CHAPTER XXVII
Instead of the steps of a church, which form the natural way to theirnew estate for the great majority of brides, Francesca stepped into hersfrom the companion ladder of the _Curacao_. But there had been varioushappenings--the visit of the Dona Gracio de Gallardo y Garcio to urge,in her own stout black person, Francesca's acceptance of her house andcontents, her husband's equally hospitable offer of horses and escortfor her safe conduct to San Nicolas, also his subsequent espionage andthe means by which they evaded it. And now she was stepping from thecompanionway into the launch which was to take the newly married pair.
Just as the consul had done his best for Seyd, so, with a woman'snatural enthusiasm for a wedding, his wife had dressed the girl. Bymeans of a few pins plus a basting needle a pretty dress had been pulledinto a perfect fit, and out of its foam her shapely head now rose like adelicate dark flower. In the dusk of a crushed panama her clear-cut faceglowed with unusual color. Swaying there on Seyd's arm, she made apicture which drew the admiration of the men and the tender sympathy ofthe women passengers who looked down upon them from the rail. WhileSeyd was handing her into the launch a storm of rice broke overhead andfell softly into the water, and when, leaving them dancing in its wake,the big hulk of the ship moved on, a hearty cheer floated back to them.
If not so boisterous, the congratulations of the consul at the pier wereequally hearty. "You didn't do it a bit too soon," he informed them."Just after you left friend Eduardo notified me that it had been decidedin a family council that your wife should go at once to the house of herrelative. Without actually saying it he gave me to understand that acharge of kidnapping lay behind the demand. Just for the fun of it I lethim wander along, and when I sprang it, and told him that by this timeyou were undoubtedly married, you should have seen his face. He won'ttrouble you again--neither will he furnish you horses."
"That doesn't matter," his wife put in. "I have that all arranged."
"What?" The consul looked his surprise. "What's this? A conspiracy? Iexpected that you would stay with us at least a week?"
"No." His wife took the answer into her own hands. "You know,Francesca's mother and uncle are grieving in the belief that she isdrowned. And she has other reasons of her own--and yours," she added forSeyd. "Though you are not to bother her with questions."
At the consulate breakfast was waiting, and in the cheer of thefollowing hour and bustle of departure, Seyd forgot his momentarywonder. It did not revive until, early that afternoon, they reined in torest their horses on the crest of the first hill in the chain that ledin giant steps up to the plateau above the Barranca. As they rode on,after a last look at the harbor, which lay like a huge turquoise withinits setting of hills, he looked inquiringly at Francesca.
"Can you not guess?" she asked. When he shook his head she rallied himwith a happy laugh upon his dullness. "I think your memory is very poor,Senor Rosario."
"What--Rosa!" For instantly there flashed up a picture of her wet facelooking at him from under her capote hood on the day that he found herstanding in the rain beside her fallen horse.
"So you recognize me at last?"
"You don't mean to say--"
"_Si_, senor, my husband"--contradicting her laugh, a deep thrillinhered in the words--"it is even so. In the days before the railroad,when there was great travel between San Nicolas and the port, Don Luismaintained houses a day's journey apart. Though none of our family hasvisited them in the last two years, they were in good condition whenPaulo passed this way at the beginning of the rains. So to-night,Rosario, we bide in our own house."
Again did her accent on the "our" move and thrill him. Alwaysundemonstrative, however, he merely caught her hand, and so, linked likechildren, they rode on side by side. At first they observed a happysilence, but presently the trail took on such remarkable likeness to theone they had traveled that other day, proceeding from the stretches ofblack volcanic rock through copal and scrub oak to sparsely grassedbarrens, that the strength of the associations forced them into talk.
"That's where your horse fell," he began it. When she agreed, he asked,"I wonder if you had any conception of the risks you were running whenyou rode behind me?"
Though she knew very well what he meant, she pretended ignorance andmade him explain in detail his feelings at the sight of her handsresting like white butterflies on the front of his coat, his suddenemotion when the scent of her wet hair floated over his shoulder, utterintoxication whenever a slip of his horse caused her to tighten her holdon his waist.
"You hid it very cleverly," was her comment upon these revelations.
"And you never knew it?"
"Of course I did." To which she added the brazen confession, "Or I wouldnot have done it."
Shooting over a hill not long thereafter, the trail suddenly fellthrough copal and oak woods into a sheltered valley where, with asuddenness that drew an exclamation of admiration from Seyd, they camein sight of the house. A small adobe, washed with gold with pale-violetborders, it stood under a great banyan tree within the embrace of agrove of tall palms. Almost across its doorway a bright arroyo ranswiftly, to disappear in the dark shade of clump tamarinds. All theafternoon the sun had pursued a futile struggle with the ocean mists,and now, completing the beauty of the place, it shot a last copperyshaft between two clouds.
"A happy augury," was Francesca's greeting to the pathway of light. "Nowlet it rain."
