Hearing this unexpected praise, the Chinaman wound and unwound his precious queue, after a fashion he had of expressing satisfaction; and smilingly advised Mrs. Benton to "step black polch," where she would find things to do.
So to the back porch the good lady retreated, carrying with her great dishes of fruit to prepare, and not forgetting two enormous slices of the rich plum cake she had promised the little boys, and which would have made less active, hardily reared children ill.
Mrs. Trent had moved her sewing machine to the porch, and Jessica sat near, with a little table before her, trying to write the Christmas invitations that had been so delayed, and to express them after a style which should not too painfully expose her own ignorance. The result was not so bad, considering the slight training the child had had, and her few years, yet it did not satisfy the mother, who felt that education was the one good thing, and who longed to have her child"s bright intellect developed as it should be.
Poor Jessica had written and rewritten the note intended for Mr. Hale a number of times, and still had it returned to her with many corrections, after Mrs. Trent"s reading of it, and now laid it aside with a sigh of discouragement.
"Can"t that wait a while, mother? If I may write to my darling Ninian Sharp, I"ll get myself rested. He doesn"t mind trifles like wrong capitals in the right places--oh! dear, I mean--I don"t know what I mean. But may I?"
"Certainly, dear. Though, first, come here and let me try the length of this sleeve."
Lady Jess obeyed readily, for new clothes were rare events in her simple life. This natty little "Christmas frock" was white, with scarlet tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs, and quite sufficiently in contrast with the plain blue flannel ones of everyday use to captivate her fancy and make her patient under the tedious process of "fitting." Yet she was glad to return to her table and her letter to Ninian Sharp, which she found no difficulty in composing, since she was free to do as she chose.
And this was the epistle which, after some delay, reached the newspaper man, at a time when he happened to need cheering up, and brought new life and interest into his overworked brain:
"MY VERY DEAR MISTER SHARP: My mother and the children and aunt sally, and Me and all the rest the Boys, are well and send Their LUV. We are Now Inviteing you To come and Spend the holidays at dear Sobrante.
everybody is Coming, most, and i Got lost and was found in a Hole. The Hole is in the ground. there was Money in It, that the Boys said my fortynineer stole and He Didn"t. It was elsa winklers and wolfgang was mad at her, and there was a Ghost, but it got away, else samson and Me would have shot it against the mission cordiror wall and had a nexibition. and ferd that was lock up got away two; and say, please my dear mister sharp, Will you see if this stone that"s in the package is any good? Pedro, thats a hundred years, says it"s copper and copper is worth money. We need some money bad, and i hope it is, and I don"t no anybody as clever as you. so Please write write away and tell us if you will come and tell ephraim Marsh, that the Boys will be at marion railway station with a buckborde and horses enough. i am Making something to put in everybodys stocking. i Began to make the things after last Christmas, that ever was, and i Have more than twenty-five presunts to Make and i Have got three done, one of Them is Yours. your Loving friend,
"JESSICA TRENT."
When the letters were completed, the little captain felt that she needed recreation, and her mother agreed with her; but, unlike her former habit, could not consent to the child"s going anywhere alone.
The recent terrible experience had banished from Mrs. Trent"s heart that comfortable sense of security which had prevented life on the isolated ranch from being a lonely one. She now felt, as Aunt Sally phrased it:
"Afraid of your own shadder, ain"t you, Gabriell", and well you may be. In the midst of life we are in the hands of them Bernals, and no knowin". That son John of mine may try to hoodwink me that "twasn"t no ghost I saw last night, but ghost it was if ever one walked this earth. It wasn"t, so to speak, a spooky ghost, neither; it was an avaricious one, and it wasn"t after no folks, but "twas after that money, sharp. Ain"t disappeared, for good, neither. Liable to spring up and out anywhere happens; and you do well, Gabriell", not to trust our girl off alone again. Not right to once. Where"s she hankerin" to travel now? She"d ought to be learnt to sew patchwork, instead of riding all over the country, hitherty-yender, a bareback on a broncho or a burro. If she was my girl----"
"If she was your girl, dear Aunt Sally, you couldn"t have been more anxious than you were while she was lost. And the life is good for her. It"s right for all women to understand sewing and household arts, but the captain isn"t a woman yet, and I have faith she"ll acquire all fitting knowledge in due time. She"s anxious to ride to Pedro"s. She says there was something different in his manner, last night, from ordinary, and, indeed, I fancied so myself. She"s gone to find which one of the boys can best leave his work to ride with her."
