CHAPTER VII
It was about an hour after Pearl had ridden away to meet Hanson amongthe palms that Bob Flick joined Mr. Gallito, who sat, as usual, upon theporch of his home, smoking innumerable cigarrettes. He was his composedand imperturbable self, exhibiting outwardly, at least, no trace ofanxiety, but Flick looked worn, almost haggard.
Gallito had just told him of Pearl's early departure and also of thefact that she had left no word intimating when she might return or inwhat direction she was riding; but when Flick expressed regret that thishad been permitted, he merely lifted his shaggy brows. "What is done isdone," he said. "She slipped away before either Hugh or myself knew thatshe was gone, and what could we or you, for that matter, have done toprevent her?"
"I wish I'd been here," muttered Flick uneasily. "I'd have donesomething." But his tone did not bear out the confidence of his words.
"I am too old and, I hope, too wise," returned the Spaniard, "to attemptto tame the whirlwind. But cheer up, my friend. Although she rode off tomeet this Hanson, without a doubt, still, the day is not over."
"You know what she is when her head is set," murmured Flick.
"I! Have I not cause?" exclaimed Gallito, a depth of meaning in histone. "Who so much? But, nevertheless, she has not gone for good. Shewould not leave without some of her clothes, especially her dancingdresses and slippers, if she went with him. And her jewels, oh,certainly, not without her jewels!" he smiled wisely. "There are, as youknow, certain ornaments about which she has her superstitions; she willnot dance without her emeralds. Oh, no, console yourself, as I do. Shehas not gone for good."
But Flick was not so easily reassured. "I almost wish she had," he saidgloomily. "If she don't go to-day, she will to-morrow or next day."
"In that case they will not go far," returned Gallito and rubbed hishands. His reply had been quick and sharp as the beat of a hammer on ananvil; but now he spoke more softly: "But will she go at all, my friend?You, like myself, have ever played for high stakes. Then you know and Iknow that this is a world where a man may never look ahead and calculateand say, 'because there is this combination of circumstances, theseresults will certainly follow,'" he emphasized his words by tapping onthe table with his long, gnarled forefinger. "The wise man neverpredicts, because he is always aware of that interfering something whichwe call the unexpected." He blew great wreaths of smoke from his mouthand watched them float out on the sun-gilded air. "We know that mydaughter is as obstinate as a pig and as wilful as a burro, therefore weconclude that she will follow her mad heart and go with this fellow. Butthere we take no account of the unexpected, eh, Lolita!" welcoming theparrot who waddled out of the open door and came clucking and mutteringacross the porch toward the two men.
Flick stirred uneasily. He was in no mood to stand Gallito'sphilosophizing, and the Spaniard, seeing it, smiled as he scratchedLolita's head. "Two people can not be thrown much together and not showto each other what is in them," he continued. "You know that my daughteris proud," he lifted his own head haughtily here, "and you know thatabove everything her pride lies in the fact that no man can scorn her.But this that Hanson does not believe."
This roused Flick to a sudden interest, some light came into his heavyeyes, a dull flush rose on his cheek. "What do you mean?" he asked.
"This: Yesterday morning when that hound sat there and talked to methere was something I said which made him forget himself in anger, andhe said: 'Me! The Black Pearl smirched by me!'"
"He said that?" Flick's tones had never been more drawlingly soft, butthere was a quality in them, an electric and ominous vibration, whichboded ill for Hanson.
Gallito nodded. "It is in his mind. It is his thought about her. If hesaid it to me when he forgot himself he will surely say it to her."
"And you let him say it, Gallito? You let him go away safe after sayingit?" Flick looked at him amazed.
"I think far ahead," replied the older man. "It is the custom of alifetime. To act on the moment is to continually regret. Do you think Iwant my daughter's tears and reproaches for the rest of my life? No, Iwish to spend my old age free of women and their mischief. This Hansonmust talk, talk, talk. Therefore, if you give him rope enough he willhang himself before any woman's eyes."
"But when?" asked Flick, and that vibration still lingered in his voice."I am not so patient as you, Gallito."
The Spaniard made no reply to this and silence fell between them for afew minutes.
"Oh!" said Flick, as if suddenly remembering something, something inwhich he was not particularly interested, but which would serve as atopic of conversation during these tense moments of waiting; "Nitschkanis up at Colina, and Mrs. Thomas."