The door was unlocked, and, entering with her, he found the interiorequally to his taste. The solid walls were cream-tinted, and after hehad lit the wood which was ready on the open hearth they reflected acomfortable glow on massive tables and chairs of plain oak, widesettees, and roomy lounges. His satisfaction was complete when she toldhim that it stood alone. The knowledge that they would be barred byleagues of distance, shut in by the rainy night from the rest of theworld, filled him with deep content. From a survey, conscious of warmthand comfort, his satisfied gaze returned to the fingers which werefluttering like white butterflies from button to button down herraincoat.
"Lazy one!" She spoke with a pretty assumption of wifely authority."Stable the horses--but first bring in the bundle from my crupper.While you are out I shall prepare our meal."
"What! Do we really eat? How thoughtful! It had never occurred to me."
"A pretty beginning," she made demure answer, "for a wife to starve herhusband."
Neither could there be any complaint of the meal that faced him on hisreturn, for it represented the best that could be bought or borrowed bythe consul's wife. Afterward Seyd would have washed the dishes, but,taking him by the shoulders, Francesca marched him back to the fire.
"No, I shall do it myself. Please?" She headed off the mutiny betrayedby his eyes. "If you knew how often I have peeped into our work-folks'adobes at night to watch, with envy, some little peona preparing herman's meal, you would understand." So, smoking by the fire, he watchedwith huge comfort the play of dimples in her arms and the fluttering ofthe small hands which seemed so hopelessly at odds with their task.
While working she chattered happily, but after the last dish was rangedin the plate rack on the wall she came to him and sank in a gracefulheap beside his chair. Head pillowed on one white arm spread across hisknee, she gazed thoughtfully into the fire; and, looking down upon her,Seyd's thought reverted once more to the shepherd's hut. Again he haddifficulty in realizing that it was indeed he, Robert Seyd, miningengineer, who was sharing food and fire with this, his wife, daughter onone side of a proud Spanish house and on the other of descent that ranback into the dim time of the Aztecs.
Her voice called him out of his wonder, and while the fire leaped andcrackled in defiance of the wind and rain without they talked of thisand that, their trials and travail, absent thoughts, hopes; and inthe telling of it they obtained surcease from the smart of pastmisunderstandings. Also there were confessions. Each told--she with ablush--how they had overlooked each other's sleep in the shepherd's hut.Because opportunity for such communion had
been altogether lacking,they talked late. Their murmurs died with the last light of the fire.
CHAPTER XXVIII
At high noon two days thereafter Seyd and Francesca drew rein on the rimof the Barranca above San Nicolas.
During the moment that the horses rested their thoughts reverted to thelast occasion when they had overlooked the great void, and if thethought of Sebastien brought a touch of sadness into the girl'sreflections it caused no bitterness. She turned with a low laugh whenSeyd produced from an inner pocket the handkerchief he had picked upthat day on the trail.
"It did," she said, when he told how it seemed to drip tears. "I hadcried all the way up the trail to the rim."
After the usual nightly downpour the sun had come out, and under a floodof golden light the valley floor stood out in relief, with its woodedhills and hollows diminished to toy proportions by the awful depth. Inthe center the _casa_ of San Nicolas sat like a gold cup in the widegreen saucer of surrounding pastures. Beyond, the river lay, a band offretted silver, splitting the valley; and, following its course upward,the girl's eye paused at the yellow scar, high on the opposite wall,which marked Santa Gertrudis.
"My beacon on many a dark day." She pointed.
"And that reminds me that it is in great danger of being extinguished,"Seyd answered. "Our first payment was due the day before yesterday.Unless Billy has returned in my absence with the money--and I haven'tthe slightest hope--the property is forfeited to your uncle."
"But he will not claim it." Out of her simple woman's faith she went on:"He is too good and kind to advantage himself by your misfortune. Inspite of his hate for the gringos, he likes you personally. Now that youare--my husband, he will not attempt your harm."
In view of his present clear view of Don Luis's machinations, Seyd wasnot so sure. Unwilling to hurt her, he conceded: "Well, we shall see.Let us ride on down."
"Not together, dear." Leaning over, she caught his arm. "I must see himfirst alone. He will be furiously angry, of course. But the angrier thebetter, for just so much sooner will follow the calm."
"But he may try--"
"--To take me from you?" She took the words out of his mouth. "Hecannot. In a day, a week, a month, sooner or later, I should escape.They could not forever keep me locked up. But he will not try. You know,he stole his own wife, snatched her away while she was going to churchto marry another, and he comes of a race that gained wives as often asnot by the sword. He cannot blame you without condemning himself, and Iam sure that he will not try. If you give me a little time to conquerhim and soothe my poor scandalized mother it will come out all right. Soyou must go on to Santa Gertrudis now and see if there be any news ofSenor Thornton. And to-morrow--you may come."
"If you have the slightest doubt"--loath to let her out of his hands, hehesitated--"I would ride on to the station. Beautiful as is this place,and much as I have come to love it, I would rather abandon all thanincur the risk."
