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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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