No one knew anything of Alessandro,
beyond the fact that all the Temecula Indians had been driven out
of their village, and that there was now not an Indian in the valley.
There was a rumor that Alessandro and his father had both died;
but no one knew anything certainly. The Temecula Indians had
disappeared, that was all there was of it,-- disappeared, like any
wild creatures, foxes or coyotes, hunted down, driven out; the
valley was rid of them. But the Senorita! She was not with these
fugitives. That could not be! Heaven forbid!
"If I'd my legs, I'd go and see for myself." said Juan Can. "It would
be some comfort to know even the worst. Perdition take the
Senora, who drove her to it! Ay, drove her to it! That's what I say,
Luigo." In some of his most venturesome wrathy moments he
would say: "There's none of you know the truth about the Senorita
but me! It's a hard hand the Senora's reared her with, from the first.
She's a wonderful woman, our Senora! She gets power over one."
But the Senora's power was shaken now. More changed than all
else in the changed Moreno household, was the relation between
the Senora Moreno and her son Felipe.
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