Part 2 (1/2)
”Wal, we 'uns that've watched her grow up from a rangy, long-legged, stringy-haired leetle colt think more o' what she is than what she looks like, but now that you mention it, I'll lay there ain't a Jane this side o' the border and mighty few above it that can give her odds on looks. And there ain't a man in these parts but has his trigger set for the guy that'd look cross-eyed at her.”
There was a friendly but unmistakable hint in the concluding words and the young engineer went to bed in a curious reversal of sentiment.
Gentleman Geoff had evidently earned his t.i.tle; and from the tawdry, fevered atmosphere of the Blue Chip his daughter, miraculously enough, seemed to have drawn only strength and a warm-hearted abiding faith in human nature.
The still heat of mid-afternoon lay like a stifling veil upon the little weather-beaten shack among the zapote trees, when Gentleman Geoff's Billie lifted the latch next day. The single room was empty save for the boy who tossed restlessly upon his pallet, but the movement ceased and the sunken eyes glowed in the thin brown face, as she bent over him.
”The pain is better, comment?” she asked gently. ”See, Jose! I have brought you broth and wine.”
He stammered his grat.i.tude with weak but fervent voice, then the elfin face darkened.
”The Senor Wiley!” he muttered. ”It was because I would not tell him of the Pool! He is great and strong and he would crush me for that I keep silencioso, but when I am cured of this hurt----”
”We will pay back the score to the Senor Wiley.” The girl spoke quietly, but a swift ominous light gleamed for a fleeting moment in her eyes, turning their blue to steel. ”We'll teach him what fair play means in Limasito! But where is thy grandmother, Jose?”
The lad s.h.i.+vered in spite of the heat.
”She stirs her cauldron,” he whispered. ”She crept in at the dawn and since she has muttered of strange things. There must have been a warning, Senorita.”
With a stifled exclamation, Billie straightened and crossed to the door. A thin spiral of smoke rose like a gray wisp above the zapote trees and a low-crooned, rhythmic chant was borne to her on the stirless air. Without hesitation she followed the narrow, scarcely discernible path toward the opening in the clump of trees.
A battered pot was slung above a blaze of dried wood and before it Tia Juana sat upon her heels, swaying from side to side with half-closed eyes and outstretched tremulous hands.
For a moment the girl paused, and then stepped forward.
”What is it, Tia Juana?” she asked softly in Spanish. ”Would you brew a cure for Jose or a curse for the evil which has befallen him?”
The swaying ceased and the arms dropped as the old woman turned swiftly.
”Neither, Senorita, but I would learn the truth,” she responded solemnly. ”Last night I beheld a thing which pa.s.sed my understanding, but of it only evil can come, and I would know it now.”
”What did you see?” asked Billie, seating herself on a moss-grown log.
”What was this evil thing, Tia Juana?”
”I went to the hacienda of the Senor Wiley.” The old woman announced simply. ”He had harmed my Jose, child of my blood, and I would have taken revenge upon him.”
”Tia Juana, that was wrong!” Billie cried. ”I have told my father and he will see that justice is done. You--you found him?”
Tia Juana nodded and her thin lips compressed.
”Behind the casito where the carro is stored I came upon him in the shadow. Beside him was a figure I could not see, to whom he talked low and quickly, with many gestures. Me he did not see, and I waited.
Then in a moment, Senorita, the figure moved so that the moonlight fell upon him. It was that messenger of the Evil One, De Soria.”
”John Sawyer?” the girl repeated in a hushed tone.
”So you know him, Senorita.” The old woman's lip curled. ”Before your coming, or ever a rooftree was raised in Limasito, he was Juan De Soria, son of thieves and black of heart as his master's skin.”
The girl s.h.i.+vered.
”El Negrito!” she whispered. ”You think he came from Alvarez? But what dealings does the Americano Wiley have with El Negrito?”