AN ILL WIND
A wind rose in the night, blowing straight out of the north; a wind
so chill that the señora unpacked extra blankets and distributed them
lavishly amongst the beds of her household, and the oldest peon at the
hacienda (who was Gustavo and a prophet more infallible than Elijah)
stared into the heavens until his neck went lame; and predicted much
cold, so that the frost would surely kill the fruit blossoms on the
slope behind the house; and after that much rain.
Don Andres, believing him implicitly, repeated the warning to Dade;
and Dade, because that was now his business, rode here and there,
giving orders to the peons and making sure that all would be snug when
the storm broke.
The Señorita Teresa, bethinking her of the "pretty señora" who would
have scant shelter in that canvas-topped wagon-box, even though it
had been set under the thickest branches of a great live oak, called
guardedly to Diego who was passing, and ordered Tejon, her swiftest
little mustang, saddled and held ready for her behind the last hut,
where it could not be seen from the house.
Tejon, so named by his mistress because he was gray like a badger,
hated wind, which the señorita knew well. Also, when the hatred grew
into rebellion, it needed a strong hand indeed to control him, if the
mood seized him to run. But the señorita was in a perverse mood, and
none but Tejon would she ride; even though--or perhaps because--she
knew that his temper would be uncertain.
She wanted to beg the pretty Señora Simpson to come and stay with them
until the weather cleared and the cabin was finished. But more than
that she wanted to punish Señor Jack Allen for laughing when she tried
to speak the Americano sentence he had taught her the night before,
and got it all backwards. Señor Jack would be frightened, perhaps,
when he learned that she had ridden away alone upon Tejon; he would
ride after her--perhaps. And she would not talk to him when he found
her, but would be absolutely implacable in her displeasure, so that he
would be speedily reduced to the most abject humility.
Diego, when she ran stealthily across the patio, her riding-habit
flapping about her feet in the wind, looked at her uneasily as if he
would like to remonstrate; but being a mere peon, he bent silently
and held his calloused, brown palm for the señorita's foot; reverently
straightened the flapping skirt when she was mounted, and sent a hasty
prayer to whatever saint might be counted upon to watch most carefully
over a foolish little Spanish girl.
"An evil spirit is in the caballo to-day," Diego finally ventured to
inform his mistress gravely. "For a week he has not felt the weight
of saddle, and he loves not the trees which sway and sing, or the wind
whistling in his ears."
"And for that he pleases me much," retorted the señorita, and touched
Tejon with her spurred heel, so that he came near upsetting Diego with
the lunge he gave.
When the peon recovered his balance, he stood braced against the wind,
and with both hands held his hat upon his head while he watched her
flying down the slope and out of sight amongst the trees. No girl in
all the valley rode better than the Señorita Teresa Picardo, and Diego
knew it well and boasted of it to the peons of other hacendados; but
for all that he was ill-at-ease, and when, ten minutes later, he
came upon Valencia at the stable, he told him of the madness of the
señorita.
"Tejon she would ride, and none other; and to-day he is a devil. Twice
he would have bitten my shoulder while I was saddling, and that is the
sign that his heart is full of wickedness. Me, I would have put the
freno Chilene (Chilian bit) in his mouth--but that would start him
bucking; for he hates it because then he cannot run."
Valencia, a little later, met the new majordomo and repeated what
Diego had said; and Dade, catching a little of the uneasiness and yet
not wanting to frighten the girl's father with the tale, made it his
immediate business to find Jack and tell him that Teresita had ridden
away alone upon a horse that neither Diego nor Valencia considered
safe.
Jack, at first declaring that he wouldn't go where he plainly was
not wanted, at the end of an uncomfortable half-hour borrowed Surry,
because he was fleet as any mustang in the valley, and rode after her.
In this wise did circumstances and Jack obey the piqued desire of the
señorita.
