The Call of the Savage by Otis Adelbert Kline

Author:Otis Adelbert Kline [Kline, Otis Adelbert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Serapis Classics
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

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17. — A WARM TRAIL

On one of the long wooden docks that projected over the river in front of the Suarez hacienda, Don Fernando and Doña Isabella, as well as a score of their Indian servants, stood gazing intently downstream. Today Ramona was expected home from her first year of school in the United States. A servant had just come dashing up to the house to announce that the boats were coming.

After gazing for a brief interval, Don Fernando removed his slim cigar from between his lips and said to his wife:

"The mozo was wrong. Those are not our canoes."

"But they must be," insisted Doña Isabella. "Who else would be coming this way with so many boats?"

The don shrugged.

"Explorers, perhaps, or a party of hunters. We'll soon see."

There were six canoes in all, most of them smaller than the six sent out by Don Fernando in charge of Felipe Fuez, his foreman, with orders to meet and bring Ramona and her governess.

As the first canoe drew near to the dock, the don carefully scanned the faces of its occupants. Besides the four Indian paddlers it contained two white men—one a swarthy Venezuelan with a small, pointed mustache, the other a lean, bearded man wearing a pith helmet and khaki, who might be an American or an Englishman. In the second boat rode two more people with pith helmets and khaki clothing. One was a broad-shouldered, clean-shaven, athletic-looking fellow who appeared to be in his middle thirties; the other was a woman, somewhat younger and quite comely, whose curls glinted auburn in the reflected sunbeams that danced up from the river. The other four boats contained Indian paddlers and luggage.

The first canoe came up beside the dock. Its gunwale was seized by willing hands, steadied.

The don and doña were smiling and gracious now, masking their disappointment at not seeing Ramona, that they might welcome the strangers with fitting cordiality.

When the first two stood on the dock the bearded man took the initiative.

"I am Dr. Bracken, Don Fernando," he said in Spanish.

"I am honored, señor," replied the don. "Doña Isabella, may I present Dr. Bracken?"

"An honor and a pleasure," murmured the doctor, when the doña had acknowledged the introduction. "May I present Captain Santos?

"My other companions speak very little Spanish," he added then. "Permit me to translate for you."

"Hardly necessary," smiled the don. "I'm a Harvard man, and the doña attended Lake Forest University. We first met in the States at a football game."

"Splendid!" replied the doctor. "Then the introductions will be in English."

And so they were. Doña Isabella and Mrs. Trevor soon found much in common, due to the former's residence in the Stales.

Suddenly there came a cry from an Indian at the end of the dock.

"More canoes coming!"

Don Fernando looked down the river. Two had rounded the bend. A third was just nosing into sight.

"Viva!" he cried.

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