; exclaimed Lord Harold, amazed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I got it far up the canyon before the sun was risen,&rdquo; she answered,
+      delighted at his surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This, having quickly dressed it, she wrapped again in leaves and placed
+      under the hot ashes to bake, and it being, evidently, a feast out of the
+      ordinary, a merry-making to which a third guest might be bidden, suddenly
+      Wildenai left the cavern again to return this time with a tiny gray fox
+      perched familiarly upon her shoulder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Tis Onatoa, senor Englishman,&rdquo; she announced, gently stroking the bushy
+      tail of the little creature as it lay about her neck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But from his vantage point above his rival, Onatoa merely sniffed
+      disdainfully with his sharp black nose. He looked far from friendly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The princess laughed softly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He does not know you yet,&rdquo; she defended her pet. &ldquo;He will soon learn to
+      love you, too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will catch fish with thee next time thou goest,&rdquo; declared young Harold
+      later as they ate together. &ldquo;There's no reason I can see why I should stay
+      mewed up forever in this cave. I fear not Indians! No, not even Torquam,
+      thy father, himself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      For an instant Wildenai seemed alarmed. Then she laughed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are afraid of nothing. I knew it!&rdquo; she exclaimed with pride. &ldquo;Nor
+      would there be much danger. We will go to the other side of the island
+      where the waves run high and the cliffs are tall and black. There will I
+      show you the nests of the great eagles, and the antelope leaping among the
+      rocks. And,&mdash;who can tell?&rdquo; she laughed again with child-like
+      pleasure, &ldquo;perhaps we shall find a white otter!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And, true to her word, he heard at dawn next day outside the cavern the
+      whistle of a blackbird, a signal early contrived between them. She deemed
+      it best, she explained, to start thus early that the darkness might
+      conceal them until they had passed well beyond the outskirts of the
+      village. But this danger overcome, they spent the whole day rambling
+      fearlessly among the hills,&mdash;a long, idle, happy day. Up many a dim
+      trail winding back into the canyons the princess led him. Through golden
+      thickets of wild mustard they passed, coming, when he least expected it,
+      upon glimpses of the summer sea framed between the branches of knarled old
+      oak trees.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are low and crooked, and they spread themselves over the ground as
+      do our English oaks,&rdquo; the young nobleman informed her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As Wildenai had promised they discovered, poised high among the crags of
+      the wild southern shore, the great eagles of which she had told him,
+      measuring easily, from wing-tip to wing-tip, fully a dozen feet. The white
+      otter, rarest and most valuable of all the game hunted by her people,
+      eluded them, but many a small gray fox slipped away among the bushes,
+      leaving the Englishman tingling for the chase.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At twilight, as they made their way back to the cavern, they came upon a
+      tiny lake lying asleep within the crater of a dead volcano. From the sides
+      little clouds of ashes rose, floating softly away on the breezes of
+      evening. The princess gathered a handful and murmuring some musical words
+      in her own tongue she threw them into the air.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And would it be amiss for me to ask what 'tis you do?&rdquo; questioned her
+      companion, observing her closely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was sending a prayer to Wakan-ate, the Great Spirit,&rdquo; she replied
+      quietly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A prayer,&mdash;and borne to heaven on the wings of ashes!&rdquo; He seemed
+      amused. &ldquo;But what hast thou to pray for, oh fair princess?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Her cheeks glowing with quick color, she replied: &ldquo;It were not fitting
+      that any maiden tell for what she prays!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The words were spoken with such gravity that the young man flushed under
+      the rebuke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When she left him at the doorway of the cavern that evening she said as
+      she made a gay little gesture of farewell: &ldquo;Today the land, but tomorrow
+      we shall find still more beautiful things that lie hidden under the deep
+      waters. You shall see!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And once again with dawn she came. This time it was the splash of a paddle
+      that brought him to the opening in the rock.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aloho-ate, lazy one!&rdquo; she called gaily from below. &ldquo;Make haste! The world
+      is always loveliest while it lies waiting for the sun!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      That day, perhaps, from among them all, lived longest within the memory of
+      young Harold,&mdash;the porpoises playing fearlessly around her canoe as
+      the princess, with graceful, effortless strokes, paddled around one after
+      another of the pointed tongues of rock; the flying fish, skimming the
+      surface of the ocean until, by virtue of their speed alone, they rose like
+      gleaming bows of silver from the foam. Intent to show him all her
+      treasures, Wildenai guided him to a quiet stretch of water lying close to
+      shore within the shadow of tall cliffs which rose at that point with
+      precipitous abruptness from the sea itself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here are my gardens that grow under the water,&rdquo; she explained, as they
+      glided above the spot. &ldquo;Look well at them. They are most beautiful.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And gazing down at her command through the clear green into the luminous
+      depths below, he caught glimpses of these gardens of the sea where
+      goldfish darted like tropical birds among the branches of tall tree-like
+      stalks of swaying seaweed, and strange shapes of jade and blue floated in
+      the shadows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it not wonderful?&rdquo; she asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is indeed, my Wildenai,&rdquo; he answered earnestly. &ldquo;Never in all my
+      travels, methinks, have I seen aught before like this your island here! It
+      seems to me indeed a charmed land, a kind of magic isle!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      One day it rained, the last belated rain of winter. But even the storm
+      brought pleasures of its own, for, seated on the pile of skins beside him,
+      the little gray fox curled contentedly at her feet, Wildenai worked at her
+      loom. Within its dull-colored warp a blanket, woven in a strange design of
+      mingled red, and black, and white, grew slowly beneath her busy fingers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For hours the maiden drew the short woolen threads in and out while the
+      young man, stretched lazily upon the ground, told her many a tale of the
+      England he had left. Then, quite without warning, she ceased her work and
+      sat pensively watching through the opening in the rocks the long gray
+      swell of the sea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what is it now, my princess?&rdquo; laughed young Harold. &ldquo;The pattern is
+      not yet finished, nor is the rain abated.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, senor Harold lord,&rdquo; wistfully replied the girl, &ldquo;I was but wishing I
+      had been born one of those same fair English maids with the eyes of blue
+      and golden hair you tell about. Then would you love me even as you do
+      them!&rdquo; she added artlessly, and leaned her chin upon her hand,
+      considering. A secret trembled on her lips.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And how if I were Spanish born?&rdquo; she questioned, and lifted hesitating,
+      frightened eyes to his, &ldquo;dark to look at, that I know well, but even so,
+      the white man's kind of princess, who also has a throne?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And all unwitting Lord Harold answered scornfully, &ldquo;Spanish! Say no such
+      word to me! The English hate the Spanish!&rdquo; Fiercely he caught up a pebble
+      and sent it whirling out across the water. &ldquo;Even now their robber king
+      plans his huge armada to take our queen and rule our land, but that, by
+      the holy virgin herself, shall never be! Sooner will every drop of blood
+      in bonny England be spilt. Never could I make thee understand how much I
+      hope to be at home before he comes! Spanish indeed! Nay, never let me hear
+      the hateful word again!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, noting her puzzled, downcast face, with the impulsive changeableness
+      which had so endeared him to her, he caught one little brown hand and
+      raised it to his lips.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I do love thee even as thou art, my Wildenai,&rdquo; he told her with the
+      careless assurance of one much older speaking to a child. &ldquo;Is not a wild
+      rose sweet as any garden bloom? Nay, methinks 'tis often sweeter!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Again he laughed and the little princess laughed with him now, for into
+      her heart at his words had come a happiness so unlooked for and so wildly
+      sweet as wholly to bewilder her. Quickly she rose, struck by a sudden
+      thought, and running to the farthermost corner of the cavern she brushed
+      aside a pile of leaves and lifted some stones, disclosing at length a box
+      fashioned from the choicest cedar. Out of it, while the Englishman watched
+      with wondering eyes, she drew a garment made of creamy doeskin, deeply
+      fringed and trimmed besides with strings of wampum, the polished fragments
+      of abalone shells and many-colored beads. Silently she brought it to him
+      and when he touched it admiringly, for the dress was beautiful. &ldquo;It is my
+      marriage robe,&rdquo; she told him gravely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That night, while the rain tapped softly at her tepee, the princess
+      dreamed of a wondrous land beyond the sea where proudly she walked by her
+      white chief's side and fair women with braided, golden hair spoke kind
+      words of welcome, smiling at her out of sweet blue eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, without warning, came the end of all her dreams. Hurrying along the
+      beach at sunset only a few days later, Wildenai caught the first glimpse
+      of the returning vessel as it stole around a distant point. For the space
+      of a second her heart stood still, then throbbed wildly, but whether with
+      joy or pain she could not herself have told. One question only demanded
+      all her thought. Should she let Lord Harold know? Perhaps the great white
+      captain would not remember their bay. Perhaps,&mdash;her breath came fast,&mdash;perhaps
+      the ship, unseen by anyone, would pass and Lord Harold remain behind
+      content. With hands tight-clenched she watched the distant sail, fear
+      growing in her eyes. Yet she knew that she would tell him. Nothing else
+      was honorable. This, surely, he must decide for himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But tidings of such moment outran even her swift feet. She found him
+      buckling on his swordbelt, in his eyes the glad light of some trapped bird
+      which sees the door of its cage suddenly open.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The ship&mdash;&rdquo; she began with sinking heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, yes, I know! I saw it!&rdquo; he answered, a fever of impatience in his
+      voice. &ldquo;'Tis Drake. I knew he dared not leave me! 'Twill soon be too close
+      in. Needs not he risk his safety. I must go before he gains the shore.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The princess hesitated. What meant that strange heaviness at her heart?
+      Was he not still her brave, true warrior,&mdash;her great white chief? Had
+      he not told her that he loved her? Crossing to where he stood she bowed
+      herself before him until her silver fillet touched his feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I, too!&rdquo; she whispered, &ldquo;I shall go to England with thee!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And at her words, within the little cavern there came a silence to be
+      felt. In undisguised dismay the Englishman gazed at her where she knelt.
+      Then:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By the holyrood!&rdquo; he muttered aghast, &ldquo;She must have thought,&mdash;God
+      only knows what she must have thought!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He glanced hurriedly toward the doorway and back again, ashamed. Then even
+      such impatience as was his gave way, for the moment at least, to something
+      more chivalric. He stooped and patted awkwardly the smooth black head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come, Wildenai, little wild rose, look up and speak to me. I must be
+      going!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But still the maid lay prostrate, clasping close his rough buskins in her
+      little brown hands. Never in all his life had Lord Harold been so sorely
+      uncomfortable. How was it possible she had ever imagined that he could
+      take her with him,&mdash;that he had meant so much? Resentment grew within
+      him at the thought, yet strangely mingled always with something far more
+      tender. Hastily he considered, his heart torn between the desire not to
+      wound her and dread of what he knew she wanted. To be sure the maid was
+      beautiful, with the softened beauty of a moonlit night in summer, her eyes
+      beneath her dusky hair like stars between the branches of dark trees, her
+      voice that of the forest stream when it sings itself to sleep. Yet past
+      all doubt he knew that not one among the gorgeous throng that crowded
+      about Elizabeth would ever see that beauty, no English ear take heed to
+      hear the music of her voice. Nay, he could even, as he thought of it,
+      picture the amazement of the great queen, could hear her scornful
+      laughter, should he present, to help adorn her court, a savage Indian
+      girl! No, a thousand times no! Such disgrace he could not suffer. Nor was
+      the maid herself, so he defended himself, fitted for such a life. Soon
+      would she be as unhappy in England as he would be to have her there.
+      Besides, she was but a child. Else had she never so far forgot all womanly
+      dignity as to force herself upon him, and being but a child she would soon
+      forget. Gently he made to raise her to her feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wildenai, little wild rose,&rdquo; he began again, &ldquo;what thou hast asked of me
+      thou dost well know thyself is an unheard of thing. Much as I owe to thee,
+      and well know I that 'tis so much I never can repay it; still for thine
+      own sweet sake 'tis not in this way thy reward must come. The long journey
+      and the strange new life would kill thee, Wildenai.&rdquo; Having once begun he
+      stumbled on, but half aware of how each word he uttered hurt her, eager
+      only to have done with the whole sorry scene. &ldquo;Thou art but a little wild
+      flower. Thou couldst not live away from this, thy sunny island. Can'st
+      thou not understand, my Wildenai?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He paused, waiting for a reply; but the maiden answered nothing. Silent
+      she lay as though in very truth she were a wild flower tossed to earth and
+      trampled upon by some uncaring foot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last the man could bear it no longer. Forcibly he loosed her hands and
+      stepped back. For a moment longer he lingered, looking down upon her in
+      mingled impatience and regret; then, turning abruptly, he passed hastily
+      out of the cavern and down the trail to the beach.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Still the girl lay motionless. It was as if every sense were stunned, all
+      power of thought suspended except to grasp the one fact that made her
+      whole world empty,&mdash;he was gone! As in a dream she heard the grating
+      of the pebbles when he pushed his boat into the water, heard the clank of
+      the oars as they dropped into the oar-locks. Even yet she did not move.
+      Then, after many minutes, she crept to the opening and searched the sea
+      with eyes almost, too dim with tears to find that for which she sought.
+      But yes, there it was,&mdash;a black speck against the golden sunset. She
+      watched until she had seen the distant vessel put about, making for the
+      open sea. Ah, now she knew that he was safe aboard,&mdash;no need had they
+      to come farther into shore. Yet still she waited, straining her eyes to
+      see the ship sink slowly beneath the horizon. One last glint of sunlight
+      against a white sail, and it was gone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then at once she rose, and moving quietly about the little cavern, she put
+      all in perfect order with touch as tender as that of a mother preparing
+      for its last sleep some little child. Here was the basket he had helped to
+      weave, here the mat on which he had lain. Her fingers lingered caressingly
+      on each thing that he had touched. There in the corner still stood the
+      olla in which she had brought him water. How amused he had been that she
+      could carry it on her head all the way up the hill from the spring without
+      so much as spilling one drop! But that was all past now.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When at last everything was finished she gave the little rock-walled room
+      one long, lingering look, the look of one who would carry in his heart the
+      image of what he beholds all the rest of his life. Then she, too, made her
+      way through the doorway into the deepening dusk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the beach below, squatted within the opened flap of his tepee, Torquam,
+      mighty chief of the Mariposa, smoked his evening pipe. A wonderful pipe it
+      was, long and delicately fashioned, inlaid with iridescent fragments of
+      shell. Yet instantly he laid it aside as the slender form of his daughter
+      darkened the doorway.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah, Wildenai, little wild rose, welcome art thou as sunshine after rain!&rdquo;
+       His eyes lighted with the tenderness never seen there by any other than
+      this motherless girl. He stretched his hand to her and the princess came
+      silently and knelt before him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My father,&rdquo; she said firmly, though in so low a tone that Torquam bent to
+      hear. &ldquo;Oh, father, thou art always wise! Thou only knowest best. I come to
+      thee to tell that I will wed Cabrillo. I will wed with him whenever thou
+      dost choose!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Taking her face between his hands, Torquam gazed long and searchingly into
+      the sorrowful eyes of his daughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And thou art wise to do so, my beloved one,&rdquo; he said at last. &ldquo;He will
+      make to thee a good husband.&rdquo; In his voice was the keen understanding of a
+      father. &ldquo;He will be kind to thee and heal thy wounded heart, my daughter.
+      Don Cabrillo is a good man,&rdquo; he repeated solemnly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_PART2" id="link2H_PART2">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      Part II. Miss Hastings Brings It to an End
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Centuries passed, and again, with the same sweet suddenness as in the days
+      gone by, spring came to Catalina. Guests of the St. Catherine, lounging on
+      its wide verandahs, gazed across a sunlit sea to where the faint cloud
+      that was San Jacinto hovered, the merest ghost of a mountain, above the
+      misty mainland. Along the broad board-walk leading down to Avalon benches,
+      shaded by brightstriped awnings, flaunted an invitation to every passing
+      tourist. Strings of Japanese lanterns bobbed merrily above the narrow
+      village streets. Everywhere were laughter and movement and color from the
+      bathing beaches, dotted with gay umbrellas&mdash;even to the last yacht
+      anchored round the point.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To the man making slow progress down the crowded wharf from the afternoon
+      boat this holiday world into which he thus suddenly stepped, presented an
+      appearance so different from that he had pictured as almost to bewilder
+      him. At sight of the jaunty little motorbus waiting to haul him up the
+      winding grade to the hotel, he actually hesitated. Yet seldom before, to
+      his knowledge, had he found it difficult to adapt himself to an unexpected
+      situation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hotel St. Catherine! Bus to the hotel, sir?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Other guests, more certain of their intentions, pushed impatiently against
+      him, and presently he found himself, wedged well toward the middle of the
+      long seat, chugging comfortably up the hill. Still half-daunted, he gazed
+      about him. It was all of it charming to be sure, fascinating even; yet,
+      could this festive summering place be the Avalon of his dreams? Was this
+      the quaint village of Spanish times, reaching back still further through
+      dimly remembered Indian lore to a world lost now except to legend? Yet it
+      was for the sake of a mere legend, a fanciful tale handed down in his
+      family through many a generation, that he had made the long journey from
+      New York to California, nor&mdash;and here he set his lips with dogged
+      determination, did he intend to return until he had found that for which
+      he searched.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was now something over two years since Harrison Blair, then fresh from
+      Yale, had astonished both those who wished him well and those who, for
+      various envious reasons, did not, with the wholly unreasonable success of
+      his first book. For, to those who did not understand, his sudden fame had
+      seemed all the more surprising in that it rested upon nothing more
+      substantial than a slender volume of Indian verse. So unusual, however,
+      had been his treatment of this well-worn subject as to call forth more
+      than a little comment from even the most conservative of critics. The
+      Brush and Pen had hastened to confer upon him an honorary membership.
+      Cadmon, magic weaver of Indian music, had written a warm letter of
+      appreciation. And, most precious tribute of all, the Atlantic Monthly had
+      become interested in his career.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To be sure, it was nothing more than might have been expected of a man
+      whose undergraduate work in English had aroused the reluctant wonder of
+      more than one instructor. Nevertheless, the fact that he pulled stroke on
+      the 'varsity crew had somewhat blinded other contemporaries to his more
+      scholarly attainments. Nor had anyone thought it probable, because of his
+      father's wealth, that Blair, in any event, would feel called upon to do
+      much more than make a frolic of life. No one, indeed, had been more taken
+      aback than had his father to find him, a year after graduation, drudging
+      over the assistant editor's desk of a struggling magazine the payroll of
+      which, to put it mildly, offered no financial inducements.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's good practice for me, though,&mdash;quickest way to learn,&rdquo; was all
+      he vouchsafed when the older man remonstrated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yet, had that same father, shrewd capitalist that he was, but taken the
+      trouble to reason back from premises evident enough, he might have been
+      the first to realize that this tall son of his, with the keen gray eyes
+      and a face the strength of which was but increased by the high cheek bones
+      and squarely molded chin, was scarcely the type of man to sit idly by
+      enjoying the fruits of another's labor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now, after two years more of grinding apprenticeship, he had in mind
+      something much bigger than the slender volume of verse,&mdash;an adventure
+      into authorship more suited to his metal,&mdash;a story for which an
+      intense personal sympathy would furnish fitting atmosphere, with the final
+      spur to his ambition a letter from the Atlantic even at the moment stowed
+      safely away in his pocket.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some two hours later, after an unexpectedly excellent dinner in the
+      luxurious dining room, he sauntered over to the hotel desk. There was no
+      more than the faintest probability that a clerk of the St. Catherine would
+      be able to tell him how to reach a secret cavern bower above the Bay of
+      Moons; still, he had to enter an opening wedge somewhere. The one man on
+      duty was for the moment occupied with another guest, and Blair, lighting
+      his after-dinner cigar, prepared with leisurely patience to await his
+      turn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The guest happened to be a young woman, rather pretty, he casually
+      decided, although her greatest claim to beauty lay more, perhaps, in the
+      swift changes in expression of which her face was capable, than in any
+      actual regularity of line. For lack of anything better to do, Blair
+      watched idly her encounter with the clerk. There appeared to be some kind
+      of misunderstanding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Awfully sorry it's happened that way, Miss Hastings,&rdquo; the man behind the
+      desk was saying. He lifted with genuine reluctance the key she had just
+      laid down. &ldquo;We'd be mighty sorry to interfere with your work, but those
+      small rooms always do go first. You know that yourself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hadn't heard about it, though. I didn't know they were all gone.&rdquo; Her
+      voice quivered with disappointment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Blair, whose vocation taught him a certain technical sympathy, shot a
+      swift glance at her. She couldn't be more than twenty-two or thereabouts,
+      he decided less casually, and went on to observe her still further. She
+      wore a shabby, broad-brimmed hat much faded as if from constant exposure
+      to the sun, but the shadows in the coil of hair beneath were warmly
+      golden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Couldn't you find a room down in the village somewhere,&mdash;at Mrs.
+      Merrill's perhaps?&rdquo; suggested the clerk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But Mrs. Merrill isn't here this spring.&rdquo; In spite of its quiver the
+      voice was very sweet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; she started to turn away, &ldquo;I'll have to put it off again, I suppose.
+      I've looked everywhere.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She took a step or two, hesitated, then returned to the desk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You're positive there isn't a single one of the small rooms left?&rdquo; she
+      pleaded. &ldquo;I wouldn't care how far back it was,&mdash;anything would do.
+      You can't think how I hate to give up. I had so hoped to finish it this
+      time!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The man shook his head.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, we're absolutely full just now. Later on there might be something,&mdash;after
+      the season is over.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But that will be after school begins,&rdquo; answered the girl bitterly. &ldquo;I
+      can't work at all then!&rdquo; and catching up a bag fully as shabby as the hat,
+      she hurried away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who is she?&rdquo; asked Blair abruptly, overlooking for the moment his
+      original purpose in seeking the man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;School-teacher from Pasadena,&rdquo; replied the clerk briefly. &ldquo;Teaches art in
+      some private school over there, I believe.&rdquo; He eyed Blair amusedly. &ldquo;Think
+      you've met her before somewhere?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Blair allowed his annoyance to show. &ldquo;No, never laid eyes on her till just
+      now. But I couldn't help feeling a bit sorry for her,&rdquo; he persisted. &ldquo;She
+      seemed so sort of cut up. What's the trouble?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm sorry for her myself,&rdquo; declared the man on the other side as he hung
+      the returned key on its board. &ldquo;This is the third time that poor little
+      woman's had to leave before she could finish what she came for on account
+      of the expense. But what can we do?&rdquo; He shrugged his shoulders. &ldquo;The St.
+      Catherine isn't exactly a Y. W. C. A.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is it she's trying to do?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Amusement deepened in the man's eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She's supposed to be painting Indians.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indians!&rdquo; To the amazement of the other man Blair suddenly leaned
+      forward, his eyes agleam with interest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But I didn't know there were any around here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There aren't.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then how&mdash;?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Makes 'em up out of her head, I guess. I never heard that she had even a
+      model.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But&mdash;but what I want to know is why she comes here at all?&rdquo; The
+      situation seemed to Blair to offer possibilities, yet he was thoroughly
+      puzzled. &ldquo;I met a fellow on the train who does that sort of thing, but he
+      always goes to the desert to paint,&mdash;at least he said he did.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, they do mostly. Probably he meant Taos,&mdash;whole nest of artists
+      at Taos.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, but why in thunder then&mdash;?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The clerk smiled skeptically.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, you see, it's something like this. Miss Hastings' bent on being an
+      illustrator, pays better than teaching, I suppose, or&mdash;well, at any
+      rate, that's what she's aiming for,&mdash;and she has an idea that if she
+      can only get a series of pictures,&mdash;several of them on the same
+      subject, you understand,&mdash;accepted by one of those Eastern magazines,
+      she can soon work in with some big publisher and get an order. She told us
+      all about it one night last winter when she was over.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But in heaven's name, why Indians?&rdquo; persisted Blair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because she thinks she's found some good material here. She told me about
+      that, too. Seems there's an old legend connected with Catalina, about an
+      Indian princess and a cavern. The princess died of a broken heart or
+      something of the sort, I believe she said. I never heard the particulars
+      myself. Nobody else, either, seems to know anything about it. But Miss
+      Hastings says there's quite a story, and she's got it all down pat from A
+      to Z. She's using it for her series.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A porter brought up some newcomers and Blair stepped aside. But the moment
+      his man was at leisure again he cornered him at once. An idea had come to
+      him, an idea almost dazzling in its possibilities.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You say she hasn't finished her series yet?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Beg pardon? Oh, the teacher?&rdquo; The man shook his head. &ldquo;Evidently not from
+      what she said just now. She never stays long enough really to put it over.
+      Every few months she bobs up over a week-end, but that doesn't give her
+      time even to visit some of the places she's after. She never seems to get
+      much more than started before she has to go home again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      For a moment Blair smoked in silence. Then:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Look here,&rdquo; he cut in abruptly, &ldquo;You split my suite and give her one of
+      my rooms.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The man's eyebrows rose in surprise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Her? What do you mean?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Blair made an impatient gesture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, this Miss&mdash;the teacher, you know. Didn't you just say you
+      hadn't any room for her? Well, I've got three, you know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, but that's altogether a different proposition. You made your
+      reservation weeks ago.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But you could still give her one of them, couldn't you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Clerks in large hotels listen with patience to a vast number of strange
+      proposals, but at this from Blair, the man opposite eyed him in
+      unflattering amazement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But you said, when you wired, you wanted the extra room to work in,&rdquo; he
+      objected, &ldquo;and you'll remember, Mr. Blair, that you were pretty emphatic
+      about it, too, at the time. We went to all kinds of trouble to fix that up
+      for you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can get along all right without it, though,&rdquo; coolly observed his
+      changeable guest, &ldquo;and I'd rather she'd have it. It's possible to split
+      suites here, isn't it?&rdquo; he persisted. &ldquo;They do at most hotels.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's possible, of course.&rdquo; Across the desk the eyes of the two men met
+      squarely. &ldquo;That part of it's easy enough. But why? and who's going to pay
+      for it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm going to pay for it! What did you suppose?&rdquo; exploded Blair. &ldquo;It's
+      worth that and a lot more to me just now to keep her from getting away.
+      Oh, I'm in earnest all right. I mean it! Look here! Can't you see how that
+      woman can be a perfect gold mine to me? You know enough about my work to
+      understand that I'm really out here after Indians myself, and she&mdash;well,
+      I'll wager a cool thousand there isn't a spot on this whole island that
+      ever dreamed of seeing an Indian that she doesn't know all about!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The clerk nodded. &ldquo;But&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But nothing!&rdquo; Impatiently Blair brushed aside all objections. &ldquo;Why, I
+      hadn't the remotest idea how I was going to get started. It's a rattling
+      piece of good luck, and we'll fix it up right now!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, but&mdash;&rdquo; Still the other man hesitated. &ldquo;It sounds all right
+      enough,&mdash;from your end of it especially, but you'd better see her
+      first. She's a proud little piece,&mdash;doesn't like obligations of any
+      kind,&mdash;and a stranger,&mdash;a man&mdash;I'm sorry to discourage you,
+      but I don't believe she'll have a thing to do with it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In Blair's eyes impatience threatened to become something more emphatic.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's a business proposition pure and simple,&rdquo; he argued. &ldquo;She gives me
+      all the information she's been able to get together, and I pay her
+      expenses while she does it. That gives her a chance to finish her own
+      work, don't you see? A mighty good proposition for her, too, I should say,
+      and if she doesn't see it that way herself,&mdash;why,&mdash;well, she
+      isn't as intelligent as she looks, that's all!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Providing you can persuade her it is just business. I'd advise you to
+      talk with her first, just the same. And you'll have to be quick about it,
+      too. She's planning to wait in the village tonight for the morning boat,
+      and she'll be starting down about now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Outside was one of those radiant nights intended for dreams and the makers
+      of dreams. Over an ocean white with light long breakers rolled crests
+      gleaming with silver that fell in soft thunder on the beach. Miss
+      Hastings, hurrying along the board-walk to the village, glanced at them
+      and looked quickly away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, I say!&rdquo; came a voice out of the darkness behind her, &ldquo;if you don't
+      mind, hold on there a minute, will you? Wait for me, please!&rdquo; The voice
+      was that of a man, pleasant, but exceedingly determined. Without so much
+      as turning her head Miss Hastings quickened her steps.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But it was of no use. Whoever her pursuer might be, he was even then at
+      her side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I beg your pardon,&rdquo; breathlessly he began again, &ldquo;but I've been chasing
+      you all the way down from the hotel. I want you to come right back there
+      with me. I have a proposal to make to you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Even in the darkness he could see how the girl's eyes blazed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never listen&mdash;&rdquo; she began hotly, &ldquo;to proposals from people I don't
+      know,&rdquo; she had meant to add, but he gave her no time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It will mean the biggest chance for your pictures you've ever had,&rdquo; he
+      broke in. &ldquo;Now, listen!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And, to her complete surprise, Miss Hastings suddenly found herself doing
+      that very thing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are a lot of things I've got to find out right away,&rdquo; continued the
+      astonishing stranger, &ldquo;and the clerk up there tells me you're painting a
+      series of Indian portraits.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The little art teacher gazed at him fascinated. What manner of man could
+      this be, she wondered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't see the connection&mdash;&rdquo; Coldness struggled with curiosity in
+      her voice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Listen!&rdquo; With uplifted, peremptory hand again he stopped her. Nor is it
+      safe to say that any book agent, watching the door slowly closing upon
+      him, ever talked faster, or more rigidly to the point, than did Blair
+      within the next few minutes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps you won't understand it all right off. I wouldn't expect that.
+      But it's this way. I'm representing Harper's, and Houghton and Mifflin,
+      and Dodd and Mead, and&mdash;several other firms&rdquo; (to satisfy his
+      conscience Blair contended with himself that he might as well as not have
+      been their representative&mdash;a mere oversight on their part ought not
+      to be allowed to stand in his way), &ldquo;and I'm out here to find the best
+      illustrator I can lay hands on to do the pictures for some Indian stuff
+      I'm getting into shape for one of 'em. I want to see your work. And, if I
+      like it, I'll pay you well. And anyway, I'll pay every bit of the expense
+      while you finish your series here if you'll tell me what you know about
+      Wildenai!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But, at the name, the girl beside him had given a low cry of utter
+      amazement. She stopped short.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you know it too, then?&rdquo; she gasped. &ldquo;How did you hear about it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, I've known it for years,&rdquo; replied Blair carelessly. &ldquo;Some of it I've
+      known all my life. But look here now. Is it a bargain?&mdash;about your
+      helping me, I mean?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Before he left her, an hour or so later, every detail had been arranged.
+      Miss Hastings had meekly agreed to return to the hotel in the morning.
+      Blair would pay her expenses and something he called a retaining fee
+      besides. That would make an extra fifty dollars,&mdash;she smiled to
+      herself in the dark,&mdash;a new winter suit at least, and perhaps one or
+      two matinees if she managed! All this for the information she could give
+      him about the island and its history. The various points in their contract
+      spun dizzily in her dazed brain. No spot known to legend to which it was
+      possible to conduct him should remain unvisited. Four hours out of every
+      day were pledged without fail to his interests. The rest of the time she
+      might have for her own work. It had all come about so unexpectedly, and
+      was altogether so extraordinary that, after he had gone, his new employee,
+      stretched uncomfortably upon a narrow cot in the tent of a fellow teacher,
+      spent the remainder of the night in imaginary interviews with Eastern
+      publishers regarding impossible royalties. She was far too excited to
+      sleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And, for a week, the arrangement worked very well,&mdash;almost too well.
+      Every day brought with it some new adventure, and every adventure became a
+      pleasure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mounted at Blair's expense on more or less energetic ponies, for from the
+      first he had insisted that horses were a necessary part of their business
+      equipment, they cantered gaily along the shady canyon trails, or over the
+      sunlit slopes sheeted in pale lavender wherever the wild lilacs were in
+      bloom. Often, emerging from some thicket of dwarf oak they caught glimpses
+      of a sapphire sea held between red, twisted branches of manzanita as in a
+      frame. About them rang the music of the meadow larks. Merry shouts of
+      bathers floated up from the beaches far below, mingled with the distant
+      click of golf balls on the greens.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For the whole of a golden day they chartered a sailboat from one, Capt.
