They had a whole hour entirely to themselves and it went far toward
restoring the years that the locusts had eaten. It was characteristic of
them both that they talked little, even after the long ache of silence.
For Jimsy, it was enough to have her there, in his arms, utterly his--to
know that she had come to him alone and unafraid across land and sea;
and for Honor the journey's end was to find him clear-eyed and
clean-skinned and steady. Stephen Lorimer was right when he applied
Gelett Burgess' "caste of the articulate" against them; they were very
nearly of the "gagged and wordless folk." Yet their silence was a rather
fine thing in its way; it expressed them--their simplicity, their large
faith. It was not in them to make reproaches. It did not occur to Jimsy
to say--"But why didn't you let me know you were coming?--At least you
might have let me have the comfort of knowing you were on this side of
the ocean!" And Honor never dreamed of saying "But Jimsy,--to rush from
Stanford down here without sending me a line!"
Therefore it was somewhat remarkable that it came out, in the brief
speeches between the long stillnesses, that Honor knew that Carter had
telephoned to his mother as they passed through Los Angeles, and that
Mrs. Van Meter had spoken of Honor's return, and she had naturally
supposed he would tell Jimsy; and that Jimsy had written her a ten page
letter, telling with merciless detail of the one wild party of protest
in which he had taken part, of his horror and remorse, of his
determination to go to his people in Mexico and stay until he was
certain he had himself absolutely in hand and had made up his mind about
his future.
"Well, it will be sent back to me from Florence," said Honor,
contentedly.
"Funny it wasn't there almost as soon as you were--I sent it so long
ago!--The night after that party, and I didn't leave for over two weeks,
and that makes it--well, anyhow, it's had time to be back. But it
doesn't matter now."
"No, it doesn't matter, now, Jimsy. I won't read it when it does come,
because it's all ancient history--ancient history that--that never
really happened at all! But I'm glad you wrote me, dear!" She rubbed
her cheek against his bronzed face.
"Of course I'd tell you everything about it, Skipper."
"Of course you would, Jimsy."
They were just beginning to talk about the future--beyond hurrying back
to Jimsy's father--when Carter came for them. He called to them before
he came limping into the little cleared space, which was partly his tact
in not wanting to come upon them unannounced, and partly because he
didn't want, for his own sake, to find them as he knew he would find
them, without warning. As a matter of fact, while Honor lifted her head
with its ruffled honey-colored braids from Jimsy's shoulder, he kept his
arm about her in brazen serenity.
Carter's eyes contracted for an instant, but he came close to them and
held out his hand. "Honor! This is glorious! But why didn't you wire and
let us meet you? We never dreamed of your coming! Of course, the mater
told me you were on your way home, but I didn't tell old Jimsy here, as
long as you hadn't. I knew you meant some sort of surprise. I thought
he'd hear from you from L. A. by any mail, now."
"Say, Cart', remember that long letter I wrote Skipper, the night after
the big smear?"
"Surely I do," Carter nodded.
"Well, she never got it."
"It passed her, of course. It will come back,--probably follow her down
here."
"Oh, it'll show up sometime. I gave it to you to mail, didn't I?"
"Yes, I remember it distinctly, because it was the fattest one of yours
I ever handled."
He grinned ruefully. "Yep. Had a lot on my chest that night."
"Mrs. King thought you ought to rest before dinner, Honor."
"At least I ought to make myself decent!" She smoothed the collar
Jimsy's arms had crumpled, the hair his shoulder had rubbed from its
smooth plaits. "She must think I'm weird enough as it is!"
But the Richard Kings had lived long enough in the turbulent _tierra
caliente_ to take startling things pretty much for granted. Honor's
coming was now a happily accepted fact. A cool, dim room had been made
ready for her,--a smooth floor of dull red tiles, some astonishingly
good pieces of furniture which had come, Mrs. King told her when she
took her up, from the Government pawnshop in Mexico City and dated back
to the brief glories of Maximilian's period, and a cool bath in a tin
tub.
"You are so good," said Honor. "Taking me in like this! It was a
dreadful thing to do, but--I had to come to him."
The Englishwoman put her hand on her shoulder. "My dear, it was a
topping thing to do. I--" her very blue eyes were pools of
understanding. "I should have done it. And we're no end pleased to have
you! We get fearfully dull, and three young people are a feast! We'll
have a lot of parties and divide you generously with our friends and
neighbors--neighbors twenty miles away, my dear! We'll do some
theatricals,--Carter says your boy is quite marvelous at that sort of
thing."
"Oh, he _is,"_ said Honor, warmly, "but I'm afraid we ought to hurry
back to his father!"
