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+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: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JESSICA TRENT: HER LIFE ON A RANCH ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.fadedpage.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+JESSICA TRENT:
+
+Her Life on a Ranch
+
+BY
+
+EVELYN RAYMOND
+
+Author of
+
+"Jessica Trent's Inheritance," "Jessica, the Heiress"
+
+Whitman Publishing Co.
+
+RACINE, WISCONSIN
+
+
+
+
+Copyright, 1902, by Street & Smith
+
+Jessica Trent
+
+Printed in the
+
+United States of America
+
+By
+
+Western Printing & Lithographing Co.
+
+Racine, Wis.
+
+
+
+
+JESSICA TRENT
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+ON THE CANYON TRAIL.
+
+
+"Hello, there! What in the name of reason is this?"
+
+The horseman's excited cry was echoed by a startled neigh from his
+beast, which wheeled about so suddenly that he nearly precipitated both
+himself and rider into the gulch below.
+
+"Oh! I'm sorry----Hold on, Zu! Go! Do, please. Quick! It's so narrow
+just beyond and I can't----"
+
+The stranger obeyed, perforce, for his spirited animal having now headed
+up the slope, continued on his course at breakneck speed, pursued at
+equal pace by the unknown creature that had terrified him.
+
+The race would not have been so even had the trail been wider, for
+King Zulu could easily have beaten his contestant, but, as it was,
+the fleeing bay bruised his master's leg against the canyon wall,
+now and then, while bits of the bird's plumage were torn on the same
+projecting rocks. There was no point of passage till more than a mile
+higher on the mountain, and Jess knew this if Mr. Hale did not. He
+knew nothing save that he was clinging and riding for his life, and
+that this "Western horseback tour" which his doctor had prescribed
+for him, seemed now more likely to prove his death than his cure.
+
+But when a laugh rang out, close to his shoulder, he turned his head and
+glanced angrily backward.
+
+"Oh, I beg your pardon, but--it's so funny! I've often wanted to try
+King Zu against a strange horse and now I have. Only, if we were up there
+on the mesa, he'd show you!"
+
+"Does this trail never end, nor turn?"
+
+The laughter on the girl's face changed to anxiety.
+
+"Not ill, exactly; only I'm not experienced at this business and it
+shakes me."
+
+"You ride too hard and stiff. That's why. Let yourself go--just be part
+of your horse. He's a beauty, isn't he? Even the boys couldn't stand
+that gait."
+
+"And you. Who taught you to ride an ostrich? Where did you get it?
+It's almost the first one I ever saw and quite the first that Prince
+did. I was nearly as scared as he, meeting such a creature on a lonely
+mountain trail."
+
+"I never learned--it just happened. Zulu is 'patriarch' of the flock.
+The only imported bird left alive. We just grew up together, he and I.
+Didn't we, King?"
+
+Speech was now easier, for the speed of both animals had slackened, that
+of Prince to a comfortable trot. While the sidewise lurching motion
+of the ostrich was enjoyable enough to Jessica, it turned Mr. Hale's
+head dizzy, watching. Or it may have been the blinding sunshine, beating
+against the canyon wall and deflected upon the riders in waves of heat.
+
+"Whew! This is scorching. How far, yet?"
+
+Jessica saw that what she minded not at all was turning the stranger
+sick, and answered swiftly:
+
+"You wouldn't be able to get further than 'five times' before we
+reach the turn. There'll be a glorious breeze then. There always is."
+
+"What do you mean by 'five times'?"
+
+"Why, just the multiplication table. I always say it when I've
+something I want to get over quick. You begin at one-times-one, and see
+if it isn't so."
+
+"What shall we find at the top; your home?"
+
+"Oh, no, indeed. That is quite the other way. Down in the valley.
+Sobrante ranch. That's ours. Were you going there?"
+
+"I was going--anywhere. I had lost my way. 'Missed the trail,' as you
+say in this country."
+
+"I thought, maybe, you were just a 'tourist.'"
+
+Mr. Hale laughed, and the laugh helped him to forget his present
+discomfort.
+
+"Perhaps I am, even if you do speak so disdainfully. Are all
+'tourists' objectionable?"
+
+Jessica's brown cheek flushed. She felt she had said something
+rude--she, whose ambition it was to be always and everywhere "Our
+Lady Jess," that the dear "boys" called her. But she remembered how
+annoyed her mother was by the visits of strangers who seemed to regard
+Sobrante and its belongings as a "show" arranged for their special
+benefit.
+
+"We--we are generally glad when the rains come," she answered,
+evasively.
+
+"To keep them away? Yet if, as I suspect, you have an ostrich farm, I
+can't blame their curiosity. I'm hoping to visit one, myself."
+
+"Ours is not a real 'farm.' It is just one of the many things our
+ranch is good for. But I know my mother would make you very welcome.
+You--but there! Look down, please. Yonder it is, Sobrante. That means
+'richness,' you know. And now up. The next turn will land us on the
+mesa, and I hope, I hope, I have come in time!"
+
+The road had now broadened, and with a little chirrup to King Zulu, she
+passed and forged ahead so rapidly that she was soon out of sight. The
+great bird upon whose back she was perched was not, apparently, at all
+wearied, but poor Prince was utterly winded, while a curious feeling of
+loneliness stole upon his rider.
+
+But, presently, the sound of voices came over the bluff, and Mr. Hale
+urged his tired beast forward. The next he knew he was sprawling on the
+plateau and his horse had fallen beside him. Prince's forefoot was in
+a hole, from which he was unable to withdraw it.
+
+"Oh! oh! The poor creature! And you, sir, are you hurt?"
+
+"No, I think not. Rather a shake-up, though, and I was dizzy with the
+heat before. Prince, Prince, lie still; we'll help you."
+
+One glance had showed the stranger that they were near a shepherd's hut,
+and that its occupant was at home. The man had been sitting quietly in
+the shade of the little building and of the one pepper tree which grew
+beside its threshold. He did not move, even now, till the girl called
+impatiently:
+
+"Pedro! Come! Quick!"
+
+Then he arose in a leisurely fashion and, carefully depositing his osiers
+in a tub of water, came forward.
+
+"So? He can't get up, yes? A wise man looks where he rides, indeed."
+
+Despite his anxiety over Prince, Mr. Hale regarded the shepherd with
+amused curiosity. Pedro's swarthy face was as unmoved as if the visits
+of strangers with disabled horses were daily events; but the man's
+calmness did not prevent his usefulness. In fact, during every step
+of his deliberate advance he had been studying the situation and how
+best to aid the fallen animal, which had now ceased to struggle and lay
+gazing at his master with a dumb, pitiful appeal.
+
+Then Pedro bent forward and, with a strength amazing in a man of his
+small build, seized Prince's head and shoulder and with one prodigious
+wrench freed him from the pitfall. Then he stooped again and carefully
+examined the bruised forefoot.
+
+"A moon and a half he'll go lame. Yes. For just so long let him be left
+with Pedro. Si?"
+
+Then he led the limping beast toward the hut and began to bathe its
+injured ankle with the water from the tub.
+
+"Marvelous! I never saw anything done as easily as that!" cried Mr.
+Hale, recovering from his astonishment.
+
+"Ah; but you've never seen our Pedro before. And to think I was so
+angry with him, I!"
+
+With a remorseful impulse Jessica sprang forward and threw her arms about
+the old shepherd's shoulders. He received her caress as calmly as he
+did everything else, though a keen observer might have seen a fleeting
+smile around his rugged lips.
+
+Smiles did, indeed, spring to all three faces when, a moment later, the
+rattling of tins discovered Zulu rummaging a heap of empty cans, even
+in the very act of swallowing a highly decorated one.
+
+The jingling startled Prince, also, from the repose into which he had
+now settled, and, after one terrified glance toward his unknown enemy,
+King Zu, he dashed across the mesa as if lameness were unknown.
+
+At which Pedro smiled, well content.
+
+"Good. He that uses his own legs spares his neighbors. Yes."
+
+"Meaning that he would have to be exercised by somebody?"
+
+The shepherd did not answer. He had lived alone so long amid the great
+solitudes of nature that speech had grown irksome to him. He regarded
+it a sin to waste words, and his young mistress understood this, if Mr.
+Hale did not. To this gentleman the situation presented itself as a very
+serious one. There was no habitation visible save the small hut, a place
+barely sufficient to its owner's simple needs and utterly inadequate
+to those of a lately recovered invalid. He was not strong enough to
+make his way to the valley on foot, and even if Prince were now able to
+carry him, he felt it would be brutal to impose so hard a task.
+
+But Jessica came to his aid with the suggestion:
+
+"If you'll come and rest behind the cabin I'll make you a cup of
+coffee on Pedro's little stove. He often lets me when I come up to see
+him, and then, when you've rested, we'll go home. I am so angry I
+can hardly breathe."
+
+"Indeed; I should never have guessed it," he answered, laughing, and
+allowing the girl to lead him to the shelter proposed.
+
+"Ah! but I am. And a gentlewoman never gets angry. Least of all with
+such a darling as Pedro. You see, he ought to have been about dying, and
+he hasn't even a single ache!"
+
+"What an odd child you are!"
+
+"Am I?" regarding him gravely. "I'm sure I don't want to be that.
+I want to be just--perfect."
+
+Mr. Hale sighed as he dropped upon the bench to which Jess had guided
+him. "We are none of us that--ever."
+
+"I suppose that's because 'none of us' ever try quite hard enough.
+But I will be, if trying will fetch it."
+
+Then she whisked inside the hut and presently there came to the
+gentleman's nostrils the aroma of freshly steaming coffee. He had not
+realized that he was hungry, but now could scarcely wait until the
+little maid came out to him again with a tin cup of the liquid in one
+hand and a can of condensed milk in the other.
+
+"My mother always lets her guests 'trim' their drink for themselves,
+but I'll drop in the cream if you'll say how much. Enough? Now sugar.
+One? How queer. And it's sugar of our own making, too; beet sugar, you
+know."
+
+The tin cup was decidedly rusty, the cheap spoon dingy, and "canned"
+milk the aversion of Mr. Hale's dyspeptic stomach; yet despite these
+facts he had never tasted a more delicious draught than this, nor one
+served with a gentler grace. For Jessica was quite unconscious that there
+was anything amiss with Pedro's dishes, and now offered the stranger
+a tin of time-hardened biscuits, with the air of one proffering the
+rarest of dainties.
+
+"You would better eat one of these; they're quite fine, with the
+coffee."
+
+"I'll--I'll try, thank you, if you'll fetch your own cup and sit
+beside me."
+
+"All right. Only I'll have to wait till Pedro's finished. There's
+only this and the egg, you know. He's rather stubborn, dear fellow. My
+mother has offered him more dishes, but he says 'more care' and won't
+take them. Excuse me."
+
+With a dip and swirl of her short skirts, the little hostess ran into the
+hut, to reappear, a moment later, bearing in both hands a drinking-cup
+which made the guest exclaim in delight:
+
+"What an exquisite thing!"
+
+"Isn't it? But just wait until you see those which Pedro made for
+mother! This is fine, but they're like cobwebs."
+
+She did not offer to show him the cup more closely, for she had seen
+the shepherd lay down his rushes and sit waiting, and Jessica would not
+disappoint the old friend for the new. Still the less, because she had so
+lately been vexed with him, and wholly without cause.
+
+But when the silent fellow had emptied the cup she proudly gave it for
+Mr. Hale's inspection.
+
+"An ostrich egg, you see, cut off at the top. Pedro wove all this
+lacelike outside, of just the common tule rushes. He splits them till
+they are like threads, and see that handle! Nothing could break it,
+nor can one tell just where it begins or ends--the joinings, I mean.
+There are many wonderful weavers among the Indians, but none so deft as
+our Pedro, my mother says.
+
+"Now, will you not fill this again and drink it with me? For I see that
+our speechless friend, yonder, has gone to work again as if his life
+depended on his industry."
+
+"He's always at work, like that. Yet he never neglects his flock. He
+has been herding ever since he was a little boy. That must have been
+years ago. He's so very old."
+
+"He doesn't look it. I should guess he might be fifty."
+
+"Fifty! Why, there's nobody anywhere around who remembers when our
+Pedro was born. Not even Fra Mateo at the mission, yet even he is more
+than a hundred," she answered, proudly.
+
+"Possible? Well, this is all wonderful to me who have lived always in
+a crowded city. This big West is like a romance, a fairy tale; not the
+least of its marvels to find a little girl like you riding alone on such
+a steed up such a desolate canyon, yet not in the least afraid."
+
+"Why, why should I be afraid? Except, of course, I was, for a bit, when
+I saw that Zulu made your horse rear. A step nearer and you'd have both
+gone over."
+
+Mr. Hale shuddered, and Jessica hastened to add:
+
+"But the step wasn't taken and you're quite safe up here. Is the
+dizziness all gone? Many are like that before they get used to the glare.
+Some of the 'tourists' wear blue glasses, and veils, and things. They
+look so funny."
+
+Into her laughter burst Pedro's speech.
+
+"'Ware Antonio. Is it plucking day, no? His third hand is Ferd, who
+lies and steals. I know. The mistress' chest has many openings. _Nina_,
+go home, and bid Antonio come himself when next he'd have me die. Yes."
+
+Jessica sprang to her feet. These were many words for the shepherd
+to utter, and was not to be disobeyed. Though the old man's age was
+doubtless far less than was accredited him, he was commonly considered
+a sage whose intelligence increased, rather than diminished, with the
+passing years.
+
+"I'll go at once, Pedro. Please forget that I was angry and--good-by."
+
+Mr. Hale was unprepared for this sudden departure, which bereft the scene
+of its fairest feature; for even while he listened to the brief speech
+between this odd pair there was a flash of twinkling feet and a scarlet
+Tam, and Jessica was gone.
+
+"Why--why--what? Eh, what?" he demanded, rising.
+
+His answer came with a crash and clatter which could never have been made
+by one small, fleeing figure, and with the startling force with which
+everything happened on that eventful day.
+
+Over the bluff scrambled a shaggy piebald burro, from whose back there
+tumbled at the stranger's very feet a brace of little lads, securely
+lashed together; even their wrists and ankles bound beyond possibility
+of their own undoing.
+
+"Horrors! Indian captives!" cried the gentleman, aghast.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+A BAD BUSINESS.
+
+
+Captives? Far from it--save to their own reckless disregard of life and
+limb, and all for a bit of hitherto untested fun.
+
+Shrieking with laughter at the success of their experiment, they rolled
+and floundered on the ground, till the laughter changed to cries of pain
+as their restless writhings to and fro drove their self-inflicted bonds
+deeper into the flesh.
+
+By some dexterity they got upon their feet, at last, and one implored:
+
+"Oh! you Pedro! or you, man! Cut us loose, can't you? Don't you see we
+can't do it ourselves?"
+
+Mr. Hale adjusted his eyeglasses and looked rather helplessly toward the
+shepherd; but that phlegmatic person was working away on his wonderful
+basket as stolidly as if there was none beside himself upon the mesa.
+
+"Oh! you hateful old Pedro! Cut us free, I tell you! Ain't I your
+master? You'd do it mighty quick for 'Lady Jess.'"
+
+The frightened little fellow, whose fun had now ebbed into a terrible
+fear of an indefinite bondage, began to whimper, and Mr. Hale to act. A
+few sharp slashings of the horsehair thongs and the captives were free
+to express their delight in a series of somersaults, which were only
+arrested by sight of Prince in the distance, holding up his injured foot
+and seeking for some pasture amid the dry herbage.
+
+"Hello! That horse is new. Is he yours, mister? What's the matter with
+him? Humph! I guess you're new, too, aren't you? I never saw you in our
+valley before. Where's your ranch?"
+
+The questioner was a blue-eyed, fair-haired little chap whose close
+resemblance to Jessica proclaimed him her brother; but he was younger,
+sturdier, and less courteous than she. Yet his prolonged stare at the
+stranger had less of rudeness than surprise in it, and Mr. Hale laughed
+at the frank inspection.
+
+"You look rather 'new' yourself, my man. About eight years, aren't
+you?"
+
+"How'd you guess?"
+
+"Lads of my own."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"Several thousand miles away, over the Atlantic coast."
+
+"Why didn't you fetch 'em?"
+
+"Couldn't afford it."
+
+"Oh! couldn't you? H-m-m." Then he turned his attention to Pedro, with
+the remark: "Why aren't you sick, like 'Tonio said? Making my sister
+come way up here for nothing. Don't you dare do that again, I tell you.
+You're just as well as ever, and I smell coffee. Come on, Luis!"
+
+Catching his mate around the shoulders the boy rushed into the hut,
+only to be as promptly banished from it. With a swiftness matching the
+children's own, the shepherd had followed and caught the pair, a lad
+in either hand, and flung them out of doors, exactly as one might a
+couple of mischievous kittens. Evidently, what was permissible to "Lady
+Jess" was forbidden these, though they were not at all disturbed by
+their sudden ejection. Such incidents were too familiar, and, having
+landed in one heap upon the ground, they immediately fell to wrestling
+as if this were the business they had originally intended. Now the
+black head of Spanish Luis was uppermost, now the sunnier one of Ned,
+with a flying jumble of vari-colored hands and feet, till Pedro came
+out and offered to each contestant a cup of cold, but well-sweetened
+coffee.
+
+This meant instant truce and they carried their treat to the bench
+Mr. Hale had occupied, leaving him to stand or sit upon the ground,
+as he preferred. He chose the latter and near enough to hear their eager
+chatter, which was still full of indignation against the shepherd's
+robust health.
+
+"'Cause he ought to been dead, 'most. And my mother wanting Jess the
+worst ever was. 'Cause Wun Lung cut hisself."
+
+"Maybe Wun Lung die now, maybe," suggested Luis, with hopeful
+heartlessness.
+
+"Pshaw! No, he won't. Chinamen don't. You never saw one, Luis Garcia.
+Hi! Look at Zulu. Hi! Keno, Keno, Keno! Oh, Wow!"
+
+By a mutual impulse, Prince and the ostrich had put as wide a space
+between themselves as possible, and the latter had strolled close to
+Pedro's quiet flock before he had perceived it. This was evident, even
+from the distance; but now up rose Keno, the collie, and with angry
+yelps rushed fearlessly upon the great bird.
+
+King Zulu hesitated but an instant before he turned his back upon his
+assailant and made all speed over the bluff into the canyon below.
+
+"Well, of all cowards! A creature that could have killed the dog with
+one kick of his foot!" cried Mr. Hale, amazed.
+
+"Huh! No, he couldn't. Kill you or Pedro. Kill that old horse of
+yours, easy as scat. Can't kick low down as Keno. Huh! Guess I know
+more about ostriches than you do," exulted Ned, in whose opinion the
+stranger had now greatly fallen.
+
+"Huh! Don't know about ostrichers!" echoed Luis, loyally, and was
+rewarded by a friendly slap from his pattern and playmate.
+
+Roused by the disturbance of his sheep, Pedro hurried to quiet them,
+but, as he passed, fixed a piercing gaze upon the stranger's face. The
+scrutiny seemed to partially reassure him, for he observed:
+
+"Horse lame, Zulu gone, catch burro, yes. Let the feet which take the
+trail be young, not feeble and unused. But to him who journeys with evil
+in his heart evil will surely come. The widow and the orphan belong to
+God. Indeed, yet. 'Ware, Antonio."
+
+Mr. Hale reflected swiftly. He smiled at thought of his own long legs
+bestriding the low back of the donkey, but a memory of that heated trail
+down which he must pass to reach the nearest house, decided the matter.
+While the small owners of the burro were improving the time of the
+shepherd's absence to ransack his dwelling the sturdy little animal
+bore its accustomed rider out of sight.
+
+Meanwhile, Jessica's moccasined feet were flying down the slope, her
+blue skirts and scarlet Tam making a moving spot of color against the
+sandy glare of the canyon wall, and long before she came within hailing
+distance catching the eyes of one who eagerly awaited her approach.
+
+This was John Benton, the carpenter and general utility man at Sobrante;
+who had come up the opposite side of the canyon, where were many huge
+bowlders, a few trees, and no trail at all. Indeed, a passage along
+that face of the gulch was difficult in extreme, and so dangerous that
+it must have been serious business which brought a lame man thither.
+Fortunately for his patience, the girl paused for breath at a point
+level with his own narrow perch upon a shelving rock, and where there was
+no great width of the V-shaped chasm.
+
+"Lady Jess! Oh! I say! Miss Jessica! Lady Jess!"
+
+The girl looked about her, up and down, everywhere save to the further
+side where nobody ever went if it could be avoided. But she answered,
+cheerily:
+
+"_Hola!_ Coo'ee! Coo'ee! Who are you?"
+
+The man made a trumpet of his hands and shouted back:
+
+"The flume! Look east--to the flume!"
+
+She followed his example and called through her own fingers:
+
+"What's wrong? How came you there?"
+
+He pointed downward, and she shaded her eyes from the blinding sunshine
+to see why, but could discover nothing new in the familiar scene.
+
+"The water! That's where it goes! The flume is cut!"
+
+Even at that pitch, his tones were full of excited indignation, and her
+own anger leaped at once.
+
+"Somebody's cut the flume? Who dared! Wait--wait--I'm coming!"
+
+"No, no! Don't. You can't help it--you'll break your neck! Oh! Lady
+Jess!"
+
+"I'm coming! Wait for me!"
+
+The carpenter laughed. "Might have known she would, and wanted she
+should, I suppose. Surest-footed little thing in the world. Guess I
+needn't fret. Though when I think what this old ranch would be without
+her, I don't feel any great call to send her into danger, myself. My!
+she's as nimble as a squirrel! Down to the bottom a'ready. Up this side
+in a jiffy, and won't her blue eyes snap when she sees this lowdown
+trick? If I knew whose job it was, well, I'm a peaceable man if I'm
+let, but there wouldn't be room enough in this here valley for the two
+of us. And it's all on a piece with the rest. One thing after another.
+There's a snake in this wigwam, but which 'tis? H-m-m! Beats me.
+Beats me clear to Jericho."
+
+Then he fell to watching the slower, steady ascent of Jessica, who had
+descended the further side so swiftly, and who had clambered lightly
+enough over the roughness of the gulch bottom; at times filled with a
+roaring torrent, but now quite dry after a long, hot summer.
+
+"Well, here I am!"
+
+"And a sorry sight to show you. Look a' that now. Isn't that a regular
+coyote piece of work?"
+
+Along this face of the canyon descended a line of small wooden troughs,
+closely joined, and supported upon slender but strong cedar uprights.
+This flume connected with the distant reservoir of an irrigating
+company and had been built by Jessica's dead father at a great and
+ill-afforded expense. But of all good things there was nothing so
+precious to the tillers of that thirsty land as water, and the cutting
+off of this supply meant ruin to Sobrante.
+
+Young as she was, Jessica fully understood this, though she could not
+understand that any human being should do a deed so dastardly.
+
+"John Benton, you mustn't say that. Some of the cattle have done
+it. It's an accident. It can be mended. I'm sorry, of course, but
+so thankful you found it. And I see you've got your tools."
+
+"Oh! I can mend it, all right, but it won't stay mended. You'll see.
+'Tisn't the first break I've patched, not by any means."
+
+"Of course it isn't. Only last week in that stampede, when the boys
+were changing pasture, the creatures ran against it and you fixed it,
+good as new. There isn't anything you can't do with an ax and a few
+nails."
+
+John passed the compliment by unheeding.
+
+"There's breaks and there's cuts. Reckon I can tell the difference
+quick enough. This is a cut and isn't the first one I've found, I say.
+'Twas a fresh-ground blade did this piece of deviltry, or I'm no judge
+of edges. Now, who did it? Why? And how's old Pedro?"
+
+Despite her faith in her friends, the small ranchwoman's heart sank.
+
+"He--he--why, he isn't sick at all! I was sent up there on a fool's
+errand, and just on plucking-day, when I was so needed at home. With Wun
+Lung hurt and mother so busy, I ought to have a dozen pairs of hands.
+Of course, I'm glad he's well, dear old fellow, but I shouldn't have
+gone this morning if somebody hadn't told Antonio wrong. I met a
+stranger on the trail, too, and Zulu scared his horse, and it stumbled
+in a gopher hole or something and is lamed for ever so long. He'll
+likely come to Sobrante, if he can get there, but he looked ill if Pedro
+didn't, and the sun nearly overcame him. Can't I help you hold that
+board?"
+
+John accepted her offer of help less because he needed it than because
+he always liked to have her near him.
+
+"So 'twas Antonio sent you, eh? H-m-m!"
+
+"He didn't send me. Course not. He just said somebody said Pedro was
+dying."
+
+The carpenter laughed, but his mirth was not pleasant.
+
+"Queer how stories get mixed, even in this lonesome place. There; you
+needn't hold that. Your little hands aren't so very strong, helpful
+as they may be. This isn't any great of a job; it 'twould only stay,
+once 'twas finished!"
+
+"Then I'll go. Maybe I'd better send up one of the boys to help you.
+Shall I? Who do you want?"
+
+Upon the point of declining, the carpenter changed his mind.
+
+"Yes, you may. I wish you would. Send Antonio."
+
+"Send--Antonio! Why, I should as soon think of 'sending' that stranger
+I told you about. You're teasing me, for you know well that Antonio is
+the only one who ever 'sends' Antonio. Even my mother, who has a
+right to 'send' everybody on the ranch whither she will, never orders
+the manager. Well, good-by. You shall have a nice dinner out of the
+house-kitchen to pay for your hard climb."
+
+"Take care where you step in your hurry, and just try that word on the
+'senor.' Tell him there's a bit of a break in the flume I'd like his
+advice about."
+
+The workman's laugh followed the girl down the rough and perilous way,
+and just as she passed out of hearing came the parting shot:
+
+"Send Antonio."
+
+"H-m-m! I don't see what it all means. First is old Pedro, with his
+grim ''Ware Antonio!' And now John Benton speaks in that queer way, as
+if there were two meanings to his words. Heigho! I hear somebody coming
+up. I wonder who!"
+
+Hurrying downward as fast as the uneven path allowed, her own softly-shod
+feet making no noise, she reached a turn of the road and suddenly
+slackened her pace. The man approaching was one of the few whom she
+feared and disliked.
+
+"Ferd, the dwarf!"
+
+Instinctively, she hid behind a clump of shrubbery and waited for him
+to pass, hoping he would not see her. He did not. He was too engrossed
+in handling, apparently counting, something within a deep basket that
+hung on his arm, and his bare feet loped around over the rocks as easily
+as they would have carried him across the level mesa.
+
+As soon as he had gone by Lady Jess started onward, but she had grown
+even more thoughtful.
+
+"That's queer. Antonio must need Ferd to-day if ever he does. Indeed,
+nobody seems able to serve him as well as that poor half-wit. What could
+he have had in his basket? And--ha! how came _this_ here?"
+
+With a cry of surprise she lifted a small, soft object from the ground
+before her and regarded it in gathering dismay.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+SENOR TOP-LOFTY
+
+
+Ever since Jessica could remember, Antonio Bernal had been manager of
+the Sobrante ranch, and after the death of her father, a few months
+before, he became practically its master. Even Mrs. Trent deferred to
+his opinions more and more, and seemed to stand in awe of him, as did
+most others on the great estate. He was the only person there, save his
+own servant, Ferd, who did not treat the little girl with that adoring
+sort of reverence which had given her the love-name of "our Lady Jess."
+For some reason unknown to her he disliked her and showed this, so that
+she shrank from and feared him in return.
+
+As she emerged from the canyon upon the broad, sandy road which crossed
+the valley, she saw him loping toward her on the powerful black horse
+with which he made his daily rounds to inspect the many industries that
+Mr. Trent had established. Jessica could always tell by the way he rode
+what Antonio's mood might be, and it did not lessen her dread to see
+that his sombrero was well over his eyes and his shoulders hunched
+forward.
+
+"Something's put him out, but I can't help that. I must stop him and
+speak to him."
+
+So she placed herself in the middle of the road and shouted her familiar:
+
+"_Hola!_ Coo-ee! Coo-ee!"
+
+Any other ranchman would have paused and saluted his "lady," but the
+"senor" made as if he would ride her down, unseeing.
+
+Jessica did not flinch. That ready temper which she was always lamenting
+flamed at the insult, and she would not move a hair's breadth from his
+path.
+
+"Hola! Antonio Bernal! I must speak to you, and--see that?"
+
+Suddenly bending forward she waved something long and black under Nero's
+nose, who reared and settled on his haunches in a way to test a less
+experienced rider.
+
+"What do you mean, child----" began that irate gentleman, but pausing
+at sight of the object she held.
+
+"I think this a plume from Beppo's wing, don't you, Antonio?"
+
+He muttered something under his breath, and she went on, explaining:
+
+"I found it in the canyon, just after Ferd has gone up it. I knew it in
+a minute, for I was looking Beppo over yesterday, and I never saw such
+perfect feathers on any bird. How do you suppose it came there, and why?"
+
+"The fool! One of the very best. How dared he. But suppose I'll have to
+admit he stole it. I don't see how, though, for I did the work myself.
+Give it to me, senorita; I'll put it with the others."
+
+Somehow, when Antonio was sauve "our Lady Jess" liked him less than
+when he was sharp of speech. His native "senorita" jarred on her ear,
+though she blamed herself for her injustice, nor did she yield him the
+feather.
+
+"Not yet, please. I'm going to show it to mother. She'll be so
+delighted to know the plucking was a rich one; and if Ferd did steal
+this, or has others in his basket, of course you'll make him bring
+them back."
+
+"Of course," answered Antonio, though he frowned and searched her face
+with his black eyes as if to read all her suspicions.
+
+But as Jessica was not suspicious; she was vaguely troubled, as if she
+had come into some dark and unknown world. Surely Antonio was able to
+clear off all these little mysteries, and she checked him again as he
+was about to ride on.
+
+"There's something else, senor," adopting his title in imitation of
+his addressing her; "John Benton is up the gulch fixing a break in the
+flume. It's a bad one, and more a cut than a break, he says. He asked me
+to tell you and wishes you'd go up there to advise him. I'm to send
+up a man to help him. But he wants you, too."
+
+"Why should I waste my time on such a fool's errand, eh? I knew there
+was a leak somewhere and am glad he's found it. There's been no water
+in the ditches these three days--more, ten, maybe--and the oranges are
+falling. Send up that idler, Joe; and, by the way, how's Pedro?"
+
+It was the blue eyes now which turned keen and searching, and under their
+gaze Antonio's were averted toward some distant point in the landscape,
+though the contemptuous smile remained upon his lips.
+
+"That was a fool's errand, too, Senor Bernal, and I did so want to be
+at home this morning. Pedro was never livelier. Whoever told you he was
+ill was quite mistaken."
+
+Antonio gave a short, derisive laugh, dug his spurs into Nero's
+sides and loped away. A picturesque, noticeable figure in his quaint,
+half-Spanish dress and his silver-decorated sombrero, bestriding the
+heavy Mexican saddle upon his powerful horse.
+
+"Vain as a peacock," was his fellow-ranchmen's opinion of their
+"boss," though had his affectations been all his shortcomings these
+had not lessened their liking for him.
+
+Lady Jess looked after him for a moment, her face still sober and
+perplexed.
+
+"I ought to be at home, helping mother, this minute; but I'm going
+first to the corral to speak a word of comfort to poor Beppo, and see
+how big a plucking there was. If it was a good yield that will be so
+much the better news to tell my dear, and this certainly is the finest
+plume we ever got. Good! There are some of the boys over there, too,
+and I'll save time by getting one of them to go up the canyon to John.
+_Hola!_"
+
+Her soliloquy ended in the gay little Spanish salute, and this was
+now instantly answered by a hearty shout of welcome from a group of
+rough-garbed men, taking a moment's rest in the shade of the old adobe
+packinghouse.
+
+As lightly as if she had not already walked a long distance, the girl
+ran to her friends, to be at once caught up by a pair of strong arms and
+gently placed upon a cushion in the box of an empty wagon.
+
+"But this was your place, Joe Dean. I saw you get up from it."
+
+"It's yours now, Lady Jess. You do me proud. What's the good word?
+How's old Pedro?"
+
+"Well just plain, every day well. Never been sick a minute. Had all
+that climb for nothing; or, maybe, not quite for nothing, because I met
+a stranger up there and liked him; and saw John Benton as I came down,
+and--found this! Isn't that a plume to be proud of? Raised right here on
+our little Sobrante."
+
+"Whew! It's a beauty, sure enough. A dozen like that would be worth a
+tidy sum. How found it?"
+
+"Has anybody seen King Zu? Though, of course, I know it can't be his.
+He was plucked such a little while ago, nor could he have gotten across
+the gulch without losing more. Besides, Antonio said 'stole.'"
+
+Then she gave a hasty account of her morning's adventures, during which
+meaning glances were exchanged between the trio of workmen who, by the
+time she had finished, had grown as glum as they had before been cheerful.
+
+"Now, what do you think? Is there anybody who'd be mean enough to cut
+off my mother's irrigation, on purpose, or steal her feathers? Even poor
+Ferd; I'm sure she's always been good to him and pitied him."
+
+"Ferd has hands. Others have heads," said Joe, as spokesman for the
+rest.
+
+They nodded swift assent.
+
+"Except yourself, Lady Jess, nobody ever sees the 'senor' handle the
+feathers, and you not often. Only he and his shadow, foolish Ferd, can
+manage the birds, he claims. I've been smoking that in my pipe along
+back."
+
+"Oh! Joe, you shouldn't be suspicious of evil."
+
+"No, I shouldn't be anything you don't want me to be, but I am."
+
+"Even if I don't like him very well, because he's a little cross,
+Antonio Bernal is a good man. He must be. Else my father and now mother
+wouldn't trust him so. She lets him get all the money for everything
+first and she has what's left--after you're all paid, I mean."
+
+"Poor little woman!"
+
+"Not poor, exactly, Samson. And it isn't Antonio's fault that there
+isn't so much as there used to be when father was here. If there were,
+mother would carry out all father's plans. She'd irrigate that tract
+beyond the arroyo, toward the sand hills, and test it with strawberries,
+as he meant. There shouldn't be an inch of untilled land on all the
+ranch, if the crops we have paid out just a little better. But, no
+matter. As long as you boys get your due wages, we can wait for the
+rest."
+
+There was another exchange of glances which Jessica did not see. Neither
+did she see herder Samson, lying at length on the ground, lift his great
+boot and significantly point to a hole in its toe. Nor would she have
+surmised his meaning had she done so. Indeed, she suddenly remembered
+her errand at the packinghouse and ran to its open door, but failed.
+
+"How queer! Why should this be locked? I didn't know it ever was. Where
+can the key be?"
+
+"In Antonio Bernal's pocket," said Joe quietly.
+
+"Then even before I found this feather he must have suspected somebody
+and taken care of the others. But it's dreadful if we have come to
+turning keys on one another, here, at dear Sobrante. Well, I'm off to
+mother, now; and, Joe, Antonio said you should go to help John. Will
+you?"
+
+"For you, fast enough, Lady Jess, though I'm about quit of Top-Lofty's
+orders."
+
+"Grumbler!" laughed the girl, hurrying away, with her gayety quite
+restored by this few minutes' chat with the beloved "boys" who had
+petted her all her life.
+
+They did not laugh, however, as they watched her going, and Joe, rising
+to do her bidding, slapped his thigh emphatically and remarked:
+
+"I call it the time has come. The longer we put it off the worse it
+is. Poor little missy! Getting our wages due! That little angel 'd
+cry the blue out of her pretty eyes if she knew how long 'twas since
+we'd seen the color of our money. Pass the word along, boys, and let's
+confab, to-night, and settle it. Time, about moon-up, in John's shop.
+How's that?"
+
+"Count me a mutineer," said the ex-sailor, Samson, as he strolled
+toward his cattle sheds.
+
+"I'm with you," echoed Marty, departing for his orange grove.
