“The trees are only a few yards high, but they will be very effective in the desert where there are no others to compare them with. You can be sure of one thing captain! The whole settlement will be struck dumb with amazement when they see what you have done. Pirovani could certainly never have planned all that!”
Canterac heartily approved of the last words.
“You are going to spend every cent of your several thousand pesos,” Moreno went on. “It may even happen that you’ll run short of money before you get through. But you’ll have your park! Of course there won’t be any cost in keeping it up because a few days after the fiesta the trees will be withered and dead.”
And the government employee laughed at the uselessness of this enormous expenditure. At one and the same moment he pitied and admired the engineer.
Meanwhile Elena and Watson were riding slowly along the river bank. The marquesa had taken possession of one of his hands, and she was talking affectionately to him, with an air of maternal interest and tenderness.
“From what you tell me, Ricardo, it is evident that Robledo is managing the whole business, and that you are after all nothing but an employee of his.... I have no right to intrude on your affairs, but, in spite of myself, everything that concerns you interests me so much! I don’t say that he is not quite fair in his division of the earnings ... no! Robledo is the sort of man who is always correct in his dealings. But just the same, I think he takes advantage of the fact that you are younger. You will have to emancipate yourself from his control or you will never go as far as your ability makes me expect you to go ... but you’ll have to make your way alone, without guardians to check you....”
Watson had defended his partner against Elena’s first insinuations; but now with eyebrows drawn close together and a worried expression, he let her go on without offering a word of protest.
The two were swaying in their saddles while they talked, yielding to the motions of their horses. As they rode along they noticed another rider appear and then disappear in the distance ahead of them. This occurred several times. The rider zigzagging thus capriciously from river bank to the sand dunes that the spring floods had formed some distance from the river was no other than Celinda Rojas.
Elena was the first to mention what both were well aware of.
“I think she is looking for someone,” she said maliciously.