Maruja

ed some signs of agitation. He walked rapidly on, occasionally switching the air with a wand of willow, from which he had impatiently pluck

d with red-wood bark, strongly suggestive of deeper woodland shadow. But in strange contrast, the floor, table, and benches were thickly strewn with faded rose-leaves, scattered as if in some riotous play of children. Captain Carroll brushed them aside hurriedly with hi

uiet around him, the far-off sound of wheels

e turned back to the summer-house, he for the first time noticed that the ground rose behind it into a long undulation, on the crest of which the same singular profusion of rose-leaves were scattered. It struck him as being strangely like a gigantic grave, and that the same idea had occurred to the fantastic dispenser of the withered flowers. He was still looking at it, when a rustle in

her five minutes. He was deceived, undoubtedly. She and her sisters were probably waiting for him and laughing at him on the l

in Car

stranger could not have resisted the spell of its musical inflection.

ating the direction with her flexible shoulder, "and nearly lost my slipper and my eyes-look!" She threw back the inseparable lace shawl from

," he said, with a slight hesitat

ee times, as if enjoying her own native trilling of the r's. "It's a pret

ame is Henry,"

do. But El Capitan Carroll is best of all.

He colored

ssing him with her lashes; "it was not for this that you asked me to meet you face to face in this-cold"-she made a movement of drawing her lace over her shoulders-"cold daylight. That belonged to the lights and the dance and the music of last night. It is n

nything else to say, Miss Saltonstall-something-pardon me-did I hurt your hand?-something for HER alone-is there one of them tha

not her dangerous eyes. "Who would dare forbid you talking to me

you have misunderstood, Miss Saltonstall?" he faltered. "Do you still think it is Amita that I"-he

nlight, one says everything; in the morning one has breakfast-when one is not asked to have councils of war with captains and commandantes. You would speak of my si

elp it if I could. Hear me. I will be calm. No one can hear us where we stand. I am not mad. I am not a traitor! I frankly admired your sister. I came here to see her. Beyond t

nd one afternoon ago! You see, I

you should be won. I am not mad, though I am desperate. I know what is due to your stati

rning fever of his eyes, until her ears tingled wit

be, Carrol

e and manly dignity that her eyes dropped for the

foolish. Let me go. I tell you that because you can be no

u hard, Miss Saltonstall-too hard, I know, for a man who has

If I had, it is not thus I would have done. I need not have met you h

of his miserable heart, he knew th

our house. Five days is not much of happiness or sorrow to forget, is it, Carroll-Captain Carroll?" Her voice died away in a faint sigh. "Do not be angry w

ore'?" said Carroll, grasping her hand suddenly

r's race. That is my mother's wish, and the will of he

is is not your

"What would you? It is the

stopped; the quick b

n you? Why did I not say to you when we first met, You have come to add

surely this prejudice can be removed? Why,

isten; shall I tell you the story of our house? Stop! some one is coming. Don't move; remain as you are. If you care for me, Carroll, collect yourself, and don't let that man t

to suggest, even in complimentary raillery, a possible sentimental situation, his politeness went further. It wa

y now, you two, and can stop me if you choose. Thank you. I warn you it is stupid; it isn't new; but it has the excuse of being suggested by this very spot." She cast a quick

had their home in the dark canada, and came out over these fields, yellow with wild oats and red with poppies, to seek their prey. They were happy. For why? They were the first; they had no history, you comprehend, no tradition. They married as they liked" (with a g

in apparent distress, "but I caught

f the matter, he contented himself with robbing Senor Koorotora's wigwam when he could, and skulking around the Indian's camp at night. The old chief prospered, and made many journeys round the country, but always kept his camp here. This lasted until the time when the holy Fa

the beginning. This is better than Sen

she saw the holy Fathers, and they converted her against the superstiti

ot so? It was a lovely site for a mis

and bringing them in at the tails of their horses. All except Koorotora. He defied them; he cursed them and his wife in his wicked heathenish fashion, and said that they too should lose the mission through the treachery of

in equally simulated wonder. A sudden recollection of the coyote of the morning recurred to Carroll un

session of the Holy Church. One night, through treachery, it was said, the guards were withdrawn and the Indians entered the mission, slaughtered the lay brethren, and drove away the priests. The Commandant at the Presidio retook the place from the heathens, but on representation to the Governor that it was indefensible for the peaceful Fathers without a large military guard, the official or

ty is still in the family," said Carro

Don Jose Saltonstall against the wishes of the family, it was said that the curse would fall. Sure enough, Caballeros, it was that year that the forged gran

ed here the other day? You are friends,

lders. "He paid his money to the forger. Your corregidores uph

, for Maruja added, with mock demureness, "It's always dreadful to be the eldest sister; but think what it is to be in the direct line of a curse! Now, there's Amita-SHE'S free

indifference to an almost harsh impatience, "you do not mean to say, Mademois

her teeth. She shot a significant glance at C

Indian mound. They regularly find their way there on saints' days and festas. THEY are not rubbish, Monsieur Garnier; they are propitiatory sacrifices. Pereo would believe that a temblor would swallow up the casa if we should ever

than mere color, that Garnier, all devoted eyes and courteous blandishment, broke out: "But this curse must fall harmlessly before the incarnation of b

tions of his rival, had not the next words of hi

e suddenly appears in broad daylight, mysteriously, near the casa. This midnight marauder, now banished to the thickest canyon, come

ping her little foot in quite

while you were speaking-the old Indian, the priest, and the coyote!" His eyes sparkled. The wild thought had occurred to him that perhaps, in spite of himself, he was the young woman's predestined fate; and i

the old casa, my father asked, 'What dog is that under the table?' When they lifted the cloth to look, a coyot

for I judge it is waiting us. I hear your sister's voice among the others crossing th

mit myself to a comparison of their fresher faces and toilets by you two gentlemen. Go you both and

mished toilet showed the inefficiency of her excuse, it was evident that her wish to be alon

riking the sticks against her little pale palm, and then, gathering the lace under her oval chin with one hand, and catching her fan and skirt with the other, bent her head and dipped into the bushes. She came out on the other

with soil, and half hidden in a ragged blue cast-off army overcoat lazily hanging from one shoulder. His thin sun-burnt face was not without a certain sullen, suspicious intelligence, and a look of half-

yes. "I'm looking for the San Jose road, hereabouts. Ye don't happe

. Strong in her power and salient with fascination, she leaned gently over the fence, and with the fan raised to her delicate ea

San Jose road

illing to protract the conversation, "is about two miles from here. It i

ant it!

denly forward, and limp