Young Adolescent Engagement in Learning
Supporting Students through Structure and Community
Jeanne Allen
School of Education and Professional Studies
Grifth University
Mt Gravatt, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
Donna Pendergast School of Education and Professional Studies
Grifth University
Mt Gravatt, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
Glenda McGregor School of Education and Professional Studies
Grifth University
Mt Gravatt, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
Michelle Ronksley-Pavia School of Education and Professional Studies
Grifth University
Southport, QLD, Australia
ISBN 978-3-030-05836-4
ISBN 978-3-030-05837-1 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05837-1
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018967283
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Foreword
I am really pleased to be able to contribute this preface to Young Adolescent Engagement in Learning. Te issue of ‘engagement’ is one that is of interest to many educators—myself included. However, what constitutes engagement and disengagement is often subjective and context specifc. Whilst it is clear that young people who have ‘dropped out’ or been ‘pushed out’ of school, who do not complete their school work or who misbehave in class are not engaged in learning, they are not the only ones who might be considered disengaged. Many young people who manage the routines of schooling on a daily basis, who complete their work on time and have high levels of attendance are often considered ‘engaged.’ However, if they are only going through the motions of learning, and are neither excited by new knowledge nor stimulated to extend their knowledge and thinking in a particular area—are they really engaged in learning? Te responsibility for engagement is also a key question. If ‘we teach’ and ‘they don’t learn,’ whose responsibility is that? I once interviewed a school principal who indicated that he hated the word “disengagement” as it implied that it was young people’s fault they were not embracing schooling. He preferred the word “disenfranchised”—they were being denied a right to a wondrous, intellectually stimulating and meaningful education.
I have a lot of sympathy for this argument; a blame game often accompanies debates about disengagement. Young people are blamed for being lazy, feckless, too caught up in new technologies, and unwilling to listen to their teachers. Teir parents are often blamed for a lack of discipline, not valuing education, and not respecting their children’s teachers themselves. However, blame often does not stop there. Teachers are blamed for failing to connect with the students, for not having appropriate behaviour management strategies, and not having the requisite knowledge to teach their subject areas in engaging ways. Teacher education is also often held responsible for producing inefective teachers who cannot control classes, because they have spent too much time teaching about social justice and about other supposedly ‘left’ leaning materials such as ‘Safe Schools’ (a program to make schools a safe place for queer young people). Such blaming helps no-one.
Young Adolescent Engagement in Learning deftly avoids this blaming and identifes the ways in which schools and school systems can develop holistic responses to ensuring all young people are behaviourally, emotionally and cognitively engaged in learning. In my view, Jeanne Allen, Glenda McGregor, Donna Pendergast and Michelle Ronksley-Pavia are on track in highlighting the ways in which the traditional practices and concerns of mainstream schools (although not universal across schools) work against ‘engagement.’ For example, creative, exploratory and challenging forms of pedagogy are regularly avoided as schools are expected to meet increasingly narrow and high stakes accountability regimes. Furthermore, young people who are seen to threaten the reputation of schools through their disengagement from schooling that impacts upon their own learning and that of others in their classes are often ‘pushed out’ of school.
It is sometimes argued that schools and teachers make all the difference to students’ engagement; the authors recognise the fallacy of such arguments. Tere are many factors beyond the school gates which impact upon young people’s engagement in school. However, they also recognise, quite rightly so, that schools can make a signifcant diference. Tere is no letting schools ‘of the hook’ here. In my view, the authors are right to argue that engagement and achievement in traditional academic outcomes are linked, and hence the need for schools to address the engagement of those marginalised by poverty and other
factors is a matter of social justice. Australia has a high-quality education system and, as such, the disparities in outcomes between, for example, Indigenous and non-Indigenous students and young people from low socioeconomic and high socioeconomic backgrounds, are a national disgrace. Te authors’ framework for ‘best-practice,’ developed from a large evidence base and out of work conducted in one Australian jurisdiction, which they refer to as the Young Adolescent Engagement in Learning (YAEL) Model, provides schools with a launch pad for addressing student engagement and addressing such educational disparities.
While engagement is addressed in the broadest sense in Young Adolescent Engagement in Learning, by considering behavioural, emotional and cognitive engagement, bubbling under the surface of this book are questions about the purposes of education. Looking outside the mainstream sector to identify the ways in which ‘alternative’ forms of schooling work to engage those who have not fared well in the mainstream seems to me to be an appropriate site for raising such questions. Young people who have often been scarred by the pressures to attain in an environment that has not met their difering needs indicate that in these schools they are often trusted, the curriculum builds upon their knowledges, external factors impinging upon their ability to engage with school are addressed, and they are valued in their own right. Tis suggests that schools should not just be concerned with attainment (and young people as human capital)—although attainment and its distribution are obviously important—but also need to address issues of wellbeing and active citizenship in order that young people can ‘live well in a world worth living in’ (Kemmis & Edwards-Groves, 2017, p. 7, emphasis in original).
As a central feature of this book, the YAEL Model recognises that there are three overarching dimensions of approaches to addressing student engagement (Layer 1): school structure and school community, student wellbeing and teaching, teachers and leaders. It then indicates that there are nine sub-dimensions of these dimensions (Layer 2), including, for example: whole-school reform; practical and network supports; meaningful curriculum for young adolescent learners; inclusive school structure; and positive relational climate. Te Model is then completed with a third layer outlining the degrees of support required across a continuum that identifes those supports that all young people should
experience through to those targeted towards young people with varying needs and difering degrees of disengagement from schooling.
Many approaches to addressing student disengagement fall into one of two categories (although sometimes both): changing the student or changing the school (see, e.g., IFF Research Ltd, Mills, & Tomson, 2018). Te former is often grounded in defcit assumptions about the young person, and approaches are designed to ‘fx up’ the student. Te underpinning assumptions of the YAEL Model avoid such constructions; they recognise that there are individual factors and hence the need for schools to provide, for example, their students with ‘social, emotional, psychological and health support.’ Te Model takes a strengths-based approach to supporting students in that it is concerned with beginning from where the student is at—not with fxing them up. Te Model also focusses on what the school can do to address disengagement and to ensure that all young people are seen as having the right to a fulflling and rich educational experience. Te Model also recognises that teachers have to be at the centre of meaningful change, whether this is in developing whole school responses to disengagement, or developing meaningful curricula and rich forms of pedagogies in their classrooms. As is recognised in this book, teachers’ work, especially when working with young people from highly marginalised backgrounds, involves signifcant emotional (as well as intellectual) labour—teachers’ wellbeing is thus also important.
Te focus of the YAEL Model is on young people in the ‘middle years’ of schooling. Tere are very specifc pressures and factors which impact upon young people who fall into this age bracket. Tese are neatly identifed in this book. However, as this book quite rightly illustrates, ‘disengagement’ afects all students, young and old, and high and low attainers, and, as such, the Model is one that will have applicability to all schools and all students. Furthermore, whilst the book has a very strong Australian focus it has relevance beyond that context. Te analyses and arguments presented in this book are embedded in a substantial international literature base. Schools and systems in multiple locations are seeking to address the concerns raised here, and the book will provide a valuable resource for provoking and initiating action.
