Strange is fate! From two points, perhaps the width of the world apart,
two lives begin their flow, and though their mutual currents be
deflected hither and thither by the winds of fortune, tides of chance,
yet will they eventually meet, coalesce, and roll on together like two
drops that join running in down a window-pane.
Now between John Carleton, owner of some hundred thousand broad acres,
and the three rapscallions of Las Bocas the only possible relation would
appear to be that which could be established by a well-oiled gun.
Between them and Lee Carleton, his pretty daughter, any relation
whatever would appear still more foreign. Yet--but let it suffice, for
the present, that just about the time the Three had gained almost to the
_hacienda_ Carleton and his daughter had reined in their horses on the
crest of a grassy knoll that overlooked the buildings.
A long pause, during which neither spoke, gives time for her portrait.
Rather tall for a girl and slender without thinness, her fine, erect
shoulders and the lines of her lithe body lost nothing by her costume;
riding-breeches of military cord, yellow knee-boots, man's cambric shirt
with a negligée collar turned down at the neck. Her features were small
and delicately cut; the nose piquant, slightly _retroussé_. Her eyes,
large and brown and widely placed under a low broad brow, vividly
contrasted with her fair skin and tawny hair. The face, as a whole, was
wonderfully mobile and expressive, almost molten in its swift response
to lively emotion. Just now, while she sat on gaze, it expressed that
curious yearning, half pathetic, that is born of deep feeling.
"Oh, dad, isn't it beautiful!"
The sweep of her small hand took in the range rolling in long sunlit
billows; but her eyes were on the _hacienda_--_Hacienda de los Arboles_,
named in the sonorous Spanish after the huge cottonwoods that lent it
pleasant shade.
Built in a great square, its massive walls, a yard thick and twice the
height of a man, formed the back wall of the stables, adobe cottages,
storehouses, and granaries on the inner side. It also lent one corner to
the house which rose above it to a second story. Pierced for musketry,
with a watch-tower rising above its iron-studded gates, it was, in the
old days, a real fort. Besides the long row that followed the
meanderings of a dry water-course across the landscape, a cluster of
giant cottonwoods raised their glossy heads within the compound, shading
with checkered leafage the watering wells and house. Set amidst growing
fields of corn and wheat at the foot of a range that loomed in violet,
crimson, or gold, according to the hour, it was as pleasant a place as
ever a man looked upon and called his home.
Carleton smiled as she added, "I'd hate to have been brought up in El
Paso or any other prosy American city."
He might have replied that there were American cities she might find
less prosy than El Paso. But he was well content to have her think as
she did.
His own gaze, overlooking the prospect, expressed the pride of
accomplishment with which men survey their completed work; nor was his
satisfaction less because the buildings themselves were not of his
creation. Coming here, sixteen years ago, with a nest-egg of two or
three thousand dollars, he had leased and let, bought and sold with
Yankee shrewdness; added acre to acre, flock to flock, until, at last,
he was in position to buy Los Arboles from a "land-poor" Spanish owner.
To a man without imagination the fact that its foundations had been laid
almost four centuries ago by one of Cortés's _conquistadores_ might have
meant little. With Carleton it counted more than its broad acreage. From
a trove of old papers left by the former owner he had gathered many a
story of siege and battle, scandal and intrigue, consummated within its
massive walls. Instead of fairy-tales, he had told these to Lee during
her childhood, so that medieval atmosphere had penetrated her very
being.
They seldom overlooked the _hacienda_, as now, without making some
observations anent its past. As in some vivid pageant, they saw the old
Dons, their _señoras_, _señoritas_, savage brown retainers, in the midst
of their fighting, working, loving, praying. By self-adoption, as it
were, Carleton, at least, had allied himself with them, had come to
think of himself as belonging to the family.
"Great old fellows they were!" Though he spoke musingly, now, without
connection, she instantly caught his meaning, knew he was harking back.
"Great old chaps! I was looking into one of our land titles the other
day, and the records read in princely fashion. 'Between the rivers such
and such, of a width that a man may ride in one day,' that was a
favorite method of establishing boundaries. No paring of land like
cheese rinds; everything done by wholesale; no haggling over a few
square leagues."
"And here comes one of them." Lee pointed her quirt at a horseman who
had just topped the opposite rise. "Doesn't he look it?"
Surely he did. The _charro_ suit of soft tanned deerskin with its
_bolero_ jacket and tight pantaloons braided or laced with silver; the
lithe figure under the suit; dark, handsome face, great Spanish eyes
that burned in the dusk of a gold-laced _sombrero_; the fine horse and
Mexican saddle heavily chased in solid silver; the gold-hilted _machete_
in its saddle sheath under the rider's leg, even the rope _riata_ coiled
around the solid silver pommel, horse, rider, and trappings belonged in
that pageant of the past.
