SENOR TOP-LOFTY
Ever since Jessica could remember, Antonio Bernal had been manager of
the Sobrante ranch, and after the death of her father, a few months
before, he became practically its master. Even Mrs. Trent deferred to
his opinions more and more, and seemed to stand in awe of him, as did
most others on the great estate. He was the only person there, save his
own servant, Ferd, who did not treat the little girl with that adoring
sort of reverence which had given her the love-name of "our Lady Jess."
For some reason unknown to her he disliked her and showed this, so that
she shrank from and feared him in return.
As she emerged from the canyon upon the broad, sandy road which crossed
the valley, she saw him loping toward her on the powerful black horse
with which he made his daily rounds to inspect the many industries that
Mr. Trent had established. Jessica could always tell by the way he rode
what Antonio's mood might be, and it did not lessen her dread to see
that his sombrero was well over his eyes and his shoulders hunched
forward.
"Something's put him out, but I can't help that. I must stop him and
speak to him."
So she placed herself in the middle of the road and shouted her familiar:
"_Hola!_ Coo-ee! Coo-ee!"
Any other ranchman would have paused and saluted his "lady," but the
"senor" made as if he would ride her down, unseeing.
Jessica did not flinch. That ready temper which she was always lamenting
flamed at the insult, and she would not move a hair's breadth from his
path.
"Hola! Antonio Bernal! I must speak to you, and--see that?"
Suddenly bending forward she waved something long and black under Nero's
nose, who reared and settled on his haunches in a way to test a less
experienced rider.
"What do you mean, child----" began that irate gentleman, but pausing
at sight of the object she held.
"I think this a plume from Beppo's wing, don't you, Antonio?"
He muttered something under his breath, and she went on, explaining:
"I found it in the canyon, just after Ferd has gone up it. I knew it in
a minute, for I was looking Beppo over yesterday, and I never saw such
perfect feathers on any bird. How do you suppose it came there, and why?"
"The fool! One of the very best. How dared he. But suppose I'll have to
admit he stole it. I don't see how, though, for I did the work myself.
Give it to me, senorita; I'll put it with the others."
Somehow, when Antonio was sauve "our Lady Jess" liked him less than
when he was sharp of speech. His native "senorita" jarred on her ear,
though she blamed herself for her injustice, nor did she yield him the
feather.
"Not yet, please. I'm going to show it to mother. She'll be so
delighted to know the plucking was a rich one; and if Ferd did steal
this, or has others in his basket, of course you'll make him bring
them back."
"Of course," answered Antonio, though he frowned and searched her face
with his black eyes as if to read all her suspicions.
But as Jessica was not suspicious; she was vaguely troubled, as if she
had come into some dark and unknown world. Surely Antonio was able to
clear off all these little mysteries, and she checked him again as he
was about to ride on.
"There's something else, senor," adopting his title in imitation of
his addressing her; "John Benton is up the gulch fixing a break in the
flume. It's a bad one, and more a cut than a break, he says. He asked me
to tell you and wishes you'd go up there to advise him. I'm to send
up a man to help him. But he wants you, too."
"Why should I waste my time on such a fool's errand, eh? I knew there
was a leak somewhere and am glad he's found it. There's been no water
in the ditches these three days--more, ten, maybe--and the oranges are
falling. Send up that idler, Joe; and, by the way, how's Pedro?"
It was the blue eyes now which turned keen and searching, and under their
gaze Antonio's were averted toward some distant point in the landscape,
though the contemptuous smile remained upon his lips.
"That was a fool's errand, too, Senor Bernal, and I did so want to be
at home this morning. Pedro was never livelier. Whoever told you he was
ill was quite mistaken."
Antonio gave a short, derisive laugh, dug his spurs into Nero's
sides and loped away. A picturesque, noticeable figure in his quaint,
half-Spanish dress and his silver-decorated sombrero, bestriding the
heavy Mexican saddle upon his powerful horse.
"Vain as a peacock," was his fellow-ranchmen's opinion of their
"boss," though had his affectations been all his shortcomings these
had not lessened their liking for him.
Lady Jess looked after him for a moment, her face still sober and
perplexed.
"I ought to be at home, helping mother, this minute; but I'm going
first to the corral to speak a word of comfort to poor Beppo, and see
how big a plucking there was. If it was a good yield that will be so
much the better news to tell my dear, and this certainly is the finest
plume we ever got. Good! There are some of the boys over there, too,
and I'll save time by getting one of them to go up the canyon to John.
_Hola!_"
Her soliloquy ended in the gay little Spanish salute, and this was
now instantly answered by a hearty shout of welcome from a group of
rough-garbed men, taking a moment's rest in the shade of the old adobe
packinghouse.
As lightly as if she had not already walked a long distance, the girl
ran to her friends, to be at once caught up by a pair of strong arms and
gently placed upon a cushion in the box of an empty wagon.
"But this was your place, Joe Dean. I saw you get up from it."
"It's yours now, Lady Jess. You do me proud. What's the good word?
How's old Pedro?"
"Well just plain, every day well. Never been sick a minute. Had all
that climb for nothing; or, maybe, not quite for nothing, because I met
a stranger up there and liked him; and saw John Benton as I came down,
and--found this! Isn't that a plume to be proud of? Raised right here on
our little Sobrante."
"Whew! It's a beauty, sure enough. A dozen like that would be worth a
tidy sum. How found it?"
"Has anybody seen King Zu? Though, of course, I know it can't be his.
He was plucked such a little while ago, nor could he have gotten across
the gulch without losing more. Besides, Antonio said 'stole.'"
