AN AMAZING MEETING
"Well," Marty observed, just as though he were awakening from a
dream--and an unbelievable one at that--"I s'pose we might's well toddle
along into town. You're a wonder, Janice. You certainly pulled us out of
one big mess--didn't she, Carlitos?"
The Mexican grinned, pocketing the money and the paper they had signed.
"The se[~n]orita a fine la-dee, eh?" he said. "She make even the Se[~n]or
Gomez dance when she whistle--by goodness, yes!"
Janice could not call up much of a smile. She was anxious to get into
San Cristoval, and she was so wearied by the long ride in the automobile
that she could scarcely hobble along, clinging to Marty's arm.
"Where shall we look for lodgings in the town, Carlitos?" she asked.
"You must know some hotel."
"The Golden Fan," the man said promptly. "It is as good as any. I leev
you here to find horse. _Adios_, se[~n]orita; _adios_, se[~n]or."
The cousins went on wearily together. Even the volatile Marty seemed
lost in thought. Finally he said:
"Well! if they catch him----"
"Who?" Janice demanded.
"Tom Hotchkiss. If the outlaws catch him I hope they'll put him
somewhere where he'll get nothing to eat but beans. Cricky, Janice!
ain't I hungry for _real_ grub!"
"I want to rest--just rest," moaned the girl.
They reached the town after a while. It was then fully dark, but they
easily found The Golden Fan. There was a flaring gasoline lamp before
the door, over which was painted a huge yellow fan.
A man in sombrero and high boots with spurs lounged in the doorway. He
first spoke to them in the vernacular; then:
"_Madre di Dios!_ What do you here? _Los Americanos_--eh, yes?"
"We're not _lost_ Americans," replied Marty, misunderstanding. "Just
travelers."
"_S['i]_, se[~n]or. Come to what you call 'see the sights,' yes?" and the
man's grin was like that of a cat. He had yellow eyes, too, and a stiff,
sparse mustache like a cat's.
"We want a place to sleep and, first of all, some supper," Marty said.
"Do you run this hotel?"
The man turned his head and shouted over his shoulder:
"Maria!"
He added something in Spanish that the Americans did not catch, although
they were now learning a bit of the vernacular. Almost immediately a
wretched-looking half-breed woman, very dirty and unintelligent of
feature, shuffled into view.
"_She_ the keeper of this hotel," said the yellow-eyed man, grinning
again at Janice and Marty.
The girl held back. These people were not like the Mexicans they had
before met. She was intuitively afraid of them.
"You want bed? You want eat?" demanded the woman gruffly.
"Yes," said Marty.
"You got money?"
"Of course," the boy said loftily.
But Janice was tugging at his sleeve, whispering:
"Perhaps we can go somewhere else. Some better place."
The man seemed to have preternaturally sharp ears. "The Golden Fan ver'
good hotel, se[~n]orita," he said. "Maria, she do for you."
"Ugh! she looks it," muttered Marty. "But I guess we'd better risk it,
Janice."
"Be careful," breathed the girl when they were inside. "Don't show much
money, dear."
"I'm on!" whispered the boy in reply. He had some silver and produced an
American dollar. "You see we have money," he said aloud.
The woman led them into a poorly lighted, almost empty room. There was
a table and some chairs but not much other furniture and no ornaments
save an old-fashioned wax flower piece under a glass shell on a shelf.
Where that, once a cherished parlor ornament of the mid-Victorian era,
could have come from down here in Mexico was a mystery.
"Not enough," said the half-breed woman, referring to the dollar, her
greedy eyes snapping.
"It's two dollars Mex," announced Marty with decision.
"'Nuff for supper. 'Nother dol' for bed," declared Maria.
Janice touched Marty's hand. "Do not argue," she whispered.
The man had followed them and lolled in the doorway of the room,
listening and watching. It was not until then that Janice saw he wore
boldly a pistol in a holster dangling from his belt.
"All right," Marty was saying rather ungraciously. "We'll give you two
dollars, American, for supper and a night's lodging. Two rooms, mind. If
you ask more we'll go out and hunt up some other place to stop."
"There ees no othair hotel but Maria's, young se[~n]or," said the man in
the doorway, laughing.
"We'll go to see the mayor, then," said Janice hastily. "Don Abreguardo,
of La Guarda, is our friend."
"Huh?" grunted the woman, looking at the man questioningly. He still
laughed. "The mayor of La Guarda is not known here, se[~n]orita; and San
Cristoval have no _cacique_."
"What's that?" demanded Marty suspiciously.
"He iss shot in the battle--_s['i], s['i]_! San Cristoval iss of late a
battlefield."
"Oh!" Janice murmured and sat down. Not alone was she very weary, but
all strength seemed suddenly to leave her limbs.
"Been having hot times here, have you?" asked Marty briskly. "Who's
ahead?"
"Oh, Marty!" gasped his cousin.
"Who has won, se[~n]or?" said the catlike man.
"Yes."
"Eet ees hard to say. First one then the other army enter San Cristoval.