+"Mutiny's an ugly word aboard ship, I'm told, but when psalm-singing
+Samson takes to using it right here on dry land I reckon the case
+differs. Anyhow, if it's a bid 'twixt the little one and Top-Lofty,
+I'm for the little one every time."
+
+Scruff knew the road home as well as another, and doubtless reasoned in
+his burro mind that the sooner he reached there the sooner he would be
+rid of his awkward rider. So he made all speed over the steep descent,
+though Mr. Hale used his own feet, now and then, as human brakes to
+check the creature's pace; and, whimsically, remonstrated when the jolts
+became too frequent.
+
+"Here, you beast! Hold on! If ever I ride a donkey again just let me
+know about it, will you? Keep that front end of yours up, please. I've
+a notion of sliding over your head, just to accommodate. Steady, there,
+steady. I flatter myself I can stick if I can't ride. And we're getting
+along. We're getting along."
+
+Indeed, much earlier than he had hoped for, they were on level ground
+and had struck out upon that road where Jessica had met the manager, and
+which for some distance followed the tree-bordered arroyo--just then a
+river of sand only--leading straight toward a group of buildings and an
+oasis of greenery most welcome to the stranger's sun-blinded eyes.
+
+"Sobrante ranch, that must be, and the home of my little ostrich rider.
+I hope she'll be there to greet me, for a tempting spot it looks."
+
+The nearer he approached the more charming it appeared, with its one
+modern, vine-covered cottage, and its long stretches of low adobe
+structures--enough to form a village in themselves--and as dingily
+ancient as the other was freshly modern.
+
+In reality, these old adobes were remnants of a long-abandoned mission,
+but still in such excellent repair that they were utilized for the
+ranchman's quarters and for the business of the great estate. Antonio
+Bernal was the only one of all the employees who had his own rooms at
+"the house," as the cottage was called where the Trents themselves
+lived.
+
+From the kitchen of this attractive "house" now floated a delectable
+odor of well-cooked food, and with the reflection that he was always
+hungry nowadays, the visitor crossed to its open window; there came,
+also, a girlish voice, exclaiming:
+
+"Yes, mother, I'm sure he was a gentleman, though he didn't look
+well. I told him you weren't fond of strangers and had little time to
+give them, but that I thought you'd make him welcome. Indeed, there's
+nowhere else for him to go, since his horse is lame and we so far from
+everybody. He lost his trail, he said. Was I right?"
+
+Then his shadow fell across the sun-lighted floor and Jessica faced
+about. With a whisk of the saucepan, in which she was scrambling eggs,
+she added: "Well, right or wrong, here he is!" But she was talking to
+empty air, for her mother had disappeared.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+AN INTERRUPTED SUPPER
+
+
+The young ranchwoman placed her pan in safety and ran out upon that north
+porch, where the table was already spread, to meet the visitor.
+
+"Oh! I'm glad you've gotten here all safe. How did you do it? It's
+a long walk for those who aren't used to it. Even for those who are,
+too. Did you ride your horse? Was he better?"
+
+She rattled off her questions without waiting for replies and to give
+him time to recover his breath, which he seemed to have lost. Then she
+poured him a glass of milk and urged him to drink it, with the remark:
+
+"That's Blandina's own. She's the house-cow. You'll find it
+delicious. Don't you?"
+
+"It's fine milk," answered the other, cautiously; "but, if it isn't
+too much trouble, a bit of ice would improve it."
+
+"Ice? Why, where could I get ice? Sometimes, in the winter, a little
+forms along the arroyo, but now--I'm very sorry, indeed. I'd be so glad
+to get it if I could."
+
+Mr. Hale swallowed the sickeningly warm liquid with a gulp and hastened
+to apologize.
+
+"It wouldn't be good for me if you could. My compliments to your
+house-cow, and I'm very grateful for my refreshment. You have a
+beautiful home."
+
+"Haven't we? The prettiest in the world, I guess. My father thought
+so and my mother loves it. So do we all, but to her it is dearest.
+Because, you see, father and she have made it all it is. Please, just let
+me move your chair nearer the edge of the porch. So. Now, look away
+off to the east. Father said there could be no view more uplifting. He
+wished everybody who had to live in cities could see it. He knew it
+would make them better men."
+
+Magnificent though it was, Mr. Hale found his small hostess more
+interesting than the view.
+
+"Your father----" he began, questioningly.
+
+"Isn't here, now. He passed heavenward a year ago. Since then nothing
+seems just the same, and dear mother is often sad and troubled. You
+know she wants to carry on all father's experiments, she doesn't want
+his 'life work to be wasted,' she says, and Antonio isn't able to
+get as much money as he used to be. She tries so bravely not to let it
+fret her, and I don't see where she is. She was in the kitchen with
+me. We were getting dinner because Wun Lung, the cook, cut his hand,
+and Pasqual isn't to be trusted. Of course, he's a good enough boy, can
+make beds and such things, but--cook! One must be very dainty to do
+that. My mother can cook deliciously! She taught herself everything
+and the why of it. When she and father came here they lived in that
+tiny adobe away at the end of the second row. Do you see it? By the old
+corridor. Their table was a packing box and they had just a little
+camping outfit. Now there's all this."
+
+Jessica Trent's sweet face glowed with loving pride in her fair home,
+but this was as nothing of the tenderness which filled her eyes as they
+now caught sight of a tall woman in black coming over the garden path.
+
+"There she is, my mother!"
+
+Mr. Hale rose as the lady drew near and one glance showed him what
+model "Lady Jess" had chosen as a type of that "perfect" breeding
+to which the little maid aspired. The mistress of Sobrante was a
+real gentlewoman, even though her gown was of cheapest print and her
+surroundings those of an isolated western ranch. Her daughter ran to
+cast a clinging, yet protecting, arm about her, and proudly turning
+toward their guest, presented:
+
+"My mother, Mrs. Trent, Mr. ----" and smiling waited for him to finish
+the sentence.
+
+"Hale. I had forgotten to mention my name before, even though we have
+chatted so cosily. Permit me, madam."
+
+The card he offered bore the inscription:
+
+"Mr. Morris Hale, Attorney at Law, 156 Broadway, New York."
+
+Watchful Jessica saw her mother's face pale, while into her native
+cordiality of manner crept that slight hauteur with which she regarded
+the most objectionable of "tourists." This, then, was one such, and
+the girl was sorry. She had liked the stranger so much and was already
+planning pleasant entertainment for him; but if her dear did not approve
+of him her own opinion went for naught.
+
+Yet it was only the statement of the gentleman's business that had
+caused Mrs. Trent's momentary coldness, for at that time, though her
+daughter did not know this, the mere suggestion of law or lawyers
+disturbed her. But she was quick to feel the possible injustice of her
+fear and to atone for it by a deeper cordiality.
+
+"You have come just in time to share our dinner, Mr. Hale, and we'll
+not wait any longer for laggards. I was looking for the children. Jessie,
+dear, have you seen them?"
+
+"Not since breakfast, mother. But they can't be far away, for there's
+Scruff yonder, trying to get into the alfalfa."
+
+"Antonio hasn't come up, either, since the plucking. I wish he would
+while the food is fresh. If you'll----"
+
+"We needn't wait for him, because I met him riding toward the
+foothills, as I came home. He's probably off to the mines and that
+means an all-day's trip. But I'll help you dish up, and seek the
+boys, though they don't often need seeking at mealtime. You sit right
+down with Mr. Hale, dear, and I'll serve you. Pasqual can bring in the
+tureen, and I hope the eggs aren't spoiled by waiting."
+
+"Is Scruff that mottled burro poking his nose through that fence?"
+asked the guest.
+
+"Yes. He belongs to my little son, Ned, who shares him with his
+playmate, Luis. An inseparable trio, usually."
+
+"Then I'm the cause of their present separation. I rode that animal
+down from old Pedro's cabin and at his advice," Mr. Hale described
+his meeting with the two small lads, the fright they had given him,
+and his own desertion of them. "Though now I'm ashamed to recall how
+readily I consigned them to a tramp I was unwilling to take myself.
+I wish I'd brought them with me. We could have used Scruff's back,
+turn and turn about."
+
+"Oh how could they! One misstep and they'd have been killed."
+
+"What is it, mother?" asked Jessica, seeing the lady's hand shake so
+that she could scarcely serve the soup which formed the chief dish of
+their plain dinner.
+
+"Only another prank of those terrifying children. Bound themselves--or
+had help to bind--and rode Scruff bareback up the canyon! They're
+always 'playing Indian,' and I wish they'd never heard of one. It's
+that Ferd eggs them on. He 'dares' them and----Excuse me, Mr. Hale.
+Mothers are anxious people. Try some of Jessie's scramble, please. She
+is just learning to cook and likes to be appreciated."
+
+"But I didn't see them, as I went up or down. They must have taken the
+long road around by the north end. Where the old Digger village is,"
+observed Jessie.
+
+"A forbidden route. It's to be hoped they'll follow the shortest road
+home. If they're not here in an hour one of the men must go to fetch
+them."
+
+Jessica laughed and kissed her mother.
+
+"Don't you worry, dear, and do, please, eat your dinner. Aren't those
+children always having hairbreadth escapes, and are they ever hurt?
+Pedro'll send them down in a hurry. He knows his mistress and her
+ways, and wouldn't let her be troubled if he could help it. They'll get
+no dinner at Pedro's, and dinner is something they've never missed yet.
+Hark! Aren't going to miss now! Listen. They're fighting along home in
+their regular fashion. By the sound they've about got to prickly-pear
+hedge. _Hola!_ Ned! Lu-is! Oh! beg pardon. I forgot I was at table.
+Excuse me, mother, and I'll bring in the youngsters--after a deluge!"
+
+Already there was an uproar in the outer kitchen, where two tired and
+hungry little boys were assaulting the unoffending Pasqual, diligently
+scrubbing away at his pots and pans. Any victim will do, at a pinch, to
+vent one's wrath upon, and Pasqual was nearest. But he was not one to
+suffer patiently, and promptly returned the puny blows of his assailants
+with much more vigorous ones, till Jessica reached the spot, rescued
+the truants, and conducted them to the washbasin.
+
+From there, disdaining the towel, they made rapid transit to the porch
+and the presence of the stranger. All along their enforced walk home
+they had laid plans of vengeance, among which "tommyhawking" and
+"shootin' chock full o' arrers" were the wildest. But, alas! Now
+that their enemy was in their very power, they had no fiercer weapons
+than four grimy little fists. Better these than nothing, was Ned's
+instant decision, and Luis was but Ned's second thought. As Ned's
+right descended upon Mr. Hale's shoulders, Luis' left delivered a
+telling blow upon the gentleman's hand, uplifted toward his lips.
+This was small assistance to the yellow-haired chief, for the spoon
+fled straight from the victim's fingers and landed squarely in Ned's
+face.
+
+This created intense diversion. The blows intended for the guest were
+now bestowed upon each other, and so impartially that neither side was
+worsted. Mrs. Trent rose in her place, flushed and apologetic, though
+the stranger was far more surprised than offended, while the sister had
+once more appeared and terminated a battle almost before it was begun.
+With a strength of which she did not look capable she caught up and
+lifted a child into each of the two high chairs in waiting--but wisely
+placed at opposite sides of the board. There they settled themselves
+composedly, beaming and smiling upon each other like a pair of wingless
+cherubs, while Ned thrust forth a tin basin and demanded:
+
+"Give me my soup, mother."
+
+"Gimmesoup!" echoed Luis, choking over a piece of bread he had filched
+from Jessica's plate.
+
+"Children!"
+
+"Oh! Huh! Please give me my soup, mother."
+
+"Plea' gimmesoup, _madr'_."
+
+"Isn't your _madre_, Luis Garcia. Isn't nobody's mother but mine,
+so there!"
+
+"Humph!" remarked Jessica. "What about me?"
+
+This set Ned off into a giggle, in which Luis dutifully joined, and the
+laughter restored the best of feelings all around. The meal over, Mrs.
+Trent offered the guest the use of a room in which to rest, and this he
+gladly accepted; adding that he wished he might be able to make some
+arrangement with her by which he could occupy it indefinitely, till
+his health was restored and the business which had brought him to that
+region was completed. Any terms she would make would be most satisfactory
+to him, for he was charmed with Sobrante and most anxious to sojourn
+there for a time.
+
+Jessica was already clearing the table, yet watching her mother closely,
+and was surprised to see a moment's hesitation on the dear face before
+the expected and customary answer came:
+
+"We are always glad to make our friends welcome at Sobrante, and for
+as long as our simple life suits them, but we could not accept payment
+for our hospitality. I am glad you like our home, and Jessica will show
+you to the friend's room at once. Tell Pasqual, my dear, to attend Mr.
+Hale and see that he has all which he requires. All that may be supplied
+at this isolated spot, that is," she added, with a smile.
+
+Mr. Hale thanked his hostess and withdrew, but he felt that he had
+practically been dismissed from the ranch and that he had no past
+friendship to urge as a plea for any but the briefest visit there.
+
+Yet the cool chamber into which the traveler was shown proved so restful
+that the "forty winks only" which he intended were prolonged till
+sunset. Then he hastily descended to the lower floor to find that the
+early supper of the household was over; though Mrs. Trent had kept his
+own portion hot, and smilingly waved aside his apologies as she placed
+before him a dish of delicately broiled quail, prepared by her own
+skillful hands.
+
+"Why, this is a luxury! and to be expected only at some great hotel.
+By the way, where is the nearest one? I should have been on my way long
+ago."
+
+"I hope not. And you cannot well reach any hotel to-night. The nearest
+is thirty miles away, and for a long distance the road is a mere track
+across the plain. Even those who are used to it, would find it difficult
+to keep it on a moonless night, as this will be."
+
+"Oh! I'm so sorry."
+
+The hostess' face grew anxious. "Is it so important? I thought----"
+
+"Humph! That's another of my blunders. My regret is that I must force
+myself upon your hospitality after----"
+
+Mrs. Trent interrupted with a laugh.
+
+"I imagine we're talking at cross-purposes. While I cannot make any
+guest comfortable at Sobrante 'indefinitely,' as you proposed, I
+should be disappointed to have you leave us hurriedly, I'd like you to
+inspect the ranch, thoroughly, and that will require at least a week.
+Besides, since I've learned from your card that you are a lawyer, I
+would like to ask your advice. Of course, if you are willing to give it
+in a business way."
+
+"I shall be happy to serve you and more than happy to stay for the week
+you propose, I came----"
+
+But he did not finish his sentence. There rang through the quiet room the
+echoes of rifle shots, repeated singly and in volleys, and accompanied by
+shouts and shrieks, so fierce and unearthly that Mr. Hale sprang to his
+feet while his hand sought his own pistol pocket.
+
+"Horrible! In the midst of this peace--an Indian outbreak!"
+
+A curious thrill ran through his veins, as if his sixty years had
+suddenly turned backward to sixteen, and, with an answering cry, he
+leaped through the open window and rushed straight into the arms of a man
+who had already reached the porch and was making for the very room
+that the stranger had just quitted.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+COUNTER REVOLT
+
+
+The collision staggered both men and gave Mrs. Trent time to reach the
+side of her guest and to lay a restraining hand upon his arm. Her voice
+was tremulous with laughter as she explained:
+
+"It's only a rifle practice. The ranchmen and the children--all
+children in this sport--and always noisy. I'm sorry it disturbed
+you, but--Indians! How could you imagine it. Ah! Antonio, good-evening.
+Have you had supper?"
+
+"No, senora. I need it."
+
+"It is waiting. This visitor, Mr. Hale, Senor Antonio Bernal, the
+manager of Sobrante."
+
+The gentlemen bowed, one with the brevity of a busy man, the other with
+the profound salutation of his race. But they parted immediately, for
+the Easterner was anxious to witness the shooting and the superintendent
+to break his long fast; and with disgust at his own readiness to fancy
+danger where none existed, Mr. Hale followed the sound of the yells and
+cheers.
+
+"Hi! hi! for the little one! Hit him again, blue jacket!" shrieked
+Samson, as, steadying upon a tie-post the rifle he was too small to
+support, Ned sighted the bull's-eye of a distant target, took a careless
+aim, yet struck it squarely.
+
+Whereupon the strong ex-sailor thrust the weapon aside and tossed the
+lad in the air as if he had been a ball. Yet caught him as he lightly
+descended, and placed him astride his own shoulders.
+
+"Who'll beat the little master? Three times out o' seven, with an iron
+heavy as that, how's the showing for an eight-year-old?"
+
+But Ned slipped from the ranchman's back, picked up his own tiny,
+perfectly finished gun, and swung it over his head.
+
+"Huh! That's nothing! Huh! This the feller! Huh! Guess 'tis. Shot
+more'n forty-'leven quails this day 't ever was. Had 'em for my
+supper. Had 'em for the man broke his horse's leg and stole Scruff.
+Hello, Mister! Had your supper? Wasn't them good birds? I shot 'em
+for you. I did."
+
+"You?" demanded the gentleman, astonished. He had now joined the group
+surrounding the three children, and his presence caused a lull in the
+uproar which had preceded his arrival. "You! Why you aren't big enough
+to do such a thing."
+
+"I did! I did! I never told a lie in all my life--never, never, never!
+So, there!" and unable to endure such an imputation, the child rushed
+upon his traducer and pounded him well with the butt of his little rifle.
+
+"Ned! Edward Trent! Stop! You--a little gentleman--mother's son!"
+
+Jessica's arms were about her brother, restraining his movements and
+for a moment making him drop his head in shame. The next he had broken
+from her grasp, caught up another gun and dragged it toward her.
+
+"Your turn, Jess. Hurry up. There's just an inch of sun left--I mean
+there was a minute ago--hurry up! Me an' Luis's got to go to bed quick
+as a wink! Hurry--hurry!"
+
+"Hurry up!" echoed Luis, with a yawn, and dropping down where he stood,
+was instantly asleep.
+
+John Benton crossed to the visitor's side and remarked:
+
+"Now, I tell you, stranger, you'll see the sight of your life. If I was
+a betting man I'd back Our Lady Jess again' any other girl-shooter on
+the globe. You just watch out--if the dark holds off a spell."
+
+There were a dozen, maybe, of the ranchmen standing or lying around in
+a semi-circle, but now all quiet and intent upon the little girl, as,
+nodding and smiling upon her guest and her beloved "boys," she stepped
+into the open space before them all. "Forty-niner" March, unerring
+marksman and the children's instructor, took his place beside her,
+examined her rifle, handed it to her and also observed to the stranger:
+
+"Now, if nothin' happens, you'll see sunthin'. Sorry it's so dusk,
+but any gent what doubt's is free to walk up to the target and look
+where the ball strikes. You, lady, do me proud."
+
+"I'll try," said Jessica, simply. "Is it the little nail in the
+center?"
+
+"Just that."
+
+She sighted and fired; and a ranchman who had run forward to the target,
+shouted back across the darkening space:
+
+"Hit her plumb!"
+
+A roar of applause greeted this announcement, but the girl accepted this
+tribute with no comment save another nod and smile, as she waited her
+teacher's next direction.
+
+This was given silently by a gesture downward.
+
+Instantly Jessica dropped upon the ground, rested herself upon her
+elbows, aimed, fired, and--"Hit her again! Hooray for Our Lady!
+Hooray--hooray--hooray!"
+
+In his excitement big Samson seized Mr. Hale by the sleeve and compelled
+that gentleman to jog-trot across the open and view at closer range the
+wonderful skill of the little maid who was so dear to them all.
+
+"Stand aside, Psalm Singer. Your head's in the way!" cautioned
+somebody.
+
+Still clutching his companion, Samson obeyed, and they saw Jessica now
+lying upon her back, sighting upward and backward over her head a small,
+white object that had been placed in the target where the tack had been.
+There was no cheering then, nor any movement among the eager watchers
+who fairly held their breaths lest they disturb their darling in that
+supreme moment of her success or failure.
+
+"But she'll not fail!" thought more than one, and would have given
+a year's wages that she should not.
+
+There was a swift rush of something through the air, so close to Mr.
+Hale's nose that he visibly drew back, and a double report as the bullet
+hit the toy torpedo which had been the chosen mark.
+
+After that, pandemonium; or so it seemed to Mr. Hale. Those gray and
+grizzled men--for there were few young among them--shouted themselves
+hoarse and gave way to the wildest expressions of pride and delight. As
+for Jessica, the heroine, though her eyes sparkled and a flush rose to
+her cheeks, she was by far the calmest person present. Even Mr. Hale's
+heart was beating rapidly and he caught the girl's hands and shook
+them violently, in his congratulations.
+
+"That was marvelous! marvelous! I've seen pretty good sharp-shooting
+done by professionals, but never anything so fine as that last shot of
+yours. How could you ever learn it, so young as you are?"
+
+"How could I help learning? It is 'Forty-niner's' work, a deal more
+than mine. He's been teaching me ever since I could hold a tiny bow and
+arrow. He's wonderful, if you please; but I----Well, it seems just to
+do itself, somehow. But I must go in now. Time for the little ones to
+be in bed. Come, Ned. Come, Luis. Oh, dear! he's fast asleep."
+
+"I'll pack him for you, lady. And say, boys, isn't this the time?"
+
+Samson had lifted the sleeping Luis, tucked him under one arm and
+swung Ned to the other, but now paused to glance around among his
+fellow-workmen.
+
+"Time was 'moon-up,'" answered Joe, minded to be facetious.
+
+"This would be 'moon-up,' if the old girl knew her business,"
+retorted the sailor. "In ten minutes we'll be with you. Come, on,
+my lady. I've a word to say to you and the mistress."
+
+The daily evening sport was over and the ranchmen rapidly dispersed,
+each to his own quarters, and none considering it his especial business
+to entertain the stranger, who was now strolling slowly houseward
+mindful of the sudden chill which came with the nightfall and of his own
+unfitness for exposure.
+
+Proudest of all, "Forty-niner" gathered up the weapons and carried
+them off, to clean and put in order for the next evening's practice.
+He was well satisfied with his pupil's achievements, though already
+planning more difficult feats for their performance. The man was eighty;
+yet, while his abundant hair was white, his back was still straight
+and his step firm. The joy of his old age was the athletic training
+of the Sobrante children, and it would have amazed him, even broken
+his heart, had he been told that by such means he did not well earn his
+keep. He was eldest of all the elderly workmen that the late master
+of the ranch had gathered about him, and his appreciation of this good
+home in which to end his days perhaps, the greatest of all. It was,
+therefore, a terrible shock which awaited him, as entering his own
+room, he lighted his lamp and saw lying on his table a white envelope
+addressed to himself.
+
+He knew what it meant. Dismissal.
+
+One year before, when Cassius Trent died, there had been twenty employees
+where there were now but thirteen--he the "odd one" of the "baker's
+dozen." Seven times, when least expected or desired, some one of these
+twenty had found in his room just such an envelope, containing his
+arrears of wages, and the curt information that, "by the order of Mrs.
+Trent, his services were no longer required at Sobrante, nor would any
+wages be forthcoming from that day forward."
+
+These men had all been friends, rather than servants, and in each
+case the result had been the same. Cut to the heart by the manner of
+discharge, and, for the first time it may be, realizing that he was no
+longer young, and, therefore, valuable, the recipient of the envelope had
+quietly disappeared, saying farewell to nobody.
+
+"My turn! My turn, at last!" broke from the aged frontiersman's lips,
+and a groan followed. "Ten years I've lived in this old adobe cell till
+I've come to feel like the monk for whom it was first built. Now----"
+
+The white head drooped forward on the outstretched arms and all the
+burden of his eighty years seemed suddenly to have descended upon that
+bowed and shrunken figure.
+
+In the pretty dining-room Antonio Bernal had eaten a hearty supper
+served by his own mistress, since Wun Lung was not to be found and the
+house-boy, Pasqual, claimed his usual recreation hour at the rifle
+practice. But neither thought anything amiss in this, and the manager
+would, indeed, have asserted that it was quite the proper thing. Was
+not he a Bernal, and superior to all at Sobrante? Even though he was,
+for the time being, receiving wage instead of bestowing. Well, it was a
+long lane that had no turning.
+
+Pushing back from the table, Antonio had murmured the proverb in Spanish,
+with a smile of satisfaction lighting his dark face, and Mrs. Trent had
+failed to hear distinctly, though she was familiar enough with the
+language so often in use about her.
+
+"Beg pardon, I did not understand."
+
+"Begging pardon, one's self, senora, it is seldom that you do. It is
+the business was never made for the small brains of the women, no? 'Tis
+the senora's place to be beautiful and let the business rest in the
+capable hands of I, myself. _En verdad._"
+
+Mrs. Trent colored and bit her lip. This man's insolence was becoming
+insupportable, and she could scarcely recognize him for the obsequious
+fellow who had been her husband's right-hand dependence. His brief
+authority had turned his head, she reflected, and, again, that she must
+in no wise offend him. The welfare of her children demanded this, and
+forcing herself to smile as pleasantly as if his insult were a jest,
+she remarked:
+
+"The gentleman whom you met, as you came in, is a lawyer. A New York
+lawyer. I--I would like to consult him about our--this business you
+mention. I was born and reared in New York and have a feeling that
+anything which comes from there must be all right. Even a lawyer, though
+I'm not fond of the profession usually.
+
+"The senor is not wont to waste so many words upon her most humble
+servant, no. And as for the lawyers, have I not this day been to the
+consulting of the most eminent, the wisest of his kind, no? But yes; and
+the truth is, senora--believe me, it breaks my heart so to inform you,
+but this barren rancho of Sobrante belongs not to the Dona Gabriella and
+her children, but to one Antonio Bernal, even I, myself."
+
+"To you! Belongs--to--you?" gasped the astonished woman.
+
+The manager shrugged his shoulders and tossed another Spanish proverb
+toward her: "What I have said, I have said."
+
+Mrs. Trent felt her strength leaving her and sank into a chair, still
+gazing incredulously at the other, who now lounged back in his own
+chair and began to leisurely pick his teeth. It was a trivial action,
+but one wholly disgusting to the gentlewoman's fastidious sense, and
+it angered her, which was a good thing, for her anger banished her
+momentary faintness and gave her boldness to demand:
+
+"The proof!"
+
+"It will be forthcoming, senora, at the right time. Yes. Meanwhile, I
+am content you shall remain, you and your little ones, until--well, say a
+month. By that date all things should have been arranged and the senora
+will have found herself another home less lonely than Sobrante. One so
+beautiful as the Dona Gabriella must have hosts of friends who----"
+
+Senor Bernal paused. There were footsteps approaching, and the merry
+voices of children, and an instant later Samson was in the room,
+still carrying the little lads in his arms, and with Jessica clinging
+affectionately to his ragged sleeve.
+
+One glance showed the faithful ranchman that something was amiss. There
+was fresh sorrow, even consternation, in the beloved face of Sobrante's
+mistress, fresh insolence in that of her chief assistant. He was not one
+to hesitate when his friends were in trouble, and turned to Antonio
+with an angry demand:
+
+"What have you been worrying your betters with now, senor?"
+
+"Keep a civil tongue in your head, rascal."
+
+"Returnin' the compliment, if you please. All the same, don't you
+know that a man--_a man_--doesn't go around worrying women as you worry
+Mrs. Trent? You, that hadn't a shirt to your back when the boss took
+you in and made you what you are! I'm anticipatin' a mite, and I don't
+know just how some of the boys'll take it, but we'd laid out this
+very night at moon-up--if there'd been a moon sensible enough to get
+up, which there isn't--to haul you and a few other matters over the
+coals and stir up a fresh sort of blaze. Now, I warn you, just you let
+matters slide, peaceable, and you--just you, yourself, keep that civil
+tongue you recommend, or you'll light out of here so quick ye won't
+see your heels for dust, dry season though it is. Hear?"
+
+"Hear? Yes, I hear. Now, 'tis your turn. You go tell those malcontents
+you call 'the boys' to take their packs and foot it. Times have
+changed. Things have changed. There's another master here now, and
+not a weak-willed mistress. That is me--I--Antonio Bernal, owner of
+Sobrante rancho and all that appertains thereto. Now, go. Vamos. Depart.
+Clear out. Get!"
+
+Samson went--as far as the long, open window, and stepped out upon the
+porch. He did not see Mr. Hale, who had seated himself in a rocker,
+an unintentional witness of a scene he would gladly have missed, and
+putting a whistle to his lips blew a summons which was understood by
+every fellow-workman on the ranch. Then he quietly re-entered the house,
+folded his arms, and leaned carelessly against the door frame.
+
+Senor Bernal started up as if he would forcibly eject the herder, but
+thought better of this and sank back nonchalantly in his great chair.
+Jessica had placed herself behind her mother, and clasped Mrs. Trent's
+shoulders with the protecting tenderness habitual to her. Ned had sprung
+to his mother's lap and Luis continued his nap at her feet; while all
+seemed waiting for some fresh development of the affair.
+
+This came and speedily; for, in answer to Samson's whistle, there filed
+over the porch and into the room, Joe, the smith; Marty, the gardener;
+and Carpenter John. There was missing old "Forty-niner," commonly the
+dominant fifth of this odd quintet, but nobody wondered much at that.
+Doubtless he was polishing his darling's rifle and making ready for some
+astonishing display of her skill wherewith to dazzle the stranger upon
+the morrow. In any case he rarely disagreed with the opinions of his
+cronies and was sure to be one with them in the matter of that hour.
+
+With a respectful salute to Mrs. Trent, a grin toward the children, and
+a scowl for Antonio, these stalwart ranchmen lined up against the wall
+and stood at attention. Mr. Hale, observant through the doorway, again
+noticed that each of these was well along in years, that each had some
+slight physical infirmity, and that, despite these facts, each looked
+a man of unusual strength and most entire devotion. Indeed, the gaze
+fixed upon the little lady, was one of adoration, and the situation
+boded ill for anybody who meant harm to her.
+
+"Ahem. What say, mates? Has the hour struck?"
+
+"The hour has struck," answered John Benton, solemnly, shifting his
+weight from his lame leg to his sound one.
+
+Samson strode a mighty step forward and pulled his forelock.
+
+"Then I state, madam, that we here, on behalf of ourselves and our
+whole crew, now, and hereby do, throw off all 'legiance to that there
+Spanish skunk, a-settin' in your easiest chair, and appoint Our Lady
+Jess, captain of the good ship Sobrante. Allowin' you to be the admiral
+of that same, madam, but takin' no more orders from anybody save and
+excepting her--under you, of course--from this time forth, so help us."
+
+Then there burst from the trio of throats a cheer that shook the windows,
+and called a contemptuous laugh from the superintendent so valiantly
+defied.
+
+The cheer died in an ominous silence which Senor Bernal improved.
+
+"Highly dramatic and most edifying, _en verdad._ Senor, I kiss your
+hands in even greater devotion. But the play has one little drawback.
+To I, me, myself, belongs Sobrante. Already I have had the law of which
+you spoke. My claim I have proved. From the long back generations the
+good title from the Mission Padres to my own fathers, yes. Sobrante?
+_Si._ More and better. Wide lies the valley of Paraiso d'Oro. Mine,
+Mine. All--all mine. No?"
+
+He rose to his feet and pompously paced up and down the room, insolently
+handsome and proud of the fact, while out on the darkened porch Mr. Hale
+had heard a word which set his own pulses beating faster and the row of
+ranchmen started forward as if minded to throw the braggart out of the
+house.
+
+But Jessica stepped forth and cried, triumphantly, though still with an
+effort toward that courtesy she desired.
+
+"Beg pardon, Senor Antonio Bernal, but surely you are quite mistaken. My
+father taught me some things. He said I was not too young to learn
+them. He--he only--has the title deed to dear Sobrante, and I--I
+only--know the safe place where it is kept!"
+
+Antonio halted in his strutting march and for a moment his face grew
+pale. The next instant he had regained more than his former confidence,
+and with a sneering laugh, exclaimed:
+
+"Seeing is believing, no? To the satisfaction of the assembled most
+honorable company," here he bowed with mock politeness, "let this most
+interesting document be produced. _Si._"
+
+Jessica flew from the room and in an intolerable anxiety the whole
+"honorable company" awaited her long-delayed return.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+NIGHT VISIONS
+
+
+When the tension of waiting was becoming intolerable, and Mrs. Trent was
+already rising to seek her daughter, Jessica reappeared in the doorway.
+Her white face and frightened eyes told her story without words, but her
+mother forced herself to ask:
+
+"Did you find it, darling?"
+
+"Mother, it is gone!"
+
+"Gone!"
+
+"Gone. Yet it was only that dear, last day when he was with us, in the
+morning, before he set out for the mines, that he showed it to me, safe
+and sound in its place. He was to tell you, too, that night--but----"
+
+"It was that, then, which was on his mind, and I could not understand.
+I--Antonio Bernal, he entrusted you and you must know; where is that
+missing deed?"
+
+"Deed, senora? This day, just ended, is it not that I have been over
+all the records and there is none of any deed to Sobrante later than my
+own--or that proves my claim. In truth, the honorable Dona Gabriella is
+right, indeed. I was the trusted friend of the dead senor, and if any
+such precious document existed, would I not have known it? _Si._ What
+I do know is the worry, the trouble, the impossibility of such a paper
+broke the senor's heart. It does not exist. Sobrante is mine. He knew
+that this was so--I had often spoken----"
+
+The untruth he was about to utter did not pass his lips. There was
+that in the white face of Gabriella Trent which arrested his words,
+as, clasping her boy in her arms, she glided into the darkened hall
+and entered her own rooms beyond.
+
+The "boys" had not moved, nor Jessica followed, and she now firmly
+confronted the manager, saying:
+
+"I am sorry to tell you, Antonio Bernal, that you are not acting square.
+My father did have that title deed, and I believe you know it. Somebody
+has taken it from the place where his own hands put it, but I will find
+it. This home is ours, is all my mother's. Nobody shall ever take it
+from her. Nobody. You hear me say that, Senor Antonio Bernal, and you,
+dear 'boys?'"
+
+"Ay, ay," echoed her friends, heartily; but the superintendent regarded
+her as he might have done some amusing little insect.
+
+"Very pretty, senorita. The filial devotion, almost beautiful. But
+the facts--well, am I not merciful and generous, I? There is no haste.
+Indeed, no. A month----"
+
+"Before a month is out I will have found that deed and placed it in
+my darling mother's hands. I may be too young to understand the
+'business' you talk about so much, but I am not too young to save my
+mother's happiness. I can see that paper now, in my mind, and I
+remember exactly how it looked inside and out. It seemed such a little
+thing to be worth a whole, great ranch. I don't know how nor where,
+but somehow and somewhere, I shall find that paper. 'Boys,' will you
+help me?"
+
+"To the last drop of our hearts' blood!" cried John Benton, and the
+others echoed, "Ay, ay!"
+
+Antonio thought it time to end this scene and walked toward the porch, at
+the further end of which was another long window opening into his own
+apartments. But he was not permitted to leave so easily. Great Samson
+placed himself in the manager's path and remarked:
+
+"There's no call to lose sight of the main business 'count o' this
+little side-play of yours. We boys come up here to-night to quit your
+employ and hire out to Our Lady Jess. We're all agreed, every man jack
+of us. Your day's over. Account of Mrs. Trent and the kids, we'd
+like things done quiet and decent. There's a good horse of yours in
+the stable and though there isn't any moon, you know the roads well.
+If you tarry for breakfast, likely you won't have much appetite to
+eat it. More'n that, the senora, as you call her, has waited on your
+whelpship for just the last time. Before you start you might as well
+pay up some of our back wages, and hand over to the mistress the funds
+you've been keeping from her."
+
+"Insolent! Stand aside. How dare you? Let me pass."
