The Storyteller

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 22, 28 May 1903, Page 23

The Storyteller

Storyteller + . THE STORY OF SANTOS.

You ask, me to tell you a story, Caro. Before my master, the Senor Americano, went home (and he did not, lno long alter that ; for indeed, he had the tisis and his cough was bad) he called me to him one day ' Santos,' he spid, ' you have been a good and faithful servant, and 1 want to do something for you before 1 go awa.v. I have sent for you so you can tell mo how 'I may best help you.'

'Ihen 1 opened my heart to the kind senor, and told him I wanted a bit of land, and a house of my own , and he said he would see about it, tho good master ! A week later we drove out in the country, four miles from the railroad and store, till we came to sonio fields sloping down to the river, and the senor showed me the land ho had bought for me. Then was my heart glad ; and Pedro (your fathor, Caro) and I went to work with a will ; and wo built the little house where we soon went to live and where you wero born. 1 found plenty to do in those days, what with picking cotton in the season and tending herds of cattle for tho rancheros, and planting my own little garden, my time was all taken up. I have said our house was on the banks of tho beautiful liiuulalupe — a lovely river that was rarely so deep but that it could he forded — its waters dashing over a stony l>od ; and winding in and out of the country — here surrounded by steep banks and rocky cliffs, and anon passing through low lying lands ; everywhere bordered by magnificent trees or bushes of mesquite, the long branches and vines in some places dipping into the water, makiing a scene ot fairy-like enchantment. I can see you, Caro, a little child, with bare brown legs, paddling in the water and shouting for joy as you tried to make believe fish. And then I see other scenes ; the Sundays and festas when your grandmother and mother and you and I would walk down the river to where we had erected a little shrine to our Blessed Lady. I curved the figure, Caro, and your mother dressed it ; perhaps those who go to the great cathedials would say it was ugly and poor ; but we did not think of that when wo knelt down to say the ' Pater ' and ' Aye,' for God and His Holy Mother seemed very near in our little temple whoso roof was the blue sky. We had lived thus throe happy yea is. when I got work to do for a Gorman ranchero who had tho large hacienda just above our field. A beautiful place it was, of hundiedsof acres, and on the brow of the hill, right near the long, steep road that led from the river, was the ranchero 's house, that looked more like an old mission building than anything else It was built of stone, one storey high, nearly 100 loot long, and was covered with whitewash

Here and there were small, square windows set deep in the stone, ami all across the Iront of the house was a gallery, completely shut in by a beautiful vine , be\ond this was the fannvard, and back of the house were the fields fuli of herds of cattle all enclosed in miles of barbed wire fence Still further west were acres of land, on which irrew tho grape 'vines that were trained crisscross o\cr low-roofed arbois. for the chief work of the Senor Zoeller was the making of wine and butter.

T had added a boat to my stock about that time and the ranchero wanted me to take his butter and Mine down the river twice a week, and ship it to the titv from the railroad station

' You are the only Mexican T can tr'tist to do it. Santos,' lie said ' Niccolo and Pietro and the other lellows would go to sleep on the way '

The work Mas easy, and the master, though strut was alwa\s fair One thing 1 I hau 1 forgotten to tell >ou. Caro. that he was blind. A tall and powerful man, with a long gray beard, a patriarch. I once heard my old master, the Senor Americano, call him. he nevertheless could not see, nor could lie ha\e managed the ranchero if it had not been for his administrator and his daughter and only child, the Senoi ita Elsa She was not moie than nineteen at that (me, and motherless but so sweet she was and good, 1 thought, even though m joligion a heietic Tall she was like her father and fair as a veritable Norse maiden, I heard the Senor Americano say. when she was only fit teen lie said many strange things, the senor !