"But there is none, husband mine." She looked up in his face, tenderlysmiling. "He will rage and roar like an old lion, but that is all. Ishould be only half a woman to have come to my age without learning tomanage him. Remember, for the second time you have saved my life, and,being already married, he cannot deny us. So go in peace, and"--she putup her mouth--"love."
In spite of her reassurance, he watched her go with apprehension thattook a blacker tinge when, arriving at the inn late in the afternoon, hefound no word from Billy. Though the inn's meager accommodations had notbeen improved by a slap from the wing tip of the wave, he remained thereall night in preference to crossing and recrossing the river. With somuch at stake, Santa Gertrudis could take care of itself for anotherday. Sleeping with anxiety for a bedfellow, he rose and was on the roadat daybreak--but not a bit earlier than Francesca, who met him halfway.
"I knew you would be anxious," she explained, "so I saddled a horse andstole away while all of San Nicolas was still asleep. But not fornothing are you to have my news. _Si_, it is good!
"'Twas as I said," she went on, having received her reward. "The _madre_had already cried herself beyond further tears, and was glad to have meon any terms. The good uncle, of course, stormed. Never was there such abattle since the French wars, and had you been there 'twould not havelacked its killed and wounded. Until midnight we fought; then, aftercursing the blood of the Irishman that has always led me astray, he gavein. ''Tis not for an old soldier to cross tongues with a woman,' hegrowled. 'To-morrow bring me thy man.' But he knew that he was beaten,"she finished, confidently, "for when I kissed him he laughed in histhroat and patted my hair."
Again Seyd refused to dash her hope, but he was not quite convinced, andwhen they entered the big living-room where Don Luis stood with Paulo inwaiting his dark gravity cast its shadow over the girl's glad face. Hisimmobility afforded no clue to the feeling that lay behind thestereotyped greeting, "The house, senor, is yours.
"I am the more pleased to see you," he went on, "because Paulo remindedme an hour ago of a matter of business that lies between us. Such thingsstick not in my memory. But I believe it concerns some money."
"Senor!" Her face flaming with the scarlet of shame, Francesca wasmoving forward.
He stopped her with a shake of his heavy head. "This is between meand--your husband. The papers, Paulo. Hand them to the senor."
It was a legal process, signed and sealed according to Mexican law, andbefore opening it Seyd knew it for the end. More out of curiosity thanfor information, he rapidly scanned the terms which had taken SantaGertrudis and its mined riches forever out of his hands. While he read,Don Luis studied his face. If he looked for signs of deep hurt therewere none to be seen, for in the long game between them Seyd wasconfronted for the first time by the expected. He looked up, squaringhis shoulders.
"The victory is yours, senor."
To Francesca's anxious eyes it seemed that the old man's gravitylightened by a shade. "You will concede, senor, that I warned you--thatno gringo would ever force himself in on my lands?"
"Yes, and I did my best to disprove it. For my partner's sake I amsorry. For my own"--he looked at his wife--"I am glad."
"Well spoken, senor." The shadow of a smile illumined the old man'sdark reserve. "But if I warned you, it does not follow that I have notwatched with some sympathy your struggle. In watching, too, my old eyeshave been opened upon truths that I had refused to see, though they layunder my nose. We are an old people, senor, we Mexicans. The old bloodof Spain added no effervescence to the Aztec strains that were grownstagnant long before Cortez landed, and when a people ages natureremoves it to make way for younger stock. _Si_, though I refused toacknowledge it, I have known many years that just as the Moors overranSpain, and the Spanish overran the Aztecs, so will your people overrunMexico from the Northern Sierras to the Gulf.
"Once I had thought to stay it. But time cools the hottest blood, andthe one I had counted upon to uphold my old hands is gone to his placeforever. Also I have seen that no man can dam the tide or shut the gatesthat Porfirio Diaz opened. As it went with Texas and Alta California sowill it go with all our states. Against your Yankee our softer peoplecan never stand. In the time to come only those of us that mix bloodwith shrewder strains will be able to withstand the flood, and thus itis I, who would have killed once the man that said I should ever takea gringo for kinsman, accept you with resignation. Perhaps it is theeasier because one such mixture gave us this bright girl. And if youtook time by the forelock 'tis not for me to grumble. One word more--"He threw one arm around Francesca, who had crossed to his side. "It hasnever been the habit of the Garcias to overlook a good dower to one ofthe house, and the fact that my niece has given you herself in exchangefor her life does not cancel _my_ debt. Give me the papers. The others,Paulo--to the senor."
While Seyd gazed at the title deeds to Santa Gertrudis, made out tohimself and Billy, the old man slowly tore up the forfeiture. Applying amatch to the pieces, he threw them on the hearth, and, blazing up, theyadded warmth to the grim smile that a
ccompanied his words.
"I told you, senor, that no gringo should ever _force_ himself in on myland."
THE END
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE:
Minor changes have been made to correct typesetters' errors; otherwise,every effort has been made to remain true to the author's words andintent.
The Mystery of The Barranca Page 27