Jessica Trent: Her Life On A Ranch Part 7

"Now, I tell you, stranger, you'll see the sight of your life. If I was a betting man I'd back Our Lady Jess again' any other girl-shooter on the globe. You just watch out--if the dark holds off a spell."

There were a dozen, maybe, of the ranchmen standing or lying around in a semi-circle, but now all quiet and intent upon the little girl, as, nodding and smiling upon her guest and her beloved "boys," she stepped into the open s.p.a.ce before them all. "Forty-niner" March, unerring marksman and the children's instructor, took his place beside her, examined her rifle, handed it to her and also observed to the stranger:

"Now, if nothin' happens, you'll see sunthin'. Sorry it's so dusk, but any gent what doubt's is free to walk up to the target and look where the ball strikes. You, lady, do me proud."

"I'll try," said Jessica, simply. "Is it the little nail in the center?"

"Just that."

She sighted and fired; and a ranchman who had run forward to the target, shouted back across the darkening s.p.a.ce:

"Hit her plumb!"

A roar of applause greeted this announcement, but the girl accepted this tribute with no comment save another nod and smile, as she waited her teacher's next direction.

This was given silently by a gesture downward.

Instantly Jessica dropped upon the ground, rested herself upon her elbows, aimed, fired, and--"Hit her again! Hooray for Our Lady!

Hooray--hooray--hooray!"

In his excitement big Samson seized Mr. Hale by the sleeve and compelled that gentleman to jog-trot across the open and view at closer range the wonderful skill of the little maid who was so dear to them all.

"Stand aside, Psalm Singer. Your head's in the way!" cautioned somebody.

Still clutching his companion, Samson obeyed, and they saw Jessica now lying upon her back, sighting upward and backward over her head a small, white object that had been placed in the target where the tack had been.

There was no cheering then, nor any movement among the eager watchers who fairly held their breaths lest they disturb their darling in that supreme moment of her success or failure.

"But she'll not fail!" thought more than one, and would have given a year's wages that she should not.

There was a swift rush of something through the air, so close to Mr.

Hale's nose that he visibly drew back, and a double report as the bullet hit the toy torpedo which had been the chosen mark.

After that, pandemonium; or so it seemed to Mr. Hale. Those gray and grizzled men--for there were few young among them--shouted themselves hoa.r.s.e and gave way to the wildest expressions of pride and delight. As for Jessica, the heroine, though her eyes sparkled and a flush rose to her cheeks, she was by far the calmest person present. Even Mr. Hale's heart was beating rapidly and he caught the girl's hands and shook them violently, in his congratulations.

"That was marvelous! marvelous! I've seen pretty good sharp-shooting done by professionals, but never anything so fine as that last shot of yours. How could you ever learn it, so young as you are?"

"How could I help learning? It is 'Forty-niner's' work, a deal more than mine. He's been teaching me ever since I could hold a tiny bow and arrow. He's wonderful, if you please; but I----Well, it seems just to do itself, somehow. But I must go in now. Time for the little ones to be in bed. Come, Ned. Come, Luis. Oh, dear! he's fast asleep."

"I'll pack him for you, lady. And say, boys, isn't this the time?"

Samson had lifted the sleeping Luis, tucked him under one arm and swung Ned to the other, but now paused to glance around among his fellow-workmen.

"Time was 'moon-up,'" answered Joe, minded to be facetious.

"This would be 'moon-up,' if the old girl knew her business,"

retorted the sailor. "In ten minutes we'll be with you. Come, on, my lady. I've a word to say to you and the mistress."

The daily evening sport was over and the ranchmen rapidly dispersed, each to his own quarters, and none considering it his especial business to entertain the stranger, who was now strolling slowly houseward mindful of the sudden chill which came with the nightfall and of his own unfitness for exposure.

Proudest of all, "Forty-niner" gathered up the weapons and carried them off, to clean and put in order for the next evening's practice.

He was well satisfied with his pupil's achievements, though already planning more difficult feats for their performance. The man was eighty; yet, while his abundant hair was white, his back was still straight and his step firm. The joy of his old age was the athletic training of the Sobrante children, and it would have amazed him, even broken his heart, had he been told that by such means he did not well earn his keep. He was eldest of all the elderly workmen that the late master of the ranch had gathered about him, and his appreciation of this good home in which to end his days perhaps, the greatest of all. It was, therefore, a terrible shock which awaited him, as entering his own room, he lighted his lamp and saw lying on his table a white envelope addressed to himself.

He knew what it meant. Dismissal.

One year before, when Ca.s.sius Trent died, there had been twenty employees where there were now but thirteen--he the "odd one" of the "baker's dozen." Seven times, when least expected or desired, some one of these twenty had found in his room just such an envelope, containing his arrears of wages, and the curt information that, "by the order of Mrs.

Trent, his services were no longer required at Sobrante, nor would any wages be forthcoming from that day forward."

