Jessica Trent: Her Life On A Ranch Part 4

"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 t.i.tle 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 peac.o.c.k," 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 cus.h.i.+on 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 a.s.sent.

"Except yourself, Lady Jess, n.o.body 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. Pa.s.s 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 s.h.i.+p, 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.