Page:Val of Paradise (IA valofparadise00roevrich).pdf/16

4 VAL OF PARADISE

eager hands, that she was in reality a queen. And here, often, when she played her nameless tunes a man came to find her, to sit and listen and to watch her face with such a heart-ache on his features that Tragedy stalked through the shadowed room.

This was John Hannon, the boss of the rancho, the greatest one-man power in the country of the mesas, hated by his far neighbours for his fences and his fields, and his methods, feared by his enemies, and a shining mark for that sharp gentry of the Border whose raids and crimes were a load on the hearts of all the ranchers within striking distance of the line. And the slim blind woman was his wife, Belle, the only woman-creature he had ever loved in his life save one, and whose affliction had darkened the windows of his soul with bitter rebellion.

Branching from this central room a labyrinth of rooms stretched to right and left, the dining-room toward the north, flanked by the kitchen and store-rooms, the many smaller rooms occupied by the Mexican and Indian women who did all the work of the big house. To the left and front circled the private apartments of the boss and his family.

Out behind, toward the north, there lay the great barns and corrals, the sheds and stacks and paddocks that bespoke huge herds.

John Hannon's land stretched for many a mile, according to his strength to hold it, and cattle grazed on the sweet bunch grass as far as the eye