These men had all been friends, rather than servants, and in each case the result had been the same. Cut to the heart by the manner of discharge, and, for the first time it may be, realizing that he was no longer young, and, therefore, valuable, the recipient of the envelope had quietly disappeared, saying farewell to n.o.body.

"My turn! My turn, at last!" broke from the aged frontiersman's lips, and a groan followed. "Ten years I've lived in this old adobe cell till I've come to feel like the monk for whom it was first built. Now----"

The white head drooped forward on the outstretched arms and all the burden of his eighty years seemed suddenly to have descended upon that bowed and shrunken figure.

In the pretty dining-room Antonio Bernal had eaten a hearty supper served by his own mistress, since Wun Lung was not to be found and the house-boy, Pasqual, claimed his usual recreation hour at the rifle practice. But neither thought anything amiss in this, and the manager would, indeed, have a.s.serted that it was quite the proper thing. Was not he a Bernal, and superior to all at Sobrante? Even though he was, for the time being, receiving wage instead of bestowing. Well, it was a long lane that had no turning.

Pushing back from the table, Antonio had murmured the proverb in Spanish, with a smile of satisfaction lighting his dark face, and Mrs. Trent had failed to hear distinctly, though she was familiar enough with the language so often in use about her.

"Beg pardon, I did not understand."

"Begging pardon, one's self, senora, it is seldom that you do. It is the business was never made for the small brains of the women, no? 'Tis the senora's place to be beautiful and let the business rest in the capable hands of I, myself. _En verdad._"

Mrs. Trent colored and bit her lip. This man's insolence was becoming insupportable, and she could scarcely recognize him for the obsequious fellow who had been her husband's right-hand dependence. His brief authority had turned his head, she reflected, and, again, that she must in no wise offend him. The welfare of her children demanded this, and forcing herself to smile as pleasantly as if his insult were a jest, she remarked:

"The gentleman whom you met, as you came in, is a lawyer. A New York lawyer. I--I would like to consult him about our--this business you mention. I was born and reared in New York and have a feeling that anything which comes from there must be all right. Even a lawyer, though I'm not fond of the profession usually.

"The senor is not wont to waste so many words upon her most humble servant, no. And as for the lawyers, have I not this day been to the consulting of the most eminent, the wisest of his kind, no? But yes; and the truth is, senora--believe me, it breaks my heart so to inform you, but this barren rancho of Sobrante belongs not to the Dona Gabriella and her children, but to one Antonio Bernal, even I, myself."

"To you! Belongs--to--you?" gasped the astonished woman.

The manager shrugged his shoulders and tossed another Spanish proverb toward her: "What I have said, I have said."

Mrs. Trent felt her strength leaving her and sank into a chair, still gazing incredulously at the other, who now lounged back in his own chair and began to leisurely pick his teeth. It was a trivial action, but one wholly disgusting to the gentlewoman's fastidious sense, and it angered her, which was a good thing, for her anger banished her momentary faintness and gave her boldness to demand:

"The proof!"

"It will be forthcoming, senora, at the right time. Yes. Meanwhile, I am content you shall remain, you and your little ones, until--well, say a month. By that date all things should have been arranged and the senora will have found herself another home less lonely than Sobrante. One so beautiful as the Dona Gabriella must have hosts of friends who----"

Senor Bernal paused. There were footsteps approaching, and the merry voices of children, and an instant later Samson was in the room, still carrying the little lads in his arms, and with Jessica clinging affectionately to his ragged sleeve.

One glance showed the faithful ranchman that something was amiss. There was fresh sorrow, even consternation, in the beloved face of Sobrante's mistress, fresh insolence in that of her chief a.s.sistant. He was not one to hesitate when his friends were in trouble, and turned to Antonio with an angry demand:

"What have you been worrying your betters with now, senor?"

"Keep a civil tongue in your head, rascal."

"Returnin' the compliment, if you please. All the same, don't you know that a man--_a man_--doesn't go around worrying women as you worry Mrs. Trent? You, that hadn't a shirt to your back when the boss took you in and made you what you are! I'm antic.i.p.atin' a mite, and I don't know just how some of the boys'll take it, but we'd laid out this very night at moon-up--if there'd been a moon sensible enough to get up, which there isn't--to haul you and a few other matters over the coals and stir up a fresh sort of blaze. Now, I warn you, just you let matters slide, peaceable, and you--just you, yourself, keep that civil tongue you recommend, or you'll light out of here so quick ye won't see your heels for dust, dry season though it is. Hear?"

"Hear? Yes, I hear. Now, 'tis your turn. You go tell those malcontents you call 'the boys' to take their packs and foot it. Times have changed. Things have changed. There's another master here now, and not a weak-willed mistress. That is me--I--Antonio Bernal, owner of Sobrante rancho and all that appertains thereto. Now, go. Vamos. Depart.