Jbm 10, 1904
THE ILLUSTRATED DEE;
stdo (ha sill, wtth his twct to tha preclptc
and his face turned up.
"There In nobody in there," be shouted.
"I come at once," he cried to them, with
out lifting his head.
I had crept up almost Bear enough to
grab the flask. It never occurred to me
that by Kinging myself on him I could have
pushed Mm off the sIlL My only Idea wa
to get hold. He did not exist for me. The
leather-covered bottle was the only real
thing In the world. I was completely In
Sane. I heard a faint detonation, and
Manuel got up quickly from the alll. The
flask was out of my reach.
There were more popping sounds of shots
11 red, away on the plain. The peons were
attacking an outpost of the Lugarenoa. A
deep voice cried, "They are driving them
In." Then several together yelled:
"Come away, Manuel. Come away. For
Dioe m
Stretched at full length In the passage,
and sustaining myself on my trembling
arms, I gaaed up at him. He stood very
rigid, holding the flask in both hands. Sev
eral musketa were discharged together
first above, and in the nolao of the reports
I remember a voice crying urgently over
the edge, "Manuel! Manuel X" The shadow
of Irresolution passed over his features.
He hesitated whether to run up the ledge
or bolt Into the cave. He shouted iome
thing. He was not answered, but the yell
ing and the firing ceased suddenly, aa If
the Lugarenoa had given up and taken to
their heelB. I became aware of a sort of
Increasing throbbing sound that seemed to
come from behind me, out of Hie cave;
then, as Manuel lifted his foot hastily to
step over the sill, I Jumped up deliriously,
and with outstretched hands lurched for
ward at the flask In bis fingers.
I believe I laughed at him in an Imbecile
manner. Somebody laughed; and I remem
ber the superior smile on hla face passing
into a ghastly grin that disappeared slowly
while his astonished eyes, glaring at that
Nx gaunt and disheveled apparition rising be-
fore him in the dusk of the passage, seemed
tw grow to an enormous size. He drew
back 'Us foot as though it had been burnt,
and in tajile stricken Impulse he flung
the flask straight Into my face and stag
gered away from the-'-Utt,
I made a catch of it wrd. a scream of
triumph, whose unearthly sound) brought
me back to my senses. ""v.
"In the name of God, retire," I cried,
as though I had been an apparition front
another world.
What took place- - afterwards happened
with an inconceivable rapidity, in less time
than It takes to draw breath. He never
recognised me. I saw his glare of in
credulous awe change suddenly to horror
and despair. He had felt himself losing
hla balance. '
He had stepped too far back. He tried
to recover himself, - but it waa too late.
Ho hung for a moment in hla backward
fall; his arms beat the air, hla body curled
upon Itself with an awful striving. All at
onee he went limp all over and, with the
sunlight full upon hla upturned face, van
ished downwards from my sight.
Tear; tears of gratitude were running
down my face. My limbs trembled. But
I was sane enough not to think of myself
any more. - . . -. ,
"Drink! Drink!" I stammered, raising
Beraphina'a head en my shoulder, while the
galloping horses of the peona In hot pur
auit passed with a thundering rumble above
lis. Then all was still.
Our getting out of the cave waa a matter
of unremitting toil, through what might
have been a year of time.
We walked away from the spot aa If our
feet had been shod in lead; and we bugged
the edge of the- cruel ravine as. one keeps
fcy the sido of a friend.
From our first step downwards the hard,
rattling noise of the stones accompanied
our descent, growing In volume, bewildering
our minds. We had missed the Indistinct
beginning of the trail on the aide; of the
ravine and bad to follow the course- of the
stream.
We pushed 'on through tha bunches of
tough twigs; the massive boulders closed
the view on every side, and Beraphina
followed me -with her hands en my shoul
ders. This waa the best way la which
I could help her descent till the declivity
became less steep, and then I went ahead
forcing a path for her. Often wo had to
walk into the bed of the atream. It waa
Icy coldr Home strange beast, perhaps a
bird. Invisible somewhere, emitted from
time to time a faint and lamentable shriek.
Then, as I stepped around a large frag
ment of rock, my eyes fell on a young
vaquero. He had taken off his bat before
something and made a perfunctory- sign of
the cross. He looked up and down the
lofty wall, aa If ft could give him the
word of that riddle. Twice his spurs
clashed softly, and wlt one hand grasping
the rope he stooped low In the twilight
over a body.
"We looked for this Lujrareno." he said,
replacing hla hat on hla hd carelessly.
"He was a mad singer, atd I saw htm
once kill one af ua very swiftly. They used .
to call him In jest El Demonio. Ah! But
you But you i."
