this
little side-play of yours. We boys come up here to-night to quit your
employ and hire out to Our Lady Jess. We're all agreed, every man jack
of us. Your day's over. Account of Mrs. Trent and the kids, we'd
like things done quiet and decent. There's a good horse of yours in
the stable and though there isn't any moon, you know the roads well.
If you tarry for breakfast, likely you won't have much appetite to
eat it. More'n that, the senora, as you call her, has waited on your
whelpship for just the last time. Before you start you might as well
pay up some of our back wages, and hand over to the mistress the funds
you've been keeping from her."

"Insolent! Stand aside. How dare you? Let me pass."

"I'm not quite through yet. There's no real call to have talk with
such as you, but we 'boys' kind of resent being set down as plumb
fools. We've seen through you, though we've kept our mouths shut. Now
they're open; leastways, mine is. This here notion of yours about
ownin' Sobrante is a bird of recent hatchin'. 'Tisn't full-fledged
yet, and 's likely never to be. Your first idea was to run the ranch
down till your mistress had to give it up out of sheer bad luck. Fail,
mortgage, or such like. Oranges didn't sell for what they ought; olives
wasn't worth shucks; some little varmint got to eating the raisin
grapes; mine petered out; feathers growing poorer every plucking, though
the birds are getting valuabler. Never had accounts quite ready--you,
that was a master hand at figures when the boss took you in and made you,
You----"

Antonio strode forward, furious, and with uplifted hand.

"You rascal! This to me--I, Antonio Bernal, descendant of--Master of
Sobrante and Paraiso, I----"

"Master? Humph! Owner? Fiddlesticks! Why, that little tacker there,
asleep on the floor," pointing to Luis, "is likelier heir to this old
ranch than you. The country's full of Garcias and always has been, Pedro
says. Garcia himself, when all's told. As for Bernals, who ever heard
of more'n one o' them? That's you, you skunk! Now, usin' your own
fine, highfalutin' language: 'Go. _Vamos._ Depart. Clear out. _Get!_'"

"I go--because it so suits me, I, myself. But I return. New servants
will be with me and your quarters must be empty. Let me pass."

"Certain. Anything to oblige. But don't count on them quarters. We
couldn't leave them if we would 'cause we've all took root. Been
growing so long; become indigenous to the soil, like the boss'