It iss said the Army of Deliverance is being driven back now into the
hills. The government troops are between us and the mountains. But eet
ees well to cry _Viva M['e]jico_ to whomever the se[~n]or meets."
"Huh!" said Marty. "I've heard that ever since we crossed the Rio
Grande."
This was an entirely different hostelry from any they had entered since
arriving at the Border. Indeed, Janice was very doubtful of their
safety. The woman was greedy and ugly; the man seemed ripe for almost
any crime.
The latter's presence in the doorway did not disturb Marty much; but
when the woman brought the _tortillas_ and _frijoles_ and some kind of
fish stewed in oil with the hottest of hot peppers, Janice merely played
with the food. Because of the baleful glance of the man's yellow eyes
her appetite was gone. Maria too watched the guests in a silence that
seemed to bode evil.
This town of San Cristoval, although much larger than La Guarda or La
Gloria, was very different from either, it seemed. Not a sound came from
the street. There was no music or dancing or the chattering of voices
outside. It was as though San Cristoval had been smitten with a plague.
"Cricky! I bet these beans have got on your nerves, too, Janice," said
Marty, seeing her fork idle.
She giggled faintly at that. "I never heard that beans troubled one's
nerves," she said. "It's these people--staring at us so!"
"Yep. Eat-'em-up-Jack there in the doorway _would_ almost turn your
stomach," agreed Marty cheerfully. "And a bath would sure kill Maria."
The boy was good-naturedly oblivious of the sinister manner of the two
Mexicans--or appeared to be; but Janice grew more and more troubled as
time passed, and started at every movement Maria or the man made.
"Say, you," Marty asked while he was still eating, addressing the man,
"is the railroad running to the mines yet?"
"Which mine, se[~n]or?" returned the yellow-eyed man.
"A mine called the Alderdice is the one we want to go to."
Maria uttered a shrill exclamation and the man dropped his cigarette and
put his foot upon it involuntarily.
"What ees thees about the Alderdice Mine?" he said softly. "Why do you
weesh to go there?"
"Just for instance," returned Marty coolly. "You are not answering my
question--and I asked first."
"No. The rails are torn up just outside the city," said the man with
insistence. "Now answer _me_, young se[~n]or."
"That's what we've come down here into Mexico for," Marty told him
calmly. "To visit the Alderdice Mine. Do you know the man who runs it?"
"Se[~n]or B-Day!" gasped Maria, who seemed to be much moved. She had come
closer to the table and was staring at Janice earnestly. The girl shrank
from her, but Marty was still looking at the man lounging in the
doorway.
"Yes. Broxton Day. He's the man," the boy said with admirable
carelessness of manner. "Is he all right?"
"Who _are_ you, se[~n]or?" asked the man abruptly.
"I'm a feller that wants to see this Mr. Day," said Marty, grinning.
"And the se[~n]orita! the se[~n]orita!" shrilled Maria. "I tell you, Juan,
thees ees a strange t'ing!" She went on in Spanish speaking eagerly to
the man.
"Do you not know Se[~n]or B-Day was shot?" demanded the man, Juan, still
addressing Marty.
"Yes! Yes!" cried Janice, clasping and unclasping her hands. "Is he
seriously hurt? Oh! tell me."
Maria came closer to her. After all the ragged creature had not such a
sinister face. It was her Yaqui blood that made her look so forbidding.
"Se[~n]orita! se[~n]orita!" she murmured, "you _lofe_ that Se[~n]or B-Day, do you
not?"
"He is my father!" burst out Janice desperately. "Tell me about him. Is
he badly hurt? How can we get to him? Oh! I wish we might go to-night!"
"_Madre di Dios!_" ejaculated the woman, looking at the man again. "I
knew eet, Juan."
"Well! tell it to _us_," growled Marty.
"She say you look like Se[~n]or B-Day," said the man, grinning. "We know
heem alla right. I work' for him and so did Maria. He good-a man. One
_gran hombre--s['i], s['i]_!"
"But how badly is he hurt?" cried the girl. "Tell me."
"He been shot in the shoulder and in the right arm," said Juan,
pointing. "He alla right--come through safe--sure!"
"But we have not heard a word from him----"
"He no can write. And at first, and alla time now, the bandits keep him
shut up there at the mine. It ees so. Now the Se[~n]or General De Soto Palo
come. He attack the bandits. They soon be driven into the mountains away
from the mines and we--we go back to work again for Se[~n]or B-Day. Sure."
The relief Janice felt was all but overpowering. She could not speak
again for a minute; but Marty demanded:
"Do you mean to say we can go up there to the Alderdice Mine to-morrow
morning?"
"If Se[~n]or General De Soto Palo permits--_s['i], s['i]_!" said Juan, grinning
again. "But no ride on railroad I tell you, se[~n]or."
"Will you go with us?" the boy asked.
"As far as may be," said the man with a shrug of his shoulders.
"For how much?" demanded Marty bluntly.
"For notting," declared Juan. "Your bed notting. Your food notting.
Friends of the good Se[~n]or B-Day shall be treat' as friends by us--yes,
huh?"
Maria was patting Janice's hand softly and she nodded acquiescence.
Janice's eyes had overflowed. Marty choked up, and said gruffly:
"Hi tunket! don't that beat all? It pays to make people like you same as
Uncle Brocky does. And _you_ do it, too, Janice. Dad says: 'Soft words
butter no parsnips'; but I dunno. I have an idea it pays pretty good
interest to make friends wherever and whenever you can."
Whatever might have been the natural character of Juan and Maria, their
attitude towards the cousins changed magically. The half-breed woman
could not do enough for the twain, and Juan of the yellow eyes became
suddenly respectful if not subservient.
The fact remained that these Mexicans did not love _los Americanos_, but
they distinguished friends.
The tavern was a poor place; but the best in it was at the disposal of
Janice and Marty. And the girl, at least, went to bed with confidence in
the future.
Her father might be detained--hived up as it were--at the mine; but he
was not seriously hurt and she might reach him soon.
Juan was evidently the poorest of peons. All he could obtain in the
morning was a burro for the girl to ride. He said Marty must walk the
fourteen miles to the mine as he did.
"Don't worry about me. I'm glad to walk after riding two days in that
tin Lizzie," declared the boy.
They set forth early. Only a few curious and silent people watched them
go. The town seemed more than half deserted.
"Those men who did not join the rebels," explained Juan, "haf run from
the troops of the Se[~n]or General De Soto Palo. Oh, yes! They will come
back--and go to work again later."
They set forth along the branch railroad, on which the ore was brought
down from the mines to the stamp mills. In the yards box cars and
gondolas were overturned and half burned; rails were torn up; switch
shanties demolished.
"We Mexicans," said Juan, grinning, "we do not lofe the railroad, no!
Before the railroad come our country was happier. _Viva M['e]jico!_"
"Hi tunket!" muttered Marty. "That '_Viva M['e]jico!_' business covers a
multitude of sins--like this here charity they tell about. If you sing
out that battle cry down here you can do 'most anything you want--and
get away with it!"
They went on slowly, for no amount of prodding would make the burro go
faster than a funeral march. On all sides they saw marks of the fighting
which had followed the occupation of San Cristoval by the government
troops.
Juan explained that General Palo had waited for reinforcements at first;
but finally a part of the rebel army come over to him and fought against
their former friends under the standard of the government; so he was now
pushing on steadily, driving the other rebels before him.
"Why did they come over to the government side if they believe in _la
patria_?" asked Marty curiously.
"For twenty centavos a day more, se[~n]or," said Juan placidly.
"What's that?" ejaculated the boy. "D'you mean they got their wages
raised?"
"Why, se[~n]or, a man must leev," declared Juan mildly. "We get from thirty
to feefty cents a day working in the mines, on the roads, in the
forest--oh, yes! Se[~n]or B-Day pay the highest wages of anybody--sure. But
to fight--ah! that is different, eh? One general give us seventy-fi'
cents a day--good! But another offer us one dollair--'Merican. By
goodness, yes! We fight for heem. Any boy that beeg enough to carry gun,
he can get twice as much for fighting as he can for othair work. _S['i],
s['i]_, se[~n]or."
"Oh, cricky! _'Viva M['e]jico_!" murmured Marty.
It was just then that they turned a curve in the right of way and beheld
a train standing on the track. At least, there were a locomotive and two
cars.
They had not seen a human being since leaving the outskirts of the town;
but here were both men and horses.
The men were armed; some of them were gayly uniformed. A young fellow in
tattered khaki spurred his mount immediately toward Janice Day and her
companions.
"What want you here, _hombres_?" he demanded in Spanish, staring at
Janice. "This is the headquarters of General De Soto Palo."
Juan was dumb, and before Marty could speak Janice put the question:
"Is it possible for us to get through to the Alderdice Mine, se[~n]or?"
"Certainly not!" was the reply in good English. "Our troops have not
driven out the dregs of the rebel army as yet."
"May we speak with the general?" the girl pursued faintly.
"Certainly not!" the fellow repeated. "He has no time to spend with
vagabond _Americanos_."
"She's Se[~n]or B-Day's daughter," broke in Marty, thinking the statement
might do some good.
"Ha!" ejaculated the young officer much to their surprise. "She we have
expected. Consider yourself under ar-r-rest. March on!"
He waved his hand grandly toward the nearest car. Already Janice had
seen that it was a much battered Pullman coach. But now the officer's
declaration left Janice unable to appreciate much else but the fact that
she had been expected and was a prisoner of the government forces!
Juan, immobile of countenance, prodded on the burro. Marty, too, was
speechless. They came near to the observation platform of the Pullman
coach.
Suddenly the door opened and there stepped into the sunshine the
magnificent figure of a woman in Mexican dress--short skirt, low cut
bodice, with a veil over her wonderfully dressed hair. She looked down
upon the approaching cavalcade with parted lips.
"Madam!" ejaculated Janice Day, and then could say no more.