+
+"I'm not quite through yet. There's no real call to have talk with
+such as you, but we 'boys' kind of resent being set down as plumb
+fools. We've seen through you, though we've kept our mouths shut. Now
+they're open; leastways, mine is. This here notion of yours about
+ownin' Sobrante is a bird of recent hatchin'. 'Tisn't full-fledged
+yet, and 's likely never to be. Your first idea was to run the ranch
+down till your mistress had to give it up out of sheer bad luck. Fail,
+mortgage, or such like. Oranges didn't sell for what they ought; olives
+wasn't worth shucks; some little varmint got to eating the raisin
+grapes; mine petered out; feathers growing poorer every plucking, though
+the birds are getting valuabler. Never had accounts quite ready--you,
+that was a master hand at figures when the boss took you in and made you,
+You----"
+
+Antonio strode forward, furious, and with uplifted hand.
+
+"You rascal! This to me--I, Antonio Bernal, descendant of--Master of
+Sobrante and Paraiso, I----"
+
+"Master? Humph! Owner? Fiddlesticks! Why, that little tacker there,
+asleep on the floor," pointing to Luis, "is likelier heir to this old
+ranch than you. The country's full of Garcias and always has been, Pedro
+says. Garcia himself, when all's told. As for Bernals, who ever heard
+of more'n one o' them? That's you, you skunk! Now, usin' your own
+fine, highfalutin' language: 'Go. _Vamos._ Depart. Clear out. _Get!_'"
+
+"I go--because it so suits me, I, myself. But I return. New servants
+will be with me and your quarters must be empty. Let me pass."
+
+"Certain. Anything to oblige. But don't count on them quarters. We
+couldn't leave them if we would 'cause we've all took root. Been
+growing so long; become indigenous to the soil, like the boss'
+experiments. Thrive so well might have been born here and certainly
+mean to die on the spot. Going? Well, good-night. Call again. _Adios._"
+
+By this time Jessica was laughing, as her old friend had meant she should
+be. In his contemptuous harangue of the man he disliked and mistrusted,
+there had been more humor than anger.
+
+"Well, my lady, that did me good. Haven't had such a thorough
+housecleaning of my mean thoughts in quite a spell. Feel all ready for
+a fresh voyage under the new captain. You rest run along and find that
+long sufferin' mother of yours and tell her the coast's clear of that
+pirate craft. We've all shipped men-o'-war, now, and run up the
+old flag of truth and love. That was the banner your father floated
+from his masthead, and the colors that'll never dip to lying or
+cheating. Wait. I'll pack this baby Luis to his bed. Poor little
+castaway, that your good father picked up in the canyon and fetched
+home in his arms, to share the best with his own. Well, needn't
+tell me that the family of a man as good as he was'll ever come to
+want. Heave ahead, captain. Show me the track to sail."
+
+Jessica stopped to bid the other ranchmen good-night, then led the sailor
+to the little bedroom which the lads shared in common, and where Ned
+was already asleep, tucked in his white cot by his mother, who let no
+personal grief interfere with her care for others.
+
+"Good-night, dear Samson. I must find that paper. You must help me. My
+mother must not, shall not, lose her home."
+
+"Never. Good-night, captain. You've a good crew on deck and we'll make
+happy haven yet."
+
+That was Jessica Trent's first wakeful night. Though she tried to lie
+quietly in her own little bed, lest she should disturb her mother whose
+room she shared, she fancied all sorts of strange sounds, both in-doors
+and out; and whenever she dropped into a doze, dreamed of the missing
+paper and of searching for it.
+
+One dream was so vivid that she woke, exclaiming:
+
+"Oh, mother! I've found it. The black tin box under the three sharp
+rocks!"
+
+But her eyes opened upon vacancy, and there was no response from the
+larger bed where her anxious parent had, at last, fallen asleep. Yet the
+vision remained, painted upon the darkness, as it were, a sun-lighted
+glowing spot, with three pyramidal rocks and a clump of scraggly live
+oaks. A spot she had never seen, indeed, but felt that she should
+instantly recognize, should she come upon it anywhere.
+
+Then she curled back upon her pillows and again shut her eyes.
+
+Could it be possible that she, a healthy little girl, was growing
+fidgety, like Aunt Sally Benton, who sometimes came to visit her son and
+help with the sewing? For she surely was hearing things. Movements,
+hushed footfalls, softly closing doors, creaking floors, at an hour when
+all the household should be at rest.
+
+"How silly! It may be somebody is ill! Wun Lung's hand may hurt him,
+though it seemed so nearly well, and nobody else would have minded it.
+That stranger! Yes, I fancy it's he. He may need something that I can
+get him, and I'll go inquire."
+
+Slipping a little wrapper over her gown, but in her bare feet, the girl
+noiselessly left the room and followed the sound she had heard. These
+led her to a small apartment which her father had used as an office and
+where stood the desk in whose secret drawer she had expected to find
+the title deed. A small fireproof safe was in this office. It was an
+old-fashioned affair, with a simple, but heavy key, which the Sobrante
+children had played with in their infancy. She remembered her father
+remarking, with a laugh, that a safe was the most useless thing he
+possessed, for he never had anything worth putting in it; but it had
+been a belonging of old "Forty-niner" Marsh, a gift to his employer,
+and therefore accorded a place of honor.
+
+Before this safe now bent a man whom Jessica recognized with surprise
+and relief.
+
+"Why, Mr. Marsh! Is it you? What in the world are you doing here at this
+hour? Are you ill? Do you want something?"
+
+"No, dearie. I'm not ill; and I'm not robbing you. And I've got all
+I want. That's one more look at your bonny face, God bless it!"
+
+It was close to his shoulder now, that face he loved, and he kissed it
+tenderly; though with equal tenderness, if less emotion, the little maid
+returned his caress and clasped his neck with those strong, young arms
+that so yearned to protect and comfort everybody.
+
+"That's funny. Should think you'd be tired of it, sometimes, I
+disappoint you so. But never mind. I'm getting handier with my new
+rifle every day, I think, and I mean to do yet what Samson claims I
+should--just beat the world. Have you finished looking at your things?"
+For it was Mr. Marsh himself who had always used the safe, even after
+giving it away. "Can't I get you something to eat, so you can sleep
+better?"
+
+"No, dearie, no, just one more good kiss--to remember. Good-by. Good-by.
+It--it might have been done kinder, maybe, but--her heart is sad, I know,
+and her first thought is for you. She must save for you. Here, Lady,
+take the key. Some time you--you might want to look in that safe for
+yourself. Good-night."
+
+Jessica went with him to the outer door, wondering much at this
+oddly-timed visit. Yet the ranchman walked erect, still carrying his
+lighted candle quite openly, as one who had done nothing of which to be
+ashamed; and when he had departed the girl returned to her own bed
+still more wakeful because of this queer incident.
+
+Ten minutes later, it may have been, she heard the limping footfall of
+a slowly-moving horse, the echoes growing fainter continually.
+
+Again she sat up and listened.
+
+"That's Mr. Marsh's 'Stiffleg!' What should send him off riding now?
+Oh! I do wish mother was awake, things seem so queer. Yet I don't really
+wish it. She has so many wakeful nights and just this one is more than
+I want. Now, Jessica Trent, don't be foolish any longer. Go straight to
+sleep or you'll be late in the morning."
+
+Nature acted upon this good advice, and Our Lady knew no more till a pair
+of chubby hands were pulling her curls and Ned's voice was screeching in
+her ear:
+
+"Wake up, Jessie Trent. We had our breakfast hours ago, and the 'boys'
+is all out-doors, can't go to work 'ithout their captain. That's _me_,
+Jessie Trent, 'cause I'm the 'heir.' Samson said so."
+
+"I's the heir, Samson said so!" echoed Luis from the floor where
+he was trying the fit of Jessica's new "buckskins"--the comfortable
+moccasin-like footgear which Pedro made for her--upon his own stubby toes.
+
+"He, he! What's the heir Samson said? You're a stupid, Luis Garcia."
+
+"Stupid Garcia!" laughed the little mimic, not in the least offended.
+
+"Well, run away then, laddies, and I'll be ready in a jiffy. Poor
+mother. To think that I should have left her to do so much alone."
+
+As she threw open the sash of the rear window, Jessica started back,
+surprised; for there, reined close to the porch, was Nero's black form,
+with the dark face of his master bending low over the saddle.
+
+"Good-morning, senorita, and good fortune. Those who hid may find. I
+kiss your hand in farewell, and may it rule in peace till I return, I
+myself, the master. One month hence I come, bringing my servants with
+me. _Adios._ Ah! but what did you and the old sharpshooter at the office
+safe at midnight? _When the senora would seek her title, seek him._ It
+is farewell."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+CAPTAIN JESS
+
+
+Jessica drew back, repelled. Why did that man make her so unhappy
+whenever she saw him nowadays? What did he mean by that speech about
+old Ephraim Marsh and the safe? Well, he was gone, riding swiftly away
+and lightening her trouble with every rod of ground he put between them.
+
+"He'll not come for a month, he said, and by that time everything
+will be straight. If Sobrante is ours it cannot possibly be his. That's
+simple. Though he might have lived here always if he'd wished. The
+title paper has been mislaid. That's all. I'm sure to find it when
+I have time to look thoroughly, and how different things do seem by
+daylight. Now, to say good-morning to the 'boys,' dear fellows, and
+then for breakfast. I'm as hungry as on ostrich."
+
+Though since sunrise each had been busy about his accustomed duties,
+neglecting nothing because of the change in command, it suited the ideas
+of these faithful ranchmen to report for duty to their newly appointed
+"captain" and to ask for orders from her. With the ready intuition of
+childhood she fell in with their mood at once and received them in a
+manner which robbed the affair of burlesque and invested it with dignity.
+
+From a shaded corner of the porch, from behind his book, Mr. Hale
+watched the scene with an amusement that soon gave place to wonder and
+admiration. They were all profoundly in earnest. The fair young girl with
+folded arms and serene composure, poised at the head of the steps and
+the group of sunburned workmen standing respectfully before her.
+
+By tacit consent Samson was spokesman for the company and his words had
+their usual nautical tinge.
+
+"We're ready to set sail, captain, and here's wishing good luck to
+the v'yge! Old 'Forty-niner' hasn't showed up on deck yet, but
+he'll likely soon heave to, and the rest the crew'll vouch for his
+being a good hand in any sort o' storm we're apt to strike. We've
+overhauled this chart. Each of us solemnly promise to abide and obey no
+orders but yours, captain, or the admiral's through you. And would
+respectfully suggest--each man sticks to the post he's always filled,
+till ordered off it by his superior officer. Right, mates?"
+
+"Ay, ay."
+
+"How's that suit you, commodore?"
+
+"That suits me, Samson. It will suit my mother."
+
+"As for pay--being as we've got along without any these five months
+back, and Senor Top-Lofty's rode off, forgettin' to leave them arrears
+we mentioned, we wash the slate clean and start all over again. For five
+months to come we'll serve you and the admiral for mess and berth, no
+more, no less."
+
+"Samson, do you mean that? Haven't you boys been paid your wages
+regularly, just as in my father's time?"
+
+"Come, now, captain, that's all right. Give us the word of dismissal
+and let that slide. You missed your own mess this morning----"
+
+"But that will break my mother's heart. I know! I know! I've often
+heard her ask him, and Antonio tell her--he said that your wages were
+always taken out before he brought what little money he could to her.
+I know you said something about 'arrears' last night, but I didn't
+understand. What are 'arrears,' Samson?"
+
+"Blow me, for an old numskull. Why couldn't I keep my long tongue
+still! I only meant that we are willing, we want, we must work for you
+and all the Trents for nothing till we've made up part to 'em of what
+that sweet 'senor' cheated 'em of. That's all. We've settled it.
+No use for anybody to try change our minds, even if there was spot cash
+lying around loose, waiting to be picked up and you havin' no call for
+it. Not one of which conditions hits the case."
+
+"You are a good talker, dear old Samson, and a long one. I can talk,
+too, sometimes. Maybe you've heard me! You've read me your chart. Hear
+mine. It's my father's own--that he always meant, but was never able
+to follow. That I know my mother wants to follow for his sake, though
+she does know so little of business. Now, if we're starting fresh,
+with the clean slates you like, we'll put this at the top: 'share and
+share alike.' There was another long name dear father used to call
+it--I----"
+
+"Co-operation," suggested John Benton.
+
+"Yes, yes. That's it. As soon as he was out of debt and had a right
+to do what he would with Sobrante, he meant to run it that way. But you
+know, you know. It was only that last day when he came home so late from
+that far-off town that he had his own 'title' and was all ready to do
+as he wished. Let us do that now. I know how. He told me. He was to make
+you, Samson, responsible for all the cattle on the ranch. You were to
+hire as many of the other boys as you needed and were to have a just
+share for your own money. The more you made out of the cattle the better
+it would be for yourself. Isn't that right?"
+
+"Right to a dot. Atlantic! but you've a head for business, captain!"
+
+"I've a head must learn business, if I'm to be your captain. That is
+true enough. It isn't my father's fault if I don't know some simple
+things. He was always teaching me, because Ned was too little and my
+mother--well, business always worried her and he'd do anything to save
+her worry, even talk to a little girl like me. And as Samson was to do
+with the cattle, so George Cromarty was to do with the raisins and
+oranges. The ostriches--Oh! but they were to be Antonio's charge. And
+now----"
+
+"They're yours, captain, with any one or lot of us you choose for
+helpers."
+
+"Ferd knew much about them, and they minded him. But----"
+
+"Ferd'll trouble Sobrante none while the senor is away. Joe is a
+good hand at all live stock, and I'll pledge you'll get every feather
+that's plucked when he does the counting. He won't let any eggs get
+cooked in hatchin', neither. You can trust Joseph--if you watch him a
+mite."
+
+A laugh at honest Joe's expense, in which he heartily joined, followed
+this and Lady Jess stepped down among her friends, holding out her
+hands to first one, then another. Her blue eyes were filled with happy
+moisture, for she was not too young to feel their devotion to be as
+unselfish as it was sincere, and her smile was full of confidence in them
+and in herself.
+
+"Eleven years old is pretty early to be a captain, I guess, but I'll
+be a good one--just as good and true as you are! What I don't know
+you'll teach me, and if I make mistakes you'll be patient, I know.
+One thing I can do, I can copy bills and papers. I can put down figures
+and add them up. It was good practice for me, my father said. So I'll
+put down your names and all your business in these new books he bought
+and was going to use in his co--co-operation--is that right, John?"
+
+"Right as a trivet."
+
+"And our admiral, that's the dear mother, will not have to fret so any
+longer. Between us we'll make Sobrante all my father meant it should
+be and--as soon as I have my breakfast--I will find that title. I must
+find it. I will. Sobrante is yours and ours forever. Oh, boys, I love
+you! I'm all choked up--I love you so and I feel like that my father
+used to read in Dickens: 'God bless you every one!'"
+
+With her hands clasped close against her breast, and her beloved face
+luminous with her deep affection, their little maid stood before her
+hardy henchmen, a symbol to them of all that was best and purest in
+life. Their own eyes were moist, and even Mr. Hale had to take off
+his glasses and wipe them as, looking around upon his comrades, great
+Samson swung his hat and cried:
+
+"And may God bless Our Lady Jess! And may every man who seeks to injure
+her be--stricken with numb palsy! And may every crop be doubled, prices
+likewise! Peace, prosperity and happiness to Sobrante--destruction to
+her enemies!"
+
+"Forgiveness for her enemies, Samson, dear, if there really are. That
+will be nobler, more like father's rule. Make it peace, prosperity and
+happiness to all the world! Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!"
+
+Mr. Hale clapped his hands to his ears, then hastily moved forward and
+joined in the cheer, that was deafening enough to have come from many
+more throats than uttered it. Yet he had an uncomfortable feeling that
+he might be classed among those "enemies" whom Samson wished afflicted
+with numb palsy and that, at that moment, he was, by no fault of his
+own, playing a double part.
+
+But he gave himself the benefit of the doubt until he should learn, as
+he meant to do at once, the whole history of Sobrante with its strange
+hodge-podge of industries, its veteran employees, and its childish
+"captain." So, while the ranchmen dispersed to their business and
+Jessica sought her long-delayed breakfast, he turned towards the kitchen
+where he hoped to find the mistress of the ranch.
+
+But he was disappointed. There was visible only the broad,
+purple-covered back and black pig-tail of a Chinaman, pounding away
+at the snowy loaves of his kneading-board, as if they were "enemies"
+of his own and deserving something much worse than "numb palsy."
+
+"Wun Lung!"
+
+No answer, save the whack, whack, whack of the tormented dough.
+
+"Ahem. I say, John!"
+
+Whack, whack.
+
+"Wun Lung, where's your mistress?"
+
+"Dlaily."
+
+"Indeed? I fancy your hand is better. I'm glad of it. That bread
+ought to be fine. At your leisure, kindly point the direction of the
+'dlaily,' will you?"
+
+One yellow, floury hand was lifted and extended eastward, but as this
+signified nothing definite to the stranger he continued his inquiries.
+
+"Where's Pasqual?"
+
+"Sclub."
+
+"And the little boys?"
+
+"Alle glone."
+
+"I congratulate you on your English, though I'm uncertainly whether
+you mean me to 'go on' or assert that somebody else has gone on. I
+don't like to disturb Miss Jessica at breakfast, but----"
+
+"Back polchee," suggested Wun Lung, anxious to be rid of the intruder,
+whose irony he suspected if he did not understand.
+
+Mr. Hale betook himself around the house, and, fortunately, in the right
+direction; for just issuing from her dairy, which was in a cellar under
+the cottage, was Mrs. Trent, bearing a wooden bowl of freshly made butter.
+
+The guest's heart smote him as he saw her sad face brighten at meeting
+him, for he knew she trusted him for help he was in duty bound to give
+elsewhere. But it was not a lawyer's habit to anticipate evil, and he
+was thankful for her suggestion.
+
+"You should have a ride this fine morning, Mr. Hale, before the sun is
+too high. I've ordered a horse brought round for you at nine o'clock,
+and Jessica shall act your guide, on Scruff. That is--if the laddies
+haven't already disappeared with him. Ah! here comes my girl, herself.
+You are to show our friend as much of Sobrante as he cares to see, in
+one morning, daughter. If the children have ridden the burro off you may
+have Buster saddled."
+
+"Shan't you need me, mother? One of the men----"
+
+"No, dear. Wun Lung is at his post again and Pasqual will do the milk
+and things. But as you go, I'd like you to take this butter to John's.
+It's the weekly portion for the men, who mess for themselves," she
+explained to the stranger.
+
+"Lucky men to fare on such golden balls as those!"
+
+"Come and see my dairy. I'm very proud of it. You know, I suppose,
+that cellars are rarities in California. Everything is built above
+ground, in ordinary homes; but I needed a cooler place for the milk, and
+my husband had this planned for me. See the water, our greatest luxury;
+piped from an artesian well to the tank above, and then down through
+these cooling pipes around the shelves. After such use supplying the
+garden, for whatever else may be wasted here it is never a drop of
+water. Will you taste the buttermilk? I can't give you ice, but we
+cool it in earthen crocks sunk in the floor."
+
+More and more did the lawyer's admiration for his hostess increase.
+She displayed the prosaic details of her dairy with the same ease and
+pride with which she would have exhibited the choicest bric-a-brac of a
+sumptuous drawing-room, and her manner impelled him to an interest in
+the place which he would have found impossible under other circumstances.
+But above all he wondered at the unselfishness with which she set aside
+her own anxieties and gave herself wholly to the entertainment of her
+guest.
+
+"The loss of that title deed means ruin for her and her family--even
+if I were not also compelled to bring distress upon her. But she does
+not whine nor complain, and that's going to make my task all the harder.
+Well, first to see this ranch, and then--I wish I'd never come upon
+this business! Better suffer nervous dyspepsia all the rest of my life
+than break such a woman's heart. Her husband may have been a scamp of
+the first water, but she's a lady and a Christian. So is that beautiful
+little girl, and it's from her I mean to get all my needed information."
+
+Absorbed in thoughts that were far from pleasant, the gentleman
+walked beside Mrs. Trent to the horseblock, and mounted the horse
+which a gray-haired stable "boy" was holding for him, all without
+rousing from the preoccupation that held him. It was not till he heard
+Jessica's excited call coming over the space between the cottage and the
+"quarters" that he realized where he was and looked up, expectant.
+
+The little girl who had left them for a few moments, was galloping toward
+them on the back of a rough-coated broncho, waving a paper in her hand
+and with distressed indignation, crying out as she came:
+
+"'Forty-niner' has gone. Dear old 'Forty-niner!' I found this
+letter in his room and it's forever--forever! Oh, mother! And he says
+_you_ discharged him--or it means that--without show of chance! Mother,
+mother, how could you? That dear old man that everybody loved!"
+
+"Discharged him--I? I should as soon have thought of discharging myself!
+What fresh distress is this?"
+
+Catching the paper from Jessica's hand Mrs. Trent read it, then turned
+and without a word walked slowly into the house. But her head was giddy
+and her limbs trembled, and she had a strange feeling as if she were
+being swiftly inclosed in a net from which she could not escape.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+IN THE MINER'S CABIN
+
+
+"Forgive me, mother! I oughtn't to have told it that way. But what does
+it mean? Why should you want him to go?"
+
+"Did you not hear me say I would not have dismissed him? No, dear.
+There is something in this I don't understand. How do we know but that
+all the other 'boys' who left so suddenly have been deceived in just
+this way? As long as there was food enough to eat and a roof to shelter
+them the men whom your father befriended and who, in turn have befriended
+us, were as welcome to Sobrante as my own children. I must think this
+over. We must then find Ephraim and bring him back. We must. There!
+We'll not discuss it any more at present. You are keeping Mr. Hale
+waiting and that is rudeness. Go, now, and explain all your father's
+plans to him, as you ride."
+
+"I'd so much rather stay with you. I don't like to leave you now."
+
+"I shall be busy and you'll be back for dinner."
+
+"I'd like to look for that paper--the title."
+
+"When you come back."
+
+"Good-by, then, and don't do any hard work. I'll send the children up
+to stay around the house. That will be one worry off your mind."
+
+When she had again sprung into her saddle, Lady Jess apologized for
+keeping Mr. Hale so long, and suggested:
+
+"Suppose we ride first to the mines, while it is coolest. Then come
+around by the olive and orange orchards. We can rest at the lemon house
+awhile. It's interesting to see how they are cared for, or so most
+strangers think."
+
+"Anything and anywhere suits me, for I'm full of curiosity about
+Sobrante. How did your father happen to take up so many different lines
+of industry?"
+
+"Oh, they were all his 'experiments.' You see he wanted to do good
+to some sorts of people that nobody else seemed much interested in.
+Men that were getting old and were not rich or well. He was born in
+California, and he always thought it the land where everybody could
+find a place if he only had a chance. He went to New York and lived a
+long time, and he and mother were married there. He'd once ridden over
+this valley, on a horseback trip--just like yours, maybe--and after that
+he always meant to buy it if he could. So, when he began to lose his
+own health he came right away. He hadn't much money himself, but he
+worked and mother helped, and he'd paid for it all before he died. It
+was the title deed which proved it, that he had just brought home and
+I could not find last night. Though, of course, I shall find it yet,"
+she added confidently.
+
+"I hope so, my child. I devotedly hope so. Yet if it was duly recorded
+the matter should easily be set right."
+
+Jessica's face fell.
+
+"I don't believe it was. He said something about that, I didn't
+understand it quite, but I know he said 'recorded' and that he meant to
+have it done the next time he went to Los Angeles. But--he didn't
+ever go."
+
+The lawyer's face grew still more serious. Something of the love with
+which she inspired everybody was already in his heart for this little
+maid, and thoughts of his own young daughters, threatened with the
+misfortune which menaced her, stirred him to fresh regret for the mission
+he had undertaken.
+
+They had now turned their horses' heads toward the foothills on the
+north and he asked:
+
+"What are these 'mines' of which you speak?"
+
+"For coal. It was an old man from Pennsylvania first thought there
+might be such stuff in the mountains near, and it's worth so much here.
+Father had found him in one of the towns, with his wife and sick son.
+They'd spent all they had, to come West to try to cure the son, and
+were very poor. So, of course, father brought them to Sobrante, and the
+boy got better at once. They didn't understand any sort of work except
+mining, and old Wolfgang couldn't rest without trying to do something
+back for father. So he and Otto dug and picked around till they found a
+'vein' and then they put up a little cabin near and there they live.
+Their name is Winkler, and Elsa, the mother, is the quaintest little
+Dutchwoman. Of course, there's never been money enough to work the
+mine right. All they can do is to get out enough coal for us to use.
+That's why we always have such lovely grate fires in the winter time,
+that make the house so cosy. You'll like the Winklers, and you'll
+like Elsa's coffee. Go there what time of day you will she always
+makes you drink some, sweetened with the wild honey she gets in the hills
+and with her goat's milk in it."
+
+Mr. Hale made a wry face.
+
+"Oh! you're sure to like it. It is delicious, drank with a slice of
+her hard, sweetened bread. And their little cabin is as clean as can
+be. Elsa is a great knitter. She has knitted covers for everything, her
+beds, chairs, table, everything. All the furniture is made out of wood
+they found in the hills, and when they're not mining Otto carves it
+beautifully."
+
+"Are all the people who work for you unfortunate? I mean, was some
+misfortune that which made your father engage them?"
+
+"Yes, just that. They are his 'experiments.' He said this valley was
+made for every sort of work there was to be done. All men can't be the
+same thing, and every man was happiest at his own trade. Young men can
+get work anywhere, but dear Sobrante is a Home with a capital H, for
+anybody who needs one. My father said the more he trusted people the less
+they ever disappointed him. He'd proved his plan was right on his own
+single ranch and he was trying to make others do the same on theirs.
+Paraiso d'Oro--oh! you're from that same New York. Do you know a--a
+Mr. Syndicate, I think he was, who owns Paraiso. Of course, I know in
+such a big city you might not, though maybe----"
+
+The listener started, then looked keenly into the innocent face bending
+toward him from the broncho's back.
+
+"Suppose I do know a syndicate--a company--not an individual, which is
+interested in Paraiso? Can you tell me anything about such a place? Until
+last night I had no idea that I had come anywhere near to it, and then
+by accident, hearing Antonio Bernal mention it as his. Is it hereabouts?"
+
+Jessica turned her horse about in a circle, rapidly swinging her pointing
+arm to indicate every direction of the compass.
+
+"Know it? It is there, and there, and there--everywhere. The very
+richest tract of land in all the country, my father believed. Sobrante
+is the heart of it, he said, but the rest of the valley is even better
+than Sobrante. It is so big one can hardly believe. He said there was
+room in it, and a little ranch apiece, for every poor down-trodden
+man--not bad men, but poor gentlemen, like worn-out lawyers and doctors
+and--and nice folks--and make a new home in which to live at peace.
+He said there were plenty of people always ready to help the very poor
+and ignorant, but nobody so willing to help gentlefolks without money.
+That's why he asked a lot of rich people he used to know in New York
+to buy Paraiso. He gave it its name, himself, and he believed that
+there might be really gold somewhere in it. There's everything else,
+you see. But it was a name of 'syndicate' he talked about most and
+was most grieved by because the money to buy it had not been sent as it
+had been promised."
+
+"Poor child!"
+
+"Beg pardon?"
+
+"It was nothing. I was thinking. So this 'Mr. Syndicate' never sent
+the money your father hoped for?"
+
+"No. It was a great disappointment. Antonio had charge of all the
+letters, only he; so there could have been nobody careless enough to
+lose them had any come. Father left all the writing to Antonio, for he
+was nearly blind, you know. That's how he came to get hurt. He could
+not see and his horse stepped over the ledge and somebody brought him
+home that way. Poor mother!"
+
+"Poor mother, indeed!" echoed Mr. Hale, with something like a groan.
+
+"Thank you for caring about it," said Jessica, quickly touched by
+his ready sympathy. "But she says her life now must be to carry on all
+father's work, and I shall help her. In that way it will be always as if
+he were still with us. Oh! see! That's Stiffleg's track! Ephraim Marsh
+has passed this way! Maybe I shall find him at the Winklers' cabin!
+Would you mind hurrying, just a little bit?"
+
+"I'll do my best, little lady. But I'm a wretched horseman, I fear."
+
+"Oh! you'll learn. If you would only let yourself be easy and
+comfortable. But, beg pardon, you do it this way--so stiff, with
+your hands all clinched. Your horse feels that something's wrong, and
+that's why he fidgets so. You should get Samson to show you how.
+He's a magnificent rider. I'll coax him to do some tricks for you,
+to-night, when we get through supper. I'm off. Just drop all care and
+let the horse do the work and--catch me if you can."
+
+As they approached the foothills they had dropped into a little hollow
+where the sandy ground was moist and retained an impression distinctly,
+and it was thus that Jessica's keen eyes discovered the peculiar
+footprints of "Forty-niner's" halting steed. But she quickly forgot
+these in the interest of the race she had started and was now bent
+upon nothing save beating Mr. Hale at the goal, the miner's cabin.
+
+"He has by far the better horse. He ought to win, but he shall not--he
+can't. He mustn't! Go, Buster! A taste of Elsa's honey if you get
+there first!"
+
+Bending forward the girl rested her cheek against the broncho's neck
+and, as if the touch fired him with new ambition, he shot forward so
+swiftly that the question of winning was soon settled. However, Mr.
+Hale's own pride was touched, and he put to the test the advice just
+given him, and with such good results that he, too, soon came in sight
+of a small house at the end of the trail, a dark hole in the mountain
+side, and a group of people eagerly surrounding his little guide.
+
+Indeed, Elsa had already drawn the child upon her capacious lap, and was
+tenderly smoothing the tumbled curls with her hard hand, while she asked
+endless questions, yet waited for no answers.
+
+Till, suddenly remembering, Lady Jess demanded:
+
+"But have you seen our Ephraim? Is he here? Has he been here?"
+
+Elsa's fat form grew quite rigid and her hand ceased its caressing
+stroke. Not for her to betray the confidence of one who had taken refuge
+with her.
+
+"Why ask that? What if he has and is? Is he not the old man, already?
+Even here there is no room for the old. When one is fifty one should die.
+That would be wisdom."
+
+"Elsa Winkler, nonsense! That's not polite for me to say, but it's
+true. You're fifty, yourself, I guess, and you don't want to die, do
+you?"
+
+Elsa shivered slightly. "When the right time comes and the usefulness
+is past. As the Lord wills."
+
+Jessica laughed and kissed the woman's cheek, then sprang to the ground,
+demanding:
+
+"Where is he? For he's mine, you know. He belongs to Sobrante just
+as much the sunshine does. If he'd loved us as we love him he'd not
+have ridden away in the night time just because of one little bit o'
+note. Wherever you've hidden him you must find him for me, and he's to
+go straight away back with me. With us, I mean, for here comes a--a
+friend of ours; I guess he is. Any way he's a guest and you must make
+him a cup of your very best coffee, and Otto must show him his carved
+clock that he is making. He's a pleasant gentleman, and so interested
+in everything, it's fun to tell him things. In that New York, where
+he came from, they don't have much of anything nice. No ostriches,
+nor mines, nor orange groves. Fancy! and he doesn't know--he's only
+just learning to ride a horse!"
+
+As Mr. Hale now approached, this description ceased and Jessica presented
+him to her mountain friends:
+
+"This is dear Elsa Winkler, and 'her man,' Wolfgang. And
+Otto--where's Otto gone? He needn't be shy. Mr. Hale would like to
+see the carvings and the knittings, and maybe, go down the shaft.
+But first of all, he'd like the coffee, Elsa, dear."
+
+The portly Dutchwoman, whose needles could click as fast as her tongue,
+now thrust the stocking, at which she had resumed working the moment
+Jessica left her lap, into her apron pocket and waddled inside the cabin.
+Already she was beaming with hospitality and calling in harsh chiding to
+the invisible Otto:
+
+"You bad little boy, where are you at already? Come by, soon's-ever,
+and lay the dishes. Here's company come to the house and nobody but the
+old mother got a grain of sense left to mind them. Wolfgang! Wolfgang!
+Hunt the child and set him drawing a tether o' milk from Gretchen, the
+goat. Ach! but it shames my good heart when my folks act so foolish, and
+the Lady Jess just giving the orders so sweet."
+
+Wolfgang heard his wife's commands and obeyed them after his own manner,
+by lifting his mighty voice and shouting in his native _patois_--"Little
+heart! Son of my love! Come, come hither."
+
+But he did not, for all that, cease from his respectful attention to the
+stranger, for whom he had promptly brought out the best chair he owned,
+and whose horse he had taken to a shaded spot and carefully rubbed down
+with a handful of dried grass.
+
+Presently, the "child" appeared, and the Easterner flashed a smile
+toward Jessica, whose own face was dimpled with mirth; for the "child,"
+Otto, proved to be a gaunt six-footer, lean as he was long, and with a
+manly beard upon his pink and white face. He shambled forward on his
+great feet and shyly extended his mighty hands.
+
+Mr. Hale grasped them heartily, eager to put the awkward youth at ease;
+and, nodding toward the chair from which he had risen, exclaimed:
+
+"So, you are he who does that beautiful carving! I congratulate you on
+your skill, and I hope you will have some trifle of your work to sell a
+traveler. I've never seen finer."
+
+Otto flushed with pleasure and was about to reply, but again Elsa
+commanded:
+
+"Milk the goat, little one. After the guest feeds let the household
+talk."
+
+As if he had been the "child," the "little heart," his parents called
+him he obediently entered the cabin, tied an apron before his lank body
+and spread a tablecloth. Then, as deftly as if he had been a girl, he
+arranged it with the three cups and plates the family possessed, took his
+mother's cherished spoons from her chest, and, taking a small pail,
+sought the goat, Gretchen.
+
+"Now, I'm in for it," thought Mr. Hale, regretfully. "My poor
+dyspepsia! Coffee, honey, and goat's milk! A combination to kill.
+But even if it is, one must respond to such whole-souled hospitality as
+this."
+
+Jessica had no such qualms; and, indeed, the refreshment which her
+visitor forced himself to accept was far more palatable than he had dared
+expect; and, besides, he now brought to it that astonishing appetite
+which had come to him on this eventful trip. When the luncheon was
+disposed of, Dame Elsa held an exhibition of her wonderful knitting and
+it seemed to the unappreciative stranger that a small fortune must have
+been expended in yarns, and that even in this wilderness one might be
+extravagant and wasteful.
+
+"My wife would know more about such things than I do, but I should think
+you might easily stock a whole shop with your tidies and things."
+
+"Man alive, do I not? Didst think it was for the pleasure of one's
+self the fingers are always at toil? Ach! Yet, of course, how could a
+poor man from a far city understand! It is Elsa's knitting, and Elsa's
+only, will all the tourists have who come to Sobrante; and in that Los
+Angeles, so distant, where the master went but once every year already,
+there is a merchant buys all. Ay. See here. I show you!"
+
+"I--I don't really care--I mean--ought we not to be going, Jessica?"
+cried Mr. Hale, hopelessly, foreseeing another exhibition of "trash,"
+as he considered it.
+
+But Elsa could not conceive that everybody should not be interested in
+all that concerned everybody else; and, besides, this was quite another
+matter. One for pride, indeed, beyond the accomplishment of the most
+difficult "lacework" or "overshot" stitch.
+
+From the same chest in which her precious half-dozen plated spoons had
+reposed she now drew forth a buckskin sack; and, from this, with radiant
+eyes fixed on Mr. Hale's own, another bag, knitted, of course, and
+seemingly heavy. Sitting before him she spread her own apron over her
+guest's knees and poured therein a goodly pile of gold and silver coins.
+With a little catching of his own breath the lawyer realized that among
+these were many eagles and double eagles.
+
+"Why, this is wealth. This is _money_. I can see now, after our paper
+bills and 'checks' how real this seems. You are a fortunate woman, Dame
+Elsa. Now, I begin to respect your 'tidies' and notions as things of
+moment. Did you earn it all?"