Tere are two aspects of the book that I would like to highlight before concluding this foreword. Many reforms in schools are done to
young people and teachers. Tis book puts the voices of both young people and their teachers central to addressing the issues of engagement. Within schools, there has been a severe erosion of trust in both young people and teachers. Tis Model suggests that young people have to be trusted to make meaningful contributions to their education, to contribute to decision making in matters that afect them, and that schools have to create the environment within which such trust can fourish. It also implies that teachers have to be trusted, to be consulted on matters afecting their students, to be trusted in developing curricula and pedagogies that will engage their students free from, using the Connell (2012, p. 682) quote in the text, the “club of auditing.”
Te book concludes with suggestions as to how it might be employed by policy makers, system and school leaders, and teachers in a system-wide change. I think that it may well be used productively in such ways. However, once a book begins its journey from the hands of the publisher to those of distributors and ultimately to those of readers, authors lose control over its use and interpretation. I think Young Adolescent Engagement in Learning is going to be used in multiple ways with multiple efects. Tis is as it should be. I can see schools, and staf within those schools, concerned about the issues raised by the book poring over the Model, interpreting its diferent layers in the context of their own schooling and developing their own responses based on the Model’s principles. Te authors are right to suggest caution in determining causes and solutions to the problem of schooling disengagement. Tere are no easy solutions. Engagement with this text and with the Model it provides will, I believe, ensure that the complexity of this problem is tackled in ways that neither blame the young person nor blame the teacher. I am positive that this book is going to stimulate many an exciting and productive conversation in stafrooms, teacher education classrooms and various departmental ofces—all of which will hopefully lead to action. Allen, McGregor, Pendergast and Ronksley-Pavia should be extremely pleased with such an outcome.
London, UK
Martin Mills Institute of Education University College London
Foreword
References
Connell, R. W. (2012). Just education. Journal of Education Policy, 27(5), 681–683.
IFF Research Ltd, Mills, M., & Tomson, P. (2018). Investigative research into alternative education research report. London, UK: Department for Education.
Kemmis, S., & Edwards-Groves, C. (2017). Understanding education: History, politics and practice. Singapore: Springer.
Preface
Student engagement is fundamental to learning and yet a major and long-standing challenge to educators in Australia and elsewhere is how to engage all young adolescents in learning at school. Tis book is the frst of its kind in that it provides an evidence-based theorisation of a range of features associated with schooling engagement, along with targeted strategies that underpin a continuum of pedagogical, curricular and social supports during the years of young adolescent schooling (typically 11–16 years).
Drawing upon an international evidence base, as well as data from one major Australian schooling jurisdiction, the book consolidates a range of learning theories and approaches to engaging young adolescents. As such, it provides a broad lens through which to view the needs of all students during this middle phase of learning, particularly those who might be at risk of disengaging. Our starting premises are twofold. First, as demonstrated in extant literature, all young people are potentially at risk of disengaging from learning because of a myriad of personal factors shaping young adolescence, as well as schooling pressures and transitions.
Second, risks associated with disengagement can be mitigated via a spectrum of proactive, supportive and responsive measures that foster student engagement and enhance levels of retention in schools.
Rationale
Te central feature of this book is the Young Adolescent Engagement in Learning (YAEL) Model, which provides a framework for best practice approaches to the learning engagement of all young adolescents, and thus increases the likelihood of them staying at school. Te Model is multi-layered and incorporates a continuum of behavioural, emotional and cognitive dimensions of engagement. Engagement in education is an issue at the core of the work of all school leaders, teachers, parents and other stakeholders who work with young adolescents, such as counsellors and welfare service ofcers. Given the importance of the topic, this book is potentially relevant for this range of interested parties, making it distinctive as a product. Further, the connection of theory with practical applications addresses stakeholders’ needs in an informed and accessible way.
Content
Te book provides deep insights into the myriad of factors associated with dis/engagement in learning in young adolescence and an evidence-based, theorised approach to engaging learners during this key stage of their development. It is comprised of six chapters, synopsised below. Te frst two chapters provide the background and set the scene; Chapters 3 and 4 model a continuum of support for young adolescent learners through the YAEL Model; Chapter 5 details the three key components of provision contained in the Model; and Chapter 6 exemplifes how the Model can be implemented through the reform approach of the Educational Change Model.
Chapter 1: Engaging Young Adolescents in Learning
Tis chapter foregrounds the context of young adolescent learning in schools, emphasising that engaging young adolescents is crucial to achieving optimal educational outcomes. Te authors explain their contention that all young adolescent students are at risk of disengagement
or underachievement. Te approach taken in this book refects current educational trends away from a defcit view of young adolescents at risk of disengaging from schooling towards a more holistic view of the factors that lead to student disengagement. In this chapter, the authors explore the challenge of engaging young adolescents in learning, including those students with complex learning needs, who exhibit challenging or aggressive behaviour, or who have additional support needs; and interrogate the factors that may contribute to student disengagement and those that enhance engagement.
Chapter 2: Mapping the Terrain
Tere are concerns within OECD countries about many young people’s apparent disengagement from education. Chapter 2 reviews current research in this feld and explores the theoretical contexts and practical frameworks that have helped to inform the YAEL Model. Evidence is presented from individual schools and schooling jurisdictions that have experimented with their own responses to this challenge. Such initiatives have shown varying levels of success. Much of the literature highlights the need to change many of the traditional aspects of mainstream schooling that impact negatively on the engagement of many young people. Terefore, this chapter also turns to the alternative and fexible learning sector for practices and philosophies of schooling that provide holistic frameworks of support for students.
Chapter 3: Modelling a Continuum of Support
Te YAEL Model provides a holistic approach to the provision of support for young adolescent learners. Developed from an extensive review of the international literature, as well as extant student learning support initiatives and strategies for student engagement, the Model represents a unifying framework of best practice approaches, which serves the needs of those working in the felds of student engagement and retention. Development of the Model was also informed by fndings from a large research study, including consultations and interviews with a range of
key stakeholders, in an Australian educational jurisdiction. Chapter 3 frst describes the methodological approach used to develop the Model and then discusses the overarching dimensions that constitute Layer 1 of the Model.
Chapter 4: Core Characteristics of Student Engagement
Te preceding chapter described how the three dimensions of school structures and school community, student wellbeing and teaching, teachers and leaders are fundamental to the ways in which schools engage young adolescents in learning. As such, they constitute the superordinate layer (Layer 1) of the YAEL Model. Couched within these three dimensions is a suite of interconnected sub-dimensions, which represent the core characteristics of the continuum of support that has been shown to most efectively address the needs of all young adolescent learners. Te purpose of Chapter 4 is to describe and exemplify these sub-dimensions, which comprise Layer 2 of the Model, and demonstrate their importance to school innovation and improvement agendas for student engagement and retention.
Chapter 5: Components of Provision: Continuum of Support for Adolescent Learners
Tis chapter describes the three components of provision that provide increasing levels of support to young adolescent learners. Te frst section outlines Component 1, the fve core elements for young adolescent learner engagement, that together create an ecosystem of learning that serves as best practice for all young adolescents. Next, Component 2, fexible learning options, is described. Tis component comprises early intervention and preventive approaches and strategies for students who require assistance beyond those provided by Component 1. Due to many complex factors, some students require more individualised teaching and intensive care. Tus, Component 3, alternative educational provision, sits at the end of the continuum of support and allows for student transfer into either on-site or of-site facilities so that they may receive more support.