"I'll have Richard telegraph. Of course, if he's really bad, you'll have
to go, but we do want you to stay on!" She was moving about the big
room, giving a brisk touch here and there. "Have your cold dip and rest
an hour, my dear. Dinner's at eight. Josita will come to help you." She
opened the door and stood an instant on the threshold. Then she came
back and took Honor's face between her hands and looked long at her.
"You'll do," she said. "You'll do, my girl! There's no--no royal road
with these Kings of ours--but they're worth it!" She dropped a brisk
kiss on the smooth young brow and went swiftly out of the room.
To the keen delight of the hosts there was a fourth guest at dinner, a
man who was stopping at another _hacienda_ and had come in to tea and
been cajoled into staying for dinner and the night. He was a personage
from Los Angeles, an Easterner who had brought an invalid wife there
fifteen years earlier, had watched her miraculous return to pink plump
health and become the typical California-convert. He had established a
branch of his gigantic business there and himself rolled semiannually
from coast to coast in his private car. Honor and Jimsy were a little
awed by touching elbows with greatness but he didn't really bother them
very much, for they were too entirely absorbed in each other. He seemed,
however, considerably interested in them and looked at them and listened
to them genially. The Kings were thirstily eager for news of the
northern world; books, plays, games, people--they drank up names and
dates and details.
"We must take a run up to the States this year," said Richard King.
"It would be jolly, old dear," said his wife, levelly, her wise eyes on
his steady hands. "If the coffee crop runs to it!"
"There you have it," he growled. "If the coffee crop is bad we can't
afford to go,--and if it's good we can't afford to leave it!"
"But we needn't mind when we've house parties like this! My word,
Rich'--fancy having four house guests at one and the same blessed time!"
She led the way into the long _sala_ for coffee.
"Yes,--isn't it great? Drink?" Richard King held up a half filled
decanter toward his guest.
The personage shook his head. "Not this weather, thanks. That enchanted
well of yours does me better. Wonderful water, isn't it?"
"Water's all right, but it's a deuce of a nuisance having to carry every
drop of it up to the house."
"Really? Isn't it piped?"
"Ah, but it will be one day, Rich'! I expect the first big coffee crop
will go there, rather than in a trip to the States. But it is rather a
bother, meanwhile."
"But you have no labor question here."
"Haven't we though? With old Diaz gone the old order is changed. This
bunch I have here now are bad ones," King shook his head. "They may
revolute any minute."
"Oh, Rich'--not really?"
"I daresay they'll lack the energy when it comes to a show-down,
Madeline. But this man Villa is a picturesque figure, you know. He
appeals to the _peón_ imagination."
The guest was interested. "Yes. Isn't it true that there's a sort of
Robin Hood quality about him--steals from the rich to give to the
poor--that sort of thing?"
"That's more or less true, but the herd believes it utterly." He sighed.
"It was a black day for us when Diaz sailed."
Jimsy King had been listening. "But, Uncle Rich', they _have_ had a
rotten deal, haven't they?"
His uncle shrugged. "Got to treat 'em like cattle, boy. It's what they
are."
"Well, it's what they'll always be if you keep on treating 'em that
way!" Jimsy spoke hotly and his uncle turned amused eyes on him.
"Don't let that Yaqui fill you up with his red tales!"
"But you'll admit the Yaquis have been abused?"
"Well, I believe they have. They're a cut above the _peón_ in
intelligence and spirit. But--can't have omelette without breaking
eggs." He turned again to his elder guest. "This boy here has been
palling about with a Yaqui Indian he made me take in when he was here
last time."
The great man nodded. "Yes,--I've seen them together. Magnificent
specimen, isn't he?"
"They are wonderfully built, most of them. This chap was pretty badly
used by his master--they are virtually slaves, you know,--and bolted,
and Jimsy found him one night----"
The boy got up and came over to them. "Starving, and almost dead with
weakness and his wounds,--beaten almost to death and one of his ears
hacked off! And Uncle Rich' took him in and kept him for me."
His uncle grinned and flung an arm across his shoulder. "And had the
devil--and many _pesos_ to pay to the local _jefe_ and the naturally
peevish gentleman who lost him. But at that I'll have to admit he's the
best man on the _rancho_ to-day." He threw a teasing look at Honor,
glowing and misty-eyed over Jimsy's championing of the oppressed. "The
only trouble is, I suppose Jimsy will take him with him when he sets up
housekeeping for himself. What do you think, Maddy? Could Yaqui Juan be
taught to buttle?"
"No butlers for us, Uncle Rich'!" Jimsy was red but unabashed. "We might
rent him for a movie star and live on his earnings. We aren't very clear
yet as to what we _will_ live on!"
The personage looked at him gravely. "You are going to settle in Los
Angeles?"
"_Yes!_" said Jimsy and Honor in a breath. The good new life coming
which would be the good old life over again, only better!