"It"ll be John Benton, Gabriella Trent. You see if it ain"t. That man just sees the world through Jessica"s eyes, and he"s never got over being jealous "at he wasn"t the one took her to Los Angeles that time. If he had all the work in creation piled up before him, and she happened to say "Come," some other whither, whither, "twould be, and not a minute"s hesitation. Anyhow, it"s Marty"s day for mailridin", and there he lopes this instant."
The ranchmen took turns in riding to the post, each esteeming it a privilege, and finding nothing but pleasure in the sixty miles" gallop to Marion and back. At that moment, indeed, Marty was swinging out of sight on his own fine mount, the mailbag before him on his heavy Mexican saddle, the wind created by the swift motion of the beast raising the brim of his broad hat and thrilling him with that sense of abounding life and freedom which comes so forcibly to men in the wide s.p.a.ces of the earth.
He was the youngest of the "boys," even though past his first youth, and the "life" of the ranchmen"s quarters, where all liked and some loved him.
The women on the porch watched him till he became a mere speck in the distance, and Aunt Sally sighed:
"That George Cromarty is as likely a youth as ever I knew. He"s that good to his old mother, back in the East, I tell my own son John, he ought to profit by such an example. I should hate to have anything happen to him. Yes, indeedy, I should hate to have a single bad thing happen to poor George Cromarty."
A little nervous shiver ran through Mrs. Trent"s slender frame, yet she turned upon her companion, as she threaded her needle, with a laugh, exclaiming:
"Oh! you dear old croaker! Why can"t you let well enough alone, without mentioning more evil? You know the old saying that to speak of trouble is to invite its visitation. Surely, there was nothing about to-day"s postman to suggest disaster. George is a typical ranchman, and my husband used to point him out to visitors as what a man might be, who grew up, or old, where "there was room enough."
Big-hearted, full of fun, tender as a woman, but intolerant of meanness and evil doing. It would be a dark day for Sobrante if ill befell our "Marty.""
"Well, I don"t know. Something"s going to go wrong somewhere. I feel it in my bones, seems if. There, I told you so! Yonder comes that lazy boy of mine and Jessie. There"s more things needing him here on this place than you could shake a stick at, yet off he"ll go traipsing just at a nod from his captain."
"Don"t begrudge them their happiness, Aunt Sally. Certainly, after grief, it is their due. Well, John, will you act escort for the little lady of Sobrante?" asked its mistress.
"Will I not? And do me proud. She ain"t to be trusted with any of the flighty ones, Samson now, or----"
Mrs. Trent"s laughter--that morning as heart-whole and free as a girl"s--interrupted the ranchman"s disparaging comments on his fellows, sedate grayheads as most of them were; for well she understood the universal devotion of all to their darling captain.
"Oh, John, I can scarcely a.s.sociate the idea of frivolity or carelessness with our big Samson; but wait a moment, please, before you start. There"s such a store of good things left, though in fragments, that I"d like to pack a basket for Pedro. I wish he did not insist upon living so alone. He is so old and I feel, as the native Californians used, that the older a person grew the more precious. I wish you"d try to persuade him to let somebody else take his place with the sheep, and to arrange his small affairs so that when he comes down for his Navidad he will remain. There"s enough to keep him busy and happy here."
"I"ll try, mistress. But he"ll not be persuaded. Old Pedro wouldn"t think he could breathe down here in the valley, for long at a time.
