Ramona

"Yes," he replied. "It is done." And he pointed to a little box of rough boards by the side of the cradle.

"Is Majella ready to go to the mountain now?" he asked.

"Yes, Alessandro, I am ready," she said.

"We will hide forever," he said.

"It makes no difference," she replied.

The Saboba women did not know what to think of Ramona now. She had never come into sympathetic relations with them, as she had with the women of San Pasquale. Her intimacy with the Hyers had been a barrier the Saboba people could not surmount. No one could be on such terms with whites, and be at heart an Indian, they thought; so they held aloof from Ramona.

But now in her bereavement they gathered round her. They wept at sight of the dead baby"s face, lying in its tiny white coffin. Ramona had covered the box with white cloth, and the lace altar-cloth thrown over it fell in folds to the floor. "Why does not this mother weep? Is she like the whites, who have no heart?" said the Saboba mothers among themselves; and they were embarra.s.sed before her, and knew not what to say. Ramona perceived it, but had no life in her to speak to them.

Benumbing terrors, which were worse than her grief, were crowding Ramona"s heart now. She had offended the Virgin; she had committed a blasphemy: in one short hour the Virgin had punished her, had smitten her child dead before her eyes. And now Alessandro was going mad; hour by hour Ramona fancied she saw changes in him. What form would the Virgin"s vengeance take next? Would she let Alessandro become a raging madman, and finally kill both himself and her? That seemed to Ramona the most probable fate in store for them. When the funeral was over, and they returned to their desolate home, at the sight of the empty cradle Ramona broke down.

"Oh, take me away, Alessandro! Anywhere! I don"t care where! anywhere, so it is not here!" she cried.

"Would Majella be afraid, now, on the high mountain, the place I told her of?" he said.

"No!" she replied earnestly. "No! I am afraid of nothing! Only take me away!"

A gleam of wild delight flitted across Alessandro"s face. "It is well,"

he said. "My Majella, we will go to the mountain; we will be safe there."

The same fierce restlessness which took possession of him at San Pasquale again showed itself in his every act. His mind was unceasingly at work, planning the details of their move and of the new life. He mentioned them one after another to Ramona. They could not take both horses; feed would be scanty there, and there would be no need of two horses. The cow also they must give up. Alessandro would kill her, and the meat, dried, would last them for a long time. The wagon he hoped he could sell; and he would buy a few sheep; sheep and goats could live well in these heights to which they were going. Safe at last! Oh, yes, very safe; not only against whites, who, because the little valley was so small and bare, would not desire it, but against Indians also. For the Indians, silly things, had a terror of the upper heights of San Jacinto; they believed the Devil lived there, and money would not hire one of the Saboba Indians to go so high as this valley which Alessandro had discovered. Fiercely he gloated over each one of these features of safety in their hiding-place. "The first time I saw it, Majella,--I believe the saints led me there,--I said, it is a hiding-place. And then I never thought I would be in want of such,--of a place to keep my Majella safe! safe! Oh, my Majel!" And he clasped her to his breast with a terrifying pa.s.sion.

For an Indian to sell a horse and wagon in the San Jacinto valley was not an easy thing, unless he would give them away. Alessandro had hard work to give civil answers to the men who wished to buy Benito and the wagon for quarter of their value. He knew they would not have dared to so much as name such prices to a white man. Finally Ramona, who had felt unconquerable misgivings as to the wisdom of thus irrevocably parting from their most valuable possessions, persuaded him to take both horses and wagon to San Bernardino, and offer them to the Hyers to use for the winter.

It would be just the work for Jos, to keep him in the open air, if he could get teaming to do; she was sure he would be thankful for the chance. "He is as fond of the horses as we are ourselves, Alessandro,"

she said. "They would be well cared for; and then, if we did not like living on the mountain, we could have the horses and wagon again when we came down, or Jos could sell them for us in San Bernardino. n.o.body could see Benito and Baba working together, and not want them."

"Majella is wiser than the dove!" cried Alessandro. "She has seen what is the best thing to do. I will take them."

When he was ready to set off, he implored Ramona to go with him; but with a look of horror she refused. "Never," she cried, "one step on that accursed road! I will never go on that road again unless it is to be carried, as we brought her, dead."

Neither did Ramona wish to see Aunt Ri. Her sympathy would be intolerable, spite of all its affectionate kindliness. "Tell her I love her," she said, "but I do not want to see a human being yet; next year perhaps we will go down,--if there is any other way besides that road."

Aunt Ri was deeply grieved. She could not understand Ramona"s feeling.