His wonder overcame him. His bewild
ered eyes glimmered, starnjg at aa in the
deepening desk. )
"Speak, hombre," fea crVd. "Who are
yon and who la she? Whence earn you?
Where are you going with this woman?
CHAPTER XL
Not a soul stirred In the one long atreet
of the negro village. We entered Beraph
ina'a hacienda. The high walls Inclosed a
square court deep as the yard of a prison,
with flat-roofed buildings all around. It
rang with many voices suddenly. Every
moment the daylight Increased; young
negresses In loose gowna ran here and
there, -cackling like chased hens, and a fat
woman waddled out from under the
shadow of a veranda.
She waa Seraphlna's old nurse. She waa
scolding volubly, and suddenly she
shrieked, as though she had been stabbed.
Then all was still for a long time. Sitting
high on the back of my patient mount, with
my fingers twisted In the mane, I saw in
a throng of woolly heads and bright gar
ments Seraphlna'a pale face. An Increas
ing murmur of sobs and endearing names
mounted up to me. Her hair hung down,
her eyes seemed Immense; these people
were carrying her off and a man with a
careworn, bilious face and a straight, gray
beard, neatly clipped on the edges, stood
at the head of my horse, blinking with as
tonishment. The fat woman reappeared, .rolling pain
fully along the veranda.
"Enrico! It is her lover! Oh! my trensn
ure, my lamb, my precious child. Do you
hear, Enrico? Her lover! Oh! the poor
darling of my heart."
' She appeared to be giggling and weeping
at the same time. The sky above the yard
brightened all at once, as If the sun had
emerged with a leap from the distant
waters of the Atlantic. She waved her
short arms at me over the railing, then
plunged her dark fingers In the shock of
Iron-gray hair gathered on the top of her
head.
I swayed to and fro in the saddle, but
faithful to the plan of our escape, I tried
to make clear my desire that these peons
ahould be sworn to secrecy immediately.
Meantime, somebody was trying to disen
gage my feet from the stirrups.
"Certainly. It la aa your worship
wishes."
The careworn man at the head of my
rne was utterly in : the dark.
"Attention!" he shouted. "Catch hoi
hombrek Carry the caballero."
I fcnewNu more till I beheld Enrico,
bis white nurd and aealous eyes, ben
over my couen.
"Senor, the nfffri Is far advanced! , he
said soothingly, "an-Dolores, pvywlfe,
watches over Dona SeraptUHa's slumbers
on the other side of this wail." V
I had been dead to the world for nearly
twenty hours, and the awakening resem
bled a new birth, for I felt as weak and
helpless as an infant.
Not a whisper of any sort of news
reached us in our hiding place till the
fourth evening, when one of the vaqueroa
reported to Enrico that, riding on the
Inland boundary, he' had fallen in with a
company of infantry encamped on the edger
of a little wood. Troops were being, moved
upon Rio Medio. ' He brought a note from"
the officer in command of that party. It
. contained nothing but a requisition for
twenty head of eattle. The same night
we left the hacienda.
It was a starry darknesa Behind ua
the soft waiting. of the old woman at tha
gate died out:
"80 far! Bo very far!
We left the long street of the slave vil
lage on the left, and walked down the
gentle slope of the open glade toward the
little river. Seraphlna'a hair was con
cealed In the crown of a wide sombrero
and, wrapped up In a scrape, she looked
so much . like a cloaked vaquero that one .
missed the Jingle of spurs out of her walk.
Enrico had fitted me out in his own clothes
from top to toe. He carried a lanthorn,
and we followed the circle of light that
swayed and trembled upon the short grass.
There waa no one else with us, the crew of
the drogher being already on board to
await our coming.
Two days after we saw a castle on a
sandy hill, and a few small boats with
ragged sails making for the land. A
brtgantina, that, seemed to have carried
the breeae with her right In, threw up
the Stars and Stripes radiantly to the rising
sun, before rounding the- point. The sound
of belts came out to sea. and met ua while
we crept slowly on, abreast of the battery
at the water's edge.
"A feast day to the city," said the old
negro at the helm. "And here is un Eng
lish ship of war."
' The shipping In harbor waa covered
with bunting in honor of the feast diy.
A six-oared custom house galley darted
out from the tier of ships, pulling for the
American brtguntlne. One Of the uniformed
sitters waved his hand at us, recognised
aa estate drogher, and shouted some direc
tion, of which we only caught the words:
"Steps examination tomorrow."
Our steersman took off his old hat hum
bly to hall back, "My bien. setter."
- I -breathed freely, for they gave as no
more of their attention. Soldiers, alguastl
and custom house officers were swarming
wUh
fing
-aboard the American, as If Kent on ransack
ing her from stem to stern In tha shortest
possible time, so as not to be late for the
procession.
