Chapter XVII. Winter at Las Palomas

by Andy Adams

　　The winter succeeding the drouth was an unusually mild one, frost andsleet being unseen at Las Palomas. After the holidays several warm rainsfell, affording fine hunting and assuring enough moisture in the soil toinsure an early spring. The preceding winter had been gloomy, but thisproved to be the most social one since my advent, for within fifty milesof the ranch no less than two weddings occurred during Christmas week.As to little neighborhood happenings, we could hear of half a dozenevery time we went to Shepherd's after the mail.When the native help on the ranch was started at blocking out the stonefor the chapel, Uncle Lance took the hounds and with two of the boyswent down to Wilson's ranch for a hunt. Gallup went, of course, butjust why he took Scales along, unless with the design of making a matchbetween one of the younger daughters of this neighboring ranchman andthe Marylander, was not entirely clear. When he wanted to, Scales couldmake himself very agreeable, and had it not been for his profligatedisposition, his being taken along on the hunt would have been nomystery. Every one on the ranch, including the master and mistress,were cognizant of the fact that for the past year he had maintaineda correspondence with a girl in Florida--the one whose letter andphotograph had been found in the box of oranges. He hardly deserved theconfidence of the roguish girl, for he showed her letters to any one whocared to read them. I had read every line of the whole correspondence,and it was plain that Scales had deceived the girl into believing thathe was a prominent ranchman, when in reality the best that could be saidof him was that he was a lovable vagabond. From the last letter, it wasclear that he had promised to marry the girl during the Christmas weekjust past, but he had asked for a postponement on the ground that thedrouth had prevented him from selling his beeves.When Uncle Lance made the discovery, during a cow hunt the fall before,of the correspondence between Scales and the Florida girl, he said to usaround the camp-fire that night: "Well, all I've got to say is that thatgirl down in Florida is hard up. Why, it's entirely contrary to a girl'snature to want to be wooed by letter. Until the leopard changes hisspots, the good old way, of putting your arm around the girl andwhispering that you love her, will continue to be popular. If I was tohazard an opinion about that girl, Aaron, I'd say that she was ambitiousto rise above her surroundings. The chances are that she wants to getaway from home, and possibly she's as much displeased with the young menin the orange country as I sometimes get with you dodrotted cow hands.Now, I'm not one of those people who're always harping about the youthof his day and generation being so much better than the present. That'sall humbug. But what does get me is, that you youngsters don't profitmore by the experience of an old man like me who's been married threetimes. Line upon line and precept upon precept, I have preached thisthing to my boys for the last ten years, and what has it amounted to?Not a single white bride has ever been brought to Las Palomas. Theycan call me a matchmaker if they want to, but the evidence is to thecontrary." This was on the night after we passed Shepherd's, whereScales had received a letter from the Florida girl. But why he shouldaccompany the hunt now to Remirena, unless the old ranchero proposedreforming him, was too deep a problem for me.On leaving for Wilson's, there was the usual bustle; hounds respondingto the horn and horses under saddle champing their bits. I had hopedthat permission to go over to the Frio and San Miguel would be givenJohn and myself, but my employer's mind was too absorbed in somethingelse, and we were overlooked in the hurry to get away. Since thequarrying of the rock had commenced, my work had been overseeing thenative help, of which we had some fifteen cutting and hauling. Innumerous places within a mile of headquarters, a soft porous rockcropped out. By using a crowbar with a tempered chisel point, theMexicans easily channeled the rock into blocks, eighteen by thirtyinches, splitting each stone a foot in thickness, so that when hauled tothe place of use, each piece was ready to lay up in the wall. The ranchhouse at headquarters was built out of this rock, and where permanencywas required, it was the best material available, whitening andapparently becoming firmer with time and exposure.I had not seen my sweetheart in nearly a month, but there I was, chainedto a rock quarry and mule teams. The very idea of Gallup and theprofligate Scales riding to hounds and basking in the society ofcharming girls nettled me. The remainder of the ranch outfit was underDeweese, building the new corrals, so that I never heard my own tonguespoken except at meals and about the house. My orders included thecutting of a few hundred rock extra above the needs of the chapel, andwhen this got noised among the help, I had to explain that there wassome talk of building a stone cottage, and intimated that it was forJuana and Fidel. But that lucky rascal was one of the crew cutting