The record-union., 1891-03-29
JUANA'S ORDEAL.

path that led from the kitchen door of the
quaint adobe to the more seouestered
barn. From here the path ran on along
the orchard, in and out among apricot
and fig trees. until it stopped abruptly, as
tt quite worn out with its exertions, on
the outskirts of the ranch.
The baranca to which it led raised its
scanned, SCARED sides up the hillside
covered with cacti and chaparral. Juana
paused moment, then, gathering her
skirts tightly in her left hand, she began
70 climb the steep trail. She took it with
out languor or delay, her strong young
figure moving upward with scarcely a
pause for breath till she reached the top
Here an old fence bounded the hill
pasture belonging to Juana's father. She
flung herself lightly against the bars of
the gate to rest and to gaze upon the scene
spread out below.
To the westward lay the calm Pacific
glinting and flashing under the first rays
of the sun. The curling surf Tapped with
white lips the yellow sand that marks
the western boundary of the peaceful val
ley. Far as the eye could reach to the
south and east stretched the line of the
old stage road-for this was before the
railroad was built-between Los Angeles
Oll lhC oOUbi lDdI DIId Oh luC
north.
On the east its long dusty trail was
fanked by ranches more or less culti-
waited. Here and there symmetrical rows
of beans greeted the eye. Olive trees
mingled with walnuts were scattered
everywhere. Occasionally a red-tiled
adobe roof relieved the monotony of open
pasture-lands and fields dotted with oak
and yellow with the blossoms of the
golden mustard.
From the foothills rose precipitately the
purple mountains, whose crests are often
veiled with clouds of feathery mist. a
fair land, and dear to the rancher's daugh-
ter from her babyhood-the place of her
birth, and Of her people before her. Yet
to any one else who had been there the
most picturesque thing would not have
been the outspread landscape, but the
young Spanish girl leaning on the worn
gate to look at it.
She turned now, and began series of
low, coaxing whistles, which presently
brought her favorite mustang, Pedro. to
the bars of the gate. The gate posts were
worn smooth by the rubbing of patient
animals from the adjoining field, and had
IL not been Tor the friendly hayrope about
their rickety tops, Pedro would have
surely knocked them down as he stretched
his neck over the bars to be caressed by
his mistress.
They were pretty picture-the two.
Dluc-llldch Il'tiE Oh In6 S1Tl maze
more vivid the ripe color in her olive
tinted cheeks. Her deep, lustrous eyes
had in them that half-pained, half-pa-
thetic expression peculiar to the eyes of
the Spanish girls of the South. Yet
Juana knew little of sorrow. The old
rancher's only daughter, she had lived a
petted life, q Slmple-hearted child, and
whatever capacity for endurance or cour-
age lay within her, it had never been
tried.
After a series of vigorous pats bestowed
With many a cooling Spanish phrase Of
endearment upon her favorite, Juana
procured a rosy apple from her pocket,
WHICH Pedro munched with evident salts
faction. She had not come to ask any
service of him, only for morning greet
ing and now, after a lingering farewell
pat or two, she left the pretty mustang
looking over the gate after her, and
turned to the steep baranca again.
She stepped carefully, for fear of tread
ing too heavily on the crumbling, sun
baked adobe and getting tumble; her
light feet made hardly a sound to be
noticed among the noises of the country
morning-Pedro's reluctant return from
the gate to his grazing fellows, the other
sounds from the pasture, the twittering
OF BIRDS. the chirping of squirrels, the
thousand-fold murmur and breath OF the
hour.
Halfway down the light steps stopped
suddenly, and the girl stood with start
led face listening. An on-looker might
have been mystified to see her hesitate,
and then cautiously and stealthily steal
on, a little lower down to clump of
trees not far below where she had so sud-
denly stood still. Only keen ear and o
quick attention could have caught above
all these other noises that singular and
unusual one for such a place and time
the hiss OF whispering voices. PABLO
her fathers name-that was the one word
she had caught, and half in curiosity, half
in fear, she felt she must know why her
fathers whispered name should thus de-
tach itself from the rustic of leaves to
strike her ear and call her attention to the
otherwise indistinguishable murmur
going on in the little clump.
She leaned silently forward on the edge
of the hazy screen of Hve-oaks, every
nerve strained to catch the half-whis-
pered, half-murmured words that rose
from within. The screen, though it
offered no perceptible barrier to sound,
was quite dense enough to protect the girl
from sight of the group of men who
stood close together behind it, looking
for no one in her direction.
''Pablo''-her fathers name again, and
now it came to her ear sharply, mingled
with other words, 'stage'-''coin''-"ar
rest''-she caught; and then in an ex-
cited tone, which the others Immediately
hushed, pistols"
She edged closer, listened more in
tensely, and her hearing seemed to be-
come keener. She knew who the men
were well enough-ranch hands of Pab-
los, half-breeds, yagabond set, who
would do anything tor money. But they
were purposeless and dull, incapable of
organizing and carrying out a plot to rob
the stage of themselves. And the bolder
rogue who planned and inspired the
crime? The girl was left in no doubt of
fhnf--hpr fRThnfiS dis
tinctly uttered his directions repeated.
That very night he and his confederates
We're to lie in wait for the stage that left
Santa Barbara for Los Angeles at 7:30.
Juana drew back, realizing that she
must slip away undetected, yet too
startled and Mortified to think of any
thing else clearly. She was overcome by
the sheer sense of her fathers guilt. He
was by no means an exemplary ranch
man, Juana well knew. But she had no
mother, and had depended solely on him
for care and tenderness, which he had
given at least in sufficient measure to win
the response of q child's simple and un-
criticising affection, and Juana was not
far enough from childhood to have
changed much in her feelings. Nor was
the code of her people so eXacting to-
wards ordinary faults and ill-doings in
men that what she knew of her fathers
had affected her with any strong feeling
OF shame, or given any serious shock to
her regard for him.
But this was a different matter. The
quiet, honest ranchers of Carpenteria
We're not of that class of Mexicans in
whom a robber excites as much admira-
llon as censure, nor were these the
Tunes In which the native Californian
easily excused robbery of the American
intruder. Juana had been born and had
grown up peacefully and without thought
OF hostility under American laws. The