"It is Ramon Icarza," Carleton nodded. "He hasn't been here for a long
time." This he repeated in Spanish when the young man rode up.
"Attending to the herds and the horses, señor. As with you, the most of
our _peones_ have run away to the wars. We have left only a few
_ancianos_ too feeble and stiff to be of much service. Still, with the
aid of the women we manage. That last requisition for the"--his shrug
was eloquent in its disdain--"_cause_. You paid it?"
"Had to--or be confiscated." With a grin comical in its mixture of
amusement and anger, Carleton went on, "I raked up five thousand pesos
of Valles's money and took it to him myself. And what do you think he
said? 'I don't want that stuff. I can print off a million in a minute.
You must pay me in gold.'"
Perhaps because humor has no place in the primitive psychology of his
race, Ramon received the news with a black frown. "The devil take him!
Yet you Americans are better treated than we, his countrymen. With us,
he takes all. Those poor Chihuahua comerciantes!" His hands and eyebrows
testified to Valles's scandalous treatment of the merchants. "First he
demands a contribution to the _cause_. Those who refuse are foolish, for
first he shoots them as traitors, then confiscates their goods. But the
poor devils who contribute, see you, fare little better; for with the
money he runs off a newspaper press he buys up the goods they have left.
In the old days we used to curse the locusts, señor; but they, at least,
left us our beasts and lands. Who would have thought, four years ago,
that you and the señorita here and my venerable father would be reduced
to become herders of cattle?"
"Oh, but it's lots of fun!" Lee's happy laugh bespoke sincerity. "I love
it out here. They will never be able to get me back in the house. And
that reminds me that we're almost due there for lunch."
"You'll stay, of course, Ramon?" Pointing to a couple of mares with
foals they had brought in from a distant part of the range, Carleton
added, "There's still another over in the next valley. If you will take
these along, I'll get her."
Left to themselves, the young man and girl headed the mares toward the
_hacienda_, riding sufficiently in rear to check the sudden, aimless
boltings of the foals. The helplessness of the little creatures touched
the girl's maternal instinct, and though their stilts of legs, wabbly
knees, long necks, and big heads were badly out of drawing, she
exclaimed like a true mother over their beauty.
"Oh, aren't they pretty!"
Ramon agreed--as he would had she called upon him to admire a Gila
monster. Not that he had always followed her lead. Close neighbors--that
is, as neighboring goes in range countries where distance is reckoned by
the hundred miles--their childhood had compassed more than the usual
number of squabbles. Until the dawn of masculine instinct had bound him
slave to her budding beauty, they had upset the peace and dignity of
many a ceremonial visit by fighting like cat and dog. Lee knew, of
course, his mother and sister, and not until she had extracted the last
iota of family gossip did she bestow a sisterly inspection on himself
and clothes. Having passed favorably on the material, fit, and
trimmings, she reached for his _sombrero_.
"You are quite the hacendado, now, Ramon, in that magnificent hat. Let
me look at it. What a beauty!"
While she turned and twisted it, fingered the rich gold braid, examined
it with head slightly askew like a pretty bird, the natural glow
intensified in Ramon's big dark eyes; a wave of color flowed through the
gold of his skin. His mouth--too red and womanish for Anglo-Saxon
standards--drew into a tender smile.
According to the cañons of fiction, this was wrong. A man with a black
or brown skin must reserve his admiration for women of his race. Yet,
with singular disregard, for writer's law, Nature continued to weave for
Ramon her potent spells. The sunshine snared in Lee's hair, rose blush
of her skin, her womanly contours, the fine molding of her limbs, the
sweetness of youth, all the witcheries of form and color with which
Nature lures her creatures to their matings, affected the lad just as
powerfully as if he had been born north of the Rio Grande.
On her part Lee ought to have resented his admiration. But here, again,
Nature utterly ignored "best seller" conventions. Brought up among
Mexicans, counting Ramon's sister her best friend, Lee felt no racial
prejudice. Wherefore, like any other young girl possessed of normal
health and spirits, she made the most of the situation. After
sufficiently admiring the hat, she tried it on.
"How does it look?"
As she faced him, saucily smiling from under the enormous brim, there
was no mistaking the "dare." Whether or no the custom obtains in Mexico,
Ramon caught the implication.
"Pretty enough to--kiss!"
With the word he reached swiftly for her neck, but caught only empty
air. Ducking with a touch of the spur, she shot from under his hand.
The next second he was after her. Along the shallow valley for a
half-mile she led, then, whirling just as he rode alongside, she shot
back along the ridge. At the end he overtook her, and, anticipating her
whirl, caught her bridle rein. Leaning back, however, flat on her
beast's back, laughing and panting, she was still out of his reach; and
when he began to travel, hand over hand, along the bridle, she leaped
down on the opposite side and dodged behind a lone _sahuaro_.
