"What mistake was that?" inquired Mr. Page.
"Why, didn't you notice how dark them two are? Didn't Mauricio tell you nothing about them?"
"Why, they're part Indian. Couldn't you see it? Notice how fair the Señora is beside them."
"Yes, but we never surmised that they had Indian blood," said Mr. Page.
"Well, they have, sir, good and strong. Their mother is a full-blooded Indian, living on the Mesa Grande--married again to a good fellow--Indian--up there. She's a cousin to Mauricio and Francisco. Lots of their relations living round here. That's why the Señora never comes to Warner's. I don't blame her--it's a bitter pill."
"It must have gone hard with her," said Mr. Page.
"It did. Yet she took that girl when she was a baby, and has raised her ever since. They do say she never knew she was part Indian until four or five years ago. The old lady took the boy then--he was at the mission school. Now she sends him up to Santa Clara. They're fine children--the image of their father, both of them. Miss Ramona, she's a perfect lady if there ever was one."
"Chadwick told me the story of the Almirante children last night. I know now why it is that Francisco looks like the boy."
"Yes?" replied Mauricio. "Chadwick talks too much, I think. Still, everybody knows it. But it would not have been for either Francisco or myself to have been the first to tell of that which has caused the Señora so much unhappiness."
Which Mr. Page considered, and justly, another admirable trait in the Indian whom he had already learned to admire and respect.
The Pages had been six weeks at the Hot Springs. The invalid, quite recovered, was able to join them in all their expeditions. The children had enjoyed every waking moment of their stay, and the sleeping moments also, it might be said, if one should judge of that by the soundness of their repose.
"Our vacation is nearly over," said Mr. Page one morning, looking up from a letter he had been reading.
"Oh, papa," cried Walter and his sister, "do we have to go home soon?"
"Pretty soon," was the reply. "This letter calls me home. Mr. Dillon has business in Arizona, and wants to start not later than the first of September."
Mr. Dillon was Mr. Page's partner. He had already postponed his departure beyond the time originally set. Mr. Page did not feel that he could ask him to do so again, and the elder members of the party were beginning to feel that home would be welcome.