When Dreams Come True Part 5

"Ah! you saw me dance, Senor?" she asked, betraying a slight embarra.s.sment.

"I wouldn't have missed it for the world! Such a performance--I--" again he paused, regarding her intently. "Do you know, Senorita, all the while I watched you dance there seemed to be something familiar about you. It seemed as though I had seen you somewhere before."

"Yes?" she queried, her dark eyes glowing and a faint flush mounting to her cheeks.

"Yes," he answered. "Ever since then I have been trying to think where it could have been. Ah!" he exclaimed, stepping backwards and eyeing her critically. "Just turn your head that way again. There, that's it! I knew I had seen you before! Do you remember the night we met a year ago on the trail below La Jara?"

A smile parted her full rose-red lips, displaying her pearly teeth. "I remember it well, Senor," she answered, casting down her eyes for an instant. "I recognized you the instant I saw you."

"Strange," he muttered half to himself. Then, after a rather embarra.s.sing silence, he said: "That was a fine horse you rode. Do you live here at the _Posada_, Senorita?"

"No. I live with Padre Antonio."

"Padre Antonio? Ah, yes!" he exclaimed, recalling the conversation at Pedro Romero's gambling hall. "Tell me," he continued, "who is Padre Antonio?"

"Ah! I see you have not been long in Santa Fe, Senor, else you must have heard something about him. Everybody knows Padre Antonio--he is our priest."

"Both you and he must have been absent when I was here before, otherwise I must have met you," he answered.

At this moment the tall figure of a man, dressed in a suit of light gray material with a soft felt hat to match, appeared in the doorway of the Inn. His eyes, like his hair and mustache, were dark brown. His hands were long and slender and delicate as a woman's, yet there was nothing effeminate in his appearance. His strong, sensitive features and roving, piercing eyes and alert carriage indicated courage and energy.

He paused as he caught sight of the two figures before him. Then, with an exclamation of surprise, he stepped quickly out on to the veranda.

"Jack!" he exclaimed. "When did you get here?"

Turning swiftly, Captain Forest saw d.i.c.k Yankton standing before him.

"d.i.c.k!" he cried, and rushing up the veranda steps, seized him by both hands. "I've been wondering where I would find you! You evidently didn't get my letter?"

"No," replied his companion. "I only returned from the mountains late last night. It's probably waiting for me here."

"The Senores know one another?" interrupted Chiquita, also ascending the veranda.

"Know one another? Senorita, we are brothers," said d.i.c.k.

"Brothers?" she echoed, surprised and perplexed.

"Yes, Senorita, all but in name," interposed the Captain.

"Ah! I see. Brothers in fortune!"

"Exactly," replied d.i.c.k. "But what is all this I hear concerning your doings, Senorita? I'd have given my best horse to have seen you dance, but, as you see, I'm too late. A pretty nest of hornets you've stirred up in the old place," he continued. "Why, last evening I met the Navaros on the road on their way home and they wouldn't let me pa.s.s until they had told me how wicked you were. Senora Navaro even crossed herself and said an ave at the first mention of your name."

"Ah," she sighed, then laughed unconcernedly. "I'm afraid I've been very naughty, Senor." Then suddenly recollecting her mission, she exclaimed: "I almost forgot why I came here this morning. I'm the bearer of Padre Antonio's gift and greetings to the Senora. It's her birthday, you know."

"Her birthday? I wonder she still dares have them!" exclaimed d.i.c.k.

"She does, nevertheless," laughed Chiquita; and brushing back the roses in her basket with a sweep of the hand, she disclosed the eggs beneath.

"Look," she continued. "Padre Antonio's gift! Are they not beautiful--just fresh from the hens! You had better have some for your breakfast, Senor," she added.

"By all the Saints in the calendar, they are pearls, every one of them!" returned d.i.c.k enthusiastically, eyeing the contents of the basket. "Thrice blessed be thy hens, Senorita! We'll have eggs with our chocolate out here on the veranda!"

"I thought so!" came a sharp voice from the other side of the doorway just behind them, "as usual, talking with the Senores!" and Senora Fernandez, with flushed cheeks and a spiteful gleam in her eyes which she took no pains to conceal, stepped from the door into the light.