Well, good-by. Ready, captain?"
"Ready, John, as soon as mother gets the basket. Quiet, Buster. I believe you"re more eager for a canter than I am, even."
Then when the basket had been handed up to John, the pair merrily saluted the women on the porch and rode away; but Mrs. Benton called shrilly after them:
"Turn back and start over again! Turn back, I say! Both your horses set off left feet first. That means bad luck as sure as you are born!"
But n.o.body paid any heed to Aunt Sally"s forecasts of evil, save to laugh at them. Only Mrs. Trent again felt that nervous shiver seize her, and but for shame"s sake would have begged her daughter to defer her ride until another day.
However, shame prevailed; or common sense, which is far better; and well it was--or ill--that the riders kept serenely on their way, indifferent to "signs" and ignorant of what lay before them.
CHAPTER X.
ON THE ROAD HOME
The train from Los Angeles rolled slowly up to the little station at Marion and the asthmatic engine seemed to wheeze its relief that its labor was ended, as an old man stepped from the last car and looked eagerly along the platform. Then a certain degree of disappointment overspread his fine face, and shouldering a heavy parcel, strapped round with leather to give a holding place, he strode rather unsteadily forward over the same sandy road, or street, which had tried Ninian Sharp"s patience on his first visit to the post town.
Yet, after a little, the man grew accustomed to his own stiffness of limb and moved with a sort of halting swiftness which soon brought him to the little hostelry of one Aleck McLeod, where a group of ranchmen were sunning themselves while they waited the distribution of the mail.
It was noticeable that the porch was spotlessly clean and that none of the idlers profaned its cleanliness by so much as one expectoration of tobacco juice, though all were either smoking or chewing that weed.
They had far too great respect for Janet, Aleck"s wife, and for the labor that cleanliness meant in that waterless region. They were all deep in the discussion of the late events at Sobrante and none heard the old traveler"s approach over the soft ground, till he stood close beside them with his foot on the lower step.
But he heard them and their eager talk; and, pausing a bit, the more completely to surprise them by an intended halloo, he forgot that and all else save what they were saying.
"It was ten to one she was never found. "Pears like a miracle to me, that old Pedro was led to find that very cave just when he did. My wife claims it was a miracle, same as used to be in Bible days, and you can"t talk her out of it. You know how women are," said one ranchman, who had aided in the search for Jessica.
"Well, first and last, them Trents have done a heap for this section of our "native." And they"re square folks, every identical of them.
Even the little tacker, that boy Ned. There"s more in his head than he gets credit for, and one these days he"ll show there is. He"s a master hand with a gun, baby as he is, and if he"d had one handy I wager he"d have put some shot into the ugly carca.s.s of that Ferd---- But he hadn"t the iron and he didn"t," added another smoker.
"It was a prime spread Mis" Trent gave us. Must have took about all the provisions she had in store, but nothing was too good for them that helped her in her trouble. Or tried to help, same thing; since it was her own man, Pedro, found the child. Away down in the bottom of a pit in the depth of an unknown cave! Think of it, somebody! It just makes my hair rise on end, known" there is such a fool and scoundrel joined in one dwarf"s body--h.e.l.lo! hel--lo!"
The last speaker"s words ended in a sort of screech of astonishment and recognition, as a hard hand was laid upon his shoulder, and Ephraim Marsh demanded, fiercely:
"What"s that you say, neighbor?"
"Why, h.e.l.lo, Marsh! Where"d you drop from?" cried one, rising and extending a hand in greeting.
"You"re a sight to cure sick folks!" shouted another, pressing to "Forty-niner"s" side, and slapping the veteran"s shoulder in high good will.
But Ephraim had no feeling at present, save anxiety to know what their discussion had meant; and, all talking, they laid a succinct history of the last few days before him. He listened in increasing alarm and amazement and his old limbs tottered beneath him, so that he called out, hastily: