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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/33853-h.zip b/33853-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a73482b --- /dev/null +++ b/33853-h.zip diff --git a/33853-h/33853-h.htm b/33853-h/33853-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2f99c71 --- /dev/null +++ b/33853-h/33853-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,8607 @@ +<!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" xml:lang="en" > +<head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta name="generator" content="eppg.py 0.82 (02-Oct-2010)" /> + <title>Jessica Trent, by Evelyn Raymond</title> + <style type="text/css"> + body {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%;} + p {margin-top:1ex; margin-bottom:0; text-align:justify;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size:x-small; text-align:right; text-indent:0; + position:absolute; right:2%; padding:1px 3px; font-style:normal; + font-variant:normal; font-weight:normal; text-decoration:none; + background-color:inherit; border:1px solid #eee;} + .pncolor {color:silver;} + h1,h2 {text-align:center; font-weight:normal;} + h1 {font-size:1.6em; margin-top:4ex; margin-bottom:2ex;} + h2 {font-size:1.4em; margin-top:4ex; margin-bottom:2ex;} + hr.pb {margin:30px 0; width:100%; border:none; border-top:thin dashed silver; clear:both;} + div.cp {} + div.cp p {text-align:center;} + .fs20 {font-size:2.0em;} + .mb10 {margin-bottom:10px;} + .fs18 {font-size:1.8em;} + .mb50 {margin-bottom:50px;} + .fs14 {font-size:1.4em;} + .mb80 {margin-bottom:80px;} + .fs12 {font-size:1.2em;} + .fs08 {font-size:0.8em;} + hr.copy {border:none;border-bottom:1px solid black; width:4em;} + .mb00 {margin-bottom:00px;} + .mt00 {margin-top:00px;} + .mb20 {margin-bottom:20px;} + span.h2fs {font-size:smaller;} + div.bquote {font-size:1.0em; margin:5px 5%;} + div.bquote p {text-indent:0em; margin-bottom:4px; margin-top:4px;} + .c {text-align:center;} + </style> +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's Jessica Trent: Her Life on a Ranch, by Evelyn Raymond + +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: Jessica Trent: Her Life on a Ranch + +Author: Evelyn Raymond + +Release Date: October 11, 2010 [EBook #33853] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JESSICA TRENT: HER LIFE ON A RANCH *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.fadedpage.net + + + + + + +</pre> + +<div class='cp'> +<p class='fs20 mb10'>JESSICA TRENT:</p> +<p class='fs18 mb50'>Her Life on a Ranch</p> +<p class='mb10'>BY<br /><span class='fs14'>EVELYN RAYMOND</span></p> +<p class='mb80'>Author of<br />“Jessica Trent’s Inheritance,” “Jessica, the Heiress”</p> +<p class='fs12'>Whitman Publishing Co.</p> +<p class='fs08'>RACINE, WISCONSIN</p> +</div> + +<hr class='pb' /> + +<div class='cp'> +<p class='fs08 mb00'>Copyright, 1902, by Street & Smith</p> +<hr class='copy' /> +<p class='fs08 mt00 mb20'>Jessica Trent</p> +<p class='fs08'>Printed in the<br />United States of America<br />By<br />Western Printing & Lithographing Co.<br />Racine, Wis.</p> +</div> + +<hr class='pb' /> + +<h1>Jessica Trent</h1> + +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_7'></a>7</span><a id='link_1'></a>CHAPTER I<br /><span class='h2fs'>ON THE CANYON TRAIL.</span></h2> + +<p>“Hello, there! What in the name of reason is this?”</p> + +<p>The horseman’s excited cry was echoed by a startled +neigh from his beast, which wheeled about so suddenly +that he nearly precipitated both himself and rider into +the gulch below.</p> + +<p>“Oh! I’m sorry<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>Hold on, Zu! Go! Do, please. +Quick! It’s so narrow just beyond and I can’t<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p>The stranger obeyed, perforce, for his spirited animal +having now headed up the slope, continued on his +course at breakneck speed, pursued at equal pace by +the unknown creature that had terrified him.</p> + +<p>The race would not have been so even had the trail +been wider, for King Zulu could easily have beaten his +contestant, but, as it was, the fleeing bay bruised his +master’s leg against the canyon wall, now and then, +while bits of the bird’s plumage were torn on the same +projecting rocks. There was no point of passage till +more than a mile higher on the mountain, and Jess +knew this if Mr. Hale did not. He knew nothing save +that he was clinging and riding for his life, and that +this “Western horseback tour” which his doctor had +prescribed for him, seemed now more likely to prove +his death than his cure.</p> + +<p>But when a laugh rang out, close to his shoulder, he +turned his head and glanced angrily backward.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_8'></a>8</span>“Oh, I beg your pardon, but–it’s so funny! I’ve +often wanted to try King Zu against a strange horse +and now I have. Only, if we were up there on the +mesa, he’d show you!”</p> + +<p>“Does this trail never end, nor turn?”</p> + +<p>The laughter on the girl’s face changed to anxiety.</p> + +<p>“Not ill, exactly; only I’m not experienced at this +business and it shakes me.”</p> + +<p>“You ride too hard and stiff. That’s why. Let +yourself go–just be part of your horse. He’s a beauty, +isn’t he? Even the boys couldn’t stand that gait.”</p> + +<p>“And you. Who taught you to ride an ostrich? +Where did you get it? It’s almost the first one I ever +saw and quite the first that Prince did. I was nearly +as scared as he, meeting such a creature on a lonely +mountain trail.”</p> + +<p>“I never learned–it just happened. Zulu is ‘patriarch’ +of the flock. The only imported bird left alive. +We just grew up together, he and I. Didn’t we, +King?”</p> + +<p>Speech was now easier, for the speed of both animals +had slackened, that of Prince to a comfortable trot. +While the sidewise lurching motion of the ostrich was +enjoyable enough to Jessica, it turned Mr. Hale’s head +dizzy, watching. Or it may have been the blinding sunshine, +beating against the canyon wall and deflected +upon the riders in waves of heat.</p> + +<p>“Whew! This is scorching. How far, yet?”</p> + +<p>Jessica saw that what she minded not at all was +turning the stranger sick, and answered swiftly:</p> + +<p>“You wouldn’t be able to get further than ‘five +times’ before we reach the turn. There’ll be a glorious +breeze then. There always is.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_9'></a>9</span>“What do you mean by ‘five times’?”</p> + +<p>“Why, just the multiplication table. I always say it +when I’ve something I want to get over quick. You +begin at one-times-one, and see if it isn’t so.”</p> + +<p>“What shall we find at the top; your home?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, no, indeed. That is quite the other way. +Down in the valley. Sobrante ranch. That’s ours. +Were you going there?”</p> + +<p>“I was going–anywhere. I had lost my way. +‘Missed the trail,’ as you say in this country.”</p> + +<p>“I thought, maybe, you were just a ‘tourist.’”</p> + +<p>Mr. Hale laughed, and the laugh helped him to +forget his present discomfort.</p> + +<p>“Perhaps I am, even if you do speak so disdainfully. +Are all ‘tourists’ objectionable?”</p> + +<p>Jessica’s brown cheek flushed. She felt she had said +something rude–she, whose ambition it was to be always +and everywhere “Our Lady Jess,” that the dear +“boys” called her. But she remembered how annoyed +her mother was by the visits of strangers who seemed +to regard Sobrante and its belongings as a “show” arranged +for their special benefit.</p> + +<p>“We–we are generally glad when the rains come,” +she answered, evasively.</p> + +<p>“To keep them away? Yet if, as I suspect, you have +an ostrich farm, I can’t blame their curiosity. I’m +hoping to visit one, myself.”</p> + +<p>“Ours is not a real ‘farm.’ It is just one of the +many things our ranch is good for. But I know my +mother would make you very welcome. You–but +there! Look down, please. Yonder it is, Sobrante. +That means ‘richness,’ you know. And now up. The +next turn will land us on the mesa, and I hope, I hope, +I have come in time!”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_10'></a>10</span>The road had now broadened, and with a little chirrup +to King Zulu, she passed and forged ahead so +rapidly that she was soon out of sight. The great bird +upon whose back she was perched was not, apparently, +at all wearied, but poor Prince was utterly winded, +while a curious feeling of loneliness stole upon his +rider.</p> + +<p>But, presently, the sound of voices came over the +bluff, and Mr. Hale urged his tired beast forward. The +next he knew he was sprawling on the plateau and his +horse had fallen beside him. Prince’s forefoot was in +a hole, from which he was unable to withdraw it.</p> + +<p>“Oh! oh! The poor creature! And you, sir, are +you hurt?”</p> + +<p>“No, I think not. Rather a shake-up, though, and +I was dizzy with the heat before. Prince, Prince, lie +still; we’ll help you.”</p> + +<p>One glance had showed the stranger that they were +near a shepherd’s hut, and that its occupant was at +home. The man had been sitting quietly in the shade +of the little building and of the one pepper tree which +grew beside its threshold. He did not move, even now, +till the girl called impatiently:</p> + +<p>“Pedro! Come! Quick!”</p> + +<p>Then he arose in a leisurely fashion and, carefully +depositing his osiers in a tub of water, came forward.</p> + +<p>“So? He can’t get up, yes? A wise man looks +where he rides, indeed.”</p> + +<p>Despite his anxiety over Prince, Mr. Hale regarded +the shepherd with amused curiosity. Pedro’s swarthy +face was as unmoved as if the visits of strangers with +disabled horses were daily events; but the man’s calmness +did not prevent his usefulness. In fact, during +every step of his deliberate advance he had been studying +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_11'></a>11</span> +the situation and how best to aid the fallen animal, +which had now ceased to struggle and lay gazing +at his master with a dumb, pitiful appeal.</p> + +<p>Then Pedro bent forward and, with a strength amazing +in a man of his small build, seized Prince’s head +and shoulder and with one prodigious wrench freed +him from the pitfall. Then he stooped again and carefully +examined the bruised forefoot.</p> + +<p>“A moon and a half he’ll go lame. Yes. For just +so long let him be left with Pedro. Si?”</p> + +<p>Then he led the limping beast toward the hut and +began to bathe its injured ankle with the water from +the tub.</p> + +<p>“Marvelous! I never saw anything done as easily +as that!” cried Mr. Hale, recovering from his astonishment.</p> + +<p>“Ah; but you’ve never seen our Pedro before. And +to think I was so angry with him, I!”</p> + +<p>With a remorseful impulse Jessica sprang forward +and threw her arms about the old shepherd’s shoulders. +He received her caress as calmly as he did everything +else, though a keen observer might have seen a +fleeting smile around his rugged lips.</p> + +<p>Smiles did, indeed, spring to all three faces when, a +moment later, the rattling of tins discovered Zulu +rummaging a heap of empty cans, even in the very act +of swallowing a highly decorated one.</p> + +<p>The jingling startled Prince, also, from the repose +into which he had now settled, and, after one terrified +glance toward his unknown enemy, King Zu, he +dashed across the mesa as if lameness were unknown.</p> + +<p>At which Pedro smiled, well content.</p> + +<p>“Good. He that uses his own legs spares his neighbors. +Yes.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_12'></a>12</span>“Meaning that he would have to be exercised by +somebody?”</p> + +<p>The shepherd did not answer. He had lived alone so +long amid the great solitudes of nature that speech had +grown irksome to him. He regarded it a sin to waste +words, and his young mistress understood this, if Mr. +Hale did not. To this gentleman the situation presented +itself as a very serious one. There was no habitation +visible save the small hut, a place barely sufficient +to its owner’s simple needs and utterly inadequate +to those of a lately recovered invalid. He was not +strong enough to make his way to the valley on foot, +and even if Prince were now able to carry him, he felt +it would be brutal to impose so hard a task.</p> + +<p>But Jessica came to his aid with the suggestion:</p> + +<p>“If you’ll come and rest behind the cabin I’ll make +you a cup of coffee on Pedro’s little stove. He often +lets me when I come up to see him, and then, when +you’ve rested, we’ll go home. I am so angry I can +hardly breathe.”</p> + +<p>“Indeed; I should never have guessed it,” he answered, +laughing, and allowing the girl to lead him to +the shelter proposed.</p> + +<p>“Ah! but I am. And a gentlewoman never gets +angry. Least of all with such a darling as Pedro. You +see, he ought to have been about dying, and he hasn’t +even a single ache!”</p> + +<p>“What an odd child you are!”</p> + +<p>“Am I?” regarding him gravely. “I’m sure I don’t +want to be that. I want to be just–perfect.”</p> + +<p>Mr. Hale sighed as he dropped upon the bench to +which Jess had guided him. “We are none of us that–ever.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_13'></a>13</span>“I suppose that’s because ‘none of us’ ever try quite +hard enough. But I will be, if trying will fetch it.”</p> + +<p>Then she whisked inside the hut and presently there +came to the gentleman’s nostrils the aroma of freshly +steaming coffee. He had not realized that he was +hungry, but now could scarcely wait until the little +maid came out to him again with a tin cup of the liquid +in one hand and a can of condensed milk in the other.</p> + +<p>“My mother always lets her guests ‘trim’ their +drink for themselves, but I’ll drop in the cream if you’ll +say how much. Enough? Now sugar. One? How +queer. And it’s sugar of our own making, too; beet +sugar, you know.”</p> + +<p>The tin cup was decidedly rusty, the cheap spoon +dingy, and “canned” milk the aversion of Mr. Hale’s +dyspeptic stomach; yet despite these facts he had never +tasted a more delicious draught than this, nor one +served with a gentler grace. For Jessica was quite +unconscious that there was anything amiss with Pedro’s +dishes, and now offered the stranger a tin of time-hardened +biscuits, with the air of one proffering the +rarest of dainties.</p> + +<p>“You would better eat one of these; they’re quite +fine, with the coffee.”</p> + +<p>“I’ll–I’ll try, thank you, if you’ll fetch your own cup +and sit beside me.”</p> + +<p>“All right. Only I’ll have to wait till Pedro’s finished. +There’s only this and the egg, you know. He’s +rather stubborn, dear fellow. My mother has offered +him more dishes, but he says ‘more care’ and won’t +take them. Excuse me.”</p> + +<p>With a dip and swirl of her short skirts, the little +hostess ran into the hut, to reappear, a moment later, +bearing in both hands a drinking-cup which made the +guest exclaim in delight:</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_14'></a>14</span>“What an exquisite thing!”</p> + +<p>“Isn’t it? But just wait until you see those which +Pedro made for mother! This is fine, but they’re like +cobwebs.”</p> + +<p>She did not offer to show him the cup more closely, +for she had seen the shepherd lay down his rushes and +sit waiting, and Jessica would not disappoint the old +friend for the new. Still the less, because she had so +lately been vexed with him, and wholly without cause.</p> + +<p>But when the silent fellow had emptied the cup she +proudly gave it for Mr. Hale’s inspection.</p> + +<p>“An ostrich egg, you see, cut off at the top. Pedro +wove all this lacelike outside, of just the common tule +rushes. He splits them till they are like threads, and +see that handle! Nothing could break it, nor can one +tell just where it begins or ends–the joinings, I mean. +There are many wonderful weavers among the Indians, +but none so deft as our Pedro, my mother says.</p> + +<p>“Now, will you not fill this again and drink it with +me? For I see that our speechless friend, yonder, has +gone to work again as if his life depended on his industry.”</p> + +<p>“He’s always at work, like that. Yet he never +neglects his flock. He has been herding ever since he +was a little boy. That must have been years ago. He’s +so very old.”</p> + +<p>“He doesn’t look it. I should guess he might be +fifty.”</p> + +<p>“Fifty! Why, there’s nobody anywhere around who +remembers when our Pedro was born. Not even Fra +Mateo at the mission, yet even he is more than a hundred,” +she answered, proudly.</p> + +<p>“Possible? Well, this is all wonderful to me who +have lived always in a crowded city. This big West +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_15'></a>15</span> +is like a romance, a fairy tale; not the least of its marvels +to find a little girl like you riding alone on such +a steed up such a desolate canyon, yet not in the least +afraid.”</p> + +<p>“Why, why should I be afraid? Except, of course, +I was, for a bit, when I saw that Zulu made your horse +rear. A step nearer and you’d have both gone over.”</p> + +<p>Mr. Hale shuddered, and Jessica hastened to add:</p> + +<p>“But the step wasn’t taken and you’re quite safe up +here. Is the dizziness all gone? Many are like that +before they get used to the glare. Some of the ‘tourists’ +wear blue glasses, and veils, and things. They look +so funny.”</p> + +<p>Into her laughter burst Pedro’s speech.</p> + +<p>“’Ware Antonio. Is it plucking day, no? His third +hand is Ferd, who lies and steals. I know. The mistress’ +chest has many openings. <i>Nina</i>, go home, and +bid Antonio come himself when next he’d have me die. +Yes.”</p> + +<p>Jessica sprang to her feet. These were many words +for the shepherd to utter, and was not to be disobeyed. +Though the old man’s age was doubtless far less than +was accredited him, he was commonly considered a +sage whose intelligence increased, rather than diminished, +with the passing years.</p> + +<p>“I’ll go at once, Pedro. Please forget that I was +angry and–good-by.”</p> + +<p>Mr. Hale was unprepared for this sudden departure, +which bereft the scene of its fairest feature; for even +while he listened to the brief speech between this odd +pair there was a flash of twinkling feet and a scarlet +Tam, and Jessica was gone.</p> + +<p>“Why–why–what? Eh, what?” he demanded, rising.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_16'></a>16</span>His answer came with a crash and clatter which +could never have been made by one small, fleeing figure, +and with the startling force with which everything happened +on that eventful day.</p> + +<p>Over the bluff scrambled a shaggy piebald burro, +from whose back there tumbled at the stranger’s very +feet a brace of little lads, securely lashed together; +even their wrists and ankles bound beyond possibility +of their own undoing.</p> + +<p>“Horrors! Indian captives!” cried the gentleman, +aghast.</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_17'></a>17</span><a id='link_2'></a>CHAPTER II<br /><span class='h2fs'>A BAD BUSINESS.</span></h2> + +<p>Captives? Far from it–save to their own reckless +disregard of life and limb, and all for a bit of hitherto +untested fun.</p> + +<p>Shrieking with laughter at the success of their experiment, +they rolled and floundered on the ground, till +the laughter changed to cries of pain as their restless +writhings to and fro drove their self-inflicted bonds +deeper into the flesh.</p> + +<p>By some dexterity they got upon their feet, at last, +and one implored:</p> + +<p>“Oh! you Pedro! or you, man! Cut us loose, can’t +you? Don’t you see we can’t do it ourselves?”</p> + +<p>Mr. Hale adjusted his eyeglasses and looked rather +helplessly toward the shepherd; but that phlegmatic +person was working away on his wonderful basket as +stolidly as if there was none beside himself upon the +mesa.</p> + +<p>“Oh! you hateful old Pedro! Cut us free, I tell you! +Ain’t I your master? You’d do it mighty quick for +‘Lady Jess.’”</p> + +<p>The frightened little fellow, whose fun had now +ebbed into a terrible fear of an indefinite bondage, began +to whimper, and Mr. Hale to act. A few sharp +slashings of the horsehair thongs and the captives were +free to express their delight in a series of somersaults, +which were only arrested by sight of Prince in the distance, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_18'></a>18</span> +holding up his injured foot and seeking for some +pasture amid the dry herbage.</p> + +<p>“Hello! That horse is new. Is he yours, mister? +What’s the matter with him? Humph! I guess you’re +new, too, aren’t you? I never saw you in our valley +before. Where’s your ranch?”</p> + +<p>The questioner was a blue-eyed, fair-haired little +chap whose close resemblance to Jessica proclaimed +him her brother; but he was younger, sturdier, and less +courteous than she. Yet his prolonged stare at the +stranger had less of rudeness than surprise in it, and +Mr. Hale laughed at the frank inspection.</p> + +<p>“You look rather ‘new’ yourself, my man. About +eight years, aren’t you?”</p> + +<p>“How’d you guess?”</p> + +<p>“Lads of my own.”</p> + +<p>“Where?”</p> + +<p>“Several thousand miles away, over the Atlantic +coast.”</p> + +<p>“Why didn’t you fetch ’em?”</p> + +<p>“Couldn’t afford it.”</p> + +<p>“Oh! couldn’t you? H-m-m.” Then he turned his +attention to Pedro, with the remark: “Why aren’t you +sick, like ’Tonio said? Making my sister come way up +here for nothing. Don’t you dare do that again, I tell +you. You’re just as well as ever, and I smell coffee. +Come on, Luis!”</p> + +<p>Catching his mate around the shoulders the boy +rushed into the hut, only to be as promptly banished +from it. With a swiftness matching the children’s own, +the shepherd had followed and caught the pair, a lad +in either hand, and flung them out of doors, exactly as +one might a couple of mischievous kittens. Evidently, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_19'></a>19</span> +what was permissible to “Lady Jess” was forbidden +these, though they were not at all disturbed by their +sudden ejection. Such incidents were too familiar, +and, having landed in one heap upon the ground, they +immediately fell to wrestling as if this were the business +they had originally intended. Now the black head +of Spanish Luis was uppermost, now the sunnier one +of Ned, with a flying jumble of vari-colored hands +and feet, till Pedro came out and offered to each contestant +a cup of cold, but well-sweetened coffee.</p> + +<p>This meant instant truce and they carried their treat +to the bench Mr. Hale had occupied, leaving him to +stand or sit upon the ground, as he preferred. He +chose the latter and near enough to hear their eager +chatter, which was still full of indignation against the +shepherd’s robust health.</p> + +<p>“’Cause he ought to been dead, ’most. And my +mother wanting Jess the worst ever was. ’Cause Wun +Lung cut hisself.”</p> + +<p>“Maybe Wun Lung die now, maybe,” suggested +Luis, with hopeful heartlessness.</p> + +<p>“Pshaw! No, he won’t. Chinamen don’t. You +never saw one, Luis Garcia. Hi! Look at Zulu. Hi! +Keno, Keno, Keno! Oh, Wow!”</p> + +<p>By a mutual impulse, Prince and the ostrich had put +as wide a space between themselves as possible, and +the latter had strolled close to Pedro’s quiet flock before +he had perceived it. This was evident, even from +the distance; but now up rose Keno, the collie, and with +angry yelps rushed fearlessly upon the great bird.</p> + +<p>King Zulu hesitated but an instant before he turned +his back upon his assailant and made all speed over +the bluff into the canyon below.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_20'></a>20</span>“Well, of all cowards! A creature that could have +killed the dog with one kick of his foot!” cried Mr. +Hale, amazed.</p> + +<p>“Huh! No, he couldn’t. Kill you or Pedro. Kill +that old horse of yours, easy as scat. Can’t kick low +down as Keno. Huh! Guess I know more about +ostriches than you do,” exulted Ned, in whose opinion +the stranger had now greatly fallen.</p> + +<p>“Huh! Don’t know about ostrichers!” echoed Luis, +loyally, and was rewarded by a friendly slap from his +pattern and playmate.</p> + +<p>Roused by the disturbance of his sheep, Pedro hurried +to quiet them, but, as he passed, fixed a piercing +gaze upon the stranger’s face. The scrutiny seemed +to partially reassure him, for he observed:</p> + +<p>“Horse lame, Zulu gone, catch burro, yes. Let +the feet which take the trail be young, not feeble and +unused. But to him who journeys with evil in his +heart evil will surely come. The widow and the orphan +belong to God. Indeed, yet. ’Ware, Antonio.”</p> + +<p>Mr. Hale reflected swiftly. He smiled at thought of +his own long legs bestriding the low back of the +donkey, but a memory of that heated trail down which +he must pass to reach the nearest house, decided the +matter. While the small owners of the burro were +improving the time of the shepherd’s absence to ransack +his dwelling the sturdy little animal bore its accustomed +rider out of sight.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, Jessica’s moccasined feet were flying +down the slope, her blue skirts and scarlet Tam making +a moving spot of color against the sandy glare of the +canyon wall, and long before she came within hailing +distance catching the eyes of one who eagerly awaited +her approach.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_21'></a>21</span>This was John Benton, the carpenter and general +utility man at Sobrante; who had come up the opposite +side of the canyon, where were many huge bowlders, a +few trees, and no trail at all. Indeed, a passage along +that face of the gulch was difficult in extreme, and so +dangerous that it must have been serious business +which brought a lame man thither. Fortunately for his +patience, the girl paused for breath at a point level with +his own narrow perch upon a shelving rock, and where +there was no great width of the V-shaped chasm.</p> + +<p>“Lady Jess! Oh! I say! Miss Jessica! Lady +Jess!”</p> + +<p>The girl looked about her, up and down, everywhere +save to the further side where nobody ever went if it +could be avoided. But she answered, cheerily:</p> + +<p>“<i>Hola!</i> Coo’ee! Coo’ee! Who are you?”</p> + +<p>The man made a trumpet of his hands and shouted +back:</p> + +<p>“The flume! Look east–to the flume!”</p> + +<p>She followed his example and called through her +own fingers:</p> + +<p>“What’s wrong? How came you there?”</p> + +<p>He pointed downward, and she shaded her eyes +from the blinding sunshine to see why, but could discover +nothing new in the familiar scene.</p> + +<p>“The water! That’s where it goes! The flume is +cut!”</p> + +<p>Even at that pitch, his tones were full of excited indignation, +and her own anger leaped at once.</p> + +<p>“Somebody’s cut the flume? Who dared! Wait–wait–I’m +coming!”</p> + +<p>“No, no! Don’t. You can’t help it–you’ll break +your neck! Oh! Lady Jess!”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_22'></a>22</span>“I’m coming! Wait for me!”</p> + +<p>The carpenter laughed. “Might have known she +would, and wanted she should, I suppose. Surest-footed +little thing in the world. Guess I needn’t fret. +Though when I think what this old ranch would be +without her, I don’t feel any great call to send her into +danger, myself. My! she’s as nimble as a squirrel! +Down to the bottom a’ready. Up this side in a jiffy, +and won’t her blue eyes snap when she sees this lowdown +trick? If I knew whose job it was, well, I’m a +peaceable man if I’m let, but there wouldn’t be room +enough in this here valley for the two of us. And it’s +all on a piece with the rest. One thing after another. +There’s a snake in this wigwam, but which ’tis? +H-m-m! Beats me. Beats me clear to Jericho.”</p> + +<p>Then he fell to watching the slower, steady ascent of +Jessica, who had descended the further side so swiftly, +and who had clambered lightly enough over the roughness +of the gulch bottom; at times filled with a roaring +torrent, but now quite dry after a long, hot summer.</p> + +<p>“Well, here I am!”</p> + +<p>“And a sorry sight to show you. Look a’ that now. +Isn’t that a regular coyote piece of work?”</p> + +<p>Along this face of the canyon descended a line of +small wooden troughs, closely joined, and supported +upon slender but strong cedar uprights. This flume +connected with the distant reservoir of an irrigating +company and had been built by Jessica’s dead father +at a great and ill-afforded expense. But of all good +things there was nothing so precious to the tillers of +that thirsty land as water, and the cutting off of this +supply meant ruin to Sobrante.</p> + +<p>Young as she was, Jessica fully understood this, +though she could not understand that any human being +should do a deed so dastardly.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_23'></a>23</span>“John Benton, you mustn’t say that. Some of the +cattle have done it. It’s an accident. It can be mended. +I’m sorry, of course, but so thankful you found it. And +I see you’ve got your tools.”</p> + +<p>“Oh! I can mend it, all right, but it won’t stay +mended. You’ll see. ’Tisn’t the first break I’ve +patched, not by any means.”</p> + +<p>“Of course it isn’t. Only last week in that stampede, +when the boys were changing pasture, the creatures ran +against it and you fixed it, good as new. There isn’t +anything you can’t do with an ax and a few nails.”</p> + +<p>John passed the compliment by unheeding.</p> + +<p>“There’s breaks and there’s cuts. Reckon I can tell +the difference quick enough. This is a cut and isn’t the +first one I’ve found, I say. ’Twas a fresh-ground +blade did this piece of deviltry, or I’m no judge of +edges. Now, who did it? Why? And how’s old +Pedro?”</p> + +<p>Despite her faith in her friends, the small ranchwoman’s +heart sank.</p> + +<p>“He–he–why, he isn’t sick at all! I was sent up +there on a fool’s errand, and just on plucking-day, when +I was so needed at home. With Wun Lung hurt and +mother so busy, I ought to have a dozen pairs of hands. +Of course, I’m glad he’s well, dear old fellow, but I +shouldn’t have gone this morning if somebody hadn’t +told Antonio wrong. I met a stranger on the trail, too, +and Zulu scared his horse, and it stumbled in a gopher +hole or something and is lamed for ever so long. He’ll +likely come to Sobrante, if he can get there, but he +looked ill if Pedro didn’t, and the sun nearly overcame +him. Can’t I help you hold that board?”</p> + +<p>John accepted her offer of help less because he +needed it than because he always liked to have her near +him.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_24'></a>24</span>“So ’twas Antonio sent you, eh? H-m-m!”</p> + +<p>“He didn’t send me. Course not. He just said somebody +said Pedro was dying.”</p> + +<p>The carpenter laughed, but his mirth was not pleasant.</p> + +<p>“Queer how stories get mixed, even in this lonesome +place. There; you needn’t hold that. Your little +hands aren’t so very strong, helpful as they may be. +This isn’t any great of a job; it ’twould only stay, once +’twas finished!”</p> + +<p>“Then I’ll go. Maybe I’d better send up one of the +boys to help you. Shall I? Who do you want?”</p> + +<p>Upon the point of declining, the carpenter changed +his mind.</p> + +<p>“Yes, you may. I wish you would. Send Antonio.”</p> + +<p>“Send–Antonio! Why, I should as soon think of +‘sending’ that stranger I told you about. You’re teasing +me, for you know well that Antonio is the only one +who ever ‘sends’ Antonio. Even my mother, who has +a right to ‘send’ everybody on the ranch whither she +will, never orders the manager. Well, good-by. You +shall have a nice dinner out of the house-kitchen to pay +for your hard climb.”</p> + +<p>“Take care where you step in your hurry, and just +try that word on the ‘senor.’ Tell him there’s a bit +of a break in the flume I’d like his advice about.”</p> + +<p>The workman’s laugh followed the girl down the +rough and perilous way, and just as she passed out of +hearing came the parting shot:</p> + +<p>“Send Antonio.”</p> + +<p>“H-m-m! I don’t see what it all means. First is +old Pedro, with his grim ‘'Ware Antonio!’ And now +John Benton speaks in that queer way, as if there were +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_25'></a>25</span> +two meanings to his words. Heigho! I hear somebody +coming up. I wonder who!”</p> + +<p>Hurrying downward as fast as the uneven path allowed, +her own softly-shod feet making no noise, she +reached a turn of the road and suddenly slackened her +pace. The man approaching was one of the few whom +she feared and disliked.</p> + +<p>“Ferd, the dwarf!”</p> + +<p>Instinctively, she hid behind a clump of shrubbery +and waited for him to pass, hoping he would not see +her. He did not. He was too engrossed in handling, +apparently counting, something within a deep basket +that hung on his arm, and his bare feet loped around +over the rocks as easily as they would have carried +him across the level mesa.</p> + +<p>As soon as he had gone by Lady Jess started onward, +but she had grown even more thoughtful.</p> + +<p>“That’s queer. Antonio must need Ferd to-day if +ever he does. Indeed, nobody seems able to serve him +as well as that poor half-wit. What could he have had +in his basket? And–ha! how came <i>this</i> here?”</p> + +<p>With a cry of surprise she lifted a small, soft object +from the ground before her and regarded it in gathering +dismay.</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_26'></a>26</span><a id='link_3'></a>CHAPTER III<br /><span class='h2fs'>SENOR TOP-LOFTY</span></h2> + +<p>Ever since Jessica could remember, Antonio Bernal +had been manager of the Sobrante ranch, and after +the death of her father, a few months before, he became +practically its master. Even Mrs. Trent deferred +to his opinions more and more, and seemed to stand +in awe of him, as did most others on the great estate. +He was the only person there, save his own servant, +Ferd, who did not treat the little girl with that adoring +sort of reverence which had given her the love-name of +“our Lady Jess.” For some reason unknown to her he +disliked her and showed this, so that she shrank from +and feared him in return.</p> + +<p>As she emerged from the canyon upon the broad, +sandy road which crossed the valley, she saw him loping +toward her on the powerful black horse with which +he made his daily rounds to inspect the many industries +that Mr. Trent had established. Jessica could always +tell by the way he rode what Antonio’s mood might be, +and it did not lessen her dread to see that his sombrero +was well over his eyes and his shoulders hunched forward.</p> + +<p>“Something’s put him out, but I can’t help that. I +must stop him and speak to him.”</p> + +<p>So she placed herself in the middle of the road and +shouted her familiar:</p> + +<p>“<i>Hola!</i> Coo-ee! Coo-ee!”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_27'></a>27</span>Any other ranchman would have paused and saluted +his “lady,” but the “senor” made as if he would ride +her down, unseeing.</p> + +<p>Jessica did not flinch. That ready temper which she +was always lamenting flamed at the insult, and she +would not move a hair’s breadth from his path.</p> + +<p>“Hola! Antonio Bernal! I must speak to you, +and–see that?”</p> + +<p>Suddenly bending forward she waved something +long and black under Nero’s nose, who reared and settled +on his haunches in a way to test a less experienced +rider.</p> + +<p>“What do you mean, child<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>” began that irate +gentleman, but pausing at sight of the object she held.</p> + +<p>“I think this a plume from Beppo’s wing, don’t you, +Antonio?”</p> + +<p>He muttered something under his breath, and she +went on, explaining:</p> + +<p>“I found it in the canyon, just after Ferd has gone +up it. I knew it in a minute, for I was looking Beppo +over yesterday, and I never saw such perfect feathers +on any bird. How do you suppose it came there, and +why?”</p> + +<p>“The fool! One of the very best. How dared he. +But suppose I’ll have to admit he stole it. I don’t see +how, though, for I did the work myself. Give it to +me, senorita; I’ll put it with the others.”</p> + +<p>Somehow, when Antonio was sauve “our Lady Jess” +liked him less than when he was sharp of speech. His +native “senorita” jarred on her ear, though she blamed +herself for her injustice, nor did she yield him the +feather.</p> + +<p>“Not yet, please. I’m going to show it to mother. +She’ll be so delighted to know the plucking was a rich +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_28'></a>28</span> +one; and if Ferd did steal this, or has others in his +basket, of course you’ll make him bring them back.”</p> + +<p>“Of course,” answered Antonio, though he frowned +and searched her face with his black eyes as if to read +all her suspicions.</p> + +<p>But as Jessica was not suspicious; she was vaguely +troubled, as if she had come into some dark and unknown +world. Surely Antonio was able to clear off all +these little mysteries, and she checked him again as he +was about to ride on.</p> + +<p>“There’s something else, senor,” adopting his title in +imitation of his addressing her; “John Benton is up the +gulch fixing a break in the flume. It’s a bad one, and +more a cut than a break, he says. He asked me to tell +you and wishes you’d go up there to advise him. I’m +to send up a man to help him. But he wants you, too.”</p> + +<p>“Why should I waste my time on such a fool’s errand, +eh? I knew there was a leak somewhere and am +glad he’s found it. There’s been no water in the ditches +these three days–more, ten, maybe–and the oranges +are falling. Send up that idler, Joe; and, by the way, +how’s Pedro?”</p> + +<p>It was the blue eyes now which turned keen and +searching, and under their gaze Antonio’s were averted +toward some distant point in the landscape, though the +contemptuous smile remained upon his lips.</p> + +<p>“That was a fool’s errand, too, Senor Bernal, and I +did so want to be at home this morning. Pedro was +never livelier. Whoever told you he was ill was quite +mistaken.”</p> + +<p>Antonio gave a short, derisive laugh, dug his spurs +into Nero’s sides and loped away. A picturesque, noticeable +figure in his quaint, half-Spanish dress and his +silver-decorated sombrero, bestriding the heavy Mexican +saddle upon his powerful horse.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_29'></a>29</span>“Vain as a peacock,” was his fellow-ranchmen’s +opinion of their “boss,” though had his affectations +been all his shortcomings these had not lessened their +liking for him.</p> + +<p>Lady Jess looked after him for a moment, her face +still sober and perplexed.</p> + +<p>“I ought to be at home, helping mother, this minute; +but I’m going first to the corral to speak a word of +comfort to poor Beppo, and see how big a plucking +there was. If it was a good yield that will be so much +the better news to tell my dear, and this certainly is +the finest plume we ever got. Good! There are some +of the boys over there, too, and I’ll save time by getting +one of them to go up the canyon to John. <i>Hola!</i>”</p> + +<p>Her soliloquy ended in the gay little Spanish salute, +and this was now instantly answered by a hearty shout +of welcome from a group of rough-garbed men, taking +a moment’s rest in the shade of the old adobe packinghouse.</p> + +<p>As lightly as if she had not already walked a long +distance, the girl ran to her friends, to be at once +caught up by a pair of strong arms and gently placed +upon a cushion in the box of an empty wagon.</p> + +<p>“But this was your place, Joe Dean. I saw you get +up from it.”</p> + +<p>“It’s yours now, Lady Jess. You do me proud. +What’s the good word? How’s old Pedro?”</p> + +<p>“Well just plain, every day well. Never been sick a +minute. Had all that climb for nothing; or, maybe, +not quite for nothing, because I met a stranger up +there and liked him; and saw John Benton as I came +down, and–found this! Isn’t that a plume to be proud +of? Raised right here on our little Sobrante.”</p> + +<p>“Whew! It’s a beauty, sure enough. A dozen like +that would be worth a tidy sum. How found it?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_30'></a>30</span>“Has anybody seen King Zu? Though, of course, I +know it can’t be his. He was plucked such a little +while ago, nor could he have gotten across the gulch +without losing more. Besides, Antonio said ‘stole.’”</p> + +<p>Then she gave a hasty account of her morning’s adventures, +during which meaning glances were exchanged +between the trio of workmen who, by the time +she had finished, had grown as glum as they had before +been cheerful.</p> + +<p>“Now, what do you think? Is there anybody who’d +be mean enough to cut off my mother’s irrigation, on +purpose, or steal her feathers? Even poor Ferd; I’m +sure she’s always been good to him and pitied him.”</p> + +<p>“Ferd has hands. Others have heads,” said Joe, as +spokesman for the rest.</p> + +<p>They nodded swift assent.</p> + +<p>“Except yourself, Lady Jess, nobody ever sees the +‘senor’ handle the feathers, and you not often. Only +he and his shadow, foolish Ferd, can manage the birds, +he claims. I’ve been smoking that in my pipe along +back.”</p> + +<p>“Oh! Joe, you shouldn’t be suspicious of evil.”</p> + +<p>“No, I shouldn’t be anything you don’t want me to +be, but I am.”</p> + +<p>“Even if I don’t like him very well, because he’s a +little cross, Antonio Bernal is a good man. He must +be. Else my father and now mother wouldn’t trust him +so. She lets him get all the money for everything first +and she has what’s left–after you’re all paid, I mean.”</p> + +<p>“Poor little woman!”</p> + +<p>“Not poor, exactly, Samson. And it isn’t Antonio’s +fault that there isn’t so much as there used to be when +father was here. If there were, mother would carry +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_31'></a>31</span> +out all father’s plans. She’d irrigate that tract beyond +the arroyo, toward the sand hills, and test it with +strawberries, as he meant. There shouldn’t be an inch +of untilled land on all the ranch, if the crops we have +paid out just a little better. But, no matter. As long +as you boys get your due wages, we can wait for the +rest.”</p> + +<p>There was another exchange of glances which Jessica +did not see. Neither did she see herder Samson, +lying at length on the ground, lift his great boot and +significantly point to a hole in its toe. Nor would she +have surmised his meaning had she done so. Indeed, +she suddenly remembered her errand at the packinghouse +and ran to its open door, but failed.</p> + +<p>“How queer! Why should this be locked? I didn’t +know it ever was. Where can the key be?”</p> + +<p>“In Antonio Bernal’s pocket,” said Joe quietly.</p> + +<p>“Then even before I found this feather he must have +suspected somebody and taken care of the others. But +it’s dreadful if we have come to turning keys on one +another, here, at dear Sobrante. Well, I’m off to +mother, now; and, Joe, Antonio said you should go to +help John. Will you?”</p> + +<p>“For you, fast enough, Lady Jess, though I’m about +quit of Top-Lofty’s orders.”</p> + +<p>“Grumbler!” laughed the girl, hurrying away, with +her gayety quite restored by this few minutes’ chat +with the beloved “boys” who had petted her all her life.</p> + +<p>They did not laugh, however, as they watched her +going, and Joe, rising to do her bidding, slapped his +thigh emphatically and remarked:</p> + +<p>“I call it the time has come. The longer we put it off +the worse it is. Poor little missy! Getting our wages +due! That little angel ’d cry the blue out of her +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_32'></a>32</span> +pretty eyes if she knew how long ’twas since we’d seen +the color of our money. Pass the word along, boys, +and let’s confab, to-night, and settle it. Time, about +moon-up, in John’s shop. How’s that?”</p> + +<p>“Count me a mutineer,” said the ex-sailor, Samson, +as he strolled toward his cattle sheds.</p> + +<p>“I’m with you,” echoed Marty, departing for his +orange grove. “Mutiny’s an ugly word aboard ship, +I’m told, but when psalm-singing Samson takes to using +it right here on dry land I reckon the case differs. Anyhow, +if it’s a bid ’twixt the little one and Top-Lofty, +I’m for the little one every time.”</p> + +<p>Scruff knew the road home as well as another, and +doubtless reasoned in his burro mind that the sooner +he reached there the sooner he would be rid of his +awkward rider. So he made all speed over the steep +descent, though Mr. Hale used his own feet, now and +then, as human brakes to check the creature’s pace; +and, whimsically, remonstrated when the jolts became +too frequent.</p> + +<p>“Here, you beast! Hold on! If ever I ride a donkey +again just let me know about it, will you? Keep that +front end of yours up, please. I’ve a notion of sliding +over your head, just to accommodate. Steady, there, +steady. I flatter myself I can stick if I can’t ride. And +we’re getting along. We’re getting along.”</p> + +<p>Indeed, much earlier than he had hoped for, they +were on level ground and had struck out upon that road +where Jessica had met the manager, and which for some +distance followed the tree-bordered arroyo–just then +a river of sand only–leading straight toward a group +of buildings and an oasis of greenery most welcome to +the stranger’s sun-blinded eyes.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_33'></a>33</span>“Sobrante ranch, that must be, and the home of my +little ostrich rider. I hope she’ll be there to greet me, +for a tempting spot it looks.”</p> + +<p>The nearer he approached the more charming it appeared, +with its one modern, vine-covered cottage, and +its long stretches of low adobe structures–enough to +form a village in themselves–and as dingily ancient +as the other was freshly modern.</p> + +<p>In reality, these old adobes were remnants of a long-abandoned +mission, but still in such excellent repair +that they were utilized for the ranchman’s quarters and +for the business of the great estate. Antonio Bernal +was the only one of all the employees who had his own +rooms at “the house,” as the cottage was called where +the Trents themselves lived.</p> + +<p>From the kitchen of this attractive “house” now +floated a delectable odor of well-cooked food, and with +the reflection that he was always hungry nowadays, the +visitor crossed to its open window; there came, also, a +girlish voice, exclaiming:</p> + +<p>“Yes, mother, I’m sure he was a gentleman, though +he didn’t look well. I told him you weren’t fond of +strangers and had little time to give them, but that I +thought you’d make him welcome. Indeed, there’s nowhere +else for him to go, since his horse is lame and +we so far from everybody. He lost his trail, he said. +Was I right?”</p> + +<p>Then his shadow fell across the sun-lighted floor +and Jessica faced about. With a whisk of the saucepan, +in which she was scrambling eggs, she added: +“Well, right or wrong, here he is!” But she was talking +to empty air, for her mother had disappeared.</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_34'></a>34</span><a id='link_4'></a>CHAPTER IV<br /><span class='h2fs'>AN INTERRUPTED SUPPER</span></h2> + +<p>The young ranchwoman placed her pan in safety and +ran out upon that north porch, where the table was +already spread, to meet the visitor.</p> + +<p>“Oh! I’m glad you’ve gotten here all safe. How did +you do it? It’s a long walk for those who aren’t used +to it. Even for those who are, too. Did you ride your +horse? Was he better?”</p> + +<p>She rattled off her questions without waiting for replies +and to give him time to recover his breath, which +he seemed to have lost. Then she poured him a glass +of milk and urged him to drink it, with the remark:</p> + +<p>“That’s Blandina’s own. She’s the house-cow. +You’ll find it delicious. Don’t you?”</p> + +<p>“It’s fine milk,” answered the other, cautiously; “but, +if it isn’t too much trouble, a bit of ice would improve +it.”</p> + +<p>“Ice? Why, where could I get ice? Sometimes, in +the winter, a little forms along the arroyo, but now–I’m +very sorry, indeed. I’d be so glad to get it if I +could.”</p> + +<p>Mr. Hale swallowed the sickeningly warm liquid with +a gulp and hastened to apologize.</p> + +<p>“It wouldn’t be good for me if you could. My +compliments to your house-cow, and I’m very grateful +for my refreshment. You have a beautiful home.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_35'></a>35</span>“Haven’t we? The prettiest in the world, I guess. +My father thought so and my mother loves it. So do +we all, but to her it is dearest. Because, you see, father +and she have made it all it is. Please, just let me +move your chair nearer the edge of the porch. So. +Now, look away off to the east. Father said there +could be no view more uplifting. He wished everybody +who had to live in cities could see it. He knew +it would make them better men.”</p> + +<p>Magnificent though it was, Mr. Hale found his +small hostess more interesting than the view.</p> + +<p>“Your father<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>” he began, questioningly.</p> + +<p>“Isn’t here, now. He passed heavenward a year ago. +Since then nothing seems just the same, and dear +mother is often sad and troubled. You know she wants +to carry on all father’s experiments, she doesn’t want +his ‘life work to be wasted,’ she says, and Antonio isn’t +able to get as much money as he used to be. She tries +so bravely not to let it fret her, and I don’t see where +she is. She was in the kitchen with me. We were getting +dinner because Wun Lung, the cook, cut his hand, +and Pasqual isn’t to be trusted. Of course, he’s a good +enough boy, can make beds and such things, but–cook! +One must be very dainty to do that. My +mother can cook deliciously! She taught herself everything +and the why of it. When she and father came +here they lived in that tiny adobe away at the end of +the second row. Do you see it? By the old corridor. +Their table was a packing box and they had just a little +camping outfit. Now there’s all this.”</p> + +<p>Jessica Trent’s sweet face glowed with loving pride +in her fair home, but this was as nothing of the tenderness +which filled her eyes as they now caught sight +of a tall woman in black coming over the garden path.</p> + +<p>“There she is, my mother!”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_36'></a>36</span>Mr. Hale rose as the lady drew near and one glance +showed him what model “Lady Jess” had chosen as a +type of that “perfect” breeding to which the little +maid aspired. The mistress of Sobrante was a real +gentlewoman, even though her gown was of cheapest +print and her surroundings those of an isolated western +ranch. Her daughter ran to cast a clinging, yet protecting, +arm about her, and proudly turning toward +their guest, presented:</p> + +<p>“My mother, Mrs. Trent, Mr. <span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>” and smiling +waited for him to finish the sentence.</p> + +<p>“Hale. I had forgotten to mention my name before, +even though we have chatted so cosily. Permit me, +madam.”</p> + +<p>The card he offered bore the inscription:</p> + +<p>“Mr. Morris Hale, Attorney at Law, 156 Broadway, +New York.”</p> + +<p>Watchful Jessica saw her mother’s face pale, while +into her native cordiality of manner crept that slight +hauteur with which she regarded the most objectionable +of “tourists.” This, then, was one such, and the +girl was sorry. She had liked the stranger so much +and was already planning pleasant entertainment for +him; but if her dear did not approve of him her own +opinion went for naught.</p> + +<p>Yet it was only the statement of the gentleman’s +business that had caused Mrs. Trent’s momentary coldness, +for at that time, though her daughter did not +know this, the mere suggestion of law or lawyers disturbed +her. But she was quick to feel the possible injustice +of her fear and to atone for it by a deeper +cordiality.</p> + +<p>“You have come just in time to share our dinner, +Mr. Hale, and we’ll not wait any longer for laggards. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_37'></a>37</span> +I was looking for the children. Jessie, dear, have you +seen them?”</p> + +<p>“Not since breakfast, mother. But they can’t be far +away, for there’s Scruff yonder, trying to get into the +alfalfa.”</p> + +<p>“Antonio hasn’t come up, either, since the plucking. +I wish he would while the food is fresh. If you’ll<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p>“We needn’t wait for him, because I met him riding +toward the foothills, as I came home. He’s probably +off to the mines and that means an all-day’s trip. But +I’ll help you dish up, and seek the boys, though they +don’t often need seeking at mealtime. You sit right +down with Mr. Hale, dear, and I’ll serve you. Pasqual +can bring in the tureen, and I hope the eggs aren’t +spoiled by waiting.”</p> + +<p>“Is Scruff that mottled burro poking his nose +through that fence?” asked the guest.</p> + +<p>“Yes. He belongs to my little son, Ned, who shares +him with his playmate, Luis. An inseparable trio, +usually.”</p> + +<p>“Then I’m the cause of their present separation. I +rode that animal down from old Pedro’s cabin and at +his advice,” Mr. Hale described his meeting with the +two small lads, the fright they had given him, and his +own desertion of them. “Though now I’m ashamed +to recall how readily I consigned them to a tramp I +was unwilling to take myself. I wish I’d brought +them with me. We could have used Scruff’s back, +turn and turn about.”</p> + +<p>“Oh how could they! One misstep and they’d have +been killed.”</p> + +<p>“What is it, mother?” asked Jessica, seeing the lady’s +hand shake so that she could scarcely serve the soup +which formed the chief dish of their plain dinner.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_38'></a>38</span>“Only another prank of those terrifying children. +Bound themselves–or had help to bind–and rode +Scruff bareback up the canyon! They’re always ‘playing +Indian,’ and I wish they’d never heard of one. It’s +that Ferd eggs them on. He ‘dares’ them and<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>Excuse +me, Mr. Hale. Mothers are anxious people. Try +some of Jessie’s scramble, please. She is just learning +to cook and likes to be appreciated.”</p> + +<p>“But I didn’t see them, as I went up or down. They +must have taken the long road around by the north +end. Where the old Digger village is,” observed Jessie.</p> + +<p>“A forbidden route. It’s to be hoped they’ll follow +the shortest road home. If they’re not here in an hour +one of the men must go to fetch them.”</p> + +<p>Jessica laughed and kissed her mother.</p> + +<p>“Don’t you worry, dear, and do, please, eat your dinner. +Aren’t those children always having hairbreadth +escapes, and are they ever hurt? Pedro’ll send them +down in a hurry. He knows his mistress and her ways, +and wouldn’t let her be troubled if he could help it. +They’ll get no dinner at Pedro’s, and dinner is something +they’ve never missed yet. Hark! Aren’t going +to miss now! Listen. They’re fighting along home in +their regular fashion. By the sound they’ve about got +to prickly-pear hedge. <i>Hola!</i> Ned! Lu-is! Oh! beg +pardon. I forgot I was at table. Excuse me, mother, +and I’ll bring in the youngsters–after a deluge!”</p> + +<p>Already there was an uproar in the outer kitchen, +where two tired and hungry little boys were assaulting +the unoffending Pasqual, diligently scrubbing away +at his pots and pans. Any victim will do, at a pinch, +to vent one’s wrath upon, and Pasqual was nearest. +But he was not one to suffer patiently, and promptly returned +the puny blows of his assailants with much +more vigorous ones, till Jessica reached the spot, rescued +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_39'></a>39</span> +the truants, and conducted them to the washbasin.</p> + +<p>From there, disdaining the towel, they made rapid +transit to the porch and the presence of the stranger. +All along their enforced walk home they had laid plans +of vengeance, among which “tommyhawking” and +“shootin’ chock full o’ arrers” were the wildest. But, +alas! Now that their enemy was in their very power, +they had no fiercer weapons than four grimy little +fists. Better these than nothing, was Ned’s instant +decision, and Luis was but Ned’s second thought. As +Ned’s right descended upon Mr. Hale’s shoulders, Luis’ +left delivered a telling blow upon the gentleman’s hand, +uplifted toward his lips. This was small assistance to +the yellow-haired chief, for the spoon fled straight +from the victim’s fingers and landed squarely in Ned’s +face.</p> + +<p>This created intense diversion. The blows intended +for the guest were now bestowed upon each other, and +so impartially that neither side was worsted. Mrs. +Trent rose in her place, flushed and apologetic, though +the stranger was far more surprised than offended, +while the sister had once more appeared and terminated +a battle almost before it was begun. With a strength +of which she did not look capable she caught up and +lifted a child into each of the two high chairs in waiting–but +wisely placed at opposite sides of the board. +There they settled themselves composedly, beaming +and smiling upon each other like a pair of wingless +cherubs, while Ned thrust forth a tin basin and demanded:</p> + +<p>“Give me my soup, mother.”</p> + +<p>“Gimmesoup!” echoed Luis, choking over a piece of +bread he had filched from Jessica’s plate.</p> + +<p>“Children!”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_40'></a>40</span>“Oh! Huh! Please give me my soup, mother.”</p> + +<p>“Plea’ gimmesoup, <i>madr’</i>.”</p> + +<p>“Isn’t your <i>madre</i>, Luis Garcia. Isn’t nobody’s +mother but mine, so there!”</p> + +<p>“Humph!” remarked Jessica. “What about me?”</p> + +<p>This set Ned off into a giggle, in which Luis dutifully +joined, and the laughter restored the best of feelings +all around. The meal over, Mrs. Trent offered +the guest the use of a room in which to rest, and this +he gladly accepted; adding that he wished he might +be able to make some arrangement with her by which +he could occupy it indefinitely, till his health was restored +and the business which had brought him to that +region was completed. Any terms she would make +would be most satisfactory to him, for he was charmed +with Sobrante and most anxious to sojourn there for +a time.</p> + +<p>Jessica was already clearing the table, yet watching +her mother closely, and was surprised to see a moment’s +hesitation on the dear face before the expected +and customary answer came:</p> + +<p>“We are always glad to make our friends welcome at +Sobrante, and for as long as our simple life suits +them, but we could not accept payment for our hospitality. +I am glad you like our home, and Jessica will +show you to the friend’s room at once. Tell Pasqual, +my dear, to attend Mr. Hale and see that he has all +which he requires. All that may be supplied at this +isolated spot, that is,” she added, with a smile.</p> + +<p>Mr. Hale thanked his hostess and withdrew, but he +felt that he had practically been dismissed from the +ranch and that he had no past friendship to urge as a +plea for any but the briefest visit there.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_41'></a>41</span>Yet the cool chamber into which the traveler was +shown proved so restful that the “forty winks only” +which he intended were prolonged till sunset. Then he +hastily descended to the lower floor to find that the +early supper of the household was over; though Mrs. +Trent had kept his own portion hot, and smilingly +waved aside his apologies as she placed before him a +dish of delicately broiled quail, prepared by her own +skillful hands.</p> + +<p>“Why, this is a luxury! and to be expected only at +some great hotel. By the way, where is the nearest +one? I should have been on my way long ago.”</p> + +<p>“I hope not. And you cannot well reach any hotel +to-night. The nearest is thirty miles away, and for a +long distance the road is a mere track across the plain. +Even those who are used to it, would find it difficult to +keep it on a moonless night, as this will be.”</p> + +<p>“Oh! I’m so sorry.”</p> + +<p>The hostess’ face grew anxious. “Is it so important? +I thought<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p>“Humph! That’s another of my blunders. My regret +is that I must force myself upon your hospitality +after<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p>Mrs. Trent interrupted with a laugh.</p> + +<p>“I imagine we’re talking at cross-purposes. While I +cannot make any guest comfortable at Sobrante ‘indefinitely,’ +as you proposed, I should be disappointed +to have you leave us hurriedly, I’d like you to inspect +the ranch, thoroughly, and that will require at least a +week. Besides, since I’ve learned from your card that +you are a lawyer, I would like to ask your advice. Of +course, if you are willing to give it in a business way.”</p> + +<p>“I shall be happy to serve you and more than happy +to stay for the week you propose, I came<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_42'></a>42</span>But he did not finish his sentence. There rang +through the quiet room the echoes of rifle shots, repeated +singly and in volleys, and accompanied by shouts +and shrieks, so fierce and unearthly that Mr. Hale +sprang to his feet while his hand sought his own pistol +pocket.</p> + +<p>“Horrible! In the midst of this peace–an Indian +outbreak!”</p> + +<p>A curious thrill ran through his veins, as if his sixty +years had suddenly turned backward to sixteen, and, +with an answering cry, he leaped through the open +window and rushed straight into the arms of a man +who had already reached the porch and was making for +the very room that the stranger had just quitted.</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_43'></a>43</span><a id='link_5'></a>CHAPTER V<br /><span class='h2fs'>COUNTER REVOLT</span></h2> + +<p>The collision staggered both men and gave Mrs. +Trent time to reach the side of her guest and to lay a +restraining hand upon his arm. Her voice was tremulous +with laughter as she explained:</p> + +<p>“It’s only a rifle practice. The ranchmen and the +children–all children in this sport–and always noisy. +I’m sorry it disturbed you, but–Indians! How could +you imagine it. Ah! Antonio, good-evening. Have +you had supper?”</p> + +<p>“No, senora. I need it.”</p> + +<p>“It is waiting. This visitor, Mr. Hale, Senor Antonio +Bernal, the manager of Sobrante.”</p> + +<p>The gentlemen bowed, one with the brevity of a busy +man, the other with the profound salutation of his race. +But they parted immediately, for the Easterner was +anxious to witness the shooting and the superintendent +to break his long fast; and with disgust at his own +readiness to fancy danger where none existed, Mr. +Hale followed the sound of the yells and cheers.</p> + +<p>“Hi! hi! for the little one! Hit him again, blue +jacket!” shrieked Samson, as, steadying upon a tie-post +the rifle he was too small to support, Ned sighted +the bull’s-eye of a distant target, took a careless aim, +yet struck it squarely.</p> + +<p>Whereupon the strong ex-sailor thrust the weapon +aside and tossed the lad in the air as if he had been a +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_44'></a>44</span> +ball. Yet caught him as he lightly descended, and +placed him astride his own shoulders.</p> + +<p>“Who’ll beat the little master? Three times out o’ +seven, with an iron heavy as that, how’s the showing +for an eight-year-old?”</p> + +<p>But Ned slipped from the ranchman’s back, picked +up his own tiny, perfectly finished gun, and swung it +over his head.</p> + +<p>“Huh! That’s nothing! Huh! This the feller! +Huh! Guess ’tis. Shot more’n forty-’leven quails this +day ’t ever was. Had ’em for my supper. Had ’em +for the man broke his horse’s leg and stole Scruff. +Hello, Mister! Had your supper? Wasn’t them good +birds? I shot ’em for you. I did.”</p> + +<p>“You?” demanded the gentleman, astonished. He +had now joined the group surrounding the three children, +and his presence caused a lull in the uproar +which had preceded his arrival. “You! Why you +aren’t big enough to do such a thing.”</p> + +<p>“I did! I did! I never told a lie in all my life–never, +never, never! So, there!” and unable to endure +such an imputation, the child rushed upon his traducer +and pounded him well with the butt of his little rifle.</p> + +<p>“Ned! Edward Trent! Stop! You–a little gentleman–mother’s +son!”</p> + +<p>Jessica’s arms were about her brother, restraining +his movements and for a moment making him drop his +head in shame. The next he had broken from her +grasp, caught up another gun and dragged it toward +her.</p> + +<p>“Your turn, Jess. Hurry up. There’s just an inch +of sun left–I mean there was a minute ago–hurry +up! Me an’ Luis’s got to go to bed quick as a wink! +Hurry–hurry!”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_45'></a>45</span>“Hurry up!” echoed Luis, with a yawn, and dropping +down where he stood, was instantly asleep.</p> + +<p>John Benton crossed to the visitor’s side and remarked:</p> + +<p>“Now, I tell you, stranger, you’ll see the sight of +your life. If I was a betting man I’d back Our Lady +Jess again’ any other girl-shooter on the globe. You +just watch out–if the dark holds off a spell.”</p> + +<p>There were a dozen, maybe, of the ranchmen standing +or lying around in a semi-circle, but now all quiet +and intent upon the little girl, as, nodding and smiling +upon her guest and her beloved “boys,” she stepped +into the open space before them all. “Forty-niner” +March, unerring marksman and the children’s instructor, +took his place beside her, examined her rifle, +handed it to her and also observed to the stranger:</p> + +<p>“Now, if nothin’ happens, you’ll see sunthin’. Sorry +it’s so dusk, but any gent what doubt’s is free to walk up +to the target and look where the ball strikes. You, +lady, do me proud.”</p> + +<p>“I’ll try,” said Jessica, simply. “Is it the little nail +in the center?”</p> + +<p>“Just that.”</p> + +<p>She sighted and fired; and a ranchman who had run +forward to the target, shouted back across the darkening +space:</p> + +<p>“Hit her plumb!”</p> + +<p>A roar of applause greeted this announcement, but +the girl accepted this tribute with no comment save +another nod and smile, as she waited her teacher’s +next direction.</p> + +<p>This was given silently by a gesture downward.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_46'></a>46</span>Instantly Jessica dropped upon the ground, rested +herself upon her elbows, aimed, fired, and–“Hit +her again! Hooray for Our Lady! Hooray–hooray–hooray!”</p> + +<p>In his excitement big Samson seized Mr. Hale by +the sleeve and compelled that gentleman to jog-trot +across the open and view at closer range the wonderful +skill of the little maid who was so dear to them all.</p> + +<p>“Stand aside, Psalm Singer. Your head’s in the +way!” cautioned somebody.</p> + +<p>Still clutching his companion, Samson obeyed, and +they saw Jessica now lying upon her back, sighting +upward and backward over her head a small, white object +that had been placed in the target where the tack +had been. There was no cheering then, nor any movement +among the eager watchers who fairly held their +breaths lest they disturb their darling in that supreme +moment of her success or failure.</p> + +<p>“But she’ll not fail!” thought more than one, and +would have given a year’s wages that she should not.</p> + +<p>There was a swift rush of something through the +air, so close to Mr. Hale’s nose that he visibly drew +back, and a double report as the bullet hit the toy torpedo +which had been the chosen mark.</p> + +<p>After that, pandemonium; or so it seemed to Mr. +Hale. Those gray and grizzled men–for there were +few young among them–shouted themselves hoarse +and gave way to the wildest expressions of pride and +delight. As for Jessica, the heroine, though her eyes +sparkled and a flush rose to her cheeks, she was by far +the calmest person present. Even Mr. Hale’s heart +was beating rapidly and he caught the girl’s hands and +shook them violently, in his congratulations.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_47'></a>47</span>“That was marvelous! marvelous! I’ve seen pretty +good sharp-shooting done by professionals, but never +anything so fine as that last shot of yours. How +could you ever learn it, so young as you are?”</p> + +<p>“How could I help learning? It is ‘Forty-niner's’ +work, a deal more than mine. He’s been teaching me +ever since I could hold a tiny bow and arrow. He’s +wonderful, if you please; but I<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>Well, it seems just +to do itself, somehow. But I must go in now. Time +for the little ones to be in bed. Come, Ned. Come, +Luis. Oh, dear! he’s fast asleep.”</p> + +<p>“I’ll pack him for you, lady. And say, boys, isn’t +this the time?”</p> + +<p>Samson had lifted the sleeping Luis, tucked him +under one arm and swung Ned to the other, but now +paused to glance around among his fellow-workmen.</p> + +<p>“Time was ‘moon-up,’” answered Joe, minded to be +facetious.</p> + +<p>“This would be ‘moon-up,’ if the old girl knew her +business,” retorted the sailor. “In ten minutes we’ll +be with you. Come, on, my lady. I’ve a word to say +to you and the mistress.”</p> + +<p>The daily evening sport was over and the ranchmen +rapidly dispersed, each to his own quarters, and none +considering it his especial business to entertain the +stranger, who was now strolling slowly houseward +mindful of the sudden chill which came with the nightfall +and of his own unfitness for exposure.</p> + +<p>Proudest of all, “Forty-niner” gathered up the weapons +and carried them off, to clean and put in order for +the next evening’s practice. He was well satisfied with +his pupil’s achievements, though already planning more +difficult feats for their performance. The man was +eighty; yet, while his abundant hair was white, his +back was still straight and his step firm. The joy of +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_48'></a>48</span> +his old age was the athletic training of the Sobrante +children, and it would have amazed him, even broken +his heart, had he been told that by such means he did +not well earn his keep. He was eldest of all the elderly +workmen that the late master of the ranch had gathered +about him, and his appreciation of this good home +in which to end his days perhaps, the greatest of all. +It was, therefore, a terrible shock which awaited him, +as entering his own room, he lighted his lamp and saw +lying on his table a white envelope addressed to himself.</p> + +<p>He knew what it meant. Dismissal.</p> + +<p>One year before, when Cassius Trent died, there had +been twenty employees where there were now but thirteen–he +the “odd one” of the “baker’s dozen.” Seven +times, when least expected or desired, some one of +these twenty had found in his room just such an envelope, +containing his arrears of wages, and the curt +information that, “by the order of Mrs. Trent, his +services were no longer required at Sobrante, nor +would any wages be forthcoming from that day forward.”</p> + +<p>These men had all been friends, rather than servants, +and in each case the result had been the same. +Cut to the heart by the manner of discharge, and, for +the first time it may be, realizing that he was no longer +young, and, therefore, valuable, the recipient of the +envelope had quietly disappeared, saying farewell to +nobody.</p> + +<p>“My turn! My turn, at last!” broke from the aged +frontiersman’s lips, and a groan followed. “Ten years +I’ve lived in this old adobe cell till I’ve come to feel +like the monk for whom it was first built. Now<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p>The white head drooped forward on the outstretched +arms and all the burden of his eighty years seemed +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_49'></a>49</span> +suddenly to have descended upon that bowed and +shrunken figure.</p> + +<p>In the pretty dining-room Antonio Bernal had eaten +a hearty supper served by his own mistress, since Wun +Lung was not to be found and the house-boy, Pasqual, +claimed his usual recreation hour at the rifle practice. +But neither thought anything amiss in this, and the +manager would, indeed, have asserted that it was quite +the proper thing. Was not he a Bernal, and superior +to all at Sobrante? Even though he was, for the +time being, receiving wage instead of bestowing. Well, +it was a long lane that had no turning.</p> + +<p>Pushing back from the table, Antonio had murmured +the proverb in Spanish, with a smile of satisfaction +lighting his dark face, and Mrs. Trent had failed +to hear distinctly, though she was familiar enough +with the language so often in use about her.</p> + +<p>“Beg pardon, I did not understand.”</p> + +<p>“Begging pardon, one’s self, senora, it is seldom that +you do. It is the business was never made for the +small brains of the women, no? ’Tis the senora’s place +to be beautiful and let the business rest in the capable +hands of I, myself. <i>En verdad.</i>”</p> + +<p>Mrs. Trent colored and bit her lip. This man’s insolence +was becoming insupportable, and she could +scarcely recognize him for the obsequious fellow who +had been her husband’s right-hand dependence. His +brief authority had turned his head, she reflected, and, +again, that she must in no wise offend him. The welfare +of her children demanded this, and forcing herself +to smile as pleasantly as if his insult were a jest, she +remarked:</p> + +<p>“The gentleman whom you met, as you came in, is a +lawyer. A New York lawyer. I–I would like to consult +him about our–this business you mention. I was +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_50'></a>50</span> +born and reared in New York and have a feeling that +anything which comes from there must be all right. +Even a lawyer, though I’m not fond of the profession +usually.</p> + +<p>“The senor is not wont to waste so many words upon +her most humble servant, no. And as for the lawyers, +have I not this day been to the consulting of the most +eminent, the wisest of his kind, no? But yes; and the +truth is, senora–believe me, it breaks my heart so to +inform you, but this barren rancho of Sobrante belongs +not to the Dona Gabriella and her children, but +to one Antonio Bernal, even I, myself.”</p> + +<p>“To you! Belongs–to–you?” gasped the astonished +woman.</p> + +<p>The manager shrugged his shoulders and tossed +another Spanish proverb toward her: “What I have +said, I have said.”</p> + +<p>Mrs. Trent felt her strength leaving her and sank +into a chair, still gazing incredulously at the other, who +now lounged back in his own chair and began to leisurely +pick his teeth. It was a trivial action, but one +wholly disgusting to the gentlewoman’s fastidious +sense, and it angered her, which was a good thing, for +her anger banished her momentary faintness and gave +her boldness to demand:</p> + +<p>“The proof!”</p> + +<p>“It will be forthcoming, senora, at the right time. +Yes. Meanwhile, I am content you shall remain, you +and your little ones, until–well, say a month. By that +date all things should have been arranged and the +senora will have found herself another home less lonely +than Sobrante. One so beautiful as the Dona Gabriella +must have hosts of friends who<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p>Senor Bernal paused. There were footsteps approaching, +and the merry voices of children, and an instant +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_51'></a>51</span> +later Samson was in the room, still carrying the little +lads in his arms, and with Jessica clinging affectionately +to his ragged sleeve.</p> + +<p>One glance showed the faithful ranchman that something +was amiss. There was fresh sorrow, even consternation, +in the beloved face of Sobrante’s mistress, +fresh insolence in that of her chief assistant. He was +not one to hesitate when his friends were in trouble, +and turned to Antonio with an angry demand:</p> + +<p>“What have you been worrying your betters with +now, senor?”</p> + +<p>“Keep a civil tongue in your head, rascal.”</p> + +<p>“Returnin’ the compliment, if you please. All the +same, don’t you know that a man–<i>a man</i>–doesn’t go +around worrying women as you worry Mrs. Trent? +You, that hadn’t a shirt to your back when the boss +took you in and made you what you are! I’m anticipatin’ +a mite, and I don’t know just how some of the +boys’ll take it, but we’d laid out this very night at +moon-up–if there’d been a moon sensible enough to +get up, which there isn’t–to haul you and a few other +matters over the coals and stir up a fresh sort of blaze. +Now, I warn you, just you let matters slide, peaceable, +and you–just you, yourself, keep that civil tongue you +recommend, or you’ll light out of here so quick ye +won’t see your heels for dust, dry season though it is. +Hear?”</p> + +<p>“Hear? Yes, I hear. Now, ’tis your turn. You go +tell those malcontents you call ‘the boys’ to take their +packs and foot it. Times have changed. Things have +changed. There’s another master here now, and not a +weak-willed mistress. That is me–I–Antonio Bernal, +owner of Sobrante rancho and all that appertains +thereto. Now, go. Vamos. Depart. Clear out. Get!”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_52'></a>52</span>Samson went–as far as the long, open window, and +stepped out upon the porch. He did not see Mr. Hale, +who had seated himself in a rocker, an unintentional +witness of a scene he would gladly have missed, and +putting a whistle to his lips blew a summons which was +understood by every fellow-workman on the ranch. +Then he quietly re-entered the house, folded his arms, +and leaned carelessly against the door frame.</p> + +<p>Senor Bernal started up as if he would forcibly eject +the herder, but thought better of this and sank back +nonchalantly in his great chair. Jessica had placed +herself behind her mother, and clasped Mrs. Trent’s +shoulders with the protecting tenderness habitual to +her. Ned had sprung to his mother’s lap and Luis continued +his nap at her feet; while all seemed waiting for +some fresh development of the affair.</p> + +<p>This came and speedily; for, in answer to Samson’s +whistle, there filed over the porch and into the room, +Joe, the smith; Marty, the gardener; and Carpenter +John. There was missing old “Forty-niner,” commonly +the dominant fifth of this odd quintet, but +nobody wondered much at that. Doubtless he was +polishing his darling’s rifle and making ready for some +astonishing display of her skill wherewith to dazzle +the stranger upon the morrow. In any case he rarely +disagreed with the opinions of his cronies and was sure +to be one with them in the matter of that hour.</p> + +<p>With a respectful salute to Mrs. Trent, a grin +toward the children, and a scowl for Antonio, these +stalwart ranchmen lined up against the wall and stood +at attention. Mr. Hale, observant through the doorway, +again noticed that each of these was well along in +years, that each had some slight physical infirmity, and +that, despite these facts, each looked a man of unusual +strength and most entire devotion. Indeed, the gaze +fixed upon the little lady, was one of adoration, and the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_53'></a>53</span> +situation boded ill for anybody who meant harm to +her.</p> + +<p>“Ahem. What say, mates? Has the hour struck?”</p> + +<p>“The hour has struck,” answered John Benton, solemnly, +shifting his weight from his lame leg to his +sound one.</p> + +<p>Samson strode a mighty step forward and pulled his +forelock.</p> + +<p>“Then I state, madam, that we here, on behalf of +ourselves and our whole crew, now, and hereby do, +throw off all ’legiance to that there Spanish skunk, +a-settin’ in your easiest chair, and appoint Our Lady +Jess, captain of the good ship Sobrante. Allowin’ you +to be the admiral of that same, madam, but takin’ no +more orders from anybody save and excepting her–under +you, of course–from this time forth, so help us.”</p> + +<p>Then there burst from the trio of throats a cheer that +shook the windows, and called a contemptuous laugh +from the superintendent so valiantly defied.</p> + +<p>The cheer died in an ominous silence which Senor +Bernal improved.</p> + +<p>“Highly dramatic and most edifying, <i>en verdad.</i> +Senor, I kiss your hands in even greater devotion. But +the play has one little drawback. To I, me, myself, +belongs Sobrante. Already I have had the law of which +you spoke. My claim I have proved. From the long +back generations the good title from the Mission +Padres to my own fathers, yes. Sobrante? <i>Si.</i> More +and better. Wide lies the valley of Paraiso d’Oro. +Mine, Mine. All–all mine. No?”</p> + +<p>He rose to his feet and pompously paced up and +down the room, insolently handsome and proud of the +fact, while out on the darkened porch Mr. Hale had +heard a word which set his own pulses beating faster +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_54'></a>54</span> +and the row of ranchmen started forward as if minded +to throw the braggart out of the house.</p> + +<p>But Jessica stepped forth and cried, triumphantly, +though still with an effort toward that courtesy she +desired.</p> + +<p>“Beg pardon, Senor Antonio Bernal, but surely you +are quite mistaken. My father taught me some things. +He said I was not too young to learn them. He–he +only–has the title deed to dear Sobrante, and I–I +only–know the safe place where it is kept!”</p> + +<p>Antonio halted in his strutting march and for a moment +his face grew pale. The next instant he had +regained more than his former confidence, and with a +sneering laugh, exclaimed:</p> + +<p>“Seeing is believing, no? To the satisfaction of the +assembled most honorable company,” here he bowed +with mock politeness, “let this most interesting document +be produced. <i>Si.</i>”</p> + +<p>Jessica flew from the room and in an intolerable +anxiety the whole “honorable company” awaited her +long-delayed return.</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_55'></a>55</span><a id='link_6'></a>CHAPTER VI<br /><span class='h2fs'>NIGHT VISIONS</span></h2> + +<p>When the tension of waiting was becoming intolerable, +and Mrs. Trent was already rising to seek her +daughter, Jessica reappeared in the doorway. Her +white face and frightened eyes told her story without +words, but her mother forced herself to ask:</p> + +<p>“Did you find it, darling?”</p> + +<p>“Mother, it is gone!”</p> + +<p>“Gone!”</p> + +<p>“Gone. Yet it was only that dear, last day when he +was with us, in the morning, before he set out for the +mines, that he showed it to me, safe and sound in its +place. He was to tell you, too, that night–but<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p>“It was that, then, which was on his mind, and I +could not understand. I–Antonio Bernal, he entrusted +you and you must know; where is that missing +deed?”</p> + +<p>“Deed, senora? This day, just ended, is it not that +I have been over all the records and there is none of +any deed to Sobrante later than my own–or that +proves my claim. In truth, the honorable Dona Gabriella +is right, indeed. I was the trusted friend of the +dead senor, and if any such precious document existed, +would I not have known it? <i>Si.</i> What I do know is +the worry, the trouble, the impossibility of such a paper +broke the senor’s heart. It does not exist. Sobrante +is mine. He knew that this was so–I had often +spoken<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_56'></a>56</span>The untruth he was about to utter did not pass his +lips. There was that in the white face of Gabriella +Trent which arrested his words, as, clasping her boy +in her arms, she glided into the darkened hall and +entered her own rooms beyond.</p> + +<p>The “boys” had not moved, nor Jessica followed, and +she now firmly confronted the manager, saying:</p> + +<p>“I am sorry to tell you, Antonio Bernal, that you are +not acting square. My father did have that title deed, +and I believe you know it. Somebody has taken it from +the place where his own hands put it, but I will find it. +This home is ours, is all my mother’s. Nobody shall +ever take it from her. Nobody. You hear me say that, +Senor Antonio Bernal, and you, dear ‘boys?’”</p> + +<p>“Ay, ay,” echoed her friends, heartily; but the superintendent +regarded her as he might have done some +amusing little insect.</p> + +<p>“Very pretty, senorita. The filial devotion, almost +beautiful. But the facts–well, am I not merciful and +generous, I? There is no haste. Indeed, no. A +month<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p>“Before a month is out I will have found that deed +and placed it in my darling mother’s hands. I may be +too young to understand the ‘business’ you talk about +so much, but I am not too young to save my mother’s +happiness. I can see that paper now, in my mind, and +I remember exactly how it looked inside and out. It +seemed such a little thing to be worth a whole, great +ranch. I don’t know how nor where, but somehow and +somewhere, I shall find that paper. ‘Boys,’ will you +help me?”</p> + +<p>“To the last drop of our hearts’ blood!” cried John +Benton, and the others echoed, “Ay, ay!”</p> + +<p>Antonio thought it time to end this scene and walked +toward the porch, at the further end of which was another +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_57'></a>57</span> +long window opening into his own apartments. +But he was not permitted to leave so easily. Great +Samson placed himself in the manager’s path and +remarked:</p> + +<p>“There’s no call to lose sight of the main business +’count o’ this little side-play of yours. We boys come +up here to-night to quit your employ and hire out to +Our Lady Jess. We’re all agreed, every man jack of +us. Your day’s over. Account of Mrs. Trent and the +kids, we’d like things done quiet and decent. There’s a +good horse of yours in the stable and though there isn’t +any moon, you know the roads well. If you tarry for +breakfast, likely you won’t have much appetite to eat +it. More’n that, the senora, as you call her, has waited +on your whelpship for just the last time. Before you +start you might as well pay up some of our back wages, +and hand over to the mistress the funds you’ve been +keeping from her.”</p> + +<p>“Insolent! Stand aside. How dare you? Let me +pass.”</p> + +<p>“I’m not quite through yet. There’s no real call to +have talk with such as you, but we ‘boys’ kind of resent +being set down as plumb fools. We’ve seen through +you, though we’ve kept our mouths shut. Now they’re +open; leastways, mine is. This here notion of yours +about ownin’ Sobrante is a bird of recent hatchin’. +’Tisn’t full-fledged yet, and ’s likely never to be. Your +first idea was to run the ranch down till your mistress +had to give it up out of sheer bad luck. Fail, mortgage, +or such like. Oranges didn’t sell for what they +ought; olives wasn’t worth shucks; some little varmint +got to eating the raisin grapes; mine petered out; +feathers growing poorer every plucking, though the +birds are getting valuabler. Never had accounts quite +ready–you, that was a master hand at figures when +the boss took you in and made you, You<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_58'></a>58</span>Antonio strode forward, furious, and with uplifted +hand.</p> + +<p>“You rascal! This to me–I, Antonio Bernal, descendant +of–Master of Sobrante and Paraiso, I<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p>“Master? Humph! Owner? Fiddlesticks! Why, +that little tacker there, asleep on the floor,” pointing to +Luis, “is likelier heir to this old ranch than you. The +country’s full of Garcias and always has been, Pedro +says. Garcia himself, when all’s told. As for Bernals, +who ever heard of more’n one o’ them? That’s you, +you skunk! Now, usin’ your own fine, highfalutin’ language: +‘Go. <i>Vamos.</i> Depart. Clear out. <i>Get!</i>’”</p> + +<p>“I go–because it so suits me, I, myself. But I return. +New servants will be with me and your quarters +must be empty. Let me pass.”</p> + +<p>“Certain. Anything to oblige. But don’t count on +them quarters. We couldn’t leave them if we would +’cause we’ve all took root. Been growing so long; +become indigenous to the soil, like the boss’ experiments. +Thrive so well might have been born here and +certainly mean to die on the spot. Going? Well, good-night. +Call again. <i>Adios.</i>”</p> + +<p>By this time Jessica was laughing, as her old friend +had meant she should be. In his contemptuous harangue +of the man he disliked and mistrusted, there had been +more humor than anger.</p> + +<p>“Well, my lady, that did me good. Haven’t had such +a thorough housecleaning of my mean thoughts in quite +a spell. Feel all ready for a fresh voyage under the +new captain. You rest run along and find that long +sufferin’ mother of yours and tell her the coast’s clear +of that pirate craft. We’ve all shipped men-o’-war, +now, and run up the old flag of truth and love. That +was the banner your father floated from his masthead, +and the colors that’ll never dip to lying or cheating. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_59'></a>59</span> +Wait. I’ll pack this baby Luis to his bed. Poor little +castaway, that your good father picked up in the canyon +and fetched home in his arms, to share the best with +his own. Well, needn’t tell me that the family of a +man as good as he was’ll ever come to want. Heave +ahead, captain. Show me the track to sail.”</p> + +<p>Jessica stopped to bid the other ranchmen good-night, +then led the sailor to the little bedroom which +the lads shared in common, and where Ned was already +asleep, tucked in his white cot by his mother, who let +no personal grief interfere with her care for others.</p> + +<p>“Good-night, dear Samson. I must find that paper. +You must help me. My mother must not, shall not, +lose her home.”</p> + +<p>“Never. Good-night, captain. You’ve a good crew +on deck and we’ll make happy haven yet.”</p> + +<p>That was Jessica Trent’s first wakeful night. Though +she tried to lie quietly in her own little bed, lest she +should disturb her mother whose room she shared, she +fancied all sorts of strange sounds, both in-doors and +out; and whenever she dropped into a doze, dreamed +of the missing paper and of searching for it.</p> + +<p>One dream was so vivid that she woke, exclaiming:</p> + +<p>“Oh, mother! I’ve found it. The black tin box under +the three sharp rocks!”</p> + +<p>But her eyes opened upon vacancy, and there was no +response from the larger bed where her anxious parent +had, at last, fallen asleep. Yet the vision remained, +painted upon the darkness, as it were, a sun-lighted +glowing spot, with three pyramidal rocks and a clump +of scraggly live oaks. A spot she had never seen, +indeed, but felt that she should instantly recognize, +should she come upon it anywhere.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_60'></a>60</span>Then she curled back upon her pillows and again shut +her eyes.</p> + +<p>Could it be possible that she, a healthy little girl, +was growing fidgety, like Aunt Sally Benton, who +sometimes came to visit her son and help with the +sewing? For she surely was hearing things. Movements, +hushed footfalls, softly closing doors, creaking +floors, at an hour when all the household should be at +rest.</p> + +<p>“How silly! It may be somebody is ill! Wun Lung’s +hand may hurt him, though it seemed so nearly well, +and nobody else would have minded it. That stranger! +Yes, I fancy it’s he. He may need something that I +can get him, and I’ll go inquire.”</p> + +<p>Slipping a little wrapper over her gown, but in her +bare feet, the girl noiselessly left the room and followed +the sound she had heard. These led her to a +small apartment which her father had used as an office +and where stood the desk in whose secret drawer she +had expected to find the title deed. A small fireproof +safe was in this office. It was an old-fashioned affair, +with a simple, but heavy key, which the Sobrante +children had played with in their infancy. She remembered +her father remarking, with a laugh, that a safe +was the most useless thing he possessed, for he never +had anything worth putting in it; but it had been a +belonging of old “Forty-niner” Marsh, a gift to his +employer, and therefore accorded a place of honor.</p> + +<p>Before this safe now bent a man whom Jessica recognized +with surprise and relief.</p> + +<p>“Why, Mr. Marsh! Is it you? What in the world +are you doing here at this hour? Are you ill? Do you +want something?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_61'></a>61</span>“No, dearie. I’m not ill; and I’m not robbing you. +And I’ve got all I want. That’s one more look at your +bonny face, God bless it!”</p> + +<p>It was close to his shoulder now, that face he loved, +and he kissed it tenderly; though with equal tenderness, +if less emotion, the little maid returned his caress +and clasped his neck with those strong, young arms +that so yearned to protect and comfort everybody.</p> + +<p>“That’s funny. Should think you’d be tired of it, +sometimes, I disappoint you so. But never mind. I’m +getting handier with my new rifle every day, I think, +and I mean to do yet what Samson claims I should–just +beat the world. Have you finished looking at your +things?” For it was Mr. Marsh himself who had +always used the safe, even after giving it away. “Can’t +I get you something to eat, so you can sleep better?”</p> + +<p>“No, dearie, no, just one more good kiss–to remember. +Good-by. Good-by. It–it might have been done +kinder, maybe, but–her heart is sad, I know, and her +first thought is for you. She must save for you. Here, +Lady, take the key. Some time you–you might want +to look in that safe for yourself. Good-night.”</p> + +<p>Jessica went with him to the outer door, wondering +much at this oddly-timed visit. Yet the ranchman +walked erect, still carrying his lighted candle quite +openly, as one who had done nothing of which to be +ashamed; and when he had departed the girl returned +to her own bed still more wakeful because of this queer +incident.</p> + +<p>Ten minutes later, it may have been, she heard the +limping footfall of a slowly-moving horse, the echoes +growing fainter continually.</p> + +<p>Again she sat up and listened.</p> + +<p>“That’s Mr. Marsh’s ‘Stiffleg!’ What should send +him off riding now? Oh! I do wish mother was awake, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_62'></a>62</span> +things seem so queer. Yet I don’t really wish it. She +has so many wakeful nights and just this one is more +than I want. Now, Jessica Trent, don’t be foolish any +longer. Go straight to sleep or you’ll be late in the +morning.”</p> + +<p>Nature acted upon this good advice, and Our Lady +knew no more till a pair of chubby hands were pulling +her curls and Ned’s voice was screeching in her ear:</p> + +<p>“Wake up, Jessie Trent. We had our breakfast +hours ago, and the ‘boys’ is all out-doors, can’t go to +work ’ithout their captain. That’s <i>me</i>, Jessie Trent, +’cause I’m the ‘heir.’ Samson said so.”</p> + +<p>“I’s the heir, Samson said so!” echoed Luis from +the floor where he was trying the fit of Jessica’s new +“buckskins”–the comfortable moccasin-like footgear +which Pedro made for her–upon his own stubby toes.</p> + +<p>“He, he! What’s the heir Samson said? You’re a +stupid, Luis Garcia.”</p> + +<p>“Stupid Garcia!” laughed the little mimic, not in the +least offended.</p> + +<p>“Well, run away then, laddies, and I’ll be ready in a +jiffy. Poor mother. To think that I should have left +her to do so much alone.”</p> + +<p>As she threw open the sash of the rear window, Jessica +started back, surprised; for there, reined close to +the porch, was Nero’s black form, with the dark face +of his master bending low over the saddle.</p> + +<p>“Good-morning, senorita, and good fortune. Those +who hid may find. I kiss your hand in farewell, and +may it rule in peace till I return, I myself, the master. +One month hence I come, bringing my servants with +me. <i>Adios.</i> Ah! but what did you and the old sharpshooter +at the office safe at midnight? <i>When the senora +would seek her title, seek him.</i> It is farewell.”</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_63'></a>63</span><a id='link_7'></a>CHAPTER VII<br /><span class='h2fs'>CAPTAIN JESS</span></h2> + +<p>Jessica drew back, repelled. Why did that man make +her so unhappy whenever she saw him nowadays? +What did he mean by that speech about old Ephraim +Marsh and the safe? Well, he was gone, riding swiftly +away and lightening her trouble with every rod of +ground he put between them.</p> + +<p>“He’ll not come for a month, he said, and by that +time everything will be straight. If Sobrante is ours +it cannot possibly be his. That’s simple. Though he +might have lived here always if he’d wished. The title +paper has been mislaid. That’s all. I’m sure to find it +when I have time to look thoroughly, and how different +things do seem by daylight. Now, to say good-morning +to the ‘boys,’ dear fellows, and then for breakfast. +I’m as hungry as on ostrich.”</p> + +<p>Though since sunrise each had been busy about his +accustomed duties, neglecting nothing because of the +change in command, it suited the ideas of these faithful +ranchmen to report for duty to their newly appointed +“captain” and to ask for orders from her. With the +ready intuition of childhood she fell in with their mood +at once and received them in a manner which robbed +the affair of burlesque and invested it with dignity.</p> + +<p>From a shaded corner of the porch, from behind his +book, Mr. Hale watched the scene with an amusement +that soon gave place to wonder and admiration. They +were all profoundly in earnest. The fair young girl +with folded arms and serene composure, poised at the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_64'></a>64</span> +head of the steps and the group of sunburned workmen +standing respectfully before her.</p> + +<p>By tacit consent Samson was spokesman for the company +and his words had their usual nautical tinge.</p> + +<p>“We’re ready to set sail, captain, and here’s wishing +good luck to the v’yge! Old ‘Forty-niner’ hasn’t +showed up on deck yet, but he’ll likely soon heave to, +and the rest the crew’ll vouch for his being a good +hand in any sort o’ storm we’re apt to strike. We’ve +overhauled this chart. Each of us solemnly promise to +abide and obey no orders but yours, captain, or the +admiral’s through you. And would respectfully suggest–each +man sticks to the post he’s always filled, +till ordered off it by his superior officer. Right, mates?”</p> + +<p>“Ay, ay.”</p> + +<p>“How’s that suit you, commodore?”</p> + +<p>“That suits me, Samson. It will suit my mother.”</p> + +<p>“As for pay–being as we’ve got along without any +these five months back, and Senor Top-Lofty’s rode +off, forgettin’ to leave them arrears we mentioned, we +wash the slate clean and start all over again. For five +months to come we’ll serve you and the admiral for +mess and berth, no more, no less.”</p> + +<p>“Samson, do you mean that? Haven’t you boys been +paid your wages regularly, just as in my father’s time?”</p> + +<p>“Come, now, captain, that’s all right. Give us the +word of dismissal and let that slide. You missed your +own mess this morning<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p>“But that will break my mother’s heart. I know! I +know! I’ve often heard her ask him, and Antonio tell +her–he said that your wages were always taken out +before he brought what little money he could to her. +I know you said something about ‘arrears’ last night, +but I didn’t understand. What are ‘arrears,’ Samson?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_65'></a>65</span>“Blow me, for an old numskull. Why couldn’t I +keep my long tongue still! I only meant that we are +willing, we want, we must work for you and all the +Trents for nothing till we’ve made up part to ’em of +what that sweet ‘senor’ cheated ’em of. That’s all. +We’ve settled it. No use for anybody to try change +our minds, even if there was spot cash lying around +loose, waiting to be picked up and you havin’ no call +for it. Not one of which conditions hits the case.”</p> + +<p>“You are a good talker, dear old Samson, and a long +one. I can talk, too, sometimes. Maybe you’ve heard +me! You’ve read me your chart. Hear mine. It’s +my father’s own–that he always meant, but was never +able to follow. That I know my mother wants to follow +for his sake, though she does know so little of +business. Now, if we’re starting fresh, with the clean +slates you like, we’ll put this at the top: ‘share and +share alike.’ There was another long name dear father +used to call it–I<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p>“Co-operation,” suggested John Benton.</p> + +<p>“Yes, yes. That’s it. As soon as he was out of debt +and had a right to do what he would with Sobrante, +he meant to run it that way. But you know, you know. +It was only that last day when he came home so late +from that far-off town that he had his own ‘title’ and +was all ready to do as he wished. Let us do that now. +I know how. He told me. He was to make you, +Samson, responsible for all the cattle on the ranch. +You were to hire as many of the other boys as you +needed and were to have a just share for your own +money. The more you made out of the cattle the +better it would be for yourself. Isn’t that right?”</p> + +<p>“Right to a dot. Atlantic! but you’ve a head for +business, captain!”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_66'></a>66</span>“I’ve a head must learn business, if I’m to be your +captain. That is true enough. It isn’t my father’s fault +if I don’t know some simple things. He was always +teaching me, because Ned was too little and my mother–well, business always worried her and he’d do anything +to save her worry, even talk to a little girl like +me. And as Samson was to do with the cattle, so +George Cromarty was to do with the raisins and +oranges. The ostriches–Oh! but they were to be Antonio’s +charge. And now<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p>“They’re yours, captain, with any one or lot of us +you choose for helpers.”</p> + +<p>“Ferd knew much about them, and they minded him. +But<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p>“Ferd’ll trouble Sobrante none while the senor is +away. Joe is a good hand at all live stock, and I’ll +pledge you’ll get every feather that’s plucked when he +does the counting. He won’t let any eggs get cooked in +hatchin’, neither. You can trust Joseph–if you watch +him a mite.”</p> + +<p>A laugh at honest Joe’s expense, in which he heartily +joined, followed this and Lady Jess stepped down +among her friends, holding out her hands to first one, +then another. Her blue eyes were filled with happy +moisture, for she was not too young to feel their devotion +to be as unselfish as it was sincere, and her +smile was full of confidence in them and in herself.</p> + +<p>“Eleven years old is pretty early to be a captain, I +guess, but I’ll be a good one–just as good and true as +you are! What I don’t know you’ll teach me, and if I +make mistakes you’ll be patient, I know. One thing I +can do, I can copy bills and papers. I can put down +figures and add them up. It was good practice for me, +my father said. So I’ll put down your names and all +your business in these new books he bought and was +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_67'></a>67</span> +going to use in his co–co-operation–is that right, +John?”</p> + +<p>“Right as a trivet.”</p> + +<p>“And our admiral, that’s the dear mother, will not +have to fret so any longer. Between us we’ll make +Sobrante all my father meant it should be and–as +soon as I have my breakfast–I will find that title. I +must find it. I will. Sobrante is yours and ours forever. +Oh, boys, I love you! I’m all choked up–I love +you so and I feel like that my father used to read in +Dickens: ‘God bless you every one!’”</p> + +<p>With her hands clasped close against her breast, and +her beloved face luminous with her deep affection, their +little maid stood before her hardy henchmen, a symbol +to them of all that was best and purest in life. Their +own eyes were moist, and even Mr. Hale had to take off +his glasses and wipe them as, looking around upon his +comrades, great Samson swung his hat and cried:</p> + +<p>“And may God bless Our Lady Jess! And may +every man who seeks to injure her be–stricken with +numb palsy! And may every crop be doubled, prices +likewise! Peace, prosperity and happiness to Sobrante–destruction to her enemies!”</p> + +<p>“Forgiveness for her enemies, Samson, dear, if there +really are. That will be nobler, more like father’s rule. +Make it peace, prosperity and happiness to all the +world! Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!”</p> + +<p>Mr. Hale clapped his hands to his ears, then hastily +moved forward and joined in the cheer, that was deafening +enough to have come from many more throats +than uttered it. Yet he had an uncomfortable feeling +that he might be classed among those “enemies” whom +Samson wished afflicted with numb palsy and that, at +that moment, he was, by no fault of his own, playing +a double part.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_68'></a>68</span>But he gave himself the benefit of the doubt until he +should learn, as he meant to do at once, the whole history +of Sobrante with its strange hodge-podge of industries, +its veteran employees, and its childish “captain.” +So, while the ranchmen dispersed to their business +and Jessica sought her long-delayed breakfast, he turned +towards the kitchen where he hoped to find the mistress +of the ranch.</p> + +<p>But he was disappointed. There was visible only the +broad, purple-covered back and black pig-tail of a +Chinaman, pounding away at the snowy loaves of his +kneading-board, as if they were “enemies” of his own +and deserving something much worse than “numb +palsy.”</p> + +<p>“Wun Lung!”</p> + +<p>No answer, save the whack, whack, whack of the tormented +dough.</p> + +<p>“Ahem. I say, John!”</p> + +<p>Whack, whack.</p> + +<p>“Wun Lung, where’s your mistress?”</p> + +<p>“Dlaily.”</p> + +<p>“Indeed? I fancy your hand is better. I’m glad of +it. That bread ought to be fine. At your leisure, kindly +point the direction of the ‘dlaily,’ will you?”</p> + +<p>One yellow, floury hand was lifted and extended +eastward, but as this signified nothing definite to the +stranger he continued his inquiries.</p> + +<p>“Where’s Pasqual?”</p> + +<p>“Sclub.”</p> + +<p>“And the little boys?”</p> + +<p>“Alle glone.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_69'></a>69</span>“I congratulate you on your English, though I’m uncertainly +whether you mean me to ‘go on’ or assert that +somebody else has gone on. I don’t like to disturb +Miss Jessica at breakfast, but<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p>“Back polchee,” suggested Wun Lung, anxious to be +rid of the intruder, whose irony he suspected if he did +not understand.</p> + +<p>Mr. Hale betook himself around the house, and, fortunately, +in the right direction; for just issuing from +her dairy, which was in a cellar under the cottage, +was Mrs. Trent, bearing a wooden bowl of freshly +made butter.</p> + +<p>The guest’s heart smote him as he saw her sad face +brighten at meeting him, for he knew she trusted him +for help he was in duty bound to give elsewhere. But +it was not a lawyer’s habit to anticipate evil, and he was +thankful for her suggestion.</p> + +<p>“You should have a ride this fine morning, Mr. Hale, +before the sun is too high. I’ve ordered a horse brought +round for you at nine o’clock, and Jessica shall act your +guide, on Scruff. That is–if the laddies haven’t already +disappeared with him. Ah! here comes my girl, +herself. You are to show our friend as much of Sobrante +as he cares to see, in one morning, daughter. If +the children have ridden the burro off you may have +Buster saddled.”</p> + +<p>“Shan’t you need me, mother? One of the men<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p>“No, dear. Wun Lung is at his post again and +Pasqual will do the milk and things. But as you go, I’d +like you to take this butter to John’s. It’s the weekly +portion for the men, who mess for themselves,” she +explained to the stranger.</p> + +<p>“Lucky men to fare on such golden balls as those!”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_70'></a>70</span>“Come and see my dairy. I’m very proud of it. You +know, I suppose, that cellars are rarities in California. +Everything is built above ground, in ordinary homes; +but I needed a cooler place for the milk, and my husband +had this planned for me. See the water, our +greatest luxury; piped from an artesian well to the tank +above, and then down through these cooling pipes +around the shelves. After such use supplying the +garden, for whatever else may be wasted here it is +never a drop of water. Will you taste the buttermilk? +I can’t give you ice, but we cool it in earthen crocks +sunk in the floor.”</p> + +<p>More and more did the lawyer’s admiration for his +hostess increase. She displayed the prosaic details of +her dairy with the same ease and pride with which she +would have exhibited the choicest bric-a-brac of a +sumptuous drawing-room, and her manner impelled +him to an interest in the place which he would have +found impossible under other circumstances. But +above all he wondered at the unselfishness with which +she set aside her own anxieties and gave herself wholly +to the entertainment of her guest.</p> + +<p>“The loss of that title deed means ruin for her and +her family–even if I were not also compelled to bring +distress upon her. But she does not whine nor complain, +and that’s going to make my task all the harder. +Well, first to see this ranch, and then–I wish I’d never +come upon this business! Better suffer nervous dyspepsia +all the rest of my life than break such a woman’s +heart. Her husband may have been a scamp of the +first water, but she’s a lady and a Christian. So is +that beautiful little girl, and it’s from her I mean to +get all my needed information.”</p> + +<p>Absorbed in thoughts that were far from pleasant, +the gentleman walked beside Mrs. Trent to the horseblock, +and mounted the horse which a gray-haired +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_71'></a>71</span> +stable “boy” was holding for him, all without rousing +from the preoccupation that held him. It was not till +he heard Jessica’s excited call coming over the space +between the cottage and the “quarters” that he realized +where he was and looked up, expectant.</p> + +<p>The little girl who had left them for a few moments, +was galloping toward them on the back of a rough-coated +broncho, waving a paper in her hand and with +distressed indignation, crying out as she came:</p> + +<p>“‘Forty-niner’ has gone. Dear old ‘Forty-niner!’ I +found this letter in his room and it’s forever–forever! +Oh, mother! And he says <i>you</i> discharged him–or it +means that–without show of chance! Mother, mother, +how could you? That dear old man that everybody +loved!”</p> + +<p>“Discharged him–I? I should as soon have thought +of discharging myself! What fresh distress is this?”</p> + +<p>Catching the paper from Jessica’s hand Mrs. Trent +read it, then turned and without a word walked slowly +into the house. But her head was giddy and her limbs +trembled, and she had a strange feeling as if she were +being swiftly inclosed in a net from which she could not +escape.</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_72'></a>72</span><a id='link_8'></a>CHAPTER VIII<br /><span class='h2fs'>IN THE MINER’S CABIN</span></h2> + +<p>“Forgive me, mother! I oughtn’t to have told it that +way. But what does it mean? Why should you want +him to go?”</p> + +<p>“Did you not hear me say I would not have dismissed +him? No, dear. There is something in this I don’t +understand. How do we know but that all the other +‘boys’ who left so suddenly have been deceived in just +this way? As long as there was food enough to eat and +a roof to shelter them the men whom your father befriended +and who, in turn have befriended us, were as +welcome to Sobrante as my own children. I must think +this over. We must then find Ephraim and bring him +back. We must. There! We’ll not discuss it any +more at present. You are keeping Mr. Hale waiting +and that is rudeness. Go, now, and explain all your father’s +plans to him, as you ride.”</p> + +<p>“I’d so much rather stay with you. I don’t like to +leave you now.”</p> + +<p>“I shall be busy and you’ll be back for dinner.”</p> + +<p>“I’d like to look for that paper–the title.”</p> + +<p>“When you come back.”</p> + +<p>“Good-by, then, and don’t do any hard work. I’ll +send the children up to stay around the house. That +will be one worry off your mind.”</p> + +<p>When she had again sprung into her saddle, Lady +Jess apologized for keeping Mr. Hale so long, and suggested:</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_73'></a>73</span>“Suppose we ride first to the mines, while it is coolest. +Then come around by the olive and orange orchards. +We can rest at the lemon house awhile. It’s interesting +to see how they are cared for, or so most strangers +think.”</p> + +<p>“Anything and anywhere suits me, for I’m full of +curiosity about Sobrante. How did your father happen +to take up so many different lines of industry?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, they were all his ‘experiments.’ You see he +wanted to do good to some sorts of people that nobody +else seemed much interested in. Men that were getting +old and were not rich or well. He was born in California, +and he always thought it the land where everybody +could find a place if he only had a chance. He +went to New York and lived a long time, and he and +mother were married there. He’d once ridden over +this valley, on a horseback trip–just like yours, maybe–and after that he always meant to buy it if he could. +So, when he began to lose his own health he came right +away. He hadn’t much money himself, but he worked +and mother helped, and he’d paid for it all before he +died. It was the title deed which proved it, that he +had just brought home and I could not find last night. +Though, of course, I shall find it yet,” she added confidently.</p> + +<p>“I hope so, my child. I devotedly hope so. Yet if +it was duly recorded the matter should easily be set +right.”</p> + +<p>Jessica’s face fell.</p> + +<p>“I don’t believe it was. He said something about +that, I didn’t understand it quite, but I know he said +‘recorded’ and that he meant to have it done the next +time he went to Los Angeles. But–he didn’t ever go.”</p> + +<p>The lawyer’s face grew still more serious. Something +of the love with which she inspired everybody was already +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_74'></a>74</span> +in his heart for this little maid, and thoughts of +his own young daughters, threatened with the misfortune +which menaced her, stirred him to fresh regret +for the mission he had undertaken.</p> + +<p>They had now turned their horses’ heads toward the +foothills on the north and he asked:</p> + +<p>“What are these ‘mines’ of which you speak?”</p> + +<p>“For coal. It was an old man from Pennsylvania +first thought there might be such stuff in the mountains +near, and it’s worth so much here. Father had found +him in one of the towns, with his wife and sick son. +They’d spent all they had, to come West to try to cure +the son, and were very poor. So, of course, father +brought them to Sobrante, and the boy got better at +once. They didn’t understand any sort of work except +mining, and old Wolfgang couldn’t rest without trying +to do something back for father. So he and Otto dug +and picked around till they found a ‘vein’ and then +they put up a little cabin near and there they live. Their +name is Winkler, and Elsa, the mother, is the quaintest +little Dutchwoman. Of course, there’s never been +money enough to work the mine right. All they can +do is to get out enough coal for us to use. That’s why +we always have such lovely grate fires in the winter +time, that make the house so cosy. You’ll like the +Winklers, and you’ll like Elsa’s coffee. Go there what +time of day you will she always makes you drink some, +sweetened with the wild honey she gets in the hills +and with her goat’s milk in it.”</p> + +<p>Mr. Hale made a wry face.</p> + +<p>“Oh! you’re sure to like it. It is delicious, drank +with a slice of her hard, sweetened bread. And their +little cabin is as clean as can be. Elsa is a great knitter. +She has knitted covers for everything, her beds, chairs, +table, everything. All the furniture is made out of +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_75'></a>75</span> +wood they found in the hills, and when they’re not +mining Otto carves it beautifully.”</p> + +<p>“Are all the people who work for you unfortunate? +I mean, was some misfortune that which made your +father engage them?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, just that. They are his ‘experiments.’ He +said this valley was made for every sort of work there +was to be done. All men can’t be the same thing, and +every man was happiest at his own trade. Young men +can get work anywhere, but dear Sobrante is a Home +with a capital H, for anybody who needs one. My father +said the more he trusted people the less they ever +disappointed him. He’d proved his plan was right on +his own single ranch and he was trying to make others +do the same on theirs. Paraiso d’Oro–oh! you’re +from that same New York. Do you know a–a Mr. +Syndicate, I think he was, who owns Paraiso. Of +course, I know in such a big city you might not, though +maybe<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p>The listener started, then looked keenly into the innocent +face bending toward him from the broncho’s +back.</p> + +<p>“Suppose I do know a syndicate–a company–not +an individual, which is interested in Paraiso? Can you +tell me anything about such a place? Until last night +I had no idea that I had come anywhere near to it, and +then by accident, hearing Antonio Bernal mention it as +his. Is it hereabouts?”</p> + +<p>Jessica turned her horse about in a circle, rapidly +swinging her pointing arm to indicate every direction +of the compass.</p> + +<p>“Know it? It is there, and there, and there–everywhere. +The very richest tract of land in all the country, +my father believed. Sobrante is the heart of it, +he said, but the rest of the valley is even better than +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_76'></a>76</span> +Sobrante. It is so big one can hardly believe. He +said there was room in it, and a little ranch apiece, for +every poor down-trodden man–not bad men, but +poor gentlemen, like worn-out lawyers and doctors and–and nice folks–and make a new home in which to +live at peace. He said there were plenty of people always +ready to help the very poor and ignorant, but nobody +so willing to help gentlefolks without money. +That’s why he asked a lot of rich people he used to +know in New York to buy Paraiso. He gave it its +name, himself, and he believed that there might be +really gold somewhere in it. There’s everything else, +you see. But it was a name of ‘syndicate’ he talked +about most and was most grieved by because the money +to buy it had not been sent as it had been promised.”</p> + +<p>“Poor child!”</p> + +<p>“Beg pardon?”</p> + +<p>“It was nothing. I was thinking. So this ‘Mr. +Syndicate’ never sent the money your father hoped +for?”</p> + +<p>“No. It was a great disappointment. Antonio had +charge of all the letters, only he; so there could have +been nobody careless enough to lose them had any +come. Father left all the writing to Antonio, for he +was nearly blind, you know. That’s how he came to +get hurt. He could not see and his horse stepped over +the ledge and somebody brought him home that way. +Poor mother!”</p> + +<p>“Poor mother, indeed!” echoed Mr. Hale, with something +like a groan.</p> + +<p>“Thank you for caring about it,” said Jessica, quickly +touched by his ready sympathy. “But she says her life +now must be to carry on all father’s work, and I shall +help her. In that way it will be always as if he were +still with us. Oh! see! That’s Stiffleg’s track! Ephraim +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_77'></a>77</span> +Marsh has passed this way! Maybe I shall find +him at the Winklers’ cabin! Would you mind hurrying, +just a little bit?”</p> + +<p>“I’ll do my best, little lady. But I’m a wretched +horseman, I fear.”</p> + +<p>“Oh! you’ll learn. If you would only let yourself +be easy and comfortable. But, beg pardon, you do it +this way–so stiff, with your hands all clinched. Your +horse feels that something’s wrong, and that’s why he +fidgets so. You should get Samson to show you how. +He’s a magnificent rider. I’ll coax him to do some +tricks for you, to-night, when we get through supper. +I’m off. Just drop all care and let the horse do the +work and–catch me if you can.”</p> + +<p>As they approached the foothills they had dropped +into a little hollow where the sandy ground was moist +and retained an impression distinctly, and it was thus +that Jessica’s keen eyes discovered the peculiar footprints +of “Forty-niner’s” halting steed. But she quickly +forgot these in the interest of the race she had +started and was now bent upon nothing save beating +Mr. Hale at the goal, the miner’s cabin.</p> + +<p>“He has by far the better horse. He ought to win, +but he shall not–he can’t. He mustn’t! Go, Buster! +A taste of Elsa’s honey if you get there first!”</p> + +<p>Bending forward the girl rested her cheek against +the broncho’s neck and, as if the touch fired him with +new ambition, he shot forward so swiftly that the question +of winning was soon settled. However, Mr. Hale’s +own pride was touched, and he put to the test the advice +just given him, and with such good results that +he, too, soon came in sight of a small house at the end +of the trail, a dark hole in the mountain side, and a +group of people eagerly surrounding his little guide.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_78'></a>78</span>Indeed, Elsa had already drawn the child upon her +capacious lap, and was tenderly smoothing the tumbled +curls with her hard hand, while she asked endless questions, +yet waited for no answers.</p> + +<p>Till, suddenly remembering, Lady Jess demanded:</p> + +<p>“But have you seen our Ephraim? Is he here? Has +he been here?”</p> + +<p>Elsa’s fat form grew quite rigid and her hand ceased +its caressing stroke. Not for her to betray the confidence +of one who had taken refuge with her.</p> + +<p>“Why ask that? What if he has and is? Is he not +the old man, already? Even here there is no room for +the old. When one is fifty one should die. That would +be wisdom.”</p> + +<p>“Elsa Winkler, nonsense! That’s not polite for me +to say, but it’s true. You’re fifty, yourself, I guess, +and you don’t want to die, do you?”</p> + +<p>Elsa shivered slightly. “When the right time comes +and the usefulness is past. As the Lord wills.”</p> + +<p>Jessica laughed and kissed the woman’s cheek, then +sprang to the ground, demanding:</p> + +<p>“Where is he? For he’s mine, you know. He belongs +to Sobrante just as much the sunshine does. If +he’d loved us as we love him he’d not have ridden away +in the night time just because of one little bit o’ note. +Wherever you’ve hidden him you must find him for +me, and he’s to go straight away back with me. With +us, I mean, for here comes a–a friend of ours; I guess +he is. Any way he’s a guest and you must make him a +cup of your very best coffee, and Otto must show him +his carved clock that he is making. He’s a pleasant +gentleman, and so interested in everything, it’s fun to +tell him things. In that New York, where he came +from, they don’t have much of anything nice. No ostriches, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_79'></a>79</span> +nor mines, nor orange groves. Fancy! and he +doesn’t know–he’s only just learning to ride a horse!”</p> + +<p>As Mr. Hale now approached, this description ceased +and Jessica presented him to her mountain friends:</p> + +<p>“This is dear Elsa Winkler, and ‘her man,’ Wolfgang. +And Otto–where’s Otto gone? He needn’t be +shy. Mr. Hale would like to see the carvings and the +knittings, and maybe, go down the shaft. But first +of all, he’d like the coffee, Elsa, dear.”</p> + +<p>The portly Dutchwoman, whose needles could click +as fast as her tongue, now thrust the stocking, at +which she had resumed working the moment Jessica +left her lap, into her apron pocket and waddled inside +the cabin. Already she was beaming with hospitality +and calling in harsh chiding to the invisible Otto:</p> + +<p>“You bad little boy, where are you at already? Come +by, soon’s-ever, and lay the dishes. Here’s company +come to the house and nobody but the old mother got a +grain of sense left to mind them. Wolfgang! Wolfgang! +Hunt the child and set him drawing a tether o’ +milk from Gretchen, the goat. Ach! but it shames my +good heart when my folks act so foolish, and the Lady +Jess just giving the orders so sweet.”</p> + +<p>Wolfgang heard his wife’s commands and obeyed +them after his own manner, by lifting his mighty voice +and shouting in his native <i>patois</i>–“Little heart! +Son of my love! Come, come hither.”</p> + +<p>But he did not, for all that, cease from his respectful +attention to the stranger, for whom he had promptly +brought out the best chair he owned, and whose horse +he had taken to a shaded spot and carefully rubbed +down with a handful of dried grass.</p> + +<p>Presently, the “child” appeared, and the Easterner +flashed a smile toward Jessica, whose own face was +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_80'></a>80</span> +dimpled with mirth; for the “child,” Otto, proved to be +a gaunt six-footer, lean as he was long, and with a +manly beard upon his pink and white face. He shambled +forward on his great feet and shyly extended his +mighty hands.</p> + +<p>Mr. Hale grasped them heartily, eager to put the +awkward youth at ease; and, nodding toward the chair +from which he had risen, exclaimed:</p> + +<p>“So, you are he who does that beautiful carving! I +congratulate you on your skill, and I hope you will +have some trifle of your work to sell a traveler. I’ve +never seen finer.”</p> + +<p>Otto flushed with pleasure and was about to reply, +but again Elsa commanded:</p> + +<p>“Milk the goat, little one. After the guest feeds let +the household talk.”</p> + +<p>As if he had been the “child,” the “little heart,” +his parents called him he obediently entered the cabin, +tied an apron before his lank body and spread a tablecloth. +Then, as deftly as if he had been a girl, he arranged +it with the three cups and plates the family +possessed, took his mother’s cherished spoons from +her chest, and, taking a small pail, sought the goat, +Gretchen.</p> + +<p>“Now, I’m in for it,” thought Mr. Hale, regretfully. +“My poor dyspepsia! Coffee, honey, and goat’s milk! +A combination to kill. But even if it is, one must respond +to such whole-souled hospitality as this.”</p> + +<p>Jessica had no such qualms; and, indeed, the refreshment +which her visitor forced himself to accept was far +more palatable than he had dared expect; and, besides, +he now brought to it that astonishing appetite which +had come to him on this eventful trip. When the +luncheon was disposed of, Dame Elsa held an exhibition +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_81'></a>81</span> +of her wonderful knitting and it seemed to the +unappreciative stranger that a small fortune must have +been expended in yarns, and that even in this wilderness +one might be extravagant and wasteful.</p> + +<p>“My wife would know more about such things than +I do, but I should think you might easily stock a whole +shop with your tidies and things.”</p> + +<p>“Man alive, do I not? Didst think it was for the +pleasure of one’s self the fingers are always at toil? +Ach! Yet, of course, how could a poor man from a +far city understand! It is Elsa’s knitting, and Elsa’s +only, will all the tourists have who come to Sobrante; +and in that Los Angeles, so distant, where the master +went but once every year already, there is a merchant +buys all. Ay. See here. I show you!”</p> + +<p>“I–I don’t really care–I mean–ought we not to be +going, Jessica?” cried Mr. Hale, hopelessly, foreseeing +another exhibition of “trash,” as he considered it.</p> + +<p>But Elsa could not conceive that everybody should +not be interested in all that concerned everybody else; +and, besides, this was quite another matter. One for +pride, indeed, beyond the accomplishment of the most +difficult “lacework” or “overshot” stitch.</p> + +<p>From the same chest in which her precious half-dozen +plated spoons had reposed she now drew forth a +buckskin sack; and, from this, with radiant eyes fixed +on Mr. Hale’s own, another bag, knitted, of course, +and seemingly heavy. Sitting before him she spread +her own apron over her guest’s knees and poured therein +a goodly pile of gold and silver coins. With a little +catching of his own breath the lawyer realized that +among these were many eagles and double eagles.</p> + +<p>“Why, this is wealth. This is <i>money</i>. I can see now, +after our paper bills and ‘checks’ how real this seems. +You are a fortunate woman, Dame Elsa. Now, I begin +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_82'></a>82</span> +to respect your ‘tidies’ and notions as things of moment. +Did you earn it all?”</p> + +<p>“Ach! wait. There is more already. This but begins; +and it is for the child. Some day, when there is +enough, he shall this mine buy and the machinery hire, +and the workmen. Then he will repay to the mistress +of Sobrante, and our Lady Jess, all that their dead man +spent for us. More. He will make the great money–this but leads the way. Wait.”</p> + +<p>Trustful and eager of appreciation, which came so +rarely into her isolated life, the woman thrust her hand +again into the buckskin sack, her shining eyes still +fixed upon the stranger’s face, and her fingers fumbling +nervously in the depths of the narrow bag. Her +excitement and delight communicated itself to him, and +he found himself watching her broad, beaming face +with intense curiosity.</p> + +<p>But–the face was changing. The light was dying +out of the sparkling eyes, an ashy color succeeding the +ruddy hue of the fat cheeks. Bewilderment, then +anxiety, then terror.</p> + +<p>“Why, good Elsa, what is it?”</p> + +<p>“Gone–gone–but I am robbed, I am ruined! Mein +Gott, man! Little one–lost, lost, lost!”</p> + +<p>With a shriek the poor creature sprang up, and in so +doing scattered far and wide the coins she had already +poured into her apron, but heeded nothing of this as +she rushed frantically out of doors.</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_83'></a>83</span><a id='link_9'></a>CHAPTER IX<br /><span class='h2fs'>AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SHAFT</span></h2> + +<p>While Elsa had been entertaining the stranger within +doors Jessica had sought Wolfgang and compelled him, +by her coaxing, to admit that Ephraim Marsh had been +there and, also, that Antonio Bernal had ridden up that +morning to give orders about the coal.</p> + +<p>“None of it is to be sent down to the ranch, he said, +no matter who calls for it, till he comes back. He was +going away for a time and<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>How will you get on at +Sobrante without him, Lady Jess?”</p> + +<p>“Wolfgang, better than with him. Listen. Look at +me. I’m the ‘manager’ now. The captain. The ‘boys’ +all elected me or made me, whatever way they fixed it. +I’m to be the master. I, just Jessica. Guess I’m +proud? Guess I’ll do the very, very best ever a girl can +do? Nobody is to be any different, though. You’re to +go on mining just the same and John Benton says, quite +often, it’s high time you had another hand to help up +here. He says with coal fifteen dollars a ton there’s +money in it, even if it is a weeny little mine. So, if you +want a man, any time, just let me know. Ha!”</p> + +<p>With an amusing little strut that was mostly affectation +the girl passed up and down before the miner, and +ended her performance by a hearty hug. It was impossible +for her to withhold her caresses from anybody +who loved her; and who did not, at Sobrante, save Antonio +and Ferd, the dwarf? But she sobered quickly +enough and at Wolfgang’s petition to “Tell me all +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_84'></a>84</span> +about it already,” gave him a vivid picture of the +changes at her home.</p> + +<p>“But now Antonio has gone for a month, things will +get straightened all out again. When he comes back +I’ll have that deed to show him, and once he gets it out +of his vain head that he is owner and not my mother, +he’ll get sensible and good again, as he used to be. I +wish I liked him better. That would make it easier for +me to give up being ‘captain’ when the time comes. +What makes one love some people and not others, +Wolfgang? You ought to know, you’ve lived a long +time.”</p> + +<p>“The good God.”</p> + +<p>“He wouldn’t make us dislike anybody. That can’t +be the right reason.”</p> + +<p>“Then I know not. Though I am getting old I’m +not so wise, little one. But–ought I? Ought I not?”</p> + +<p>“What?”</p> + +<p>“Now you hark me. This Ephraim–guess you what +that Antonio said of him?”</p> + +<p>“How should I? Yes, that’s not the truth. But +what he said was so dreadful I wouldn’t even tell my +mother.”</p> + +<p>“Ach! A child should tell the mother all things. +Heed that. It is so we train our Otto.”</p> + +<p>Jessica laughed.</p> + +<p>“Otto is no child. He is a grown man. He is bigger +than you. You should not shame him by keeping +him a boy always.”</p> + +<p>“Pst! girl! I would not he heard you, for my life.”</p> + +<p>“He’ll not hear. Elsa is talking. But what did Antonio +say about my old ‘Forty-niner’?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_85'></a>85</span>“That much went with that old man besides his +boots.”</p> + +<p>“Of course. The feet that were in them, I suppose. +Silly Wolfgang, to be so impressed by a sillier Antonio. +The boys say his Spanish maxims have little +sense in them. That proves it.”</p> + +<p>“This deed of yours. He said: ‘Where Ephraim, +the wicked, goes, goes their deed to the land.’ And +more.”</p> + +<p>“What more? The cruel, cruel man!”</p> + +<p>“That it mattered not already. He would come back, +the master. It was his, had always been. My friend–your +father–well, it was not we who listened. Nor +for once would Elsa make the cup of coffee she was +asked. Not a morsel got he here, save that the little +boy ran after him and gave him his own bit swiebach +lest he faint by the way. And that was the last word +of Antonio Bernal.”</p> + +<p>Jessica’s laughter was past. On her face there was +a trouble it grieved her old friend to see, and he hastened +to comfort her.</p> + +<p>“If one goes, some are left already. Come now to +one whose eyes will be cured by a sight of your pretty +face.”</p> + +<p>“To Ephraim?”</p> + +<p>“Even so.”</p> + +<p>He took her hand to lead her, like the tender babe +he still considered her, and they passed behind the +cabin, toward the rickety shaft leading into the mine. +At its very mouth stood old Stiffleg, and in her delight +the girl gave him, too, one of her abounding hugs, +which called a comment from the miner.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_86'></a>86</span>“Beasts or humans, all one to your lips. Well, no +matter. It’s nature. Some are made that foolish way. +As for me–old horses<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p>“Wolfgang Winkler, shame! Now, sir, you’ll wait +till you ask before I kiss you again!”</p> + +<p>“Then I ask right quick. Now! Eh? No? Well, +before you go then, to prove you bear no malice; and +because I’ll show you a new vein I didn’t show Antonio. +Ach! He’ll mine his own coal when once he +comes–‘the master’–as he said! And so I think, +though I know not, will all the others say. Sobrante +will not be Sobrante with us all gone. So?”</p> + +<p>“You’ll not be gone. It is my mother’s.”</p> + +<p>“He is big and strong. He can plot evil, I believe.”</p> + +<p>Wolfgang spoke as if he were disclosing a mystery +and not a fact well known to all who really knew the +Senor Bernal.</p> + +<p>“I will be stronger. He shall not hurt my mother. I +will fight the world for her and for my brother!”</p> + +<p>The miner had been arranging the rope upon the +windlass and now held the rude little car steady with +his foot.</p> + +<p>“Step in.”</p> + +<p>“Is he below? Down in the mine?”</p> + +<p>“Already.”</p> + +<p>Jessica needed no second bidding, but leaped lightly +into the car and Wolfgang followed her more cautiously. +He knew that was a forbidden delight to her, +for Mrs. Trent was nervously timid concerning such +visits, but, like her, felt that the present circumstances +justified the proceeding. Was not one below in the +darkness, nursing a broken heart? And was not it the +supreme business of each and all at Sobrante to comfort +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_87'></a>87</span> +the sorrowing? How else had he and his been +there, so happy and comfortable? So rich, also. Why, +Elsa had<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span></p> + +<p>“Lady Jess! Get Elsa to show you the buckskin +bag! It has grown as fat as herself since you last saw +it. The child will own the mine some day, believe me!”</p> + +<p>Moved by the thought he swiftly lowered away, and +as the car touched the bottom, the girl sprang out and +ran calling in the narrow tunnel:</p> + +<p>“Ephraim! My Ephraim! Where are you? I’ve +come for you, I, Jessica! It’s a dreadful mistake. +My mother–ah! here you are! Why down in this +horrid hole, Ephraim Marsh? You’re all shivering, +it’s so damp and dismal. For shame! To run away +from your best friends and never give them a chance to +tell you. Whoever wrote that note and sent you off +from your own home, it never was my mother. Never! +She said so, and it’s almost broken her heart.”</p> + +<p>“It’s quite broken mine,” said the old frontiersman, +sobbing in his relief at having been thus promptly +sought and found by his beloved “lady.” For he did +not know it was quite by accident that she had stumbled +on this trace of him, nor did anybody enlighten +him. Whether she would have set him right or not she +had no chance, for, at that instant, they heard a hoarse +cry at the mouth of the shaft and saw the car, their +only means of ascent, moving swiftly out of reach.</p> + +<p>“Heart of grace! Why that? Hark the woman! +’Tis the child! It is the little boy! Harm has befallen +and I–the father–I below in the ground!”</p> + +<p>In his alarm Wolfgang danced about the narrow +space and wrung his hands, gazing frantically up the +shaft, catching hold of his companions and conducting +himself altogether like one bereft of common sense. +Which behavior was sufficient to restore Ephraim +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_88'></a>88</span> +Marsh to his own self-command, and none too soon; +for the anxious father had already begun to try the ascent +by climbing up the timbered sides when, suddenly, +as if propelled by some extraordinary force the car +shot downward again. Before it really touched bottom +the shrieks had become deafening, and when Elsa +jumped out and rushed upon her husband, he clapped +his hands to his ears and retreated as far as the chamber +permitted.</p> + +<p>“She has gone mad, already! The woman is dement! +Hark, the clamor!”</p> + +<p>Then he remembered his first fear and clutched his +wife’s arm, which promptly went around his neck and +threatened him with suffocation.</p> + +<p>“Well, well, I never had no wife, but if I’d had I +wouldn’t cared to have her choke me to death a-loving +me, nor split my ears a-telling me of it,” commented +“Forty-niner,” dryly.</p> + +<p>At which Elsa’s screams instantly ceased, and she +turned her attention upon him.</p> + +<p>“Where is it, thief? Give it up, this minute! How +could you rob me of my hard-earned money? That was +to buy the mine–and the vein runs deep–for my little +boy, my child! ’Twas Antonio Bernal, the great man, +told us already of the deed you stole! But I believed +him not–I. Now, give me my money, my money–money!”</p> + +<p>Overcome by her own violent emotion, rather than by +any opposition of poor Ephraim’s, her hands slid from +his shoulders, which she had been shaking as if she +would jingle the cash from his pockets, and her plump +person settled limply against him for support.</p> + +<p>“Hello, here, woman! This is a drop too much! +Take the creature, Winkler, and find out if you can +what in misery ails her. She’s clean out of her wits.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_89'></a>89</span>Instinctively, Jessica had placed herself at the old +sharpshooter’s side. He should feel that she did not +believe this terrible accusation, which recalled to her, +with painful significance, the parting words of Antonio +Bernal as he had ridden away from her window that +morning. These had practically accused him of stealing +the missing deed, and now came Elsa with this talk +of “money, money.” She brushed her hand across her +eyes as if to waken herself from some frightful dream +and then smiled up into Ephraim’s eyes, now bent inquiringly +upon her. Dim as the light was, there was +yet sufficient descending through the shallow shaft to +reveal each troubled face to the other, and the old man’s +own frightened at the confiding trust of his beloved +pupil’s.</p> + +<p>“Never mind her. Let her scream and loll around, +if she wants to. What matters it? Little lady, am I or +am I not a–a–that pizen thing she called me?”</p> + +<p>“Never!”</p> + +<p>“Then come on. Let’s get out of this.”</p> + +<p>But he was not to be permitted to escape so easily. +Elsa had now recovered her full strength and, oddly +enough, her composure. She waved her husband toward +the waiting car and he obeyed her gesture without +protest, gently lifting Jessica into it, for she would not +otherwise have been removed from Ephraim’s side.</p> + +<p>“Go with him, lady. Elsa won’t want to <i>live</i> down +here and we’ll follow presently. Never had a woman +seem so fond of my company, not in all my eighty +years. H-m-m!”</p> + +<p>Commonly, the most genial of men, the sharpshooter’s +spirits had fully regained their normal poise. +Since he had not been dismissed by Mrs. Trent, and +since his little Jessica believed in him, everything was +all right. Elsa had been hoarding so long for her overgrown +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_90'></a>90</span> +“child” that she had lost her wits. He wasn’t +surprised. She was a woman.</p> + +<p>So, with a smile, he was able to watch the car disappear +upward, and he even began to whistle, lest Elsa +should improve this opportunity and resume her racket.</p> + +<p>“No disrespect to you, ma’am, remembering the good +victuals you’ve often given me, but kind of to keep +my courage up, like the boy going through the woods.”</p> + +<p>Elsa vouchsafed no reply, beyond grasping his sleeve +firmly, as if to assure herself that he should not vanish +through the solid wall behind them; and he, at least, +was relieved when the little car came rolling downward +again, empty.</p> + +<p>Elsa, who understood its management as well as her +husband, grasped its side and motioned Ephraim forward.</p> + +<p>“Ladies first,” he objected, gallantly.</p> + +<p>“Get in, wretch, already.”</p> + +<p>“Oh! I’m not loath to get in, now. Even your +sweet presence doesn’t make this hole a paradise. And +I came down here a heavy-hearted man, yet I’ve going +up light as a feather. Glad I’ve got you along to ballast, +else I’d likely shoot clean up to the sky.”</p> + +<p>Poor Elsa thought his hilarity ill-timed. She glared +at him first, then began to weep, and her tears sobered +him as no frowns could do.</p> + +<p>“Look, here, old girl, cheer up! Likely it’s only a +passing fit of madness has got you in tow. Women are +kittle cattle, I’ve been told. Except Lady Jess and the +madam. But they’re quality. It’s in their blood to be +noble just as ’tis in–well, let that go. If you’ve lost +any of your money, as you ’pear to think, you’ll find it +again. Why, you’re bound to. Who is there to steal it +save your own selves? Likely you’ve got up some dark +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_91'></a>91</span> +night in your sleep and hid it away so careful you’ve +forgot the place. Good! The top and fresh air again, +thank Heaven!”</p> + +<p>Mr. Hale had left the cabin immediately after Elsa, +and though inclined to stoop and gather up her scattered +coins had refrained from doing so, restrained by +that prudence which becomes second nature to lawyers.</p> + +<p>“She thinks somebody has robbed her and would +probably accuse me of pocketing some of these. Too +much money for anybody to keep in a house,” he reflected, +forgetting that banks were not accessible to +everybody. “But it’s an ill wind, etc. Now I shall be +apt to escape that promised visit to an amateur coal +mine, and not endanger my life in their rickety car.”</p> + +<p>Elsa’s conduct upon reaching home was as curious +and contradictory as ever. Instead of collecting her +scattered treasure, she merely said, with a shrug of her +fat shoulders:</p> + +<p>“What good? let it lie. When the much is gone who +cares for the little?”</p> + +<p>Then she dropped into a chair and began again to +cry, disconsolately.</p> + +<p>Jessica could not endure the scene.</p> + +<p>“Oh! I hate this! Elsa, stop. Be happy. Nobody +has robbed you. If there has ’tis nobody here. I’m +going home. I was having such a good time and I’ve +found dear Ephraim. I’ll ask leave to come again to-morrow, +maybe, and you’ll have it by then. Just as I +shall the title. ’Tis only that you’ve been careless, as–as +somebody else was. Good-by. We’re going. Say +good-by, won’t you?”</p> + +<p>Elsa’s good-by was to seize Ephraim’s coat and hold +it with all her force, but he was now too happy to object +to this.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_92'></a>92</span>“Certain, ma’am. If you’ve took a notion to it, I’ll +leave it with you. Coats don’t matter, when hearts are +light. Yes, look in the pockets. Like enough ’twill +ease your mind a bit. I’d give her a dose of sagebrush +tea, Wolfgang. Catnip ’d be better, but ain’t so handy. +Good-by, all. I’ll be ’round again, myself, soon, if the +lady can spare me,” and with this remark, “Forty-niner” +quietly slipped out of the loose garment and +made his escape.</p> + +<p>There was no more talk of inspecting the ranch. The +little party of three rode thoughtfully homeward. Even +Ephraim’s gayety had ebbed and the strange accusation +Elsa had made began at last to claim his serious attention. +Thieving was a new matter at Sobrante, though +he, along with all the other “boys,” had thought for +many months that the manager was dealing unfairly +by his mistress and employer. This affair would have +to be sifted to the bottom, and he didn’t like it. He was +glad to be going back to his familiar quarters, glad of +many things, yet his light-heartedness was quite gone.</p> + +<p>Mr. Hale was equally silent and self-absorbed. Every +hour he spent among these people, like innocent children +all they seemed to him, but interested him the +more in them. Their unhappiness disturbed him and +yet his own mission was to make them more unhappy +still.</p> + +<p>Jessica was angry, indignant, and amused by turns; +but these troubles were changing her swiftly from a +careless little girl to a sadly perplexed captain, and she +rode along in silence, for most of the way, forgetting +entirely that she had meant to take quite another route, +or that her present errand was to exhibit the wonders +of her beloved Sobrante.</p> + +<p>They cantered peacefully downward across the valley, +old Stiffleg himself leading the way, till they struck +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_93'></a>93</span> +upon the main road and saw in the distance a vehicle +crawling forward upon it.</p> + +<p>“Oh! oh!” cried Jessica, who had been first to observe +this object.</p> + +<p>“Heigho! What’s that–a circus?” asked Mr. Hale, +gazing curiously at the strange wagon.</p> + +<p>Ephraim shaded his eyes with his hand and peered +into the distance. Then he dropped it, and drooping +ridiculously, groaned:</p> + +<p>“Oh! my fathers!”</p> + +<p>“Looks like a circus. All the colors of the rainbow,” +persisted Mr. Hale, glad of any diversion to his perturbed +thoughts.</p> + +<p>“’Tis a circus, temperance union, a salvation army, a +woman’s rights convention, what Samson calls a Mother +Carey’s chicken, an Amazon, a wild Indian, a–a–shucks! +There isn’t anything on earth that yonder +doesn’t try a hand at. Land of Goshen! I’d almost +rather turn and go back to be jawed by the Dutchwoman. +And I’ve come home–just for this!”</p> + +<p>But Jessica was laughing as she had not laughed all +day, and if the person driving along in front was objectionable +to Ephraim it was evidently not the fact +in her case.</p> + +<p>“Oh! how glad I am!” she cried, and touched Buster +to his swiftest gallop, while the sharpshooter grimaced +and groaned:</p> + +<p>“To have come back to this!”</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_94'></a>94</span><a id='link_10'></a>CHAPTER X<br /><span class='h2fs'>AUNT SALLY</span></h2> + +<p>“Aunt Sally! Aunt Sally, wait for me!”</p> + +<p>At the shrill cry and the clatter of Buster’s feet the +crawling vehicle came to a standstill, and from under +its canvas cover peered the smiling face of a hale, +elderly woman, whose gray head was bare save for its +abundant crown of curling hair. A straw Shaker bonnet, +with green curtains, hung over her shoulders. Her +print gown was of brilliant pink and her capacious +apron of blue gingham. She was collarless and her +sleeves were tucked above her round elbows, but she +was clean, as if just from a laundry. Indeed, at that +moment, her conveyance suggested such an institution +on wheels, for well-strung clotheslines were taut +against its sides, and from these fluttered freshly washed +garments and scraps of cloth.</p> + +<p>Aunt Sally saw Jessica’s eyes, fasten upon these articles +and explained:</p> + +<p>“Met a little water comin’ along and used it. Never +know where you’ll be when you need water next–in +Californy. How’s all?”</p> + +<p>“Well, thank you. I’m so glad you’ve come.”</p> + +<p>“That’s a word to cure deafness. Here.”</p> + +<p>The woman pulled a gigantic cookie from her apron +pocket and held it toward the girl, who had now come +alongside. The cake was in the shape of a doll, with +flaring skirt, and was promptly nibbled.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_95'></a>95</span>“Well, I declare! Eat your playmates, do you?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, indeed, when you make them!”</p> + +<p>“Who’s that loping along behind?”</p> + +<p>“Ephraim, of course. Oh! yes. A Mr. Hale, from +New York.”</p> + +<p>“What’s he at here?”</p> + +<p>“Just staying. Lost his way and making a visit.”</p> + +<p>“H-m-m! Don’t look wholesome. Needs picra.”</p> + +<p>“I doubt it. He has a great row of bottles in his +room and takes medicine every time he eats, or doesn’t. +That is, since he’s been at Sobrante, which isn’t long.”</p> + +<p>When the wagon had halted on the road before them +Ephraim had turned to his companion, with a whimsical +smile, suggested:</p> + +<p>“Better ride along as if we was glad to see her. It’s +like a dose of that bitter stuff she makes everybody +take, whether or no–get it over with. And she isn’t +so bad as–H-m-m.”</p> + +<p>Mr. Hale was not sorry to do this, for his curiosity +was roused. The wagon box was long and narrow, and +contained as many articles as would have sufficed a family +“crossing the plains” in the olden times. A kerosene +cooking stove, a cat in a parrot cage, a hencoop, +with mother and brood inside it, a trunk, a blanket and +pillow, a pail for watering the animals, and a box of tin +dishes. The cover, like a small “prairie schooner,” was +patriotic in extreme, shining with the national colors, +newly applied by Aunt Sally herself, and with no stingy +hand. The arrangement was also her own, and as she +considered, an improvement upon the flag; for she made +the whole top a field of stars, and the sides of the +stripes.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_96'></a>96</span>“Instead of a little weeny corner full of stars, that +you can count on your fingers, I’ve made a skyful right +overhead. I always thought if I’d had the designin’ of +Old Glory, I’d have made it regular, like a patchwork +quilt–and nobody ever pieces a ‘block’ that way. +Things must compare even, and so they would be if +women had had a hand in the business.”</p> + +<p>This decorative turnout was drawn by a tandem +team, consisting of a milch cow and a burro, with the +cow in front. Which, after due introduction to the +stranger, she explained, regulated the behavior of both +animals.</p> + +<p>“With Balaam in the middle, and him inclinin’ to +balk, and Rosetty in front, it works double-action. +Them that use their wits is twice served. If he stops, +the wagon runs onto him, and if she’s in a movin’ mood, +that drags him. If she gets lazy, he butts her and thus, +why–I’ve tried it both ways, changing their places +more’n once. This is the best. How you like Californy?”</p> + +<p>“Very much.”</p> + +<p>“Come for your health?”</p> + +<p>“Partly, for that.”</p> + +<p>“H-m-m. Folks with you?”</p> + +<p>“No. I’m alone.”</p> + +<p>“Maybe you’ve got no folks. Some hasn’t. Ephraim, +yonder, is one. He’d be in a fix if ’twasn’t for +Jessie and me. I come about once in so often and +straighten out all the crooks. Took them pills, Ephy?”</p> + +<p>Mr. Hale tried to repress a smile and failed, but +“Forty-niner” burst into a loud laugh, and replied:</p> + +<p>“No, Aunt Sally, and what’s more I’m not going to. +Why should I? Who never have an ache or pain–that +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_97'></a>97</span> +medicine will cure,” he added, looking tenderly +upon Lady Jess and remembering his grief of the past +night.</p> + +<p>“Well, you ought to have. ’Tisn’t human nature to +live to eighty and not have. I’m twenty years younger’n +you are and I ache from head to foot, some days.”</p> + +<p>“Asking questions sort of wears you out, I reckon.”</p> + +<p>“Now, Ephy, don’t get playful. Not at your age. +It’s not a good sign. Besides, my hen chicken’s been +crowing more’n once this trip. That’s a sign of death–somewhere.”</p> + +<p>“Giddap, Stiffleg!”</p> + +<p>Ephraim urged his horse forward, meaning to forewarn +the “boys” of who and what was coming. Jessica +comprehended and quickly followed, but her object +was to bespeak a different kind of welcome from that +he intended. Neither knew, then, just how heartily +glad they would be before many hours were over of the +helpful, yet disturbing, presence of this same masterful +woman.</p> + +<p>The Easterner was left to jog alongside the curious +team and its more curious mistress, who, even, while +she held the rope reins in one hand, was threading her +needle and sewing that patchwork which was as characteristic +of her as the ceaseless knitting was of Elsa.</p> + +<p>In fact, when one came to look at her closely, there +were seen assorted bits of cloth, fragments of some +“block,” pinned here and there about her person; and +as he watched her nimble fingers fly from one seam to +another the gentleman’s amazement found expression.</p> + +<p>“How can you manage to drive and sew at the same +time? And is it necessary?”</p> + +<p>“I guess you’re a Yankee yourself, aren’t you? +Well, if I hadn’t been able to manage how do you s’pose +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_98'></a>98</span> +I’d ever have got my quilt done in time for the State +fair? Fifty-five thousand five hundred and fifty +pieces there’s in it, and I’ve willed it to Jessica Trent +when I’m done exhibitin’ it. None of ’em bigger ’n +a finger nail, and all done over paper. That’s a piece of +work, I ’low. What’s your complaint?”</p> + +<p>“I–I don’t know as I have any. They’ve made me +very comfortable and welcome.”</p> + +<p>“Dare say. They couldn’t do otherwise. Giddap +there, Balaam. Rosetty smells alfalfa, and you’ll have +to step out to keep up with a cow ’at does that. I +mean what’s your disease?”</p> + +<p>“Oh! well–it’s of no consequence.”</p> + +<p>“Man alive, don’t neglect yourself. You’re yallar. +You’ve got the janders. Sure’s I’m a living woman +that’s what it is.”</p> + +<p>“I think not. I hope not,” said the poor man, but +rather feebly.</p> + +<p>“Sure. Or shingles. I’ve never seen a real likely +case of shingles, and if it <i>should</i> be that, I’d just admire +to nurse you. What victuals you been eating?”</p> + +<p>The dyspeptic winced. This sounded truly professional, +for all his numerous physicians had prefaced +their treatment by a similar question.</p> + +<p>“I’ve been able to eat almost anything and everything +since I came into this country of open-air living. The +last thing was some of Elsa Winkler’s swiebach and +honey-sweetened coffee.”</p> + +<p>“You don’t say! Oh! oh! Poison, sir, rank poison. +You may as well count yourself dead and laid out<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p>The unfortunate stranger shivered and turned pale. +For some half hour past, he had been suffering various +qualms which he had attributed to Elsa’s hospitality, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_99'></a>99</span> +but to tell a nervous invalid that he has been poisoned +is to increase his misery a hundredfold. If Aunt Sally +had desired a patient she was now in a fair way to secure +one; but her words were without any significance +to herself beyond the fact that she favored neither +Elsa nor her cookery. Elsa’s knitting work had +crowded her own patchwork pretty closely at that famous +fair, and the handsome money prize, which she +felt belonged of rights to herself, had been halved between +the pair. Because, though their skill lay along +different lines, they had both signed their exhibits: +“From Sobrante,” and, manifestly, the judges could +not give two first premiums to one estate.</p> + +<p>This memory served to change her thoughts from +disease to a detailed history of the wonderful quilt, +during which they arrived at Mrs. Trent’s cottage and +dinner.</p> + +<p>But this could not yet be served. Aunt Sally must +needs first see her son, and after the fondest of greetings, +cautiously consign to him the care of her personal +outfit. She even ran after him–as he walked away, +grinning and leading the now obstreperous cow–with +a vial in her hand, begging:</p> + +<p>“Now son, please me, before you eat that ‘mess’ of +men’s cooking by taking one spoonful of this dandelion +relish. Made it myself, purposely for you, and I’ll +warrant no alcohol in it, either.”</p> + +<p>Experience had proved that protestation was worse +than useless; so, with another grin, but a really affectionate +“Thank you,” John accepted the vial and once +more started stableward.</p> + +<p>“Now, Aunt Sally, come! You must be hungry yourself, +after your long ride,” urged Mrs. Trent, hospitably, +and with sincere pleasure lighting her gentle face. +Living so far from other women made the presence of +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_100'></a>100</span> +even this uncouth one a comfort, and experience had +proved that Mrs. Benton was, in time of need, that +“rough diamond” which she claimed herself to be.</p> + +<p>“All right, honey; in a minute. I’ll just step out to +the kitchen and pass the time of day with Wun Lung. +Besides<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p>Jessica caught Aunt Sally around her waist–as far +as she could reach–and tried to prevent her leaving +the room, but was lightly set aside, with the remark:</p> + +<p>“Face is next door to the mouth. Guess I want to +see what sort of food that heathen’s got ready for us, +’fore I touch it!”</p> + +<p>“Oh, Aunt Sally! In my house–can’t you trust +me?” asked the hostess, with mild protest. Though she +knew before she spoke that her will as opposed to Mrs. +Benton’s, at least in minor matters, was powerless. So +she quietly brought a book and offered it to Mr. Hale, +with the suggestion that he make himself content for +the present.</p> + +<p>“The dinner will be delayed and there will be a rumpus +in the kitchen. But the dinner will be all the better +for waiting and the rumpus will end in Wun Lung +taking another rest while Aunt Sally does his work. +Fortunately, she is a prime cook, and we shall fare +sumptuously every day. I’d be glad to keep her here, +always, if I could.”</p> + +<p>“Old Ephraim Marsh did not appear to share your +sentiments,” and he described “Forty-niner’s” behavior +and remarks at first sighting Mrs. Benton’s wagon.</p> + +<p>“Then you found him. He’s come back with you? +Oh! I am so thankful. Sobrante wouldn’t seem itself +without that straightforward, honest old man.”</p> + +<p>“You are certain he is that?” asked, rather than asserted, +the other.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_101'></a>101</span>“As certain as that there is honesty anywhere. What +can you mean? Why do you seem so doubtful?”</p> + +<p>“I don’t wish to be a talebearer, but another of your +adoring <i>proteges</i> is in dire trouble. Elsa has been +robbed and accuses this unfortunate person of being the +culprit.”</p> + +<p>“Such a thing would be impossible.”</p> + +<p>“So it seemed to me. Yet that old Wolfgang finally +got it through his head–he appeared duller of wit +than his wife–that to lose sight of Ephraim was to +lose the money forever. Your little daughter promised +to produce him when needed, and after considerable +opposition they allowed him to come away. I fancy +they began to suspect me even. I fear, madam, I have +visited Sobrante at an unfortunate time.”</p> + +<p>Mrs. Trent was paying but slight attention to his +words. Her mind was already disturbed by many inexplicable +things and would revert to Antonio’s insinuations +which, without Jessica’s knowledge, she had +also overheard. After a moment, recalled by high +voices in the kitchen, she rallied, and apologizing for +so doing, hastily left the dining-porch.</p> + +<p>There were several gleaming pots and pans upon the +oil cooking-stove and behind these stood Wun Lung, +tenaciously grasping a meat dish and glaring unutterable +things out of his beady eyes upon the excited +woman who faced him, demanding:</p> + +<p>“Give me that platter, monkey-face! Suppose I’ll +put your dirty victuals into my clean mouth or anybody +else’s? I’ve tasted your stuff before. A burnt +bairn dreads the fire. Hand it over. I’ll see if it’s fit. +There! That rice is boiling over.”</p> + +<p>The dish of savory lamb stew had been most daintily +and carefully prepared after his mistress’ own minute +directions, but Wun Lung now slammed it upon the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_102'></a>102</span> +table with much violence and seized the pipkin of rice +from the stove. With undue emphasis he placed this +beside the stew and, advancing toward Mrs. Trent, +made several profound salaams.</p> + +<p>“Lat m’loman come–me glo. Good-by.”</p> + +<p>And for many a day thereafter Wun Lung served +no more in that, his own beloved kitchen.</p> + +<p>Not a whit disturbed was Aunt Sally. Revolution +had become as the breath in her nostrils. Wherever she +went old orders were reversed and all things became +new. At a little town, with an unpronounceable Spanish +name, which it suited her to call “Boston,” she had +her home-room in the house of a long-suffering woman +cousin, whose ill-health afforded her infinite employment, +therefore enjoyment. The invalid endured +these ministrations because Aunt Sally also supported +her, as well as ruled her; but she appreciated the rest +which followed whenever the itching of Mrs. Benton’s +feet called their owner elsewhere. Between “Boston” +and Sobrante the patriotic wagon vibrated, like a long-distance +pendulum, and departing from either point +carried everything belonging to its proprietor within it. +“Boston” having become wearisome it was now Sobrante’s +turn.