Sure of her now, he followed. But, dodging like a hare around the
_sahuaro_, she came racing back for the horses; might possibly have
gained them and made good her escape, if, glancing back over her
shoulder, she had not seen Ramon stumble, stop, then clasp his right
ankle.
"Oh, is it sprained?" she cried, running back. Then, as, reaching
suddenly, he caught her, she burst out, "Cheat! oh, you miserable
cheat!"
That all is fair in love and war, however, goes in all languages, and
while she punctuated the struggle with customary objections whereby
young maids enhance the value of a kiss, there was no anger in her
protests. Wrestling her back and down, he got, at last, the laughing
face upturned in the hollow of his arm; had almost reached her lips,
when, with force that sent Lee to the ground, he was seized and thrown
violently against the horse.
In the excitement of the chase they had completely forgotten Carleton,
who had viewed its beginnings from the opposite ridge. By self-adoption
he had almost, as before said, identified himself with the Spanish
strain that had flowed for centuries through the _patios_ and compound
of Los Arboles. He had even come to think in Spanish; in custom and
manner was almost Mexican. But in moments of anger habit gives place to
instinct. The instinct that first formed and later preserved the tribe,
pride of race, overpowered friendship. In one second the young Mexican,
whom he had regarded for years almost as a son, was transmuted into the
despised "greaser" of the border.
"You--you--" Choking with anger, eyes bits of blue flame, he strode at
Ramon, fist bunched to strike.
But the blow did not fall, for, scrambling up again, Lee seized his arm
from behind. "Oh, dad! dad!" Despite his struggles, she clung like a
cat, defeating his efforts to shake her off. "Oh, dad! It was only a bit
of fun! all my fault! I put on his hat! Please don't!"
If the young fellow had flinched, perhaps Carleton would have struck.
But, head erect, he quietly waited, and presently Carleton ceased
struggling.
"All right! I'll let him go--this time. But, remember"--bringing his
clenched fist in a heat of passion into the palm of the other hand, he
glared at the young man--"remember! when this girl is kissed--it will be
by a man of her own breed. Get off my land!" After helping Lee to mount,
he vaulted into his own saddle and rode away, driving the mares and
foals before them.
In accordance with before-mentioned precedents, Ramon ought to have
folded his arms and hissed a threat through gritted teeth. Instead, he
stood very quietly, his face less angry than sad, watching them go. His
little nod, in its firmness, would have become any young American; went
very well with his thought.
"We shall see."
Mounting, he rode away to the northward, and not till he had covered
many miles did he rein in his beast, so suddenly that it fell back on
its haunches. His dark face expressed vexation mixed with alarm.
"Maldito! I forgot to warn them that Colorados had been seen east of the
railroad. I must go back."
On their part, Lee and her father rode on toward the _hacienda_. Though
he glanced at her from time to time, it was always furtively, for with a
man's dislike of scenes he made no reference to that which had just
passed. Nevertheless, it filled his mind. Man-like, he had watched her
develop into womanhood with scarcely a thought for her future. If he had
given the subject any consideration he would probably have concluded
that, sooner or later, she would choose a suitable mate from the
hundreds of American miners, railroad men, ranchers, and engineers that
had swarmed in the state of Chihuahua before the revolution.
But with the clear vision of after sight he now saw that he had
unconsciously depended on the race pride which had just manifested
itself in himself to prevent her from contracting a mésalliance. Now,
with consternation, he faced the truth that racial pride is masculine;
contrary to both the feminine instinct and nature's scheme of things.
"I was a fool!" he berated himself. "A damned fool! She will have to go
north--live in the States for a while."
These and similar thoughts were whirling through his mind when they came
on a band of his horses at pasture under charge of an _anciano_, a
withered old _peon_, whose age and infirmities had estopped him from
joining the exodus to the wars. After cautioning the old fellow not to
allow the animals to stray too far, Carleton plunged again into deep
meditation.
Had he not been thus preoccupied he would probably have long ago
discovered the five horsemen who were following at a distance, using the
natural cover afforded by the rolling land; for he always rode with a
powerful binocular in his holster, and often swept with it the prospect.
Several times the glass would have shown him a row of heads behind the
next ridge in rear. As it was, he had ridden to the crest of the rise
from which they had looked down on the _hacienda_ before habit asserted
itself. He had no sooner leveled the glasses than an exclamation burst
from his lips. "My God!"
"What is it, dad?" Lee swung in her saddle, looking back at him.
"Raiders! They are attacking Francisco! He has nothing but his staff!
He's fighting them like an old lion! My God, they're chopping him with
their machetes." It came out of him in staccato phrases. "Race in and
send out Juan, Lerdo, and Prudencia with rifles! Stay there! Don't dare
to follow!"
Digging in his spurs, he galloped away. For a moment the girl hesitated.