"Nitschkan!" A faintly humorous smile crept from Gallito's mouth up tohis eyes.
He was genuinely interested if Flick was not. "What is she doing there?"
"She came up to look after those prospects of hers, nurse them along alittle, I guess, and to hunt and fish some, I guess, particularly huntand fish. She says she's going to take a bear-skin or so back with her."
"She sure will, if she says so," returned Gallito confidently.
"Of course, she got wise to Jose right away." Flick spoke ratheranxiously.
"Of course, being Nitschkan." Gallito's tone was quite composed andequable. "Well, she's safe, and she'll keep him in order if anybodycan." Again that grimly humorous smile played about his mouth. "Why didshe bring Mrs. Thomas?"
Flick laughed. "To keep her in order, too. Mrs. Thomas is big andpretty, with no mind of her own, and she got tangled up in some foollove affair that her friends didn't approve of, so when Nitschkanstarted off on this last gipsy expedition of hers they sent Mrs. Thomaswith her."
Gallito was about to answer and then, suddenly, he seemed to stiffen,his hand, which was conveying a match to his cigarette, remainedmotionless, the flame of the match flared up and then went out in a gustof wind. "Look, Bob, look," he said, in a low voice. "What do you seeout there?"
Flick's eyes, keener even than his, swept the desert. "By George!" hewhispered huskily; "it's her, her alone, and coming like the wind."
"I hope," cried Gallito and gnawed his lip, "that she has done nothingthat will get us into trouble."
"I hope to God she has," said Flick. "The desert'll take care that shegets into no trouble. It'll be as silent as the grave. Just another caseof a reckless tenderfoot getting lost out there in the sand, that'sall."
It was indeed Pearl, and, as Flick had said, coming like the wind. Shepulled her horse up as she neared the gate and, when she reached it,stopped him abruptly, slipped down from the saddle, threw the bridleover the fence paling and ran toward the two men on the porch. Her facehad changed but little since she had left Hanson among the palms. Evenher wild ride had failed to bring back its color, and the curl of herupper lip still revealed her teeth.
She stood for a moment before them, slashing her skirt with her ridingcrop, then she cast it from her and sank down on the porch as ifsuddenly exhausted. Bob Flick quickly poured out a glass of her father'scognac and held it to her lips. She took a sip of it and it seemed torevive her.
"He thought that I," her voice was hoarse and labored, "he thought thatI was like those other women that he has picked up and got tired of andleft, Selma Le Grand, and Fanny Estrel, and others. I wonder where hethinks that I've been living that I wouldn't know about them. FannyEstrel! I went to see her once in vaudeville, and, before I'd hardly gotmy seat, someone next me began to whisper that she used to be one ofHanson's head-liners and that he was crazy about her once. And there shewas, old, and fat and tired, playing in an ingenue sketch in a cheaphouse!" She laughed harshly. "That's what he was offering me," with aflare of passion, "and I was too green to know it!"
"And he, where is he?" asked her father, speaking more quickly than washis wont and eyeing her closely.
"Out there, I suppose, I don't care. Oh, no," meeting his eye andcatching his unspoken question. "He's safe enough; don't worry."
"Shall I ma
ke him shoot, Pearl?" asked Flick softly. "He won't havemuch chance with me, you know. I'll get him in Pete's place and pick aquarrel. He'll understand. You won't be in it."
"No, you won't, Bob, although I can see how you're wanting to," she saiddecisively. "The Black Pearl!" she broke out presently. "My name's anawful good advertisement. It gives me a reputation for being worse thanI am." She laughed cynically. "But he believed it." Her whole facedarkened again.
"He needn't go away believing it, Pearl." Once more Flick spoke softly,persuasively, and once more her father looked at her hopefully.
She looked quickly from one to the other as if about to accede, andthen, dropping her head on her arms crossed on her knees, she fell intowild and tempestuous weeping. "No," she cried, "no, promise me youwon't, Bob. Oh, Oh, Oh!" she wailed and rocked back and forth. "Whatshall I do? What shall I do?"
At last she lifted her heavy eyes and looked at the two men. "I want togo away from here, quick," she said, "quick."
"With Sweeney," said her father, well pleased.