After the first headlong half mile, Tejon became the perfect little
saddle-pony which fair weather found him; and Teresita, cheated of her
battle of wills and yet too honest to provoke him deliberately,
began to think a little less of her own whims and more of the Señora
Simpson, housed miserably beneath the canvas covering of the prairie
schooner.
She found Mrs. Jerry sitting inside, with a patchwork quilt over
her shoulders, her eyes holding a shade more of wistfulness and less
twinkle, perhaps, but with her lips quite ready to smile upon her
visitor. Teresita sat down upon a box and curiously watched the pretty
señora try to make a small, triangular piece of cloth cover a large,
irregular hole in the elbow of the big señor's coat sleeve. Sometimes,
when she turned it so, the hole was nearly covered--except that there
was the frayed rent at the bottom still grinning maliciously up at the
mender.
"'Patch beside patch is neighborly, but patch upon patch is
beggarly!'" quoted Mrs. Jerry, at the moment forgetting that the girl
could not understand.
Whereupon Teresita bethought her of her last night's lesson,
and replied slowly and solemnly: "My dear Mrs. Seem'son,
how--do--you--_do_?"
"Mrs. Seem'son," realizing the underlying friendliness of the
carefully enunciated greeting, flushed with pleasure and for a minute
forgot all about the patch problem.
"Why, honey, you've been learnin' English jest so's you can talk to
me!" She leaned and kissed the girl where the red blood of youth dyed
brightest the Latin duskiness of the cheek. "I wish't you could say
some more. Can't you?"
Teresita could; but her further store of American words related
chiefly to the diet and general well-being of one very small and
very black pup, which was at that moment sleeping luxuriously in the
chimney corner at home; and without the pup the words would be no more
than parrot-chattering. So the señorita shook her head and smiled, and
Mrs. Jerry went back to the problem of the small patch and the large
hole.
Hampered thus by having no common language between them, Teresita
failed absolutely to accomplish her mission.
Mrs. Jerry, hazily guessing at the invitation without realizing any
urgent need of immediate acceptance, shook her head and pointed to her
pitifully few household appurtenances, and tried to make it plain
that she had duties which kept her there in the little camp which she
pathetically called home.
Teresita gathered that the pretty señora did not wish to leave that
great, gaunt hombre who was her husband. So, when she could no longer
conceal her shiverings, and having no hope that the big señor would
understand her any better when he returned with the load of logs he
and the peons were after, she rose and prepared to depart. Surely the
Señor Jack, if he were going to follow, would by this time be coming,
and the hope rather hastened her adieu.
"Adios, amiga mia," she said, her eyes innocently turning from the
Señora Simpson to scan stealthily the northern slope.
"Good-by, honey. Come again and see me. Jerry knows a few Spanish
words, and I'll make him learn 'em to me so I can talk a little of
your kind, next time. And tell your mother I'm obliged for the wine;
and them dried peaches tasted fine, after being without so long.
Shan't I hold your horse while you git on? Seems to me he's pretty
frisky for a girl to be riding; but I guess you're equal to him!"
Teresita smiled vaguely. She had no idea of what the woman was saying,
and she was beginning to wish that she had not tried in just this
way to punish the Señor Jack; if he were here now, he could make the
Señora Simpson understand that the storm would be a very dreadful
one--else Gustavo was a liar, and whom should one believe?
Even while she was coaxing Tejon alongside a log and persuading him to
stand so until she was in the saddle, she was generously forswearing
Señor Jack's punishment that she might serve the pretty señora who had
Tejon by the bit and was talking to him softly in words he had never
heard before in his life. She resolved that if she met Señor Jack, she
would ask him to come back with her and explain to the señora about
the cold and the rain, and urge her to accept the hospitality of her
neighbors.
