But"--he hesitated, and then added, "thar was a mighty purty gal thar--and her darter, I reckon--a reg'lar pink fairy! She kem in only a minute, and they sorter hustled her out ag'in--for darn my skin ef she didn't look as much out o' place in that smoky old garlic-smellin' room as an angel at a bull-fight. And what got me--she was ez white ez you or me, with blue eyes, and a lot o' dark reddish hair in a long braid down her back. Why, only for her purty sing-song voice and her 'Gracias, senor,' you'd hev reckoned she was a Blue Grass girl jest fresh from across the plains."A little amused at his foreman's enthusiasm, Mr. Grey gave an ostentatious whistle and said, "Come, now, Richards, look here!
Really!"
"Only a little girl--a mere child, Mr. Grey--not more'n fourteen if a day," responded Richards, in embarrassed depreciation.
"Yes, but those people marry at twelve," said the editor, with a laugh. "Look out! Your appreciation may have been noticed by some other admirer."He half regretted this speech the next moment in the quick flush--the male instinct of rivalry--that brought back the glitter of Richards's eyes. "I reckon I kin take care of that, sir," he said slowly, "and I kalkilate that the next time I meet that chap--whoever he may be--he won't see so much of my back as he did."The editor knew there was little doubt of this, and for an instant believed it his duty to put the matter in the hands of the police.
Richards was too good and brave a man to be risked in a bar-room fight. But reflecting that this might precipitate the scandal he wished to avoid, he concluded to make some personal investigation.
A stronger curiosity than he had felt before was possessing him.
It was singular, too, that Richards's description of the girl was that of a different and superior type--the hidalgo, or fair-skinned Spanish settler. If this was true, what was she doing there--and what were her relations to the Ramierez?
PART II
The next afternoon he went to the fonda. Situated on the outskirts of the town which had long outgrown it, it still bore traces of its former importance as a hacienda, or smaller farm, of one of the old Spanish landholders. The patio, or central courtyard, still existed as a stable-yard for carts, and even one or two horses were tethered to the railings of the inner corridor, which now served as an open veranda to the fonda or inn. The opposite wing was utilized as a tienda, or general shop,--a magazine for such goods as were used by the Mexican inhabitants,--and belonged also to Ramierez.
Ramierez himself--round-whiskered and Sancho Panza-like in build--welcomed the editor with fat, perfunctory urbanity. The fonda and all it contained was at his disposicion.
The senora coquettishly bewailed, in rising and falling inflections, his long absence, his infidelity and general perfidiousness. Truly he was growing great in writing of the affairs of his nation--he could no longer see his humble friends! Yet not long ago--truly that very week--there was the head impresor of Don Pancho's imprenta himself who had been there!
A great man, of a certainty, and they must take what they could get! They were only poor innkeepers; when the governor came not they must welcome the alcalde. To which the editor--otherwise Don Pancho--replied with equal effusion. He had indeed recommended the fonda to his impresor, who was but a courier before him. But what was this? The impresor had been ravished at the sight of a beautiful girl--a mere muchacha--yet of a beauty that deprived the senses--this angel--clearly the daughter of his friend! Here was the old miracle of the orange in full fruition and the lovely fragrant blossom all on the same tree--at the fonda. And this had been kept from him!
"Yes, it was but a thing of yesterday," said the senora, obviously pleased. "The muchacha--for she was but that--had just returned from the convent at San Jose, where she had been for four years.
Ah! what would you? The fonda was no place for the child, who should know only the litany of the Virgin--and they had kept her there. And now--that she was home again--she cared only for the horse. From morning to night! Caballeros might come and go!
There might be a festival--all the same to her, it made nothing if she had the horse to ride! Even now she was with one in the fields. Would Don Pancho attend and see Cota and her horse?"The editor smilingly assented, and accompanied his hostess along the corridor to a few steps which brought them to the level of the open meadows of the old farm inclosure. A slight white figure on horseback was careering in the distance. At a signal from Senora Ramierez it wheeled and came down rapidly towards them. But when within a hundred yards the horse was suddenly pulled up vaquero fashion, and the little figure leaped off and advanced toward them on foot, leading the horse.
To his surprise, Mr. Grey saw that she had been riding bareback, and from her discreet halt at that distance he half suspected ASTRIDE! His effusive compliments to the mother on this exhibition of skill were sincere, for he was struck by the girl's fearlessness.
But when both horse and rider at last stood before him, he was speechless and embarrassed.
For Richards had not exaggerated the girl's charms. She was indeed dangerously pretty, from her tawny little head to her small feet, and her figure, although comparatively diminutive, was perfectly proportioned. Gray eyed and blonde as she was in color, her racial peculiarities were distinct, and only the good-humored and enthusiastic Richards could have likened her to an American girl.
But he was the more astonished in noticing that her mustang was as distinct and peculiar as herself--a mongrel mare of the extraordinary type known as a "pinto," or "calico" horse, mottled in lavender and pink, Arabian in proportions, and half broken! Her greenish gray eyes, in which too much of the white was visible, had, he fancied, a singular similarity of expression to Cota's own!
