They tarried not to hear the completion of her period. They had journeyed with Señora Bolio for many weeks, and had learned her powers. When she turned to Pedro he was vanishing through the doorway, and she followed precipitately. He backed against a table, and she dropped into a chair facing him.
"Vagabonds!" she exclaimed, wrathfully, fanning herself with her sombrero. "They have gone clean through my patience a hundred times since we sailed from Panama. May the goblins gnaw their shin-bones!"
Pedro passed his sleeve across his forehead. "But they have left thee thy gifts of speech, Señora," he ventured.
"Ah! What would I do without them—a helpless woman? Oh, me! 'T is a sad world, Pedro.—But thou 'rt plump as a suckling porker, chiquito. And this is thy place? Cara! What a savory smell!"
"Why, bless me!" cried Pedro, forgetting his disturbance in his hospitality. "Thou must be hungry!"
"Hungry!" said Señora Bolio. "Boil me this hat, and I would eat it, amigo mio! But first, help me off with this rusty furniture of mine. Saints! I was never so wearied of a garment as of this iron bodice. 'T is a man's, of course, tight where it should be full, and' full where it should be snug. But they told me I should have to fight as often as eat, or more, so I bought it, with the cleaver thou mayst have seen on my saddle. And, Pedro, we must find the mule, for I would keep that cleaver by me. No telling when I may need to use it on an Inca—thou callest them Incas, these varlets in sleeveless pinafores?—Well, 'tis all the same. Now, I am ready for a full trencher."
Seated before his guest while she ate with an appetite keened by hard marches and harder fare, Pedro recovered his composure in listening to news of the civilized world, interrupted now and again by the entrance of patrons, each of whom started at sight of the lady, then bowed with a curious glance at the host which made him fidget.
"Now," said the señora, finishing, "thou must find me lodgings, Pedro dear; and before night, my mule, for I'll not sleep without that axe. My crucifix and it have been mine only comforts since I touched this benighted land. I'll part with neither. Canst find me a room, thinkst thou? Ah, thou'rt a love! I could wish thou hadst two legs; but with only one and a half thou 'rt more complete than any other man I ever knew," and she bestowed a smile whose warmth caused him to back away with an uneasy glance about the room. To his relief she made no further demonstration, and shortly they sallied out in search of quarters for her accommodation. A satisfactory lodging was found with a native couple—and thus was Señora Margarita Bolio established in the land of the Incas.
CHAPTER XXII
Rava in the Toils