Chapter 6: Reforming Schools and Systems to Engage Young Adolescent Learners
Implementation of the YAEL Model requires intentional actions and change in classrooms, schools and at systems’ level. Extant literature provides high-level understanding of the major phases of reform and the elements required for reform success. Chapter 6 focuses on one approach to reform that has driven change—the Educational Change Model (ECM)—and how the YAEL Model can be intentionally implemented through adopting this reform approach. Te components in the phases of the ECM may be utilised as a guide for the implementation timeline and serve as an audit tool for efective implementation, alongside the components of provision of the YAEL Model. Te chapter also discusses some of the key challenges and enablers in school reform for student engagement.
Mt Gravatt, Brisbane, Australia
Mt Gravatt, Brisbane, Australia
Mt Gravatt, Brisbane, Australia
Southport, Australia
Jeanne Allen
Glenda McGregor
Donna Pendergast
Michelle Ronksley-Pavia
Acknowledgements
We acknowledge the support provided by the Australian Capital Territory Government through the provision of funding for the research undertaken at the start of our project. We also express our thanks to Ms. Joy Reynolds for her valuable assistance in the graphic design of tables and fgures and for compiling and checking the manuscript.
About the Authors
Associate Professor Jeanne Allen is an Associate Professor of Teacher Education at Grifth University, Australia. She researches teacher education, standardised educational contexts, teacher identity, and student retention, and, since 2005, has developed an international profle with over 60 peer-reviewed publications. Jeanne is a current co-editor of the Asia-Pacifc
Journal of Teacher Education.
Dr. Glenda McGregor is a Senior Lecturer and Deputy Head of School (Academic), in the School of Education and Professional Studies, Grifth University. She teaches in the areas of globalisation, youth studies and history curriculum. Her research interests include sociology of youth, alternative and democratic schooling, curriculum and educational reform.
Professor Donna Pendergast is Dean and Head, School of Education and Professional Studies at Grifth University. Donna has an international profle in the feld of teacher education, particularly in the Junior Secondary years of schooling, which focuses on the unique challenges of teaching and learning in the early adolescent years.
Dr. Michelle Ronksley-Pavia is a Research Fellow and Sessional Lecturer at Grifth University. Michelle is an award-winning teacher with over 20 years’ experience across education sectors. Her research focuses on building teachers’ capacity to support underserved populations of gifted students. Michelle is a leading expert in the feld of twice-exceptionality in Australia.
Abbreviations/Acronyms
ABS Australian Bureau of Statistics
ACER Australian Council for Educational Research
ACT Australian Capital Territory
AEP Alternative Education Program
AITSL Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership
AMLE Association for Middle Level Education
APSC Australian Public Service Commission
ARACY Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth
ATM Attitudes Towards Mathematics
BOSS Behavioral Observation of Students in Schools
CCR/AES Consortium on Chicago School Research/Academic Engagement Scale
COAG Council of Australian Governments
DEEWR Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations
DEP Deemed Enrolment Program
DETYA Department of Education, Training and Youth Afairs
ECM Educational Change Model
HoL Hands on Learning
HSSSE High School Survey of Student Engagement
ICAN Innovative Community Action Network
Abbreviations/Acronyms
IEP Individual Education Plan
ILP Individual Learning Plan
IPI Instructional Practices Inventory
ISQ Identifcation with School Questionnaire
KPMG Klynveld Peat Marwick Goerdeler (research company)
MCEETYA Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Afairs
MES Motivation and Engagement Scale
MS-CISSAR Te Main-Stream Code for Instructional Structure and Student Academic Response
MSLQ Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire
NAPLAN National Assessment Program—Literacy and Numeracy
NEET Not in Education, Employment or Training
NSW New South Wales
OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
PCYC Police Citizens Youth Club
PD Professional Development
PISA Programme for International Student Assessment
PRU Pupil Referral Unit
RAPS Research Assessment Package for Schools
REI Reading Engagement Index
RTI Response to Intervention
SDG Sustainable Development Goal
SEC Student Engagement Continuum
SEI Student Engagement Instrument
SELT Student Engagement and Learning Team
SES Socio-Economic Status
SOBAS Sense of Belonging at School
SSES Student School Engagement Survey
SSP School Success Profle
VET Vocational Education and Training
YAEL Young Adolescent Engagement in Learning
List of Figures
Fig. 1.1 School education Performance Indicator Framework (Source Commonwealth of Australia [2018, p. 4.6]) 6
Fig. 1.2 Te engagement dimensions (Source Adapted from Gibbs and Poskitt [2010, p. 12])
Fig. 2.1 Map of educational alternatives for marginalized youth (Source Te Riele, 2007, p. 59)
Fig. 3.1 Te Young Adolescent Engagement in Learning Model
Fig. 3.2 Resource allocation and prevalence of support—an inverse relationship
Fig. 3.3 Layer 1—overarching dimensions
Fig. 4.1 Te Young Adolescent Engagement in Learning Model
Fig. 4.2 Layer 2—Sub-dimensions
Fig. 5.1 Layer 3: Component 1—Five core elements for young adolescent learner engagement
14
51
84
86
90
102
103
134
Fig. 5.2 Layer 3: Component 2—Flexible learning provision support 143
Fig. 5.3 Layer 3: Component 3—Alternative provision 153
Fig. 5.4 Cycle of student re-engagement through early intervention and the use of fexible provision and on-site alternative provision
162
List of Tables
Table 1.1 Features of efective pedagogy for young adolescent learners 26
Table 1.2 Te six guiding principles of Junior Secondary underpinning Years 7–9 in Queensland state schools 27
Table 3.1 Range and number of participants in the data collection phase 69
Table 3.2 School leaders’ responses on the numbers and identifcation methods used to identify at-risk and disengaged students 78
Table 4.1 Dimensions and sub-dimensions 104
Table 5.1 Efective intervention strategies for students at risk of early leaving
Table 5.2 Te strength of efect of student disengagement factors
147
148
Table 6.1 Engagement dimensions measured by instruments 171
Table 6.2 Core components of Educational Change Model 181
Table 6.3 Implementing the YAEL model in alignment with the ECM 182
List of Boxes
Young Adolescent Learners
Te idea of adolescence has been around for more than 100 years with theorist G. Stanley Hall credited with bringing the idea of adolescence to prominence, positing that all individuals experience predictable maturation in physical, social, emotional and cognitive domains (see also Bahr, 2017). Tis developmentalism lens characterised adolescence as a time of storm and stress, of raging hormones, and of transition from a child to an adult (Garvis et al., 2018).
Over the last hundred years there have been many educators, theorists and researchers who have contributed to our evolving understanding of adolescence, extending beyond this rather narrow conceptualisation, including, for example, Vygotsky (1978) who points to the interplay between socio-cultural factors and adolescents. Importantly, there is still no one single defnition of adolescence that is universally accepted. Among the aspects that remain contested is whether age can be used as a way of constructing adolescence. In contemporary times, the beginning of adolescence may be argued to be as young as 11 or 12 years and extending through to the age of 20–22 years, based on markers such as the onset of puberty as a starting point and completion of formal education as an end point. More latterly, adolescence is described as the period of life between childhood and adulthood (Steinberg, 2010). Adolescence is also more likely to be regarded as a unique journey with predictable patterns that are individually experienced. Furthermore, adolescence is also typically identifed as a time of opportunity and growth, marking a shift from a generally negative to a more positive discourse.
