Page:The Road to Monterey (1925).pdf/128



OBERTO found the air of his room stifling, the confinement of its walls oppressive. It seemed that the teeth of a man, which he had be come cognizant of possessing only that hour, ached for something to fasten upon and try their strength, urging him out into the open with savage restlessness.

His door opened into the wide patio between the wings of the house, where an immense pepper tree rose high above the roof, its softly draped foliage blue-tinted in the moonlight like a vast, still smoke. There was no light in the house as Roberto stood a little while in the patio, drowned in the gloom of the great tree's shadow. If Helena's conscience troubled her on account of this night's rebellion, she hid the shame of it in the dark.

That was as it should be, Roberto thought. It would have been satisfying to him to know that she was bowed in remorseful shame at her prayers; he suspected, with resentful anger, that she was asleep in her bed.

All was as quiet outside the house as within rhe men who had ridden from the ranch, but few in number, mean-spirited fellows all, excepting Simon alone, had found places to stretch them-