+      Warren, and rounding the yellow headlands under his lazy guidance, they
+      went to examine the Ning Po, the ancient Chinese barge stranded, no one
+      knew how many hundreds of years before, among the rocks off the isthmus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fascinating old place,&rdquo; observed Blair gazing, his eyes aglow with
+      interest, around the mediaeval cabin. &ldquo;Don't doubt a dozen murders at
+      least were pulled off in this one room!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh yes, of course,&rdquo; eagerly echoed his assistant. &ldquo;It's absolutely
+      unique!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Her gaze, as bright with interest as his own, rested upon Blair himself.
+      She was considering, absent-mindedly, how becoming white trousers can be
+      to most men, especially when they are reasonably dark themselves. But,&mdash;her
+      glance travelled upward,&mdash;how unusually dark he was, and his hair,&mdash;yes,
+      without question, the straightest and blackest she had ever seen. Yet it
+      seemed in some indefinable way to become him,&mdash;to belong, as it were,
+      to his type. Leaning her elbows meditatively upon the rusty anchor, her
+      chin in her hands, she silently appraised him. He really was a handsome
+      man, she decided, and clever, too, of the sort who does things in the
+      world! A dreamy light grew within her eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was only two or three evenings later when, on their way back from the
+      site of an historic Indian village on the other side of the island, they
+      walked their horses slowly around the Wishbone Loop, the ostensible reason
+      being that, as Blair had already discovered, it commanded the widest view
+      of the ocean at sunset.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was the first to speak when they struck again into the main trail.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wished for something about a rose, a wild rose,&mdash;want to guess?&rdquo;
+       He eyed her mischievously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hush,&mdash;mustn't tell!&rdquo; she laughed. &ldquo;Your wish won't come true if you
+      tell.&rdquo; Then, for no reason at all, she blushed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Never, in truth, during her twenty-three years of working, and scrimping,
+      and going without, had life shown to the little art teacher so fair and
+      generous a side, seemed so extravagantly joyous an affair as during that
+      magic week. The spending of money, it was easy to see, meant little or
+      nothing to Blair. But that was the least of his attractions, for, to the
+      girl herself, mere wealth for its own sake had never appealed. The charm
+      lay rather in the genial broadness of his view of things, the strength of
+      reasoning behind the few opinions he put forward, his reticence, and quiet
+      modesty. In these dwelt the spell that swept her into an almost delirious
+      enjoyment of his society. For, all unknown to herself, like many another
+      woman in like condition, she had needed a change of people. In the cramped
+      life of a private school men played but little part, and the men who were
+      most worth while, almost no part at all. Instinctively, in time, she had
+      wearied of little girls and their lessons. Sorely had she craved the
+      stimulus which only the companionship of congenial men can give. Of this
+      fact, however, she had been even less aware.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One crisp morning, seated in a diminutive wicker cart behind a
+      discontented pony, they searched out Chicken John's cabin on the mesa
+      behind the golf links.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not that it has anything to do with Indians,&rdquo; she apologized, &ldquo;only I
+      want you to see him. He's such a character, so nice and untidy and queer!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As a result of this expedition they brought away with them what old John
+      designated a &ldquo;plump little fry&rdquo; to be served at the cosy table for two in
+      the sunniest window of the dining room, a luxury which Blair had likewise
+      confiscated in the interests of business.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And so for seven glorious days they tramped the fragrant hills, or sailed
+      a sea as softly blue as though fallen fresh that morning from the
+      cloudless heaven above. In the warmth and glow of his friendship the
+      starved heart of the little art teacher opened like some hot-house flower
+      carried suddenly into the wide outdoors. And when at last the week drew to
+      an end, their work, both his and hers, was still unfinished, so that there
+      was nothing else to do but to live on through another fully as wonderful.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Blair himself took things much more for granted, and even when their talk
+      strayed farthest afield it was plain to the girl that his mind never fully
+      lost sight of the purpose for which he had come. His work stood always
+      first, while,&mdash;she blushed to own it even to herself,&mdash;she had
+      sometimes entirely forgotten her own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the end of the third week they had seen almost everything he considered
+      essential and at times she sensed in his manner, even when he was least
+      aware of it, a kind of repressed impatience. She knew what it meant and
+      shivered. Presently he would leave her, and life would become again the
+      same dull round of work. Only one spot of real importance remained
+      unvisited,&mdash;the cavern bower above the Bay of Moons. Of this he had
+      spoken frequently, and well she knew he held it the climax of his search.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But for reasons best known to herself Miss Hastings put off from day to
+      day this final expedition until Blair began to chaff at the delay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's really the one place I came to see!&rdquo; he told her more than once.
+      &ldquo;After I've been there I think I can go.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But we've planned Middle Ranch for today,&rdquo; she would answer evasively,
+      or, &ldquo;This is the best time to see Orazaba; it's so clear this morning.
+      That's the mountain, you know, where the Indians carved out their ollas.
+      Some of them are still there, only half cut away. It would be too bad for
+      you to miss that.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At length, however, there came a day when excuses would do no longer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We've waited long enough,&rdquo; he declared that morning over their coffee,
+      &ldquo;Besides, I may have to go now in a few days.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And although at his words the sunshine of her new world faded suddenly
+      away, yet the little teacher kept a brave front. She even laughed
+      carelessly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Men are so impatient,&rdquo; she teased, &ldquo;But we'll go today.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Nevertheless, it was not until the rose of sunset rested among the hills
+      that at last they found themselves on the crest of the tall cliff which
+      commanded so wide a stretch of the ocean and the shimmering valleys below.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It reminds one of the Bay of Naples,&rdquo; observed Blair, pausing to scan the
+      rocky coastline against which, far beneath them, the foaming breakers
+      threw themselves. He shaded his eyes with his hand and looked far out to
+      sea. &ldquo;What a wonderful place for a watch tower it would have made!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It had one once,&rdquo; softly replied the girl, &ldquo;Wildenai's watch tower!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Blair turned, their eyes met, and he smiled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's been splendid to have you with me all these days,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;I've
+      been wanting to tell you. You've been more of a help than you'll ever
+      know.&rdquo; And then, after a pause, &ldquo;It's because you care so much about the
+      story yourself, I suppose, that you've been such an inspiration to me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Something in the girl's heart seemed suddenly to snap.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's because I care more about your work, and&mdash;and you. You are so
+      wonderful!&rdquo; she broke forth impulsively, and stood before him crimson with
+      confusion. For a second, which seemed to her an age, there was silence.
+      Then he spoke and, in her bitter humiliation, his voice sounded strained
+      and cold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Shall we go in?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Silently he parted the tangle of manzanita that for centuries had veiled
+      the secrets of the princess, and stood aside for her to enter. Wildly the
+      little art teacher glanced about her. This moment to which she had so
+      looked forward, and yet had dreaded as much because it meant the end,&mdash;this
+      moment which might, nevertheless, have meant much to them both even though
+      it were the end, she herself had spoiled! All its delicate beauty changed
+      to a sordid suspicion, it lay in ruins now because of her thoughtless
+      words. She dared not guess at what he must be thinking! For a desperate
+      second she considered flight. Then proudly she raised her head. One more
+      thing, at least, about her now he should learn!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you know&mdash;?&rdquo; she began, then broke off irresolute.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Blair glanced at her and again their eyes met. This time he did not smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Know what?&rdquo; he asked.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She laughed with embarrassment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It really isn't of any interest to you, but&mdash;&rdquo; and again she paused.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Suppose you let me be the judge of that,&rdquo; he suggested stiffly. &ldquo;You're
+      making me horribly curious, you know. You can't very well drop the subject
+      now.&rdquo; He was evidently making an effort at pleasantry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She flushed brightly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course it couldn't be of the slightest importance to anyone except
+      myself,&rdquo; she explained. Then, as if doubting her courage to continue long,
+      she hurried on, &ldquo;but one reason I take such an interest in&mdash;your work
+      is because I'm a direct descendant of Lord Harold myself. He became the
+      Duke of Norfolk afterward, you know, but Hastings was always the family
+      name.&rdquo; She flashed him a haughty glance, a pride that changed to wide-eyed
+      surprise as she noted his amazement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not really?&rdquo; He had turned abruptly and in his eyes there was a curious
+      expression, almost of alarm. &ldquo;How extraordinary,&mdash;how perfectly
+      extraordinary!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why extraordinary?&rdquo; That her cup of humiliation might brim to the full,
+      resentment was added to confusion. &ldquo;You consider me unworthy, then, of
+      having had nobility among my ancestry? But, just the same, there was
+      nothing strange about it. The colonies were chiefly English, you
+      remember!&rdquo; He smiled at her sarcasm. &ldquo;The duke married one of Elizabeth's
+      ladies-in-waiting after he went home and there was a younger son, and he
+      had a younger son, and after a long time one of them came over to Virginia
+      just like anybody else. They have always been good, loyal, highly
+      respected American citizens,&rdquo; she told him fiercely, &ldquo;and I'm proud of
+      them! Besides&mdash;&rdquo; with reckless emphasis, &ldquo;I've always felt so sorry
+      for Wildenai.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But at this point, quite incomprehensibly, Blair broke into peals of
+      laughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And by and by, after a long, long time, one of these good, loyal,
+      American citizens that we're both so proud of had a hot-tempered, most
+      disloyal little daughter who intends to show her employer his proper place
+      before she dismisses him! But why are you sorry for Wildenai?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With mischievous eyes he searched her face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She flushed, then, looking squarely at him, &ldquo;Because she was impulsive
+      like me, and just for that reason Lord Harold ran away and left her,&rdquo; she
+      said. &ldquo;He's the only one of them I never had any use for.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Blair wandered the length of the cavern and back before he replied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You think him a coward, I suppose.&rdquo; He still looked as though he wanted
+      to laugh, yet something in his tone seared her outraged pride. He might as
+      well have touched an iron to quivering flesh. &ldquo;You ought to remember,
+      however,&mdash;I mean every woman ought to remember,&mdash;that when a
+      girl lets a man know that she cares for him she generally forfeits, then
+      and there, whatever interest she may have had for him. Wildenai risked too
+      much. Of course, in her case there was some excuse. She was only an
+      untrained barbarian. But, under ordinary circumstances, I tell you there's
+      nothing a man despises so much!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      What was done or said after that Miss Hastings never could have told. She
+      was possessed of but one desire,&mdash;to get away, to go back to the
+      hotel,&mdash;home, anywhere beyond the reach of his voice and his eyes.
+      For the moment she hated him, and although Blair, conscience smitten at he
+      knew not what, waited in the lobby a full hour before going in to dinner,
+      she did not come down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Up in her room, mechanically brushing her hair for the night, Miss
+      Hastings stormily addressed the girl in the glass who stared so scornfully
+      back at her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I tell you I don't care a thing about it! He probably thought he was
+      justified in every word he said. He's probably smiling this very minute
+      because he thinks he managed it so well! But he's a coward just the same,
+      and I despise him,&mdash;I do despise him!&rdquo; Her eyes brimming with tears,
+      she fiercely repeated the word. &ldquo;Well, he'll soon find out how much I
+      really meant!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Over and over she re-lived the short scene,&mdash;all of its humiliation,
+      all of its hurt, seeking at every turn solace for her woman's pride.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Naturally I wanted to help him all I could, to appear, at least, to be
+      interested, especially when he was paying so much for it! It was only a
+      business arrangement anyway,&rdquo; she continued bitterly, &ldquo;nothing but
+      business from start to finish, and if he doesn't know that yet, he'll find
+      it out the very first thing tomorrow morning!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And having tumbled into bed she lay staring into the dark, planning the
+      details of a campaign warranted either to cure or kill the enemy. Outside,
+      a mocking bird, perched provokingly near her window, kept the night
+      ringing with music. Resolutely she closed her ears to his song. But
+      presently, through the faint fragrance of oleanders, other sounds began to
+      penetrate,&mdash;the strains of the waltz to which they had danced only
+      the night before. The little art teacher turned wearily over and cried
+      herself to sleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the morning which followed she rose very early, however, much too early
+      to breakfast with Blair at the little table in the sunny corner. Instead,
+      she ordered some coffee and toast at Jim's Waffle Shop in the village and
+      was hard at work sketching on the wharf before eight o'clock. She had
+      suddenly remembered a promise to sketch Capt. Warren's dog holding the
+      gaff, a feat of which both Pal and his master were justifiably proud.
+      Indeed, so long had the arrangement been made and so entirely had it been
+      neglected, that no one was more surprised than the Captain himself at her
+      unexpected appearance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But Pal and me ought to be at the Tuna Club in fifteen minutes, to take a
+      party o' members out fishin',&rdquo; he demurred. &ldquo;You can't paint Pal in no
+      quarter of an hour!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm sorry to have had to put it off so long,&rdquo; replied Miss Hastings
+      crisply, &ldquo;but I'm planning to go home in a few days now,&mdash;this
+      afternoon probably. It's the only chance I shall have.&rdquo; And she prepared
+      to make good the belated promise with such determination that, after a
+      wistful glance or two across the slapping white caps, the old skipper
+      meekly succumbed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was here Blair found her an hour or so later. Unceremoniously he placed
+      himself in front of her, his hands in his pockets, and gave vent to a low
+      whistle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, of all the&mdash;!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, is it you, Mr. Blair?&rdquo; she inquired in cool, sweet tones. &ldquo;I thought
+      most probably you'd gone! Didn't you say yesterday you intended to as soon
+      as you'd seen the cavern?&rdquo; Then, after a pause during which Blair said
+      nothing, &ldquo;I've been getting dreadfully behind with my own work, so I
+      thought, if you didn't mind, I'd try to catch up a little this morning.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly not. Take all the time you want! We've about finished anyway, I
+      guess.&rdquo; His coolness matched her own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another silence during which she painted furiously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm making a sketch of Pal holding the gaff,&rdquo; she ventured at length when
+      the strain had become too uncomfortable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So I see.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This second tentative effort at conversation having flickered and gone out
+      she bent again to her work, while Blair remained, looking down at her, in
+      his eyes mingled amusement and resentment. What had he done, he wondered,
+      to account for such a change? Or, perhaps, it was something he had not
+      done. He tried again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aren't we going for our ride this morning? It's a glorious day, and I
+      have the refusal of the two best horses.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I think not,&mdash;not this morning, thank you,&rdquo; she answered. In her
+      voice was the same crisp sweetness. &ldquo;I haven't time!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With a shrug of pure bewilderment he backed away, then lingered a moment
+      longer to watch the sketch take shape beneath her hurrying brush. That was
+      the particular moment Miss Hastings chose for the final reckless stab.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You're standing in my light,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;If you'd just as soon, please do
+      go away, Mr. Blair. It makes me nervous to have people looking over my
+      shoulder when I'm trying to paint.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was just a trifle more than Blair at the moment was prepared to
+      stand. His eyes grew dark.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly,&rdquo; he replied icily. &ldquo;So sorry to have bothered you at all. I
+      only came down to tell you that I've decided to leave today. There's
+      nothing more to keep me now, I think, and I'm rather anxious to get home.
+      You'll find your check at the desk.&rdquo; And he sauntered away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She did not go back to the hotel for luncheon. She had finished her
+      sketch, yet, somehow, when the time came, she discovered that it would be
+      quite impossible to enter the dining room. She found it equally impossible
+      to take the afternoon boat herself. Instead, having clambered half way up
+      the steep slope to the cavern, she watched from behind a flaming riot of
+      wild nasturtians while, preceded by a hotel porter bearing bags and
+      suit-cases, Blair boarded the Avalon for Los Angeles. He was going away,
+      then, without even a word of farewell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The heart of the little art teacher turned cold within her, so cold that
+      she sank numbly into the red and gold tangle; nor did she look up again
+      until the steamer, dipping below the horizon, had left only a trail of
+      smoke to show where it disappeared. She had not believed that he would do
+      quite that!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When evening came she went stoically in to dinner. There was no reason any
+      longer for staying away. Sternly she kept her eyes from the vacant place
+      opposite. Yet somehow she could not persuade herself that he was really
+      gone. More than once she caught herself watching the door, half expecting
+      to see him stroll in with apologies for tardiness and take his empty
+      chair. When again the orchestra drifted suddenly into the waltz to which
+      they had danced, she rose abruptly and left the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Well, she would go herself in the morning. She would settle everything and
+      pack her things at once. She went to the desk to ask for the check. But
+      there was nothing for her. No, the clerk assured her after much fumbling,
+      Mr. Blair hadn't left anything, either in her box or his own. But,&mdash;the
+      man stole a covert glance at her downcast face,&mdash;he was still holding
+      his rooms. Probably he meant to attend to it when he returned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That he might not see the wild joy that leaped to her eyes, Miss Hastings
+      turned with startling suddenness and fled upstairs. Safe in her own room
+      she flung herself with tears and laughter on the bed. So that was the hand
+      he was playing, was it?&mdash;the dear, wicked, unmanageable&mdash;! Of
+      course he would have to be punished,&mdash;well punished! but&mdash;she
+      laughed aloud for pure joy&mdash;the world was a radiant place once more,
+      and nothing of any sort really mattered, because he was coming back.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the next day went by, and the next, and he had not come. Day after day
+      passed in an empty procession, yet no one of them brought that for which
+      she waited. And there was nothing else to do. Work was out of the
+      question. She could not sit still long enough. It became, instead, her
+      sole occupation to linger each morning and afternoon on the verandah until
+      the steamer from Los Angeles had rounded the point and crossed the bay in
+      front of the hotel. Then, hidden behind the palms she would watch until
+      the last straggling tourist had left the pier. But still he did not come.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Doubt in every tormenting guise assailed her. Perhaps he had changed his
+      mind and decided later not to return. Yet the clerk had said he meant to
+      come back! Perhaps her check, sent by mail, was even now in her box. But
+      she had not the courage to go again to the desk. Driven by alternate hope
+      and fear she lost color, and she could not sleep. During seven miserable
+      nights she planned to go back to Pasadena by the morning boat, and as many
+      times she put it off. Yet, if he did return to find her waiting, what,
+      then, would she have given him the right to think? But, on the other hand,
+      if she went she might never see him again!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the eighth day she took herself grimly in hand. No longer would she
+      humiliate herself by any further delay. Wildenai had not waited, and even
+      a school teacher can be as proud as an Indian princess! That very
+      afternoon she would finish her sketch of the cavern. Then tomorrow she
+      would go back to Pasadena and the long gray round of work. Desolately she
+      wandered up the secret trail to Wildenai's bower. Never had her sympathy
+      for the deserted princess been so keen. Perhaps, she mournfully
+      considered, if the spirit of the Indian maiden still lingered there it
+      might feel sympathy for her as well. Perhaps she, too, would find comfort
+      in the spot where that other woman had paid an equal price for her
+      impulsiveness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The shadows in the little cavern were dark and cool and, laying aside her
+      box of colors, for a long time she sat quite motionless, staring out to
+      where the gulls drifted and glinted against the blue. She heard after a
+      while the whistle of the approaching steamer but gave no heed. Lying back
+      against the moss she had almost dropped asleep when something in the
+      corner opposite attracted her attention. She sat up nervously and stared
+      into the shadows. Was it only that the darkness was deeper over there, or
+      was that really something propped against the wall? And had it moved?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the years that followed she never knew how long she sat there after the
+      stones had been lifted away, holding in her lap those shreds of torn white
+      doeskin. Still caught together, though in tatters, by long strings of
+      shells and beads, they shone, a ghostly film of white from out the
+      dimness. A breath, and the whole would have crumbled into dust. Yet the
+      beads, she noticed, were still perfect as when strung by slim brown
+      fingers centuries before. Only half believing it was not all of it a
+      dream, she lifted them strand after strand. Then, suddenly, she gave a
+      little cry. Somewhere from out the torn folds a slender chain had slipped.
+      Trembling with a curiosity that bordered close on terror, she carried it
+      to the light, and there it glowed, a glancing stream of crimson, in her
+      hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wildenai's necklace!&rdquo; she breathed, and hid her face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There came the sound of a step outside. The manzanita branches were pushed
+      impatiently aside and he stood before her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The journey across the channel from Los Angeles had seemed twice as long
+      as when he made it a few weeks before, and he had hurried all the way from
+      the hotel straight to the little cavern. But now that he had found her
+      again, there seemed to be plenty of time for everything, and he stood
+      quite silent looking down at her. He was glad he had found her there,
+      glad, in a curious, unreasoning way, for the quiet of the late afternoon,
+      for the faint fragrance of the Mariposa lilies blooming just beyond the
+      ledge. Yet he let her know nothing of this in what he said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So here you are, after all! I thought I should find you here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She had not heard him come and was startled into a cry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You!&rdquo; she gasped, and lifted eyes in which the telltale signs of tears
+      were still quite evident, so evident that, with a woman's instinct to hide
+      them, she caught up the necklace and held it toward him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;See what I've found!&rdquo; she exclaimed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But he paid no heed. Instead, manlike, he proceeded, quite unconsciously,
+      to say the one thing that could hurt her most.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I looked for you at the hotel first, then I came on up here. I knew you
+      wouldn't go till I came!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The color that had flooded her face at the sound of his voice faded again.
+      She was quite white as she asked quietly:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How could you know I would stay?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He laughed easily, settling himself confidently on the moss at her side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because I hadn't paid you yet,&rdquo; he answered gaily. &ldquo;Don't you think that
+      was clever of me, Wildenai?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would rather you did not call me that,&rdquo; she told him coldly, &ldquo;It sounds
+      irreverent.&rdquo; And she dropped her eyes, which had filled again miserably,
+      to the film of white in her lap. Then, with a pitiful attempt to hurt him
+      in return: &ldquo;Of course you realize that I really don't know much about you.
+      I don't want you to think that I distrusted you exactly&mdash;&rdquo; she
+      marvelled at herself that she could say such things to him, but went
+      recklessly on. &ldquo;The check wasn't there,&mdash;and so, well, it seemed
+      wisest to wait. They said you were coming back, and I couldn't afford to
+      lose it; so I stayed. Just a matter of business, you see!&rdquo; She finished in
+      a tone which, except for a suspicious tremble, was satisfactorily
+      disagreeable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Blair's armor, since his return, seemed proof against such thrusts as
+      she could give.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Won't play Indian at all, then?&rdquo; he retorted teasingly. &ldquo;But of course
+      not! How could you when you happen to come from the other side of the
+      house? However,&rdquo; he continued whimsically, &ldquo;there are such things as
+      English roses, you know. I've always loved them, too, even when they were
+      thorny!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He pulled absently at a fern growing near, while, suddenly, for no
+      particular reason, the color glowed again in the cheeks of the little art
+      teacher. She smiled, half unwillingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But don't pull up the wild flowers here,&rdquo; she warned him, &ldquo;You'll have
+      the forester after you! When did you get back?&rdquo; she added. &ldquo;Where have you
+      been so long?&rdquo; burned on her lips, but she scorned to ask it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;About an hour ago,&rdquo; he replied amiably. &ldquo;The boat was late.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was beginning to think you'd given up coming at all.&rdquo; She could not
+      keep it back. &ldquo;The duke never bothered to, you know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But this blow, like the first, failed to reach any vulnerable spot. Blair
+      did not flinch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, naturally he didn't! He was English, and you can't depend upon the
+      English, I've discovered. But there's not the slightest reason for linking
+      me up with him. The princess never ran away now, did she? And I&mdash;&rdquo; He
+      paused, then without looking at her he began again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Seriously, I'm sorry if I seemed to be deserting. I&mdash;well, honestly,
+      I didn't know what else to do. You suggested it yourself, you remember!
+      And I'd promised my father to look after some business for him in Los
+      Angeles while I was out here. You see, he&mdash;our family, have lived in
+      the East for a long time now, but we used to own pretty much all of Los
+      Angeles county some three centuries ago, when the Spanish were here, and&mdash;&rdquo;
+       Again he broke off abruptly. &ldquo;Do you want to know about me?&rdquo; he demanded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Miss Hastings leaned breathlessly toward him. Her heart was beating
+      wildly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, please!&rdquo; she begged.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps I should have told you at the first,&rdquo; he began, &ldquo;or at least
+      after you told me who you were, but&mdash;anyway, I didn't. I'd never told
+      anyone before and I didn't much suppose I ever would. There's a reason,
+      though, why I'm particularly interested in this legend, too, a reason just
+      as good as you've got. I'm&mdash;well, I'm one of Wildenai's great, great
+      grandsons!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And then, because she sat quite silent there in the shadows, and
+      motionless except for fingering something white that lay in her lap, he
+      waited uneasily. Was she angry again, he wondered, or perhaps she was only
+      laughing!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She was the first to break the silence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are you trying to be funny?&rdquo; Her voice was very cold.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not at all,&rdquo; he answered hotly. &ldquo;It must be all of ten generations back
+      or even more, and of course it wasn't all Spanish afterward, but, just the
+      same, I'm as much a descendant of the princess as you are of the duke,&mdash;always
+      have been! I'm just as proud of it, too. Possibly you will remember that
+      the Spanish beat the English to it, at least in California. Anyway,&rdquo; he
+      finished bitterly, &ldquo;what difference does it make? So far as I can see, it
+      only gives us one more good subject to quarrel about!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Then out of the dimness came a queer little sound, whether of tears or of
+      laughter it was impossible to know. For the least part of a second a hand
+      brushed his own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, no!&rdquo; she whispered, &ldquo;Let's not do that. It wouldn't be right! And
+      see,&rdquo; she laughed tremulously, &ldquo;Isn't it strange I should have found it
+      today, but,&rdquo; she lifted the white thing in her lap, &ldquo;here is Wildenai's
+      wedding dress&mdash;and the chain of garnets!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The cavern was quite dark before they had finished talking about it, but
+      at length they laid the poor little ghost of a garment reverently back
+      among the stones and rose to go.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But the necklace?&rdquo; Blair asked, hesitating, &ldquo;do you think we ought to
+      leave that here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The girl considered a moment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's really yours,&rdquo; she decided. &ldquo;Nobody else could have the least claim
+      to it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Except&mdash;&rdquo; Suddenly his eyes shone with a strange expression before
+      which the little art teacher instinctively shrank. He took a step toward
+      her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I believe I'll give the garnets back,&rdquo; he announced. &ldquo;I fancy that's what
+      the princess would have liked to do if she'd had the chance. Besides,&rdquo; his
+      eyes grew still darker, &ldquo;they were meant in the first place for a wedding
+      gift, and so if you&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He would have clasped them about her neck, but Miss Hastings backed
+      frantically away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No!&mdash;not for worlds,&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;You know you're only saying it
+      because you think you can't get out of it!&rdquo; And before he could realize
+      just what was happening, she was gone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The boat for Los Angeles was unusually crowded that night. For either this
+      reason, or some other she would not acknowledge, Miss Hastings found
+      herself pushed aside by more impatient passengers every time she attempted
+      to enter the gangway.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All aboard!&rdquo; called a peremptory voice from somewhere on deck. She took a
+      step forward, hesitated, drew back. The plank was hauled irrevocably away,
+      and she turned to face Blair standing just behind her on the wharf.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I was sure you wouldn't run away,&rdquo; he declared, &ldquo;but if you had&mdash;!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      She let him lead her back along the broad boardwalk toward the hotel until
+      they stood within the shadow of the huge boulder which for centuries has
+      marked the outer boundary of the Bay of Moons. Beyond them the lights of
+      the St. Catherine glimmered down the hill and on over the water, rimming
+      with golden bubbles the outlines of the pier.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wildenai!&rdquo; Out of the darkness his voice came to her, mocking, tender,
+      wholly insistent. &ldquo;Foolish, obstinate little lady! Can't you see how it's
+      up to you,&mdash;up to the English to make amends? Honestly now, when he
+      began it I don't imagine even that rascal Drake himself would have
+      believed a family scrap could last the better part of four centuries.
+      Don't you really think it's about time for you to call it off?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      And flinging her scruples to the winds, Miss Hastings suddenly decided
+      that it was.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Their Mariposa Legend, by Charlotte Herr
+
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+</pre>
+  </body>
+</html>
diff --git a/5196.txt b/5196.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e18cef9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/5196.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,2609 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Their Mariposa Legend, by Charlotte Herr
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Their Mariposa Legend
+
+Author: Charlotte Herr
+
+Release Date: February, 2004  [EBook #5196]
+Posting Date: April 19, 2009
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THEIR MARIPOSA LEGEND ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Schwan
+
+
+
+
+
+THEIR MARIPOSA LEGEND
+
+A Romance of Santa Catalina
+
+
+By Charlotte Herr
+
+
+     To Little Bruce Parker
+     Who Loved Stories
+
+
+
+
+Part I. Sir Francis Starts It
+
+
+It began to happen a long time ago, centuries ago, when, in a fragrant
+rush of rain, spring came one day to Punagwandah, fairest of the Channel
+Islands. Beneath the golden mists of sunrise danced a radiant sea. On
+steeply sloping hillsides where thickets of wild lilac bloomed, the lark
+shook from his tiny throat a tumult of glad music. In shadowed niches of
+the canyons lilies waited to fill with light their gleaming ivory cups.
+Spring in very truth was there.
+
+And looking down upon it from her cavern bower high above the beach,
+watched the Princess Wildenai. Kneeling there, the light of dawn shining
+on her long black hair, she was, herself, the sweetest blossom of the
+spring. Loveliest was she among all the maidens of the Mariposa and of
+royal blood besides; although of this the great chief Torquam, who even
+at that moment lay sleeping in his lodge of deerskin on the crescent
+beach below, knew more than he had ever told.
+
+With eyes rapt, her breath scarcely stirring the folds of softest
+fawnskin drawn across her breast, the princess bent her gaze to where
+the waves ran silver on the ocean's distant rim. There she knew the sun
+must rise and, as the first dazzling ray sparkled across the water, she
+rose slowly until she stood erect, a slender, graceful figure against
+the dim, gray rocks, and stretching her arms toward the East, spoke in
+the musical words of her people.
+
+"Oh, Waken-ate, great spirit-father," she pleaded, "have mercy on me.
+Grant to me, thy humble daughter, one only boon. Grant, I pray thee,
+that it need not be I wed with Torquam's friend, the pale-face stranger.
+Well knowest thou I would not disobey my father, him the bravest and
+most powerful of all thy warriors, him whom his people delight to honor,
+and whom I strive to please. All the more I feel my duty since, many
+moons ago, they laid my mother underneath the flowers. Yet, even so, I
+cannot find it in my heart to wed with Don Cabrillo, dearly as does
+my father wish it. Can'st thou not then, in thy great power, turn his
+heart, oh lord of spirits, that he no longer may desire it? Help me in
+this, my only trial, I pray thee, and in all else will I be indeed his
+loyal daughter,--in all else save alone in this one thing!"
+
+Her arms fell. Slowly she sank again to her knees, bending her head
+until her forehead touched the ground. For many minutes she lay thus
+prostrate while the glory of the rising sun bathed the sea in splendor.
+Yet, when at last she rose, her eyes were dim with tears.
+
+But now from the beach below there drifted up to her the sounds of a
+village astir. Shrill voices of women mingled with the crackling of
+freshly kindled fires. A canoe, pushed hastily into the water, grated
+harshly on the pebbles. Still the maiden did not stir. Leaning against
+the rocky ledge, her chin in her hands, she gazed listlessly out over
+the shining sea. If any interests lived for her among the dark-skinned
+people beneath the cliffs, for the moment at least she gave no sign.
+
+Then, suddenly, above the ordinary din of the Indian village, rose the
+hoarse shouting of men. Wildenai lifted her eyes,--eyes that widened
+first with wonder, then with fear. For there, far down the shoreline to
+the south, her sails gleaming white against the walls of rock behind
+her as she rounded a distant point, a ship came slowly into view. With
+wildly beating heart the young girl watched the vessel tack to clear the
+long curve of the coast. But once before in all her life had she seen
+such another monster winged canoe, and that had been when Senor Don
+Cabrillo first cast anchor in the Bay of Moons below, now almost a year
+ago. For many a week had the young man lingered, renewing the friendship
+with the Mariposa cemented more than eighteen years before when his
+father, hindered by storms in his adventurous journey up the coast, cast
+anchor off the shore,--the first white man to see their island. Nor was
+the lingering without result. Torquam he taught to speak the Spanish
+tongue, learning in his turn safer and easier routes to the gold fields
+of the north, while not the least among the treasures carried with him
+when at last he sailed away did he hold the promise that the beautiful
+daughter of the chief should become his bride when next he touched upon
+that shore. Could this, then, be the Spaniard's fleet returning? Was the
+Great Spirit powerless, after all, to save her? In sore bewilderment and
+terror Wildenai watched the distant ship.
