CAPTAIN JESS
Jessica drew back, repelled. Why did that man make her so unhappy
whenever she saw him nowadays? What did he mean by that speech about
old Ephraim Marsh and the safe? Well, he was gone, riding swiftly away
and lightening her trouble with every rod of ground he put between them.
"He'll not come for a month, he said, and by that time everything
will be straight. If Sobrante is ours it cannot possibly be his. That's
simple. Though he might have lived here always if he'd wished. The
title paper has been mislaid. That's all. I'm sure to find it when
I have time to look thoroughly, and how different things do seem by
daylight. Now, to say good-morning to the 'boys,' dear fellows, and
then for breakfast. I'm as hungry as on ostrich."
Though since sunrise each had been busy about his accustomed duties,
neglecting nothing because of the change in command, it suited the ideas
of these faithful ranchmen to report for duty to their newly appointed
"captain" and to ask for orders from her. With the ready intuition of
childhood she fell in with their mood at once and received them in a
manner which robbed the affair of burlesque and invested it with dignity.
From a shaded corner of the porch, from behind his book, Mr. Hale
watched the scene with an amusement that soon gave place to wonder and
admiration. They were all profoundly in earnest. The fair young girl with
folded arms and serene composure, poised at the head of the steps and
the group of sunburned workmen standing respectfully before her.
By tacit consent Samson was spokesman for the company and his words had
their usual nautical tinge.
"We're ready to set sail, captain, and here's wishing good luck to
the v'yge! Old 'Forty-niner' hasn't showed up on deck yet, but
he'll likely soon heave to, and the rest the crew'll vouch for his
being a good hand in any sort o' storm we're apt to strike. We've
overhauled this chart. Each of us solemnly promise to abide and obey no
orders but yours, captain, or the admiral's through you. And would
respectfully suggest--each man sticks to the post he's always filled,
till ordered off it by his superior officer. Right, mates?"
"Ay, ay."
"How's that suit you, commodore?"
"That suits me, Samson. It will suit my mother."
"As for pay--being as we've got along without any these five months
back, and Senor Top-Lofty's rode off, forgettin' to leave them arrears
we mentioned, we wash the slate clean and start all over again. For five
months to come we'll serve you and the admiral for mess and berth, no
more, no less."
"Samson, do you mean that? Haven't you boys been paid your wages
regularly, just as in my father's time?"
"Come, now, captain, that's all right. Give us the word of dismissal
and let that slide. You missed your own mess this morning----"
"But that will break my mother's heart. I know! I know! I've often
heard her ask him, and Antonio tell her--he said that your wages were
always taken out before he brought what little money he could to her.
I know you said something about 'arrears' last night, but I didn't
understand. What are 'arrears,' Samson?"
"Blow me, for an old numskull. Why couldn't I keep my long tongue
still! I only meant that we are willing, we want, we must work for you
and all the Trents for nothing till we've made up part to 'em of what
that sweet 'senor' cheated 'em of. That's all. We've settled it.
No use for anybody to try change our minds, even if there was spot cash
lying around loose, waiting to be picked up and you havin' no call for
it. Not one of which conditions hits the case."
"You are a good talker, dear old Samson, and a long one. I can talk,
too, sometimes. Maybe you've heard me! You've read me your chart. Hear
mine. It's my father's own--that he always meant, but was never able
to follow. That I know my mother wants to follow for his sake, though
she does know so little of business. Now, if we're starting fresh,
with the clean slates you like, we'll put this at the top: 'share and
share alike.' There was another long name dear father used to call
it--I----"
"Co-operation," suggested John Benton.
"Yes, yes. That's it. As soon as he was out of debt and had a right
to do what he would with Sobrante, he meant to run it that way. But you
know, you know. It was only that last day when he came home so late from
that far-off town that he had his own 'title' and was all ready to do
as he wished. Let us do that now. I know how. He told me. He was to make
you, Samson, responsible for all the cattle on the ranch. You were to
hire as many of the other boys as you needed and were to have a just
share for your own money. The more you made out of the cattle the better
it would be for yourself. Isn't that right?"