+
+"Ach! wait. There is more already. This but begins; and it is for the
+child. Some day, when there is enough, he shall this mine buy and the
+machinery hire, and the workmen. Then he will repay to the mistress of
+Sobrante, and our Lady Jess, all that their dead man spent for us. More.
+He will make the great money--this but leads the way. Wait."
+
+Trustful and eager of appreciation, which came so rarely into her
+isolated life, the woman thrust her hand again into the buckskin sack,
+her shining eyes still fixed upon the stranger's face, and her fingers
+fumbling nervously in the depths of the narrow bag. Her excitement
+and delight communicated itself to him, and he found himself watching
+her broad, beaming face with intense curiosity.
+
+But--the face was changing. The light was dying out of the sparkling
+eyes, an ashy color succeeding the ruddy hue of the fat cheeks.
+Bewilderment, then anxiety, then terror.
+
+"Why, good Elsa, what is it?"
+
+"Gone--gone--but I am robbed, I am ruined! Mein Gott, man! Little
+one--lost, lost, lost!"
+
+With a shriek the poor creature sprang up, and in so doing scattered far
+and wide the coins she had already poured into her apron, but heeded
+nothing of this as she rushed frantically out of doors.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SHAFT
+
+
+While Elsa had been entertaining the stranger within doors Jessica had
+sought Wolfgang and compelled him, by her coaxing, to admit that Ephraim
+Marsh had been there and, also, that Antonio Bernal had ridden up that
+morning to give orders about the coal.
+
+"None of it is to be sent down to the ranch, he said, no matter who
+calls for it, till he comes back. He was going away for a time and----How
+will you get on at Sobrante without him, Lady Jess?"
+
+"Wolfgang, better than with him. Listen. Look at me. I'm the
+'manager' now. The captain. The 'boys' all elected me or made me,
+whatever way they fixed it. I'm to be the master. I, just Jessica.
+Guess I'm proud? Guess I'll do the very, very best ever a girl can
+do? Nobody is to be any different, though. You're to go on mining
+just the same and John Benton says, quite often, it's high time you
+had another hand to help up here. He says with coal fifteen dollars a
+ton there's money in it, even if it is a weeny little mine. So, if you
+want a man, any time, just let me know. Ha!"
+
+With an amusing little strut that was mostly affectation the girl passed
+up and down before the miner, and ended her performance by a hearty
+hug. It was impossible for her to withhold her caresses from anybody who
+loved her; and who did not, at Sobrante, save Antonio and Ferd, the
+dwarf? But she sobered quickly enough and at Wolfgang's petition to
+"Tell me all about it already," gave him a vivid picture of the changes
+at her home.
+
+"But now Antonio has gone for a month, things will get straightened
+all out again. When he comes back I'll have that deed to show him, and
+once he gets it out of his vain head that he is owner and not my mother,
+he'll get sensible and good again, as he used to be. I wish I liked him
+better. That would make it easier for me to give up being 'captain'
+when the time comes. What makes one love some people and not others,
+Wolfgang? You ought to know, you've lived a long time."
+
+"The good God."
+
+"He wouldn't make us dislike anybody. That can't be the right reason."
+
+"Then I know not. Though I am getting old I'm not so wise, little one.
+But--ought I? Ought I not?"
+
+"What?"
+
+"Now you hark me. This Ephraim--guess you what that Antonio said of
+him?"
+
+"How should I? Yes, that's not the truth. But what he said was so
+dreadful I wouldn't even tell my mother."
+
+"Ach! A child should tell the mother all things. Heed that. It is so we
+train our Otto."
+
+Jessica laughed.
+
+"Otto is no child. He is a grown man. He is bigger than you. You should
+not shame him by keeping him a boy always."
+
+"Pst! girl! I would not he heard you, for my life."
+
+"He'll not hear. Elsa is talking. But what did Antonio say about my
+old 'Forty-niner'?"
+
+"That much went with that old man besides his boots."
+
+"Of course. The feet that were in them, I suppose. Silly Wolfgang, to
+be so impressed by a sillier Antonio. The boys say his Spanish maxims
+have little sense in them. That proves it."
+
+"This deed of yours. He said: 'Where Ephraim, the wicked, goes, goes
+their deed to the land.' And more."
+
+"What more? The cruel, cruel man!"
+
+"That it mattered not already. He would come back, the master. It was
+his, had always been. My friend--your father--well, it was not we who
+listened. Nor for once would Elsa make the cup of coffee she was asked.
+Not a morsel got he here, save that the little boy ran after him and gave
+him his own bit swiebach lest he faint by the way. And that was the last
+word of Antonio Bernal."
+
+Jessica's laughter was past. On her face there was a trouble it grieved
+her old friend to see, and he hastened to comfort her.
+
+"If one goes, some are left already. Come now to one whose eyes will
+be cured by a sight of your pretty face."
+
+"To Ephraim?"
+
+"Even so."
+
+He took her hand to lead her, like the tender babe he still considered
+her, and they passed behind the cabin, toward the rickety shaft leading
+into the mine. At its very mouth stood old Stiffleg, and in her delight
+the girl gave him, too, one of her abounding hugs, which called a comment
+from the miner.
+
+"Beasts or humans, all one to your lips. Well, no matter. It's nature.
+Some are made that foolish way. As for me--old horses----"
+
+"Wolfgang Winkler, shame! Now, sir, you'll wait till you ask before I
+kiss you again!"
+
+"Then I ask right quick. Now! Eh? No? Well, before you go then, to
+prove you bear no malice; and because I'll show you a new vein I didn't
+show Antonio. Ach! He'll mine his own coal when once he comes--'the
+master'--as he said! And so I think, though I know not, will all the
+others say. Sobrante will not be Sobrante with us all gone. So?"
+
+"You'll not be gone. It is my mother's."
+
+"He is big and strong. He can plot evil, I believe."
+
+Wolfgang spoke as if he were disclosing a mystery and not a fact well
+known to all who really knew the Senor Bernal.
+
+"I will be stronger. He shall not hurt my mother. I will fight the world
+for her and for my brother!"
+
+The miner had been arranging the rope upon the windlass and now held the
+rude little car steady with his foot.
+
+"Step in."
+
+"Is he below? Down in the mine?"
+
+"Already."
+
+Jessica needed no second bidding, but leaped lightly into the car and
+Wolfgang followed her more cautiously. He knew that was a forbidden
+delight to her, for Mrs. Trent was nervously timid concerning such
+visits, but, like her, felt that the present circumstances justified
+the proceeding. Was not one below in the darkness, nursing a broken
+heart? And was not it the supreme business of each and all at Sobrante to
+comfort the sorrowing? How else had he and his been there, so happy
+and comfortable? So rich, also. Why, Elsa had----
+
+"Lady Jess! Get Elsa to show you the buckskin bag! It has grown as fat
+as herself since you last saw it. The child will own the mine some day,
+believe me!"
+
+Moved by the thought he swiftly lowered away, and as the car touched the
+bottom, the girl sprang out and ran calling in the narrow tunnel:
+
+"Ephraim! My Ephraim! Where are you? I've come for you, I, Jessica!
+It's a dreadful mistake. My mother--ah! here you are! Why down in this
+horrid hole, Ephraim Marsh? You're all shivering, it's so damp and
+dismal. For shame! To run away from your best friends and never give
+them a chance to tell you. Whoever wrote that note and sent you off from
+your own home, it never was my mother. Never! She said so, and it's
+almost broken her heart."
+
+"It's quite broken mine," said the old frontiersman, sobbing in his
+relief at having been thus promptly sought and found by his beloved
+"lady." For he did not know it was quite by accident that she had
+stumbled on this trace of him, nor did anybody enlighten him. Whether
+she would have set him right or not she had no chance, for, at that
+instant, they heard a hoarse cry at the mouth of the shaft and saw the
+car, their only means of ascent, moving swiftly out of reach.
+
+"Heart of grace! Why that? Hark the woman! 'Tis the child! It is the
+little boy! Harm has befallen and I--the father--I below in the ground!"
+
+In his alarm Wolfgang danced about the narrow space and wrung his hands,
+gazing frantically up the shaft, catching hold of his companions and
+conducting himself altogether like one bereft of common sense. Which
+behavior was sufficient to restore Ephraim Marsh to his own self-command,
+and none too soon; for the anxious father had already begun to try the
+ascent by climbing up the timbered sides when, suddenly, as if propelled
+by some extraordinary force the car shot downward again. Before it
+really touched bottom the shrieks had become deafening, and when Elsa
+jumped out and rushed upon her husband, he clapped his hands to his ears
+and retreated as far as the chamber permitted.
+
+"She has gone mad, already! The woman is dement! Hark, the clamor!"
+
+Then he remembered his first fear and clutched his wife's arm, which
+promptly went around his neck and threatened him with suffocation.
+
+"Well, well, I never had no wife, but if I'd had I wouldn't cared to
+have her choke me to death a-loving me, nor split my ears a-telling me
+of it," commented "Forty-niner," dryly.
+
+At which Elsa's screams instantly ceased, and she turned her attention
+upon him.
+
+"Where is it, thief? Give it up, this minute! How could you rob me of my
+hard-earned money? That was to buy the mine--and the vein runs deep--for
+my little boy, my child! 'Twas Antonio Bernal, the great man, told us
+already of the deed you stole! But I believed him not--I. Now, give me my
+money, my money--money!"
+
+Overcome by her own violent emotion, rather than by any opposition of
+poor Ephraim's, her hands slid from his shoulders, which she had been
+shaking as if she would jingle the cash from his pockets, and her plump
+person settled limply against him for support.
+
+"Hello, here, woman! This is a drop too much! Take the creature,
+Winkler, and find out if you can what in misery ails her. She's clean
+out of her wits."
+
+Instinctively, Jessica had placed herself at the old sharpshooter's
+side. He should feel that she did not believe this terrible accusation,
+which recalled to her, with painful significance, the parting words of
+Antonio Bernal as he had ridden away from her window that morning.
+These had practically accused him of stealing the missing deed, and
+now came Elsa with this talk of "money, money." She brushed her hand
+across her eyes as if to waken herself from some frightful dream and then
+smiled up into Ephraim's eyes, now bent inquiringly upon her. Dim as
+the light was, there was yet sufficient descending through the shallow
+shaft to reveal each troubled face to the other, and the old man's
+own frightened at the confiding trust of his beloved pupil's.
+
+"Never mind her. Let her scream and loll around, if she wants to. What
+matters it? Little lady, am I or am I not a--a--that pizen thing she
+called me?"
+
+"Never!"
+
+"Then come on. Let's get out of this."
+
+But he was not to be permitted to escape so easily. Elsa had now
+recovered her full strength and, oddly enough, her composure. She
+waved her husband toward the waiting car and he obeyed her gesture
+without protest, gently lifting Jessica into it, for she would not
+otherwise have been removed from Ephraim's side.
+
+"Go with him, lady. Elsa won't want to _live_ down here and we'll
+follow presently. Never had a woman seem so fond of my company, not in
+all my eighty years. H-m-m!"
+
+Commonly, the most genial of men, the sharpshooter's spirits had fully
+regained their normal poise. Since he had not been dismissed by Mrs.
+Trent, and since his little Jessica believed in him, everything was all
+right. Elsa had been hoarding so long for her overgrown "child" that
+she had lost her wits. He wasn't surprised. She was a woman.
+
+So, with a smile, he was able to watch the car disappear upward, and
+he even began to whistle, lest Elsa should improve this opportunity and
+resume her racket.
+
+"No disrespect to you, ma'am, remembering the good victuals you've
+often given me, but kind of to keep my courage up, like the boy going
+through the woods."
+
+Elsa vouchsafed no reply, beyond grasping his sleeve firmly, as if to
+assure herself that he should not vanish through the solid wall behind
+them; and he, at least, was relieved when the little car came rolling
+downward again, empty.
+
+Elsa, who understood its management as well as her husband, grasped its
+side and motioned Ephraim forward.
+
+"Ladies first," he objected, gallantly.
+
+"Get in, wretch, already."
+
+"Oh! I'm not loath to get in, now. Even your sweet presence doesn't
+make this hole a paradise. And I came down here a heavy-hearted man, yet
+I've going up light as a feather. Glad I've got you along to ballast,
+else I'd likely shoot clean up to the sky."
+
+Poor Elsa thought his hilarity ill-timed. She glared at him first, then
+began to weep, and her tears sobered him as no frowns could do.
+
+"Look, here, old girl, cheer up! Likely it's only a passing fit of
+madness has got you in tow. Women are kittle cattle, I've been told.
+Except Lady Jess and the madam. But they're quality. It's in their
+blood to be noble just as 'tis in--well, let that go. If you've lost
+any of your money, as you 'pear to think, you'll find it again. Why,
+you're bound to. Who is there to steal it save your own selves? Likely
+you've got up some dark night in your sleep and hid it away so careful
+you've forgot the place. Good! The top and fresh air again, thank
+Heaven!"
+
+Mr. Hale had left the cabin immediately after Elsa, and though inclined
+to stoop and gather up her scattered coins had refrained from doing so,
+restrained by that prudence which becomes second nature to lawyers.
+
+"She thinks somebody has robbed her and would probably accuse me of
+pocketing some of these. Too much money for anybody to keep in a house,"
+he reflected, forgetting that banks were not accessible to everybody.
+"But it's an ill wind, etc. Now I shall be apt to escape that promised
+visit to an amateur coal mine, and not endanger my life in their rickety
+car."
+
+Elsa's conduct upon reaching home was as curious and contradictory as
+ever. Instead of collecting her scattered treasure, she merely said, with
+a shrug of her fat shoulders:
+
+"What good? let it lie. When the much is gone who cares for the little?"
+
+Then she dropped into a chair and began again to cry, disconsolately.
+
+Jessica could not endure the scene.
+
+"Oh! I hate this! Elsa, stop. Be happy. Nobody has robbed you. If there
+has 'tis nobody here. I'm going home. I was having such a good time
+and I've found dear Ephraim. I'll ask leave to come again to-morrow,
+maybe, and you'll have it by then. Just as I shall the title. 'Tis only
+that you've been careless, as--as somebody else was. Good-by. We're
+going. Say good-by, won't you?"
+
+Elsa's good-by was to seize Ephraim's coat and hold it with all her
+force, but he was now too happy to object to this.
+
+"Certain, ma'am. If you've took a notion to it, I'll leave it with
+you. Coats don't matter, when hearts are light. Yes, look in the
+pockets. Like enough 'twill ease your mind a bit. I'd give her a
+dose of sagebrush tea, Wolfgang. Catnip 'd be better, but ain't so
+handy. Good-by, all. I'll be 'round again, myself, soon, if the lady
+can spare me," and with this remark, "Forty-niner" quietly slipped
+out of the loose garment and made his escape.
+
+There was no more talk of inspecting the ranch. The little party of
+three rode thoughtfully homeward. Even Ephraim's gayety had ebbed and
+the strange accusation Elsa had made began at last to claim his serious
+attention. Thieving was a new matter at Sobrante, though he, along with
+all the other "boys," had thought for many months that the manager
+was dealing unfairly by his mistress and employer. This affair would
+have to be sifted to the bottom, and he didn't like it. He was glad
+to be going back to his familiar quarters, glad of many things, yet
+his light-heartedness was quite gone.
+
+Mr. Hale was equally silent and self-absorbed. Every hour he spent
+among these people, like innocent children all they seemed to him, but
+interested him the more in them. Their unhappiness disturbed him and yet
+his own mission was to make them more unhappy still.
+
+Jessica was angry, indignant, and amused by turns; but these troubles
+were changing her swiftly from a careless little girl to a sadly
+perplexed captain, and she rode along in silence, for most of the way,
+forgetting entirely that she had meant to take quite another route, or
+that her present errand was to exhibit the wonders of her beloved
+Sobrante.
+
+They cantered peacefully downward across the valley, old Stiffleg himself
+leading the way, till they struck upon the main road and saw in the
+distance a vehicle crawling forward upon it.
+
+"Oh! oh!" cried Jessica, who had been first to observe this object.
+
+"Heigho! What's that--a circus?" asked Mr. Hale, gazing curiously at
+the strange wagon.
+
+Ephraim shaded his eyes with his hand and peered into the distance. Then
+he dropped it, and drooping ridiculously, groaned:
+
+"Oh! my fathers!"
+
+"Looks like a circus. All the colors of the rainbow," persisted Mr.
+Hale, glad of any diversion to his perturbed thoughts.
+
+"'Tis a circus, temperance union, a salvation army, a woman's rights
+convention, what Samson calls a Mother Carey's chicken, an Amazon, a
+wild Indian, a--a--shucks! There isn't anything on earth that yonder
+doesn't try a hand at. Land of Goshen! I'd almost rather turn and go
+back to be jawed by the Dutchwoman. And I've come home--just for this!"
+
+But Jessica was laughing as she had not laughed all day, and if the
+person driving along in front was objectionable to Ephraim it was
+evidently not the fact in her case.
+
+"Oh! how glad I am!" she cried, and touched Buster to his swiftest
+gallop, while the sharpshooter grimaced and groaned:
+
+"To have come back to this!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+AUNT SALLY
+
+
+"Aunt Sally! Aunt Sally, wait for me!"
+
+At the shrill cry and the clatter of Buster's feet the crawling vehicle
+came to a standstill, and from under its canvas cover peered the smiling
+face of a hale, elderly woman, whose gray head was bare save for its
+abundant crown of curling hair. A straw Shaker bonnet, with green
+curtains, hung over her shoulders. Her print gown was of brilliant
+pink and her capacious apron of blue gingham. She was collarless and
+her sleeves were tucked above her round elbows, but she was clean,
+as if just from a laundry. Indeed, at that moment, her conveyance
+suggested such an institution on wheels, for well-strung clotheslines
+were taut against its sides, and from these fluttered freshly washed
+garments and scraps of cloth.
+
+Aunt Sally saw Jessica's eyes, fasten upon these articles and explained:
+
+"Met a little water comin' along and used it. Never know where you'll
+be when you need water next--in Californy. How's all?"
+
+"Well, thank you. I'm so glad you've come."
+
+"That's a word to cure deafness. Here."
+
+The woman pulled a gigantic cookie from her apron pocket and held it
+toward the girl, who had now come alongside. The cake was in the shape
+of a doll, with flaring skirt, and was promptly nibbled.
+
+"Well, I declare! Eat your playmates, do you?"
+
+"Yes, indeed, when you make them!"
+
+"Who's that loping along behind?"
+
+"Ephraim, of course. Oh! yes. A Mr. Hale, from New York."
+
+"What's he at here?"
+
+"Just staying. Lost his way and making a visit."
+
+"H-m-m! Don't look wholesome. Needs picra."
+
+"I doubt it. He has a great row of bottles in his room and takes
+medicine every time he eats, or doesn't. That is, since he's been at
+Sobrante, which isn't long."
+
+When the wagon had halted on the road before them Ephraim had turned to
+his companion, with a whimsical smile, suggested:
+
+"Better ride along as if we was glad to see her. It's like a dose of
+that bitter stuff she makes everybody take, whether or no--get it over
+with. And she isn't so bad as--H-m-m."
+
+Mr. Hale was not sorry to do this, for his curiosity was roused. The
+wagon box was long and narrow, and contained as many articles as would
+have sufficed a family "crossing the plains" in the olden times. A
+kerosene cooking stove, a cat in a parrot cage, a hencoop, with mother
+and brood inside it, a trunk, a blanket and pillow, a pail for watering
+the animals, and a box of tin dishes. The cover, like a small "prairie
+schooner," was patriotic in extreme, shining with the national colors,
+newly applied by Aunt Sally herself, and with no stingy hand. The
+arrangement was also her own, and as she considered, an improvement
+upon the flag; for she made the whole top a field of stars, and the
+sides of the stripes.
+
+"Instead of a little weeny corner full of stars, that you can count on
+your fingers, I've made a skyful right overhead. I always thought if
+I'd had the designin' of Old Glory, I'd have made it regular, like
+a patchwork quilt--and nobody ever pieces a 'block' that way. Things
+must compare even, and so they would be if women had had a hand in the
+business."
+
+This decorative turnout was drawn by a tandem team, consisting of a milch
+cow and a burro, with the cow in front. Which, after due introduction to
+the stranger, she explained, regulated the behavior of both animals.
+
+"With Balaam in the middle, and him inclinin' to balk, and Rosetty
+in front, it works double-action. Them that use their wits is twice
+served. If he stops, the wagon runs onto him, and if she's in a movin'
+mood, that drags him. If she gets lazy, he butts her and thus, why--I've
+tried it both ways, changing their places more'n once. This is the best.
+How you like Californy?"
+
+"Very much."
+
+"Come for your health?"
+
+"Partly, for that."
+
+"H-m-m. Folks with you?"
+
+"No. I'm alone."
+
+"Maybe you've got no folks. Some hasn't. Ephraim, yonder, is one.
+He'd be in a fix if 'twasn't for Jessie and me. I come about once
+in so often and straighten out all the crooks. Took them pills, Ephy?"
+
+Mr. Hale tried to repress a smile and failed, but "Forty-niner" burst
+into a loud laugh, and replied:
+
+"No, Aunt Sally, and what's more I'm not going to. Why should I? Who
+never have an ache or pain--that medicine will cure," he added, looking
+tenderly upon Lady Jess and remembering his grief of the past night.
+
+"Well, you ought to have. 'Tisn't human nature to live to eighty and
+not have. I'm twenty years younger'n you are and I ache from head to
+foot, some days."
+
+"Asking questions sort of wears you out, I reckon."
+
+"Now, Ephy, don't get playful. Not at your age. It's not a good sign.
+Besides, my hen chicken's been crowing more'n once this trip. That's
+a sign of death--somewhere."
+
+"Giddap, Stiffleg!"
+
+Ephraim urged his horse forward, meaning to forewarn the "boys" of who
+and what was coming. Jessica comprehended and quickly followed, but her
+object was to bespeak a different kind of welcome from that he intended.
+Neither knew, then, just how heartily glad they would be before many
+hours were over of the helpful, yet disturbing, presence of this same
+masterful woman.
+
+The Easterner was left to jog alongside the curious team and its more
+curious mistress, who, even, while she held the rope reins in one
+hand, was threading her needle and sewing that patchwork which was as
+characteristic of her as the ceaseless knitting was of Elsa.
+
+In fact, when one came to look at her closely, there were seen assorted
+bits of cloth, fragments of some "block," pinned here and there about
+her person; and as he watched her nimble fingers fly from one seam to
+another the gentleman's amazement found expression.
+
+"How can you manage to drive and sew at the same time? And is it
+necessary?"
+
+"I guess you're a Yankee yourself, aren't you? Well, if I hadn't
+been able to manage how do you s'pose I'd ever have got my quilt done
+in time for the State fair? Fifty-five thousand five hundred and fifty
+pieces there's in it, and I've willed it to Jessica Trent when I'm
+done exhibitin' it. None of 'em bigger 'n a finger nail, and all done
+over paper. That's a piece of work, I 'low. What's your complaint?"
+
+"I--I don't know as I have any. They've made me very comfortable and
+welcome."
+
+"Dare say. They couldn't do otherwise. Giddap there, Balaam. Rosetty
+smells alfalfa, and you'll have to step out to keep up with a cow 'at
+does that. I mean what's your disease?"
+
+"Oh! well--it's of no consequence."
+
+"Man alive, don't neglect yourself. You're yallar. You've got the
+janders. Sure's I'm a living woman that's what it is."
+
+"I think not. I hope not," said the poor man, but rather feebly.
+
+"Sure. Or shingles. I've never seen a real likely case of shingles, and
+if it _should_ be that, I'd just admire to nurse you. What victuals you
+been eating?"
+
+The dyspeptic winced. This sounded truly professional, for all his
+numerous physicians had prefaced their treatment by a similar question.
+
+"I've been able to eat almost anything and everything since I came
+into this country of open-air living. The last thing was some of Elsa
+Winkler's swiebach and honey-sweetened coffee."
+
+"You don't say! Oh! oh! Poison, sir, rank poison. You may as well count
+yourself dead and laid out----"
+
+The unfortunate stranger shivered and turned pale. For some half hour
+past, he had been suffering various qualms which he had attributed to
+Elsa's hospitality, but to tell a nervous invalid that he has been
+poisoned is to increase his misery a hundredfold. If Aunt Sally had
+desired a patient she was now in a fair way to secure one; but her
+words were without any significance to herself beyond the fact that
+she favored neither Elsa nor her cookery. Elsa's knitting work had
+crowded her own patchwork pretty closely at that famous fair, and the
+handsome money prize, which she felt belonged of rights to herself,
+had been halved between the pair. Because, though their skill lay
+along different lines, they had both signed their exhibits: "From
+Sobrante," and, manifestly, the judges could not give two first premiums
+to one estate.
+
+This memory served to change her thoughts from disease to a detailed
+history of the wonderful quilt, during which they arrived at Mrs.
+Trent's cottage and dinner.
+
+But this could not yet be served. Aunt Sally must needs first see her
+son, and after the fondest of greetings, cautiously consign to him the
+care of her personal outfit. She even ran after him--as he walked away,
+grinning and leading the now obstreperous cow--with a vial in her hand,
+begging:
+
+"Now son, please me, before you eat that 'mess' of men's cooking by
+taking one spoonful of this dandelion relish. Made it myself, purposely
+for you, and I'll warrant no alcohol in it, either."
+
+Experience had proved that protestation was worse than useless; so, with
+another grin, but a really affectionate "Thank you," John accepted the
+vial and once more started stableward.
+
+"Now, Aunt Sally, come! You must be hungry yourself, after your long
+ride," urged Mrs. Trent, hospitably, and with sincere pleasure lighting
+her gentle face. Living so far from other women made the presence of
+even this uncouth one a comfort, and experience had proved that Mrs.
+Benton was, in time of need, that "rough diamond" which she claimed
+herself to be.
+
+"All right, honey; in a minute. I'll just step out to the kitchen and
+pass the time of day with Wun Lung. Besides----"
+
+Jessica caught Aunt Sally around her waist--as far as she could
+reach--and tried to prevent her leaving the room, but was lightly
+set aside, with the remark:
+
+"Face is next door to the mouth. Guess I want to see what sort of food
+that heathen's got ready for us, 'fore I touch it!"
+
+"Oh, Aunt Sally! In my house--can't you trust me?" asked the hostess,
+with mild protest. Though she knew before she spoke that her will as
+opposed to Mrs. Benton's, at least in minor matters, was powerless.
+So she quietly brought a book and offered it to Mr. Hale, with the
+suggestion that he make himself content for the present.
+
+"The dinner will be delayed and there will be a rumpus in the kitchen.
+But the dinner will be all the better for waiting and the rumpus will
+end in Wun Lung taking another rest while Aunt Sally does his work.
+Fortunately, she is a prime cook, and we shall fare sumptuously every
+day. I'd be glad to keep her here, always, if I could."
+
+"Old Ephraim Marsh did not appear to share your sentiments," and he
+described "Forty-niner's" behavior and remarks at first sighting Mrs.
+Benton's wagon.
+
+"Then you found him. He's come back with you? Oh! I am so thankful.
+Sobrante wouldn't seem itself without that straightforward, honest old
+man."
+
+"You are certain he is that?" asked, rather than asserted, the other.
+
+"As certain as that there is honesty anywhere. What can you mean? Why do
+you seem so doubtful?"
+
+"I don't wish to be a talebearer, but another of your adoring
+_proteges_ is in dire trouble. Elsa has been robbed and accuses this
+unfortunate person of being the culprit."
+
+"Such a thing would be impossible."
+
+"So it seemed to me. Yet that old Wolfgang finally got it through his
+head--he appeared duller of wit than his wife--that to lose sight of
+Ephraim was to lose the money forever. Your little daughter promised to
+produce him when needed, and after considerable opposition they allowed
+him to come away. I fancy they began to suspect me even. I fear, madam,
+I have visited Sobrante at an unfortunate time."
+
+Mrs. Trent was paying but slight attention to his words. Her mind was
+already disturbed by many inexplicable things and would revert to
+Antonio's insinuations which, without Jessica's knowledge, she had also
+overheard. After a moment, recalled by high voices in the kitchen, she
+rallied, and apologizing for so doing, hastily left the dining-porch.
+
+There were several gleaming pots and pans upon the oil cooking-stove
+and behind these stood Wun Lung, tenaciously grasping a meat dish and
+glaring unutterable things out of his beady eyes upon the excited woman
+who faced him, demanding:
+
+"Give me that platter, monkey-face! Suppose I'll put your dirty
+victuals into my clean mouth or anybody else's? I've tasted your
+stuff before. A burnt bairn dreads the fire. Hand it over. I'll see if
+it's fit. There! That rice is boiling over."
+
+The dish of savory lamb stew had been most daintily and carefully
+prepared after his mistress' own minute directions, but Wun Lung now
+slammed it upon the table with much violence and seized the pipkin of
+rice from the stove. With undue emphasis he placed this beside the stew
+and, advancing toward Mrs. Trent, made several profound salaams.
+
+"Lat m'loman come--me glo. Good-by."
+
+And for many a day thereafter Wun Lung served no more in that, his own
+beloved kitchen.
+
+Not a whit disturbed was Aunt Sally. Revolution had become as the breath
+in her nostrils. Wherever she went old orders were reversed and all
+things became new. At a little town, with an unpronounceable Spanish
+name, which it suited her to call "Boston," she had her home-room in
+the house of a long-suffering woman cousin, whose ill-health afforded
+her infinite employment, therefore enjoyment. The invalid endured these
+ministrations because Aunt Sally also supported her, as well as ruled
+her; but she appreciated the rest which followed whenever the itching of
+Mrs. Benton's feet called their owner elsewhere. Between "Boston" and
+Sobrante the patriotic wagon vibrated, like a long-distance pendulum,
+and departing from either point carried everything belonging to its
+proprietor within it. "Boston" having become wearisome it was now
+Sobrante's turn.
+
+"I haven't been so happy since I first trod shoe leather. Now, honey,
+you'll have good, clean fixings, with no opium nor rat tails in 'em,"
+she gleefully announced, returning to the table.
+
+"Aunt Sally, hush! What an opinion you'll give our guest of my
+housekeeping!" laughed Mrs. Trent.
+
+"Pooh, child! Anybody that looks at you'll know you hate dirt. Now,
+eat, all. Only--you, Mr. Hale, I must insist you take a dose of this
+saffron tea. I steeped it while I was having that set-to with the
+Chinaman, for I thank my stars I can always do two things at once. And
+if I know the signs--Gabriella Trent, if that man hasn't got the
+janders or shingles, or malary fever, don't you tell me a thing!"
+
+"I certainly shall not tell you any such thing as that, dear soul. The
+trouble is, Mr. Hale, Aunt Sally is never so happy as when she has a sick
+person to nurse. If nobody is ill she does her utmost to make somebody
+so, with her uncalled for doses and stews. But--once be ill! Ah! dear
+Aunt Sally, I know how tender is your touch and how faithful your watch.
+God bless you!"
+
+Not often was the gentle mistress moved to such emotion, and Mrs. Benton
+now put on her spectacles and regarded her hostess over them with a
+critical air.
+
+"Land, honey! You must be coming down with something yourself! I never
+heard that janders was catching, but, heart of grace, it might be! Yes,
+in-deedy, it might be!"
+
+The delight of her tone was equaled only by the sparkle of her eye. To
+have come to Sobrante, guided merely by the itching of a foot and to find
+two patients ready to hand, what mortal could ask more?
+
+Possibly, with the intention of helping on their timely disorders,
+she heaped her neighbors' plates with the savory dinner, which was
+wholly due to Wun Lung's skill, and not, as she fancied, to her brief
+supervision.
+
+When the meal was over, Aunt Sally retreated to the kitchen, after
+forcing Mrs. Trent to lie down and rest, "whether or no;" and to aid
+the lady's slumbers, there presently arose from without the lusty cries
+of two small lads who had returned from some prank, late as usual, and
+as usual, desperately hungry.
+
+"I will have my dinner, so there, you old Aunt Sally! I will go tell
+my mother--I won't be spanked--I won't I--I--I----"
+
+"Wonbepanked!" screamed another childish treble.
+
+"Yes, you will, the brace of you. Spare the rod and spoil the child.
+That's what Gabriella does, all the time, soft-hearted dear that she
+is. A good, sound spanking once in six months is all that keeps you in
+a state of salvation. If it wasn't for me I don't know what in reason
+you little tackers would grow up to be. One thing I do know, though, and
+so do you, and that is--that while your old Aunt Sally is at Sobrante
+ranch you'll never be late to your victuals again."
+
+In this events proved that the speaker was right, as, indeed, she had
+often been before on similar occasions.
+
+Knowing that this little family jar would result in no serious harm to
+her idolized son, Mrs. Trent lay still and thought, but did not sleep.
+How could she? What a subtle thing is suggestion!
+
+Poor, overburdened Gabriella Trent had known and trusted old Epbraim
+Marsh for many years; yet the words of Antonio, and now of this stranger
+within her gates, lingered in her memory and would not then leave.
+
+Up in his pleasant guest chamber Mr. Hale felt within himself the
+increasing vigor of returning health, tempered for the moment, it may
+be, by a little indiscretion of diet; yet the assertion of that noisy
+old woman below stairs, that he was, despite all, on the verge of some
+serious illness, so worked upon his still weakened nerves that he
+could neither sleep nor forget them.
+
+The result in both cases was unfortunate.
+
+That evening Mrs. Trent forbade her daughter the rifle practice for
+which, promply on his return, Ephraim had made special preparation. Her
+refusal hurt the old fellow, already sensitive from a previous injury,
+and he reflected, bitterly, as he once more sought his monkish chamber:
+
+"After all, whoever dismissed me was right. I'm too old for use. I'd
+better never have come back."
+
+As for Mr. Hale, brooding and an unwise exposure to the night air on the
+previous evening, did bring on a slight fever. Worriment increased this
+and, like many men, he was impatient under suffering; so that when his
+bell rang sharply, demanding attention, he was in a fair way to require
+all that Aunt Sally or any other had to give.
+
+Meanwhile, down at the adobe quarters, other suspicions were rife.
+
+"What is that man doing here, any way? He don't tell his business, and
+he's asked a power of questions. He's wormed out of one and another
+of us all there is to learn about this ranch, and he hasn't let on a
+single thing about himself, except that he's a lawyer from New York.
+New York's a big village and all lawyers can lie. I'm bound to sound
+that chap before I'm many hours older," said Joe Dean, bringing his
+hands down heavily upon the table.
+
+"I know a trick worth two of that. Set mother on him!" cried John
+Benton, gayly. "She'll ask more questions to the square inch than
+any other human being I ever met, and she'll have all his business,
+family history, and present undertakings out of him before he can say
+Jack Robinson. Lucky for us she got that itching foot just when she did."
+
+So it was agreed; and thus, primed to the fullest investigation, Aunt
+Sally and her curiosity established themselves within their victim's
+sickroom. When they emerged from it, at daybreak, the one had been fully
+satisfied--with horror; and the ruddy face of the other had grown white
+and heartbroken as no single night of watching should have left it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE GUEST DEPARTS
+
+
+"Well, mother! What are you doing, waking me out of my beauty sleep,
+this way?"
+
+"Don't speak to me, John Benton. This is no time for fooling. Not till
+I've got my breath, knocked out of me by the plumb wickedness of this
+world. That I should have lived to hear such things and not died in my
+tracks!"
+
+Upon leaving Mr. Hale's sickroom, Aunt Sally had traveled as fast as her
+nimble feet could carry her to her son's quarters, in the old mission,
+and had burst in upon his slumbers, with a mighty groan.
+
+"What's up?"
+
+"You ought to be, for one thing. There, lie still. I can talk and you
+can listen--and you'll need support 'fore I'm through. That man! Oh!
+that man!"
+
+"Yes'm. Which one?"
