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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (April 24, 1904)
Arm 24, 1004. THE ILLUSTRATED DEE. 13 there, mounting the hillside among palms, like men standing in tall grass, running back, hlllng In a steep valley; silver-gray huts with ragged dun roofs, like disheveled shocks of hair; a great pink church-face, very tall and Barrow, pyramidal toward the top, and pierced for seven bells, but having only three. It looked aa If It had born hidden for centuries In the folds of an ancient land, as It lay there asleep in the blighting sunlight When we anchored Toman, beside me In a saturnine silence, grunted and spat Into the water. "Ixwk here," I said. "What Is the mean ing of it all? What Is ItT What Is at ths bottom?" He shrugged his shoulders gloomily. "If your worship does not know, who should?" he paid. "It is not for me to say why peopl should wish to come here." "Then take me to Carlos," J said. "I must get this settled." Castro looked at me suspiciously. "You will not excite hira?" he said. "I have known people to die right out when they were like that." "Oh, I won't excite him, I said. As we were rowed ashore he began to point out the houses of the notables. Rio Medio had been one of the principal ports of the Antilles In the seventeenth century, but it had failed before the rivalry of Ha vana because its harbor would not take the large veusels of modern draft. Now It had no trade, no life, no anything except a bishop and a great monastery, a few re tired officials from Havana. A large settle ment of ragged thatched huts and clay hovels lay to the west of the cathedral. The Casa Rlego was an enormous palace, with windows like loopholes, facing the shore. Don Balthasar practically owned the whole town and all the surrounding country, and, except for his age and feeble ness, might have been an absolute mon arch. He had lived In Havana with great splen dor, but now, in his falling years, had retired to his palace, from which he had Binee only twice set foot. This had only been when official ceremonies of extreme Importance, such as the International exe cution of pirates that I had witnessed, de manded the presence of some one of his eminence and lustre. Otherwise he had lived shut up In his palace. There was nowhere In Rio Medio for him to go to. He was said to regard his Intendente, O'Brien, as the apple of his eye, and had Used his Influence to get hlrn made one of the Judges of the marine court. The old don himself probably knew nothing about the pirntes. The Inlet had been used by buccaneers ever since the days of Columbus; but they were below his serious consideration, even if he had ever seen them, which Tomas Castro doubted. There was no doubting the sincerity of bis tone. "Oh, you thought I was a pirate!" he muttered. "For a dny yes to oblige a Rlego, my friend yes! Moreover, I hate that soft-spoken Jues, Intendente, Intriguer that O'Brien. I am the trusted humble friend of the Riegos. But, perhaps, you think Don Balthasar Is himself a pirate! He who has In his veins the blood of the Cld Oampeador; whose ancestors have owned half this Island Blnce the days of Christopher himself. "Has he nothing whatever to do with It?" I asked. "After all, it goes on in his own town." "Oh, you Knglish." he muttered; "you aro all mad! Would one of your great nobles bo a pirate? Perhaps they would God knows. Alas, alas!" he suddenly broke off, "when I think that my Carlos shull leave his bones In this ungodly place." I gave up questioning Tomaa Castro; he was too much for me. We entered the grim palace by the shore through an Imposing archway, and mounted a broad staircase. In a lofty room, giving off the upper gallery round the central court of the Casa Rlego, Carlos lay In a great bed. I stood before him. having pushed aside Tomas Castro, who had been cautionBly scratching the great brilliant mahogany panels with a dirty nnger naiL "Damnation, Carlos!" I said. "This Is the third of your treacheries. What do you want with me?" You might well have Imagined he waa a descendant of the Cld Campeador, only to look at him lying there without a quiver of a feature, his face stainlessly white, a little bluish In extreme lack of blood, with all the nobility of death upon It, like an alabaster effigy of an old knight In a cathedral. On the red velvet hangings of the bed waa an Immense coat-of-arms, worked In silk and surrounded by a collar, with the golden sheep hanging from the ring. The shield was patched In with an Immense number of quartering Hons, ram pant, leopards, rournnl, fleur de lis, cas tles, angles, hands and trail. His eyes opened slowly, and his face assumed an easy, languorous smile of Immense pleas Ore. "Ah, Juan," he said, "se blenvlenldo, be welcome, b welcome." His air waa so gay, so uncomplaining, that It waa hard to believe It came from him. "Yon eouM not have acted worse If you owed me a grudge, Carlos," I said. "I want an