"No." She threw out her hands as if putting the thought from her withabhorrence. "No, I can't dance and I won't. I never want to dance again.I never will dance again," passionately.
"But that is a feeling which will soon pass away, my daughter," urgedher father.
"No, no," she wailed. "And anyway, I would never be safe from Ru--fromhim, that way. He would follow me about and try to meet me. He would. Iknow he would."
Gallito drew back and looked at her with uplifted head. "Afraid! You?"he asked in surprise.
"No," she flashed at him scornfully, lifting her head, but again shedropped it brokenly on her arms. "I'm afraid of myself," she cried,suffering causing her to break down those barriers of self-repressionwhich she usually erected between herself and everyone about her. "I'mafraid of myself, because I love him. Yes, I do. I love him just as muchas ever--and I hate him, hate him, hate him." She hissed the words. Oncemore she sobbed wildly and then she broke into speech again. "Oh, I wantto go somewhere and hide; somewhere where he'll never find me, whereI'll be safe from him."
"What's the matter with Colina?" said Bob Flick suddenly. "He'll nevercome there. A good reason why!"
Pearl became perfectly still. It was evident that the suggestion hadreached her, and that she was thinking it over. Her father, too,considered the matter. "Excellent," he cried; "excellent."
And Pearl looked up eagerly. "But when can we go, when?" she cried andstretched out an imploring hand to touch his knee. "To-morrow? No,to-day. You said yesterday, father, that you would be going back atonce. Oh, to-day! The afternoon train--" She looked eagerly from one manto another.
"Yes, to-day," agreed Bob Flick. "You can go as well to-day asto-morrow, Gallito."
The Spaniard had been thinking with thrust-out jaw and narrowed eyes,now he threw out his hands and lifted his brows. "Have it so, then," hesaid. "The train leaves this afternoon. Go, Pearl, and pack your things.I promised Hughie that he should go back with me, but he had better waita few days until his mother can get her sister to stay with her. You hadbetter tell him, Pearl."
After she had gone into the house the two men sat in silence for a fewminutes and then Flick lifted his relieved face to the sky. "If there'sany God up there," he said, "I'm thanking him for that unexpected youwere talking about, Gallito."
"Ah, that unexpected!" returned Gallito. "It is more comforting thanmany religions. More than once when I have been in a tight place I haverelied on it and not vainly. You will go with us this afternoon, Bob?"
Flick hesitated a moment. "I can't," he said. "I've got a lot to do atthe mines here, but I can come up soon if you think it will be allright."
The old man smiled in his most saturnine fashion and sighed dismally. "Iwill make a special offering to the church if you come often," he said."I can see black days ahead of us. She does not like the mountains."
"Oh, she'll not stay long," Flick consoled him. "The summer, perhaps;but she will be ready to sign up with Sweeney before fall. She can'tstay off the stage longer than that. You'll see."
Gallito sighed again and pessimistically shook his head. He was farfrom anxious to assume the responsibility of restoring his daughter'sspirits, and had hoped that Flick would relieve him of that duty, but,since that was not to be, he accepted the situation with what philosophyand fortitude he could muster and hurried the feminine preparations fordeparture so successfully that he and Pearl actually got away on theafternoon train.
