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Dolores was now attending to him as she had to Tonet. She kept his clothes mended, and, something she had never been troubled with in the case of that roistering loafer she also was taking care of his savings. One day tio Paella was brought home dead. He had got drunk and fallen from the seat of his cart, both wheels passing over him.
Why should it not help to feed them? Tio Mariano, a tight-fisted bachelor, first cousin to the late Pascualo, and supposed to be quite well off, had taken a liking to the widow's children; and however much it pained him, he went down into his pocket and gave her the money to make her start. In one side of the boat a hole was sawed to make a door and a small counter.
In Caleb, and a dozen old men more or less like him, I seemed to find myself among the people of the past, and sometimes they were so much like some of the remembered, old, sober, and slow-minded herders of the plains that I could not help saying to myself, Why, how this man reminds me of Tio Isidoro, or of Don Pascual of the "Three Poplar Trees," or of Marcos who would always have three black sheep in a flock.
He was known as Tio Quico, and like his friend lived on publicity, advertising the shows and posting the theatrical announcements, being perhaps the only Filipino who could appear with impunity in a silk hat and frock coat, just as his friend was the first Spaniard who laughed at the prestige of his race.
"Eat!" cried Arturo, thrusting the loaf into her hands. Tio Diego laughed with joy and put the beans to cooking. Arturo stayed home from school that afternoon, and helped wash. To-morrow the pay would come. Tio Diego tried lamely to help Arturo wash. Tia Marta was feeling better, and had just declared her intention of washing, when Arturo suddenly forsook the tub and dropped beside her.
"What's come of the young vixen?" went on the speaker, addressing her husband, the Tio Pedro, who sat with her behind the counter of a small tobacconist's shop an ugly beldame, shrank and shrivelled, with grey elf-locks, sunk cheeks, and parchment complexion, looking ninety, yet little more than half that age.
Little it mattered if they should die for at thought of them the thirst for vengeance flamed in him anew. But the other two, sons of mothers, old and dependent on them for support, and tio Batiste, who had survived so many dangers through all those years! Those surely he had no right to kill!
He could find no words to thank her for such un-selfish devotion, but he pressed her to his heart again and again. He still held Mariquita's hand, and was soothing her with many endearing expressions, when La Zandunga, accompanied by Tio Pedro, returned. The lovers flew apart, abashed at being surprised.
Hard by was a deserted hatto, or cattle-keeper's hut, where we rested while our horses grazed. "No sign of Mejia yet," observed Carmen, as he lighted his cigar with a burning-glass. "Shall we go on toward Tres Cruces, or return to our old camping-ground in the hills?" "I am for going on." "So am I. But we must keep a sharp lookout. We shall be on dangerous ground after we have crossed the Tio."
In addition tio Mariano was one of the big men about town. He had been a smuggler in the happy days when revenue agents, from Captain of the Port to ordinary patrolman, had hands but never eyes. And even now, when things were not so lax, he would take a passive share in some enterprise of the sort.
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