explanation. But I don't want to kill you, - "Oh, no; oh, no," he said, "in a minute I will tell." He dropped a gold ball Into a silver bnsln that was by the bedside, and it sounded like a great belL A nun In a sort of coif that took the lines of a buffalo's horns glided to him with a gold cup, from which he drank, raising himself a little. Then ha went out with Tomas Castro, who gave me a last ferocious glower from his yellow eyes. Carlos smiled. "They try to make my going easy," he said. "Vamos! The pillow Is smooth for him who is well loved." He shut his ryes. Suddenly ho said. "Why do you, alone, hate me, John Kemp? What have I done?" "God knows 1 don't huto you. Carlo.," I answered. "You have always mistrusted me." he said. "And yet I am, perhaps, nearer to you than many of your eemntrjmen, and I have alwaya wished you well, and you have always hated and mistrusted me. From the very first you mistrusted me. Why?" It waa useless denying It; he had the ex traordinary Incredulity of his kind. I re membered how I had Idolized hi in as a boy at home. "Your brother-in-law, ray cousin Rooksby, waa the vary first to believe that I was a pirate. I, a vulgar pirate! I, Carlos Rlego! Did he not believe It and you?" !( glanced a little Ironically and lifted a thin, white finger toward the great coat-of-arms. "That sort of thing." he said, "amigo mto, does not allow one to ptck pockets." He suddenly turned a little to one side and fixed me with his clear eyea "My friend," he said, "If I told you that Rooksby and your greatest Kent earls carried smugglers' tubs, you would say I waa an Ignorant fool. Yet they, too, are magistrate. The only use I havo ever made of these ruffians was today, to bring you here. It waa" necessity. O'Brien had gone on to take you when you arrived. You would never hava come alive out of Havana. I was saving your life. Once there, you could never have escaped from that man." "I never disliked you," I protested. "I do not understand what you mean. All I know Is, that you have used me 111 out rageoualy 111. You have saved my life now, you say. That may be true; but why did you eves make me meet with that man O'Brien?" "And even for that you should not hate me," ho said, shaking his head on the silk pillows. "I never wished you any thing but well, Juan, because you were honest and young, of noble blood, good to look upon; you had done me and my friend good service, to your own peril, when my own cousin had deserted mo. And I loved you for tlio sake of another. I loved your sister. We have a proverb: 'A man Is always good to the eyes In which the sister hath found favor.' " I looked at him in amazement. "You loved Veronica!" I said. "But Veronica is nothing at oil. There was the Sonorlta." He smiled wearily. "Ah, the Senorita; she Is very well; a man could love her, too. But we do not command love, my friend." I interrupted him. "I want to know why you brought me here? Why did you nsk me to come here when we were on board the Thames?" He answered sadly: "Ah, then! Because I loved your sister, and you remind me always of her. But that Is nil over now done with for good. I have to ad dress myself to dying ns It becomes one of my race to die." He smiled at me. "One must die In peace to die a Christian. IJfe has treated me rather scurvlly, only the gentleman must not repine like a poor man of low birth. I would like to do a good turn to the friend who is the brother of his sister, to the girl-cousin whom I do not love with love, but whom I under stand with affection to the great Inher itance that is not for my wasted hands." I looked out of the open door of the room. There waa the absolutely quiet Inner court of the palaco, a colonado of tall square pillars, in the center the little thread of a fountain. Round the fountain were tangled bushes of flowers enormous geraniums, enormous hollyhocks, a riot of orange marigolds. "How like our flowers at home!" I said mechanically. "I brought the seeds from there from your sister's garden," he said. I felt horribly hipped. "Ah, you have had a sad life, my Carlos," I said, after a long time. He opened his eyes, and smiled his brave smile. "Ah, aa to that," lie said, "one kept on. One has to husband one's voice, though, and not waste it over lamenta tions. I have to tell you ah, yes. " He paused and fixed his eyes upon me. "Figure to yourself that thia house, this town, an immense part of this island, much even yet In Custile itself, much gold, many laves, a great name a very great name are what I shall leave behind me. Now think that there is a very noble old man, one who has been very great In the world, who shall die very soon; then all these things shall go to a young girl. That old man Is very old, Is a little foolish with age; that young girl knows very little of the world, and Is very passionate, very proud, very helpless. "Add, now, to that a great menace a very dangerous, crafty, subtle personage. who has the ear of that old man; whona aim It la