Adventure Magazine Cover — page 171: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

The Mahogany Garden There was a knock at the door. Cau- tiously he opened it, to find a porter with a much-stamped and ccunter-stamped envelope addressed to him in care of Sr. Don Felipe Ramon Batista Calderon y Ortegas. He ripped it open. The firm’s draft for five thousand and his letter of instructions, dictated by Peters himself: ~ Dear Hasxett: You are permanently to sup- plant McIrnery in this work and are expected to carry it through to success. I amsending my nephew, John Peters, Jr., who has just finished in » Berlin, to join you and I expect you to break him in. If he does not show the proper fitness, give me time enough to get another man to you and ship him back without compunction. I am sending him to the hot country to get him out of the way of one of Trains- by’s girls as much as anything. I regret to be unable to inform you in detail of your new work. MclIrnery had it in hand direct from the men of the syndicate who investigated it and he isin no condition to transmit his information. How- ever, I trust you to get along without it. Two or three months ago the syndicate acquired from Sr. Don Juan Rafelo Calderon y Ortegas the rights to all the hardwood on lands of the extreme southern part of the family estate on a royalty basis, and you are to estimate the extent of it, select the means of getting it to tide-water, prepare the specifications for the needed plant, order the same through us and install the needed equipment. When it is in opera- tion it will be time to consider placing the work in ' charge of a superintendent. Now, my dear Haskell, I have given you no child’s task in this mahogany garden, as Embrie calls it, and I have been opposed sufficiently in my selecting so young a man as you, despite the efficiency you dis- played in Telluride and the Copper River Valley, to be more than anxious that you should allow noth- ing to interfere with your making a sweeping suc- cess, both for my own sake and vours. Remember that every problem you face is yours, not mine. I wish you unbounded good fortune. Yours cordially, Joun J. PETERS. “And the first dash out of the box some one tries to behead me, and a pretty girl treats me as if the murder would have been justifiable!” said Haskell, puzzling over the strangeness of his reception where nothing that had gone before had conveyed any hint of unpleasantness. CHAPTER II DON FELIPE RETURNS ayy TN he stepped forth to the gallery he stopped a moment, scrutinized every shadow, listened for every sound and then strode along toward the stair, keeping well away from the doorways that opened on the arched passageway. The sight of a 735 servant bearing a covered dish into a lighted doorway guided him and he followed into a spacious chamber to the right of the head of the stair. In the center stood a great table of dark wood roughly polished and evidently haci- enda made. Around it were many chairs, also of hand workmanship. The walls were bare, and on the tiled floor were some simple bright-colored mats. In heavy silver can- delabra burned a number of candles, lighting the table and the earthen bowls of fruit, fresh cheese and cold fowl grouped about one end, with some bottles of liquors and an olla, on the porous sides of which showed the exuding water, the evaporation of which rendered cold the water within. The serv- ant stood aside, steeped in the awkward- ness of unaccustomed service, and the door at the farther end of the apartment opened and four women entered, one a massive woman of fifty in an unstayed black silk gown, heavy old gold bracelets and chain, and with bare feet and broad sandals; two younger women, unmistakably her daugh- ters though of a distinctly mestizo or part Indian type, clad in the simple Maya tunics with a ribbon or bit of jewelry to give a touch of finery; and lastly the girl who had received him. With concealed interest and amusement Haskell noted that in greeting him the mother executed something resembling the courtesy of the Empire, the first daughter used the Maya straight-backed, cross-legged bow and the other faltered between the two. Plainly he read the story of the situation in its minor points. Knowing the habitual seclusion of their women by the rural gen- tlemen of Spanish-American lands, he saw that this appearance was prompted largely by curiosity which could be indulged in the absence of the lords and masters of the casa. He had no doubt that before him stood Sefiora Calderon y Ortegas and her two daughters, and he marveled at the dif- ference between them and the niece. By reason of the hour he felt sure they had eaten the last meal of the day and appeared again to see what he was like under pre- tense of keeping him company at his meal. Haskell noted that the niece did not raise her eyes, though her cheeks were flushed as if with anger and she took her place at the table as if in sufferance only. This nettled him and relieved his own embarrassment. With what savoir faire his age, experience COMMICLOOCKKS. EO