It was the administrator T did not like, Caro— a bad man he was, T felt sure, and later I proved it Where he came f i om nobody knew. Some said he had lived a lite in the plains, and others that he had fled from England to escape the law ; but that w.,s only rumor Thcte ho was, trusted by the Senor Zoeller, and, alas ' by the fair Elsa

Some one else did not like the adnnnist rator. Cam Next to the 1 Zoellor hacienda was another, d\e miles distant, owned by the Senor Enrique Ilefnande? Alone he lived with only the ranch hands, and a cousin of vonr grandmother's, old Juniata, to do the cooking and cleaning llis chief companion was his (lop; , and Ins best friend was his \iohn. on which he placed till ho seemed to draw the heart from you T knew he loved the Senorita Elsa, and T knew the administrator lo\ed her too Worthy she was of the best, tor in his own country the Senor Zoellor had been of the nobility : po\ertv, haid and bitter, had driven him in his young days to our corner ol the world

It was customary for the administrator to go once a week to the city, 130 miles distant, to attend to tho

master s buying and selling ; but there came one spring day when, to my Surprise, he suggested that I should go in his stead. Just at that time your grandmother was sent for to visit her sick sister, five miles back in the country, so it was decided for you and your mother co go with her, Caro, and tor the house to be closed in our absence. T had expected to be gone four days ; but the good Loid Who watches over iis ordained otherwise. On arriving in the city, I found the man to whom my master sola all his wine and butter had been called away 'unexpectedly, and would not be back for a week, so n \ h WnS nOt g f ° r me tO Wait for ' * dl ' cided to

1 took the evening train, and, alighting at the little station, started to walk the four miles Wie. I was trudging alone in the late twilight, when I heard the sound of approaching carriage wheels on the hard road and presently a small covered wagon dashed rapidly past me. Late as it was and quickly as it passed, I could have sworn that the sole occupant was the Senorita Elsa. I- or a moment I stood still, haunted by a deep foreboding Was the master ill, or anything wrong at the hacienda? It was too late to stop the senorita, so T Hurried on until a mile further the mystery, as I thought was solved. The river, which I had now reached, had become a raging torrent, sweeping down through the hills that lay to the northward. It was a spring freshet, which seemed with every rush of the waters to be increasing in volume.

At this point the banks were so high that it had not vet overpassed its bounds ; but my house, a half mile beyond, was on the lowland close to the river. I ran the whole half mile, and arrived on the high, steep hill above the river and close to the Senor Zoeller's house breathless, panting, with despair in my heart. Yes, my little hola.se was gone. I could but raise my heart in thankfulness that the flood found it empty, when tho sound of voices reached me, and, drawing near to the house, in a moment 1 had forgotten my own loss in what II heard.

Two figures, my blind master and the administrator, were standing on the brow of the hill in front of the gallery, the administrator with a hand on the senor'a arm, evidently holding him back,. ' It is madness, sir,' he was saying ; the river is a flood, you can do nothing, tho Fraulein Elsa is in Santos boat, so far in safety ; and there is no other boat hoar in which wo could follow her.' ' Let mo go,' cried the old man ; ' boat or no boat, L cannot leave my only child to perish alone ' From mv position behind a tree I looked down at the river By that time it was brilliant moonlight, and in the dear .southern atmosphere everything stood out almost as distinctly as by daylight. I stared and rubbed mv eyes— the Senorita Elsa in my boat ! Neither were anywhere m view, and mv eyesight then, Caro, was as keen as an Indian's. Pity for the blind old man moved me to rush forwaid ; but 1 must get at the bottom of this, so 1 hold back.

' r lhe boat has come to the bend in tho river,' said the administrator, ' and the flood is not so serious as some 1 have seen. Have courage, Herr. Let me lead \o,i hack to the house, and then T will get my horse and i ide down the river and summon help to rescue the fraulem as soon as ] can '

My poor master ' He suffered himself to be led back to the house and put in a chair on the gallery. He groaned and wrung his hands, talking in his German tongue that T knew not a word of, Caro. What could T do '> The ranch hands had evidently all gone either up or down the liver, no ono was near to help me— no one by to corroborate the evidence of my e\is that the Senorita Elsa was not and had not been on tho river.