to become the possessor of that young girl and of that vast wealth. The old man Is much subject to the other. Old men are like that, especially the vary great. They have many things to think of; It Is neeessary that they rely on Fome body. I am, In fact, speaking of my uncle and the man called O'Brien. You have seen him." Carlos spoke in a voice hardly above a whisper, but he stuck to hi task with Indomitable eeiurage. "If I die and leave him here, ho will have my une'e to himself. He la a terrible man. This is tho greatest distress of all." He swallowed painfully, and put his frail huiul onto the white ruflle at his neck. "1 was In pre it trouble to find how to thwart this O'br'.en. My uncle went to Kingston be.auso he was persuaded It was hla place to a?o that tha execution of those unhappy men wa conducted with due humanity. O'Hrl n came with us as his aecretary. 1 i in the greatest horror of mind. 1 prayed for guidance. Then my eyea fell upon you, who were pressed against our very e-arilage wheels. It was like an answer to my pray ers." Carlos suddenly reached out and caught my hand. I thought he was wandering, and I waa Immensely sorry for him. He looked at me so wistfully with his immense eyes. Ha continued to press my hand. "But when 1 saw you," he wmt on, nftcr a time, "It had come Into my head. 'That Is the man who Is sent In answer to my prayers.' I knew It. I say. If J oi co ild have my cousin and my lands, 1 thought, It would be like my having your slsle- not quite, but good enough fur a man who Is to die In a short whl'e, and leave no trace but a marble tomb. Ah, one d sires very much to leave a mark under God's b es?e I sun, and to be uhle to know a little how things will go after one IS dead. I arranged the mntter very quickly In my mind. There was the difficulty of O'Bilm. If I had said. 'Here la the man who is to marry my cousin,' he would havo had you or me murdered; he wo.ild stop at t o h Ing. Bo I said to him very quietly, look here, Senor Secretary, that la the man you have need of to replace your Nichols devil to fight; but I think he will not con sent without a little persuasion. Tero him, then, to Ramon's, and do your per suading.' O'Brien was very glieel, becauro he thought that at last I was coming to take an Interest In his schemes, and be cause It was bringing humiliation to an Englishman. And Boraphina was g'ad. le cause I had often spoken of you with en thusiasm, as very fenrlesa and very honora ble. Then I made that man Ramon eloeoy you, thinking that the matter wuj.il be left to me." That was what Carlos had expected. But O'Brien, talking with Ramon, had heard me described ns an extreme Hrparat'em'st so positively that he had thought It suf to open himself fully. He must have counted, also, on my youth, my stupidity or my want of principle. Finding mt his mistake, he very soon made up his mi. d how to act; and Carlos, fearing that worsj might befall me, had let him. But when tho young girl had helped me to escape. Carlos, who understood fully the very groat risks I ran In going to ltavnn t In the ship that picked me up, had tnadi use of O'Brien's own picaroons to save me from him. That was the story. Toward the end hl.s breath cime fast and short; there was n flush on his fare; lis eyes gazed Imploringly at ine. "You will stay here, now, till I die, and then I want you to protect" He fell back on the pillows. PART Til I It IK Casn illego. CHAPTER I. The strangeness and tremondousne as of what was happening came over me very strongly whilst. In a large chamber with barred loopholes, I was throwing off tho rags In which I had entered lhl3 house. The night had come already, and I was putting on some of Carlos' clothes by the many flames of candli-a burning In a ta I bronze candelabrum, whose threo legs fig ured the pawa of a lion. Don Balthasar, I understood, was ap prised of my arrival. As In a dream, I fol lowed the old negro, who hud returned to the door of my room. We walked alorg the upper gallery; hla cane tepped I efore me on the tesselated pavement; below, 'hi water splashed In the marble battns; g a is lanthorna hung glimmering belwem th? pillars and, in wrought rilvtr fra-m s, lighted the broad white staircase. I'nde the Inner curve of the vaulted gateway a black-faced man on guard, with a be'l mouthed gun, rose from a stool ut our passing. I thought I saw Castro's peik'd hat and large cloak flit in the gloom into which fell the light from the amull door way of a sort of guardroom near the closed gate. We continued along the ar cade walk; a double curtain waa drawn to right and left before me, while my guido stepped aside. In a vast white apartment three black figures stood about a central glitter of crystal and sliver. At once the aged, lightly mechanical voice of Don Balthasar rose thinly, putting himself und Ms house at my disposition. The formality of movement, of voices, governed und checked the unbounded emo tions of my wonder. Th two ladles sank, with