+
+Nearer and nearer it came. But, as its outline grew each moment more
+distinct, gradually her fears departed. For this was not the clumsy
+Spanish galleon she remembered. The prow was not nearly so high, nor was
+the incoming vessel as large in any respect as had been that other. Yet,
+though fear died, wonder grew. What new variety of strangers, then, was
+about to visit them? For that the ship intended to anchor she was by
+this time sure. Steadily it bore on until within a scant half mile of
+the crescent shaped beach where lay the royal village of the tribe. At
+length, as if in fear to trust themselves closer to the rocky shore,
+the crew were seen to bring the vessel sharply about. An anchor was
+cast over, the creaking of the hawsers distinctly audible in the clear
+morning air, and a few moments later a small boat was lowered. Into
+this boat immediately several sailors swung themselves and after a
+short delay, amidst the shouting of the Indians, now running in wild
+excitement up and down the beach, the men picked up their oars and
+started for the land.
+
+"Alla-hoa, Wildenai!"
+
+Up the stony trail leading to her cavern scrambled an Indian runner, a
+lithe youth who flung himself breathless at her feet.
+
+"Thy father, oh princess, sends me to summon thee to his lodge.
+Strangers,--paleface strangers,--enemies, who can tell, are coming.
+See,--the ship!" With dark forefinger he pointed toward the sea.
+"Torquam would have thee hide with the rest of the women in the cave at
+the Great Rock. There Kathah-galwa wilt keep thee safe, he says. Make
+haste, oh Wildenai!"
+
+"And am I not as safe up here?" returned the princess, calmly. "Be not
+so lost in thy terror, oh Norqua. I, too, have seen the ship and I fear
+not. Yet will I obey if so my father bids," she added quickly. "Go thou
+ahead. I follow." And hastily gathering together some reeds and colored
+grasses lying on the ledge, parts of an unfinished basket upon which,
+evidently, she had during some previous visit been at work, she flung
+them into a corner of the cavern and ran lightly down the narrow path
+leading to the village.
+
+Here all by this time was tense excitement, the dramatic, ungoverned
+excitement of children. While with shrill cries two or three of the
+women gathered the little ones together, the rest pulled frantically at
+the poles holding each tepee in place. Still apparently quite unmoved,
+Wildenai sought first her father standing surprised but unafraid in the
+doorway of his lodge. Tall and spare and stern he looked, straight as
+some lonely pine on the slopes of distant San Jacinto. Yet even in
+the stress of such a moment a tender light stole into his eyes as they
+rested upon his motherless daughter.
+
+Wildenai made obeisance and for a brief moment the two surveyed each
+other in silence. Then,
+
+"It is well thou art come, my beloved one," spoke the chief. "Stranger
+pale-faces will soon be amongst us."
+
+"Wildenai feels no fear, my father," quietly answered the girl.
+
+"If they come in friendship," quickly Torquam replied, "then indeed may
+all be well. But the ship is not of the Senor's fleet, and if so be that
+we must fight, thou wert better hidden in the cave. We shall see."
+
+Bending her head in mute acquiescence the girl moved away to join the
+group of women now almost ready to depart.
+
+
+
+Meantime the vessel's long boat, driven onward by the stout arms of
+three strong sailors, steadily approached the bay.
+
+"What think'st thou then, Rufus Broadmead, of this fool's errand to the
+savages?" inquired one of these, resting upon his oars for a moment that
+he might the better listen to the tumult on the shore. "Wot ye not that
+if water had been the only boon he craves the captain had fared much
+better on the mainland? Besides, did not I myself overhear the Apache
+only yesterday tell him of a certainty that the tribes over there were
+away on the warpath? But no, by the mass, here must we risk our precious
+scalps to row into the very teeth of the heathen, and that to humor the
+whim of as obstinate an Englishman as ever sailed aboard Her Majesty's
+fleets!" and without awaiting any reply he lowered his oars in disgust.
+
+The others laughed.
+
+"Hast been, then, so stupid, brother Giles, for all thy listening with
+thy big ears, as not to know 'tis Spanish treasure ever and naught else
+our captain seeks? Water,--pouf!" the speaker made a rough grimace,
+"water may well serve as an excuse, and what to bold Sir Francis were
+the lives of half a dozen seamen when booty for the queen lies in the
+balance? The Apache told him, too,--thou see'st thou hast not played the
+listening game alone, for, hiding behind the fo'castle door myself, I
+heard him say it,--that here lay that famous island, San--how is't they
+call it? San Catlina--I know not how 'tis spoken,--some Spanish lingo
+not fit for English tongues! At any rate 'twas here your Spanish robber,
+Don Cabrillo, and, for the matter of that, his precious son as well,
+stopped to seek direction ere they found the land of gold. The savage
+sware besides they were a gentle tribe, not given to war and murder like
+the rest. I hearkened well, forsooth, knowing past doubt I would be
+een one o' those chosen to try 'em out. The devil take the Apache an
+he lied," he added fiercely, "I'll break his head across till even he
+shrieks out for help when I get back!"
+
+He paused to gaze fearfully at the stern cliffs now looming close
+at hand, beneath which the excited natives still ran back and forth,
+pointing with frantic gestures at the boat.
+
+The third man spoke. He was smaller than the other two and darker, with
+a sly look about his eyes and mouth in strong contrast to the bluff
+frankness of his comrades. So far he had appeared content to listen in
+amused silence, but now with a short laugh he interrupted.
+
+"The Apache did not lie. This is the island Santa Catalina, though that,
+mark you, is not the Indian name. And right well can the chief who
+rules here direct our captain also to the goldfields of the north. But
+hearkee, comrades. 'Tis not Drake will reap the profits this time!" He
+lowered his voice mysteriously as though fearful of being overheard,
+albeit nothing was nearer than his two companions and the clear, green
+stretch of water. "Have ye not observed the boy who travels with the
+captain?--the boy I serve,--the one they call Sir Harry? To my mind,
+cub though he be, 'tis he who rules the ship. Hast never noticed how the
+great Drake himself bends to his slightest wish?"
+
+"Aye, marry, that have I! And who, then, is he, think'st thou?" inquired
+the man who had spoken first.
+
+"Some close kin to the queen,--that much I know," the other answered
+quickly, "the heir to some great dukedom, mayhap, in disguise to see the
+world and make a fortune. 'Tis his desire we land, so much he told
+me, and 'tis to learn more than directions, my hearties, and that I'll
+warrant ye! But, look ye, the water grows too shallow! We can use the
+oars no longer."
+
+And even as he spoke the boat grated upon the pebbles. An incoming
+breaker would have carried it ashore, but before the sailors could take
+advantage of this help or even so much as ship their oars, half a dozen
+swarthy youths had waded out and, with shouts and gestures, whether of
+welcome or hostility the Englishmen had no means of knowing, pushed it
+high upon the beach. At once, then, for well they realized the danger
+of delay, and with a stolid courage born of many a like adventure, the
+seamen leaped fearlessly out upon the sand. In their hands they held
+aloft bolts of brightly colored cloth snatched on the instant from the
+bottom of the boat. These they offered for the wondering inspection of
+the women who, observing the small number of invaders, were cautiously
+returning. To the warriors grouped about the chief they proffered knives
+of which the steel blades, set in strong handles of bone, glistened
+in the sun. Eagerly, yet with a certain unexpected formality, the men
+accepted these, passing them for examination from one to another with
+many a grunt of satisfaction. To be sure, no brave among them but
+might the next moment decide to try out the merits of his gift upon the
+bestower, but this danger the adventurers had to risk. More timidly the
+women, their eyes fixed wistfully upon the gaudy red and yellow cloth,
+approached the strangers, offering in their turn bits of abalone shell
+polished to iridescent beauty.
+
+They seemed in truth a gentle, friendly people, so much so that at
+length the sailors, deeming it safe to undertake the second part of
+their errand, began to plead for water and to request, besides, an
+interview between their captain and the chief. All this by means of
+signs in which they displayed no little wit and skill, the Englishmen
+accomplished until, well on toward the middle of the morning, they made
+ready to return to the ship, the casks they had brought brimming with
+sweet mountain water, while with them they bore as well the promise of
+an interview of state between the great chief Torquam and Sir Francis
+Drake, to take place upon the beach at sunset.
+
+And then at once the little village of Toyobet seethed again with
+excitement. For these good paleface friends and their god-like commander
+a fitting welcome must be prepared. Fleet-footed messengers, bearing
+flaming torches, sped in hot haste along the mountain trails that all
+who saw might know without words spoken of the assembling of the tribe.
+To the distant village at the isthmus they hurried, and to the cove on
+the western coast, some twenty miles away, to which a band of warriors
+had gone several days before to hunt the otter. That no one among his
+people might remain in ignorance of his command, Torquam even caused
+signal fires to be kindled on each of the twin peaks, extinct volcanoes,
+near the center of the island. Smoke rising there was visible from every
+corner of his land, and woe to any subject who dared to disregard that
+warning!
+
+Throughout the long bright day the women toiled, preparing a ceremonial
+feast. Three antelope, a deer, and half a dozen of the wild sheep which
+roamed the hills were killed and placed for roasting over deep pits dug
+in the sand. Nor did any member of the tribe forget in his own crude
+fashion to deck himself for the occasion. The warriors adorned their
+heads with feathers and daubed their cheeks and lips with ochre. The
+women clothed themselves in loose-hanging tunics of doeskin girt with
+strings of wampum, and hung about their tawny shoulders the lovely
+greens and blues of uncut turquoise. Meanwhile, also, the great chief
+Torquam donned his ceremonial dress, a string of eagle feathers held by
+the crimsoned quills of the porcupine and extending down his back
+until almost it touched the ground. About his neck, as token of his
+priesthood, he threw the bear-claw necklace, known far and wide among
+the tribes for its famous powers of healing. Wildenai alone made no
+change except to bind the satin black of her hair still more smoothly
+within a fillet of silver. In the center of the band, so that it rested
+just above her brow, a strange device appeared, a circle enclosing many
+rays,--the royal insignia of the tribe which only the daughter of the
+chief might wear.
+
+
+
+Then at last when, in the sunset, level rays of light rested golden on
+the bay and turned to amethyst the distant mountains on the mainland,
+all was ready. Once again, this time to the weird music of tom-toms
+and the beating of drums, a boat was lowered from the ship while on the
+shore the Indians watched.
+
+It was in truth a picture not soon to be forgotten. Behind the mirrored
+Bay of Moons, its crescent of sand gleaming white against the rocks, the
+bands of dusky men and women stood motionless as statues in the quiet
+light of the setting sun, while in the doorway of his lodge, his
+daughter close beside him, Torquam waited with simple dignity to receive
+his guests, the fair-skinned strangers.
+
+At length along the beach advanced the little group of English, friends
+and fellow adventurers with the most renowned of all their great queen's
+buccaneers. Beside Sir Francis himself marched young Harold of Wessex,
+little more than a boy in years, yet dreaded and feared in his own land
+even then--a possible heir to Elizabeth's throne. Some short distance in
+front of these two, standard bearers carried the flags of Merry England,
+each glorious with fringes and tassels of gold. Well might such banners
+dazzle the eyes and wits of simple savages.
+
+Yet, possibly, for all that, had it not been for the lengthy ceremonial
+of the peace-pipe, Wildenai could not have taken time to observe so
+closely, in stolen glances from beneath her long black lashes, the
+splendor of the young noble standing proudly erect beside his captain;
+nor could he have stared so often, with no attempt to hide his
+admiration, at the dark beauty of the princess.
+
+Perhaps, too, if fate had not contrived to place them side by side at
+the feast which followed, young Harold might never have discovered that
+an Indian girl, however beautiful, possessed the wit to learn a foreign
+language. Yet it was certainly Spanish and that well spoken in which, at
+length, she softly asked of her father a question intended obviously for
+himself.
+
+Under cover of one of the Indian dances with which, from time to time,
+the feast was enlivened, he leaned impulsively toward her.
+
+"Can'st speak the Spanish tongue?" he hastily inquired.
+
+The princess dropped her eyes. For a moment she remained silent as if
+debating to what extent such boldness might involve her. Then, with a
+glance as shy as if some deer gazed at him startled from the thicket,
+
+"Yes, mon senor," she answered simply. "I learned it when Don Cabrillo
+came to Punagwandah many moons ago."
+
+After that it was only that one thing led to another, as was sometimes
+true of men and maidens even in the days so long gone by. For, as if
+by common consent, then, they drew a little apart from the rest, where,
+throwing himself on the sand beside her while the firelight threw
+flickering shadows among the rocks, the young man related fragments of
+his story,--of the long journey across the sea, something of his home
+in England, and of the brilliant court of the great queen wherein he had
+served as gentleman-in-waiting. So had he served, yet soon, but here her
+guest had suddenly flushed and paused as though he spoke too hastily
+or of what he should not. To all of it the princess listened with
+fast-beating heart and a desire, ever growing, to make herself a place
+in this splendid stranger's world. Was not she then, also, the daughter
+of a king? Yet how different and how unimportant beside that wonderful
+woman of whom he spoke! For father she boasted the great chief Torquam,
+feared by every tribe in the north and rich because of the gold hidden
+in many a canyon among the distant mountains; yet her woman's instinct
+told her that to this proud Englishman her people were at best little
+more than a curiosity, almost, indeed, a cause for laughter.
+
+When at last the feast was finished, Torquam rose, and removing with
+slow solemnity his crest of eagle feathers, he placed it upon the head
+of Sir Francis, a seal of everlasting friendship. With difficulty young
+Harold suppressed a smile. But the older man, as well aware of what the
+situation demanded as he was keenly alive to its danger, received the
+attention with a gravity fully equal to that of his host. Indeed, he
+went still further.
+
+"Most gracious hast thou been, oh Torquam, all wise chief of the
+Mariposa," he began in carefully chosen Spanish, "nor shall thy kingly
+gift remain unrequited. Listen, oh Torquam! On yonder vessel I carry
+steeds like those of which I told you. For a journey over the mountains
+of the north we have brought them. One there is, swifter of foot than
+all the rest. Him will I cause my men to lower into the boat and bring
+to you after our return tonight."
+
+In silence Torquam inclined his head. Nothing could have pleased him
+more. He would be the first then, of all his tribe to own one of those
+strange yet wondrous creatures never before seen in his world until
+the Spanish landed! Yet only the eager gleam in his eyes betrayed
+his pleasure. But Harold of Wessex stared at his captain in blank
+astonishment, for the gift he had just bestowed with such apparent
+carelessness was the most valuable bit of cargo in the ship, a costly
+Arabian horse intended for the young noble's own special comfort and
+convenience during the search for gold on which they were bound. Was
+Drake gone suddenly mad, then, thus to throw away, and that without
+permission, his choicest property on a mere savage? Hot with resentment
+he was about to interfere; but before he could obey the rash impulse
+his better judgment prevailed, and just in time he remembered how, on
+several other such occasions, his very life had been saved by some swift
+expedient of Drake's and his tact in handling the natives.
+
+Slowly Sir Francis continued, and now one watching intently might have
+sensed from the gleam in his eyes that he had reached the real point in
+the interview.
+
+"One question, nevertheless, would I ask of all-wise Torquam before we
+part." He hesitated, searching the impassive face of the Indian. "Can'st
+tell me of a Spaniard, one Cabrillo, son to that arch pirate of Spain,
+who, since his father's death, still sails upon these waters? To him I
+bear a message,"--again he paused while the heart of Wildenai beat in
+sudden panic beneath her fawnskin tunic; but Torquam's face remained
+blank as a page unwritten,--"a message from our queen," added Drake. The
+last words were uttered with significance.
+
+The Indian slowly shook his head.
+
+"The noble white chief asks what is unknown to any man," he answered.
+"The young Cabrillo once landed, 'tis true, on Punagwandah. Many moons
+ago it was. Where he is now, how should Torquam know?"
+
+In his bitter disappointment the hand of the Englishman sought the
+hilt of his sword. Instantly a ring of warriors closed darkly about the
+chief.
+
+Drake laughed.
+
+"Nay then, 'tis but by chance I asked thee, thinking thou mightst tell
+me. It matters not. The gift I promised thee will come, as I said,
+tonight."
+
+He turned to go and young Harold rose to follow. Then, perceiving the
+dark eyes of the princess fixed wistfully upon him, he hesitated and,
+obeying a sudden impulse, he stepped hastily to her side.
+
+"When they return with the gift for thy father," he whispered, "I will
+come with them," he smiled into her soft eyes shining with pleased
+surprise, "and I will bring a gift to thee as well, oh Wildenai, fairest
+of maidens!"
+
+Drake gave a sharp command. His followers sprang to their feet, and
+without further ceremony the party passed quickly down the beach to
+their boat.
+
+But the princess Wildenai did not leave the feasting ground. Hidden
+by deepening shadows she watched the ship's lights glimmer across the
+water. Glad indeed was she of the darkness, for a warm flush glowed
+in her cheeks and her heart throbbed with a strange new pleasure, a
+pleasure bordering close on fear, yet wholly sweet.
+
+But when, at length, the quiet of sleep had descended upon the village,
+once again she sought her father. He, too, within the open doorway of
+his lodge, watched intently the distant ship. Without surprise he saw
+his daughter enter and, as she knelt upon the blanket beside him, he
+stretched a hand and drew her close.
+
+"It grows cold. The wind is rising. 'Twere best to wait inside." He
+spoke in the musical Indian tongue. For a moment he stroked her hair in
+silence, then--
+
+"What think'st thou by now of the English, Wildenai, my little wild
+rose?" he asked.
+
+But the princess seemed not to have heard his question.
+
+"My father," she began after another short silence, "I have a favor to
+ask of thee."
+
+"And what may that be, my daughter?" he returned gravely.
+
+But again the young girl made no answer and for many minutes they
+watched the tremulous paths of light in the wake of the vessel.
+
+After a time he felt her hand tighten upon his arm.
+
+"It is but the old boon over again, my father." Her voice was low as
+the sighing of the wind among the oak trees. "I would be freed from my
+promise to wed with Don Cabrillo."
+
+An Indian is not given to caresses. Much more used was Torquam's hand to
+wield the war-club or the hatchet. Yet it was with fingers gentle as any
+woman's that he stroked the smooth black head at his knee.
+
+"Doubtest thou then, my motherless one, the judgment of him who loves
+thee?" he asked.
+
+"I doubt it not, my father," answered his daughter. "Yet would I not wed
+with the Spaniard," she added stubbornly.
+
+"The blue-eyed senor from England"--there was a hint of humor in his
+tone,--"he it is who steals thy fancy! Is it not so, my Wildenai?"
+
+Then, after a moment: "Right well knowest thou my only wish is to make
+thee happy." Again his voice, though gentle, grew serious almost to
+sadness. "No mere whim it is that counsels me to wed thee to Cabrillo.
+There is something--" He paused, continuing with effort,--"a reason I
+have never told thee why it seems most fitting. Now I will tell thee.
+That reason is because, because, my Wildenai, thou art Spanish born
+thyself."
+
+The princess drew a hasty breath. In the darkness he felt rather than
+saw her startled eyes upon him.
+
+"My father!" The exclamation, filled with pain as well as astonishment,
+touched him to the quick. Tenderly he drew her to him. Then briefly,
+as was the Indian way, yet with the pictured phrasing which caused each
+scene to spring into vivid life before the young girl's eyes, he told
+her of the day, already more than eighteen years gone by, when, in the
+wake of a long midwinter storm, the first sailing vessel ever beheld
+by his people had fled for refuge to their bay; and of the little girl
+carefully brought to shore by her old nurse in the first boat to
+touch the beach. A mere baby she was, too young to know aught of her
+misfortune, yet a princess royal, rudely dispossessed of her right to
+the throne of Spain, and smuggled aboard the adventurer Cabrillo's ship
+to be dropped in some out-of-the-way corner of the western world. Even
+then, he made it clear, she might have perished,--since little recked
+the Spanish explorer what should happen, well knowing that upon his
+return no questions would be asked,--had it not been for his Indian
+wife. She, lacking children of her own, had taken an instant fancy to
+the dark-eyed little girl, a fancy so strong that nothing would do
+but they must adopt her as their own daughter into the tribe to belong
+forever, according to their law, she and her children, to the Mariposa.
+
+"Nor, because thy mother--for ever was she a true mother to
+thee--thought that it might grieve thee, have any of my people ever
+given thee cause to doubt that thou wert native born," he finished
+proudly. "Loyal have they been, doing all they could to make thee happy.
+But now that thy Indian mother is dead, and I myself grow old, I thought
+to wed thee, knowing his desire, to the son of that same Cabrillo who
+brought thee to us, for I long to be sure, when at length I go, that
+thou art safe,--at home."
+
+He waited then and in the silence only the low weeping of the girl was
+heard. At length the old chief spoke again, and now in his voice love
+conquered disappointment.
+
+"Much do I desire it, but that matters not. I would not have thee
+unhappy. I myself will tell the senor that what he hopes for cannot be."
+
+Slowly Wildenai bent her head until it touched his feet. Then she
+nestled close against him.
+
+"I thank thee, oh my father!" she cried, and all her voice was
+music because of her joy. "And thou art still my father," she added,
+earnestly. "What care I to go to Spain? I will stay always with thee."
+
+"For a time, it may be. Yet have a care, little wild rose," he
+cautioned, smiling, "Let not the Englishman lure thee away! He, too, may
+not be all that thou thinkest."
+
+And even as he spoke, in mocking confirmation of his words, there came
+to them suddenly from across the water, the distant creaking of
+ropes, the snapping of sails flung hastily to the wind. Before their
+unbelieving eyes the vessel swung about and put slowly out to sea. Dumb
+with amazement they watched until the last faint light flickered into
+darkness. Not until the remotest chance of a mistake was past did the
+old chief rise, trembling with rage, to his feet.
+
+"See'st thou now what I meant, my daughter? The English pale-faces know
+not the meaning of honor,--no, nor of gratitude either!"
+
+He lifted his long spear from the ground and shook it fiercely.
+
+"The words of the Mariposa are few," he cried, "but their revenge is
+sure. Let but an Englishman set foot again on Punagwandah and, swifter
+than the arrow leaves the bowstring, he dies!"
+
+And at once, without answer, in the silence of suffering which only the
+wild things of the earth understand, Wildenai crept from the lodge, her
+heart heavy with its own bitter disappointment. Noiselessly she passed
+among the tepees where her father's people slept. Not one of them should
+ever know how far dwelt slumber from her own eyes that night. Up the
+steep trail beyond the Bay of Moons she climbed and flung herself
+weeping on the bed of skins within the cavern.
+
+"Oh, thou false one," she moaned, "why did'st thou promise then, when
+never did'st thou mean to keep it?"
+
+
+
+Yet nothing had been farther from the young Englishman's thoughts when
+he left her than faithlessness to his word. On reaching the ship again
+he had gone directly to his cabin. Here he took from its small but
+richly embroidered case a slender chain of gold, threaded so closely
+with garnets that even in the dim light of the one flaring lantern, the
+only illumination the room could boast, it glowed, a glancing stream of
+crimson, in his hand. This he carried to the light and as he examined it
+under the lantern he smiled.
+
+"Never saw the little maid such jewels before, I'll warrant me! Yet,
+beshrew my heart, but she deserves them. Indian though she be, still is
+she, nevertheless, the loveliest woman that ever mine eyes have looked
+upon!"
+
+Then, stowing the necklace carefully away in his belt, he went at once
+in search of the commander.
+
+But at this point an unexpected difficulty had presented itself. He
+found Sir Francis in close conversation with his pilot.
+
+"Marry, Sir, an it fit n'er so ill with thy wish," the keen-eyed old
+mariner was saying. "I still maintain it were a shame to lose this wind.
+Gift or no gift, I've sailed these latitudes before, my lord, and by
+heaven I swear we're not like to have such another breeze, no, not
+till the change of the moon, and that you know yourself, sir, is a good
+fortnight hence."
+
+Sir Francis, striding back and forth within the narrow confines of the
+quarter deck, appeared to be weighing the old man's words with unusual
+care. At length, however, he turned as one who has made his decision.
+
+"By the mass and it shall be even as you say, Jarvis," he declared. "I
+think myself 'twere well to push on at once. At the most they be but
+Indians!" The last words were spoken in a lower tone as if to himself.
+"'Twill matter little either way!"
+
+It was at this point that young Harold stepped hastily forward. For,
+strangely enough, although on the morning of that same day such a
+proceeding would scarcely have appealed to him as being at all unfitting
+or out of the ordinary, yet now it seemed unthinkable.
+
+"But, good sir," he interrupted, "you would not so belie your promise!
+To do as Jarvis here advises,--by heaven, 'twould be neither truthful
+nor honorable! 'Tis not like you, Sir Francis!"
+
+Drake shot at him a surprised glance from under his bushy eyebrows, then
+shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Prate not to me, my lord, of truth or honor amongst these savages," he
+replied. "Did not their chief himself but even now lie to me? Well knew
+the rascally heathen where the Spaniard hides! The truth indeed! They
+know not the meaning of such words."
+
+In vain the younger man petitioned to be allowed to deliver the promised
+gift with the aid of his own retinue.
+
+"Thou can'st not get under way for two hours at best, sir," he pleaded,
+"and well within that time I will be back. 'Tis but a stone's throw to
+the shore!"
+
+But Drake first scoffed at his rashness, then, finally losing patience,
+as commander of the expedition he sternly forbade him or any of his men
+to leave the ship.
+
+"We dare not lose the wind," he finished emphatically, "and are like to
+start at any minute." Then, turning on his heel, he strode away to his
+cabin and shut the door behind him.
+
+Left in this unceremonious fashion, young Harold considered a moment,
+glancing with anxious eyes at the dim line of the coast just visible in
+the darkness. For some minutes he leaned upon the rail, lost in thought.
+
+"The old man will e'en have to bear his disappointment," he muttered at
+length, "but, an' heaven help me, the maid shall not!"
+
+Then he, too, left the deck to seek out his favorite retainer, the dark,
+swarthy man who had sat that morning in the prow of the long boat. To
+him he explained his difficulty, adding grimly:
+
+"And so thou see'st, Mortimer, that I have work cut out for thee!"
+
+He threw an arm about the other's shoulders and in this familiar fashion
+the two men paced the deck together, conversing in low tones.
+
+"And besides," observed the nobleman as they paused a moment before
+parting, "would'st know the truth about the matter? For all old Jarvis'
+prating, the Golden Hind is not like to sail before the dawn, no, nor
+even then! Jarvis is ever the man to make a show of much hurry, but--"
+he snapped his fingers scornfully, "only aid me now, unseen by anyone,
+to launch the Zephir, and by our virgin queen herself I swear, when once
+again we see the shores of Merry England, thou shalt find 'twas well
+worth thy trouble."
+
+His companion smiled even while, with the trained servility of the
+retainer, he doffed his cap.
+
+"Aye, truly, my lord," he answered, "but, since it were an impossible
+feat to get so much as a colt into the Zephir, methinks thou hast a gift
+of thine own to bestow on yonder pretty Indian maid!"
+
+The blood leaped to Sir Harry's cheek. With a quick gesture he placed
+his hand upon his sword.
+
+"Presume not upon my favor, Mortimer, or by heaven!--" he began angrily,
+but stopped suddenly as, with a fearless laugh, the man beside him
+pushed the half-drawn weapon back into its place.
+
+"Nay then, not so fast, my lord," he chuckled gaily. "Hearkee, my
+master. I did but use my eyes during their everlasting pow-wow. Surely
+ye would not grudge me that! And the maid is comely, well worth a
+trinket from thy store. Besides," he laughed slyly, "I saw e'en more to
+thine interest, for methinks the princess is as much in love with thy
+looks as art thou with hers."
+
+"Silence, fool! Thou hast said more than enough already. Think'st
+thou the son of a duke royal would look at a brown-skinned savage, an
+unbelieving pagan, no matter how comely, as thou call'st it, she might
+be!"
+
+But the flush remained, nevertheless, on the dark cheek of the young
+nobleman as he strode angrily from the deck.
+
+
+
+The moonlight had laid a quivering path of light across the water before
+Wildenai raised her bowed head from the ground. But, at length, drawing
+her blanket more closely about her, for into the night air the chill of
+the ocean had crept, she was about to leave the cave when a sudden sound
+from the beach below arrested her. For a moment she listened in silence
+while the shout was repeated, then stood dumb with amazement. A third
+time it came to her, borne on the rising wind, the terrified cry of a
+man in dire distress. Nor was it one of her own people who thus called
+out of the darkness for help. Swiftly she ran to an overhanging ledge
+of rock from which, by lying flat and peeping over, she could, without
+exposing herself, command a wide view of the sea.
+
+At the first glance there appeared to be nothing amiss. Far beneath her
+the noisy breakers spilled in liquid silver on the beach. Above their
+musical booming no other sound could be heard. Then suddenly she saw
+him. A tiny boat it was, tossing dangerously close to the great rounded
+boulder which, together with a still larger one from which it had at
+some distant time been broken off, formed the outermost boundary of
+the curving Beach of Moons. The dark figure standing erect in the boat
+strove with the aid of an oar to keep it from being dashed to pieces
+against the giant rock. Again there floated up to her the desperate call
+for help. The voice was that of the English noble!
+
+Instantly the girl sprang to her feet, and without the slightest
+hesitation ran lightly down the perilous incline, leaping fearlessly
+from rock to rock, until, within a few seconds, she stood poised above
+the seething surf on the top of the larger boulder. Here, balancing
+herself as easily and securely as a wild antelope, she raised her arms
+to dive. But now from the shadows below the white man called once more.
+
+"Attempt it not, oh Wildenai! 'Tis death to leap from there!"
+
+But without waiting even to reply, the Indian girl sprang into the
+waves. An instant later and he saw her arms gleam in the moonlight as,
+with the strong slow strokes of an experienced swimmer, she struck out
+for the boat. In spite of the perilous rocking of the little craft he
+rested on his oar to watch her for a moment in sheer admiration of her
+skill. But the maid knew well the danger of every instant's delay. In
+the very nick of time she seemed almost to throw herself between him and
+the rocks while, with a strength he would have believed impossible
+in one so small, she pulled the boat around. Then, still swimming and
+without a word to him, she began to push it ahead of her toward the
+shore. It was but a few minutes before they stood together on the beach.
+
+And now the young noble, overcome with gratitude, fell on his knees
+before her and caught her hand between his own. He would have kissed it
+in sheer joy at his escape, but the Indian girl drew sharply back.
+
+"Quick!" she whispered, yet remembering to speak in Spanish, "You must
+hide yourself at once. My father will kill you if he should find you
+here!"
+
+Swiftly she concealed the boat in a tiny cove behind the boulder, a
+hiding place he would never have seen though it was apparently perfectly
+familiar to her.
+
+"Sometimes my own canoe I keep there too," she whispered. "Now come!"
+and she hurried him along the beach and up an easier trail beyond the
+rocks to her cavern bower above.
+
+Nor did she pause for an instant's rest until they had passed safely
+behind the manzanita branches which concealed the entrance. Here,
+motioning him to do the same, she dropped upon a pile of skins. But
+instead, in real concern, the young Englishman knelt again beside her.
+
+"Thou art so wet and cold," he began anxiously, "Will it not make thee
+ill? Yet 'twas a wondrous feat," he added admiringly, "well conceived
+and carried out with skill such as any man might envy!"
+
+The princess laughed.
+
+"'Twas nothing," she answered briefly. "I do it almost every day."
+
+"I came to bring to thee the gift I promised," explained Lord Harold
+then, and from his belt he drew the little case. Eagerly he flung the
+gleaming string of garnets about her slim brown throat.
+
+"Jewels brought by my father to my mother on the morning of their
+marriage," he told her. "When she lay dying she gave them me and told me
+never to part with them except I gave them to my--" He paused suddenly,
+"But thou hast saved my life!" he added as quickly, "Who else could ever
+deserve them more? Well know I my mother would wish thee to have them."
+
+Silently, though her eyes were bright with, pleasure, the princess
+lifted the beautiful necklace.