rock,and from some source or other he had learned that I was liable to needa cottage at Las Palomas in the near future. The fact that I was actingsegundo over the quarrying outfit, was taken advantage of by Fidelto clear his skirts and charge the extra rock to my matrimonialexpectations. He was a fast workman, and on every stone he split fromthe mother ledge, he sang out, "Otro piedra por Don Tomas!" And within afew minutes' time some one else would cry out, "Otro cillar por Fidel yJuana," or "Otro piedra por padre Norquin."A week passed and there was no return of the hunters. We had sosystematized our work at the quarry that my presence was hardly needed,so every evening I urged Cotton to sound the mistress for permissionto visit our sweethearts. John was a good-natured fellow who could beeasily led or pushed forward, and I had come to look upon Miss Jean asa ready supporter of any of her brother's projects. For that reason herpermission was as good as the master's; but she parried all Cotton'shints, pleading the neglect of our work in the absence of her brother.I was disgusted with the monotony of quarry work, and likewise was Johnover building corrals, as no cow hand ever enthuses over manual labor,when an incident occurred which afforded the opportunity desired. Themistress needed some small article from the store at Shepherd's, and aMexican boy had been sent down on this errand and also to get the mailof the past two weeks. On the boy's return, he brought a message fromthe merchant, saying that Henry Annear had been accidentally killed by ahorse that day, and that the burial would take place at ten o'clock thenext morning.The news threw the mistress of Las Palomas into a flutter. Her brotherwas absent, and she felt a delicacy in consulting Deweese, and verynaturally turned to me for advice. Funerals in the Nueces valley were sovery rare that I advised going, even if the unfortunate man had stoodnone too high in our estimation. Annear lived on the divide betweenShepherd's and the Frio at a ranch called Las Norias. As this ranch wasnot over ten miles from the mouth of the San Miguel, the astute mind canreadily see the gleam of my ax in attending. Funerals were such eventsthat I knew to a certainty that all the countryside within reach wouldattend, and the Vaux ranch was not over fifteen miles distant from LasNorias. Acting on my advice, the mistress ordered the ambulance to beready to start by three o'clock the next morning, and gave every one onthe ranch who cared, permission to go along. All of us took advantageof the offer, except Deweese, who, when out of hearing of the mistress,excused himself rather profanely.The boy had returned late in the day, but we lost no time in acting onMiss Jean's orders. Fortunately the ambulance teams were in hand haulingrock, but we rushed out several vaqueros to bring in the remuda whichcontained our best saddle horses. It was after dark when they returnedwith the mounts wanted, and warning Tiburcio that we would call him atan early hour, every one retired for a few hours' rest. I would resentthe charge that I am selfish or unsympathetic, yet before falling asleepthat night the deplorable accident was entirely overlooked in theanticipated pleasure of seeing Esther.As it was fully a thirty-five-mile drive we started at daybreak, and toencourage the mules Quayle and Happersett rode in the lead until sun-up,when they dropped to the rear with Cotton and myself. We did not go byway of Shepherd's, but crossed the river several miles above the ferry,following an old cotton road made during the war, from the interior ofthe state to Matamoras, Mexico. It was some time before the hour namedfor the burial when we sighted Las Norias on the divide, and spurredup the ambulance team, to reach the ranch in time for the funeral.The services were conducted by a strange minister who happened to bevisiting in Oakville, but what impressed me in particular was thesolicitude of Miss Jean for the widow. She had been frequentlyentertained at Las Palomas by its mistress, as the sweetheart of JuneDeweese, though since her marriage to Annear a decided coolness hadexisted between the two women. But in the present hour of trouble, thepast was forgotten and they mingled their tears like sisters.On our return, which was to be by way of the Vauxes', I joined thosefrom the McLeod ranch, while Happersett and Cotton accompanied theambulance to the Vaux home. Nearly every one going our way was onhorseback, and when the cavalcade was some distance from Las Norias, mysweetheart dropped to the rear for a confidential chat and told me thata lawyer from Corpus Christi, an old friend of the family, had comeup for the purpose of taking the preliminary steps for securing herfreedom, and that she expected to be relieved of the odious tie whichbound her to Oxenford at the May term of court. This was pleasant newsto me, for there would then be no reason for delaying our marriage.Happersett rode down to the San Miguel the next morning to inform Quayleand myself that the mistress was then on the way to spend the night withthe widow Annear, and that the rest of us were to report at home thefollowing evening. She had