a rustle of starch and stiff silk, la answer to my profound bow. I hud Just enough control over myself to accomplish that, but mentally I was out of breath, and when 1 fell the slight trembling touch of Don Balthasar's hand resting on my In clined head It was aa If 1 had suddenly become aware for a moment of the earth's motion. The hand was gone; his fa o was verted, and a. corpulent priest, nil straight and black below his rosy round face, had stcpiM'd forward to say a lntln grace In solemn tones that wheeled a little. As soon hk he had done he withdrew with a circular bow lo the ladies, to Don I'al thosar, who Inclined his silvery head. His lifeless voice propounded: "Our excellent Father Antonio. In hla devotion, dines by the bedside of our be loved Carlos." lie sighed. The heavy carvings of his chair rose upright at his back; he sat with his head leaning for ward over his silver plate A heavy silence fell. Death hovered over that table and also, as If the hreuth of prist ages. The multitude of lights, the polished tloor of costly wood, the bare whiteness of walls wall, sooted with marble, the vastnens of the room, the Imposing forms of furniture, carved heavily lit ohony, Impressed me with a sense of secular and austere magnlflocmw. For centuries there had alwaya been a Rlego living In this fortress-like palace, ruling this portion of the new world with the whole majesty of his race. And I thought of tho long, loop-holed, buttressed walls that this abode of noble adventurers presented four square to the night outside, standing there by the son shore like a tomb of warlike glories. Thi-y built their houses thus, centuries ap.o, when the bands of buccaneers, Ind iniilahle and atrocious, had haunted their e-onqucst with a remainder of mortality and weakness. It was a tremendous thing for me, this dinner. The portly duenna on my left had a round eye and an Irritated, parrot-like profile, crowned by a high comb, a head shaded by black lace. 1 dired hardly lift my eyes to the dark n.id radiant presencei facing me across a table that was like a display of Ire-nsure. But I did look. She was the girl of the 1 1 1 1 (I. Die (.-il l of the' dagger, mid. In the sole'ttmity of the silence, she was like a fabulous apparition from a half-forgotten tale. I watched covertly the youthful grace of her feature's. Tho curve of her neck tilled me with delight. From time to time she shook the heavy clusters of her curls, and 1 was amaaeel, as If I had never before soon a woman's hair. Kuch parting of her Um was a distinct anticipation of a great felicity; when she said a few words to me, 1 fell an Inward trembling. They we re Indifferent words. Had she forgotten she was the girl with tho d igger? And the old don? What did that old man know? What did he think? What did lie mean by that touch of a blessing em my hi'ad? Did he" know how I had come to his house? But every turn of her he-ad troubled my thoughts. The movements of her hands made mo feirget myself. The gravity ef lie r eyes above tho smile eif her lips suggested Ideas of adora tion. At a given moment an enormous Irein key" wan brought In on a fllvcr salver, and, bending over the chnlr, the gray-heeided negro laid It by Don Balthnsar's plate. "Dem Carlos' orders," ho muttered. The eild don seeme'd to wake up;, a little cedor mounted to his chee ks. "There was a time, young eaballero, when the gates of Casa Rlego stoeiel open night und day to the griefs and poverty of the people, like the doors of a church und aa reseoted. But now it seems" lie mumbled a little pee-vlslily, but Seemed to recollect himself. "The safety of his guest Is like the breath of life to a Castlllan," be ende-el, with a benignant but attentive look nt me. IIo rose, and we passed out through the double lines ef the servants ranged from table to door. By the splash eif the foun tain, on n little round table between two chairs, stood a many-branched candlestick. The duenna aat down opposite Don Bnl tliasar. A multitude! eif stirs waa sus pended eiver the breathless peiu-e of tho court. "rlenorlta," I begun, mustering all my courage and all my Spanish, "I do not know " She was walking by my side with upright carriage nnd u nonchalant step, and shut her fun smartly "Don Carlos Mmself had given me the dagger," she said rapidly. The fan flew open; a toiwh of the wind funning her person came foJntly un my cheek with u suggestion of delicate per fume. She noticed my confusion, and said: "Ijpt US walk to the end, m oor." The old man nnd th duenna had cards In their hands n w. The Intimate tone of her words ravished me Into the seventh bea ven. "Ah," she said, when we were out of ear-shot, "I have the tpirlt of my house; but I am only a weak girl. We have taken this resolution be-cause of our hldalguldud, because you are our kinsman, because you are Knglish. Ay de ml! Would 1 bud be-e-n a man. My father n drf a son In hla great, great age. l'oor fath'-r! I'oor Oca Carlos." (To Ve Continued.)