+
+"Wildenai will wear them always, senor lord," she answered softly, "for
+now she knows that truly you did mean to keep your word!"
+
+And so, his mission accomplished, her guest rose hastily to his feet. He
+must return immediately to the ship.
+
+"Know you not, then, that it is gone?" exclaimed the girl, amazed.
+
+"Gone?" echoed young Harold, and stared at her astounded. He seemed not
+to have grasped her meaning. "Gone, said'st thou?"
+
+"The ship was out of sight a full hour or more ere ever I heard you
+call," she explained.
+
+Still he continued to gaze at her fixedly as if totally unable to
+comprehend what she would have him know. Then it was plain to be seen
+that, for the moment at least, blank despair took hold upon him. Up and
+down the length of the cave he strode like some imprisoned wild thing.
+At length, standing quite still with folded arms, he seemed to lose
+himself in thought.
+
+"Battling with the surf I did not see nor hear," he muttered at last.
+"But he could not sail without me!" he added. Fiercely he raised his
+head and his eyes flashed. "He dare not so betray me!"
+
+Wildenai, too, had been considering.
+
+"The great white captain knew, then, that you were not on board?" she
+asked suddenly.
+
+"No," replied the young man reluctantly, "that did he not. I came
+without his knowledge. He would have prevented me," he continued
+stubbornly, "and I had promised thee a gift. Never did I break my word,
+nor would not then. But I did not dream it possible they could get away
+so soon! By our virgin lady in Heaven I swear I know not what to do."
+And once more he seemed lost in despair.
+
+But only for a moment. Then he turned hastily to the entrance.
+
+"I must follow them at once," he declared impatiently, "I can overtake
+them even yet."
+
+Swift as lightning the girl threw herself between him and the opening in
+the cave.
+
+"No, no, senor Englishman," she cried. "It is impossible! Listen, only
+listen to me! What have you, then, to steer by save the stars? And you
+see that, drowned in moonlight, they do not shine tonight. And, more
+than that, you do not even know what course the vessel takes. Remember,
+too, that there is neither food nor drink within your boat. You would
+surely die ere you could ever find the ship."
+
+Gradually she compelled him to listen to reason until, seating himself
+again upon the skins, he challenged her still further.
+
+"But what, then, shall I do?" he demanded. "Can'st also tell me that?"
+
+And with equal readiness the princess replied:
+
+"If you will but let me I can hide you here. The cavern is my own. Here
+for many a moon have I worked and waited. No one would dare to enter.
+You will be safe. Besides, my father's anger will grow cold in time, and
+then I know that, if I ask him, he will help you."
+
+His chin propped upon his hands, the young nobleman moodily considered.
+
+"Well, do then as thou deemest best," he told her finally.
+
+And from that moment there began for the little princess a time so
+wonderful that for all the rest of her life she remembered each separate
+hour as though it had been some beautiful word in a poem learned by
+heart.
+
+With deft fingers she piled her softest doeskins for his bed.
+
+"But what wilt thou do, tell me, if I rob thee of thy nest?" he asked,
+watching her with amused eyes as she worked.
+
+"I go always to the village to sleep," she answered simply, and so left
+him.
+
+But in the morning while yet the red of sunrise burned above the great
+peak Orazaba, she returned, bearing upon her head an olla of carved
+stone filled with water from a mountain spring. This in smiling silence
+she set before him and disappeared. Within the hour, however, she was
+back again and this time, kneeling on the ground, she laid at his feet
+the ripe fruit of the manzanita tree, lying like small red apples, dewy
+fresh, upon a wild-grape leaf.
+
+"Ala--ate, see! Are they not good?" she asked triumphantly.
+
+And so from day to day she ministered to him. Many a time as he
+sat, listless and moody, within his hiding-place, a handful of wild
+strawberries, steeped in the warm sweetness of the hills, would be
+pushed beneath the leafy branches that concealed the door. Sometimes
+she brought him bread baked from a curious kind of meal made of pounded
+seeds.
+
+Once, too, when a sudden storm had chilled the air, she kindled a fire
+for him within a smaller cave, receding like a fire-place into the rocky
+wall opposite the opening. It was a long and tedious process which
+the man watched curiously. First, kneeling on the ground, she rubbed
+together two dry willow sticks until a little pile of dust had gathered.
+Then, still stooping, she struck two flints together until at last a
+spark fell into the dust. Some dry leaves were dropped upon the tiny
+blaze, then twigs, and lo, a fire!
+
+In spite of himself the Englishman smiled, though a softer feeling shown
+in his eyes. How beautiful and yet how childish she looked kneeling
+there with the anxious pucker between her brows. Poor little princess,
+how very hard she worked to serve him!
+
+"It takes a long time, Wildenai," he observed, "dost thou try it often?"
+
+"Never for myself," she answered gravely. "I have no need. But I do it
+gladly for you." She smiled brightly back at him, then rose and moved
+swiftly to the doorway. "Another thing I do for you today. Wait!"
+
+And when she returned a few minutes later she brought with her,
+carefully wrapped in cool green leaves, a fish freshly caught that
+morning.
+
+"A brook trout, on my word, such as I have often taken in the streams at
+home!" exclaimed Lord Harold, amazed.
+
+"I got it far up the canyon before the sun was risen," she answered,
+delighted at his surprise.
+
+This, having quickly dressed it, she wrapped again in leaves and placed
+under the hot ashes to bake, and it being, evidently, a feast out of
+the ordinary, a merry-making to which a third guest might be bidden,
+suddenly Wildenai left the cavern again to return this time with a tiny
+gray fox perched familiarly upon her shoulder.
+
+"'Tis Onatoa, senor Englishman," she announced, gently stroking the
+bushy tail of the little creature as it lay about her neck.
+
+But from his vantage point above his rival, Onatoa merely sniffed
+disdainfully with his sharp black nose. He looked far from friendly.
+
+The princess laughed softly.
+
+"He does not know you yet," she defended her pet. "He will soon learn to
+love you, too."
+
+"I will catch fish with thee next time thou goest," declared young
+Harold later as they ate together. "There's no reason I can see why I
+should stay mewed up forever in this cave. I fear not Indians! No, not
+even Torquam, thy father, himself."
+
+For an instant Wildenai seemed alarmed. Then she laughed.
+
+"You are afraid of nothing. I knew it!" she exclaimed with pride. "Nor
+would there be much danger. We will go to the other side of the island
+where the waves run high and the cliffs are tall and black. There will
+I show you the nests of the great eagles, and the antelope leaping
+among the rocks. And,--who can tell?" she laughed again with child-like
+pleasure, "perhaps we shall find a white otter!"
+
+And, true to her word, he heard at dawn next day outside the cavern
+the whistle of a blackbird, a signal early contrived between them. She
+deemed it best, she explained, to start thus early that the darkness
+might conceal them until they had passed well beyond the outskirts of
+the village. But this danger overcome, they spent the whole day rambling
+fearlessly among the hills,--a long, idle, happy day. Up many a dim
+trail winding back into the canyons the princess led him. Through golden
+thickets of wild mustard they passed, coming, when he least expected it,
+upon glimpses of the summer sea framed between the branches of knarled
+old oak trees.
+
+"They are low and crooked, and they spread themselves over the ground as
+do our English oaks," the young nobleman informed her.
+
+As Wildenai had promised they discovered, poised high among the crags
+of the wild southern shore, the great eagles of which she had told him,
+measuring easily, from wing-tip to wing-tip, fully a dozen feet. The
+white otter, rarest and most valuable of all the game hunted by her
+people, eluded them, but many a small gray fox slipped away among the
+bushes, leaving the Englishman tingling for the chase.
+
+At twilight, as they made their way back to the cavern, they came upon
+a tiny lake lying asleep within the crater of a dead volcano. From the
+sides little clouds of ashes rose, floating softly away on the breezes
+of evening. The princess gathered a handful and murmuring some musical
+words in her own tongue she threw them into the air.
+
+"And would it be amiss for me to ask what 'tis you do?" questioned her
+companion, observing her closely.
+
+"I was sending a prayer to Wakan-ate, the Great Spirit," she replied
+quietly.
+
+"A prayer,--and borne to heaven on the wings of ashes!" He seemed
+amused. "But what hast thou to pray for, oh fair princess?"
+
+Her cheeks glowing with quick color, she replied: "It were not fitting
+that any maiden tell for what she prays!"
+
+The words were spoken with such gravity that the young man flushed under
+the rebuke.
+
+When she left him at the doorway of the cavern that evening she said as
+she made a gay little gesture of farewell: "Today the land, but tomorrow
+we shall find still more beautiful things that lie hidden under the deep
+waters. You shall see!"
+
+And once again with dawn she came. This time it was the splash of a
+paddle that brought him to the opening in the rock.
+
+"Aloho-ate, lazy one!" she called gaily from below. "Make haste! The
+world is always loveliest while it lies waiting for the sun!"
+
+That day, perhaps, from among them all, lived longest within the memory
+of young Harold,--the porpoises playing fearlessly around her canoe
+as the princess, with graceful, effortless strokes, paddled around one
+after another of the pointed tongues of rock; the flying fish, skimming
+the surface of the ocean until, by virtue of their speed alone, they
+rose like gleaming bows of silver from the foam. Intent to show him all
+her treasures, Wildenai guided him to a quiet stretch of water lying
+close to shore within the shadow of tall cliffs which rose at that point
+with precipitous abruptness from the sea itself.
+
+"Here are my gardens that grow under the water," she explained, as they
+glided above the spot. "Look well at them. They are most beautiful."
+
+And gazing down at her command through the clear green into the luminous
+depths below, he caught glimpses of these gardens of the sea where
+goldfish darted like tropical birds among the branches of tall tree-like
+stalks of swaying seaweed, and strange shapes of jade and blue floated
+in the shadows.
+
+"Is it not wonderful?" she asked.
+
+"It is indeed, my Wildenai," he answered earnestly. "Never in all my
+travels, methinks, have I seen aught before like this your island here!
+It seems to me indeed a charmed land, a kind of magic isle!"
+
+One day it rained, the last belated rain of winter. But even the storm
+brought pleasures of its own, for, seated on the pile of skins beside
+him, the little gray fox curled contentedly at her feet, Wildenai worked
+at her loom. Within its dull-colored warp a blanket, woven in a strange
+design of mingled red, and black, and white, grew slowly beneath her
+busy fingers.
+
+For hours the maiden drew the short woolen threads in and out while the
+young man, stretched lazily upon the ground, told her many a tale of the
+England he had left. Then, quite without warning, she ceased her work
+and sat pensively watching through the opening in the rocks the long
+gray swell of the sea.
+
+"And what is it now, my princess?" laughed young Harold. "The pattern is
+not yet finished, nor is the rain abated."
+
+"Ah, senor Harold lord," wistfully replied the girl, "I was but wishing
+I had been born one of those same fair English maids with the eyes of
+blue and golden hair you tell about. Then would you love me even as
+you do them!" she added artlessly, and leaned her chin upon her hand,
+considering. A secret trembled on her lips.
+
+"And how if I were Spanish born?" she questioned, and lifted hesitating,
+frightened eyes to his, "dark to look at, that I know well, but even so,
+the white man's kind of princess, who also has a throne?"
+
+And all unwitting Lord Harold answered scornfully, "Spanish! Say no
+such word to me! The English hate the Spanish!" Fiercely he caught up a
+pebble and sent it whirling out across the water. "Even now their robber
+king plans his huge armada to take our queen and rule our land, but
+that, by the holy virgin herself, shall never be! Sooner will every drop
+of blood in bonny England be spilt. Never could I make thee understand
+how much I hope to be at home before he comes! Spanish indeed! Nay,
+never let me hear the hateful word again!"
+
+Then, noting her puzzled, downcast face, with the impulsive
+changeableness which had so endeared him to her, he caught one little
+brown hand and raised it to his lips.
+
+"But I do love thee even as thou art, my Wildenai," he told her with the
+careless assurance of one much older speaking to a child. "Is not a wild
+rose sweet as any garden bloom? Nay, methinks 'tis often sweeter!"
+
+Again he laughed and the little princess laughed with him now, for
+into her heart at his words had come a happiness so unlooked for and so
+wildly sweet as wholly to bewilder her. Quickly she rose, struck by a
+sudden thought, and running to the farthermost corner of the cavern she
+brushed aside a pile of leaves and lifted some stones, disclosing at
+length a box fashioned from the choicest cedar. Out of it, while the
+Englishman watched with wondering eyes, she drew a garment made of
+creamy doeskin, deeply fringed and trimmed besides with strings of
+wampum, the polished fragments of abalone shells and many-colored beads.
+Silently she brought it to him and when he touched it admiringly, for
+the dress was beautiful. "It is my marriage robe," she told him gravely.
+
+That night, while the rain tapped softly at her tepee, the princess
+dreamed of a wondrous land beyond the sea where proudly she walked by
+her white chief's side and fair women with braided, golden hair spoke
+kind words of welcome, smiling at her out of sweet blue eyes.
+
+
+
+Then, without warning, came the end of all her dreams. Hurrying along
+the beach at sunset only a few days later, Wildenai caught the first
+glimpse of the returning vessel as it stole around a distant point. For
+the space of a second her heart stood still, then throbbed wildly, but
+whether with joy or pain she could not herself have told. One question
+only demanded all her thought. Should she let Lord Harold know? Perhaps
+the great white captain would not remember their bay. Perhaps,--her
+breath came fast,--perhaps the ship, unseen by anyone, would pass and
+Lord Harold remain behind content. With hands tight-clenched she watched
+the distant sail, fear growing in her eyes. Yet she knew that she would
+tell him. Nothing else was honorable. This, surely, he must decide for
+himself.
+
+But tidings of such moment outran even her swift feet. She found him
+buckling on his swordbelt, in his eyes the glad light of some trapped
+bird which sees the door of its cage suddenly open.
+
+"The ship--" she began with sinking heart.
+
+"Yes, yes, I know! I saw it!" he answered, a fever of impatience in his
+voice. "'Tis Drake. I knew he dared not leave me! 'Twill soon be too
+close in. Needs not he risk his safety. I must go before he gains the
+shore."
+
+The princess hesitated. What meant that strange heaviness at her heart?
+Was he not still her brave, true warrior,--her great white chief? Had
+he not told her that he loved her? Crossing to where he stood she bowed
+herself before him until her silver fillet touched his feet.
+
+"I, too!" she whispered, "I shall go to England with thee!"
+
+And at her words, within the little cavern there came a silence to be
+felt. In undisguised dismay the Englishman gazed at her where she knelt.
+Then:
+
+"By the holyrood!" he muttered aghast, "She must have thought,--God only
+knows what she must have thought!"
+
+He glanced hurriedly toward the doorway and back again, ashamed. Then
+even such impatience as was his gave way, for the moment at least, to
+something more chivalric. He stooped and patted awkwardly the smooth
+black head.
+
+"Come, Wildenai, little wild rose, look up and speak to me. I must be
+going!"
+
+But still the maid lay prostrate, clasping close his rough buskins in
+her little brown hands. Never in all his life had Lord Harold been so
+sorely uncomfortable. How was it possible she had ever imagined that
+he could take her with him,--that he had meant so much? Resentment grew
+within him at the thought, yet strangely mingled always with something
+far more tender. Hastily he considered, his heart torn between the
+desire not to wound her and dread of what he knew she wanted. To be sure
+the maid was beautiful, with the softened beauty of a moonlit night in
+summer, her eyes beneath her dusky hair like stars between the branches
+of dark trees, her voice that of the forest stream when it sings itself
+to sleep. Yet past all doubt he knew that not one among the gorgeous
+throng that crowded about Elizabeth would ever see that beauty, no
+English ear take heed to hear the music of her voice. Nay, he could
+even, as he thought of it, picture the amazement of the great queen,
+could hear her scornful laughter, should he present, to help adorn her
+court, a savage Indian girl! No, a thousand times no! Such disgrace
+he could not suffer. Nor was the maid herself, so he defended himself,
+fitted for such a life. Soon would she be as unhappy in England as he
+would be to have her there. Besides, she was but a child. Else had she
+never so far forgot all womanly dignity as to force herself upon him,
+and being but a child she would soon forget. Gently he made to raise her
+to her feet.
+
+"Wildenai, little wild rose," he began again, "what thou hast asked of
+me thou dost well know thyself is an unheard of thing. Much as I owe to
+thee, and well know I that 'tis so much I never can repay it; still for
+thine own sweet sake 'tis not in this way thy reward must come. The long
+journey and the strange new life would kill thee, Wildenai." Having once
+begun he stumbled on, but half aware of how each word he uttered hurt
+her, eager only to have done with the whole sorry scene. "Thou art but
+a little wild flower. Thou couldst not live away from this, thy sunny
+island. Can'st thou not understand, my Wildenai?"
+
+He paused, waiting for a reply; but the maiden answered nothing. Silent
+she lay as though in very truth she were a wild flower tossed to earth
+and trampled upon by some uncaring foot.
+
+At last the man could bear it no longer. Forcibly he loosed her hands
+and stepped back. For a moment longer he lingered, looking down upon
+her in mingled impatience and regret; then, turning abruptly, he passed
+hastily out of the cavern and down the trail to the beach.
+
+Still the girl lay motionless. It was as if every sense were stunned,
+all power of thought suspended except to grasp the one fact that made
+her whole world empty,--he was gone! As in a dream she heard the grating
+of the pebbles when he pushed his boat into the water, heard the clank
+of the oars as they dropped into the oar-locks. Even yet she did not
+move. Then, after many minutes, she crept to the opening and searched
+the sea with eyes almost, too dim with tears to find that for which she
+sought. But yes, there it was,--a black speck against the golden sunset.
+She watched until she had seen the distant vessel put about, making for
+the open sea. Ah, now she knew that he was safe aboard,--no need had
+they to come farther into shore. Yet still she waited, straining her
+eyes to see the ship sink slowly beneath the horizon. One last glint of
+sunlight against a white sail, and it was gone.
+
+Then at once she rose, and moving quietly about the little cavern,
+she put all in perfect order with touch as tender as that of a mother
+preparing for its last sleep some little child. Here was the basket
+he had helped to weave, here the mat on which he had lain. Her fingers
+lingered caressingly on each thing that he had touched. There in the
+corner still stood the olla in which she had brought him water. How
+amused he had been that she could carry it on her head all the way up
+the hill from the spring without so much as spilling one drop! But that
+was all past now.
+
+When at last everything was finished she gave the little rock-walled
+room one long, lingering look, the look of one who would carry in his
+heart the image of what he beholds all the rest of his life. Then she,
+too, made her way through the doorway into the deepening dusk.
+
+
+
+On the beach below, squatted within the opened flap of his tepee,
+Torquam, mighty chief of the Mariposa, smoked his evening pipe. A
+wonderful pipe it was, long and delicately fashioned, inlaid with
+iridescent fragments of shell. Yet instantly he laid it aside as the
+slender form of his daughter darkened the doorway.
+
+"Ah, Wildenai, little wild rose, welcome art thou as sunshine after
+rain!" His eyes lighted with the tenderness never seen there by any
+other than this motherless girl. He stretched his hand to her and the
+princess came silently and knelt before him.
+
+"My father," she said firmly, though in so low a tone that Torquam bent
+to hear. "Oh, father, thou art always wise! Thou only knowest best.
+I come to thee to tell that I will wed Cabrillo. I will wed with him
+whenever thou dost choose!"
+
+Taking her face between his hands, Torquam gazed long and searchingly
+into the sorrowful eyes of his daughter.
+
+"And thou art wise to do so, my beloved one," he said at last. "He will
+make to thee a good husband." In his voice was the keen understanding
+of a father. "He will be kind to thee and heal thy wounded heart, my
+daughter. Don Cabrillo is a good man," he repeated solemnly.
+
+
+
+
+Part II. Miss Hastings Brings It to an End
+
+
+Centuries passed, and again, with the same sweet suddenness as in the
+days gone by, spring came to Catalina. Guests of the St. Catherine,
+lounging on its wide verandahs, gazed across a sunlit sea to where
+the faint cloud that was San Jacinto hovered, the merest ghost of a
+mountain, above the misty mainland. Along the broad board-walk leading
+down to Avalon benches, shaded by brightstriped awnings, flaunted an
+invitation to every passing tourist. Strings of Japanese lanterns bobbed
+merrily above the narrow village streets. Everywhere were laughter
+and movement and color from the bathing beaches, dotted with gay
+umbrellas--even to the last yacht anchored round the point.
+
+To the man making slow progress down the crowded wharf from the
+afternoon boat this holiday world into which he thus suddenly stepped,
+presented an appearance so different from that he had pictured as almost
+to bewilder him. At sight of the jaunty little motorbus waiting to haul
+him up the winding grade to the hotel, he actually hesitated. Yet seldom
+before, to his knowledge, had he found it difficult to adapt himself to
+an unexpected situation.
+
+"Hotel St. Catherine! Bus to the hotel, sir?"
+
+Other guests, more certain of their intentions, pushed impatiently
+against him, and presently he found himself, wedged well toward the
+middle of the long seat, chugging comfortably up the hill. Still
+half-daunted, he gazed about him. It was all of it charming to be sure,
+fascinating even; yet, could this festive summering place be the Avalon
+of his dreams? Was this the quaint village of Spanish times, reaching
+back still further through dimly remembered Indian lore to a world
+lost now except to legend? Yet it was for the sake of a mere legend, a
+fanciful tale handed down in his family through many a generation, that
+he had made the long journey from New York to California, nor--and here
+he set his lips with dogged determination, did he intend to return until
+he had found that for which he searched.
+
+It was now something over two years since Harrison Blair, then fresh
+from Yale, had astonished both those who wished him well and those
+who, for various envious reasons, did not, with the wholly unreasonable
+success of his first book. For, to those who did not understand, his
+sudden fame had seemed all the more surprising in that it rested upon
+nothing more substantial than a slender volume of Indian verse. So
+unusual, however, had been his treatment of this well-worn subject as to
+call forth more than a little comment from even the most conservative of
+critics. The Brush and Pen had hastened to confer upon him an honorary
+membership. Cadmon, magic weaver of Indian music, had written a warm
+letter of appreciation. And, most precious tribute of all, the Atlantic
+Monthly had become interested in his career.
+
+To be sure, it was nothing more than might have been expected of a man
+whose undergraduate work in English had aroused the reluctant wonder of
+more than one instructor. Nevertheless, the fact that he pulled stroke
+on the 'varsity crew had somewhat blinded other contemporaries to his
+more scholarly attainments. Nor had anyone thought it probable, because
+of his father's wealth, that Blair, in any event, would feel called upon
+to do much more than make a frolic of life. No one, indeed, had
+been more taken aback than had his father to find him, a year after
+graduation, drudging over the assistant editor's desk of a struggling
+magazine the payroll of which, to put it mildly, offered no financial
+inducements.
+
+"It's good practice for me, though,--quickest way to learn," was all he
+vouchsafed when the older man remonstrated.
+
+Yet, had that same father, shrewd capitalist that he was, but taken the
+trouble to reason back from premises evident enough, he might have been
+the first to realize that this tall son of his, with the keen gray eyes
+and a face the strength of which was but increased by the high cheek
+bones and squarely molded chin, was scarcely the type of man to sit idly
+by enjoying the fruits of another's labor.
+
+And now, after two years more of grinding apprenticeship, he had in mind
+something much bigger than the slender volume of verse,--an adventure
+into authorship more suited to his metal,--a story for which an intense
+personal sympathy would furnish fitting atmosphere, with the final spur
+to his ambition a letter from the Atlantic even at the moment stowed
+safely away in his pocket.
+
+Some two hours later, after an unexpectedly excellent dinner in the
+luxurious dining room, he sauntered over to the hotel desk. There was
+no more than the faintest probability that a clerk of the St. Catherine
+would be able to tell him how to reach a secret cavern bower above the
+Bay of Moons; still, he had to enter an opening wedge somewhere. The one
+man on duty was for the moment occupied with another guest, and Blair,
+lighting his after-dinner cigar, prepared with leisurely patience to
+await his turn.
+
+The guest happened to be a young woman, rather pretty, he casually
+decided, although her greatest claim to beauty lay more, perhaps, in the
+swift changes in expression of which her face was capable, than in any
+actual regularity of line. For lack of anything better to do, Blair
+watched idly her encounter with the clerk. There appeared to be some
+kind of misunderstanding.
+
+"Awfully sorry it's happened that way, Miss Hastings," the man behind
+the desk was saying. He lifted with genuine reluctance the key she had
+just laid down. "We'd be mighty sorry to interfere with your work, but
+those small rooms always do go first. You know that yourself."
+
+"I hadn't heard about it, though. I didn't know they were all gone." Her
+voice quivered with disappointment.
+
+Blair, whose vocation taught him a certain technical sympathy, shot
+a swift glance at her. She couldn't be more than twenty-two or
+thereabouts, he decided less casually, and went on to observe her still
+further. She wore a shabby, broad-brimmed hat much faded as if from
+constant exposure to the sun, but the shadows in the coil of hair
+beneath were warmly golden.
+
+"Couldn't you find a room down in the village somewhere,--at Mrs.
+Merrill's perhaps?" suggested the clerk.
+
+"But Mrs. Merrill isn't here this spring." In spite of its quiver the
+voice was very sweet.
+
+"No," she started to turn away, "I'll have to put it off again, I
+suppose. I've looked everywhere."
+
+She took a step or two, hesitated, then returned to the desk.
+
+"You're positive there isn't a single one of the small rooms left?" she
+pleaded. "I wouldn't care how far back it was,--anything would do. You
+can't think how I hate to give up. I had so hoped to finish it this
+time!"
+
+The man shook his head.
+
+"No, we're absolutely full just now. Later on there might be
+something,--after the season is over."
+
+"But that will be after school begins," answered the girl bitterly. "I
+can't work at all then!" and catching up a bag fully as shabby as the
+hat, she hurried away.
+
+"Who is she?" asked Blair abruptly, overlooking for the moment his
+original purpose in seeking the man.
+
+"School-teacher from Pasadena," replied the clerk briefly. "Teaches art
+in some private school over there, I believe." He eyed Blair amusedly.
+"Think you've met her before somewhere?"
+
+Blair allowed his annoyance to show. "No, never laid eyes on her
+till just now. But I couldn't help feeling a bit sorry for her," he
+persisted. "She seemed so sort of cut up. What's the trouble?"
+
+"I'm sorry for her myself," declared the man on the other side as he
+hung the returned key on its board. "This is the third time that poor
+little woman's had to leave before she could finish what she came for on
+account of the expense. But what can we do?" He shrugged his shoulders.
+"The St. Catherine isn't exactly a Y. W. C. A."
+
+"What is it she's trying to do?"
+
+Amusement deepened in the man's eyes.
+
+"She's supposed to be painting Indians."
+
+"Indians!" To the amazement of the other man Blair suddenly leaned
+forward, his eyes agleam with interest.
+
+"But I didn't know there were any around here."
+
+"There aren't."
+
+"Then how--?"
+
+"Makes 'em up out of her head, I guess. I never heard that she had even
+a model."
+
+"But--but what I want to know is why she comes here at all?" The
+situation seemed to Blair to offer possibilities, yet he was thoroughly
+puzzled. "I met a fellow on the train who does that sort of thing, but
+he always goes to the desert to paint,--at least he said he did."
+
+"Yes, they do mostly. Probably he meant Taos,--whole nest of artists at
+Taos."
+
+"Well, but why in thunder then--?"
+
+The clerk smiled skeptically.
+
+"Why, you see, it's something like this. Miss Hastings' bent on being
+an illustrator, pays better than teaching, I suppose, or--well, at any
+rate, that's what she's aiming for,--and she has an idea that if she can
+only get a series of pictures,--several of them on the same subject, you
+understand,--accepted by one of those Eastern magazines, she can soon
+work in with some big publisher and get an order. She told us all about
+it one night last winter when she was over."
+
+"But in heaven's name, why Indians?" persisted Blair.
+
+"Because she thinks she's found some good material here. She told me
+about that, too. Seems there's an old legend connected with Catalina,
+about an Indian princess and a cavern. The princess died of a broken
+heart or something of the sort, I believe she said. I never heard the
+particulars myself. Nobody else, either, seems to know anything about
+it. But Miss Hastings says there's quite a story, and she's got it all
+down pat from A to Z. She's using it for her series."
+
+A porter brought up some newcomers and Blair stepped aside. But the
+moment his man was at leisure again he cornered him at once. An idea had
+come to him, an idea almost dazzling in its possibilities.
+
+"You say she hasn't finished her series yet?"
+
+"Beg pardon? Oh, the teacher?" The man shook his head. "Evidently not
+from what she said just now. She never stays long enough really to put
+it over. Every few months she bobs up over a week-end, but that doesn't
+give her time even to visit some of the places she's after. She never
+seems to get much more than started before she has to go home again."
+
+For a moment Blair smoked in silence. Then:
+
+"Look here," he cut in abruptly, "You split my suite and give her one of
+my rooms."
+
+The man's eyebrows rose in surprise.
+
+"Her? What do you mean?"
+
+Blair made an impatient gesture.
+
+"Why, this Miss--the teacher, you know. Didn't you just say you hadn't
+any room for her? Well, I've got three, you know."
+
+"Yes, but that's altogether a different proposition. You made your
+reservation weeks ago."
+
+"But you could still give her one of them, couldn't you?"
+
+Clerks in large hotels listen with patience to a vast number of
+strange proposals, but at this from Blair, the man opposite eyed him in
+unflattering amazement.
+
+"But you said, when you wired, you wanted the extra room to work in," he
+objected, "and you'll remember, Mr. Blair, that you were pretty emphatic
+about it, too, at the time. We went to all kinds of trouble to fix that
+up for you."
+
+"I can get along all right without it, though," coolly observed his
+changeable guest, "and I'd rather she'd have it. It's possible to split
+suites here, isn't it?" he persisted. "They do at most hotels."
+
+"It's possible, of course." Across the desk the eyes of the two men met
+squarely. "That part of it's easy enough. But why? and who's going to
+pay for it?"
+
+"I'm going to pay for it! What did you suppose?" exploded Blair. "It's
+worth that and a lot more to me just now to keep her from getting away.
+Oh, I'm in earnest all right. I mean it! Look here! Can't you see how
+that woman can be a perfect gold mine to me? You know enough about my
+work to understand that I'm really out here after Indians myself, and
+she--well, I'll wager a cool thousand there isn't a spot on this whole
+island that ever dreamed of seeing an Indian that she doesn't know all
+about!"
+
+The clerk nodded. "But--"
+
+"But nothing!" Impatiently Blair brushed aside all objections. "Why, I
+hadn't the remotest idea how I was going to get started. It's a rattling
+piece of good luck, and we'll fix it up right now!"
+
+"Yes, but--" Still the other man hesitated. "It sounds all right
+enough,--from your end of it especially, but you'd better see her first.
+She's a proud little piece,--doesn't like obligations of any kind,--and
+a stranger,--a man--I'm sorry to discourage you, but I don't believe
+she'll have a thing to do with it."
+
+In Blair's eyes impatience threatened to become something more emphatic.
+
+"It's a business proposition pure and simple," he argued. "She gives
+me all the information she's been able to get together, and I pay her
+expenses while she does it. That gives her a chance to finish her own
+work, don't you see? A mighty good proposition for her, too, I should
+say, and if she doesn't see it that way herself,--why,--well, she isn't
+as intelligent as she looks, that's all!"
+
+"Providing you can persuade her it is just business. I'd advise you to
+talk with her first, just the same. And you'll have to be quick about
+it, too. She's planning to wait in the village tonight for the morning
+boat, and she'll be starting down about now."
+
+
+
+Outside was one of those radiant nights intended for dreams and the
+makers of dreams. Over an ocean white with light long breakers rolled
+crests gleaming with silver that fell in soft thunder on the beach. Miss
+Hastings, hurrying along the board-walk to the village, glanced at them
+and looked quickly away.
+
+"Oh, I say!" came a voice out of the darkness behind her, "if you don't
+mind, hold on there a minute, will you? Wait for me, please!" The voice
+was that of a man, pleasant, but exceedingly determined. Without so much
+as turning her head Miss Hastings quickened her steps.
+
+But it was of no use. Whoever her pursuer might be, he was even then at
+her side.
+
+"I beg your pardon," breathlessly he began again, "but I've been chasing
+you all the way down from the hotel. I want you to come right back there
+with me. I have a proposal to make to you."
