belt of gold, senor, see!"

To the astonished gaze of Kit Rhodes he drew from under his coat the
burro-skin belt he had directed the making of up there in the hidden
canon of El Alisal. Marto balanced it in his hand appreciatively.

"And there was more of it than this!" he exulted, "for the way on the
railroad was paid out of it for all the Indians. That is why we lost
two days,--our car was put on a side track, and for the sick it was
worse than to walk the desert."

"Yes; well?"

"Dona Dolores got in a fine carriage there. _Madre de Dios!_ what
horses! White as snow on the sierras, and gold on all the harness! Me,
I am dreaming of them since that hour! They got in, Tula also in her
poor dress, and a guard told me to follow the carriage. It was as if
San Gabriel made me invitation to enter heaven! Twenty miles we went
through that plantation, a deep sea of cane, senor, and maize of a
tree size,--the richness there is riches of a king. Guards were
everywhere and peons rode ahead to inform the major-domo, and he came
riding like devils to meet Dona Dolores Terain. I am not a clever man,
senor, but even I could see that never before had the lady of Linda
Vista made herself fatigue by a plantation ride there, and I think
myself he had a scare that she see too much! At the first when Dona
Dolores had speech with him, it was easy to see he blamed me, and his
eyes looked once as if to scorch me with fire. Then she pointed to the
child beside her, and gave some orders, and he sent a guard with Tula
through another gate into a great corral where men and women were
packed like cattle. Senor, I have been in battles, but I never heard
screams of wounded like the screams of joy I heard in that corral!
Some of these Indians dropped like dead and were carried out of the
gate that way as Tula stood inside and named the names.

"When it was over that woman of white beauty told that manager to have
them all well fed, and given meat for the journey, for he would answer
to the general if any stroke of harm came to anyone of them on the
plantation of Linda Vista. Then she gave to my hand the belt of gold
to care for the poor people on the trail;--also she said the people
were a free gift to Dona Jocasta Perez, and there was no ransom to
pay. Myself I think the Dona Dolores had happiness to tell the
general, her father, that Jose Perez had a wife, for that plan of
marriage was but for politics. _Sangre de Christo!_ what a woman! When