I have dwelt here since in sorrow and
perplexity, and because I have ridden the fences and watched over the
stock, there has been no great effort made to disturb me. They have a
cook--a Japanese, and two Japanese women servants. Also, this evening,
Senor Parker brought with him as a guest another Japanese, whom he
treats with as much consideration as if the fellow were your sainted
father. I do not understand such people. This Japanese visitor was
given this room, but this honor I denied him."
"My father's business affairs are greatly tangled, Pablo. I shall have
quite a task to place them in order," Don Miguel informed him, sadly.
"If it is permitted an old servant to appear curious, Don Miguel, how
long must we submit to the presence of these strangers?"
"For the present, Pablo, I am the master here; therefore, these people
are my guests. It has never been the custom with my people to be
discourteous to guests."
"I shall try to remember that," Pablo replied, bitterly. "Forgive me,
Don Miguel, for forgetting it. Perhaps I have not played well my part
as the representative of my master during his absence."
"Do not distress yourself further in the matter, Pablo. What food have
we at the ranch? Is there sufficient with which to enable Carolina to
serve breakfast?"
"To serve it where, Don Miguel?"
"Where but in my home?"
"Blood of the devil!" Pablo slapped his thigh and grinned in the
knowledge that the last of the Farrels, having come home, had decided
to waste no time in assuming his natural position as the master of the
Rancho Palomar.
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