Te extent of changes including those that occur physically, psychosocially, emotionally, cognitively and spiritually during early adolescence is second only to that experienced in the frst two years of life (Pendergast, 2017a). Te changes are interrelated and overlapping and impacted by many factors (Caskey & Anfara, 2014). In addition, we can expect the most diferentiation from individual to individual, as for each person the journey through adolescence is unique, with changes occurring at diferent times and at diferent rates. Te impact this brings to classrooms is wide diferentiation, both in the usual sense of
socio-economic status (SES), ethnicity, gender, location, and other generally accepted variables, but also in terms of the widest range of maturation diversity across the developmental domains.
Te developmental changes that typically occur in adolescence are intertwined with each other, along with sociocultural and environmental infuences and experiences. A summary of some of the key developmental aspects of adolescence and the nature of these changes follows in Box 1.1.
Box 1.1 Summary of key changes during early adolescence
Physical development
• In early adolescence, the body undergoes more physical change than at any other time, apart from the age of birth to two years;
• The rate of growth is rapid and uneven, with each individual following a similar pattern;
• Changes include increases in height, weight, and internal organ size as well as changes in skeletal and muscular systems;
• Puberty occurs at the outset of early adolescence, triggered by the release of hormones which lead to the development of primary sex characteristics (genitalia) and secondary sex characteristics (e.g., breast development in girls, facial hair in boys);
• Increased hormone production affects all aspects of the body, especially skeletal growth, hair production, and skin changes;
• Growth spurts typically occur about two years earlier in girls than boys.
Social development
• Adolescents establish a sense of identity and establish a role and purpose;
• Body image is a key factor in developing a sense of self and identity;
• Family and, increasingly, peers play an important role in assisting and supporting the adolescent to achieve adult roles;
• Social and emotional development are closely intertwined as young people search for a sense of self and personal identity.
Emotional development
• Individuals develop in the way they think and feel about themselves and others;
• The development and demonstration of individual emotional assets, such as resilience, self-esteem and coping skills, are heightened;
• Schools are important sites for social and emotional learning and have developed policies and programs around student wellness, often with a focus on a strengths-based approach.
Cognitive development
• Cognition is the process involving thought, rationale and perception; physical changes of the brain that occur during adolescence follow typical patterns of cognitive development;
• Cognitive development is characterised by the development of higher-level cognitive functioning that aligns with the changes in brain structure and function, particularly in the prefrontal cortex region;
• Structural and functional brain changes affect the opportunity for increased memory and processing and may also contribute to vulnerability, such as risk-taking and increased sensitivity to mental illness;
• Sensitive brain period, that is, a time when brain plasticity is heightened. During this time, there is an opportunity for learning and cognitive growth as the brain adapts in structure and function in response to experiences.
Young Adolescent Learners and Education Policy
Sustainable Development Goals
Framing education policies from 2015 to 2030 for the 194 member states, the United Nations’ resolution adopted on the 25th September 2015 known as Transforming our world: Te 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (United Nations, 2015) sets out a global agenda that is characterised as “a plan of action for people, planet and prosperity” (p. 3). It outlines a commitment to 17 aspirational global goals, often referred to as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which have 169 targets between them. Te agenda has a deliberate approach and Goal 4 relates to quality education, with the goal to: “[E]nsure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all” (United Nations, 2015, p. 11). At the time of the adoption of the resolution, every country in the world fell short on more than half of the 17 SDGs and a quarter of the world’s countries fell short on all 17 of the goals (Bauer, 2016).
According to Sachs, Schmidt-Traub, Kroll, Lafortune, and Fuller (2018), Australia has a global rank of 37 (out of 156 countries) across the 17 SDGs but is declining rather than improving this ranking. Overall, Australia generally ranks highly on SDG 4—educational quality. Highlights include primary school enrolment rate of 96.7% and the
mean number of years of schooling of 13.2 years. However, there are some key areas for attention, including a large disparity between outcomes for Indigenous and non-Indigenous students, with an 83.4% attendance rate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in 2016, similar to 2014 (83.5%) compared to the attendance rate for non-Indigenous students remaining steady at 93.1% (Commonwealth of Australia, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, 2017). As the SDG agenda gains momentum, fnding ways to activate change and accelerate progress towards achieving SDGs by 2030 sets the context for a focus on quality education, including student engagement, and this provides an impetus for focusing particularly on those targets where Australia falls short, but generally on maintaining and enhancing quality education in general.
According to the Australian Government Productivity Commission report (Commonwealth of Australia, 2018), and built on the educational goals for young Australians outlined in the Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians (Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Afairs [MCEETYA], 2008), the vision and objectives of the Australian school system are as follows:
Australian schooling aims for all young Australians to become successful learners, confdent and creative individuals, and active and informed citizens positioning them to live fulflling, productive and responsible lives. It aims for students to excel by international standards, while reducing educational disadvantage.
To meet this vision, the school education system aims to:
• engage all students and promote student participation; and
• deliver high quality teaching with a world class curriculum.
Governments aim for school education services to meet these objectives in an equitable, efective and efcient manner. (Commonwealth of Australia, 2018, p. 4.6)
A school education Performance Indicator Framework has been developed to refect on the achievement of the objectives, using equity, efectiveness and efciency as a frame, as presented in Fig. 1.1.
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CHAPTER VII
TWO TALKS, AND A TUNNEL
The siesta hour was over; the caballero had spent it in proper fashion in his teepee; and now, standing out in the open, he was feeding tufts of hay to his horse and caressing the animal’s neck and nose.
Half a hundred yards away the two soldiers from the presidio regarded him with animosity, holding him to blame for their assignment at the mission, where none had love for them, and their absence from the barracks-room and its wine and cards, tales and laughter.
Neophytes and frailes had finished their work of repairing the adobe wall; men were grouped about the plaza; children played about the huts of tule and straw; the door of the storehouse was open and Señor Lopez stood in it talking to Pedro, the giant neophyte apparently in the service of the guest house.
Though it appeared so, yet it was not bravado that drove the caballero to cross the plaza then. It was necessity; for he had given his horse the water that remained in the jug, and needed more, and remembered that there was a well in the orchard.
Swinging the jug by one hand, he started briskly up the slope toward the wall, realising that one of the soldiers was following him at a distance, and that the other remained behind to watch the teepee.
An Indian lounging beside the chapel called to another, and the word was passed along. Señor Lopez straightened up and observed the caballero’s advance; Pedro followed him inside, and the door was closed. Indian women called their children into the huts; the men
remained standing in groups, but closer together, and as they talked they watched the caballero from beneath shaggy brows. Frailes went about their business as if he did not exist.
“It is a pleasant thing,” he mused, “to be treated in this manner by human beings.”
He did not betray what he felt, however. Singing under his breath as he walked around the end of the wall, he started diagonally across the plaza, looking neither to right nor left. Neophytes turned their backs upon him, and as he passed within half a dozen feet of a fray, and called a greeting in a cheery tone, the Franciscan did not answer, did not even lift his head.