Beraphina crouched on a coll of rope
under the bulwark; old Pedro, at the tiller,
' peered about from under his hand, and I,
trying to expose myself to view as little
as possible, helped him to look for the
Lion. There she Is. Tesl No! There she
was. A crushing load fell off my chest.
.We had made her out together, old Pedro
and I.
And then the last part of Bebrlght's plan
had to be carried out at once. The fore
sheet of the drogher appeared to part,
our mainsail shook, and before I could
gasp twice, we had drifted stern foremost
Into the Lion's mlzsen chains with a crash
that brought a genuine expression of con
cern to the old negro's face. He had man
'aged the whole thing with a most con
vincing skill, and without even onco glanc
ing at the ship. We had done our part,
but the people of the Lion seemed to fall
In theirs unncoounably. Of all the fares
that crowded her roll at the shock, not one
appeared with a glimmer of Intelligence.
All the cargo ports were down. Their sur
prise and their swearing appeared to me
alarmingly unaffected; with a most im
becile alacrity they exerted themselves,
wtth small spars and boat hooks, to push
the drogher off. Nobody seemed to recog
nize me; Beraphina might have been a
peon sitting on deck, cloaked from neck
to heels and under a sombrero. I dared
not shout to thorn in English, for fear of
being heard on board the other ships
around. At last Sebright himself appeared
on the poop.
He gave ono look over the sl.e.
"What the devil " be began. Was
he blind, too?
Suddenly I saw him throw up his arms
abovo his head,-- He vanished. A port
came opdn with a jerk at tho last moment.
I lifted geruphina up; two hands caught
hold Qf her, and, in my great hurry to
scramble up after her, I barked my shins
cruelty. The port fell; the drogher went
on (BMtplng ulougsldo. completely dlsre-
cd. Sernpnrrnlroppe4 the cloak at her
and flung off her fcaV. : 1
"Goor morning, amigoa," a'.ie said gravely.
"Turned up, by heavens! . Go in.
Good God! Bueketfuls of
tears " stammered Sebright, push
ing us into the cuddy, "do in! Go in at
pnee!"-
Sebrlght. burning with Impatience, pulled -me
away 1 The cabin door fell upon
Beraphina. When, In the expansion of my 1
heart, I tried to banter him about not
keeping his word to look out for us, he
bent double- In trying to restrain his hilar
ity, slapped his . thighs and grew red in
the face.
' The. excellent Joke was that, for the past .
six days, we had been supposed to be
dead dro jrned,; at least Dona Beraphina
hod been provided with that sort of death
In her own mtwe; I was drowned, too, but
In the disguise of a piratical young Eng
lish nobleman.
"You are: tho talk of the town," he said,
recovering his elasticity of spirit aa he
went on. The death of Don Balthaaar had
bee a tho first great sensation of Havana,
but It seemed that O'Brien had kept that
to himself till he heard by an overland mes
senger that Beraphina had escaped (rem
the Caaa Riego.
Then he gave it to the world; he let It
be inferred that he had the news of both
events together. The story, aa sworn to
by various suborned rascals, and put out
by the .creatnres, ran that an English dee
perado, arriving In Rio Medio with Mime
Mexicans in a schooner, bad Incited the '
.rabble of the place to attack tho Casa
Riego. Don Balthasar had been shot while
defending hla house at the head . of his
negroes; and Don Balthasar'e daughter had.
been carried off by the EngUah pirate.
It was reported In town that the private
audience the Juez had lately- from tha cap
tain general waa of a most stormy descrip
tion. They say old Marshal What-d'ye-eaU-'um.
ended by flinging his. last report
is his face, and asking hint how dared ha
work his lawyer's tricks upon an- old sol
dier. Good old fighting cock. But atup d.
All these old-soldiers were stupid, Sebright
declared. Old admirals, too. However, the
land troops had arrived in Rio Medio by
this time; tho Tornado frigate, too, no
doubt, having sailed four days ago, with
orders to burn the villages to the ground;
and tha good Lugarenoa must be catching
colds trying to bide from the carabineers
In tha deep, damp woods.
Our admiral waa awaiting the Issue of
that expedition. Returning home under a
aloud, Rowley wanted to take with hi o
the assurance of the pirate nest being de
stroyed at last as a sort of diplomatic
feather In his cap.
"What he Is most anxious for," said Se
bright, "bt to get the notorious Kirhols into
his hands; take him home for a hanging.
It reems clear to me that they are hum
bugging him ashore. Nichols! Where's
Nichols? There are people here who say
that Nichols has had free board and lodg
ing In Havana Jail for the last six months.