Then she gave a hasty account of her morning's adventures, during which
meaning glances were exchanged between the trio of workmen who, by the
time she had finished, had grown as glum as they had before been cheerful.
"Now, what do you think? Is there anybody who'd be mean enough to cut
off my mother's irrigation, on purpose, or steal her feathers? Even poor
Ferd; I'm sure she's always been good to him and pitied him."
"Ferd has hands. Others have heads," said Joe, as spokesman for the
rest.
They nodded swift assent.
"Except yourself, Lady Jess, nobody ever sees the 'senor' handle the
feathers, and you not often. Only he and his shadow, foolish Ferd, can
manage the birds, he claims. I've been smoking that in my pipe along
back."
"Oh! Joe, you shouldn't be suspicious of evil."
"No, I shouldn't be anything you don't want me to be, but I am."
"Even if I don't like him very well, because he's a little cross,
Antonio Bernal is a good man. He must be. Else my father and now mother
wouldn't trust him so. She lets him get all the money for everything
first and she has what's left--after you're all paid, I mean."
"Poor little woman!"
"Not poor, exactly, Samson. And it isn't Antonio's fault that there
isn't so much as there used to be when father was here. If there were,
mother would carry out all father's plans. She'd irrigate that tract
beyond the arroyo, toward the sand hills, and test it with strawberries,
as he meant. There shouldn't be an inch of untilled land on all the
ranch, if the crops we have paid out just a little better. But, no
matter. As long as you boys get your due wages, we can wait for the
rest."
There was another exchange of glances which Jessica did not see. Neither
did she see herder Samson, lying at length on the ground, lift his great
boot and significantly point to a hole in its toe. Nor would she have
surmised his meaning had she done so. Indeed, she suddenly remembered
her errand at the packinghouse and ran to its open door, but failed.
"How queer! Why should this be locked? I didn't know it ever was. Where
can the key be?"
"In Antonio Bernal's pocket," said Joe quietly.
"Then even before I found this feather he must have suspected somebody
and taken care of the others. But it's dreadful if we have come to
turning keys on one another, here, at dear Sobrante. Well, I'm off to
mother, now; and, Joe, Antonio said you should go to help John. Will
you?"
"For you, fast enough, Lady Jess, though I'm about quit of Top-Lofty's
orders."
"Grumbler!" laughed the girl, hurrying away, with her gayety quite
restored by this few minutes' chat with the beloved "boys" who had
petted her all her life.
They did not laugh, however, as they watched her going, and Joe, rising
to do her bidding, slapped his thigh emphatically and remarked:
"I call it the time has come. The longer we put it off the worse it
is. Poor little missy! Getting our wages due! That little angel 'd
cry the blue out of her pretty eyes if she knew how long 'twas since
we'd seen the color of our money. Pass the word along, boys, and let's
confab, to-night, and settle it. Time, about moon-up, in John's shop.
How's that?"
"Count me a mutineer," said the ex-sailor, Samson, as he strolled
toward his cattle sheds.
"I'm with you," echoed Marty, departing for his orange grove.
"Mutiny's an ugly word aboard ship, I'm told, but when psalm-singing
Samson takes to using it right here on dry land I reckon the case
differs. Anyhow, if it's a bid 'twixt the little one and Top-Lofty,
I'm for the little one every time."
Scruff knew the road home as well as another, and doubtless reasoned in
his burro mind that the sooner he reached there the sooner he would be
rid of his awkward rider. So he made all speed over the steep descent,
though Mr. Hale used his own feet, now and then, as human brakes to
check the creature's pace; and, whimsically, remonstrated when the jolts
became too frequent.
"Here, you beast! Hold on! If ever I ride a donkey again just let me
know about it, will you? Keep that front end of yours up, please. I've
a notion of sliding over your head, just to accommodate. Steady, there,
steady. I flatter myself I can stick if I can't ride. And we're getting
along. We're getting along."
Indeed, much earlier than he had hoped for, they were on level ground
and had struck out upon that road where Jessica had met the manager, and
which for some distance followed the tree-bordered arroyo--just then a
river of sand only--leading straight toward a group of buildings and an
oasis of greenery most welcome to the stranger's sun-blinded eyes.
"Sobrante ranch, that must be, and the home of my little ostrich rider.
I hope she'll be there to greet me, for a tempting spot it looks."
The nearer he approached the more charming it appeared, with its one
modern, vine-covered cottage, and its long stretches of low adobe
structures--enough to form a village in themselves--and as dingily
ancient as the other was freshly modern.
In reality, these old adobes were remnants of a long-abandoned mission,
but still in such excellent repair that they were utilized for the
ranchman's quarters and for the business of the great estate. Antonio
Bernal was the only one of all the employees who had his own rooms at
"the house," as the cottage was called where the Trents themselves
lived.
From the kitchen of this attractive "house" now floated a delectable
odor of well-cooked food, and with the reflection that he was always
hungry nowadays, the visitor crossed to its open window; there came,
also, a girlish voice, exclaiming:
"Yes, mother, I'm sure he was a gentleman, though he didn't look
well. I told him you weren't fond of strangers and had little time to
give them, but that I thought you'd make him welcome. Indeed, there's
nowhere else for him to go, since his horse is lame and we so far from
everybody. He lost his trail, he said. Was I right?"
Then his shadow fell across the sun-lighted floor and Jessica faced
about. With a whisk of the saucepan, in which she was scrambling eggs,
she added: "Well, right or wrong, here he is!" But she was talking to
empty air, for her mother had disappeared.