He came to the wall around the orchard and swung upon it—and there stopped, poised, facing the unexpected. Señorita Anita Fernandez, Señora Vallejo and a neophyte were walking toward the well.
It was not a time for hesitation, however. He sprang down on the inside and started forward, whistling, knowing they were aware of his approach and that the girl was whispering warnings to her duenna. The neophyte had filled a water jug and would have turned back, but the girl instructed him to wait, and remained standing near the well, looking down the valley toward the bay. Her face was flaming, her black eyes snapped.
“Pardon, señorita,” the caballero said. “Perhaps it may look badly to you, but I give you my word of honour I did not see you enter the orchard and purposely follow you here, even though your duenna is present. I am of a family that observes the conventions, señorita, no matter what may be said of me.”
“Señora Vallejo, when will you cease mumbling to yourself?” the girl demanded.
“I? Mumbling? ’Tis but a frog croaking in the well.”
“That comes from sleeping on the wet ground,” the caballero observed. “When last we met my voice resembled the sighing of the gentle wind through the olive trees, if memory serves me right.”
Señora Vallejo had turned her back, but the caballero could see that her shoulders were shaking, and not with anger. Señorita Anita was deeply interested in the distant flashing of sun on the water.
“Even such rain as we have had recently could not drown my ardour,” the caballero continued. “Yet it was growing almost unbearable—the storm and the cold and misery. How can I ever find thanks enough to give the angel who fetched me flint and steel under cover of the darkness, when I had about given up hope?”
The girl whirled suddenly, suspiciously, looking not at the caballero, but at her duenna; and Señora Vallejo’s face resembled the sunset.
“Nor is that all,” went on the caballero. “Flint and steel might have given me fire, but naught but an angel could have furnished me, at that moment, with cold meat and wine and other supplies.”
Now Señora Vallejo whirled in her turn, and Señorita Anita turned suddenly to look down the valley again, her face flaming red. A choking sound came from her throat.
“Some fray of San Diego de Alcalá must have been a holy man, since angels make dwelling here,” the man said. “For two visited me last night within the space of half an hour and left material evidences of their visits behind. It is true I had other visitors later, who left me even a teepee, but scarcely would I call them angels, knowing their breed as I do.”
Sombrero in hand, he waited, hoping the girl would speak to him, if even in rebuke. There was silence for a moment, during which the two women did not look at each other, and the neophyte wondered whether he should call for aid.
“Señora Vallejo,” said the girl, presently, “do you not think we should be returning to the guest house? The evening air is cold, and I would not contract a cough, since I must be at my best when Rojerio Rocha comes.”
“It would be the proper thing to do; the orchard is wet.”
“And I always did dislike a croaking frog,” Anita added. “Tell that Indian to throw out the water in his jar. Nobody except a senseless
being would draw water from the well now, since the storm has filled it with the surface flood.”
The caballero felt his face growing red as he glanced down at the jug he held in his hand. The girl had scored again. He looked up quickly, hearing them start to move away, and for an instant their eyes met squarely.
“Bullet nor arrow can harm me now!” he exclaimed. “My heart already is pierced!” And, with that last shot, he turned toward the curb of the well, put his jug down upon it, and stood with his back turned toward them, laughing to himself.
He heard the girl gasp in exasperation, and exchange whispered sentences with her duenna. There was a step on the ground at his back, but not for the world would he turn.
“Señor,” a soft voice said.
He turned now, and swept his sombrero from his head again, and bowed low before her Her face was still flaming, but she looked him bravely in the eyes.
“Señorita?”
“I feel that I must speak to you this once, señor. For the boasts you made concerning me, I forgive you freely, believing that they would not have been made unless you were in your cups. But surely you must realise that nothing can be accomplished by remaining at San Diego de Alcalá. The people dislike you, señor, and your presence is very annoying because of that. Will you not go back up El Camino Real?”
“That you forgive anything I may have said pleases me, señorita,” the caballero replied. “It shows you have a gentle heart, as was shown last night when you carried me food. I am desolated to think you have such an ill opinion of me. As for leaving San Diego de Alcalá—I cannot think of that just now, señorita.”
“Not even if I ask it as a kindness, señor?”
“Not even though you ask it, señorita—and I would do it for you sooner than for anyone else I know.”
“It is not pretty compliments I wish, señor Will you not forget your foolish boast, and go?”
“If ever I made a boast, señorita, it was not a foolish one.”
“I urge you again, señor, to go before Rojerio Rocha comes. He is expected to become my husband, and when he hears of your boast he may take it upon himself to do something unpleasant. Will you not do as I request, since I have disobeyed my duenna’s orders and lowered myself to speak with you?”
“Lowered yourself, señorita?” Surprise, astonishment, a bit of pain was in the voice, and the caballero’s face went white for an instant as his fingers gripped the rim of his sombrero until it was torn. But quickly he recovered his composure, and bowed before her again. “I beg your pardon, señorita. But you mistake. It would be impossible for you to lower yourself, since angels are above punishment and accusation; it is myself—or any other man—who is elevated when you condescend to take notice of his existence.”
“I—I should not have spoken as I did,” she stammered.
“You should speak exactly as you desire, señorita—always. It is your privilege. As for me—it is my privilege to remain at San Diego de Alcalá, not in opposition to your wishes, but because I—I have reason to remain. And you yourself have made it impossible for me to leave now.”
“I?”
“There was some question, I believe, of my punishment at the hands of this Rojerio Rocha if I remained. That in itself is a very good reason why I should not depart, señorita. Have you ever heard it said that I am a coward?”
“I am sure you are not,” she replied, searching his face. “It takes a brave man to depart in the face of a charge of cowardice, señor. Will you not show your courage?”
“The point is well taken,” he observed. “But I have reason for remaining, though mission and presidio and neophytes and gentiles
turn against me—a twofold reason, señorita One part of it concerns that of which, happily, you know nothing; and the other——”
“Well, señor?”
“I have seen you, señorita; I have heard your voice and looked into your eyes. And I intend to win you for my wife, else have no wife at all!”
“Señor! You dare?”
“To speak the truth——?”
“I might have known insults would be my pay for speaking to you!”
“Is it an insult to have a gentleman say that he loves you above all women he ever has seen, that he loved you when first he saw you, that he hopes one day to call you wife?”
“It is an insult coming from such as you, señor!”
“Ah! I beg your pardon! I had forgotten for the time being my name and station.”
“Captain Fly-by-Night would do well to always remember those things, especially in the presence of reputable persons. I forgave you the boast concerning myself, señor; but I cannot forgive you this latest insult to my face. Go or remain as you will, your affairs are no concern of mine longer, señor. Though you starve on the doorstep of the chapel, I’ll not recognise your presence!”
Señora Vallejo had been calling in a soft voice for the past five minutes. Now the girl turned from the caballero and hurried after her duenna. Leaning against the curb of the well, he watched her until she had disappeared through a hole in the wall and across the plaza. He laughed softly to himself then, and picked up the water jug, swinging it foolishly at his side, chagrined to think he had not remembered that the water in the well would be ruined for the time being, wondering if Señorita Anita really thought the jug a mere subterfuge of his to follow her and seek conversation. Turning, he looked down into the well. Surface water was seeping through the rocks of the curb, and a few feet below the level of the
ground a torrent poured into the hole to splash far below
“Where is that coming from?” the caballero wondered. He walked to the other side of the curb and bent over to look better. Ten feet from the top was the mouth of a small cavern in the side of the well, and from this the water was pouring in a stream half a foot deep and a vara wide.