This fact was communicated to Hanson by Jimmy early that evening. Hansonhad returned to the San Gorgonio before noon and had remained in hisroom until nightfall. As the day wore on and he recovered in somemeasure his self-control, he began to view the situation in a differentlight from that in which it had first appeared to him, although, instrict adherence to fact, he could not be said to have viewed it in anylight at all in that first hour or two. It was all dense darkness tohim, a black despair not unmingled with anger and a sense of injury. Butas he sat alone in his room with its windows looking out over thedesert, his naturally confident and optimistic spirit gradually asserteditself. Again and again, and each time more positively, he assuredhimself that all was not lost yet by any means. He had been unfortunateenough, yes, and fool enough, to make a bad break; a break that he, withall of his experience, should have known better than to make to anywoman. Yet he felt that, even admitting that, he could not justly blamehimself. The Pearl had not only surprised but frightened him by the wayshe had taken a fact which he thought she fully understood--thatmarriage was out of the question for him. He was so crazy about herthat he had lost his head, that was the long and short of the matter,and had made a fool of himself and hash of the situation; buttemporarily, only temporarily. For, and to this belief he clung more andmore hopefully, the Pearl was too deeply in love with him definitely toclose the affair between them for just one break. He would not, couldnot believe that. It was true enough that he had aroused her passionateand violent anger, but the more violent the anger the sooner it willevaporate, and strange and complex as the Pearl was, she was yet awoman; and no woman on earth could long hold resentment against the manshe loved. She had, he was able to convince himself, regretted her madaction in first threatening and then riding away from him long beforeshe had reached home; and, without doubt, it was only that high andhaughty pride of hers which kept her from returning to him before shehad traversed half the distance. But the course of action he had decidedupon was sure to win. He would give her a few hours to get over heranger, to regret it and to reproach herself for causing him pain, andthen he would give her a little more time to long and ache for him toreturn to her. He would wait until evening, and then he would go boldlyto the Gallito house and, no matter what efforts were made to frustratetheir meeting, he would see her alone. Ah, and she would fly to him, ifhe knew her aright. All the opposition in the world could not keep themapart, it would only strengthen her determination. And then, how hewould beg her forgiveness, how he would plead his love, with passionateand irresistible eloquence; and, if he knew the heart of woman, shewould yield.
But when the moment came for acting upon this decision he found that ittook a certain amount of courage, considerable, in fact, to face notonly a woman who had left him in hot anger that morning, but a gnarledand thorny father and also the soft-spoken Bob Flick; and he decided tostop at Pete's place and brace up his courage with a drink.
Jimmy could hardly wait to serve him. He was like a busy and importantbird, hopping about on a bough and, literally, he twittered withexcitement.
"Well," he exclaimed, "where you been keeping yourself, and why wasn'tyou down to see 'em off?"
A cold chill ran over Hanson. His impulse was to cry, "Who? What do youmean?" But with an effort he resisted the inclination. Resolutely, heheld himself in check, and, although the hand with which he lifted theglass to his lips trembled a little, he drank off the whisky before hespoke.
"Couldn't make it," he said. "Who went beside--" he paused invitingJimmy
's further confidence.
"Just Pearl and her father," returned Jimmy volubly. "I guess that wasthe reason Bob went to Colina last week to kind of arrange for Pearlgoing up to make a visit to the old man. But shucks!" he broke off,"what am I telling you this for, when you know more than I do?" Hisbright, beady eyes rested on Hanson's with pleased and eageranticipation as he awaited further revelations.
"Nothing more to tell," replied the other disappointedly. "It's alljust as you say. Well, I got to go up and see Mrs. Gallito. I'm offmyself early to-morrow morning. See you before that though. So long."
He walked away, feeling dazed for the moment and beaten. Not at once didhe turn his steps in the direction of the Gallito home, but continued totramp up and down the road, and presently, as the cool, fresh airrestored his spirit, he was able to think clearly again. His world wasin chaos, but, even so, he still held some winning cards. He had nointention, he gritted his teeth as he made this vow, of dropping out ofthe game. He meant to play it to a finish. Those cards! He ran over hishand mentally. There was that commanding trump--his knowledge, hisunsuspected knowledge of the whereabouts of Crop-eared Jose. Then hisnext biggest trump--and here his heart lifted with a thrill--was thefact that Pearl loved him. Yes, in spite of her anger, in spite of thefact that she had rushed off to Colina, where she knew he could notfollow her, she loved him; and his desire for her was but increased bythe dangers and difficulties with which she surrounded herself. But hemust keep in touch with her, and the question as to how this might bestbe accomplished rose in his mind. Mrs. Gallito was the almost immediateanswer, and he determined, no matter what objections might be raised, tocommunicate with Pearl through that available source. Of one thing washe convinced and that was that not for long would Pearl linger in thegloomy mountains which he knew she abhorred. She belonged to the desertor to the world of men and admiration, the world of light and color andmusic. He couldn't see her in the mountains, he shivered a little at thethought of her among them; the cold, silent, austere mountains, so aliento this flower of the cactus.
