“A faithfulness enforced, lad!” and his patron chuckled at the amaze in the eyes of the youth. “Since this crusade allows us no dames for company it is an ill one among us cannot cheat himself into the thought that a gracious doña awaits his return! It is the only protection against such sirens as this one of the loosened braids. To be sure, my goddess of Mexico––(so says the padre)––was only a mad woman––and her servants gave me a scratched skull. Yet, as I am weak and need protection, I carry the scarf of the wench, and call her a goddess and my ‘Doña Bradamante’––in my dreams––that does no harm to any one, and enables me to leave the ladies of the road to Gonzalvo––and the others! Oh––a dream woman is a great rest to the mind, lad,––especially is she so when she affects a wondrous perfume for her silks!”
He drew the scarf from his pocket and sniffed at it, content to make the lad laugh at the idle fancy, and while he jested thus, Padre Vicente and Gonzalvo gathered much information from Yahn Tsyn-deh. There was a feast, she told them, and all the village was merry, and the time of the visit was a good time.
From the terraces of Kah-po and Povi-whah many eyes watched the coming of the men of iron. But the women who watched were few,––all the maids and even the young wives, had started at once for the sanctuary of the ancient dwellings of the place of Old Fields. There the Woman of the Twilight was awaiting them––much corn and dried meat and beans had been stored there in the hills in waiting for 143 this time. If fighting was to be done, it should not be a quarrel for wives––as had happened with Coronado’s soldiers in Tiguex.
But the white adventurers gave every evidence of the desire to be modest in their demands. They did not even enter the village––nor seek to do so until the place of the camp had been decided upon. Even José was not allowed to precede the others in search of kindred. He and his wife Ysobel watched the terraces, and the courage of the latter grew weak unto tears at the trials possibly behind the silent walls.
The boy Chico reassured her with jestings and occasional whisperings until the woman smiled, though her eyes were wet.
“I shall risk my own precious soul and body beside you,” he stated,––“since my master Don Diego makes me a proxy while we learn if it is safe enough inside those walls for his own sacred bones. He will say the prayers for us until our faces are shown to him again!”
Then he threw himself on the green sward and laughed, and told Ysobel what a fine thing it was to be carefree of a spouse and able to kick up one’s heels:––“If it had not been for love and a wedding day you would be happily planting beans in the garden of the nuns instead of following a foreign husband to his own people!”
Don Ruy sauntered near enough to hear the fillip and see the woman dry her eyes.
“Why is it, Dame Ysobel, that you allow this lad to make sport of serious things?” he asked austerely. “He is woefully light minded for so portentous an expedition.”
Ysobel stammered, and glanced at the lad, and dug her toe in the soil, and was dumb.