"Oh," said Mrs. King, "I forgot,--I asked them to come up from the
quarters and make music for you! They're here now! Look!" She went to
the window and the others followed. The garden was filled with vaguely
seen figures, massed in groups, and there was a soft murmur of voices
and the tentative strumming of guitars. "Shall we come out on the
veranda? You'll want a _rebozo_, Honor,--the nights are sharp." She
called back to the serving woman. "Put out the lights, Josita."
They sat in the dusk and looked out into the veiled and shadowy spaces
and the dim singers lifted up their voices. The moon would rise late;
there was no light save the tiny pin points of the cigarettes; it gave
the music an elfin, eerie quality.
"Pretty crude after Italy, eh, Honor?" Richard King wanted to know.
"Oh, it's delicious, Mr. King! Please ask them to sing another!"
"May we have the _Golondrina_?" the eldest guest wanted to know.
"Well--how about it, Maddy? Think we're all cheerful enough? We know
that two of us are! All right!" He called down the request and it seemed
to Honor that a little quiver went through the singers in the shadow.
The guitars broke into a poignant, sobbing melody.
"I don't know what the words mean," said the personage under his breath.
"I don't believe I want to know. I fancy every one fits his own words to
it."
"Or his own need," said Richard King's wife. She slipped her hand into
her husband's. The melody rose and fell, sobbed and soared. Honor drew
closer to Jimsy and he put his arm about her and held her hard. "Yes,"
he whispered. "I know." The man who had asked for _Golondrina_ sat with
bent head and his cigar went out. Only Carter Van Meter, as once long
ago in Los Angeles, seemed unmoved, unstirred, scatheless.
There was a little silence after the music. Then the personage said,
"You know, I fancy that's Mexico, that song!"
Jimsy King wheeled to face him through the dusk. "Yes, sir! It's true!
That _is_ Mexico,--everything that's been done to her,--and everything
she'll do, some day!"
"It's--beautiful and terrible," said Honor. "I had to keep telling
myself that we are all safe and happy, and that nothing is going to
happen to us!"
Carter laughed and got quickly to his feet. "I suggest indoors and
lights--and Honor! Honor must sing for us!"
She never needed urging; she sang as gladly as a bird on a bush. The
Kings were parched for music; they begged for another and another. She
had almost to reproduce her recital in Florence. Jimsy listened, rapt
and proud, and at the end he said--"Not too tired for one more, Skipper?
Our song?"
"Never too tired for that, Jimsy!" She sat down again and struck her
stepfather's ringing, rousing chords. Instantly it ceased, there in the
room, to be Mexico; it was as if a wind off the sea blew past them. The
first verse had them all erect in their chairs. She swung into the
second, holding a taut rein on herself:
The sand of the desert is sodden red;
Red with the wreck of a square that broke;
The gatling's jammed and the colonel dead,
And the regiment blind with dust and smoke:
The River of Death has brimmed his banks;
And England's far and Honor's a name,
But the voice of a school boy rallies the ranks--
Play up! Play up! and--Play the Game!
Honor sat still at the piano. She did not mean to lift her eyes until
she could be sure they would not run over. Why did that song always
sweep her away so?--from the first moment Stepper had read her the words
in the old house on South Figueroa Street, all those years ago? Why had
she always the feeling that it had a special meaning for her and for
Jimsy--a warning, a challenge? Jimsy came over to stand beside her,
comfortably silent, and then, surprisingly, the personage came to stand
beside Jimsy.
"I've been wondering," he said, "if you hadn't better come in to see me
one day, when we're all back in Los Angeles? You haven't any definite
plans for your future, have you?"
"No, sir," said Jimsy. "Only that I've got to get something--quick!" He
looked at Honor, listening star-eyed.
The great man smiled. "I see. Well, I think I can interest you. I've
watched you play football, King. I played football, forty years ago. I
like the breed. My boys are all girls, worse luck--though they're the
finest in the world----"
"Oh, _yes_," said Honor, warmly.
"But I like boys. And I like you, Jimsy King." He held out his hand.
"You come to me, and if you're the lad I think you are, you'll stay."
"Oh, I'll come!" Jimsy stammered, flushed and incoherent. "I'll come!
I'll--I'll sweep out or scrub floors--or--or anything! But--I'm afraid
you don't----" he looked unhappily at Honor.
"Yes, Jimsy. He's got to know."
Jimsy King stood up very straight and tall. "You've got to know that I
was kicked out of college two months ago, for marching in a parade
against----"
"For telling the truth," cried Honor, hot cheeked, "when a cowardly lie
would have saved him!"
"But just the same, I was kicked out of college, and----"
"Lord bless you, boy," said the personage, and it was the first time
they had heard him laugh aloud, "I know you were! And that's one reason
why I want you. _So was I!_"