Others swear that it is Nichols who has
killed the old gentleman, run off with Dona
Beraphina and got drowned. Nlchola! Who's
Klchols? On that showing you are Nlcn-
. 1
gara
fejit
13
ola. Anybody may be Nichols. Who ka
aver ma him outside Rto Medio? I use
to believe In him at ouo time, but. upon
my word, I begin to d-ul whether thera
ever was such a man."
"But tho man existed, at any rate," I
said. "I knew hlm-I've talked with him.
He came out second mate In the same ship .
with me In the old Thames. Ramon took
charge of him in Kingston, and that's tha
last poxltlve thing I can swear to, of him.
But that he was in Itlo Medio for two
years and vanished from there almost di
rectly after that unlucky boat affair, I am
absolutely certain."
"Well, I suppose O'Brien knows where
to lay hla hand on him. But no mutter
Where the fellow is, in Jail or out, the ad
miral will never get hold of him. If thy
had him they could not think of glv.ng
him up. He knows too much of the sa :.e.
And remember that O'Brien, if he dtl ti
in the socket, is by no means down .t
A man like that doesn't get knocked e.
like a tilnepln. You may be sure, he . ua
twenty skeletons put away In good pi :t 1
that he will haul out one by one rjl
than let himself be squashed, lie's :
going to give In. A few days since a r .s:
your priest, you know turned up he.o 111
foot from Rio Medio and went anoJ.
wringing hla hands, declaring ha kntw ; 11
the truth and meant to make a noise u o
it, too. O'Brien made short work of tin,
though; got the archbishop to send h m
Into retreat, as they call it, to a FraricUjan
convent 100 mile from here. These filn.a
are whispered about all along the gat e s
of this place."
I Imagined the poor Father Anton!o, rr th
his simple resignation, mourning for u In
his forced retreat, broken-hearted and
murmuring, "Inscrutable, Inscrutable?" I
should have liked to see the old mn.
The unfavorable circumstances for ua
was that the captain had gone ashore. The
ship was ready for sea, absolutely cleared. .
papers on board; could go In an hour if
It came to that, but at any rate next morn
ing at daylight, before O'Brien could get
wind of the Riego drogher arriving.
"Hut don't you expect Williams backan .
board 'Crt". s'
ft shook his head.
"No, not even tonight. Ha tlpptd me tho
wink. This evening he will send a . nota
that the consignee detains him for tho
night because- the letters are not ready."
I was greatly cast down. What about
getting him back on board at once?
Sebiiht was biting his Hp. The neces
sity waa pressing, he admitted.
He hud an idea where to find him. But
for himself he could not go that was evi
dent. Neither would I wish him to leave
the ship, even for a moment, now Beraphina
was on board. An unexpected visit from
some aealous police understrapper, a mo
mentary want of presence of mind oa
the part of the timid servant, there
waa enough to bring about our un
doing. Not one of our own crew
knew anything more of Spanish than
a few terms of abuse, perhaps. Their
hearts were in the right place, but aa to
their wlta, he wouldn't trust a single ono
of them by himself no, not an Inch away
from tha. ship. How could he send one of
them ashore with the wins shops yawning
wide on. all sides, and not enough lingo, to
ask for the way. Bure to get drunk, to get
lost, to gat into trouble In some way and
in the end get picked up by the polios.
The slightest hitch of that sort would call
attention upon the ship and with O'Brien
to draw Inferences. Ua rubbed hla head.
I suppose I'll have to go," he grunted.
"But I am known; I may' be followed.
They may wonder why I rush to fetch
my skipper. And yet I fee! this Is tha
time. The very time. Between now and
4 o'clock tomorrow morning we have an
almost absolute certitude of getting away
with you two. This to our chance and your
chance."
Ho waa lost In perplexity. Then, aa If
Inspired, I cried:
r win gor
"Tha devil!" he sold, amazed. "Would
you?"
I rushed at him with arguments. No ono
would know me. My slothes were all right
and clean enough for a feast day. I could,
slip through the crowds unperceived. Tho
principal thing was to get Beraphina out
of O'ttrleu'a reach. At tha worst I could
always find means to get away from Cuba
by myself. And if I mlsstd Williams by
sumo mischance and failed to make my
way back In titan, I charged him solemnly
not to wait, but sail away at the earliest
possible moment.
The Aiuerieua brlgantine was berthed
by then, close aatern of tha Lion, and
Bet) right had tha idea of asking lis mat
to let Its boat (it was In tha water) put
ashore a visitor he had on board. Ill
own were hoiHted, he explained, and thera
were no boatmen plying tor hire.
His request was granted. I was pulled
ashore by two American sailors, who never
said a word to each other, and evidently
took me for a Spaniard. :
I thanked them In Bpanlnh and, traversing
a piece of open ground, made a wide circle
to' enter the town from tha 'land side, to)
still further cover my tracks.
(To bo continued.)
'"Vs.,