It rankled deep. "I allow I"d never hev bleeved it uv her, never," she said. "I shan"t never think she wuz quite right "n her head, to do "t!

I allow we shan"t never set eyes on ter her, Jos. I"ve got jest thet feelin" abaout it. "Pears like she"d gone klar out "er this yer world inter anuther."

The majestic bulwark of San Jacinto Mountain looms in the southern horizon of the San Bernardino valley. It was in full sight from the door of the little shanty in which Aunt Ri"s carpet-loom stood. As she sat there hour after hour, sometimes seven hours to the day, working the heavy treadle, and slipping the shuttle back and forth, she gazed with tender yearnings at the solemn, shining summit. When sunset colors smote it, it glowed like fire; on cloudy days, it was lost in the clouds.

""Pears like "twas next door to heaven, up there, Jos," Aunt Ri would say. "I can"t tell yer the feelin" "t comes over me, to look up "t it, ever sence I knowed she wuz there. "T shines enuf to put yer eyes aout, sometimes; I allow "tain"t so light"s thet when you air into "t; "t can"t be; ther couldn"t n.o.body stan" it, ef "t wuz. I allow "t must be like bein" dead, Jos, don"t yer think so, to be livin" thar? He sed ther couldn"t n.o.body git to "em. n.o.body ever seed the place but hisself. He found it a huntin". Thar"s water thar, "n" thet"s abaout all thar is, fur"s I cud make aout; I allow we shan"t never see her agin."

The horses and the wagon were indeed a G.o.dsend to Jos. It was the very thing he had been longing for; the only sort of work he was as yet strong enough to do, and there was plenty of it to be had in San Bernardino. But the purchase of a wagon suitable for the purpose was at present out of their power; the utmost Aunt Ri had hoped to accomplish was to have, at the end of a year, a sufficient sum laid up to buy one.

They had tried in vain to exchange their heavy emigrant-wagon for one suitable for light work. ""Pears like I"d die o" shame," said Aunt Ri, "sometimes when I ketch myself er thinkin" what luck et"s ben to Jos, er gettin" thet Injun"s hosses an" waggin. But ef Jos keeps on, airnin" ez much ez he hez so fur, he"s goin" ter pay the Injun part on "t, when he c.u.ms. I allow ter Jos "tain"t no more"n fair. Why, them hosses, they"ll dew good tew days" work"n one. I never see sech hosses; "n" they"re jest like kittens; they"ve ben drefful pets, I allow. I know she set all the world, "n" more tew, by thet nigh one. He wuz hern, ever sence she wuz a child. Pore thing,--"pears like she hedn"t hed no chance!"

Alessandro had put off, from day to day, the killing of the cow. It went hard with him to slaughter the faithful creature, who knew him, and came towards him at the first sound of his voice. He had pastured her, since the baby died, in a canon about three miles northeast of the village,--a lovely green canon with oak-trees and a running brook. It was here that he had thought of building his house if they had stayed in Saboba. But Alessandro laughed bitterly to himself now, as he recalled that dream.

Already the news had come to Saboba that a company had been formed for the settling up of the San Jacinto valley; the Ravallo brothers had sold to this company a large grant of land. The white ranchmen in the valley were all fencing in their lands; no more free running of stock. The Saboba people were too poor to build miles of fencing; they must soon give up keeping stock; and the next thing would be that they would be driven out, like the people of Temecula. It was none too soon that he had persuaded Majella to flee to the mountain. There, at least, they could live and die in peace,--a poverty-stricken life, and the loneliest of deaths; but they would have each other. It was well the baby had died; she was saved all this misery. By the time she had grown to be a woman, if she had lived, there would be no place in all the country where an Indian could find refuge. Brooding over such thoughts as these, Alessandro went up into the canon one morning. It must be done.

Everything was ready for their move; it would take many days to carry even their few possessions up the steep mountain trail to their new home; the pony which had replaced Benito and Baba could not carry a heavy load. While this was being done, Ramona would dry the beef which would be their supply of meat for many months. Then they would go.

At noon he came down with the first load of the meat, and Ramona began cutting it into long strips, as is the Mexican fashion of drying.

Alessandro returned for the remainder. Early in the afternoon, as Ramona went to and fro about her work, she saw a group of hors.e.m.e.n riding from house to house, in the upper part of the village; women came running out excitedly from each house as the hors.e.m.e.n left it; finally one of them darted swiftly up the hill to Ramona. "Hide it! hide it!" she cried, breathless; "hide the meat! It is Merrill"s men, from the end of the valley. They have lost a steer, and they say we stole it. They found the place, with blood on it, where it was killed; and they say we did it.