“Persons do not turn a drain into a well,” he observed, watching the downpour. “There is something here that needs to be investigated.”
He glanced around. No other person was in the small orchard; none was peering at him over the wall. It was almost dusk. Perhaps the soldier who had followed him from the teepee was watching through a crack in the adobe, but he could not be sure.
He picked up the jug and sauntered toward the wall, stopping where a breach had been made, instead of springing over in the usual place. The soldier had turned back, and was standing at one corner of the plaza talking to a fray, and waiting.
The caballero ran back to the wall again, looked around quickly, and let himself over the curb. Jutting rocks gave holds for his feet and hands. He lowered himself rapidly, until he was at the mouth of the small cavern.
The volume of water pouring out was not so great now. The cavern was not a small storage-place for tallow, as he had half suspected, but a tunnel. Now the spirit of exploration was on him, and he drew himself inside. Foot by foot he made his way through the narrow gorge, splashing in water and mud to his knees, the water dripping upon him from the dirt roof.
Soon he had gone so far that light from the well did not penetrate, and now he journeyed slowly, putting a foot out and feeling around before attempting a step, fearing to be plunged into a pit or another well. He had covered a distance of fifty yards when he came to a turning, and there he stopped for a moment, hesitating whether to go on.
Then he heard voices, faintly at first, the voices of women, and they seemed to come from above. He heard Señora Vallejo’s deep tones raised in rebuke, the softer syllables of Señorita Anita Fernandez in justification of her act. He put out his hand to touch the wall, and found it dry and warm. The cracking of burning wood could be heard. The tunnel ended against a wall of the guest house.
“Some wise old padre did this in the earlier days,” the caballero observed. “I doubt whether half a dozen men in the mission know of its existence now.”
But there was another tunnel that branched away from this, and in a diagonal direction. The caballero followed it, determined to gather what knowledge he could. Less than a hundred feet, and he came up against another wall. There were no sounds here, but there was a thin streak of light entering at the end.
He crept near the streak of light and applied his eyes to the crack. The day was dying, and he could see but dimly, but enough to show that he was looking into the mortuary chapel of the mission. Here, then, was another way of escape in case of danger, provided by the frailes of Serra’s time.
His exploration was at an end now, and he faced the long, wet return journey through the tunnel to the well. He shivered at the thought of it, and decided it should not be made. Again he looked through the crack; there was no one in the chapel, and, moreover, the tunnel entrance was in a dark corner. He put his fingers in the crack and tried to pull. A section of the wall gave a little. He braced himself against the side of the tunnel, exerted his strength, and a square of adobe swung inward.
For a moment he waited, listening, then slipped into the chapel and swung the section of wall back into place, even scattering dust along the crack where his hands had gripped. Walking silently, he made his way to the main part of the church, meeting no one, arousing no suspicion. Presently he opened the door and stepped out into the plaza. He was seen only by neophytes, and his presence there did not arouse much curiosity among them, for even Captain Fly-by-
Night, they supposed, attended to his devotions and confessed his many sins.
At the corner of the plaza he came face to face with an agitated soldier, who had looked back into the orchard, missed the caballero, and searched frantically and without result. The caballero grinned in the man’s red face, and walked slowly down the slope.
“Now from where, in the name of evil, did that man come?” the soldier gasped. But he got no answer then, though he gathered a solution at a later day.
The caballero was building up his fire and preparing the evening meal when the soldier joined his companion beside the creek. Two neophytes hurried down the slope and made camp for the men from the presidio, building a fire and stretching a shelter of skins, and giving them food and wine. Darkness came swiftly, and to those at the mission the two fires beside the creek looked like the eyes of a giant beast about to spring on the settlement.
The caballero did not attempt a serenade this night. He sat before his fire, wondering what would occur at midnight, when the Indians were to come. The presence of the soldiers complicated matters. He knew that at least one of them was watching him, and that, if he started to move away, one would follow.
The hours passed, slowly it seemed to the caballero. One by one the lights in the mission buildings disappeared. The heavy fog obscured the light of the moon and stars. A cold wind crept up the valley, and the caballero wrapped his cloak around his shoulders and sat nearer the fire.
CHAPTER VIII
A VICTOR RUNS AWAY
An hour after sunrise an Indian rode a mule furiously up the valley from the presidio. The beast was covered with lather and dust, and the rider appeared half exhausted. His screeching awoke the sleeping caballero, who went out of the teepee and looked toward the plaza to note the cause of the uproar
Frailes and neophytes crowded around the mule’s rider and questioned eagerly Señor Lopez came from the storehouse to hear the news, and the caballero could see that his face was illuminated with a smile as he hurried across to the guest house, where he knocked on the door.
The door opened and Señora Vallejo appeared, Señorita Anita Fernandez beside her. Words were passed. Señora Vallejo turned and clasped the girl in her arms; the señorita hid her face against the duenna’s shoulder; Señor Lopez laughed loudly, and a passing fray raised arms in blessing.
Indian women and children began running about, busy at nothing in particular. Lopez began giving wine to any who asked it. Straw was thrown on the mud near buildings where the sun had not penetrated enough to turn the wet clay to dust. One by one, men walked to the end of the wall and gazed down El Camino Real toward the bay.
“One would think San Diego de Alcalá expected a visit from His Excellency the Governor!” the caballero gasped. “Nothing like this transpired when I came off the highway and graced the mission with my presence.”
And then, an hour before noon, a dust cloud approached from the north. It did not stop at the presidio, this dust cloud, but continued up the valley, and in time it was dispelled enough for the caballero to see that the riders were two in number, and that they were followed by a pack mule compelled to cover the ground at a gallop.
Neophytes covered the top of the adobe wall to watch; frailes ran here and there about the plaza calling orders that were given no attention; and Señor Lopez, standing in the doorway of the storehouse beside the giant Pedro, jested loudly as he quaffed wine, but in words the caballero could not hear. The two soldiers who had been the caballero’s guards partook of the excitement, and left the shore of the creek to climb the slope and join in the enthusiasm.
The riders came nearer; one was a man well dressed, with his bright-coloured zarape flowing behind him; the other was an Indian who rode a mule. The red dust of the highway covered them, but they sat their saddles like men newly mounted, though it was evident they had travelled the forty miles from San Luis Rey de Francia that morning.
And now the neophytes were sending their cries down the valley:
“Rojerio Rocha! A welcome to Rojerio Rocha! Welcome to the señorita’s husband-to-be!”
Suddenly the caballero began to give more interest in the proceeding.
“Rojerio Rocha, eh?” he mused. “The husband-to-be of Señorita Anita? Upon my soul, this is to be interesting. I presume I’ll have an interview with the gentleman before the end of the day. Well, I am prepared for it. Have at you, Señor Rojerio Rocha!”
He laughed aloud like a man enjoying an excellent joke, and standing beside the teepee watched the arrival with wide and glistening eyes.