For that reason she looked more anxiously than before for some sign
of him riding towards her through the fields of flowering mustard that
heaved in the wind like the waves on some strange, lemon-colored sea
tossing between high, green islands of oak and willow. Surely that
fool Diego would never keep the still tongue! He would tell, when some
one missed her. If he did not, or if Señor Allen was an obstinate pig
of a man and would not come, then she would tell Señor Hunter, who was
always so kind, though not so handsome as the other, perhaps.
Señor Hunter's eyes were brown--and she had looked into brown eyes
all her life. But the blue! The blue eyes that could so quickly change
lighter or darker that they bewildered one; and could smile, or light
flames that could wither the soul of one.
Even the best rider among the Spanish girls as far south as Paso
Robles should not meditate so deeply upon the color of a señor's eyes
that she forgets the horse she is riding, especially when the horse is
Tejon, whose heart is full of wickedness.
A coyote, stalking the new-made nest of a quail, leaped out of the
mustard and gave Tejon the excuse he wanted, and the dreaming señorita
was nearly unseated when he ducked and whirled in his tracks. He ran,
and she could not stop him, pull hard as she might. If he had only
run towards home! But instead, he ran down the valley, because then he
need not face the wind; and he tried to outstrip the wind as he went.
It was when they topped a low knoll and darted under the wide,
writhing branches of a live oak, that Jack glimpsed them and gave
chase; and his heart forgot to beat until he saw them in the open
beyond, and knew that she had not been swept from the saddle by a
low branch. He leaned lower over Surry's neck and felt gratefully the
instant response of the horse; he had thought that Surry was running
his best on such uneven ground; but even a horse may call up an
unsuspected reserve of speed or endurance, if his whole heart is given
to the service of his master; there was a perceptible quickening and a
lengthening of stride, and Jack knew then that Surry could do no
more and keep his feet. Indeed, if he held that pace for long without
stumbling, he would prove himself a more remarkable horse than even
Dade declared him to be.
He hoped to overtake the girl soon, for in the glimpses he got of her
now and then, as she flew across an open space, he saw that she
was putting her whole weight upon the reins; and that should make a
sufficient handicap to the gray to wipe out the three-hundred-yard
distance between them. It did not seem possible that Tejon could be
running as fast as Surry; and yet, after a half-mile or so of that
killing pace, Jack could not see that he was gaining much. Perhaps it
was his anxiety to overtake her that made the chase seem interminable;
for presently they emerged upon the highway which led south to Santa
Clara and so on down the valley, and he saw, on a straight, open
stretch, that he was much nearer; so near he could see that her hair
was down and blowing about her face in a way that must have blinded
her at times.
Tejon showed no disposition to stop, however; and Jack, bethinking him
of the trick Dade had played upon the Vigilantes with his riata, threw
off the loop that held it. If he could get close enough, he meant
to lasso the horse unless she managed by that time to get him under
control. Now that they were in the road, Surry's stride was more even,
and although his breathing was becoming audible, he held his pace
wonderfully well--though for that matter, Tejon also seemed to be
running just as fast as at first, in spite of that steady pull;
indeed, Tejon knew the trick of curling his chin down close to his
chest, so that the girl's strength upon the reins was as nothing.
Jack was almost close enough to make it seem worth while to call
encouragement, when a horseman appeared suddenly from behind a willow
clump and pulled up in astonishment, as he saw Teresita bearing down
upon him like a small whirlwind. Whereupon Tejon, recognizing horse
and rider and knowing of old that they meant leisurely riding and much
chatter, with little laughs for punctuation, slowed of his own accord
and so came up to the man at his usual easy lope, and stopped before
him.
So quickly did it happen that a witness might easily have sworn in
perfect good faith that the girl was fleeing from Jack Allen and
pulled up thankfully when she met José Pacheco. One could not blame
José for so interpreting the race, or for the anger that blazed in
his eyes for the pursuer, even while his lips parted in a smile at
the coming of the girl. He reined in protectingly between her and the
approaching Jack, and spoke soothingly because of her apparent need.