+
+"Shut up. You need spankin' as bad as ever you did. But--John, John!
+The vilest wretch that ever trod shoe leather! The best, the generousest,
+the noblest--and not here to say a word for his poor self."
+
+"Mother, your remarks seem a little mixed. If you'll face the other way
+I'll have on my clothes in a jiffy. Can't 'pear to sense things so
+well, lying a-bed after daylight."
+
+Mrs. Benton stepped outside the house and paced the beaten path with a
+tread powerful enough to crush all her enemies, had they been in her
+way. Swiftly, heavily, back and forth, with clinched hands and grim
+lips, the woman was rather working her indignation to a higher point
+than allaying it, and as the carpenter limped from his quarters he saw
+this, and thought:
+
+"She meant it. No time for fooling when she's stirred up that way. What
+in the name of reason can ail her?"
+
+After a plunge of his head in the water of the general washing-trough,
+through which a fresh stream was continually piped, and a drying on the
+roller towel suspended near it, his wits were clearer. Finishing his
+toilet by means of his pocket-comb, he considered himself ready for
+her story and for anything that it might entail.
+
+"Well, mother?"
+
+Aunt Sally paused and glared at him in such a vicious manner that he
+felt as if he were again that little boy of hers who needed the usual
+corporal punishment.
+
+"Yes, but mother--what have _I_ done?"
+
+"Done? Nothing! Not a man jack of you! Let that viper warm himself
+at her very fireside, least to say, south porch, and not show him up
+for what he was. Land! The men! I never saw one yet was worth shucks,
+savin' hers and mine. If you was half the fellow your father was, John
+Benton, or that noble Cass'us was--oh! if ever _I_ wanted to be a man
+in my life I want to be this minute!"
+
+The carpenter darted into his chamber and reappeared with a vial and
+spoon.
+
+"To please me, mother, 'fore you say any more, just take a spoonful of
+this dandelion relish. Made it myself, you know, and warrant no alcohol
+in it!"
+
+The jester was rewarded by a boxed ear, but he had effectually arrested
+his parent's wandering thoughts, and she burst forth with her news:
+
+"That viper-lawyer-man has come to this Sobrante to accuse Cass'us
+Trent of stealing! lyin! cheating! Cass'us, your best friend and mine.
+Says there's a power of money missing, that was all consigned to him,
+to purchase that Paraiso d'Oro for a community and never reported on!"
+
+"What? W-h-a-t!"
+
+John had laid his hand upon her shoulder like a vise, and she began to
+whimper.
+
+"Needn't pinch me, child. 'Twasn't I said it. You told me to find out
+what he wanted here and I have. He pretends he lost his way, got off the
+road he was showed to take and met Lady Jess in the canyon. Says his own
+horse is up to Pedro's sheep pasture. Says----"
+
+"_And you let him?_ Had him right there in your power and didn't knock
+his old teeth down his lying throat?"
+
+As John's wrath increased his mother's ebbed. She had passed her
+indignation on to another, as it were, and felt the relief of this
+confidence.
+
+"No, I didn't. I left that for you to do. They was false ones any way
+and wouldn't have hurt none. Hold on! Where you going, son?"
+
+For the carpenter had started forward, as if intent upon instant and
+terrible vengeance. Neither of them noticed that Jessica had followed
+Aunt Sally hither till a girl's voice implored:
+
+"Don't! That would let my mother know and it would kill her!"
+
+"Captain! You here? You understand?"
+
+"Yes--yes. They waked me, talking, and I crept to the upper hall to
+stop them, so they should not disturb my poor, tired dear. Oh! I heard!
+I heard--every--single--dreadful word!"
+
+"Well, I'm going to fix him for it."
+
+"John, wait--wait. I must think. My precious mother----"
+
+Jessica rarely wept. Now she flung herself into Aunt Sally's arms and
+sobbed in a way that set the carpenter raging afresh. One after another
+the "boys" came out from the closed or open doors along the row. Some
+because it was their usual hour for rising, others to learn the cause
+of these early voices. But one glimpse of Lady Jess in trouble grouped
+every ranchman about her and set each to hurling a torrent of questions
+upon that good woman, who held her, without pause for any answer.
+
+But John held up his hand and told the story. It belonged to them all, as
+Jessica did, and the honor of Sobrante.
+
+They heard it with little comment, save groans and occasional
+mutterings, punctuated by fresh inquiries of Mrs. Benton. Considerable
+mystery had been thrown about her cross-examination of her temporary
+patient, and after all it had proved the simplest matter in the
+world. Concerning his own personal affairs he was provokingly silent,
+but he was as ready to talk about his business in that region as she
+was to have him when, after a roundabout preparation, she brought
+him to it.
+
+"I am in honor pledged to do my best for my employers in the East, and
+unwilling to remain here under false colors, so to speak, any longer. Who
+is the most responsible person here, excepting Mrs. Trent?" had been
+his words.
+
+"I am," promptly replied Aunt Sally.
+
+"Then you shall hear my story," and he told it.
+
+The effect of it was to loose her tongue to its utmost. One may guess
+the listener heard himself portrayed in colors he failed to recognize
+and that he realized he had made a mistake in the selection of a
+_confidante_. However, his purpose had been to do away with all doubt
+concerning himself, and to do this with as little distress to his hostess
+as possible. For that reason he had believed a woman would be his
+best aid, but it proved that almost any ranchman on the place would
+have been safer than she.
+
+"Well, I ought to have known that a female who talks so much must
+say something amiss, and I can't blame her for her indignation. In her
+stead I might have behaved worse; and the thing now is to get over
+this little weakness and go away about the miserable business, at once,"
+he reflected. Then he watched her hurry out of his room and surmised
+whither she would turn her steps. Therefore, he was not surprised when,
+somewhat later, he also left the cottage to find himself confronted by
+great Samson, quietly, but significantly, awaiting the stranger's
+appearance. For the great fellow had naturally been appointed by his
+mates to "settle that critter's hash and settle it sudden."
+
+"Good-morning, Samson."
+
+Silence.
+
+"It seems so wonderful to me to wake and find this changeless sunshine,
+day after day, as if no such things as storms could ever exist," said
+the lawyer, pleasantly.
+
+Samson's grimness relaxed to a slight degree. "Some kind of storms blow
+in fair weather. Likely you'll meet up with one sooner'n you expect.
+Step this way, will you?"
+
+The sailor's expression was so formidable that, for a moment, all the
+wild tales the lawyer had ever read of western desperadoes returned to
+test his already weakened nerves. But he was no coward, and knew that
+though in a most uncomfortable position, it was by no means a guilty one.
+
+"Certainly."
+
+Samson led the way, if walking closely beside the guest, as a constable
+walks beside his prisoner, may be termed leading. Nor once did he turn
+his angry gaze from the gentleman's face, and the riding-crop in his
+hand swung to and fro, as if longing to test itself against some
+enemy's body. The walk ended in the ranchmen's messroom, where Wun
+Lung, released from the cottage kitchen, had already been impressed
+into service, and was deftly preparing breakfast. Aunt Sally had
+disappeared, but Jessica was there, perched on a corner of the dresser,
+by which stood "Forty-niner," with his arm about her. All the other
+workmen whom Mr. Hale had seen were also present and an air of silent
+fury pervaded the whole assemblage.
+
+The stranger's glance passed swiftly from one face to another and saw
+no kindness on any. Even the little captain's eyes were bent downward
+and her lovely face wore a sorrow it made his own heart ache to see.
+
+Joe Dean lounged forward.
+
+"Stranger, have you broke your fast?"
+
+"No."
+
+Another silence, during which the blacksmith poured a cup of inky coffee
+from the great pot, hacked off a piece of bread from a dusky loaf, and
+shoved them toward their unwelcome guest across the table by which he
+had sat down.
+
+"Eat, and be quick about it."
+
+The color rose in the Easterner's cheek, but he made no motion to obey,
+and after a brief waiting, seeing this, Joe threw the coffee out of the
+window and tossed the bread to the dogs.
+
+"There's a horse outside. It's for you. The poorest we've got,
+because once you've bestrode him no decent man'll ever mount him
+again. He'll answer, though, to carry you beyond this valley, and
+Samson'll go with you to see you leave it for good. Then he'll turn
+the beast loose and may the Lord have mercy on your dirty soul. _Get!_"
+
+Mr. Hale did not stir. His own eye gathered fire and the pink in his face
+grew scarlet, but his voice was calm as he inquired:
+
+"Am I still at Sobrante, the home of gentlefolks? By whose orders,
+please, this present dramatic scene?"
+
+"Yes; this is Sobrante. The home of gentlefolks--you spoke the truth for
+once. The home of Cassius Trent, the truest man, the noblest heart, the
+whitest gentleman the good Lord ever made. The home of a man! and not
+a free hotel for whelps! Ugh! If I had promised the captain--Lady Jess,
+let me off that word! I must at him, I _must_--_I will!_"
+
+Joe's attitude was full of menace, but Mr. Hale neither moved nor took
+his own cool gaze from his enemy's face. Though Jessica had taken swift
+alarm and leaped down to place herself beside the smith and clasp his
+hand with her own.
+
+"No, no. You promised, and I'm your captain. Soldiers obey their
+captains and you chose me yourself. You are not to hurt him nor abuse
+him, though, I, too"--here she wheeled about and faced her guest,
+crying: "hate you, hate you! Oh! that's wicked. That's rude. But, sir,
+how dared you say my father--the best man ever lived--kept--took--it
+isn't true, it isn't!"
+
+The lawyer rose, somewhat unsteadily. The sight of the daughter's grief
+disturbed his calmness more than the affronts offered him by her bearded
+henchmen. It was to her that he addressed the question:
+
+"Am I permitted to say a word in my own behalf, Captain Jessica?"
+
+A growl ran around the room, but she held up her small hand, protestingly.
+
+"Yes. That's fair. My father always taught me to be fair. I'm sorry I
+was--I wasn't polite----"
+
+"No, you aren't," shouted Samson. "Don't you dare be sorry for
+anything but the kindness you've showed that skunk!"
+
+"Samson, it was you made me captain!"
+
+"All right. I give in. Be as fair as you like, I can't help it."
+
+"Tell us all there is to tell. As you told Aunt Sally."
+
+"Thank you, captain. I'll be brief. I came to California, representing
+a company, a syndicate, which had advanced large sums of money to
+purchase, improve, and stock a vast tract of land called Paraiso d'Oro.
+Though for a time due receipts and reports had been returned to the
+syndicate for several months these had entirely ceased. Unfortunately,
+the company had implicit faith in their consignee, and Paraiso d'Oro was
+but one of their many enterprises. I had been their legal adviser in
+other matters, and when my health failed from overwork, they suggested
+that I should come here and investigate their affairs, while I could
+recuperate at the same time.
+
+"I set out on horseback from Los Angeles, my temporary headquarters,
+without a guide and with many erroneous notions concerning both the State
+and its people. You see, though I'd lived at the center of our national
+civilization----"
+
+"You're forgettin' Californy!" cried somebody.
+
+"I'd led the narrow life of a man absorbed in one sort of business.
+I traveled out of my way, and lost it. Then I met your captain in the
+canyon and she courteously offered me the hospitality of Sobrante. Until
+I reached this spot I had no idea that it was part and parcel, so to
+speak, of that Paraiso I'd come to reclaim. Gradually this fact became
+clear to me and from that moment I have been anxious to get away from
+a hospitality I have no moral right to enjoy."
+
+"Spoke the truth for once, liar!" grumbled Cromarty.
+
+"You cannot feel it more than I, sir, nor more profoundly regret that
+it is my misfortune to have undertaken a business which has now become
+obnoxious to me. But a lawyer must look at facts. One Cassius Trent----"
+
+"Take care!"
+
+"Be quiet, Marty! Go on, Mr. Hale," ordered the little captain.
+
+"Cassius Trent was the man whose hitherto probity and enthusiasm had
+enlisted the interest of his New York friends. He represented that his
+projected community would not only be an excellent investment for their
+money, but a benefaction to humanity. They believed him and--well, their
+money is gone, their community has not even a beginning, and the man
+is dead. He seems to have been a person----"
+
+"A white gentleman, sir!"
+
+"Who could obtain a strong hold upon the affections and confidence of
+all who knew him. I admire the qualities which gained your devotion and
+I admire your loyalty to him. I am charmed with the home he created in
+this wilderness--_for himself_--and I have the profoundest respect
+for his afflicted family. I wish I had not undertaken this trust.
+But I have so undertaken, I am sworn to my clients' interests, and I
+must further them to my utmost ability. If the missing money can be
+recovered I shall recover it, painful as my duty may be. And--that
+is all. Good-by, little captain. It is my sincere wish that I may
+find some explanation of this mystery, other than circumstantial
+evidence seems to point. If I so find I shall return and tell you.
+If not--good-by. Make my respectful regards to your mother, and thank you
+for my entertainment."
+
+He turned and walked to the doorway, nobody interfering; but there he
+paused and asked:
+
+"That horse you mentioned? Can I purchase him of you? If so I need
+not trouble Samson for his escort, but will bid you, gentlemen,
+good-morning."
+
+A significant look ran around the circle of intent and lowering faces.
+The lawyer's succinct explanation of affairs had impressed them, but it
+had not altered one fact which most mattered to those hardy countrymen.
+
+A dead man, their idolized master and friend, had been accused of black
+dishonesty, and they had passed their own promise to their girlish
+captain not to injure the accuser.
+
+But they had not promised he should go scot-free. To some men shame was
+worse than a bullet wound. It would have been so to them, and they did
+the stranger thus much honor that they ascribed him equal manliness.
+
+As he stepped across the threshold Mr. Hale found both Samson and John
+Benton close beside him, at right hand and left; and when he was about
+to mount the superannuated beast, which a grinning stable lad held for
+him, he was pinioned and quietly hoisted into the saddle. Instantly,
+a brace of straps secured him and Samson's crop cut viciously at the
+animal's neck. Then the sailor sprang into his own saddle and, amid
+the insulting shouts and jeers of the assembled ranchmen, the unfortunate
+Easterner rode out of the mission courtyard--face backward.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+A PROJECTED JOURNEY
+
+
+Captain Jess screamed and ran forward, but her outstretched hands could
+not reach her guest, already borne many rods away. Then she faced the
+jeering men, with an anger she had not believed it possible that she
+could ever feel toward her beloved "boys."
+
+"Shame on you! Shame on you, every one! How dared you? And I thought--I
+thought--you were gentlemen!"
+
+With arms tightly folded over her breast, as if to hold back the
+conflicting emotions within it, her blue eyes flashing, her small foot
+stamping, she defied and condemned them all.
+
+A little laughter answered her, but this sound died speedily, and awkward
+glances shifted among the faces of the men. They were sorry to have
+offended the "Little One," and to have her indignant with them was
+a new and unpleasant situation, but they were not in the least degree
+sorry that they had administered some punishment to the maligner of
+their master. Most of them would have wished this punishment more severe,
+but the promise Jessica had exacted from them before this interview had
+prevented.
+
+One by one, as they had first come upon the scene they retreated from
+it, though Joe Dean lingered a moment to ask:
+
+"Won't you come share our breakfast, captain, and so bury the hatchet?"
+
+She sadly shook her head. All her anger left her as suddenly as it had
+arisen, and there remained in her mind but one thought--there were
+people in the world who believed her father had been a thief. That was
+the hard and bitter fact which nothing could soften. The former trouble
+about the lost title deed, and the probable loss of her home seemed as
+nothing to this new distress. How was she to face it? How disprove
+it? How save her beloved mother from ever hearing it?
+
+There came a step beside her and a strong arm about her shoulders. It
+was Ephraim Marsh; erect, resolute, protecting.
+
+"Take it easy, daughter. It's you and me together'll nail this lie
+on the door of the man who started it. There's a blue sky up yonder
+and a solid earth down here. I'm good to trust the one and tread the
+other for forty miles a day yet, spite of my white head. If I have to
+travel this old State over its hundred and fifty-six thousand square
+miles, before I clinch that falsehood, I'll clinch it, if I live. If I
+don't--laws, dearie, I'm in the same poor box myself. There's them
+that believe me a--you know the word. Even your mother----"
+
+"No, Ephraim! She never believed you anything but the splendid man you
+are."
+
+"Last night, no shooting, and----"
+
+"It was nothing. She was tired. Aunt Sally always tires her, at first,
+good as she is and much as we love her. Mother is so quiet and gentle
+herself----"
+
+"I understand, darlin'."
+
+"Ephraim, she must never know that dreadful thing the stranger said."
+
+"Captain, she'll have to know."
+
+"She must not, I tell you! What am I for but to take care of and love
+her? Ned--but Ned's only a little boy----"
+
+"And you, my Jessie, are but a few years older than he."
+
+"I'm older than you, I believe! Is it only two days since I met that
+man in the canyon and things began to happen? It seems forever. As if
+I'd only lived these forty-eight hours, and all that went before was
+a dream."
+
+Ephraim stepped aside and regarded her shrewdly.
+
+"Old words to come from so young a mouth, Lady Captain. Have you had
+any breakfast?"
+
+"No. I don't want any. Have you?"
+
+"No. But I'm going to have. As a rule, breakfasts are wholesome.
+Keeping your stomach quiet keeps your head clear. Things'll look more
+natural after we've eat. Share mine?"
+
+"No, I mustn't. Mother would miss me and wonder."
+
+"You often do."
+
+"It's better you share mine to-day. Then we must plan. I heard you
+say that about you and me together. Will you help me? Shall we prove it
+wasn't true--to the rest of the world, I mean--as we know it? Shall we?"
+
+"That's the rest of my life-job, darlin'. We'll begin it right away
+by getting a taste of Aunt Sally's good victuals. I hate her picra
+doses, but her cooking beats the Dutch."
+
+"Afterward?"
+
+"Afterward isn't touched yet."
+
+Whether real or affected there had come a cheerfulness into the old
+man's tone which it had lacked a few moments earlier. After all he
+was not useless. Who knew his California as he did? If it were true
+that money had been sent to Mr. Trent's hands and was missing, then
+somewhere was a man who had appropriated it. Whoever and wherever he was,
+he should be found, and Ephraim Marsh was self-appointed so to find.
+
+Jessica's hand slipped under his arm, and her own face grew somewhat
+lighter as she walked beside him toward her own home, where Aunt Sally
+was keeping an anxious lookout and a most tempting breakfast.
+
+"Bless you, Jessie! I'm glad you've come. Step right in, Ephy. Them
+muffins are so light they've nigh flown off the porch. Made with the
+eggs my hen-chicken laid, comin' along from Boston. Smartest fowl in
+the country, and only one I ever owned would brood and lay at the same
+time. I wouldn't take a fortune for that bird."
+
+Aunt Sally's own cheerfulness was fully restored. With her to be busy
+helping somebody was, after all, her happiness. And she saw that she had
+never come to Sobrante more opportunely.
+
+"Your mother isn't up yet, dearie. And I've had the tackers out and
+washed 'em good. Then I filled them with hot milk, and some of my
+salt-risin' bread I fetched along in my box, and put 'em to bed. I
+promised if they'd go to sleep again I'd make 'em each a saucer-pie,
+and they went."
+
+In spite of her heavy heart, Jessica laughed.
+
+"Aunt Sally, I don't believe there's another person could make them
+go to sleep at this time of day; not even my mother."
+
+"Pooh! Her! Why, that little Edward knows he can twist her round his
+thumb easy as scat. He's too much the look of his father for Gabriella
+ever to be sot with him. You, now, you favor her folks."
+
+Here, foreseeing that the talkative woman was off on a long track,
+Ephraim mildly inquired:
+
+"Aunt Sally, did you bring that rheumatism-oil you had last time you
+were here?"
+
+She put on her spectacles and looked at him over them, as was her habit.
+Never, by any chance, had she been known to look through them, and her
+explanation of wearing them at all was simply: "It's proper for a woman
+of my age."
+
+"Ephy, you feel real bright, don't you? You and rheumatism! Why, man,
+you'll be getting married before you get rheumatic."
+
+"Then I'll never need the oil."
+
+She was not to be so easily worsted. If Ephraim was minded to be
+facetious, she'd match him at the business. Whereupon, instead of
+rehearsing the history of Gabriella's "folks" she veered round upon
+disease and gave them details of all the dreadful things she had ever
+heard till "Forty-niner" cried, "Quits! I'll not tackle you again."
+
+Mrs. Benton's eyes twinkled over her cup, for she had joined them at
+table. She knew, as he did, that this was but foolish sport, yet that it
+had served their mutual purpose; which was to divert Jessica's thoughts
+from trouble and her lips from asking why her mother did not appear.
+
+But the meal over, the question came, and the answer was ready:
+
+"Why, I just coaxed her to lie and rest a spell. She knew that I'd look
+after things all right, and can make butter next grade to hers, if I
+can't equal. Anybody that's been worrying with a Chinaman as long as
+she has needs a vacation, I 'low. So she's taking a mite of one."
+
+"Then I'll gather a bunch of roses and take to her. I'm glad to have
+her rest, and I hope--Aunt Sally, do you suppose she heard any of that
+dreadful man's talk? Did you tell her?"
+
+"No; I didn't tell her. I'd sooner never say another word as long as
+I live than do such a thing. You needn't be afraid to trust your old
+auntie, child. There, run along and make her a posy."
+
+But no sooner had Jessica gone into the garden than Aunt Sally's lips
+were close to Ephraim's ear, and she was whispering:
+
+"She heard it, every word. She didn't say so, and I didn't ask. But
+the look of it in her eyes. Ephraim Marsh, I've got a heartbroken woman
+on my hands, and don't you dare to tell me a word 'at I haven't."
+
+"Oh, that tongue of yours! Last night when you were yelling at him why
+didn't you think about other folks' hearts and be still? You've a
+voice like a fog horn when you're mad--or pleased, either!" cried this
+honest, ungallant frontiersman.
+
+"I know it, Ephy. It's the truth. I realize it as well as you do. And
+I was mad. Since she heard, anyway, I wish now 'at I'd up and thrashed
+him good. I had laid out to put a little bitter dose in his coffee this
+morning, but he went away without taking any," she ended, grimly.
+
+"Sally Benton, you're quite contriving. What's to be done?"
+
+Before she could reply Jessica came back, her arms full of great
+rose-branches and her face bright with confidence.
+
+"Ephraim, Aunt Sally, I've thought of something. It came to me out
+there among the roses, like a voice speaking; my mother must not and
+need not be told what Mr. Hale said. It isn't wicked to deceive her
+in this, for her own good. Often you've asked her to let you take me
+horseback trip to Los Angeles, stopping nights at houses on the way,
+with people who knew my father; and she's promised I should 'some
+time.' I think the 'some time' has come. She will be glad to have
+us go, for one thing, to find out about the feather markets and others
+that Antonio used to take care of, but has left. Aunt Sally does two
+things at once; why not we? We'll hunt that man who took the money;
+and if I can't find the deed first--though, of course, I shall--we'll
+straighten that out, too. Isn't that good sense?"
+
+"It's more; it's inspiration," responded "Forty-niner,"
+enthusiastically. He had already decided to make this journey alone, for
+Jessica's sake; but with her as companion he felt that it would be
+as sure of success as full of pleasure. A little child working to clear
+her father's name of dishonor, and to save her mother's home--what
+evil could prevail against this noble effort?
+
+It was like his simplicity and hers that neither thought of providing for
+difficulties by the way, or for any delay in finding the men and proofs
+they sought, when once they reached the distant city.
+
+Aunt Sally was not so sanguine; yet it was not her part to discourage
+any attempt to set wrong matters right, and she merely nodded her head
+and remarked:
+
+"It'll bear thinking on. Now, run along and see your mother."
+
+"Has she had her breakfast? Can't I carry it to her?"
+
+"S'pose I'd let that poor lamb go without her dawn-meal late as this?
+I heard her stirring the minute I got back into the house, so I fixed
+her some broma and poached her an egg, and made her go lie down again.
+You'll not find her hungry, child, 'less for a sight of you."
+
+Jessica ran to her mother's room, exclaiming:
+
+"I'm so glad you're resting, dear. Were ever more perfect roses? And
+isn't it delightful that Aunt Sally should be here just now to look
+after things. Because----"
+
+"Well, my darling? Why do you hesitate?"
+
+"Mother, may Ephraim and I go on that trip to Los Angeles?"
+
+Lady Jess had intended to be very careful and cautious, for once, and
+to test her mother's feelings on the subject she made her request. But
+frankness was her habit, and the question was out of itself, it seemed,
+and she waiting the answer with a beating heart.
+
+"Why just now, daughter? And--has Mr. Hale gone?" she asked, in a
+peculiar tone.
+
+"Yes. He has gone. He left rather--rather suddenly, but he sent his
+regards to you and his thanks. He said he might come back some time,
+but--I don't think he will. He said something to offend the 'boys,'
+and they let him take old Dandy. Samson went with him to show him the
+way."
+
+Poor little captain, who had never in her short life had one secret
+thought from her idolized mother. This first experience did not come
+easy to her, and after one glance into the sad, yet amused, eyes watching
+her, she tossed secrecy aside and buried her face on her mother's pillow.
+
+"Mother, mother! I am so unhappy. I'm keeping something back from you
+that I cannot tell you; that I cannot have you know, and I don't like
+it. But--it's right, it's best. So don't ask me, and, oh, mother--"
+
+"I've no need to ask you, sweetheart. I know, already."
+
+"Know--what?" cried Jessica alarmed, and sitting straight again.
+
+"All that is in your brave heart. All that Mr. Hale had heard against
+your father. All that you and Ephraim hope from this suddenly decided
+journey to a distant city."
+
+"Why--how? And I'd only just thought it out, yonder in the garden!"
+
+"I had begun to suspect, I hardly know why, that our late guest had
+come here as our enemy, or, rather, as an agent against us. Something
+held me back from confiding in him, as I at first wished to do. He is a
+gentleman, and doubtless honest, but he is not on our side. Besides, how
+and why he went away just as he did is plain enough. I have ears and
+I have eyes, and I heard all Aunt Sally's tirade last night, so could
+easily guess at his own part in the talk. Also--I saw him ride out of the
+courtyard. My little girl, for the first time in my life I blushed for
+Sobrante. Even if he had been a wicked man, which he was not, that was a
+dastardly insult. I am ashamed of your 'boys,' captain."
+
+"And so am I. And I told them so, quick enough. Oh! they pretended not
+to mind my anger, but they were ashamed--inside themselves, I know.
+Now, for ever so long, they'll be so good 'butter would melt in their
+mouths.' You see."
+
+"Apt pupil of Aunt Sally."
+
+"Why, mother! How can you smile and take it so quiet? This awful--awful
+thing he said?"
+
+"To say a thing is not to prove it. The charge is so monstrous that it
+becomes absurd. Nothing hurts us but what we do, and your father never
+did a dishonorable deed, from the hour of his birth till his death. I am
+sorry for those mistaken people who think that he did, and I am thankful
+that he left a brave little daughter to set them right."
+
+Jessica stared. For a long time past she had seen her mother anxious and
+troubled over matters which now seemed trivial in the extreme; yet this
+blow which had almost crushed her own courage but restored Mrs. Trent's.
+
+"Then do you mean that we may go?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Oh, mother! Thank you."
+
+"But you will go armed with the fullest information we can gain. We
+will examine all the papers Antonio left--if he left any. We will make a
+thorough search everywhere for that title deed. We shall probably find
+letters from this New York company to your father, and these will have
+the name, or names, of those with whom he did business at Los Angeles.
+I wish now that Senor Bernal were here. His knowledge would be worth
+everything in this emergency, if--he would give it. Well, he is not
+here, and we must do the best we can without him. I'm going to get up
+now and begin to look."
+
+"Aunt Sally thought you ought to rest."
+
+"This talk will rest me most of all."
+
+The mother was now as eager as the child, and together they were soon
+engaged in opening Mr. Trent's desk and secretary, which his wife had
+not before touched since he himself closed them.
+
+Alas! the search was an easy matter, and came swiftly to an end. Beyond a
+few personal letters from relatives and friends, there was not a scrap of
+writing anywhere. Even the ledgers and account books had been removed,
+and at this discovery the same thought came to both:
+
+"Antonio."
+
+"Yet, why? and so secretly. He was really the master here, and if, as
+he now claims, Sobrante is his, he has but to prove it, and we will go
+away," said the widow, trembling for the first time.
+
+"Let us try the safe. That night before he went off in such grief,
+Ephraim gave me the key. He thought he was going forever, and I was to
+look in it some time--when I needed. We'll look now."
+
+Mrs. Trent herself unlocked the clumsy iron box and found it empty, save
+for one small parcel. This, wrapped in a bit of canvas, was securely tied
+and addressed to "Jessica Trent."
+
+The mother passed it to her.
+
+"You open it, please, mother. It may be--it must be--that deed and
+maybe some other things--I couldn't wait to pick the knots, and I've
+no knife."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE START
+
+
+Nothing resembling a legal document was found inside the package; but,
+instead, were several neatly-arranged rolls of gold and silver money,
+with the denomination of each roll carefully marked outside; dollars,
+eagles, double eagles. With these was a scrap of paper, saying:
+
+    "All my savings for my captain. God bless them to
+    her.   E. M."
+
+"Oh, mother! That big-hearted Ephraim! Was anybody ever so unselfish
+as he?"
+
+"Or as unjust as I have been."
+
+"How? What can you mean?"
+
+Mrs. Trent did not answer, save by the tears in her eyes, though she was
+tempted to show her child all the base suspicion that had, for a brief
+space, dwelt in her own mind concerning "Forty-niner." A suspicion
+which Antonio had suggested, and her trouble made her too ready to
+accept. Then she reflected it were wiser not, and rose, placing the
+precious parcel in Jessica's own hands.
+
+"Let us find that splendid old man at once. We cannot accept his
+sacrifice, but we must hasten to show him we appreciate it."
+
+Ephraim was polishing his rifle in his own room when they came to him,
+and rose to welcome the unusual visit of the lady with more awkwardness
+than he commonly displayed. It was an honor she was doing him, yet he
+had far rather she had not come.
+
+But he was forced back into his chair by Jessica's assault of clinging
+arms and raining kisses, and, catching sight of the parcel in her hand,
+began to understand.
+
+"Oh, you splendid, darling, generous Ephraim! I can never, never thank
+you enough for doing this for me, but I could not ever possibly take it.
+Why, there must be hundreds of dollars there, my mother says, and that
+would mean almost all the years you've ever lived at Sobrante. I never
+knew anybody with such a heart as you, dear Ephraim."
+
+The poor old fellow was far more distressed by her rejection of his gift
+than she could guess. His face drooped, he worked his hands and feet
+uneasily, he shifted his seat, and behaved in altogether a new fashion
+for the man who had hitherto borne himself so simply and naturally. Then
+the old suspicion returned to sting his loving heart, and he glanced up
+to study his mistress' face. To his surprise he saw it wet with tears,
+and that she was holding out her thin, labor-hardened hands to clasp
+his own.
+
+"Ephraim Marsh, you have done me more good than money could bring. You
+have renewed my faith in mankind. In a world where live such men as you
+justice will be done the memory of my dead husband. I thank you."
+
+"Don't--don't mention it, Mrs. Trent. I wish it had been double, as it
+ought, only----"
+
+"Ephraim, mother says we may go. You and I, as you said, 'together,'
+to make everything straight."
+
+"What? You've told her then, Lady Jess."
+
+"Of course. Or she guessed. How could I keep anything from my mother?
+And she's quite willing."
+
+"I'm more than willing, Ephraim. I _want_ you to go. I believe that
+good will come of the journey, though I am terribly disappointed by not
+finding any papers or letters to help you in the search for the men with
+whom Mr. Trent transacted his business. Antonio must have taken away all
+the records or put them in some place I cannot guess."
+
+"Then we'll find Antonio first."
+
+"Of course. How simple of me not to think of that. Do you happen to know
+where he went?"
+
+"No, ma'am, I don't. But you can always track a--well some critters by
+their scent. Wherever that scoundrel goes he'll leave a trail. I've
+a keen nose for the hunt."
+
+"Don't judge him too harshly, Ephraim. Perhaps he considered that he
+was doing all for the best; and if Sobrante is his, he's welcome to it."
+
+"Whew!" was the ranchman's astonished comment.
+
+"Don't you understand, dear Ephraim? Losing a home is nothing to losing
+honor," said Jessica, earnestly. "We don't care half so much about
+Sobrante as that other thing."
+
+"You shall keep both. Your home and our master's honor," cried the
+old man, fiercely.
+
+"Yes, that we will!" echoed Jessica, clasping his hand again.
+
+So doing she dropped the canvas bag on the floor, and, picking it up,
+Mrs. Trent would have restored it to its owner, as she so considered the
+sharpshooter. But he would have none of it.
+
+"I've heard the little tackers call one another 'Indian giver.' I
+couldn't, ma'am, you know. It's Jessie's, now."
+
+The mistress' face grew serious. She had not expected to find the man so
+obstinate. But she hated to wound him and turned the matter aside with
+the remark:
+
+"Let it rest so, then, for the present. I will keep it in the safe
+till you come back--if I can. Though I begin to feel as if nothing were
+secure at Sobrante, nowadays."
+
+Ephraim pondered for a moment, then looked up with a relieved expression.
+
+"Asking pardon, ma'am, I'm sure; have you got any--I mean much money
+handy by you?"
+
+"No. I have not. Fortunately, beyond the wages of the men, not much
+ready cash is needed at Sobrante, where we produce so much."
+
+"Yes'm. Yet I wouldn't like to set out on a journey that might be
+long, or even delayed for a spell, without considerable loose change.
+Better let the captain pay all expenses of the trip out of that little
+handful, and call it square."
+
+"Square! That is even greater generosity than the first. Lying in the
+safe you might have found it again; but spent--Ephraim, I fear I'll
+never be able to repay such an amount. I must think out some other way."
+
+"Don't you trust me, Mrs. Trent?"
+
+"Am I not trusting you with the most precious thing in life--my
+daughter?"
+
+"Then, mother, trust him about the money. It's good sense. We haven't
+any and we need it. Besides, it hurts him to refuse. Yes, we'll use it,
+Ephraim dear."
+
+So it was settled; but it was not in Jessica's nature to keep the
+story from the rest of her "boys." Forgetting her angry feelings of the
+morning she called a meeting and spread the news among them. Much as she
+loved them, until the time of her recent appointment as "captain,"
+she had tried to give them their titles of "Mr.," though not always
+remembering. Now she no longer tried. They were just her comrades, and
+when she stood upon the horseblock to address them it was with the
+joyful announcement:
+
+"John! George! Joe! Everybody! Ephraim and I are going away!"
+
+She paused and looked around, but instead of the sympathetic pleasure
+she expected there were darkening looks and evident disappointment.
+
+"Oh! but we are coming back again. Hark, what he did!"
+
+Ephraim was away putting his few traps together against the morning's
+start, since, if they were to go at all, why delay? Else he might
+have silenced her then and there. But out it came, and be sure the
+sharpshooter's generosity lost not one bit in her telling.
+
+"With this money we're going to hire lawyers and pay our lodging where
+we have to, and hunt up the men that know about business. Finally, to
+find the money--that other lot of it--that Mr. Hale said had been sent
+to my father by those New York folks. If they did send it they shall
+have it back--if we can find it. If they didn't--they shall tell all
+the world they accused him wrongfully. We're going to find the man that
+made that title, if we can. We're going to save Sobrante, but we're
+going to save its honor first!"
+
+"Hurrah! Hurrah! Glory to the captain!"
+
+"And old 'Forty-niner,'" added honest John Benton.
+
+They cheered him to the skies, and when the uproar had subsided, their
+small chief said:
+
+"You are all to take the best care of Sobrante, and first--of my mother.
+Don't you let her worry, nor let Ned and Luis get hurt. And you must
+keep Aunt Sally here till I come back."
+
+Somebody groaned.