</p> + +<p>“I haven’t been so happy since I first trod shoe +leather. Now, honey, you’ll have good, clean fixings, +with no opium nor rat tails in ’em,” she gleefully announced, +returning to the table.</p> + +<p>“Aunt Sally, hush! What an opinion you’ll give our +guest of my housekeeping!” laughed Mrs. Trent.</p> + +<p>“Pooh, child! Anybody that looks at you’ll know +you hate dirt. Now, eat, all. Only–you, Mr. Hale, I +must insist you take a dose of this saffron tea. I +steeped it while I was having that set-to with the +Chinaman, for I thank my stars I can always do two +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_103'></a>103</span> +things at once. And if I know the signs–Gabriella +Trent, if that man hasn’t got the janders or shingles, or +malary fever, don’t you tell me a thing!”</p> + +<p>“I certainly shall not tell you any such thing as that, +dear soul. The trouble is, Mr. Hale, Aunt Sally +is never so happy as when she has a sick person to +nurse. If nobody is ill she does her utmost to make +somebody so, with her uncalled for doses and stews. +But–once be ill! Ah! dear Aunt Sally, I know how +tender is your touch and how faithful your watch. God +bless you!”</p> + +<p>Not often was the gentle mistress moved to such +emotion, and Mrs. Benton now put on her spectacles +and regarded her hostess over them with a critical air.</p> + +<p>“Land, honey! You must be coming down with +something yourself! I never heard that janders was +catching, but, heart of grace, it might be! Yes, in-deedy, +it might be!”</p> + +<p>The delight of her tone was equaled only by the +sparkle of her eye. To have come to Sobrante, guided +merely by the itching of a foot and to find two patients +ready to hand, what mortal could ask more?</p> + +<p>Possibly, with the intention of helping on their timely +disorders, she heaped her neighbors’ plates with the +savory dinner, which was wholly due to Wun Lung’s +skill, and not, as she fancied, to her brief supervision.</p> + +<p>When the meal was over, Aunt Sally retreated to the +kitchen, after forcing Mrs. Trent to lie down and rest, +“whether or no;” and to aid the lady’s slumbers, there +presently arose from without the lusty cries of two +small lads who had returned from some prank, late as +usual, and as usual, desperately hungry.</p> + +<p>“I will have my dinner, so there, you old Aunt Sally! +I will go tell my mother–I won’t be spanked–I won’t +I–I–I<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_104'></a>104</span>“Wonbepanked!” screamed another childish treble.</p> + +<p>“Yes, you will, the brace of you. Spare the rod and +spoil the child. That’s what Gabriella does, all the +time, soft-hearted dear that she is. A good, sound +spanking once in six months is all that keeps you in +a state of salvation. If it wasn’t for me I don’t know +what in reason you little tackers would grow up to be. +One thing I do know, though, and so do you, and that +is–that while your old Aunt Sally is at Sobrante ranch +you’ll never be late to your victuals again.”</p> + +<p>In this events proved that the speaker was right, as, +indeed, she had often been before on similar occasions.</p> + +<p>Knowing that this little family jar would result in +no serious harm to her idolized son, Mrs. Trent lay +still and thought, but did not sleep. How could she? +What a subtle thing is suggestion!</p> + +<p>Poor, overburdened Gabriella Trent had known and +trusted old Epbraim Marsh for many years; yet the +words of Antonio, and now of this stranger within her +gates, lingered in her memory and would not then leave.</p> + +<p>Up in his pleasant guest chamber Mr. Hale felt within +himself the increasing vigor of returning health, +tempered for the moment, it may be, by a little indiscretion +of diet; yet the assertion of that noisy old woman +below stairs, that he was, despite all, on the verge +of some serious illness, so worked upon his still weakened +nerves that he could neither sleep nor forget them.</p> + +<p>The result in both cases was unfortunate.</p> + +<p>That evening Mrs. Trent forbade her daughter the +rifle practice for which, promply on his return, Ephraim +had made special preparation. Her refusal hurt +the old fellow, already sensitive from a previous injury, +and he reflected, bitterly, as he once more sought his +monkish chamber:</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_105'></a>105</span>“After all, whoever dismissed me was right. I’m too +old for use. I’d better never have come back.”</p> + +<p>As for Mr. Hale, brooding and an unwise exposure +to the night air on the previous evening, did bring on a +slight fever. Worriment increased this and, like many +men, he was impatient under suffering; so that when +his bell rang sharply, demanding attention, he was in a +fair way to require all that Aunt Sally or any other had +to give.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, down at the adobe quarters, other suspicions +were rife.</p> + +<p>“What is that man doing here, any way? He don’t +tell his business, and he’s asked a power of questions. +He’s wormed out of one and another of us all there +is to learn about this ranch, and he hasn’t let on a +single thing about himself, except that he’s a lawyer +from New York. New York’s a big village and all +lawyers can lie. I’m bound to sound that chap before +I’m many hours older,” said Joe Dean, bringing his +hands down heavily upon the table.</p> + +<p>“I know a trick worth two of that. Set mother on +him!” cried John Benton, gayly. “She’ll ask more +questions to the square inch than any other human being +I ever met, and she’ll have all his business, family +history, and present undertakings out of him before he +can say Jack Robinson. Lucky for us she got that +itching foot just when she did.”</p> + +<p>So it was agreed; and thus, primed to the fullest +investigation, Aunt Sally and her curiosity established +themselves within their victim’s sickroom. When they +emerged from it, at daybreak, the one had been fully +satisfied–with horror; and the ruddy face of the +other had grown white and heartbroken as no single +night of watching should have left it.</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_106'></a>106</span><a id='link_11'></a>CHAPTER XI<br /><span class='h2fs'>THE GUEST DEPARTS</span></h2> + +<p>“Well, mother! What are you doing, waking me out +of my beauty sleep, this way?”</p> + +<p>“Don’t speak to me, John Benton. This is no time +for fooling. Not till I’ve got my breath, knocked out +of me by the plumb wickedness of this world. That I +should have lived to hear such things and not died in +my tracks!”</p> + +<p>Upon leaving Mr. Hale’s sickroom, Aunt Sally had +traveled as fast as her nimble feet could carry her to +her son’s quarters, in the old mission, and had burst +in upon his slumbers, with a mighty groan.</p> + +<p>“What’s up?”</p> + +<p>“You ought to be, for one thing. There, lie still. I +can talk and you can listen–and you’ll need support +’fore I’m through. That man! Oh! that man!”</p> + +<p>“Yes’m. Which one?”</p> + +<p>“Shut up. You need spankin’ as bad as ever you +did. But–John, John! The vilest wretch that ever +trod shoe leather! The best, the generousest, the noblest–and +not here to say a word for his poor self.”</p> + +<p>“Mother, your remarks seem a little mixed. If you’ll +face the other way I’ll have on my clothes in a jiffy. +Can’t ’pear to sense things so well, lying a-bed after +daylight.”</p> + +<p>Mrs. Benton stepped outside the house and paced the +beaten path with a tread powerful enough to crush all +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_107'></a>107</span> +her enemies, had they been in her way. Swiftly, +heavily, back and forth, with clinched hands and grim +lips, the woman was rather working her indignation to +a higher point than allaying it, and as the carpenter +limped from his quarters he saw this, and thought:</p> + +<p>“She meant it. No time for fooling when she’s +stirred up that way. What in the name of reason can +ail her?”</p> + +<p>After a plunge of his head in the water of the general +washing-trough, through which a fresh stream was +continually piped, and a drying on the roller towel suspended +near it, his wits were clearer. Finishing his +toilet by means of his pocket-comb, he considered himself +ready for her story and for anything that it might +entail.</p> + +<p>“Well, mother?”</p> + +<p>Aunt Sally paused and glared at him in such a vicious +manner that he felt as if he were again that little boy +of hers who needed the usual corporal punishment.</p> + +<p>“Yes, but mother–what have <i>I</i> done?”</p> + +<p>“Done? Nothing! Not a man jack of you! Let +that viper warm himself at her very fireside, least to +say, south porch, and not show him up for what he was. +Land! The men! I never saw one yet was worth +shucks, savin’ hers and mine. If you was half the fellow +your father was, John Benton, or that noble +Cass’us was–oh! if ever <i>I</i> wanted to be a man in my +life I want to be this minute!”</p> + +<p>The carpenter darted into his chamber and reappeared +with a vial and spoon.</p> + +<p>“To please me, mother, ’fore you say any more, just +take a spoonful of this dandelion relish. Made it myself, +you know, and warrant no alcohol in it!”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_108'></a>108</span>The jester was rewarded by a boxed ear, but he had +effectually arrested his parent’s wandering thoughts, +and she burst forth with her news:</p> + +<p>“That viper-lawyer-man has come to this Sobrante +to accuse Cass’us Trent of stealing! lyin! cheating! +Cass’us, your best friend and mine. Says there’s a +power of money missing, that was all consigned to +him, to purchase that Paraiso d’Oro for a community +and never reported on!”</p> + +<p>“What? W-h-a-t!”</p> + +<p>John had laid his hand upon her shoulder like a vise, +and she began to whimper.</p> + +<p>“Needn’t pinch me, child. ’Twasn’t I said it. You +told me to find out what he wanted here and I have. +He pretends he lost his way, got off the road he was +showed to take and met Lady Jess in the canyon. Says +his own horse is up to Pedro’s sheep pasture. Says<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p>“<i>And you let him?</i> Had him right there in your +power and didn’t knock his old teeth down his lying +throat?”</p> + +<p>As John’s wrath increased his mother’s ebbed. She +had passed her indignation on to another, as it were, +and felt the relief of this confidence.</p> + +<p>“No, I didn’t. I left that for you to do. They was +false ones any way and wouldn’t have hurt none. Hold +on! Where you going, son?”</p> + +<p>For the carpenter had started forward, as if intent +upon instant and terrible vengeance. Neither of them +noticed that Jessica had followed Aunt Sally hither till +a girl’s voice implored:</p> + +<p>“Don’t! That would let my mother know and it +would kill her!”</p> + +<p>“Captain! You here? You understand?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_109'></a>109</span>“Yes–yes. They waked me, talking, and I crept to +the upper hall to stop them, so they should not disturb +my poor, tired dear. Oh! I heard! I heard–every–single–dreadful +word!”</p> + +<p>“Well, I’m going to fix him for it.”</p> + +<p>“John, wait–wait. I must think. My precious +mother<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p>Jessica rarely wept. Now she flung herself into +Aunt Sally’s arms and sobbed in a way that set the +carpenter raging afresh. One after another the “boys” +came out from the closed or open doors along the row. +Some because it was their usual hour for rising, others +to learn the cause of these early voices. But one glimpse +of Lady Jess in trouble grouped every ranchman about +her and set each to hurling a torrent of questions upon +that good woman, who held her, without pause for any +answer.</p> + +<p>But John held up his hand and told the story. It +belonged to them all, as Jessica did, and the honor of +Sobrante.</p> + +<p>They heard it with little comment, save groans and +occasional mutterings, punctuated by fresh inquiries +of Mrs. Benton. Considerable mystery had been thrown +about her cross-examination of her temporary patient, +and after all it had proved the simplest matter in the +world. Concerning his own personal affairs he was +provokingly silent, but he was as ready to talk about +his business in that region as she was to have him when, +after a roundabout preparation, she brought him to it.</p> + +<p>“I am in honor pledged to do my best for my employers +in the East, and unwilling to remain here under +false colors, so to speak, any longer. Who is the most +responsible person here, excepting Mrs. Trent?” had +been his words.</p> + +<p>“I am,” promptly replied Aunt Sally.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_110'></a>110</span>“Then you shall hear my story,” and he told it.</p> + +<p>The effect of it was to loose her tongue to its utmost. +One may guess the listener heard himself portrayed in +colors he failed to recognize and that he realized he had +made a mistake in the selection of a <i>confidante</i>. However, +his purpose had been to do away with all doubt +concerning himself, and to do this with as little distress +to his hostess as possible. For that reason he had believed +a woman would be his best aid, but it proved that +almost any ranchman on the place would have been +safer than she.</p> + +<p>“Well, I ought to have known that a female who talks +so much must say something amiss, and I can’t blame +her for her indignation. In her stead I might have behaved +worse; and the thing now is to get over this +little weakness and go away about the miserable business, +at once,” he reflected. Then he watched her hurry +out of his room and surmised whither she would turn +her steps. Therefore, he was not surprised when, somewhat +later, he also left the cottage to find himself confronted +by great Samson, quietly, but significantly, +awaiting the stranger’s appearance. For the great +fellow had naturally been appointed by his mates to +“settle that critter’s hash and settle it sudden.”</p> + +<p>“Good-morning, Samson.”</p> + +<p>Silence.</p> + +<p>“It seems so wonderful to me to wake and find this +changeless sunshine, day after day, as if no such things +as storms could ever exist,” said the lawyer, pleasantly.</p> + +<p>Samson’s grimness relaxed to a slight degree. “Some +kind of storms blow in fair weather. Likely you’ll +meet up with one sooner’n you expect. Step this way, +will you?”</p> + +<p>The sailor’s expression was so formidable that, for a +moment, all the wild tales the lawyer had ever read of +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_111'></a>111</span> +western desperadoes returned to test his already weakened +nerves. But he was no coward, and knew that +though in a most uncomfortable position, it was by no +means a guilty one.</p> + +<p>“Certainly.”</p> + +<p>Samson led the way, if walking closely beside the +guest, as a constable walks beside his prisoner, may be +termed leading. Nor once did he turn his angry gaze +from the gentleman’s face, and the riding-crop in his +hand swung to and fro, as if longing to test itself +against some enemy’s body. The walk ended in the +ranchmen’s messroom, where Wun Lung, released from +the cottage kitchen, had already been impressed into +service, and was deftly preparing breakfast. Aunt +Sally had disappeared, but Jessica was there, perched +on a corner of the dresser, by which stood “Forty-niner,” +with his arm about her. All the other workmen +whom Mr. Hale had seen were also present and an air +of silent fury pervaded the whole assemblage.</p> + +<p>The stranger’s glance passed swiftly from one face +to another and saw no kindness on any. Even the little +captain’s eyes were bent downward and her lovely face +wore a sorrow it made his own heart ache to see.</p> + +<p>Joe Dean lounged forward.</p> + +<p>“Stranger, have you broke your fast?”</p> + +<p>“No.”</p> + +<p>Another silence, during which the blacksmith poured +a cup of inky coffee from the great pot, hacked off a +piece of bread from a dusky loaf, and shoved them +toward their unwelcome guest across the table by which +he had sat down.</p> + +<p>“Eat, and be quick about it.”</p> + +<p>The color rose in the Easterner’s cheek, but he made +no motion to obey, and after a brief waiting, seeing +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_112'></a>112</span> +this, Joe threw the coffee out of the window and tossed +the bread to the dogs.</p> + +<p>“There’s a horse outside. It’s for you. The poorest +we’ve got, because once you’ve bestrode him no decent +man’ll ever mount him again. He’ll answer, though, +to carry you beyond this valley, and Samson’ll go with +you to see you leave it for good. Then he’ll turn the +beast loose and may the Lord have mercy on your dirty +soul. <i>Get!</i>”</p> + +<p>Mr. Hale did not stir. His own eye gathered fire +and the pink in his face grew scarlet, but his voice was +calm as he inquired:</p> + +<p>“Am I still at Sobrante, the home of gentlefolks? By +whose orders, please, this present dramatic scene?”</p> + +<p>“Yes; this is Sobrante. The home of gentlefolks–you +spoke the truth for once. The home of Cassius +Trent, the truest man, the noblest heart, the whitest +gentleman the good Lord ever made. The home of a +man! and not a free hotel for whelps! Ugh! If I had +promised the captain–Lady Jess, let me off that word! +I must at him, I <i>must</i>–<i>I will!</i>”</p> + +<p>Joe’s attitude was full of menace, but Mr. Hale +neither moved nor took his own cool gaze from his +enemy’s face. Though Jessica had taken swift alarm +and leaped down to place herself beside the smith and +clasp his hand with her own.</p> + +<p>“No, no. You promised, and I’m your captain. Soldiers +obey their captains and you chose me yourself. +You are not to hurt him nor abuse him, though, I, too”–here she wheeled about and faced her guest, crying: +“hate you, hate you! Oh! that’s wicked. That’s rude. +But, sir, how dared you say my father–the best man +ever lived–kept–took–it isn’t true, it isn’t!”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_113'></a>113</span>The lawyer rose, somewhat unsteadily. The sight of +the daughter’s grief disturbed his calmness more than +the affronts offered him by her bearded henchmen. It +was to her that he addressed the question:</p> + +<p>“Am I permitted to say a word in my own behalf, +Captain Jessica?”</p> + +<p>A growl ran around the room, but she held up her +small hand, protestingly.</p> + +<p>“Yes. That’s fair. My father always taught me to +be fair. I’m sorry I was–I wasn’t polite<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p>“No, you aren’t,” shouted Samson. “Don’t you dare +be sorry for anything but the kindness you’ve showed +that skunk!”</p> + +<p>“Samson, it was you made me captain!”</p> + +<p>“All right. I give in. Be as fair as you like, I can’t +help it.”</p> + +<p>“Tell us all there is to tell. As you told Aunt Sally.”</p> + +<p>“Thank you, captain. I’ll be brief. I came to California, +representing a company, a syndicate, which had +advanced large sums of money to purchase, improve, +and stock a vast tract of land called Paraiso d’Oro. +Though for a time due receipts and reports had been +returned to the syndicate for several months these had +entirely ceased. Unfortunately, the company had implicit +faith in their consignee, and Paraiso d’Oro was +but one of their many enterprises. I had been their +legal adviser in other matters, and when my health +failed from overwork, they suggested that I should +come here and investigate their affairs, while I could +recuperate at the same time.</p> + +<p>“I set out on horseback from Los Angeles, my temporary +headquarters, without a guide and with many +erroneous notions concerning both the State and its +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_114'></a>114</span> +people. You see, though I’d lived at the center of our +national civilization<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p>“You’re forgettin’ Californy!” cried somebody.</p> + +<p>“I’d led the narrow life of a man absorbed in one +sort of business. I traveled out of my way, and lost it. +Then I met your captain in the canyon and she courteously +offered me the hospitality of Sobrante. Until +I reached this spot I had no idea that it was part and +parcel, so to speak, of that Paraiso I’d come to reclaim. +Gradually this fact became clear to me and from that +moment I have been anxious to get away from a hospitality +I have no moral right to enjoy.”</p> + +<p>“Spoke the truth for once, liar!” grumbled Cromarty.</p> + +<p>“You cannot feel it more than I, sir, nor more profoundly +regret that it is my misfortune to have undertaken +a business which has now become obnoxious to +me. But a lawyer must look at facts. One Cassius +Trent<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p>“Take care!”</p> + +<p>“Be quiet, Marty! Go on, Mr. Hale,” ordered the +little captain.</p> + +<p>“Cassius Trent was the man whose hitherto probity +and enthusiasm had enlisted the interest of his New +York friends. He represented that his projected community +would not only be an excellent investment for +their money, but a benefaction to humanity. They believed +him and–well, their money is gone, their community +has not even a beginning, and the man is dead. +He seems to have been a person<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p>“A white gentleman, sir!”</p> + +<p>“Who could obtain a strong hold upon the affections +and confidence of all who knew him. I admire the +qualities which gained your devotion and I admire your +loyalty to him. I am charmed with the home he created +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_115'></a>115</span> +in this wilderness–<i>for himself</i>–and I have the profoundest +respect for his afflicted family. I wish I had +not undertaken this trust. But I have so undertaken, +I am sworn to my clients’ interests, and I must further +them to my utmost ability. If the missing money can +be recovered I shall recover it, painful as my duty may +be. And–that is all. Good-by, little captain. It is +my sincere wish that I may find some explanation of +this mystery, other than circumstantial evidence seems +to point. If I so find I shall return and tell you. If +not–good-by. Make my respectful regards to your +mother, and thank you for my entertainment.”</p> + +<p>He turned and walked to the doorway, nobody interfering; +but there he paused and asked:</p> + +<p>“That horse you mentioned? Can I purchase him of +you? If so I need not trouble Samson for his escort, +but will bid you, gentlemen, good-morning.”</p> + +<p>A significant look ran around the circle of intent and +lowering faces. The lawyer’s succinct explanation of +affairs had impressed them, but it had not altered one +fact which most mattered to those hardy countrymen.</p> + +<p>A dead man, their idolized master and friend, had +been accused of black dishonesty, and they had passed +their own promise to their girlish captain not to injure +the accuser.</p> + +<p>But they had not promised he should go scot-free. +To some men shame was worse than a bullet wound. +It would have been so to them, and they did the +stranger thus much honor that they ascribed him equal +manliness.</p> + +<p>As he stepped across the threshold Mr. Hale found +both Samson and John Benton close beside him, at +right hand and left; and when he was about to mount +the superannuated beast, which a grinning stable lad +held for him, he was pinioned and quietly hoisted into +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_116'></a>116</span> +the saddle. Instantly, a brace of straps secured him +and Samson’s crop cut viciously at the animal’s neck. +Then the sailor sprang into his own saddle and, amid +the insulting shouts and jeers of the assembled ranchmen, +the unfortunate Easterner rode out of the mission +courtyard–face backward.</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_117'></a>117</span><a id='link_12'></a>CHAPTER XII<br /><span class='h2fs'>A PROJECTED JOURNEY</span></h2> + +<p>Captain Jess screamed and ran forward, but her outstretched +hands could not reach her guest, already +borne many rods away. Then she faced the jeering +men, with an anger she had not believed it possible that she +could ever feel toward her beloved “boys.”</p> + +<p>“Shame on you! Shame on you, every one! How +dared you? And I thought–I thought–you were +gentlemen!”</p> + +<p>With arms tightly folded over her breast, as if to +hold back the conflicting emotions within it, her blue +eyes flashing, her small foot stamping, she defied and +condemned them all.</p> + +<p>A little laughter answered her, but this sound died +speedily, and awkward glances shifted among the faces +of the men. They were sorry to have offended the +“Little One,” and to have her indignant with them was +a new and unpleasant situation, but they were not in the +least degree sorry that they had administered some +punishment to the maligner of their master. Most of +them would have wished this punishment more severe, +but the promise Jessica had exacted from them before +this interview had prevented.</p> + +<p>One by one, as they had first come upon the scene +they retreated from it, though Joe Dean lingered a +moment to ask:</p> + +<p>“Won’t you come share our breakfast, captain, and +so bury the hatchet?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_118'></a>118</span>She sadly shook her head. All her anger left her as +suddenly as it had arisen, and there remained in her +mind but one thought–there were people in the world +who believed her father had been a thief. That was +the hard and bitter fact which nothing could soften. +The former trouble about the lost title deed, and the +probable loss of her home seemed as nothing to this +new distress. How was she to face it? How disprove +it? How save her beloved mother from ever hearing +it?</p> + +<p>There came a step beside her and a strong arm about +her shoulders. It was Ephraim Marsh; erect, resolute, +protecting.</p> + +<p>“Take it easy, daughter. It’s you and me together’ll +nail this lie on the door of the man who started it. +There’s a blue sky up yonder and a solid earth down +here. I’m good to trust the one and tread the other +for forty miles a day yet, spite of my white head. If +I have to travel this old State over its hundred and +fifty-six thousand square miles, before I clinch that +falsehood, I’ll clinch it, if I live. If I don’t–laws, +dearie, I’m in the same poor box myself. There’s them +that believe me a–you know the word. Even your +mother<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p>“No, Ephraim! She never believed you anything +but the splendid man you are.”</p> + +<p>“Last night, no shooting, and<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p>“It was nothing. She was tired. Aunt Sally always +tires her, at first, good as she is and much as we love +her. Mother is so quiet and gentle herself<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p>“I understand, darlin’.”</p> + +<p>“Ephraim, she must never know that dreadful thing +the stranger said.”</p> + +<p>“Captain, she’ll have to know.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_119'></a>119</span>“She must not, I tell you! What am I for but to take +care of and love her? Ned–but Ned’s only a little +boy<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p>“And you, my Jessie, are but a few years older than +he.”</p> + +<p>“I’m older than you, I believe! Is it only two days +since I met that man in the canyon and things began to +happen? It seems forever. As if I’d only lived these +forty-eight hours, and all that went before was a +dream.”</p> + +<p>Ephraim stepped aside and regarded her shrewdly.</p> + +<p>“Old words to come from so young a mouth, Lady +Captain. Have you had any breakfast?”</p> + +<p>“No. I don’t want any. Have you?”</p> + +<p>“No. But I’m going to have. As a rule, breakfasts +are wholesome. Keeping your stomach quiet keeps +your head clear. Things’ll look more natural after +we’ve eat. Share mine?”</p> + +<p>“No, I mustn’t. Mother would miss me and wonder.”</p> + +<p>“You often do.”</p> + +<p>“It’s better you share mine to-day. Then we must +plan. I heard you say that about you and me together. +Will you help me? Shall we prove it wasn’t true–to +the rest of the world, I mean–as we know it? Shall +we?”</p> + +<p>“That’s the rest of my life-job, darlin’. We’ll begin +it right away by getting a taste of Aunt Sally’s good +victuals. I hate her picra doses, but her cooking beats +the Dutch.”</p> + +<p>“Afterward?”</p> + +<p>“Afterward isn’t touched yet.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_120'></a>120</span>Whether real or affected there had come a cheerfulness +into the old man’s tone which it had lacked a few +moments earlier. After all he was not useless. Who +knew his California as he did? If it were true that +money had been sent to Mr. Trent’s hands and was +missing, then somewhere was a man who had appropriated +it. Whoever and wherever he was, he should +be found, and Ephraim Marsh was self-appointed so +to find.</p> + +<p>Jessica’s hand slipped under his arm, and her own +face grew somewhat lighter as she walked beside him +toward her own home, where Aunt Sally was keeping +an anxious lookout and a most tempting breakfast.</p> + +<p>“Bless you, Jessie! I’m glad you’ve come. Step +right in, Ephy. Them muffins are so light they’ve nigh +flown off the porch. Made with the eggs my hen-chicken +laid, comin’ along from Boston. Smartest fowl in the +country, and only one I ever owned would brood and +lay at the same time. I wouldn’t take a fortune for +that bird.”</p> + +<p>Aunt Sally’s own cheerfulness was fully restored. +With her to be busy helping somebody was, after all, +her happiness. And she saw that she had never come +to Sobrante more opportunely.</p> + +<p>“Your mother isn’t up yet, dearie. And I’ve had the +tackers out and washed ’em good. Then I filled them +with hot milk, and some of my salt-risin’ bread I +fetched along in my box, and put ’em to bed. I promised +if they’d go to sleep again I’d make ’em each a +saucer-pie, and they went.”</p> + +<p>In spite of her heavy heart, Jessica laughed.</p> + +<p>“Aunt Sally, I don’t believe there’s another person +could make them go to sleep at this time of day; not +even my mother.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_121'></a>121</span>“Pooh! Her! Why, that little Edward knows he +can twist her round his thumb easy as scat. He’s too +much the look of his father for Gabriella ever to be sot +with him. You, now, you favor her folks.”</p> + +<p>Here, foreseeing that the talkative woman was off on +a long track, Ephraim mildly inquired:</p> + +<p>“Aunt Sally, did you bring that rheumatism-oil you +had last time you were here?”</p> + +<p>She put on her spectacles and looked at him over +them, as was her habit. Never, by any chance, had she +been known to look through them, and her explanation +of wearing them at all was simply: “It’s proper for a +woman of my age.”</p> + +<p>“Ephy, you feel real bright, don’t you? You and +rheumatism! Why, man, you’ll be getting married +before you get rheumatic.”</p> + +<p>“Then I’ll never need the oil.”</p> + +<p>She was not to be so easily worsted. If Ephraim was +minded to be facetious, she’d match him at the business. +Whereupon, instead of rehearsing the history +of Gabriella’s “folks” she veered round upon disease +and gave them details of all the dreadful things she had +ever heard till “Forty-niner” cried, “Quits! I’ll not +tackle you again.”</p> + +<p>Mrs. Benton’s eyes twinkled over her cup, for she +had joined them at table. She knew, as he did, that this +was but foolish sport, yet that it had served their +mutual purpose; which was to divert Jessica’s thoughts +from trouble and her lips from asking why her mother +did not appear.</p> + +<p>But the meal over, the question came, and the answer +was ready:</p> + +<p>“Why, I just coaxed her to lie and rest a spell. She +knew that I’d look after things all right, and can make +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_122'></a>122</span> +butter next grade to hers, if I can’t equal. Anybody +that’s been worrying with a Chinaman as long as she +has needs a vacation, I ’low. So she’s taking a mite of +one.”</p> + +<p>“Then I’ll gather a bunch of roses and take to her. +I’m glad to have her rest, and I hope–Aunt Sally, do +you suppose she heard any of that dreadful man’s talk? +Did you tell her?”</p> + +<p>“No; I didn’t tell her. I’d sooner never say another +word as long as I live than do such a thing. You +needn’t be afraid to trust your old auntie, child. There, +run along and make her a posy.”</p> + +<p>But no sooner had Jessica gone into the garden than +Aunt Sally’s lips were close to Ephraim’s ear, and she +was whispering:</p> + +<p>“She heard it, every word. She didn’t say so, and I +didn’t ask. But the look of it in her eyes. Ephraim +Marsh, I’ve got a heartbroken woman on my hands, +and don’t you dare to tell me a word ’at I haven’t.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, that tongue of yours! Last night when you +were yelling at him why didn’t you think about other +folks’ hearts and be still? You’ve a voice like a fog +horn when you’re mad–or pleased, either!” cried this +honest, ungallant frontiersman.</p> + +<p>“I know it, Ephy. It’s the truth. I realize it as well +as you do. And I was mad. Since she heard, anyway, +I wish now ’at I’d up and thrashed him good. I had +laid out to put a little bitter dose in his coffee this +morning, but he went away without taking any,” she +ended, grimly.</p> + +<p>“Sally Benton, you’re quite contriving. What’s to be +done?”</p> + +<p>Before she could reply Jessica came back, her arms +full of great rose-branches and her face bright with +confidence.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_123'></a>123</span>“Ephraim, Aunt Sally, I’ve thought of something. +It came to me out there among the roses, like a voice +speaking; my mother must not and need not be told +what Mr. Hale said. It isn’t wicked to deceive her in +this, for her own good. Often you’ve asked her to let +you take me horseback trip to Los Angeles, stopping +nights at houses on the way, with people who knew my +father; and she’s promised I should ‘some time.’ I +think the ‘some time’ has come. She will be glad to +have us go, for one thing, to find out about the feather +markets and others that Antonio used to take care of, +but has left. Aunt Sally does two things at once; why +not we? We’ll hunt that man who took the money; +and if I can’t find the deed first–though, of course, I +shall–we’ll straighten that out, too. Isn’t that good +sense?”</p> + +<p>“It’s more; it’s inspiration,” responded “Forty-niner,” +enthusiastically. He had already decided to +make this journey alone, for Jessica’s sake; but with +her as companion he felt that it would be as sure of +success as full of pleasure. A little child working to +clear her father’s name of dishonor, and to save her +mother’s home–what evil could prevail against this +noble effort?</p> + +<p>It was like his simplicity and hers that neither +thought of providing for difficulties by the way, or for +any delay in finding the men and proofs they sought, +when once they reached the distant city.</p> + +<p>Aunt Sally was not so sanguine; yet it was not her +part to discourage any attempt to set wrong matters +right, and she merely nodded her head and remarked:</p> + +<p>“It’ll bear thinking on. Now, run along and see your +mother.”</p> + +<p>“Has she had her breakfast? Can’t I carry it to +her?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_124'></a>124</span>“S’pose I’d let that poor lamb go without her dawn-meal +late as this? I heard her stirring the minute I got +back into the house, so I fixed her some broma and +poached her an egg, and made her go lie down again. +You’ll not find her hungry, child, ’less for a sight of +you.”</p> + +<p>Jessica ran to her mother’s room, exclaiming:</p> + +<p>“I’m so glad you’re resting, dear. Were ever more +perfect roses? And isn’t it delightful that Aunt Sally +should be here just now to look after things. Because<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p>“Well, my darling? Why do you hesitate?”</p> + +<p>“Mother, may Ephraim and I go on that trip to Los +Angeles?”</p> + +<p>Lady Jess had intended to be very careful and cautious, +for once, and to test her mother’s feelings on the +subject she made her request. But frankness was her +habit, and the question was out of itself, it seemed, and +she waiting the answer with a beating heart.</p> + +<p>“Why just now, daughter? And–has Mr. Hale +gone?” she asked, in a peculiar tone.</p> + +<p>“Yes. He has gone. He left rather–rather suddenly, +but he sent his regards to you and his thanks. +He said he might come back some time, but–I don’t +think he will. He said something to offend the ‘boys,’ +and they let him take old Dandy. Samson went with +him to show him the way.”</p> + +<p>Poor little captain, who had never in her short life +had one secret thought from her idolized mother. This +first experience did not come easy to her, and after +one glance into the sad, yet amused, eyes watching her, +she tossed secrecy aside and buried her face on her +mother’s pillow.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_125'></a>125</span>“Mother, mother! I am so unhappy. I’m keeping +something back from you that I cannot tell you; that +I cannot have you know, and I don’t like it. But–it’s +right, it’s best. So don’t ask me, and, oh, mother–”</p> + +<p>“I’ve no need to ask you, sweetheart. I know, already.”</p> + +<p>“Know–what?” cried Jessica alarmed, and sitting +straight again.</p> + +<p>“All that is in your brave heart. All that Mr. Hale +had heard against your father. All that you and Ephraim +hope from this suddenly decided journey to a distant +city.”</p> + +<p>“Why–how? And I’d only just thought it out, +yonder in the garden!”</p> + +<p>“I had begun to suspect, I hardly know why, that +our late guest had come here as our enemy, or, rather, +as an agent against us. Something held me back from +confiding in him, as I at first wished to do. He is a +gentleman, and doubtless honest, but he is not on our +side. Besides, how and why he went away just as he +did is plain enough. I have ears and I have eyes, and +I heard all Aunt Sally’s tirade last night, so could easily +guess at his own part in the talk. Also–I saw him +ride out of the courtyard. My little girl, for the first +time in my life I blushed for Sobrante. Even if he +had been a wicked man, which he was not, that was a +dastardly insult. I am ashamed of your ‘boys,’ +captain.”</p> + +<p>“And so am I. And I told them so, quick enough. +Oh! they pretended not to mind my anger, but they +were ashamed–inside themselves, I know. Now, for +ever so long, they’ll be so good ‘butter would melt +in their mouths.’ You see.”</p> + +<p>“Apt pupil of Aunt Sally.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_126'></a>126</span>“Why, mother! How can you smile and take it so +quiet? This awful–awful thing he said?”</p> + +<p>“To say a thing is not to prove it. The charge is so +monstrous that it becomes absurd. Nothing hurts us +but what we do, and your father never did a dishonorable +deed, from the hour of his birth till his death. I +am sorry for those mistaken people who think that he +did, and I am thankful that he left a brave little daughter +to set them right.”</p> + +<p>Jessica stared. For a long time past she had seen +her mother anxious and troubled over matters which +now seemed trivial in the extreme; yet this blow which +had almost crushed her own courage but restored Mrs. +Trent’s.</p> + +<p>“Then do you mean that we may go?”</p> + +<p>“Yes.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, mother! Thank you.”</p> + +<p>“But you will go armed with the fullest information +we can gain. We will examine all the papers Antonio +left–if he left any. We will make a thorough search +everywhere for that title deed. We shall probably find +letters from this New York company to your father, +and these will have the name, or names, of those with +whom he did business at Los Angeles. I wish now that +Senor Bernal were here. His knowledge would be +worth everything in this emergency, if–he would give +it. Well, he is not here, and we must do the best we +can without him. I’m going to get up now and begin +to look.”</p> + +<p>“Aunt Sally thought you ought to rest.”</p> + +<p>“This talk will rest me most of all.”</p> + +<p>The mother was now as eager as the child, and together +they were soon engaged in opening Mr. Trent’s +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_127'></a>127</span> +desk and secretary, which his wife had not before +touched since he himself closed them.</p> + +<p>Alas! the search was an easy matter, and came +swiftly to an end. Beyond a few personal letters from +relatives and friends, there was not a scrap of writing +anywhere. Even the ledgers and account books had been +removed, and at this discovery the same thought came +to both:</p> + +<p>“Antonio.”</p> + +<p>“Yet, why? and so secretly. He was really the master +here, and if, as he now claims, Sobrante is his, he +has but to prove it, and we will go away,” said the +widow, trembling for the first time.</p> + +<p>“Let us try the safe. That night before he went off +in such grief, Ephraim gave me the key. He thought +he was going forever, and I was to look in it some time–when I needed. We’ll look now.”</p> + +<p>Mrs. Trent herself unlocked the clumsy iron box and +found it empty, save for one small parcel. This, +wrapped in a bit of canvas, was securely tied and addressed +to “Jessica Trent.”</p> + +<p>The mother passed it to her.</p> + +<p>“You open it, please, mother. It may be–it must +be–that deed and maybe some other things–I couldn’t +wait to pick the knots, and I’ve no knife.”</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_128'></a>128</span><a id='link_13'></a>CHAPTER XIII<br /><span class='h2fs'>THE START</span></h2> + +<p>Nothing resembling a legal document was found +inside the package; but, instead, were several neatly-arranged +rolls of gold and silver money, with the denomination +of each roll carefully marked outside; +dollars, eagles, double eagles. With these was a scrap +of paper, saying:</p> + +<div class='bquote'> +<p>“All my savings for my captain. God bless them to +her.   E. M.”</p> +</div> <!-- block quote --> + +<p>“Oh, mother! That big-hearted Ephraim! Was anybody +ever so unselfish as he?”</p> + +<p>“Or as unjust as I have been.”</p> + +<p>“How? What can you mean?”</p> + +<p>Mrs. Trent did not answer, save by the tears in her +eyes, though she was tempted to show her child all the +base suspicion that had, for a brief space, dwelt in her +own mind concerning “Forty-niner.” A suspicion +which Antonio had suggested, and her trouble made her +too ready to accept. Then she reflected it were wiser +not, and rose, placing the precious parcel in Jessica’s +own hands.</p> + +<p>“Let us find that splendid old man at once. We cannot +accept his sacrifice, but we must hasten to show +him we appreciate it.”</p> + +<p>Ephraim was polishing his rifle in his own room +when they came to him, and rose to welcome the unusual +visit of the lady with more awkwardness than he +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_129'></a>129</span> +commonly displayed. It was an honor she was doing +him, yet he had far rather she had not come.</p> + +<p>But he was forced back into his chair by Jessica’s assault +of clinging arms and raining kisses, and, catching +sight of the parcel in her hand, began to understand.</p> + +<p>“Oh, you splendid, darling, generous Ephraim! I +can never, never thank you enough for doing this for +me, but I could not ever possibly take it. Why, there +must be hundreds of dollars there, my mother says, +and that would mean almost all the years you’ve ever +lived at Sobrante. I never knew anybody with such a +heart as you, dear Ephraim.”</p> + +<p>The poor old fellow was far more distressed by her +rejection of his gift than she could guess. His face +drooped, he worked his hands and feet uneasily, he +shifted his seat, and behaved in altogether a new fashion +for the man who had hitherto borne himself so +simply and naturally. Then the old suspicion returned +to sting his loving heart, and he glanced up to study his +mistress’ face. To his surprise he saw it wet with +tears, and that she was holding out her thin, labor-hardened +hands to clasp his own.</p> + +<p>“Ephraim Marsh, you have done me more good than +money could bring. You have renewed my faith in mankind. +In a world where live such men as you justice +will be done the memory of my dead husband. I thank +you.”</p> + +<p>“Don’t–don’t mention it, Mrs. Trent. I wish it had +been double, as it ought, only<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p>“Ephraim, mother says we may go. You and I, as +you said, ‘together,’ to make everything straight.”</p> + +<p>“What? You’ve told her then, Lady Jess.”</p> + +<p>“Of course. Or she guessed. How could I keep anything +from my mother? And she’s quite willing.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_130'></a>130</span>“I’m more than willing, Ephraim. I <i>want</i> you to go. +I believe that good will come of the journey, though I +am terribly disappointed by not finding any papers or +letters to help you in the search for the men with whom +Mr. Trent transacted his business. Antonio must have +taken away all the records or put them in some place I +cannot guess.”</p> + +<p>“Then we’ll find Antonio first.”</p> + +<p>“Of course. How simple of me not to think of that. +Do you happen to know where he went?”</p> + +<p>“No, ma’am, I don’t. But you can always track a–well +some critters by their scent. Wherever that scoundrel +goes he’ll leave a trail. I’ve a keen nose for the +hunt.”</p> + +<p>“Don’t judge him too harshly, Ephraim. Perhaps he +considered that he was doing all for the best; and if +Sobrante is his, he’s welcome to it.”</p> + +<p>“Whew!” was the ranchman’s astonished comment.</p> + +<p>“Don’t you understand, dear Ephraim? Losing a +home is nothing to losing honor,” said Jessica, earnestly. +“We don’t care half so much about Sobrante as +that other thing.”</p> + +<p>“You shall keep both. Your home and our master’s +honor,” cried the old man, fiercely.</p> + +<p>“Yes, that we will!” echoed Jessica, clasping his +hand again.</p> + +<p>So doing she dropped the canvas bag on the floor, +and, picking it up, Mrs. Trent would have restored it +to its owner, as she so considered the sharpshooter. But +he would have none of it.</p> + +<p>“I’ve heard the little tackers call one another ‘Indian +giver.’ I couldn’t, ma’am, you know. It’s Jessie’s, now.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_131'></a>131</span>The mistress’ face grew serious. She had not expected +to find the man so obstinate. But she hated to +wound him and turned the matter aside with the remark:</p> + +<p>“Let it rest so, then, for the present. I will keep it +in the safe till you come back–if I can. Though I begin +to feel as if nothing were secure at Sobrante, nowadays.”</p> + +<p>Ephraim pondered for a moment, then looked up +with a relieved expression.</p> + +<p>“Asking pardon, ma’am, I’m sure; have you got any–I mean much money handy by you?”</p> + +<p>“No. I have not. Fortunately, beyond the wages of +the men, not much ready cash is needed at Sobrante, +where we produce so much.”</p> + +<p>“Yes’m. Yet I wouldn’t like to set out on a journey +that might be long, or even delayed for a spell, without +considerable loose change. Better let the captain pay +all expenses of the trip out of that little handful, and +call it square.”</p> + +<p>“Square! That is even greater generosity than the +first. Lying in the safe you might have found it again; +but spent–Ephraim, I fear I’ll never be able to repay +such an amount. I must think out some other way.”</p> + +<p>“Don’t you trust me, Mrs. Trent?”</p> + +<p>“Am I not trusting you with the most precious thing +in life–my daughter?”</p> + +<p>“Then, mother, trust him about the money. It’s good +sense. We haven’t any and we need it. Besides, it hurts +him to refuse. Yes, we’ll use it, Ephraim dear.”</p> + +<p>So it was settled; but it was not in Jessica’s nature +to keep the story from the rest of her “boys.” Forgetting +her angry feelings of the morning she called a +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_132'></a>132</span> +meeting and spread the news among them. Much as she +loved them, until the time of her recent appointment as +“captain,” she had tried to give them their titles of +“Mr.,” though not always remembering. Now she no +longer tried. They were just her comrades, and when +she stood upon the horseblock to address them it was +with the joyful announcement:</p> + +<p>“John! George! Joe! Everybody! Ephraim and I +are going away!”</p> + +<p>She paused and looked around, but instead of the +sympathetic pleasure she expected there were darkening +looks and evident disappointment.</p> + +<p>“Oh! but we are coming back again. Hark, what +he did!”</p> + +<p>Ephraim was away putting his few traps together +against the morning’s start, since, if they were to go at +all, why delay? Else he might have silenced her then +and there. But out it came, and be sure the sharpshooter’s +generosity lost not one bit in her telling.</p> + +<p>“With this money we’re going to hire lawyers and +pay our lodging where we have to, and hunt up the +men that know about business. Finally, to find the +money–that other lot of it–that Mr. Hale said had +been sent to my father by those New York folks. If +they did send it they shall have it back–if we can find +it. If they didn’t–they shall tell all the world they +accused him wrongfully. We’re going to find the man +that made that title, if we can. We’re going to save +Sobrante, but we’re going to save its honor first!”</p> + +<p>“Hurrah! Hurrah! Glory to the captain!”</p> + +<p>“And old ‘Forty-niner,’” added honest John Benton.</p> + +<p>They cheered him to the skies, and when the uproar +had subsided, their small chief said:</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_133'></a>133</span>“You are all to take the best care of Sobrante, and +first–of my mother. Don’t you let her worry, nor let +Ned and Luis get hurt. And you must keep Aunt Sally +here till I come back.”</p> + +<p>Somebody groaned.</p> + +<p>“Oh! that’s not right. I couldn’t go if she hadn’t +come. She’ll look after everything<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p>“That’s the true word!”</p> + +<p>“And I want you all to be–be good and not tease +her.”</p> + +<p>“Hurrah! Hurrah! All in favor of minding the captain, +say Ay!”</p> + +<p>They swung her down from her perch and carried +her on their shoulders everywhere about the old mission. +They offered her all their possessions, including pistols +and bowie knives, at peaceful Sobrante more useful for +target practice and pruning vines than their original +purposes. But she declined all these warlike things, +saying that Ephraim would carry only his own rifle, +and finally tore herself away from them to the anxious +mother at the cottage, naturally jealous of each moment +of her darling’s company.</p> + +<p>“Don’t see how Eph. ever saved so much. Hasn’t +had any wages since ours failed, as I know of. Mine +always go fast as earned, and thought everybody’s did,” +said one, when Jessica had left them.</p> + +<p>“Some folks have all the luck! Why didn’t it happen +to me to have money to give her? or to offer first to go +hunt them liars? Shucks!” said Samson, in disgust. +Though he had been back some time from escorting +the stranger “off bounds,” that task had left him in a +bad humor.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_134'></a>134</span>“Well, the captain’d tell me envy was wicked, and +when I was hearing her say it I’d believe it. But I do +envy old eighty his chance,” complained Joe. “Hello! +there’s Ferd! Come to think of it I haven’t noticed +him around these two days. Not since that stranger +cast his ugly shadow on the ranch. Hi, there, Dwarf! +Where you been?”</p> + +<p>“Where I seen bad doings.”</p> + +<p>“Right. Seeing you was there yourself. What doings +was they?”</p> + +<p>In ordinary the older men had little to say to Antonio’s +“Left Hand,” but he afforded them diversion, +just then, when they were all a little anxious and downhearted +over their captain’s departure on what seemed +to some of them a wild-goose chase.</p> + +<p>Ferd went through a pantomime of theft. Furtively +putting one hand into his neighbor’s pocket to instantly +thrust it back into his own. He produced a buckskin +bag and twisting some eucalyptus leaves into rolls, suggesting +those of money, thrust these within the bag and +that within his jacket. Then he glanced about with an +absurdly innocent expression, threw his shoulders back, +and stepped forward a few paces with so firm a step and +erect a bearing that more than one instantly recognized +the mimicry.</p> + +<p>“Forty-niner.”</p> + +<p>Having produced the effect he had intended, Ferd +slouched back into his own natural attitude and begged:</p> + +<p>“Something to eat.”</p> + +<p>At that moment Ephraim had been approaching and +was an indignant witness of this performance, nor was +he less quick to see its significance than his mates had +been. Also, to him that buckskin bag was a familiar +object. With one stride he collared Ferd and shook +him like a rat.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_135'></a>135</span>“You imp! What do you mean by that? And how +came you by Elsa Winkler’s pouch?”</p> + +<p>Ferd broke from his captor and his face changed +color beneath its filth. He was one who was perfectly +satisfied to live in a country where water was scarce; +but, by way of fun, another ranchman caught him as he +escaped from Ephraim, and forcibly ducked his head +and shoulders in the washing-trough. After that he +was let go and later on was given a liberal supper at the +messroom. He ate this as if he had not seen food since +he had gone away two days before, but he was greedy at +all times, and the present instance excited no comment.</p> + +<p>The morning came and all was ready for the start. +Every person at Sobrante gathered before the cottage +door, and each with his or her word of farewell advice +or good will. Aunt Sally, fluttering with patchwork +strips of already “pieced blocks,” flung jauntily over +either shoulder, her spectacles slipping off the point of +her nose and her hands holding forth a fat fig pie, hot +and dripping from the oven.</p> + +<p>“I’ve been a-bakin’ all night, Ephy. There’s a pair +of fowls, a ham, four loaves, some hard-boiled eggs, +salt, pepper, sugar, tea, coffee, butter, dishes, five vials +of medicine, some dish towels, some<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p>“What in reason! How expect me to carry that +great basket, as well as the saddlebags, and myself–on +one horse? You’re old enough to have sense–but you’ll +never learn it. One loaf<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p>“Ephraim Marsh! Are you eighty years old or are +you not? At your age would you starve the little darling +daughter of the best friends you ever had? Here, +Jessie. You get off that donkey. We’ll wait till we +can pick out some other man that<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p>“Give me the basket; I’ll carry it if I have to on my +head!” interrupted “Forty-niner,” indignantly. But he +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_136'></a>136</span> +added to himself: “I can chuck it into the first clump +of mesquite I meet.”</p> + +<p>Jessica was upon Scruff, whose loss the small boys +were bewailing far more than that of the girl herself. +Without Scruff they would be compelled to stay within +walking distance of the cottage, and this was imprisonment. +Without Jessica–well, there were many things +one could do better with Jessica away.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Trent’s face was pale but calm. Nobody knew +what this first parting with her helpful child was to her +anxious heart, but it was her part to send the travelers +outward in good cheer.</p> + +<p>“Put the saddlebags on Scruff, in front of Jessica. +He’s strong enough to carry double, and they’re not so +heavy. Few girls, in my days at the East, would have +set out upon an indefinite journey, equipped with only +one flannel frock and a single change of underclothing.”</p> + +<p>“But the flannel frock is new and so is the pretty +Tam that Elsa gave me last Christmas. What do I +want more? specially when there’s this warm jacket +you made me take, for a cold night’s ride. Isn’t it +enough, mother, dear?”</p> + +<p>“Quite, I think, else I should have made you delay +till I could have provided more. Be sure to write me, +now and then. One of the men will ride to the post +every few days and fetch any letters. Good-by, and +now–go quickly!”</p> + +<p>She added no prayers, for these were too deep in her +heart for outward utterance; but she felt her own courage +ebbing, and that if the parting were not speedy +she could not at all endure it. Until that moment she +had not realized how complete was her dependence +upon Jessica’s protecting tenderness; and turning, toward +her home hid thus the tears she would not have +her daughter see.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_137'></a>137</span>But neither could Lady Jess have seen them, because +of the sudden mist in her own. All her eagerness for +the journey was gone, and her courage was fast following +it. If the start were not made at once it would +never be.</p> + +<p>“Good-by, mother. Good-by, all! Come, Ephraim! +Go, go–Scruff!”</p> + +<p>A moment later the travelers were disappearing down +the sandy road, and upon those whom they had left +behind had fallen an intolerable burden of foreboding +and loneliness.</p> + +<p>“Desolation of desolations! That’s what this old +ranch’ll be till that there little bunch of human sunshine +comes safely back to it. A crazy trip, a crazy parcel of +folks to let her take it. That’s what we are,” said John +Benton, savagely kicking the horseblock to vent his +painful emotion.</p> + +<p>“Oh, dear! Oh, dear! And I never remembered to +put in that guava jell!” moaned a voice of woe.</p> + +<p>“Then, mother, just trot it out to us for dinner,” +said her son, “we’ll take that burden off your mind.”</p> + +<p>“You will? Have you a heart to eat good victuals, +John Benton, when that sweet child has just thrust +herself into a den of lions, and lawyers, and liars, and–and–things?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, hush! Lions! The notion!”</p> + +<p>“Well, you can’t deny there’s bears, anyway,” she +retorted, with ready dolefulness. “Ephy’s shot ’em +himself in his younger days.”</p> + +<p>“And ended the crop. Now you go in; and if I hear +you downhearting the mistress the least bit I’ll +make you take a dose of your own picra,” said this +much-tried man.</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_138'></a>138</span><a id='link_14'></a>CHAPTER XIV<br /><span class='h2fs'>THE FINISH</span></h2> + +<p>It was a journey of something more than two hundred +miles and they were almost a week on the way; +riding for several hours each morning and evening; +camping in some well-watered spot at midday; or, this +failing, sharing the dinner of some friendly ranchman. +Also, they slept at some little inn or ranch, and where +their hosts would receive it, Ephraim delighted to make +liberal payment for their entertainment.</p> + +<p>Indeed, he felt a prince, with his well-filled purse, +and would have forced all sorts of dainties and knickknacks +upon his little charge, at each village they +passed through, save that she resolutely refused them.</p> + +<p>“You generous Ephraim, no! What money we need +for the trip and after we get to Los Angeles is all +right. But you mustn’t waste it. Hear! I am older +than you in this thing.”</p> + +<p>“But–I want you to have everything nice in the +world, Lady Jess. Any other of the ‘boys’ traveling +with you<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p>“Could not have been so kind and thoughtful as you. +Not one. Dearly as I love them I’d rather have you to +take care of me on this long journey than any other +single one. So do be good and not extravagant. And +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_139'></a>139</span> +isn’t it lovely to find how almost everybody knew of my +dear father? Or, if they didn’t know him for himself, +they’d heard of him and of something he’d done for +somebody. It makes the way seem almost short and as +if I’d been over the road before.”</p> + +<p>“He often passed this way, child; and whenever he +went left pleasant memories behind him. He was a +grand man, was Cassius Trent. Ugh! To think<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p>“That will be all right, Ephraim. I know it. I feel +it. And how I do love all the new places and things +I see. I should never have cared to leave Sobrante but +for this business; yet now I have left it I’m finding +the world a big, splendid, lovely place.”</p> + +<p>“H-m-m! I reckon even this old earth could show +only its best side to you, little girl. However, it <i>has</i> +been pleasant and it’s about over. Aunt Sally’s provisions +didn’t have to go into the mesquite bushes, after +all. What we couldn’t eat we’ve found plenty of others +to take off our hands. Even the medicine didn’t go begging, +and that’ll do her proud to hear. Poor wretches +who have to take it!”</p> + +<p>“But they wanted it, Ephraim. Some of the women +said they hadn’t had a dose of medicine in years and +seemed as pleased as if it had been sweetmeats. Now +the basket is empty. What shall you do with that?”</p> + +<p>“Leave it at the next place we stop.”</p> + +<p>They had set out upon their ride on Tuesday morning +and this was sunset, Saturday. They were descending +the slope of a mountain and the guide pointed forward, +eagerly.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_140'></a>140</span>“Do you see that hazy spot off yonder? That’s our +City of the Angels! The city where we shall find +justice and honor.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, shall we be there to-night?”</p> + +<p>“No. We might have been days ago if we’d ridden +across country and struck the railway lines, but I +wanted to do just as we have done. I knew you’d hear +so much about your father it would do you good forever. +We can go home the quicker way if we think best; +and if we have good news to take will, likely, so think, +I–I’m almost sorry we’re so near the end.”</p> + +<p>“In one way so am I. Not in another. I long to begin +to hunt for that money and the men who have it.”</p> + +<p>Ephraim sighed. Now that he was thus far on his +mission he began to think it, indeed, as Joe Dean had +said, “A good deal of the needle and haymow style.” +But he rallied at once and answered, cheerfully:</p> + +<p>“There’s a house I know, or used to, at the foot of +this slope. I planned to sleep there to-night, make an +early start in the morning, and ride the fifteen miles left +so as to get to the town in time for the churches. To +think you’re eleven years old, Lady Jess, yet have never +been inside any church except the rickety old mission.”</p> + +<p>“Do you like churches, Ephraim?”</p> + +<p>“Yes. I do now, child. I didn’t care so much about +’em when I lived nigh ’em. But they’re right. There’s +a good many kinds of ’em and they get me a little +mixed, arguing. But they’re right; and the bell<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>It’ll +be a good beginning of this present job to go to +meeting the first thing.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_141'></a>141</span>“Oh! this wonderful world and the wonderful things +I’m learning! What a lot I shall have to tell the folks +when I get home. Seems as if I couldn’t wait.”</p> + +<p>They found the little lodging-house, as Ephraim +had hoped, though now kept by a stranger to him. +However, the new landlord made them comfortable, +charged them an exorbitant price–having caught sight +of his guest’s fat purse–and set them early on their +way. “Forty-niner” did not complain. Their next +and final stop would be with an old fellow-miner who, +at Ephraim’s last visit to Los Angeles, five years before, +had kept a tidy little inn on one of the city’s central +streets. If this old friend were still living he would +give them hearty welcome, the best entertainment possible, +and what was more to the purpose–practical +advice as to their business.</p> + +<p>“The bells! The bells! Oh! they are what you said, +the sweetest things I ever heard!” cried Lady Jess, in +delight, as over the miles of distance there floated to +them on the clear air, the chimes and sonorous tollings +from many church towers.</p> + +<p>“We shall be late, after all, I guess. That means it’s +time for the meetings to begin. Well, there’ll be others +in the afternoon; so we may as good take it easy and go +slow.”</p> + +<p>This suited Jessica, who found more and more to +surprise and interest her in every stage of their advance, +and most of all as they entered the city. This +was much altered and improved since the sharpshooter +had himself last seen it, but even thus he could point +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_142'></a>142</span> +out many of the finest buildings, name the chief avenues, +and comport himself after the manner of one who +knows enlightening one who does not.</p> + +<p>But soon Jessica saw few of the things which interested +him and heard him not at all. It was the first +time she had ever seen a girl of her own age, and now–the streets were full of them. In their gay Sunday +attire, on their homeward way now from the churches +whose bells had long ceased to ring, they were here, +there, and everywhere. They lined the sidewalks and +glittered from the open electric cars. They smiled at +one another and, a few, at her; for to them, also, this +other stranger girl was a novel sight, just then and +there. Besides the oddity of her dress and equipment, +the eagerness and beauty of her face attracted them, +and more than one pair of eyes turned to look after +her, as Scruff scrambled along, unguided by his rider, +and dodging one danger only to face another.</p> + +<p>“That’s a country girl, fast enough; and if she doesn’t +look out that uneasy burro will land her on the +curbstone! Look out there, child!” cried one passerby, +just as the animal bounded across the track of a +whizzing trolley.</p> + +<p>But this peril escaped, Ephraim grasped Scruff’s +bridle and presently led the way into a quieter street +or alley, and thence to the wide plaza before the inn he +sought.</p> + +<p>“Thank fortune, there’s room enough here to turn +around in! And there’s the very house. Hello! Lady +Jess! I say, Jessica!”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_143'></a>143</span>Without warning the girl had whisked the bridle +from his grasp and had chirruped to the now excited +beast in the manner which meant:</p> + +<p>“Go your swiftest!”</p> + +<p>Scruff went. Following he knew not what, and terrified +afresh at every square he traversed. Somewhere +a band of music was playing, and the beating of +the drums seemed to his donkey brain the most horrible +of noises. To escape it and the ever-increasing +throng his nimble feet flew up and down like mad; he +thrust his head between the arms of people and forced +the crowd to part for him; he reared, backed, plunged, +and shook himself; but did not in the least disturb his +mistress’ firm seat, as with her own head leaning forward +she kept her gaze upon some distant object and +urged him to pursuit.</p> + +<p>The crowd which made way for this eager pair was +first angry, then amused. After that it began to collect +into a formidable following. Poor Lady Jess became +to them a “show” and Scruff’s antics but meant to exhibit +her “trick” riding.</p> + +<p>Now Stiffleg was an ancient beast, which had been +a trotter in his day; but his day, like his master’s, was +past. By good care and easy stages he had accomplished +his long journey in fair condition; but he was a sensible +animal and felt that he had earned a rest. So +when Ephraim urged him forward after the vanishing +burro he halted and turned his head about. If ever +equine eyes protested against further effort, his did +then; and at ordinary times “Forty-niner” would have +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_144'></a>144</span> +been the first to perceive this appeal and grant it. He +had always bragged that “Stiffleg’s more human than +most folks,” but he forgot this now. He remembered +only that his precious charge was fast disappearing +from sight and that in another moment she would be +lost in a great, strange city.</p> + +<p>“Simpleton that I was! I never even mentioned the +name of the tavern we were going to,” reflected, “else +she might tell it and get shown the way.” Then came +another startling thought. For fear of just such an +emergency–why had he been silly enough to think of +it?–he had on that very morning, as they neared their +journey’s end, divided their money into two portions +and make her carry the larger one. She had objected, +at first; but afterward consented, and with pride in his +trust. “If any scamp got hold of her he’d rob her or–maybe worse! Oh, Atlantic! Giddap, Stiff! Giddap, +I tell you!”</p> + +<p>To the crowd this appeared but another feature of +“the show.” These rustics from the plains had evidently +come into town to furnish entertainment for +Sunday strollers, and Stiffleg’s obstinacy was to them +a second of the “tricks” to be exhibited.</p> + +<p>However, it was a case of genuine balk; and the +more Ephraim urged, implored, chastised, the firmer +were the horse’s forefeet planted upon the highway +and the more despairing became the rider’s feeling.</p> + +<p>“Build a fire under him,” “Thrust red pepper under +his nose,” “Tie him to a trolley car.” “Blindfold him.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_145'></a>145</span>Various were the suggestions offered, to none of +which did the sharpshooter pay any heed. The brass +band accomplished what nothing else could. Blatantly +it came around the corner, keeping time to its +own noisy drums, and Stiffleg pricked up his ears. In +his youth he had marched to battle and, at that moment, +his youth was renewed. He reared his drooping +head, a thrill ran through his languid veins, and, though +still without advance motion, his hoofs began to beat +a swift tattoo, till the towering plumes of the drum +major came alongside his own now gleaming eyes. +Then, he wheeled suddenly and–forward!</p> + +<p>“Ho! the old war-horse! That’s a pretty sight,” +shouted somebody.</p> + +<p>Alas! for Ephraim. The unexpected movement of +the balking animal did for him what was rare indeed–unseated him. By the time that it was “right front” +for Stiffleg his master was on the ground, feeling that +an untoward fate had overtaken him and that his leg, +if not his heart, was broken. Music had charms, in +truth, for the rejuvenated beast, and one of the sharpshooter’s +pet theories was thereby proved false. Had +anybody at Sobrante told him that anything could +entice his “faithful” horse away from him he +would have denied the statement angrily. He would +have declared, with equal conviction, that, in case of +accident like this, the intelligent creature would have +stayed beside and tried to tend him.</p> + +<p>Now, lying forsaken both by Jessica and Stiffleg, he +uttered his shame and misery in a prolonged howl, as +he attempted to rise and could not.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_146'></a>146</span>“O! Ough! Oh! My leg’s broke! My leg’s broke +all to smash, I tell you. Somebody pick me up and +carry me–yonder–to the Yankee Blade. If Tom +Jefferts keeps it still, he’ll play my friend. Oh! Ah!”</p> + +<p>Some in the now pitying throng exchanged glances, +and one man bent over the prostrate Ephraim, saying, +kindly:</p> + +<p>“Why, Tom Jefferts hasn’t been in this town these +three years. He went to ’Frisco and set up there. If +there’s anybody else you’d like to notify I’ll telephone<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p>“He gone, too! Then let me lie. What do I care +what becomes of me now? Oh! my leg!”</p> + +<p>The bravest men are cowards before physical suffering, +sometimes. Ephraim would have faced death for +Jessica without flinching, but that gathering agony of +pain made him indifferent, for the moment, even to her +welfare. This calamity had fallen upon him like +lightning from a clear sky and benumbed him, so to +speak. But it had not benumbed those about him. +Within five minutes the clang of an ambulance gong +was heard, and the aid which some thoughtful person +had summoned arrived. Ephraim was tenderly lifted +and placed within the conveyance, and away it dashed +again, though almost without jar, and certainly without +hindrance, since everything on the street gives +place to suffering.</p> + +<p>By the time the hospital was reached the patient +had recovered something of his customary fortitude, +but he was still too confused and distressed to think +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_147'></a>147</span> +clearly about his escaped charge and what should be +done to find her. As for Stiffleg:</p> + +<p>“I hope I’ll never see that cowardly, ungrateful +beast again!” he ejaculated; then resigned himself to +the surgeon’s hands.</p> + +<p>That which Lady Jess had perceived in the distance +and had followed so wildly was the tall figure of a gentleman +in a gray suit. He wore a gray hat and blue +glasses, such as her mother had pressed upon Mr. +Hale’s acceptance during his brief stay at Sobrante.</p> + +<p>“It’s he! It certainly is he! Oh! Now I can tell +him how sorry both mother and I were that the ‘boys’ +behaved so rudely. And he’s a lawyer. He’s on the +same business we are, if his is the other side. I must +stop him–quick!”</p> + +<p>This might have been an easy thing to do, under +Scruff’s present rate of speed; but, unfortunately, the +tall man stepped into a hack, waiting beside the plaza +for stray passengers, and giving an order was driven +rapidly away.</p> + +<p>For a long time Jessica kept that carriage in sight; +then it turned a corner into an avenue, where were +hundreds more just like it, it seemed to her, and she +lost it among the many.</p> + +<p>Even yet she pressed on determined. “In a city–it’s +just one city, even if it is a big one–I shall find him +if I keep on. I must. Go, Scruff! The band is after +you. Go! Go!”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_148'></a>148</span>The overtaxed burro had already “gone” to his fullest +ability. He could do no more, although his mistress +whispered “sugar,” “sweet cake” and other tempting +words. His excited pace dropped to the slowest of +walks, his breath came hardly, and finally he leaned +himself against a post and rested. When he had done +so for some moments, Jessica turned him about and +looked backward, expecting to see Ephraim close behind. +But he was nowhere in sight; and in a flash of +horror the girl realized that she was lost.</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_149'></a>149</span><a id='link_15'></a>CHAPTER XV<br /><span class='h2fs'>A NEW FRIEND FOR THE OLD</span></h2> + +<p>“Lost! I’m lost! Right here in this great city full +of folks. It seemed so easy to find Mr. Hale and it +was so hard. There are so many streets–which one +is right? There are so many people–oh! if they’d +stop going by for just one minute, till I could think.”</p> + +<p>The passing crowd that had so interested now terrified +her. Among all the changing faces not one she +knew, not one that more than glanced her way, and was +gone on, indifferent. The memory of a time in her +early childhood when she had strayed into the canyon +and became bewildered flashed through her mind. Was +she to suffer again the misery of that dreadful day? +But the day had ended in a father’s rescuing arms, and +now<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span></p> + +<p>“I remember he told me then that if ever I were +lost again I was to keep perfectly still for a time and +think over all the things I’d seen by the way. After +awhile I might feel sure enough to go slowly back and +guide myself by them. But I can’t think here. It’s so +noisy and thick with men and women. And I’m getting +so hungry. Ephraim said we would have the best +dinner his friend could give us. If he’d told me that +friend’s name or where he lived. Well, I’ll mind my +father in one thing; I’ll keep still. Then if Ephraim +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_150'></a>150</span> +should happen to come this way he’d find me sooner. +But–he won’t. Something has happened, or he’d +never let me out of sight. If I didn’t know the bigness +of a city he did and would have taken care.”</p> + +<p>So she dismounted and led Scruff back beside the +telegraph post, against which the weary animal calmly +leaned his shoulder and went to sleep. Jessica threw +her arm over the burro’s neck and, standing so, scanned +every passing pedestrian and peered into every whirling +vehicle.</p> + +<p>Something of her first terror left her. She was foolish +to think anything harmful could have happened to +“Forty-niner” so quickly after she had run away from +him. She wished she had called and explained to him, +but she had had no time if she would catch up to that +gray-coated gentleman. After all they were still in +the same city and all she needed was patience.</p> + +<p>“That’s what I have so little of, too. Maybe this is +a lesson to me. Mother says impatient people always +find life harder than the quiet kind. I wonder what +she’s doing now! and oh! I’m glad she can’t see me. +She’d suffer more than I do. It’s queer how that man, +in a fancy coat, with so many brass buttons, keeps +looking at me. He’s walked by this place on one side +the street or the other ever so many times. I wonder if +he owns this post. Maybe it’s his and he doesn’t like +us to stand here, yet is too polite to say so. Come, +Scruff, let’s walk a little further along. Then he can +see we don’t mean to hurt his post.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_151'></a>151</span>Scruff reluctantly roused and moved a pace or two, +then went to sleep again. The shadow of a building +that had sheltered them from the hot sunshine passed +gradually and left them exposed to the full glare from +the sky. Both Jessica and the burro were used to heat, +however, and did not greatly suffer from it. But this +motionless waiting became almost intolerable to active +Lady Jess, and the sharpness of her hunger changed +into faintness. The sidewalks seemed to be rising up +to strike her and her head felt queer; so she pulled the +hot Tam from her curls, leaned her cheek against +Scruff’s neck, and, to clear her dizzy vision, closed her +eyes. Then for a long time knew no more.</p> + +<p>A young man sat down to smoke his after-dinner +cigar before the window of a clubhouse across the way. +Idly observant of the comparatively few persons passing +at that hour, his artist eye was caught by the scarlet +gleam of Jessica’s cap, fallen against the curbstone.</p> + +<p>“Hello! That child has been in that spot for two +hours, I think. She was there before I went to dinner +and must be dead tired. But she and the burro are +picturesque–I’ll sketch them.”</p> + +<p>He whipped out notebook and pencil and by a few +skillful lines reproduced the pair opposite. But as +he glanced toward them, now and then, during this operation, +he became convinced that something was amiss +with his subject.</p> + +<p>“Poor little thing! If she’s waiting for anybody +she keeps the baby too long. I’m going over and speak +to her. If she’s hungry I’ll send her a sandwich.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_152'></a>152</span>At his touch on her shoulder Jessica roused. Her +sleep had refreshed her, though she was still somewhat +confused.</p> + +<p>“Oh! Ephraim! How long you’ve been! Why–it +isn’t Ephraim!”</p> + +<p>“No, little girl, I’m not Ephraim, but I’m a friend. +I’m afraid you will be ill standing so long in the hot +sun. Are you waiting for anybody?”</p> + +<p>The voice was kind and Jessica was glad to speak to +any one. She told her story at once in a few words. +The young man’s face grew grave as he listened, still +he spoke encouragingly.</p> + +<p>“It’s quite easy for strangers in a big place to get +separated. Suppose, since you haven’t had your dinner, +as I guess, that you go with me and have some. +Wait, I’ll just speak to that policeman, yonder, and ask +him to have a lookout for your Ephraim, while we’re +in the restaurant. There’s a good place halfway down +the block, and from its window you can watch the +burro for yourself. I’ll tie him, shan’t I?”</p> + +<p>“He’s very tired. I don’t think he’ll need any tying. +He’s never tied at Sobrante.”</p> + +<p>“Sobrante? Are you from Sobrante? Why, I’ve +heard of that ranch, myself.”</p> + +<p>“Have you? That makes it seem as if I knew you.”</p> + +<p>The stranger smiled and beckoned to the policeman, +who proved to be the brass-buttoned individual that +had taken so much apparent interest in Jessica, but had +not spoken to her of his own accord. He came forward +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_153'></a>153</span> +promptly now and the young man related to him +what Lady Jess had said. Then asked:</p> + +<p>“What would I better do about it? I thought of +taking her to the restaurant over there and getting her +some dinner.”</p> + +<p>“No. She’d better go to the station-house with me. +The matron’ll look after her and I’ll have the donkey +put in stable. I’ll tell the officer who’s coming on this +beat now to keep an eye out for a countryman with a +stiff-legged horse; is it, girl?”</p> + +<p>“Yes. A bay horse, with a blazed face. The horse’s +name is Stiffleg and the master’s, Ephraim Marsh.”