Rumors about Felipe ran swiftly throughout the region. The presence in the Cahuilla village of a rich Mexican gentleman who spent gold like water, and kept mounted men riding day and night, after everything, anything, he wanted for his sick sister, was an event which in the atmosphere of that lonely country loomed into colossal proportions. He had travelled all over California, with four horses, in search of her. He was only waiting till she was well, to take her to his home in the south; and then he was going to arrest the man who had murdered her husband, and have him hanged, -- yes, hanged! Small doubt about that; or, if the law cleared him, there was still the bullet. This rich Senor would see him shot, if rope were not to be had. Jim Farrar heard these tales, and quaked in his guilty soul. The rope he had small fear of, for well he knew the temper of San Diego County juries and judges; but the bullet, that was another thing; and these Mexicans were like Indians in their vengeance. Time did not tire them, and their memories were long. Farrar cursed the day he had let his temper get the better of him on that lonely mountainside; how much the better, nobody but he himself knew,-- nobody but he and Ramona: and even Ramona did not know the bitter whole. She knew that Alessandro had no knife, and had gone forward with no hostile intent; but she knew nothing beyond that. Only the murderer himself knew that the dialogue which he had reported to the judge and jury, to justify his act, was an entire fabrication of his own, and that, instead of it, had been spoken but four words by Alessandro, and those were, "Senor, I will explain;" and that even after the first shot had pierced his lungs, and the blood was choking in his throat, he had still run a step or two farther, with his hand uplifted deprecatingly, and made one more effort to speak before he fell to the ground dead. Callous as Farrar was, and clear as it was in his mind that killing an Indian was no harm, he had not liked to recall the pleading anguish in Alessandro's tone and in his face as he fell. He had not liked to recall this, even before he heard of this rich Mexican brother-in-law who had appeared on the scene; and now, he found the memories still more unpleasant. Fear is a wonderful goad to remorse. There was another thing, too, which to his great wonder had been apparently overlooked by everybody; at least, nothing had been said about it; but the bearing of it on his case, if the case were brought up a second time and minutely investigated, would be most unfortunate. And this was, that the only clew he had to the fact of Alessandro's having taken his horse, was that the poor, half-crazed fellow had left his own well-known gray pony in the corral in place of the horse he took. A strange thing, surely, for a horse-thief to do! Cold sweat burst out on Farrar's forehead, more than once, as he realized how this, coupled with the well-known fact of Alessandro's liability to attacks of insanity, might be made to tell against him, if he should be brought to trial for the murder. He was as cowardly as he was cruel: never yet were the two traits separate in human nature; and after a few days of this torturing suspense and apprehension, he suddenly resolved to leave the country, if not forever, at least for a few years, till this brother-in-law should be out of the way. He lost no time in carrying out his resolution; and it was well he did not, for it was only three days after he had disappeared, that Felipe walked into Judge Wells's office, one morning, to make inquiries relative to the preliminary hearing which had been held there in the matter of the murder of the Indian, Alessandro Assis, by James Farrar. And when the judge, taking down his books, read to Felipe his notes of the case, and went on to say, "If Farrar's testimony is true, Ramona's, the wife's, must be false," and "at any rate, her testimony would not be worth a straw with any jury," Felipe sprang to his feet, and cried, "She of whom you speak is my foster-sister; and, by God, Senor, if I can find that man, I will shoot him as I would a dog! And I'll see, then, if a San Diego County jury will hang me for ridding the country of such a brute!" and Felipe would have been as good as his word. It was a wise thing Farrar had done in making his escape.
同类推荐
热门推荐
一品弃女,风华女战神
小鹿新文来袭:《毒妃可口:王爷,轻点咬》。*星辰大陆,以武为尊,实力强者得天下!月思卿,卡列国四大家族月家弃女,天生废材,灵力为零。虽被撵出家族,隐居于深山小村,仍为人所不耻,被人活活打死。再睁眼,她,不再是她。月思卿,21世纪古武家族千百年来惊才绝艳的天才人物,带领三名手下同时穿越,在异界混得风生水起。且看女主如何从一名废材在异世大陆走向神者巅峰。**那阴暗潮湿王国内的主人,以鲜血为饮,以杀人为乐,令天下诸神诸人谈之色变。这世间,唯有他放在心尖上的女人能净化他的灵魂。旧文:天才庶女:王爷我不嫁天才狂妃:废物三小姐青春那么疼之爱到荼蘼
她本来是个成绩优异,乖巧懂事的孩子,可是她为了报复爸爸,努力让自己变坏,她恨自己的奶奶,不告诉他关于母亲的一切,后来她遇到了一个叫逃离的女孩,只是在奶奶和逃离不在了,她才发现她恨的奶奶竟然用一生养大了三个没有血缘的孩子,最后连生命都献给了别人,那个活拨的女孩,竟然是她的亲妹妹,她十八年来都不知道她的存在,她从小受着被买来买去和毒打的苦,她多次的逃离,多次的失败,最终逃出了魔掌,冥冥之中也遇到了亲姐姐,可是她也爱上了一个深深爱着姐姐的男孩,甚至为他失去了性命,可她无悔。恨了那么多年的爸爸竟然没有一点血缘,她忽然感觉这个世界上她活的多么凄惨,为了赎罪,她来到那个遥远的地方,也遇上了那个爱自己自己也爱着的人,只是最后,他也不在了,生命不在,爱情就走到了末路。记忆是秋天落下的叶子
遗忘是件很可怕的事,当你越忘越多的时候,那份恐慌那种迷茫,无法与外人道,似乎自己像烟一样虚无缥缈起来。如果有一天自己屏蔽了所有的记忆,你还记得你是谁吗?有我却又无我,灵魂一定会不安和哭泣的,该怎样留住被贪吃鬼蚕食的记忆呢?也许记忆里的每一个故事都是一片叶子,曾经嫩绿茂盛的装点过季节,招摇过生机,但是在人生的秋天便会一叶叶的飘落。。。