+
+"Oh! that's not right. I couldn't go if she hadn't come. She'll look
+after everything----"
+
+"That's the true word!"
+
+"And I want you all to be--be good and not tease her."
+
+"Hurrah! Hurrah! All in favor of minding the captain, say Ay!"
+
+They swung her down from her perch and carried her on their shoulders
+everywhere about the old mission. They offered her all their possessions,
+including pistols and bowie knives, at peaceful Sobrante more useful
+for target practice and pruning vines than their original purposes.
+But she declined all these warlike things, saying that Ephraim would
+carry only his own rifle, and finally tore herself away from them to
+the anxious mother at the cottage, naturally jealous of each moment of
+her darling's company.
+
+"Don't see how Eph. ever saved so much. Hasn't had any wages since
+ours failed, as I know of. Mine always go fast as earned, and thought
+everybody's did," said one, when Jessica had left them.
+
+"Some folks have all the luck! Why didn't it happen to me to have money
+to give her? or to offer first to go hunt them liars? Shucks!" said
+Samson, in disgust. Though he had been back some time from escorting
+the stranger "off bounds," that task had left him in a bad humor.
+
+"Well, the captain'd tell me envy was wicked, and when I was hearing
+her say it I'd believe it. But I do envy old eighty his chance,"
+complained Joe. "Hello! there's Ferd! Come to think of it I haven't
+noticed him around these two days. Not since that stranger cast his ugly
+shadow on the ranch. Hi, there, Dwarf! Where you been?"
+
+"Where I seen bad doings."
+
+"Right. Seeing you was there yourself. What doings was they?"
+
+In ordinary the older men had little to say to Antonio's "Left Hand,"
+but he afforded them diversion, just then, when they were all a little
+anxious and downhearted over their captain's departure on what seemed to
+some of them a wild-goose chase.
+
+Ferd went through a pantomime of theft. Furtively putting one hand
+into his neighbor's pocket to instantly thrust it back into his own.
+He produced a buckskin bag and twisting some eucalyptus leaves into
+rolls, suggesting those of money, thrust these within the bag and that
+within his jacket. Then he glanced about with an absurdly innocent
+expression, threw his shoulders back, and stepped forward a few paces
+with so firm a step and erect a bearing that more than one instantly
+recognized the mimicry.
+
+"Forty-niner."
+
+Having produced the effect he had intended, Ferd slouched back into his
+own natural attitude and begged:
+
+"Something to eat."
+
+At that moment Ephraim had been approaching and was an indignant witness
+of this performance, nor was he less quick to see its significance
+than his mates had been. Also, to him that buckskin bag was a familiar
+object. With one stride he collared Ferd and shook him like a rat.
+
+"You imp! What do you mean by that? And how came you by Elsa Winkler's
+pouch?"
+
+Ferd broke from his captor and his face changed color beneath its
+filth. He was one who was perfectly satisfied to live in a country
+where water was scarce; but, by way of fun, another ranchman caught him
+as he escaped from Ephraim, and forcibly ducked his head and shoulders
+in the washing-trough. After that he was let go and later on was given
+a liberal supper at the messroom. He ate this as if he had not seen
+food since he had gone away two days before, but he was greedy at all
+times, and the present instance excited no comment.
+
+The morning came and all was ready for the start. Every person at
+Sobrante gathered before the cottage door, and each with his or her
+word of farewell advice or good will. Aunt Sally, fluttering with
+patchwork strips of already "pieced blocks," flung jauntily over
+either shoulder, her spectacles slipping off the point of her nose and
+her hands holding forth a fat fig pie, hot and dripping from the oven.
+
+"I've been a-bakin' all night, Ephy. There's a pair of fowls, a ham,
+four loaves, some hard-boiled eggs, salt, pepper, sugar, tea, coffee,
+butter, dishes, five vials of medicine, some dish towels, some----"
+
+"What in reason! How expect me to carry that great basket, as well as
+the saddlebags, and myself--on one horse? You're old enough to have
+sense--but you'll never learn it. One loaf----"
+
+"Ephraim Marsh! Are you eighty years old or are you not? At your age
+would you starve the little darling daughter of the best friends you
+ever had? Here, Jessie. You get off that donkey. We'll wait till we can
+pick out some other man that----"
+
+"Give me the basket; I'll carry it if I have to on my head!"
+interrupted "Forty-niner," indignantly. But he added to himself:
+"I can chuck it into the first clump of mesquite I meet."
+
+Jessica was upon Scruff, whose loss the small boys were bewailing
+far more than that of the girl herself. Without Scruff they would be
+compelled to stay within walking distance of the cottage, and this
+was imprisonment. Without Jessica--well, there were many things one
+could do better with Jessica away.
+
+Mrs. Trent's face was pale but calm. Nobody knew what this first parting
+with her helpful child was to her anxious heart, but it was her part to
+send the travelers outward in good cheer.
+
+"Put the saddlebags on Scruff, in front of Jessica. He's strong enough
+to carry double, and they're not so heavy. Few girls, in my days at the
+East, would have set out upon an indefinite journey, equipped with only
+one flannel frock and a single change of underclothing."
+
+"But the flannel frock is new and so is the pretty Tam that Elsa gave me
+last Christmas. What do I want more? specially when there's this warm
+jacket you made me take, for a cold night's ride. Isn't it enough,
+mother, dear?"
+
+"Quite, I think, else I should have made you delay till I could have
+provided more. Be sure to write me, now and then. One of the men will
+ride to the post every few days and fetch any letters. Good-by, and
+now--go quickly!"
+
+She added no prayers, for these were too deep in her heart for outward
+utterance; but she felt her own courage ebbing, and that if the parting
+were not speedy she could not at all endure it. Until that moment she had
+not realized how complete was her dependence upon Jessica's protecting
+tenderness; and turning, toward her home hid thus the tears she would not
+have her daughter see.
+
+But neither could Lady Jess have seen them, because of the sudden mist in
+her own. All her eagerness for the journey was gone, and her courage was
+fast following it. If the start were not made at once it would never be.
+
+"Good-by, mother. Good-by, all! Come, Ephraim! Go, go--Scruff!"
+
+A moment later the travelers were disappearing down the sandy road, and
+upon those whom they had left behind had fallen an intolerable burden of
+foreboding and loneliness.
+
+"Desolation of desolations! That's what this old ranch'll be till
+that there little bunch of human sunshine comes safely back to it. A
+crazy trip, a crazy parcel of folks to let her take it. That's what we
+are," said John Benton, savagely kicking the horseblock to vent his
+painful emotion.
+
+"Oh, dear! Oh, dear! And I never remembered to put in that guava jell!"
+moaned a voice of woe.
+
+"Then, mother, just trot it out to us for dinner," said her son,
+"we'll take that burden off your mind."
+
+"You will? Have you a heart to eat good victuals, John Benton, when that
+sweet child has just thrust herself into a den of lions, and lawyers, and
+liars, and--and--things?"
+
+"Oh, hush! Lions! The notion!"
+
+"Well, you can't deny there's bears, anyway," she retorted, with
+ready dolefulness. "Ephy's shot 'em himself in his younger days."
+
+"And ended the crop. Now you go in; and if I hear you downhearting the
+mistress the least bit I'll make you take a dose of your own picra,"
+said this much-tried man.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE FINISH
+
+
+It was a journey of something more than two hundred miles and they were
+almost a week on the way; riding for several hours each morning and
+evening; camping in some well-watered spot at midday; or, this failing,
+sharing the dinner of some friendly ranchman. Also, they slept at some
+little inn or ranch, and where their hosts would receive it, Ephraim
+delighted to make liberal payment for their entertainment.
+
+Indeed, he felt a prince, with his well-filled purse, and would have
+forced all sorts of dainties and knickknacks upon his little charge,
+at each village they passed through, save that she resolutely refused
+them.
+
+"You generous Ephraim, no! What money we need for the trip and after
+we get to Los Angeles is all right. But you mustn't waste it. Hear! I
+am older than you in this thing."
+
+"But--I want you to have everything nice in the world, Lady Jess. Any
+other of the 'boys' traveling with you----"
+
+"Could not have been so kind and thoughtful as you. Not one. Dearly as I
+love them I'd rather have you to take care of me on this long journey
+than any other single one. So do be good and not extravagant. And isn't
+it lovely to find how almost everybody knew of my dear father? Or, if
+they didn't know him for himself, they'd heard of him and of something
+he'd done for somebody. It makes the way seem almost short and as if
+I'd been over the road before."
+
+"He often passed this way, child; and whenever he went left pleasant
+memories behind him. He was a grand man, was Cassius Trent. Ugh! To
+think----"
+
+"That will be all right, Ephraim. I know it. I feel it. And how I do
+love all the new places and things I see. I should never have cared to
+leave Sobrante but for this business; yet now I have left it I'm finding
+the world a big, splendid, lovely place."
+
+"H-m-m! I reckon even this old earth could show only its best side to
+you, little girl. However, it _has_ been pleasant and it's about over.
+Aunt Sally's provisions didn't have to go into the mesquite bushes,
+after all. What we couldn't eat we've found plenty of others to take
+off our hands. Even the medicine didn't go begging, and that'll do her
+proud to hear. Poor wretches who have to take it!"
+
+"But they wanted it, Ephraim. Some of the women said they hadn't had
+a dose of medicine in years and seemed as pleased as if it had been
+sweetmeats. Now the basket is empty. What shall you do with that?"
+
+"Leave it at the next place we stop."
+
+They had set out upon their ride on Tuesday morning and this was sunset,
+Saturday. They were descending the slope of a mountain and the guide
+pointed forward, eagerly.
+
+"Do you see that hazy spot off yonder? That's our City of the Angels!
+The city where we shall find justice and honor."
+
+"Oh, shall we be there to-night?"
+
+"No. We might have been days ago if we'd ridden across country and
+struck the railway lines, but I wanted to do just as we have done. I
+knew you'd hear so much about your father it would do you good forever.
+We can go home the quicker way if we think best; and if we have good news
+to take will, likely, so think, I--I'm almost sorry we're so near the
+end."
+
+"In one way so am I. Not in another. I long to begin to hunt for that
+money and the men who have it."
+
+Ephraim sighed. Now that he was thus far on his mission he began to
+think it, indeed, as Joe Dean had said, "A good deal of the needle and
+haymow style." But he rallied at once and answered, cheerfully:
+
+"There's a house I know, or used to, at the foot of this slope. I
+planned to sleep there to-night, make an early start in the morning, and
+ride the fifteen miles left so as to get to the town in time for the
+churches. To think you're eleven years old, Lady Jess, yet have never
+been inside any church except the rickety old mission."
+
+"Do you like churches, Ephraim?"
+
+"Yes. I do now, child. I didn't care so much about 'em when I lived
+nigh 'em. But they're right. There's a good many kinds of 'em
+and they get me a little mixed, arguing. But they're right; and the
+bell----It'll be a good beginning of this present job to go to meeting
+the first thing."
+
+"Oh! this wonderful world and the wonderful things I'm learning! What
+a lot I shall have to tell the folks when I get home. Seems as if I
+couldn't wait."
+
+They found the little lodging-house, as Ephraim had hoped, though
+now kept by a stranger to him. However, the new landlord made them
+comfortable, charged them an exorbitant price--having caught sight of
+his guest's fat purse--and set them early on their way. "Forty-niner"
+did not complain. Their next and final stop would be with an old
+fellow-miner who, at Ephraim's last visit to Los Angeles, five years
+before, had kept a tidy little inn on one of the city's central
+streets. If this old friend were still living he would give them hearty
+welcome, the best entertainment possible, and what was more to the
+purpose--practical advice as to their business.
+
+"The bells! The bells! Oh! they are what you said, the sweetest things
+I ever heard!" cried Lady Jess, in delight, as over the miles of
+distance there floated to them on the clear air, the chimes and sonorous
+tollings from many church towers.
+
+"We shall be late, after all, I guess. That means it's time for the
+meetings to begin. Well, there'll be others in the afternoon; so we may
+as good take it easy and go slow."
+
+This suited Jessica, who found more and more to surprise and interest
+her in every stage of their advance, and most of all as they entered
+the city. This was much altered and improved since the sharpshooter
+had himself last seen it, but even thus he could point out many of the
+finest buildings, name the chief avenues, and comport himself after
+the manner of one who knows enlightening one who does not.
+
+But soon Jessica saw few of the things which interested him and heard
+him not at all. It was the first time she had ever seen a girl of her
+own age, and now--the streets were full of them. In their gay Sunday
+attire, on their homeward way now from the churches whose bells had long
+ceased to ring, they were here, there, and everywhere. They lined the
+sidewalks and glittered from the open electric cars. They smiled at
+one another and, a few, at her; for to them, also, this other stranger
+girl was a novel sight, just then and there. Besides the oddity of her
+dress and equipment, the eagerness and beauty of her face attracted
+them, and more than one pair of eyes turned to look after her, as Scruff
+scrambled along, unguided by his rider, and dodging one danger only
+to face another.
+
+"That's a country girl, fast enough; and if she doesn't look out that
+uneasy burro will land her on the curbstone! Look out there, child!"
+cried one passerby, just as the animal bounded across the track of a
+whizzing trolley.
+
+But this peril escaped, Ephraim grasped Scruff's bridle and presently
+led the way into a quieter street or alley, and thence to the wide plaza
+before the inn he sought.
+
+"Thank fortune, there's room enough here to turn around in! And
+there's the very house. Hello! Lady Jess! I say, Jessica!"
+
+Without warning the girl had whisked the bridle from his grasp and had
+chirruped to the now excited beast in the manner which meant:
+
+"Go your swiftest!"
+
+Scruff went. Following he knew not what, and terrified afresh at every
+square he traversed. Somewhere a band of music was playing, and the
+beating of the drums seemed to his donkey brain the most horrible of
+noises. To escape it and the ever-increasing throng his nimble feet flew
+up and down like mad; he thrust his head between the arms of people
+and forced the crowd to part for him; he reared, backed, plunged, and
+shook himself; but did not in the least disturb his mistress' firm
+seat, as with her own head leaning forward she kept her gaze upon some
+distant object and urged him to pursuit.
+
+The crowd which made way for this eager pair was first angry, then
+amused. After that it began to collect into a formidable following.
+Poor Lady Jess became to them a "show" and Scruff's antics but meant
+to exhibit her "trick" riding.
+
+Now Stiffleg was an ancient beast, which had been a trotter in his day;
+but his day, like his master's, was past. By good care and easy stages
+he had accomplished his long journey in fair condition; but he was a
+sensible animal and felt that he had earned a rest. So when Ephraim
+urged him forward after the vanishing burro he halted and turned his
+head about. If ever equine eyes protested against further effort, his
+did then; and at ordinary times "Forty-niner" would have been the
+first to perceive this appeal and grant it. He had always bragged that
+"Stiffleg's more human than most folks," but he forgot this now. He
+remembered only that his precious charge was fast disappearing from
+sight and that in another moment she would be lost in a great, strange
+city.
+
+"Simpleton that I was! I never even mentioned the name of the tavern we
+were going to," reflected, "else she might tell it and get shown the
+way." Then came another startling thought. For fear of just such an
+emergency--why had he been silly enough to think of it?--he had on that
+very morning, as they neared their journey's end, divided their money
+into two portions and make her carry the larger one. She had objected,
+at first; but afterward consented, and with pride in his trust. "If
+any scamp got hold of her he'd rob her or--maybe worse! Oh, Atlantic!
+Giddap, Stiff! Giddap, I tell you!"
+
+To the crowd this appeared but another feature of "the show." These
+rustics from the plains had evidently come into town to furnish
+entertainment for Sunday strollers, and Stiffleg's obstinacy was to
+them a second of the "tricks" to be exhibited.
+
+However, it was a case of genuine balk; and the more Ephraim urged,
+implored, chastised, the firmer were the horse's forefeet planted upon
+the highway and the more despairing became the rider's feeling.
+
+"Build a fire under him," "Thrust red pepper under his nose," "Tie
+him to a trolley car." "Blindfold him."
+
+Various were the suggestions offered, to none of which did the
+sharpshooter pay any heed. The brass band accomplished what nothing
+else could. Blatantly it came around the corner, keeping time to its
+own noisy drums, and Stiffleg pricked up his ears. In his youth he had
+marched to battle and, at that moment, his youth was renewed. He
+reared his drooping head, a thrill ran through his languid veins, and,
+though still without advance motion, his hoofs began to beat a swift
+tattoo, till the towering plumes of the drum major came alongside
+his own now gleaming eyes. Then, he wheeled suddenly and--forward!
+
+"Ho! the old war-horse! That's a pretty sight," shouted somebody.
+
+Alas! for Ephraim. The unexpected movement of the balking animal did
+for him what was rare indeed--unseated him. By the time that it was
+"right front" for Stiffleg his master was on the ground, feeling
+that an untoward fate had overtaken him and that his leg, if not his
+heart, was broken. Music had charms, in truth, for the rejuvenated
+beast, and one of the sharpshooter's pet theories was thereby proved
+false. Had anybody at Sobrante told him that anything could entice his
+"faithful" horse away from him he would have denied the statement
+angrily. He would have declared, with equal conviction, that, in case
+of accident like this, the intelligent creature would have stayed beside
+and tried to tend him.
+
+Now, lying forsaken both by Jessica and Stiffleg, he uttered his shame
+and misery in a prolonged howl, as he attempted to rise and could not.
+
+"O! Ough! Oh! My leg's broke! My leg's broke all to smash, I tell you.
+Somebody pick me up and carry me--yonder--to the Yankee Blade. If Tom
+Jefferts keeps it still, he'll play my friend. Oh! Ah!"
+
+Some in the now pitying throng exchanged glances, and one man bent over
+the prostrate Ephraim, saying, kindly:
+
+"Why, Tom Jefferts hasn't been in this town these three years. He went
+to 'Frisco and set up there. If there's anybody else you'd like to
+notify I'll telephone----"
+
+"He gone, too! Then let me lie. What do I care what becomes of me now?
+Oh! my leg!"
+
+The bravest men are cowards before physical suffering, sometimes. Ephraim
+would have faced death for Jessica without flinching, but that gathering
+agony of pain made him indifferent, for the moment, even to her welfare.
+This calamity had fallen upon him like lightning from a clear sky and
+benumbed him, so to speak. But it had not benumbed those about him.
+Within five minutes the clang of an ambulance gong was heard, and the
+aid which some thoughtful person had summoned arrived. Ephraim was
+tenderly lifted and placed within the conveyance, and away it dashed
+again, though almost without jar, and certainly without hindrance,
+since everything on the street gives place to suffering.
+
+By the time the hospital was reached the patient had recovered something
+of his customary fortitude, but he was still too confused and distressed
+to think clearly about his escaped charge and what should be done to find
+her. As for Stiffleg:
+
+"I hope I'll never see that cowardly, ungrateful beast again!" he
+ejaculated; then resigned himself to the surgeon's hands.
+
+That which Lady Jess had perceived in the distance and had followed so
+wildly was the tall figure of a gentleman in a gray suit. He wore a gray
+hat and blue glasses, such as her mother had pressed upon Mr. Hale's
+acceptance during his brief stay at Sobrante.
+
+"It's he! It certainly is he! Oh! Now I can tell him how sorry both
+mother and I were that the 'boys' behaved so rudely. And he's a
+lawyer. He's on the same business we are, if his is the other side. I
+must stop him--quick!"
+
+This might have been an easy thing to do, under Scruff's present rate
+of speed; but, unfortunately, the tall man stepped into a hack, waiting
+beside the plaza for stray passengers, and giving an order was driven
+rapidly away.
+
+For a long time Jessica kept that carriage in sight; then it turned a
+corner into an avenue, where were hundreds more just like it, it seemed
+to her, and she lost it among the many.
+
+Even yet she pressed on determined. "In a city--it's just one city,
+even if it is a big one--I shall find him if I keep on. I must. Go,
+Scruff! The band is after you. Go! Go!"
+
+The overtaxed burro had already "gone" to his fullest ability. He could
+do no more, although his mistress whispered "sugar," "sweet cake"
+and other tempting words. His excited pace dropped to the slowest of
+walks, his breath came hardly, and finally he leaned himself against a
+post and rested. When he had done so for some moments, Jessica turned
+him about and looked backward, expecting to see Ephraim close behind.
+But he was nowhere in sight; and in a flash of horror the girl realized
+that she was lost.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+A NEW FRIEND FOR THE OLD
+
+
+"Lost! I'm lost! Right here in this great city full of folks. It
+seemed so easy to find Mr. Hale and it was so hard. There are so many
+streets--which one is right? There are so many people--oh! if they'd
+stop going by for just one minute, till I could think."
+
+The passing crowd that had so interested now terrified her. Among all
+the changing faces not one she knew, not one that more than glanced her
+way, and was gone on, indifferent. The memory of a time in her early
+childhood when she had strayed into the canyon and became bewildered
+flashed through her mind. Was she to suffer again the misery of that
+dreadful day? But the day had ended in a father's rescuing arms, and
+now----
+
+"I remember he told me then that if ever I were lost again I was to
+keep perfectly still for a time and think over all the things I'd seen
+by the way. After awhile I might feel sure enough to go slowly back and
+guide myself by them. But I can't think here. It's so noisy and thick
+with men and women. And I'm getting so hungry. Ephraim said we would
+have the best dinner his friend could give us. If he'd told me that
+friend's name or where he lived. Well, I'll mind my father in one
+thing; I'll keep still. Then if Ephraim should happen to come this
+way he'd find me sooner. But--he won't. Something has happened, or
+he'd never let me out of sight. If I didn't know the bigness of a
+city he did and would have taken care."
+
+So she dismounted and led Scruff back beside the telegraph post, against
+which the weary animal calmly leaned his shoulder and went to sleep.
+Jessica threw her arm over the burro's neck and, standing so, scanned
+every passing pedestrian and peered into every whirling vehicle.
+
+Something of her first terror left her. She was foolish to think anything
+harmful could have happened to "Forty-niner" so quickly after she
+had run away from him. She wished she had called and explained to him,
+but she had had no time if she would catch up to that gray-coated
+gentleman. After all they were still in the same city and all she
+needed was patience.
+
+"That's what I have so little of, too. Maybe this is a lesson to me.
+Mother says impatient people always find life harder than the quiet
+kind. I wonder what she's doing now! and oh! I'm glad she can't see
+me. She'd suffer more than I do. It's queer how that man, in a fancy
+coat, with so many brass buttons, keeps looking at me. He's walked
+by this place on one side the street or the other ever so many times. I
+wonder if he owns this post. Maybe it's his and he doesn't like us to
+stand here, yet is too polite to say so. Come, Scruff, let's walk a
+little further along. Then he can see we don't mean to hurt his post."
+
+Scruff reluctantly roused and moved a pace or two, then went to sleep
+again. The shadow of a building that had sheltered them from the hot
+sunshine passed gradually and left them exposed to the full glare from
+the sky. Both Jessica and the burro were used to heat, however, and did
+not greatly suffer from it. But this motionless waiting became almost
+intolerable to active Lady Jess, and the sharpness of her hunger changed
+into faintness. The sidewalks seemed to be rising up to strike her and
+her head felt queer; so she pulled the hot Tam from her curls, leaned
+her cheek against Scruff's neck, and, to clear her dizzy vision, closed
+her eyes. Then for a long time knew no more.
+
+A young man sat down to smoke his after-dinner cigar before the window
+of a clubhouse across the way. Idly observant of the comparatively few
+persons passing at that hour, his artist eye was caught by the scarlet
+gleam of Jessica's cap, fallen against the curbstone.
+
+"Hello! That child has been in that spot for two hours, I think. She
+was there before I went to dinner and must be dead tired. But she and
+the burro are picturesque--I'll sketch them."
+
+He whipped out notebook and pencil and by a few skillful lines reproduced
+the pair opposite. But as he glanced toward them, now and then, during
+this operation, he became convinced that something was amiss with his
+subject.
+
+"Poor little thing! If she's waiting for anybody she keeps the baby
+too long. I'm going over and speak to her. If she's hungry I'll send
+her a sandwich."
+
+At his touch on her shoulder Jessica roused. Her sleep had refreshed her,
+though she was still somewhat confused.
+
+"Oh! Ephraim! How long you've been! Why--it isn't Ephraim!"
+
+"No, little girl, I'm not Ephraim, but I'm a friend. I'm afraid
+you will be ill standing so long in the hot sun. Are you waiting for
+anybody?"
+
+The voice was kind and Jessica was glad to speak to any one. She told
+her story at once in a few words. The young man's face grew grave as
+he listened, still he spoke encouragingly.
+
+"It's quite easy for strangers in a big place to get separated.
+Suppose, since you haven't had your dinner, as I guess, that you go with
+me and have some. Wait, I'll just speak to that policeman, yonder,
+and ask him to have a lookout for your Ephraim, while we're in the
+restaurant. There's a good place halfway down the block, and from its
+window you can watch the burro for yourself. I'll tie him, shan't I?"
+
+"He's very tired. I don't think he'll need any tying. He's never
+tied at Sobrante."
+
+"Sobrante? Are you from Sobrante? Why, I've heard of that ranch,
+myself."
+
+"Have you? That makes it seem as if I knew you."
+
+The stranger smiled and beckoned to the policeman, who proved to be the
+brass-buttoned individual that had taken so much apparent interest in
+Jessica, but had not spoken to her of his own accord. He came forward
+promptly now and the young man related to him what Lady Jess had said.
+Then asked:
+
+"What would I better do about it? I thought of taking her to the
+restaurant over there and getting her some dinner."
+
+"No. She'd better go to the station-house with me. The matron'll look
+after her and I'll have the donkey put in stable. I'll tell the officer
+who's coming on this beat now to keep an eye out for a countryman with
+a stiff-legged horse; is it, girl?"
+
+"Yes. A bay horse, with a blazed face. The horse's name is Stiffleg
+and the master's, Ephraim Marsh."
+
+The officer made the entry in his book, then took hold of Scruff's
+bridle and led the way stationward. Jessica looked appealingly into
+the young man's face and he smiled, then grasped her hand.
+
+"Don't fear, child, that I'll desert you till I find your old
+guardian. There's nothing frightful about a station-house, except to
+criminals," he said, kindly.
+
+However, Jessica knew nothing of such institutions and therefore had
+no fear of them. With the exception of Antonio's "crossness" she had
+met with nothing but love and kindness all her life, and she looked for
+nothing else. She was already happy again at finding two persons ready
+to talk with her and help her; and her pretty face grew more and more
+charming to the artist's view as she skipped along beside him toward
+the police headquarters, as this station chanced to be.
+
+"You see, little girl, that when a child is lost in a city the first
+thing the friends think of is--the station-house. All stray persons are
+taken and messages are sent to it from every part of the town all the
+time. That Ephraim will remember that, if he's ever been here before,
+and he'll be finding you long before night. Till then you'll be safe
+and cared for."
+
+Jessica did feel a moment's hesitation when she had to part with Scruff,
+but soon laughed at her own dismay.
+
+"I felt as I must take him inside this building with me, for fear he'd
+be lonesome, too. But, of course, I know better. Why, what a nice, big
+place this is!"
+
+By far the largest building she had ever entered, but her new
+acquaintances smiled at her delight over it.
+
+"Not all who come here think it so fine," said the young man. "Eh,
+officer?"
+
+"No, no. No, indeed, sir. Now, this way, please. I'll just enter the
+case at the desk and call up the matron. She'll tend to the girl all
+right. You needn't bother any more."
+
+"Oh! are you going?" asked Jessica, her face drooping.
+
+"Not yet. No law against my having a meal with this young lady, is
+there, officer?"
+
+"If it isn't at the public charge, sir," answered the policeman.
+
+"Oh! I've money to pay for my own dinner. See?" cried Lady Jess,
+producing the fat wallet Ephraim had given her and which she pulled from
+within her blouse, where she had worn it, suspended by a string.
+
+"Whew! child! All that? Put it up, quick. Put it up, I say."
+
+Instinctively she obeyed and hid the purse again, but her face expressed
+her surprise, and the young man answered its unspoken question.
+
+"Very few little girls of your age ever have so much money as that about
+them. None ever should have. It's too great a temptation to evil-minded
+persons, and a good many of that sort come here. Ah! the matron! I'll
+ask her to show us into some less public place and I'll order a dinner
+from that restaurant nearby."
+
+In response to his request the motherly woman in charge of the women's
+quarters offered him her own little sitting-room; "if they'll say yes
+to it in the office," she added, as a condition.
+
+This was soon arranged, the dinner followed and a very hungry Jessica sat
+down to enjoy it. Her companion also pretended to eat, but encouraged her
+to talk and found himself interested in her every moment. He, also,
+promptly told her who he was; a reporter and occasional artist, on
+one of the leading daily papers. A man always on the lookout for
+"material," and as such he meant to use the sketch, he had made. He
+showed her the sketch, and explained that he would put an item in
+the next issue of his paper which might meet the eye of the missing
+sharpshooter and notify that person where to find her, if he had not
+done so before.
+
+Jessica did not know that it was an unwise thing to make a confidant of
+a stranger, but in this instance she was safe enough; and it pleased her
+to tell, as him to listen to, the whole history of Sobrante; its fortunes
+and misfortunes, and the object of her present visit to this far-off town.
+
+His business instinct was aroused. He realized that here might be
+"material," indeed. He was young and sincere enough to be enthusiastic.
+Times were a little dull. There was quite a lull in murders and
+robberies; this story suggested either a robbery or swindle of some
+sort, and on a big scale. His paper would appreciate his getting a
+"scoop" on its contemporaries, and, in a word, he resolved to make
+Jessica Trent's cause his own, for the time being.
+
+"Look here, child, don't you worry. You stay right quiet in this
+place with Matron Wood. I'll get out and hustle. Here's my card, Ninian
+Sharp, of _The Lancet_. That's a paper has cut a good many knots and
+shall cut yours. I've heard of Cassius Trent. Everybody has, in
+California. I'll find that Lawyer Hale. I'll find old 'Forty-niner'
+and I'll be back in this room before bedtime. Now, go play with the
+rest of the lost children--you're by no means the only one in Los
+Angeles to-day. Or take a nap would be wiser. Look out for her, Matron
+Wood. Any good turn done this little maid is done _The Lancet_. Good-by,
+for a time."
+
+Smiling, alert, he departed and Jessica felt as if he had taken all her
+anxieties with him. She followed the matron into the big room where the
+other estrays, whom Mr. Sharp had told her she would find, waiting to
+be claimed by their friends, but none was as large as she. Some were so
+little she wondered how they ever could have wandered anywhere away from
+home; but she loved all children and these reminded her of Ned and Luis.
+
+Promptly she had them all about her, and for the rest of that day, at
+least, Matron Wood's cares were lightened. Yet one after another, some
+person called to claim this or that wanderer, with cries of rapture
+or harsh words of reproof, as the case might be. Jessica kissed each
+little one good-by, but with each departure felt herself growing more
+homesick and depressed. By sunset she was the only child left in the
+matron's care, and her loneliness so overcame her that she had trouble
+to keep back her tears.
+
+"But I'll not cry. I will not be so babyish. Besides crying wouldn't
+help bad matters and I've come away from Sobrante on a big mission.
+Even that jolly Mr. Sharp said, 'That's a considerable of a job,' when
+I told him. He was funny. Always laughing and so quick, I wish he'd
+come soon. It seems to take as long for him to find Ephraim as it would
+me. I should think anybody could have walked the whole city over by this
+time," she thought, in her ignorance of distances. Then she asked:
+
+"When do you think they'll come, Matron Wood?"
+
+The good woman waked from a "cat-nap" and was tired enough to be
+impatient.
+
+"Oh! don't bother. If they're not here by nine o'clock you'll have
+to go to bed. You should be thankful that there is such a place as this
+for just such folks as you. Like as not he'll never come. You can't
+tell anything about them newspaper men. But you listen to that bell, will
+you? I don't see what makes me so sleepy. If it rings, wake me up."
+
+The minutes sped on. In the now silent room the portly matron slumbered
+peacefully and Jessica tried, though vainly, to keep a faithful watch.
+She did not know that her weary companion was breaking rules and laying
+herself open to disgrace; but she was herself very tired, so, presently,
+her head dropped on the table and she was also asleep.
+
+Ninian Sharp found the pair thus, and jested with the matron when he
+waked her in a way that sounded very much like earnest. "He would have
+her removed," and so on; thereby frightening Jessica, who had been
+roused by their voices, and looked from one to the other in keen distress.
+
+"I did--I did try to listen for the bell, but it was so still and I
+couldn't help it. I'm sorry----"
+
+"Pooh! child. No more could I. It'll be all right if this gentleman
+knows enough to hold his tongue," said the woman, anxiously.
+
+"I shouldn't be a gentleman if I didn't--where a lady is concerned.
+And I judge from appearances it's about time Miss Jessica went to bed."
+
+The girl's heart sank. This meant disappointment. She understood that
+without further words, and turned away her face to hide the tears which
+would come now, in spite of all her will.
+
+Then the reporter's hand was on her curls.
+
+"Keep up your courage, child. I've been hustling, as I said I would.
+I've found out a lot. I've had boys searching the hotel records all
+over town and I know in which one your Mr. Hale is staying. He'll
+keep--till we need him."
+
+"But Ephraim? Have you heard nothing of him?"
+
+"I heard a funny yarn about a horse with a stiff leg; that the moment
+the sound of a drum was in his ears cooly tossed his aged rider into
+the gutter and marched off with the brass band, head up, eyes flashing,
+tail switching, a soldier with the best of them. See--it's here in this
+evening's _Gossip._"
+
+He held the sheet toward her and Jessica read the humorous account of
+Stiffleg's desertion. But there was no account of what had further
+befallen Ephraim, and it seemed but a poor excuse for his non-appearance.
+
+She tossed the paper aside, impatiently:
+
+"But he had his own two good feet left. He could have followed me on
+them? I--I--he was always so faithful before."
+
+Mr. Sharp's face sobered.
+
+"He is faithful still, but his feet will serve him poorly for the next
+few weeks. Maybe months. Old bones are slow to heal, and the surgeon
+says it is a compound fracture. When he fell into the gutter, as my
+co-laborer so gayly puts it, he 'broke himself all to smash.' He's in
+hospital. As a great favor from the authorities in charge I've seen him.
+I've told him about you. I've promised to befriend you and I'll
+take you to see him in the morning. I'm sorry that your first night
+in our angelic city must be passed in a station-house, but I reckon
+it's the safest till I can think of some fitter shelter. Good-night.
+My mother used to say that the Lord never shut one door but He opened
+another. Ephraim laid up--here am I. Count on me. Good-night."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+A HOSPITAL REUNION
+
+
+When Ninian Sharp sat down to smoke a cigar at the window of his club it
+was with no idea that he was then and there to begin a bit of detective
+work which should make him famous. For, though this is anticipating,
+that was the reward which the future held for him because of his yielding
+to a kindly impulse.
+
+Through him, the helplessness of a little girl won for an almost hopeless
+cause the aid of a great newspaper, than which there is no influence
+more potent. It took but one hearing of Jessica's story to rouse his
+interest and to convince him that here was a "good thing if it could
+be well worked up." It promised a "sensation" that would result in
+benefit to his paper, to himself, and--for his credit be it said--to
+the family of the dead philanthropist.
+
+After he had bidden Lady Jess good-night, the reporter called at the
+hotel where Morris Hale was registered and held an interview with that
+gentleman. The result of this was pleasing to both men. They had one
+common object: the recovery of the missing money which had been entrusted
+to Cassius Trent. Mr. Hale wished this for the sake of his New York
+patrons, but now hoped, as did Ninian Sharp, that if it were accomplished
+it would also clear the memory of Jessica's father from the stain
+resting upon it. For the present, they decided to join forces, so to
+speak. By agreement, they went together to the station-house on the
+following morning, and found Lady Jess looking out of a window with
+a rather dreary interest in the scene. But she instantly caught sight
+of them and darted to the doorway to meet them, holding out both hands
+toward the lawyer and entreating:
+
+"Oh! I beg your pardon for the 'boys'! And for us that we should ever
+have let it happen to any guest of Sobrante. Can you forgive it?"