His first poignant disappointment over, and his plan of action decidedupon, he wasted no time in seeking Mrs. Gallito. He found her, to hissatisfaction, quite alone, Hughie having, as she told him, gone to spendthe evening with some friends. She had, before his arrival, been readingthe Sunday supplement of an eastern newspaper, gazing with longing eyesat the portraits of the daughters of fashion and intently studying someof the elaborate and intricate coiffures presented, in the hope that shemight achieve the same effects.
"Why, Mr. Hanson!" she cried in surprise at the sight of him. "I thoughtyou'd gone sure, and Oh, mercy!" putting her hands to her head, "I ain'ton my puffs."
"I wouldn't ever have known it," said Hanson truthfully. "The fact isI'm not noticing anything much, Mrs. Gallito, I got a lot on my mind."He sighed unfeignedly and she noticed that he looked both tired andworried. "And say, I wish you'd sit down and talk to me a little."
She still stood looking at him hesitatingly, a distressed expression onher face. "I--I don't know as I'd better," she faltered. "Gallito, hesaid, the very last thing he said, was that if you come around--Oh, Mr.Hanson," she sat down weakly in her chair and began to cry. "I thoughtyou was just about the nicest man I'd met for many a day, and here Ifind you're a dreadful scamp. Oh, dear! Oh, dear! I guess all men arealike!"
Hanson bent forward earnestly. He had an end to gain and he meant togain it. "Now look here, Mrs. Gallito," he said. "You don't want tocondemn me unheard. You're not that kind of a lady. I knew that thefirst minute I set eyes on you. Now understand I'm not trying topersuade you that I'm any better than I am, but I just want you tobelieve that I'm not quite so black as I'm painted, not as black as yourhusband and Bob Flick want to paint me, anyway."
She twisted a fold of her dress, already half-persuaded and yet still alittle doubtful. "But you never gave us a hint that you were married,"she ventured timidly.
"Honest to God, I forget it myself," he asserted devoutly. "How can aman be always thinking to tell everyone he meets that he's still in alegal tie-up, when the only way he can remember it himself is by comingacross his marriage certificate, now and then? Why, it's a good tenyears since me and that woman parted. You don't call that married?"
His positive personality exerted its usual influence over Mrs. Gallito."'Course not," she agreed, although she still sat with downcast eyes andpleated her dress.
"I'm a pretty lonely man," pathos in his voice, "and I'd kind of gotteninto the way of putting home and happiness and all like that away fromme; and then I came here and saw Pearl," he was sincere enough now, "andhonest, Mrs. Gallito, it was all up with me then, right from the firstminute, and I was so plumb crazy about her that I guess I lost my head.I knew all the time that I ought to tell you and her just how I wasfixed, I knew it, but, someways, try as I would, I couldn't. I didn'thave the nerve, so I just waited and let the cards fall as they would.Maybe I was a fool and a coward. The way things have turned out, it surelooks like I was, but I just couldn't help it."
"I guess you ain't any different from most men," she answered, weaklysympathetic, "but you see Pearl has her notions, and they're mightystrong ones. It's the way she's been brought up," this with some pride."You see, me and her pop started out with the idea that we wasn't goingto have the Pearl live one of those hand to mouth lives that we'd seengirls in the circus that didn't have much training or much ability live.We saw right from the first that she was awful smart and awful pretty,and her Pop he had the knack of making money and holding on to it. Well,when he saw that she had her head set on the stage and we couldn't keepher off it, it's in her blood, you see, why her Pop says: 'Well, there'sone thing, till she's of age, legal, on or off the stage, she's going tohave a mother's care and a father showing up every now and thenunexpected.' He's got awful Spanish ideas, you know. 'I don't want herkept innocent,' he says. 'My Lord, no. It's the innocent ones that havegot to pay, and pay big in a world of bad knowledge where ignorance isnot forgave and is punished worse than any crime. Let her see the seamyside,' he says, 'she's no fool. Let her see what those who thinks tolive easy and gives themselves away easy gets.'
"And Pearl saw right off. You see, she ain't so soft-hearted like me,"again she wiped the furtive tear from her eye. "Pearl's hard. She ain'tno conscience about some things. She'll lead a man on and on, when shedon't care beans for him, and take all he'll give her, not money, youknow, but awful handsome presents. I've seen her let some poor boy thatwas crazy about her blow in all the dust that he'd saved for a year. Oh,yes, she's like her father in more'n one way, both awful ambitious andterrible fond of making money. Why," she added naively, "I've seen Pearllook at a bank note like I never saw her look at a love letter."