Her eyes went to the _hacienda_, still half a mile away, then back to
her father racing madly down the slope. There was no time to go for
help! Loosening the pistol in her holster, she drove in her spurs and
galloped after.
From Carleton's first appearance till the girl screamed all had passed
so quickly that the Three could only sit and gape. From their original
intent to rob Carleton it was a far cry to the reconstructed impulse to
succor and save him, and it speaks well for them that they accomplished
the revolution as soon as they did.
The scream had not passed unnoticed by the Colorados. The leader, who
had turned to ride on, swung his beast, looked, then, as the girl
dropped from the saddle to her knees beside the wounded man, drove in
his spurs and galloped toward her. Heedless of her own danger, Lee was
trying to stanch with her handkerchief the bloodflow from Carleton's
chest, so lost in her agonized grief that she did not look up till the
Colorado leaped down and seized her.
In this world there are savages who would have respected, for the time
at least, her white grief. But this was the man who had tortured the
miner and his _peones_; driven the latter naked through spiky cactus
after he had cut the soles off their feet. She sprang up when he seized
her, and as she fought bitterly, beating away his black, evil face with
her little fists, his strident laughter mingled with her wild sobbing
and carried to Bull behind the ridge.
For three days this man's boast had rung in his brain: "We've killed
your men, outraged your women!" But though anger blazed within him, his
tone was icy cold. "Look after the others. I'll 'tend to him!"
He had already pulled his rifle from the sling under his leg. Raising it
now, he lined the sights, the same sights that had directed a ball
through the brain of Livingstone's horse. While Lee writhed and twisted
in the Colorado's arms, he dared not shoot. He waited until, at the
double crack of his companions' rifles, two of the other Colorados
pitched headlong from their saddles. Then, as their leader paused to
look and, with a swift wrench, Lee tore loose and let daylight between
them, the rifle spoke, sent its bullet whistling through his brain.
"Keep after them!" Bull called back as he rode on over the ridge.
But already Jake and Sliver's rifles were barking like hungry dogs.
Trained to a hair in guerrilla warfare, the remaining Colorados had
spurred their beasts behind the horse herd. At the first shot the band
had stampeded, and now, urged on by the yells of the fugitives, who rode
crouched on their horses' necks, the scared animals coursed swiftly down
the valley.
"The gall of them! _Our_ horses!" Repeating his former observation,
Sliver would have ridden after.
But Jake caught his bridle. His bleak eyes were scintillating like
sunlit icicles. His lean, avid face quivered with subdued ferocity.
"Don't be a damn fool! They're only using 'em for cover! We'll shoot
along this side of the ridge an' catch 'em at the end of the valley!"
Meanwhile Bull rode on down the slope. After a surprised stare that
showed her rescuers to be Americans, Lee had knelt again beside her
father. As before said, Bull was no beauty. His black beard, bushy
brows, hot red eyes, drink-blotched face, were of themselves sufficient
to frighten a woman. Yet when she looked up sympathy illumined his
countenance till it shone in her distressed sight as a clear lamp
radiating human feeling. Without fear or doubt she turned to him for
help.
"It's my father! I'm afraid--Can't you do something?"
So far Carleton had lain with his eyes closed. Now he opened them and
spoke in detached whispers as Bull knelt by his side. "You're--American.
I told her not to follow. Don't bother--with me. I'm shot--through lungs
and stomach--bleeding inside. Get Lee--back to the house."
"Plenty of time," Bull soothed him. As a crackle of rifle-fire turned
loose in the distance, followed by sudden silence, he added, "That 'ull
be the last o' the Colorados. I'll fix you a bit, an' when my fellows
come back we'll jest pack you home."
With a plainsman's skill in crude surgery, he tore up Carleton's shirt
to make a pad and bandage which he twisted with a stick till the
blood-flow stopped. This was no more accomplished before Jake and Sliver
rode up, driving the horses ahead.
"They won't cut no more soles offen people's feet," Jake answered Bull's
questioning look.
"Fine and dandy." Bull nodded. "You, Jake, rope a fresh horse outer the
band an' ride like hell to the railroad an' wire El Paso for a doctor."
"No!" Lee eagerly suggested. "Wire the American Club at Chihuahua. These
dreadful days all gringos help one another."
Freshly horsed, five minutes thereafter, Jake galloped away--but not
before, cold, crafty, laconic, dissolute gambler as he was, he had left
a comforting word in the girl's ear. "Don't you be skeered, Miss. I'll
bring out a doctor, if I have to ride inter El Paso an' raid a
hospital."
As he went out of sight over the next roll Sliver, with the girl's aid,
lifted the wounded man up to Bull in the saddle. So for the second time
within three days did the giant rustler bear like a child in his arms a
_gringo_ victim of the Mexican revolution. To the leaven that had been
working within him was now added the most powerful influence that can be
brought to bear on a man--a woman's heartbroken sobbing.