+
+The reporter looked curious and Mr. Hale's face flushed at the painful
+memory her words had revived. But he did not explain and passed the
+matter over, saying:
+
+"Don't mention it, my child. Odd, isn't it? To think you should follow
+me so quickly all this long way. Well, you deserve success and I'm
+going to help you to it, if I can. So is this new friend you've made.
+Now, are you ready to see poor 'Forty-niner'? If so, get your cap,
+bid the matron good-by, and we'll be off."
+
+Jessica obeyed, quickly; taking leave of Mrs. Wood with warm expressions
+of gratitude for her "nice bed and breakfast," assuring that rather
+skeptical person that these men "were certainly all right, because one
+of them had been at her own dear home and her mother had recognized him
+for a gentleman. The other--why, the other wrote for a newspaper. Even
+drew pictures for it! Think of that!"
+
+"Humph! A man might do worse. But, never mind. This is the place to
+come to if you get into any more trouble. There's the street and number
+it is, and here's my name on a piece of paper. Now, it's to be put
+in the book about your going, who takes you, and where. After that--after
+that I suppose there's nothing more."
+
+Ninian Sharp watched this little by-play with much interest, and remarked
+to the lawyer:
+
+"That child has a charm for all she meets. Even this old police matron,
+whose heart ought to be as tough as shoeleather, looks doleful at
+parting with her. I think her the most winning little creature I ever
+met."
+
+"You should see her with her 'boys,' as she calls the workmen at
+Sobrante. They idolize her and obey her blindly. Sometimes, their
+devotion going further than obedience," he added, with a return of
+annoyance in his expression.
+
+As she stepped into the street, Jessica clasped a hand of each, with
+joyful confidence, and they smiled at one another over her head, leading
+her to the next corner where they hailed a car and the reporter bade
+her jump aboard.
+
+"Am I to ride in that? Oh, delightful!"
+
+"Delightful" now seemed everything about her. Friends were close at
+hand and a few minutes would bring her to Ephraim. That he was injured
+and helpless she knew, yet could not realize; while she could and did
+realize to the full all the novelty about her. The swift motion of the
+electric car, the gay and busy streets, the palm-bordered avenues they
+crossed, the ever-changing scenes of the city, each richer and more
+wonderful than the other, in her inexperienced eyes. She would have liked
+to ask many questions, but her companions were now conversing in low
+tones and she would not interrupt. Soon, however, she saw Mr. Sharp make
+a slight gesture with his hand and the car stopped. "Our street," he
+said, rising.
+
+A brief walk afterward brought them to a big building, standing somewhat
+back from the avenue, with a green lawn and many trees about it.
+Above the several gateways of its iron fence were signs, indicating:
+"Accident Ward," "Convalescent's Ward," "General Hospital,"
+"Nurses' Home," "Dispensary," etc., all of which confused and
+somewhat startled the country-reared girl. The more, it may be, as, at
+that moment, the gong of an ambulance warned them to step off the
+crossing before the "accident" alley beside the main building, and
+the big van dashed toward an open door.
+
+Jessica gripped Mr. Hale's hand, nervously, and watched in a sort of
+fascination while white-garbed attendants lifted an injured man from the
+ambulance and carried him tenderly into the hospital.
+
+"Is--is he hurt?"
+
+"Yes, dear, I suppose so."
+
+"Was it like that they brought Ephraim here?"
+
+"Probably."
+
+"Oh! how dreadful! My poor, poor 'Forty-niner.'"
+
+"Rather, how merciful. But come; such a brave little woman as you
+mustn't show the white feather at the mere sight of a hospital van.
+Ephraim has been well cared for, be sure; and as he has been told to
+expect you he'll be disappointed if you bring him a scared, unhappy
+face."
+
+"Then I'll--I'll smile," she answered, promptly, thought the effort
+was something of a failure.
+
+Soon they entered the building, whose big halls were so silent in
+contrast with the street outside, and where the white-clad doctors and
+nurses seemed to Jessica like "ghosts" as they moved softly here
+and there. Again she clinched the lawyer's hand and whispered:
+
+"It's awful. It smells queer. I'm afraid. Aren't you?"
+
+"Not in the least. I like it. I've been a patient in just such places
+more than once and think of them as the most blessed institutions in
+the world. The odor of chemicals and disinfectants is noticeable at
+first, but one soon gets accustomed to it and likes it. At any rate
+I do. But, see, we're falling behind. Mr. Sharp evidently knows his
+way well and we must hurry if we'd keep him in sight."
+
+Indeed, the reporter was just disappearing around a turn of the broad
+staircase leading up into a sun-lighted corridor. He was quick and
+decided in all his movements, and had paused but for one instant to
+speak with an attendant at the door before he took his direct way to
+Ephraim's room.
+
+"Why, I supposed he was in the general ward" said Mr. Hale, as he
+joined Ninian, who had to stop and wait for his more leisurely advance.
+
+"He was, but he couldn't stand it. So I had him put into a private room
+and he's much better satisfied. He has money enough to pay for it and if
+he hadn't--well, it was just pitiful to see the old man's own distress
+at sight of the distress of others all about him. I'd have had to do it,
+even if it had taken my bottom dollar."
+
+"True to your class! I've always heard that newspaper men were the most
+generous in the world, and now I believe it. Well, count me in, on this
+transaction. But when were you here?"
+
+"Last night and--early this morning."
+
+"Whew! If you put such energy as that into the rest of the business
+you'll make a speedy finish of it!"
+
+"That's my intention. Well, child, here we are. Put your best foot
+forward and cheer up that forlorn old chap."
+
+Jessica had paused to look down a great ward, opening upon that corridor,
+and was staring, spellbound, at the rows upon rows of white beds, each
+with its occupant, and at the white-capped nurses bending over this
+or that sufferer. The wide, uncurtained windows, all open to the soft
+morning air, the snowy walls, the cleanliness and repose impressed her.
+
+"Why--it's nice! I thought it would be dreadful; and where is Ephraim?
+Can I go in? How shall I find him among so many?"
+
+"Don't you understand? This way, I said, Lady Jess. The sharpshooter
+wants to see his captain."
+
+She turned swiftly at that, and the smile he had hoped to rouse was on
+her face as she caught the reporter's hand.
+
+"Why--how did you know _that?_ Who told you I was Lady Jess, or
+captain?"
+
+"Who but 'Forty-niner' himself? Here he is," and he gently forced her
+through an open doorway into a little room, which seemed a miniature of
+the great ward beyond. There was the same white spotlessness, another
+kind-faced nurse, and another prostrate patient.
+
+"Ephraim! Ephraim! You poor, dear, precious darling!"
+
+She was beside him, her arms about his neck, her tears and kisses raining
+on his wrinkled face--a face that a moment before had been full of
+sadness and impatience, but was now brimming with delight.
+
+"Little Lady! Little captain! I'm a pretty sort of a guardeen, I am!
+But, thank God, I'm not the only man in the world, and you've found
+them that can help you more than I could, with all my smartness. Did you
+hear about that turn-tail, Stiffleg? Wasn't that enough to make a man
+disgusted with horseflesh forever after? Ugh! I wish I had him, I'd
+larrup him crossing before the 'accident' alley beside the main well!
+And to think you, Cassius Trent's daughter, spent your first night in
+town at a station-house! Child, I'll never dare to go home and face the
+'boys' again, after that. Never."
+
+"Don't talk too much, sir," cautioned the nurse, offering her patient
+a spoonful of some nourishment.
+
+"No, Ephraim, I'll talk. Oh! what wouldn't Aunt Sally give to be here
+now! To think she's lost such a chance for dosing you!"
+
+"Forty-niner" laughed and the laughter did him good; though he soon
+explained: "They say I'll have to lie here for nobody knows how
+long, without moving, scarcely. That pesky old leg of mine did the job
+up thorough, while it was at it. Thought it might as well be hung for
+a sheep as a lamb, I s'pose. Well, it was the luckiest thing ever
+happened--you getting lost and me getting hurt. That's the only way to
+look at it. But--Atlantic! How'm I ever going to stand it? Having other
+folks do for you and I, that'd give my right hand to help you--useless."
+
+"Easily, Ephraim. If it's a good thing, as you say, why then it can't
+be a bad one. Here's your money. You must use it to pay for anything
+you want. Or give it all to Mr. Hale about the business. You know."
+
+"Money! I don't want that. All I had they took away from me. Put it in
+the hospital safe till I'm ready to go out. But you can't live in a
+city without hard cash in every pocket. Oh! dear! I don't see what is
+to be done! One minute it all is clear and I think what I said about my
+accident being lucky for you; the next--I can't stand it. What is to
+become of you, little captain?"
+
+"I'm going to stay right here with you."
+
+"You are? You will?" demanded the patient, eagerly. "You wouldn't
+be afraid? But, maybe, you wouldn't be allowed. Hospitals are for sick
+folks and old fools that don't know enough to sit a horse steady.
+They're not for a happy little girl, who can make new friends for
+herself anywhere. No. I guess, maybe, that Mr. Hale'll find you a
+place, or get you on the cars to go home again. Oh! child, I wish you
+were safe back at Sobrante this minute!"
+
+"And our work not done? Foolish 'boy!' As if I'd leave you alone,
+either, when you're ill and--and Aunt Sally so far away."
+
+Ephraim groaned and Jessica looked toward the reporter, who was talking
+earnestly with the nurse, just outside in the corridor. She heard him say:
+
+"If it could be arranged it would be a solution of the whole difficulty.
+Her board would be assured, and at the first opportunity she shall be
+sent to her home. For the present----"
+
+She felt it no shame to listen intently. She knew that they were
+discussing herself and what was to be done with her. On that subject
+she had already made up her own mind; so she slipped her hand from
+Ephraim's and stepped to Mr. Sharp's side.
+
+"I want to say right here in this hospital. I will not make anybody a
+bit of trouble. I will mind everything I am told. I'll not talk or
+laugh or anything I should not. I'll help take care of Ephraim and
+there's nobody who knows him here but me. He's the best man there can
+be, and he's old, though he doesn't look it. Please let me stay. Anyway
+until all the money is spent. There's enough for a while, I think.
+Please."
+
+In answer to the reporter's look, rather than Jessica's words, the
+nurse replied:
+
+"Yes, we do often have friends of the patients here. If there happen to
+be rooms empty and so to spare. But a child--we never had a child-boarder
+before. I'll consult the head nurse and let you know at once. Or,
+better why not go and see her for yourself?"
+
+"I'd much prefer," said Ninian, who had more faith in his own
+persuasive powers than in hers. "And I'll take Jessica with me."
+
+The result was that the little girl was allowed to "remain for the
+present," and was assigned a room very near Ephraim's. Upon her good
+behavior, as viewed from a hospital standpoint, depended the continuance
+of her stay.
+
+"She can have her clothes sent here, but only what are necessary,"
+added the lady, as she dismissed them.
+
+"My clothes! Why--I don't know where they are."
+
+"Whew! What do you mean? I--I never thought about clothes," said Ninian
+Sharp.
+
+"Nor I, before, since I came. I had only a change of underwear and
+another flannel frock. Ephraim was to buy me more if I needed, though
+mother thought I should not. But what I did have were in the saddlebags
+on Stiffleg's back."
+
+"And he marched off to glory with them, the old soldier, eh? Well,
+that's soon remedied. There are lots of stores in Los Angeles and lots
+of girls your size. I'll get a nurse to fix you out, when she can,
+and now, back to Ephraim and good-by."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE FINDING OF ANTONIO
+
+
+For Jessica Trent there followed weeks of a quieter life than she had
+lived even at isolated Sobrante. "The behavior," which was to be a
+test of her stay, proved so pleasing to the hospital residents that some
+of them wondered how they had ever gotten along without her helpful,
+happy presence.
+
+Very quickly she lost her first vague fear of the place and learned
+to hear in the once alarming ambulance gong the signal of relief to
+somebody. She modulated her voice to the prevailing quietude of the
+house and her footfalls were as light as the nurses themselves. To
+many a sufferer, coming there in dread and foreboding, the sight of
+a child familiar and happy about the great building brought a feeling of
+comfort and homelikeness which nothing else could have given. She was so
+apt and imitative that Ephraim often declared:
+
+"All you need, Lady Jess, is a cap and apron to make you a regular
+professional. Take care of me better'n any of 'em, you do; and I'll
+be a prime experience for you, that's a fact. Another of the good things
+come out of my fool riding, I s'pose. You'll be able to nurse the
+whole parcel of us, when you get back to Sobrante. Beat Aunt Sally all
+hollow, 'cause you trust a bit to nature and not all to--picra."
+
+"But you're not ill, Ephraim Marsh. You're just broken. So you don't
+need medicine. All you need is patience. And your nourishments, regular."
+
+"I get them all right; but--_patience!_ Atlantic!"
+
+The old man sighed. It was weary work for him, the hardest he had ever
+done, to lie so motionless while he was so anxious to be active. He
+really suffered little and he had the best of care. Still, he sighed
+again, and, unfortunately, Jessica echoed the sigh. Then he looked at
+her keenly and spoke the thought which had been in his mind for a long
+time:
+
+"Captain, you must go home. There's twenty to need bossing there and
+only one poor old carcass here."
+
+Poor Lady Jess! She tried to answer brightly as was her habit, but that
+day homesickness was strong upon her, and at mention of Sobrante her
+courage failed. She forgot that she was a "nurse"; forgot the good
+"behavior," forgot everything, indeed, but her mother's face and
+Ned's mischievous affection. She dropped to her knees and buried her
+face in the old man's pillow while she sobbed aloud:
+
+"Oh, 'Forty-niner,' shall we ever see that home again?"
+
+Weak and unstrung, the patient moaned in sympathy, while tears fell from
+his own eyes; and it was upon this dismal tableau that Mr. Hale walked
+in, unannounced.
+
+"Hurrah, here! What's amiss? Been quarreling? Just when I've come to
+bring you good news, too."
+
+"Quarreling, indeed! Ephraim and I could never quarrel. Never.
+But--but--this isn't Sobrante, and we're--I guess we're awful
+homesick."
+
+"That's a disease can be cured, you know. One of you, at least, can
+go home. If you wish, Jessica, I will put you on a train and arrange for
+one of your 'boys' to meet you at the railway terminus. But----"
+
+"Hello, everybody!" called a cheery voice, and there in the doorway
+was Ninian Sharp, smiling, nodding, and embracing all three with one
+inspiring look. "What's that I overheard about 'home'? Been telling
+state secrets, Hale? My plan beats yours, altogether. We're all going
+'home' to Sobrante, in a bunch, one of these fine days. _The Lancet_
+never fails!"
+
+Jessica sprang to him and caught his hand to kiss it. He had not been
+to see them for some days and she had missed him sadly. Far more than
+Mr. Hale he made her feel that the mystery surrounding "that missing New
+York money," as she called it, would certainly be explained. It was he
+who, by questions innumerable, had recalled to her and to Ephraim the
+names of persons with whom Mr. Trent had ever done business. Incidents
+which to her seemed trifling had been of moment in his judgment. With
+the slight clews they had given him, as the first link in the chain, he
+had gone on unraveling the knots which followed with infinite patience
+and perseverance. He kept Mrs. Trent informed of the welfare of her
+daughter, and, without neglecting his legitimate business, did the
+thousand and one things which only the busiest of persons can have time
+to do. For it's always the indolent who are overcrowded.
+
+"Oh! Mr. Sharp! Have you found it all out?"
+
+"Not I. Hale, here, has found out some things, himself. But he's a
+lawyer, which means, a--beg pardon--a snail. If newspapers were as slow
+as the law--h-m-m--we might all take a nap. Look here, Miss Sunshine,
+you've been crying."
+
+Jessica blushed as guiltily as if she had been accused of some crime.
+
+"I know it. I'm sorry."
+
+"So am I. I know why. Because you're shut up here like a dormouse when
+you've lived like a lark. On with your little red Tam and come with
+me. Our work is getting on famously, famously. If I could get hold of
+one person that I've hunted this and every other city near for I'd
+have the matter in a nut shell and the guilty man in--a prison. I've
+found--three or four more of those links I mentioned, Hale, and every
+man of them is another witness to the uprightness of one, Cassius Trent,
+late of Sobrante. I began this job for little Jess, but I confess I'm
+finishing it for the sake of a man I never saw. He was a trump, that
+fellow. One of the great-hearted, impracticable creatures that keep my
+faith in humanity. If we could only find that Antonio!"
+
+"Yes. _If!_ But when he rode away from Sobrante that day he seems to
+have ridden out of the world, so far as any trace he left behind. I'm
+getting discouraged, for without him all the rest falls to the ground."
+
+"Well, discouraged? We'll just step out and find him, won't we, Lady
+Jess?"
+
+She had hastened to ask permission to go out with her friend and had
+come back radiant, now, at prospect even of so brief an outing. It was
+quite as the reporter had judged; the close confinement of the hospital,
+after the out-of-door life at Sobrante, was half the cause of Jessica's
+depression, and she was ready now to fall in with the gay mood of Ninian
+Sharp and answered, promptly:
+
+"Oh, yes. We'll find 'him,' since you wish it. But I don't happen to
+know which 'him' you want?"
+
+"Why, our fine Senor Bernal. Who else?"
+
+"Then let us go to the old Spanish quarter."
+
+"I've been, many times. Sent others also. No. He's a wise chap and
+if he is in this town frequents no haunt where he'll be looked for so
+surely. No matter. It's a picturesque corner of the town and maybe a
+sight of some old adobes would do your homesick eyes good."
+
+"Or harm," suggested Mr. Hale.
+
+But they did not stop to hear his objections and were speedily on the
+car which would take them nearest to the district Jessica had heard of,
+both from Antonio at home and now from others here. A relic of the old
+California, whose history she loved to hear from the lips of Pedro, Fra
+Mateo, or even "Forty-niner" himself.
+
+But once arrived there she was disappointed. They were old adobes,
+true enough, and the people who lived in them had the same dark,
+Spanish cast of face which she remembered of Antonio. Yet there the
+resemblance ended. This was the home of squalor, of poverty that was not
+self-respecting enough to be clean, and of an indolence which had
+brought about a wretched state of affairs.
+
+"Oh! is this it? But it can't be. Antonio's 'quarter' was a splendid
+place. The old grandees lived there, keeping up a sort of court and
+all the customs of a hundred years ago. It was 'a picture, a romance, a
+dream,' he said. Of an evening he would describe it all to us at home
+till I felt as if it were the one spot in the world I most wished to
+see. But--_this!_"
+
+"Turn not up your pretty nose, for '_this_,' my dear little
+unenlightened maiden, is also a dream--a nightmare. Nevertheless, the
+very ground your lost hero boasted and embellished with his fancy. The
+more I hear of this versatile Antonio the greater becomes my longing
+to behold him. In any case, since we're here, we must not go away
+without entering some of these shops. You shall buy a trinket or two
+and present one of them as a keepsake to this fine senor, when you
+find him. Oh! that I had your familiar knowledge of his features,
+this absent 'grandee,' that if by accident I met him I might know
+him on the instant. See. This 'bazaar' is somewhat tidier than its
+neighbors, as well as larger, and there are some really beautiful Navajo
+blankets in the window. Unfortunately the pocketbook of a reporter
+isn't quite equal to more than a dozen of these, at fifty dollars
+apiece. Something more modest, Lady Jess, and I'll oblige you!"
+
+She looked up to protest and saw that he was teasing, and exclaimed, with
+an air of mock injury:
+
+"Those or nothing! But when shall I learn to understand your jest from
+earnest?"
+
+"When you produce me your Antonio!"
+
+"Upon the instant, then," she retorted, gayly.
+
+Upon the instant, indeed, there were hurrying footsteps behind them, the
+sound of some one breathing rapidly and of angrily muttered sentences,
+that were a jumble of Spanish and English, and in a voice which made
+Jessica Trent start and turn aside, clutching her companion's hand.
+
+He turned, also, throwing his arm about her shoulders, lest the rush of
+the man approaching should force her from the narrow sidewalk. But she
+darted from him, straight into the path of this wild-looking person and
+seized him with both hands, while she cried out:
+
+"It's he! It is Antonio! I've found him--Antonio Bernal!"
+
+"Whew! A case of the 'unexpected,' indeed! The merest jest and the
+absolute fact. Hi! I'd rather this than--than be struck by lightning,
+and it's on about the same order of things, for it is he, as she
+claimed. He's more staggered than I am," considered this lively
+newspaper man. Then he thought it time to step forward, and remark:
+
+"Please present me to your friend, Miss Trent," and lifted his hat,
+courteously.
+
+Antonio bowed, after his own exaggerated fashion, and with his hand
+upon his heart; but though his eyes rested keenly on Ninian's face he
+kept tight hold of Jessica's hand and his torrent of words did not
+cease for an instant. Now and then he lifted the little hand and kissed
+it, whereupon Lady Jess would snatch it away and coolly wipe it on her
+skirt, only to have it recaptured and caressed; till, seeing he would
+neither give over the hateful action nor stop talking, she folded her
+arms behind her and interrupted with:
+
+"That's enough, Senor Bernal. This isn't Sobrante, but I'm your
+captain here, same as there. You come tell your story to Mr. Hale and
+this gentleman. See Ephraim Marsh, too. He's here in hospital with a
+broken leg. I'm in Los Angeles, also, as you see; and likely to find
+the same man you say has cheated you. That's what he's telling, Mr.
+Sharp," she exclaimed.
+
+Antonio hesitated. He had frowned at her tone of command, but now, to
+the reporter's amazement, seemed eager to obey it.
+
+"As the senorita will. That gentleman, who came last to Sobrante, was
+one lawyer, no? So the senora said. Fool! fool! that I was that I did
+not then and at that moment so disclose the secrets of my heart as was
+moved, yes. Let the senorita and the handsome friend lead on. I follow.
+I, Antonio."
+
+Five minutes earlier, had Ninian Sharp been asked what he should do if
+he did find this strange person, he would have promptly answered:
+
+"Put him under lock and key, where he can do no harm and be handy to
+get at."
+
+Now he found himself as certain that the fellow needed no restraint
+of the law, at present. That he was dreadfully unhappy and had become
+as humble as he had before been arrogant. What could so have altered
+him? And was it thus that the Lady Jess had all her "boys" in leading
+strings?
+
+"I must look out for myself or I'll fall under a like spell," he
+laughed, as with the air of one who knows it all, though she had been
+over that way but once, Jessica explained to her late manager:
+
+"This car will take us straight back to the hospital. We've not been
+away long and I think Mr. Hale will still be there. He'll be glad to
+see you. _Very glad._ He and Mr. Sharp have been looking for you. I think
+you can tell them something they're anxious to know. Ephraim is there,
+anyhow. He, poor fellow, can't go away, even if he wishes--yet."
+
+Mr. Hale was still in "Forty-niner's" room and recognized Antonio with
+such an outburst of surprise that Ephraim opened his eyes, for he had
+been dozing, and fixed them on the newcomer, inquiringly.
+
+"What! You, you snake! _you here?_"
+
+"But certainly, yes. I, I, Antonio, at your service. Hast the broken
+leer? This is bad. Old bones are slow to heal. You will not shoot again
+at dear Sobrante, you."
+
+"Won't? Well, I rather guess it'll take somebody stronger 'n you to
+stop it."
+
+Antonio shrugged his shoulders in a manner deemed offensive by the
+patient, who struggled to rise, but was prevented by Jessica's quick
+movement.
+
+"Ephraim! Antonio! Don't quarrel, this very first minute. One of you
+is sick and the other half frantic with some trouble. Please, Antonio,
+go away now with Mr. Hale and Mr. Sharp. One must never make a noise in a
+hospital," said this wise maiden of eleven.
+
+"Ah! so? But it is the lawyer I want, yet. The lawyer who will make a
+villain return the great money I have given. _Caramba!_ If I had him in
+my hands this minute!"
+
+Jessica lifted a warning finger and the manager lowered his voice.
+He even made an attempt at soothing Ephraim, but chose an unfortunate
+argument.
+
+"Take peace to yourself, 'Forty-niner.' All must be told some day.
+_Adios._"
+
+"_Adios_, you foreign serpent! Old? Old! he calls me--me--old! Why,
+I'm a babe in arms to Pedro, or Fra Mateo, or even fat Brigida, who
+washes for us 'boys.' Old! A man but just turned eighty! Snake, I'll
+outlive you yet. I'll get well, to spite you; and I'll be on hand,
+when they let you out the lockup, to give you the neatest horsewhippin'
+you ever see. Old! Get out!"
+
+Fearful of further excitement, the gentlemen hurried Antonio away, yet
+kept a keen watch upon his movements for, at that word "lockup," the
+man's dark face had turned to an ashen hue.
+
+As they left the hospital the every-busy ambulance rolled past them
+toward the accident ward. The others averted their eyes, but the Spaniard
+peered curiously within, and, instantly a shuddering groan burst from
+his lips. Inside that van lay the solution to all their difficulties;
+though Antonio alone had comprehended it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+APPREHENDED
+
+
+The pleasantest task which fell to Jessica's hands, during her hospital
+life, was the distributing of flowers and fruits, almost daily sent by
+the charitable for the comfort of the patients.
+
+The nurses received and apportioned these gifts; and, carrying her big,
+tray-like basket, Lady Jess visited each ward and room in turn, adding to
+the pretty offering some bright word of her own. For she now had the
+freedom of the house and knew the occupant of each white bed better,
+even, than his or her attendant nurse. The quiet manner which she had
+gained here, her ready help and loving sympathy, made her coming looked
+for eagerly; but the happiness she thus bestowed was more than returned
+upon her own heart. Could her "boys" have seen her they would have
+been proud, but not surprised, for to the appreciative words his own
+attendant gave his darling, Ephraim would instantly reply?
+
+"'Course. What else could you expect? Didn't she have the finest man
+in the world for her father? and isn't her mother a lady? Isn't she,
+herself, the sweetest, lovingest, most unselfish child that ever lived?
+But it'll be meat to feed the 'boys' with, all these stories you're
+telling me. They most worship her now, and after they listen to such
+talk a spell--h-m-m. The whole secret is just--love. That's what our
+captain is made of; pure love. 'Twas a good thing for this old earth
+when she was born."
+
+"But you'll spoil her among you, I fear."
+
+"Well, you needn't. Little Jessica Trent can't be spoiled. 'Cause
+them same 'boys' would be the first ones to take any nonsense out of
+her, at the first symptoms. She couldn't stand ridicule. It would break
+her heart; but they'd give her ridicule and plenty of it if she put on
+silly airs. You needn't be afraid for Lady Jess."
+
+On that very day, after Antonio had left the hospital with his friends,
+or captors, as the case might prove. Jessica went through the building
+with her tray of roses, and in the wing adjoining the accident ward saw
+a man lying in one of the hitherto empty rooms.
+
+"A new patient. He must have been brought in to-day. I've never been
+to the new ones till I was told, but I hate to pass him by. I wonder
+if it would be wrong to ask him if he wished a flower! And how still
+he stays. Yet his eyes are very wide open and so round! He looks like
+somebody I've seen--why, little Luis Garcia! 'Tis Luis himself, grown
+old and thin. For Luis' sake, then I'll try."
+
+A nurse was sitting silent at the patient's bedside and toward her the
+child turned an inquiring glance. The answer was a slight, affirmative
+nod. The attendant's thought was that it would please Lady Jess to
+give the rose and could do the patient no harm to receive it. Indeed,
+nothing earthly could harm him any more.
+
+So Jessica stepped softly in and paused beside the cot. Her face was full
+of pity and of a growing astonishment, for the nearer she beheld it the
+more startling was the sick man's likeness to a childish face hundreds
+of miles away.
+
+Her stare brought the patient's own vacant gaze back to a consciousness
+of things about him. He saw a yellow-haired girl looking curiously upon
+him and extending toward him a half-blown rose. A fair and unexpected
+vision in that place of pain, and he asked, half querulously:
+
+"Who are you? An angel come to upbraid me before my time?"
+
+"I'm Jessica Trent, of Sobrante ranch, in Paraiso d'Oro valley."
+
+"W-h-a-t!"
+
+The nurse bent forward, but he motioned her aside.
+
+"Say that again."
+
+"I'm just little Jessica Trent. That's all."
+
+"All! Trent--Trent. Ah!"
+
+"And you? Are you Luis Garcia's missing father?"
+
+"Luis--Luis Garcia. Was it Luis, Ysandra called him?"
+
+"Yes, yes. That was the name on the paper my father found pinned to
+the baby's dress. The letter told that the baby's father had gone away
+promising to come back, but had never come. The mother had heard of my
+dear father's goodness to all who needed help, and she was on her way to
+him when her strength gave out. So she died there in the canyon, and she
+said the baby's name was like the father's. I remember it all, because
+to us the 'Maria' seems like a girl's name, too. Luis Maria Manuel
+Alessandro Garcia."
+
+The man's round eyes opened wider and wider. It seemed as if his glare
+pierced the child's very heart, and she drew back frightened. The
+nurse motioned her to go, but at her first movement toward the door
+the patient extended his hands imploring:
+
+"No. Not yet. My time is spent. Let me hear all--all. The child your
+father found--ah! me! Your father of all men! Did--did it live?"
+
+"Of course it lived. He is a darling little fellow and he looks--he
+looks so like you that I knew you in a moment. He has the same wide brown
+eyes, the same black curls, his eyebrows slant so, like yours, he is
+your image. But he is the cutest little chap you ever saw. He is my own
+brother's age and they have grown up together, like twins, I guess. It
+would break Ned's heart to have you take him away from us. You won't
+now, will you?"
+
+A pitiful smile spread over the pain-racked features, and the man glanced
+significantly toward the nurse. She smiled encouragingly upon him, but
+he was not misled. After a moment of silence, during which Jessica
+anxiously watched his drawn face, he spoke.
+
+"Go, child. Your mission is done. Send a lawyer, quick. Quick. The man I
+wronged--the savior of my son! A lawyer, quick. Bring the suit case--the
+case! Let none open it but the child. Quick. Quick!"
+
+Higher authority even than her own convinced the nurse that obedience
+to his urgency was the only way now to allay the patient's rising
+excitement. The accident which had crushed the lower part of his body,
+so that his life was but a question of hours, had left his head clear for
+the present; and here, indeed, seemed a case for more than surgical
+treatment.
+
+Fortunately, the needed "lawyer" was close at hand, waiting with the
+reporter and the half-distraught Antonio whose shriek of recognition had
+been Luis Garcia's welcome to the hospital. Unceasingly, the manager
+had declared that this was the man all three of them were seeking; had
+insisted upon returning to the ante-room of the hospital, and avowed that
+he would never leave the spot until the "villain" had been apprehended.
+
+"He has misled and cheated me. I, Antonio! He has all my money. He
+has the savings of my life, yes. He has all that I did not yet pay,
+of the crops so good, to the Senora Trent. More, more. That money--which,
+ah, me! He told me, yes, a thousand million times, that I, and not that
+New York company, to me alone was the inheritance of Paraiso d'Oro.
+My money was to prove it, that inheritance, yes. To me was the power
+of attorney, was it not? of Cassius Trent, who was the so good man and
+the so poor fool at business."
+
+"Look out, there, neighbor! Speaking of fools and business, you don't
+appear to have been so brilliant yourself," corrected Ninian, promptly.
+
+Antonio continued, heedless of the interruption:
+
+"He was the great banker, Garcia, no? What then? Who would so safe keep
+the money from that far New York? With the master's wish I gave it
+to that bank. And the letters--_Caramba!_ So high, to one's knees,
+to one's waist I pile them, the letters! All wrote of his own hand. All
+say by-and-by, _manana_, he give me the perfect title and send back
+that which belongs, after all expenses, no? To them in New York."
+
+"A pretty scheme. You don't seem to have profited by it greatly, as
+yet."
+
+"I, profit? But I am now the beggar, I, poor Antonio. This day I come
+from resting in the houses of my friends and I find--what do I find?
+The bank is not. The banker is not, yes. His house where he lived more
+plain than our adobes at Sobrante, that house is closed. His man tell
+me this: 'He has gone away. One little, little trip, a journey. Across
+the sea. He will come back. Have patience, Antonio.' But my money? my
+papers? my inheritance so all but proved? Tush. He told me not that.
+'When he comes back you can ask him, himself.' So. Good. He has come
+back. Here. I see him, sure. I----"
+
+A summons to Mr. Hale cut short this fierce harangue, which had been
+repeated till their ears were tired.
+
+The banker had come back, indeed, poor creature. By the very train on
+which he was to depart with his plunder--all rendered into the solid
+cash which would tell no tales, as he fancied--by this swift-moving
+juggernaut he was overtaken and crushed down. A moment earlier he would
+have been in time. But in haste and by a misstep he had ended all his
+earthly journeyings.
+
+When the lawyer was called the reporter followed his friend and Antonio
+followed him, and when these three approached the little room in which
+the dying man lay, the nurse would have sent them back; but Garcia
+himself pleaded: "Let them be. What matters it how many hear or see?
+The dress-suit case. Bring it, and bring the child."
+
+They obeyed and he bade them place the key in Jessica's small hand.
+
+"Open it, little one."
+
+But her fingers shook so that the nurse, in pity, pushed them from the
+lock and herself unfastened the heavily laden case. It contained no
+clothing, such as might have been looked for within; but rolls and
+packets neatly tied.
+
+"Open them, child."
+
+"Oh! please! I do not want to; I am afraid!"
+
+"Afraid, Jessica Trent? Do you not yet understand? That is money,
+money--of which your father stood accused before the world as having
+stolen. Afraid to prove your father what you know him--an honest man!"
+cried Ninian in anger.
+
+She understood him then, and in frantic haste obeyed. Roll after roll,
+till Mr. Hale said:
+
+"Enough. His strength is failing. This scene is too much for him."
+
+At that she pushed the gold away and, falling on her knees beside the
+bed, caught Luis Garcia's hand and covered it with kisses.
+
+"Oh! thank you, Luis' father! God bless you, God take care of you!"
+
+"Oh! the divine pity of childhood," murmured Ninian, huskily. "She
+forgets that it was he who wronged her in the fact that he has now set
+her right."
+
+The sick man's face brightened, nor did he withdraw his hand.
+
+"_You forgive me?_"
+
+"Yes, yes."
+
+"The little Luis. The son I never saw. What shall you tell him of his
+father?"
+
+"That he was good to me, and that he suffered."
+
+"More. Tell the boy this: I never knew he lived. I should have known, I
+should have searched. I did not. Ask him, too, to forgive me. And because
+of me, turn him not away."
+
+The nurse motioned all the others to go out, and they went, Ninian
+Sharp himself standing guard over the dress-suit case the attendant
+had relocked until it was once more safely deposited in the strong box
+of the hospital, where even Antonio's greedy eyes could see it no longer.
+
+But Jessica knelt on, awed and silent, yet now quite unafraid. And Luis
+Garcia still clasped her hand and fixed his fading gaze upon her pitying
+face.
+
+"The mother--Ysandra. Where lies she now? Little one, do you know that?"
+
+"Do I not? In the consecrated ground of the old mission itself. With
+all the good dead priests sleeping about her. Rose vines cover her grave
+and my own mother tends them herself. Little Luis is made to water it,
+sometimes, though, for that is a good way to keep her memory green, my
+mother says. Near by is where my father rests. Would--would you wish to
+sleep there, too, beside them both, and where Luis could bring flowers
+to you as to her?"
+
+"I may? You--are--willing? Would--your mother--so kind--little Luis----"
+
+"My mother pities and helps all who suffer. You suffer, poor man, and
+I wish that she were here to tell you 'yes' herself."