The riders stopped at the end of the adobe wall in a cloud of dust, the Indian a short distance in the rear to handle the pack mule. His master swept sombrero from head, bowed, and dismounted. Neophytes held back, but the frailes crowded forward and around
him, and Señor Lopez, making his way through the crowd like a ship through tossing waves, stalked toward the new-comer with arms extended and moustaches lifted by a broad smile.
“A welcome, Rojerio Rocha!” he called. “Welcome to San Diego de Alcalá! No man is more welcome than you!”
“I thank you,” the new arrival said. He stood beside his horse, one arm over the animal’s neck. Señor Lopez noted that he had broad shoulders and a high brow, that he was handsome, that his moustache was curled in the approved fashion and his clothing bore the stamp of mode. He appeared such a man as those at San Diego de Alcalá had hoped he would be, for it was fitting that the co-heir of old Señor Fernandez should have appearance and dignity.
“How like you his looks, señorita?” Señora Vallejo asked of the girl, as they stood in the doorway of the guest house, and the crowd parted for an instant so they could see.
“Splendidly! If his disposition is as good——”
“Tut! Is he not a Rocha, a distant relative of the Fernandez family? You can see it in the way he stands beside his horse. Blood always will tell, dear child.”
The rider’s piercing eyes swept the company, passed over the heads of those nearest, and rested for a moment on the girl in the doorway. Señor Lopez hurled a neophyte out of his way and took a step forward, while all fell silent and waited for the first words to fall from the lips of the old señor’s heir.
“It gives me great pleasure, Rojerio Rocha,” Lopez said, “to welcome you to San Diego de Alcalá. I am Señor Lopez, and was Señor Fernandez’s manager at the rancho for many years before he passed away. It was I who wrote you the letter the señor signed telling that he wished you to inherit his property, together with his fair daughter, Anita, and expressing the hope that you two would find it in your hearts to wed. So I welcome you to San Diego de Alcalá on behalf of every man and woman here, and may you be pleased with your inheritance.”
It was a glorious smile that illuminated the face of the man addressed. For a moment he looked them over again, then extended his hand, and Lopez grasped it warmly.
“Your welcome overcomes me,” he said. “I had scarce expected it.”
“You might have known, Rojerio Rocha, that we would be glad to welcome you,” Lopez replied.
“I was not certain, not knowing the goodness of your heart. Now, as to my inheritance——?”
“The rancho of many broad acres lies five miles to the west, señor. Neophytes and gentiles are employed there, and we have, indeed, a happy family. Since the old señor died his daughter and duenna and myself have been residing in the guest house here at the mission awaiting your coming, but I have gone out every few days to observe how things are being cared for on the rancho. You will find storehouses full, señor, and the flocks and herds doing well, and besides, you inherit the good will of every man, woman and child in and around San Diego de Alcalá. And now—the señorita——”
“To be sure—the señorita!”
He continued smiling as Lopez took him by the arm and led him through the throng to the door of the guest house. His eyes met those of Anita as Lopez introduced them, and the girl’s face flushed. It was disconcerting for her thus to meet this man for the first time, knowing he was to be her husband.
She responded to his formal bow, and then would have taken Señora Vallejo by the arm and led the way into the guest house, but found it impossible, for the new-comer stepped forward quickly and took her hand and bent and kissed it.
“In all the length of El Camino Real, señorita,” he said, “I am sure there is not as much grace and beauty as I find here and now in this one little spot. The sight of you is worth a journey of hundreds of miles.”
And then, before she guessed what he intended, he had bent forward swiftly and pressed a kiss upon her cheek. The red flamed in
her face and throat, and Señora Vallejo gasped in dismay and Señor Lopez looked surprised, but the men and women of the mission cheered.
Up the steps and into the guest house they made their way, while the caballero, down by the creek, turned to enter the teepee. The smile was gone from the caballero’s face now; his eyes were narrowed as if he were thinking deeply. And so he took stock of his rival, who had gained the first kiss, although it was no better than a stolen one.
In the guest house there was a welcoming feast, because the old señor’s heir was just off the highway and fatigued, with the newcomer sitting at the head of the table presiding with as much dignity as old Señor Fernandez at his rancho ever had.
Señorita Anita was at his right hand, Señora Vallejo at his left; four frailes sat at table, and Señor Lopez contented himself with a place at the foot of it, looking upon the others with a solemn face, like a man bowed under the heavy responsibilities of a big business. He was wondering whether the old señor’s heir would retain him as manager.
Señora Vallejo yearned for news of San Francisco de Asis, where once she had been a toast, and was accommodated with a rambling story of the doings of persons of quality there. Señor Lopez spoke of the old branches of the Fernandez and Rocha families, and thought nothing of it when the subject was changed adroitly, for he knew that the Rocha branch had fallen upon evil days the past two generations, and retained little of their once great fortune, though they retained their stiff pride.
Anita, now smiling, and laughing at times, watched the guest keenly, trying to estimate him, and found herself puzzled. Old wine was opened by one of the frailes, and she saw the man at the head of the table drink long and deeply. Little by little his dignity and poise slipped from him. His laugh became louder and not so merry, for there was sarcasm in the sound of it. His jests too, were not strictly in accordance with good taste.
Señora Vallejo bit her lips and frowned; the face of Lopez remained inscrutable—for who was he to question the conduct of the old señor’s heir? But little Anita Fernandez, excusing herself prettily, arose and left the table, to go to a window and stand there looking out across the plaza, with dread in her heart, a feeling she neither could understand nor explain.
For some time she stood there with her back to the table, biting her red lips, watching the neophytes going about their work, and then she heard the others get up, and turned to see the old señor’s heir stagger toward her.
“Most beautiful señorita, I am going out with this Señor Lopez to meet the men of the mission,” he said. “’Twill be lonesome, nevertheless, until I am again with you. This evening, señorita, we shall take a walk in the orchard, with your duenna dodging about our heels, and at such a time a man may talk of things other than business.”
He lurched forward as if to kiss her again, but she avoided him and stepped back to bow.
“Señor,” she said, “I dislike to mar your welcome, yet there is a thing that should receive attention at once.”
“And that——?” he questioned.
“Has not Señor Lopez told you of Captain Fly-by-Night and his boast? The man is here, has been here for several days, though he is treated as a nothing.”
“Captain Fly-by-Night? Here?”
“He has received a teepee and supplies from gentiles, and is camped down by the creek. His presence is an insult to me, señor, but we had decided to do nothing about the matter until your arrival. In the orchard last evening he was even bold enough to speak to me, and his words were words of—love. Shall this be allowed to pass?”
“He is camped down by the creek, eh?”
“He is, señor,” Lopez put in.
“Captain Fly-by-Night, you said?”
“It is the name he is called.”
“What would you have me do?”
Anita’s face flamed again.
“If it is necessary to tell you that, señor, then I am disappointed in you,” she said. “Rojerio Rocha should know how to protect the woman he is expected to make his wife.”
“I shall interview the señor immediately. The boast he made is known to me.”
“Allow me to accompany you, señor,” Lopez said.
“Thank you, but this is my private business. I’ll take my Indian servant, and go at once!”