"Right to a dot. Atlantic! but you've a head for business, captain!"
"I've a head must learn business, if I'm to be your captain. That is
true enough. It isn't my father's fault if I don't know some simple
things. He was always teaching me, because Ned was too little and my
mother--well, business always worried her and he'd do anything to save
her worry, even talk to a little girl like me. And as Samson was to do
with the cattle, so George Cromarty was to do with the raisins and
oranges. The ostriches--Oh! but they were to be Antonio's charge. And
now----"
"They're yours, captain, with any one or lot of us you choose for
helpers."
"Ferd knew much about them, and they minded him. But----"
"Ferd'll trouble Sobrante none while the senor is away. Joe is a
good hand at all live stock, and I'll pledge you'll get every feather
that's plucked when he does the counting. He won't let any eggs get
cooked in hatchin', neither. You can trust Joseph--if you watch him a
mite."
A laugh at honest Joe's expense, in which he heartily joined, followed
this and Lady Jess stepped down among her friends, holding out her
hands to first one, then another. Her blue eyes were filled with happy
moisture, for she was not too young to feel their devotion to be as
unselfish as it was sincere, and her smile was full of confidence in them
and in herself.
"Eleven years old is pretty early to be a captain, I guess, but I'll
be a good one--just as good and true as you are! What I don't know
you'll teach me, and if I make mistakes you'll be patient, I know.
One thing I can do, I can copy bills and papers. I can put down figures
and add them up. It was good practice for me, my father said. So I'll
put down your names and all your business in these new books he bought
and was going to use in his co--co-operation--is that right, John?"
"Right as a trivet."
"And our admiral, that's the dear mother, will not have to fret so any
longer. Between us we'll make Sobrante all my father meant it should
be and--as soon as I have my breakfast--I will find that title. I must
find it. I will. Sobrante is yours and ours forever. Oh, boys, I love
you! I'm all choked up--I love you so and I feel like that my father
used to read in Dickens: 'God bless you every one!'"
With her hands clasped close against her breast, and her beloved face
luminous with her deep affection, their little maid stood before her
hardy henchmen, a symbol to them of all that was best and purest in
life. Their own eyes were moist, and even Mr. Hale had to take off
his glasses and wipe them as, looking around upon his comrades, great
Samson swung his hat and cried:
"And may God bless Our Lady Jess! And may every man who seeks to injure
her be--stricken with numb palsy! And may every crop be doubled, prices
likewise! Peace, prosperity and happiness to Sobrante--destruction to
her enemies!"
"Forgiveness for her enemies, Samson, dear, if there really are. That
will be nobler, more like father's rule. Make it peace, prosperity and
happiness to all the world! Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!"
Mr. Hale clapped his hands to his ears, then hastily moved forward and
joined in the cheer, that was deafening enough to have come from many
more throats than uttered it. Yet he had an uncomfortable feeling that
he might be classed among those "enemies" whom Samson wished afflicted
with numb palsy and that, at that moment, he was, by no fault of his
own, playing a double part.
But he gave himself the benefit of the doubt until he should learn, as
he meant to do at once, the whole history of Sobrante with its strange
hodge-podge of industries, its veteran employees, and its childish
"captain." So, while the ranchmen dispersed to their business and
Jessica sought her long-delayed breakfast, he turned towards the kitchen
where he hoped to find the mistress of the ranch.
But he was disappointed. There was visible only the broad,
purple-covered back and black pig-tail of a Chinaman, pounding away
at the snowy loaves of his kneading-board, as if they were "enemies"
of his own and deserving something much worse than "numb palsy."
"Wun Lung!"
No answer, save the whack, whack, whack of the tormented dough.
"Ahem. I say, John!"
Whack, whack.
"Wun Lung, where's your mistress?"
"Dlaily."
"Indeed? I fancy your hand is better. I'm glad of it. That bread
ought to be fine. At your leisure, kindly point the direction of the
'dlaily,' will you?"
One yellow, floury hand was lifted and extended eastward, but as this
signified nothing definite to the stranger he continued his inquiries.