+
+But he had closed his eyes and she could not know if he had heard her,
+though she was glad to see that the look of pain had almost left his
+features. She did not speak again but sat quite still until, at last,
+her hand grew numb and she turned toward the nurse, whispering:
+
+"Can I move it? Will it disturb him? He seems to be asleep."
+
+The nurse bent over her patient, then gently answered:
+
+"Yes, darling. Your task is over. Nothing will ever trouble him again.
+He is at peace--_asleep_."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+ANTONIO'S MESSAGE
+
+
+Jessica went back to Ephraim's room, to tell him this wonderful ending
+of their once almost hopeless search, and for long they discussed the
+story that was at once so strange, so moving, and yet so simple.
+
+"Man proposes, God disposes," quoted "Forty-niner," with all the
+emphasis of an original philosophy. "If we'd set out to make up a fairy
+story we couldn't have beat this. But I'm so glad, it seems like I
+could get right up and dance a jig, smashed leg and all."
+
+"Glad! Ephraim, I'm so glad, too, and the gladness is so deep, deep
+down that I don't want to dance. I just want to cry. And that poor man
+is little Luis' father. Oh! it is pitiful."
+
+"Hush, captain. Don't you go to grieving over that scamp. A man don't
+get good nor bad all in a minute. It was hard enough, I 'low, for a
+fellow to be snatched out of the world that sudden. Yet, if he could
+speak for himself, he'd say a thousand times better that than what the
+law would have given him. Let him be. His part is done. He's passed in
+his checks and don't you hear that Heaven won't pay out on all the good
+ones. Now--what next?"
+
+Both knew, yet both disliked to mention that which each felt. Till
+Ephraim swallowed something like a sob and remarked:
+
+"The longer I lie here, like a log, the madder I get at myself and the
+weaker minded. I'm just about as ready to cry as a whipped baby. I know
+'twas the best thing could have happened, my getting hurt, though why a
+plain, everyday break wouldn't have answered the purpose just as well
+as this 'compound fracture,' the doctors make such a fuss over and
+takes so long to heal, I don't see. Nor never shall. If it had been
+just ordinary bone-crackin' I'd been lively as a hop-toad by now, and
+ready to start right home with you this minute. As it is----"
+
+"Oh, Ephraim! I hate to leave you--but I must get quickly to my mother!
+Don't you see I must? To smooth all those sad lines out of her dear
+face and make her happy again, as this news surely will. They'll be
+good to you here, and you can come the first minute they'll let you."
+
+"Why not telegraph her? The boys go every day to Marion for the letters
+you and all send, and the postmaster is the operator, too. Why not that,
+and wait just a day or two. Likely I'll be cavortin' round, supple as a
+lizard on a fence, by then."
+
+Jessica did not answer and Ephraim asked:
+
+"How could you go, anyway, without me or some protector? Though I made
+a bad job of it once I wouldn't the second time."
+
+"I don't know how, dear old fellow, and I do know how bitter
+disappointed you are that you can't be there to see my mother's
+face and get her thanks right away. But----"
+
+Fortunately for both of these perplexed people, Ninian Sharp came along
+the passage just then, and one glimpse of his bright, helpful face
+cleared away Jessica's anxieties.
+
+"You'll know what's best and how to do it, won't you, dear Mr.
+Sharp?"
+
+"Certainly. That's my business. Straightening out the tangled affairs
+of the silly rest of the world! Fetch on your trouble!"
+
+He was in the gayest of moods, elated over the successful termination of
+his tedious labors, though in his heart not unmindful of the tragedy
+which had brought his share in them to an end. What was left, the law's
+dealings with Antonio and the division and disposition of the recovered
+funds, belonged to Mr. Hale, and he very thankfully resigned these
+matters to that gentleman's capable hand.
+
+"I want to go home. And I don't want to leave Ephraim."
+
+"I want to go with you. And I'm going to leave Ephraim--because he'd
+have to stay awhile, whether or not. He will be an important witness
+for the prosecution, providing that New York Company bothers any further
+after having recovered all that belongs to them, with some that doesn't.
+I've a 'loose foot,' as I've heard that your 'Aunt Sally' also
+has betimes, and I mean to shake it out Sobrante way. If you'd like to
+travel in my company I can't prevent it, as I see!"
+
+"Oh! you darling man! You mean--I know it, for it's just like all the
+rest of your great kindness--that you're going wholly on purpose to take
+me home!"
+
+"Beg pardon, but indeed, I'm not. At this present moment I have no
+stronger desire than to see that wonderful ranch of yours and those
+'boys' who've spoiled you so. Why, I couldn't stay away, after
+putting my finger so deeply into your family pie. I propose to start
+on the nine o'clock train to-morrow morning. Think you can be ready
+by then?"
+
+"I'm ready this minute! No, I mean, as soon as I bid everybody good-by,
+and--and----"
+
+"Do a little shopping, eh? That's what most young ladies delay for,
+I believe."
+
+"But I'm neither a young lady nor have I any shopping to do. I
+couldn't have because I haven't any money, you see, even if I knew
+how to shop."
+
+"Why?" demanded "Forty-niner," impatiently. "No money? I don't
+believe all ours is gone yet."
+
+"Why, I forgot that. I really did. And I would love, if Mr. Sharp thinks
+it would be all right to use it when there is all this hospital board for
+both of us to pay, to take a tiny bit of a present to--to----"
+
+"Everybody you ever knew, I'll be bound!" cried Ninian.
+
+"I--believe I would. But of course I can't. So I'd best treat all
+alike and take nothing but our glorious goods news."
+
+"I'm going to take that myself, part of the way. At the finish I'll
+let you carry the heavy burden and deliver it yourself into your
+mother's hands. Now, come sit down a minute. Ephraim, put on your
+own thinking cap, and if she forgets anybody you let me know. We are
+going to take something to everybody, just as you'd like. Now, begin.
+The mother--but she's settled, already. For her I've made a finished
+picture from a sketch I have, of a little yellow-haired girl asleep
+upon a piebald burro's shoulder. Ned? A train of cars. Luis, ditto.
+Samson--what for Samson?"
+
+"Would it cost too much to take them each, all the 'boys' the same
+thing, and that would be a bright red necktie?"
+
+"Cost not a bit too much and be a deal easier than thinking of separate
+things for so many. Next? Aunt Sally?"
+
+"Oh! she's no trouble. A few bits of new calico 'print' for her
+patchwork would make her very happy."
+
+They forgot nobody, not even Ferd whom Jessica so disliked; and at the
+end of the list she rather timidly suggested: "Antonio."
+
+To that, however, both her friends cried a vehement "No!" Not a cent of
+their money should ever go to please such a man as the Senor Bernal.
+
+"But, that reminds me. This Antonio himself wishes to have an interview
+with you before you leave Los Angeles. I want you, though, to feel at
+liberty to refuse this request if you so desire. He deserves no kindness
+at your hands."
+
+"No. Don't you go near him, captain. He's a snake and snakes are
+unpleasant critters even after their fangs are drawn. Leave Antonio to
+me. When I get well I'll have a little score to settle with him on my
+own behalf," urged Ephraim.
+
+"Why doesn't he come to me, himself? Instead of sending for me to him.
+Then I shouldn't have to trouble you to take me."
+
+Mr. Sharp looked at Ephraim and smiled, significantly.
+
+"I suppose because he cannot. Else so polished a gentleman would surely
+do so."
+
+"Why cannot he? Is he ill, too?"
+
+"Rather ill in his mind, but not in body. Simply, he isn't allowed."
+
+"Won't the hospital folks have him?"
+
+"Not at present."
+
+"I believe you are teasing me. Where is Antonio?"
+
+"At police headquarters."
+
+"Oh! with Matron Wood?"
+
+"Not with that good woman, I fear."
+
+"Mr. Sharp, please, _don't_ tease me any more. What do you mean?"
+
+"Antonio is under restraint of the law. He is a prisoner, for the
+present. Detained until Mr. Hale can consult with his New York people
+and find out their disposition toward the fellow. He has done criminal
+things without, apparently, any benefit to himself. He says there is
+something on his mind that he must tell you. We'll call to see him
+on our way to the shopping district and get him over and done with.
+I've no desire to continue his acquaintance, myself."
+
+Jessica's face grew serious.
+
+"Oh! poor Antonio!"
+
+"Quit that!" commanded "Forty-niner," with more sharpness than he
+often used toward his beloved lady.
+
+"But, it is so terrible to be a--prisoner. That means that one can
+never go out into the fields or climb the mountains, or ride, or hunt, or
+anything one likes. He has done dreadful wrongs, and I never used to like
+him as well as I ought, but now I'm sorry for him. I can't help it,
+Ephraim, even if it does displease you."
+
+"H-m-m. He brought his own misfortunes upon himself. But first he had
+brought worse ones on his truest friends and innocent persons whom he
+never saw."
+
+"Maybe he didn't know any better. Maybe----"
+
+"Child, you are incorrigible. You'd pity--anybody. Yet, perhaps, you
+are right in a measure. Antonio strikes me as more fool that knave."
+
+"Well, I'll be glad to say good-by to him, anyway."
+
+It was a greatly altered Antonio they found. All his haughtiness was gone
+and his depression, his fear, was so abject that while Lady Jess pitied
+him even more than before, the reporter felt only contempt. It was he
+who cut short the manager's wordy explanations and commanded:
+
+"Now, if you've got anything special to say to Miss Trent, out with it
+and have done. We must be off."
+
+"Then leave her alone with me for five minutes, yes."
+
+"No. What you can say to her must be said in my presence."
+
+But Jessica petitioned for the favor, and Ninian stepped into an
+adjoining room, leaving the door ajar.
+
+As soon as he was out of sight, Senor Bernal leaned forward, clasping
+his hands.
+
+"It is the good turn I do. Well, then, it is the good turn you will
+answer, no."
+
+"Of course. I'd do you any 'good turn' which was right for me."
+
+"Then plead for me, my liberty. It is you, senorita, who have the so
+great, the strange power to move many hearts to your will. _Si._ You will
+plead, then, if I tell you--something--a little story--maybe?"
+
+"I'm in no mood for stories, and you're talking in riddles as you've
+always been fond of doing. Say what you mean at once, Antonio, for I'm
+going home to-morrow. Home! going home!"
+
+"Ah! me! And? But yes. I will. I will force myself. I will ask it.
+That--that--title? Know you of that?"
+
+"How should I know?"
+
+"Ephraim. Was not Ephraim at the safe one midnight? Is not Ephraim a
+little strange--here?" touching his own forehead.
+
+Jessica turned away, indignant.
+
+"No, but you are. The queerest, crookedest man I ever saw. If you've
+anything to tell me, just be quick, I am going. As for Ephraim, I wish,
+unhappy man, that you had half the goodness and honesty in your whole
+body that dear old fellow has in his littlest finger. He couldn't do a
+mean thing nor even think one, and if you sent for me to abuse him to me
+you might have spared yourself the trouble."
+
+"Well, then. It is known, is it not? That when I shook the dust of
+Sobrante rancho from my feet I took away with me all the papers that
+appertained to the so great business of the place? Why not? Was I not
+to go back the master, and for the settlement of all affairs which I
+had with the Dona Gabriella?"
+
+"You will please never call my mother by her first name again, Antonio
+Bernal. She is an American gentlewoman, and her title is Mrs. Trent.
+Understand? She is not afraid of you, nor am I, though she was patient
+and, for her children's sakes, would not quarrel nor resent your
+insolence. All that is changed. You can do us no further harm. My
+father's name is freed from all the shadow that your wickedness cast
+over it, and as for titles to property--poor! None of the Trents, big
+or little, care anything for property since we have regained honor!
+Besides, Sobrante isn't the only home in the world. They are everywhere,
+waiting for those who will take them. If we lose Sobrante, as I suppose
+we may, I--just I, Jessica Trent, a child, will make a home for my
+mother and my brother--somewhere. I am strong. I can work. I am not
+at all afraid."
+
+Despite his meanness and cupidity, Antonio was moved. The girl was
+radiant in her courage and enthusiasm, and her disdain of what he could
+make her suffer was infinite.
+
+"Good, senorita. When you speak and look like that I can no longer
+keep silence, I. The papers! It is possible, no? That among them, in
+my so great haste at leaving Sobrante, that little, yes, it might--it
+might be among those other papers appertaining to the so great business.
+_Si._ If I point the way, if I tell the secret retiring place of me,
+I, Antonio Bernal, you will plead and set me free? It is a contract, a
+bargain--yes?"
+
+Jessica pondered. The temptation was strong to say "yes" without delay;
+but she had now learned to distrust the late manager of her mother's
+business, and answered, cautiously:
+
+"I'll do what I can, Antonio, but if my mother forbids me to 'plead,'
+I shall not disobey her. You did what you pleased, and my friends say
+you will have to suffer the consequences."
+
+"Ah! but it is the so old head on the so small shoulders. That wisdom
+was not of your own, senorita. But, I forgive the suspicion. Yes, I am
+magnanimous. I am generous, I, Senor Bernal, heir--rightful heir--to
+Sobrante rancho and all of Paraiso d'Oro. See! Behold! Did the Lady
+Jessica never hear of El Desierto, no?"
+
+"The Deserted Ranch? Where Pedro says the spirits of dead people walk?
+Of course. Everybody has heard of that. Why?"
+
+"Sometimes the 'spirits' keep hidden treasures safe. Yes. _Si._ Does
+the senorita know the trail thither, to that haunted place?"
+
+"No. Nor wish to. Good-by, Antonio. I can wait for no more of your
+nonsense."
+
+"The paper. The pencil, which the Lady Jess holds in her hand. One
+moment, that to me, if the senorita pleases."
+
+"I brought these for my little shopping trip, which I'm to take with
+Mr. Sharp. I can't give them to you, but I'll lend, for a moment. Here
+they are. Be quick."
+
+Antonio seized the pencil and rapidly sketched upon the pad a few
+dots and lines, suggesting a zigzag road and stations upon it. At the
+starting point he wrote "Marion," and at the end "Sobrante." Midway,
+and well to the north, where a curving course indicated an arroyo he
+marked "El Desierto."
+
+Then he looked up, and Jessica reached forward to take back her
+possessions.
+
+But with what he considered great chaft and cunning he thrust them behind
+him and smiled grimly:
+
+"The promise, senorita. First the promise; 'I will plead for the
+liberty of Senor Antonio Bernal, so help me----'"
+
+Unperceived by the artful manager, Ninian Sharp had entered the room from
+a rear door. He was tired of waiting for the interview to end and had
+overheard most of it from the outer room. He now quietly stretched out
+his own hand and possessed himself of the rude map, and then as quietly
+and instantly withdrew with it, calling as he did so:
+
+"Come on, Lady Jess. Time's up. So is Antonio's little game; yet,
+thanks, senor, for playing it so openly, Good-day. _Adios._ Farewell. _Et
+cetera. Au revoir_ and all the rest. We'll show you that title deed--if
+we find it!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+A RAILWAY JOURNEY
+
+
+The morning of departure had come and, trembling with both fear and
+eagerness, Jessica stood beside the reporter upon the station, waiting
+for the great train to move outward.
+
+"Step aboard, Lady Jess. Homeward bound!"
+
+"Oh! it looks so big and somehow dreadful. I can ride any kind of a
+horse, or an ostrich, and burros, of course, but----"
+
+"But you don't know yet how to ride a railway carriage. Then let me
+tell you you'll find it so delightful you'll not want to get out when
+the journey's done."
+
+"Don't you believe that, Mr. Sharp. The end of the journey, this part,
+at least, means, Marion, and that's but a bit of a way from my mother.
+Is everything ready? Scruff? Is he here?"
+
+"Come and see the sorrowful chap in his moving stable if you wish.
+Though it hasn't moved as yet. He'll probably rebel against the state
+of affairs, at first; then be just as unwilling to leave the car as
+he was to enter it. It's a fine place for sleeping, and sleeping is
+Scruff's chief aim in life."
+
+"He's had to make up for lost time, for he'd never too much sleep at
+home, where Ned and Luis were. Oh! to think! To-morrow, to-morrow--this
+very next day that's coming--I shall have my arms around those
+children's precious necks and feel my mother's kisses on my lips. I
+can't wait. I can't."
+
+"Humph! I shall begin to think you can wait and very contentedly if you
+don't step into this car pretty soon."
+
+Jessica had never traveled by rail and the shock of the accident which
+had befallen Luis' father made her more timid than she had ever been
+before. She had pleaded to make the return trip by saddle, as she had
+come, but Mr. Sharp would not consent.
+
+"Time. Time. We must make time, Lady Jess. A newspaper man never uses
+a week where a day will do. If he did--well, no knowing if we should
+ever get out a single issue of _The Lancet_. Come on. If there were any
+danger do you think I would make you face it?"
+
+Thus shamed and by the friend who had proved so true to her interests,
+the little girl shut her eyes, held out her hands and was lightly swung
+upon the rear platform of the luxurious coach in which they were to
+make the first half of their trip. Later, they would have to leave
+the main line for a branch road, terminating at Marion, their postal
+station. From Marion, the thirty miles of saddle work, with the added
+detour on account of El Desierto, would be all the reporter fancied he
+should care for.
+
+"Some day I'll come back to Sobrante, if I'm invited, and get that
+famous rider, Samson, to teach me the trick of 'broncho busting' or
+some other caper. But now, the engine can't travel fast enough to suit
+my impatience."
+
+Nor Jessica, neither, after the first few moments of the journey. She
+forgot her fear in watching the swiftly moving landscape, and found it
+hard to believe that the landscape itself was still and she who was
+carried past it. This time there was none of Aunt Sally's bountiful
+luncheon but what seemed to Lady Jess something far finer--a dining
+car. To be sure, during their first meal in this, served by colored
+waiters whose unfamiliar faces distracted her attention, and swayed by
+the motion of the train, the girl's appetite was not worth mentioning;
+but by the time the supper hour was reached she was ready to enjoy almost
+everything which her companion ordered for her. It delighted him to
+observe how swiftly she comprehended and adapted herself to new things,
+and in his spirit of "teasing" he laid several harmless "traps" for
+her entanglement.
+
+But she had now learned to distinguish his fun from his earnest and,
+after one keen glance into his face, would skillfully avoid the little
+slips of speech or manner that would have so diverted him.
+
+"No, Mr. Sharp, I'm ever so ignorant of the way city people and
+traveling people do, but one thing Ephraim taught me, even on our
+quiet way out. That was: 'Use your eyes, not your tongue, and watch
+what other folks do.' So, if watching will prevent my doing awkward
+things, I'll watch, surely enough."
+
+They were to sleep at Marion, and when they finally left the less
+comfortable car of the branch road at that town, it was very dark and no
+vehicles were in waiting to convey passengers to the one hotel of the
+place. Few persons stopped at Marion, except such as resided there or
+near, and such either walked from the station to their homes or had their
+own wagons meet them.
+
+Ninian Sharp was disgusted. He was tired, his head ached, and he had
+anticipated no such "one horse" village as this. "Why, I thought it
+was your post town and all that."
+
+"So it is. And a very pretty place by daylight, save that they don't
+irrigate."
+
+"Which means there isn't a spear of grass within the town limits,
+doesn't it?"
+
+"Almost as bad. But now we'll change places, if you please. I've been
+to Marion several times with my father and once since--since he went
+away, with Samson. There! They're taking Scruff out of the car and you
+must ride him. I know the way. It's only a mile, about, to the hotel. Of
+course, there's a lodging-house nearer, right by this station, indeed,
+but the hotel's much nicer. You'll get a better bed there, and we'd
+best go on."
+
+"I'd rather sleep on the ground than walk a mile."
+
+"You shall do neither. Didn't you hear me say we've changed places
+now? I'm so near home I am at home and I'm--the captain. Obey orders,
+sir, and mount Scruff's back."
+
+He was too weary to protest and too ill. Subject to acute neuralgia, he
+was, like plenty of people, rather less courageous when he was in pain
+than at other times. Besides, now there was something of that decision
+in Jessica's tone which sick people find restful, and he quietly threw
+one leg across Scruff's back and let the girl do as she pleased.
+
+This was to start forward over the unpaved, unlighted street at a swift
+unbroken run, which Scruff had some work to equal; but the speed brought
+them promptly to a wooden "tavern," from one window of which there
+gleamed a solitary oil lamp.
+
+"Horrors! Antonio described a ranch called Desolation, or something like
+that, and I reckon we've arrived," lamented the reporter, jolted into
+fresh distress by the burro's trot.
+
+Jessica laughed.
+
+"Wait. Be patient, dear man. Within five minutes you'll be sleeping
+on a clean, sweet bed, and when you wake up in the morning it will be to
+a fine breakfast, a perfect day, and--Sobrante!"
+
+Then she tapped on the window and called:
+
+"Hello, there! Sobrante folks! Open the door, quick!"
+
+A head was thrust out of another window, further along the narrow porch,
+and a sleepy voice asked:
+
+"What's that you say? Who wants----"
+
+"I do! Jessica Trent, from Sobrante. But last, right from Los Angeles
+city. Please be quick!"
+
+In less time than seemed possible, for such a drowsy person to reach
+it, the door was flung wide and there rushed out upon the porch a man
+and a woman, who both seized Jessica at one time and in their effort
+to embrace her succeeded in hugging each other. Whereupon the landlady
+flung her stalwart husband aside and caught the little girl in her arms,
+to carry her within.
+
+"Oh! but this is the darling home again! And is it good news you've
+brought, my dear? Ah! by the shining of your bonny eyes one can see that
+plain. Light up, Aleck! Light up! How can we have such darkness when the
+bairn is safe back? And begging pardon, lassie, who is this yon?"
+
+Jessica presented her friend and added, quickly:
+
+"Only for him I could never have done that business, Janet, Aleck. And
+it is done. Everybody----"
+
+"All the countryside knows it already, Jessica Trent. It's ringing with
+it, as it rung with the story of a wave little lass who set out alone
+and unfriended, save for one old man, to clear her father's memory of a
+stain some ne'er-do-well had dared to splash it with; and how the old
+man broke his leg and lost the bairn; and, losing, she fell into wiser
+hands and all, and all. Why, the 'boys' are here long before sun up;
+hours before mailtime, to get the latest news. Ah! it's proud is all
+this land because of you, my wee bit bairnie!"
+
+Again was Jessica caught and kissed till her breath was gone; but
+released she demanded, and with disappointment in her tone:
+
+"So the news is no news, and does my mother, too, know all?"
+
+"Hasn't the sweet lady read the papers that the 'boys' have carried,
+loping to break their necks! Ah, lassie, 'twill be an ovation you'll
+get when once they sight your bonny head shining on the sandy branch
+road!"
+
+Jessica turned toward Ninian Sharp with the first feeling of anger she
+had ever had toward him.
+
+"The papers? Your _Lancet_, I suppose. But you knew, you knew how much
+I wanted to surprise my mother."
+
+"Even so. But could you expect a man to keep back such fine 'copy'
+from his office? If you did, or if I could, somebody else, like _The
+Gossip_, would have got ahead of us. It was public property, my little
+Lady, and private interests, or fancies, always yield to the great
+public. We'll discuss this further to-morrow. To-night I'd like to
+see the bed you promised."
+
+Jessica caught the hand of her weary friend and begged:
+
+"Forgive me. I forgot. And I suppose that the very feeling which made
+you so kind and faithful to us, strangers, made you faithful to--to that
+horrid old _Lancet_, too. Now Janet, you are to give Mr. Sharp your very
+nicest bed and breakfast, for he is tired and suffering."
+
+"'Tis ready this instant. 'Tis always ready, lassie, though few come
+nowadays, to use it. This way, sir. After I show him I'll come for you,
+Lady Jess."
+
+Jessica had not overpraised the neatness and comfort of this
+out-of-the-way hostelry, and Ninian Sharp slept dreamlessly till
+joyous voices outside his window roused him to the fact that morning
+and hunger had arrived together. Remembering, too, the long ride
+that lay before him and the necessity of finding a horse for it, he rose
+and hastily dressed. He had lost his neuralgic pains and his spirits
+were again such as Jessica had always seen him show. She, too, was
+up and waiting, and it looked as if her ovation had begun; for she was
+already the center of an admiring group yet held closest to the side of
+a big ranchman, grizzled and rugged, but beaming upon her and all the
+rest like an incarnate joy.
+
+"Samson, Samson, here he is! Mr. Sharp, dear Mr. Sharp, this is my
+biggest 'boy'!"
+
+"Huh! Glad to see you, little one. 'Looks like you'd be quite a man
+when you get growed up,'" quoted the joker, giving Samson's hand a
+cordial grasp.
+
+"Come on! Come on! You're the lad for us! Well, sir, you do me proud.
+You do Sobrante proud. You do all the world proud, and that's my
+sentiment to a t-i-o-n, sir! Breakfast's ready."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Ninian, he's brought--my mother has sent you the horse that
+nobody else has ridden since my father did. Nimrod, the swiftest,
+gentlest thoroughbred that anybody ever rode."
+
+"Sent him for me? Why, how could she know that we were coming?"
+
+"Why shouldn't she?" asked Samson. "Him and John Benton was over
+yesterday, but to-day it was my turn. One of us has been every day
+since the captain left Sobrante; and since the good news arrived there's
+always been a led horse for you, sir. Would have been till the day
+of judgment, too, if you hadn't struck us afore. Reckon you aren't
+acquainted with our little settlement, sir."
+
+"Reckon I wasn't, but I'm beginning to be. My! What a magnificent
+animal. And it solves the difficulty of finding a mount out to the ranch.
+I'm not much of a horseman, though. I don't know but I'd better stick
+to Scruff and leave Nimrod to Lady Jess."
+
+Samson wheeled around and eyed the stranger, curiously. Then he advanced
+and held out his hand again.
+
+"Shake, Sharp. You're a man, even if you do live in a city, and the
+first one I ever met who hailed from such a place and didn't think he
+knew it all. You'll do. And you can ride. A baby could, that creatur'.
+If you can't stick I'll hold you on. Now, breakfast, I say."
+
+This was Jessica's chance, and before they sat down to the bounteous
+meal which Janet had been hours in preparing she managed to draw Ninian
+aside and whisper a request, to which he nodded prompt assent. So nobody
+but they two knew what was meant when, as the three mounted and were
+about to ride away, she asked Samson:
+
+"Do you know the trail to El Desierto?"
+
+"Do I know a pisen serpent? What in the name of reason put such a
+forsaken hole into your head on this joyful occasion?"
+
+"Never mind what, and never mind speech-making, dear old fellow. I have
+to call at El Desierto on my way to Sobrante and would like to know the
+shortest road."
+
+"Is she--has she got a little 'touched' down there in your City of
+Angels and Scamps, eh?"
+
+"Samson, am I still the captain, or am I not?"
+
+"Captain, I salute. Ride on! You, Aleck, hitch up a board and take
+that trunk of Miss Trent's to her country seat, and be quick about
+it. Hurray! I'm so happy I'm looney! Here's for El Desierto and no
+questions asked. Hurray!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+BACK AT SOBRANTE
+
+
+For an hour and a half they rode swiftly along a comparatively level
+trail, though to Ninian Sharp's untrained eyes there was no road
+visible. How Samson managed to pick his way so undeviatingly over the
+dried herbage and sandy soil was a mystery; but neither the guide nor
+Jessica found anything strange in this. Those who live in wide solitudes
+grow keen of sight and hearing, and there were tiny roughnesses here and
+there which clearly marked to these experienced ranch people where
+other feet had passed that way.
+
+Presently the roughness increased, and the trail climbed steadily toward
+a mesa, which seemed to the reporter but ten rods distant, yet was, in
+reality, as many miles.
+
+"We turn here, captain. Shall I ride ahead?"
+
+"Yes, Samson, but slowly. Scruff's been so idle all these weeks and
+grown so lazy he'll hardly move."
+
+"He'll get over that as soon as he meets up with the tackers. My, but
+they've led Aunt Sally a life! And taken more medicine than was due
+'em during the natural course of their lives. Say, Sharp, do you enjoy
+picra?"
+
+"Never tasted the stuff."
+
+"And 'never too late to mend.' Here, take this vial, I present it to
+you with my compliments. With the captain's respect. With the good will
+of the whole outfit."
+
+"But, beg pardon, I have no use for--picra."
+
+"Don't delude yourself. You'll have to have it, outside or in. I'm a
+friend. I give you this bottle. Then, when Aunt Sally appears with her
+little dish and spoon, produce this from your pistol pocket and knock
+her plumb speechless. It's your only salvation. Now or never."
+
+"All right. Thanks. A case of forearmed, I suppose."
+
+"Exactly. Now--there she is!"
+
+Samson rose in his stirrups and pointed forward with his crop. Upon
+a barren, wide-stretching tableland stood a cluster of adobe huts. Behind
+them a clump of live oaks, beside them a sandy, curving streak, an
+arroyo, lighter in hue than the surrounding soil, but parched and dry
+as if part of the desert itself; behind them, three mighty, jagged,
+upward-pointing rocks.
+
+"There she is. The weirdest, lonesomest, God-for-sakenest habitation
+that fools ever made or lived in, quoted the joker, giving Samson's hand
+a cordial grasp. Hello! What's up captain?"
+
+For Jessica had also caught sight of the desolate homestead and, having
+too low stirrups for standing, had sprung to Scruff's back and poised
+thus on his saddle, was straining her eager, excited gaze toward the
+distant El Desierto.
+
+"My dream! The spot! For once he told the truth! Follow, follow me,
+quick!"
+
+"Land of love! She has gone queer, and that's a fact. Does the mite
+think that there little donkey can outrun your horse or mine? After her,
+stranger, lest she do some harm to herself."
+
+Ninian smiled softly and touched Nimrod lightly, and in a moment all
+three were again racing over the mesa, side by side, the girl foremost,
+and the men reining in their horses lest they should forestall her of the
+goal to which she aspired. The reporter, as eager and almost as wise
+as she, but good Samson completely in the dark and growing a trifle angry
+over the fact.
+
+When they came up to it the place seemed utterly deserted. The doors
+opened to the touch and in all but one of the three small buildings the
+windows were broken. The third was in better repair and was evidently
+sometimes still used by somebody. There was a bed, or cot, spread with
+blankets, a coal-oil stove, some canned meats and biscuits, and a
+well-wrapped gun.
+
+But Jessica's attention passed these details over.
+
+"The rocks! They are the very same as in my dream and he told me of them
+when he drew the map. Is that in your pocket, Mr. Sharp? Oh! is it?"
+
+"Sure." He drew it forth and held it so that Samson, too, could see.
+
+"Come! In the dream there was a little cave beneath the rocks and in the
+cave a box. You know it, Samson, the black tin box in which the valuable
+papers were kept. We could find it nowhere, mother nor I, but I shall
+find it here and in it--oh! in it--there will be that title deed! You
+look, 'boys,' I can't, I tremble so."
+
+Samson forced his great length downward and inward under the bowlders
+and found, as Jessica had felt sure, a small but perfectly dry and
+well-protected cave. The rocks and live oaks screened it from the sight
+of those who did not know it existed, and it would never have been
+suspected that there was aught but solid ground beneath those jagged
+stones.
+
+The horses and Scruff were willing to stand without tying, and Ninian
+was, in any case, too excited now to have remembered them. He saw that
+Lady Jess was trembling, indeed, and trembled himself. If this should
+prove a disappointment, how would she bear it?
+
+But it was not to be that. From the little cave there presently issued a
+mighty shout. That is it would have been mighty had the space been large
+enough to give it vent. As it was, it came like the subdued roar of a
+wild animal, and it was almost surprising to see the soles of Samson's
+boots emerge from the opening instead of furry feet.
+
+When he had crawled outward so far that he could lift himself upright,
+the sailor leaped so high that Ninian felt as if he were the one who
+had gone "queer" instead of Jessica, suspected. But this reason was
+obvious; for there in his hand was the veritable black tin box familiar
+to the girl from her earliest memory, and seen often enough by the herder
+to be instantly recognized.
+
+When, at last, the box was in her own hands Jessica became very quiet,
+though her voice still trembled as she said:
+
+"This belongs to my mother. It is for her to open it."
+
+"No, captain."
+
+"Not so, Jessica. If the deed for which she looked were not there it
+would be but a fresh distress to her. You look. It is your interest as
+well as hers, and if it is not there you can save her, at least, one
+disappointment on this day of your return."
+
+The opinions of her two friends prevailed; and, since they had no key,
+Samson's great knife forced the lock, and stored within were papers and
+vouchers of great value to Sobrante, which the faithless manager had
+carried away for his own purposes.
+
+The deed? Ah, yes. There it lay at the very bottom of the pile, and
+Jessica knew it at once for the queer paper which her father had shown
+her on the night before his death.
+
+For a time she could only weep over it and caress it, remembering the
+dear hands which had held it before her, and the unforgotten voice which
+had explained its value and all about the necessary "recording" which
+must be made. Then she rallied, remembering, also, that other precious
+parent, alive and waiting for her and it.
+
+"Keep you the box, Samson. I, myself, must keep and carry this."
+
+She fastened it within her blouse and kept one hand upon it all the rest
+of the way. A brief and happy way, which ended in a mother's arms and in
+the wild welcome of every dweller at Sobrante. And when the mother's
+arms set their recovered treasure free for a moment there were all the
+"boys" ready and waiting to seize and carry her from point to point,
+telling how careful had been each one's stewardship and how they would
+never let her go again. Never.
+
+As for Ninian Sharp he did not recognize himself in the hero they all
+made of him, nor did even Aunt Sally presume to offer him, so wonderful
+a man, a nauseous dose. But she was overheard to remark to Wun Lung, who
+had also joined the company unforbidden by his arch enemy:
+
+"I do believe, Wun Lungy, that if ever that there handsome young man
+should go and get married I'd set him up in my fifty-five thousand five
+hundred and fifty-five piece bedquilt. I did lay out to bequeath it to
+Jessica, but, la! I can piece her another, just as willin' as not. What
+you say, Wun Lungy?"
+
+"I slay, fool woman!"
+
+For a time joy and surprise turned Ned and Luis speechless; yet they
+were sent to bed late that night, each hugging a sharp-edged train of
+tin cars and breathing, "Choo! choo!" as if a railway were a common
+sight instead of an unknown one.
+
+But there came at last a quiet hour for mother and child, when they sat
+in close embrace, telling all that had befallen each during the days of
+separation.
+
+"Oh! if dear Ephraim were only here, mother! I said it should not be
+a month before that title deed was found, and the month will not be up
+until to-morrow. Poor Ephraim! It was bitter hard to leave him alone in
+that hospital, well-liked and cared for though he is. If it hadn't been
+for him I could never have gone. And the 'boys' would have made such a
+hero of him. Even as they did of Mr. Sharp. Can't you guess how proud
+they'd have been of him, mother?"
+
+When Mrs. Trent did not reply, Jessica looked up quickly and saw that
+dear face so near her own still clouded by a shadow of trouble.
+
+"Why, mother! What is it? You look as if you were not perfectly,
+absolutely happy, and yet how can you be else--to-night?"
+
+"Yes, darling, I am happy. So glad and thankful that I cannot put it
+into words. But Ephraim? My darling, at present, not for some days,
+if I were you I would not talk about Ephraim. You will be happier so.
+No. He is alive and getting well, so far as I know. There has been no
+later news than yours. Don't look so alarmed. Only this: the 'boys'
+have taken some queer notion about our 'Forty-niner,' and so I say he
+is probably happier just where he is to-night than if he were back at
+Sobrante."
+
+"Oh! mother! Another mystery? and about such a simple, honest, splendid
+old fellow as my Ephraim? Well, never mind. I seem to be sent into the
+world to solve other people's 'mysteries,' and I'll solve his."
+
+Eventually she did. But how and when cannot be told here. This is a story
+which must be related another time. But for the time Jessica was happy
+and all went well.
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Jessica Trent: Her Life on a Ranch, by 
+Evelyn Raymond
+
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