</p> + +<p>The officer made the entry in his book, then took +hold of Scruff’s bridle and led the way stationward. +Jessica looked appealingly into the young man’s face +and he smiled, then grasped her hand.</p> + +<p>“Don’t fear, child, that I’ll desert you till I find your +old guardian. There’s nothing frightful about a station-house, +except to criminals,” he said, kindly.</p> + +<p>However, Jessica knew nothing of such institutions +and therefore had no fear of them. With the exception +of Antonio’s “crossness” she had met with nothing +but love and kindness all her life, and she looked for +nothing else. She was already happy again at finding +two persons ready to talk with her and help her; and +her pretty face grew more and more charming to the +artist’s view as she skipped along beside him toward +the police headquarters, as this station chanced to be.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_154'></a>154</span>“You see, little girl, that when a child is lost in a +city the first thing the friends think of is–the station-house. +All stray persons are taken and messages are +sent to it from every part of the town all the time. +That Ephraim will remember that, if he’s ever been +here before, and he’ll be finding you long before night. +Till then you’ll be safe and cared for.”</p> + +<p>Jessica did feel a moment’s hesitation when she had +to part with Scruff, but soon laughed at her own dismay.</p> + +<p>“I felt as I must take him inside this building with +me, for fear he’d be lonesome, too. But, of course, I +know better. Why, what a nice, big place this is!”</p> + +<p>By far the largest building she had ever entered, but +her new acquaintances smiled at her delight over it.</p> + +<p>“Not all who come here think it so fine,” said the +young man. “Eh, officer?”</p> + +<p>“No, no. No, indeed, sir. Now, this way, please. +I’ll just enter the case at the desk and call up the +matron. She’ll tend to the girl all right. You needn’t +bother any more.”</p> + +<p>“Oh! are you going?” asked Jessica, her face drooping.</p> + +<p>“Not yet. No law against my having a meal with +this young lady, is there, officer?”</p> + +<p>“If it isn’t at the public charge, sir,” answered the +policeman.</p> + +<p>“Oh! I’ve money to pay for my own dinner. See?” +cried Lady Jess, producing the fat wallet Ephraim had +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_155'></a>155</span> +given her and which she pulled from within her blouse, +where she had worn it, suspended by a string.</p> + +<p>“Whew! child! All that? Put it up, quick. Put it +up, I say.”</p> + +<p>Instinctively she obeyed and hid the purse again, but +her face expressed her surprise, and the young man answered +its unspoken question.</p> + +<p>“Very few little girls of your age ever have so much +money as that about them. None ever should have. +It’s too great a temptation to evil-minded persons, and +a good many of that sort come here. Ah! the matron! +I’ll ask her to show us into some less public place and +I’ll order a dinner from that restaurant nearby.”</p> + +<p>In response to his request the motherly woman in +charge of the women’s quarters offered him her own +little sitting-room; “if they’ll say yes to it in the office,” +she added, as a condition.</p> + +<p>This was soon arranged, the dinner followed and +a very hungry Jessica sat down to enjoy it. Her companion +also pretended to eat, but encouraged her to +talk and found himself interested in her every moment. +He, also, promptly told her who he was; a reporter +and occasional artist, on one of the leading daily papers. +A man always on the lookout for “material,” and as +such he meant to use the sketch, he had made. He +showed her the sketch, and explained that he +would put an item in the next issue of his paper which +might meet the eye of the missing sharpshooter and notify +that person where to find her, if he had not done +so before.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_156'></a>156</span>Jessica did not know that it was an unwise thing to +make a confidant of a stranger, but in this instance +she was safe enough; and it pleased her to tell, as +him to listen to, the whole history of Sobrante; its fortunes +and misfortunes, and the object of her present +visit to this far-off town.</p> + +<p>His business instinct was aroused. He realized +that here might be “material,” indeed. He was young +and sincere enough to be enthusiastic. Times were a +little dull. There was quite a lull in murders and robberies; +this story suggested either a robbery or swindle +of some sort, and on a big scale. His paper would appreciate +his getting a “scoop” on its contemporaries, +and, in a word, he resolved to make Jessica Trent’s +cause his own, for the time being.</p> + +<p>“Look here, child, don’t you worry. You stay right +quiet in this place with Matron Wood. I’ll get out and +hustle. Here’s my card, Ninian Sharp, of <i>The Lancet</i>. +That’s a paper has cut a good many knots and shall +cut yours. I’ve heard of Cassius Trent. Everybody +has, in California. I’ll find that Lawyer Hale. I’ll +find old ‘Forty-niner’ and I’ll be back in this room before +bedtime. Now, go play with the rest of the lost +children–you’re by no means the only one in Los Angeles +to-day. Or take a nap would be wiser. Look +out for her, Matron Wood. Any good turn done this +little maid is done <i>The Lancet</i>. Good-by, for a time.”</p> + +<p>Smiling, alert, he departed and Jessica felt as if he +had taken all her anxieties with him. She followed +the matron into the big room where the other estrays, +whom Mr. Sharp had told her she would find, waiting +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_157'></a>157</span> +to be claimed by their friends, but none was as large +as she. Some were so little she wondered how they +ever could have wandered anywhere away from home; +but she loved all children and these reminded her of +Ned and Luis.</p> + +<p>Promptly she had them all about her, and for the rest +of that day, at least, Matron Wood’s cares were lightened. +Yet one after another, some person called to +claim this or that wanderer, with cries of rapture or +harsh words of reproof, as the case might be. Jessica +kissed each little one good-by, but with each departure +felt herself growing more homesick and depressed. By +sunset she was the only child left in the matron’s care, +and her loneliness so overcame her that she had trouble +to keep back her tears.</p> + +<p>“But I’ll not cry. I will not be so babyish. Besides +crying wouldn’t help bad matters and I’ve come +away from Sobrante on a big mission. Even that +jolly Mr. Sharp said, ‘That's a considerable of a job,’ +when I told him. He was funny. Always laughing +and so quick, I wish he’d come soon. It seems to +take as long for him to find Ephraim as it would me. I +should think anybody could have walked the whole +city over by this time,” she thought, in her ignorance +of distances. Then she asked:</p> + +<p>“When do you think they’ll come, Matron Wood?”</p> + +<p>The good woman waked from a “cat-nap” and was +tired enough to be impatient.</p> + +<p>“Oh! don’t bother. If they’re not here by nine +o’clock you’ll have to go to bed. You should be thankful +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_158'></a>158</span> +that there is such a place as this for just such folks +as you. Like as not he’ll never come. You can’t tell anything +about them newspaper men. But you listen to +that bell, will you? I don’t see what makes me so +sleepy. If it rings, wake me up.”</p> + +<p>The minutes sped on. In the now silent room the +portly matron slumbered peacefully and Jessica tried, +though vainly, to keep a faithful watch. She did not +know that her weary companion was breaking rules +and laying herself open to disgrace; but she was herself +very tired, so, presently, her head dropped on the +table and she was also asleep.</p> + +<p>Ninian Sharp found the pair thus, and jested with +the matron when he waked her in a way that sounded +very much like earnest. “He would have her removed,” +and so on; thereby frightening Jessica, who had been +roused by their voices, and looked from one to the +other in keen distress.</p> + +<p>“I did–I did try to listen for the bell, but it was so +still and I couldn’t help it. I’m sorry<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p>“Pooh! child. No more could I. It’ll be all right if +this gentleman knows enough to hold his tongue,” said +the woman, anxiously.</p> + +<p>“I shouldn’t be a gentleman if I didn’t–where a +lady is concerned. And I judge from appearances it’s +about time Miss Jessica went to bed.”</p> + +<p>The girl’s heart sank. This meant disappointment. +She understood that without further words, and turned +away her face to hide the tears which would come now, +in spite of all her will.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_159'></a>159</span>Then the reporter’s hand was on her curls.</p> + +<p>“Keep up your courage, child. I’ve been hustling, +as I said I would. I’ve found out a lot. I’ve had boys +searching the hotel records all over town and I know in +which one your Mr. Hale is staying. He’ll keep–till +we need him.”</p> + +<p>“But Ephraim? Have you heard nothing of him?”</p> + +<p>“I heard a funny yarn about a horse with a stiff leg; +that the moment the sound of a drum was in his ears +cooly tossed his aged rider into the gutter and marched +off with the brass band, head up, eyes flashing, tail +switching, a soldier with the best of them. See–it’s +here in this evening’s <i>Gossip.</i>”</p> + +<p>He held the sheet toward her and Jessica read the +humorous account of Stiffleg’s desertion. But there +was no account of what had further befallen Ephraim, +and it seemed but a poor excuse for his non-appearance.</p> + +<p>She tossed the paper aside, impatiently:</p> + +<p>“But he had his own two good feet left. He could +have followed me on them? I–I–he was always so +faithful before.”</p> + +<p>Mr. Sharp’s face sobered.</p> + +<p>“He is faithful still, but his feet will serve him +poorly for the next few weeks. Maybe months. Old +bones are slow to heal, and the surgeon says it is a +compound fracture. When he fell into the gutter, as my +co-laborer so gayly puts it, he ‘broke himself all to +smash.’ He’s in hospital. As a great favor from the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_160'></a>160</span> +authorities in charge I’ve seen him. I’ve told him about +you. I’ve promised to befriend you and I’ll take you +to see him in the morning. I’m sorry that your first +night in our angelic city must be passed in a station-house, +but I reckon it’s the safest till I can think of +some fitter shelter. Good-night. My mother used to +say that the Lord never shut one door but He opened +another. Ephraim laid up–here am I. Count on me. +Good-night.”</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_161'></a>161</span><a id='link_16'></a>CHAPTER XVI<br /><span class='h2fs'>A HOSPITAL REUNION</span></h2> + +<p>When Ninian Sharp sat down to smoke a cigar at the +window of his club it was with no idea that he was then +and there to begin a bit of detective work which +should make him famous. For, though this is anticipating, +that was the reward which the future held +for him because of his yielding to a kindly impulse.</p> + +<p>Through him, the helplessness of a little girl won for +an almost hopeless cause the aid of a great newspaper, +than which there is no influence more potent. It took +but one hearing of Jessica’s story to rouse his interest +and to convince him that here was a “good thing if it +could be well worked up.” It promised a “sensation” +that would result in benefit to his paper, to himself, and–for his credit be it said–to the family of the dead +philanthropist.</p> + +<p>After he had bidden Lady Jess good-night, the reporter +called at the hotel where Morris Hale was registered +and held an interview with that gentleman. The +result of this was pleasing to both men. They had one +common object: the recovery of the missing money +which had been entrusted to Cassius Trent. Mr. Hale +wished this for the sake of his New York patrons, but +now hoped, as did Ninian Sharp, that if it were accomplished +it would also clear the memory of Jessica’s father +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_162'></a>162</span> +from the stain resting upon it. For the present, +they decided to join forces, so to speak. By agreement, +they went together to the station-house on the +following morning, and found Lady Jess looking out +of a window with a rather dreary interest in the scene. +But she instantly caught sight of them and darted to +the doorway to meet them, holding out both hands toward +the lawyer and entreating:</p> + +<p>“Oh! I beg your pardon for the ‘boys’! And for +us that we should ever have let it happen to any guest +of Sobrante. Can you forgive it?”</p> + +<p>The reporter looked curious and Mr. Hale’s face +flushed at the painful memory her words had revived. +But he did not explain and passed the matter over, +saying:</p> + +<p>“Don’t mention it, my child. Odd, isn’t it? To +think you should follow me so quickly all this long way. +Well, you deserve success and I’m going to help you +to it, if I can. So is this new friend you’ve made. Now, +are you ready to see poor ‘Forty-niner’? If so, get +your cap, bid the matron good-by, and we’ll be off.”</p> + +<p>Jessica obeyed, quickly; taking leave of Mrs. Wood +with warm expressions of gratitude for her “nice bed +and breakfast,” assuring that rather skeptical person +that these men “were certainly all right, because one +of them had been at her own dear home and her +mother had recognized him for a gentleman. The +other–why, the other wrote for a newspaper. Even +drew pictures for it! Think of that!”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_163'></a>163</span>“Humph! A man might do worse. But, never mind. +This is the place to come to if you get into any more +trouble. There’s the street and number it is, and here’s +my name on a piece of paper. Now, it’s to be put in +the book about your going, who takes you, and where. +After that–after that I suppose there’s nothing more.”</p> + +<p>Ninian Sharp watched this little by-play with much +interest, and remarked to the lawyer:</p> + +<p>“That child has a charm for all she meets. Even +this old police matron, whose heart ought to be as +tough as shoeleather, looks doleful at parting with her. +I think her the most winning little creature I ever +met.”</p> + +<p>“You should see her with her ‘boys,’ as she calls the +workmen at Sobrante. They idolize her and obey her +blindly. Sometimes, their devotion going further than +obedience,” he added, with a return of annoyance in +his expression.</p> + +<p>As she stepped into the street, Jessica clasped a hand +of each, with joyful confidence, and they smiled at one +another over her head, leading her to the next corner +where they hailed a car and the reporter bade her jump +aboard.</p> + +<p>“Am I to ride in that? Oh, delightful!”</p> + +<p>“Delightful” now seemed everything about her. +Friends were close at hand and a few minutes would +bring her to Ephraim. That he was injured and helpless +she knew, yet could not realize; while she could +and did realize to the full all the novelty about her. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_164'></a>164</span> +The swift motion of the electric car, the gay and busy +streets, the palm-bordered avenues they crossed, the +ever-changing scenes of the city, each richer and more +wonderful than the other, in her inexperienced eyes. +She would have liked to ask many questions, but her +companions were now conversing in low tones and she +would not interrupt. Soon, however, she saw Mr. +Sharp make a slight gesture with his hand and the car +stopped. “Our street,” he said, rising.</p> + +<p>A brief walk afterward brought them to a big building, +standing somewhat back from the avenue, with a +green lawn and many trees about it. Above the several +gateways of its iron fence were signs, indicating: +“Accident Ward,” “Convalescent’s Ward,” “General +Hospital,” “Nurses’ Home,” “Dispensary,” etc., all of +which confused and somewhat startled the country-reared +girl. The more, it may be, as, at that moment, +the gong of an ambulance warned them to step off the +crossing before the “accident” alley beside the main +building, and the big van dashed toward an open door.</p> + +<p>Jessica gripped Mr. Hale’s hand, nervously, and +watched in a sort of fascination while white-garbed +attendants lifted an injured man from the ambulance +and carried him tenderly into the hospital.</p> + +<p>“Is–is he hurt?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, dear, I suppose so.”</p> + +<p>“Was it like that they brought Ephraim here?”</p> + +<p>“Probably.”</p> + +<p>“Oh! how dreadful! My poor, poor ‘Forty-niner.’”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_165'></a>165</span>“Rather, how merciful. But come; such a brave little +woman as you mustn’t show the white feather at +the mere sight of a hospital van. Ephraim has been +well cared for, be sure; and as he has been told to expect +you he’ll be disappointed if you bring him a +scared, unhappy face.”</p> + +<p>“Then I’ll–I’ll smile,” she answered, promptly, +thought the effort was something of a failure.</p> + +<p>Soon they entered the building, whose big halls +were so silent in contrast with the street outside, and +where the white-clad doctors and nurses seemed to +Jessica like “ghosts” as they moved softly here and +there. Again she clinched the lawyer’s hand and whispered:</p> + +<p>“It’s awful. It smells queer. I’m afraid. Aren’t +you?”</p> + +<p>“Not in the least. I like it. I’ve been a patient in +just such places more than once and think of them as +the most blessed institutions in the world. The odor +of chemicals and disinfectants is noticeable at first, +but one soon gets accustomed to it and likes it. At any +rate I do. But, see, we’re falling behind. Mr. Sharp +evidently knows his way well and we must hurry if +we’d keep him in sight.”</p> + +<p>Indeed, the reporter was just disappearing around a +turn of the broad staircase leading up into a sun-lighted +corridor. He was quick and decided in all his movements, +and had paused but for one instant to speak +with an attendant at the door before he took his +direct way to Ephraim’s room.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_166'></a>166</span>“Why, I supposed he was in the general ward” said +Mr. Hale, as he joined Ninian, who had to stop and +wait for his more leisurely advance.</p> + +<p>“He was, but he couldn’t stand it. So I had him put +into a private room and he’s much better satisfied. He +has money enough to pay for it and if he hadn’t–well, +it was just pitiful to see the old man’s own distress +at sight of the distress of others all about him. +I’d have had to do it, even if it had taken my bottom +dollar.”</p> + +<p>“True to your class! I’ve always heard that newspaper +men were the most generous in the world, and +now I believe it. Well, count me in, on this transaction. +But when were you here?”</p> + +<p>“Last night and–early this morning.”</p> + +<p>“Whew! If you put such energy as that into the +rest of the business you’ll make a speedy finish of it!”</p> + +<p>“That’s my intention. Well, child, here we are. Put +your best foot forward and cheer up that forlorn old +chap.”</p> + +<p>Jessica had paused to look down a great ward, opening +upon that corridor, and was staring, spellbound, +at the rows upon rows of white beds, each with its occupant, +and at the white-capped nurses bending over this +or that sufferer. The wide, uncurtained windows, all +open to the soft morning air, the snowy walls, the +cleanliness and repose impressed her.</p> + +<p>“Why–it’s nice! I thought it would be dreadful; +and where is Ephraim? Can I go in? How shall I find +him among so many?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_167'></a>167</span>“Don’t you understand? This way, I said, Lady +Jess. The sharpshooter wants to see his captain.”</p> + +<p>She turned swiftly at that, and the smile he had +hoped to rouse was on her face as she caught the reporter’s +hand.</p> + +<p>“Why–how did you know <i>that?</i> Who told you I +was Lady Jess, or captain?”</p> + +<p>“Who but ‘Forty-niner’ himself? Here he is,” and +he gently forced her through an open doorway into +a little room, which seemed a miniature of the great +ward beyond. There was the same white spotlessness, +another kind-faced nurse, and another prostrate patient.</p> + +<p>“Ephraim! Ephraim! You poor, dear, precious darling!”</p> + +<p>She was beside him, her arms about his neck, her +tears and kisses raining on his wrinkled face–a face +that a moment before had been full of sadness and impatience, +but was now brimming with delight.</p> + +<p>“Little Lady! Little captain! I’m a pretty sort +of a guardeen, I am! But, thank God, I’m not the +only man in the world, and you’ve found them that can +help you more than I could, with all my smartness. Did +you hear about that turn-tail, Stiffleg? Wasn’t that +enough to make a man disgusted with horseflesh forever +after? Ugh! I wish I had him, I’d larrup him +crossing before the ‘accident’ alley beside the main +well! And to think you, Cassius Trent’s daughter, +spent your first night in town at a station-house! Child, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_168'></a>168</span> +I’ll never dare to go home and face the ‘boys’ again, +after that. Never.”</p> + +<p>“Don’t talk too much, sir,” cautioned the nurse, +offering her patient a spoonful of some nourishment.</p> + +<p>“No, Ephraim, I’ll talk. Oh! what wouldn’t Aunt +Sally give to be here now! To think she’s lost such +a chance for dosing you!”</p> + +<p>“Forty-niner” laughed and the laughter did him +good; though he soon explained: “They say I’ll have +to lie here for nobody knows how long, without moving, +scarcely. That pesky old leg of mine did the job +up thorough, while it was at it. Thought it might +as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb, I s’pose. Well, it +was the luckiest thing ever happened–you getting lost +and me getting hurt. That’s the only way to look at it. +But–Atlantic! How’m I ever going to stand it? +Having other folks do for you and I, that’d give my +right hand to help you–useless.”</p> + +<p>“Easily, Ephraim. If it’s a good thing, as you say, +why then it can’t be a bad one. Here’s your money. +You must use it to pay for anything you want. Or +give it all to Mr. Hale about the business. You know.”</p> + +<p>“Money! I don’t want that. All I had they took +away from me. Put it in the hospital safe till I’m +ready to go out. But you can’t live in a city without +hard cash in every pocket. Oh! dear! I don’t see +what is to be done! One minute it all is clear and I +think what I said about my accident being lucky for +you; the next–I can’t stand it. What is to become of +you, little captain?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_169'></a>169</span>“I’m going to stay right here with you.”</p> + +<p>“You are? You will?” demanded the patient, +eagerly. “You wouldn’t be afraid? But, maybe, you +wouldn’t be allowed. Hospitals are for sick folks and +old fools that don’t know enough to sit a horse steady. +They’re not for a happy little girl, who can make new +friends for herself anywhere. No. I guess, maybe, +that Mr. Hale’ll find you a place, or get you on the cars +to go home again. Oh! child, I wish you were safe +back at Sobrante this minute!”</p> + +<p>“And our work not done? Foolish ‘boy!’ As if I’d +leave you alone, either, when you’re ill and–and Aunt +Sally so far away.”</p> + +<p>Ephraim groaned and Jessica looked toward the reporter, +who was talking earnestly with the nurse, just +outside in the corridor. She heard him say:</p> + +<p>“If it could be arranged it would be a solution of the +whole difficulty. Her board would be assured, and at +the first opportunity she shall be sent to her home. For +the present<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p>She felt it no shame to listen intently. She knew +that they were discussing herself and what was to be +done with her. On that subject she had already made +up her own mind; so she slipped her hand from Ephraim’s +and stepped to Mr. Sharp’s side.</p> + +<p>“I want to say right here in this hospital. I will not +make anybody a bit of trouble. I will mind everything +I am told. I’ll not talk or laugh or anything I +should not. I’ll help take care of Ephraim and there’s +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_170'></a>170</span> +nobody who knows him here but me. He’s the best man +there can be, and he’s old, though he doesn’t look it. +Please let me stay. Anyway until all the money is +spent. There’s enough for a while, I think. Please.”</p> + +<p>In answer to the reporter’s look, rather than Jessica’s +words, the nurse replied:</p> + +<p>“Yes, we do often have friends of the patients here. +If there happen to be rooms empty and so to spare. +But a child–we never had a child-boarder before. +I’ll consult the head nurse and let you know at once. +Or, better why not go and see her for yourself?”</p> + +<p>“I’d much prefer,” said Ninian, who had more faith +in his own persuasive powers than in hers. “And I’ll +take Jessica with me.”</p> + +<p>The result was that the little girl was allowed to +“remain for the present,” and was assigned a room +very near Ephraim’s. Upon her good behavior, as +viewed from a hospital standpoint, depended the continuance +of her stay.</p> + +<p>“She can have her clothes sent here, but only what +are necessary,” added the lady, as she dismissed them.</p> + +<p>“My clothes! Why–I don’t know where they are.”</p> + +<p>“Whew! What do you mean? I–I never thought +about clothes,” said Ninian Sharp.</p> + +<p>“Nor I, before, since I came. I had only a change of +underwear and another flannel frock. Ephraim was +to buy me more if I needed, though mother thought I +should not. But what I did have were in the saddlebags +on Stiffleg’s back.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_171'></a>171</span>“And he marched off to glory with them, the old +soldier, eh? Well, that’s soon remedied. There are +lots of stores in Los Angeles and lots of girls your +size. I’ll get a nurse to fix you out, when she can, and +now, back to Ephraim and good-by.”</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_172'></a>172</span><a id='link_17'></a>CHAPTER XVII<br /><span class='h2fs'>THE FINDING OF ANTONIO</span></h2> + +<p>For Jessica Trent there followed weeks of a quieter +life than she had lived even at isolated Sobrante. “The +behavior,” which was to be a test of her stay, proved +so pleasing to the hospital residents that some of them +wondered how they had ever gotten along without +her helpful, happy presence.</p> + +<p>Very quickly she lost her first vague fear of the +place and learned to hear in the once alarming ambulance +gong the signal of relief to somebody. She modulated +her voice to the prevailing quietude of the +house and her footfalls were as light as the nurses +themselves. To many a sufferer, coming there in dread +and foreboding, the sight of a child familiar and happy +about the great building brought a feeling of comfort +and homelikeness which nothing else could have given. +She was so apt and imitative that Ephraim often declared:</p> + +<p>“All you need, Lady Jess, is a cap and apron to make +you a regular professional. Take care of me better’n +any of ’em, you do; and I’ll be a prime experience for +you, that’s a fact. Another of the good things come +out of my fool riding, I s’pose. You’ll be able to nurse +the whole parcel of us, when you get back to Sobrante. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_173'></a>173</span> +Beat Aunt Sally all hollow, ’cause you trust a bit to +nature and not all to–picra.”</p> + +<p>“But you’re not ill, Ephraim Marsh. You’re just +broken. So you don’t need medicine. All you need +is patience. And your nourishments, regular.”</p> + +<p>“I get them all right; but–<i>patience!</i> Atlantic!”</p> + +<p>The old man sighed. It was weary work for him, +the hardest he had ever done, to lie so motionless while +he was so anxious to be active. He really suffered +little and he had the best of care. Still, he sighed again, +and, unfortunately, Jessica echoed the sigh. Then he +looked at her keenly and spoke the thought which had +been in his mind for a long time:</p> + +<p>“Captain, you must go home. There’s twenty to +need bossing there and only one poor old carcass here.”</p> + +<p>Poor Lady Jess! She tried to answer brightly +as was her habit, but that day homesickness was strong +upon her, and at mention of Sobrante her courage +failed. She forgot that she was a “nurse”; forgot +the good “behavior,” forgot everything, indeed, but +her mother’s face and Ned’s mischievous affection. She +dropped to her knees and buried her face in the old +man’s pillow while she sobbed aloud:</p> + +<p>“Oh, ‘Forty-niner,’ shall we ever see that home +again?”</p> + +<p>Weak and unstrung, the patient moaned in sympathy, +while tears fell from his own eyes; and it was +upon this dismal tableau that Mr. Hale walked in, +unannounced.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_174'></a>174</span>“Hurrah, here! What’s amiss? Been quarreling? +Just when I’ve come to bring you good news, too.”</p> + +<p>“Quarreling, indeed! Ephraim and I could never +quarrel. Never. But–but–this isn’t Sobrante, and +we’re–I guess we’re awful homesick.”</p> + +<p>“That’s a disease can be cured, you know. One of +you, at least, can go home. If you wish, Jessica, I +will put you on a train and arrange for one of your +‘boys’ to meet you at the railway terminus. But<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p>“Hello, everybody!” called a cheery voice, and there +in the doorway was Ninian Sharp, smiling, nodding, +and embracing all three with one inspiring look. +“What’s that I overheard about ‘home’? Been telling +state secrets, Hale? My plan beats yours, altogether. +We’re all going ‘home’ to Sobrante, in a bunch, one of +these fine days. <i>The Lancet</i> never fails!”</p> + +<p>Jessica sprang to him and caught his hand to kiss it. +He had not been to see them for some days and she +had missed him sadly. Far more than Mr. Hale he +made her feel that the mystery surrounding “that +missing New York money,” as she called it, would certainly +be explained. It was he who, by questions innumerable, +had recalled to her and to Ephraim the +names of persons with whom Mr. Trent had ever done +business. Incidents which to her seemed trifling had +been of moment in his judgment. With the slight +clews they had given him, as the first link in the chain, +he had gone on unraveling the knots which followed +with infinite patience and perseverance. He kept Mrs. +Trent informed of the welfare of her daughter, and, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_175'></a>175</span> +without neglecting his legitimate business, did the thousand +and one things which only the busiest of persons +can have time to do. For it’s always the indolent who +are overcrowded.</p> + +<p>“Oh! Mr. Sharp! Have you found it all out?”</p> + +<p>“Not I. Hale, here, has found out some things, +himself. But he’s a lawyer, which means, a–beg pardon–a +snail. If newspapers were as slow as the law–h-m-m–we +might all take a nap. Look here, Miss +Sunshine, you’ve been crying.”</p> + +<p>Jessica blushed as guiltily as if she had been accused +of some crime.</p> + +<p>“I know it. I’m sorry.”</p> + +<p>“So am I. I know why. Because you’re shut up +here like a dormouse when you’ve lived like a lark. +On with your little red Tam and come with me. Our +work is getting on famously, famously. If I could +get hold of one person that I’ve hunted this and every +other city near for I’d have the matter in a nut shell +and the guilty man in–a prison. I’ve found–three +or four more of those links I mentioned, Hale, and +every man of them is another witness to the uprightness +of one, Cassius Trent, late of Sobrante. I began +this job for little Jess, but I confess I’m finishing it +for the sake of a man I never saw. He was a trump, +that fellow. One of the great-hearted, impracticable +creatures that keep my faith in humanity. If we could +only find that Antonio!”</p> + +<p>“Yes. <i>If!</i> But when he rode away from Sobrante +that day he seems to have ridden out of the world, so +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_176'></a>176</span> +far as any trace he left behind. I’m getting discouraged, +for without him all the rest falls to the ground.”</p> + +<p>“Well, discouraged? We’ll just step out and find +him, won’t we, Lady Jess?”</p> + +<p>She had hastened to ask permission to go out with +her friend and had come back radiant, now, at prospect +even of so brief an outing. It was quite as the reporter +had judged; the close confinement of the hospital, +after the out-of-door life at Sobrante, was half the +cause of Jessica’s depression, and she was ready now +to fall in with the gay mood of Ninian Sharp and answered, +promptly:</p> + +<p>“Oh, yes. We’ll find ‘him,’ since you wish it. But +I don’t happen to know which ‘him’ you want?”</p> + +<p>“Why, our fine Senor Bernal. Who else?”</p> + +<p>“Then let us go to the old Spanish quarter.”</p> + +<p>“I’ve been, many times. Sent others also. No. He’s +a wise chap and if he is in this town frequents no +haunt where he’ll be looked for so surely. No matter. +It’s a picturesque corner of the town and maybe a +sight of some old adobes would do your homesick eyes +good.”</p> + +<p>“Or harm,” suggested Mr. Hale.</p> + +<p>But they did not stop to hear his objections and were +speedily on the car which would take them nearest to +the district Jessica had heard of, both from Antonio at +home and now from others here. A relic of the old +California, whose history she loved to hear from the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_177'></a>177</span> +lips of Pedro, Fra Mateo, or even “Forty-niner” himself.</p> + +<p>But once arrived there she was disappointed. They +were old adobes, true enough, and the people who lived +in them had the same dark, Spanish cast of face which +she remembered of Antonio. Yet there the resemblance +ended. This was the home of squalor, of poverty that +was not self-respecting enough to be clean, and of an +indolence which had brought about a wretched state of +affairs.</p> + +<p>“Oh! is this it? But it can’t be. Antonio’s ‘quarter’ +was a splendid place. The old grandees lived there, +keeping up a sort of court and all the customs of a +hundred years ago. It was ‘a picture, a romance, a +dream,’ he said. Of an evening he would describe it all +to us at home till I felt as if it were the one spot in +the world I most wished to see. But–<i>this!</i>”</p> + +<p>“Turn not up your pretty nose, for ‘<i>this</i>,’ my dear +little unenlightened maiden, is also a dream–a nightmare. +Nevertheless, the very ground your lost hero +boasted and embellished with his fancy. The more I +hear of this versatile Antonio the greater becomes my +longing to behold him. In any case, since we’re here, +we must not go away without entering some of these +shops. You shall buy a trinket or two and present one +of them as a keepsake to this fine senor, when you find +him. Oh! that I had your familiar knowledge of his +features, this absent ‘grandee,’ that if by accident I met +him I might know him on the instant. See. This +‘bazaar’ is somewhat tidier than its neighbors, as well +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_178'></a>178</span> +as larger, and there are some really beautiful Navajo +blankets in the window. Unfortunately the pocketbook +of a reporter isn’t quite equal to more than a dozen of +these, at fifty dollars apiece. Something more modest, +Lady Jess, and I’ll oblige you!”</p> + +<p>She looked up to protest and saw that he was teasing, +and exclaimed, with an air of mock injury:</p> + +<p>“Those or nothing! But when shall I learn to understand +your jest from earnest?”</p> + +<p>“When you produce me your Antonio!”</p> + +<p>“Upon the instant, then,” she retorted, gayly.</p> + +<p>Upon the instant, indeed, there were hurrying footsteps +behind them, the sound of some one breathing +rapidly and of angrily muttered sentences, that were a +jumble of Spanish and English, and in a voice which +made Jessica Trent start and turn aside, clutching her +companion’s hand.</p> + +<p>He turned, also, throwing his arm about her shoulders, +lest the rush of the man approaching should force +her from the narrow sidewalk. But she darted from +him, straight into the path of this wild-looking person +and seized him with both hands, while she cried out:</p> + +<p>“It’s he! It is Antonio! I’ve found him–Antonio +Bernal!”</p> + +<p>“Whew! A case of the ‘unexpected,’ indeed! The +merest jest and the absolute fact. Hi! I’d rather this +than–than be struck by lightning, and it’s on about +the same order of things, for it is he, as she claimed. +He’s more staggered than I am,” considered this lively +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_179'></a>179</span> +newspaper man. Then he thought it time to step forward, +and remark:</p> + +<p>“Please present me to your friend, Miss Trent,” +and lifted his hat, courteously.</p> + +<p>Antonio bowed, after his own exaggerated fashion, +and with his hand upon his heart; but though his eyes +rested keenly on Ninian’s face he kept tight hold of +Jessica’s hand and his torrent of words did not cease +for an instant. Now and then he lifted the little hand +and kissed it, whereupon Lady Jess would snatch it +away and coolly wipe it on her skirt, only to have it +recaptured and caressed; till, seeing he would neither +give over the hateful action nor stop talking, she folded +her arms behind her and interrupted with:</p> + +<p>“That’s enough, Senor Bernal. This isn’t Sobrante, +but I’m your captain here, same as there. You come +tell your story to Mr. Hale and this gentleman. See +Ephraim Marsh, too. He’s here in hospital with a +broken leg. I’m in Los Angeles, also, as you see; and +likely to find the same man you say has cheated you. +That’s what he’s telling, Mr. Sharp,” she exclaimed.</p> + +<p>Antonio hesitated. He had frowned at her tone of +command, but now, to the reporter’s amazement, +seemed eager to obey it.</p> + +<p>“As the senorita will. That gentleman, who came +last to Sobrante, was one lawyer, no? So the senora +said. Fool! fool! that I was that I did not then and at +that moment so disclose the secrets of my heart as was +moved, yes. Let the senorita and the handsome friend +lead on. I follow. I, Antonio.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_180'></a>180</span>Five minutes earlier, had Ninian Sharp been asked +what he should do if he did find this strange person, +he would have promptly answered:</p> + +<p>“Put him under lock and key, where he can do no +harm and be handy to get at.”</p> + +<p>Now he found himself as certain that the fellow +needed no restraint of the law, at present. That he +was dreadfully unhappy and had become as humble as +he had before been arrogant. What could so have +altered him? And was it thus that the Lady Jess had +all her “boys” in leading strings?</p> + +<p>“I must look out for myself or I’ll fall under a like +spell,” he laughed, as with the air of one who knows +it all, though she had been over that way but once, +Jessica explained to her late manager:</p> + +<p>“This car will take us straight back to the hospital. +We’ve not been away long and I think Mr. Hale will +still be there. He’ll be glad to see you. <i>Very glad.</i> He +and Mr. Sharp have been looking for you. I think you +can tell them something they’re anxious to know. Ephraim +is there, anyhow. He, poor fellow, can’t go away, +even if he wishes–yet.”</p> + +<p>Mr. Hale was still in “Forty-niner’s” room and +recognized Antonio with such an outburst of surprise +that Ephraim opened his eyes, for he had been dozing, +and fixed them on the newcomer, inquiringly.</p> + +<p>“What! You, you snake! <i>you here?</i>”</p> + +<p>“But certainly, yes. I, I, Antonio, at your service. +Hast the broken leer? This is bad. Old bones are slow +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_181'></a>181</span> +to heal. You will not shoot again at dear Sobrante, +you.”</p> + +<p>“Won’t? Well, I rather guess it’ll take somebody +stronger ’n you to stop it.”</p> + +<p>Antonio shrugged his shoulders in a manner deemed +offensive by the patient, who struggled to rise, but was +prevented by Jessica’s quick movement.</p> + +<p>“Ephraim! Antonio! Don’t quarrel, this very first +minute. One of you is sick and the other half frantic +with some trouble. Please, Antonio, go away now with +Mr. Hale and Mr. Sharp. One must never make a noise +in a hospital,” said this wise maiden of eleven.</p> + +<p>“Ah! so? But it is the lawyer I want, yet. The lawyer +who will make a villain return the great money I +have given. <i>Caramba!</i> If I had him in my hands this +minute!”</p> + +<p>Jessica lifted a warning finger and the manager lowered +his voice. He even made an attempt at soothing +Ephraim, but chose an unfortunate argument.</p> + +<p>“Take peace to yourself, ‘Forty-niner.’ All must be +told some day. <i>Adios.</i>”</p> + +<p>“<i>Adios</i>, you foreign serpent! Old? Old! he calls +me–me–old! Why, I’m a babe in arms to Pedro, or +Fra Mateo, or even fat Brigida, who washes for us +‘boys.’ Old! A man but just turned eighty! Snake, +I’ll outlive you yet. I’ll get well, to spite you; and I’ll +be on hand, when they let you out the lockup, to give +you the neatest horsewhippin’ you ever see. Old! Get +out!”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_182'></a>182</span>Fearful of further excitement, the gentlemen hurried +Antonio away, yet kept a keen watch upon his +movements for, at that word “lockup,” the man’s dark +face had turned to an ashen hue.</p> + +<p>As they left the hospital the every-busy ambulance +rolled past them toward the accident ward. The others +averted their eyes, but the Spaniard peered curiously +within, and, instantly a shuddering groan burst from +his lips. Inside that van lay the solution to all their +difficulties; though Antonio alone had comprehended it.</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_183'></a>183</span><a id='link_18'></a>CHAPTER XVIII<br /><span class='h2fs'>APPREHENDED</span></h2> + +<p>The pleasantest task which fell to Jessica’s hands, +during her hospital life, was the distributing of flowers +and fruits, almost daily sent by the charitable for the +comfort of the patients.</p> + +<p>The nurses received and apportioned these gifts; and, +carrying her big, tray-like basket, Lady Jess visited +each ward and room in turn, adding to the pretty offering +some bright word of her own. For she now had +the freedom of the house and knew the occupant of +each white bed better, even, than his or her attendant +nurse. The quiet manner which she had gained here, +her ready help and loving sympathy, made her coming +looked for eagerly; but the happiness she thus bestowed +was more than returned upon her own heart. Could +her “boys” have seen her they would have been proud, +but not surprised, for to the appreciative words his +own attendant gave his darling, Ephraim would instantly +reply?</p> + +<p>“’Course. What else could you expect? Didn’t she +have the finest man in the world for her father? and +isn’t her mother a lady? Isn’t she, herself, the sweetest, +lovingest, most unselfish child that ever lived? +But it’ll be meat to feed the ‘boys’ with, all these stories +you’re telling me. They most worship her now, and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_184'></a>184</span> +after they listen to such talk a spell–h-m-m. The +whole secret is just–love. That’s what our captain +is made of; pure love. ’Twas a good thing for this old +earth when she was born.”</p> + +<p>“But you’ll spoil her among you, I fear.”</p> + +<p>“Well, you needn’t. Little Jessica Trent can’t be +spoiled. ’Cause them same ‘boys’ would be the first +ones to take any nonsense out of her, at the first symptoms. +She couldn’t stand ridicule. It would break her +heart; but they’d give her ridicule and plenty of it if +she put on silly airs. You needn’t be afraid for Lady +Jess.”</p> + +<p>On that very day, after Antonio had left the hospital +with his friends, or captors, as the case might prove. +Jessica went through the building with her tray of +roses, and in the wing adjoining the accident ward +saw a man lying in one of the hitherto empty rooms.</p> + +<p>“A new patient. He must have been brought in +to-day. I’ve never been to the new ones till I was +told, but I hate to pass him by. I wonder if it would +be wrong to ask him if he wished a flower! And how +still he stays. Yet his eyes are very wide open and so +round! He looks like somebody I’ve seen–why, little +Luis Garcia! ’Tis Luis himself, grown old and thin. +For Luis’ sake, then I’ll try.”</p> + +<p>A nurse was sitting silent at the patient’s bedside +and toward her the child turned an inquiring glance. +The answer was a slight, affirmative nod. The attendant’s +thought was that it would please Lady Jess +to give the rose and could do the patient no harm to +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_185'></a>185</span> +receive it. Indeed, nothing earthly could harm him any +more.</p> + +<p>So Jessica stepped softly in and paused beside the +cot. Her face was full of pity and of a growing astonishment, +for the nearer she beheld it the more startling +was the sick man’s likeness to a childish face hundreds +of miles away.</p> + +<p>Her stare brought the patient’s own vacant gaze back +to a consciousness of things about him. He saw a +yellow-haired girl looking curiously upon him and extending +toward him a half-blown rose. A fair and unexpected +vision in that place of pain, and he asked, +half querulously:</p> + +<p>“Who are you? An angel come to upbraid me before +my time?”</p> + +<p>“I’m Jessica Trent, of Sobrante ranch, in Paraiso +d’Oro valley.”</p> + +<p>“W-h-a-t!”</p> + +<p>The nurse bent forward, but he motioned her aside.</p> + +<p>“Say that again.”</p> + +<p>“I’m just little Jessica Trent. That’s all.”</p> + +<p>“All! Trent–Trent. Ah!”</p> + +<p>“And you? Are you Luis Garcia’s missing father?”</p> + +<p>“Luis–Luis Garcia. Was it Luis, Ysandra called +him?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, yes. That was the name on the paper my +father found pinned to the baby’s dress. The letter +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_186'></a>186</span> +told that the baby’s father had gone away promising to +come back, but had never come. The mother had heard +of my dear father’s goodness to all who needed help, +and she was on her way to him when her strength gave +out. So she died there in the canyon, and she said the +baby’s name was like the father’s. I remember it all, +because to us the ‘Maria’ seems like a girl’s name, too. +Luis Maria Manuel Alessandro Garcia.”</p> + +<p>The man’s round eyes opened wider and wider. It +seemed as if his glare pierced the child’s very heart, +and she drew back frightened. The nurse motioned +her to go, but at her first movement toward the door +the patient extended his hands imploring:</p> + +<p>“No. Not yet. My time is spent. Let me hear all–all. The child your father found–ah! me! Your +father of all men! Did–did it live?”</p> + +<p>“Of course it lived. He is a darling little fellow +and he looks–he looks so like you that I knew you in +a moment. He has the same wide brown eyes, the same +black curls, his eyebrows slant so, like yours, he is +your image. But he is the cutest little chap you ever +saw. He is my own brother’s age and they have grown +up together, like twins, I guess. It would break Ned’s +heart to have you take him away from us. You won’t +now, will you?”</p> + +<p>A pitiful smile spread over the pain-racked features, +and the man glanced significantly toward the nurse. +She smiled encouragingly upon him, but he was not +misled. After a moment of silence, during which +Jessica anxiously watched his drawn face, he spoke.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_187'></a>187</span>“Go, child. Your mission is done. Send a lawyer, +quick. Quick. The man I wronged–the savior of my +son! A lawyer, quick. Bring the suit case–the case! +Let none open it but the child. Quick. Quick!”</p> + +<p>Higher authority even than her own convinced the +nurse that obedience to his urgency was the only way +now to allay the patient’s rising excitement. The accident +which had crushed the lower part of his body, so +that his life was but a question of hours, had left his +head clear for the present; and here, indeed, seemed a +case for more than surgical treatment.</p> + +<p>Fortunately, the needed “lawyer” was close at hand, +waiting with the reporter and the half-distraught Antonio +whose shriek of recognition had been Luis Garcia’s +welcome to the hospital. Unceasingly, the manager +had declared that this was the man all three of +them were seeking; had insisted upon returning to the +ante-room of the hospital, and avowed that he would +never leave the spot until the “villain” had been apprehended.</p> + +<p>“He has misled and cheated me. I, Antonio! He +has all my money. He has the savings of my life, yes. +He has all that I did not yet pay, of the crops so good, +to the Senora Trent. More, more. That money–which, +ah, me! He told me, yes, a thousand million +times, that I, and not that New York company, to me +alone was the inheritance of Paraiso d’Oro. My money +was to prove it, that inheritance, yes. To me was the +power of attorney, was it not? of Cassius Trent, who +was the so good man and the so poor fool at business.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_188'></a>188</span>“Look out, there, neighbor! Speaking of fools and +business, you don’t appear to have been so brilliant +yourself,” corrected Ninian, promptly.</p> + +<p>Antonio continued, heedless of the interruption:</p> + +<p>“He was the great banker, Garcia, no? What then? +Who would so safe keep the money from that far New +York? With the master’s wish I gave it to that bank. +And the letters–<i>Caramba!</i> So high, to one’s knees, to +one’s waist I pile them, the letters! All wrote of his +own hand. All say by-and-by, <i>manana</i>, he give me the +perfect title and send back that which belongs, after +all expenses, no? To them in New York.”</p> + +<p>“A pretty scheme. You don’t seem to have profited +by it greatly, as yet.”</p> + +<p>“I, profit? But I am now the beggar, I, poor Antonio. +This day I come from resting in the houses of +my friends and I find–what do I find? The bank is +not. The banker is not, yes. His house where he +lived more plain than our adobes at Sobrante, that +house is closed. His man tell me this: ‘He has gone +away. One little, little trip, a journey. Across the +sea. He will come back. Have patience, Antonio.’ +But my money? my papers? my inheritance so all but +proved? Tush. He told me not that. ‘When he comes +back you can ask him, himself.’ So. Good. He has +come back. Here. I see him, sure. I<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p>A summons to Mr. Hale cut short this fierce harangue, +which had been repeated till their ears were +tired.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_189'></a>189</span>The banker had come back, indeed, poor creature. +By the very train on which he was to depart with his +plunder–all rendered into the solid cash which would +tell no tales, as he fancied–by this swift-moving juggernaut +he was overtaken and crushed down. A moment +earlier he would have been in time. But in haste +and by a misstep he had ended all his earthly journeyings.</p> + +<p>When the lawyer was called the reporter followed +his friend and Antonio followed him, and when these +three approached the little room in which the dying +man lay, the nurse would have sent them back; but +Garcia himself pleaded: “Let them be. What matters +it how many hear or see? The dress-suit case. Bring +it, and bring the child.”</p> + +<p>They obeyed and he bade them place the key in +Jessica’s small hand.</p> + +<p>“Open it, little one.”</p> + +<p>But her fingers shook so that the nurse, in pity, +pushed them from the lock and herself unfastened the +heavily laden case. It contained no clothing, such as +might have been looked for within; but rolls and packets +neatly tied.</p> + +<p>“Open them, child.”</p> + +<p>“Oh! please! I do not want to; I am afraid!”</p> + +<p>“Afraid, Jessica Trent? Do you not yet understand? +That is money, money–of which your father stood +accused before the world as having stolen. Afraid to +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_190'></a>190</span> +prove your father what you know him–an honest +man!” cried Ninian in anger.</p> + +<p>She understood him then, and in frantic haste +obeyed. Roll after roll, till Mr. Hale said:</p> + +<p>“Enough. His strength is failing. This scene is +too much for him.”</p> + +<p>At that she pushed the gold away and, falling on +her knees beside the bed, caught Luis Garcia’s hand +and covered it with kisses.</p> + +<p>“Oh! thank you, Luis’ father! God bless you, God +take care of you!”</p> + +<p>“Oh! the divine pity of childhood,” murmured +Ninian, huskily. “She forgets that it was he who +wronged her in the fact that he has now set her right.”</p> + +<p>The sick man’s face brightened, nor did he withdraw +his hand.</p> + +<p>“<i>You forgive me?</i>”</p> + +<p>“Yes, yes.”</p> + +<p>“The little Luis. The son I never saw. What shall +you tell him of his father?”</p> + +<p>“That he was good to me, and that he suffered.”</p> + +<p>“More. Tell the boy this: I never knew he lived. I +should have known, I should have searched. I did not. +Ask him, too, to forgive me. And because of me, turn +him not away.”</p> + +<p>The nurse motioned all the others to go out, and they +went, Ninian Sharp himself standing guard over the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_191'></a>191</span> +dress-suit case the attendant had relocked until it was +once more safely deposited in the strong box of the +hospital, where even Antonio’s greedy eyes could see +it no longer.</p> + +<p>But Jessica knelt on, awed and silent, yet now quite +unafraid. And Luis Garcia still clasped her hand and +fixed his fading gaze upon her pitying face.</p> + +<p>“The mother–Ysandra. Where lies she now? +Little one, do you know that?”</p> + +<p>“Do I not? In the consecrated ground of the old +mission itself. With all the good dead priests sleeping +about her. Rose vines cover her grave and my own +mother tends them herself. Little Luis is made to +water it, sometimes, though, for that is a good way to +keep her memory green, my mother says. Near by is +where my father rests. Would–would you wish to +sleep there, too, beside them both, and where Luis +could bring flowers to you as to her?”</p> + +<p>“I may? You–are–willing? Would–your mother–so kind–little Luis<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p>“My mother pities and helps all who suffer. You +suffer, poor man, and I wish that she were here to tell +you ‘yes’ herself.”</p> + +<p>But he had closed his eyes and she could not know +if he had heard her, though she was glad to see that +the look of pain had almost left his features. She did +not speak again but sat quite still until, at last, her hand +grew numb and she turned toward the nurse, whispering:</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_192'></a>192</span>“Can I move it? Will it disturb him? He seems to +be asleep.”</p> + +<p>The nurse bent over her patient, then gently answered:</p> + +<p>“Yes, darling. Your task is over. Nothing will ever +trouble him again. He is at peace–<i>asleep</i>.”</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_193'></a>193</span><a id='link_19'></a>CHAPTER XIX<br /><span class='h2fs'>ANTONIO’S MESSAGE</span></h2> + +<p>Jessica went back to Ephraim’s room, to tell him +this wonderful ending of their once almost hopeless +search, and for long they discussed the story that was +at once so strange, so moving, and yet so simple.</p> + +<p>“Man proposes, God disposes,” quoted “Forty-niner,” +with all the emphasis of an original philosophy. +“If we’d set out to make up a fairy story we couldn’t +have beat this. But I’m so glad, it seems like I could +get right up and dance a jig, smashed leg and all.”</p> + +<p>“Glad! Ephraim, I’m so glad, too, and the gladness +is so deep, deep down that I don’t want to dance. I +just want to cry. And that poor man is little Luis’ +father. Oh! it is pitiful.”</p> + +<p>“Hush, captain. Don’t you go to grieving over that +scamp. A man don’t get good nor bad all in a minute. +It was hard enough, I ’low, for a fellow to be snatched +out of the world that sudden. Yet, if he could speak +for himself, he’d say a thousand times better that than +what the law would have given him. Let him be. His +part is done. He’s passed in his checks and don’t you +hear that Heaven won’t pay out on all the good ones. +Now–what next?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_194'></a>194</span>Both knew, yet both disliked to mention that which +each felt. Till Ephraim swallowed something like a +sob and remarked:</p> + +<p>“The longer I lie here, like a log, the madder I get +at myself and the weaker minded. I’m just about as +ready to cry as a whipped baby. I know ’twas the best +thing could have happened, my getting hurt, though +why a plain, everyday break wouldn’t have answered +the purpose just as well as this ‘compound fracture,’ +the doctors make such a fuss over and takes so long to +heal, I don’t see. Nor never shall. If it had been just +ordinary bone-crackin’ I’d been lively as a hop-toad by +now, and ready to start right home with you this minute. +As it is<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p>“Oh, Ephraim! I hate to leave you–but I must get +quickly to my mother! Don’t you see I must? To +smooth all those sad lines out of her dear face and make +her happy again, as this news surely will. They’ll be +good to you here, and you can come the first minute +they’ll let you.”</p> + +<p>“Why not telegraph her? The boys go every day to +Marion for the letters you and all send, and the postmaster +is the operator, too. Why not that, and wait +just a day or two. Likely I’ll be cavortin’ round, supple +as a lizard on a fence, by then.”</p> + +<p>Jessica did not answer and Ephraim asked:</p> + +<p>“How could you go, anyway, without me or some +protector? Though I made a bad job of it once I +wouldn’t the second time.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_195'></a>195</span>“I don’t know how, dear old fellow, and I do know +how bitter disappointed you are that you can’t be there +to see my mother’s face and get her thanks right away. +But<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p>Fortunately for both of these perplexed people, +Ninian Sharp came along the passage just then, and +one glimpse of his bright, helpful face cleared away +Jessica’s anxieties.</p> + +<p>“You’ll know what’s best and how to do it, won’t +you, dear Mr. Sharp?”</p> + +<p>“Certainly. That’s my business. Straightening out +the tangled affairs of the silly rest of the world! Fetch +on your trouble!”</p> + +<p>He was in the gayest of moods, elated over the successful +termination of his tedious labors, though in his +heart not unmindful of the tragedy which had brought +his share in them to an end. What was left, the law’s +dealings with Antonio and the division and disposition +of the recovered funds, belonged to Mr. Hale, and he +very thankfully resigned these matters to that gentleman’s +capable hand.</p> + +<p>“I want to go home. And I don’t want to leave +Ephraim.”</p> + +<p>“I want to go with you. And I’m going to leave +Ephraim–because he’d have to stay awhile, whether or +not. He will be an important witness for the prosecution, +providing that New York Company bothers any +further after having recovered all that belongs to them, +with some that doesn’t. I’ve a ‘loose foot,’ as I’ve heard +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_196'></a>196</span> +that your ‘Aunt Sally’ also has betimes, and I mean +to shake it out Sobrante way. If you’d like to travel +in my company I can’t prevent it, as I see!”</p> + +<p>“Oh! you darling man! You mean–I know it, for +it’s just like all the rest of your great kindness–that +you’re going wholly on purpose to take me home!”</p> + +<p>“Beg pardon, but indeed, I’m not. At this present +moment I have no stronger desire than to see that +wonderful ranch of yours and those ‘boys’ who’ve +spoiled you so. Why, I couldn’t stay away, after putting +my finger so deeply into your family pie. I propose +to start on the nine o’clock train to-morrow morning. +Think you can be ready by then?”</p> + +<p>“I’m ready this minute! No, I mean, as soon as I +bid everybody good-by, and–and<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p>“Do a little shopping, eh? That’s what most young +ladies delay for, I believe.”</p> + +<p>“But I’m neither a young lady nor have I any shopping +to do. I couldn’t have because I haven’t any +money, you see, even if I knew how to shop.”</p> + +<p>“Why?” demanded “Forty-niner,” impatiently. “No +money? I don’t believe all ours is gone yet.”</p> + +<p>“Why, I forgot that. I really did. And I would +love, if Mr. Sharp thinks it would be all right to use +it when there is all this hospital board for both of us +to pay, to take a tiny bit of a present to–to<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p>“Everybody you ever knew, I’ll be bound!” cried +Ninian.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_197'></a>197</span>“I–believe I would. But of course I can’t. So +I’d best treat all alike and take nothing but our glorious +goods news.”</p> + +<p>“I’m going to take that myself, part of the way. +At the finish I’ll let you carry the heavy burden and +deliver it yourself into your mother’s hands. Now, +come sit down a minute. Ephraim, put on your own +thinking cap, and if she forgets anybody you let me +know. We are going to take something to everybody, +just as you’d like. Now, begin. The mother–but +she’s settled, already. For her I’ve made a finished +picture from a sketch I have, of a little yellow-haired +girl asleep upon a piebald burro’s shoulder. Ned? +A train of cars. Luis, ditto. Samson–what for Samson?”</p> + +<p>“Would it cost too much to take them each, all +the ‘boys’ the same thing, and that would be a bright +red necktie?”</p> + +<p>“Cost not a bit too much and be a deal easier than +thinking of separate things for so many. Next? +Aunt Sally?”</p> + +<p>“Oh! she’s no trouble. A few bits of new calico +‘print’ for her patchwork would make her very happy.”</p> + +<p>They forgot nobody, not even Ferd whom Jessica +so disliked; and at the end of the list she rather timidly +suggested: “Antonio.”</p> + +<p>To that, however, both her friends cried a vehement +“No!” Not a cent of their money should ever +go to please such a man as the Senor Bernal.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_198'></a>198</span>“But, that reminds me. This Antonio himself wishes +to have an interview with you before you leave Los +Angeles. I want you, though, to feel at liberty to +refuse this request if you so desire. He deserves no +kindness at your hands.”</p> + +<p>“No. Don’t you go near him, captain. He’s a +snake and snakes are unpleasant critters even after +their fangs are drawn. Leave Antonio to me. When +I get well I’ll have a little score to settle with him +on my own behalf,” urged Ephraim.</p> + +<p>“Why doesn’t he come to me, himself? Instead of +sending for me to him. Then I shouldn’t have to +trouble you to take me.”</p> + +<p>Mr. Sharp looked at Ephraim and smiled, significantly.</p> + +<p>“I suppose because he cannot. Else so polished a +gentleman would surely do so.”</p> + +<p>“Why cannot he? Is he ill, too?”</p> + +<p>“Rather ill in his mind, but not in body. Simply, +he isn’t allowed.”</p> + +<p>“Won’t the hospital folks have him?”</p> + +<p>“Not at present.”</p> + +<p>“I believe you are teasing me. Where is Antonio?”</p> + +<p>“At police headquarters.”</p> + +<p>“Oh! with Matron Wood?”</p> + +<p>“Not with that good woman, I fear.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_199'></a>199</span>“Mr. Sharp, please, <i>don’t</i> tease me any more. What +do you mean?”</p> + +<p>“Antonio is under restraint of the law. He is a +prisoner, for the present. Detained until Mr. Hale +can consult with his New York people and find out +their disposition toward the fellow. He has done +criminal things without, apparently, any benefit to +himself. He says there is something on his mind +that he must tell you. We’ll call to see him on our +way to the shopping district and get him over and +done with. I’ve no desire to continue his acquaintance, +myself.”</p> + +<p>Jessica’s face grew serious.</p> + +<p>“Oh! poor Antonio!”</p> + +<p>“Quit that!” commanded “Forty-niner,” with more +sharpness than he often used toward his beloved lady.</p> + +<p>“But, it is so terrible to be a–prisoner. That +means that one can never go out into the fields or +climb the mountains, or ride, or hunt, or anything one +likes. He has done dreadful wrongs, and I never +used to like him as well as I ought, but now I’m sorry +for him. I can’t help it, Ephraim, even if it does displease +you.”</p> + +<p>“H-m-m. He brought his own misfortunes upon +himself. But first he had brought worse ones on his +truest friends and innocent persons whom he never +saw.”</p> + +<p>“Maybe he didn’t know any better. Maybe<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_200'></a>200</span>“Child, you are incorrigible. You’d pity–anybody. +Yet, perhaps, you are right in a measure. Antonio +strikes me as more fool that knave.”</p> + +<p>“Well, I’ll be glad to say good-by to him, anyway.”</p> + +<p>It was a greatly altered Antonio they found. All +his haughtiness was gone and his depression, his fear, +was so abject that while Lady Jess pitied him even +more than before, the reporter felt only contempt. +It was he who cut short the manager’s wordy explanations +and commanded:</p> + +<p>“Now, if you’ve got anything special to say to Miss +Trent, out with it and have done. We must be off.”</p> + +<p>“Then leave her alone with me for five minutes, +yes.”</p> + +<p>“No. What you can say to her must be said in my +presence.”</p> + +<p>But Jessica petitioned for the favor, and Ninian +stepped into an adjoining room, leaving the door ajar.</p> + +<p>As soon as he was out of sight, Senor Bernal leaned +forward, clasping his hands.</p> + +<p>“It is the good turn I do. Well, then, it is the +good turn you will answer, no.”</p> + +<p>“Of course. I’d do you any ‘good turn’ which was +right for me.”</p> + +<p>“Then plead for me, my liberty. It is you, senorita, +who have the so great, the strange power to move +many hearts to your will. <i>Si.</i> You will plead, then, +if I tell you–something–a little story–maybe?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_201'></a>201</span>“I’m in no mood for stories, and you’re talking in +riddles as you’ve always been fond of doing. Say +what you mean at once, Antonio, for I’m going home +to-morrow. Home! going home!”</p> + +<p>“Ah! me! And? But yes. I will. I will force +myself. I will ask it. That–that–title? Know +you of that?”</p> + +<p>“How should I know?”</p> + +<p>“Ephraim. Was not Ephraim at the safe one midnight? +Is not Ephraim a little strange–here?” touching +his own forehead.</p> + +<p>Jessica turned away, indignant.</p> + +<p>“No, but you are. The queerest, crookedest man I +ever saw. If you’ve anything to tell me, just be quick, +I am going. As for Ephraim, I wish, unhappy man, +that you had half the goodness and honesty in your +whole body that dear old fellow has in his littlest +finger. He couldn’t do a mean thing nor even think +one, and if you sent for me to abuse him to me you +might have spared yourself the trouble.”</p> + +<p>“Well, then. It is known, is it not? That when I +shook the dust of Sobrante rancho from my feet I +took away with me all the papers that appertained to +the so great business of the place? Why not? Was I +not to go back the master, and for the settlement of +all affairs which I had with the Dona Gabriella?”</p> + +<p>“You will please never call my mother by her first +name again, Antonio Bernal. She is an American +gentlewoman, and her title is Mrs. Trent. Understand? +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_202'></a>202</span> +She is not afraid of you, nor am I, though +she was patient and, for her children’s sakes, would not +quarrel nor resent your insolence. All that is changed. +You can do us no further harm. My father’s name is +freed from all the shadow that your wickedness cast +over it, and as for titles to property–poor! None +of the Trents, big or little, care anything for property +since we have regained honor! Besides, Sobrante +isn’t the only home in the world. They are everywhere, +waiting for those who will take them. If we +lose Sobrante, as I suppose we may, I–just I, Jessica +Trent, a child, will make a home for my mother and +my brother–somewhere. I am strong. I can work. +I am not at all afraid.”</p> + +<p>Despite his meanness and cupidity, Antonio was +moved. The girl was radiant in her courage and enthusiasm, +and her disdain of what he could make her +suffer was infinite.</p> + +<p>“Good, senorita. When you speak and look like +that I can no longer keep silence, I. The papers! It +is possible, no? That among them, in my so great +haste at leaving Sobrante, that little, yes, it might–it +might be among those other papers appertaining to the +so great business. <i>Si.</i> If I point the way, if I tell +the secret retiring place of me, I, Antonio Bernal, you +will plead and set me free? It is a contract, a bargain–yes?”</p> + +<p>Jessica pondered. The temptation was strong to +say “yes” without delay; but she had now learned to +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_203'></a>203</span> +distrust the late manager of her mother’s business, and +answered, cautiously:</p> + +<p>“I’ll do what I can, Antonio, but if my mother forbids +me to ‘plead,’ I shall not disobey her. You did +what you pleased, and my friends say you will have to +suffer the consequences.”</p> + +<p>“Ah! but it is the so old head on the so small +shoulders. That wisdom was not of your own, senorita. +But, I forgive the suspicion. Yes, I am magnanimous. +I am generous, I, Senor Bernal, heir–rightful +heir–to Sobrante rancho and all of Paraiso d’Oro. +See! Behold! Did the Lady Jessica never hear of El +Desierto, no?”</p> + +<p>“The Deserted Ranch? Where Pedro says the +spirits of dead people walk? Of course. Everybody +has heard of that. Why?”</p> + +<p>“Sometimes the ‘spirits’ keep hidden treasures safe. +Yes. <i>Si.</i> Does the senorita know the trail thither, +to that haunted place?”</p> + +<p>“No. Nor wish to. Good-by, Antonio. I can wait +for no more of your nonsense.”</p> + +<p>“The paper. The pencil, which the Lady Jess holds +in her hand. One moment, that to me, if the senorita +pleases.”</p> + +<p>“I brought these for my little shopping trip, which +I’m to take with Mr. Sharp. I can’t give them to you, +but I’ll lend, for a moment. Here they are. Be quick.”</p> + +<p>Antonio seized the pencil and rapidly sketched upon +the pad a few dots and lines, suggesting a zigzag +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_204'></a>204</span> +road and stations upon it. At the starting point he +wrote “Marion,” and at the end “Sobrante.” Midway, +and well to the north, where a curving course indicated +an arroyo he marked “El Desierto.”</p> + +<p>Then he looked up, and Jessica reached forward to +take back her possessions.</p> + +<p>But with what he considered great chaft and cunning +he thrust them behind him and smiled grimly:</p> + +<p>“The promise, senorita. First the promise; ‘I will +plead for the liberty of Senor Antonio Bernal, so +help me<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>’”</p> + +<p>Unperceived by the artful manager, Ninian Sharp +had entered the room from a rear door. He was tired +of waiting for the interview to end and had overheard +most of it from the outer room. He now quietly +stretched out his own hand and possessed himself of +the rude map, and then as quietly and instantly withdrew +with it, calling as he did so:</p> + +<p>“Come on, Lady Jess. Time’s up. So is Antonio’s +little game; yet, thanks, senor, for playing it so openly, +Good-day. <i>Adios.</i> Farewell. <i>Et cetera. Au revoir</i> +and all the rest. We’ll show you that title deed–if +we find it!”</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_205'></a>205</span><a id='link_20'></a>CHAPTER XX<br /><span class='h2fs'>A RAILWAY JOURNEY</span></h2> + +<p>The morning of departure had come and, trembling +with both fear and eagerness, Jessica stood beside the +reporter upon the station, waiting for the great train +to move outward.</p> + +<p>“Step aboard, Lady Jess. Homeward bound!”</p> + +<p>“Oh! it looks so big and somehow dreadful. I can +ride any kind of a horse, or an ostrich, and burros, of +course, but<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p>“But you don’t know yet how to ride a railway carriage. +Then let me tell you you’ll find it so delightful +you’ll not want to get out when the journey’s done.”</p> + +<p>“Don’t you believe that, Mr. Sharp. The end of +the journey, this part, at least, means, Marion, and +that’s but a bit of a way from my mother. Is everything +ready? Scruff? Is he here?”</p> + +<p>“Come and see the sorrowful chap in his moving +stable if you wish. Though it hasn’t moved as yet. +He’ll probably rebel against the state of affairs, at +first; then be just as unwilling to leave the car as he +was to enter it. It’s a fine place for sleeping, and +sleeping is Scruff’s chief aim in life.”</p> + +<p>“He’s had to make up for lost time, for he’d never +too much sleep at home, where Ned and Luis were. +Oh! to think! To-morrow, to-morrow–this very next +day that’s coming–I shall have my arms around those +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_206'></a>206</span> +children’s precious necks and feel my mother’s kisses +on my lips. I can’t wait. I can’t.”</p> + +<p>“Humph! I shall begin to think you can wait and +very contentedly if you don’t step into this car pretty +soon.”</p> + +<p>Jessica had never traveled by rail and the shock +of the accident which had befallen Luis’ father made +her more timid than she had ever been before. She +had pleaded to make the return trip by saddle, as she +had come, but Mr. Sharp would not consent.</p> + +<p>“Time. Time. We must make time, Lady Jess. +A newspaper man never uses a week where a day +will do. If he did–well, no knowing if we should ever +get out a single issue of <i>The Lancet</i>. Come on. If +there were any danger do you think I would make you +face it?”</p> + +<p>Thus shamed and by the friend who had proved so +true to her interests, the little girl shut her eyes, held +out her hands and was lightly swung upon the rear +platform of the luxurious coach in which they were to +make the first half of their trip. Later, they would +have to leave the main line for a branch road, terminating +at Marion, their postal station. From Marion, +the thirty miles of saddle work, with the added detour +on account of El Desierto, would be all the reporter +fancied he should care for.</p> + +<p>“Some day I’ll come back to Sobrante, if I’m invited, +and get that famous rider, Samson, to teach me +the trick of ‘broncho busting’ or some other caper. +But now, the engine can’t travel fast enough to suit +my impatience.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_207'></a>207</span>Nor Jessica, neither, after the first few moments of +the journey. She forgot her fear in watching the +swiftly moving landscape, and found it hard to believe +that the landscape itself was still and she who +was carried past it. This time there was none of Aunt +Sally’s bountiful luncheon but what seemed to Lady +Jess something far finer–a dining car. To be sure, +during their first meal in this, served by colored waiters +whose unfamiliar faces distracted her attention, +and swayed by the motion of the train, the girl’s appetite +was not worth mentioning; but by the time the +supper hour was reached she was ready to enjoy almost +everything which her companion ordered for her. It +delighted him to observe how swiftly she comprehended +and adapted herself to new things, and in his +spirit of “teasing” he laid several harmless “traps” +for her entanglement.</p> + +<p>But she had now learned to distinguish his fun from +his earnest and, after one keen glance into his face, +would skillfully avoid the little slips of speech or manner +that would have so diverted him.</p> + +<p>“No, Mr. Sharp, I’m ever so ignorant of the way +city people and traveling people do, but one thing +Ephraim taught me, even on our quiet way out. That +was: ‘Use your eyes, not your tongue, and watch +what other folks do.’ So, if watching will prevent +my doing awkward things, I’ll watch, surely enough.”</p> + +<p>They were to sleep at Marion, and when they finally +left the less comfortable car of the branch road at +that town, it was very dark and no vehicles were in +waiting to convey passengers to the one hotel of the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_208'></a>208</span> +place. Few persons stopped at Marion, except such +as resided there or near, and such either walked from +the station to their homes or had their own wagons +meet them.</p> + +<p>Ninian Sharp was disgusted. He was tired, his +head ached, and he had anticipated no such “one +horse” village as this. “Why, I thought it was your +post town and all that.”</p> + +<p>“So it is. And a very pretty place by daylight, +save that they don’t irrigate.”</p> + +<p>“Which means there isn’t a spear of grass within the +town limits, doesn’t it?”</p> + +<p>“Almost as bad. But now we’ll change places, if you +please. I’ve been to Marion several times with my +father and once since–since he went away, with Samson. +There! They’re taking Scruff out of the car and +you must ride him. I know the way. It’s only a mile, +about, to the hotel. Of course, there’s a lodging-house +nearer, right by this station, indeed, but the hotel’s +much nicer. You’ll get a better bed there, and we’d +best go on.”</p> + +<p>“I’d rather sleep on the ground than walk a mile.”</p> + +<p>“You shall do neither. Didn’t you hear me say +we’ve changed places now? I’m so near home I am at +home and I’m–the captain. Obey orders, sir, and +mount Scruff’s back.”</p> + +<p>He was too weary to protest and too ill. Subject to +acute neuralgia, he was, like plenty of people, rather +less courageous when he was in pain than at other times. +Besides, now there was something of that decision +in Jessica’s tone which sick people find restful, and he +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_209'></a>209</span> +quietly threw one leg across Scruff’s back and let the +girl do as she pleased.</p> + +<p>This was to start forward over the unpaved, unlighted +street at a swift unbroken run, which Scruff +had some work to equal; but the speed brought them +promptly to a wooden “tavern,” from one window +of which there gleamed a solitary oil lamp.</p> + +<p>“Horrors! Antonio described a ranch called Desolation, +or something like that, and I reckon we’ve arrived,” +lamented the reporter, jolted into fresh distress +by the burro’s trot.</p> + +<p>Jessica laughed.</p> + +<p>“Wait. Be patient, dear man. Within five minutes +you’ll be sleeping on a clean, sweet bed, and when you +wake up in the morning it will be to a fine breakfast, +a perfect day, and–Sobrante!”</p> + +<p>Then she tapped on the window and called:</p> + +<p>“Hello, there! Sobrante folks! Open the door, +quick!”</p> + +<p>A head was thrust out of another window, further +along the narrow porch, and a sleepy voice asked:</p> + +<p>“What’s that you say? Who wants<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p>“I do! Jessica Trent, from Sobrante. But last, +right from Los Angeles city. Please be quick!”</p> + +<p>In less time than seemed possible, for such a drowsy +person to reach it, the door was flung wide and there +rushed out upon the porch a man and a woman, who +both seized Jessica at one time and in their effort to +embrace her succeeded in hugging each other. Whereupon +the landlady flung her stalwart husband aside and +caught the little girl in her arms, to carry her within.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_210'></a>210</span>“Oh! but this is the darling home again! And is it +good news you’ve brought, my dear? Ah! by the shining +of your bonny eyes one can see that plain. Light +up, Aleck! Light up! How can we have such darkness +when the bairn is safe back? And begging pardon, +lassie, who is this yon?”</p> + +<p>Jessica presented her friend and added, quickly:</p> + +<p>“Only for him I could never have done that business, +Janet, Aleck. And it is done. Everybody<span style='white-space: nowrap'>––</span>”</p> + +<p>“All the countryside knows it already, Jessica Trent. +It’s ringing with it, as it rung with the story of a +wave little lass who set out alone and unfriended, save +for one old man, to clear her father’s memory of a stain +some ne’er-do-well had dared to splash it with; and how +the old man broke his leg and lost the bairn; and, losing, +she fell into wiser hands and all, and all. Why, +the ‘boys’ are here long before sun up; hours before +mailtime, to get the latest news. Ah! it’s proud is all +this land because of you, my wee bit bairnie!”</p> + +<p>Again was Jessica caught and kissed till her breath +was gone; but released she demanded, and with disappointment +in her tone:</p> + +<p>“So the news is no news, and does my mother, too, +know all?”</p> + +<p>“Hasn’t the sweet lady read the papers that the ‘boys’ +have carried, loping to break their necks! Ah, lassie, +’twill be an ovation you’ll get when once they sight +your bonny head shining on the sandy branch road!”</p> + +<p>Jessica turned toward Ninian Sharp with the first +feeling of anger she had ever had toward him.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_211'></a>211</span>“The papers? Your <i>Lancet</i>, I suppose. But you +knew, you knew how much I wanted to surprise my +mother.”