"Well, she won't make much money up in those mountains, not dancing,anyway," he laughed briefly and unmirthfully.
"It surprised me a lot, her going," admitted Mrs. Gallito; "she hatesthe mountains."
"Then she won't stay long," put in Hanson quickly.
Mrs. Gallito was uncertain about this. "But," she confided presently,"she took on awful to her father and Bob Flick. I didn't dare come out,but I heard her through the door there. 'Where can I go,' she cried,'where he won't come?' And she kept on saying she'd got to go somewherewhere you would never find her, because she didn't dare trust herself,and she cried right out: 'I love him, I love him.'"
With these words, the confirmation of his hope, Hanson's blitheself-confidence returned. He threw back his head and straightened hisshoulders, the light of an exultant purpose flashing in the steel of hiseye. "Pleasant for Bob!" he remarked in vindictive satisfaction; but ashe had still an end to gain, he did not permit his mind to gloat longupon the agreeable picture Mrs. Gallito's words had suggested.
"Now, just let me talk a minute, Mrs. Gallito," leaning forward andspeaking in his most persuasive manner. "This whole thing is amisunderstanding, that's all. Pearl didn't understand what I was tryingto say to her, and she lost her temper and wouldn't let me fin
ish. Nowtaking all the blame to myself for everything, admitting that I haven'tacted right in any particular, still I haven't had a square deal. You'vegot the sand and the fairness to admit that, Mrs. Gallito, and I may sayin passing that you're the only one that has, and you've got to admitthat I haven't had a square deal; not from the Pearl, God bless her, andcertainly not from her Pop and that Flick," his eyes flashed viciously.
Mrs. Gallito filled up his waiting pause with a murmur of confused butsympathetic assent.
"I'm telling you now what I'd told them if they'd given me a chance, andit's this," emphasizing his words by striking the palm of one hand withthe forefinger of the other, "I'm going back to Los Angeles and I'mgoing to move heaven and earth to get free; but in the meantime, Mrs.Gallito, I got to hear from her, I've got to keep in touch with her, andI believe you've got too much heart and too much common sense not tohelp me."
She drew back with feeble, inarticulate murmurs of fright and protest."I wouldn't dare," she began.
"Wait a moment," said Hanson soothingly. "I'm not suggesting anythingthat could get you into trouble. Mercy, no! All I want you to do isthis, just write me now and then and let me know how things are going,and maybe, once in a while, slip a letter of mine in one of yours toPearl; but," as she gasped a little and opened her eyes widely, "nottill you're sure it's quite safe."
"Well," she agreed, still in evident perturbation of mind, "maybe--"
"Oh, Mrs. Gallito," pleadingly, "can't you see that me and Pearl areborn for one another? You know that she can't live away from thefootlights. She just can't. And you know that I can put her where shebelongs. You know that our hearts are better guides than all Bob Flickand her Pop can plan for her."
His efforts were not wasted. As he had foreseen, his arguments were of anature to appeal to Mrs. Gallito, and it required only a little morepersuasion to win her promise of assistance. He further flattered herself-esteem by interlarding his profuse thanks with vague hints of theextreme lengths to which his despair might have led him had it not beenfor the saving power of her sympathy and understanding.
He had already risen and was halfway to the door before he appeared toremember something. "Oh," halting, his hand on the latch, "where isthat--that Jose? Pearl could not go up there with him about."
Mrs. Gallito, all timorousness again, beat her hands lightly together,in a distressful flurry. "No, he's there," she whispered, and glancedanxiously about her. Then she came nearer. "I heard Gallito and Bobtalking about him only yesterday and Bob said there was some mischiefbrewing among Jose's pals down on the coast, and Gallito said, yes, andif he let Jose leave the mountain he'd be right back there again and inthe thick of it and sure to be taken and that he, Gallito, meant to keepJose in Colina all year, if necessary."
So great was Hanson's satisfaction at this news that he had difficultyin concealing it, but Mrs. Gallito was not an observant person,fortunately, and, hastily changing the subject, he again expressed histhanks and departed.
He left the next morning for Los Angeles to the regret of hisbenefactress, Jimmy and the station agent.