+
+Even in the darkness he could see how the girl's eyes blazed.
+
+"I never listen--" she began hotly, "to proposals from people I don't
+know," she had meant to add, but he gave her no time.
+
+"It will mean the biggest chance for your pictures you've ever had," he
+broke in. "Now, listen!"
+
+And, to her complete surprise, Miss Hastings suddenly found herself
+doing that very thing.
+
+"There are a lot of things I've got to find out right away," continued
+the astonishing stranger, "and the clerk up there tells me you're
+painting a series of Indian portraits."
+
+The little art teacher gazed at him fascinated. What manner of man could
+this be, she wondered.
+
+"I don't see the connection--" Coldness struggled with curiosity in her
+voice.
+
+"Listen!" With uplifted, peremptory hand again he stopped her. Nor is it
+safe to say that any book agent, watching the door slowly closing upon
+him, ever talked faster, or more rigidly to the point, than did Blair
+within the next few minutes.
+
+"Perhaps you won't understand it all right off. I wouldn't expect that.
+But it's this way. I'm representing Harper's, and Houghton and Mifflin,
+and Dodd and Mead, and--several other firms" (to satisfy his conscience
+Blair contended with himself that he might as well as not have been
+their representative--a mere oversight on their part ought not to
+be allowed to stand in his way), "and I'm out here to find the best
+illustrator I can lay hands on to do the pictures for some Indian stuff
+I'm getting into shape for one of 'em. I want to see your work. And,
+if I like it, I'll pay you well. And anyway, I'll pay every bit of the
+expense while you finish your series here if you'll tell me what you
+know about Wildenai!"
+
+But, at the name, the girl beside him had given a low cry of utter
+amazement. She stopped short.
+
+"Do you know it too, then?" she gasped. "How did you hear about it?"
+
+"Oh, I've known it for years," replied Blair carelessly. "Some of it
+I've known all my life. But look here now. Is it a bargain?--about your
+helping me, I mean?"
+
+Before he left her, an hour or so later, every detail had been arranged.
+Miss Hastings had meekly agreed to return to the hotel in the morning.
+Blair would pay her expenses and something he called a retaining fee
+besides. That would make an extra fifty dollars,--she smiled to herself
+in the dark,--a new winter suit at least, and perhaps one or two
+matinees if she managed! All this for the information she could give him
+about the island and its history. The various points in their contract
+spun dizzily in her dazed brain. No spot known to legend to which it was
+possible to conduct him should remain unvisited. Four hours out of every
+day were pledged without fail to his interests. The rest of the time she
+might have for her own work. It had all come about so unexpectedly,
+and was altogether so extraordinary that, after he had gone, his new
+employee, stretched uncomfortably upon a narrow cot in the tent of a
+fellow teacher, spent the remainder of the night in imaginary interviews
+with Eastern publishers regarding impossible royalties. She was far too
+excited to sleep.
+
+And, for a week, the arrangement worked very well,--almost too well.
+Every day brought with it some new adventure, and every adventure became
+a pleasure.
+
+Mounted at Blair's expense on more or less energetic ponies, for from
+the first he had insisted that horses were a necessary part of their
+business equipment, they cantered gaily along the shady canyon trails,
+or over the sunlit slopes sheeted in pale lavender wherever the wild
+lilacs were in bloom. Often, emerging from some thicket of dwarf
+oak they caught glimpses of a sapphire sea held between red, twisted
+branches of manzanita as in a frame. About them rang the music of the
+meadow larks. Merry shouts of bathers floated up from the beaches far
+below, mingled with the distant click of golf balls on the greens.
+
+For the whole of a golden day they chartered a sailboat from one, Capt.
+Warren, and rounding the yellow headlands under his lazy guidance, they
+went to examine the Ning Po, the ancient Chinese barge stranded, no one
+knew how many hundreds of years before, among the rocks off the isthmus.
+
+"Fascinating old place," observed Blair gazing, his eyes aglow with
+interest, around the mediaeval cabin. "Don't doubt a dozen murders at
+least were pulled off in this one room!"
+
+"Oh yes, of course," eagerly echoed his assistant. "It's absolutely
+unique!"
+
+Her gaze, as bright with interest as his own, rested upon Blair himself.
+She was considering, absent-mindedly, how becoming white trousers can
+be to most men, especially when they are reasonably dark themselves.
+But,--her glance travelled upward,--how unusually dark he was, and his
+hair,--yes, without question, the straightest and blackest she had ever
+seen. Yet it seemed in some indefinable way to become him,--to belong,
+as it were, to his type. Leaning her elbows meditatively upon the rusty
+anchor, her chin in her hands, she silently appraised him. He really
+was a handsome man, she decided, and clever, too, of the sort who does
+things in the world! A dreamy light grew within her eyes.
+
+It was only two or three evenings later when, on their way back from the
+site of an historic Indian village on the other side of the island,
+they walked their horses slowly around the Wishbone Loop, the ostensible
+reason being that, as Blair had already discovered, it commanded the
+widest view of the ocean at sunset.
+
+He was the first to speak when they struck again into the main trail.
+
+"I wished for something about a rose, a wild rose,--want to guess?" He
+eyed her mischievously.
+
+"Hush,--mustn't tell!" she laughed. "Your wish won't come true if you
+tell." Then, for no reason at all, she blushed.
+
+Never, in truth, during her twenty-three years of working, and
+scrimping, and going without, had life shown to the little art teacher
+so fair and generous a side, seemed so extravagantly joyous an affair as
+during that magic week. The spending of money, it was easy to see, meant
+little or nothing to Blair. But that was the least of his attractions,
+for, to the girl herself, mere wealth for its own sake had never
+appealed. The charm lay rather in the genial broadness of his view
+of things, the strength of reasoning behind the few opinions he put
+forward, his reticence, and quiet modesty. In these dwelt the spell that
+swept her into an almost delirious enjoyment of his society. For, all
+unknown to herself, like many another woman in like condition, she had
+needed a change of people. In the cramped life of a private school men
+played but little part, and the men who were most worth while, almost no
+part at all. Instinctively, in time, she had wearied of little girls
+and their lessons. Sorely had she craved the stimulus which only the
+companionship of congenial men can give. Of this fact, however, she had
+been even less aware.
+
+One crisp morning, seated in a diminutive wicker cart behind a
+discontented pony, they searched out Chicken John's cabin on the mesa
+behind the golf links.
+
+"Not that it has anything to do with Indians," she apologized, "only
+I want you to see him. He's such a character, so nice and untidy and
+queer!"
+
+As a result of this expedition they brought away with them what old John
+designated a "plump little fry" to be served at the cosy table for two
+in the sunniest window of the dining room, a luxury which Blair had
+likewise confiscated in the interests of business.
+
+And so for seven glorious days they tramped the fragrant hills, or
+sailed a sea as softly blue as though fallen fresh that morning from
+the cloudless heaven above. In the warmth and glow of his friendship
+the starved heart of the little art teacher opened like some hot-house
+flower carried suddenly into the wide outdoors. And when at last
+the week drew to an end, their work, both his and hers, was still
+unfinished, so that there was nothing else to do but to live on through
+another fully as wonderful.
+
+Blair himself took things much more for granted, and even when their
+talk strayed farthest afield it was plain to the girl that his mind
+never fully lost sight of the purpose for which he had come. His work
+stood always first, while,--she blushed to own it even to herself,--she
+had sometimes entirely forgotten her own.
+
+At the end of the third week they had seen almost everything he
+considered essential and at times she sensed in his manner, even when he
+was least aware of it, a kind of repressed impatience. She knew what it
+meant and shivered. Presently he would leave her, and life would become
+again the same dull round of work. Only one spot of real importance
+remained unvisited,--the cavern bower above the Bay of Moons. Of this
+he had spoken frequently, and well she knew he held it the climax of his
+search.
+
+But for reasons best known to herself Miss Hastings put off from day to
+day this final expedition until Blair began to chaff at the delay.
+
+"That's really the one place I came to see!" he told her more than once.
+"After I've been there I think I can go."
+
+"But we've planned Middle Ranch for today," she would answer evasively,
+or, "This is the best time to see Orazaba; it's so clear this morning.
+That's the mountain, you know, where the Indians carved out their ollas.
+Some of them are still there, only half cut away. It would be too bad
+for you to miss that."
+
+At length, however, there came a day when excuses would do no longer.
+
+"We've waited long enough," he declared that morning over their coffee,
+"Besides, I may have to go now in a few days."
+
+And although at his words the sunshine of her new world faded suddenly
+away, yet the little teacher kept a brave front. She even laughed
+carelessly.
+
+"Men are so impatient," she teased, "But we'll go today."
+
+Nevertheless, it was not until the rose of sunset rested among the hills
+that at last they found themselves on the crest of the tall cliff which
+commanded so wide a stretch of the ocean and the shimmering valleys
+below.
+
+"It reminds one of the Bay of Naples," observed Blair, pausing to
+scan the rocky coastline against which, far beneath them, the foaming
+breakers threw themselves. He shaded his eyes with his hand and looked
+far out to sea. "What a wonderful place for a watch tower it would have
+made!"
+
+"It had one once," softly replied the girl, "Wildenai's watch tower!"
+
+Blair turned, their eyes met, and he smiled.
+
+"It's been splendid to have you with me all these days," he said, "I've
+been wanting to tell you. You've been more of a help than you'll ever
+know." And then, after a pause, "It's because you care so much about the
+story yourself, I suppose, that you've been such an inspiration to me."
+
+Something in the girl's heart seemed suddenly to snap.
+
+"It's because I care more about your work, and--and you. You are so
+wonderful!" she broke forth impulsively, and stood before him crimson
+with confusion. For a second, which seemed to her an age, there was
+silence. Then he spoke and, in her bitter humiliation, his voice sounded
+strained and cold.
+
+"Shall we go in?" he asked.
+
+Silently he parted the tangle of manzanita that for centuries had veiled
+the secrets of the princess, and stood aside for her to enter. Wildly
+the little art teacher glanced about her. This moment to which she had
+so looked forward, and yet had dreaded as much because it meant the
+end,--this moment which might, nevertheless, have meant much to them
+both even though it were the end, she herself had spoiled! All its
+delicate beauty changed to a sordid suspicion, it lay in ruins now
+because of her thoughtless words. She dared not guess at what he must be
+thinking! For a desperate second she considered flight. Then proudly
+she raised her head. One more thing, at least, about her now he should
+learn!
+
+"Did you know--?" she began, then broke off irresolute.
+
+Blair glanced at her and again their eyes met. This time he did not
+smile.
+
+"Know what?" he asked.
+
+She laughed with embarrassment.
+
+"It really isn't of any interest to you, but--" and again she paused.
+
+"Suppose you let me be the judge of that," he suggested stiffly. "You're
+making me horribly curious, you know. You can't very well drop the
+subject now." He was evidently making an effort at pleasantry.
+
+She flushed brightly.
+
+"Of course it couldn't be of the slightest importance to anyone except
+myself," she explained. Then, as if doubting her courage to continue
+long, she hurried on, "but one reason I take such an interest in--your
+work is because I'm a direct descendant of Lord Harold myself. He became
+the Duke of Norfolk afterward, you know, but Hastings was always the
+family name." She flashed him a haughty glance, a pride that changed to
+wide-eyed surprise as she noted his amazement.
+
+"Not really?" He had turned abruptly and in his eyes there was a
+curious expression, almost of alarm. "How extraordinary,--how perfectly
+extraordinary!"
+
+"Why extraordinary?" That her cup of humiliation might brim to the full,
+resentment was added to confusion. "You consider me unworthy, then, of
+having had nobility among my ancestry? But, just the same, there
+was nothing strange about it. The colonies were chiefly English,
+you remember!" He smiled at her sarcasm. "The duke married one of
+Elizabeth's ladies-in-waiting after he went home and there was a younger
+son, and he had a younger son, and after a long time one of them came
+over to Virginia just like anybody else. They have always been good,
+loyal, highly respected American citizens," she told him fiercely, "and
+I'm proud of them! Besides--" with reckless emphasis, "I've always felt
+so sorry for Wildenai."
+
+But at this point, quite incomprehensibly, Blair broke into peals of
+laughter.
+
+"And by and by, after a long, long time, one of these good, loyal,
+American citizens that we're both so proud of had a hot-tempered, most
+disloyal little daughter who intends to show her employer his proper
+place before she dismisses him! But why are you sorry for Wildenai?"
+
+With mischievous eyes he searched her face.
+
+She flushed, then, looking squarely at him, "Because she was impulsive
+like me, and just for that reason Lord Harold ran away and left her,"
+she said. "He's the only one of them I never had any use for."
+
+Blair wandered the length of the cavern and back before he replied.
+
+"You think him a coward, I suppose." He still looked as though he wanted
+to laugh, yet something in his tone seared her outraged pride. He might
+as well have touched an iron to quivering flesh. "You ought to remember,
+however,--I mean every woman ought to remember,--that when a girl lets a
+man know that she cares for him she generally forfeits, then and there,
+whatever interest she may have had for him. Wildenai risked too much.
+Of course, in her case there was some excuse. She was only an untrained
+barbarian. But, under ordinary circumstances, I tell you there's nothing
+a man despises so much!"
+
+What was done or said after that Miss Hastings never could have told.
+She was possessed of but one desire,--to get away, to go back to the
+hotel,--home, anywhere beyond the reach of his voice and his eyes. For
+the moment she hated him, and although Blair, conscience smitten at
+he knew not what, waited in the lobby a full hour before going in to
+dinner, she did not come down.
+
+Up in her room, mechanically brushing her hair for the night, Miss
+Hastings stormily addressed the girl in the glass who stared so
+scornfully back at her.
+
+"I tell you I don't care a thing about it! He probably thought he was
+justified in every word he said. He's probably smiling this very minute
+because he thinks he managed it so well! But he's a coward just the
+same, and I despise him,--I do despise him!" Her eyes brimming with
+tears, she fiercely repeated the word. "Well, he'll soon find out how
+much I really meant!"
+
+Over and over she re-lived the short scene,--all of its humiliation, all
+of its hurt, seeking at every turn solace for her woman's pride.
+
+"Naturally I wanted to help him all I could, to appear, at least, to be
+interested, especially when he was paying so much for it! It was only
+a business arrangement anyway," she continued bitterly, "nothing but
+business from start to finish, and if he doesn't know that yet, he'll
+find it out the very first thing tomorrow morning!"
+
+And having tumbled into bed she lay staring into the dark, planning
+the details of a campaign warranted either to cure or kill the enemy.
+Outside, a mocking bird, perched provokingly near her window, kept the
+night ringing with music. Resolutely she closed her ears to his song.
+But presently, through the faint fragrance of oleanders, other sounds
+began to penetrate,--the strains of the waltz to which they had danced
+only the night before. The little art teacher turned wearily over and
+cried herself to sleep.
+
+On the morning which followed she rose very early, however, much too
+early to breakfast with Blair at the little table in the sunny corner.
+Instead, she ordered some coffee and toast at Jim's Waffle Shop in
+the village and was hard at work sketching on the wharf before eight
+o'clock. She had suddenly remembered a promise to sketch Capt. Warren's
+dog holding the gaff, a feat of which both Pal and his master were
+justifiably proud. Indeed, so long had the arrangement been made and so
+entirely had it been neglected, that no one was more surprised than the
+Captain himself at her unexpected appearance.
+
+"But Pal and me ought to be at the Tuna Club in fifteen minutes, to take
+a party o' members out fishin'," he demurred. "You can't paint Pal in no
+quarter of an hour!"
+
+"I'm sorry to have had to put it off so long," replied Miss Hastings
+crisply, "but I'm planning to go home in a few days now,--this afternoon
+probably. It's the only chance I shall have." And she prepared to make
+good the belated promise with such determination that, after a wistful
+glance or two across the slapping white caps, the old skipper meekly
+succumbed.
+
+It was here Blair found her an hour or so later. Unceremoniously he
+placed himself in front of her, his hands in his pockets, and gave vent
+to a low whistle.
+
+"Well, of all the--!"
+
+"Oh, is it you, Mr. Blair?" she inquired in cool, sweet tones. "I
+thought most probably you'd gone! Didn't you say yesterday you intended
+to as soon as you'd seen the cavern?" Then, after a pause during which
+Blair said nothing, "I've been getting dreadfully behind with my own
+work, so I thought, if you didn't mind, I'd try to catch up a little
+this morning."
+
+"Certainly not. Take all the time you want! We've about finished anyway,
+I guess." His coolness matched her own.
+
+Another silence during which she painted furiously.
+
+"I'm making a sketch of Pal holding the gaff," she ventured at length
+when the strain had become too uncomfortable.
+
+"So I see."
+
+This second tentative effort at conversation having flickered and gone
+out she bent again to her work, while Blair remained, looking down at
+her, in his eyes mingled amusement and resentment. What had he done, he
+wondered, to account for such a change? Or, perhaps, it was something he
+had not done. He tried again.
+
+"Aren't we going for our ride this morning? It's a glorious day, and I
+have the refusal of the two best horses."
+
+"No, I think not,--not this morning, thank you," she answered. In her
+voice was the same crisp sweetness. "I haven't time!"
+
+With a shrug of pure bewilderment he backed away, then lingered a moment
+longer to watch the sketch take shape beneath her hurrying brush. That
+was the particular moment Miss Hastings chose for the final reckless
+stab.
+
+"You're standing in my light," she said. "If you'd just as soon, please
+do go away, Mr. Blair. It makes me nervous to have people looking over
+my shoulder when I'm trying to paint."
+
+This was just a trifle more than Blair at the moment was prepared to
+stand. His eyes grew dark.
+
+"Certainly," he replied icily. "So sorry to have bothered you at all.
+I only came down to tell you that I've decided to leave today. There's
+nothing more to keep me now, I think, and I'm rather anxious to get
+home. You'll find your check at the desk." And he sauntered away.
+
+She did not go back to the hotel for luncheon. She had finished her
+sketch, yet, somehow, when the time came, she discovered that it would
+be quite impossible to enter the dining room. She found it equally
+impossible to take the afternoon boat herself. Instead, having clambered
+half way up the steep slope to the cavern, she watched from behind
+a flaming riot of wild nasturtians while, preceded by a hotel porter
+bearing bags and suit-cases, Blair boarded the Avalon for Los Angeles.
+He was going away, then, without even a word of farewell.
+
+The heart of the little art teacher turned cold within her, so cold that
+she sank numbly into the red and gold tangle; nor did she look up again
+until the steamer, dipping below the horizon, had left only a trail of
+smoke to show where it disappeared. She had not believed that he would
+do quite that!
+
+When evening came she went stoically in to dinner. There was no reason
+any longer for staying away. Sternly she kept her eyes from the vacant
+place opposite. Yet somehow she could not persuade herself that he was
+really gone. More than once she caught herself watching the door, half
+expecting to see him stroll in with apologies for tardiness and take his
+empty chair. When again the orchestra drifted suddenly into the waltz to
+which they had danced, she rose abruptly and left the room.
+
+Well, she would go herself in the morning. She would settle everything
+and pack her things at once. She went to the desk to ask for the check.
+But there was nothing for her. No, the clerk assured her after much
+fumbling, Mr. Blair hadn't left anything, either in her box or his own.
+But,--the man stole a covert glance at her downcast face,--he was still
+holding his rooms. Probably he meant to attend to it when he returned.
+
+That he might not see the wild joy that leaped to her eyes, Miss
+Hastings turned with startling suddenness and fled upstairs. Safe in her
+own room she flung herself with tears and laughter on the bed. So that
+was the hand he was playing, was it?--the dear, wicked, unmanageable--!
+Of course he would have to be punished,--well punished! but--she laughed
+aloud for pure joy--the world was a radiant place once more, and nothing
+of any sort really mattered, because he was coming back.
+
+But the next day went by, and the next, and he had not come. Day after
+day passed in an empty procession, yet no one of them brought that for
+which she waited. And there was nothing else to do. Work was out of the
+question. She could not sit still long enough. It became, instead, her
+sole occupation to linger each morning and afternoon on the verandah
+until the steamer from Los Angeles had rounded the point and crossed the
+bay in front of the hotel. Then, hidden behind the palms she would watch
+until the last straggling tourist had left the pier. But still he did
+not come.
+
+Doubt in every tormenting guise assailed her. Perhaps he had changed his
+mind and decided later not to return. Yet the clerk had said he meant to
+come back! Perhaps her check, sent by mail, was even now in her box.
+But she had not the courage to go again to the desk. Driven by alternate
+hope and fear she lost color, and she could not sleep. During seven
+miserable nights she planned to go back to Pasadena by the morning boat,
+and as many times she put it off. Yet, if he did return to find her
+waiting, what, then, would she have given him the right to think? But,
+on the other hand, if she went she might never see him again!
+
+On the eighth day she took herself grimly in hand. No longer would she
+humiliate herself by any further delay. Wildenai had not waited, and
+even a school teacher can be as proud as an Indian princess! That very
+afternoon she would finish her sketch of the cavern. Then tomorrow she
+would go back to Pasadena and the long gray round of work. Desolately
+she wandered up the secret trail to Wildenai's bower. Never had her
+sympathy for the deserted princess been so keen. Perhaps, she mournfully
+considered, if the spirit of the Indian maiden still lingered there
+it might feel sympathy for her as well. Perhaps she, too, would find
+comfort in the spot where that other woman had paid an equal price for
+her impulsiveness.
+
+The shadows in the little cavern were dark and cool and, laying aside
+her box of colors, for a long time she sat quite motionless, staring out
+to where the gulls drifted and glinted against the blue. She heard after
+a while the whistle of the approaching steamer but gave no heed. Lying
+back against the moss she had almost dropped asleep when something in
+the corner opposite attracted her attention. She sat up nervously and
+stared into the shadows. Was it only that the darkness was deeper over
+there, or was that really something propped against the wall? And had it
+moved?
+
+In the years that followed she never knew how long she sat there after
+the stones had been lifted away, holding in her lap those shreds of torn
+white doeskin. Still caught together, though in tatters, by long strings
+of shells and beads, they shone, a ghostly film of white from out the
+dimness. A breath, and the whole would have crumbled into dust. Yet
+the beads, she noticed, were still perfect as when strung by slim brown
+fingers centuries before. Only half believing it was not all of it a
+dream, she lifted them strand after strand. Then, suddenly, she gave
+a little cry. Somewhere from out the torn folds a slender chain had
+slipped. Trembling with a curiosity that bordered close on terror,
+she carried it to the light, and there it glowed, a glancing stream of
+crimson, in her hand.
+
+"Wildenai's necklace!" she breathed, and hid her face.
+
+There came the sound of a step outside. The manzanita branches were
+pushed impatiently aside and he stood before her.
+
+The journey across the channel from Los Angeles had seemed twice as long
+as when he made it a few weeks before, and he had hurried all the way
+from the hotel straight to the little cavern. But now that he had found
+her again, there seemed to be plenty of time for everything, and he
+stood quite silent looking down at her. He was glad he had found her
+there, glad, in a curious, unreasoning way, for the quiet of the late
+afternoon, for the faint fragrance of the Mariposa lilies blooming just
+beyond the ledge. Yet he let her know nothing of this in what he said.
+
+"So here you are, after all! I thought I should find you here."
+
+She had not heard him come and was startled into a cry.
+
+"You!" she gasped, and lifted eyes in which the telltale signs of tears
+were still quite evident, so evident that, with a woman's instinct to
+hide them, she caught up the necklace and held it toward him.
+
+"See what I've found!" she exclaimed.
+
+But he paid no heed. Instead, manlike, he proceeded, quite
+unconsciously, to say the one thing that could hurt her most.
+
+"I looked for you at the hotel first, then I came on up here. I knew you
+wouldn't go till I came!"
+
+The color that had flooded her face at the sound of his voice faded
+again. She was quite white as she asked quietly:
+
+"How could you know I would stay?"
+
+He laughed easily, settling himself confidently on the moss at her side.
+
+"Because I hadn't paid you yet," he answered gaily. "Don't you think
+that was clever of me, Wildenai?"
+
+"I would rather you did not call me that," she told him coldly, "It
+sounds irreverent." And she dropped her eyes, which had filled again
+miserably, to the film of white in her lap. Then, with a pitiful attempt
+to hurt him in return: "Of course you realize that I really don't
+know much about you. I don't want you to think that I distrusted you
+exactly--" she marvelled at herself that she could say such things to
+him, but went recklessly on. "The check wasn't there,--and so, well, it
+seemed wisest to wait. They said you were coming back, and I couldn't
+afford to lose it; so I stayed. Just a matter of business, you see!"
+She finished in a tone which, except for a suspicious tremble, was
+satisfactorily disagreeable.
+
+But Blair's armor, since his return, seemed proof against such thrusts
+as she could give.
+
+"Won't play Indian at all, then?" he retorted teasingly. "But of course
+not! How could you when you happen to come from the other side of the
+house? However," he continued whimsically, "there are such things as
+English roses, you know. I've always loved them, too, even when they
+were thorny!"
+
+He pulled absently at a fern growing near, while, suddenly, for no
+particular reason, the color glowed again in the cheeks of the little
+art teacher. She smiled, half unwillingly.
+
+"But don't pull up the wild flowers here," she warned him, "You'll have
+the forester after you! When did you get back?" she added. "Where have
+you been so long?" burned on her lips, but she scorned to ask it.
+
+"About an hour ago," he replied amiably. "The boat was late."
+
+"I was beginning to think you'd given up coming at all." She could not
+keep it back. "The duke never bothered to, you know."
+
+But this blow, like the first, failed to reach any vulnerable spot.
+Blair did not flinch.
+
+"No, naturally he didn't! He was English, and you can't depend upon
+the English, I've discovered. But there's not the slightest reason for
+linking me up with him. The princess never ran away now, did she? And
+I--" He paused, then without looking at her he began again.
+
+"Seriously, I'm sorry if I seemed to be deserting. I--well, honestly,
+I didn't know what else to do. You suggested it yourself, you remember!
+And I'd promised my father to look after some business for him in Los
+Angeles while I was out here. You see, he--our family, have lived in
+the East for a long time now, but we used to own pretty much all of Los
+Angeles county some three centuries ago, when the Spanish were here,
+and--" Again he broke off abruptly. "Do you want to know about me?" he
+demanded.
+
+Miss Hastings leaned breathlessly toward him. Her heart was beating
+wildly.
+
+"Oh, please!" she begged.
+
+"Perhaps I should have told you at the first," he began, "or at least
+after you told me who you were, but--anyway, I didn't. I'd never told
+anyone before and I didn't much suppose I ever would. There's a reason,
+though, why I'm particularly interested in this legend, too, a reason
+just as good as you've got. I'm--well, I'm one of Wildenai's great,
+great grandsons!"
+
+And then, because she sat quite silent there in the shadows, and
+motionless except for fingering something white that lay in her lap, he
+waited uneasily. Was she angry again, he wondered, or perhaps she was
+only laughing!
+
+She was the first to break the silence.
+
+"Are you trying to be funny?" Her voice was very cold.
+
+"Not at all," he answered hotly. "It must be all of ten generations back
+or even more, and of course it wasn't all Spanish afterward, but, just
+the same, I'm as much a descendant of the princess as you are of the
+duke,--always have been! I'm just as proud of it, too. Possibly you
+will remember that the Spanish beat the English to it, at least in
+California. Anyway," he finished bitterly, "what difference does it
+make? So far as I can see, it only gives us one more good subject to
+quarrel about!"
+
+Then out of the dimness came a queer little sound, whether of tears or
+of laughter it was impossible to know. For the least part of a second a
+hand brushed his own.
+
+"Oh, no!" she whispered, "Let's not do that. It wouldn't be right! And
+see," she laughed tremulously, "Isn't it strange I should have found it
+today, but," she lifted the white thing in her lap, "here is Wildenai's
+wedding dress--and the chain of garnets!"
+
+The cavern was quite dark before they had finished talking about it, but
+at length they laid the poor little ghost of a garment reverently back
+among the stones and rose to go.
+
+"But the necklace?" Blair asked, hesitating, "do you think we ought to
+leave that here?"
+
+The girl considered a moment.
+
+"It's really yours," she decided. "Nobody else could have the least
+claim to it."
+
+"Except--" Suddenly his eyes shone with a strange expression before
+which the little art teacher instinctively shrank. He took a step toward
+her.
+
+"I believe I'll give the garnets back," he announced. "I fancy that's
+what the princess would have liked to do if she'd had the chance.
+Besides," his eyes grew still darker, "they were meant in the first
+place for a wedding gift, and so if you--"
+
+He would have clasped them about her neck, but Miss Hastings backed
+frantically away.
+
+"No!--not for worlds," she cried. "You know you're only saying it
+because you think you can't get out of it!" And before he could realize
+just what was happening, she was gone.
+
+
+
+The boat for Los Angeles was unusually crowded that night. For either
+this reason, or some other she would not acknowledge, Miss Hastings
+found herself pushed aside by more impatient passengers every time she
+attempted to enter the gangway.
+
+"All aboard!" called a peremptory voice from somewhere on deck. She took
+a step forward, hesitated, drew back. The plank was hauled irrevocably
+away, and she turned to face Blair standing just behind her on the
+wharf.
+
+"I was sure you wouldn't run away," he declared, "but if you had--!"
+
+She let him lead her back along the broad boardwalk toward the hotel
+until they stood within the shadow of the huge boulder which for
+centuries has marked the outer boundary of the Bay of Moons. Beyond them
+the lights of the St. Catherine glimmered down the hill and on over the
+water, rimming with golden bubbles the outlines of the pier.
+
+"Wildenai!" Out of the darkness his voice came to her, mocking, tender,
+wholly insistent. "Foolish, obstinate little lady! Can't you see how
+it's up to you,--up to the English to make amends? Honestly now, when
+he began it I don't imagine even that rascal Drake himself would have
+believed a family scrap could last the better part of four centuries.
+Don't you really think it's about time for you to call it off?"
+
+And flinging her scruples to the winds, Miss Hastings suddenly decided
+that it was.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Their Mariposa Legend, by Charlotte Herr
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Their Mariposa Legend, by Charlotte Herr
+
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+
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+Title: Their Mariposa Legend
+
+Author: Charlotte Herr
+
+Release Date: February, 2004  [EBook #5196]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on June 3, 2002]
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+Language: English
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+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THEIR MARIPOSA LEGEND ***
+
+
+
+
+This eBook was produced by David Schwan <davidsch@earthlink.net>.
+
+
+
+Their Mariposa Legend
+
+A Romance of Santa Catalina
+
+
+
+By Charlotte Herr
+
+
+
+
+To Little Bruce Parker
+Who Loved Stories
+
+
+
+Part I
+
+
+
+Sir Francis Starts It
+
+
+
+It began to happen a long time ago, centuries ago, when, in a fragrant
+rush of rain, spring came one day to Punagwandah, fairest of the Channel
+Islands. Beneath the golden mists of sunrise danced a radiant sea. On
+steeply sloping hillsides where thickets of wild lilac bloomed, the lark
+shook from his tiny throat a tumult of glad music. In shadowed niches of
+the canyons lilies waited to fill with light their gleaming ivory cups.
+Spring in very truth was there.
+
+And looking down upon it from her cavern bower high above the beach,
+watched the Princess Wildenai. Kneeling there, the light of dawn shining
+on her long black hair, she was, herself, the sweetest blossom of the
+spring. Loveliest was she among all the maidens of the Mariposa and of
+royal blood besides; although of this the great chief Torquam, who even
+at that moment lay sleeping in his lodge of deerskin on the crescent
+beach below, knew more than he had ever told.
+
+With eyes rapt, her breath scarcely stirring the folds of softest
+fawnskin drawn across her breast, the princess bent her gaze to where
+the waves ran silver on the ocean's distant rim. There she knew the sun
+must rise and, as the first dazzling ray sparkled across the water, she
+rose slowly until she stood erect, a slender, graceful figure against
+the dim, gray rocks, and stretching her arms toward the East, spoke in
+the musical words of her people.
+
+"Oh, Waken-ate, great spirit-father," she pleaded, "have mercy on me.
+Grant to me, thy humble daughter, one only boon. Grant, I pray thee,
+that it need not be I wed with Torquam's friend, the pale-face stranger.
