Two days afterwards the sweating steed of Captain Poindexter was turned loose in the corral, and a moment later the captain entered the corridor.Handing a letter to the decrepit Concha, who seemed to be utterly disorganized by its contents, and the few curt words with which it was delivered, he gazed silently upon the vacant bower, still fresh and redolent with the delicacy and perfume of its graceful occupant, until his dark eyes filled with unaccustomed moisture.But his reverie was interrupted by the sound of jingling spurs without, and the old humor struggled back in his eyes as Don Jose impetuously entered.The Spaniard started back, but instantly recovered himself.
"So I find you here.Ah! it is well!" he said passionately, producing a letter from his bosom."Look! Do you call this honor?
Look how you keep your compact!"
Poindexter coolly took the letter.It contained a few words of gentle dignity from Mrs.Tucker, informing Don Jose that she had only that instant learned of his just claims upon Los Cuervos, tendering him her gratitude for his delicate intentions, but pointing out with respectful firmness that he must know that a moment's further acceptance of his courtesy was impossible.
"She has gained this knowledge from no word of mine," said Poindexter, calmly."Right or wrong, I have kept my promise to you.I have as much reason to accuse you of betraying my secret in this," he added coldly, as he took another letter from his pocket and handed it to Don Jose.
It seemed briefer and colder, but was neither.It reminded Poindexter that as he had again deceived her she must take the government of her affairs in her own hands henceforth.She abandoned all the furniture and improvements she had put in Los Cuervos to him, to whom she now knew she was indebted for them.
She could not thank him for what his habitual generosity impelled him to do for any woman, but she could forgive him for misunderstanding her like any other woman, perhaps she should say, like a child.When he received this she would be already on her way to her old home in Kentucky, where she still hoped to be able by her own efforts to amass enough to discharge her obligations to him.
"She does not speak of her husband, this woman," said Don Jose, scanning Poindexter's face."It is possible she rejoins him, eh?""Perhaps in one way she has never left him, Don Jose," said Poindexter, with grave significance.
Don Jose's face flushed, but he returned carelessly, "And the rancho, naturally you will not buy it now?""On the contrary, I shall abide by my offer," said Poindexter, quietly.
Don Jose eyed him narrowly, and then said, "Ah, we shall consider of it."He did consider it, and accepted the offer.With the full control of the land, Captain Poindexter's improvements, so indefinitely postponed, were actively pushed forward.The thick walls of the hacienda were the first to melt away before them; the low lines of corral were effaced, and the early breath of the summer trade winds swept uninterruptedly across the now leveled plain to the embarcadero, where a newer structure arose.A more vivid green alone marked the spot where the crumbling adobe walls of the casa had returned to the parent soil that gave it.The channel was deepened, the lagoon was drained, until one evening the magic mirror that had so long reflected the weary waiting of the Blue Grass Penelope lay dull, dead, lustreless, an opaque quagmire of noisome corruption and decay to be put away from the sight of man forever.On this spot the crows, the titular tenants of Los Cuervos, assembled in tumultuous congress, coming and going in mysterious clouds, or laboring in thick and writhing masses, as if they were continuing the work of improvement begun by human agency.
So well had they done the work that by the end of a week only a few scattered white objects remained glittering on the surface of the quickly drying soil.But they were the bones of the missing outcast, Spencer Tucker!
......
The same spring a breath of war swept over a foul, decaying quagmire of the whole land, before which such passing deeds as these were blown as vapor.It called men of all rank and condition to battle for a nation's life, and among the first to respond were those into whose boyish hands had been placed the nation's honor.
It returned the epaulets to Poindexter's shoulder with the addition of a double star, carried him triumphantly to the front, and left him, at the end of a summer's day and a hard-won fight, sorely wounded, at the door of a Blue Grass farmhouse.And the woman who sought him out and ministered to his wants said timidly, as she left her hand in his, "I told you I should live to repay you."