He spoke as a caballero should speak, and the girl’s eyes grew brighter; and while the look in his face was not one of fear, yet it was scarcely one of determination, and that puzzled her a bit.
He seemed to throw off the effects of the heavy wine with a shrug of his shoulders as he walked to the door. Señor Lopez followed him out and called for the neophyte, and went with them to the end of the adobe wall. There they spoke for a moment, and then the guest hurried down the slope toward the teepee, the Indian at his heels. His hand was on the hilt of his sword, his head held high, his shoulders thrown back. Anita and Señora Vallejo watched from the window.
The soldiers had returned to the post beside the creek, and the caballero watching them from the door of his teepee, saw them get up and glance toward the plaza. His own attention thus being attracted in that direction, he observed the advance of the latest new-comer to the mission.
He remained sitting on the skin before the doorway polishing the silver on his saddle, and did not look up as the other approached. Steps stopped beside him, there was a chuckle, then a voice:
“By all the good saints! It is Claudio!”
“Even so, señor,” replied the caballero, raising his head now, and getting slowly upon his feet, “and you owe me two pieces of gold. That was the wager, I believe, that you would be at San Diego de Alcalá before me.”
“So it was, caballero, and here are the coins. Ill luck attended me, while good fortune attended you.”
“Indeed?”
“This neophyte who trots at my heels—the same who served us at the Santa Barbara presidio—had a brother who possessed a horse, and I purchased it, also a mule, and got the neophyte for guide. I was not more than four hours behind you, señor, in starting.”
“But—in arriving——?”
“Things came to pass, señor. At San Fernando I made the acquaintance of a fray who wined and dined me so well that I slept overlong, afterward telling me, while I cursed, that he had done it because he feared I would kill my horse with riding. Arriving at the pueblo of Reina de Los Angeles, I made my way quickly to the inn ——”
“Expecting to find me with my throat slit?” asked the caballero.
“Um! By rare good fortune, for you, it appears you did not visit the inn. I was somewhat surprised to hear it. But I felt that my chagrin was appeased when I met a certain man named Gonzales, a jovial fellow who insisted in playing host to me, purchasing wine, and playing cards.”
“And losing?”
“I believe I was the more fortunate in the game. Afterward I felt sure this same Gonzales had been losing his wealth purposely, to delay me on my journey.”
“Who can tell?” said the caballero.
“I was well received at San Juan Capistrano—then came the storm. By the good saints, how it did rain!”
“I can swear as to that, señor, having been out in all of it.”
“I managed to reach San Luis Rey de Francia in time, and there the storm held me up again. These things, señor, delayed me so that I could not win my wager, but even these things would not have caused me to lose had you spent the night in the inn at Reina de Los Angeles.”
“I can well imagine that.”
“And now they tell me here at the mission that you are Captain Flyby-Night, somewhat of a notorious personage.”
“So they call me, señor.”
“You perhaps heard them hail me as Rojerio Rocha? I have inherited a great rancho, it seems, and am to wed a fair señorita.”
“Would it not be better, señor, to leave the lady out of our conversation?” the caballero asked.
“Perhaps; there are weightier things to be discussed. It seems, dear Claudio, that your presence here displeases those of the mission. They tell me you made certain ill-timed boasts concerning a young lady and her fortune, and the lady mentions you went as far as to speak to her of love.”
“Enough, señor! We are not discussing a lady here.”
“Let us talk, then, of yourself, Captain Fly-by-Night. Do you take me for an imbecile? Do you not fear, playing both hands as you do? Do you not dread a day of reckoning? Can it be possible you do not observe that you are caught in a trap? But enough of that! It is your own affair.”
“Exactly, señor.”
“Even now, I presume, they are watching from the mission buildings to see how I face you. It is expected that I’ll run you away, señor, or run you through.”
“Either will be difficult, I fear.”
“Yet I have my position to maintain, señor, and must attempt one or the other. It would suit me better to have you out of the way. If I can
accomplish that myself, I may gain in the estimation of those at the mission. If I fail, there are friends of mine——”
“Why waste language, señor?” the caballero wanted to know
“Will you pack up and leave, then? Will you go back up El Camino Real and attend to your own affairs?”
“I must decline, señor. Your own removal from this vale of tears would please me, understand.”
As he spoke, the caballero threw aside his zarape; his opponent did likewise. Face to face they stood, blades out, sleeves turned back, both grim, determined. The neophyte crouched half a score of feet away, watching every move the men before him made. Men crowded the plaza wall, others came running from the orchard, frailes knelt in prayer, but none approached down the slope, for here was a matter to be settled between two gentlemen without interruption from another source.
In the window of the guest house, Señorita Anita Fernandez turned quickly and hid her face on the ample bosom of Señorita Vallejo, and put fingers in her ears.
The two men engaged, neither a novice at the art of battling with a blade, each firm of wrist and quick of foot and eye. Now the caballero advanced, now he retreated. The steel hissed and sang and rang aloud. The minutes passed. Perspiration streamed from the faces of the combatants; their breaths were expelled in quick explosions.
“’Tis a pretty battle!” cried Señor Lopez from the top of the wall. “Have at him, Rojerio Rocha, for your own honour and your lady’s fair name! Flinch, dog of a Fly-by-Night! Ah——”
The old señor’s heir began a furious attack, the caballero fell back step by step. And then the recovery came! What he had done before was but clumsy fencing to what the caballero did now. He had felt out his man, he knew every trick at his command, he was ready now to put an end to it. His teeth were sunk into his lips, and his eyes flashed as he drove his opponent backward.
The neophyte gave a cry of fear and crept along the ground, fearing for his master’s life. Something flashed in his hand. The caballero, from the corner of his eye, observed it in time. Once his blade went aside, to tear through the neophyte’s shoulder, and returned to the engagement in time to ward off a thrust from the other man.
“Treachery, eh?” the caballero cried, above the ring of the blades. “Your dog of a neophyte fights for you, eh? That is the sort of man you are?”
“He did it by no order of mine,” the other gasped.
“I pollute my sword if I touch you with it! But I find it necessary, señor! Run me away or run me through, eh? You? Fight, hound! Stand your ground! Your wrist weakens, eh? Bah! ’Tis not worth a gentleman’s time to meet you foot to foot!”
Those on the wall were standing now, and some of them had sprung to the ground. Lopez was growling beneath his breath. The caballero drove his antagonist up the slope for a space of ten yards, laughing at him, taunting him, rebuking him, for the neophyte’s treachery.
“Do you cry for me to cease?” he demanded.
“Never, by the saints——”
“Then——!” His blade bit deep into the other’s shoulder. The old señor’s heir staggered, clapped a hand to his sword-arm, whirled and crashed to the ground. And the caballero, stepping back, ran his blade thrice into the turf to clean it, wiped it on his trousers, and returned it to its scabbard. He spurned the treacherous neophyte with his foot and hurried back toward his teepee.
He had anticipated what would follow, and he had scant time. From the plaza wall had come a chorus of shrieks and howls. He heard the voice of Señor Lopez raised in raging anger. Neophytes started down the slope, some of them running, armed with knives, clubs and stones, to avenge the downfall of Rojerio Rocha. The frailes called after them in vain. Half a hundred strong, urged on by Lopez and led by the giant Pedro, they rushed toward the teepee beside the creek.