"Where's Pasqual?"
"Sclub."
"And the little boys?"
"Alle glone."
"I congratulate you on your English, though I'm uncertainly whether
you mean me to 'go on' or assert that somebody else has gone on. I
don't like to disturb Miss Jessica at breakfast, but----"
"Back polchee," suggested Wun Lung, anxious to be rid of the intruder,
whose irony he suspected if he did not understand.
Mr. Hale betook himself around the house, and, fortunately, in the right
direction; for just issuing from her dairy, which was in a cellar under
the cottage, was Mrs. Trent, bearing a wooden bowl of freshly made butter.
The guest's heart smote him as he saw her sad face brighten at meeting
him, for he knew she trusted him for help he was in duty bound to give
elsewhere. But it was not a lawyer's habit to anticipate evil, and he
was thankful for her suggestion.
"You should have a ride this fine morning, Mr. Hale, before the sun is
too high. I've ordered a horse brought round for you at nine o'clock,
and Jessica shall act your guide, on Scruff. That is--if the laddies
haven't already disappeared with him. Ah! here comes my girl, herself.
You are to show our friend as much of Sobrante as he cares to see, in
one morning, daughter. If the children have ridden the burro off you may
have Buster saddled."
"Shan't you need me, mother? One of the men----"
"No, dear. Wun Lung is at his post again and Pasqual will do the milk
and things. But as you go, I'd like you to take this butter to John's.
It's the weekly portion for the men, who mess for themselves," she
explained to the stranger.
"Lucky men to fare on such golden balls as those!"
"Come and see my dairy. I'm very proud of it. You know, I suppose,
that cellars are rarities in California. Everything is built above
ground, in ordinary homes; but I needed a cooler place for the milk, and
my husband had this planned for me. See the water, our greatest luxury;
piped from an artesian well to the tank above, and then down through
these cooling pipes around the shelves. After such use supplying the
garden, for whatever else may be wasted here it is never a drop of
water. Will you taste the buttermilk? I can't give you ice, but we
cool it in earthen crocks sunk in the floor."
More and more did the lawyer's admiration for his hostess increase.
She displayed the prosaic details of her dairy with the same ease and
pride with which she would have exhibited the choicest bric-a-brac of a
sumptuous drawing-room, and her manner impelled him to an interest in
the place which he would have found impossible under other circumstances.
But above all he wondered at the unselfishness with which she set aside
her own anxieties and gave herself wholly to the entertainment of her
guest.
"The loss of that title deed means ruin for her and her family--even
if I were not also compelled to bring distress upon her. But she does
not whine nor complain, and that's going to make my task all the harder.
Well, first to see this ranch, and then--I wish I'd never come upon
this business! Better suffer nervous dyspepsia all the rest of my life
than break such a woman's heart. Her husband may have been a scamp of
the first water, but she's a lady and a Christian. So is that beautiful
little girl, and it's from her I mean to get all my needed information."
Absorbed in thoughts that were far from pleasant, the gentleman
walked beside Mrs. Trent to the horseblock, and mounted the horse
which a gray-haired stable "boy" was holding for him, all without
rousing from the preoccupation that held him. It was not till he heard
Jessica's excited call coming over the space between the cottage and the
"quarters" that he realized where he was and looked up, expectant.
The little girl who had left them for a few moments, was galloping toward
them on the back of a rough-coated broncho, waving a paper in her hand
and with distressed indignation, crying out as she came:
"'Forty-niner' has gone. Dear old 'Forty-niner!' I found this
letter in his room and it's forever--forever! Oh, mother! And he says
_you_ discharged him--or it means that--without show of chance! Mother,
mother, how could you? That dear old man that everybody loved!"
"Discharged him--I? I should as soon have thought of discharging myself!
What fresh distress is this?"
Catching the paper from Jessica's hand Mrs. Trent read it, then turned
and without a word walked slowly into the house. But her head was giddy
and her limbs trembled, and she had a strange feeling as if she were
being swiftly inclosed in a net from which she could not escape.