“Carlos! Carlos! Brother! My brother! For our father’s sake come—come quick—quick!”
CHAPTER IV
WHAT SERVES, SERVES
Miguel was the trusted and capable manager of Refugio Rancho, and, also, he knew something of its owner’s private affairs. What he did not know he surmised and not always correctly. He knew that Mrs. Manuel, an orphan, had married against the will of the wealthy eccentric aunt who had reared her; and that this old Mrs. Sinclair had never forgiven Adrian Manuel for his share in the affair, and had harshly accused him of seeking her money as well as her niece, whom she promptly disinherited.
Then, after the death of the young wife, she suddenly demanded possession of “her Mary’s children;” alleging that their father was unfit to “raise them in the wilderness.” This demand had been made in her name by her lawyers, Disbrow and Disbrow. Upon condition of Mr. Manuel’s absolutely resigning them to her she promised to educate them well and to bequeath them her fortune. Originally, the lonely old lady had asked for the children from a real desire for their affection, hoping they would fill the place in her life left empty by their mother’s desertion; but when the father positively and courteously declined her offers on their behalf, her strong and wilful temper had been aroused and she determined to have them at all costs.
It had therefore developed into a mere contest of wills. The lawyers’ letters grew more frequent and importunate as the years passed and, finally, she had induced the Disbrows to undertake a personal visit to Refugio in the hope of thus effecting what the numberless letters had failed to do.
Mr. Manuel’s plans for his idolized children were simple and decided, and though not a wealthy man, he possessed sufficient fortune to carry them out. He intended to educate them himself up to a certain degree; then, leaving Refugio in Miguel’s hands, go north with them, place them in some good co-educational college, and himself settle near them till their four years’ course of study should be completed.
But, of late, something had happened to make these plans doubtful. He had not confided this doubt to Miguel, but had gone quietly away for a time until the doubt could be settled. He did not explain what this uncertainty was. He merely departed, leaving a sealed letter of instructions in his steward’s hands. If at the end of two months he had not returned this letter was to be opened and its instructions implicitly followed. Meanwhile:
“You are master of Refugio while I am gone, good Miguel. And more than that you are absolute guardian of my precious children till I come and claim them from you. See to it, on your love and honor, that no harm befalls them; else, look to welcome home a broken-hearted man.”
These had been Adrian Manuel’s last words to his manager, as he departed on a journey more hazardous than anybody guessed, and Miguel had treasured them in his inmost heart.
Now his fealty and his honor were to be tested. Instantly, upon learning who the strangers were and realizing that they had chosen the time of his master’s absence to arrive, he leaped to the conclusion that they had come to carry by force what persuasion had failed to accomplish. In brief: they had come to kidnap the twins!