+Well knowest thou I would not disobey my father, him the bravest and
+most powerful of all thy warriors, him whom his people delight to honor,
+and whom I strive to please. All the more I feel my duty since, many
+moons ago, they laid my mother underneath the flowers. Yet, even so, I
+cannot find it in my heart to wed with Don Cabrillo, dearly as does my
+father wish it. Can'st thou not then, in thy great power, turn his
+heart, oh lord of spirits, that he no longer may desire it? Help me in
+this, my only trial, I pray thee, and in all else will I be indeed his
+loyal daughter, - in all else save alone in this one thing!"
+
+Her arms fell. Slowly she sank again to her knees, bending her head
+until her forehead touched the ground. For many minutes she lay thus
+prostrate while the glory of the rising sun bathed the sea in splendor.
+Yet, when at last she rose, her eyes were dim with tears.
+
+But now from the beach below there drifted up to her the sounds of a
+village astir. Shrill voices of women mingled with the crackling of
+freshly kindled fires. A canoe, pushed hastily into the water, grated
+harshly on the pebbles. Still the maiden did not stir. Leaning against
+the rocky ledge, her chin in her hands, she gazed listlessly out over
+the shining sea. If any interests lived for her among the dark-skinned
+people beneath the cliffs, for the moment at least she gave no sign.
+
+Then, suddenly, above the ordinary din of the Indian village, rose the
+hoarse shouting of men. Wildenai lifted her eyes, - eyes that widened
+first with wonder, then with fear. For there, far down the shoreline to
+the south, her sails gleaming white against the walls of rock behind her
+as she rounded a distant point, a ship came slowly into view. With
+wildly beating heart the young girl watched the vessel tack to clear the
+long curve of the coast. But once before in all her life had she seen
+such another monster winged canoe, and that had been when Senor Don
+Cabrillo first cast anchor in the Bay of Moons below, now almost a year
+ago. For many a week had the young man lingered, renewing the friendship
+with the Mariposa cemented more than eighteen years before when his
+father, hindered by storms in his adventurous journey up the coast, cast
+anchor off the shore, - the first white man to see their island. Nor was
+the lingering without result. Torquam he taught to speak the Spanish
+tongue, learning in his turn safer and easier routes to the gold fields
+of the north, while not the least among the treasures carried with him
+when at last he sailed away did he hold the promise that the beautiful
+daughter of the chief should become his bride when next he touched upon
+that shore. Could this, then, be the Spaniard's fleet returning? Was the
+Great Spirit powerless, after all, to save her? In sore bewilderment and
+terror Wildenai watched the distant ship.
+
+Nearer and nearer it came. But, as its outline grew each moment more
+distinct, gradually her fears departed. For this was not the clumsy
+Spanish galleon she remembered. The prow was not nearly so high, nor was
+the incoming vessel as large in any respect as had been that other. Yet,
+though fear died, wonder grew. What new variety of strangers, then, was
+about to visit them? For that the ship intended to anchor she was by
+this time sure. Steadily it bore on until within a scant half mile of
+the crescent shaped beach where lay the royal village of the tribe. At
+length, as if in fear to trust themselves closer to the rocky shore, the
+crew were seen to bring the vessel sharply about. An anchor was cast
+over, the creaking of the hawsers distinctly audible in the clear
+morning air, and a few moments later a small boat was lowered. Into this
+boat immediately several sailors swung themselves and after a short
+delay, amidst the shouting of the Indians, now running in wild
+excitement up and down the beach, the men picked up their oars and
+started for the land.
+
+"Alla-hoa, Wildenai!"
+
+Up the stony trail leading to her cavern scrambled an Indian runner, a
+lithe youth who flung himself breathless at her feet.
+
+"Thy father, oh princess, sends me to summon thee to his lodge.
+Strangers, - paleface strangers, - enemies, who can tell, are coming.
+See, - the ship!" With dark forefinger he pointed toward the sea.
+"Torquam would have thee hide with the rest of the women in the cave at
+the Great Rock. There Kathah-galwa wilt keep thee safe, he says. Make
+haste, oh Wildenai!"
+
+"And am I not as safe up here?" returned the princess, calmly. "Be not
+so lost in thy terror, oh Norqua. I, too, have seen the ship and I fear
+not. Yet will I obey if so my father bids," she added quickly. "Go thou
+ahead. I follow." And hastily gathering together some reeds and colored
+grasses lying on the ledge, parts of an unfinished basket upon which,
+evidently, she had during some previous visit been at work, she flung
+them into a corner of the cavern and ran lightly down the narrow path
+leading to the village.
+
+Here all by this time was tense excitement, the dramatic, ungoverned
+excitement of children. While with shrill cries two or three of the
+women gathered the little ones together, the rest pulled frantically at
+the poles holding each tepee in place. Still apparently quite unmoved,
+Wildenai sought first her father standing surprised but unafraid in the
+doorway of his lodge. Tall and spare and stern he looked, straight as
+some lonely pine on the slopes of distant San Jacinto. Yet even in the
+stress of such a moment a tender light stole into his eyes as they
+rested upon his motherless daughter.
+
+Wildenai made obeisance and for a brief moment the two surveyed each
+other in silence. Then,
+
+"It is well thou art come, my beloved one," spoke the chief. "Stranger
+pale-faces will soon be amongst us."
+
+"Wildenai feels no fear, my father," quietly answered the girl.
+
+"If they come in friendship," quickly Torquam replied, "then indeed may
+all be well. But the ship is not of the Senor's fleet, and if so be that
+we must fight, thou wert better hidden in the cave. We shall see."
+
+Bending her head in mute acquiescence the girl moved away to join the
+group of women now almost ready to depart.
+
+
+
+Meantime the vessel's long boat, driven onward by the stout arms of
+three strong sailors, steadily approached the bay.
+
+"What think'st thou then, Rufus Broadmead, of this fool's errand to the
+savages?" inquired one of these, resting upon his oars for a moment that
+he might the better listen to the tumult on the shore. "Wot ye not that
+if water had been the only boon he craves the captain had fared much
+better on the mainland? Besides, did not I myself overhear the Apache
+only yesterday tell him of a certainty that the tribes over there were
+away on the warpath? But no, by the mass, here must we risk our precious
+scalps to row into the very teeth of the heathen, and that to humor the
+whim of as obstinate an Englishman as ever sailed aboard Her Majesty's
+fleets!" and without awaiting any reply he lowered his oars in disgust.
+
+The others laughed.
+
+"Hast been, then, so stupid, brother Giles, for all thy listening with
+thy big ears, as not to know 'tis Spanish treasure ever and naught else
+our captain seeks? Water, - pouf!" the speaker made a rough grimace,
+"water may well serve as an excuse, and what to bold Sir Francis were
+the lives of half a dozen seamen when booty for the queen lies in the
+balance? The Apache told him, too, - thou see'st thou hast not played
+the listening game alone, for, hiding behind the fo'castle door myself,
+I heard him say it, - that here lay that famous island, San - how is't
+they call it? San Catlina - I know not how 'tis spoken, - some Spanish
+lingo not fit for English tongues! At any rate 'twas here your Spanish
+robber, Don Cabrillo, and, for the matter of that, his precious son as
+well, stopped to seek direction ere they found the land of gold. The
+savage sware besides they were a gentle tribe, not given to war and
+murder like the rest. I hearkened well, forsooth, knowing past doubt I
+would be een one o' those chosen to try 'em out. The devil take the
+Apache an he lied," he added fiercely, "I'll break his head across till
+even he shrieks out for help when I get back!"
+
+He paused to gaze fearfully at the stern cliffs now looming close at
+hand, beneath which the excited natives still ran back and forth,
+pointing with frantic gestures at the boat.
+
+The third man spoke. He was smaller than the other two and darker, with
+a sly look about his eyes and mouth in strong contrast to the bluff
+frankness of his comrades. So far he had appeared content to listen in
+amused silence, but now with a short laugh he interrupted.
+
+"The Apache did not lie. This is the island Santa Catalina, though that,
+mark you, is not the Indian name. And right well can the chief who rules
+here direct our captain also to the goldfields of the north. But
+hearkee, comrades. 'Tis not Drake will reap the profits this time!" He
+lowered his voice mysteriously as though fearful of being overheard,
+albeit nothing was nearer than his two companions and the clear, green
+stretch of water. "Have ye not observed the boy who travels with the
+captain? - the boy I serve, - the one they call Sir Harry? To my mind,
+cub though he be, 'tis he who rules the ship. Hast never noticed how the
+great Drake himself bends to his slightest wish?"
+
+"Aye, marry, that have I! And who, then, is he, think'st thou?" inquired
+the man who had spoken first.
+
+"Some close kin to the queen, - that much I know," the other answered
+quickly, "the heir to some great dukedom, mayhap, in disguise to see the
+world and make a fortune. 'Tis his desire we land, so much he told me,
+and 'tis to learn more than directions, my hearties, and that I'll
+warrant ye! But, look ye, the water grows too shallow! We can use the
+oars no longer."
+
+And even as he spoke the boat grated upon the pebbles. An incoming
+breaker would have carried it ashore, but before the sailors could take
+advantage of this help or even so much as ship their oars, half a dozen
+swarthy youths had waded out and, with shouts and gestures, whether of
+welcome or hostility the Englishmen had no means of knowing, pushed it
+high upon the beach. At once, then, for well they realized the danger of
+delay, and with a stolid courage born of many a like adventure, the
+seamen leaped fearlessly out upon the sand. In their hands they held
+aloft bolts of brightly colored cloth snatched on the instant from the
+bottom of the boat. These they offered for the wondering inspection of
+the women who, observing the small number of invaders, were cautiously
+returning. To the warriors grouped about the chief they proffered knives
+of which the steel blades, set in strong handles of bone, glistened in
+the sun. Eagerly, yet with a certain unexpected formality, the men
+accepted these, passing them for examination from one to another with
+many a grunt of satisfaction. To be sure, no brave among them but might
+the next moment decide to try out the merits of his gift upon the
+bestower, but this danger the adventurers had to risk. More timidly the
+women, their eyes fixed wistfully upon the gaudy red and yellow cloth,
+approached the strangers, offering in their turn bits of abalone shell
+polished to iridescent beauty.
+
+They seemed in truth a gentle, friendly people, so much so that at
+length the sailors, deeming it safe to undertake the second part of
+their errand, began to plead for water and to request, besides, an
+interview between their captain and the chief. All this by means of
+signs in which they displayed no little wit and skill, the Englishmen
+accomplished until, well on toward the middle of the morning, they made
+ready to return to the ship, the casks they had brought brimming with
+sweet mountain water, while with them they bore as well the promise of
+an interview of state between the great chief Torquam and Sir Francis
+Drake, to take place upon the beach at sunset.
+
+And then at once the little village of Toyobet seethed again with
+excitement. For these good paleface friends and their god-like commander
+a fitting welcome must be prepared. Fleet-footed messengers, bearing
+flaming torches, sped in hot haste along the mountain trails that all
+who saw might know without words spoken of the assembling of the tribe.
+To the distant village at the isthmus they hurried, and to the cove on
+the western coast, some twenty miles away, to which a band of warriors
+had gone several days before to hunt the otter. That no one among his
+people might remain in ignorance of his command, Torquam even caused
+signal fires to be kindled on each of the twin peaks, extinct volcanoes,
+near the center of the island. Smoke rising there was visible from every
+corner of his land, and woe to any subject who dared to disregard that
+warning!
+
+Throughout the long bright day the women toiled, preparing a ceremonial
+feast. Three antelope, a deer, and half a dozen of the wild sheep which
+roamed the hills were killed and placed for roasting over deep pits dug
+in the sand. Nor did any member of the tribe forget in his own crude
+fashion to deck himself for the occasion. The warriors adorned their
+heads with feathers and daubed their cheeks and lips with ochre. The
+women clothed themselves in loose-hanging tunics of doeskin girt with
+strings of wampum, and hung about their tawny shoulders the lovely
+greens and blues of uncut turquoise. Meanwhile, also, the great chief
+Torquam donned his ceremonial dress, a string of eagle feathers held by
+the crimsoned quills of the porcupine and extending down his back until
+almost it touched the ground. About his neck, as token of his
+priesthood, he threw the bear-claw necklace, known far and wide among
+the tribes for its famous powers of healing. Wildenai alone made no
+change except to bind the satin black of her hair still more smoothly
+within a fillet of silver. In the center of the band, so that it rested
+just above her brow, a strange device appeared, a circle enclosing many
+rays, - the royal insignia of the tribe which only the daughter of the
+chief might wear.
+
+
+
+Then at last when, in the sunset, level rays of light rested golden on
+the bay and turned to amethyst the distant mountains on the mainland,
+all was ready. Once again, this time to the weird music of tom-toms and
+the beating of drums, a boat was lowered from the ship while on the
+shore the Indians watched.
+
+It was in truth a picture not soon to be forgotten. Behind the mirrored
+Bay of Moons, its crescent of sand gleaming white against the rocks, the
+bands of dusky men and women stood motionless as statues in the quiet
+light of the setting sun, while in the doorway of his lodge, his
+daughter close beside him, Torquam waited with simple dignity to receive
+his guests, the fair-skinned strangers.
+
+At length along the beach advanced the little group of English, friends
+and fellow adventurers with the most renowned of all their great queen's
+buccaneers. Beside Sir Francis himself marched young Harold of Wessex,
+little more than a boy in years, yet dreaded and feared in his own land
+even then - a possible heir to Elizabeth's throne. Some short distance
+in front of these two, standard bearers carried the flags of Merry
+England, each glorious with fringes and tassels of gold. Well might such
+banners dazzle the eyes and wits of simple savages.
+
+Yet, possibly, for all that, had it not been for the lengthy ceremonial
+of the peace-pipe, Wildenai could not have taken time to observe so
+closely, in stolen glances from beneath her long black lashes, the
+splendor of the young noble standing proudly erect beside his captain;
+nor could he have stared so often, with no attempt to hide his
+admiration, at the dark beauty of the princess.
+
+Perhaps, too, if fate had not contrived to place them side by side at
+the feast which followed, young Harold might never have discovered that
+an Indian girl, however beautiful, possessed the wit to learn a foreign
+language. Yet it was certainly Spanish and that well spoken in which, at
+length, she softly asked of her father a question intended obviously for
+himself.
+
+Under cover of one of the Indian dances with which, from time to time,
+the feast was enlivened, he leaned impulsively toward her.
+
+"Can'st speak the Spanish tongue?" he hastily inquired.
+
+The princess dropped her eyes. For a moment she remained silent as if
+debating to what extent such boldness might involve her. Then, with a
+glance as shy as if some deer gazed at him startled from the thicket,
+
+"Yes, mon senor," she answered simply. "I learned it when Don Cabrillo
+came to Punagwandah many moons ago."
+
+After that it was only that one thing led to another, as was sometimes
+true of men and maidens even in the days so long gone by. For, as if by
+common consent, then, they drew a little apart from the rest, where,
+throwing himself on the sand beside her while the firelight threw
+flickering shadows among the rocks, the young man related fragments of
+his story, - of the long journey across the sea, something of his home
+in England, and of the brilliant court of the great queen wherein he had
+served as gentleman-in-waiting. So had he served, yet soon, but here her
+guest had suddenly flushed and paused as though he spoke too hastily or
+of what he should not. To all of it the princess listened with
+fast-beating heart and a desire, ever growing, to make herself a place
+in this splendid stranger's world. Was not she then, also, the daughter
+of a king? Yet how different and how unimportant beside that wonderful
+woman of whom he spoke! For father she boasted the great chief Torquam,
+feared by every tribe in the north and rich because of the gold hidden
+in many a canyon among the distant mountains; yet her woman's instinct
+told her that to this proud Englishman her people were at best little
+more than a curiosity, almost, indeed, a cause for laughter.
+
+When at last the feast was finished, Torquam rose, and removing with
+slow solemnity his crest of eagle feathers, he placed it upon the head
+of Sir Francis, a seal of everlasting friendship. With difficulty young
+Harold suppressed a smile. But the older man, as well aware of what the
+situation demanded as he was keenly alive to its danger, received the
+attention with a gravity fully equal to that of his host. Indeed, he
+went still further.
+
+"Most gracious hast thou been, oh Torquam, all wise chief of the
+Mariposa," he began in carefully chosen Spanish, "nor shall thy kingly
+gift remain unrequited. Listen, oh Torquam! On yonder vessel I carry
+steeds like those of which I told you. For a journey over the mountains
+of the north we have brought them. One there is, swifter of foot than
+all the rest. Him will I cause my men to lower into the boat and bring
+to you after our return tonight."
+
+In silence Torquam inclined his head. Nothing could have pleased him
+more. He would be the first then, of all his tribe to own one of those
+strange yet wondrous creatures never before seen in his world until the
+Spanish landed! Yet only the eager gleam in his eyes betrayed his
+pleasure. But Harold of Wessex stared at his captain in blank
+astonishment, for the gift he had just bestowed with such apparent
+carelessness was the most valuable bit of cargo in the ship, a costly
+Arabian horse intended for the young noble's own special comfort and
+convenience during the search for gold on which they were bound. Was
+Drake gone suddenly mad, then, thus to throw away, and that without
+permission, his choicest property on a mere savage? Hot with resentment
+he was about to interfere; but before he could obey the rash impulse his
+better judgment prevailed, and just in time he remembered how, on
+several other such occasions, his very life had been saved by some swift
+expedient of Drake's and his tact in handling the natives.
+
+Slowly Sir Francis continued, and now one watching intently might have
+sensed from the gleam in his eyes that he had reached the real point in
+the interview.
+
+"One question, nevertheless, would I ask of all-wise Torquam before we
+part." He hesitated, searching the impassive face of the Indian. "Can'st
+tell me of a Spaniard, one Cabrillo, son to that arch pirate of Spain,
+who, since his father's death, still sails upon these waters? To him I
+bear a message," - again he paused while the heart of Wildenai beat in
+sudden panic beneath her fawnskin tunic; but Torquam's face remained
+blank as a page unwritten, - "a message from our queen," added Drake.
+The last words were uttered with significance.
+
+The Indian slowly shook his head.
+
+"The noble white chief asks what is unknown to any man," he answered.
+"The young Cabrillo once landed, 'tis true, on Punagwandah. Many moons
+ago it was. Where he is now, how should Torquam know?"
+
+In his bitter disappointment the hand of the Englishman sought the hilt
+of his sword. Instantly a ring of warriors closed darkly about the
+chief.
+
+Drake laughed.
+
+"Nay then, 'tis but by chance I asked thee, thinking thou mightst tell
+me. It matters not. The gift I promised thee will come, as I said,
+tonight."
+
+He turned to go and young Harold rose to follow. Then, perceiving the
+dark eyes of the princess fixed wistfully upon him, he hesitated and,
+obeying a sudden impulse, he stepped hastily to her side.
+
+"When they return with the gift for thy father," he whispered, "I will
+come with them," he smiled into her soft eyes shining with pleased
+surprise, "and I will bring a gift to thee as well, oh Wildenai, fairest
+of maidens!"
+
+Drake gave a sharp command. His followers sprang to their feet, and
+without further ceremony the party passed quickly down the beach to
+their boat.
+
+But the princess Wildenai did not leave the feasting ground. Hidden by
+deepening shadows she watched the ship's lights glimmer across the
+water. Glad indeed was she of the darkness, for a warm flush glowed in
+her cheeks and her heart throbbed with a strange new pleasure, a
+pleasure bordering close on fear, yet wholly sweet.
+
+But when, at length, the quiet of sleep had descended upon the village,
+once again she sought her father. He, too, within the open doorway of
+his lodge, watched intently the distant ship. Without surprise he saw
+his daughter enter and, as she knelt upon the blanket beside him, he
+stretched a hand and drew her close.
+
+"It grows cold. The wind is rising. 'Twere best to wait inside." He
+spoke in the musical Indian tongue. For a moment he stroked her hair in
+silence, then -
+
+"What think'st thou by now of the English, Wildenai, my little wild
+rose?" he asked.
+
+But the princess seemed not to have heard his question.
+
+"My father," she began after another short silence, "I have a favor to
+ask of thee."
+
+"And what may that be, my daughter?" he returned gravely.
+
+But again the young girl made no answer and for many minutes they
+watched the tremulous paths of light in the wake of the vessel.
+
+After a time he felt her hand tighten upon his arm.
+
+"It is but the old boon over again, my father." Her voice was low as the
+sighing of the wind among the oak trees. "I would be freed from my
+promise to wed with Don Cabrillo."
+
+An Indian is not given to caresses. Much more used was Torquam's hand to
+wield the war-club or the hatchet. Yet it was with fingers gentle as any
+woman's that he stroked the smooth black head at his knee.
+
+"Doubtest thou then, my motherless one, the judgment of him who loves
+thee?" he asked.
+
+"I doubt it not, my father," answered his daughter. "Yet would I not wed
+with the Spaniard," she added stubbornly.
+
+"The blue-eyed senor from England" - there was a hint of humor in his
+tone, - "he it is who steals thy fancy! Is it not so, my Wildenai?"
+
+Then, after a moment: "Right well knowest thou my only wish is to make
+thee happy." Again his voice, though gentle, grew serious almost to
+sadness. "No mere whim it is that counsels me to wed thee to Cabrillo.
+"There is something - " He paused, continuing with effort, - "a reason I
+have never told thee why it seems most fitting. Now I will tell thee.
+That reason is because, because, my Wildenai, thou art Spanish born
+thyself."
+
+The princess drew a hasty breath. In the darkness he felt rather than
+saw her startled eyes upon him.
+
+"My father!" The exclamation, filled with pain as well as astonishment,
+touched him to the quick. Tenderly he drew her to him. Then briefly, as
+was the Indian way, yet with the pictured phrasing which caused each
+scene to spring into vivid life before the young girl's eyes, he told
+her of the day, already more than eighteen years gone by, when, in the
+wake of a long midwinter storm, the first sailing vessel ever beheld by
+his people had fled for refuge to their bay; and of the little girl
+carefully brought to shore by her old nurse in the first boat to touch
+the beach. A mere baby she was, too young to know aught of her
+misfortune, yet a princess royal, rudely dispossessed of her right to
+the throne of Spain, and smuggled aboard the adventurer Cabrillo's ship
+to be dropped in some out-of-the-way corner of the western world. Even
+then, he made it clear, she might have perished, - since little recked
+the Spanish explorer what should happen, well knowing that upon his
+return no questions would be asked, - had it not been for his Indian
+wife. She, lacking children of her own, had taken an instant fancy to
+the dark-eyed little girl, a fancy so strong that nothing would do but
+they must adopt her as their own daughter into the tribe to belong
+forever, according to their law, she and her children, to the Mariposa.
+
+"Nor, because thy mother - for ever was she a true mother to thee -
+thought that it might grieve thee, have any of my people ever given thee
+cause to doubt that thou wert native born," he finished proudly. "Loyal
+have they been, doing all they could to make thee happy. But now that
+thy Indian mother is dead, and I myself grow old, I thought to wed thee,
+knowing his desire, to the son of that same Cabrillo who brought thee to
+us, for I long to be sure, when at length I go, that thou art safe, - at
+home."
+
+He waited then and in the silence only the low weeping of the girl was
+heard. At length the old chief spoke again, and now in his voice love
+conquered disappointment.
+
+"Much do I desire it, but that matters not. I would not have thee
+unhappy. I myself will tell the senor that what he hopes for cannot be."
+
+Slowly Wildenai bent her head until it touched his feet. Then she
+nestled close against him.
+
+"I thank thee, oh my father!" she cried, and all her voice was music
+because of her joy. "And thou art still my father," she added,
+earnestly. "What care I to go to Spain? I will stay always with thee."
+
+"For a time, it may be. Yet have a care, little wild rose," he
+cautioned, smiling, "Let not the Englishman lure thee away! He, too, may
+not be all that thou thinkest."
+
+And even as he spoke, in mocking confirmation of his words, there came
+to them suddenly from across the water, the distant creaking of ropes,
+the snapping of sails flung hastily to the wind. Before their
+unbelieving eyes the vessel swung about and put slowly out to sea. Dumb
+with amazement they watched until the last faint light flickered into
+darkness. Not until the remotest chance of a mistake was past did the
+old chief rise, trembling with rage, to his feet.
+
+"See'st thou now what I meant, my daughter? The English pale-faces know
+not the meaning of honor, - no, nor of gratitude either!"
+
+He lifted his long spear from the ground and shook it fiercely.
+
+"The words of the Mariposa are few," he cried, "but their revenge is
+sure. Let but an Englishman set foot again on Punagwandah and, swifter
+than the arrow leaves the bowstring, he dies!"
+
+And at once, without answer, in the silence of suffering which only the
+wild things of the earth understand, Wildenai crept from the lodge, her
+heart heavy with its own bitter disappointment. Noiselessly she passed
+among the tepees where her father's people slept. Not one of them should
+ever know how far dwelt slumber from her own eyes that night. Up the
+steep trail beyond the Bay of Moons she climbed and flung herself
+weeping on the bed of skins within the cavern.
+
+"Oh, thou false one," she moaned, "why did'st thou promise then, when
+never did'st thou mean to keep it?"
+
+
+
+Yet nothing had been farther from the young Englishman's thoughts when
+he left her than faithlessness to his word. On reaching the ship again
+he had gone directly to his cabin. Here he took from its small but
+richly embroidered case a slender chain of gold, threaded so closely
+with garnets that even in the dim light of the one flaring lantern, the
+only illumination the room could boast, it glowed, a glancing stream of
+crimson, in his hand. This he carried to the light and as he examined it
+under the lantern he smiled.
+
+"Never saw the little maid such jewels before, I'll warrant me! Yet,
+beshrew my heart, but she deserves them. Indian though she be, still is
+she, nevertheless, the loveliest woman that ever mine eyes have looked
+upon!"
+
+Then, stowing the necklace carefully away in his belt, he went at once
+in search of the commander.
+
+But at this point an unexpected difficulty had presented itself. He
+found Sir Francis in close conversation with his pilot.
+
+"Marry, Sir, an it fit n'er so ill with thy wish," the keen-eyed old
+mariner was saying. "I still maintain it were a shame to lose this wind.
+Gift or no gift, I've sailed these latitudes before, my lord, and by
+heaven I swear we're not like to have such another breeze, no, not till
+the change of the moon, and that you know yourself, sir, is a good
+fortnight hence."
+
+Sir Francis, striding back and forth within the narrow confines of the
+quarter deck, appeared to be weighing the old man's words with unusual
+care. At length, however, he turned as one who has made his decision.
+
+"By the mass and it shall be even as you say, Jarvis," he declared. "I
+think myself 'twere well to push on at once. At the most they be but
+Indians!" The last words were spoken in a lower tone as if to himself.
+"'Twill matter little either way!"
+
+It was at this point that young Harold stepped hastily forward. For,
+strangely enough, although on the morning of that same day such a
+proceeding would scarcely have appealed to him as being at all unfitting
+or out of the ordinary, yet now it seemed unthinkable.
+
+"But, good sir," he interrupted, "you would not so belie your promise!
+To do as Jarvis here advises, - by heaven, 'twould be neither truthful
+nor honorable! 'Tis not like you, Sir Francis!"
+
+Drake shot at him a surprised glance from under his bushy eyebrows, then
+shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Prate not to me, my lord, of truth or honor amongst these savages," he
+replied. "Did not their chief himself but even now lie to me? Well knew
+the rascally heathen where the Spaniard hides! The truth indeed! They
+know not the meaning of such words."
+
+In vain the younger man petitioned to be allowed to deliver the promised
+gift with the aid of his own retinue.
+
+"Thou can'st not get under way for two hours at best, sir," he pleaded,
+"and well within that time I will be back. 'Tis but a stone's throw to
+the shore!"
+
+But Drake first scoffed at his rashness, then, finally losing patience,
+as commander of the expedition he sternly forbade him or any of his men
+to leave the ship.
+
+"We dare not lose the wind," he finished emphatically, "and are like to
+start at any minute." Then, turning on his heel, he strode away to his
+cabin and shut the door behind him.
+
+Left in this unceremonious fashion, young Harold considered a moment,
+glancing with anxious eyes at the dim line of the coast just visible in
+the darkness. For some minutes he leaned upon the rail, lost in thought.
+
+"The old man will e'en have to bear his disappointment," he muttered at
+length, "but, an' heaven help me, the maid shall not!"
+
+Then he, too, left the deck to seek out his favorite retainer, the dark,
+swarthy man who had sat that morning in the prow of the long boat. To
+him he explained his difficulty, adding grimly:
+
+"And so thou see'st, Mortimer, that I have work cut out for thee!"
+
+He threw an arm about the other's shoulders and in this familiar fashion
+the two men paced the deck together, conversing in low tones.
+
+"And besides," observed the nobleman as they paused a moment before
+parting, "would'st know the truth about the matter? For all old Jarvis'
+prating, the Golden Hind is not like to sail before the dawn, no, nor
+even then! Jarvis is ever the man to make a show of much hurry, but - "
+he snapped his fingers scornfully, "only aid me now, unseen by anyone,
+to launch the Zephir, and by our virgin queen herself I swear, when once
+again we see the shores of Merry England, thou shalt find 'twas well
+worth thy trouble."
+
+His companion smiled even while, with the trained servility of the
+retainer, he doffed his cap.
+
+"Aye, truly, my lord," he answered, "but, since it were an impossible
+feat to get so much as a colt into the Zephir, methinks thou hast a gift
+of thine own to bestow on yonder pretty Indian maid!"
+
+The blood leaped to Sir Harry's cheek. With a quick gesture he placed
+his hand upon his sword.
+
+"Presume not upon my favor, Mortimer, or by heaven! - " he began
+angrily, but stopped suddenly as, with a fearless laugh, the man beside
+him pushed the half-drawn weapon back into its place.
+
+"Nay then, not so fast, my lord," he chuckled gaily. "Hearkee, my
+master. I did but use my eyes during their everlasting pow-wow. Surely
+ye would not grudge me that! And the maid is comely, well worth a
+trinket from thy store. Besides," he laughed slyly, "I saw e'en more to
+thine interest, for methinks the princess is as much in love with thy
+looks as art thou with hers."
+
+"Silence, fool! Thou hast said more than enough already. Think'st thou
+the son of a duke royal would look at a brown-skinned savage, an
+unbelieving pagan, no matter how comely, as thou call'st it, she might
+be!"
+
+But the flush remained, nevertheless, on the dark cheek of the young
+nobleman as he strode angrily from the deck.
+
+
+
+The moonlight had laid a quivering path of light across the water before
+Wildenai raised her bowed head from the ground. But, at length, drawing
+her blanket more closely about her, for into the night air the chill of
+the ocean had crept, she was about to leave the cave when a sudden sound
+from the beach below arrested her. For a moment she listened in silence
+while the shout was repeated, then stood dumb with amazement. A third
+time it came to her, borne on the rising wind, the terrified cry of a
+man in dire distress. Nor was it one of her own people who thus called
+out of the darkness for help. Swiftly she ran to an overhanging ledge of
+rock from which, by lying flat and peeping over, she could, without
+exposing herself, command a wide view of the sea.
+
+At the first glance there appeared to be nothing amiss. Far beneath her
+the noisy breakers spilled in liquid silver on the beach. Above their
+musical booming no other sound could be heard. Then suddenly she saw
+him. A tiny boat it was, tossing dangerously close to the great rounded
+boulder which, together with a still larger one from which it had at
+some distant time been broken off, formed the outermost boundary of the
+curving Beach of Moons. The dark figure standing erect in the boat
+strove with the aid of an oar to keep it from being dashed to pieces
+against the giant rock. Again there floated up to her the desperate call
+for help. The voice was that of the English noble!
+
+Instantly the girl sprang to her feet, and without the slightest
+hesitation ran lightly down the perilous incline, leaping fearlessly
+from rock to rock, until, within a few seconds, she stood poised above
+the seething surf on the top of the larger boulder. Here, balancing
+herself as easily and securely as a wild antelope, she raised her arms
+to dive. But now from the shadows below the white man called once more.
+
+"Attempt it not, oh Wildenai! 'Tis death to leap from there!"