Oh, hide the meat! They took all that Fernando had; and it was his own, that he bought; he did not know anything about their steer!"

"I shall not hide it!" cried Ramona, indignantly. "It is our own cow.

Alessandro killed it to-day."

"They won"t believe you!" said the woman, in distress. "They"ll take it all away. Oh, hide some of it!" And she dragged a part of it across the floor, and threw it under the bed, Ramona standing by, stupefied.

Before she had spoken again, the forms of the galloping riders darkened the doorway; the foremost of them, leaping off his horse, exclaimed: "By G.o.d! here"s the rest of it. If they ain"t the d.a.m.nedest impudent thieves! Look at this woman, cutting it up! Put that down, will you?

We"ll save you the trouble of dryin" our meat for us, besides killin"

it! Fork over, now, every bit you"ve got, you--" And he called Ramona by a vile epithet.

Every drop of blood left Ramona"s face. Her eyes blazed, and she came forward with the knife uplifted in her hand. "Out of my house, you dogs of the white color!" she said. "This meat is our own; my husband killed the creature but this morning."

Her tone and bearing surprised them. There were six of the men, and they had all swarmed into the little room.

"I say, Merrill," said one of them, "hold on; the squaw says her husband only jest killed it to-day. It might be theirs."

Ramona turned on him like lightning. "Are you liars, you all," she cried, "that you think I lie? I tell you the meat is ours; and there is not an Indian in this village would steal cattle!"

A derisive shout of laughter from all the men greeted this speech; and at that second, the leader, seeing the mark of blood where the Indian woman had dragged the meat across the ground, sprang to the bed, and lifting the deerskin, pointed with a sneer to the beef hidden there.

"Perhaps, when you know Injun"s well"s I do," he said, "you won"t be for believin" all they say! What"s she got it hid under the bed for, if it was their own cow?" and he stooped to drag the meat out. "Give us a hand here, Jake!"

"If you touch it, I will kill you!" cried Ramona, beside herself with rage; and she sprang between the men, her uplifted knife gleaming.

"Hoity-toity!" cried Jake, stepping back; "that"s a handsome squaw when she"s mad! Say, boys, let"s leave her some of the meat. She wasn"t to blame; of course, she believes what her husband told her."

"You go to gra.s.s for a soft-head, you Jake!" muttered Merrill, as he dragged the meat out from beneath the bed.

"What is all this?" said a deep voice in the door; and Ramona, turning, with a glad cry, saw Alessandro standing there, looking on, with an expression which, even in her own terror and indignation, gave her a sense of dread, it was so icily defiant. He had his hand on his gun.

"What is all this?" he repeated. He knew very well.

"It"s that Temecula man," said one of the men, in a low tone, to Merrill. "If I"d known "t was his house, I wouldn"t have let you come here. You"re up the wrong tree, sure!"

Merrill dropped the meat he was dragging over the floor, and turned to confront Alessandro"s eyes. His countenance fell. Even he saw that he had made a mistake. He began to speak. Alessandro interrupted him.

Alessandro could speak forcibly in Spanish. Pointing to his pony, which stood at the door with a package on its back, the remainder of the meat rolled in the hide, he said: "There is the remainder of the beef.

I killed the creature this morning, in the canon. I will take Senor Merrill to the place, if he wishes it. Senor Merrill"s steer was killed down in the willows yonder, yesterday."

"That"s so!" cried the men, gathering around him. "How did you know? Who did it?"

Alessandro made no reply. He was looking at Ramona. She had flung her shawl over her head, as the other woman had done, and the two were cowering in the corner, their faces turned away. Ramona dared not look on; she felt sure Alessandro would kill some one. But this was not the type of outrage that roused Alessandro to dangerous wrath. He even felt a certain enjoyment in the discomfiture of the self-const.i.tuted posse of searchers for stolen goods. To all their questions in regard to the stolen steer, he maintained silence. He would not open his lips. At last, angry, ashamed, with a volley of coa.r.s.e oaths at him for his obstinacy, they rode away. Alessandro went to Ramona"s side. She was trembling. Her hands were like ice.

"Let us go to the mountain to-night!" she gasped. "Take me where I need never see a white face again!"

A melancholy joy gleamed in Alessandro"s eyes. Ramona, at last, felt as he did.

"I would not dare to leave Majella there alone, while there is no house," he said; "and I must go and come many times, before all the things can be carried."