I stole after the administrator, who went at) once to tho field to get his horse Suddenly the whole thing (lashed on me It was truly the Senorita Elsa I passed on the road, and she was flying to some point where she could meet this man and marry him. He, meanwhile, had deceived tho blind man into thinking his child was adrift on the raging flood ; and now he was about to mount his horse and ride away, leaving the good senor helj less, broken-hearted, and alone ! It was the work of a moment for mo to spring forward and seize tho w i etch by the collar.

Mou villain ' ' I .said, under my breath ; and then m my excitement T had recourse to Spanish, pouring foith my anger and contempt, as I shook him again and again, like the puppy he was.

I was strong, but the administrator was and he had evidently boon trained in lighting. His horse stood under a tree. saddledi .md bn'dled, another proof that the whole thing was planned beforehand, and the incident of the flood used a t the last moment to heighten the deception. With a sudden and lapid twist he shook himself free fiom niv gia.sp, giving me a blow which sent me, reeling birkwaid In a second he was on his horse, and, galloping across the fields, was soon out of sight. During our short encounter he had uttered no word, probably thinking like n wise man, that it was best to save his bre.it h for the combat. To follow him was useless ; and then I thought of the unhappy senor ; l>etter let him believe his child was dead than to have him know she could desei t him and deceive him so.

I huiried back to the gallorv. and tho master know niv step He showed no surprise at my unexpected return. All was too strange and terrible on that fateful night I comforted him and calmed him as well as I could. Long after, Caro, it did mo good to know that

I was everything to him in his sorrow. He bade me go for the Senor Hernandez. So with the first daylight I mounted my shaggy burro and rode the five miles to the rancho. The thought of this senor relieved me of all responsibility. I knew him— a fine and noble man, with good Spanish blood in him and loyal ; not like that miserable foreign administrator "! Why had not the Senorita Elsa loved him ? Truly, the ways of a woman, from the highest to the lowest, are past iinding out, Caro. I poured out my tale to the Senor Hernandez. If the story of the senorita's flight gave him a blow, ho made no sign. He mounted his horse and rode back with nic to the dear old master Then many days we spent in searching the river ; but the lost senorita was never found, nor did the administrator come back. The old man thought he was drowned as well as his daughter, and we agreed not to let him know the real state of affairs. Better to mourn her dead than to know she had deserted him in his blindness and age. Then a new life began, Caro. Your grandmother and I took up our residence with the master and cared for him, while the Senor Hernandez undertook to fill the administrator's place and manage the two ranches together ; and thus passed four quiet years. In the long twilight, when the master and the senor sat on the gallery and I on some tree stump smoking my pipe, I would hear the Senor Hernandez play on his violin ; strange, weird, and beautiful sounds, "that the master, who was passionately fond of music, loved to hear. There was one piece, Ca-ro, that the senor played oftener than another ; a tune that made your grandmother restless and that filled my heart with tears. I asked the senor one day what it was, and he looked at me strangely- ' You would not know the meaning of it, Santos,' he said ; 'it is " Lochaber no more." ' Often I woke up in the silent night to hear the sound of the violin somewhere on the river's banki ; and the tune was always the same. ' Lochaber,' the reedlike strings would sob — ' Lochaber no more, no more.' The autumn nearly five years after the senorita's flight we had a busy season. The harvest of cotton and grapes was good, and tho fields were crowded with laborers at work from dawn until dusk. One morning I had been with the cattle for several hours, as mv duty was, and I noticed that one of the bulls, an ugly fellow, seemed to be in a worse humor than usual, so I cautioned Pietro to watch him, and not on any account to leave the gates open or let any of tho herd stray out in the road ; but Pietro, that foolish one, had his mind on other things, and alas ! proved faithless to his trust. The afternoon waxed late, and the great herds of cattle roamed hither and thither. The air was still and clear, and the men and women in the fields sang harvest songs as they passed up and down the long rows of cotton plant. The master sat on the gallery and smokeed. I see him now in his wide sombrero, his dark eyes beautiful, as blind eyes often are not, while his long gray beard and gray shirt, his short trousers and high ndmg boots made him appear a grand figure. Silent he sat until, knocking the ashes from his pipe, he arose and walked down to the gate, feeling his way with his stick. He passed out of the enclosure, and down the road, a way he had sometimes in the late afternoon, his dog, a Scotch collie, going ahead and acting as a guide. To me it used to seem as if he was always listening and watching for someone to come — one who ne\er came. I was rubbing down the master's horse — he and tho senor had been riding that afternoon— when 1 looked up the road, and far ofT I saw, outlined against the c"w i mng sky, the figures of a woman and a little child They were coming towards vs — some negroes or Mexicans, I thought ; the master also was coming that way. a short distance ahead of them. The outbuildings, wheie 1 was, looked up the road, toward these figures, while behind me, lower down the road, were the cattle fields near the river. Having groomed the horses, I turned them loose and then came back to the fence and looked up the road again. The master was standing still now and seemed to be listening, while the woman and child were only about two hundred yards behind him The child began to run ; long after, Caro, T remembered thinking he looked like the Christ Child His fair hair was blown back in the bree/e, his little arms were outstretched, while the red dross or tunic he wore was lit up by tho setting sun, making him appear as if bathed in blood live a little martyr or God What was it that .rushed madly by the barbed wire fence near which I stood? Ah ' merciful hea-v on f the angry bull, and it was making straight for the spot where stood the master — helpless, blind ' In an instant I diew back, and had cleared the fence with one flying lea]) and was rushing up the road, shouting for help, but too late ' too late ' The bull. with its head low on the ground, passed the master, not c\i>n touching him, then with a roar that was heard far and near it lifted the child on its horns and threw it high in the air, continuing on its mad run, until it was lasso id by Pietro before more harm was done It was I who picked up the little child from where he had fallen in ; i nearby field Thank God, Caro. the bull had not gored the tender little limbs, but the tossing and fall had been enough, and when I knelt down by him he was dead. . Retribution had come, and the Almighty was mst. T looked up and felt no surprise to soo the Senora Elsa as, with a heartbroken cry she took her child in her arms. She had willed to be as dead to her father, and now