+
+But without waiting even to reply, the Indian girl sprang into the
+waves. An instant later and he saw her arms gleam in the moonlight as,
+with the strong slow strokes of an experienced swimmer, she struck out
+for the boat. In spite of the perilous rocking of the little craft he
+rested on his oar to watch her for a moment in sheer admiration of her
+skill. But the maid knew well the danger of every instant's delay. In
+the very nick of time she seemed almost to throw herself between him and
+the rocks while, with a strength he would have believed impossible in
+one so small, she pulled the boat around. Then, still swimming and
+without a word to him, she began to push it ahead of her toward the
+shore. It was but a few minutes before they stood together on the beach.
+
+And now the young noble, overcome with gratitude, fell on his knees
+before her and caught her hand between his own. He would have kissed it
+in sheer joy at his escape, but the Indian girl drew sharply back.
+
+"Quick!" she whispered, yet remembering to speak in Spanish, "You must
+hide yourself at once. My father will kill you if he should find you
+here!"
+
+Swiftly she concealed the boat in a tiny cove behind the boulder, a
+hiding place he would never have seen though it was apparently perfectly
+familiar to her.
+
+"Sometimes my own canoe I keep there too," she whispered. "Now come!"
+and she hurried him along the beach and up an easier trail beyond the
+rocks to her cavern bower above.
+
+Nor did she pause for an instant's rest until they had passed safely
+behind the manzanita branches which concealed the entrance. Here,
+motioning him to do the same, she dropped upon a pile of skins. But
+instead, in real concern, the young Englishman knelt again beside her.
+
+"Thou art so wet and cold," he began anxiously, "Will it not make thee
+ill? Yet 'twas a wondrous feat," he added admiringly, "well conceived
+and carried out with skill such as any man might envy!"
+
+The princess laughed.
+
+'Twas nothing," she answered briefly. "I do it almost every day."
+
+"I came to bring to thee the gift I promised," explained Lord Harold
+then, and from his belt he drew the little case. Eagerly he flung the
+gleaming string of garnets about her slim brown throat.
+
+"Jewels brought by my father to my mother on the morning of their
+marriage," he told her. "When she lay dying she gave them me and told me
+never to part with them except I gave them to my - " He paused suddenly,
+"But thou hast saved my life!" he added as quickly, "Who else could ever
+deserve them more? Well know I my mother would wish thee to have them."
+
+Silently, though her eyes were bright with, pleasure, the princess
+lifted the beautiful necklace.
+
+"Wildenai will wear them always, senor lord," she answered softly, "for
+now she knows that truly you did mean to keep your word!"
+
+And so, his mission accomplished, her guest rose hastily to his feet. He
+must return immediately to the ship.
+
+"Know you not, then, that it is gone?" exclaimed the girl, amazed.
+
+"Gone?" echoed young Harold, and stared at her astounded. He seemed not
+to have grasped her meaning. "Gone, said'st thou?"
+
+"The ship was out of sight a full hour or more ere ever I heard you
+call," she explained.
+
+Still he continued to gaze at her fixedly as if totally unable to
+comprehend what she would have him know. Then it was plain to be seen
+that, for the moment at least, blank despair took hold upon him. Up and
+down the length of the cave he strode like some imprisoned wild thing.
+At length, standing quite still with folded arms, he seemed to lose
+himself in thought.
+
+"Battling with the surf I did not see nor hear," he muttered at last.
+"But he could not sail without me!" he added. Fiercely he raised his
+head and his eyes flashed. "He dare not so betray me!"
+
+Wildenai, too, had been considering.
+
+"The great white captain knew, then, that you were not on board?" she
+asked suddenly.
+
+"No," replied the young man reluctantly, "that did he not. I came
+without his knowledge. He would have prevented me," he continued
+stubbornly, "and I had promised thee a gift. Never did I break my word,
+nor would not then. But I did not dream it possible they could get away
+so soon! By our virgin lady in Heaven I swear I know not what to do."
+And once more he seemed lost in despair.
+
+But only for a moment. Then he turned hastily to the entrance.
+
+"I must follow them at once," he declared impatiently, "I can overtake
+them even yet."
+
+Swift as lightning the girl threw herself between him and the opening in
+the cave.
+
+"No, no, senor Englishman," she cried. "It is impossible! Listen, only
+listen to me! What have you, then, to steer by save the stars? And you
+see that, drowned in moonlight, they do not shine tonight. And, more
+than that, you do not even know what course the vessel takes. Remember,
+too, that there is neither food nor drink within your boat. You would
+surely die ere you could ever find the ship."
+
+Gradually she compelled him to listen to reason until, seating himself
+again upon the skins, he challenged her still further.
+
+"But what, then, shall I do?" he demanded. "Can'st also tell me that?"
+
+And with equal readiness the princess replied:
+
+"If you will but let me I can hide you here. The cavern is my own. Here
+for many a moon have I worked and waited. No one would dare to enter.
+You will be safe. Besides, my father's anger will grow cold in time, and
+then I know that, if I ask him, he will help you."
+
+His chin propped upon his hands, the young nobleman moodily considered.
+
+"Well, do then as thou deemest best," he told her finally.
+
+And from that moment there began for the little princess a time so
+wonderful that for all the rest of her life she remembered each separate
+hour as though it had been some beautiful word in a poem learned by
+heart.
+
+With deft fingers she piled her softest doeskins for his bed.
+
+"But what wilt thou do, tell me, if I rob thee of thy nest?" he asked,
+watching her with amused eyes as she worked.
+
+"I go always to the village to sleep," she answered simply, and so left
+him.
+
+But in the morning while yet the red of sunrise burned above the great
+peak Orazaba, she returned, bearing upon her head an olla of carved
+stone filled with water from a mountain spring. This in smiling silence
+she set before him and disappeared. Within the hour, however, she was
+back again and this time, kneeling on the ground, she laid at his feet
+the ripe fruit of the manzanita tree, lying like small red apples, dewy
+fresh, upon a wild-grape leaf.
+
+"Ala - ate, see! Are they not good?" she asked triumphantly.
+
+And so from day to day she ministered to him. Many a time as he sat,
+listless and moody, within his hiding-place, a handful of wild
+strawberries, steeped in the warm sweetness of the hills, would be
+pushed beneath the leafy branches that concealed the door. Sometimes she
+brought him bread baked from a curious kind of meal made of pounded
+seeds.
+
+Once, too, when a sudden storm had chilled the air, she kindled a fire
+for him within a smaller cave, receding like a fire-place into the rocky
+wall opposite the opening. It was a long and tedious process which the
+man watched curiously. First, kneeling on the ground, she rubbed
+together two dry willow sticks until a little pile of dust had gathered.
+Then, still stooping, she struck two flints together until at last a
+spark fell into the dust. Some dry leaves were dropped upon the tiny
+blaze, then twigs, and lo, a fire!
+
+In spite of himself the Englishman smiled, though a softer feeling shown
+in his eyes. How beautiful and yet how childish she looked kneeling
+there with the anxious pucker between her brows. Poor little princess,
+how very hard she worked to serve him!
+
+"It takes a long time, Wildenai," he observed, "dost thou try it often?"
+
+"Never for myself," she answered gravely. "I have no need. But I do it
+gladly for you." She smiled brightly back at him, then rose and moved
+swiftly to the doorway. "Another thing I do for you today. Wait!"
+
+And when she returned a few minutes later she brought with her,
+carefully wrapped in cool green leaves, a fish freshly caught that
+morning.
+
+"A brook trout, on my word, such as I have often taken in the streams at
+home!" exclaimed Lord Harold, amazed.
+
+"I got it far up the canyon before the sun was risen," she answered,
+delighted at his surprise.
+
+This, having quickly dressed it, she wrapped again in leaves and placed
+under the hot ashes to bake, and it being, evidently, a feast out of the
+ordinary, a merry-making to which a third guest might be bidden,
+suddenly Wildenai left the cavern again to return this time with a tiny
+gray fox perched familiarly upon her shoulder.
+
+"'Tis Onatoa, senor Englishman," she announced, gently stroking the
+bushy tail of the little creature as it lay about her neck.
+
+But from his vantage point above his rival, Onatoa merely sniffed
+disdainfully with his sharp black nose. He looked far from friendly.
+
+The princess laughed softly.
+
+He does not know you yet," she defended her pet. "He will soon learn to
+love you, too."
+
+"I will catch fish with thee next time thou goest," declared young
+Harold later as they ate together. "There's no reason I can see why I
+should stay mewed up forever in this cave. I fear not Indians! No, not
+even Torquam, thy father, himself."
+
+For an instant Wildenai seemed alarmed. Then she laughed.
+
+"You are afraid of nothing. I knew it!" she exclaimed with pride. "Nor
+would there be much danger. We will go to the other side of the island
+where the waves run high and the cliffs are tall and black. There will I
+show you the nests of the great eagles, and the antelope leaping among
+the rocks. And, - who can tell?" she laughed again with child-like
+pleasure, "perhaps we shall find a white otter!"
+
+And, true to her word, he heard at dawn next day outside the cavern the
+whistle of a blackbird, a signal early contrived between them. She
+deemed it best, she explained, to start thus early that the darkness
+might conceal them until they had passed well beyond the outskirts of
+the village. But this danger overcome, they spent the whole day rambling
+fearlessly among the hills, - a long, idle, happy day. Up many a dim
+trail winding back into the canyons the princess led him. Through golden
+thickets of wild mustard they passed, coming, when he least expected it,
+upon glimpses of the summer sea framed between the branches of knarled
+old oak trees.
+
+"They are low and crooked, and they spread themselves over the ground as
+do our English oaks," the young nobleman informed her.
+
+As Wildenai had promised they discovered, poised high among the crags of
+the wild southern shore, the great eagles of which she had told him,
+measuring easily, from wing-tip to wing-tip, fully a dozen feet. The
+white otter, rarest and most valuable of all the game hunted by her
+people, eluded them, but many a small gray fox slipped away among the
+bushes, leaving the Englishman tingling for the chase.
+
+At twilight, as they made their way back to the cavern, they came upon a
+tiny lake lying asleep within the crater of a dead volcano. From the
+sides little clouds of ashes rose, floating softly away on the breezes
+of evening. The princess gathered a handful and murmuring some musical
+words in her own tongue she threw them into the air.
+
+"And would it be amiss for me to ask what 'tis you do?" questioned her
+companion, observing her closely.
+
+"I was sending a prayer to Wakan-ate, the Great Spirit," she replied
+quietly.
+
+"A prayer, - and borne to heaven on the wings of ashes!" He seemed
+amused. "But what hast thou to pray for, oh fair princess?"
+
+Her cheeks glowing with quick color, she replied: "It were not fitting
+that any maiden tell for what she prays!"
+
+The words were spoken with such gravity that the young man flushed under
+the rebuke.
+
+When she left him at the doorway of the cavern that evening she said as
+she made a gay little gesture of farewell: "Today the land, but tomorrow
+we shall find still more beautiful things that lie hidden under the deep
+waters. You shall see!"
+
+And once again with dawn she came. This time it was the splash of a
+paddle that brought him to the opening in the rock.
+
+"Aloho-ate, lazy one!" she called gaily from below. "Make haste! The
+world is always loveliest while it lies waiting for the sun!"
+
+That day, perhaps, from among them all, lived longest within the memory
+of young Harold, - the porpoises playing fearlessly around her canoe as
+the princess, with graceful, effortless strokes, paddled around one
+after another of the pointed tongues of rock; the flying fish, skimming
+the surface of the ocean until, by virtue of their speed alone, they
+rose like gleaming bows of silver from the foam. Intent to show him all
+her treasures, Wildenai guided him to a quiet stretch of water lying
+close to shore within the shadow of tall cliffs which rose at that point
+with precipitous abruptness from the sea itself.
+
+"Here are my gardens that grow under the water," she explained, as they
+glided above the spot. "Look well at them. They are most beautiful."
+
+And gazing down at her command through the clear green into the luminous
+depths below, he caught glimpses of these gardens of the sea where
+goldfish darted like tropical birds among the branches of tall tree-like
+stalks of swaying seaweed, and strange shapes of jade and blue floated
+in the shadows.
+
+"Is it not wonderful?" she asked.
+
+"It is indeed, my Wildenai," he answered earnestly. "Never in all my
+travels, methinks, have I seen aught before like this your island here!
+It seems to me indeed a charmed land, a kind of magic isle!"
+
+One day it rained, the last belated rain of winter. But even the storm
+brought pleasures of its own, for, seated on the pile of skins beside
+him, the little gray fox curled contentedly at her feet, Wildenai worked
+at her loom. Within its dull-colored warp a blanket, woven in a strange
+design of mingled red, and black, and white, grew slowly beneath her
+busy fingers.
+
+For hours the maiden drew the short woolen threads in and out while the
+young man, stretched lazily upon the ground, told her many a tale of the
+England he had left. Then, quite without warning, she ceased her work
+and sat pensively watching through the opening in the rocks the long
+gray swell of the sea.
+
+"And what is it now, my princess?" laughed young Harold. "The pattern is
+not yet finished, nor is the rain abated."
+
+"Ah, senor Harold lord," wistfully replied the girl, "I was but wishing
+I had been born one of those same fair English maids with the eyes of
+blue and golden hair you tell about. Then would you love me even as you
+do them!" she added artlessly, and leaned her chin upon her hand,
+considering. A secret trembled on her lips.
+
+"And how if I were Spanish born?" she questioned, and lifted hesitating,
+frightened eyes to his, "dark to look at, that I know well, but even so,
+the white man's kind of princess, who also has a throne?"
+
+And all unwitting Lord Harold answered scornfully, "Spanish! Say no such
+word to me! The English hate the Spanish!" Fiercely he caught up a
+pebble and sent it whirling out across the water. "Even now their robber
+king plans his huge armada to take our queen and rule our land, but
+that, by the holy virgin herself, shall never be! Sooner will every drop
+of blood in bonny England be spilt. Never could I make thee understand
+how much I hope to be at home before he comes! Spanish indeed! Nay,
+never let me hear the hateful word again!"
+
+Then, noting her puzzled, downcast face, with the impulsive
+changeableness which had so endeared him to her, he caught one little
+brown hand and raised it to his lips.
+
+"But I do love thee even as thou art, my Wildenai," he told her with the
+careless assurance of one much older speaking to a child. "Is not a wild
+rose sweet as any garden bloom? Nay, methinks 'tis often sweeter!"
+
+Again he laughed and the little princess laughed with him now, for into
+her heart at his words had come a happiness so unlooked for and so
+wildly sweet as wholly to bewilder her. Quickly she rose, struck by a
+sudden thought, and running to the farthermost corner of the cavern she
+brushed aside a pile of leaves and lifted some stones, disclosing at
+length a box fashioned from the choicest cedar. Out of it, while the
+Englishman watched with wondering eyes, she drew a garment made of
+creamy doeskin, deeply fringed and trimmed besides with strings of
+wampum, the polished fragments of abalone shells and many-colored beads.
+Silently she brought it to him and when he touched it admiringly, for
+the dress was beautiful. "It is my marriage robe," she told him gravely.
+
+That night, while the rain tapped softly at her tepee, the princess
+dreamed of a wondrous land beyond the sea where proudly she walked by
+her white chief's side and fair women with braided, golden hair spoke
+kind words of welcome, smiling at her out of sweet blue eyes.
+
+
+
+Then, without warning, came the end of all her dreams. Hurrying along
+the beach at sunset only a few days later, Wildenai caught the first
+glimpse of the returning vessel as it stole around a distant point. For
+the space of a second her heart stood still, then throbbed wildly, but
+whether with joy or pain she could not herself have told. One question
+only demanded all her thought. Should she let Lord Harold know? Perhaps
+the great white captain would not remember their bay. Perhaps, - her
+breath came fast, - perhaps the ship, unseen by anyone, would pass and
+Lord Harold remain behind content. With hands tight-clenched she watched
+the distant sail, fear growing in her eyes. Yet she knew that she would
+tell him. Nothing else was honorable. This, surely, he must decide for
+himself.
+
+But tidings of such moment outran even her swift feet. She found him
+buckling on his swordbelt, in his eyes the glad light of some trapped
+bird which sees the door of its cage suddenly open.
+
+"The ship - " she began with sinking heart.
+
+"Yes, yes, I know! I saw it!" he answered, a fever of impatience in his
+voice. "'Tis Drake. I knew he dared not leave me! 'Twill soon be too
+close in. Needs not he risk his safety. I must go before he gains the
+shore."
+
+The princess hesitated. What meant that strange heaviness at her heart?
+Was he not still her brave, true warrior, - her great white chief? Had
+he not told her that he loved her? Crossing to where he stood she bowed
+herself before him until her silver fillet touched his feet.
+
+"I, too!" she whispered, "I shall go to England with thee!"
+
+And at her words, within the little cavern there came a silence to be
+felt. In undisguised dismay the Englishman gazed at her where she knelt.
+Then:
+
+"By the holyrood!" he muttered aghast, "She must have thought, - God
+only knows what she must have thought!"
+
+He glanced hurriedly toward the doorway and back again, ashamed. Then
+even such impatience as was his gave way, for the moment at least, to
+something more chivalric. He stooped and patted awkwardly the smooth
+black head.
+
+"Come, Wildenai, little wild rose, look up and speak to me. I must be
+going!"
+
+But still the maid lay prostrate, clasping close his rough buskins in
+her little brown hands. Never in all his life had Lord Harold been so
+sorely uncomfortable. How was it possible she had ever imagined that he
+could take her with him, - that he had meant so much? Resentment grew
+within him at the thought, yet strangely mingled always with something
+far more tender. Hastily he considered, his heart torn between the
+desire not to wound her and dread of what he knew she wanted. To be sure
+the maid was beautiful, with the softened beauty of a moonlit night in
+summer, her eyes beneath her dusky hair like stars between the branches
+of dark trees, her voice that of the forest stream when it sings itself
+to sleep. Yet past all doubt he knew that not one among the gorgeous
+throng that crowded about Elizabeth would ever see that beauty, no
+English ear take heed to hear the music of her voice. Nay, he could
+even, as he thought of it, picture the amazement of the great queen,
+could hear her scornful laughter, should he present, to help adorn her
+court, a savage Indian girl! No, a thousand times no! Such disgrace he
+could not suffer. Nor was the maid herself, so he defended himself,
+fitted for such a life. Soon would she be as unhappy in England as he
+would be to have her there. Besides, she was but a child. Else had she
+never so far forgot all womanly dignity as to force herself upon him,
+and being but a child she would soon forget. Gently he made to raise her
+to her feet.
+
+"Wildenai, little wild rose," he began again, "what thou hast asked of
+me thou dost well know thyself is an unheard of thing. Much as I owe to
+thee, and well know I that 'tis so much I never can repay it; still for
+thine own sweet sake 'tis not in this way thy reward must come. The long
+journey and the strange new life would kill thee, Wildenai." Having once
+begun he stumbled on, but half aware of how each word he uttered hurt
+her, eager only to have done with the whole sorry scene. "Thou art but a
+little wild flower. Thou couldst not live away from this, thy sunny
+island. Can'st thou not understand, my Wildenai?"
+
+He paused, waiting for a reply; but the maiden answered nothing. Silent
+she lay as though in very truth she were a wild flower tossed to earth
+and trampled upon by some uncaring foot.
+
+At last the man could bear it no longer. Forcibly he loosed her hands
+and stepped back. For a moment longer he lingered, looking down upon her
+in mingled impatience and regret; then, turning abruptly, he passed
+hastily out of the cavern and down the trail to the beach.
+
+Still the girl lay motionless. It was as if every sense were stunned,
+all power of thought suspended except to grasp the one fact that made
+her whole world empty, - he was gone! As in a dream she heard the
+grating of the pebbles when he pushed his boat into the water, heard the
+clank of the oars as they dropped into the oar-locks. Even yet she did
+not move. Then, after many minutes, she crept to the opening and
+searched the sea with eyes almost, too dim with tears to find that for
+which she sought. But yes, there it was, - a black speck against the
+golden sunset. She watched until she had seen the distant vessel put
+about, making for the open sea. Ah, now she knew that he was safe
+aboard, - no need had they to come farther into shore. Yet still she
+waited, straining her eyes to see the ship sink slowly beneath the
+horizon. One last glint of sunlight against a white sail, and it was
+gone.
+
+Then at once she rose, and moving quietly about the little cavern, she
+put all in perfect order with touch as tender as that of a mother
+preparing for its last sleep some little child. Here was the basket he
+had helped to weave, here the mat on which he had lain. Her fingers
+lingered caressingly on each thing that he had touched. There in the
+corner still stood the olla in which she had brought him water. How
+amused he had been that she could carry it on her head all the way up
+the hill from the spring without so much as spilling one drop! But that
+was all past now.
+
+When at last everything was finished she gave the little rock-walled
+room one long, lingering look, the look of one who would carry in his
+heart the image of what he beholds all the rest of his life. Then she,
+too, made her way through the doorway into the deepening dusk.
+
+
+
+On the beach below, squatted within the opened flap of his tepee,
+Torquam, mighty chief of the Mariposa, smoked his evening pipe. A
+wonderful pipe it was, long and delicately fashioned, inlaid with
+iridescent fragments of shell. Yet instantly he laid it aside as the
+slender form of his daughter darkened the doorway.
+
+"Ah, Wildenai, little wild rose, welcome art thou as sunshine after
+rain!" His eyes lighted with the tenderness never seen there by any
+other than this motherless girl. He stretched his hand to her and the
+princess came silently and knelt before him.
+
+"My father," she said firmly, though in so low a tone that Torquam bent
+to hear. "Oh, father, thou art always wise! Thou only knowest best. I
+come to thee to tell that I will wed Cabrillo. I will wed with him
+whenever thou dost choose!"
+
+Taking her face between his hands, Torquam gazed long and searchingly
+into the sorrowful eyes of his daughter.
+
+"And thou art wise to do so, my beloved one," he said at last. "He will
+make to thee a good husband." In his voice was the keen understanding of
+a father. "He will be kind to thee and heal thy wounded heart, my
+daughter. Don Cabrillo is a good man," he repeated solemnly."
+
+
+
+Miss Hastings Brings It to an End
+
+
+
+Part II
+
+
+
+Miss Hastings Brings It to an End
+
+
+
+Centuries passed, and again, with the same sweet suddenness as in the
+days gone by, spring came to Catalina. Guests of the St. Catherine,
+lounging on its wide verandahs, gazed across a sunlit sea to where the
+faint cloud that was San Jacinto hovered, the merest ghost of a
+mountain, above the misty mainland. Along the broad board-walk leading
+down to Avalon benches, shaded by brightstriped awnings, flaunted an
+invitation to every passing tourist. Strings of Japanese lanterns bobbed
+merrily above the narrow village streets. Everywhere were laughter and
+movement and color from the bathing beaches, dotted with gay umbrellas -
+even to the last yacht anchored round the point.
+
+To the man making slow progress down the crowded wharf from the
+afternoon boat this holiday world into which he thus suddenly stepped,
+presented an appearance so different from that he had pictured as almost
+to bewilder him. At sight of the jaunty little motorbus waiting to haul
+him up the winding grade to the hotel, he actually hesitated. Yet seldom
+before, to his knowledge, had he found it difficult to adapt himself to
+an unexpected situation.
+
+"Hotel St. Catherine! Bus to the hotel, sir?"
+
+Other guests, more certain of their intentions, pushed impatiently
+against him, and presently he found himself, wedged well toward the
+middle of the long seat, chugging comfortably up the hill. Still
+half-daunted, he gazed about him. It was all of it charming to be sure,
+fascinating even; yet, could this festive summering place be the Avalon
+of his dreams? Was this the quaint village of Spanish times, reaching
+back still further through dimly remembered Indian lore to a world lost
+now except to legend? Yet it was for the sake of a mere legend, a
+fanciful tale handed down in his family through many a generation, that
+he had made the long journey from New York to California, nor - and here
+he set his lips with dogged determination, did he intend to return until
+he had found that for which he searched.
+
+It was now something over two years since Harrison Blair, then fresh
+from Yale, had astonished both those who wished him well and those who,
+for various envious reasons, did not, with the wholly unreasonable
+success of his first book. For, to those who did not understand, his
+sudden fame had seemed all the more surprising in that it rested upon
+nothing more substantial than a slender volume of Indian verse. So
+unusual, however, had been his treatment of this well-worn subject as to
+call forth more than a little comment from even the most conservative of
+critics. The Brush and Pen had hastened to confer upon him an honorary
+membership. Cadmon, magic weaver of Indian music, had written a warm
+letter of appreciation. And, most precious tribute of all, the Atlantic
+Monthly had become interested in his career.
+
+To be sure, it was nothing more than might have been expected of a man
+whose undergraduate work in English had aroused the reluctant wonder of
+more than one instructor. Nevertheless, the fact that he pulled stroke
+on the 'varsity crew had somewhat blinded other contemporaries to his
+more scholarly attainments. Nor had anyone thought it probable, because
+of his father's wealth, that Blair, in any event, would feel called upon
+to do much more than make a frolic of life. No one, indeed, had been
+more taken aback than had his father to find him, a year after
+graduation, drudging over the assistant editor's desk of a struggling
+magazine the payroll of which, to put it mildly, offered no financial
+inducements.
+
+"It's good practice for me, though, - quickest way to learn," was all he
+vouchsafed when the older man remonstrated.
+
+Yet, had that same father, shrewd capitalist that he was, but taken the
+trouble to reason back from premises evident enough, he might have been
+the first to realize that this tall son of his, with the keen gray eyes
+and a face the strength of which was but increased by the high cheek
+bones and squarely molded chin, was scarcely the type of man to sit idly
+by enjoying the fruits of another's labor.
+
+And now, after two years more of grinding apprenticeship, he had in mind
+something much bigger than the slender volume of verse, - an adventure
+into authorship more suited to his metal, - a story for which an intense
+personal sympathy would furnish fitting atmosphere, with the final spur
+to his ambition a letter from the Atlantic even at the moment stowed
+safely away in his pocket.
+
+Some two hours later, after an unexpectedly excellent dinner in the
+luxurious dining room, he sauntered over to the hotel desk. There was no
+more than the faintest probability that a clerk of the St. Catherine
+would be able to tell him how to reach a secret cavern bower above the
+Bay of Moons; still, he had to enter an opening wedge somewhere. The one
+man on duty was for the moment occupied with another guest, and Blair,
+lighting his after-dinner cigar, prepared with leisurely patience to
+await his turn.
+
+The guest happened to be a young woman, rather pretty, he casually
+decided, although her greatest claim to beauty lay more, perhaps, in the
+swift changes in expression of which her face was capable, than in any
+actual regularity of line. For lack of anything better to do, Blair
+watched idly her encounter with the clerk. There appeared to be some
+kind of misunderstanding.
+
+"Awfully sorry it's happened that way, Miss Hastings," the man behind
+the desk was saying. He lifted with genuine reluctance the key she had
+just laid down. "We'd be mighty sorry to interfere with your work, but
+those small rooms always do go first. You know that yourself."
+
+"I hadn't heard about it, though. I didn't know they were all gone." Her
+voice quivered with disappointment.
+
+Blair, whose vocation taught him a certain technical sympathy, shot a
+swift glance at her. She couldn't be more than twenty-two or
+thereabouts, he decided less casually, and went on to observe her still
+further. She wore a shabby, broad-brimmed hat much faded as if from
+constant exposure to the sun, but the shadows in the coil of hair
+beneath were warmly golden.
+
+"Couldn't you find a room down in the village somewhere, - at Mrs.
+Merrill's perhaps?" suggested the clerk.
+
+"But Mrs. Merrill isn't here this spring." In spite of its quiver the
+voice was very sweet.
+
+"No," she started to turn away, "I'll have to put it off again, I
+suppose. I've looked everywhere."
+
+She took a step or two, hesitated, then returned to the desk.
+
+"You're positive there isn't a single one of the small rooms left?" she
+pleaded. "I wouldn't care how far back it was, - anything would do. You
+can't think how I hate to give up. I had so hoped to finish it this
+time!"
+
+The man shook his head.
+
+"No, we're absolutely full just now. Later on there might be something,
+- after the season is over."
+
+"But that will be after school begins," answered the girl bitterly. "I
+can't work at all then!" and catching up a bag fully as shabby as the
+hat, she hurried away.
+
+"Who is she?" asked Blair abruptly, overlooking for the moment his
+original purpose in seeking the man.
+
+"School-teacher from Pasadena," replied the clerk briefly. "Teaches art
+in some private school over there, I believe." He eyed Blair amusedly.
+"Think you've met her before somewhere?"
+
+Blair allowed his annoyance to show. "No, never laid eyes on her till
+just now. But I couldn't help feeling a bit sorry for her," he
+persisted. "She seemed so sort of cut up. What's the trouble?"
+
+"I'm sorry for her myself," declared the man on the other side as he
+hung the returned key on its board. "This is the third time that poor
+little woman's had to leave before she could finish what she came for on
+account of the expense. But what can we do?" He shrugged his shoulders.
+"The St. Catherine isn't exactly a Y. W. C. A."
+
+"What is it she's trying to do?"
+
+Amusement deepened in the man's eyes.
+
+"She's supposed to be painting Indians."
+
+"Indians!" To the amazement of the other man Blair suddenly leaned
+forward, his eyes agleam with interest.
+
+"But I didn't know there were any around here."
+
+"There aren't."
+
+"Then how - ?"
+
+"Makes 'em up out of her head, I guess. I never heard that she had even
+a model."
+
+"But - but what I want to know is why she comes here at all?" The
+situation seemed to Blair to offer possibilities, yet he was thoroughly
+puzzled. "I met a fellow on the train who does that sort of thing, but
+he always goes to the desert to paint, - at least he said he did."
+
+"Yes, they do mostly. Probably he meant Taos, - whole nest of artists at
+Taos."
+
+"Well, but why in thunder then - ?"
+
+The clerk smiled skeptically.
+
+"Why, you see, it's something like this. Miss Hastings' bent on being an
+illustrator, pays better than teaching, I suppose, or - well, at any
+rate, that's what she's aiming for, - and she has an idea that if she
+can only get a series of pictures, - several of them on the same
+subject, you understand, - accepted by one of those Eastern magazines,
+she can soon work in with some big publisher and get an order. She told
+us all about it one night last winter when she was over."
+
+"But in heaven's name, why Indians?" persisted Blair.
+
+"Because she thinks she's found some good material here. She told me
+about that, too. Seems there's an old legend connected with Catalina,
+about an Indian princess and a cavern. The princess died of a broken
+heart or something of the sort, I believe she said. I never heard the
+particulars myself. Nobody else, either, seems to know anything about
+it. But Miss Hastings says there's quite a story, and she's got it all
+down pat from A to Z. She's using it for her series."
+
+A porter brought up some newcomers and Blair stepped aside. But the
+moment his man was at leisure again he cornered him at once. An idea had
+come to him, an idea almost dazzling in its possibilities.
+
+"You say she hasn't finished her series yet?"
+
+"Beg pardon? Oh, the teacher?" The man shook his head. "Evidently not
+from what she said just now. She never stays long enough really to put
+it over. Every few months she bobs up over a week-end, but that doesn't
+give her time even to visit some of the places she's after. She never
+seems to get much more than started before she has to go home again."
+
+For a moment Blair smoked in silence. Then:
+
+"Look here," he cut in abruptly, "You split my suite and give her one of
+my rooms."
+
+The man's eyebrows rose in surprise.
+
+"Her? What do you mean?"
+
+Blair made an impatient gesture.
+
+"Why, this Miss - the teacher, you know. Didn't you just say you hadn't
+any room for her? Well, I've got three, you know."
+
+"Yes, but that's altogether a different proposition. You made your
+reservation weeks ago."
+
+"But you could still give her one of them, couldn't you?"
+
+Clerks in large hotels listen with patience to a vast number of strange
+proposals, but at this from Blair, the man opposite eyed him in
+unflattering amazement.
+
+"But you said, when you wired, you wanted the extra room to work in," he
+objected, "and you'll remember, Mr. Blair, that you were pretty emphatic
+about it, too, at the time. We went to all kinds of trouble to fix that
+up for you."
+
+"I can get along all right without it, though," coolly observed his
+changeable guest, "and I'd rather she'd have it. It's possible to split
+suites here, isn't it?" he persisted. "They do at most hotels."
+
+"It's possible, of course." Across the desk the eyes of the two men met
+squarely. "That part of it's easy enough. But why? and who's going to
+pay for it?"
+
+"I'm going to pay for it! What did you suppose?" exploded Blair. "It's
+worth that and a lot more to me just now to keep her from getting away.