</p> + +<p>“Even so. But could you expect a man to keep back +such fine ‘copy’ from his office? If you did, or if I +could, somebody else, like <i>The Gossip</i>, would have got +ahead of us. It was public property, my little Lady, +and private interests, or fancies, always yield to the +great public. We’ll discuss this further to-morrow. +To-night I’d like to see the bed you promised.”</p> + +<p>Jessica caught the hand of her weary friend and +begged:</p> + +<p>“Forgive me. I forgot. And I suppose that the +very feeling which made you so kind and faithful to +us, strangers, made you faithful to–to that horrid +old <i>Lancet</i>, too. Now Janet, you are to give Mr. Sharp +your very nicest bed and breakfast, for he is tired +and suffering.”</p> + +<p>“’Tis ready this instant. ’Tis always ready, lassie, +though few come nowadays, to use it. This way, sir. +After I show him I’ll come for you, Lady Jess.”</p> + +<p>Jessica had not overpraised the neatness and comfort +of this out-of-the-way hostelry, and Ninian Sharp slept +dreamlessly till joyous voices outside his window roused +him to the fact that morning and hunger had arrived +together. Remembering, too, the long ride that lay +before him and the necessity of finding a horse for it, +he rose and hastily dressed. He had lost his neuralgic +pains and his spirits were again such as Jessica had always +seen him show. She, too, was up and waiting, +and it looked as if her ovation had begun; for she was +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_212'></a>212</span> +already the center of an admiring group yet held closest +to the side of a big ranchman, grizzled and rugged, but +beaming upon her and all the rest like an incarnate joy.</p> + +<p>“Samson, Samson, here he is! Mr. Sharp, dear Mr. +Sharp, this is my biggest ‘boy’!”</p> + +<p>“Huh! Glad to see you, little one. ‘Looks like +you’d be quite a man when you get growed up,’” +quoted the joker, giving Samson’s hand a cordial grasp.</p> + +<p>“Come on! Come on! You’re the lad for us! +Well, sir, you do me proud. You do Sobrante proud. +You do all the world proud, and that’s my sentiment +to a t-i-o-n, sir! Breakfast’s ready.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, Mr. Ninian, he’s brought–my mother has sent +you the horse that nobody else has ridden since my +father did. Nimrod, the swiftest, gentlest thoroughbred +that anybody ever rode.”</p> + +<p>“Sent him for me? Why, how could she know that +we were coming?”</p> + +<p>“Why shouldn’t she?” asked Samson. “Him and +John Benton was over yesterday, but to-day it was my +turn. One of us has been every day since the captain +left Sobrante; and since the good news arrived there’s +always been a led horse for you, sir. Would have +been till the day of judgment, too, if you hadn’t struck +us afore. Reckon you aren’t acquainted with our little +settlement, sir.”</p> + +<p>“Reckon I wasn’t, but I’m beginning to be. My! +What a magnificent animal. And it solves the difficulty +of finding a mount out to the ranch. I’m not +much of a horseman, though. I don’t know but I’d +better stick to Scruff and leave Nimrod to Lady Jess.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_213'></a>213</span>Samson wheeled around and eyed the stranger, curiously. +Then he advanced and held out his hand again.</p> + +<p>“Shake, Sharp. You’re a man, even if you do live +in a city, and the first one I ever met who hailed from +such a place and didn’t think he knew it all. You’ll do. +And you can ride. A baby could, that creatur’. If +you can’t stick I’ll hold you on. Now, breakfast, I +say.”</p> + +<p>This was Jessica’s chance, and before they sat down +to the bounteous meal which Janet had been hours in +preparing she managed to draw Ninian aside and whisper +a request, to which he nodded prompt assent. So +nobody but they two knew what was meant when, as +the three mounted and were about to ride away, she +asked Samson:</p> + +<p>“Do you know the trail to El Desierto?”</p> + +<p>“Do I know a pisen serpent? What in the name of +reason put such a forsaken hole into your head on this +joyful occasion?”</p> + +<p>“Never mind what, and never mind speech-making, +dear old fellow. I have to call at El Desierto on my +way to Sobrante and would like to know the shortest +road.”</p> + +<p>“Is she–has she got a little ‘touched’ down there +in your City of Angels and Scamps, eh?”</p> + +<p>“Samson, am I still the captain, or am I not?”</p> + +<p>“Captain, I salute. Ride on! You, Aleck, hitch up +a board and take that trunk of Miss Trent’s to her +country seat, and be quick about it. Hurray! I’m so +happy I’m looney! Here’s for El Desierto and no +questions asked. Hurray!”</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_214'></a>214</span><a id='link_21'></a>CHAPTER XXI<br /><span class='h2fs'>BACK AT SOBRANTE</span></h2> + +<p>For an hour and a half they rode swiftly along +a comparatively level trail, though to Ninian Sharp’s +untrained eyes there was no road visible. How Samson +managed to pick his way so undeviatingly over +the dried herbage and sandy soil was a mystery; but +neither the guide nor Jessica found anything strange in +this. Those who live in wide solitudes grow keen +of sight and hearing, and there were tiny roughnesses +here and there which clearly marked to these experienced +ranch people where other feet had passed that +way.</p> + +<p>Presently the roughness increased, and the trail +climbed steadily toward a mesa, which seemed to the +reporter but ten rods distant, yet was, in reality, as +many miles.</p> + +<p>“We turn here, captain. Shall I ride ahead?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, Samson, but slowly. Scruff’s been so idle all +these weeks and grown so lazy he’ll hardly move.”</p> + +<p>“He’ll get over that as soon as he meets up with the +tackers. My, but they’ve led Aunt Sally a life! And +taken more medicine than was due ’em during the +natural course of their lives. Say, Sharp, do you enjoy +picra?”</p> + +<p>“Never tasted the stuff.”</p> + +<p>“And ‘never too late to mend.’ Here, take this vial, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_215'></a>215</span> +I present it to you with my compliments. With the +captain’s respect. With the good will of the whole +outfit.”</p> + +<p>“But, beg pardon, I have no use for–picra.”</p> + +<p>“Don’t delude yourself. You’ll have to have it, +outside or in. I’m a friend. I give you this bottle. +Then, when Aunt Sally appears with her little dish +and spoon, produce this from your pistol pocket and +knock her plumb speechless. It’s your only salvation. +Now or never.”</p> + +<p>“All right. Thanks. A case of forearmed, I suppose.”</p> + +<p>“Exactly. Now–there she is!”</p> + +<p>Samson rose in his stirrups and pointed forward +with his crop. Upon a barren, wide-stretching tableland +stood a cluster of adobe huts. Behind them a +clump of live oaks, beside them a sandy, curving streak, +an arroyo, lighter in hue than the surrounding soil, but +parched and dry as if part of the desert itself; behind +them, three mighty, jagged, upward-pointing rocks.</p> + +<p>“There she is. The weirdest, lonesomest, God-for-sakenest +habitation that fools ever made or lived in, +quoted the joker, giving Samson’s hand a cordial grasp. +Hello! What’s up captain?”</p> + +<p>For Jessica had also caught sight of the desolate +homestead and, having too low stirrups for standing, +had sprung to Scruff’s back and poised thus on his +saddle, was straining her eager, excited gaze toward +the distant El Desierto.</p> + +<p>“My dream! The spot! For once he told the truth! +Follow, follow me, quick!”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_216'></a>216</span>“Land of love! She has gone queer, and that’s a +fact. Does the mite think that there little donkey can +outrun your horse or mine? After her, stranger, lest +she do some harm to herself.”</p> + +<p>Ninian smiled softly and touched Nimrod lightly, +and in a moment all three were again racing over the +mesa, side by side, the girl foremost, and the men +reining in their horses lest they should forestall her +of the goal to which she aspired. The reporter, as +eager and almost as wise as she, but good Samson completely +in the dark and growing a trifle angry over the +fact.</p> + +<p>When they came up to it the place seemed utterly +deserted. The doors opened to the touch and in all but +one of the three small buildings the windows were +broken. The third was in better repair and was evidently +sometimes still used by somebody. There was +a bed, or cot, spread with blankets, a coal-oil stove, +some canned meats and biscuits, and a well-wrapped +gun.</p> + +<p>But Jessica’s attention passed these details over.</p> + +<p>“The rocks! They are the very same as in my dream +and he told me of them when he drew the map. Is that +in your pocket, Mr. Sharp? Oh! is it?”</p> + +<p>“Sure.” He drew it forth and held it so that Samson, +too, could see.</p> + +<p>“Come! In the dream there was a little cave beneath +the rocks and in the cave a box. You know it, +Samson, the black tin box in which the valuable papers +were kept. We could find it nowhere, mother nor I, +but I shall find it here and in it–oh! in it–there will +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_217'></a>217</span> +be that title deed! You look, ‘boys,’ I can’t, I tremble +so.”</p> + +<p>Samson forced his great length downward and inward +under the bowlders and found, as Jessica had felt +sure, a small but perfectly dry and well-protected cave. +The rocks and live oaks screened it from the sight +of those who did not know it existed, and it would +never have been suspected that there was aught but +solid ground beneath those jagged stones.</p> + +<p>The horses and Scruff were willing to stand without +tying, and Ninian was, in any case, too excited now to +have remembered them. He saw that Lady Jess was +trembling, indeed, and trembled himself. If this +should prove a disappointment, how would she bear it?</p> + +<p>But it was not to be that. From the little cave there +presently issued a mighty shout. That is it would have +been mighty had the space been large enough to give it +vent. As it was, it came like the subdued roar of a +wild animal, and it was almost surprising to see the +soles of Samson’s boots emerge from the opening instead +of furry feet.</p> + +<p>When he had crawled outward so far that he could +lift himself upright, the sailor leaped so high that Ninian +felt as if he were the one who had gone “queer” +instead of Jessica, suspected. But this reason was +obvious; for there in his hand was the veritable black +tin box familiar to the girl from her earliest memory, +and seen often enough by the herder to be instantly +recognized.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_218'></a>218</span>When, at last, the box was in her own hands Jessica +became very quiet, though her voice still trembled as +she said:</p> + +<p>“This belongs to my mother. It is for her to +open it.”</p> + +<p>“No, captain.”</p> + +<p>“Not so, Jessica. If the deed for which she looked +were not there it would be but a fresh distress to her. +You look. It is your interest as well as hers, and if it +is not there you can save her, at least, one disappointment +on this day of your return.”</p> + +<p>The opinions of her two friends prevailed; and, since +they had no key, Samson’s great knife forced the lock, +and stored within were papers and vouchers of great +value to Sobrante, which the faithless manager had +carried away for his own purposes.</p> + +<p>The deed? Ah, yes. There it lay at the very bottom +of the pile, and Jessica knew it at once for the +queer paper which her father had shown her on the +night before his death.</p> + +<p>For a time she could only weep over it and caress it, +remembering the dear hands which had held it before +her, and the unforgotten voice which had explained +its value and all about the necessary “recording” which +must be made. Then she rallied, remembering, also, +that other precious parent, alive and waiting for her +and it.</p> + +<p>“Keep you the box, Samson. I, myself, must keep +and carry this.”</p> + +<p>She fastened it within her blouse and kept one hand +upon it all the rest of the way. A brief and happy way, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_219'></a>219</span> +which ended in a mother’s arms and in the wild welcome +of every dweller at Sobrante. And when the +mother’s arms set their recovered treasure free for a +moment there were all the “boys” ready and waiting to +seize and carry her from point to point, telling how +careful had been each one’s stewardship and how they +would never let her go again. Never.</p> + +<p>As for Ninian Sharp he did not recognize himself +in the hero they all made of him, nor did even Aunt +Sally presume to offer him, so wonderful a man, a +nauseous dose. But she was overheard to remark to +Wun Lung, who had also joined the company unforbidden +by his arch enemy:</p> + +<p>“I do believe, Wun Lungy, that if ever that there +handsome young man should go and get married I’d +set him up in my fifty-five thousand five hundred and +fifty-five piece bedquilt. I did lay out to bequeath it to +Jessica, but, la! I can piece her another, just as willin’ +as not. What you say, Wun Lungy?”</p> + +<p>“I slay, fool woman!”</p> + +<p>For a time joy and surprise turned Ned and Luis +speechless; yet they were sent to bed late that night, +each hugging a sharp-edged train of tin cars and +breathing, “Choo! choo!” as if a railway were a common +sight instead of an unknown one.</p> + +<p>But there came at last a quiet hour for mother and +child, when they sat in close embrace, telling all that +had befallen each during the days of separation.</p> + +<p>“Oh! if dear Ephraim were only here, mother! I +said it should not be a month before that title deed +was found, and the month will not be up until to-morrow. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_220'></a>220</span> +Poor Ephraim! It was bitter hard to leave him +alone in that hospital, well-liked and cared for though +he is. If it hadn’t been for him I could never have +gone. And the ‘boys’ would have made such a hero +of him. Even as they did of Mr. Sharp. Can’t you +guess how proud they’d have been of him, mother?”</p> + +<p>When Mrs. Trent did not reply, Jessica looked up +quickly and saw that dear face so near her own still +clouded by a shadow of trouble.</p> + +<p>“Why, mother! What is it? You look as if you +were not perfectly, absolutely happy, and yet how can +you be else–to-night?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, darling, I am happy. So glad and thankful +that I cannot put it into words. But Ephraim? My +darling, at present, not for some days, if I were you I +would not talk about Ephraim. You will be happier +so. No. He is alive and getting well, so far as I +know. There has been no later news than yours. +Don’t look so alarmed. Only this: the ‘boys’ have +taken some queer notion about our ‘Forty-niner,’ and +so I say he is probably happier just where he is to-night +than if he were back at Sobrante.”</p> + +<p>“Oh! mother! Another mystery? and about such a +simple, honest, splendid old fellow as my Ephraim? +Well, never mind. I seem to be sent into the world to +solve other people’s ‘mysteries,’ and I’ll solve his.”</p> + +<p>Eventually she did. But how and when cannot be +told here. This is a story which must be related another +time. But for the time Jessica was happy and all +went well.</p> + +<p class='c'>THE END.</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Jessica Trent: Her Life on a Ranch, by +Evelyn Raymond + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JESSICA TRENT: HER LIFE ON A RANCH *** + +***** This file should be named 33853-h.htm or 33853-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/3/8/5/33853/ + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.fadedpage.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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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: Jessica Trent: Her Life on a Ranch + +Author: Evelyn Raymond + +Release Date: October 11, 2010 [EBook #33853] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JESSICA TRENT: HER LIFE ON A RANCH *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.fadedpage.net + + + + + + + + + +JESSICA TRENT: + +Her Life on a Ranch + +BY + +EVELYN RAYMOND + +Author of + +"Jessica Trent's Inheritance," "Jessica, the Heiress" + +Whitman Publishing Co. + +RACINE, WISCONSIN + + + + +Copyright, 1902, by Street & Smith + +Jessica Trent + +Printed in the + +United States of America + +By + +Western Printing & Lithographing Co. + +Racine, Wis. + + + + +JESSICA TRENT + + + + +CHAPTER I + +ON THE CANYON TRAIL. + + +"Hello, there! What in the name of reason is this?" + +The horseman's excited cry was echoed by a startled neigh from his +beast, which wheeled about so suddenly that he nearly precipitated both +himself and rider into the gulch below. + +"Oh! I'm sorry----Hold on, Zu! Go! Do, please. Quick! It's so narrow +just beyond and I can't----" + +The stranger obeyed, perforce, for his spirited animal having now headed +up the slope, continued on his course at breakneck speed, pursued at +equal pace by the unknown creature that had terrified him. + +The race would not have been so even had the trail been wider, for +King Zulu could easily have beaten his contestant, but, as it was, +the fleeing bay bruised his master's leg against the canyon wall, +now and then, while bits of the bird's plumage were torn on the same +projecting rocks. There was no point of passage till more than a mile +higher on the mountain, and Jess knew this if Mr. Hale did not. He +knew nothing save that he was clinging and riding for his life, and +that this "Western horseback tour" which his doctor had prescribed +for him, seemed now more likely to prove his death than his cure. + +But when a laugh rang out, close to his shoulder, he turned his head and +glanced angrily backward. + +"Oh, I beg your pardon, but--it's so funny! I've often wanted to try +King Zu against a strange horse and now I have. Only, if we were up there +on the mesa, he'd show you!" + +"Does this trail never end, nor turn?" + +The laughter on the girl's face changed to anxiety. + +"Not ill, exactly; only I'm not experienced at this business and it +shakes me." + +"You ride too hard and stiff. That's why. Let yourself go--just be part +of your horse. He's a beauty, isn't he? Even the boys couldn't stand +that gait." + +"And you. Who taught you to ride an ostrich? Where did you get it? +It's almost the first one I ever saw and quite the first that Prince +did. I was nearly as scared as he, meeting such a creature on a lonely +mountain trail." + +"I never learned--it just happened. Zulu is 'patriarch' of the flock. +The only imported bird left alive. We just grew up together, he and I. +Didn't we, King?" + +Speech was now easier, for the speed of both animals had slackened, that +of Prince to a comfortable trot. While the sidewise lurching motion +of the ostrich was enjoyable enough to Jessica, it turned Mr. Hale's +head dizzy, watching. Or it may have been the blinding sunshine, beating +against the canyon wall and deflected upon the riders in waves of heat. + +"Whew! This is scorching. How far, yet?" + +Jessica saw that what she minded not at all was turning the stranger +sick, and answered swiftly: + +"You wouldn't be able to get further than 'five times' before we +reach the turn. There'll be a glorious breeze then. There always is." + +"What do you mean by 'five times'?" + +"Why, just the multiplication table. I always say it when I've +something I want to get over quick. You begin at one-times-one, and see +if it isn't so." + +"What shall we find at the top; your home?" + +"Oh, no, indeed. That is quite the other way. Down in the valley. +Sobrante ranch. That's ours. Were you going there?" + +"I was going--anywhere. I had lost my way. 'Missed the trail,' as you +say in this country." + +"I thought, maybe, you were just a 'tourist.'" + +Mr. Hale laughed, and the laugh helped him to forget his present +discomfort. + +"Perhaps I am, even if you do speak so disdainfully. Are all +'tourists' objectionable?" + +Jessica's brown cheek flushed. She felt she had said something +rude--she, whose ambition it was to be always and everywhere "Our +Lady Jess," that the dear "boys" called her. But she remembered how +annoyed her mother was by the visits of strangers who seemed to regard +Sobrante and its belongings as a "show" arranged for their special +benefit. + +"We--we are generally glad when the rains come," she answered, +evasively. + +"To keep them away? Yet if, as I suspect, you have an ostrich farm, I +can't blame their curiosity. I'm hoping to visit one, myself." + +"Ours is not a real 'farm.' It is just one of the many things our +ranch is good for. But I know my mother would make you very welcome. +You--but there! Look down, please. Yonder it is, Sobrante. That means +'richness,' you know. And now up. The next turn will land us on the +mesa, and I hope, I hope, I have come in time!" + +The road had now broadened, and with a little chirrup to King Zulu, she +passed and forged ahead so rapidly that she was soon out of sight. The +great bird upon whose back she was perched was not, apparently, at all +wearied, but poor Prince was utterly winded, while a curious feeling of +loneliness stole upon his rider. + +But, presently, the sound of voices came over the bluff, and Mr. Hale +urged his tired beast forward. The next he knew he was sprawling on the +plateau and his horse had fallen beside him. Prince's forefoot was in +a hole, from which he was unable to withdraw it. + +"Oh! oh! The poor creature! And you, sir, are you hurt?" + +"No, I think not. Rather a shake-up, though, and I was dizzy with the +heat before. Prince, Prince, lie still; we'll help you." + +One glance had showed the stranger that they were near a shepherd's hut, +and that its occupant was at home. The man had been sitting quietly in +the shade of the little building and of the one pepper tree which grew +beside its threshold. He did not move, even now, till the girl called +impatiently: + +"Pedro! Come! Quick!" + +Then he arose in a leisurely fashion and, carefully depositing his osiers +in a tub of water, came forward. + +"So? He can't get up, yes? A wise man looks where he rides, indeed." + +Despite his anxiety over Prince, Mr. Hale regarded the shepherd with +amused curiosity. Pedro's swarthy face was as unmoved as if the visits +of strangers with disabled horses were daily events; but the man's +calmness did not prevent his usefulness. In fact, during every step +of his deliberate advance he had been studying the situation and how +best to aid the fallen animal, which had now ceased to struggle and lay +gazing at his master with a dumb, pitiful appeal. + +Then Pedro bent forward and, with a strength amazing in a man of his +small build, seized Prince's head and shoulder and with one prodigious +wrench freed him from the pitfall. Then he stooped again and carefully +examined the bruised forefoot. + +"A moon and a half he'll go lame. Yes. For just so long let him be left +with Pedro. Si?" + +Then he led the limping beast toward the hut and began to bathe its +injured ankle with the water from the tub. + +"Marvelous! I never saw anything done as easily as that!" cried Mr. +Hale, recovering from his astonishment. + +"Ah; but you've never seen our Pedro before. And to think I was so +angry with him, I!" + +With a remorseful impulse Jessica sprang forward and threw her arms about +the old shepherd's shoulders. He received her caress as calmly as he +did everything else, though a keen observer might have seen a fleeting +smile around his rugged lips. + +Smiles did, indeed, spring to all three faces when, a moment later, the +rattling of tins discovered Zulu rummaging a heap of empty cans, even +in the very act of swallowing a highly decorated one. + +The jingling startled Prince, also, from the repose into which he had +now settled, and, after one terrified glance toward his unknown enemy, +King Zu, he dashed across the mesa as if lameness were unknown. + +At which Pedro smiled, well content. + +"Good. He that uses his own legs spares his neighbors. Yes." + +"Meaning that he would have to be exercised by somebody?" + +The shepherd did not answer. He had lived alone so long amid the great +solitudes of nature that speech had grown irksome to him. He regarded +it a sin to waste words, and his young mistress understood this, if Mr. +Hale did not. To this gentleman the situation presented itself as a very +serious one. There was no habitation visible save the small hut, a place +barely sufficient to its owner's simple needs and utterly inadequate +to those of a lately recovered invalid. He was not strong enough to +make his way to the valley on foot, and even if Prince were now able to +carry him, he felt it would be brutal to impose so hard a task. + +But Jessica came to his aid with the suggestion: + +"If you'll come and rest behind the cabin I'll make you a cup of +coffee on Pedro's little stove. He often lets me when I come up to see +him, and then, when you've rested, we'll go home. I am so angry I +can hardly breathe." + +"Indeed; I should never have guessed it," he answered, laughing, and +allowing the girl to lead him to the shelter proposed. + +"Ah! but I am. And a gentlewoman never gets angry. Least of all with +such a darling as Pedro. You see, he ought to have been about dying, and +he hasn't even a single ache!" + +"What an odd child you are!" + +"Am I?" regarding him gravely. "I'm sure I don't want to be that. +I want to be just--perfect." + +Mr. Hale sighed as he dropped upon the bench to which Jess had guided +him. "We are none of us that--ever." + +"I suppose that's because 'none of us' ever try quite hard enough. +But I will be, if trying will fetch it." + +Then she whisked inside the hut and presently there came to the +gentleman's nostrils the aroma of freshly steaming coffee. He had not +realized that he was hungry, but now could scarcely wait until the +little maid came out to him again with a tin cup of the liquid in one +hand and a can of condensed milk in the other. + +"My mother always lets her guests 'trim' their drink for themselves, +but I'll drop in the cream if you'll say how much. Enough? Now sugar. +One? How queer. And it's sugar of our own making, too; beet sugar, you +know." + +The tin cup was decidedly rusty, the cheap spoon dingy, and "canned" +milk the aversion of Mr. Hale's dyspeptic stomach; yet despite these +facts he had never tasted a more delicious draught than this, nor one +served with a gentler grace. For Jessica was quite unconscious that there +was anything amiss with Pedro's dishes, and now offered the stranger +a tin of time-hardened biscuits, with the air of one proffering the +rarest of dainties. + +"You would better eat one of these; they're quite fine, with the +coffee." + +"I'll--I'll try, thank you, if you'll fetch your own cup and sit +beside me." + +"All right. Only I'll have to wait till Pedro's finished. There's +only this and the egg, you know. He's rather stubborn, dear fellow. My +mother has offered him more dishes, but he says 'more care' and won't +take them. Excuse me." + +With a dip and swirl of her short skirts, the little hostess ran into the +hut, to reappear, a moment later, bearing in both hands a drinking-cup +which made the guest exclaim in delight: + +"What an exquisite thing!" + +"Isn't it? But just wait until you see those which Pedro made for +mother! This is fine, but they're like cobwebs." + +She did not offer to show him the cup more closely, for she had seen +the shepherd lay down his rushes and sit waiting, and Jessica would not +disappoint the old friend for the new. Still the less, because she had so +lately been vexed with him, and wholly without cause. + +But when the silent fellow had emptied the cup she proudly gave it for +Mr. Hale's inspection. + +"An ostrich egg, you see, cut off at the top. Pedro wove all this +lacelike outside, of just the common tule rushes. He splits them till +they are like threads, and see that handle! Nothing could break it, +nor can one tell just where it begins or ends--the joinings, I mean. +There are many wonderful weavers among the Indians, but none so deft as +our Pedro, my mother says. + +"Now, will you not fill this again and drink it with me? For I see that +our speechless friend, yonder, has gone to work again as if his life +depended on his industry." + +"He's always at work, like that. Yet he never neglects his flock. He +has been herding ever since he was a little boy. That must have been +years ago. He's so very old." + +"He doesn't look it. I should guess he might be fifty." + +"Fifty! Why, there's nobody anywhere around who remembers when our +Pedro was born. Not even Fra Mateo at the mission, yet even he is more +than a hundred," she answered, proudly. + +"Possible? Well, this is all wonderful to me who have lived always in +a crowded city. This big West is like a romance, a fairy tale; not the +least of its marvels to find a little girl like you riding alone on such +a steed up such a desolate canyon, yet not in the least afraid." + +"Why, why should I be afraid? Except, of course, I was, for a bit, when +I saw that Zulu made your horse rear. A step nearer and you'd have both +gone over." + +Mr. Hale shuddered, and Jessica hastened to add: + +"But the step wasn't taken and you're quite safe up here. Is the +dizziness all gone? Many are like that before they get used to the glare. +Some of the 'tourists' wear blue glasses, and veils, and things. They +look so funny." + +Into her laughter burst Pedro's speech. + +"'Ware Antonio. Is it plucking day, no? His third hand is Ferd, who +lies and steals. I know. The mistress' chest has many openings. _Nina_, +go home, and bid Antonio come himself when next he'd have me die. Yes." + +Jessica sprang to her feet. These were many words for the shepherd +to utter, and was not to be disobeyed. Though the old man's age was +doubtless far less than was accredited him, he was commonly considered +a sage whose intelligence increased, rather than diminished, with the +passing years. + +"I'll go at once, Pedro. Please forget that I was angry and--good-by." + +Mr. Hale was unprepared for this sudden departure, which bereft the scene +of its fairest feature; for even while he listened to the brief speech +between this odd pair there was a flash of twinkling feet and a scarlet +Tam, and Jessica was gone. + +"Why--why--what? Eh, what?" he demanded, rising. + +His answer came with a crash and clatter which could never have been made +by one small, fleeing figure, and with the startling force with which +everything happened on that eventful day. + +Over the bluff scrambled a shaggy piebald burro, from whose back there +tumbled at the stranger's very feet a brace of little lads, securely +lashed together; even their wrists and ankles bound beyond possibility +of their own undoing. + +"Horrors! Indian captives!" cried the gentleman, aghast. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +A BAD BUSINESS. + + +Captives? Far from it--save to their own reckless disregard of life and +limb, and all for a bit of hitherto untested fun. + +Shrieking with laughter at the success of their experiment, they rolled +and floundered on the ground, till the laughter changed to cries of pain +as their restless writhings to and fro drove their self-inflicted bonds +deeper into the flesh. + +By some dexterity they got upon their feet, at last, and one implored: + +"Oh! you Pedro! or you, man! Cut us loose, can't you? Don't you see we +can't do it ourselves?" + +Mr. Hale adjusted his eyeglasses and looked rather helplessly toward the +shepherd; but that phlegmatic person was working away on his wonderful +basket as stolidly as if there was none beside himself upon the mesa. + +"Oh! you hateful old Pedro! Cut us free, I tell you! Ain't I your +master? You'd do it mighty quick for 'Lady Jess.'" + +The frightened little fellow, whose fun had now ebbed into a terrible +fear of an indefinite bondage, began to whimper, and Mr. Hale to act. A +few sharp slashings of the horsehair thongs and the captives were free +to express their delight in a series of somersaults, which were only +arrested by sight of Prince in the distance, holding up his injured foot +and seeking for some pasture amid the dry herbage. + +"Hello! That horse is new. Is he yours, mister? What's the matter with +him? Humph! I guess you're new, too, aren't you? I never saw you in our +valley before. Where's your ranch?" + +The questioner was a blue-eyed, fair-haired little chap whose close +resemblance to Jessica proclaimed him her brother; but he was younger, +sturdier, and less courteous than she. Yet his prolonged stare at the +stranger had less of rudeness than surprise in it, and Mr. Hale laughed +at the frank inspection. + +"You look rather 'new' yourself, my man. About eight years, aren't +you?" + +"How'd you guess?" + +"Lads of my own." + +"Where?" + +"Several thousand miles away, over the Atlantic coast." + +"Why didn't you fetch 'em?" + +"Couldn't afford it." + +"Oh! couldn't you? H-m-m." Then he turned his attention to Pedro, with +the remark: "Why aren't you sick, like 'Tonio said? Making my sister +come way up here for nothing. Don't you dare do that again, I tell you. +You're just as well as ever, and I smell coffee. Come on, Luis!" + +Catching his mate around the shoulders the boy rushed into the hut, +only to be as promptly banished from it. With a swiftness matching the +children's own, the shepherd had followed and caught the pair, a lad +in either hand, and flung them out of doors, exactly as one might a +couple of mischievous kittens. Evidently, what was permissible to "Lady +Jess" was forbidden these, though they were not at all disturbed by +their sudden ejection. Such incidents were too familiar, and, having +landed in one heap upon the ground, they immediately fell to wrestling +as if this were the business they had originally intended. Now the +black head of Spanish Luis was uppermost, now the sunnier one of Ned, +with a flying jumble of vari-colored hands and feet, till Pedro came +out and offered to each contestant a cup of cold, but well-sweetened +coffee. + +This meant instant truce and they carried their treat to the bench +Mr. Hale had occupied, leaving him to stand or sit upon the ground, +as he preferred. He chose the latter and near enough to hear their eager +chatter, which was still full of indignation against the shepherd's +robust health. + +"'Cause he ought to been dead, 'most. And my mother wanting Jess the +worst ever was. 'Cause Wun Lung cut hisself." + +"Maybe Wun Lung die now, maybe," suggested Luis, with hopeful +heartlessness. + +"Pshaw! No, he won't. Chinamen don't. You never saw one, Luis Garcia. +Hi! Look at Zulu. Hi! Keno, Keno, Keno! Oh, Wow!" + +By a mutual impulse, Prince and the ostrich had put as wide a space +between themselves as possible, and the latter had strolled close to +Pedro's quiet flock before he had perceived it. This was evident, even +from the distance; but now up rose Keno, the collie, and with angry +yelps rushed fearlessly upon the great bird. + +King Zulu hesitated but an instant before he turned his back upon his +assailant and made all speed over the bluff into the canyon below. + +"Well, of all cowards! A creature that could have killed the dog with +one kick of his foot!" cried Mr. Hale, amazed. + +"Huh! No, he couldn't. Kill you or Pedro. Kill that old horse of +yours, easy as scat. Can't kick low down as Keno. Huh! Guess I know +more about ostriches than you do," exulted Ned, in whose opinion the +stranger had now greatly fallen. + +"Huh! Don't know about ostrichers!" echoed Luis, loyally, and was +rewarded by a friendly slap from his pattern and playmate. + +Roused by the disturbance of his sheep, Pedro hurried to quiet them, +but, as he passed, fixed a piercing gaze upon the stranger's face. The +scrutiny seemed to partially reassure him, for he observed: + +"Horse lame, Zulu gone, catch burro, yes. Let the feet which take the +trail be young, not feeble and unused. But to him who journeys with evil +in his heart evil will surely come. The widow and the orphan belong to +God. Indeed, yet. 'Ware, Antonio." + +Mr. Hale reflected swiftly. He smiled at thought of his own long legs +bestriding the low back of the donkey, but a memory of that heated trail +down which he must pass to reach the nearest house, decided the matter. +While the small owners of the burro were improving the time of the +shepherd's absence to ransack his dwelling the sturdy little animal +bore its accustomed rider out of sight. + +Meanwhile, Jessica's moccasined feet were flying down the slope, her +blue skirts and scarlet Tam making a moving spot of color against the +sandy glare of the canyon wall, and long before she came within hailing +distance catching the eyes of one who eagerly awaited her approach. + +This was John Benton, the carpenter and general utility man at Sobrante; +who had come up the opposite side of the canyon, where were many huge +bowlders, a few trees, and no trail at all. Indeed, a passage along +that face of the gulch was difficult in extreme, and so dangerous that +it must have been serious business which brought a lame man thither. +Fortunately for his patience, the girl paused for breath at a point +level with his own narrow perch upon a shelving rock, and where there was +no great width of the V-shaped chasm. + +"Lady Jess! Oh! I say! Miss Jessica! Lady Jess!" + +The girl looked about her, up and down, everywhere save to the further +side where nobody ever went if it could be avoided. But she answered, +cheerily: + +"_Hola!_ Coo'ee! Coo'ee! Who are you?" + +The man made a trumpet of his hands and shouted back: + +"The flume! Look east--to the flume!" + +She followed his example and called through her own fingers: + +"What's wrong? How came you there?" + +He pointed downward, and she shaded her eyes from the blinding sunshine +to see why, but could discover nothing new in the familiar scene. + +"The water! That's where it goes! The flume is cut!" + +Even at that pitch, his tones were full of excited indignation, and her +own anger leaped at once. + +"Somebody's cut the flume? Who dared! Wait--wait--I'm coming!" + +"No, no! Don't. You can't help it--you'll break your neck! Oh! Lady +Jess!" + +"I'm coming! Wait for me!" + +The carpenter laughed. "Might have known she would, and wanted she +should, I suppose. Surest-footed little thing in the world. Guess I +needn't fret. Though when I think what this old ranch would be without +her, I don't feel any great call to send her into danger, myself. My! +she's as nimble as a squirrel! Down to the bottom a'ready. Up this side +in a jiffy, and won't her blue eyes snap when she sees this lowdown +trick? If I knew whose job it was, well, I'm a peaceable man if I'm +let, but there wouldn't be room enough in this here valley for the two +of us. And it's all on a piece with the rest. One thing after another. +There's a snake in this wigwam, but which 'tis? H-m-m! Beats me. +Beats me clear to Jericho." + +Then he fell to watching the slower, steady ascent of Jessica, who had +descended the further side so swiftly, and who had clambered lightly +enough over the roughness of the gulch bottom; at times filled with a +roaring torrent, but now quite dry after a long, hot summer. + +"Well, here I am!" + +"And a sorry sight to show you. Look a' that now. Isn't that a regular +coyote piece of work?" + +Along this face of the canyon descended a line of small wooden troughs, +closely joined, and supported upon slender but strong cedar uprights. +This flume connected with the distant reservoir of an irrigating +company and had been built by Jessica's dead father at a great and +ill-afforded expense. But of all good things there was nothing so +precious to the tillers of that thirsty land as water, and the cutting +off of this supply meant ruin to Sobrante. + +Young as she was, Jessica fully understood this, though she could not +understand that any human being should do a deed so dastardly. + +"John Benton, you mustn't say that. Some of the cattle have done +it. It's an accident. It can be mended. I'm sorry, of course, but +so thankful you found it. And I see you've got your tools." + +"Oh! I can mend it, all right, but it won't stay mended. You'll see. +'Tisn't the first break I've patched, not by any means." + +"Of course it isn't. Only last week in that stampede, when the boys +were changing pasture, the creatures ran against it and you fixed it, +good as new. There isn't anything you can't do with an ax and a few +nails." + +John passed the compliment by unheeding. + +"There's breaks and there's cuts. Reckon I can tell the difference +quick enough. This is a cut and isn't the first one I've found, I say. +'Twas a fresh-ground blade did this piece of deviltry, or I'm no judge +of edges. Now, who did it? Why? And how's old Pedro?" + +Despite her faith in her friends, the small ranchwoman's heart sank. + +"He--he--why, he isn't sick at all! I was sent up there on a fool's +errand, and just on plucking-day, when I was so needed at home. With Wun +Lung hurt and mother so busy, I ought to have a dozen pairs of hands. +Of course, I'm glad he's well, dear old fellow, but I shouldn't have +gone this morning if somebody hadn't told Antonio wrong. I met a +stranger on the trail, too, and Zulu scared his horse, and it stumbled +in a gopher hole or something and is lamed for ever so long. He'll +likely come to Sobrante, if he can get there, but he looked ill if Pedro +didn't, and the sun nearly overcame him. Can't I help you hold that +board?" + +John accepted her offer of help less because he needed it than because +he always liked to have her near him. + +"So 'twas Antonio sent you, eh? H-m-m!" + +"He didn't send me. Course not. He just said somebody said Pedro was +dying." + +The carpenter laughed, but his mirth was not pleasant. + +"Queer how stories get mixed, even in this lonesome place. There; you +needn't hold that. Your little hands aren't so very strong, helpful +as they may be. This isn't any great of a job; it 'twould only stay, +once 'twas finished!" + +"Then I'll go. Maybe I'd better send up one of the boys to help you. +Shall I? Who do you want?" + +Upon the point of declining, the carpenter changed his mind. + +"Yes, you may. I wish you would. Send Antonio." + +"Send--Antonio! Why, I should as soon think of 'sending' that stranger +I told you about. You're teasing me, for you know well that Antonio is +the only one who ever 'sends' Antonio. Even my mother, who has a +right to 'send' everybody on the ranch whither she will, never orders +the manager. Well, good-by. You shall have a nice dinner out of the +house-kitchen to pay for your hard climb." + +"Take care where you step in your hurry, and just try that word on the +'senor.' Tell him there's a bit of a break in the flume I'd like his +advice about." + +The workman's laugh followed the girl down the rough and perilous way, +and just as she passed out of hearing came the parting shot: + +"Send Antonio." + +"H-m-m! I don't see what it all means. First is old Pedro, with his +grim ''Ware Antonio!' And now John Benton speaks in that queer way, as +if there were two meanings to his words. Heigho! I hear somebody coming +up. I wonder who!" + +Hurrying downward as fast as the uneven path allowed, her own softly-shod +feet making no noise, she reached a turn of the road and suddenly +slackened her pace. The man approaching was one of the few whom she +feared and disliked. + +"Ferd, the dwarf!" + +Instinctively, she hid behind a clump of shrubbery and waited for him +to pass, hoping he would not see her. He did not. He was too engrossed +in handling, apparently counting, something within a deep basket that +hung on his arm, and his bare feet loped around over the rocks as easily +as they would have carried him across the level mesa. + +As soon as he had gone by Lady Jess started onward, but she had grown +even more thoughtful. + +"That's queer. Antonio must need Ferd to-day if ever he does. Indeed, +nobody seems able to serve him as well as that poor half-wit. What could +he have had in his basket? And--ha! how came _this_ here?" + +With a cry of surprise she lifted a small, soft object from the ground +before her and regarded it in gathering dismay. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +SENOR TOP-LOFTY + + +Ever since Jessica could remember, Antonio Bernal had been manager of +the Sobrante ranch, and after the death of her father, a few months +before, he became practically its master. Even Mrs. Trent deferred to +his opinions more and more, and seemed to stand in awe of him, as did +most others on the great estate. He was the only person there, save his +own servant, Ferd, who did not treat the little girl with that adoring +sort of reverence which had given her the love-name of "our Lady Jess." +For some reason unknown to her he disliked her and showed this, so that +she shrank from and feared him in return. + +As she emerged from the canyon upon the broad, sandy road which crossed +the valley, she saw him loping toward her on the powerful black horse +with which he made his daily rounds to inspect the many industries that +Mr. Trent had established. Jessica could always tell by the way he rode +what Antonio's mood might be, and it did not lessen her dread to see +that his sombrero was well over his eyes and his shoulders hunched +forward. + +"Something's put him out, but I can't help that. I must stop him and +speak to him." + +So she placed herself in the middle of the road and shouted her familiar: + +"_Hola!_ Coo-ee! Coo-ee!" + +Any other ranchman would have paused and saluted his "lady," but the +"senor" made as if he would ride her down, unseeing. + +Jessica did not flinch. That ready temper which she was always lamenting +flamed at the insult, and she would not move a hair's breadth from his +path. + +"Hola! Antonio Bernal! I must speak to you, and--see that?" + +Suddenly bending forward she waved something long and black under Nero's +nose, who reared and settled on his haunches in a way to test a less +experienced rider. + +"What do you mean, child----" began that irate gentleman, but pausing +at sight of the object she held. + +"I think this a plume from Beppo's wing, don't you, Antonio?" + +He muttered something under his breath, and she went on, explaining: + +"I found it in the canyon, just after Ferd has gone up it. I knew it in +a minute, for I was looking Beppo over yesterday, and I never saw such +perfect feathers on any bird. How do you suppose it came there, and why?" + +"The fool! One of the very best. How dared he. But suppose I'll have to +admit he stole it. I don't see how, though, for I did the work myself. +Give it to me, senorita; I'll put it with the others." + +Somehow, when Antonio was sauve "our Lady Jess" liked him less than +when he was sharp of speech. His native "senorita" jarred on her ear, +though she blamed herself for her injustice, nor did she yield him the +feather. + +"Not yet, please. I'm going to show it to mother. She'll be so +delighted to know the plucking was a rich one; and if Ferd did steal +this, or has others in his basket, of course you'll make him bring +them back." + +"Of course," answered Antonio, though he frowned and searched her face +with his black eyes as if to read all her suspicions. + +But as Jessica was not suspicious; she was vaguely troubled, as if she +had come into some dark and unknown world. Surely Antonio was able to +clear off all these little mysteries, and she checked him again as he +was about to ride on. + +"There's something else, senor," adopting his title in imitation of +his addressing her; "John Benton is up the gulch fixing a break in the +flume. It's a bad one, and more a cut than a break, he says. He asked me +to tell you and wishes you'd go up there to advise him. I'm to send +up a man to help him. But he wants you, too." + +"Why should I waste my time on such a fool's errand, eh? I knew there +was a leak somewhere and am glad he's found it. There's been no water +in the ditches these three days--more, ten, maybe--and the oranges are +falling. Send up that idler, Joe; and, by the way, how's Pedro?" + +It was the blue eyes now which turned keen and searching, and under their +gaze Antonio's were averted toward some distant point in the landscape, +though the contemptuous smile remained upon his lips. + +"That was a fool's errand, too, Senor Bernal, and I did so want to be +at home this morning. Pedro was never livelier. Whoever told you he was +ill was quite mistaken." + +Antonio gave a short, derisive laugh, dug his spurs into Nero's +sides and loped away. A picturesque, noticeable figure in his quaint, +half-Spanish dress and his silver-decorated sombrero, bestriding the +heavy Mexican saddle upon his powerful horse. + +"Vain as a peacock," was his fellow-ranchmen's opinion of their +"boss," though had his affectations been all his shortcomings these +had not lessened their liking for him. + +Lady Jess looked after him for a moment, her face still sober and +perplexed. + +"I ought to be at home, helping mother, this minute; but I'm going +first to the corral to speak a word of comfort to poor Beppo, and see +how big a plucking there was. If it was a good yield that will be so +much the better news to tell my dear, and this certainly is the finest +plume we ever got. Good! There are some of the boys over there, too, +and I'll save time by getting one of them to go up the canyon to John. +_Hola!_" + +Her soliloquy ended in the gay little Spanish salute, and this was +now instantly answered by a hearty shout of welcome from a group of +rough-garbed men, taking a moment's rest in the shade of the old adobe +packinghouse. + +As lightly as if she had not already walked a long distance, the girl +ran to her friends, to be at once caught up by a pair of strong arms and +gently placed upon a cushion in the box of an empty wagon. + +"But this was your place, Joe Dean. I saw you get up from it." + +"It's yours now, Lady Jess. You do me proud. What's the good word? +How's old Pedro?" + +"Well just plain, every day well. Never been sick a minute. Had all +that climb for nothing; or, maybe, not quite for nothing, because I met +a stranger up there and liked him; and saw John Benton as I came down, +and--found this! Isn't that a plume to be proud of? Raised right here on +our little Sobrante." + +"Whew! It's a beauty, sure enough. A dozen like that would be worth a +tidy sum. How found it?" + +"Has anybody seen King Zu? Though, of course, I know it can't be his. +He was plucked such a little while ago, nor could he have gotten across +the gulch without losing more. Besides, Antonio said 'stole.'" + +Then she gave a hasty account of her morning's adventures, during which +meaning glances were exchanged between the trio of workmen who, by the +time she had finished, had grown as glum as they had before been cheerful. + +"Now, what do you think? Is there anybody who'd be mean enough to cut +off my mother's irrigation, on purpose, or steal her feathers? Even poor +Ferd; I'm sure she's always been good to him and pitied him." + +"Ferd has hands. Others have heads," said Joe, as spokesman for the +rest. + +They nodded swift assent. + +"Except yourself, Lady Jess, nobody ever sees the 'senor' handle the +feathers, and you not often. Only he and his shadow, foolish Ferd, can +manage the birds, he claims. I've been smoking that in my pipe along +back." + +"Oh! Joe, you shouldn't be suspicious of evil." + +"No, I shouldn't be anything you don't want me to be, but I am." + +"Even if I don't like him very well, because he's a little cross, +Antonio Bernal is a good man. He must be. Else my father and now mother +wouldn't trust him so. She lets him get all the money for everything +first and she has what's left--after you're all paid, I mean." + +"Poor little woman!" + +"Not poor, exactly, Samson. And it isn't Antonio's fault that there +isn't so much as there used to be when father was here. If there were, +mother would carry out all father's plans. She'd irrigate that tract +beyond the arroyo, toward the sand hills, and test it with strawberries, +as he meant. There shouldn't be an inch of untilled land on all the +ranch, if the crops we have paid out just a little better. But, no +matter. As long as you boys get your due wages, we can wait for the +rest." + +There was another exchange of glances which Jessica did not see. Neither +did she see herder Samson, lying at length on the ground, lift his great +boot and significantly point to a hole in its toe. Nor would she have +surmised his meaning had she done so. Indeed, she suddenly remembered +her errand at the packinghouse and ran to its open door, but failed. + +"How queer! Why should this be locked? I didn't know it ever was. Where +can the key be?" + +"In Antonio Bernal's pocket," said Joe quietly. + +"Then even before I found this feather he must have suspected somebody +and taken care of the others. But it's dreadful if we have come to +turning keys on one another, here, at dear Sobrante. Well, I'm off to +mother, now; and, Joe, Antonio said you should go to help John. Will +you?" + +"For you, fast enough, Lady Jess, though I'm about quit of Top-Lofty's +orders." + +"Grumbler!" laughed the girl, hurrying away, with her gayety quite +restored by this few minutes' chat with the beloved "boys" who had +petted her all her life. + +They did not laugh, however, as they watched her going, and Joe, rising +to do her bidding, slapped his thigh emphatically and remarked: + +"I call it the time has come. The longer we put it off the worse it +is. Poor little missy! Getting our wages due! That little angel 'd +cry the blue out of her pretty eyes if she knew how long 'twas since +we'd seen the color of our money. Pass the word along, boys, and let's +confab, to-night, and settle it. Time, about moon-up, in John's shop. +How's that?" + +"Count me a mutineer," said the ex-sailor, Samson, as he strolled +toward his cattle sheds. + +"I'm with you," echoed Marty, departing for his orange grove. +"Mutiny's an ugly word aboard ship, I'm told, but when psalm-singing +Samson takes to using it right here on dry land I reckon the case +differs. Anyhow, if it's a bid 'twixt the little one and Top-Lofty, +I'm for the little one every time." + +Scruff knew the road home as well as another, and doubtless reasoned in +his burro mind that the sooner he reached there the sooner he would be +rid of his awkward rider. So he made all speed over the steep descent, +though Mr. Hale used his own feet, now and then, as human brakes to +check the creature's pace; and, whimsically, remonstrated when the jolts +became too frequent. + +"Here, you beast! Hold on! If ever I ride a donkey again just let me +know about it, will you? Keep that front end of yours up, please. I've +a notion of sliding over your head, just to accommodate. Steady, there, +steady. I flatter myself I can stick if I can't ride. And we're getting +along. We're getting along." + +Indeed, much earlier than he had hoped for, they were on level ground +and had struck out upon that road where Jessica had met the manager, and +which for some distance followed the tree-bordered arroyo--just then a +river of sand only--leading straight toward a group of buildings and an +oasis of greenery most welcome to the stranger's sun-blinded eyes. + +"Sobrante ranch, that must be, and the home of my little ostrich rider. +I hope she'll be there to greet me, for a tempting spot it looks." + +The nearer he approached the more charming it appeared, with its one +modern, vine-covered cottage, and its long stretches of low adobe +structures--enough to form a village in themselves--and as dingily +ancient as the other was freshly modern. + +In reality, these old adobes were remnants of a long-abandoned mission, +but still in such excellent repair that they were utilized for the +ranchman's quarters and for the business of the great estate. Antonio +Bernal was the only one of all the employees who had his own rooms at +"the house," as the cottage was called where the Trents themselves +lived. + +From the kitchen of this attractive "house" now floated a delectable +odor of well-cooked food, and with the reflection that he was always +hungry nowadays, the visitor crossed to its open window; there came, +also, a girlish voice, exclaiming: + +"Yes, mother, I'm sure he was a gentleman, though he didn't look +well. I told him you weren't fond of strangers and had little time to +give them, but that I thought you'd make him welcome. Indeed, there's +nowhere else for him to go, since his horse is lame and we so far from +everybody. He lost his trail, he said. Was I right?" + +Then his shadow fell across the sun-lighted floor and Jessica faced +about. With a whisk of the saucepan, in which she was scrambling eggs, +she added: "Well, right or wrong, here he is!" But she was talking to +empty air, for her mother had disappeared. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +AN INTERRUPTED SUPPER + + +The young ranchwoman placed her pan in safety and ran out upon that north +porch, where the table was already spread, to meet the visitor. + +"Oh! I'm glad you've gotten here all safe. How did you do it? It's +a long walk for those who aren't used to it. Even for those who are, +too. Did you ride your horse? Was he better?" + +She rattled off her questions without waiting for replies and to give +him time to recover his breath, which he seemed to have lost. Then she +poured him a glass of milk and urged him to drink it, with the remark: + +"That's Blandina's own. She's the house-cow. You'll find it +delicious. Don't you?" + +"It's fine milk," answered the other, cautiously; "but, if it isn't +too much trouble, a bit of ice would improve it." + +"Ice? Why, where could I get ice? Sometimes, in the winter, a little +forms along the arroyo, but now--I'm very sorry, indeed. I'd be so glad +to get it if I could." + +Mr. Hale swallowed the sickeningly warm liquid with a gulp and hastened +to apologize. + +"It wouldn't be good for me if you could. My compliments to your +house-cow, and I'm very grateful for my refreshment. You have a +beautiful home." + +"Haven't we? The prettiest in the world, I guess. My father thought +so and my mother loves it. So do we all, but to her it is dearest. +Because, you see, father and she have made it all it is. Please, just let +me move your chair nearer the edge of the porch. So. Now, look away +off to the east. Father said there could be no view more uplifting. He +wished everybody who had to live in cities could see it. He knew it +would make them better men." + +Magnificent though it was, Mr. Hale found his small hostess more +interesting than the view. + +"Your father----" he began, questioningly. + +"Isn't here, now. He passed heavenward a year ago. Since then nothing +seems just the same, and dear mother is often sad and troubled. You +know she wants to carry on all father's experiments, she doesn't want +his 'life work to be wasted,' she says, and Antonio isn't able to +get as much money as he used to be. She tries so bravely not to let it +fret her, and I don't see where she is. She was in the kitchen with +me. We were getting dinner because Wun Lung, the cook, cut his hand, +and Pasqual isn't to be trusted. Of course, he's a good enough boy, can +make beds and such things, but--cook! One must be very dainty to do +that. My mother can cook deliciously! She taught herself everything +and the why of it. When she and father came here they lived in that +tiny adobe away at the end of the second row. Do you see it? By the old +corridor. Their table was a packing box and they had just a little +camping outfit. Now there's all this." + +Jessica Trent's sweet face glowed with loving pride in her fair home, +but this was as nothing of the tenderness which filled her eyes as they +now caught sight of a tall woman in black coming over the garden path. + +"There she is, my mother!" + +Mr. Hale rose as the lady drew near and one glance showed him what +model "Lady Jess" had chosen as a type of that "perfect" breeding +to which the little maid aspired. The mistress of Sobrante was a +real gentlewoman, even though her gown was of cheapest print and her +surroundings those of an isolated western ranch. Her daughter ran to +cast a clinging, yet protecting, arm about her, and proudly turning +toward their guest, presented: + +"My mother, Mrs. Trent, Mr. ----" and smiling waited for him to finish +the sentence. + +"Hale. I had forgotten to mention my name before, even though we have +chatted so cosily. Permit me, madam." + +The card he offered bore the inscription: + +"Mr. Morris Hale, Attorney at Law, 156 Broadway, New York." + +Watchful Jessica saw her mother's face pale, while into her native +cordiality of manner crept that slight hauteur with which she regarded +the most objectionable of "tourists." This, then, was one such, and +the girl was sorry. She had liked the stranger so much and was already +planning pleasant entertainment for him; but if her dear did not approve +of him her own opinion went for naught. + +Yet it was only the statement of the gentleman's business that had +caused Mrs. Trent's momentary coldness, for at that time, though her +daughter did not know this, the mere suggestion of law or lawyers +disturbed her. But she was quick to feel the possible injustice of her +fear and to atone for it by a deeper cordiality. + +"You have come just in time to share our dinner, Mr. Hale, and we'll +not wait any longer for laggards. I was looking for the children. Jessie, +dear, have you seen them?" + +"Not since breakfast, mother. But they can't be far away, for there's +Scruff yonder, trying to get into the alfalfa." + +"Antonio hasn't come up, either, since the plucking. I wish he would +while the food is fresh. If you'll----" + +"We needn't wait for him, because I met him riding toward the +foothills, as I came home. He's probably off to the mines and that +means an all-day's trip. But I'll help you dish up, and seek the +boys, though they don't often need seeking at mealtime. You sit right +down with Mr. Hale, dear, and I'll serve you. Pasqual can bring in the +tureen, and I hope the eggs aren't spoiled by waiting." + +"Is Scruff that mottled burro poking his nose through that fence?" +asked the guest. + +"Yes. He belongs to my little son, Ned, who shares him with his +playmate, Luis. An inseparable trio, usually." + +"Then I'm the cause of their present separation. I rode that animal +down from old Pedro's cabin and at his advice," Mr. Hale described +his meeting with the two small lads, the fright they had given him, +and his own desertion of them. "Though now I'm ashamed to recall how +readily I consigned them to a tramp I was unwilling to take myself. +I wish I'd brought them with me. We could have used Scruff's back, +turn and turn about." + +"Oh how could they! One misstep and they'd have been killed." + +"What is it, mother?" asked Jessica, seeing the lady's hand shake so +that she could scarcely serve the soup which formed the chief dish of +their plain dinner. + +"Only another prank of those terrifying children. Bound themselves--or +had help to bind--and rode Scruff bareback up the canyon! They're +always 'playing Indian,' and I wish they'd never heard of one. It's +that Ferd eggs them on. He 'dares' them and----Excuse me, Mr. Hale. +Mothers are anxious people. Try some of Jessie's scramble, please. She +is just learning to cook and likes to be appreciated." + +"But I didn't see them, as I went up or down. They must have taken the +long road around by the north end. Where the old Digger village is," +observed Jessie. + +"A forbidden route. It's to be hoped they'll follow the shortest road +home. If they're not here in an hour one of the men must go to fetch +them." + +Jessica laughed and kissed her mother. + +"Don't you worry, dear, and do, please, eat your dinner. Aren't those +children always having hairbreadth escapes, and are they ever hurt? +Pedro'll send them down in a hurry. He knows his mistress and her +ways, and wouldn't let her be troubled if he could help it. They'll get +no dinner at Pedro's, and dinner is something they've never missed yet. +Hark! Aren't going to miss now! Listen. They're fighting along home in +their regular fashion. By the sound they've about got to prickly-pear +hedge. _Hola!_ Ned! Lu-is! Oh! beg pardon. I forgot I was at table. +Excuse me, mother, and I'll bring in the youngsters--after a deluge!" + +Already there was an uproar in the outer kitchen, where two tired and +hungry little boys were assaulting the unoffending Pasqual, diligently +scrubbing away at his pots and pans. Any victim will do, at a pinch, to +vent one's wrath upon, and Pasqual was nearest. But he was not one to +suffer patiently, and promptly returned the puny blows of his assailants +with much more vigorous ones, till Jessica reached the spot, rescued +the truants, and conducted them to the washbasin. + +From there, disdaining the towel, they made rapid transit to the porch +and the presence of the stranger. All along their enforced walk home +they had laid plans of vengeance, among which "tommyhawking" and +"shootin' chock full o' arrers" were the wildest. But, alas! Now +that their enemy was in their very power, they had no fiercer weapons +than four grimy little fists. Better these than nothing, was Ned's +instant decision, and Luis was but Ned's second thought. As Ned's +right descended upon Mr. Hale's shoulders, Luis' left delivered a +telling blow upon the gentleman's hand, uplifted toward his lips. +This was small assistance to the yellow-haired chief, for the spoon +fled straight from the victim's fingers and landed squarely in Ned's +face. + +This created intense diversion. The blows intended for the guest were +now bestowed upon each other, and so impartially that neither side was +worsted. Mrs. Trent rose in her place, flushed and apologetic, though +the stranger was far more surprised than offended, while the sister had +once more appeared and terminated a battle almost before it was begun. +With a strength of which she did not look capable she caught up and +lifted a child into each of the two high chairs in waiting--but wisely +placed at opposite sides of the board. There they settled themselves +composedly, beaming and smiling upon each other like a pair of wingless +cherubs, while Ned thrust forth a tin basin and demanded: + +"Give me my soup, mother." + +"Gimmesoup!" echoed Luis, choking over a piece of bread he had filched +from Jessica's plate. + +"Children!" + +"Oh! Huh! Please give me my soup, mother." + +"Plea' gimmesoup, _madr'_." + +"Isn't your _madre_, Luis Garcia. Isn't nobody's mother but mine, +so there!" + +"Humph!" remarked Jessica. "What about me?" + +This set Ned off into a giggle, in which Luis dutifully joined, and the +laughter restored the best of feelings all around. The meal over, Mrs. +Trent offered the guest the use of a room in which to rest, and this he +gladly accepted; adding that he wished he might be able to make some +arrangement with her by which he could occupy it indefinitely, till +his health was restored and the business which had brought him to that +region was completed. Any terms she would make would be most satisfactory +to him, for he was charmed with Sobrante and most anxious to sojourn +there for a time. + +Jessica was already clearing the table, yet watching her mother closely, +and was surprised to see a moment's hesitation on the dear face before +the expected and customary answer came: + +"We are always glad to make our friends welcome at Sobrante, and for +as long as our simple life suits them, but we could not accept payment +for our hospitality. I am glad you like our home, and Jessica will show +you to the friend's room at once. Tell Pasqual, my dear, to attend Mr. +Hale and see that he has all which he requires. All that may be supplied +at this isolated spot, that is," she added, with a smile. + +Mr. Hale thanked his hostess and withdrew, but he felt that he had +practically been dismissed from the ranch and that he had no past +friendship to urge as a plea for any but the briefest visit there. + +Yet the cool chamber into which the traveler was shown proved so restful +that the "forty winks only" which he intended were prolonged till +sunset. Then he hastily descended to the lower floor to find that the +early supper of the household was over; though Mrs. Trent had kept his +own portion hot, and smilingly waved aside his apologies as she placed +before him a dish of delicately broiled quail, prepared by her own +skillful hands. + +"Why, this is a luxury! and to be expected only at some great hotel. +By the way, where is the nearest one? I should have been on my way long +ago." + +"I hope not. And you cannot well reach any hotel to-night. The nearest +is thirty miles away, and for a long distance the road is a mere track +across the plain. Even those who are used to it, would find it difficult +to keep it on a moonless night, as this will be." + +"Oh! I'm so sorry." + +The hostess' face grew anxious. "Is it so important? I thought----" + +"Humph! That's another of my blunders. My regret is that I must force +myself upon your hospitality after----" + +Mrs. Trent interrupted with a laugh. + +"I imagine we're talking at cross-purposes. While I cannot make any +guest comfortable at Sobrante 'indefinitely,' as you proposed, I +should be disappointed to have you leave us hurriedly, I'd like you to +inspect the ranch, thoroughly, and that will require at least a week. +Besides, since I've learned from your card that you are a lawyer, I +would like to ask your advice. Of course, if you are willing to give it +in a business way." + +"I shall be happy to serve you and more than happy to stay for the week +you propose, I came----" + +But he did not finish his sentence. There rang through the quiet room the +echoes of rifle shots, repeated singly and in volleys, and accompanied by +shouts and shrieks, so fierce and unearthly that Mr. Hale sprang to his +feet while his hand sought his own pistol pocket. + +"Horrible! In the midst of this peace--an Indian outbreak!" + +A curious thrill ran through his veins, as if his sixty years had +suddenly turned backward to sixteen, and, with an answering cry, he +leaped through the open window and rushed straight into the arms of a man +who had already reached the porch and was making for the very room +that the stranger had just quitted. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +COUNTER REVOLT + + +The collision staggered both men and gave Mrs. Trent time to reach the +side of her guest and to lay a restraining hand upon his arm. Her voice +was tremulous with laughter as she explained: + +"It's only a rifle practice. The ranchmen and the children--all +children in this sport--and always noisy. I'm sorry it disturbed +you, but--Indians! How could you imagine it. Ah! Antonio, good-evening. +Have you had supper?" + +"No, senora. I need it." + +"It is waiting. This visitor, Mr. Hale, Senor Antonio Bernal, the +manager of Sobrante." + +The gentlemen bowed, one with the brevity of a busy man, the other with +the profound salutation of his race. But they parted immediately, for +the Easterner was anxious to witness the shooting and the superintendent +to break his long fast; and with disgust at his own readiness to fancy +danger where none existed, Mr. Hale followed the sound of the yells and +cheers. + +"Hi! hi! for the little one! Hit him again, blue jacket!" shrieked +Samson, as, steadying upon a tie-post the rifle he was too small to +support, Ned sighted the bull's-eye of a distant target, took a careless +aim, yet struck it squarely. + +Whereupon the strong ex-sailor thrust the weapon aside and tossed the +lad in the air as if he had been a ball. Yet caught him as he lightly +descended, and placed him astride his own shoulders. + +"Who'll beat the little master? Three times out o' seven, with an iron +heavy as that, how's the showing for an eight-year-old?" + +But Ned slipped from the ranchman's back, picked up his own tiny, +perfectly finished gun, and swung it over his head. + +"Huh! That's nothing! Huh! This the feller! Huh! Guess 'tis. Shot +more'n forty-'leven quails this day 't ever was. Had 'em for my +supper. Had 'em for the man broke his horse's leg and stole Scruff. +Hello, Mister! Had your supper? Wasn't them good birds? I shot 'em +for you. I did." + +"You?" demanded the gentleman, astonished. He had now joined the group +surrounding the three children, and his presence caused a lull in the +uproar which had preceded his arrival. "You! Why you aren't big enough +to do such a thing." + +"I did! I did! I never told a lie in all my life--never, never, never! +So, there!" and unable to endure such an imputation, the child rushed +upon his traducer and pounded him well with the butt of his little rifle. + +"Ned! Edward Trent! Stop! You--a little gentleman--mother's son!" + +Jessica's arms were about her brother, restraining his movements and +for a moment making him drop his head in shame. The next he had broken +from her grasp, caught up another gun and dragged it toward her. + +"Your turn, Jess. Hurry up. There's just an inch of sun left--I mean +there was a minute ago--hurry up! Me an' Luis's got to go to bed quick +as a wink! Hurry--hurry!" + +"Hurry up!" echoed Luis, with a yawn, and dropping down where he stood, +was instantly asleep. + +John Benton crossed to the visitor's side and remarked: + +"Now, I tell you, stranger, you'll see the sight of your life. If I was +a betting man I'd back Our Lady Jess again' any other girl-shooter on +the globe. You just watch out--if the dark holds off a spell." + +There were a dozen, maybe, of the ranchmen standing or lying around in +a semi-circle, but now all quiet and intent upon the little girl, as, +nodding and smiling upon her guest and her beloved "boys," she stepped +into the open space before them all. "Forty-niner" March, unerring +marksman and the children's instructor, took his place beside her, +examined her rifle, handed it to her and also observed to the stranger: + +"Now, if nothin' happens, you'll see sunthin'. Sorry it's so dusk, +but any gent what doubt's is free to walk up to the target and look +where the ball strikes. You, lady, do me proud." + +"I'll try," said Jessica, simply. "Is it the little nail in the +center?" + +"Just that." + +She sighted and fired; and a ranchman who had run forward to the target, +shouted back across the darkening space: + +"Hit her plumb!" + +A roar of applause greeted this announcement, but the girl accepted this +tribute with no comment save another nod and smile, as she waited her +teacher's next direction. + +This was given silently by a gesture downward. + +Instantly Jessica dropped upon the ground, rested herself upon her +elbows, aimed, fired, and--"Hit her again! Hooray for Our Lady! +Hooray--hooray--hooray!" + +In his excitement big Samson seized Mr. Hale by the sleeve and compelled +that gentleman to jog-trot across the open and view at closer range the +wonderful skill of the little maid who was so dear to them all. + +"Stand aside, Psalm Singer. Your head's in the way!" cautioned +somebody. + +Still clutching his companion, Samson obeyed, and they saw Jessica now +lying upon her back, sighting upward and backward over her head a small, +white object that had been placed in the target where the tack had been. +There was no cheering then, nor any movement among the eager watchers +who fairly held their breaths lest they disturb their darling in that +supreme moment of her success or failure. + +"But she'll not fail!" thought more than one, and would have given +a year's wages that she should not. + +There was a swift rush of something through the air, so close to Mr. +Hale's nose that he visibly drew back, and a double report as the bullet +hit the toy torpedo which had been the chosen mark. + +After that, pandemonium; or so it seemed to Mr. Hale. Those gray and +grizzled men--for there were few young among them--shouted themselves +hoarse and gave way to the wildest expressions of pride and delight. As +for Jessica, the heroine, though her eyes sparkled and a flush rose to +her cheeks, she was by far the calmest person present. Even Mr. Hale's +heart was beating rapidly and he caught the girl's hands and shook +them violently, in his congratulations. + +"That was marvelous! marvelous! I've seen pretty good sharp-shooting +done by professionals, but never anything so fine as that last shot of +yours. How could you ever learn it, so young as you are?" + +"How could I help learning? It is 'Forty-niner's' work, a deal more +than mine. He's been teaching me ever since I could hold a tiny bow and +arrow. He's wonderful, if you please; but I----Well, it seems just to +do itself, somehow. But I must go in now. Time for the little ones to +be in bed. Come, Ned. Come, Luis. Oh, dear! he's fast asleep." + +"I'll pack him for you, lady. And say, boys, isn't this the time?" + +Samson had lifted the sleeping Luis, tucked him under one arm and +swung Ned to the other, but now paused to glance around among his +fellow-workmen. + +"Time was 'moon-up,'" answered Joe, minded to be facetious. + +"This would be 'moon-up,' if the old girl knew her business," +retorted the sailor. "In ten minutes we'll be with you. Come, on, +my lady. I've a word to say to you and the mistress." + +The daily evening sport was over and the ranchmen rapidly dispersed, +each to his own quarters, and none considering it his especial business +to entertain the stranger, who was now strolling slowly houseward +mindful of the sudden chill which came with the nightfall and of his own +unfitness for exposure. + +Proudest of all, "Forty-niner" gathered up the weapons and carried +them off, to clean and put in order for the next evening's practice. +He was well satisfied with his pupil's achievements, though already +planning more difficult feats for their performance. The man was eighty; +yet, while his abundant hair was white, his back was still straight +and his step firm. The joy of his old age was the athletic training +of the Sobrante children, and it would have amazed him, even broken +his heart, had he been told that by such means he did not well earn his +keep. He was eldest of all the elderly workmen that the late master +of the ranch had gathered about him, and his appreciation of this good +home in which to end his days perhaps, the greatest of all. It was, +therefore, a terrible shock which awaited him, as entering his own +room, he lighted his lamp and saw lying on his table a white envelope +addressed to himself. + +He knew what it meant. Dismissal. + +One year before, when Cassius Trent died, there had been twenty employees +where there were now but thirteen--he the "odd one" of the "baker's +dozen." Seven times, when least expected or desired, some one of these +twenty had found in his room just such an envelope, containing his +arrears of wages, and the curt information that, "by the order of Mrs. +Trent, his services were no longer required at Sobrante, nor would any +wages be forthcoming from that day forward." + +These men had all been friends, rather than servants, and in each +case the result had been the same. Cut to the heart by the manner of +discharge, and, for the first time it may be, realizing that he was no +longer young, and, therefore, valuable, the recipient of the envelope had +quietly disappeared, saying farewell to nobody. + +"My turn! My turn, at last!" broke from the aged frontiersman's lips, +and a groan followed. "Ten years I've lived in this old adobe cell till +I've come to feel like the monk for whom it was first built. Now----" + +The white head drooped forward on the outstretched arms and all the +burden of his eighty years seemed suddenly to have descended upon that +bowed and shrunken figure. + +In the pretty dining-room Antonio Bernal had eaten a hearty supper +served by his own mistress, since Wun Lung was not to be found and the +house-boy, Pasqual, claimed his usual recreation hour at the rifle +practice. But neither thought anything amiss in this, and the manager +would, indeed, have asserted that it was quite the proper thing. Was +not he a Bernal, and superior to all at Sobrante? Even though he was, +for the time being, receiving wage instead of bestowing. Well, it was a +long lane that had no turning. + +Pushing back from the table, Antonio had murmured the proverb in Spanish, +with a smile of satisfaction lighting his dark face, and Mrs. Trent had +failed to hear distinctly, though she was familiar enough with the +language so often in use about her. + +"Beg pardon, I did not understand." + +"Begging pardon, one's self, senora, it is seldom that you do. It is +the business was never made for the small brains of the women, no? 