S«»K?Hi d a u d £ ad _, 1° her ' and ft wa s her child, undoubtedly, who had been the means of saving the master s life ; the bull, attracted by the little one's red garment, had made straight for him, passing the poor mas♦v, T h l b i!- nd sen ? r drew near as these thoughts rushed !? Jh^J 118^ 1 ?^ Did he know what all was and would the shock break his heart ? 1 heard the woman trim to him Father, it is I, Elsa,' she said ; ' forgive, oh ! forgive. r . A Jl d th * n . the master looked .grand and triumphant, £? a A1"^"A 1 "^"^ 1 , Mlch ael, 1 thought, or like Gabriel, the Angel ot Revelation. ' My child, my little Elsa, is it thou ? ' he said, in his rich, deep voice. 'Come to thy futhei's heart. I knew it all, long ago, child. I overheard Hernandez and Sautos tell of thy flight. I have watched for thee, my little Elsa, my poor child.' Oh, the dear, blind master ! The tears rained from my eyes, and I was not ashamed as I saw him hold out If ai^ mS •] vu K ather his lost one in an embrace that seemed as if he would never let her go. Surely love alone is deathless and eternal. * . . . THere is not muclv more to tell, Caro. We laid the little child to the chanting of the ' Alleluia ' and the J)e Iroiundis, for the Senora Elsa in her sorrow and remorse during those five years had become a Catholic. Her husband had died, and she was returning, like a prodigal child, when the swift tragedy robbed her of her little one. II thought her stricken beyond redemption, but she was young still, Caro, and by and by she lifted her drooping; head again, and then was the' dear master made happy when he was called on to bless her 'union with the Senor Enrique Hernandez. Over beyond the hills they live still, the Senor, his wife and their children, for the master has long since gone to his reward. 'Happy ' do you nay ? Oh, yes ; as happy as wo can be in this world, Caro ; and I think that somewhere beyond the stars the little child and the master are happier even than they.—' Messenger of the Sacred Heart.'