"Be not frightened, querida mia. Thou art safe with me--and the
accursed gringo will get a lesson he will not soon forget, for
daring--"
Teresita, looking back, discovered Jack behind her. He was pulling
Surry in, now, and he held his riata in one hand as though he were
ready to use it at a moment's notice, and blank astonishment was
on his face. That, perhaps, was because of José and José's hostile
attitude, standing crosswise of the trail like that, and scowling
while he waited, with the fingers of his right hand fumbling inside
his sash--for his dagger, perchance! Teresita smiled wickedly, in
appreciation of the joke on them both.
"Do not kill him, José," she begged caressingly. "Truly he did not
harm me! I but ran from him because--" She sent a smile straight to
the leaping heart of José, and fumbled with her tossing banner of
hair, and turned eyes of innocent surprise on the Señor Allen, who
needed some punishment--and was in fair way to get it.
"What is the pleasure of the señor?" José's voice was as smooth and as
keen as the dagger-blade under his sash. "His message must indeed
be urgent to warrant such haste! You would do well to ride back as
hastily as you came; for truly a blind man could see that the señorita
has not the smallest desire for your presence. As for me--" As for
him, he smiled a sneer and a threat together.
Jack looked to the girl for a rebuke of the man's insult; but
Teresita's head was drooped and tilted sidewise while she made shift
to braid her hair, and if she heard she surely did not seem to heed.
"As for you, it wouldn't be a bad idea for you to mind your own
business," Jack retorted bluntly. "The señorita doesn't need any
interpreter. The señorita is perfectly well-qualified to speak for
herself. She knows--"
"The señorita knows whom she can trust--and it is not a low dog of
a gringo, who would be rotting now with a neck stretched by the
hangman's rope, if he had but received his deserts; murderer of five
men in one day, men of his own race at that! Gambler! loafer--"
At the press of silver rowels against his sides, Surry lunged forward.
But Teresita's horse sidled suddenly between the two men.
"Señor Jack, we will go now, if this wicked caballo of mine will
consent to do his running towards home. Thank you, José, for stopping
him for me; truly, I think he was minded to carry me to Santa Clara,
whether I wished to go or not! But doubtless Señor Jack would have
overtaken him soon. Adios, José. Gracias, amigo mio!" Having put her
hair into some sort of confinement, she picked up her reins and smiled
at José and then at Jack in a way to tie the tongues of them both;
though their brows were black with the hatred which must, if they met
again, bear fruit of violence.
Fifty yards away, Teresita looked back and waved a hand at the gay
horseman who still stood fair across the highway and stared blankly
after them.
"Poor José!" she murmured mischievously. "Very puzzled and unhappy he
looks. I wonder if the privilege of tearing you in pieces would not
bring the smile to his lips? Señor Jack, if so be you should ever
desire death, will you let José do the killing? To serve you thus
would give him great pleasure, I am sure."
Jack, usually so headlong in his speech and actions, rode a moody
three minutes without replying. He was not a fool, even though he was
rather deeply in love; he felt in her that feline instinct to torment
which wise men believe they can detect in all women; and angry as he
was at José's deliberate insults, he knew quite well in his heart that
Teresita had purposely provoked them.
"I've heard," he said at last, looking at her with the hard glint in
his eyes that thrilled her pleasurably, "that all women are either
angels or devils. I believe you're both, Señorita!"
Teresita laughed and pouted her lips at him. "Such injustice! Am I
then to be blamed because José has a bad temper and speech hotter than
the enchilladas of Margarita? I could love him for his rages! When
the Blessed Mary sends me a lover--" She looked over her shoulder and
sighed romantically, hiding the laughter in her eyes and the telltale
twist of her lips as best she could, with lashes downcast and face
averted.
Even a kitten the size of your two fists knows how to paw a mouse,
even though it lacks the appetite for devouring it after the torture.
One cannot logically blame Teresita. She merely used the weapons which
nature put into her pink palms.