"Certainly; I"ll do as you prefer."
To himself he thought that there was probably a feud of some kind between the two families that might make a mention of the name unpleasant. "And that reminds me that I don"t know what your name is.
Mine is Muir--Richard Muir."
"And mine is Maria Yuste."
He offered her his brown hand. "I"m right happy to meet you, Senorita Maria."
"Welcome to the Yuste _hacienda, senor_. What is ours is yours, so long as you are our guest. I pray you make yourself at home," she said as they rode into the courtyard.
Two Mexican lads came running forward; and one whom she called Pedro took the horse, while the other went into the house to attend to a quick command she gave in Spanish.
The man who had named himself Richard Muir followed his hostess through a hall, across an open court, and into a living-room carpeted with Navajo rugs, at the end of which was a great open fireplace bearing a Spanish motto across it.
Large windows, set three feet deep in the thick adobe walls, were filled with flowers or padded with sofa pillows for seats. One of these his hostess indicated to the limping man.
"If you will be seated here for the present, sir, your room will be ready very soon."
A few minutes later the fisherman found himself in a large bedroom. He was seated in an easy-chair before a crackling fire of _pinon_ knots.
A messenger had been dispatched for a doctor, Senorita Yuste had told him, and in the meantime he was to make himself quite at home.
CHAPTER IV
AT THE YUSTE HACIENDA
The wrench to the fisherman"s knee proved more serious than he had antic.i.p.ated. The doctor p.r.o.nounced it out of the question that he should be moved for some days at least.
The victim was more than content, because he was very much interested in the young woman who had been his rescuer, and because it gave him a chance to observe at first hand the remains of the semifeudal system that had once obtained in New Mexico and California.
It was easy for him to see that Senorita Maria Yuste was still considered by her dependents as a superior being, one far removed from them by the divinity of caste that hedged her in. They gave her service; and she, on her part, looked out for their needs, and was the patron saint to whom they brought all their troubles.
It was an indolent, happy life the peons on the estate led, patriarchal in its nature, and far removed from the throb of the money-mad world.
They had enough to eat and to wear. There was a roof over their heads.
There were girls to be loved, dances to be danced, and guitars to be strummed. Wherefore, then, should the young men feel the spur of an ambition to take the world by the throat and wring success from it?
It had been more years than he could remember since this young American had taken a real holiday except for an occasional fishing trip on the Gunnison or into Wyoming. He had lived a life of activity. Now for the first time he learned how to be lazy. To dawdle indolently on one of the broad porches, while Miss Yuste sat beside him and busied herself over some needlework, was a sensuous delight that filled him with content. He felt that he would like to bask there in the warm sunshine forever.
After all, why should he pursue wealth and success when love and laughter waited for him in this peaceful valley chosen of the G.o.ds?
The fourth morning of his arrival he hobbled out to the south porch after breakfast, to find his hostess in corduroy skirt, high laced boots, and pinched-in sombrero. She was drawing on a pair of driving gauntlets. One of the stable boys was standing beside a rig he had just driven to the house.
The young woman flung a flashing smile at her guest.
"Good day, Senor Muir. I hope you had a good night"s rest, and that your knee did not greatly pain you?"
"I feel like a colt in the pasture--fit for anything. But the doctor won"t have it that way. He says I"m an invalid," returned the young man whimsically.
"The doctor ought to know," she laughed.
"I expect it won"t do me any harm to lie still for a day or two. We Americans all have the git-up-and-dust habit. We got to keep going, though Heaven knows what we"re going for sometimes."
Though he did not know it, her interest in him was considerable, though certainly critical. He was a type outside of her experience, and, by the law of opposites, attracted her. Every line of him showed tremendous driving power, force, energy. He was not without some touch of Western swagger; but it went well with the air of youth to which his boyish laugh and wavy, sun-reddened hair contributed.
The men of her station that she knew were of one pattern, indolent, well-bred aristocrats, despisers of trade and of those who indulged in it more than was necessary to live. But her mother had been an American girl, and there was in her blood a strong impulse toward the great nation of which her father"s people were not yet in spirit entirely a part.
"I have to drive to Antelope Springs this morning. It is not a rough trip at all. If you would care to see the country----"
She paused, a question in her face. Her guest jumped at the chance.
"There is nothing I should like better. If you are sure it will be no inconvenience."
"I am sure I should not have asked you if I had not wanted you," she said; and he took it as a reproof.
She drove a pair of grays that took the road with the spirit of racers.
The young woman sat erect and handled the reins masterfully, the while Muir leaned back and admired the steadiness of the slim, strong wrists, the businesslike directness with which she gave herself to her work, the glow of life whipped into her eyes and cheeks by the exhilaration of the pace.
"I suppose you know all about these old land-grants that were made when New Mexico was a Spanish colony and later when it was a part of Mexico,"
he suggested.
Her dark eyes rested gravely on him an instant before she answered: "Most of us that were brought up on them know something of the facts."
"You are familiar with the Valdes grant?"
"Yes."
"And with the Moreno grant, made by Governor Armijo?"
"Yes."
"The claims conflict, do they not?"
"The Moreno grant is taken right from the heart of the Valdes grant. It includes all the springs, the valleys, the irrigable land; takes in everything but the hilly pasture land in the mountains, which, in itself, is valueless."
"The land included in this grant is of great value?"
"It pastures at the present time fifty thousand sheep and about twelve thousand head of cattle."
"Owned by Miss Valdes?"
"Owned by her and her tenants."
"She"s what you call a cattle queen, then. Literally, the cattle on a thousand hills are hers."
"As they were her father"s and her grandfather"s before her, to be held in trust for the benefit of about eight hundred tenants," she answered quietly.