"I hear nothing," said José, rising from the ground where he had been
lying flat with his ear close to the earth.
"They have given us up!" exclaimed the Captain, turning in the saddle
and addressing Chiquita who also had been scanning their back trail in
the effort to discover a sign of their lost pursuers.
"We have tired them out," she answered, lowering her hand from her eyes.
They had escaped--they were free. Padre Antonio had married them on the
afternoon of the previous day.
"If I am still alive, and God grant that it may be so," he said on
parting, "I shall see you next spring when I visit the Missions in the
North."
The flight had been a swift and perilous one. They had traveled the
entire night and day, pausing only long enough to allow their horses
short breathing spells and time to slake their thirst at the springs and
streams they encountered in their flight. Like their horses, all three
were thoroughly tired, and their clothes torn and dust begrimed.
"We'll camp yonder, José," said the Captain, pointing to a thick group
of pines that grew on the opposite side of the stream on whose bank they
had halted. They had arrived at the foot of the Sierra Madres from
whose side the stream burst and along whose banks their trail led to
the upper world where it dropped down again on the other side of the
great mountainous divide into Sonora.
"It's like the old days!" cried Chiquita, laughing as they splashed
through the stream to the opposite bank, the water rising to their
saddle-girths. Drawing rein at the outer rim of the pines, they
dismounted and removed their saddles and packs, the latter consisting of
a pair of blankets apiece and a week's rations equally distributed among
them; coffee, sugar, bacon, beans and flour and a few necessary
utensils. These they carried into the center of the grove and deposited
in a circle on the ground.
José led away the horses and while he was occupied in picketing them,
the Captain gathered an armful of dry wood for the fire, and then
picking up a canvas bucket, strolled to the river and filled it with
water.
Chiquita had already lit the fire when he returned. She filled the
coffee pot with water, cut some slices of bacon and tossed them into a
pan which she placed on the fire and then began to mix some flour and
water. The Captain leaned against the trunk of one of the trees and
rolling a cigarette, lit it, watching her the while. Chiquita laughed
softly, but said nothing while engaged in the process of bread-making.
This homely touch of camp-life told plainer than words how thoroughly
they had come down to earth and again were facing the wholesome
realities of life. When the dough was of the right consistency, she
molded it into biscuits, placed them in a deep pan, and raking some
coals from the fire, set the pan upon them, also depositing some coals
on the top of the cover. After giving the bacon a final turn in the pan,
she set it to one side close to the fire where it would keep warm.
She then rose to her feet and stood erect. As she did so, one of the
great strands of her hair which had become loosened during their flight,
fell in a soft curling mass of blue jet down her back to within a few
inches of her ankles. Captain Forest did not know then that it was a
sign of her royal lineage.
Once upon a time in the dim past, so far back that nobody could remember
when it had occurred, a Tewana woman had given birth to a beautiful girl
child with wonderful hair in the same year that a wandering star with a
great tail had appeared in the heavens. The coincidence seemed nothing
short of miraculous to the people. The Sachems of the tribe pronounced
the child to be consecrated and chosen to rule over them by the gods. So
it had been decreed, and ever since then, all Tewana women who had ruled
over the people had possessed this distinctive mark of their royal
lineage and bore the name, "Flaming Star."
Chiquita crossed over to where the Captain still stood leaning against
the tree and, pausing before him, looked up into his face and said:
"What are you thinking of, Sweetheart?" He flung his arms about her and
kissed her.
"I am still wondering," he answered, "how it all happened. It seems so
strange, and yet so natural."
"Just what I, too, have been thinking," she returned. "And yet it is no
more remarkable than what our entire lives have been. It could not be
otherwise."
"No," he replied. "I would not have it different for worlds. It's just
as it should be--just as it has been decreed."
"Come!" she said, leading him over to where her pack lay on the ground.
"I've got something for you," and kneeling on the ground, she began
unrolling her blankets, out of which she took a small package which, on
being opened, contained two pairs of beautifully beaded moccasins; one
pair of which she handed to him.
"It's just like you, Chiquita _mia_!" he exclaimed. "I always wear them
in camp, but in the hurry to get away, I forgot mine. I'm glad I forgot
them though," he added, holding up the moccasins and admiring them. "How
did you come to think of them?"
"I can't say," she answered. "One afternoon about a month ago while at
the _Posada_, I noticed your footprint in the gravel path in the garden
where you had been talking to the girls but a few moments before.
Things, as you know, were rather uncertain then, nevertheless, something
impelled me to take the measure and make them; thinking that possibly
you might want them some day. Besides, it was such sweet work, you
know," she added with a little laugh.
"Chiquita--you're a wonderful woman! You not only seem to be able to do
everything, but you think of everything as well," and kneeling on the
ground before her, he drew off her riding boots and slipped her
moccasins on her feet.
"It is the bridal gift of an Indian girl to her husband," she said
caressingly. "And signifies that they shall tread the same path together
through life."
"What could be more beautiful!" he returned, pulling off his boots and
drawing on his own. "Ah!" he continued, "it was worth waiting for you
Chiquita _mia_! The long years of uncertainty and suffering seem as
nothing, now that I look back upon them and you have come into my life."
Just then José returned from the work of picketing the horses and the
three sat down to supper.