apparently inspected the lines on the Frio,and, finding everything favorable, turned to other fields. I wasdisappointed, for Esther and I had planned to go up to the Vaux ranchduring the visit. Dan suggested that we ride home together by way of theVauxes'. But Quayle bitterly refused even to go near the ranch. He feltvery sore and revengeful over being jilted by Frances after she had lethim crown her Queen of the ball at the tournament dance. So, agreeingto meet on the divide the next day for the ride back to Las Palomas, weparted.The next afternoon, on reaching the divide between the Frio and the homeriver, Theodore and I scanned the horizon in vain for any horsemen. Wedismounted, and after waiting nearly an hour, descried two specks to thenorthward which we knew must be our men. On coming up they also threwthemselves on the ground, and we indulged in a cigarette while wecompared notes. I had nothing to conceal, and frankly confessed thatEsther and I expected to marry during the latter part of May. Cotton,though, seemed reticent, and though Theodore cross-questioned himrather severely, was non-committal and dumb as an oyster; but before werecrossed the Nueces that evening, John and I having fallen far to therear of the other two, he admitted to me that his wedding would occurwithin a month after Lent. It was to be a confidence between us, but Iadvised him to take Uncle Lance into the secret at once.But on reaching the ranch we learned that the hunting party had notreturned, nor had the mistress. The next morning we resumed our work,Quayle and Cotton at corral building and I at the rock quarry. The workhad progressed during my absence, and the number of pieces desired wasnearing completion, and with but one team hauling the work-shop wasalready congested with cut building stone. By noon the quarry was socluttered with blocks that I ordered half the help to take axes andgo to the encinal to cut dry oak wood for burning the lime. With theremainder of my outfit we cleaned out and sealed off the walls of an oldlime kiln, which had served ever since the first rock buildings rose onLas Palomas. The oven was cut in the same porous formation, the interiorresembling an immense jug, possibly twelve feet in diameter and fifteenfeet in height to the surface of the ledge. By locating the kiln nearthe abrupt wall of an abandoned quarry, ventilation was given from belowby a connecting tunnel some twenty feet in length. Layers of wood andlimestone were placed within until the interior was filled, when it wasfired, and after burning for a few hours the draft was cut off below andabove, and the heat retained until the limestone was properly burned.Near the middle of the afternoon, the drivers hauling the blocks drovenear the kiln and shouted that the hunters had returned. Scaling off theburnt rock in the interior and removing the debris made it late beforeour job was finished; then one of the vaqueros working on the outsidetold us that the ambulance had crossed the river over an hour before,and was then in the ranch. This was good news, and mounting our horseswe galloped into headquarters and found the corral outfit already there.Miss Jean soon had our segundo an unwilling prisoner in a corner, andfrom his impatient manner and her low tones it was plain to be seenthat her two days' visit with Mrs. Annear had resulted in some wordfor Deweese. Not wishing to intrude, I avoided them in search of myemployer, finding him and Gallup at an outhouse holding a hound whileScales was taking a few stitches in an ugly cut which the dog hadreceived from a javeline. Paying no attention to the two boys, I gavehim the news, and bluntly informed him that Esther and I expected tomarry in May."Bully for you, Tom," said he. "Here, hold this fore foot, and look outhe don't bite you. So she'll get her divorce at the May term, and thenall outdoors can't stand in your way the next time. Now, that means thatyou'll have to get out fully two hundred more of those building rock,for your cottage will need three rooms. Take another stitch, knot yourthread well, and be quick about it. I tell you the javeline werepretty fierce; this is the fifth dog we've doctored since we returned."On freeing the poor hound, we both looked the pack over carefully, andas no others needed attention, Aaron and Glenn were excused. No soonerwere they out of hearing than I suggested that the order be made forfive hundred stone, as no doubt John Cotton would also need a cottageshortly after Lent. The old matchmaker beamed with smiles. "Is thatright, Tom?" he inquired. "Of course, you boys tell each other what youwould hardly tell me. And so they have made the riffle at last? Why, ofcourse they shall have a cottage, and have it so near that I can hearthe baby when it cries. Bully for tow-headed John. Oh, I reckon LasPalomas is coming to the front this year. Three new cottages and threenew brides is not to be sneezed at! Does your mistress know all thisgood news?"I informed him that I had not seen Miss Jean to speak to since thefuneral, and that Cotton wished his intentions kept a secret. "Ofcourse," he said; "that's just like a sap-headed youth, as if gettingmarried was anything