'Tis +the senora's place to be beautiful and let the business rest in the +capable hands of I, myself. _En verdad._" + +Mrs. Trent colored and bit her lip. This man's insolence was becoming +insupportable, and she could scarcely recognize him for the obsequious +fellow who had been her husband's right-hand dependence. His brief +authority had turned his head, she reflected, and, again, that she must +in no wise offend him. The welfare of her children demanded this, and +forcing herself to smile as pleasantly as if his insult were a jest, +she remarked: + +"The gentleman whom you met, as you came in, is a lawyer. A New York +lawyer. I--I would like to consult him about our--this business you +mention. I was born and reared in New York and have a feeling that +anything which comes from there must be all right. Even a lawyer, though +I'm not fond of the profession usually. + +"The senor is not wont to waste so many words upon her most humble +servant, no. And as for the lawyers, have I not this day been to the +consulting of the most eminent, the wisest of his kind, no? But yes; and +the truth is, senora--believe me, it breaks my heart so to inform you, +but this barren rancho of Sobrante belongs not to the Dona Gabriella and +her children, but to one Antonio Bernal, even I, myself." + +"To you! Belongs--to--you?" gasped the astonished woman. + +The manager shrugged his shoulders and tossed another Spanish proverb +toward her: "What I have said, I have said." + +Mrs. Trent felt her strength leaving her and sank into a chair, still +gazing incredulously at the other, who now lounged back in his own +chair and began to leisurely pick his teeth. It was a trivial action, +but one wholly disgusting to the gentlewoman's fastidious sense, and +it angered her, which was a good thing, for her anger banished her +momentary faintness and gave her boldness to demand: + +"The proof!" + +"It will be forthcoming, senora, at the right time. Yes. Meanwhile, I +am content you shall remain, you and your little ones, until--well, say a +month. By that date all things should have been arranged and the senora +will have found herself another home less lonely than Sobrante. One so +beautiful as the Dona Gabriella must have hosts of friends who----" + +Senor Bernal paused. There were footsteps approaching, and the merry +voices of children, and an instant later Samson was in the room, +still carrying the little lads in his arms, and with Jessica clinging +affectionately to his ragged sleeve. + +One glance showed the faithful ranchman that something was amiss. There +was fresh sorrow, even consternation, in the beloved face of Sobrante's +mistress, fresh insolence in that of her chief assistant. He was not one +to hesitate when his friends were in trouble, and turned to Antonio +with an angry demand: + +"What have you been worrying your betters with now, senor?" + +"Keep a civil tongue in your head, rascal." + +"Returnin' the compliment, if you please. All the same, don't you +know that a man--_a man_--doesn't go around worrying women as you worry +Mrs. Trent? You, that hadn't a shirt to your back when the boss took +you in and made you what you are! I'm anticipatin' a mite, and I don't +know just how some of the boys'll take it, but we'd laid out this +very night at moon-up--if there'd been a moon sensible enough to get +up, which there isn't--to haul you and a few other matters over the +coals and stir up a fresh sort of blaze. Now, I warn you, just you let +matters slide, peaceable, and you--just you, yourself, keep that civil +tongue you recommend, or you'll light out of here so quick ye won't +see your heels for dust, dry season though it is. Hear?" + +"Hear? Yes, I hear. Now, 'tis your turn. You go tell those malcontents +you call 'the boys' to take their packs and foot it. Times have +changed. Things have changed. There's another master here now, and +not a weak-willed mistress. That is me--I--Antonio Bernal, owner of +Sobrante rancho and all that appertains thereto. Now, go. Vamos. Depart. +Clear out. Get!" + +Samson went--as far as the long, open window, and stepped out upon the +porch. He did not see Mr. Hale, who had seated himself in a rocker, +an unintentional witness of a scene he would gladly have missed, and +putting a whistle to his lips blew a summons which was understood by +every fellow-workman on the ranch. Then he quietly re-entered the house, +folded his arms, and leaned carelessly against the door frame. + +Senor Bernal started up as if he would forcibly eject the herder, but +thought better of this and sank back nonchalantly in his great chair. +Jessica had placed herself behind her mother, and clasped Mrs. Trent's +shoulders with the protecting tenderness habitual to her. Ned had sprung +to his mother's lap and Luis continued his nap at her feet; while all +seemed waiting for some fresh development of the affair. + +This came and speedily; for, in answer to Samson's whistle, there filed +over the porch and into the room, Joe, the smith; Marty, the gardener; +and Carpenter John. There was missing old "Forty-niner," commonly the +dominant fifth of this odd quintet, but nobody wondered much at that. +Doubtless he was polishing his darling's rifle and making ready for some +astonishing display of her skill wherewith to dazzle the stranger upon +the morrow. In any case he rarely disagreed with the opinions of his +cronies and was sure to be one with them in the matter of that hour. + +With a respectful salute to Mrs. Trent, a grin toward the children, and +a scowl for Antonio, these stalwart ranchmen lined up against the wall +and stood at attention. Mr. Hale, observant through the doorway, again +noticed that each of these was well along in years, that each had some +slight physical infirmity, and that, despite these facts, each looked +a man of unusual strength and most entire devotion. Indeed, the gaze +fixed upon the little lady, was one of adoration, and the situation +boded ill for anybody who meant harm to her. + +"Ahem. What say, mates? Has the hour struck?" + +"The hour has struck," answered John Benton, solemnly, shifting his +weight from his lame leg to his sound one. + +Samson strode a mighty step forward and pulled his forelock. + +"Then I state, madam, that we here, on behalf of ourselves and our +whole crew, now, and hereby do, throw off all 'legiance to that there +Spanish skunk, a-settin' in your easiest chair, and appoint Our Lady +Jess, captain of the good ship Sobrante. Allowin' you to be the admiral +of that same, madam, but takin' no more orders from anybody save and +excepting her--under you, of course--from this time forth, so help us." + +Then there burst from the trio of throats a cheer that shook the windows, +and called a contemptuous laugh from the superintendent so valiantly +defied. + +The cheer died in an ominous silence which Senor Bernal improved. + +"Highly dramatic and most edifying, _en verdad._ Senor, I kiss your +hands in even greater devotion. But the play has one little drawback. +To I, me, myself, belongs Sobrante. Already I have had the law of which +you spoke. My claim I have proved. From the long back generations the +good title from the Mission Padres to my own fathers, yes. Sobrante? +_Si._ More and better. Wide lies the valley of Paraiso d'Oro. Mine, +Mine. All--all mine. No?" + +He rose to his feet and pompously paced up and down the room, insolently +handsome and proud of the fact, while out on the darkened porch Mr. Hale +had heard a word which set his own pulses beating faster and the row of +ranchmen started forward as if minded to throw the braggart out of the +house. + +But Jessica stepped forth and cried, triumphantly, though still with an +effort toward that courtesy she desired. + +"Beg pardon, Senor Antonio Bernal, but surely you are quite mistaken. My +father taught me some things. He said I was not too young to learn +them. He--he only--has the title deed to dear Sobrante, and I--I +only--know the safe place where it is kept!" + +Antonio halted in his strutting march and for a moment his face grew +pale. The next instant he had regained more than his former confidence, +and with a sneering laugh, exclaimed: + +"Seeing is believing, no? To the satisfaction of the assembled most +honorable company," here he bowed with mock politeness, "let this most +interesting document be produced. _Si._" + +Jessica flew from the room and in an intolerable anxiety the whole +"honorable company" awaited her long-delayed return. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +NIGHT VISIONS + + +When the tension of waiting was becoming intolerable, and Mrs. Trent was +already rising to seek her daughter, Jessica reappeared in the doorway. +Her white face and frightened eyes told her story without words, but her +mother forced herself to ask: + +"Did you find it, darling?" + +"Mother, it is gone!" + +"Gone!" + +"Gone. Yet it was only that dear, last day when he was with us, in the +morning, before he set out for the mines, that he showed it to me, safe +and sound in its place. He was to tell you, too, that night--but----" + +"It was that, then, which was on his mind, and I could not understand. +I--Antonio Bernal, he entrusted you and you must know; where is that +missing deed?" + +"Deed, senora? This day, just ended, is it not that I have been over +all the records and there is none of any deed to Sobrante later than my +own--or that proves my claim. In truth, the honorable Dona Gabriella is +right, indeed. I was the trusted friend of the dead senor, and if any +such precious document existed, would I not have known it? _Si._ What +I do know is the worry, the trouble, the impossibility of such a paper +broke the senor's heart. It does not exist. Sobrante is mine. He knew +that this was so--I had often spoken----" + +The untruth he was about to utter did not pass his lips. There was +that in the white face of Gabriella Trent which arrested his words, +as, clasping her boy in her arms, she glided into the darkened hall +and entered her own rooms beyond. + +The "boys" had not moved, nor Jessica followed, and she now firmly +confronted the manager, saying: + +"I am sorry to tell you, Antonio Bernal, that you are not acting square. +My father did have that title deed, and I believe you know it. Somebody +has taken it from the place where his own hands put it, but I will find +it. This home is ours, is all my mother's. Nobody shall ever take it +from her. Nobody. You hear me say that, Senor Antonio Bernal, and you, +dear 'boys?'" + +"Ay, ay," echoed her friends, heartily; but the superintendent regarded +her as he might have done some amusing little insect. + +"Very pretty, senorita. The filial devotion, almost beautiful. But +the facts--well, am I not merciful and generous, I? There is no haste. +Indeed, no. A month----" + +"Before a month is out I will have found that deed and placed it in +my darling mother's hands. I may be too young to understand the +'business' you talk about so much, but I am not too young to save my +mother's happiness. I can see that paper now, in my mind, and I +remember exactly how it looked inside and out. It seemed such a little +thing to be worth a whole, great ranch. I don't know how nor where, +but somehow and somewhere, I shall find that paper. 'Boys,' will you +help me?" + +"To the last drop of our hearts' blood!" cried John Benton, and the +others echoed, "Ay, ay!" + +Antonio thought it time to end this scene and walked toward the porch, at +the further end of which was another long window opening into his own +apartments. But he was not permitted to leave so easily. Great Samson +placed himself in the manager's path and remarked: + +"There's no call to lose sight of the main business 'count o' this +little side-play of yours. We boys come up here to-night to quit your +employ and hire out to Our Lady Jess. We're all agreed, every man jack +of us. Your day's over. Account of Mrs. Trent and the kids, we'd +like things done quiet and decent. There's a good horse of yours in +the stable and though there isn't any moon, you know the roads well. +If you tarry for breakfast, likely you won't have much appetite to +eat it. More'n that, the senora, as you call her, has waited on your +whelpship for just the last time. Before you start you might as well +pay up some of our back wages, and hand over to the mistress the funds +you've been keeping from her." + +"Insolent! Stand aside. How dare you? Let me pass." + +"I'm not quite through yet. There's no real call to have talk with +such as you, but we 'boys' kind of resent being set down as plumb +fools. We've seen through you, though we've kept our mouths shut. Now +they're open; leastways, mine is. This here notion of yours about +ownin' Sobrante is a bird of recent hatchin'. 'Tisn't full-fledged +yet, and 's likely never to be. Your first idea was to run the ranch +down till your mistress had to give it up out of sheer bad luck. Fail, +mortgage, or such like. Oranges didn't sell for what they ought; olives +wasn't worth shucks; some little varmint got to eating the raisin +grapes; mine petered out; feathers growing poorer every plucking, though +the birds are getting valuabler. Never had accounts quite ready--you, +that was a master hand at figures when the boss took you in and made you, +You----" + +Antonio strode forward, furious, and with uplifted hand. + +"You rascal! This to me--I, Antonio Bernal, descendant of--Master of +Sobrante and Paraiso, I----" + +"Master? Humph! Owner? Fiddlesticks! Why, that little tacker there, +asleep on the floor," pointing to Luis, "is likelier heir to this old +ranch than you. The country's full of Garcias and always has been, Pedro +says. Garcia himself, when all's told. As for Bernals, who ever heard +of more'n one o' them? That's you, you skunk! Now, usin' your own +fine, highfalutin' language: 'Go. _Vamos._ Depart. Clear out. _Get!_'" + +"I go--because it so suits me, I, myself. But I return. New servants +will be with me and your quarters must be empty. Let me pass." + +"Certain. Anything to oblige. But don't count on them quarters. We +couldn't leave them if we would 'cause we've all took root. Been +growing so long; become indigenous to the soil, like the boss' +experiments. Thrive so well might have been born here and certainly +mean to die on the spot. Going? Well, good-night. Call again. _Adios._" + +By this time Jessica was laughing, as her old friend had meant she should +be. In his contemptuous harangue of the man he disliked and mistrusted, +there had been more humor than anger. + +"Well, my lady, that did me good. Haven't had such a thorough +housecleaning of my mean thoughts in quite a spell. Feel all ready for +a fresh voyage under the new captain. You rest run along and find that +long sufferin' mother of yours and tell her the coast's clear of that +pirate craft. We've all shipped men-o'-war, now, and run up the +old flag of truth and love. That was the banner your father floated +from his masthead, and the colors that'll never dip to lying or +cheating. Wait. I'll pack this baby Luis to his bed. Poor little +castaway, that your good father picked up in the canyon and fetched +home in his arms, to share the best with his own. Well, needn't +tell me that the family of a man as good as he was'll ever come to +want. Heave ahead, captain. Show me the track to sail." + +Jessica stopped to bid the other ranchmen good-night, then led the sailor +to the little bedroom which the lads shared in common, and where Ned +was already asleep, tucked in his white cot by his mother, who let no +personal grief interfere with her care for others. + +"Good-night, dear Samson. I must find that paper. You must help me. My +mother must not, shall not, lose her home." + +"Never. Good-night, captain. You've a good crew on deck and we'll make +happy haven yet." + +That was Jessica Trent's first wakeful night. Though she tried to lie +quietly in her own little bed, lest she should disturb her mother whose +room she shared, she fancied all sorts of strange sounds, both in-doors +and out; and whenever she dropped into a doze, dreamed of the missing +paper and of searching for it. + +One dream was so vivid that she woke, exclaiming: + +"Oh, mother! I've found it. The black tin box under the three sharp +rocks!" + +But her eyes opened upon vacancy, and there was no response from the +larger bed where her anxious parent had, at last, fallen asleep. Yet the +vision remained, painted upon the darkness, as it were, a sun-lighted +glowing spot, with three pyramidal rocks and a clump of scraggly live +oaks. A spot she had never seen, indeed, but felt that she should +instantly recognize, should she come upon it anywhere. + +Then she curled back upon her pillows and again shut her eyes. + +Could it be possible that she, a healthy little girl, was growing +fidgety, like Aunt Sally Benton, who sometimes came to visit her son and +help with the sewing? For she surely was hearing things. Movements, +hushed footfalls, softly closing doors, creaking floors, at an hour when +all the household should be at rest. + +"How silly! It may be somebody is ill! Wun Lung's hand may hurt him, +though it seemed so nearly well, and nobody else would have minded it. +That stranger! Yes, I fancy it's he. He may need something that I can +get him, and I'll go inquire." + +Slipping a little wrapper over her gown, but in her bare feet, the girl +noiselessly left the room and followed the sound she had heard. These +led her to a small apartment which her father had used as an office and +where stood the desk in whose secret drawer she had expected to find +the title deed. A small fireproof safe was in this office. It was an +old-fashioned affair, with a simple, but heavy key, which the Sobrante +children had played with in their infancy. She remembered her father +remarking, with a laugh, that a safe was the most useless thing he +possessed, for he never had anything worth putting in it; but it had +been a belonging of old "Forty-niner" Marsh, a gift to his employer, +and therefore accorded a place of honor. + +Before this safe now bent a man whom Jessica recognized with surprise +and relief. + +"Why, Mr. Marsh! Is it you? What in the world are you doing here at this +hour? Are you ill? Do you want something?" + +"No, dearie. I'm not ill; and I'm not robbing you. And I've got all +I want. That's one more look at your bonny face, God bless it!" + +It was close to his shoulder now, that face he loved, and he kissed it +tenderly; though with equal tenderness, if less emotion, the little maid +returned his caress and clasped his neck with those strong, young arms +that so yearned to protect and comfort everybody. + +"That's funny. Should think you'd be tired of it, sometimes, I +disappoint you so. But never mind. I'm getting handier with my new +rifle every day, I think, and I mean to do yet what Samson claims I +should--just beat the world. Have you finished looking at your things?" +For it was Mr. Marsh himself who had always used the safe, even after +giving it away. "Can't I get you something to eat, so you can sleep +better?" + +"No, dearie, no, just one more good kiss--to remember. Good-by. Good-by. +It--it might have been done kinder, maybe, but--her heart is sad, I know, +and her first thought is for you. She must save for you. Here, Lady, +take the key. Some time you--you might want to look in that safe for +yourself. Good-night." + +Jessica went with him to the outer door, wondering much at this +oddly-timed visit. Yet the ranchman walked erect, still carrying his +lighted candle quite openly, as one who had done nothing of which to be +ashamed; and when he had departed the girl returned to her own bed +still more wakeful because of this queer incident. + +Ten minutes later, it may have been, she heard the limping footfall of +a slowly-moving horse, the echoes growing fainter continually. + +Again she sat up and listened. + +"That's Mr. Marsh's 'Stiffleg!' What should send him off riding now? +Oh! I do wish mother was awake, things seem so queer. Yet I don't really +wish it. She has so many wakeful nights and just this one is more than +I want. Now, Jessica Trent, don't be foolish any longer. Go straight to +sleep or you'll be late in the morning." + +Nature acted upon this good advice, and Our Lady knew no more till a pair +of chubby hands were pulling her curls and Ned's voice was screeching in +her ear: + +"Wake up, Jessie Trent. We had our breakfast hours ago, and the 'boys' +is all out-doors, can't go to work 'ithout their captain. That's _me_, +Jessie Trent, 'cause I'm the 'heir.' Samson said so." + +"I's the heir, Samson said so!" echoed Luis from the floor where +he was trying the fit of Jessica's new "buckskins"--the comfortable +moccasin-like footgear which Pedro made for her--upon his own stubby toes. + +"He, he! What's the heir Samson said? You're a stupid, Luis Garcia." + +"Stupid Garcia!" laughed the little mimic, not in the least offended. + +"Well, run away then, laddies, and I'll be ready in a jiffy. Poor +mother. To think that I should have left her to do so much alone." + +As she threw open the sash of the rear window, Jessica started back, +surprised; for there, reined close to the porch, was Nero's black form, +with the dark face of his master bending low over the saddle. + +"Good-morning, senorita, and good fortune. Those who hid may find. I +kiss your hand in farewell, and may it rule in peace till I return, I +myself, the master. One month hence I come, bringing my servants with +me. _Adios._ Ah! but what did you and the old sharpshooter at the office +safe at midnight? _When the senora would seek her title, seek him._ It +is farewell." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +CAPTAIN JESS + + +Jessica drew back, repelled. Why did that man make her so unhappy +whenever she saw him nowadays? What did he mean by that speech about +old Ephraim Marsh and the safe? Well, he was gone, riding swiftly away +and lightening her trouble with every rod of ground he put between them. + +"He'll not come for a month, he said, and by that time everything +will be straight. If Sobrante is ours it cannot possibly be his. That's +simple. Though he might have lived here always if he'd wished. The +title paper has been mislaid. That's all. I'm sure to find it when +I have time to look thoroughly, and how different things do seem by +daylight. Now, to say good-morning to the 'boys,' dear fellows, and +then for breakfast. I'm as hungry as on ostrich." + +Though since sunrise each had been busy about his accustomed duties, +neglecting nothing because of the change in command, it suited the ideas +of these faithful ranchmen to report for duty to their newly appointed +"captain" and to ask for orders from her. With the ready intuition of +childhood she fell in with their mood at once and received them in a +manner which robbed the affair of burlesque and invested it with dignity. + +From a shaded corner of the porch, from behind his book, Mr. Hale +watched the scene with an amusement that soon gave place to wonder and +admiration. They were all profoundly in earnest. The fair young girl with +folded arms and serene composure, poised at the head of the steps and +the group of sunburned workmen standing respectfully before her. + +By tacit consent Samson was spokesman for the company and his words had +their usual nautical tinge. + +"We're ready to set sail, captain, and here's wishing good luck to +the v'yge! Old 'Forty-niner' hasn't showed up on deck yet, but +he'll likely soon heave to, and the rest the crew'll vouch for his +being a good hand in any sort o' storm we're apt to strike. We've +overhauled this chart. Each of us solemnly promise to abide and obey no +orders but yours, captain, or the admiral's through you. And would +respectfully suggest--each man sticks to the post he's always filled, +till ordered off it by his superior officer. Right, mates?" + +"Ay, ay." + +"How's that suit you, commodore?" + +"That suits me, Samson. It will suit my mother." + +"As for pay--being as we've got along without any these five months +back, and Senor Top-Lofty's rode off, forgettin' to leave them arrears +we mentioned, we wash the slate clean and start all over again. For five +months to come we'll serve you and the admiral for mess and berth, no +more, no less." + +"Samson, do you mean that? Haven't you boys been paid your wages +regularly, just as in my father's time?" + +"Come, now, captain, that's all right. Give us the word of dismissal +and let that slide. You missed your own mess this morning----" + +"But that will break my mother's heart. I know! I know! I've often +heard her ask him, and Antonio tell her--he said that your wages were +always taken out before he brought what little money he could to her. +I know you said something about 'arrears' last night, but I didn't +understand. What are 'arrears,' Samson?" + +"Blow me, for an old numskull. Why couldn't I keep my long tongue +still! I only meant that we are willing, we want, we must work for you +and all the Trents for nothing till we've made up part to 'em of what +that sweet 'senor' cheated 'em of. That's all. We've settled it. +No use for anybody to try change our minds, even if there was spot cash +lying around loose, waiting to be picked up and you havin' no call for +it. Not one of which conditions hits the case." + +"You are a good talker, dear old Samson, and a long one. I can talk, +too, sometimes. Maybe you've heard me! You've read me your chart. Hear +mine. It's my father's own--that he always meant, but was never able +to follow. That I know my mother wants to follow for his sake, though +she does know so little of business. Now, if we're starting fresh, +with the clean slates you like, we'll put this at the top: 'share and +share alike.' There was another long name dear father used to call +it--I----" + +"Co-operation," suggested John Benton. + +"Yes, yes. That's it. As soon as he was out of debt and had a right +to do what he would with Sobrante, he meant to run it that way. But you +know, you know. It was only that last day when he came home so late from +that far-off town that he had his own 'title' and was all ready to do +as he wished. Let us do that now. I know how. He told me. He was to make +you, Samson, responsible for all the cattle on the ranch. You were to +hire as many of the other boys as you needed and were to have a just +share for your own money. The more you made out of the cattle the better +it would be for yourself. Isn't that right?" + +"Right to a dot. Atlantic! but you've a head for business, captain!" + +"I've a head must learn business, if I'm to be your captain. That is +true enough. It isn't my father's fault if I don't know some simple +things. He was always teaching me, because Ned was too little and my +mother--well, business always worried her and he'd do anything to save +her worry, even talk to a little girl like me. And as Samson was to do +with the cattle, so George Cromarty was to do with the raisins and +oranges. The ostriches--Oh! but they were to be Antonio's charge. And +now----" + +"They're yours, captain, with any one or lot of us you choose for +helpers." + +"Ferd knew much about them, and they minded him. But----" + +"Ferd'll trouble Sobrante none while the senor is away. Joe is a +good hand at all live stock, and I'll pledge you'll get every feather +that's plucked when he does the counting. He won't let any eggs get +cooked in hatchin', neither. You can trust Joseph--if you watch him a +mite." + +A laugh at honest Joe's expense, in which he heartily joined, followed +this and Lady Jess stepped down among her friends, holding out her +hands to first one, then another. Her blue eyes were filled with happy +moisture, for she was not too young to feel their devotion to be as +unselfish as it was sincere, and her smile was full of confidence in them +and in herself. + +"Eleven years old is pretty early to be a captain, I guess, but I'll +be a good one--just as good and true as you are! What I don't know +you'll teach me, and if I make mistakes you'll be patient, I know. +One thing I can do, I can copy bills and papers. I can put down figures +and add them up. It was good practice for me, my father said. So I'll +put down your names and all your business in these new books he bought +and was going to use in his co--co-operation--is that right, John?" + +"Right as a trivet." + +"And our admiral, that's the dear mother, will not have to fret so any +longer. Between us we'll make Sobrante all my father meant it should +be and--as soon as I have my breakfast--I will find that title. I must +find it. I will. Sobrante is yours and ours forever. Oh, boys, I love +you! I'm all choked up--I love you so and I feel like that my father +used to read in Dickens: 'God bless you every one!'" + +With her hands clasped close against her breast, and her beloved face +luminous with her deep affection, their little maid stood before her +hardy henchmen, a symbol to them of all that was best and purest in +life. Their own eyes were moist, and even Mr. Hale had to take off +his glasses and wipe them as, looking around upon his comrades, great +Samson swung his hat and cried: + +"And may God bless Our Lady Jess! And may every man who seeks to injure +her be--stricken with numb palsy! And may every crop be doubled, prices +likewise! Peace, prosperity and happiness to Sobrante--destruction to +her enemies!" + +"Forgiveness for her enemies, Samson, dear, if there really are. That +will be nobler, more like father's rule. Make it peace, prosperity and +happiness to all the world! Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!" + +Mr. Hale clapped his hands to his ears, then hastily moved forward and +joined in the cheer, that was deafening enough to have come from many +more throats than uttered it. Yet he had an uncomfortable feeling that +he might be classed among those "enemies" whom Samson wished afflicted +with numb palsy and that, at that moment, he was, by no fault of his +own, playing a double part. + +But he gave himself the benefit of the doubt until he should learn, as +he meant to do at once, the whole history of Sobrante with its strange +hodge-podge of industries, its veteran employees, and its childish +"captain." So, while the ranchmen dispersed to their business and +Jessica sought her long-delayed breakfast, he turned towards the kitchen +where he hoped to find the mistress of the ranch. + +But he was disappointed. There was visible only the broad, +purple-covered back and black pig-tail of a Chinaman, pounding away +at the snowy loaves of his kneading-board, as if they were "enemies" +of his own and deserving something much worse than "numb palsy." + +"Wun Lung!" + +No answer, save the whack, whack, whack of the tormented dough. + +"Ahem. I say, John!" + +Whack, whack. + +"Wun Lung, where's your mistress?" + +"Dlaily." + +"Indeed? I fancy your hand is better. I'm glad of it. That bread +ought to be fine. At your leisure, kindly point the direction of the +'dlaily,' will you?" + +One yellow, floury hand was lifted and extended eastward, but as this +signified nothing definite to the stranger he continued his inquiries. + +"Where's Pasqual?" + +"Sclub." + +"And the little boys?" + +"Alle glone." + +"I congratulate you on your English, though I'm uncertainly whether +you mean me to 'go on' or assert that somebody else has gone on. I +don't like to disturb Miss Jessica at breakfast, but----" + +"Back polchee," suggested Wun Lung, anxious to be rid of the intruder, +whose irony he suspected if he did not understand. + +Mr. Hale betook himself around the house, and, fortunately, in the right +direction; for just issuing from her dairy, which was in a cellar under +the cottage, was Mrs. Trent, bearing a wooden bowl of freshly made butter. + +The guest's heart smote him as he saw her sad face brighten at meeting +him, for he knew she trusted him for help he was in duty bound to give +elsewhere. But it was not a lawyer's habit to anticipate evil, and he +was thankful for her suggestion. + +"You should have a ride this fine morning, Mr. Hale, before the sun is +too high. I've ordered a horse brought round for you at nine o'clock, +and Jessica shall act your guide, on Scruff. That is--if the laddies +haven't already disappeared with him. Ah! here comes my girl, herself. +You are to show our friend as much of Sobrante as he cares to see, in +one morning, daughter. If the children have ridden the burro off you may +have Buster saddled." + +"Shan't you need me, mother? One of the men----" + +"No, dear. Wun Lung is at his post again and Pasqual will do the milk +and things. But as you go, I'd like you to take this butter to John's. +It's the weekly portion for the men, who mess for themselves," she +explained to the stranger. + +"Lucky men to fare on such golden balls as those!" + +"Come and see my dairy. I'm very proud of it. You know, I suppose, +that cellars are rarities in California. Everything is built above +ground, in ordinary homes; but I needed a cooler place for the milk, and +my husband had this planned for me. See the water, our greatest luxury; +piped from an artesian well to the tank above, and then down through +these cooling pipes around the shelves. After such use supplying the +garden, for whatever else may be wasted here it is never a drop of +water. Will you taste the buttermilk? I can't give you ice, but we +cool it in earthen crocks sunk in the floor." + +More and more did the lawyer's admiration for his hostess increase. +She displayed the prosaic details of her dairy with the same ease and +pride with which she would have exhibited the choicest bric-a-brac of a +sumptuous drawing-room, and her manner impelled him to an interest in +the place which he would have found impossible under other circumstances. +But above all he wondered at the unselfishness with which she set aside +her own anxieties and gave herself wholly to the entertainment of her +guest. + +"The loss of that title deed means ruin for her and her family--even +if I were not also compelled to bring distress upon her. But she does +not whine nor complain, and that's going to make my task all the harder. +Well, first to see this ranch, and then--I wish I'd never come upon +this business! Better suffer nervous dyspepsia all the rest of my life +than break such a woman's heart. Her husband may have been a scamp of +the first water, but she's a lady and a Christian. So is that beautiful +little girl, and it's from her I mean to get all my needed information." + +Absorbed in thoughts that were far from pleasant, the gentleman +walked beside Mrs. Trent to the horseblock, and mounted the horse +which a gray-haired stable "boy" was holding for him, all without +rousing from the preoccupation that held him. It was not till he heard +Jessica's excited call coming over the space between the cottage and the +"quarters" that he realized where he was and looked up, expectant. + +The little girl who had left them for a few moments, was galloping toward +them on the back of a rough-coated broncho, waving a paper in her hand +and with distressed indignation, crying out as she came: + +"'Forty-niner' has gone. Dear old 'Forty-niner!' I found this +letter in his room and it's forever--forever! Oh, mother! And he says +_you_ discharged him--or it means that--without show of chance! Mother, +mother, how could you? That dear old man that everybody loved!" + +"Discharged him--I? I should as soon have thought of discharging myself! +What fresh distress is this?" + +Catching the paper from Jessica's hand Mrs. Trent read it, then turned +and without a word walked slowly into the house. But her head was giddy +and her limbs trembled, and she had a strange feeling as if she were +being swiftly inclosed in a net from which she could not escape. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +IN THE MINER'S CABIN + + +"Forgive me, mother! I oughtn't to have told it that way. But what does +it mean? Why should you want him to go?" + +"Did you not hear me say I would not have dismissed him? No, dear. +There is something in this I don't understand. How do we know but that +all the other 'boys' who left so suddenly have been deceived in just +this way? As long as there was food enough to eat and a roof to shelter +them the men whom your father befriended and who, in turn have befriended +us, were as welcome to Sobrante as my own children. I must think this +over. We must then find Ephraim and bring him back. We must. There! +We'll not discuss it any more at present. You are keeping Mr. Hale +waiting and that is rudeness. Go, now, and explain all your father's +plans to him, as you ride." + +"I'd so much rather stay with you. I don't like to leave you now." + +"I shall be busy and you'll be back for dinner." + +"I'd like to look for that paper--the title." + +"When you come back." + +"Good-by, then, and don't do any hard work. I'll send the children up +to stay around the house. That will be one worry off your mind." + +When she had again sprung into her saddle, Lady Jess apologized for +keeping Mr. Hale so long, and suggested: + +"Suppose we ride first to the mines, while it is coolest. Then come +around by the olive and orange orchards. We can rest at the lemon house +awhile. It's interesting to see how they are cared for, or so most +strangers think." + +"Anything and anywhere suits me, for I'm full of curiosity about +Sobrante. How did your father happen to take up so many different lines +of industry?" + +"Oh, they were all his 'experiments.' You see he wanted to do good +to some sorts of people that nobody else seemed much interested in. +Men that were getting old and were not rich or well. He was born in +California, and he always thought it the land where everybody could +find a place if he only had a chance. He went to New York and lived a +long time, and he and mother were married there. He'd once ridden over +this valley, on a horseback trip--just like yours, maybe--and after that +he always meant to buy it if he could. So, when he began to lose his +own health he came right away. He hadn't much money himself, but he +worked and mother helped, and he'd paid for it all before he died. It +was the title deed which proved it, that he had just brought home and +I could not find last night. Though, of course, I shall find it yet," +she added confidently. + +"I hope so, my child. I devotedly hope so. Yet if it was duly recorded +the matter should easily be set right." + +Jessica's face fell. + +"I don't believe it was. He said something about that, I didn't +understand it quite, but I know he said 'recorded' and that he meant to +have it done the next time he went to Los Angeles. But--he didn't +ever go." + +The lawyer's face grew still more serious. Something of the love with +which she inspired everybody was already in his heart for this little +maid, and thoughts of his own young daughters, threatened with the +misfortune which menaced her, stirred him to fresh regret for the mission +he had undertaken. + +They had now turned their horses' heads toward the foothills on the +north and he asked: + +"What are these 'mines' of which you speak?" + +"For coal. It was an old man from Pennsylvania first thought there +might be such stuff in the mountains near, and it's worth so much here. +Father had found him in one of the towns, with his wife and sick son. +They'd spent all they had, to come West to try to cure the son, and +were very poor. So, of course, father brought them to Sobrante, and the +boy got better at once. They didn't understand any sort of work except +mining, and old Wolfgang couldn't rest without trying to do something +back for father. So he and Otto dug and picked around till they found a +'vein' and then they put up a little cabin near and there they live. +Their name is Winkler, and Elsa, the mother, is the quaintest little +Dutchwoman. Of course, there's never been money enough to work the +mine right. All they can do is to get out enough coal for us to use. +That's why we always have such lovely grate fires in the winter time, +that make the house so cosy. You'll like the Winklers, and you'll +like Elsa's coffee. Go there what time of day you will she always +makes you drink some, sweetened with the wild honey she gets in the hills +and with her goat's milk in it." + +Mr. Hale made a wry face. + +"Oh! you're sure to like it. It is delicious, drank with a slice of +her hard, sweetened bread. And their little cabin is as clean as can +be. Elsa is a great knitter. She has knitted covers for everything, her +beds, chairs, table, everything. All the furniture is made out of wood +they found in the hills, and when they're not mining Otto carves it +beautifully." + +"Are all the people who work for you unfortunate? I mean, was some +misfortune that which made your father engage them?" + +"Yes, just that. They are his 'experiments.' He said this valley was +made for every sort of work there was to be done. All men can't be the +same thing, and every man was happiest at his own trade. Young men can +get work anywhere, but dear Sobrante is a Home with a capital H, for +anybody who needs one. My father said the more he trusted people the less +they ever disappointed him. He'd proved his plan was right on his own +single ranch and he was trying to make others do the same on theirs. +Paraiso d'Oro--oh! you're from that same New York. Do you know a--a +Mr. Syndicate, I think he was, who owns Paraiso. Of course, I know in +such a big city you might not, though maybe----" + +The listener started, then looked keenly into the innocent face bending +toward him from the broncho's back. + +"Suppose I do know a syndicate--a company--not an individual, which is +interested in Paraiso? Can you tell me anything about such a place? Until +last night I had no idea that I had come anywhere near to it, and then +by accident, hearing Antonio Bernal mention it as his. Is it hereabouts?" + +Jessica turned her horse about in a circle, rapidly swinging her pointing +arm to indicate every direction of the compass. + +"Know it? It is there, and there, and there--everywhere. The very +richest tract of land in all the country, my father believed. Sobrante +is the heart of it, he said, but the rest of the valley is even better +than Sobrante. It is so big one can hardly believe. He said there was +room in it, and a little ranch apiece, for every poor down-trodden +man--not bad men, but poor gentlemen, like worn-out lawyers and doctors +and--and nice folks--and make a new home in which to live at peace. +He said there were plenty of people always ready to help the very poor +and ignorant, but nobody so willing to help gentlefolks without money. +That's why he asked a lot of rich people he used to know in New York +to buy Paraiso. He gave it its name, himself, and he believed that +there might be really gold somewhere in it. There's everything else, +you see. But it was a name of 'syndicate' he talked about most and +was most grieved by because the money to buy it had not been sent as it +had been promised." + +"Poor child!" + +"Beg pardon?" + +"It was nothing. I was thinking. So this 'Mr. Syndicate' never sent +the money your father hoped for?" + +"No. It was a great disappointment. Antonio had charge of all the +letters, only he; so there could have been nobody careless enough to +lose them had any come. Father left all the writing to Antonio, for he +was nearly blind, you know. That's how he came to get hurt. He could +not see and his horse stepped over the ledge and somebody brought him +home that way. Poor mother!" + +"Poor mother, indeed!" echoed Mr. Hale, with something like a groan. + +"Thank you for caring about it," said Jessica, quickly touched by +his ready sympathy. "But she says her life now must be to carry on all +father's work, and I shall help her. In that way it will be always as if +he were still with us. Oh! see! That's Stiffleg's track! Ephraim Marsh +has passed this way! Maybe I shall find him at the Winklers' cabin! +Would you mind hurrying, just a little bit?" + +"I'll do my best, little lady. But I'm a wretched horseman, I fear." + +"Oh! you'll learn. If you would only let yourself be easy and +comfortable. But, beg pardon, you do it this way--so stiff, with +your hands all clinched. Your horse feels that something's wrong, and +that's why he fidgets so. You should get Samson to show you how. +He's a magnificent rider. I'll coax him to do some tricks for you, +to-night, when we get through supper. I'm off. Just drop all care and +let the horse do the work and--catch me if you can." + +As they approached the foothills they had dropped into a little hollow +where the sandy ground was moist and retained an impression distinctly, +and it was thus that Jessica's keen eyes discovered the peculiar +footprints of "Forty-niner's" halting steed. But she quickly forgot +these in the interest of the race she had started and was now bent +upon nothing save beating Mr. Hale at the goal, the miner's cabin. + +"He has by far the better horse. He ought to win, but he shall not--he +can't. He mustn't! Go, Buster! A taste of Elsa's honey if you get +there first!" + +Bending forward the girl rested her cheek against the broncho's neck +and, as if the touch fired him with new ambition, he shot forward so +swiftly that the question of winning was soon settled. However, Mr. +Hale's own pride was touched, and he put to the test the advice just +given him, and with such good results that he, too, soon came in sight +of a small house at the end of the trail, a dark hole in the mountain +side, and a group of people eagerly surrounding his little guide. + +Indeed, Elsa had already drawn the child upon her capacious lap, and was +tenderly smoothing the tumbled curls with her hard hand, while she asked +endless questions, yet waited for no answers. + +Till, suddenly remembering, Lady Jess demanded: + +"But have you seen our Ephraim? Is he here? Has he been here?" + +Elsa's fat form grew quite rigid and her hand ceased its caressing +stroke. Not for her to betray the confidence of one who had taken refuge +with her. + +"Why ask that? What if he has and is? Is he not the old man, already? +Even here there is no room for the old. When one is fifty one should die. +That would be wisdom." + +"Elsa Winkler, nonsense! That's not polite for me to say, but it's +true. You're fifty, yourself, I guess, and you don't want to die, do +you?" + +Elsa shivered slightly. "When the right time comes and the usefulness +is past. As the Lord wills." + +Jessica laughed and kissed the woman's cheek, then sprang to the ground, +demanding: + +"Where is he? For he's mine, you know. He belongs to Sobrante just +as much the sunshine does. If he'd loved us as we love him he'd not +have ridden away in the night time just because of one little bit o' +note. Wherever you've hidden him you must find him for me, and he's to +go straight away back with me. With us, I mean, for here comes a--a +friend of ours; I guess he is. Any way he's a guest and you must make +him a cup of your very best coffee, and Otto must show him his carved +clock that he is making. He's a pleasant gentleman, and so interested +in everything, it's fun to tell him things. In that New York, where +he came from, they don't have much of anything nice. No ostriches, +nor mines, nor orange groves. Fancy! and he doesn't know--he's only +just learning to ride a horse!" + +As Mr. Hale now approached, this description ceased and Jessica presented +him to her mountain friends: + +"This is dear Elsa Winkler, and 'her man,' Wolfgang. And +Otto--where's Otto gone? He needn't be shy. Mr. Hale would like to +see the carvings and the knittings, and maybe, go down the shaft. +But first of all, he'd like the coffee, Elsa, dear." + +The portly Dutchwoman, whose needles could click as fast as her tongue, +now thrust the stocking, at which she had resumed working the moment +Jessica left her lap, into her apron pocket and waddled inside the cabin. +Already she was beaming with hospitality and calling in harsh chiding to +the invisible Otto: + +"You bad little boy, where are you at already? Come by, soon's-ever, +and lay the dishes. Here's company come to the house and nobody but the +old mother got a grain of sense left to mind them. Wolfgang! Wolfgang! +Hunt the child and set him drawing a tether o' milk from Gretchen, the +goat. Ach! but it shames my good heart when my folks act so foolish, and +the Lady Jess just giving the orders so sweet." + +Wolfgang heard his wife's commands and obeyed them after his own manner, +by lifting his mighty voice and shouting in his native _patois_--"Little +heart! Son of my love! Come, come hither." + +But he did not, for all that, cease from his respectful attention to the +stranger, for whom he had promptly brought out the best chair he owned, +and whose horse he had taken to a shaded spot and carefully rubbed down +with a handful of dried grass. + +Presently, the "child" appeared, and the Easterner flashed a smile +toward Jessica, whose own face was dimpled with mirth; for the "child," +Otto, proved to be a gaunt six-footer, lean as he was long, and with a +manly beard upon his pink and white face. He shambled forward on his +great feet and shyly extended his mighty hands. + +Mr. Hale grasped them heartily, eager to put the awkward youth at ease; +and, nodding toward the chair from which he had risen, exclaimed: + +"So, you are he who does that beautiful carving! I congratulate you on +your skill, and I hope you will have some trifle of your work to sell a +traveler. I've never seen finer." + +Otto flushed with pleasure and was about to reply, but again Elsa +commanded: + +"Milk the goat, little one. After the guest feeds let the household +talk." + +As if he had been the "child," the "little heart," his parents called +him he obediently entered the cabin, tied an apron before his lank body +and spread a tablecloth. Then, as deftly as if he had been a girl, he +arranged it with the three cups and plates the family possessed, took his +mother's cherished spoons from her chest, and, taking a small pail, +sought the goat, Gretchen. + +"Now, I'm in for it," thought Mr. Hale, regretfully. "My poor +dyspepsia! Coffee, honey, and goat's milk! A combination to kill. +But even if it is, one must respond to such whole-souled hospitality as +this." + +Jessica had no such qualms; and, indeed, the refreshment which her +visitor forced himself to accept was far more palatable than he had dared +expect; and, besides, he now brought to it that astonishing appetite +which had come to him on this eventful trip. When the luncheon was +disposed of, Dame Elsa held an exhibition of her wonderful knitting and +it seemed to the unappreciative stranger that a small fortune must have +been expended in yarns, and that even in this wilderness one might be +extravagant and wasteful. + +"My wife would know more about such things than I do, but I should think +you might easily stock a whole shop with your tidies and things." + +"Man alive, do I not? Didst think it was for the pleasure of one's +self the fingers are always at toil? Ach! Yet, of course, how could a +poor man from a far city understand! It is Elsa's knitting, and Elsa's +only, will all the tourists have who come to Sobrante; and in that Los +Angeles, so distant, where the master went but once every year already, +there is a merchant buys all. Ay. See here. I show you!" + +"I--I don't really care--I mean--ought we not to be going, Jessica?" +cried Mr. Hale, hopelessly, foreseeing another exhibition of "trash," +as he considered it. + +But Elsa could not conceive that everybody should not be interested in +all that concerned everybody else; and, besides, this was quite another +matter. One for pride, indeed, beyond the accomplishment of the most +difficult "lacework" or "overshot" stitch. + +From the same chest in which her precious half-dozen plated spoons had +reposed she now drew forth a buckskin sack; and, from this, with radiant +eyes fixed on Mr. Hale's own, another bag, knitted, of course, and +seemingly heavy. Sitting before him she spread her own apron over her +guest's knees and poured therein a goodly pile of gold and silver coins. +With a little catching of his own breath the lawyer realized that among +these were many eagles and double eagles. + +"Why, this is wealth. This is _money_. I can see now, after our paper +bills and 'checks' how real this seems. You are a fortunate woman, Dame +Elsa. Now, I begin to respect your 'tidies' and notions as things of +moment. Did you earn it all?" + +"Ach! wait. There is more already. This but begins; and it is for the +child. Some day, when there is enough, he shall this mine buy and the +machinery hire, and the workmen. Then he will repay to the mistress of +Sobrante, and our Lady Jess, all that their dead man spent for us. More. +He will make the great money--this but leads the way. Wait." + +Trustful and eager of appreciation, which came so rarely into her +isolated life, the woman thrust her hand again into the buckskin sack, +her shining eyes still fixed upon the stranger's face, and her fingers +fumbling nervously in the depths of the narrow bag. Her excitement +and delight communicated itself to him, and he found himself watching +her broad, beaming face with intense curiosity. + +But--the face was changing. The light was dying out of the sparkling +eyes, an ashy color succeeding the ruddy hue of the fat cheeks. +Bewilderment, then anxiety, then terror. + +"Why, good Elsa, what is it?" + +"Gone--gone--but I am robbed, I am ruined! Mein Gott, man! Little +one--lost, lost, lost!" + +With a shriek the poor creature sprang up, and in so doing scattered far +and wide the coins she had already poured into her apron, but heeded +nothing of this as she rushed frantically out of doors. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SHAFT + + +While Elsa had been entertaining the stranger within doors Jessica had +sought Wolfgang and compelled him, by her coaxing, to admit that Ephraim +Marsh had been there and, also, that Antonio Bernal had ridden up that +morning to give orders about the coal. + +"None of it is to be sent down to the ranch, he said, no matter who +calls for it, till he comes back. He was going away for a time and----How +will you get on at Sobrante without him, Lady Jess?" + +"Wolfgang, better than with him. Listen. Look at me. I'm the +'manager' now. The captain. The 'boys' all elected me or made me, +whatever way they fixed it. I'm to be the master. I, just Jessica. +Guess I'm proud? Guess I'll do the very, very best ever a girl can +do? Nobody is to be any different, though. You're to go on mining +just the same and John Benton says, quite often, it's high time you +had another hand to help up here. He says with coal fifteen dollars a +ton there's money in it, even if it is a weeny little mine. So, if you +want a man, any time, just let me know. Ha!" + +With an amusing little strut that was mostly affectation the girl passed +up and down before the miner, and ended her performance by a hearty +hug. It was impossible for her to withhold her caresses from anybody who +loved her; and who did not, at Sobrante, save Antonio and Ferd, the +dwarf? But she sobered quickly enough and at Wolfgang's petition to +"Tell me all about it already," gave him a vivid picture of the changes +at her home. + +"But now Antonio has gone for a month, things will get straightened +all out again. When he comes back I'll have that deed to show him, and +once he gets it out of his vain head that he is owner and not my mother, +he'll get sensible and good again, as he used to be. I wish I liked him +better. That would make it easier for me to give up being 'captain' +when the time comes. What makes one love some people and not others, +Wolfgang? You ought to know, you've lived a long time." + +"The good God." + +"He wouldn't make us dislike anybody. That can't be the right reason." + +"Then I know not. Though I am getting old I'm not so wise, little one. +But--ought I? Ought I not?" + +"What?" + +"Now you hark me. This Ephraim--guess you what that Antonio said of +him?" + +"How should I? Yes, that's not the truth. But what he said was so +dreadful I wouldn't even tell my mother." + +"Ach! A child should tell the mother all things. Heed that. It is so we +train our Otto." + +Jessica laughed. + +"Otto is no child. He is a grown man. He is bigger than you. You should +not shame him by keeping him a boy always." + +"Pst! girl! I would not he heard you, for my life." + +"He'll not hear. Elsa is talking. But what did Antonio say about my +old 'Forty-niner'?" + +"That much went with that old man besides his boots." + +"Of course. The feet that were in them, I suppose. Silly Wolfgang, to +be so impressed by a sillier Antonio. The boys say his Spanish maxims +have little sense in them. That proves it." + +"This deed of yours. He said: 'Where Ephraim, the wicked, goes, goes +their deed to the land.' And more." + +"What more? The cruel, cruel man!" + +"That it mattered not already. He would come back, the master. It was +his, had always been. My friend--your father--well, it was not we who +listened. Nor for once would Elsa make the cup of coffee she was asked. +Not a morsel got he here, save that the little boy ran after him and gave +him his own bit swiebach lest he faint by the way. And that was the last +word of Antonio Bernal." + +Jessica's laughter was past. On her face there was a trouble it grieved +her old friend to see, and he hastened to comfort her. + +"If one goes, some are left already. Come now to one whose eyes will +be cured by a sight of your pretty face." + +"To Ephraim?" + +"Even so." + +He took her hand to lead her, like the tender babe he still considered +her, and they passed behind the cabin, toward the rickety shaft leading +into the mine. At its very mouth stood old Stiffleg, and in her delight +the girl gave him, too, one of her abounding hugs, which called a comment +from the miner. + +"Beasts or humans, all one to your lips. Well, no matter. It's nature. +Some are made that foolish way. As for me--old horses----" + +"Wolfgang Winkler, shame! Now, sir, you'll wait till you ask before I +kiss you again!" + +"Then I ask right quick. Now! Eh? No? Well, before you go then, to +prove you bear no malice; and because I'll show you a new vein I didn't +show Antonio. Ach! He'll mine his own coal when once he comes--'the +master'--as he said! And so I think, though I know not, will all the +others say. Sobrante will not be Sobrante with us all gone. So?" + +"You'll not be gone. It is my mother's." + +"He is big and strong. He can plot evil, I believe." + +Wolfgang spoke as if he were disclosing a mystery and not a fact well +known to all who really knew the Senor Bernal. + +"I will be stronger. He shall not hurt my mother. I will fight the world +for her and for my brother!" + +The miner had been arranging the rope upon the windlass and now held the +rude little car steady with his foot. + +"Step in." + +"Is he below? Down in the mine?" + +"Already." + +Jessica needed no second bidding, but leaped lightly into the car and +Wolfgang followed her more cautiously. He knew that was a forbidden +delight to her, for Mrs. Trent was nervously timid concerning such +visits, but, like her, felt that the present circumstances justified +the proceeding. Was not one below in the darkness, nursing a broken +heart? And was not it the supreme business of each and all at Sobrante to +comfort the sorrowing? How else had he and his been there, so happy +and comfortable? So rich, also. Why, Elsa had---- + +"Lady Jess! Get Elsa to show you the buckskin bag! It has grown as fat +as herself since you last saw it. The child will own the mine some day, +believe me!" + +Moved by the thought he swiftly lowered away, and as the car touched the +bottom, the girl sprang out and ran calling in the narrow tunnel: + +"Ephraim! My Ephraim! Where are you? I've come for you, I, Jessica! +It's a dreadful mistake. My mother--ah! here you are! Why down in this +horrid hole, Ephraim Marsh? You're all shivering, it's so damp and +dismal. For shame! To run away from your best friends and never give +them a chance to tell you. Whoever wrote that note and sent you off from +your own home, it never was my mother. Never! She said so, and it's +almost broken her heart." + +"It's quite broken mine," said the old frontiersman, sobbing in his +relief at having been thus promptly sought and found by his beloved +"lady." For he did not know it was quite by accident that she had +stumbled on this trace of him, nor did anybody enlighten him. Whether +she would have set him right or not she had no chance, for, at that +instant, they heard a hoarse cry at the mouth of the shaft and saw the +car, their only means of ascent, moving swiftly out of reach. + +"Heart of grace! Why that? Hark the woman! 'Tis the child! It is the +little boy! Harm has befallen and I--the father--I below in the ground!" + +In his alarm Wolfgang danced about the narrow space and wrung his hands, +gazing frantically up the shaft, catching hold of his companions and +conducting himself altogether like one bereft of common sense. Which +behavior was sufficient to restore Ephraim Marsh to his own self-command, +and none too soon; for the anxious father had already begun to try the +ascent by climbing up the timbered sides when, suddenly, as if propelled +by some extraordinary force the car shot downward again. Before it +really touched bottom the shrieks had become deafening, and when Elsa +jumped out and rushed upon her husband, he clapped his hands to his ears +and retreated as far as the chamber permitted. + +"She has gone mad, already! The woman is dement! Hark, the clamor!" + +Then he remembered his first fear and clutched his wife's arm, which +promptly went around his neck and threatened him with suffocation. + +"Well, well, I never had no wife, but if I'd had I wouldn't cared to +have her choke me to death a-loving me, nor split my ears a-telling me +of it," commented "Forty-niner," dryly. + +At which Elsa's screams instantly ceased, and she turned her attention +upon him. + +"Where is it, thief? Give it up, this minute! How could you rob me of my +hard-earned money? That was to buy the mine--and the vein runs deep--for +my little boy, my child! 'Twas Antonio Bernal, the great man, told us +already of the deed you stole! But I believed him not--I. Now, give me my +money, my money--money!" + +Overcome by her own violent emotion, rather than by any opposition of +poor Ephraim's, her hands slid from his shoulders, which she had been +shaking as if she would jingle the cash from his pockets, and her plump +person settled limply against him for support. + +"Hello, here, woman! This is a drop too much! Take the creature, +Winkler, and find out if you can what in misery ails her. She's clean +out of her wits." + +Instinctively, Jessica had placed herself at the old sharpshooter's +side. He should feel that she did not believe this terrible accusation, +which recalled to her, with painful significance, the parting words of +Antonio Bernal as he had ridden away from her window that morning. +These had practically accused him of stealing the missing deed, and +now came Elsa with this talk of "money, money." She brushed her hand +across her eyes as if to waken herself from some frightful dream and then +smiled up into Ephraim's eyes, now bent inquiringly upon her. Dim as +the light was, there was yet sufficient descending through the shallow +shaft to reveal each troubled face to the other, and the old man's +own frightened at the confiding trust of his beloved pupil's. + +"Never mind her. Let her scream and loll around, if she wants to. What +matters it? Little lady, am I or am I not a--a--that pizen thing she +called me?" + +"Never!" + +"Then come on. Let's get out of this." + +But he was not to be permitted to escape so easily. Elsa had now +recovered her full strength and, oddly enough, her composure. She +waved her husband toward the waiting car and he obeyed her gesture +without protest, gently lifting Jessica into it, for she would not +otherwise have been removed from Ephraim's side. + +"Go with him, lady. Elsa won't want to _live_ down here and we'll +follow presently. Never had a woman seem so fond of my company, not in +all my eighty years. H-m-m!" + +Commonly, the most genial of men, the sharpshooter's spirits had fully +regained their normal poise. Since he had not been dismissed by Mrs. +Trent, and since his little Jessica believed in him, everything was all +right. Elsa had been hoarding so long for her overgrown "child" that +she had lost her wits. He wasn't surprised. She was a woman. + +So, with a smile, he was able to watch the car disappear upward, and +he even began to whistle, lest Elsa should improve this opportunity and +resume her racket. + +"No disrespect to you, ma'am, remembering the good victuals you've +often given me, but kind of to keep my courage up, like the boy going +through the woods." + +Elsa vouchsafed no reply, beyond grasping his sleeve firmly, as if to +assure herself that he should not vanish through the solid wall behind +them; and he, at least, was relieved when the little car came rolling +downward again, empty. + +Elsa, who understood its management as well as her husband, grasped its +side and motioned Ephraim forward. + +"Ladies first," he objected, gallantly. + +"Get in, wretch, already." + +"Oh! I'm not loath to get in, now. Even your sweet presence doesn't +make this hole a paradise. And I came down here a heavy-hearted man, yet +I've going up light as a feather. Glad I've got you along to ballast, +else I'd likely shoot clean up to the sky." + +Poor Elsa thought his hilarity ill-timed. She glared at him first, then +began to weep, and her tears sobered him as no frowns could do. + +"Look, here, old girl, cheer up! Likely it's only a passing fit of +madness has got you in tow. Women are kittle cattle, I've been told. +Except Lady Jess and the madam. But they're quality. It's in their +blood to be noble just as 'tis in--well, let that go. If you've lost +any of your money, as you 'pear to think, you'll find it again. Why, +you're bound to. Who is there to steal it save your own selves? Likely +you've got up some dark night in your sleep and hid it away so careful +you've forgot the place. Good! The top and fresh air again, thank +Heaven!" + +Mr. Hale had left the cabin immediately after Elsa, and though inclined +to stoop and gather up her scattered coins had refrained from doing so, +restrained by that prudence which becomes second nature to lawyers. + +"She thinks somebody has robbed her and would probably accuse me of +pocketing some of these. Too much money for anybody to keep in a house," +he reflected, forgetting that banks were not accessible to everybody. +"But it's an ill wind, etc. Now I shall be apt to escape that promised +visit to an amateur coal mine, and not endanger my life in their rickety +car." + +Elsa's conduct upon reaching home was as curious and contradictory as +ever. Instead of collecting her scattered treasure, she merely said, with +a shrug of her fat shoulders: + +"What good? let it lie. When the much is gone who cares for the little?" + +Then she dropped into a chair and began again to cry, disconsolately. + +Jessica could not endure the scene. + +"Oh! I hate this! Elsa, stop. Be happy. Nobody has robbed you. If there +has 'tis nobody here. I'm going home. I was having such a good time +and I've found dear Ephraim. I'll ask leave to come again to-morrow, +maybe, and you'll have it by then. Just as I shall the title. 'Tis only +that you've been careless, as--as somebody else was. Good-by. We're +going. Say good-by, won't you?" + +Elsa's good-by was to seize Ephraim's coat and hold it with all her +force, but he was now too happy to object to this. + +"Certain, ma'am. If you've took a notion to it, I'll leave it with +you. Coats don't matter, when hearts are light. Yes, look in the +pockets. Like enough 'twill ease your mind a bit. I'd give her a +dose of sagebrush tea, Wolfgang. Catnip 'd be better, but ain't so +handy. Good-by, all. I'll be 'round again, myself, soon, if the lady +can spare me," and with this remark, "Forty-niner" quietly slipped +out of the loose garment and made his escape. + +There was no more talk of inspecting the ranch. The little party of +three rode thoughtfully homeward. Even Ephraim's gayety had ebbed and +the strange accusation Elsa had made began at last to claim his serious +attention. Thieving was a new matter at Sobrante, though he, along with +all the other "boys," had thought for many months that the manager +was dealing unfairly by his mistress and employer. This affair would +have to be sifted to the bottom, and he didn't like it. He was glad +to be going back to his familiar quarters, glad of many things, yet +his light-heartedness was quite gone. + +Mr. Hale was equally silent and self-absorbed. Every hour he spent +among these people, like innocent children all they seemed to him, but +interested him the more in them. Their unhappiness disturbed him and yet +his own mission was to make them more unhappy still. + +Jessica was angry, indignant, and amused by turns; but these troubles +were changing her swiftly from a careless little girl to a sadly +perplexed captain, and she rode along in silence, for most of the way, +forgetting entirely that she had meant to take quite another route, or +that her present errand was to exhibit the wonders of her beloved +Sobrante. + +They cantered peacefully downward across the valley, old Stiffleg himself +leading the way, till they struck upon the main road and saw in the +distance a vehicle crawling forward upon it. + +"Oh! oh!" cried Jessica, who had been first to observe this object. + +"Heigho! What's that--a circus?" asked Mr. Hale, gazing curiously at +the strange wagon. + +Ephraim shaded his eyes with his hand and peered into the distance. Then +he dropped it, and drooping ridiculously, groaned: + +"Oh! my fathers!" + +"Looks like a circus. All the colors of the rainbow," persisted Mr. +Hale, glad of any diversion to his perturbed thoughts. + +"'Tis a circus, temperance union, a salvation army, a woman's rights +convention, what Samson calls a Mother Carey's chicken, an Amazon, a +wild Indian, a--a--shucks! There isn't anything on earth that yonder +doesn't try a hand at. Land of Goshen! I'd almost rather turn and go +back to be jawed by the Dutchwoman. And I've come home--just for this!" + +But Jessica was laughing as she had not laughed all day, and if the +person driving along in front was objectionable to Ephraim it was +evidently not the fact in her case. + +"Oh! how glad I am!" she cried, and touched Buster to his swiftest +gallop, while the sharpshooter grimaced and groaned: + +"To have come back to this!" + + + + +CHAPTER X + +AUNT SALLY + + +"Aunt Sally! Aunt Sally, wait for me!" + +At the shrill cry and the clatter of Buster's feet the crawling vehicle +came to a standstill, and from under its canvas cover peered the smiling +face of a hale, elderly woman, whose gray head was bare save for its +abundant crown of curling hair. A straw Shaker bonnet, with green +curtains, hung over her shoulders. Her print gown was of brilliant +pink and her capacious apron of blue gingham. She was collarless and +her sleeves were tucked above her round elbows, but she was clean, +as if just from a laundry. Indeed, at that moment, her conveyance +suggested such an institution on wheels, for well-strung clotheslines +were taut against its sides, and from these fluttered freshly washed +garments and scraps of cloth. + +Aunt Sally saw Jessica's eyes, fasten upon these articles and explained: + +"Met a little water comin' along and used it. Never know where you'll +be when you need water next--in Californy. How's all?" + +"Well, thank you. I'm so glad you've come." + +"That's a word to cure deafness. Here." + +The woman pulled a gigantic cookie from her apron pocket and held it +toward the girl, who had now come alongside. The cake was in the shape +of a doll, with flaring skirt, and was promptly nibbled. + +"Well, I declare! Eat your playmates, do you?" + +"Yes, indeed, when you make them!" + +"Who's that loping along behind?" + +"Ephraim, of course. Oh! yes. A Mr. Hale, from New York." + +"What's he at here?" + +"Just staying. Lost his way and making a visit." + +"H-m-m! Don't look wholesome. Needs picra." + +"I doubt it. He has a great row of bottles in his room and takes +medicine every time he eats, or doesn't. That is, since he's been at +Sobrante, which isn't long." + +When the wagon had halted on the road before them Ephraim had turned to +his companion, with a whimsical smile, suggested: + +"Better ride along as if we was glad to see her. It's like a dose of +that bitter stuff she makes everybody take, whether or no--get it over +with. And she isn't so bad as--H-m-m." + +Mr. Hale was not sorry to do this, for his curiosity was roused. The +wagon box was long and narrow, and contained as many articles as would +have sufficed a family "crossing the plains" in the olden times. A +kerosene cooking stove, a cat in a parrot cage, a hencoop, with mother +and brood inside it, a trunk, a blanket and pillow, a pail for watering +the animals, and a box of tin dishes. The cover, like a small "prairie +schooner," was patriotic in extreme, shining with the national colors, +newly applied by Aunt Sally herself, and with no stingy hand. The +arrangement was also her own, and as she considered, an improvement +upon the flag; for she made the whole top a field of stars, and the +sides of the stripes. + +"Instead of a little weeny corner full of stars, that you can count on +your fingers, I've made a skyful right overhead. I always thought if +I'd had the designin' of Old Glory, I'd have made it regular, like +a patchwork quilt--and nobody ever pieces a 'block' that way. Things +must compare even, and so they would be if women had had a hand in the +business." + +This decorative turnout was drawn by a tandem team, consisting of a milch +cow and a burro, with the cow in front. Which, after due introduction to +the stranger, she explained, regulated the behavior of both animals. + +"With Balaam in the middle, and him inclinin' to balk, and Rosetty +in front, it works double-action. Them that use their wits is twice +served. If he stops, the wagon runs onto him, and if she's in a movin' +mood, that drags him. If she gets lazy, he butts her and thus, why--I've +tried it both ways, changing their places more'n once. This is the best. +How you like Californy?" + +"Very much." + +"Come for your health?" + +"Partly, for that." + +"H-m-m. Folks with you?" + +"No. I'm alone." + +"Maybe you've got no folks. Some hasn't. Ephraim, yonder, is one. +He'd be in a fix if 'twasn't for Jessie and me. I come about once +in so often and straighten out all the crooks. Took them pills, Ephy?" + +Mr. Hale tried to repress a smile and failed, but "Forty-niner" burst +into a loud laugh, and replied: + +"No, Aunt Sally, and what's more I'm not going to. Why should I? Who +never have an ache or pain--that medicine will cure," he added, looking +tenderly upon Lady Jess and remembering his grief of the past night. + +"Well, you ought to have. 'Tisn't human nature to live to eighty and +not have. I'm twenty years younger'n you are and I ache from head to +foot, some days." + +"Asking questions sort of wears you out, I reckon." + +"Now, Ephy, don't get playful. Not at your age. It's not a good sign. +Besides, my hen chicken's been crowing more'n once this trip. That's +a sign of death--somewhere." + +"Giddap, Stiffleg!" + +Ephraim urged his horse forward, meaning to forewarn the "boys" of who +and what was coming. Jessica comprehended and quickly followed, but her +object was to bespeak a different kind of welcome from that he intended. +Neither knew, then, just how heartily glad they would be before many +hours were over of the helpful, yet disturbing, presence of this same +masterful woman. + +The Easterner was left to jog alongside the curious team and its more +curious mistress, who, even, while she held the rope reins in one +hand, was threading her needle and sewing that patchwork which was as +characteristic of her as the ceaseless knitting was of Elsa. + +In fact, when one came to look at her closely, there were seen assorted +bits of cloth, fragments of some "block," pinned here and there about +her person; and as he watched her nimble fingers fly from one seam to +another the gentleman's amazement found expression. + +"How can you manage to drive and sew at the same time? And is it +necessary?" + +"I guess you're a Yankee yourself, aren't you? Well, if I hadn't +been able to manage how do you s'pose I'd ever have got my quilt done +in time for the State fair? Fifty-five thousand five hundred and fifty +pieces there's in it, and I've willed it to Jessica Trent when I'm +done exhibitin' it. None of 'em bigger 'n a finger nail, and all done +over paper. That's a piece of work, I 'low. What's your complaint?" + +"I--I don't know as I have any. They've made me very comfortable and +welcome." + +"Dare say. They couldn't do otherwise. Giddap there, Balaam. Rosetty +smells alfalfa, and you'll have to step out to keep up with a cow 'at +does that. I mean what's your disease?" + +"Oh! well--it's of no consequence." + +"Man alive, don't neglect yourself. You're yallar. You've got the +janders. Sure's I'm a living woman that's what it is." + +"I think not. I hope not," said the poor man, but rather feebly. + +"Sure. Or shingles. I've never seen a real likely case of shingles, and +if it _should_ be that, I'd just admire to nurse you. What victuals you +been eating?" + +The dyspeptic winced. This sounded truly professional, for all his +numerous physicians had prefaced their treatment by a similar question. + +"I've been able to eat almost anything and everything since I came +into this country of open-air living. The last thing was some of Elsa +Winkler's swiebach and honey-sweetened coffee." + +"You don't say! Oh! oh! Poison, sir, rank poison. You may as well count +yourself dead and laid out----" + +The unfortunate stranger shivered and turned pale. For some half hour +past, he had been suffering various qualms which he had attributed to +Elsa's hospitality, but to tell a nervous invalid that he has been +poisoned is to increase his misery a hundredfold. If Aunt Sally had +desired a patient she was now in a fair way to secure one; but her +words were without any significance to herself beyond the fact that +she favored neither Elsa nor her cookery. Elsa's knitting work had +crowded her own patchwork pretty closely at that famous fair, and the +handsome money prize, which she felt belonged of rights to herself, +had been halved between the pair. Because, though their skill lay +along different lines, they had both signed their exhibits: "From +Sobrante," and, manifestly, the judges could not give two first premiums +to one estate. + +This memory served to change her thoughts from disease to a detailed +history of the wonderful quilt, during which they arrived at Mrs. +Trent's cottage and dinner. + +But this could not yet be served. Aunt Sally must needs first see her +son, and after the fondest of greetings, cautiously consign to him the +care of her personal outfit. She even ran after him--as he walked away, +grinning and leading the now obstreperous cow--with a vial in her hand, +begging: + +"Now son, please me, before you eat that 'mess' of men's cooking by +taking one spoonful of this dandelion relish. Made it myself, purposely +for you, and I'll warrant no alcohol in it, either." + +Experience had proved that protestation was worse than useless; so, with +another grin, but a really affectionate "Thank you," John accepted the +vial and once more started stableward. + +"Now, Aunt Sally, come! You must be hungry yourself, after your long +ride," urged Mrs. Trent, hospitably, and with sincere pleasure lighting +her gentle face. Living so far from other women made the presence of +even this uncouth one a comfort, and experience had proved that Mrs. +Benton was, in time of need, that "rough diamond" which she claimed +herself to be. + +"All right, honey; in a minute. I'll just step out to the kitchen and +pass the time of day with Wun Lung. Besides----" + +Jessica caught Aunt Sally around her waist--as far as she could +reach--and tried to prevent her leaving the room, but was lightly +set aside, with the remark: + +"Face is next door to the mouth. Guess I want to see what sort of food +that heathen's got ready for us, 'fore I touch it!" + +"Oh, Aunt Sally! In my house--can't you trust me?" asked the hostess, +with mild protest. Though she knew before she spoke that her will as +opposed to Mrs. Benton's, at least in minor matters, was powerless. +So she quietly brought a book and offered it to Mr. Hale, with the +suggestion that he make himself content for the present. + +"The dinner will be delayed and there will be a rumpus in the kitchen. +But the dinner will be all the better for waiting and the rumpus will +end in Wun Lung taking another rest while Aunt Sally does his work. +Fortunately, she is a prime cook, and we shall fare sumptuously every +day. I'd be glad to keep her here, always, if I could." + +"Old Ephraim Marsh did not appear to share your sentiments," and he +described "Forty-niner's" behavior and remarks at first sighting Mrs. +Benton's wagon. + +"Then you found him. He's come back with you? Oh! I am so thankful. +Sobrante wouldn't seem itself without that straightforward, honest old +man." + +"You are certain he is that?" asked, rather than asserted, the other. + +"As certain as that there is honesty anywhere. What can you mean? Why do +you seem so doubtful?" + +"I don't wish to be a talebearer, but another of your adoring +_proteges_ is in dire trouble. Elsa has been robbed and accuses this +unfortunate person of being the culprit." + +"Such a thing would be impossible." + +"So it seemed to me. Yet that old Wolfgang finally got it through his +head--he appeared duller of wit than his wife--that to lose sight of +Ephraim was to lose the money forever. Your little daughter promised to +produce him when needed, and after considerable opposition they allowed +him to come away. I fancy they began to suspect me even. I fear, madam, +I have visited Sobrante at an unfortunate time." + +Mrs. Trent was paying but slight attention to his words. Her mind was +already disturbed by many inexplicable things and would revert to +Antonio's insinuations which, without Jessica's knowledge, she had also +overheard. After a moment, recalled by high voices in the kitchen, she +rallied, and apologizing for so doing, hastily left the dining-porch. + +There were several gleaming pots and pans upon the oil cooking-stove +and behind these stood Wun Lung, tenaciously grasping a meat dish and +glaring unutterable things out of his beady eyes upon the excited woman +who faced him, demanding: + +"Give me that platter, monkey-face! Suppose I'll put your dirty +victuals into my clean mouth or anybody else's? I've tasted your +stuff before. A burnt bairn dreads the fire. Hand it over. I'll see if +it's fit. There! That rice is boiling over." + +The dish of savory lamb stew had been most daintily and carefully +prepared after his mistress' own minute directions, but Wun Lung now +slammed it upon the table with much violence and seized the pipkin of +rice from the stove. With undue emphasis he placed this beside the stew +and, advancing toward Mrs. Trent, made several profound salaams. + +"Lat m'loman come--me glo. Good-by." + +And for many a day thereafter Wun Lung served no more in that, his own +beloved kitchen. + +Not a whit disturbed was Aunt Sally. Revolution had become as the breath +in her nostrils. Wherever she went old orders were reversed and all +things became new. At a little town, with an unpronounceable Spanish +name, which it suited her to call "Boston," she had her home-room in +the house of a long-suffering woman cousin, whose ill-health afforded +her infinite employment, therefore enjoyment. The invalid endured these +ministrations because Aunt Sally also supported her, as well as ruled +her; but she appreciated the rest which followed whenever the itching of +Mrs. Benton's feet called their owner elsewhere. Between "Boston" and +Sobrante the patriotic wagon vibrated, like a long-distance pendulum, +and departing from either point carried everything belonging to its +proprietor within it. "Boston" having become wearisome it was now +Sobrante's turn. + +"I haven't been so happy since I first trod shoe leather. Now, honey, +you'll have good, clean fixings, with no opium nor rat tails in 'em," +she gleefully announced, returning to the table. + +"Aunt Sally, hush! What an opinion you'll give our guest of my +housekeeping!" laughed Mrs. Trent. + +"Pooh, child! Anybody that looks at you'll know you hate dirt. Now, +eat, all. Only--you, Mr. Hale, I must insist you take a dose of this +saffron tea. I steeped it while I was having that set-to with the +Chinaman, for I thank my stars I can always do two things at once. And +if I know the signs--Gabriella Trent, if that man hasn't got the +janders or shingles, or malary fever, don't you tell me a thing!" + +"I certainly shall not tell you any such thing as that, dear soul. The +trouble is, Mr. Hale, Aunt Sally is never so happy as when she has a sick +person to nurse. If nobody is ill she does her utmost to make somebody +so, with her uncalled for doses and stews. But--once be ill! Ah! dear +Aunt Sally, I know how tender is your touch and how faithful your watch. +God bless you!" + +Not often was the gentle mistress moved to such emotion, and Mrs. Benton +now put on her spectacles and regarded her hostess over them with a +critical air. + +"Land, honey! You must be coming down with something yourself! I never +heard that janders was catching, but, heart of grace, it might be! Yes, +in-deedy, it might be!" + +The delight of her tone was equaled only by the sparkle of her eye. To +have come to Sobrante, guided merely by the itching of a foot and to find +two patients ready to hand, what mortal could ask more? + +Possibly, with the intention of helping on their timely disorders, +she heaped her neighbors' plates with the savory dinner, which was +wholly due to Wun Lung's skill, and not, as she fancied, to her brief +supervision. + +When the meal was over, Aunt Sally retreated to the kitchen, after +forcing Mrs. Trent to lie down and rest, "whether or no;" and to aid +the lady's slumbers, there presently arose from without the lusty cries +of two small lads who had returned from some prank, late as usual, and +as usual, desperately hungry. + +"I will have my dinner, so there, you old Aunt Sally! I will go tell +my mother--I won't be spanked--I won't I--I--I----" + +"Wonbepanked!" screamed another childish treble. + +"Yes, you will, the brace of you. Spare the rod and spoil the child. +That's what Gabriella does, all the time, soft-hearted dear that she +is. A good, sound spanking once in six months is all that keeps you in +a state of salvation. If it wasn't for me I don't know what in reason +you little tackers would grow up to be. One thing I do know, though, and +so do you, and that is--that while your old Aunt Sally is at Sobrante +ranch you'll never be late to your victuals again." + +In this events proved that the speaker was right, as, indeed, she had +often been before on similar occasions. + +Knowing that this little family jar would result in no serious harm to +her idolized son, Mrs. Trent lay still and thought, but did not sleep. +How could she? What a subtle thing is suggestion! + +Poor, overburdened Gabriella Trent had known and trusted old Epbraim +Marsh for many years; yet the words of Antonio, and now of this stranger +within her gates, lingered in her memory and would not then leave. + +Up in his pleasant guest chamber Mr. Hale felt within himself the +increasing vigor of returning health, tempered for the moment, it may +be, by a little indiscretion of diet; yet the assertion of that noisy +old woman below stairs, that he was, despite all, on the verge of some +serious illness, so worked upon his still weakened nerves that he +could neither sleep nor forget them. + +The result in both cases was unfortunate. + +That evening Mrs. Trent forbade her daughter the rifle practice for +which, promply on his return, Ephraim had made special preparation. Her +refusal hurt the old fellow, already sensitive from a previous injury, +and he reflected, bitterly, as he once more sought his monkish chamber: + +"After all, whoever dismissed me was right. I'm too old for use. I'd +better never have come back." + +As for Mr. Hale, brooding and an unwise exposure to the night air on the +previous evening, did bring on a slight fever. Worriment increased this +and, like many men, he was impatient under suffering; so that when his +bell rang sharply, demanding attention, he was in a fair way to require +all that Aunt Sally or any other had to give. + +Meanwhile, down at the adobe quarters, other suspicions were rife. + +"What is that man doing here, any way? He don't tell his business, and +he's asked a power of questions. He's wormed out of one and another +of us all there is to learn about this ranch, and he hasn't let on a +single thing about himself, except that he's a lawyer from New York. +New York's a big village and all lawyers can lie. I'm bound to sound +that chap before I'm many hours older," said Joe Dean, bringing his +hands down heavily upon the table. + +"I know a trick worth two of that. Set mother on him!" cried John +Benton, gayly. "She'll ask more questions to the square inch than +any other human being I ever met, and she'll have all his business, +family history, and present undertakings out of him before he can say +Jack Robinson. Lucky for us she got that itching foot just when she did." + +So it was agreed; and thus, primed to the fullest investigation, Aunt +Sally and her curiosity established themselves within their victim's +sickroom. When they emerged from it, at daybreak, the one had been fully +satisfied--with horror; and the ruddy face of the other had grown white +and heartbroken as no single night of watching should have left it. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE GUEST DEPARTS + + +"Well, mother! What are you doing, waking me out of my beauty sleep, +this way?" + +"Don't speak to me, John Benton. This is no time for fooling. Not till +I've got my breath, knocked out of me by the plumb wickedness of this +world. That I should have lived to hear such things and not died in my +tracks!" + +Upon leaving Mr. Hale's sickroom, Aunt Sally had traveled as fast as her +nimble feet could carry her to her son's quarters, in the old mission, +and had burst in upon his slumbers, with a mighty groan. + +"What's up?" + +"You ought to be, for one thing. There, lie still. I can talk and you +can listen--and you'll need support 'fore I'm through. That man! Oh! +that man!" + +"Yes'm. Which one?" + +"Shut up. You need spankin' as bad as ever you did. But--John, John! +The vilest wretch that ever trod shoe leather! The best, the generousest, +the noblest--and not here to say a word for his poor self." + +"Mother, your remarks seem a little mixed. If you'll face the other way +I'll have on my clothes in a jiffy. Can't 'pear to sense things so +well, lying a-bed after daylight." + +Mrs. Benton stepped outside the house and paced the beaten path with a +tread powerful enough to crush all her enemies, had they been in her +way. Swiftly, heavily, back and forth, with clinched hands and grim +lips, the woman was rather working her indignation to a higher point +than allaying it, and as the carpenter limped from his quarters he saw +this, and thought: + +"She meant it. No time for fooling when she's stirred up that way. What +in the name of reason can ail her?" + +After a plunge of his head in the water of the general washing-trough, +through which a fresh stream was continually piped, and a drying on the +roller towel suspended near it, his wits were clearer. Finishing his +toilet by means of his pocket-comb, he considered himself ready for +her story and for anything that it might entail. + +"Well, mother?" + +Aunt Sally paused and glared at him in such a vicious manner that he +felt as if he were again that little boy of hers who needed the usual +corporal punishment. + +"Yes, but mother--what have _I_ done?" + +"Done? Nothing! Not a man jack of you! Let that viper warm himself +at her very fireside, least to say, south porch, and not show him up +for what he was. Land! The men! I never saw one yet was worth shucks, +savin' hers and mine. If you was half the fellow your father was, John +Benton, or that noble Cass'us was--oh! if ever _I_ wanted to be a man +in my life I want to be this minute!" + +The carpenter darted into his chamber and reappeared with a vial and +spoon. + +"To please me, mother, 'fore you say any more, just take a spoonful of +this dandelion relish. Made it myself, you know, and warrant no alcohol +in it!" + +The jester was rewarded by a boxed ear, but he had effectually arrested +his parent's wandering thoughts, and she burst forth with her news: + +"That viper-lawyer-man has come to this Sobrante to accuse Cass'us +Trent of stealing! lyin! cheating! Cass'us, your best friend and mine. +Says there's a power of money missing, that was all consigned to him, +to purchase that Paraiso d'Oro for a community and never reported on!" + +"What? W-h-a-t!" + +John had laid his hand upon her shoulder like a vise, and she began to +whimper. + +"Needn't pinch me, child. 'Twasn't I said it. You told me to find out +what he wanted here and I have. He pretends he lost his way, got off the +road he was showed to take and met Lady Jess in the canyon. Says his own +horse is up to Pedro's sheep pasture. Says----" + +"_And you let him?_ Had him right there in your power and didn't knock +his old teeth down his lying throat?" + +As John's wrath increased his mother's ebbed. She had passed her +indignation on to another, as it were, and felt the relief of this +confidence. + +"No, I didn't. I left that for you to do. They was false ones any way +and wouldn't have hurt none. Hold on! Where you going, son?" + +For the carpenter had started forward, as if intent upon instant and +terrible vengeance. Neither of them noticed that Jessica had followed +Aunt Sally hither till a girl's voice implored: + +"Don't! That would let my mother know and it would kill her!" + +"Captain! You here? You understand?" + +"Yes--yes. They waked me, talking, and I crept to the upper hall to +stop them, so they should not disturb my poor, tired dear. Oh! I heard! +I heard--every--single--dreadful word!" + +"Well, I'm going to fix him for it." + +"John, wait--wait. I must think. My precious mother----" + +Jessica rarely wept. Now she flung herself into Aunt Sally's arms and +sobbed in a way that set the carpenter raging afresh. One after another +the "boys" came out from the closed or open doors along the row. Some +because it was their usual hour for rising, others to learn the cause +of these early voices. But one glimpse of Lady Jess in trouble grouped +every ranchman about her and set each to hurling a torrent of questions +upon that good woman, who held her, without pause for any answer. + +But John held up his hand and told the story. It belonged to them all, as +Jessica did, and the honor of Sobrante. + +They heard it with little comment, save groans and occasional +mutterings, punctuated by fresh inquiries of Mrs. Benton. Considerable +mystery had been thrown about her cross-examination of her temporary +patient, and after all it had proved the simplest matter in the +world. Concerning his own personal affairs he was provokingly silent, +but he was as ready to talk about his business in that region as she +was to have him when, after a roundabout preparation, she brought +him to it. + +"I am in honor pledged to do my best for my employers in the East, and +unwilling to remain here under false colors, so to speak, any longer. Who +is the most responsible person here, excepting Mrs. Trent?" had been +his words. + +"I am," promptly replied Aunt Sally. + +"Then you shall hear my story," and he told it. + +The effect of it was to loose her tongue to its utmost. One may guess +the listener heard himself portrayed in colors he failed to recognize +and that he realized he had made a mistake in the selection of a +_confidante_. However, his purpose had been to do away with all doubt +concerning himself, and to do this with as little distress to his hostess +as possible. For that reason he had believed a woman would be his +best aid, but it proved that almost any ranchman on the place would +have been safer than she. + +"Well, I ought to have known that a female who talks so much must +say something amiss, and I can't blame her for her indignation. In her +stead I might have behaved worse; and the thing now is to get over +this little weakness and go away about the miserable business, at once," +he reflected. Then he watched her hurry out of his room and surmised +whither she would turn her steps. Therefore, he was not surprised when, +somewhat later, he also left the cottage to find himself confronted by +great Samson, quietly, but significantly, awaiting the stranger's +appearance. For the great fellow had naturally been appointed by his +mates to "settle that critter's hash and settle it sudden." + +"Good-morning, Samson." + +Silence. + +"It seems so wonderful to me to wake and find this changeless sunshine, +day after day, as if no such things as storms could ever exist," said +the lawyer, pleasantly. + +Samson's grimness relaxed to a slight degree. "Some kind of storms blow +in fair weather. Likely you'll meet up with one sooner'n you expect. +Step this way, will you?" + +The sailor's expression was so formidable that, for a moment, all the +wild tales the lawyer had ever read of western desperadoes returned to +test his already weakened nerves. But he was no coward, and knew that +though in a most uncomfortable position, it was by no means a guilty one. + +"Certainly." + +Samson led the way, if walking closely beside the guest, as a constable +walks beside his prisoner, may be termed leading. Nor once did he turn +his angry gaze from the gentleman's face, and the riding-crop in his +hand swung to and fro, as if longing to test itself against some +enemy's body. The walk ended in the ranchmen's messroom, where Wun +Lung, released from the cottage kitchen, had already been impressed +into service, and was deftly preparing breakfast. Aunt Sally had +disappeared, but Jessica was there, perched on a corner of the dresser, +by which stood "Forty-niner," with his arm about her. All the other +workmen whom Mr. Hale had seen were also present and an air of silent +fury pervaded the whole assemblage. + +The stranger's glance passed swiftly from one face to another and saw +no kindness on any. Even the little captain's eyes were bent downward +and her lovely face wore a sorrow it made his own heart ache to see. + +Joe Dean lounged forward. + +"Stranger, have you broke your fast?" + +"No." + +Another silence, during which the blacksmith poured a cup of inky coffee +from the great pot, hacked off a piece of bread from a dusky loaf, and +shoved them toward their unwelcome guest across the table by which he +had sat down. + +"Eat, and be quick about it." + +The color rose in the Easterner's cheek, but he made no motion to obey, +and after a brief waiting, seeing this, Joe threw the coffee out of the +window and tossed the bread to the dogs. + +"There's a horse outside. It's for you. The poorest we've got, +because once you've bestrode him no decent man'll ever mount him +again. He'll answer, though, to carry you beyond this valley, and +Samson'll go with you to see you leave it for good. Then he'll turn +the beast loose and may the Lord have mercy on your dirty soul. _Get!_" + +Mr. Hale did not stir. His own eye gathered fire and the pink in his face +grew scarlet, but his voice was calm as he inquired: + +"Am I still at Sobrante, the home of gentlefolks? By whose orders, +please, this present dramatic scene?" + +"Yes; this is Sobrante. The home of gentlefolks--you spoke the truth for +once. The home of Cassius Trent, the truest man, the noblest heart, the +whitest gentleman the good Lord ever made. The home of a man! and not +a free hotel for whelps! Ugh! If I had promised the captain--Lady Jess, +let me off that word! I must at him, I _must_--_I will!_" + +Joe's attitude was full of menace, but Mr. Hale neither moved nor took +his own cool gaze from his enemy's face. Though Jessica had taken swift +alarm and leaped down to place herself beside the smith and clasp his +hand with her own. + +"No, no. You promised, and I'm your captain. Soldiers obey their +captains and you chose me yourself. You are not to hurt him nor abuse +him, though, I, too"--here she wheeled about and faced her guest, +crying: "hate you, hate you! Oh! that's wicked. That's rude. But, sir, +how dared you say my father--the best man ever lived--kept--took--it +isn't true, it isn't!" + +The lawyer rose, somewhat unsteadily. The sight of the daughter's grief +disturbed his calmness more than the affronts offered him by her bearded +henchmen. It was to her that he addressed the question: + +"Am I permitted to say a word in my own behalf, Captain Jessica?" + +A growl ran around the room, but she held up her small hand, protestingly. + +"Yes. That's fair. My father always taught me to be fair. I'm sorry I +was--I wasn't polite----" + +"No, you aren't," shouted Samson. "Don't you dare be sorry for +anything but the kindness you've showed that skunk!" + +"Samson, it was you made me captain!" + +"All right. I give in. Be as fair as you like, I can't help it." + +"Tell us all there is to tell. As you told Aunt Sally." + +"Thank you, captain. I'll be brief. I came to California, representing +a company, a syndicate, which had advanced large sums of money to +purchase, improve, and stock a vast tract of land called Paraiso d'Oro. +Though for a time due receipts and reports had been returned to the +syndicate for several months these had entirely ceased. Unfortunately, +the company had implicit faith in their consignee, and Paraiso d'Oro was +but one of their many enterprises. I had been their legal adviser in +other matters, and when my health failed from overwork, they suggested +that I should come here and investigate their affairs, while I could +recuperate at the same time. + +"I set out on horseback from Los Angeles, my temporary headquarters, +without a guide and with many erroneous notions concerning both the State +and its people. You see, though I'd lived at the center of our national +civilization----" + +"You're forgettin' Californy!" cried somebody. + +"I'd led the narrow life of a man absorbed in one sort of business. +I traveled out of my way, and lost it. Then I met your captain in the +canyon and she courteously offered me the hospitality of Sobrante. Until +I reached this spot I had no idea that it was part and parcel, so to +speak, of that Paraiso I'd come to reclaim. Gradually this fact became +clear to me and from that moment I have been anxious to get away from +a hospitality I have no moral right to enjoy." + +"Spoke the truth for once, liar!" grumbled Cromarty. + +"You cannot feel it more than I, sir, nor more profoundly regret that +it is my misfortune to have undertaken a business which has now become +obnoxious to me. But a lawyer must look at facts. One Cassius Trent----" + +"Take care!" + +"Be quiet, Marty! Go on, Mr. Hale," ordered the little captain. + +"Cassius Trent was the man whose hitherto probity and enthusiasm had +enlisted the interest of his New York friends. He represented that his +projected community would not only be an excellent investment for their +money, but a benefaction to humanity. They believed him and--well, their +money is gone, their community has not even a beginning, and the man +is dead. He seems to have been a person----" + +"A white gentleman, sir!" + +"Who could obtain a strong hold upon the affections and confidence of +all who knew him. I admire the qualities which gained your devotion and +I admire your loyalty to him. I am charmed with the home he created in +this wilderness--_for himself_--and I have the profoundest respect +for his afflicted family. I wish I had not undertaken this trust. +But I have so undertaken, I am sworn to my clients' interests, and I +must further them to my utmost ability. If the missing money can be +recovered I shall recover it, painful as my duty may be. And--that +is all. Good-by, little captain. It is my sincere wish that I may +find some explanation of this mystery, other than circumstantial +evidence seems to point. If I so find I shall return and tell you. +If not--good-by. Make my respectful regards to your mother, and thank you +for my entertainment." + +He turned and walked to the doorway, nobody interfering; but there he +paused and asked: + +"That horse you mentioned? Can I purchase him of you? If so I need +not trouble Samson for his escort, but will bid you, gentlemen, +good-morning." + +A significant look ran around the circle of intent and lowering faces. +The lawyer's succinct explanation of affairs had impressed them, but it +had not altered one fact which most mattered to those hardy countrymen. + +A dead man, their idolized master and friend, had been accused of black +dishonesty, and they had passed their own promise to their girlish +captain not to injure the accuser. + +But they had not promised he should go scot-free. To some men shame was +worse than a bullet wound. It would have been so to them, and they did +the stranger thus much honor that they ascribed him equal manliness. + +As he stepped across the threshold Mr. Hale found both Samson and John +Benton close beside him, at right hand and left; and when he was about +to mount the superannuated beast, which a grinning stable lad held for +him, he was pinioned and quietly hoisted into the saddle. Instantly, +a brace of straps secured him and Samson's crop cut viciously at the +animal's neck. Then the sailor sprang into his own saddle and, amid +the insulting shouts and jeers of the assembled ranchmen, the unfortunate +Easterner rode out of the mission courtyard--face backward. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +A PROJECTED JOURNEY + + +Captain Jess screamed and ran forward, but her outstretched hands could +not reach her guest, already borne many rods away. Then she faced the +jeering men, with an anger she had not believed it possible that she +could ever feel toward her beloved "boys." + +"Shame on you! Shame on you, every one! How dared you? And I thought--I +thought--you were gentlemen!" + +With arms tightly folded over her breast, as if to hold back the +conflicting emotions within it, her blue eyes flashing, her small foot +stamping, she defied and condemned them all. + +A little laughter answered her, but this sound died speedily, and awkward +glances shifted among the faces of the men. They were sorry to have +offended the "Little One," and to have her indignant with them was +a new and unpleasant situation, but they were not in the least degree +sorry that they had administered some punishment to the maligner of +their master. Most of them would have wished this punishment more severe, +but the promise Jessica had exacted from them before this interview had +prevented. + +One by one, as they had first come upon the scene they retreated from +it, though Joe Dean lingered a moment to ask: + +"Won't you come share our breakfast, captain, and so bury the hatchet?" + +She sadly shook her head. All her anger left her as suddenly as it had +arisen, and there remained in her mind but one thought--there were +people in the world who believed her father had been a thief. That was +the hard and bitter fact which nothing could soften. The former trouble +about the lost title deed, and the probable loss of her home seemed as +nothing to this new distress. How was she to face it? How disprove +it? How save her beloved mother from ever hearing it? + +There came a step beside her and a strong arm about her shoulders. It +was Ephraim Marsh; erect, resolute, protecting. + +"Take it easy, daughter. It's you and me together'll nail this lie +on the door of the man who started it. There's a blue sky up yonder +and a solid earth down here. I'm good to trust the one and tread the +other for forty miles a day yet, spite of my white head. If I have to +travel this old State over its hundred and fifty-six thousand square +miles, before I clinch that falsehood, I'll clinch it, if I live. If I +don't--laws, dearie, I'm in the same poor box myself. There's them +that believe me a--you know the word. Even your mother----" + +"No, Ephraim! She never believed you anything but the splendid man you +are." + +"Last night, no shooting, and----" + +"It was nothing. She was tired. Aunt Sally always tires her, at first, +good as she is and much as we love her. Mother is so quiet and gentle +herself----" + +"I understand, darlin'." + +"Ephraim, she must never know that dreadful thing the stranger said." + +"Captain, she'll have to know." + +"She must not, I tell you! What am I for but to take care of and love +her? Ned--but Ned's only a little boy----" + +"And you, my Jessie, are but a few years older than he." + +"I'm older than you, I believe! Is it only two days since I met that +man in the canyon and things began to happen? It seems forever. As if +I'd only lived these forty-eight hours, and all that went before was +a dream." + +Ephraim stepped aside and regarded her shrewdly. + +"Old words to come from so young a mouth, Lady Captain. Have you had +any breakfast?" + +"No. I don't want any. Have you?" + +"No. But I'm going to have. As a rule, breakfasts are wholesome. +Keeping your stomach quiet keeps your head clear. Things'll look more +natural after we've eat. Share mine?" + +"No, I mustn't. Mother would miss me and wonder." + +"You often do." + +"It's better you share mine to-day. Then we must plan. I heard you +say that about you and me together. Will you help me? Shall we prove it +wasn't true--to the rest of the world, I mean--as we know it? Shall we?" + +"That's the rest of my life-job, darlin'. We'll begin it right away +by getting a taste of Aunt Sally's good victuals. I hate her picra +doses, but her cooking beats the Dutch." + +"Afterward?" + +"Afterward isn't touched yet." + +Whether real or affected there had come a cheerfulness into the old +man's tone which it had lacked a few moments earlier. After all he +was not useless. Who knew his California as he did? If it were true +that money had been sent to Mr. Trent's hands and was missing, then +somewhere was a man who had appropriated it. Whoever and wherever he was, +he should be found, and Ephraim Marsh was self-appointed so to find. + +Jessica's hand slipped under his arm, and her own face grew somewhat +lighter as she walked beside him toward her own home, where Aunt Sally +was keeping an anxious lookout and a most tempting breakfast. + +"Bless you, Jessie! I'm glad you've come. Step right in, Ephy. Them +muffins are so light they've nigh flown off the porch. Made with the +eggs my hen-chicken laid, comin' along from Boston. Smartest fowl in +the country, and only one I ever owned would brood and lay at the same +time. I wouldn't take a fortune for that bird." + +Aunt Sally's own cheerfulness was fully restored. With her to be busy +helping somebody was, after all, her happiness. And she saw that she had +never come to Sobrante more opportunely. + +"Your mother isn't up yet, dearie. And I've had the tackers out and +washed 'em good. Then I filled them with hot milk, and some of my +salt-risin' bread I fetched along in my box, and put 'em to bed. I +promised if they'd go to sleep again I'd make 'em each a saucer-pie, +and they went." + +In spite of her heavy heart, Jessica laughed. + +"Aunt Sally, I don't believe there's another person could make them +go to sleep at this time of day; not even my mother." + +"Pooh! Her! Why, that little Edward knows he can twist her round his +thumb easy as scat. He's too much the look of his father for Gabriella +ever to be sot with him. You, now, you favor her folks." + +Here, foreseeing that the talkative woman was off on a long track, +Ephraim mildly inquired: + +"Aunt Sally, did you bring that rheumatism-oil you had last time you +were here?" + +She put on her spectacles and looked at him over them, as was her habit. +Never, by any chance, had she been known to look through them, and her +explanation of wearing them at all was simply: "It's proper for a woman +of my age." + +"Ephy, you feel real bright, don't you? You and rheumatism! Why, man, +you'll be getting married before you get rheumatic." + +"Then I'll never need the oil." + +She was not to be so easily worsted. If Ephraim was minded to be +facetious, she'd match him at the business. Whereupon, instead of +rehearsing the history of Gabriella's "folks" she veered round upon +disease and gave them details of all the dreadful things she had ever +heard till "Forty-niner" cried, "Quits! I'll not tackle you again." + +Mrs. Benton's eyes twinkled over her cup, for she had joined them at +table. She knew, as he did, that this was but foolish sport, yet that it +had served their mutual purpose; which was to divert Jessica's thoughts +from trouble and her lips from asking why her mother did not appear. + +But the meal over, the question came, and the answer was ready: + +"Why, I just coaxed her to lie and rest a spell. She knew that I'd look +after things all right, and can make butter next grade to hers, if I +can't equal. Anybody that's been worrying with a Chinaman as long as +she has needs a vacation, I 'low. So she's taking a mite of one." + +"Then I'll gather a bunch of roses and take to her. I'm glad to have +her rest, and I hope--Aunt Sally, do you suppose she heard any of that +dreadful man's talk? Did you tell her?" + +"No; I didn't tell her. I'd sooner never say another word as long as +I live than do such a thing. You needn't be afraid to trust your old +auntie, child. There, run along and make her a posy." + +But no sooner had Jessica gone into the garden than Aunt Sally's lips +were close to Ephraim's ear, and she was whispering: + +"She heard it, every word. She didn't say so, and I didn't ask. But +the look of it in her eyes. Ephraim Marsh, I've got a heartbroken woman +on my hands, and don't you dare to tell me a word 'at I haven't." + +"Oh, that tongue of yours! Last night when you were yelling at him why +didn't you think about other folks' hearts and be still? You've a +voice like a fog horn when you're mad--or pleased, either!" cried this +honest, ungallant frontiersman. + +"I know it, Ephy. It's the truth. I realize it as well as you do. And +I was mad. Since she heard, anyway, I wish now 'at I'd up and thrashed +him good. I had laid out to put a little bitter dose in his coffee this +morning, but he went away without taking any," she ended, grimly. + +"Sally Benton, you're quite contriving. What's to be done?" + +Before she could reply Jessica came back, her arms full of great +rose-branches and her face bright with confidence. + +"Ephraim, Aunt Sally, I've thought of something. It came to me out +there among the roses, like a voice speaking; my mother must not and +need not be told what Mr. Hale said. It isn't wicked to deceive her +in this, for her own good. Often you've asked her to let you take me +horseback trip to Los Angeles, stopping nights at houses on the way, +with people who knew my father; and she's promised I should 'some +time.' I think the 'some time' has come. She will be glad to have +us go, for one thing, to find out about the feather markets and others +that Antonio used to take care of, but has left. Aunt Sally does two +things at once; why not we? We'll hunt that man who took the money; +and if I can't find the deed first--though, of course, I shall--we'll +straighten that out, too. Isn't that good sense?" + +"It's more; it's inspiration," responded "Forty-niner," +enthusiastically. He had already decided to make this journey alone, for +Jessica's sake; but with her as companion he felt that it would be +as sure of success as full of pleasure. A little child working to clear +her father's name of dishonor, and to save her mother's home--what +evil could prevail against this noble effort? + +It was like his simplicity and hers that neither thought of providing for +difficulties by the way, or for any delay in finding the men and proofs +they sought, when once they reached the distant city. + +Aunt Sally was not so sanguine; yet it was not her part to discourage +any attempt to set wrong matters right, and she merely nodded her head +and remarked: + +"It'll bear thinking on. Now, run along and see your mother." + +"Has she had her breakfast? Can't I carry it to her?" + +"S'pose I'd let that poor lamb go without her dawn-meal late as this? +I heard her stirring the minute I got back into the house, so I fixed +her some broma and poached her an egg, and made her go lie down again. +You'll not find her hungry, child, 'less for a sight of you." + +Jessica ran to her mother's room, exclaiming: + +"I'm so glad you're resting, dear. Were ever more perfect roses? And +isn't it delightful that Aunt Sally should be here just now to look +after things. Because----" + +"Well, my darling? Why do you hesitate?" + +"Mother, may Ephraim and I go on that trip to Los Angeles?" + +Lady Jess had intended to be very careful and cautious, for once, and +to test her mother's feelings on the subject she made her request. But +frankness was her habit, and the question was out of itself, it seemed, +and she waiting the answer with a beating heart. + +"Why just now, daughter? And--has Mr. Hale gone?" she asked, in a +peculiar tone. + +"Yes. He has gone. He left rather--rather suddenly, but he sent his +regards to you and his thanks. He said he might come back some time, +but--I don't think he will. He said something to offend the 'boys,' +and they let him take old Dandy. Samson went with him to show him the +way." + +Poor little captain, who had never in her short life had one secret +thought from her idolized mother. This first experience did not come +easy to her, and after one glance into the sad, yet amused, eyes watching +her, she tossed secrecy aside and buried her face on her mother's pillow. + +"Mother, mother! I am so unhappy. I'm keeping something back from you +that I cannot tell you; that I cannot have you know, and I don't like +it. But--it's right, it's best. So don't ask me, and, oh, mother--" + +"I've no need to ask you, sweetheart. I know, already." + +"Know--what?" cried Jessica alarmed, and sitting straight again. + +"All that is in your brave heart. All that Mr. Hale had heard against +your father. All that you and Ephraim hope from this suddenly decided +journey to a distant city." + +"Why--how? And I'd only just thought it out, yonder in the garden!" + +"I had begun to suspect, I hardly know why, that our late guest had +come here as our enemy, or, rather, as an agent against us. Something +held me back from confiding in him, as I at first wished to do. He is a +gentleman, and doubtless honest, but he is not on our side. Besides, how +and why he went away just as he did is plain enough. I have ears and +I have eyes, and I heard all Aunt Sally's tirade last night, so could +easily guess at his own part in the talk. Also--I saw him ride out of the +courtyard. My little girl, for the first time in my life I blushed for +Sobrante. Even if he had been a wicked man, which he was not, that was a +dastardly insult. I am ashamed of your 'boys,' captain." + +"And so am I. And I told them so, quick enough. Oh! they pretended not +to mind my anger, but they were ashamed--inside themselves, I know. +Now, for ever so long, they'll be so good 'butter would melt in their +mouths.' You see." + +"Apt pupil of Aunt Sally." + +"Why, mother! How can you smile and take it so quiet? This awful--awful +thing he said?" + +"To say a thing is not to prove it. The charge is so monstrous that it +becomes absurd. Nothing hurts us but what we do, and your father never +did a dishonorable deed, from the hour of his birth till his death. I am +sorry for those mistaken people who think that he did, and I am thankful +that he left a brave little daughter to set them right." + +Jessica stared. For a long time past she had seen her mother anxious and +troubled over matters which now seemed trivial in the extreme; yet this +blow which had almost crushed her own courage but restored Mrs. Trent's. + +"Then do you mean that we may go?" + +"Yes." + +"Oh, mother! Thank you." + +"But you will go armed with the fullest information we can gain. We +will examine all the papers Antonio left--if he left any. We will make a +thorough search everywhere for that title deed. We shall probably find +letters from this New York company to your father, and these will have +the name, or names, of those with whom he did business at Los Angeles. +I wish now that Senor Bernal were here. His knowledge would be worth +everything in this emergency, if--he would give it. Well, he is not +here, and we must do the best we can without him. I'm going to get up +now and begin to look." + +"Aunt Sally thought you ought to rest." + +"This talk will rest me most of all." + +The mother was now as eager as the child, and together they were soon +engaged in opening Mr. Trent's desk and secretary, which his wife had +not before touched since he himself closed them. + +Alas! the search was an easy matter, and came swiftly to an end. Beyond a +few personal letters from relatives and friends, there was not a scrap of +writing anywhere. Even the ledgers and account books had been removed, +and at this discovery the same thought came to both: + +"Antonio." + +"Yet, why? and so secretly. He was really the master here, and if, as +he now claims, Sobrante is his, he has but to prove it, and we will go +away," said the widow, trembling for the first time. + +"Let us try the safe. That night before he went off in such grief, +Ephraim gave me the key. He thought he was going forever, and I was to +look in it some time--when I needed. We'll look now." + +Mrs. Trent herself unlocked the clumsy iron box and found it empty, save +for one small parcel. This, wrapped in a bit of canvas, was securely tied +and addressed to "Jessica Trent." + +The mother passed it to her. + +"You open it, please, mother. It may be--it must be--that deed and +maybe some other things--I couldn't wait to pick the knots, and I've +no knife." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE START + + +Nothing resembling a legal document was found inside the package; but, +instead, were several neatly-arranged rolls of gold and silver money, +with the denomination of each roll carefully marked outside; dollars, +eagles, double eagles. With these was a scrap of paper, saying: + + "All my savings for my captain. God bless them to + her. E. M." + +"Oh, mother! That big-hearted Ephraim! Was anybody ever so unselfish +as he?" + +"Or as unjust as I have been." + +"How? What can you mean?" + +Mrs. Trent did not answer, save by the tears in her eyes, though she was +tempted to show her child all the base suspicion that had, for a brief +space, dwelt in her own mind concerning "Forty-niner." A suspicion +which Antonio had suggested, and her trouble made her too ready to +accept. Then she reflected it were wiser not, and rose, placing the +precious parcel in Jessica's own hands. + +"Let us find that splendid old man at once. We cannot accept his +sacrifice, but we must hasten to show him we appreciate it." + +Ephraim was polishing his rifle in his own room when they came to him, +and rose to welcome the unusual visit of the lady with more awkwardness +than he commonly displayed. It was an honor she was doing him, yet he +had far rather she had not come. + +But he was forced back into his chair by Jessica's assault of clinging +arms and raining kisses, and, catching sight of the parcel in her hand, +began to understand. + +"Oh, you splendid, darling, generous Ephraim! I can never, never thank +you enough for doing this for me, but I could not ever possibly take it. +Why, there must be hundreds of dollars there, my mother says, and that +would mean almost all the years you've ever lived at Sobrante. I never +knew anybody with such a heart as you, dear Ephraim." + +The poor old fellow was far more distressed by her rejection of his gift +than she could guess. His face drooped, he worked his hands and feet +uneasily, he shifted his seat, and behaved in altogether a new fashion +for the man who had hitherto borne himself so simply and naturally. Then +the old suspicion returned to sting his loving heart, and he glanced up +to study his mistress' face. To his surprise he saw it wet with tears, +and that she was holding out her thin, labor-hardened hands to clasp +his own. + +"Ephraim Marsh, you have done me more good than money could bring. You +have renewed my faith in mankind. In a world where live such men as you +justice will be done the memory of my dead husband. I thank you." + +"Don't--don't mention it, Mrs. Trent. I wish it had been double, as it +ought, only----" + +"Ephraim, mother says we may go. You and I, as you said, 'together,' +to make everything straight." + +"What? You've told her then, Lady Jess." + +"Of course. Or she guessed. How could I keep anything from my mother? +And she's quite willing." + +"I'm more than willing, Ephraim. I _want_ you to go. I believe that +good will come of the journey, though I am terribly disappointed by not +finding any papers or letters to help you in the search for the men with +whom Mr. Trent transacted his business. Antonio must have taken away all +the records or put them in some place I cannot guess." + +"Then we'll find Antonio first." + +"Of course. How simple of me not to think of that. Do you happen to know +where he went?" + +"No, ma'am, I don't. But you can always track a--well some critters by +their scent. Wherever that scoundrel goes he'll leave a trail. I've +a keen nose for the hunt." + +"Don't judge him too harshly, Ephraim. Perhaps he considered that he +was doing all for the best; and if Sobrante is his, he's welcome to it." + +"Whew!" was the ranchman's astonished comment. + +"Don't you understand, dear Ephraim? Losing a home is nothing to losing +honor," said Jessica, earnestly. "We don't care half so much about +Sobrante as that other thing." + +"You shall keep both. Your home and our master's honor," cried the +old man, fiercely. + +"Yes, that we will!" echoed Jessica, clasping his hand again. + +So doing she dropped the canvas bag on the floor, and, picking it up, +Mrs. Trent would have restored it to its owner, as she so considered the +sharpshooter. But he would have none of it. + +"I've heard the little tackers call one another 'Indian giver.' I +couldn't, ma'am, you know. It's Jessie's, now." + +The mistress' face grew serious. She had not expected to find the man so +obstinate. But she hated to wound him and turned the matter aside with +the remark: + +"Let it rest so, then, for the present. I will keep it in the safe +till you come back--if I can. Though I begin to feel as if nothing were +secure at Sobrante, nowadays." + +Ephraim pondered for a moment, then looked up with a relieved expression. + +"Asking pardon, ma'am, I'm sure; have you got any--I mean much money +handy by you?" + +"No. I have not. Fortunately, beyond the wages of the men, not much +ready cash is needed at Sobrante, where we produce so much." + +"Yes'm. Yet I wouldn't like to set out on a journey that might be +long, or even delayed for a spell, without considerable loose change. +Better let the captain pay all expenses of the trip out of that little +handful, and call it square." + +"Square! That is even greater generosity than the first. Lying in the +safe you might have found it again; but spent--Ephraim, I fear I'll +never be able to repay such an amount. I must think out some other way." + +"Don't you trust me, Mrs. Trent?" + +"Am I not trusting you with the most precious thing in life--my +daughter?" + +"Then, mother, trust him about the money. It's good sense. We haven't +any and we need it. Besides, it hurts him to refuse. Yes, we'll use it, +Ephraim dear." + +So it was settled; but it was not in Jessica's nature to keep the +story from the rest of her "boys." Forgetting her angry feelings of the +morning she called a meeting and spread the news among them. Much as she +loved them, until the time of her recent appointment as "captain," +she had tried to give them their titles of "Mr.," though not always +remembering. Now she no longer tried. They were just her comrades, and +when she stood upon the horseblock to address them it was with the +joyful announcement: + +"John! George! Joe! Everybody! Ephraim and I are going away!" + +She paused and looked around, but instead of the sympathetic pleasure +she expected there were darkening looks and evident disappointment. + +"Oh! but we are coming back again. Hark, what he did!" + +Ephraim was away putting his few traps together against the morning's +start, since, if they were to go at all, why delay? Else he might +have silenced her then and there. But out it came, and be sure the +sharpshooter's generosity lost not one bit in her telling. + +"With this money we're going to hire lawyers and pay our lodging where +we have to, and hunt up the men that know about business. Finally, to +find the money--that other lot of it--that Mr. Hale said had been sent +to my father by those New York folks. If they did send it they shall +have it back--if we can find it. If they didn't--they shall tell all +the world they accused him wrongfully. We're going to find the man that +made that title, if we can. We're going to save Sobrante, but we're +going to save its honor first!" + +"Hurrah! Hurrah! Glory to the captain!" + +"And old 'Forty-niner,'" added honest John Benton. + +They cheered him to the skies, and when the uproar had subsided, their +small chief said: + +"You are all to take the best care of Sobrante, and first--of my mother. +Don't you let her worry, nor let Ned and Luis get hurt. And you must +keep Aunt Sally here till I come back." + +Somebody groaned. + +"Oh! that's not right. I couldn't go if she hadn't come. She'll look +after everything----" + +"That's the true word!" + +"And I want you all to be--be good and not tease her." + +"Hurrah! Hurrah! All in favor of minding the captain, say Ay!" + +They swung her down from her perch and carried her on their shoulders +everywhere about the old mission. They offered her all their possessions, +including pistols and bowie knives, at peaceful Sobrante more useful +for target practice and pruning vines than their original purposes. +But she declined all these warlike things, saying that Ephraim would +carry only his own rifle, and finally tore herself away from them to +the anxious mother at the cottage, naturally jealous of each moment of +her darling's company. + +"Don't see how Eph. ever saved so much. Hasn't had any wages since +ours failed, as I know of. Mine always go fast as earned, and thought +everybody's did," said one, when Jessica had left them. + +"Some folks have all the luck! Why didn't it happen to me to have money +to give her? or to offer first to go hunt them liars? Shucks!" said +Samson, in disgust. Though he had been back some time from escorting +the stranger "off bounds," that task had left him in a bad humor. + +"Well, the captain'd tell me envy was wicked, and when I was hearing +her say it I'd believe it. But I do envy old eighty his chance," +complained Joe. "Hello! there's Ferd! Come to think of it I haven't +noticed him around these two days. Not since that stranger cast his ugly +shadow on the ranch. Hi, there, Dwarf! Where you been?" + +"Where I seen bad doings." + +"Right. Seeing you was there yourself. What doings was they?" + +In ordinary the older men had little to say to Antonio's "Left Hand," +but he afforded them diversion, just then, when they were all a little +anxious and downhearted over their captain's departure on what seemed to +some of them a wild-goose chase. + +Ferd went through a pantomime of theft. Furtively putting one hand +into his neighbor's pocket to instantly thrust it back into his own. +He produced a buckskin bag and twisting some eucalyptus leaves into +rolls, suggesting those of money, thrust these within the bag and that +within his jacket. Then he glanced about with an absurdly innocent +expression, threw his shoulders back, and stepped forward a few paces +with so firm a step and erect a bearing that more than one instantly +recognized the mimicry. + +"Forty-niner." + +Having produced the effect he had intended, Ferd slouched back into his +own natural attitude and begged: + +"Something to eat." + +At that moment Ephraim had been approaching and was an indignant witness +of this performance, nor was he less quick to see its significance +than his mates had been. Also, to him that buckskin bag was a familiar +object. With one stride he collared Ferd and shook him like a rat. + +"You imp! What do you mean by that? And how came you by Elsa Winkler's +pouch?" + +Ferd broke from his captor and his face changed color beneath its +filth. He was one who was perfectly satisfied to live in a country +where water was scarce; but, by way of fun, another ranchman caught him +as he escaped from Ephraim, and forcibly ducked his head and shoulders +in the washing-trough. After that he was let go and later on was given +a liberal supper at the messroom. He ate this as if he had not seen +food since he had gone away two days before, but he was greedy at all +times, and the present instance excited no comment. + +The morning came and all was ready for the start. Every person at +Sobrante gathered before the cottage door, and each with his or her +word of farewell advice or good will. Aunt Sally, fluttering with +patchwork strips of already "pieced blocks," flung jauntily over +either shoulder, her spectacles slipping off the point of her nose and +her hands holding forth a fat fig pie, hot and dripping from the oven. + +"I've been a-bakin' all night, Ephy. There's a pair of fowls, a ham, +four loaves, some hard-boiled eggs, salt, pepper, sugar, tea, coffee, +butter, dishes, five vials of medicine, some dish towels, some----" + +"What in reason! How expect me to carry that great basket, as well as +the saddlebags, and myself--on one horse? You're old enough to have +sense--but you'll never learn it. One loaf----" + +"Ephraim Marsh! Are you eighty years old or are you not? At your age +would you starve the little darling daughter of the best friends you +ever had? Here, Jessie. You get off that donkey. We'll wait till we can +pick out some other man that----" + +"Give me the basket; I'll carry it if I have to on my head!" +interrupted "Forty-niner," indignantly. But he added to himself: +"I can chuck it into the first clump of mesquite I meet." + +Jessica was upon Scruff, whose loss the small boys were bewailing +far more than that of the girl herself. Without Scruff they would be +compelled to stay within walking distance of the cottage, and this +was imprisonment. Without Jessica--well, there were many things one +could do better with Jessica away. + +Mrs. Trent's face was pale but calm. Nobody knew what this first parting +with her helpful child was to her anxious heart, but it was her part to +send the travelers outward in good cheer. + +"Put the saddlebags on Scruff, in front of Jessica. He's strong enough +to carry double, and they're not so heavy. Few girls, in my days at the +East, would have set out upon an indefinite journey, equipped with only +one flannel frock and a single change of underclothing." + +"But the flannel frock is new and so is the pretty Tam that Elsa gave me +last Christmas. What do I want more? specially when there's this warm +jacket you made me take, for a cold night's ride. Isn't it enough, +mother, dear?" + +"Quite, I think, else I should have made you delay till I could have +provided more. Be sure to write me, now and then. One of the men will +ride to the post every few days and fetch any letters. Good-by, and +now--go quickly!" + +She added no prayers, for these were too deep in her heart for outward +utterance; but she felt her own courage ebbing, and that if the parting +were not speedy she could not at all endure it. Until that moment she had +not realized how complete was her dependence upon Jessica's protecting +tenderness; and turning, toward her home hid thus the tears she would not +have her daughter see. + +But neither could Lady Jess have seen them, because of the sudden mist in +her own. All her eagerness for the journey was gone, and her courage was +fast following it. If the start were not made at once it would never be. + +"Good-by, mother. Good-by, all! Come, Ephraim! Go, go--Scruff!" + +A moment later the travelers were disappearing down the sandy road, and +upon those whom they had left behind had fallen an intolerable burden of +foreboding and loneliness. + +"Desolation of desolations! That's what this old ranch'll be till +that there little bunch of human sunshine comes safely back to it. A +crazy trip, a crazy parcel of folks to let her take it. That's what we +are," said John Benton, savagely kicking the horseblock to vent his +painful emotion. + +"Oh, dear! Oh, dear! And I never remembered to put in that guava jell!" +moaned a voice of woe. + +"Then, mother, just trot it out to us for dinner," said her son, +"we'll take that burden off your mind." + +"You will? Have you a heart to eat good victuals, John Benton, when that +sweet child has just thrust herself into a den of lions, and lawyers, and +liars, and--and--things?" + +"Oh, hush! Lions! The notion!" + +"Well, you can't deny there's bears, anyway," she retorted, with +ready dolefulness. "Ephy's shot 'em himself in his younger days." + +"And ended the crop. Now you go in; and if I hear you downhearting the +mistress the least bit I'll make you take a dose of your own picra," +said this much-tried man. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE FINISH + + +It was a journey of something more than two hundred miles and they were +almost a week on the way; riding for several hours each morning and +evening; camping in some well-watered spot at midday; or, this failing, +sharing the dinner of some friendly ranchman. Also, they slept at some +little inn or ranch, and where their hosts would receive it, Ephraim +delighted to make liberal payment for their entertainment. + +Indeed, he felt a prince, with his well-filled purse, and would have +forced all sorts of dainties and knickknacks upon his little charge, +at each village they passed through, save that she resolutely refused +them. + +"You generous Ephraim, no! What money we need for the trip and after +we get to Los Angeles is all right. But you mustn't waste it. Hear! I +am older than you in this thing." + +"But--I want you to have everything nice in the world, Lady Jess. Any +other of the 'boys' traveling with you----" + +"Could not have been so kind and thoughtful as you. Not one. Dearly as I +love them I'd rather have you to take care of me on this long journey +than any other single one. So do be good and not extravagant. And isn't +it lovely to find how almost everybody knew of my dear father? Or, if +they didn't know him for himself, they'd heard of him and of something +he'd done for somebody. It makes the way seem almost short and as if +I'd been over the road before." + +"He often passed this way, child; and whenever he went left pleasant +memories behind him. He was a grand man, was Cassius Trent. Ugh! To +think----" + +"That will be all right, Ephraim. I know it. I feel it. And how I do +love all the new places and things I see. I should never have cared to +leave Sobrante but for this business; yet now I have left it I'm finding +the world a big, splendid, lovely place." + +"H-m-m! I reckon even this old earth could show only its best side to +you, little girl. However, it _has_ been pleasant and it's about over. +Aunt Sally's provisions didn't have to go into the mesquite bushes, +after all. What we couldn't eat we've found plenty of others to take +off our hands. Even the medicine didn't go begging, and that'll do her +proud to hear. Poor wretches who have to take it!" + +"But they wanted it, Ephraim. Some of the women said they hadn't had +a dose of medicine in years and seemed as pleased as if it had been +sweetmeats. Now the basket is empty. What shall you do with that?" + +"Leave it at the next place we stop." + +They had set out upon their ride on Tuesday morning and this was sunset, +Saturday. They were descending the slope of a mountain and the guide +pointed forward, eagerly. + +"Do you see that hazy spot off yonder? That's our City of the Angels! +The city where we shall find justice and honor." + +"Oh, shall we be there to-night?" + +"No. We might have been days ago if we'd ridden across country and +struck the railway lines, but I wanted to do just as we have done. I +knew you'd hear so much about your father it would do you good forever. +We can go home the quicker way if we think best; and if we have good news +to take will, likely, so think, I--I'm almost sorry we're so near the +end." + +"In one way so am I. Not in another. I long to begin to hunt for that +money and the men who have it." + +Ephraim sighed. Now that he was thus far on his mission he began to +think it, indeed, as Joe Dean had said, "A good deal of the needle and +haymow style." But he rallied at once and answered, cheerfully: + +"There's a house I know, or used to, at the foot of this slope. I +planned to sleep there to-night, make an early start in the morning, and +ride the fifteen miles left so as to get to the town in time for the +churches. To think you're eleven years old, Lady Jess, yet have never +been inside any church except the rickety old mission." + +"Do you like churches, Ephraim?" + +"Yes. I do now, child. I didn't care so much about 'em when I lived +nigh 'em. But they're right. There's a good many kinds of 'em +and they get me a little mixed, arguing. But they're right; and the +bell----It'll be a good beginning of this present job to go to meeting +the first thing." + +"Oh! this wonderful world and the wonderful things I'm learning! What +a lot I shall have to tell the folks when I get home. Seems as if I +couldn't wait." + +They found the little lodging-house, as Ephraim had hoped, though +now kept by a stranger to him. However, the new landlord made them +comfortable, charged them an exorbitant price--having caught sight of +his guest's fat purse--and set them early on their way. "Forty-niner" +did not complain. Their next and final stop would be with an old +fellow-miner who, at Ephraim's last visit to Los Angeles, five years +before, had kept a tidy little inn on one of the city's central +streets. If this old friend were still living he would give them hearty +welcome, the best entertainment possible, and what was more to the +purpose--practical advice as to their business. + +"The bells! The bells! Oh! they are what you said, the sweetest things +I ever heard!" cried Lady Jess, in delight, as over the miles of +distance there floated to them on the clear air, the chimes and sonorous +tollings from many church towers. + +"We shall be late, after all, I guess. That means it's time for the +meetings to begin. Well, there'll be others in the afternoon; so we may +as good take it easy and go slow." + +This suited Jessica, who found more and more to surprise and interest +her in every stage of their advance, and most of all as they entered +the city. This was much altered and improved since the sharpshooter +had himself last seen it, but even thus he could point out many of the +finest buildings, name the chief avenues, and comport himself after +the manner of one who knows enlightening one who does not. + +But soon Jessica saw few of the things which interested him and heard +him not at all. It was the first time she had ever seen a girl of her +own age, and now--the streets were full of them. In their gay Sunday +attire, on their homeward way now from the churches whose bells had long +ceased to ring, they were here, there, and everywhere. They lined the +sidewalks and glittered from the open electric cars. They smiled at +one another and, a few, at her; for to them, also, this other stranger +girl was a novel sight, just then and there. Besides the oddity of her +dress and equipment, the eagerness and beauty of her face attracted +them, and more than one pair of eyes turned to look after her, as Scruff +scrambled along, unguided by his rider, and dodging one danger only +to face another. + +"That's a country girl, fast enough; and if she doesn't look out that +uneasy burro will land her on the curbstone! Look out there, child!" +cried one passerby, just as the animal bounded across the track of a +whizzing trolley. + +But this peril escaped, Ephraim grasped Scruff's bridle and presently +led the way into a quieter street or alley, and thence to the wide plaza +before the inn he sought. + +"Thank fortune, there's room enough here to turn around in! And +there's the very house. Hello! Lady Jess! I say, Jessica!" + +Without warning the girl had whisked the bridle from his grasp and had +chirruped to the now excited beast in the manner which meant: + +"Go your swiftest!" + +Scruff went. Following he knew not what, and terrified afresh at every +square he traversed. Somewhere a band of music was playing, and the +beating of the drums seemed to his donkey brain the most horrible of +noises. To escape it and the ever-increasing throng his nimble feet flew +up and down like mad; he thrust his head between the arms of people +and forced the crowd to part for him; he reared, backed, plunged, and +shook himself; but did not in the least disturb his mistress' firm +seat, as with her own head leaning forward she kept her gaze upon some +distant object and urged him to pursuit. + +The crowd which made way for this eager pair was first angry, then +amused. After that it began to collect into a formidable following. +Poor Lady Jess became to them a "show" and Scruff's antics but meant +to exhibit her "trick" riding. + +Now Stiffleg was an ancient beast, which had been a trotter in his day; +but his day, like his master's, was past. By good care and easy stages +he had accomplished his long journey in fair condition; but he was a +sensible animal and felt that he had earned a rest. So when Ephraim +urged him forward after the vanishing burro he halted and turned his +head about. If ever equine eyes protested against further effort, his +did then; and at ordinary times "Forty-niner" would have been the +first to perceive this appeal and grant it. He had always bragged that +"Stiffleg's more human than most folks," but he forgot this now. He +remembered only that his precious charge was fast disappearing from +sight and that in another moment she would be lost in a great, strange +city. + +"Simpleton that I was! I never even mentioned the name of the tavern we +were going to," reflected, "else she might tell it and get shown the +way." Then came another startling thought. For fear of just such an +emergency--why had he been silly enough to think of it?--he had on that +very morning, as they neared their journey's end, divided their money +into two portions and make her carry the larger one. She had objected, +at first; but afterward consented, and with pride in his trust. "If +any scamp got hold of her he'd rob her or--maybe worse! Oh, Atlantic! +Giddap, Stiff! Giddap, I tell you!" + +To the crowd this appeared but another feature of "the show." These +rustics from the plains had evidently come into town to furnish +entertainment for Sunday strollers, and Stiffleg's obstinacy was to +them a second of the "tricks" to be exhibited. + +However, it was a case of genuine balk; and the more Ephraim urged, +implored, chastised, the firmer were the horse's forefeet planted upon +the highway and the more despairing became the rider's feeling. + +"Build a fire under him," "Thrust red pepper under his nose," "Tie +him to a trolley car." "Blindfold him." + +Various were the suggestions offered, to none of which did the +sharpshooter pay any heed. The brass band accomplished what nothing +else could. Blatantly it came around the corner, keeping time to its +own noisy drums, and Stiffleg pricked up his ears. In his youth he had +marched to battle and, at that moment, his youth was renewed. He +reared his drooping head, a thrill ran through his languid veins, and, +though still without advance motion, his hoofs began to beat a swift +tattoo, till the towering plumes of the drum major came alongside +his own now gleaming eyes. Then, he wheeled suddenly and--forward! + +"Ho! the old war-horse! That's a pretty sight," shouted somebody. + +Alas! for Ephraim. The unexpected movement of the balking animal did +for him what was rare indeed--unseated him. By the time that it was +"right front" for Stiffleg his master was on the ground, feeling +that an untoward fate had overtaken him and that his leg, if not his +heart, was broken. Music had charms, in truth, for the rejuvenated +beast, and one of the sharpshooter's pet theories was thereby proved +false. Had anybody at Sobrante told him that anything could entice his +"faithful" horse away from him he would have denied the statement +angrily. He would have declared, with equal conviction, that, in case +of accident like this, the intelligent creature would have stayed beside +and tried to tend him. + +Now, lying forsaken both by Jessica and Stiffleg, he uttered his shame +and misery in a prolonged howl, as he attempted to rise and could not. + +"O! Ough! Oh! My leg's broke! My leg's broke all to smash, I tell you. +Somebody pick me up and carry me--yonder--to the Yankee Blade. If Tom +Jefferts keeps it still, he'll play my friend. Oh! Ah!" + +Some in the now pitying throng exchanged glances, and one man bent over +the prostrate Ephraim, saying, kindly: + +"Why, Tom Jefferts hasn't been in this town these three years. He went +to 'Frisco and set up there. If there's anybody else you'd like to +notify I'll telephone----" + +"He gone, too! Then let me lie. What do I care what becomes of me now? +Oh! my leg!" + +The bravest men are cowards before physical suffering, sometimes. Ephraim +would have faced death for Jessica without flinching, but that gathering +agony of pain made him indifferent, for the moment, even to her welfare. +This calamity had fallen upon him like lightning from a clear sky and +benumbed him, so to speak. But it had not benumbed those about him. +Within five minutes the clang of an ambulance gong was heard, and the +aid which some thoughtful person had summoned arrived. Ephraim was +tenderly lifted and placed within the conveyance, and away it dashed +again, though almost without jar, and certainly without hindrance, +since everything on the street gives place to suffering. + +By the time the hospital was reached the patient had recovered something +of his customary fortitude, but he was still too confused and distressed +to think clearly about his escaped charge and what should be done to find +her. As for Stiffleg: + +"I hope I'll never see that cowardly, ungrateful beast again!" he +ejaculated; then resigned himself to the surgeon's hands. + +That which Lady Jess had perceived in the distance and had followed so +wildly was the tall figure of a gentleman in a gray suit. He wore a gray +hat and blue glasses, such as her mother had pressed upon Mr. Hale's +acceptance during his brief stay at Sobrante. + +"It's he! It certainly is he! Oh! Now I can tell him how sorry both +mother and I were that the 'boys' behaved so rudely. And he's a +lawyer. He's on the same business we are, if his is the other side. I +must stop him--quick!" + +This might have been an easy thing to do, under Scruff's present rate +of speed; but, unfortunately, the tall man stepped into a hack, waiting +beside the plaza for stray passengers, and giving an order was driven +rapidly away. + +For a long time Jessica kept that carriage in sight; then it turned a +corner into an avenue, where were hundreds more just like it, it seemed +to her, and she lost it among the many. + +Even yet she pressed on determined. "In a city--it's just one city, +even if it is a big one--I shall find him if I keep on. I must. Go, +Scruff! The band is after you. Go! Go!" + +The overtaxed burro had already "gone" to his fullest ability. He could +do no more, although his mistress whispered "sugar," "sweet cake" +and other tempting words. His excited pace dropped to the slowest of +walks, his breath came hardly, and finally he leaned himself against a +post and rested. When he had done so for some moments, Jessica turned +him about and looked backward, expecting to see Ephraim close behind. +But he was nowhere in sight; and in a flash of horror the girl realized +that she was lost. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +A NEW FRIEND FOR THE OLD + + +"Lost! I'm lost! Right here in this great city full of folks. It +seemed so easy to find Mr. Hale and it was so hard. There are so many +streets--which one is right? There are so many people--oh! if they'd +stop going by for just one minute, till I could think." + +The passing crowd that had so interested now terrified her. Among all +the changing faces not one she knew, not one that more than glanced her +way, and was gone on, indifferent. The memory of a time in her early +childhood when she had strayed into the canyon and became bewildered +flashed through her mind. Was she to suffer again the misery of that +dreadful day? But the day had ended in a father's rescuing arms, and +now---- + +"I remember he told me then that if ever I were lost again I was to +keep perfectly still for a time and think over all the things I'd seen +by the way. After awhile I might feel sure enough to go slowly back and +guide myself by them. But I can't think here. It's so noisy and thick +with men and women. And I'm getting so hungry. Ephraim said we would +have the best dinner his friend could give us. If he'd told me that +friend's name or where he lived. Well, I'll mind my father in one +thing; I'll keep still. Then if Ephraim should happen to come this +way he'd find me sooner. But--he won't. Something has happened, or +he'd never let me out of sight. If I didn't know the bigness of a +city he did and would have taken care." + +So she dismounted and led Scruff back beside the telegraph post, against +which the weary animal calmly leaned his shoulder and went to sleep. +Jessica threw her arm over the burro's neck and, standing so, scanned +every passing pedestrian and peered into every whirling vehicle. + +Something of her first terror left her. She was foolish to think anything +harmful could have happened to "Forty-niner" so quickly after she +had run away from him. She wished she had called and explained to him, +but she had had no time if she would catch up to that gray-coated +gentleman. After all they were still in the same city and all she +needed was patience. + +"That's what I have so little of, too. Maybe this is a lesson to me. +Mother says impatient people always find life harder than the quiet +kind. I wonder what she's doing now! and oh! I'm glad she can't see +me. She'd suffer more than I do. It's queer how that man, in a fancy +coat, with so many brass buttons, keeps looking at me. He's walked +by this place on one side the street or the other ever so many times. I +wonder if he owns this post. Maybe it's his and he doesn't like us to +stand here, yet is too polite to say so. Come, Scruff, let's walk a +little further along. Then he can see we don't mean to hurt his post." + +Scruff reluctantly roused and moved a pace or two, then went to sleep +again. The shadow of a building that had sheltered them from the hot +sunshine passed gradually and left them exposed to the full glare from +the sky. Both Jessica and the burro were used to heat, however, and did +not greatly suffer from it. But this motionless waiting became almost +intolerable to active Lady Jess, and the sharpness of her hunger changed +into faintness. The sidewalks seemed to be rising up to strike her and +her head felt queer; so she pulled the hot Tam from her curls, leaned +her cheek against Scruff's neck, and, to clear her dizzy vision, closed +her eyes. Then for a long time knew no more. + +A young man sat down to smoke his after-dinner cigar before the window +of a clubhouse across the way. Idly observant of the comparatively few +persons passing at that hour, his artist eye was caught by the scarlet +gleam of Jessica's cap, fallen against the curbstone. + +"Hello! That child has been in that spot for two hours, I think. She +was there before I went to dinner and must be dead tired. But she and +the burro are picturesque--I'll sketch them." + +He whipped out notebook and pencil and by a few skillful lines reproduced +the pair opposite. But as he glanced toward them, now and then, during +this operation, he became convinced that something was amiss with his +subject. + +"Poor little thing! If she's waiting for anybody she keeps the baby +too long. I'm going over and speak to her. If she's hungry I'll send +her a sandwich." + +At his touch on her shoulder Jessica roused. Her sleep had refreshed her, +though she was still somewhat confused. + +"Oh! Ephraim! How long you've been! Why--it isn't Ephraim!" + +"No, little girl, I'm not Ephraim, but I'm a friend. I'm afraid +you will be ill standing so long in the hot sun. Are you waiting for +anybody?" + +The voice was kind and Jessica was glad to speak to any one. She told +her story at once in a few words. The young man's face grew grave as +he listened, still he spoke encouragingly. + +"It's quite easy for strangers in a big place to get separated. +Suppose, since you haven't had your dinner, as I guess, that you go with +me and have some. Wait, I'll just speak to that policeman, yonder, +and ask him to have a lookout for your Ephraim, while we're in the +restaurant. There's a good place halfway down the block, and from its +window you can watch the burro for yourself. I'll tie him, shan't I?" + +"He's very tired. I don't think he'll need any tying. He's never +tied at Sobrante." + +"Sobrante? Are you from Sobrante? Why, I've heard of that ranch, +myself." + +"Have you? That makes it seem as if I knew you." + +The stranger smiled and beckoned to the policeman, who proved to be the +brass-buttoned individual that had taken so much apparent interest in +Jessica, but had not spoken to her of his own accord. He came forward +promptly now and the young man related to him what Lady Jess had said. +Then asked: + +"What would I better do about it? I thought of taking her to the +restaurant over there and getting her some dinner." + +"No. She'd better go to the station-house with me. The matron'll look +after her and I'll have the donkey put in stable. I'll tell the officer +who's coming on this beat now to keep an eye out for a countryman with +a stiff-legged horse; is it, girl?" + +"Yes. A bay horse, with a blazed face. The horse's name is Stiffleg +and the master's, Ephraim Marsh." + +The officer made the entry in his book, then took hold of Scruff's +bridle and led the way stationward. Jessica looked appealingly into +the young man's face and he smiled, then grasped her hand. + +"Don't fear, child, that I'll desert you till I find your old +guardian. There's nothing frightful about a station-house, except to +criminals," he said, kindly. + +However, Jessica knew nothing of such institutions and therefore had +no fear of them. With the exception of Antonio's "crossness" she had +met with nothing but love and kindness all her life, and she looked for +nothing else. She was already happy again at finding two persons ready +to talk with her and help her; and her pretty face grew more and more +charming to the artist's view as she skipped along beside him toward +the police headquarters, as this station chanced to be. + +"You see, little girl, that when a child is lost in a city the first +thing the friends think of is--the station-house. All stray persons are +taken and messages are sent to it from every part of the town all the +time. That Ephraim will remember that, if he's ever been here before, +and he'll be finding you long before night. Till then you'll be safe +and cared for." + +Jessica did feel a moment's hesitation when she had to part with Scruff, +but soon laughed at her own dismay. + +"I felt as I must take him inside this building with me, for fear he'd +be lonesome, too. But, of course, I know better. Why, what a nice, big +place this is!" + +By far the largest building she had ever entered, but her new +acquaintances smiled at her delight over it. + +"Not all who come here think it so fine," said the young man. "Eh, +officer?" + +"No, no. No, indeed, sir. Now, this way, please. I'll just enter the +case at the desk and call up the matron. She'll tend to the girl all +right. You needn't bother any more." + +"Oh! are you going?" asked Jessica, her face drooping. + +"Not yet. No law against my having a meal with this young lady, is +there, officer?" + +"If it isn't at the public charge, sir," answered the policeman. + +"Oh! I've money to pay for my own dinner. See?" cried Lady Jess, +producing the fat wallet Ephraim had given her and which she pulled from +within her blouse, where she had worn it, suspended by a string. + +"Whew! child! All that? Put it up, quick. Put it up, I say." + +Instinctively she obeyed and hid the purse again, but her face expressed +her surprise, and the young man answered its unspoken question. + +"Very few little girls of your age ever have so much money as that about +them. None ever should have. It's too great a temptation to evil-minded +persons, and a good many of that sort come here. Ah! the matron! I'll +ask her to show us into some less public place and I'll order a dinner +from that restaurant nearby." + +In response to his request the motherly woman in charge of the women's +quarters offered him her own little sitting-room; "if they'll say yes +to it in the office," she added, as a condition. + +This was soon arranged, the dinner followed and a very hungry Jessica sat +down to enjoy it. Her companion also pretended to eat, but encouraged her +to talk and found himself interested in her every moment. He, also, +promptly told her who he was; a reporter and occasional artist, on +one of the leading daily papers. A man always on the lookout for +"material," and as such he meant to use the sketch, he had made. He +showed her the sketch, and explained that he would put an item in +the next issue of his paper which might meet the eye of the missing +sharpshooter and notify that person where to find her, if he had not +done so before. + +Jessica did not know that it was an unwise thing to make a confidant of +a stranger, but in this instance she was safe enough; and it pleased her +to tell, as him to listen to, the whole history of Sobrante; its fortunes +and misfortunes, and the object of her present visit to this far-off town. + +His business instinct was aroused. He realized that here might be +"material," indeed. He was young and sincere enough to be enthusiastic. +Times were a little dull. There was quite a lull in murders and +robberies; this story suggested either a robbery or swindle of some +sort, and on a big scale. His paper would appreciate his getting a +"scoop" on its contemporaries, and, in a word, he resolved to make +Jessica Trent's cause his own, for the time being. + +"Look here, child, don't you worry. You stay right quiet in this +place with Matron Wood. I'll get out and hustle. Here's my card, Ninian +Sharp, of _The Lancet_. That's a paper has cut a good many knots and +shall cut yours. I've heard of Cassius Trent. Everybody has, in +California. I'll find that Lawyer Hale. I'll find old 'Forty-niner' +and I'll be back in this room before bedtime. Now, go play with the +rest of the lost children--you're by no means the only one in Los +Angeles to-day. Or take a nap would be wiser. Look out for her, Matron +Wood. Any good turn done this little maid is done _The Lancet_. Good-by, +for a time." + +Smiling, alert, he departed and Jessica felt as if he had taken all her +anxieties with him. She followed the matron into the big room where the +other estrays, whom Mr. Sharp had told her she would find, waiting to +be claimed by their friends, but none was as large as she. Some were so +little she wondered how they ever could have wandered anywhere away from +home; but she loved all children and these reminded her of Ned and Luis. + +Promptly she had them all about her, and for the rest of that day, at +least, Matron Wood's cares were lightened. Yet one after another, some +person called to claim this or that wanderer, with cries of rapture +or harsh words of reproof, as the case might be. Jessica kissed each +little one good-by, but with each departure felt herself growing more +homesick and depressed. By sunset she was the only child left in the +matron's care, and her loneliness so overcame her that she had trouble +to keep back her tears. + +"But I'll not cry. I will not be so babyish. Besides crying wouldn't +help bad matters and I've come away from Sobrante on a big mission. +Even that jolly Mr. Sharp said, 'That's a considerable of a job,' when +I told him. He was funny. Always laughing and so quick, I wish he'd +come soon. It seems to take as long for him to find Ephraim as it would +me. I should think anybody could have walked the whole city over by this +time," she thought, in her ignorance of distances. Then she asked: + +"When do you think they'll come, Matron Wood?" + +The good woman waked from a "cat-nap" and was tired enough to be +impatient. + +"Oh! don't bother. If they're not here by nine o'clock you'll have +to go to bed. You should be thankful that there is such a place as this +for just such folks as you. Like as not he'll never come. You can't +tell anything about them newspaper men. But you listen to that bell, will +you? I don't see what makes me so sleepy. If it rings, wake me up." + +The minutes sped on. In the now silent room the portly matron slumbered +peacefully and Jessica tried, though vainly, to keep a faithful watch. +She did not know that her weary companion was breaking rules and laying +herself open to disgrace; but she was herself very tired, so, presently, +her head dropped on the table and she was also asleep. + +Ninian Sharp found the pair thus, and jested with the matron when he +waked her in a way that sounded very much like earnest. "He would have +her removed," and so on; thereby frightening Jessica, who had been +roused by their voices, and looked from one to the other in keen distress. + +"I did--I did try to listen for the bell, but it was so still and I +couldn't help it. I'm sorry----" + +"Pooh! child. No more could I. It'll be all right if this gentleman +knows enough to hold his tongue," said the woman, anxiously. + +"I shouldn't be a gentleman if I didn't--where a lady is concerned. +And I judge from appearances it's about time Miss Jessica went to bed." + +The girl's heart sank. This meant disappointment. She understood that +without further words, and turned away her face to hide the tears which +would come now, in spite of all her will. + +Then the reporter's hand was on her curls. + +"Keep up your courage, child. I've been hustling, as I said I would. +I've found out a lot. I've had boys searching the hotel records all +over town and I know in which one your Mr. Hale is staying. He'll +keep--till we need him." + +"But Ephraim? Have you heard nothing of him?" + +"I heard a funny yarn about a horse with a stiff leg; that the moment +the sound of a drum was in his ears cooly tossed his aged rider into +the gutter and marched off with the brass band, head up, eyes flashing, +tail switching, a soldier with the best of them. See--it's here in this +evening's _Gossip._" + +He held the sheet toward her and Jessica read the humorous account of +Stiffleg's desertion. But there was no account of what had further +befallen Ephraim, and it seemed but a poor excuse for his non-appearance. + +She tossed the paper aside, impatiently: + +"But he had his own two good feet left. He could have followed me on +them? I--I--he was always so faithful before." + +Mr. Sharp's face sobered. + +"He is faithful still, but his feet will serve him poorly for the next +few weeks. Maybe months. Old bones are slow to heal, and the surgeon +says it is a compound fracture. When he fell into the gutter, as my +co-laborer so gayly puts it, he 'broke himself all to smash.' He's in +hospital. As a great favor from the authorities in charge I've seen him. +I've told him about you. I've promised to befriend you and I'll +take you to see him in the morning. I'm sorry that your first night +in our angelic city must be passed in a station-house, but I reckon +it's the safest till I can think of some fitter shelter. Good-night. +My mother used to say that the Lord never shut one door but He opened +another. Ephraim laid up--here am I. Count on me. Good-night." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +A HOSPITAL REUNION + + +When Ninian Sharp sat down to smoke a cigar at the window of his club it +was with no idea that he was then and there to begin a bit of detective +work which should make him famous. For, though this is anticipating, +that was the reward which the future held for him because of his yielding +to a kindly impulse. + +Through him, the helplessness of a little girl won for an almost hopeless +cause the aid of a great newspaper, than which there is no influence +more potent. It took but one hearing of Jessica's story to rouse his +interest and to convince him that here was a "good thing if it could +be well worked up." It promised a "sensation" that would result in +benefit to his paper, to himself, and--for his credit be it said--to +the family of the dead philanthropist. + +After he had bidden Lady Jess good-night, the reporter called at the +hotel where Morris Hale was registered and held an interview with that +gentleman. The result of this was pleasing to both men. They had one +common object: the recovery of the missing money which had been entrusted +to Cassius Trent. Mr. Hale wished this for the sake of his New York +patrons, but now hoped, as did Ninian Sharp, that if it were accomplished +it would also clear the memory of Jessica's father from the stain +resting upon it. For the present, they decided to join forces, so to +speak. By agreement, they went together to the station-house on the +following morning, and found Lady Jess looking out of a window with +a rather dreary interest in the scene. But she instantly caught sight +of them and darted to the doorway to meet them, holding out both hands +toward the lawyer and entreating: + +"Oh! I beg your pardon for the 'boys'! And for us that we should ever +have let it happen to any guest of Sobrante. Can you forgive it?" + +The reporter looked curious and Mr. Hale's face flushed at the painful +memory her words had revived. But he did not explain and passed the +matter over, saying: + +"Don't mention it, my child. Odd, isn't it? To think you should follow +me so quickly all this long way. Well, you deserve success and I'm +going to help you to it, if I can. So is this new friend you've made. +Now, are you ready to see poor 'Forty-niner'? If so, get your cap, +bid the matron good-by, and we'll be off." + +Jessica obeyed, quickly; taking leave of Mrs. Wood with warm expressions +of gratitude for her "nice bed and breakfast," assuring that rather +skeptical person that these men "were certainly all right, because one +of them had been at her own dear home and her mother had recognized him +for a gentleman. The other--why, the other wrote for a newspaper. Even +drew pictures for it! Think of that!" + +"Humph! A man might do worse. But, never mind. This is the place to +come to if you get into any more trouble. There's the street and number +it is, and here's my name on a piece of paper. Now, it's to be put +in the book about your going, who takes you, and where. After that--after +that I suppose there's nothing more." + +Ninian Sharp watched this little by-play with much interest, and remarked +to the lawyer: + +"That child has a charm for all she meets. Even this old police matron, +whose heart ought to be as tough as shoeleather, looks doleful at +parting with her. I think her the most winning little creature I ever +met." + +"You should see her with her 'boys,' as she calls the workmen at +Sobrante. They idolize her and obey her blindly. Sometimes, their +devotion going further than obedience," he added, with a return of +annoyance in his expression. + +As she stepped into the street, Jessica clasped a hand of each, with +joyful confidence, and they smiled at one another over her head, leading +her to the next corner where they hailed a car and the reporter bade +her jump aboard. + +"Am I to ride in that? Oh, delightful!" + +"Delightful" now seemed everything about her. Friends were close at +hand and a few minutes would bring her to Ephraim. That he was injured +and helpless she knew, yet could not realize; while she could and did +realize to the full all the novelty about her. The swift motion of the +electric car, the gay and busy streets, the palm-bordered avenues they +crossed, the ever-changing scenes of the city, each richer and more +wonderful than the other, in her inexperienced eyes. She would have liked +to ask many questions, but her companions were now conversing in low +tones and she would not interrupt. Soon, however, she saw Mr. Sharp make +a slight gesture with his hand and the car stopped. "Our street," he +said, rising. + +A brief walk afterward brought them to a big building, standing somewhat +back from the avenue, with a green lawn and many trees about it. +Above the several gateways of its iron fence were signs, indicating: +"Accident Ward," "Convalescent's Ward," "General Hospital," +"Nurses' Home," "Dispensary," etc., all of which confused and +somewhat startled the country-reared girl. The more, it may be, as, at +that moment, the gong of an ambulance warned them to step off the +crossing before the "accident" alley beside the main building, and +the big van dashed toward an open door. + +Jessica gripped Mr. Hale's hand, nervously, and watched in a sort of +fascination while white-garbed attendants lifted an injured man from the +ambulance and carried him tenderly into the hospital. + +"Is--is he hurt?" + +"Yes, dear, I suppose so." + +"Was it like that they brought Ephraim here?" + +"Probably." + +"Oh! how dreadful! My poor, poor 'Forty-niner.'" + +"Rather, how merciful. But come; such a brave little woman as you +mustn't show the white feather at the mere sight of a hospital van. +Ephraim has been well cared for, be sure; and as he has been told to +expect you he'll be disappointed if you bring him a scared, unhappy +face." + +"Then I'll--I'll smile," she answered, promptly, thought the effort +was something of a failure. + +Soon they entered the building, whose big halls were so silent in +contrast with the street outside, and where the white-clad doctors and +nurses seemed to Jessica like "ghosts" as they moved softly here +and there. Again she clinched the lawyer's hand and whispered: + +"It's awful. It smells queer. I'm afraid. Aren't you?" + +"Not in the least. I like it. I've been a patient in just such places +more than once and think of them as the most blessed institutions in +the world. The odor of chemicals and disinfectants is noticeable at +first, but one soon gets accustomed to it and likes it. At any rate +I do. But, see, we're falling behind. Mr. Sharp evidently knows his +way well and we must hurry if we'd keep him in sight." + +Indeed, the reporter was just disappearing around a turn of the broad +staircase leading up into a sun-lighted corridor. He was quick and +decided in all his movements, and had paused but for one instant to +speak with an attendant at the door before he took his direct way to +Ephraim's room. + +"Why, I supposed he was in the general ward" said Mr. Hale, as he +joined Ninian, who had to stop and wait for his more leisurely advance. + +"He was, but he couldn't stand it. So I had him put into a private room +and he's much better satisfied. He has money enough to pay for it and if +he hadn't--well, it was just pitiful to see the old man's own distress +at sight of the distress of others all about him. I'd have had to do it, +even if it had taken my bottom dollar." + +"True to your class! I've always heard that newspaper men were the most +generous in the world, and now I believe it. Well, count me in, on this +transaction. But when were you here?" + +"Last night and--early this morning." + +"Whew! If you put such energy as that into the rest of the business +you'll make a speedy finish of it!" + +"That's my intention. Well, child, here we are. Put your best foot +forward and cheer up that forlorn old chap." + +Jessica had paused to look down a great ward, opening upon that corridor, +and was staring, spellbound, at the rows upon rows of white beds, each +with its occupant, and at the white-capped nurses bending over this +or that sufferer. The wide, uncurtained windows, all open to the soft +morning air, the snowy walls, the cleanliness and repose impressed her. + +"Why--it's nice! I thought it would be dreadful; and where is Ephraim? +Can I go in? How shall I find him among so many?" + +"Don't you understand? This way, I said, Lady Jess. The sharpshooter +wants to see his captain." + +She turned swiftly at that, and the smile he had hoped to rouse was on +her face as she caught the reporter's hand. + +"Why--how did you know _that?_ Who told you I was Lady Jess, or +captain?" + +"Who but 'Forty-niner' himself? Here he is," and he gently forced her +through an open doorway into a little room, which seemed a miniature of +the great ward beyond. There was the same white spotlessness, another +kind-faced nurse, and another prostrate patient. + +"Ephraim! Ephraim! You poor, dear, precious darling!" + +She was beside him, her arms about his neck, her tears and kisses raining +on his wrinkled face--a face that a moment before had been full of +sadness and impatience, but was now brimming with delight. + +"Little Lady! Little captain! I'm a pretty sort of a guardeen, I am! +But, thank God, I'm not the only man in the world, and you've found +them that can help you more than I could, with all my smartness. Did you +hear about that turn-tail, Stiffleg? Wasn't that enough to make a man +disgusted with horseflesh forever after? Ugh! I wish I had him, I'd +larrup him crossing before the 'accident' alley beside the main well! +And to think you, Cassius Trent's daughter, spent your first night in +town at a station-house! Child, I'll never dare to go home and face the +'boys' again, after that. Never." + +"Don't talk too much, sir," cautioned the nurse, offering her patient +a spoonful of some nourishment. + +"No, Ephraim, I'll talk. Oh! what wouldn't Aunt Sally give to be here +now! To think she's lost such a chance for dosing you!" + +"Forty-niner" laughed and the laughter did him good; though he soon +explained: "They say I'll have to lie here for nobody knows how +long, without moving, scarcely. That pesky old leg of mine did the job +up thorough, while it was at it. Thought it might as well be hung for +a sheep as a lamb, I s'pose. Well, it was the luckiest thing ever +happened--you getting lost and me getting hurt. That's the only way to +look at it. But--Atlantic! How'm I ever going to stand it? Having other +folks do for you and I, that'd give my right hand to help you--useless." + +"Easily, Ephraim. If it's a good thing, as you say, why then it can't +be a bad one. Here's your money. You must use it to pay for anything +you want. Or give it all to Mr. Hale about the business. You know." + +"Money! I don't want that. All I had they took away from me. Put it in +the hospital safe till I'm ready to go out. But you can't live in a +city without hard cash in every pocket. Oh! dear! I don't see what is +to be done! One minute it all is clear and I think what I said about my +accident being lucky for you; the next--I can't stand it. What is to +become of you, little captain?" + +"I'm going to stay right here with you." + +"You are? You will?" demanded the patient, eagerly. "You wouldn't +be afraid? But, maybe, you wouldn't be allowed. Hospitals are for sick +folks and old fools that don't know enough to sit a horse steady. +They're not for a happy little girl, who can make new friends for +herself anywhere. No. I guess, maybe, that Mr. Hale'll find you a +place, or get you on the cars to go home again. Oh! child, I wish you +were safe back at Sobrante this minute!" + +"And our work not done? Foolish 'boy!' As if I'd leave you alone, +either, when you're ill and--and Aunt Sally so far away." + +Ephraim groaned and Jessica looked toward the reporter, who was talking +earnestly with the nurse, just outside in the corridor. She heard him say: + +"If it could be arranged it would be a solution of the whole difficulty. +Her board would be assured, and at the first opportunity she shall be +sent to her home. For the present----" + +She felt it no shame to listen intently. She knew that they were +discussing herself and what was to be done with her. On that subject +she had already made up her own mind; so she slipped her hand from +Ephraim's and stepped to Mr. Sharp's side. + +"I want to say right here in this hospital. I will not make anybody a +bit of trouble. I will mind everything I am told. I'll not talk or +laugh or anything I should not. I'll help take care of Ephraim and +there's nobody who knows him here but me. He's the best man there can +be, and he's old, though he doesn't look it. Please let me stay. Anyway +until all the money is spent. There's enough for a while, I think. +Please." + +In answer to the reporter's look, rather than Jessica's words, the +nurse replied: + +"Yes, we do often have friends of the patients here. If there happen to +be rooms empty and so to spare. But a child--we never had a child-boarder +before. I'll consult the head nurse and let you know at once. Or, +better why not go and see her for yourself?" + +"I'd much prefer," said Ninian, who had more faith in his own +persuasive powers than in hers. "And I'll take Jessica with me." + +The result was that the little girl was allowed to "remain for the +present," and was assigned a room very near Ephraim's. Upon her good +behavior, as viewed from a hospital standpoint, depended the continuance +of her stay. + +"She can have her clothes sent here, but only what are necessary," +added the lady, as she dismissed them. + +"My clothes! Why--I don't know where they are." + +"Whew! What do you mean? I--I never thought about clothes," said Ninian +Sharp. + +"Nor I, before, since I came. I had only a change of underwear and +another flannel frock. Ephraim was to buy me more if I needed, though +mother thought I should not. But what I did have were in the saddlebags +on Stiffleg's back." + +"And he marched off to glory with them, the old soldier, eh? Well, +that's soon remedied. There are lots of stores in Los Angeles and lots +of girls your size. I'll get a nurse to fix you out, when she can, +and now, back to Ephraim and good-by." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE FINDING OF ANTONIO + + +For Jessica Trent there followed weeks of a quieter life than she had +lived even at isolated Sobrante. "The behavior," which was to be a +test of her stay, proved so pleasing to the hospital residents that some +of them wondered how they had ever gotten along without her helpful, +happy presence. + +Very quickly she lost her first vague fear of the place and learned +to hear in the once alarming ambulance gong the signal of relief to +somebody. She modulated her voice to the prevailing quietude of the +house and her footfalls were as light as the nurses themselves. To +many a sufferer, coming there in dread and foreboding, the sight of +a child familiar and happy about the great building brought a feeling of +comfort and homelikeness which nothing else could have given. She was so +apt and imitative that Ephraim often declared: + +"All you need, Lady Jess, is a cap and apron to make you a regular +professional. Take care of me better'n any of 'em, you do; and I'll +be a prime experience for you, that's a fact. Another of the good things +come out of my fool riding, I s'pose. You'll be able to nurse the +whole parcel of us, when you get back to Sobrante. Beat Aunt Sally all +hollow, 'cause you trust a bit to nature and not all to--picra." + +"But you're not ill, Ephraim Marsh. You're just broken. So you don't +need medicine. All you need is patience. And your nourishments, regular." + +"I get them all right; but--_patience!_ Atlantic!" + +The old man sighed. It was weary work for him, the hardest he had ever +done, to lie so motionless while he was so anxious to be active. He +really suffered little and he had the best of care. Still, he sighed +again, and, unfortunately, Jessica echoed the sigh. Then he looked at +her keenly and spoke the thought which had been in his mind for a long +time: + +"Captain, you must go home. There's twenty to need bossing there and +only one poor old carcass here." + +Poor Lady Jess! She tried to answer brightly as was her habit, but that +day homesickness was strong upon her, and at mention of Sobrante her +courage failed. She forgot that she was a "nurse"; forgot the good +"behavior," forgot everything, indeed, but her mother's face and +Ned's mischievous affection. She dropped to her knees and buried her +face in the old man's pillow while she sobbed aloud: + +"Oh, 'Forty-niner,' shall we ever see that home again?" + +Weak and unstrung, the patient moaned in sympathy, while tears fell from +his own eyes; and it was upon this dismal tableau that Mr. Hale walked +in, unannounced. + +"Hurrah, here! What's amiss? Been quarreling? Just when I've come to +bring you good news, too." + +"Quarreling, indeed! Ephraim and I could never quarrel. Never. +But--but--this isn't Sobrante, and we're--I guess we're awful +homesick." + +"That's a disease can be cured, you know. One of you, at least, can +go home. If you wish, Jessica, I will put you on a train and arrange for +one of your 'boys' to meet you at the railway terminus. But----" + +"Hello, everybody!" called a cheery voice, and there in the doorway +was Ninian Sharp, smiling, nodding, and embracing all three with one +inspiring look. "What's that I overheard about 'home'? Been telling +state secrets, Hale? My plan beats yours, altogether. We're all going +'home' to Sobrante, in a bunch, one of these fine days. _The Lancet_ +never fails!" + +Jessica sprang to him and caught his hand to kiss it. He had not been +to see them for some days and she had missed him sadly. Far more than +Mr. Hale he made her feel that the mystery surrounding "that missing New +York money," as she called it, would certainly be explained. It was he +who, by questions innumerable, had recalled to her and to Ephraim the +names of persons with whom Mr. Trent had ever done business. Incidents +which to her seemed trifling had been of moment in his judgment. With +the slight clews they had given him, as the first link in the chain, he +had gone on unraveling the knots which followed with infinite patience +and perseverance. He kept Mrs. Trent informed of the welfare of her +daughter, and, without neglecting his legitimate business, did the +thousand and one things which only the busiest of persons can have time +to do. For it's always the indolent who are overcrowded. + +"Oh! Mr. Sharp! Have you found it all out?" + +"Not I. Hale, here, has found out some things, himself. But he's a +lawyer, which means, a--beg pardon--a snail. If newspapers were as slow +as the law--h-m-m--we might all take a nap. Look here, Miss Sunshine, +you've been crying." + +Jessica blushed as guiltily as if she had been accused of some crime. + +"I know it. I'm sorry." + +"So am I. I know why. Because you're shut up here like a dormouse when +you've lived like a lark. On with your little red Tam and come with +me. Our work is getting on famously, famously. If I could get hold of +one person that I've hunted this and every other city near for I'd +have the matter in a nut shell and the guilty man in--a prison. I've +found--three or four more of those links I mentioned, Hale, and every +man of them is another witness to the uprightness of one, Cassius Trent, +late of Sobrante. I began this job for little Jess, but I confess I'm +finishing it for the sake of a man I never saw. He was a trump, that +fellow. One of the great-hearted, impracticable creatures that keep my +faith in humanity. If we could only find that Antonio!" + +"Yes. _If!_ But when he rode away from Sobrante that day he seems to +have ridden out of the world, so far as any trace he left behind. I'm +getting discouraged, for without him all the rest falls to the ground." + +"Well, discouraged? We'll just step out and find him, won't we, Lady +Jess?" + +She had hastened to ask permission to go out with her friend and had +come back radiant, now, at prospect even of so brief an outing. It was +quite as the reporter had judged; the close confinement of the hospital, +after the out-of-door life at Sobrante, was half the cause of Jessica's +depression, and she was ready now to fall in with the gay mood of Ninian +Sharp and answered, promptly: + +"Oh, yes. We'll find 'him,' since you wish it. But I don't happen to +know which 'him' you want?" + +"Why, our fine Senor Bernal. Who else?" + +"Then let us go to the old Spanish quarter." + +"I've been, many times. Sent others also. No. He's a wise chap and +if he is in this town frequents no haunt where he'll be looked for so +surely. No matter. It's a picturesque corner of the town and maybe a +sight of some old adobes would do your homesick eyes good." + +"Or harm," suggested Mr. Hale. + +But they did not stop to hear his objections and were speedily on the +car which would take them nearest to the district Jessica had heard of, +both from Antonio at home and now from others here. A relic of the old +California, whose history she loved to hear from the lips of Pedro, Fra +Mateo, or even "Forty-niner" himself. + +But once arrived there she was disappointed. They were old adobes, +true enough, and the people who lived in them had the same dark, +Spanish cast of face which she remembered of Antonio. Yet there the +resemblance ended. This was the home of squalor, of poverty that was not +self-respecting enough to be clean, and of an indolence which had +brought about a wretched state of affairs. + +"Oh! is this it? But it can't be. Antonio's 'quarter' was a splendid +place. The old grandees lived there, keeping up a sort of court and +all the customs of a hundred years ago. It was 'a picture, a romance, a +dream,' he said. Of an evening he would describe it all to us at home +till I felt as if it were the one spot in the world I most wished to +see. But--_this!_" + +"Turn not up your pretty nose, for '_this_,' my dear little +unenlightened maiden, is also a dream--a nightmare. Nevertheless, the +very ground your lost hero boasted and embellished with his fancy. The +more I hear of this versatile Antonio the greater becomes my longing +to behold him. In any case, since we're here, we must not go away +without entering some of these shops. You shall buy a trinket or two +and present one of them as a keepsake to this fine senor, when you +find him. Oh! that I had your familiar knowledge of his features, +this absent 'grandee,' that if by accident I met him I might know +him on the instant. See. This 'bazaar' is somewhat tidier than its +neighbors, as well as larger, and there are some really beautiful Navajo +blankets in the window. Unfortunately the pocketbook of a reporter +isn't quite equal to more than a dozen of these, at fifty dollars +apiece. Something more modest, Lady Jess, and I'll oblige you!" + +She looked up to protest and saw that he was teasing, and exclaimed, with +an air of mock injury: + +"Those or nothing! But when shall I learn to understand your jest from +earnest?" + +"When you produce me your Antonio!" + +"Upon the instant, then," she retorted, gayly. + +Upon the instant, indeed, there were hurrying footsteps behind them, the +sound of some one breathing rapidly and of angrily muttered sentences, +that were a jumble of Spanish and English, and in a voice which made +Jessica Trent start and turn aside, clutching her companion's hand. + +He turned, also, throwing his arm about her shoulders, lest the rush of +the man approaching should force her from the narrow sidewalk. But she +darted from him, straight into the path of this wild-looking person and +seized him with both hands, while she cried out: + +"It's he! It is Antonio! I've found him--Antonio Bernal!" + +"Whew! A case of the 'unexpected,' indeed! The merest jest and the +absolute fact. Hi! I'd rather this than--than be struck by lightning, +and it's on about the same order of things, for it is he, as she +claimed. He's more staggered than I am," considered this lively +newspaper man. Then he thought it time to step forward, and remark: + +"Please present me to your friend, Miss Trent," and lifted his hat, +courteously. + +Antonio bowed, after his own exaggerated fashion, and with his hand +upon his heart; but though his eyes rested keenly on Ninian's face he +kept tight hold of Jessica's hand and his torrent of words did not +cease for an instant. Now and then he lifted the little hand and kissed +it, whereupon Lady Jess would snatch it away and coolly wipe it on her +skirt, only to have it recaptured and caressed; till, seeing he would +neither give over the hateful action nor stop talking, she folded her +arms behind her and interrupted with: + +"That's enough, Senor Bernal. This isn't Sobrante, but I'm your +captain here, same as there. You come tell your story to Mr. Hale and +this gentleman. See Ephraim Marsh, too. He's here in hospital with a +broken leg. I'm in Los Angeles, also, as you see; and likely to find +the same man you say has cheated you. That's what he's telling, Mr. +Sharp," she exclaimed. + +Antonio hesitated. He had frowned at her tone of command, but now, to +the reporter's amazement, seemed eager to obey it. + +"As the senorita will. That gentleman, who came last to Sobrante, was +one lawyer, no? So the senora said. Fool! fool! that I was that I did +not then and at that moment so disclose the secrets of my heart as was +moved, yes. Let the senorita and the handsome friend lead on. I follow. +I, Antonio." + +Five minutes earlier, had Ninian Sharp been asked what he should do if +he did find this strange person, he would have promptly answered: + +"Put him under lock and key, where he can do no harm and be handy to +get at." + +Now he found himself as certain that the fellow needed no restraint +of the law, at present. That he was dreadfully unhappy and had become +as humble as he had before been arrogant. What could so have altered +him? And was it thus that the Lady Jess had all her "boys" in leading +strings? + +"I must look out for myself or I'll fall under a like spell," he +laughed, as with the air of one who knows it all, though she had been +over that way but once, Jessica explained to her late manager: + +"This car will take us straight back to the hospital. We've not been +away long and I think Mr. Hale will still be there. He'll be glad to +see you. _Very glad._ He and Mr. Sharp have been looking for you. I think +you can tell them something they're anxious to know. Ephraim is there, +anyhow. He, poor fellow, can't go away, even if he wishes--yet." + +Mr. Hale was still in "Forty-niner's" room and recognized Antonio with +such an outburst of surprise that Ephraim opened his eyes, for he had +been dozing, and fixed them on the newcomer, inquiringly. + +"What! You, you snake! _you here?_" + +"But certainly, yes. I, I, Antonio, at your service. Hast the broken +leer? This is bad. Old bones are slow to heal. You will not shoot again +at dear Sobrante, you." + +"Won't? Well, I rather guess it'll take somebody stronger 'n you to +stop it." + +Antonio shrugged his shoulders in a manner deemed offensive by the +patient, who struggled to rise, but was prevented by Jessica's quick +movement. + +"Ephraim! Antonio! Don't quarrel, this very first minute. One of you +is sick and the other half frantic with some trouble. Please, Antonio, +go away now with Mr. Hale and Mr. Sharp. One must never make a noise in a +hospital," said this wise maiden of eleven. + +"Ah! so? But it is the lawyer I want, yet. The lawyer who will make a +villain return the great money I have given. _Caramba!_ If I had him in +my hands this minute!" + +Jessica lifted a warning finger and the manager lowered his voice. +He even made an attempt at soothing Ephraim, but chose an unfortunate +argument. + +"Take peace to yourself, 'Forty-niner.' All must be told some day. +_Adios._" + +"_Adios_, you foreign serpent! Old? Old! he calls me--me--old! Why, +I'm a babe in arms to Pedro, or Fra Mateo, or even fat Brigida, who +washes for us 'boys.' Old! A man but just turned eighty! Snake, I'll +outlive you yet. I'll get well, to spite you; and I'll be on hand, +when they let you out the lockup, to give you the neatest horsewhippin' +you ever see. Old! Get out!" + +Fearful of further excitement, the gentlemen hurried Antonio away, yet +kept a keen watch upon his movements for, at that word "lockup," the +man's dark face had turned to an ashen hue. + +As they left the hospital the every-busy ambulance rolled past them +toward the accident ward. The others averted their eyes, but the Spaniard +peered curiously within, and, instantly a shuddering groan burst from +his lips. Inside that van lay the solution to all their difficulties; +though Antonio alone had comprehended it. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +APPREHENDED + + +The pleasantest task which fell to Jessica's hands, during her hospital +life, was the distributing of flowers and fruits, almost daily sent by +the charitable for the comfort of the patients. + +The nurses received and apportioned these gifts; and, carrying her big, +tray-like basket, Lady Jess visited each ward and room in turn, adding to +the pretty offering some bright word of her own. For she now had the +freedom of the house and knew the occupant of each white bed better, +even, than his or her attendant nurse. The quiet manner which she had +gained here, her ready help and loving sympathy, made her coming looked +for eagerly; but the happiness she thus bestowed was more than returned +upon her own heart. Could her "boys" have seen her they would have +been proud, but not surprised, for to the appreciative words his own +attendant gave his darling, Ephraim would instantly reply? + +"'Course. What else could you expect? Didn't she have the finest man +in the world for her father? and isn't her mother a lady? Isn't she, +herself, the sweetest, lovingest, most unselfish child that ever lived? +But it'll be meat to feed the 'boys' with, all these stories you're +telling me. They most worship her now, and after they listen to such +talk a spell--h-m-m. The whole secret is just--love. That's what our +captain is made of; pure love. 'Twas a good thing for this old earth +when she was born." + +"But you'll spoil her among you, I fear." + +"Well, you needn't. Little Jessica Trent can't be spoiled. 'Cause +them same 'boys' would be the first ones to take any nonsense out of +her, at the first symptoms. She couldn't stand ridicule. It would break +her heart; but they'd give her ridicule and plenty of it if she put on +silly airs. You needn't be afraid for Lady Jess." + +On that very day, after Antonio had left the hospital with his friends, +or captors, as the case might prove. Jessica went through the building +with her tray of roses, and in the wing adjoining the accident ward saw +a man lying in one of the hitherto empty rooms. + +"A new patient. He must have been brought in to-day. I've never been +to the new ones till I was told, but I hate to pass him by. I wonder +if it would be wrong to ask him if he wished a flower! And how still +he stays. Yet his eyes are very wide open and so round! He looks like +somebody I've seen--why, little Luis Garcia! 'Tis Luis himself, grown +old and thin. For Luis' sake, then I'll try." + +A nurse was sitting silent at the patient's bedside and toward her the +child turned an inquiring glance. The answer was a slight, affirmative +nod. The attendant's thought was that it would please Lady Jess to +give the rose and could do the patient no harm to receive it. Indeed, +nothing earthly could harm him any more. + +So Jessica stepped softly in and paused beside the cot. Her face was full +of pity and of a growing astonishment, for the nearer she beheld it the +more startling was the sick man's likeness to a childish face hundreds +of miles away. + +Her stare brought the patient's own vacant gaze back to a consciousness +of things about him. He saw a yellow-haired girl looking curiously upon +him and extending toward him a half-blown rose. A fair and unexpected +vision in that place of pain, and he asked, half querulously: + +"Who are you? An angel come to upbraid me before my time?" + +"I'm Jessica Trent, of Sobrante ranch, in Paraiso d'Oro valley." + +"W-h-a-t!" + +The nurse bent forward, but he motioned her aside. + +"Say that again." + +"I'm just little Jessica Trent. That's all." + +"All! Trent--Trent. Ah!" + +"And you? Are you Luis Garcia's missing father?" + +"Luis--Luis Garcia. Was it Luis, Ysandra called him?" + +"Yes, yes. That was the name on the paper my father found pinned to +the baby's dress. The letter told that the baby's father had gone away +promising to come back, but had never come. The mother had heard of my +dear father's goodness to all who needed help, and she was on her way to +him when her strength gave out. So she died there in the canyon, and she +said the baby's name was like the father's. I remember it all, because +to us the 'Maria' seems like a girl's name, too. Luis Maria Manuel +Alessandro Garcia." + +The man's round eyes opened wider and wider. It seemed as if his glare +pierced the child's very heart, and she drew back frightened. The +nurse motioned her to go, but at her first movement toward the door +the patient extended his hands imploring: + +"No. Not yet. My time is spent. Let me hear all--all. The child your +father found--ah! me! Your father of all men! Did--did it live?" + +"Of course it lived. He is a darling little fellow and he looks--he +looks so like you that I knew you in a moment. He has the same wide brown +eyes, the same black curls, his eyebrows slant so, like yours, he is +your image. But he is the cutest little chap you ever saw. He is my own +brother's age and they have grown up together, like twins, I guess. It +would break Ned's heart to have you take him away from us. You won't +now, will you?" + +A pitiful smile spread over the pain-racked features, and the man glanced +significantly toward the nurse. She smiled encouragingly upon him, but +he was not misled. After a moment of silence, during which Jessica +anxiously watched his drawn face, he spoke. + +"Go, child. Your mission is done. Send a lawyer, quick. Quick. The man I +wronged--the savior of my son! A lawyer, quick. Bring the suit case--the +case! Let none open it but the child. Quick. Quick!" + +Higher authority even than her own convinced the nurse that obedience +to his urgency was the only way now to allay the patient's rising +excitement. The accident which had crushed the lower part of his body, +so that his life was but a question of hours, had left his head clear for +the present; and here, indeed, seemed a case for more than surgical +treatment. + +Fortunately, the needed "lawyer" was close at hand, waiting with the +reporter and the half-distraught Antonio whose shriek of recognition had +been Luis Garcia's welcome to the hospital. Unceasingly, the manager +had declared that this was the man all three of them were seeking; had +insisted upon returning to the ante-room of the hospital, and avowed that +he would never leave the spot until the "villain" had been apprehended. + +"He has misled and cheated me. I, Antonio! He has all my money. He +has the savings of my life, yes. He has all that I did not yet pay, +of the crops so good, to the Senora Trent. More, more. That money--which, +ah, me! He told me, yes, a thousand million times, that I, and not that +New York company, to me alone was the inheritance of Paraiso d'Oro. +My money was to prove it, that inheritance, yes. To me was the power +of attorney, was it not? of Cassius Trent, who was the so good man and +the so poor fool at business." + +"Look out, there, neighbor! Speaking of fools and business, you don't +appear to have been so brilliant yourself," corrected Ninian, promptly. + +Antonio continued, heedless of the interruption: + +"He was the great banker, Garcia, no? What then? Who would so safe keep +the money from that far New York? With the master's wish I gave it +to that bank. And the letters--_Caramba!_ So high, to one's knees, +to one's waist I pile them, the letters! All wrote of his own hand. All +say by-and-by, _manana_, he give me the perfect title and send back +that which belongs, after all expenses, no? To them in New York." + +"A pretty scheme. You don't seem to have profited by it greatly, as +yet." + +"I, profit? But I am now the beggar, I, poor Antonio. This day I come +from resting in the houses of my friends and I find--what do I find? +The bank is not. The banker is not, yes. His house where he lived more +plain than our adobes at Sobrante, that house is closed. His man tell +me this: 'He has gone away. One little, little trip, a journey. Across +the sea. He will come back. Have patience, Antonio.' But my money? my +papers? my inheritance so all but proved? Tush. He told me not that. +'When he comes back you can ask him, himself.' So. Good. He has come +back. Here. I see him, sure. I----" + +A summons to Mr. Hale cut short this fierce harangue, which had been +repeated till their ears were tired. + +The banker had come back, indeed, poor creature. By the very train on +which he was to depart with his plunder--all rendered into the solid +cash which would tell no tales, as he fancied--by this swift-moving +juggernaut he was overtaken and crushed down. A moment earlier he would +have been in time. But in haste and by a misstep he had ended all his +earthly journeyings. + +When the lawyer was called the reporter followed his friend and Antonio +followed him, and when these three approached the little room in which +the dying man lay, the nurse would have sent them back; but Garcia +himself pleaded: "Let them be. What matters it how many hear or see? +The dress-suit case. Bring it, and bring the child." + +They obeyed and he bade them place the key in Jessica's small hand. + +"Open it, little one." + +But her fingers shook so that the nurse, in pity, pushed them from the +lock and herself unfastened the heavily laden case. It contained no +clothing, such as might have been looked for within; but rolls and +packets neatly tied. + +"Open them, child." + +"Oh! please! I do not want to; I am afraid!" + +"Afraid, Jessica Trent? Do you not yet understand? That is money, +money--of which your father stood accused before the world as having +stolen. Afraid to prove your father what you know him--an honest man!" +cried Ninian in anger. + +She understood him then, and in frantic haste obeyed. Roll after roll, +till Mr. Hale said: + +"Enough. His strength is failing. This scene is too much for him." + +At that she pushed the gold away and, falling on her knees beside the +bed, caught Luis Garcia's hand and covered it with kisses. + +"Oh! thank you, Luis' father! God bless you, God take care of you!" + +"Oh! the divine pity of childhood," murmured Ninian, huskily. "She +forgets that it was he who wronged her in the fact that he has now set +her right." + +The sick man's face brightened, nor did he withdraw his hand. + +"_You forgive me?_" + +"Yes, yes." + +"The little Luis. The son I never saw. What shall you tell him of his +father?" + +"That he was good to me, and that he suffered." + +"More. Tell the boy this: I never knew he lived. I should have known, I +should have searched. I did not. Ask him, too, to forgive me. And because +of me, turn him not away." + +The nurse motioned all the others to go out, and they went, Ninian +Sharp himself standing guard over the dress-suit case the attendant +had relocked until it was once more safely deposited in the strong box +of the hospital, where even Antonio's greedy eyes could see it no longer. + +But Jessica knelt on, awed and silent, yet now quite unafraid. And Luis +Garcia still clasped her hand and fixed his fading gaze upon her pitying +face. + +"The mother--Ysandra. Where lies she now? Little one, do you know that?" + +"Do I not? In the consecrated ground of the old mission itself. With +all the good dead priests sleeping about her. Rose vines cover her grave +and my own mother tends them herself. Little Luis is made to water it, +sometimes, though, for that is a good way to keep her memory green, my +mother says. Near by is where my father rests. Would--would you wish to +sleep there, too, beside them both, and where Luis could bring flowers +to you as to her?" + +"I may? You--are--willing? Would--your mother--so kind--little Luis----" + +"My mother pities and helps all who suffer. You suffer, poor man, and +I wish that she were here to tell you 'yes' herself." + +But he had closed his eyes and she could not know if he had heard her, +though she was glad to see that the look of pain had almost left his +features. She did not speak again but sat quite still until, at last, +her hand grew numb and she turned toward the nurse, whispering: + +"Can I move it? Will it disturb him? He seems to be asleep." + +The nurse bent over her patient, then gently answered: + +"Yes, darling. Your task is over. Nothing will ever trouble him again. +He is at peace--_asleep_." + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +ANTONIO'S MESSAGE + + +Jessica went back to Ephraim's room, to tell him this wonderful ending +of their once almost hopeless search, and for long they discussed the +story that was at once so strange, so moving, and yet so simple. + +"Man proposes, God disposes," quoted "Forty-niner," with all the +emphasis of an original philosophy. "If we'd set out to make up a fairy +story we couldn't have beat this. But I'm so glad, it seems like I +could get right up and dance a jig, smashed leg and all." + +"Glad! Ephraim, I'm so glad, too, and the gladness is so deep, deep +down that I don't want to dance. I just want to cry. And that poor man +is little Luis' father. Oh! it is pitiful." + +"Hush, captain. Don't you go to grieving over that scamp. A man don't +get good nor bad all in a minute. It was hard enough, I 'low, for a +fellow to be snatched out of the world that sudden. Yet, if he could +speak for himself, he'd say a thousand times better that than what the +law would have given him. Let him be. His part is done. He's passed in +his checks and don't you hear that Heaven won't pay out on all the good +ones. Now--what next?" + +Both knew, yet both disliked to mention that which each felt. Till +Ephraim swallowed something like a sob and remarked: + +"The longer I lie here, like a log, the madder I get at myself and the +weaker minded. I'm just about as ready to cry as a whipped baby. I know +'twas the best thing could have happened, my getting hurt, though why a +plain, everyday break wouldn't have answered the purpose just as well +as this 'compound fracture,' the doctors make such a fuss over and +takes so long to heal, I don't see. Nor never shall. If it had been +just ordinary bone-crackin' I'd been lively as a hop-toad by now, and +ready to start right home with you this minute. As it is----" + +"Oh, Ephraim! I hate to leave you--but I must get quickly to my mother! +Don't you see I must? To smooth all those sad lines out of her dear +face and make her happy again, as this news surely will. They'll be +good to you here, and you can come the first minute they'll let you." + +"Why not telegraph her? The boys go every day to Marion for the letters +you and all send, and the postmaster is the operator, too. Why not that, +and wait just a day or two. Likely I'll be cavortin' round, supple as a +lizard on a fence, by then." + +Jessica did not answer and Ephraim asked: + +"How could you go, anyway, without me or some protector? Though I made +a bad job of it once I wouldn't the second time." + +"I don't know how, dear old fellow, and I do know how bitter +disappointed you are that you can't be there to see my mother's +face and get her thanks right away. But----" + +Fortunately for both of these perplexed people, Ninian Sharp came along +the passage just then, and one glimpse of his bright, helpful face +cleared away Jessica's anxieties. + +"You'll know what's best and how to do it, won't you, dear Mr. +Sharp?" + +"Certainly. That's my business. Straightening out the tangled affairs +of the silly rest of the world! Fetch on your trouble!" + +He was in the gayest of moods, elated over the successful termination of +his tedious labors, though in his heart not unmindful of the tragedy +which had brought his share in them to an end. What was left, the law's +dealings with Antonio and the division and disposition of the recovered +funds, belonged to Mr. Hale, and he very thankfully resigned these +matters to that gentleman's capable hand. + +"I want to go home. And I don't want to leave Ephraim." + +"I want to go with you. And I'm going to leave Ephraim--because he'd +have to stay awhile, whether or not. He will be an important witness +for the prosecution, providing that New York Company bothers any further +after having recovered all that belongs to them, with some that doesn't. +I've a 'loose foot,' as I've heard that your 'Aunt Sally' also +has betimes, and I mean to shake it out Sobrante way. If you'd like to +travel in my company I can't prevent it, as I see!" + +"Oh! you darling man! You mean--I know it, for it's just like all the +rest of your great kindness--that you're going wholly on purpose to take +me home!" + +"Beg pardon, but indeed, I'm not. At this present moment I have no +stronger desire than to see that wonderful ranch of yours and those +'boys' who've spoiled you so. Why, I couldn't stay away, after +putting my finger so deeply into your family pie. I propose to start +on the nine o'clock train to-morrow morning. Think you can be ready +by then?" + +"I'm ready this minute! No, I mean, as soon as I bid everybody good-by, +and--and----" + +"Do a little shopping, eh? That's what most young ladies delay for, +I believe." + +"But I'm neither a young lady nor have I any shopping to do. I +couldn't have because I haven't any money, you see, even if I knew +how to shop." + +"Why?" demanded "Forty-niner," impatiently. "No money? I don't +believe all ours is gone yet." + +"Why, I forgot that. I really did. And I would love, if Mr. Sharp thinks +it would be all right to use it when there is all this hospital board for +both of us to pay, to take a tiny bit of a present to--to----" + +"Everybody you ever knew, I'll be bound!" cried Ninian. + +"I--believe I would. But of course I can't. So I'd best treat all +alike and take nothing but our glorious goods news." + +"I'm going to take that myself, part of the way. At the finish I'll +let you carry the heavy burden and deliver it yourself into your +mother's hands. Now, come sit down a minute. Ephraim, put on your +own thinking cap, and if she forgets anybody you let me know. We are +going to take something to everybody, just as you'd like. Now, begin. +The mother--but she's settled, already. For her I've made a finished +picture from a sketch I have, of a little yellow-haired girl asleep +upon a piebald burro's shoulder. Ned? A train of cars. Luis, ditto. +Samson--what for Samson?" + +"Would it cost too much to take them each, all the 'boys' the same +thing, and that would be a bright red necktie?" + +"Cost not a bit too much and be a deal easier than thinking of separate +things for so many. Next? Aunt Sally?" + +"Oh! she's no trouble. A few bits of new calico 'print' for her +patchwork would make her very happy." + +They forgot nobody, not even Ferd whom Jessica so disliked; and at the +end of the list she rather timidly suggested: "Antonio." + +To that, however, both her friends cried a vehement "No!" Not a cent of +their money should ever go to please such a man as the Senor Bernal. + +"But, that reminds me. This Antonio himself wishes to have an interview +with you before you leave Los Angeles. I want you, though, to feel at +liberty to refuse this request if you so desire. He deserves no kindness +at your hands." + +"No. Don't you go near him, captain. He's a snake and snakes are +unpleasant critters even after their fangs are drawn. Leave Antonio to +me. When I get well I'll have a little score to settle with him on my +own behalf," urged Ephraim. + +"Why doesn't he come to me, himself? Instead of sending for me to him. +Then I shouldn't have to trouble you to take me." + +Mr. Sharp looked at Ephraim and smiled, significantly. + +"I suppose because he cannot. Else so polished a gentleman would surely +do so." + +"Why cannot he? Is he ill, too?" + +"Rather ill in his mind, but not in body. Simply, he isn't allowed." + +"Won't the hospital folks have him?" + +"Not at present." + +"I believe you are teasing me. Where is Antonio?" + +"At police headquarters." + +"Oh! with Matron Wood?" + +"Not with that good woman, I fear." + +"Mr. Sharp, please, _don't_ tease me any more. What do you mean?" + +"Antonio is under restraint of the law. He is a prisoner, for the +present. Detained until Mr. Hale can consult with his New York people +and find out their disposition toward the fellow. He has done criminal +things without, apparently, any benefit to himself. He says there is +something on his mind that he must tell you. We'll call to see him +on our way to the shopping district and get him over and done with. +I've no desire to continue his acquaintance, myself." + +Jessica's face grew serious. + +"Oh! poor Antonio!" + +"Quit that!" commanded "Forty-niner," with more sharpness than he +often used toward his beloved lady. + +"But, it is so terrible to be a--prisoner. That means that one can +never go out into the fields or climb the mountains, or ride, or hunt, or +anything one likes. He has done dreadful wrongs, and I never used to like +him as well as I ought, but now I'm sorry for him. I can't help it, +Ephraim, even if it does displease you." + +"H-m-m. He brought his own misfortunes upon himself. But first he had +brought worse ones on his truest friends and innocent persons whom he +never saw." + +"Maybe he didn't know any better. Maybe----" + +"Child, you are incorrigible. You'd pity--anybody. Yet, perhaps, you +are right in a measure. Antonio strikes me as more fool that knave." + +"Well, I'll be glad to say good-by to him, anyway." + +It was a greatly altered Antonio they found. All his haughtiness was gone +and his depression, his fear, was so abject that while Lady Jess pitied +him even more than before, the reporter felt only contempt. It was he +who cut short the manager's wordy explanations and commanded: + +"Now, if you've got anything special to say to Miss Trent, out with it +and have done. We must be off." + +"Then leave her alone with me for five minutes, yes." + +"No. What you can say to her must be said in my presence." + +But Jessica petitioned for the favor, and Ninian stepped into an +adjoining room, leaving the door ajar. + +As soon as he was out of sight, Senor Bernal leaned forward, clasping +his hands. + +"It is the good turn I do. Well, then, it is the good turn you will +answer, no." + +"Of course. I'd do you any 'good turn' which was right for me." + +"Then plead for me, my liberty. It is you, senorita, who have the so +great, the strange power to move many hearts to your will. _Si._ You will +plead, then, if I tell you--something--a little story--maybe?" + +"I'm in no mood for stories, and you're talking in riddles as you've +always been fond of doing. Say what you mean at once, Antonio, for I'm +going home to-morrow. Home! going home!" + +"Ah! me! And? But yes. I will. I will force myself. I will ask it. +That--that--title? Know you of that?" + +"How should I know?" + +"Ephraim. Was not Ephraim at the safe one midnight? Is not Ephraim a +little strange--here?" touching his own forehead. + +Jessica turned away, indignant. + +"No, but you are. The queerest, crookedest man I ever saw. If you've +anything to tell me, just be quick, I am going. As for Ephraim, I wish, +unhappy man, that you had half the goodness and honesty in your whole +body that dear old fellow has in his littlest finger. He couldn't do a +mean thing nor even think one, and if you sent for me to abuse him to me +you might have spared yourself the trouble." + +"Well, then. It is known, is it not? That when I shook the dust of +Sobrante rancho from my feet I took away with me all the papers that +appertained to the so great business of the place? Why not? Was I not +to go back the master, and for the settlement of all affairs which I +had with the Dona Gabriella?" + +"You will please never call my mother by her first name again, Antonio +Bernal. She is an American gentlewoman, and her title is Mrs. Trent. +Understand? She is not afraid of you, nor am I, though she was patient +and, for her children's sakes, would not quarrel nor resent your +insolence. All that is changed. You can do us no further harm. My +father's name is freed from all the shadow that your wickedness cast +over it, and as for titles to property--poor! None of the Trents, big +or little, care anything for property since we have regained honor! +Besides, Sobrante isn't the only home in the world. They are everywhere, +waiting for those who will take them. If we lose Sobrante, as I suppose +we may, I--just I, Jessica Trent, a child, will make a home for my +mother and my brother--somewhere. I am strong. I can work. I am not +at all afraid." + +Despite his meanness and cupidity, Antonio was moved. The girl was +radiant in her courage and enthusiasm, and her disdain of what he could +make her suffer was infinite. + +"Good, senorita. When you speak and look like that I can no longer +keep silence, I. The papers! It is possible, no? That among them, in +my so great haste at leaving Sobrante, that little, yes, it might--it +might be among those other papers appertaining to the so great business. +_Si._ If I point the way, if I tell the secret retiring place of me, +I, Antonio Bernal, you will plead and set me free? It is a contract, a +bargain--yes?" + +Jessica pondered. The temptation was strong to say "yes" without delay; +but she had now learned to distrust the late manager of her mother's +business, and answered, cautiously: + +"I'll do what I can, Antonio, but if my mother forbids me to 'plead,' +I shall not disobey her. You did what you pleased, and my friends say +you will have to suffer the consequences." + +"Ah! but it is the so old head on the so small shoulders. That wisdom +was not of your own, senorita. But, I forgive the suspicion. Yes, I am +magnanimous. I am generous, I, Senor Bernal, heir--rightful heir--to +Sobrante rancho and all of Paraiso d'Oro. See! Behold! Did the Lady +Jessica never hear of El Desierto, no?" + +"The Deserted Ranch? Where Pedro says the spirits of dead people walk? +Of course. Everybody has heard of that. Why?" + +"Sometimes the 'spirits' keep hidden treasures safe. Yes. _Si._ Does +the senorita know the trail thither, to that haunted place?" + +"No. Nor wish to. Good-by, Antonio. I can wait for no more of your +nonsense." + +"The paper. The pencil, which the Lady Jess holds in her hand. One +moment, that to me, if the senorita pleases." + +"I brought these for my little shopping trip, which I'm to take with +Mr. Sharp. I can't give them to you, but I'll lend, for a moment. Here +they are. Be quick." + +Antonio seized the pencil and rapidly sketched upon the pad a few +dots and lines, suggesting a zigzag road and stations upon it. At the +starting point he wrote "Marion," and at the end "Sobrante." Midway, +and well to the north, where a curving course indicated an arroyo he +marked "El Desierto." + +Then he looked up, and Jessica reached forward to take back her +possessions. + +But with what he considered great chaft and cunning he thrust them behind +him and smiled grimly: + +"The promise, senorita. First the promise; 'I will plead for the +liberty of Senor Antonio Bernal, so help me----'" + +Unperceived by the artful manager, Ninian Sharp had entered the room from +a rear door. He was tired of waiting for the interview to end and had +overheard most of it from the outer room. He now quietly stretched out +his own hand and possessed himself of the rude map, and then as quietly +and instantly withdrew with it, calling as he did so: + +"Come on, Lady Jess. Time's up. So is Antonio's little game; yet, +thanks, senor, for playing it so openly, Good-day. _Adios._ Farewell. _Et +cetera. Au revoir_ and all the rest. We'll show you that title deed--if +we find it!" + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +A RAILWAY JOURNEY + + +The morning of departure had come and, trembling with both fear and +eagerness, Jessica stood beside the reporter upon the station, waiting +for the great train to move outward. + +"Step aboard, Lady Jess. Homeward bound!" + +"Oh! it looks so big and somehow dreadful. I can ride any kind of a +horse, or an ostrich, and burros, of course, but----" + +"But you don't know yet how to ride a railway carriage. Then let me +tell you you'll find it so delightful you'll not want to get out when +the journey's done." + +"Don't you believe that, Mr. Sharp. The end of the journey, this part, +at least, means, Marion, and that's but a bit of a way from my mother. +Is everything ready? Scruff? Is he here?" + +"Come and see the sorrowful chap in his moving stable if you wish. +Though it hasn't moved as yet. He'll probably rebel against the state +of affairs, at first; then be just as unwilling to leave the car as +he was to enter it. It's a fine place for sleeping, and sleeping is +Scruff's chief aim in life." + +"He's had to make up for lost time, for he'd never too much sleep at +home, where Ned and Luis were. Oh! to think! To-morrow, to-morrow--this +very next day that's coming--I shall have my arms around those +children's precious necks and feel my mother's kisses on my lips. I +can't wait. I can't." + +"Humph! I shall begin to think you can wait and very contentedly if you +don't step into this car pretty soon." + +Jessica had never traveled by rail and the shock of the accident which +had befallen Luis' father made her more timid than she had ever been +before. She had pleaded to make the return trip by saddle, as she had +come, but Mr. Sharp would not consent. + +"Time. Time. We must make time, Lady Jess. A newspaper man never uses +a week where a day will do. If he did--well, no knowing if we should +ever get out a single issue of _The Lancet_. Come on. If there were any +danger do you think I would make you face it?" + +Thus shamed and by the friend who had proved so true to her interests, +the little girl shut her eyes, held out her hands and was lightly swung +upon the rear platform of the luxurious coach in which they were to +make the first half of their trip. Later, they would have to leave +the main line for a branch road, terminating at Marion, their postal +station. From Marion, the thirty miles of saddle work, with the added +detour on account of El Desierto, would be all the reporter fancied he +should care for. + +"Some day I'll come back to Sobrante, if I'm invited, and get that +famous rider, Samson, to teach me the trick of 'broncho busting' or +some other caper. But now, the engine can't travel fast enough to suit +my impatience." + +Nor Jessica, neither, after the first few moments of the journey. She +forgot her fear in watching the swiftly moving landscape, and found it +hard to believe that the landscape itself was still and she who was +carried past it. This time there was none of Aunt Sally's bountiful +luncheon but what seemed to Lady Jess something far finer--a dining +car. To be sure, during their first meal in this, served by colored +waiters whose unfamiliar faces distracted her attention, and swayed by +the motion of the train, the girl's appetite was not worth mentioning; +but by the time the supper hour was reached she was ready to enjoy almost +everything which her companion ordered for her. It delighted him to +observe how swiftly she comprehended and adapted herself to new things, +and in his spirit of "teasing" he laid several harmless "traps" for +her entanglement. + +But she had now learned to distinguish his fun from his earnest and, +after one keen glance into his face, would skillfully avoid the little +slips of speech or manner that would have so diverted him. + +"No, Mr. Sharp, I'm ever so ignorant of the way city people and +traveling people do, but one thing Ephraim taught me, even on our +quiet way out. That was: 'Use your eyes, not your tongue, and watch +what other folks do.' So, if watching will prevent my doing awkward +things, I'll watch, surely enough." + +They were to sleep at Marion, and when they finally left the less +comfortable car of the branch road at that town, it was very dark and no +vehicles were in waiting to convey passengers to the one hotel of the +place. Few persons stopped at Marion, except such as resided there or +near, and such either walked from the station to their homes or had their +own wagons meet them. + +Ninian Sharp was disgusted. He was tired, his head ached, and he had +anticipated no such "one horse" village as this. "Why, I thought it +was your post town and all that." + +"So it is. And a very pretty place by daylight, save that they don't +irrigate." + +"Which means there isn't a spear of grass within the town limits, +doesn't it?" + +"Almost as bad. But now we'll change places, if you please. I've been +to Marion several times with my father and once since--since he went +away, with Samson. There! They're taking Scruff out of the car and you +must ride him. I know the way. It's only a mile, about, to the hotel. Of +course, there's a lodging-house nearer, right by this station, indeed, +but the hotel's much nicer. You'll get a better bed there, and we'd +best go on." + +"I'd rather sleep on the ground than walk a mile." + +"You shall do neither. Didn't you hear me say we've changed places +now? I'm so near home I am at home and I'm--the captain. Obey orders, +sir, and mount Scruff's back." + +He was too weary to protest and too ill. Subject to acute neuralgia, he +was, like plenty of people, rather less courageous when he was in pain +than at other times. Besides, now there was something of that decision +in Jessica's tone which sick people find restful, and he quietly threw +one leg across Scruff's back and let the girl do as she pleased. + +This was to start forward over the unpaved, unlighted street at a swift +unbroken run, which Scruff had some work to equal; but the speed brought +them promptly to a wooden "tavern," from one window of which there +gleamed a solitary oil lamp. + +"Horrors! Antonio described a ranch called Desolation, or something like +that, and I reckon we've arrived," lamented the reporter, jolted into +fresh distress by the burro's trot. + +Jessica laughed. + +"Wait. Be patient, dear man. Within five minutes you'll be sleeping +on a clean, sweet bed, and when you wake up in the morning it will be to +a fine breakfast, a perfect day, and--Sobrante!" + +Then she tapped on the window and called: + +"Hello, there! Sobrante folks! Open the door, quick!" + +A head was thrust out of another window, further along the narrow porch, +and a sleepy voice asked: + +"What's that you say? Who wants----" + +"I do! Jessica Trent, from Sobrante. But last, right from Los Angeles +city. Please be quick!" + +In less time than seemed possible, for such a drowsy person to reach +it, the door was flung wide and there rushed out upon the porch a man +and a woman, who both seized Jessica at one time and in their effort +to embrace her succeeded in hugging each other. Whereupon the landlady +flung her stalwart husband aside and caught the little girl in her arms, +to carry her within. + +"Oh! but this is the darling home again! And is it good news you've +brought, my dear? Ah! by the shining of your bonny eyes one can see that +plain. Light up, Aleck! Light up! How can we have such darkness when the +bairn is safe back? And begging pardon, lassie, who is this yon?" + +Jessica presented her friend and added, quickly: + +"Only for him I could never have done that business, Janet, Aleck. And +it is done. Everybody----" + +"All the countryside knows it already, Jessica Trent. It's ringing with +it, as it rung with the story of a wave little lass who set out alone +and unfriended, save for one old man, to clear her father's memory of a +stain some ne'er-do-well had dared to splash it with; and how the old +man broke his leg and lost the bairn; and, losing, she fell into wiser +hands and all, and all. Why, the 'boys' are here long before sun up; +hours before mailtime, to get the latest news. Ah! it's proud is all +this land because of you, my wee bit bairnie!" + +Again was Jessica caught and kissed till her breath was gone; but +released she demanded, and with disappointment in her tone: + +"So the news is no news, and does my mother, too, know all?" + +"Hasn't the sweet lady read the papers that the 'boys' have carried, +loping to break their necks! Ah, lassie, 'twill be an ovation you'll +get when once they sight your bonny head shining on the sandy branch +road!" + +Jessica turned toward Ninian Sharp with the first feeling of anger she +had ever had toward him. + +"The papers? Your _Lancet_, I suppose. But you knew, you knew how much +I wanted to surprise my mother." + +"Even so. But could you expect a man to keep back such fine 'copy' +from his office? If you did, or if I could, somebody else, like _The +Gossip_, would have got ahead of us. It was public property, my little +Lady, and private interests, or fancies, always yield to the great +public. We'll discuss this further to-morrow. To-night I'd like to +see the bed you promised." + +Jessica caught the hand of her weary friend and begged: + +"Forgive me. I forgot. And I suppose that the very feeling which made +you so kind and faithful to us, strangers, made you faithful to--to that +horrid old _Lancet_, too. Now Janet, you are to give Mr. Sharp your very +nicest bed and breakfast, for he is tired and suffering." + +"'Tis ready this instant. 'Tis always ready, lassie, though few come +nowadays, to use it. This way, sir. After I show him I'll come for you, +Lady Jess." + +Jessica had not overpraised the neatness and comfort of this +out-of-the-way hostelry, and Ninian Sharp slept dreamlessly till +joyous voices outside his window roused him to the fact that morning +and hunger had arrived together. Remembering, too, the long ride +that lay before him and the necessity of finding a horse for it, he rose +and hastily dressed. He had lost his neuralgic pains and his spirits +were again such as Jessica had always seen him show. She, too, was +up and waiting, and it looked as if her ovation had begun; for she was +already the center of an admiring group yet held closest to the side of +a big ranchman, grizzled and rugged, but beaming upon her and all the +rest like an incarnate joy. + +"Samson, Samson, here he is! Mr. Sharp, dear Mr. Sharp, this is my +biggest 'boy'!" + +"Huh! Glad to see you, little one. 'Looks like you'd be quite a man +when you get growed up,'" quoted the joker, giving Samson's hand a +cordial grasp. + +"Come on! Come on! You're the lad for us! Well, sir, you do me proud. +You do Sobrante proud. You do all the world proud, and that's my +sentiment to a t-i-o-n, sir! Breakfast's ready." + +"Oh, Mr. Ninian, he's brought--my mother has sent you the horse that +nobody else has ridden since my father did. Nimrod, the swiftest, +gentlest thoroughbred that anybody ever rode." + +"Sent him for me? Why, how could she know that we were coming?" + +"Why shouldn't she?" asked Samson. "Him and John Benton was over +yesterday, but to-day it was my turn. One of us has been every day +since the captain left Sobrante; and since the good news arrived there's +always been a led horse for you, sir. Would have been till the day +of judgment, too, if you hadn't struck us afore. Reckon you aren't +acquainted with our little settlement, sir." + +"Reckon I wasn't, but I'm beginning to be. My! What a magnificent +animal. And it solves the difficulty of finding a mount out to the ranch. +I'm not much of a horseman, though. I don't know but I'd better stick +to Scruff and leave Nimrod to Lady Jess." + +Samson wheeled around and eyed the stranger, curiously. Then he advanced +and held out his hand again. + +"Shake, Sharp. You're a man, even if you do live in a city, and the +first one I ever met who hailed from such a place and didn't think he +knew it all. You'll do. And you can ride. A baby could, that creatur'. +If you can't stick I'll hold you on. Now, breakfast, I say." + +This was Jessica's chance, and before they sat down to the bounteous +meal which Janet had been hours in preparing she managed to draw Ninian +aside and whisper a request, to which he nodded prompt assent. So nobody +but they two knew what was meant when, as the three mounted and were +about to ride away, she asked Samson: + +"Do you know the trail to El Desierto?" + +"Do I know a pisen serpent? What in the name of reason put such a +forsaken hole into your head on this joyful occasion?" + +"Never mind what, and never mind speech-making, dear old fellow. I have +to call at El Desierto on my way to Sobrante and would like to know the +shortest road." + +"Is she--has she got a little 'touched' down there in your City of +Angels and Scamps, eh?" + +"Samson, am I still the captain, or am I not?" + +"Captain, I salute. Ride on! You, Aleck, hitch up a board and take +that trunk of Miss Trent's to her country seat, and be quick about +it. Hurray! I'm so happy I'm looney! Here's for El Desierto and no +questions asked. Hurray!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +BACK AT SOBRANTE + + +For an hour and a half they rode swiftly along a comparatively level +trail, though to Ninian Sharp's untrained eyes there was no road +visible. How Samson managed to pick his way so undeviatingly over the +dried herbage and sandy soil was a mystery; but neither the guide nor +Jessica found anything strange in this. Those who live in wide solitudes +grow keen of sight and hearing, and there were tiny roughnesses here and +there which clearly marked to these experienced ranch people where +other feet had passed that way. + +Presently the roughness increased, and the trail climbed steadily toward +a mesa, which seemed to the reporter but ten rods distant, yet was, in +reality, as many miles. + +"We turn here, captain. Shall I ride ahead?" + +"Yes, Samson, but slowly. Scruff's been so idle all these weeks and +grown so lazy he'll hardly move." + +"He'll get over that as soon as he meets up with the tackers. My, but +they've led Aunt Sally a life! And taken more medicine than was due +'em during the natural course of their lives. Say, Sharp, do you enjoy +picra?" + +"Never tasted the stuff." + +"And 'never too late to mend.' Here, take this vial, I present it to +you with my compliments. With the captain's respect. With the good will +of the whole outfit." + +"But, beg pardon, I have no use for--picra." + +"Don't delude yourself. You'll have to have it, outside or in. I'm a +friend. I give you this bottle. Then, when Aunt Sally appears with her +little dish and spoon, produce this from your pistol pocket and knock +her plumb speechless. It's your only salvation. Now or never." + +"All right. Thanks. A case of forearmed, I suppose." + +"Exactly. Now--there she is!" + +Samson rose in his stirrups and pointed forward with his crop. Upon +a barren, wide-stretching tableland stood a cluster of adobe huts. Behind +them a clump of live oaks, beside them a sandy, curving streak, an +arroyo, lighter in hue than the surrounding soil, but parched and dry +as if part of the desert itself; behind them, three mighty, jagged, +upward-pointing rocks. + +"There she is. The weirdest, lonesomest, God-for-sakenest habitation +that fools ever made or lived in, quoted the joker, giving Samson's hand +a cordial grasp. Hello! What's up captain?" + +For Jessica had also caught sight of the desolate homestead and, having +too low stirrups for standing, had sprung to Scruff's back and poised +thus on his saddle, was straining her eager, excited gaze toward the +distant El Desierto. + +"My dream! The spot! For once he told the truth! Follow, follow me, +quick!" + +"Land of love! She has gone queer, and that's a fact. Does the mite +think that there little donkey can outrun your horse or mine? After her, +stranger, lest she do some harm to herself." + +Ninian smiled softly and touched Nimrod lightly, and in a moment all +three were again racing over the mesa, side by side, the girl foremost, +and the men reining in their horses lest they should forestall her of the +goal to which she aspired. The reporter, as eager and almost as wise +as she, but good Samson completely in the dark and growing a trifle angry +over the fact. + +When they came up to it the place seemed utterly deserted. The doors +opened to the touch and in all but one of the three small buildings the +windows were broken. The third was in better repair and was evidently +sometimes still used by somebody. There was a bed, or cot, spread with +blankets, a coal-oil stove, some canned meats and biscuits, and a +well-wrapped gun. + +But Jessica's attention passed these details over. + +"The rocks! They are the very same as in my dream and he told me of them +when he drew the map. Is that in your pocket, Mr. Sharp? Oh! is it?" + +"Sure." He drew it forth and held it so that Samson, too, could see. + +"Come! In the dream there was a little cave beneath the rocks and in the +cave a box. You know it, Samson, the black tin box in which the valuable +papers were kept. We could find it nowhere, mother nor I, but I shall +find it here and in it--oh! in it--there will be that title deed! You +look, 'boys,' I can't, I tremble so." + +Samson forced his great length downward and inward under the bowlders +and found, as Jessica had felt sure, a small but perfectly dry and +well-protected cave. The rocks and live oaks screened it from the sight +of those who did not know it existed, and it would never have been +suspected that there was aught but solid ground beneath those jagged +stones. + +The horses and Scruff were willing to stand without tying, and Ninian +was, in any case, too excited now to have remembered them. He saw that +Lady Jess was trembling, indeed, and trembled himself. If this should +prove a disappointment, how would she bear it? + +But it was not to be that. From the little cave there presently issued a +mighty shout. That is it would have been mighty had the space been large +enough to give it vent. As it was, it came like the subdued roar of a +wild animal, and it was almost surprising to see the soles of Samson's +boots emerge from the opening instead of furry feet. + +When he had crawled outward so far that he could lift himself upright, +the sailor leaped so high that Ninian felt as if he were the one who +had gone "queer" instead of Jessica, suspected. But this reason was +obvious; for there in his hand was the veritable black tin box familiar +to the girl from her earliest memory, and seen often enough by the herder +to be instantly recognized. + +When, at last, the box was in her own hands Jessica became very quiet, +though her voice still trembled as she said: + +"This belongs to my mother. It is for her to open it." + +"No, captain." + +"Not so, Jessica. If the deed for which she looked were not there it +would be but a fresh distress to her. You look. It is your interest as +well as hers, and if it is not there you can save her, at least, one +disappointment on this day of your return." + +The opinions of her two friends prevailed; and, since they had no key, +Samson's great knife forced the lock, and stored within were papers and +vouchers of great value to Sobrante, which the faithless manager had +carried away for his own purposes. + +The deed? Ah, yes. There it lay at the very bottom of the pile, and +Jessica knew it at once for the queer paper which her father had shown +her on the night before his death. + +For a time she could only weep over it and caress it, remembering the +dear hands which had held it before her, and the unforgotten voice which +had explained its value and all about the necessary "recording" which +must be made. Then she rallied, remembering, also, that other precious +parent, alive and waiting for her and it. + +"Keep you the box, Samson. I, myself, must keep and carry this." + +She fastened it within her blouse and kept one hand upon it all the rest +of the way. A brief and happy way, which ended in a mother's arms and in +the wild welcome of every dweller at Sobrante. And when the mother's +arms set their recovered treasure free for a moment there were all the +"boys" ready and waiting to seize and carry her from point to point, +telling how careful had been each one's stewardship and how they would +never let her go again. Never. + +As for Ninian Sharp he did not recognize himself in the hero they all +made of him, nor did even Aunt Sally presume to offer him, so wonderful +a man, a nauseous dose. But she was overheard to remark to Wun Lung, who +had also joined the company unforbidden by his arch enemy: + +"I do believe, Wun Lungy, that if ever that there handsome young man +should go and get married I'd set him up in my fifty-five thousand five +hundred and fifty-five piece bedquilt. I did lay out to bequeath it to +Jessica, but, la! I can piece her another, just as willin' as not. What +you say, Wun Lungy?" + +"I slay, fool woman!" + +For a time joy and surprise turned Ned and Luis speechless; yet they +were sent to bed late that night, each hugging a sharp-edged train of +tin cars and breathing, "Choo! choo!" as if a railway were a common +sight instead of an unknown one. + +But there came at last a quiet hour for mother and child, when they sat +in close embrace, telling all that had befallen each during the days of +separation. + +"Oh! if dear Ephraim were only here, mother! I said it should not be +a month before that title deed was found, and the month will not be up +until to-morrow. Poor Ephraim! It was bitter hard to leave him alone in +that hospital, well-liked and cared for though he is. If it hadn't been +for him I could never have gone. And the 'boys' would have made such a +hero of him. Even as they did of Mr. Sharp. Can't you guess how proud +they'd have been of him, mother?" + +When Mrs. Trent did not reply, Jessica looked up quickly and saw that +dear face so near her own still clouded by a shadow of trouble. + +"Why, mother! What is it? You look as if you were not perfectly, +absolutely happy, and yet how can you be else--to-night?" + +"Yes, darling, I am happy. So glad and thankful that I cannot put it +into words. But Ephraim? My darling, at present, not for some days, +if I were you I would not talk about Ephraim. You will be happier so. +No. He is alive and getting well, so far as I know. There has been no +later news than yours. Don't look so alarmed. Only this: the 'boys' +have taken some queer notion about our 'Forty-niner,' and so I say he +is probably happier just where he is to-night than if he were back at +Sobrante." + +"Oh! mother! Another mystery? and about such a simple, honest, splendid +old fellow as my Ephraim? Well, never mind. I seem to be sent into the +world to solve other people's 'mysteries,' and I'll solve his." + +Eventually she did. But how and when cannot be told here. This is a story +which must be related another time. But for the time Jessica was happy +and all went well. + +THE END + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Jessica Trent: Her Life on a Ranch, by +Evelyn Raymond + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JESSICA TRENT: HER LIFE ON A RANCH *** + +***** This file should be named 33853.txt or 33853.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/3/8/5/33853/ + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.fadedpage.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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