"_Buenas dias_, Dona Fernandez!" said Chiquita, unabashed by the Senora's sudden appearance and onslaught, "may the day bring you many blessings! Look! Padre Antonio's greetings," and she held up the basket for the Senora's benefit. Then, with a subtle sarcasm which she knew would avenge her amply for the Senora's unprovoked attack, she said: "I stopped to inquire what the Senores would have for their breakfast. They say they will have eggs with their chocolate."

"Indeed! Eggs and chocolate--chocolate and eggs!" angrily retorted the Senora, "just as though one didn't know what everybody takes for breakfast!" But without waiting for her to finish, Chiquita vanished through the doorway with her basket; her low laughter, followed by a s.n.a.t.c.h of song just audible from within, serving to increase the Senora's irritation.

"Holy G.o.d! I sometimes think the devil is inside of that girl!" she exclaimed, vexed beyond measure.

"Ah, but what a sweet one!" laughed d.i.c.k. "I wouldn't mind being possessed of the same myself."

"Bah, Senor! you talk like a fool!" she retorted. "I pray you, do not think too poorly of us, Senor _Capitan_," she continued in an apologetic tone, turning to Captain Forest. "I a.s.sure you, all the women in Santa Fe are not so bold as the Senorita Chiquita."

"No, most of them are a tame lot!" broke in d.i.c.k, secretly enjoying the Senora's discomfiture.

"_Caramba!_ your speech grows more foolish as you talk, Senor!" returned the Senora in a tone of intense disgust. "I see, you too have fallen under her spell. They say she has the evil-eye, Senor _Capitan_," she went on, addressing the Captain again.

"Evil-eye--ha, ha! What next?" laughed d.i.c.k.

"Blood of the Saints! I'll no longer waste my time with you, Senor!" and with an angry swish of her skirt, she turned and disappeared in the house.

VII

"What does she mean by the evil-eye?" asked the Captain after the sounds of the Senora's footsteps had died away in the corridor within the house.

"Nothing--it's only jealousy. Chiquita being the acknowledged belle of the town, most of the other women, especially those of pure Spanish blood, are jealous as cats of her, and seldom miss an opportunity of saying spiteful things about her. That's why her dancing has caused such a row. And yet," he continued, seating himself on the veranda rail, his back against one of its wooden pillars, "I can't see why. It's race hatred of course, but there's really no reason for it because she's the best educated woman between here and the City of Mexico. Padre Antonio saw to it that she received the best Mexico had to give. Why, she speaks French and English almost as well as she does Spanish. If she were a _mestiza_ or half-caste, things would go hard with her, but being a full-blood, she's easily a match for them all."

"She's certainly an unusual woman," said the Captain; "one you would hardly expect to find in this out-of-the-way place."

"Oh, that's one of the many paradoxes in life," answered d.i.c.k. "I've met many a remarkable personality in the most remote regions during my wanderings. But," he continued, abruptly changing the topic of conversation, "what brings you back here? I always felt you would come back to this country again. Civilization isn't all it's cracked up to be, is it?"

"It was a hard wrench just the same," returned the Captain, "especially when one--"

"Did you hear that?" suddenly interrupted d.i.c.k, rising from his seat on the veranda rail and gazing intently down the highroad. The sounds of a vehicle and hoof-beats on the hard road, mingled with the shouts of a driver, the crack of a whip and tinkle of bells, were distinctly heard, and presently, a heavy lumbering stagecoach enveloped in a cloud of white dust and drawn by four mules was seen coming down the road at full gallop.

The sounds had also aroused the household. Senora Fernandez at the head of a troop of _peons_ and women rushed out of the house, talking and gesticulating excitedly as they swarmed over the veranda and down the steps in front of the _Posada_, for all the world like a distracted colony of ants.

"_Dios!_ what can have happened to the stage that it comes in the morning instead of the evening?" she cried breathlessly, quite forgetting her recent ill humor in the excitement.

"There's no stage at this hour," said d.i.c.k.

"But there it comes!" answered the Captain.

"It's not the regular stage," returned d.i.c.k; "a party of tourists, most likely! I see a lot of women!" he added, as the occupants on the outside of the stage came more clearly into view.