to be ashamed of. Why, when I was the age of youboys I'd have felt proud over the fact. Wants it kept a secret, does he?Well, I'll tell everybody I meet, and I'll send word to the ferry and toevery ranch within a hundred miles, that our John Cotton and Frank Vauxare going to get married in the spring. There's nothing disgraceful inmatrimony, and I'll publish this so wide that neither of them will dareback out. I've had my eye on that girl for years, and now when there's aprospect of her becoming the wife of one of my boys, he wants it kept asecret? Well, I don't think it'll keep."After that I felt more comfortable over my own confession. Before wewere called to supper every one in the house, including the Mexicansabout headquarters, knew that Cotton and I were soon to be married. Andall during the evening the same subject was revived at every lull inthe conversation, though Deweese kept constantly intruding the corralbuilding and making inquiries after the hunt. "What difference does itmake if we hunted or not?" replied Uncle Lance to his foreman with somelittle feeling. "Suppose we did only hunt every third or fourth day?Those Wilson folks have a way of entertaining friends which makes ridingafter hounds seem commonplace. Why, the girls had Glenn and Aaron on thego until old man Nate and myself could hardly get them out on a hunt atall. And when they did, provided the girls were along, they managed toget separated, and along about dusk they'd come slouching in by pairs,looking as innocent as turtle-doves. Not that those Wilson girls can'tride, for I never saw a better horsewoman than Susie--the one who tooksuch a shine to Scales."I noticed Miss Jean cast a reproving glance at her brother on hisconnecting the name of Susie Wilson with that of his vagabond employee.The mistress was a puritan in morals. That Scales fell far below herideal there was no doubt, and the brother knew too well not to differwith her on this subject. When all the boys had retired except Cottonand me, the brother and sister became frank with each other."Well, now, you must not blame me if Miss Susie was attentive to Aaron,"said the old matchmaker, in conciliation, pacing the room. "He wasfrom Las Palomas and their guest, and I see no harm in the girls beingcourteous and polite. Susie was just as nice as pie to me, and I hopeyou don't think I don't entertain the highest regard for Nate Wilson'sfamily. Suppose one of the girls did smile a little too much on Aaron,was that my fault? Now, mind you, I never said a word one way or theother, but I'll bet every cow on Las Palomas that Aaron Scales, vagabondthat he is, can get Susie Wilson for the asking. I know your standardof morals, but you must make allowance for others who look upon thingsdifferently from you and me. You remember Katharine Vedder who marriedCarey Troup at the close of the war. There's a similar case for you.Katharine married Troup just because he was so wicked, at least that wasthe reason she gave, and she and you were old run-togethers. And youremember too that getting married was the turning-point in Carey Troup'slife. Who knows but Aaron might sober down if he was to marry? Justbecause a man has sown a few wild oats in his youth, does that condemnhim for all time? You want to be more liberal. Give me the man who hasstood the fire tests of life in preference to one who has never beentempted.""Now, Lance, you know you had a motive in taking Aaron down toWilson's," said the sister, reprovingly. "Don't get the idea thatI can't read you like an open book. Your argument is as good as anadmission of your object in going to Ramirena. Ever since Scales got upthat flirtation with Suzanne Vaux last summer, it was easy to see thatAaron was a favorite with you. Why don't you take Happersett around andintroduce him to some nice girls? Honest, Lance, I wouldn't give poorold Dan for the big beef corral full of rascals like Scales. Look how hetrifled with that silly girl in Florida."Instead of continuing the argument, the wily ranchero changed thesubject."The trouble with Dan is he's too old. When a fellow begins to get alittle gray around the edges, he gets so foxy that you couldn't bait himinto a matrimonial trap with sweet grapes. But, Sis, what's the matterwith your keeping an eye open for a girl for Dan, if he's such afavorite with you? If I had half the interest in him that you profess, Icertainly wouldn't ask any one to help. It wouldn't surprise me if theboys take to marrying freely after John and Tom bring their brides toLas Palomas. Now that Mrs. Annear is a widow, there's the same oldchance for June. If Glenn don't make the riffle with Miss Jule, he oughtto be shot on general principles. And I don't know, little sister, ifyou and I were both to oppose it, that we could prevent that rascal ofan Aaron from marrying into the Wilson family. You have no idea what acase Susie and Scales scared up during our ten days' hunt. That onlyleaves Dan and Theodore. But what's the use of counting the chickensso soon? You go to bed, for I'm going to send to the Mission to-morrowafter the masons. There's no use in my turning in, for I won't sleep awink to-night, thinking all this over."