JUANITA GROWS UP
Marcos' horse, the Moor, had performed the journey to Pampeluna once in
the last twelve hours. He was a strong horse accustomed to long journeys.
But Marcos chose another, an older and staider animal of less value,
better fitted for night work.
He wished to do the journey quickly and return by breakfast-time; he was
not in a mood to spare his beast. Men who live in stirring times and meet
death face to face quite familiarly from day to day, as Englishmen meet
the rain, soon acquire the philosophy which consists in taking the good
things the gods send them, unhesitatingly and thankfully.
Juanita was at Torre Garda at last--after months of patient waiting and
watching, after dangers foreseen and faced--that was enough for Marcos de
Sarrion.
He therefore pressed his horse. Although he was alert and watchful
because it was his habit to be so, he was less careful perhaps than
usual; he rode at a greater pace than was prudent on such a road, by so
dark a night.
The spring comes early on the Southern slope of the Pyrenees. It was a
warm night and there had been no rain for some days. The dust lay thickly
on the road, muffling the beat of the horse's feet. The Wolf roared in
its narrow bed. The road, only recently made practicable for carriages at
Sarrion's expense, was not a safe one. It hung like a cornice on the
left-hand bank of the river and at certain corners the stones fell from
the mountain heights almost continuously. In other places the heavy stone
buttresses had been undermined by the action of the river. It was a road
that needed continuous watching and repair. But Marcos had ridden over it
a few hours earlier and there had been no change of weather since.
He knew the weak places and passed them carefully. Three miles below the
village, the river passes through a gorge and the road mounts to the lip
of the overhanging cliffs. There is no danger here; for there are no
falling stones from above. It is to this passage that the Wolf owes its
name and in a narrow place invisible from the road the water seems to
growl after the manner of a wild beast at meat.
Marcos' horse knew the road well enough, which, moreover, was easy here.
For it is cut from the rock on the left-hand side, while its outer
boundary is marked at intervals by white stones. The horse was perhaps
too cautious. By night a rider must leave to his mount the decision as to
what hills may be descended at a trot. Marcos knew that the old horse
beneath him invariably decided to walk down the easiest declivity. At the
summit of the road the horse was trotting at a long, regular stride. On
the turn of the hill he proposed to stop, although he must have known
that the descent was easy. Marcos touched him with the spur and he
started forward. The next instant he fell so suddenly and badly that his
forehead scraped the road.
Marcos was thrown so hard and so far that he fell on his head and
shoulder three feet in front of the horse. It was the narrowest place in
the whole road, and the knowledge of this flashed through Marcos' mind as
he fell. He struck one of the white stones that mark the boundary of the
road, and heard his collar-bone snap like a dry stick. Then he rolled
over the edge of the precipice into the blackness filled by the roar of
the river.
He still had one hand whole and ready, though the skin was scraped from
it, and the fingers of this hand were firmly twisted into the bridle. He
hung for a moment jerked hither and thither by the efforts of the horse
to pick himself up on the road above. A stronger jerk lifted him to the
edge of the road, and Marcos, hanging there for an instant, found an
insecure foothold for one foot in the root of an overhanging bush. But
the horse was nearer to the edge now; he was half over and might fall at
any moment.
It flashed through Marcos' mind that he must live at all costs. There was
no one to care for Juanita in the troubled times that were coming.
Juanita was his only thought. And he fought for his life with skill and
that quickness of perception which is the real secret of success in human
affairs.
He jerked on the bridle with all the strength of his iron muscle; jerked
himself up on the road and the horse over into the gorge. As the horse
fell it lashed out wildly; its hind foot touched the back of Marcos' head
and seemed almost to break his spine.
He rolled over on his side, choking. He did not lose consciousness at
once, but knew that oblivion was coming. Perro, the dog, had been
excitedly skirmishing round, keeping clear of the horse's heels and doing
little else. He now looked over after the horse and Marcos saw his lean
body outlined against the sky. He had let the reins go and found that he
was grasping a stone in his bleeding fingers instead. He threw the stone
at Perro and hit him. The surprised yelp was the last sound he heard as
the night of unconsciousness closed over him.
Juanita had gone to bed very tired. She slept the profound sleep of youth
and physical fatigue for an hour. In the ordinary way she would have
slept thus all night. But at midnight she found herself wide-awake again.
The first fatigue of the body was past, and the busy mind asserted its
rights again. She was not conscious of having anything to think about.
But the moment she was half awake the thoughts leapt into her mind and
awoke her completely.
She remembered again the startling silence of Torre Garda, which was in
some degree intensified by the low voice of the river. She lifted her
head to listen and caught her breath at the instant realisation of the
sound quite near at hand. It was the patter of feet on the terrace below
her window. Perro had returned. Marcos must therefore be back again. She
dropped her head sleepily on the pillow, expecting to hear some sound in
the house indicative of Marcos' return, but not intending to lie awake to
listen for it.
She did not fall asleep again, however, and Perro continued to patter
about on the terrace below as if he were going from window to window
seeking an entrance. Juanita began to listen to his movements, expecting
him to whimper, and in a few moments he fulfilled her anticipation by
giving a little uneasy sound between his teeth. In a moment Juanita was
out of bed and at the open window. Perro would awake Sarrion and Marcos,
who must be very tired. It was a woman's instinct. Juanita was growing
up.
Perro heard her, and in obedience to her whispered injunction stood
still, looking up at her and wagging his uncouth tail slowly. But he gave
forth the uneasy sound again between his teeth.
Juanita went back into her room; found her slippers and dressing-gown.
But she did not light a candle. She had acquired a certain familiarity
with the night from Marcos, and it seemed natural at Torre Garda to fall
into the habits of those who lived there. She went the whole length of
the balcony to Marcos' room, which was at the other end of the house,
while Perro conscientiously kept pace with her on the terrace below.
Marcos' window was shut, which meant that he was not there. When he was
at home his window stood open by night or day, winter or summer.
Juanita returned to Sarrion's room, which was next to her own. The window
was ajar. The Spaniards have the habit of the open air more than any
other nation of Europe. She pushed the window open.
"Uncle Ramon," she whispered. But Sarrion was asleep. She went into the
room, which was large and sparsely furnished, and, finding the bed, shook
him by the shoulder.
"Uncle Ramon," she said, "Perro has come back ... alone."
"That is nothing," he replied, reassuringly, at once. "Marcos, no doubt,
sent him home. Go back to bed."
She obeyed him, going slowly back to the open window. But she paused
there.
"Listen," she said, with an uneasy laugh. "He has something on his mind.
He is whimpering. That is why I woke you."
"He often whimpers when Marcos is away. Tell him to be quiet, and then go
back to bed," said Sarrion.
She obeyed him, setting the window and the jalousie ajar after her as she
had found them. But Sarrion did not go to sleep again. He listened for
some time. Perro was still pattering to and fro on the terrace, giving
from time to time his little plaint of uneasiness between his closed
teeth.
At length Sarrion rose and struck a light. It was one o'clock. He dressed
quickly and noiselessly and went down-stairs, candle in hand. The stable
at Torre Garda stands at the side of the house, a few feet behind it
against the hillside. In this remote spot, with but one egress to the
outer world, bolts and locks are not considered a necessity of life.
Sarrion opened the door of the house where the grooms and their families
lived, and went in.
In a few moments he returned to the stable-yard, accompanied by the man
who had driven Juanita and Cousin Peligros from Pampeluna a few hours
earlier. Together they got out the same carriage and a pair of horses. By
the light of a stable lantern they adjusted the harness. Then Sarrion
returned to the house for his cloak and hat. He brought with him Marcos'
rifle which stood in a rack in the hall and laid it on the seat of the
carriage. The man was already on the box, yawning audibly and without
restraint.
As Sarrion seated himself in the carriage he glanced upwards. Juanita was
standing on the balcony, at the corner by Marcos' window, looking down at
him, watching him silently. Perro was already out of the gate in the
darkness, leading the way.
They were not long absent. Perro was no genius, but what he did know, he
knew thoroughly, which for practical purposes is almost as good. He led
them to the spot little more than three miles down the valley, where
Marcos lay at the side of the road, which is white and dusty. It was
quite easy to perceive the dark form lying there, and Perro's lean limbs
shaking over it.
When the carriage returned Juanita was standing at the open door. She had
lighted the lamp in the hall and carried in her hand a lantern which she
must have found in the kitchen. But she had awakened none of the
servants, and was alone, still in her dressing-gown, with her dark hair
flying in the breeze.
She came forward to the carriage and held up the lantern.
"Is he dead?" she asked quietly.
Sarrion did not answer at once. He was sitting in one corner of the
carriage, with Marcos' head and shoulders resting on his knees.
"I do not know how badly he is hurt," he answered at length. "We called
at the chemist's as we came through the village and awoke him. He has
been an army servant and is as good as a doctor--"
"If the Señorita will hold the horses," interrupted the coachman, pushing
Juanita gently aside, "we will carry him up-stairs."
And something in the man's manner made her think that Marcos was dead.
She was compelled to wait there at least ten minutes, holding the horses.
When at length he returned she did not wait to ask questions, but left
him and ran up-stairs.
In Marcos' room she found Sarrion lighting a lamp. Marcos had been laid
on the bed. She glanced at him, holding her lower lip between her teeth.
His face was covered with dust and blood. One blood-stained hand lay
across his chest, the other was stretched by his side, unnaturally
straight.
Sarrion looked up at her and was about to speak when she forestalled him.
"It is no good telling me to go away," she said, "because I won't."
Then she turned to get a sponge and water. Sarrion was already busy at
Marcos' collar, which he had unbuttoned. Suddenly he changed his mind and
turned away.
"Undo his collar," he said. "I will go down-stairs and get some warm
water."
He took the candle and left Juanita alone with Marcos. She did as she was
told and bent over him. Her fingers had caught in a string fastened round
Marcos' neck. She brought the lamp nearer. It was her own wedding ring,
which she had returned to him after so brief a use of it through the bars
of the little window looking on to the Calle de la Dormitaleria at
Pampeluna.
She tried to undo the knot, but failed to do so. She turned quickly, and
took the scissors from the dressing-table and cut the cord, which was a
piece of old fishing-line, frayed and worn by friction against the rocks
of the river. Juanita hastily thrust the cord into her pocket and drew
the ring less quickly on to that finger for which it had been destined.
When Sarrion returned to the room a minute later she was carefully and
slowly cutting the sleeve of the injured arm.
"Do you know, Uncle Ramon," she said cheerfully, "I am sure--I am
positively certain he will recover, poor old Marcos."
Sarrion glanced at her sharply, as if he had detected a new note in her
voice. And his eye fell on her left hand. He made no answer.