The Argosy, Volume XLIV — page 117: what you’re looking at

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

THE GOLD “A man would be a brute, Teresa, if he did not get better with such a de- lightful little nurse to wait upon him.” Whipple was not given to flattery. Whenever he indulged in a compliment it was pretty sure to be genuine. The color deepened in Teresa's olive cheeks as she set the tray on a stand at the head of the bed. “Gracias,” she returned artlessly. “It is little we expected that you would be able to talk and give compliments after all that happened last night. Ah, senor, it was ter-r-rible! ”’ She rolled the “r” so prettily, and lifted her eyes with such a despairing look, that Whipple smiled. “¢ But for you, Teresa, I would not be here——”’ “Gracias a Dios!” she interjected, with another upward look. “It seems your fate to be present whenever anything of a serious nature overtakes me. When that trouble bhe- fell the Cache d’Oro stage you insisted on coming back alone to find out whether I was alive or dead.” “Could I have done anything else,” she asked, “after you had risked your life to save the dinero of mi padre? ” “And last night,’ he proceeded, “you went bravely down to the tanks and discovered my predicament just in — time.” “Oh, hor-r-rible!” She pressed one hand over her eyes. “Still, senor, I should have been helpless to aid you but for the padre.” “The padre himself had quite an ex- perience. While I eat, Teresa, vou might tell me about that.” Whipple gave his attention to the tortillas, eggs, and coffee, and Teresa told how her father had been set upon, bound and gagged, and tumbled roughly between two of the tanks in the first row very shortly after he reached his post and began his duties. Then for Gonzales followed the long. long wait as he lay helpless, wondering what this violence foreshadowed. Tis state of mind when Whipple called to him and he could not answer was breathlessly set forth by the girl; and when the senor was attacked, madre mia! the padre had cut his wrists trying to burst the cords and get free to help. Sa GLEANERS. 113 He thought the senor was being killed —he was sure of it. But he was mis- taken. God was good to the senor, and the senor should never forget. To think, too, that it was the little mother, after all, who made the rescue possible! Had she not looked for the padre’s lantern, and had she not be- come uneasy when she failed to see it, then Teresa would never have gone to the tanks, the padre would not have been found till morning, and—and “And the company would have had to hire a new manager,” smiled Whip- ple, finishing his meal and leaning back on the pillows. “‘ Please make me a ciga- rette, Teresa.” Deftly she rolled him a dozen and laid them, together with a supply of matches, where they would be conven- ient to his left hand. At his invitation she even smoked one, exhaling the smoke in feathery rings and wondrously pleased to think that he had asked her to join him in his pleasure. Pablo came presently to inquire after the manager’s health, and to know if there was anything he could do. If there was, he was quite at the sefor’s commands. Whipple requested him to sit down and smoke with them, which he did. Pablo was not tall—few Mexicans were built like Chombo—but he was square-shouldered and strong, and with the same intelligence that distinguished the rest of the Gonzales family. For some time the manager had had his eye on Pablo, and had determined that he was in every way fit for pro- motion from the ranks of the “ pick and shovel ” men. “ Jeffries has left, Pablo,” said Whip- ple, “and to-morrow you take his place.” The young man started to his feet, looking at the manager as though he searcely understood. | “You will be making me the fore- man?” he asked. “Yes; at the same salarv the com- pany gave Jeffries.” Happiness beamed from Pablo’s face, and his sister clapped her hands with delight. “ See, now, drother mine! ” cried the girl. “ You have been faithful, and that COL LOOOLK (COL