The Land of Romance
Two weeks later two women were walking up and down a garden path in the
moonlight.
Across from them stood a long, low adobe house of a single story. The
veranda, extending from one end to the other, was so thickly covered
with a flowering vine that even in the moonlight one could get the
reflection of its brilliant color. The air was scented with the fragrant
perfume of roses and the blossoms of orange and lemon trees. From behind
the soft shading of the vine across the road came the brilliant twanging
of a guitar and a mandolin. Two voices were singing a Spanish love song.
Farther away under the deeper shadow of the moon a white cross arose
above a mass of fallen stone.
"I declare, Mollie, this is the old world, not the new, isn't it? I feel
as if we had traveled away from our own country today into a foreign
land; but what land I cannot say, because this place tonight must be
more beautiful and more romantic than even Spain itself. Yet one is not
sorry to forget for a little while the present world and its tragedies!"
The other woman shook her head. The two sisters were the same height,
had nearly the same character of features and the same coloring;
nevertheless were curiously unlike.
One conspicuous difference was in their voices.
"Do you know, Polly, I think perhaps you have made a mistake in bringing
the Camp Fire girls to spend the summer in so picturesque a place. We
probably shall have a romance on our hands before the season is over,"
Mrs. Webster answered. "It is natural of course that _you_ should be
affected by such surroundings. But when a night like this has an
influence upon a woman of my age with an almost grown-up family, it
makes me feel extremely nervous when I consider the girls."
Mrs. Burton laughed.
"Nevertheless, my beloved Mollie, even if you _have_ a grown-up family
and I have no children, I don't see what difference the fact makes in
our ages, as we happen to be twins. Besides, I never could see why age
should destroy one's susceptibility to beauty! My only feeling is that
perhaps we have no right to ease and enjoyment of any kind this summer,
now that the United States has entered the war. I don't think I should
have invited the girls on this long trip had I known beforehand. I feel
I ought to be devoting all my energies to war work; however, we must do
whatever we can out here. Richard seemed to think it impossible to have
me near the southern camp where he is located."
Mrs. Webster sighed gently in response. She was unhappy over the war,
too, but not so inclined as her sister to take deeply to heart the
sorrows of the world when they did not touch her personally.
"Well, I am glad we can be together for a few months longer, Polly. I
realize it is selfish of me, and yet I do rejoice that neither Dan nor
Billy is old enough to be drafted. Dan's desire to volunteer is of
course ridiculous! At least, I shall safe-guard my boys. I am also glad
my husband is doing war work by increasing the amount of food raised
upon our place, instead of entering the service as an ordnance officer
as your husband has. Dear me, I really think it is very fine of Richard
at his age!"
Shrugging her shoulders, Mrs. Burton smiled a little ruefully.
"You are determined to dwell upon our great age tonight, aren't you,
Mollie mine? Please remember that your daughter Peggy bestowed her
affections upon Ralph Marshall last summer when we were at the Grand
Canyon and not in southern California. Yet I do feel that with the
possibility of young soldiers and officers turning up at any moment in
our midst, you and I will have to be unusually vigilant chaperons.
"But do let us go now and find what has become of the girls. We have had
a long journey and should soon be in bed."
Mrs. Burton slipped her arm inside her sister's and drew her away from
the old hotel garden across the gleaming road.
To the right of them, bathed in the half-tropic moonlight, was the old
Spanish mission of San Juan Capistrano, named in honor of a
warrior-saint of the Crusades. It was the loveliest place in all
California.
As they walked slowly on Mrs. Burton recited in an undertone, and with
the emotional sweetness which had captivated countless audiences and
which never failed to thrill her sister:
"Up from the south slow filed a train,
Priests and soldiers of old Spain,
Who through the sunlit country wound
With cross and lance, intent to found
A mission in that wild to John,
Soldier saint of Capistran."
They stopped a moment as if to let the beauty sink deep, and then the
two women entered the gate of the old mission grounds.
Early in the afternoon the Sunrise Camp Fire party had arrived at the
little half-foreign town of Capistrano, set midway, like a link with the
past, between the two modern cities of San Diego and Los Angeles. For
hours they had been exploring the old mission. Then, after dinner, the
Camp Fire girls, with Dan and Billy Webster to act as escorts had asked
the privilege of returning to remain in the old mission garden until
bedtime.
Tonight, to Mrs. Burton's eyes at least, the mission looked like a
half-ruined palace of dreams. Once the mission of San Juan Capistrano
held a great stone church, a pillared court, a portico, a rectangle;
here the Franciscan fathers had their cells, and many rooms for
distinguished guests. It was the richest and most splendid mission in
old California.
But at present only the ruins of its past remained.
Above, in one of the crumbling arches of the colonnade, an owl hooted so
hoarsely that Mrs. Webster clutched her sister's arm in a tighter clasp.
The greeting had sounded, not like a welcome, but a warning.
There was no one to be seen and the place was wrapped in a kind of
ghostly silence.
"It is most extraordinary how the girls and Dan and Billy have
disappeared," Mrs. Burton whispered plaintively, scarcely daring to
speak in a natural tone.
She and Mrs. Burton had passed through one of the colonnades and were
now in the old court in the rear. Along one side ran a line of forsaken
cloisters.
"Wait a moment, Mollie, please," Mrs. Burton murmured.
Adding to the enchantment of the present scene she could hear again the
sound of music. The two musicians who had been singing on the veranda
across from their hotel also must have wandered into the mission
grounds.
Then, almost at the same instant, Mrs. Burton and Mrs. Webster
discovered the Camp Fire girls.
Beyond the enclosed space of the old mission lay a broad piece of open
ground. Over it tonight poured the unbroken radiance of the moon. In
time long past this ground had been devoted to the use of the Indians
who were being taught Christianity and the habits of civilization by the
Spanish fathers. In those days this ground was encircled by a row of
Indian huts. One part was set apart for the Indian women and girls, and
here the Indian maiden remained in seclusion until her wedding day.
But tonight, in some mysterious fashion, the past seemed to have came
back, for a group of Indian maidens had returned to their former
dwelling place.
"The picture is too lovely to disturb," Mrs. Burton whispered
irresolutely.
In the moonlight one could not discern the differences in the costumes
of the Camp Fire girls, nor their fairer coloring.
Bettina, Marta, Peggy and Alice Ashton were seated upon the ground,
forming a square, with Dan standing apparently hovering like a guardian
angel above them.
As usual, Billy Webster was lying gazing up at the sky and Vera
Lagerloff was sitting beside him.
A little apart from the others Gerry Williams and Sally Ashton were
strolling up and down with their arms intertwined.
"Do you think we should speak of our plan immediately?" Bettina Graham
was inquiring of the other three girls. "Unless we can carry it out I
don't feel that we have the right to our Camp Fire summer together."
In the moonlight her yellow brown hair had turned a bright gold.
Peggy, who was ever a direct and sensible person, shook her head.
"We must wait until we have found the location for our camp and are
fairly well settled," she replied. "At present our own ideas as to what
we can do to help with the war work are much too vague. But I suppose we
shall be near the great National Guard war training camp, and that in
itself ought to be an inspiration. Have you ever heard from your wounded
lieutenant, Bettina? It was amusing to have him and his friend to tea in
so unexpected a fashion. I shall never forget how amazed the family was
on discovering us with soldier guests. I am sorry we have never seen
either of them again."
"I have had one note from Lieutenant Carson, saying that he was all
right," Bettina answered. "He will probably be stationed at the
cantonment near here. I wish for your sake Ralph Marshall was to be
there instead."
There was no engagement existing between Peggy Webster and Ralph
Marshall. But Peggy was too transparent a person to conceal her interest
in Ralph after their past summer of misunderstanding and final
reconciliation. As Ralph had volunteered and joined the aviation corps
soon after the entry of the United States into the war, she had not
seen him in many months. But it was understood that they wrote to each
other and Peggy openly expressed her pride in Ralph's courage and
ability. Ralph had been offered an opportunity to remain in his own
country and act as an aviation instructor, but instead had chosen to go
to France. At the present time he was in a camp on Long Island waiting
his hour for sailing.
Before Peggy could make a reply to Bettina's final speech, the four
girls saw their Camp Fire guardians approaching and rose to greet them.
"You girls look too picturesque to disturb, and yet we must not remain
outdoors all night, no matter how the beauty of the night tempts us. I
trust we may have many other nights as radiant as this before our summer
is over," said Mrs. Burton, half apologizing for her own and her
sister's intrusion.
A few moments later the Sunrise Camp Fire girls were walking slowly away
from the mission grounds to their own rose-covered hotel.
Not by accident, but because of a common purpose, Sally and Gerry
managed to linger a few yards behind the others.
The singing which had so fascinated Mrs. Burton and added to the
witchery of the night had also attracted the attention of the two girls.
But it was not the music alone which had charmed them. In their careless
strolling up and down apart from their companions, Sally and Gerry had
dimly seen the figures of the two musicians.
The mysterious singers had kept always in the background, only
approaching sufficiently near for their songs to be heard; and yet,
notwithstanding this, Sally and Gerry had managed to find out that they
were two young men dressed in Mexican costumes. But whether they were
Mexicans or Americans they could not guess, since it was impossible to
see their faces and they seemed able to sing Spanish or English songs
with equal ease.
The fact was that Gerry and Sally had arranged a scheme between them by
which they hoped to make a desired discovery. Their scheme would have
appalled the other Camp Fire girls, but they chanced to have unlike
views in regard to the agreeable adventures and experiences of life.
Moreover, they often preferred bestowing their confidences only upon
each other.
As the rest of the Camp Fire party moved on, both Sally and Gerry became
aware that the musicians were growing bolder and were drawing nearer.
Both girls would have liked to turn round and deliberately look back.
Yet they had scarcely the courage for this breach of taste, in spite of
the fact that it was night and the redeeming grace of the moonlight
rested over them.
Sally was carrying a little beaded Indian bag which she managed to drop
without any one, aside from Gerry, noticing.
After going on a little further, unexpectedly they turned back to pick
up the lost possession.
The two young men were thus within only a few feet of them.
There was but little satisfaction in the adventure, nevertheless, for
although one of the musicians stepped forward and gravely presented
Sally with the Indian bag he had observed on the ground between them;
yet neither he nor his companion spoke and it was impossible, with
their broad Mexican hats, to obtain a satisfactory view of their faces
without revealing too great curiosity.
As a matter of fact, the entire Camp Fire party was unaware of the
interest their appearance in the little town of Capistrano during the
afternoon had excited. There were always tourists visiting the old
mission, especially at this season of the year. But the number and
appearance of the girls, their picturesque, half Indian costumes, which
always puzzled people unacquainted with the Camp Fire uniform, and the
big wagon carrying their large camping outfit, gave them a unique
distinction.