CHAPTER XIII
THE EAVESDROPPER
Watching from the distance, Sergeant Cassara observed that the Indians of the rancho were leaving their adobe buildings in groups, and, instead of going into the fields to work, were hurrying down the slope toward a cañon.
The neophyte who waited in front of the ranch-house mounted his mule after a time, and went toward the cañon himself, urging on his steed as soon as he was a short distance from the building, until the animal was running with head down, covering the ground with great leaps.
Already the sergeant had seen the soldiers and Señor Lopez run into the ranch-house, and he was contented no longer to remain a hundred yards away and speculate as to what was transpiring. Sergeant Cassara was a man who enjoyed getting all his information at first hand.
He put spurs to his horse, therefore, and galloped up the road to the ranch-house, to stop at the corner of the veranda and sit there on his mount for a moment, listening. He heard the low whimpering of a woman, and the excited voices of men, and finally dismounted and walked around the corner of the house, and so came to the patio.
“So! There has been murder done here?” he exclaimed, after surveying the scene. “Are you all struck dumb and thoughtless? Why stand like so many statues and do nothing? By the saints, there seems to be not an ounce of decision amongst you all! You who call yourself Rojerio Rocha would do well, it seems to me, to carry the señorita into the house where she will not have to face this bloody scene when she comes from her faint. One of you troopers assist the señora, also. And you, who are named Lopez, why not start in to investigate this matter?”
“What can be done?” Lopez asked.
“First, who are the victims?”
“The overseers.”
“They have been beating the Indians, I suppose, and some have taken revenge while the overseers took their siesta. A long siesta they are enjoying now! Get the bodies away, in the saints’ name! Help him, soldiers! And then it will be time to deal with the gentiles.”