kitchen, where countless
Indian servants were busy or resting. They demanded four dozen eggs and
help to blow them at once. The maids hastened to do the bidding of the
little dons, and in less than a quarter of an hour the eggs were free
of their natural contents, and all were busy refilling them with flour,
or cologne, or scraps of gold and silver paper. Then the boys stuffed
the fronts of their shirts, their sleeves, and their pockets with the
eggs, and hid themselves among the palms of the court. Presently the
guests came forth and scattered about the corridor, smiling and
chatting in the soft subdued Spanish way. Suddenly twelve eggs, thrown
with supple wrist and aimed with unfailing dexterity, flew through the
air and crashed softly on the backs of caballeros' curls and donas'
braids, flour powdering, gold and silver paper glittering on the dense
blackness of those Californian tresses, cologne shooting down dignified
spines. There was a chorus of shrieks, and then, as every head whisked
about, and as a blow did not count unless it struck at the back, the
boys ran up to the corridors, dodged under vengeful arms and continued
the battle. Finally they were chased out into the open, and the guests
having been provided with the remaining eggs by Dona Martina, the
battle waged fierce and hot until, exhausted, the guests retired for
siesta.

But siesta was brief that day. In less than an hour's time all had
reappeared and were mounting for the race.

XV

The race took place in a field a mile from the house, on a straight
track. Four vaqueros in black velvet small-clothes trimmed with silver,
spotless linen, and stiff glazed black sombreros, walked up and down,
leading the impatient mustangs. Two of these horses were a beautiful
bronze-gold in colour, with silver manes and tails, a breed peculiar to
the Californias; one was black, the other as white as crystal. The
family and guests of Casa Carillo sat on their horses, in their
carretas, or stood just outside the fence surrounding the field. At one
end were the several hundred Indians employed by Don Tiburcio, and
several hundred more from the Mission. Father Osuna had also joined the
party from the Casa, and Roldan, who had seen hundreds of horse-races
and was built on a more complex plan than his contemporaries, got as
close to the priest as he dared and gave him his undivided attention.
Padre Osuna was a man of unusual height and heaviness of build. His
black e