+Oh, I'm in earnest all right. I mean it! Look here! Can't you see how
+that woman can be a perfect gold mine to me? You know enough about my
+work to understand that I'm really out here after Indians myself, and
+she - well, I'll wager a cool thousand there isn't a spot on this whole
+island that ever dreamed of seeing an Indian that she doesn't know all
+about!"
+
+The clerk nodded. "But - "
+
+"But nothing!" Impatiently Blair brushed aside all objections. "Why, I
+hadn't the remotest idea how I was going to get started. It's a rattling
+piece of good luck, and we'll fix it up right now!"
+
+"Yes, but - " Still the other man hesitated. "It sounds all right
+enough, - from your end of it especially, but you'd better see her
+first. She's a proud little piece, - doesn't like obligations of any
+kind, - and a stranger, - a man - I'm sorry to discourage you, but I
+don't believe she'll have a thing to do with it."
+
+In Blair's eyes impatience threatened to become something more emphatic.
+
+"It's a business proposition pure and simple," he argued. "She gives me
+all the information she's been able to get together, and I pay her
+expenses while she does it. That gives her a chance to finish her own
+work, don't you see? A mighty good proposition for her, too, I should
+say, and if she doesn't see it that way herself, - why, - well, she
+isn't as intelligent as she looks, that's all!"
+
+"Providing you can persuade her it is just business. I'd advise you to
+talk with her first, just the same. And you'll have to be quick about
+it, too. She's planning to wait in the village tonight for the morning
+boat, and she'll be starting down about now."
+
+
+
+Outside was one of those radiant nights intended for dreams and the
+makers of dreams. Over an ocean white with light long breakers rolled
+crests gleaming with silver that fell in soft thunder on the beach. Miss
+Hastings, hurrying along the board-walk to the village, glanced at them
+and looked quickly away.
+
+"Oh, I say!" came a voice out of the darkness behind her, "if you don't
+mind, hold on there a minute, will you? Wait for me, please!" The voice
+was that of a man, pleasant, but exceedingly determined. Without so much
+as turning her head Miss Hastings quickened her steps.
+
+But it was of no use. Whoever her pursuer might be, he was even then at
+her side.
+
+"I beg your pardon," breathlessly he began again, "but I've been chasing
+you all the way down from the hotel. I want you to come right back there
+with me. I have a proposal to make to you."
+
+Even in the darkness he could see how the girl's eyes blazed.
+
+"I never listen - " she began hotly, "to proposals from people I don't
+know," she had meant to add, but he gave her no time.
+
+"It will mean the biggest chance for your pictures you've ever had," he
+broke in. "Now, listen!"
+
+And, to her complete surprise, Miss Hastings suddenly found herself
+doing that very thing.
+
+"There are a lot of things I've got to find out right away," continued
+the astonishing stranger, "and the clerk up there tells me you're
+painting a series of Indian portraits."
+
+The little art teacher gazed at him fascinated. What manner of man could
+this be, she wondered.
+
+"I don't see the connection - " Coldness struggled with curiosity in her
+voice.
+
+"Listen!" With uplifted, peremptory hand again he stopped her. Nor is it
+safe to say that any book agent, watching the door slowly closing upon
+him, ever talked faster, or more rigidly to the point, than did Blair
+within the next few minutes.
+
+"Perhaps you won't understand it all right off. I wouldn't expect that.
+But it's this way. I'm representing Harper's, and Houghton and Mifflin,
+and Dodd and Mead, and - several other firms" (to satisfy his conscience
+Blair contended with himself that he might as well as not have been
+their representative - a mere oversight on their part ought not to be
+allowed to stand in his way), "and I'm out here to find the best
+illustrator I can lay hands on to do the pictures for some Indian stuff
+I'm getting into shape for one of 'em. I want to see your work. And, if
+I like it, I'll pay you well. And anyway, I'll pay every bit of the
+expense while you finish your series here if you'll tell me what you
+know about Wildenai!"
+
+But, at the name, the girl beside him had given a low cry of utter
+amazement. She stopped short.
+
+"Do you know it too, then?" she gasped. "How did you hear about it?"
+
+"Oh, I've known it for years," replied Blair carelessly. "Some of it
+I've known all my life. But look here now. Is it a bargain? - about your
+helping me, I mean?"
+
+Before he left her, an hour or so later, every detail had been arranged.
+Miss Hastings had meekly agreed to return to the hotel in the morning.
+Blair would pay her expenses and something he called a retaining fee
+besides. That would make an extra fifty dollars, - she smiled to herself
+in the dark, - a new winter suit at least, and perhaps one or two
+matinees if she managed! All this for the information she could give him
+about the island and its history. The various points in their contract
+spun dizzily in her dazed brain. No spot known to legend to which it was
+possible to conduct him should remain unvisited. Four hours out of every
+day were pledged without fail to his interests. The rest of the time she
+might have for her own work. It had all come about so unexpectedly, and
+was altogether so extraordinary that, after he had gone, his new
+employe, stretched uncomfortably upon a narrow cot in the tent of a
+fellow teacher, spent the remainder of the night in imaginary interviews
+with Eastern publishers regarding impossible royalties. She was far too
+excited to sleep.
+
+And, for a week, the arrangement worked very well, - almost too well.
+Every day brought with it some new adventure, and every adventure became
+a pleasure.
+
+Mounted at Blair's expense on more or less energetic ponies, for from
+the first he had insisted that horses were a necessary part of their
+business equipment, they cantered gaily along the shady canyon trails,
+or over the sunlit slopes sheeted in pale lavender wherever the wild
+lilacs were in bloom. Often, emerging from some thicket of dwarf oak
+they caught glimpses of a sapphire sea held between red, twisted
+branches of manzanita as in a frame. About them rang the music of the
+meadow larks. Merry shouts of bathers floated up from the beaches far
+below, mingled with the distant click of golf balls on the greens.
+
+For the whole of a golden day they chartered a sailboat from one, Capt.
+Warren, and rounding the yellow headlands under his lazy guidance, they
+went to examine the Ning Po, the ancient Chinese barge stranded, no one
+knew how many hundreds of years before, among the rocks off the isthmus.
+
+"Fascinating old place," observed Blair gazing, his eyes aglow with
+interest, around the mediaeval cabin. "Don't doubt a dozen murders at
+least were pulled off in this one room!"
+
+"Oh yes, of course," eagerly echoed his assistant. "It's absolutely
+unique!"
+
+Her gaze, as bright with interest as his own, rested upon Blair himself.
+She was considering, absent-mindedly, how becoming white trousers can be
+to most men, especially when they are reasonably dark themselves. But, -
+her glance travelled upward, - how unusually dark he was, and his hair,
+- yes, without question, the straightest and blackest she had ever seen.
+Yet it seemed in some indefinable way to become him, - to belong, as it
+were, to his type. Leaning her elbows meditatively upon the rusty
+anchor, her chin in her hands, she silently appraised him. He really was
+a handsome man, she decided, and clever, too, of the sort who does
+things in the world! A dreamy light grew within her eyes.
+
+It was only two or three evenings later when, on their way back from the
+site of an historic Indian village on the other side of the island, they
+walked their horses slowly around the Wishbone Loop, the ostensible
+reason being that, as Blair had already discovered, it commanded the
+widest view of the ocean at sunset.
+
+He was the first to speak when they struck again into the main trail.
+
+"I wished for something about a rose, a wild rose, - want to guess?" He
+eyed her mischievously.
+
+"Hush, - mustn't tell!" she laughed. "Your wish won't come true if you
+tell." Then, for no reason at all, she blushed.
+
+Never, in truth, during her twenty-three years of working, and
+scrimping, and going without, had life shown to the little art teacher
+so fair and generous a side, seemed so extravagantly joyous an affair as
+during that magic week. The spending of money, it was easy to see, meant
+little or nothing to Blair. But that was the least of his attractions,
+for, to the girl herself, mere wealth for its own sake had never
+appealed. The charm lay rather in the genial broadness of his view of
+things, the strength of reasoning behind the few opinions he put
+forward, his reticence, and quiet modesty. In these dwelt the spell that
+swept her into an almost delirious enjoyment of his society. For, all
+unknown to herself, like many another woman in like condition, she had
+needed a change of people. In the cramped life of a private school men
+played but little part, and the men who were most worth while, almost no
+part at all. Instinctively, in time, she had wearied of little girls and
+their lessons. Sorely had she craved the stimulus which only the
+companionship of congenial men can give. Of this fact, however, she had
+been even less aware.
+
+One crisp morning, seated in a diminutive wicker cart behind a
+discontented pony, they searched out Chicken John's cabin on the mesa
+behind the golf links.
+
+"Not that it has anything to do with Indians," she apologized, "only I
+want you to see him. He's such a character, so nice and untidy and
+queer!"
+
+As a result of this expedition they brought away with them what old John
+designated a "plump little fry" to be served at the cosy table for two
+in the sunniest window of the dining room, a luxury which Blair had
+likewise confiscated in the interests of business.
+
+And so for seven glorious days they tramped the fragrant hills, or
+sailed a sea as softly blue as though fallen fresh that morning from the
+cloudless heaven above. In the warmth and glow of his friendship the
+starved heart of the little art teacher opened like some hot-house
+flower carried suddenly into the wide outdoors. And when at last the
+week drew to an end, their work, both his and hers, was still
+unfinished, so that there was nothing else to do but to live on through
+another fully as wonderful.
+
+Blair himself took things much more for granted, and even when their
+talk strayed farthest afield it was plain to the girl that his mind
+never fully lost sight of the purpose for which he had come. His work
+stood always first, while, - she blushed to own it even to herself, -
+she had sometimes entirely forgotten her own.
+
+At the end of the third week they had seen almost everything he
+considered essential and at times she sensed in his manner, even when he
+was least aware of it, a kind of repressed impatience. She knew what it
+meant and shivered. Presently he would leave her, and life would become
+again the same dull round of work. Only one spot of real importance
+remained unvisited, - the cavern bower above the Bay of Moons. Of this
+he had spoken frequently, and well she knew he held it the climax of his
+search.
+
+But for reasons best known to herself Miss Hastings put off from day to
+day this final expedition until Blair began to chaff at the delay.
+
+"That's really the one place I came to see!" he told her more than once.
+"After I've been there I think I can go."
+
+"But we've planned Middle Ranch for today," she would answer evasively,
+or, "This is the best time to see Orazaba; it's so clear this morning.
+That's the mountain, you know, where the Indians carved out their ollas.
+Some of them are still there, only half cut away. It would be too bad
+for you to miss that."
+
+At length, however, there came a day when excuses would do no longer.
+
+"We've waited long enough," he declared that morning over their coffee,
+"Besides, I may have to go now in a few days."
+
+And although at his words the sunshine of her new world faded suddenly
+away, yet the little teacher kept a brave front. She even laughed
+carelessly.
+
+"Men are so impatient," she teased, "But we'll go today."
+
+Nevertheless, it was not until the rose of sunset rested among the hills
+that at last they found themselves on the crest of the tall cliff which
+commanded so wide a stretch of the ocean and the shimmering valleys
+below.
+
+"It reminds one of the Bay of Naples," observed Blair, pausing to scan
+the rocky coastline against which, far beneath them, the foaming
+breakers threw themselves. He shaded his eyes with his hand and looked
+far out to sea. "What a wonderful place for a watch tower it would have
+made!"
+
+"It had one once," softly replied the girl, "Wildenai's watch tower!"
+
+Blair turned, their eyes met, and he smiled.
+
+"It's been splendid to have you with me all these days," he said, "I've
+been wanting to tell you. You've been more of a help than you'll ever
+know." And then, after a pause, "It's because you care so much about the
+story yourself, I suppose, that you've been such an inspiration to me."
+
+Something in the girl's heart seemed suddenly to snap.
+
+"It's because I care more about your work, and - and you. You are so
+wonderful!" she broke forth impulsively, and stood before him crimson
+with confusion. For a second, which seemed to her an age, there was
+silence. Then he spoke and, in her bitter humiliation, his voice sounded
+strained and cold.
+
+"Shall we go in?" he asked.
+
+Silently he parted the tangle of manzanita that for centuries had veiled
+the secrets of the princess, and stood aside for her to enter. Wildly
+the little art teacher glanced about her. This moment to which she had
+so looked forward, and yet had dreaded as much because it meant the end,
+- this moment which might, nevertheless, have meant much to them both
+even though it were the end, she herself had spoiled! All its delicate
+beauty changed to a sordid suspicion, it lay in ruins now because of her
+thoughtless words. She dared not guess at what he must be thinking! For
+a desperate second she considered flight. Then proudly she raised her
+head. One more thing, at least, about her now he should learn!
+
+"Did you know - ?" she began, then broke off irresolute.
+
+Blair glanced at her and again their eyes met. This time he did not
+smile.
+
+"Know what?" he asked.
+
+She laughed with embarrassment.
+
+"It really isn't of any interest to you, but - " and again she paused.
+
+"Suppose you let me be the judge of that," he suggested stiffly. "You're
+making me horribly curious, you know. You can't very well drop the
+subject now." He was evidently making an effort at pleasantry.
+
+She flushed brightly.
+
+"Of course it couldn't be of the slightest importance to anyone except
+myself," she explained. Then, as if doubting her courage to continue
+long, she hurried on, "but one reason I take such an interest in - your
+work is because I'm a direct descendant of Lord Harold myself. He became
+the Duke of Norfolk afterward, you know, but Hastings was always the
+family name." She flashed him a haughty glance, a pride that changed to
+wideeyed surprise as she noted his amazement.
+
+"Not really?" He had turned abruptly and in his eyes there was a curious
+expression, almost of alarm. "How extraordinary, - how perfectly
+extraordinary!"
+
+"Why extraordinary?" That her cup of humiliation might brim to the full,
+resentment was added to confusion. "You consider me unworthy, then, of
+having had nobility among my ancestry? But, just the same, there was
+nothing strange about it. The colonies were chiefly English, you
+remember!" He smiled at her sarcasm. "The duke married one of
+Elizabeth's ladies-in-waiting after he went home and there was a younger
+son, and he had a younger son, and after a long time one of them came
+over to Virginia just like anybody else. They have always been good,
+loyal, highly respected American citizens," she told him fiercely, "and
+I'm proud of them! Besides - " with reckless emphasis, "I've always felt
+so sorry for Wildenai."
+
+But at this point, quite incomprehensibly, Blair broke into peals of
+laughter.
+
+"And by and by, after a long, long time, one of these good, loyal,
+American citizens that we're both so proud of had a hot-tempered, most
+disloyal little daughter who intends to show her employer his proper
+place before she dismisses him! But why are you sorry for Wildenai?"
+
+With mischievous eyes he searched her face.
+
+She flushed, then, looking squarely at him, "Because she was impulsive
+like me, and just for that reason Lord Harold ran away and left her,"
+she said. "He's the only one of them I never had any use for."
+
+Blair wandered the length of the cavern and back before he replied.
+
+"You think him a coward, I suppose." He still looked as though he wanted
+to laugh, yet something in his tone seared her outraged pride. He might
+as well have touched an iron to quivering flesh. "You ought to remember,
+however, - I mean every woman ought to remember, - that when a girl lets
+a man know that she cares for him she generally forfeits, then and
+there, whatever interest she may have had for him. Wildenai risked too
+much. Of course, in her case there was some excuse. She was only an
+untrained barbarian. But, under ordinary circumstances, I tell you
+there's nothing a man despises so much!"
+
+What was done or said after that Miss Hastings never could have told.
+She was possessed of but one desire, - to get away, to go back to the
+hotel, - home, anywhere beyond the reach of his voice and his eyes. For
+the moment she hated him, and although Blair, conscience smitten at he
+knew not what, waited in the lobby a full hour before going in to
+dinner, she did not come down.
+
+Up in her room, mechanically brushing her hair for the night, Miss
+Hastings stormily addressed the girl in the glass who stared so
+scornfully back at her.
+
+"I tell you I don't care a thing about it! He probably thought he was
+justified in every word he said. He's probably smiling this very minute
+because he thinks he managed it so well! But he's a coward just the
+same, and I despise him, - I do despise him!" Her eyes brimming with
+tears, she fiercely repeated the word. "Well, he'll soon find out how
+much I really meant!"
+
+Over and over she re-lived the short scene, - all of its humiliation,
+all of its hurt, seeking at every turn solace for her woman's pride.
+
+"Naturally I wanted to help him all I could, to appear, at least, to be
+interested, especially when he was paying so much for it! It was only a
+business arrangement anyway," she continued bitterly, "nothing but
+business from start to finish, and if he doesn't know that yet, he'll
+find it out the very first thing tomorrow morning!"
+
+And having tumbled into bed she lay staring into the dark, planning the
+details of a campaign warranted either to cure or kill the enemy.
+Outside, a mocking bird, perched provokingly near her window, kept the
+night ringing with music. Resolutely she closed her ears to his song.
+But presently, through the faint fragrance of oleanders, other sounds
+began to penetrate, - the strains of the waltz to which they had danced
+only the night before. The little art teacher turned wearily over and
+cried herself to sleep.
+
+On the morning which followed she rose very early, however, much too
+early to breakfast with Blair at the little table in the sunny corner.
+Instead, she ordered some coffee and toast at Jim's Waffle Shop in the
+village and was hard at work sketching on the wharf before eight
+o'clock. She had suddenly remembered a promise to sketch Capt. Warren's
+dog holding the gaff, a feat of which both Pal and his master were
+justifiably proud. Indeed, so long had the arrangement been made and so
+entirely had it been neglected, that no one was more surprised than the
+Captain himself at her unexpected appearance.
+
+"But Pal and me ought to be at the Tuna Club in fifteen minutes, to take
+a party o' members out fishin'," he demurred. "You can't paint Pal in no
+quarter of an hour!"
+
+"I'm sorry to have had to put it off so long," replied Miss Hastings
+crisply, "but I'm planning to go home in a few days now, - this
+afternoon probably. It's the only chance I shall have." And she prepared
+to make good the belated promise with such determination that, after a
+wistful glance or two across the slapping white caps, the old skipper
+meekly succumbed.
+
+It was here Blair found her an hour or so later. Unceremoniously he
+placed himself in front of her, his hands in his pockets, and gave vent
+to a low whistle.
+
+"Well, of all the - !"
+
+"Oh, is it you, Mr. Blair?" she inquired in cool, sweet tones. "I
+thought most probably you'd gone! Didn't you say yesterday you intended
+to as soon as you'd seen the cavern?" Then, after a pause during which
+Blair said nothing, "I've been getting dreadfully behind with my own
+work, so I thought, if you didn't mind, I'd try to catch up a little
+this morning."
+
+"Certainly not. Take all the time you want! We've about finished anyway,
+I guess." His coolness matched her own.
+
+Another silence during which she painted furiously.
+
+"I'm making a sketch of Pal holding the gaff," she ventured at length
+when the strain had become too uncomfortable.
+
+"So I see."
+
+This second tentative effort at conversation having flickered and gone
+out she bent again to her work, while Blair remained, looking down at
+her, in his eyes mingled amusement and resentment. What had he done, he
+wondered, to account for such a change? Or, perhaps, it was something he
+had not done. He tried again.
+
+"Aren't we going for our ride this morning? It's a glorious day, and I
+have the refusal of the two best horses."
+
+"No, I think not, - not this morning, thank you," she answered. In her
+voice was the same crisp sweetness. "I haven't time!"
+
+With a shrug of pure bewilderment he backed away, then lingered a moment
+longer to watch the sketch take shape beneath her hurrying brush. That
+was the particular moment Miss Hastings chose for the final reckless
+stab.
+
+"You're standing in my light," she said. "If you'd just as soon, please
+do go away, Mr. Blair. It makes me nervous to have people looking over
+my shoulder when I'm trying to paint."
+
+This was just a trifle more than Blair at the moment was prepared to
+stand. His eyes grew dark.
+
+"Certainly," he replied icily. "So sorry to have bothered you at all. I
+only came down to tell you that I've decided to leave today. There's
+nothing more to keep me now, I think, and I'm rather anxious to get
+home. You'll find your check at the desk." And he sauntered away.
+
+She did not go back to the hotel for luncheon. She had finished her
+sketch, yet, somehow, when the time came, she discovered that it would
+be quite impossible to enter the dining room. She found it equally
+impossible to take the afternoon boat herself. Instead, having clambered
+half way up the steep slope to the cavern, she watched from behind a
+flaming riot of wild nasturtians while, preceded by a hotel porter
+bearing bags and suit-cases, Blair boarded the Avalon for Los Angeles.
+He was going away, then, without even a word of farewell.
+
+The heart of the little art teacher turned cold within her, so cold that
+she sank numbly into the red and gold tangle; nor did she look up again
+until the steamer, dipping below the horizon, had left only a trail of
+smoke to show where it disappeared. She had not believed that he would
+do quite that!
+
+When evening came she went stoically in to dinner. There was no reason
+any longer for staying away. Sternly she kept her eyes from the vacant
+place opposite. Yet somehow she could not persuade herself that he was
+really gone. More than once she caught herself watching the door, half
+expecting to see him stroll in with apologies for tardiness and take his
+empty chair. When again the orchestra drifted suddenly into the waltz to
+which they had danced, she rose abruptly and left the room.
+
+Well, she would go herself in the morning. She would settle everything
+and pack her things at once. She went to the desk to ask for the check.
+But there was nothing for her. No, the clerk assured her after much
+fumbling, Mr. Blair hadn't left anything, either in her box or his own.
+But, - the man stole a covert glance at her downcast face, - he was
+still holding his rooms. Probably he meant to attend to it when he
+returned.
+
+That he might not see the wild joy that leaped to her eyes, Miss
+Hastings turned with startling suddenness and fled upstairs. Safe in her
+own room she flung herself with tears and laughter on the bed. So that
+was the hand he was playing, was it? - the dear, wicked, unmanageable - !
+Of course he would have to be punished, - well punished! but - she
+laughed aloud for pure joy - the world was a radiant place once more,
+and nothing of any sort really mattered, because he was coming back.
+
+But the next day went by, and the next, and he had not come. Day after
+day passed in an empty procession, yet no one of them brought that for
+which she waited. And there was nothing else to do. Work was out of the
+question. She could not sit still long enough. It became, instead, her
+sole occupation to linger each morning and afternoon on the verandah
+until the steamer from Los Angeles had rounded the point and crossed the
+bay in front of the hotel. Then, hidden behind the palms she would watch
+until the last straggling tourist had left the pier. But still he did
+not come.
+
+Doubt in every tormenting guise assailed her. Perhaps he had changed his
+mind and decided later not to return. Yet the clerk had said he meant to
+come back! Perhaps her check, sent by mail, was even now in her box. But
+she had not the courage to go again to the desk. Driven by alternate
+hope and fear she lost color, and she could not sleep. During seven
+miserable nights she planned to go back to Pasadena by the morning boat,
+and as many times she put it off. Yet, if he did return to find her
+waiting, what, then, would she have given him the right to think? But,
+on the other hand, if she went she might never see him again!
+
+On the eighth day she took herself grimly in hand. No longer would she
+humiliate herself by any further delay. Wildenai had not waited, and
+even a school teacher can be as proud as an Indian princess! That very
+afternoon she would finish her sketch of the cavern. Then tomorrow she
+would go back to Pasadena and the long gray round of work. Desolately
+she wandered up the secret trail to Wildenai's bower. Never had her
+sympathy for the deserted princess been so keen. Perhaps, she mournfully
+considered, if the spirit of the Indian maiden still lingered there it
+might feel sympathy for her as well. Perhaps she, too, would find
+comfort in the spot where that other woman had paid an equal price for
+her impulsiveness.
+
+The shadows in the little cavern were dark and cool and, laying aside
+her box of colors, for a long time she sat quite motionless, staring out
+to where the gulls drifted and glinted against the blue. She heard after
+a while the whistle of the approaching steamer but gave no heed. Lying
+back against the moss she had almost dropped asleep when something in
+the corner opposite attracted her attention. She sat up nervously and
+stared into the shadows. Was it only that the darkness was deeper over
+there, or was that really something propped against the wall? And had it
+moved?
+
+In the years that followed she never knew how long she sat there after
+the stones had been lifted away, holding in her lap those shreds of torn
+white doeskin. Still caught together, though in tatters, by long strings
+of shells and beads, they shone, a ghostly film of white from out the
+dimness. A breath, and the whole would have crumbled into dust. Yet the
+beads, she noticed, were still perfect as when strung by slim brown
+fingers centuries before. Only half believing it was not all of it a
+dream, she lifted them strand after strand. Then, suddenly, she gave a
+little cry. Somewhere from out the torn folds a slender chain had
+slipped. Trembling with a curiosity that bordered close on terror, she
+carried it to the light, and there it glowed, a glancing stream of
+crimson, in her hand.
+
+"Wildenai's necklace!" she breathed, and hid her face.
+
+There came the sound of a step outside. The manzanita branches were
+pushed impatiently aside and he stood before her.
+
+The journey across the channel from Los Angeles had seemed twice as long
+as when he made it a few weeks before, and he had hurried all the way
+from the hotel straight to the little cavern. But now that he had found
+her again, there seemed to be plenty of time for everything, and he
+stood quite silent looking down at her. He was glad he had found her
+there, glad, in a curious, unreasoning way, for the quiet of the late
+afternoon, for the faint fragrance of the Mariposa lilies blooming just
+beyond the ledge. Yet he let her know nothing of this in what he said.
+
+"So here you are, after all! I thought I should find you here."
+
+She had not heard him come and was startled into a cry.
+
+"You!" she gasped, and lifted eyes in which the telltale signs of tears
+were still quite evident, so evident that, with a woman's instinct to
+hide them, she caught up the necklace and held it toward him.
+
+"See what I've found!" she exclaimed.
+
+But he paid no heed. Instead, manlike, he proceeded, quite
+unconsciously, to say the one thing that could hurt her most.
+
+"I looked for you at the hotel first, then I came on up here. I knew you
+wouldn't go till I came!"
+
+The color that had flooded her face at the sound of his voice faded
+again. She was quite white as she asked quietly:
+
+"How could you know I would stay?"
+
+He laughed easily, settling himself confidently on the moss at her side.
+
+"Because I hadn't paid you yet," he answered gaily. "Don't you think
+that was clever of me, Wildenai?"
+
+"I would rather you did not call me that," she told him coldly, "It
+sounds irreverent." And she dropped her eyes, which had filled again
+miserably, to the film of white in her lap. Then, with a pitiful attempt
+to hurt him in return: "Of course you realize that I really don't know
+much about you. I don't want you to think that I distrusted you exactly
+- " she marvelled at herself that she could say such things to him, but
+went recklessly on. "The check wasn't there, - and so, well, it seemed
+wisest to wait. They said you were coming back, and I couldn't afford to
+lose it; so I stayed. Just a matter of business, you see!" She finished
+in a tone which, except for a suspicious tremble, was satisfactorily
+disagreeable.
+
+But Blair's armor, since his return, seemed proof against such thrusts
+as she could give.
+
+"Won't play Indian at all, then?" he retorted teasingly. "But of course
+not! How could you when you happen to come from the other side of the
+house? However," he continued whimsically, "there are such things as
+English roses, you know. I've always loved them, too, even when they
+were thorny!"
+
+He pulled absently at a fern growing near, while, suddenly, for no
+particular reason, the color glowed again in the cheeks of the little
+art teacher. She smiled, half unwillingly.
+
+"But don't pull up the wild flowers here," she warned him, "You'll have
+the forester after you! When did you get back?" she added. "Where have
+you been so long?" burned on her lips, but she scorned to ask it.
+
+"About an hour ago," he replied amiably. "The boat was late."
+
+"I was beginning to think you'd given up coming at all." She could not
+keep it back. "The duke never bothered to, you know."
+
+But this blow, like the first, failed to reach any vulnerable spot.
+Blair did not flinch.
+
+"No, naturally he didn't! He was English, and you can't depend upon the
+English, I've discovered. But there's not the slightest reason for
+linking me up with him. The princess never ran away now, did she? And I
+- " He paused, then without looking at her he began again.
+
+"Seriously, I'm sorry if I seemed to be deserting. I - well, honestly, I
+didn't know what else to do. You suggested it yourself, you remember!
+And I'd promised my father to look after some business for him in Los
+Angeles while I was out here. You see, he - our family, have lived in
+the East for a long time now, but we used to own pretty much all of Los
+Angeles county some three centuries ago, when the Spanish were here, and
+- " Again he broke off abruptly. "Do you want to know about me?" he
+demanded.
+
+Miss Hastings leaned breathlessly toward him. Her heart was beating
+wildly.
+
+"Oh, please!" she begged.
+
+"Perhaps I should have told you at the first," he began, "or at least
+after you told me who you were, but - anyway, I didn't. I'd never told
+anyone before and I didn't much suppose I ever would. There's a reason,
+though, why I'm particularly interested in this legend, too, a reason
+just as good as you've got. I'm - well, I'm one of Wildenai's great,
+great grandsons!"
+
+And then, because she sat quite silent there in the shadows, and
+motionless except for fingering something white that lay in her lap, he
+waited uneasily. Was she angry again, he wondered, or perhaps she was
+only laughing!
+
+She was the first to break the silence.
+
+"Are you trying to be funny?" Her voice was very cold.
+
+"Not at all," he answered hotly. "It must be all of ten generations back
+or even more, and of course it wasn't all Spanish afterward, but, just
+the same, I'm as much a descendant of the princess as you are of the
+duke, - always have been! I'm just as proud of it, too. Possibly you
+will remember that the Spanish beat the English to it, at least in
+California. Anyway," he finished bitterly, "what difference does it
+make? So far as I can see, it only gives us one more good subject to
+quarrel about!"
+
+Then out of the dimness came a queer little sound, whether of tears or
+of laughter it was impossible to know. For the least part of a second a
+hand brushed his own.
+
+"Oh, no!" she whispered, "Let's not do that. It wouldn't be right! And
+see," she laughed tremulously, "Isn't it strange I should have found it
+today, but," she lifted the white thing in her lap, "here is Wildenai's
+wedding dress - and the chain of garnets!"
+
+The cavern was quite dark before they had finished talking about it, but
+at length they laid the poor little ghost of a garment reverently back
+among the stones and rose to go.
+
+"But the necklace?" Blair asked, hesitating, "do you think we ought to
+leave that here?"
+
+The girl considered a moment.
+
+"It's really yours," she decided. "Nobody else could have the least
+claim to it."
+
+"Except - " Suddenly his eyes shone with a strange expression before
+which the little art teacher instinctively shrank. He took a step toward
+her.
+
+"I believe I'll give the garnets back," he announced. "I fancy that's
+what the princess would have liked to do if she'd had the chance.
+Besides," his eyes grew still darker, "they were meant in the first
+place for a wedding gift, and so if you - "
+
+He would have clasped them about her neck, but Miss Hastings backed
+frantically away.
+
+"No! - not for worlds," she cried. "You know you're only saying it
+because you think you can't get out of it!" And before he could realize
+just what was happening, she was gone.
+
+
+
+The boat for Los Angeles was unusually crowded that night. For either
+this reason, or some other she would not acknowledge, Miss Hastings
+found herself pushed aside by more impatient passengers every time she
+attempted to enter the gangway.
+
+"All aboard!" called a peremptory voice from somewhere on deck. She took
+a step forward, hesitated, drew back. The plank was hauled irrevocably
+away, and she turned to face Blair standing just behind her on the
+wharf.
+
+"I was sure you wouldn't run away," he declared, "but if you had - !"
+
+She let him lead her back along the broad boardwalk toward the hotel
+until they stood within the shadow of the huge boulder which for
+centuries has marked the outer boundary of the Bay of Moons. Beyond them
+the lights of the St. Catherine glimmered down the hill and on over the
+water, rimming with golden bubbles the outlines of the pier.
+
+"Wildenai!" Out of the darkness his voice came to her, mocking, tender,
+wholly insistent. "Foolish, obstinate little lady! Can't you see how
+it's up to you, - up to the English to make amends? Honestly now, when
+he began it I don't imagine even that rascal Drake himself would have
+believed a family scrap could last the better part of four centuries.
+Don't you really think it's about time for you to call it off?"
+
+And flinging her scruples to the winds, Miss Hastings suddenly decided
+that it was.
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THEIR MARIPOSA LEGEND ***
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