“Jessie is right, Gabriell’. Things do happen terrible upsettin’ lately, seems to me; but by the time you and me get to be a hundred odd, I reckon we shan’t care a mite whether folks wear red and white dresses or horrid humbly ones. I’m goin’ on just the same as ever, for that’s the only way I’ll ever keep my common senses in this spooky place. I knew when they two started off, left hoof foremost, they was ridin’, to trouble; and this morning my hen 115 chicken crowed to beat any rooster I ever heard, and that’s a sure sign of death.”
“Aunt Sally, don’t!” protested Mrs. Trent, glancing anxiously at her daughter’s face. But she need not have feared; for the child smiled back upon her, serene and happy, despite the traces of tears that still marked her bright eyes.
“It’s all right, mother, dear; and I’m thinking how glad Pedro must be now, to have found all those he’d so long outlived. He just went to sleep, you see, alone, and waked up with them around him. I think it was beautiful––beautiful; and his last deed was to find me and to tell you how you could grow rich if you want to. Where are the little boys, I wonder?”
They presently appeared, in wild excitement, having been at the men’s quarters when John rode thither to impart his news and directions; yet in this excitement was not a vestige of grief. They seemed to feel relieved of some dread, and Ned more than once punched Luis, whispering shrilly enough for all to hear:
“We can do it now, and not get caught! Yes, siree! We can do it now! Don’t you tell!”
And Luis responded by an ecstatic hug and the customary echo:
“Do it now; don’t you tell! Yes, siree!”
John Benton had nearly covered the distance to Marion, when he perceived two men slowly advancing toward him along the level road. For a moment, engrossed by thoughts of recent happenings, he paid slight attention to the fact, though idly wondering what strangers might be having business, and on foot, with Sobrante, at which point 116 the road ended. But, as he drew nearer to them, something familiar in the bearing of the taller man, and startling in the appearance of the other, caused him to shield his eyes from the sunshine and peer critically into the distance. Then he slapped his thigh so excitedly that his horse suddenly stopped, reared and nearly unseated him.
“Oh, you idiot! Can’t a feller slap himself without your takin’ it to heart? If I ain’t a blind man, and maybe I am, that’s old ‘Forty-niner’ hoofing himself home, and–––Whew! That’s Marty, limpin’ and leanin’ alongside. Well, I ’low! More trouble and plenty of it. Seems if all creation was just a-happenin’ our way, blamed if it don’t. Giddap there, Moses!”
In a few minutes he had reached the pedestrians and saluted them with unfeigned astonishment, and Ephraim with great friendliness of expression, but also the question: