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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it -under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this -eBook or online at <a -href="http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you are not -located in the United States, you'll have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this ebook.</p> -<p>Title: Hearts of Three</p> -<p>Author: Jack London</p> -<p>Release Date: January 28, 2017 [eBook #54068]</p> -<p>Language: English</p> -<p>Character set encoding: UTF-8</p> -<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HEARTS OF THREE***</p> -<p> </p> -<h4>E-text prepared by Richard Tonsing<br /> - and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> - (<a href="http://www.pgdp.net">http://www.pgdp.net</a>)<br /> - from page images generously made available by<br /> - Internet Archive<br /> - (<a href="https://archive.org">https://archive.org</a>)</h4> -<p> </p> -<table border="0" style="background-color: #ccccff;margin: 0 auto;" cellpadding="10"> - <tr> - <td valign="top"> - Note: - </td> - <td> - Images of the original pages are available through - Internet Archive. See - <a href="https://archive.org/details/heartsofthreejack00londrich"> - https://archive.org/details/heartsofthreejack00londrich</a> - </td> - </tr> -</table> -<p> </p> -<div class='tnotes covernote'> -<p class='c000'><strong>Transcriber's Note:</strong></p> -<p class='c000'>The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.</p> -</div> -<p> </p> -<hr class="full" /> -<p> </p> - -<div> - <h1 class='c001'>HEARTS OF THREE</h1> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> -<div class='nf-center c002'> - <div>BY</div> - <div class='c003'><span class='xlarge'>JACK LONDON</span></div> - <div class='c003'><span class='sc'>Author of “The Valley of the Moon,”</span></div> - <div>“<span class='sc'>Jerry of the Islands</span>,”</div> - <div><span class='sc'>“Michael, Brother of Jerry,” &c., &c.</span></div> - <div class='c002'><span class='xlarge'>MILLS & BOON, LIMITED</span></div> - <div class='c003'><span class='large'>49 RUPERT STREET</span></div> - <div class='c003'><span class='large'>LONDON, W.</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c003' /> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> -<div class='nf-center c004'> - <div>Copyright in the United States of America by Jack London.</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c003' /> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_viii'>viii</span> - <h2 class='c005'>FOREWORD</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c006'>I hope the reader will forgive me for beginning this foreword -with a brag. In truth, this yarn is a celebration. By its -completion I celebrate my fortieth birthday, my fiftieth book, -my sixteenth year in the writing game, and a new departure. -“Hearts of Three” is a new departure. I have certainly -never done anything like it before; I am pretty certain -never to do anything like it again. And I haven’t the least -bit of reticence in proclaiming my pride in having done it. -And now, for the reader who likes action, I advise him to -skip the rest of this brag and foreword, and plunge into the -narrative, and tell me if it just doesn’t read along.</p> - -<p class='c000'>For the more curious let me explain a bit further. With -the rise of moving pictures into the overwhelmingly most -popular form of amusement in the entire world, the stock -of plots and stories in the world’s fiction fund began rapidly -to be exhausted. In a year a single producing company, -with a score of directors, is capable of filming the entire -literary output of the entire lives of Shakespeare, Balzac, -Dickens, Scott, Zola, Tolstoy, and of dozens of less voluminous -writers. And since there are hundreds of moving pictures -producing companies, it can be readily grasped how quickly -they found themselves face to face with a shortage of the raw -material of which moving pictures are fashioned.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The film rights in all novels, short stories, and plays that -were still covered by copyright, were bought or contracted -for, while all similar raw material on which copyright had -expired was being screened as swiftly as sailors on a placer -beach would pick up nuggets. Thousands of scenario writers—literally -tens of thousands, for no man, nor woman, nor -child was too mean not to write scenarios—tens of -thousands of scenario writers pirated through all literature -(copyright or otherwise), and snatched the magazines hot -<span class='pageno' id='Page_ix'>ix</span>from the press to steal any new scene or plot or story hit -upon by their writing brethren.</p> - -<p class='c000'>In passing, it is only fair to point out that, though only the -other day, it was in the days ere scenario writers became -respectable, in the days when they worked overtime for -rough-neck directors for fifteen and twenty a week or freelanced -their wares for from ten to twenty dollars per scenario -and half the time were beaten out of the due payment, or had -their stolen goods stolen from them by their equally graceless -and shameless fellows who slaved by the week. But to-day, -which is only a day since the other day, I know scenario -writers who keep their three machines, their two chauffeurs, -send their children to the most exclusive prep schools, -and maintain an unwavering solvency.</p> - -<p class='c000'>It was largely because of the shortage in raw material -that scenario writers appreciated in value and esteem. They -found themselves in demand, treated with respect, better -remunerated, and, in return, expected to deliver a higher -grade of commodity. One phase of this new quest for -material was the attempt to enlist known authors in the -work. But because a man had written a score of novels was -no guarantee that he could write a good scenario. Quite to -the contrary, it was quickly discovered that the surest -guarantee of failure was a previous record of success in novel-writing.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But the moving pictures producers were not to be denied. -Division of labor was the thing. Allying themselves with -powerful newspaper organisations, or, in the case of “Hearts -of Three,” the very reverse, they had highly-skilled writers -of scenario (who couldn’t write novels to save themselves) -make scenarios, which, in turn, were translated into novels -by novel-writers (who couldn’t, to save themselves, write -scenarios).</p> - -<p class='c000'>Comes now Mr. Charles Goddard to one, Jack London, -saying: “The time, the place, and the men are met; the -moving pictures producers, the newspapers, and the capital, -are ready: let us get together.” And we got. Result: -“Hearts of Three.” When I state that Mr. Goddard has -been responsible for “The Perils of Pauline,” “The Exploits -of Elaine,” “The Goddess,” the “Get Rich Quick -Wallingford” series, etc., no question of his skilled fitness -can be raised. Also, the name of the present heroine, -Leoncia, is of his own devising.</p> - -<p class='c000'>On the ranch, in the “Valley of the Moon,” he wrote his first -<span class='pageno' id='Page_x'>x</span>several episodes. But he wrote faster than I, and was done -with his fifteen episodes weeks ahead of me. Do not be -misled by the word “episode.” The first episode covers -three thousand feet of film. The succeeding fourteen -episodes cover each two thousand feet of film. And each -episode contains about ninety scenes, which makes a total -of some thirteen hundred scenes. Nevertheless, we worked -simultaneously at our respective tasks. I could not build for -what was going to happen next or a dozen chapters away, -because I did not know. Neither did Mr. Goddard know. -The inevitable result was that “Hearts of Three” may not be -very vertebrate, although it is certainly consecutive.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Imagine my surprise, down here in Hawaii and toiling at -the novelization of the tenth episode, to receive by mail -from Mr. Goddard in New York the scenario of the fourteenth -episode, and glancing therein, to find my hero married to the -wrong woman!—and with only one more episode in -which to get rid of the wrong woman and duly tie my hero -up with the right and only woman. For all of which please -see last chapter of fifteenth episode. Trust Mr. Goddard -to show me how.</p> - -<p class='c000'>For Mr. Goddard is the master of action and lord of speed. -Action doesn’t bother him at all. “Register,” he calmly -says in a film direction to the moving picture actor. -Evidently the actor registers, for Mr. Goddard goes right on -with more action. “Register grief,” he commands, or -“sorrow,” or “anger,” or “melting sympathy,” or -“homicidal intent,” or “suicidal tendency.” That’s all. -It has to be all, or how else would he ever accomplish the -whole thirteen hundred scenes?</p> - -<p class='c000'>But imagine the poor devil of a me, who can’t utter the -talismanic “register” but who must describe, and at some -length inevitably, these moods and modes so airily created -in passing by Mr. Goddard! Why, Dickens thought nothing -of consuming a thousand words or so in describing and subtly -characterizing the particular grief of a particular person. -But Mr. Goddard says, “Register,” and the slaves of the -camera obey.</p> - -<p class='c000'>And action! I have written some novels of adventure in -my time, but never, in all of the many of them, have I perpetrated -a totality of action equal to what is contained in -“Hearts of Three.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But I know, now, why moving pictures are popular. I -know, now, why Messrs. “Barnes of New York” and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_xi'>xi</span>“Potter of Texas” sold by the millions of copies. I know, -now, why one stump speech of high-falutin’ is a more -efficient vote-getter than a finest and highest act or thought -of statesmanship. It has been an interesting experience, -this novelization by me of Mr. Goddard’s scenario; and it -has been instructive. It has given me high lights, foundation -lines, cross-bearings, and illumination on my anciently -founded sociological generalizations. I have come, by this -adventure in writing, to understand the mass mind of the -people more thoroughly than I thought I had understood it -before, and to realize, more fully than ever, the graphic -entertainment delivered by the demagogue who wins the vote -of the mass out of his mastery of its mind. I should be surprised -if this book does not have a large sale. (“Register -surprise,” Mr. Goddard would say; or “Register large -sale”).</p> - -<p class='c000'>If this adventure of “Hearts of Three” be collaboration, -I am transported by it. But alack!—I fear me Mr. Goddard -must then be the one collaborator in a million. We have -never had a word, an argument, nor a discussion. But then, -I must be a jewel of a collaborator myself. Have I not, -without whisper or whimper of complaint, let him “register” -through fifteen episodes of scenario, through thirteen hundred -scenes and thirty-one thousand feet of film, through one -hundred and eleven thousand words of novelization? Just -the same, having completed the task, I wish I’d never -written it—for the reason that I’d like to read it myself -to see if it reads along. I am curious to know. I am curious -to know.</p> - -<div class='c007'><span class='sc'>Jack London.</span></div> - -<div class='lg-container-l'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Waikiki, Hawaii,</div> - <div class='line in8'><em>March 23, 1916</em>.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_xii'>xii</span> - <h2 class='c005'>Back to Back Against the Mainmast</h2> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-b c002'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Do ye seek for fun and fortune?</div> - <div class='line in2'>Listen, rovers, now to me!</div> - <div class='line'>Look ye for them on the ocean:</div> - <div class='line in2'>Ye shall find them on the sea.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in16 c002'><span class='sc'>Chorus</span>:</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in4'>Roaring wind and deep blue water!</div> - <div class='line in6'>We’re the jolly devils who,</div> - <div class='line in4'>Back to back against the mainmast,</div> - <div class='line in6'>Held at bay the entire crew.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Bring the dagger, bring the pistols!</div> - <div class='line in2'>We will have our own to-day!</div> - <div class='line'>Let the cannon smash the bulwarks!</div> - <div class='line in2'>Let the cutlass clear the way!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in16 c002'><span class='sc'>Chorus</span>:</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in4'>Roaring wind and deep blue water!</div> - <div class='line in6'>We’re the jolly devils who,</div> - <div class='line in3'>Back to back against the mainmast,</div> - <div class='line in6'>Held at bay the entire crew.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>Here’s to rum and here’s to plunder!</div> - <div class='line in2'>Here’s to all the gales that blow!</div> - <div class='line'>Let the seamen cry for mercy!</div> - <div class='line in2'>Let the blood of captains flow!</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in16 c002'><span class='sc'>Chorus</span>:</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in2'>Roaring wind and deep blue water!</div> - <div class='line in4'>We’re the jolly devils who,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Back to back against the mainmast,</div> - <div class='line in4'>Held at bay the entire crew.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><span class='pageno' id='Page_xiii'>xiii</span>Here’s to ships that we have taken!</div> - <div class='line in2'>They have seen which men were best.</div> - <div class='line'>We have lifted maids and cargo,</div> - <div class='line in2'>And the sharks have had the rest.</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in16'><span class='sc'>Chorus</span>:</div> - </div> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line in2'>Roaring wind and deep blue water!</div> - <div class='line in4'>We’re the jolly devils who,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Back to back against the mainmast,</div> - <div class='line in4'>Held at bay the entire crew.</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='lg-container-r'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>—<em>George Sterling.</em></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='ph1'> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> -<div class='nf-center c004'> - <div>HEARTS OF THREE</div> - </div> -</div> - -</div> -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_1'>1</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER I.</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c006'>Events happened very rapidly with Francis Morgan that -late spring morning. If ever a man leaped across time into -the raw, red drama and tragedy of the primitive and the -medieval melodrama of sentiment and passion of the New -World Latin, Francis Morgan was destined to be that man, -and Destiny was very immediate upon him.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Yet he was lazily unaware that aught in the world was -stirring, and was scarcely astir himself. A late night at -bridge had necessitated a late rising. A late breakfast of -fruit and cereal had occurred along the route to the library—the -austerely elegant room from which his father, toward the -last, had directed vast and manifold affairs.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Parker,” he said to the valet who had been his father’s -before him, “did you ever notice any signs of fat on R.H.M. -in his last days?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Oh, no, sir,” was the answer, uttered with all the due -humility of the trained servant, but accompanied by an -involuntarily measuring glance that scanned the young man’s -splendid proportions. “Your father, sir, never lost his leanness. -His figure was always the same, broad-shouldered, -deep in the chest, big-boned, but lean, always lean, sir, in -the middle. When he was laid out, sir, and bathed, his body -would have shamed most of the young men about town. -He always took good care of himself; it was those exercises -in bed, sir. Half an hour every morning. Nothing prevented. -He called it religion.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Yes, he was a fine figure of a man,” the young man -responded idly, glancing to the stock-ticker and the several -telephones his father had installed.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“He was that,” Parker agreed eagerly. “He was lean -<span class='pageno' id='Page_2'>2</span>and aristocratic in spite of his shoulders and bone and chest. -And you’ve inherited it, sir, only on more generous lines.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Young Francis Morgan, inheritor of many millions as well -as brawn, lolled back luxuriously in a huge leather chair, -stretched his legs after the manner of a full-vigored -menagerie lion that is overspilling with vigor, and glanced -at a headline of the morning paper which informed him of a -fresh slide in the Culebra Cut at Panama.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“If I didn’t know we Morgans didn’t run that way,” he -yawned, “I’d be fat already from this existence.... Eh, -Parker?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The elderly valet, who had neglected prompt reply, startled -at the abrupt interrogative interruption of the pause.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Oh, yes, sir,” he said hastily. “I mean, no, sir. You -are in the pink of condition.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Not on your life,” the young man assured him. “I may -not be getting fat, but I am certainly growing soft.... Eh, -Parker?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Yes, sir. No, sir; no, I mean no, sir. You’re just the -same as when you came home from college three years ago.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And took up loafing as a vocation,” Francis laughed. -“Parker!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Parker was alert attention. His master debated with himself -ponderously, as if the problem were of profound importance, -rubbing the while the bristly thatch of the small toothbrush -moustache he had recently begun to sport on his upper -lip.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Parker, I’m going fishing.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Yes, sir!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I ordered some rods sent up. Please joint them and let -me give them the once over. The idea drifts through my -mind that two weeks in the woods is what I need. If I don’t, -I’ll surely start laying on flesh and disgrace the whole family -tree. You remember Sir Henry?—the old original Sir -Henry, the buccaneer old swashbuckler?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Yes, sir; I’ve read of him, sir.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Parker had paused in the doorway until such time as the -ebbing of his young master’s volubility would permit him to -depart on the errand.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Nothing to be proud of, the old pirate.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Oh, no, sir,” Parker protested. “He was Governor of -Jamaica. He died respected.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It was a mercy he didn’t die hanged,” Francis laughed. -“As it was, he’s the only disgrace in the family that he -<span class='pageno' id='Page_3'>3</span>founded. But what I was going to say is that I’ve looked -him up very carefully. He kept his figure and he died lean -in the middle, thank God. It’s a good inheritance he passed -down. We Morgans never found his treasure; but beyond -rubies is the lean-in-the-middle legacy he bequeathed us. -It’s what is called a fixed character in the breed—that’s -what the profs taught me in the biology course.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Parker faded out of the room in the ensuing silence, during -which Francis Morgan buried himself in the Panama column -and learned that the canal was not expected to be open for -traffic for three weeks to come.</p> - -<p class='c000'>A telephone buzzed, and, through the electric nerves of -a consummate civilization, Destiny made the first out-reach -of its tentacles and contacted with Francis Morgan in the -library of the mansion his father had builded on Riverside -Drive.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But my dear Mrs. Carruthers,” was his protest into the -transmitter. “Whatever it is, it is a mere local flurry. -Tampico Petroleum is all right. It is not a gambling proposition. -It is legitimate investment. Stay with. Tie to -it.... Some Minnesota farmer’s come to town and is trying -to buy a block or two because it looks as solid as it really -is.... What if it is up two points? Don’t sell. Tampico -Petroleum is not a lottery or a roulette proposition. It’s -bona fide industry. I wish it hadn’t been so almighty big or -I’d have financed it all myself.... Listen, please, it’s not -a flyer. Our present contracts for tanks is over a million. -Our railroad and our three pipe-lines are costing more than -five millions. Why, we’ve a hundred millions in producing -wells right now, and our problem is to get it down country -to the oil-steamers. This is the sober investment time. A -year from now, or two years, and your shares will make -government bonds look like something the cat brought -in....”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Yes, yes, please. Never mind how the market goes. -Also, please, I didn’t advise you to go in in the first place. -I never advised a friend to that. But now that they are in, -stick. It’s as solid as the Bank of England.... Yes, Dicky -and I divided the spoils last night. Lovely party, though -Dicky’s got too much temperament for bridge.... Yes, -bull luck.... Ha! ha! My temperament? Ha! Ha!... -Yes?... Tell Harry I’m off and away for a couple of -weeks.... Fishing, troutlets, you know, the springtime -and the streams, the rise of sap, the budding and the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_4'>4</span>blossoming and all the rest.... Yes, good-bye, and hold -on to Tampico Petroleum. If it goes down, after that -Minnesota farmer’s bulled it, buy a little more. I’m going -to. It’s finding money.... Yes.... Yes, surely.... -It’s too good to dare sell on a flyer now, because it mayn’t -ever again go down.... Of course I know what I’m talking -about. I’ve just had eight hours’ sleep, and haven’t had -a drink.... Yes, yes.... Good-bye.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>He pulled the ticker tape into the comfort of his chair and -languidly ran over it, noting with mildly growing interest the -message it conveyed.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Parker returned with several slender rods, each a glittering -gem of artisanship and art. Francis was out of his chair, -ticker flung aside and forgotten as with the exultant joy of a -boy he examined the toys and, one after another, began -trying them, switching them through the air till they made -shrill whip-like noises, moving them gently with prudence and -precision under the lofty ceiling as he made believe to cast -across the floor into some unseen pool of trout-lurking -mystery.</p> - -<p class='c000'>A telephone buzzed. Irritation was swift on his face.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“For heaven’s sake answer it, Parker,” he commanded. -“If it is some silly stock-gambling female, tell her I’m dead, -or drunk, or down with typhoid, or getting married, or anything -calamitous.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>After a moment’s dialogue, conducted on Parker’s part, in -the discreet and modulated tones that befitted absolutely -the cool, chaste, noble dignity of the room, with a “One -moment, sir,” into the transmitter, he muffled the transmitter -with his hand and said:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It’s Mr. Bascom, sir. He wants you.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Tell Mr. Bascom to go to hell,” said Francis, simulating -so long a cast, that, had it been in verity a cast, and had it -pursued the course his fascinated gaze indicated, it would -have gone through the window and most likely startled the -gardener outside kneeling over the rose bush he was planting.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Mr. Bascom says it’s about the market, sir, and that -he’d like to talk with you only a moment,” Parker urged, -but so delicately and subduedly as to seem to be merely -repeating an immaterial and unnecessary message.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“All right.” Francis carefully leaned the rod against a -table and went to the ‘phone.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Hello,” he said into the telephone. “Yes, this is I, -Morgan. Shoot, What is it?”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_5'>5</span>He listened for a minute, then interrupted irritably: “Sell—hell. -Nothing of the sort.... Of course, I’m glad to -know. Even if it goes up ten points, which it won’t, hold on -to everything. It may be a legitimate rise, and it mayn’t -ever come down. It’s solid. It’s worth far more than it’s -listed. I know, if the public doesn’t. A year from now it’ll -list at two hundred ... that is, if Mexico can cut the revolution -stuff.... Whenever it drops you’ll have buying orders -from me.... Nonsense. Who wants control? It’s purely -sporadic ... eh? I beg your pardon. I mean it’s merely -temporary. Now I’m going off fishing for a fortnight. If it -goes down five points, buy. Buy all that’s offered. Say, -when a fellow’s got a real bona fide property, being bulled -is almost as bad as having the bears after one ... yes.... -Sure ... yes. Good-bye.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And while Francis returned delightedly to his fishing-rods, -Destiny, in Thomas Regan’s down-town private office, was -working overtime. Having arranged with his various brokers -to buy, and, through his divers channels of secret publicity -having let slip the cryptic tip that something was wrong with -Tampico Petroleum’s concessions from the Mexican government, -Thomas Regan studied a report of his own oil-expert -emissary who had spent two months on the spot spying out -what Tampico Petroleum really had in sight and prospect.</p> - -<p class='c000'>A clerk brought in a card with the information that the -visitor was importunate and foreign. Regan listened, glanced -at the card, and said:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Tell this Mister Senor Alvarez Torres of Ciodad de Colon -that I can’t see him.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Five minutes later the clerk was back, this time with a -message pencilled on the card. Regan grinned as he read it:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-l c008'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“<em>Dear Mr. Regan</em>,</div> - <div class='line in2'>“<em>Honoured Sir</em>:—</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c009'>“<em>I have the honour to inform you that I have a tip -on the location of the treasure Sir Henry Morgan -buried in old pirate days.</em></p> - -<div class='lg-container-r c008'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“<em>Alvarez Torres.</em>”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c000'>Regan shook his head, and the clerk was nearly out of the -room when his employer suddenly recalled him.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Show him in—at once.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>In the interval of being alone, Regan chuckled to himself -as he rolled the new idea over in his mind. “The unlicked -<span class='pageno' id='Page_6'>6</span>cub!” he muttered through the smoke of the cigar he was -lighting. “Thinks he can play the lion part old R.H.M. -played. A trimming is what he needs, and old Grayhead -Thomas R. will see that he gets it.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Senor Alvarez Torres’ English was as correct as his modish -spring suit, and though the bleached yellow of his skin advertised -his Latin-American origin, and though his black eyes -were eloquent of the mixed lustres of Spanish and Indian -long compounded, nevertheless he was as thoroughly New -Yorkish as Thomas Regan could have wished.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“By great effort, and years of research, I have finally -won to the clue to the buccaneer gold of Sir Henry Morgan,” -he preambled. “Of course it’s on the Mosquito Coast. I’ll -tell you now that it’s not a thousand miles from the Chiriqui -Lagoon, and that Bocas del Toro, within reason, may be -described as the nearest town. I was born there—educated -in Paris, however—and I know the neighbourhood like a -book. A small schooner—the outlay is cheap, most very -cheap—but the returns, the reward—the treasure!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Senor Torres paused in eloquent inability to describe more -definitely, and Thomas Regan, hard man used to dealing -with hard men, proceeded to bore into him and his data like -a cross-examining criminal lawyer.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Yes,” Senor Torres quickly admitted, “I am somewhat -embarrassed—how shall I say?—for immediate funds.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You need the money,” the stock operator assured him -brutally, and he bowed pained acquiescence.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Much more he admitted under the rapid-fire interrogation. -It was true, he had but recently left Bocas del Toro, but he -hoped never again to go back. And yet he would go back if -possibly some arrangement....</p> - -<p class='c000'>But Regan shut him off with the abrupt way of the master-man -dealing with lesser fellow-creatures. He wrote a check, -in the name of Alvarez Torres, and when that gentleman -glanced at it he read the figures of a thousand dollars.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Now here’s the idea,” said Regan. “I put no belief -whatsoever in your story. But I have a young friend—my -heart is bound up in the boy but he is too much about town, -the white lights and the white-lighted ladies, and the rest—you -understand?” And Senor Alvarez Torres bowed as one -man of the world to another. “Now, for the good of his -health, as well as his wealth and the saving of his soul, the -best thing that could happen to him is a trip after treasure, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_7'>7</span>adventure, exercise, and ... you readily understand, I am -sure.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Again Alvarez Torres bowed.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You need the money,” Regan continued. “Strive to -interest him. That thousand is for your effort. Succeed in -interesting him so that he departs after old Morgan’s gold, -and two thousand more is yours. So thoroughly succeed in -interesting him that he remains away three months, two -thousand more—six months, five thousand. Oh, believe me, -I knew his father. We were comrades, partners, I—I might -say, almost brothers. I would sacrifice any sum to win his -son to manhood’s wholesome path. What do you say? The -thousand is yours to begin with. Well?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>With trembling fingers Senor Alvarez Torres folded and -unfolded the check.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I ... I accept,” he stammered and faltered in his -eagerness. “I ... I ... How shall I say?... I am -yours to command.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Five minutes later, as he arose to go, fully instructed in -the part he was to play and with his story of Morgan’s -treasure revised to convincingness by the brass-tack business -acumen of the stock-gambler, he blurted out, almost facetiously, -yet even more pathetically:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And the funniest thing about it, Mr. Regan, is that it -is true. Your advised changes in my narrative make it sound -more true, but true it is under it all. I need the money. -You are most munificent, and I shall do my best.... I - ... I pride myself that I am an artist. But the real and -solemn truth is that the clue to Morgan’s buried loot is -genuine. I have had access to records inaccessible to the -public, which is neither here nor there, for the men of my -own family—they are family records—have had similar -access, and have wasted their lives before me in the futile -search. Yet were they on the right clue—except that their -wits made them miss the spot by twenty miles. It was there -in the records. They missed it, because it was, I think, a -deliberate trick, a conundrum, a puzzle, a disguisement, a -maze, which I, and I alone, have penetrated and solved. -The early navigators all played such tricks on the charts -they drew. My Spanish race so hid the Hawaiian Islands by -five degrees of longitude.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>All of which was in turn Greek to Thomas Regan, who -smiled his acceptance of listening and with the same smile -conveyed his busy business-man’s tolerant unbelief.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_8'>8</span>Scarcely was Senor Torres gone, when Francis Morgan was -shown in.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Just thought I’d drop around for a bit of counsel,” he -said, greetings over. “And to whom but you should I apply, -who so closely played the game with my father? You and -he were partners, I understand, on some of the biggest deals. -He always told me to trust your judgment. And, well, here -I am, and I want to go fishing. What’s up with Tampico -Petroleum?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“What <em>is</em> up?” Regan countered, with fine simulation of -ignorance of the very thing of moment he was responsible for -precipitating. “Tampico Petroleum?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Francis nodded, dropped into a chair, and lighted a cigarette, -while Regan consulted the ticker.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Tampico Petroleum is up—two points—you should -worry,” he opined.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“That’s what I say,” Francis concurred. “I should -worry. But just the same, do you think some bunch, onto -the inside value of it—and it’s big—I speak under the rose, -you know, I mean in absolute confidence?” Regan nodded. -“It is big. It is right. It is the real thing. It is legitimate. -Now this activity—would you think that somebody, or some -bunch, is trying to get control?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>His father’s associate, with the reverend gray of hair -thatching his roof of crooked brain, shook the thatch.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Why,” he amplified, “it may be just a flurry, or it may -be a hunch on the stock public that it’s really good. What do -you say?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Of course it’s good,” was Francis’ warm response. -“I’ve got reports, Regan, so good they’d make your hair -stand up. As I tell all my friends, this is the real legitimate. -It’s a damned shame I had to let the public in on it. It -was so big, I just had to. Even all the money my father -left me, couldn’t swing it—I mean, free money, not the -stuff tied up—money to work with.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Are you short?” the older man queried.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Oh, I’ve got a tidy bit to operate with,” was the airy -reply of youth.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You mean...?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Sure. Just that. If she drops, I’ll buy. It’s finding -money.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Just about how far would you buy?” was the next -searching interrogation, masked by an expression of mingled -good humor and approbation.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_9'>9</span>“All I’ve got,” came Francis Morgan’s prompt answer. -“I tell you, Regan, it’s immense.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I haven’t looked into it to amount to anything, Francis; -but I will say from the little I know that it listens good.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Listens! I tell you, Regan, it’s the Simon-pure, straight -legitimate, and it’s a shame to have it listed at all. I -don’t have to wreck anybody or anything to pull it across. -The world will be better for my shooting into it I am afraid -to say how many hundreds of millions of barrels of real -oil——say, I’ve got one well alone, in the Huasteca field, -that’s gushed 27,000 barrels a day for seven months. And -it’s still doing it. That’s the drop in the bucket we’ve -got piped to market now. And it’s twenty-two gravity, and -carries less than two-tenths of one per cent. of sediment. -And there’s one gusher—sixty miles of pipe to build to it, -and pinched down to the limit of safety, that’s pouring out -all over the landscape just about seventy thousand barrels -a day.—Of course, all in confidence, you know. We’re -doing nicely, and I don’t want Tampico Petroleum to skyrocket.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Don’t you worry about that, my lad. You’ve got to -get your oil piped, and the Mexican revolution straightened -out before ever Tampico Petroleum soars. You go fishing -and forget it.” Regan paused, with finely simulated sudden -recollection, and picked up Alvarez Torres’ card with the -pencilled note. “Look, who’s just been to see me.” Apparently -struck with an idea, Regan retained the card a moment. -“Why go fishing for mere trout? After all, it’s only recreation. -Here’s a thing to go fishing after that there’s real -recreation in, full-size man’s recreation, and not the Persian-palace -recreation of an Adirondack camp, with ice and servants -and electric push-buttons. Your father always was -more than a mite proud of that old family pirate. He -claimed to look like him, and you certainly look like your -dad.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Sir Henry,” Francis smiled, reaching for the card. -“So am I a mite proud of the old scoundrel.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>He looked up questioningly from the reading of the card.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“He’s a plausible cuss,” Regan explained. “Claims to -have been born right down there on the Mosquito Coast, -and to have got the tip from private papers in his family. -Not that I believe a word of it. I haven’t time or interest -to get started believing in stuff outside my own field.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Just the same, Sir Henry died practically a poor man,” -<span class='pageno' id='Page_10'>10</span>Francis asserted, the lines of the Morgan stubbornness knitting -themselves for a flash on his brows. “And they never -did find any of his buried treasure.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Good fishing,” Regan girded good-humoredly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I’d like to meet this Alvarez Torres just the same,” -the young man responded.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Fool’s gold,” Regan continued. “Though I must -admit that the cuss is most exasperatingly plausible. Why, -if I were younger—but oh, the devil, my work’s cut out for -me here.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Do you know where I can find him?” Francis was -asking the next moment, all unwittingly putting his neck -into the net of tentacles that Destiny, in the visible incarnation -of Thomas Regan, was casting out to snare him.</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c000'>The next morning the meeting took place in Regan’s -office. Senor Alvarez Torres startled and controlled himself -at first sight of Francis’ face. This was not missed by -Regan, who grinningly demanded:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Looks like the old pirate himself, eh?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Yes, the resemblance is most striking,” Torres lied, -or half-lied, for he did recognize the resemblance to the -portraits he had seen of Sir Henry Morgan; although at the -same time under his eyelids he saw the vision of another -and living man who, no less than Francis and Sir Henry, -looked as much like both of them as either looked like the -other.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Francis was youth that was not to be denied. Modern -maps and ancient charts were pored over, as well as old -documents, handwritten in faded ink on time-yellowed -paper, and at the end of half an hour he announced that -the next fish he caught would be on either the Bull or -the Calf—the two islets off the Lagoon of Chiriqui, on one -or the other of which Torres averred the treasure lay.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I’ll catch to-night’s train for New Orleans,” Francis -announced. “That will just make connection with one of -the United Fruit Company’s boats for Colon—oh, I had it -all looked up before I slept last night.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But don’t charter a schooner at Colon,” Torres advised. -“Take the overland trip by horseback to Belen. There’s -the place to charter, with unsophisticated native sailors and -everything else unsophisticated.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Listens good!” Francis agreed. “I always wanted to -see that country down there. You’ll be ready to catch to-night’s -<span class='pageno' id='Page_11'>11</span>train, Senor Torres?... Of course, you understand, -under the circumstances, I’ll be the treasurer and -foot the expenses.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But at a privy glance from Regan, Alvarez Torres lied -with swift efficientness.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I must join you later, I regret, Mr. Morgan. Some -little business that presses—how shall I say?—an insignificant -little lawsuit that must be settled first. Not that -the sum at issue is important. But it is a family matter, -and therefore gravely important. We Torres have our pride, -which is a silly thing, I acknowledge, in this country, but -which with us is very serious.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“He can join afterward, and straighten you out if you’ve -missed the scent,” Regan assured Francis. “And, before -it slips your mind, it might be just as well to arrange with -Senor Torres some division of the loot ... if you ever find -it.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“What would you say?” Francis asked.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Equal division, fifty-fifty,” Regan answered, magnificently -arranging the apportionment between the two men -of something he was certain did not exist.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And you will follow after as soon as you can?” Francis -asked the Latin American. “Regan, take hold of his -little law affair yourself and expedite it, won’t you?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Sure, boy,” was the answer. “And, if it’s needed, -shall I advance cash to Senor Alvarez?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Fine!” Francis shook their hands in both of his. -“It will save me bother. And I’ve got to rush to pack -and break engagements and catch that train. So long, -Regan. Good-bye, Senor Torres, until we meet somewhere -around Bocas del Toro, or in a little hole in the ground -on the Bull or the Calf—you say you think it’s the Calf? -Well, until then—adios!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And Senor Alvarez Torres remained with Regan some -time longer, receiving explicit instructions for the part he -was to play, beginning with retardation and delay of Francis’ -expedition, and culminating in similar retardation and delay -always to be continued.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“In short,” Regan concluded, “I don’t almost care if -he never comes back—if you can keep him down there for -the good of his health that long and longer.”</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_12'>12</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER II</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c006'>Money, like youth, will not be denied, and Francis Morgan, -who was the man-legal and nature-certain representative -of both youth and money, found himself one afternoon, -three weeks after he had said good-bye to Regan, becalmed -close under the land on board his schooner, the <em>Angelique</em>. -The water was glassy, the smooth roll scarcely perceptible, -and, in sheer ennui and overplus of energy that likewise -declined to be denied, he asked the captain, a breed, half -Jamaica negro and half Indian, to order a small skiff over -the side.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Looks like I might shoot a parrot or a monkey or -something,” he explained, searching the jungle-clad shore, -half a mile away, through a twelve-power Zeiss glass.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Most problematic, sir, that you are bitten by a <em>labarri</em>, -which is deadly viper in these parts,” grinned the breed -skipper and owner of the <em>Angelique</em>, who, from his Jamaica -father had inherited the gift of tongues.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But Francis was not to be deterred; for at the moment, -through his glass, he had picked out, first, in the middle -ground, a white hacienda, and second, on the beach, a -white-clad woman’s form, and further, had seen that she -was scrutinising him and the schooner through a pair of -binoculars.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Put the skiff over, skipper,” he ordered. “Who lives -around here?—white folks?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The Enrico Solano family, sir,” was the answer. “My -word, they are important gentlefolk, old Spanish, and they -own the entire general landscape from the sea to the Cordilleras -and half of the Chiriqui Lagoon as well. They are -very poor, most powerful rich ... in landscape—and they -are prideful and fiery as cayenne pepper.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>As Francis, in the tiny skiff, rowed shoreward, the -skipper’s alert eye noted that he had neglected to take along -either rifle or shotgun for the contemplated parrot or -<span class='pageno' id='Page_13'>13</span>monkey. And, next, the skipper’s eye picked up the white-clad -woman’s figure against the dark edge of the jungle.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Straight to the white beach of coral sand Francis rowed, -not trusting himself to look over his shoulder to see if the -woman remained or had vanished. In his mind was merely -a young man’s healthy idea of encountering a bucolic -young lady, or a half-wild white woman for that matter, -or at the best a very provincial one, with whom he could fool -and fun away a few minutes of the calm that fettered -the <em>Angelique</em> to immobility. When the skiff grounded, he -stepped out, and with one sturdy arm lifted its nose high -enough up the sand to fasten it by its own weight. Then -he turned around. The beach to the jungle was bare. He -strode forward confidently. Any traveller, on so strange -a shore, had a right to seek inhabitants for information on -his way—was the idea he was acting out.</p> - -<p class='c000'>And he, who had anticipated a few moments of diversion -merely, was diverted beyond his fondest expectations. Like -a jack-in-the-box, the woman, who, in the flash of vision -vouchsafed him demonstrated that she was a girl-woman, -ripely mature and yet mostly girl, sprang out of the green -wall of jungle and with both hands seized his arm. The -hearty weight of grip in the seizure surprised him. He -fumbled his hat off with his free hand and bowed to the -strange woman with the imperturbableness of a Morgan, -New York trained and disciplined to be surprised at nothing, -and received another surprise, or several surprises -compounded. Not alone was it her semi-brunette beauty -that impacted upon him with the weight of a blow, but it -was her gaze, driven into him, that was all of sternness. -Almost it seemed to him that he must know her. Strangers, -in his experience, never so looked at one another.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The double grip on his arm became a draw, as she -muttered tensely:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Quick! Follow me!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>A moment he resisted. She shook him in the fervor -of her desire, and strove to pull him toward her and after -her. With the feeling that it was some unusual game, -such as one might meet up with on the coast of Central -America, he yielded, smilingly, scarcely knowing whether -he followed voluntarily or was being dragged into the jungle -by her impetuosity.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Do as I do,” she shot back at him over her shoulder, -by this time leading him with one hand of hers in his.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_14'>14</span>He smiled and obeyed, crouching when she crouched, -doubling over when she doubled, while memories of John -Smith and Pocahontas glimmered up in his fancy.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Abruptly she checked him and sat down, her hand directing -him to sit beside her ere she released him, and pressed -it to her heart while she panted:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Thank God! Oh, merciful Virgin!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>In imitation, such having been her will of him, and -such seeming to be the cue of the game, he smilingly pressed -his own hand to his heart, although he called neither on -God nor the Virgin.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Won’t you ever be serious?” she flashed at him, noting -his action.</p> - -<p class='c000'>And Francis was immediately and profoundly, as well as -naturally, serious.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“My dear lady...” he began.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But an abrupt gesture checked him; and, with growing -wonder, he watched her bend and listen, and heard the -movement of bodies padding down some runway several -yards away.</p> - -<p class='c000'>With a soft warm palm pressed commandingly to his to -be silent, she left him with the abruptness that he had -already come to consider as customary with her, and slipped -away down the runway. Almost he whistled with astonishment. -He might have whistled it, had he not heard her -voice, not distant, in Spanish, sharply interrogate men -whose Spanish voices, half-humbly, half-insistently and -half-rebelliously, answered her.</p> - -<p class='c000'>He heard them move on, still talking, and, after five -minutes of dead silence, heard her call for him peremptorily -to come out.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Gee! I wonder what Regan would do under such circumstances!” -he smiled to himself as he obeyed.</p> - -<p class='c000'>He followed her, no longer hand in hand, through the -jungle to the beach. When she paused, he came beside her -and faced her, still under the impress of the fantasy which -possessed him that it was a game.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Tag!” he laughed, touching her on the shoulder. -“Tag!” he reiterated. “You’re It!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The anger of her blazing dark eyes scorched him.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You fool!” she cried, lifting her finger with what he -considered undue intimacy to his toothbrush moustache. -“As if that could disguise you!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But my dear lady...” he began to protest his -certain unacquaintance with her.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_15'>15</span>Her retort, which broke off his speech, was as unreal -and bizarre as everything else which had gone before. So -quick was it, that he failed to see whence the tiny silver -revolver had been drawn, the muzzle of which was not presented -merely toward his abdomen, but pressed closely -against it.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“My dear lady...” he tried again.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I won’t talk with you,” she shut him off. “Go back -to your schooner, and go away....” He guessed the inaudible -sob of the pause, ere she concluded, “Forever.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>This time his mouth opened to speech that was aborted -on his lips by the stiff thrust of the muzzle of the weapon -into his abdomen.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“If you ever come back—the Madonna forgive me—I -shall shoot myself.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Guess I’d better go, then,” he uttered airily, as he -turned to the skiff, toward which he walked in stately embarrassment, -half-filled with laughter for himself and for -the ridiculous and incomprehensible figure he was cutting.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Endeavoring to retain a last shred of dignity, he took -no notice that she had followed him. As he lifted the skiff’s -nose from the sand, he was aware that a faint wind was -rustling the palm fronds. A long breeze was darkening the -water close at hand, while, far out across the mirrored -water the outlying keys of Chiriqui Lagoon shimmered like -a mirage above the dark-crisping water.</p> - -<p class='c000'>A sob compelled him to desist from stepping into the -skiff, and to turn his head. The strange young woman, -revolver dropped to her side, was crying. His step back to -her was instant, and the touch of his hand on her arm -was sympathetic and inquiring. She shuddered at his touch, -drew away from him, and gazed at him reproachfully -through her tears. With a shrug of shoulders to her many -moods and of surrender to the incomprehensibleness of the -situation, he was about to turn to the boat, when she stopped -him.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“At least you...” she began, then faltered and swallowed, -“you might kiss me good-bye.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>She advanced impulsively, with outstretched arms, the -revolver dangling incongruously from her right hand. -Francis hesitated a puzzled moment, then gathered her in -to receive an astounding passionate kiss on his lips ere she -dropped her head on his shoulder in a breakdown of tears. -Despite his amazement he was aware of the revolver pressing -<span class='pageno' id='Page_16'>16</span>flat-wise against his back between the shoulders. She -lifted her tear-wet face and kissed him again and again, -and he wondered to himself if he were a cad for meeting -her kisses with almost equal and fully as mysterious impulsiveness.</p> - -<p class='c000'>With a feeling that he did not in the least care how -long the tender episode might last, he was startled by her -quick drawing away from him, as anger and contempt -blazed back in her face, and as she menacingly directed -him with the revolver to get into the boat.</p> - -<p class='c000'>He shrugged his shoulders as if to say that he could -not say no to a lovely lady, and obeyed, sitting to the oars -and facing her as he began rowing away.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The Virgin save me from my wayward heart,” she -cried, with her free hand tearing a locket from her bosom, -and, in a shower of golden beads, flinging the ornament -into the waterway midway between them.</p> - -<p class='c000'>From the edge of the jungle he saw three men, armed -with rifles, run toward her where she had sunk down in -the sand. In the midst of lifting her up, they caught sight -of Francis, who had begun rowing a strong stroke. Over -his shoulder he glimpsed the <em>Angelique</em>, close hauled and -slightly heeling, cutting through the water toward him. The -next moment, one of the trio on the beach, a bearded elderly -man, was directing the girl’s binoculars on him. And the -moment after, dropping the glasses, he was taking aim -with his rifle.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The bullet spat on the water within a yard of the skiff’s -side, and Francis saw the girl spring to her feet, knock up the -rifle with her arm, and spoil the second shot. Next, pulling -lustily, he saw the men separate from her to sight their -rifles, and saw her threatening them with the revolver -into lowering their weapons.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The <em>Angelique</em>, thrown up into the wind to stop way, -foamed alongside, and with an agile leap Francis was -aboard, while already, the skipper putting the wheel up, -the schooner was paying off and filling. With boyish zest, -Francis wafted a kiss of farewell to the girl, who was staring -toward him, and saw her collapse on the shoulders -of the bearded elderly man.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Cayenne pepper, eh—those damned, horrible, crazy-proud -Solanos,” the breed skipper flashed at Francis with -white teeth of laughter.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Just bugs—clean crazy, nobody at home,” Francis -<span class='pageno' id='Page_17'>17</span>laughed back, as he sprang to the rail to waft further kisses -to the strange damsel.</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c000'>Before the land wind, the <em>Angelique</em> made the outer rim -of Chiriqui Lagoon and the Bull and Calf, some fifty miles -farther along on the rim, by midnight, when the skipper -hove to to wait for daylight. After breakfast, rowed by a -Jamaica negro sailor in the skiff, Francis landed to reconnoiter -on the Bull, which was the larger island and -which the skipper had told him he might find occupied at -that season of the year by turtle-catching Indians from the -mainland.</p> - -<p class='c000'>And Francis very immediately found that he had traversed -not merely thirty degrees of latitude from New -York but thirty hundred years, or centuries for that matter, -from the last word of civilisation to almost the first word -of the primeval. Naked, except for breech-clouts of gunny-sacking, -armed with cruelly heavy hacking blades of -machetes, the turtle-catchers were swift in proving themselves -arrant beggars and dangerous man-killers. The Bull -belonged to them, they told him through the medium of -his Jamaican sailor’s interpreting; but the Calf, which used -to belong to them for the turtle season now was possessed -by a madly impossible Gringo, whose reckless, dominating -ways had won from them the respect of fear for a two-legged -human creature who was more fearful than themselves.</p> - -<p class='c000'>While Francis, for a silver dollar, dispatched one of them -with a message to the mysterious Gringo that he desired -to call on him, the rest of them clustered about Francis’ -skiff, whining for money, glowering upon him, and even -impudently stealing his pipe, yet warm from his lips, which -he had laid beside him in the sternsheets. Promptly -he had laid a blow on the ear of the thief, and the next -thief who seized it, and recovered the pipe. Machetes out -and sun-glistening their clean-slicing menace, Francis -covered and controlled the gang with an automatic pistol; -and, while they drew apart in a group and whispered ominously, -he made the discovery that his lone sailor-interpreter -was a weak brother and received his returned messenger.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The negro went over to the turtle-catchers and talked -with a friendliness and subservience, the tones of which -Francis did not like. The messenger handed him his note, -across which was scrawled in pencil:</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_18'>18</span>“Vamos.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Guess I’ll have to go across myself,” Francis told the -negro whom he had beckoned back to him.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Better be very careful and utmostly cautious, sir,” the -negro warned him. “These animals without reason are -very problematically likely to act most unreasonably, sir.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Get into the boat and row me over,” Francis commanded -shortly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“No, sir, I regret much to say, sir,” was the black -sailor’s answer. “I signed on, sir, as a sailor to Captain -Trefethen, but I didn’t sign on for no suicide, and I can’t -see my way to rowin’ you over, sir, to certain death. Best -thing we can do is to get out of this hot place that’s certainly -and without peradventure of a doubt goin’ to get hotter -for us if we remain, sir.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>In huge disgust and scorn Francis pocketed his automatic, -turned his back on the sacking-clad savages, and walked -away through the palms. Where a great boulder of coral -rock had been upthrust by some ancient restlessness of the -earth, he came down to the beach. On the shore of the -Calf, across the narrow channel, he made out a dinghy -drawn up. Drawn up on his own side was a crank-looking -and manifestly leaky dugout canoe. As he tilted the -water out of it, he noticed that the turtle-catchers had followed -and were peering at him from the edge of the coconuts, -though his weak-hearted sailor was not in sight.</p> - -<p class='c000'>To paddle across the channel was a matter of moments, -but scarcely was he on the beach of the Calf when further -inhospitality greeted him on the part of a tall, barefooted -young man, who stepped from behind a palm, automatic -pistol in hand, and shouted:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Vamos! Get out! Scut!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Ye gods and little fishes!” Francis grinned, half-humorously, -half-seriously. “A fellow can’t move in these parts -without having a gun shoved in his face. And everybody -says get out pronto.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Nobody invited you,” the stranger retorted. “You’re -intruding. Get off my island. I’ll give you half a minute.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I’m getting sore, friend,” Francis assured him truthfully, -at the same time, out of the corner of his eye, measuring -the distance to the nearest palm-trunk. “Everybody -I meet around here is crazy and discourteous, and peevishly -anxious to be rid of my presence, and they’ve just got -<span class='pageno' id='Page_19'>19</span>me feeling that way myself. Besides, just because you -tell me it’s your island is no proof——”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The swift rush he made to the shelter of the palm left -his sentence unfinished. His arrival behind the trunk was -simultaneous with the arrival of a bullet that thudded into -the other side of it.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Now, just for that!” he called out, as he centered a -bullet into the trunk of the other man’s palm.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The next few minutes they blazed away, or waited for calculated -shots, and when Francis’ eighth and last had been -fired, he was unpleasantly certain that he had counted only -seven shots for the stranger. He cautiously exposed part -of his sun-helmet, held in his hand, and had it perforated.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“What gun are you using?” he asked with cool politeness.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Colt’s,” came the answer.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Francis stepped boldly into the open, saying: “Then -you’re all out. I counted ‘em. Eight. Now we can talk.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The stranger stepped out, and Francis could not help -admiring the fine figure of him, despite the fact that a -dirty pair of canvas pants, a cotton undershirt, and a -floppy sombrero constituted his garmenting. Further, it -seemed he had previously known him, though it did not -enter his mind that he was looking at a replica of himself.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Talk!” the stranger sneered, throwing down his pistol -and drawing a knife. “Now we’ll just cut off your ears, -and maybe scalp you.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Gee! You’re sweet-natured and gentle animals in this -neck of the woods,” Francis retorted, his anger and disgust -increasing. He drew his own hunting knife, brand new -from the shop and shining. “Say, let’s wrestle, and cut -out this ten-twenty-and-thirty knife stuff.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I want your ears,” the stranger answered pleasantly, -as he slowly advanced.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Sure. First down, and the man who wins the fall gets -the other fellow’s ears.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Agreed.” The young man in the canvas trousers -sheathed his knife.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Too bad there isn’t a moving picture camera to film -this,” Francis girded, sheathing his own knife. “I’m sore -as a boil. I feel like a heap bad Injun. Watch out! I’m -coming in a rush! Anyway and everyway for the first fall!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Action and word went together, and his glorious rush -ended ignominiously, for the stronger, apparently braced for -<span class='pageno' id='Page_20'>20</span>the shock, yielded the instant their bodies met and fell -over on his back, at the same time planting his foot in -Francis’ abdomen and, from the back purchase on the -ground, transforming Francis’ rush into a wild forward -somersault.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The fall on the sand knocked most of Francis’ breath -out of him, and the flying body of his foe, impacting on -him, managed to do for what little breath was left him. -As he lay speechless on his back, he observed the man on -top of him gazing down at him with sudden curiosity.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“What d’ you want to wear a mustache for?” the -stranger muttered.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Go on and cut ‘em off,” Francis gasped, with the first -of his returning breath. “The ears are yours, but the -mustache is mine. It is not in the bond. Besides, that fall -was straight jiu jiutsu.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You said ‘anyway and everyway for the first fall,’” -the other quoted laughingly. “As for your ears, keep them. -I never intended to cut them off, and now that I look at -them closely the less I want them. Get up and get out -of here. I’ve licked you. <i><span lang="es" xml:lang="es">Vamos!</span></i> And don’t come sneaking -around here again! Git! Scut!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>In greater disgust than ever, to which was added the -humiliation of defeat, Francis turned down to the beach -toward his canoe.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Say, Little Stranger, do you mind leaving your card?” -the victor called after him.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Visiting cards and cut-throating don’t go together,” -Francis shot back across his shoulder, as he squatted in the -canoe and dipped his paddle. “My name’s Morgan.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Surprise and startlement were the stranger’s portion, as -he opened his mouth to speak, then changed his mind and -murmured to himself, “Same stock—no wonder we look -alike.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Still in the throes of disgust, Francis regained the shore -of the Bull, sat down on the edge of the dugout, filled and -lighted his pipe, and gloomily meditated. Crazy, everybody, -was the run of his thought. Nobody acts with reason. -“I’d like to see old Regan try to do business with these -people. They’d get his ears.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Could he have seen, at that moment, the young man of -the canvas pants and of familiar appearance, he would have -been certain that naught but lunacy resided in Latin -America; for the young man in question, inside a grass-thatched -<span class='pageno' id='Page_21'>21</span>hut in the heart of his island, grinning to himself -as he uttered aloud, “I guess I put the fear of God into that -particular member of the Morgan family,” had just begun -to stare at a photographic reproduction of an oil painting on -the wall of the original Sir Henry Morgan.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Well, Old Pirate,” he continued grinning, “two of your -latest descendants came pretty close to getting each other -with automatics that would make your antediluvian horse-pistols -look like thirty cents.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>He bent to a battered and worm-eaten sea-chest, lifted -the lid that was monogramed with an “M,” and again -addressed the portrait:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Well, old pirate Welshman of an ancestor, all you’ve -left me is the old duds and a face that looks like yours. And -I guess, if I was really fired up, I could play your Port-au-Prince -stunt about as well as you played it yourself.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>A moment later, beginning to dress himself in the age-worn -and moth-eaten garments of the chest, he added: -“Well, here’s the old duds on my back. Come, Mister -Ancestor, down out of your frame, and dare to tell me a point -of looks in which we differ.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Clad in Sir Henry Morgan’s ancient habiliments, a cutlass -strapped on around the middle and two flintlock pistols of -huge and ponderous design thrust into his waist-scarf, the -resemblance between the living man and the pictured -semblance of the old buccaneer who had been long since -resolved to dust, was striking.</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Back to back against the mainmast,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Held at bay the entire crew....”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c000'>As the young man, picking the strings of a guitar, began -to sing the old buccaneer rouse, it seemed to him that the -picture of his forebear faded into another picture and that he -saw:</p> - -<p class='c000'>The old forebear himself, back to a mainmast, cutlass out -and flashing, facing a semi-circle of fantastically clad sailor -cutthroats, while behind him, on the opposite side of the -mast, another similarly garbed and accoutred man, with -cutlass flashing, faced the other semi-circle of cutthroats -that completed the ring about the mast.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The vivid vision of his fancy was broken by the breaking -of a guitar-string which he had thrummed too passionately. -And in the sharp pause of silence, it seemed that a fresh -<span class='pageno' id='Page_22'>22</span>vision of old Sir Henry came to him, down out of the frame -and beside him, real in all seeming, plucking at his sleeve to -lead him out of the hut and whispering a ghostly repetition -of:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Back to back against the mainmast</div> - <div class='line in2'>Held at bay the entire crew.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c000'>The young man obeyed his shadowy guide, or some -prompting of his own profound of intuition, and went out -the door and down to the beach, where, gazing across the -narrow channel, on the beach of the Bull, he saw his late -antagonist, backed up against the great boulder of coral -rock, standing off an attack of sack-clouted, machete-wielding -Indians with wide sweeping strokes of a driftwood -timber.</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c000'>And Francis, in extremity, swaying dizzily from the blow -of a rock on his head, saw the apparition, that almost -convinced him he was already dead and in the realm of the -shades, of Sir Henry Morgan himself, cutlass in hand, -rushing up the beach to his rescue. Further, the apparition, -brandishing the cutlass and laying out Indians right -and left, was bellowing:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Back to back against the mainmast,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Held at bay the entire crew.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c000'>As Francis’ knees gave under him and he slowly crumpled -and sank down, he saw the Indians scatter and flee before -the onslaught of the weird pirate figure and heard their cries -of:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Heaven help us!” “The Virgin protect us!” “It’s the -ghost of old Morgan!”</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c000'>Francis next opened his eyes inside the grass hut in the -midmost center of the Calf. First, in the glimmering of -sight of returning consciousness, he beheld the pictured -lineaments of Sir Henry Morgan staring down at him from -the wall. Next, it was a younger edition of the same, in -three dimensions of living, moving flesh, who thrust a mug -of brandy to his lips and bade him drink. Francis was on -his feet ere he touched lips to the mug; and both he and the -stranger man, moved by a common impulse, looked squarely -into each other’s eyes, glanced at the picture on the wall -<span class='pageno' id='Page_23'>23</span>and touched mugs in a salute to the picture and to each -other ere they drank.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You told me you were a Morgan,” the stranger said. -“I am a Morgan. That man on the wall fathered my -breed. Your breed?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The old buccaneer’s,” Francis returned. “My first -name is Francis. And yours?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Henry—straight from the original. We must be remote -cousins or something or other. I’m after the foxy old -niggardly old Welshman’s loot.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“So’m I,” said Francis, extending his hand. “But to -hell with sharing.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The old blood talks in you,” Henry smiled approbation. -“For him to have who finds. I’ve turned most of this -island upside down in the last six months, and all I’ve found -are these old duds. I’m with you to beat you if I can, but -to put my back against the mainmast with you any time the -needed call goes out.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“That song’s a wonder,” Francis urged. “I want to -learn it. Lift the stave again.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And together, clanking their mugs, they sang:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Back to back against the mainmast,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Held at bay the entire crew....”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_24'>24</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER III</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c006'>But a splitting headache put a stop to Francis’ singing and -made him glad to be swung in a cool hammock by Henry, -who rowed off to the <em>Angelique</em> with orders from his visitor -to the skipper to stay at anchor but not to permit any of his -sailors to land on the Calf. Not until late in the morning -of the following day, after hours of heavy sleep, did Francis -get on his feet and announce that his head was clear again.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I know what it is—got bucked off a horse once,” his -strange relative sympathised, as he poured him a huge cup -of fragrant black coffee. “Drink that down. It will make -a new man of you. Can’t offer you much for breakfast -except bacon, sea biscuit, and some scrambled turtle eggs. -They’re fresh. I guarantee that, for I dug them out this -morning while you slept.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“That coffee is a meal in itself,” Francis praised, meanwhile -studying his kinsman and ever and anon glancing at -the portrait of their relative.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You’re just like him, and in more than mere looks,” -Henry laughed, catching him in his scrutiny. “When you -refused to share yesterday, it was old Sir Henry to the life. -He had a deep-seated antipathy against sharing, even with -his own crews. It’s what caused most of his troubles. -And he’s certainly never shared a penny of his treasure with -any of his descendants. Now I’m different. Not only will -I share the Calf with you; but I’ll present you with my half -as well, lock, stock, and barrel, this grass hut, all these nice -furnishings, tenements, hereditaments, and everything, and -what’s left of the turtle eggs. When do you want to move -in?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You mean...?” Francis asked.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Just that. There’s nothing here. I’ve just about dug -the island upside down and all I found was the chest there -full of old clothes.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It must have encouraged you.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_25'>25</span>“Mightily. I thought I had a hammerlock on it. At -any rate, it showed I’m on the right track.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“What’s the matter with trying the Bull?” Francis -queried.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“That’s my idea right now,” was the answer, “though -I’ve got another clue for over on the mainland. Those old-timers -had a way of noting down their latitude and longitude -whole degrees out of the way.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Ten North and Ninety East on the chart might mean -Twelve North and Ninety-two East,” Francis concurred. -“Then again it might mean Eight North and Eighty-eight -East. They carried the correction in their heads, and if -they died unexpectedly, which was their custom, it seems, -the secret died with them.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I’ve half a notion to go over to the Bull and chase those -turtle-catchers back to the mainland,” Henry went on. -“And then again I’d almost like to tackle the mainland clue -first. I suppose you’ve got a stock of clues, too?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Sure thing,” Francis nodded. “But say, I’d like to -take back what I said about not sharing.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Say the word,” the other encouraged.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Then I do say it.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Their hands extended and gripped in ratification.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Morgan and Morgan strictly limited,” chortled Francis.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Assets, the whole Caribbean Sea, the Spanish Main, -most of Central America, one chest full of perfectly no good -old clothes, and a lot of holes in the ground,” Henry joined -in the other’s humor. “Liabilities, snake-bite, thieving -Indians, malaria, yellow fever——”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And pretty girls with a habit of kissing total strangers -one moment, and of sticking up said total strangers with -shiny silver revolvers the next moment,” Francis cut in. -“Let me tell you about it. Day before yesterday, I rowed -ashore over on the mainland. The moment I landed, the -prettiest girl in the world pounced out upon me and dragged -me away into the jungle. Thought she was going to eat me -or marry me. I didn’t know which. And before I could -find out, what’s the pretty damsel do but pass uncomplimentary -remarks on my mustache and chase me back to the -boat with a revolver. Told me to beat it and never come -back, or words to that effect.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Whereabouts on the mainland was this?” Henry -demanded, with a tenseness which Francis, chuckling his -reminiscence of the misadventure, did not notice.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_26'>26</span>“Down toward the other end of Chiriqui Lagoon,” he -replied. “It was the stamping ground of the Solano -family, I learned; and they are a red peppery family, as I -found out. But I haven’t told you all. Listen. First she -dragged me into the vegetation and insulted my mustache; -next she chased me to the boat with a drawn revolver; and -then she wanted to know why I didn’t kiss her. Can you -beat that?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And did you?” Henry demanded, his hand unconsciously -clinching by his side.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“What could a poor stranger in a strange land do? It -was some armful of pretty girl——”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The next fraction of a second Francis had sprung to his -feet and blocked before his jaw a crushing blow of Henry’s -fist.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I ... I beg your pardon,” Henry mumbled, and -slumped down on the ancient sea chest. “I’m a fool, I -know, but I’ll be hanged if I can stand for——”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“There you go again,” Francis interrupted resentfully. -“As crazy as everybody else in this crazy country. One -moment you bandage up my cracked head, and the next -moment you want to knock that same head clean off of me. -As bad as the girl taking turns at kissing me and shoving a -gun into my midrif.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“That’s right, fire away, I deserve it,” Henry admitted -ruefully, but involuntarily began to fire up as he continued -with: “Confound you, that was Leoncia.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“What if it was Leoncia? Or Mercedes? Or Dolores? -Can’t a fellow kiss a pretty girl at a revolver’s point without -having his head knocked off by the next ruffian he meets in -dirty canvas pants on a notorious sand-heap of an island?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“When the pretty girl is engaged to marry the ruffian in -the dirty canvas pants——”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You don’t mean to tell me——” the other broke in -excitedly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It isn’t particularly amusing to said ruffian to be told -that his sweetheart has been kissing a ruffian she never saw -before from off a disreputable Jamaica nigger’s schooner,” -Henry completed his sentence.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And she took me for you,” Francis mused, glimpsing -the situation. “I don’t blame you for losing your temper, -though you must admit it’s a nasty one. Wanted to cut off -my ears yesterday, didn’t you?”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_27'>27</span>“Yours is just as nasty, Francis, my boy. The way you -insisted that I cut them off when I had you down—ha! ha!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Both young men laughed in hearty amity.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It’s the old Morgan temper,” Henry said. “He was -by all the accounts a peppery old cuss.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“No more peppery than those Solanos you’re marrying -into. Why, most of the family came down on the beach -and peppered me with rifles on my departing way. And -your Leoncia pulled her little popgun on a long-bearded old -fellow who might have been her father and gave him to -understand she’d shoot him full of holes if he didn’t stop -plugging away at me.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It was her father, I’ll wager, old Enrico himself,” -Henry exclaimed. “And the other chaps were her -brothers.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Lovely lizards!” ejaculated Francis. “Say, don’t you -think life is liable to become a trifle monotonous when you’re -married into such a peaceful, dove-like family as that!” He -broke off, struck by a new idea. “By the way, Henry, -since they all thought it was you, and not I, why in thunderation -did they want to kill <em>you</em>? Some more of your crusty -Morgan temper that peeved your prospective wife’s -relatives?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Henry looked at him a moment, as if debating with himself, -and then answered.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I don’t mind telling you. It is a nasty mess, and I -suppose my temper was to blame. I quarreled with her -uncle. He was her father’s youngest brother——”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“<em>Was?</em>” interrupted Francis with significant stress on -the past tense.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“<em>Was</em>, I said,” Henry nodded. “He <em>isn’t</em> now. His -name was Alfaro Solano, and he had some temper himself. -They claim to be descended from the Spanish <i><span lang="es" xml:lang="es">conquistadores</span></i>, -and they are prouder than hornets. He’d made money in -logwood, and he had just got a big henequen plantation -started farther down the coast. And then we quarreled. -It was in the little town over there—San Antonio. It may -have been a misunderstanding, though I still maintain he -was wrong. He always was looking for trouble with me—didn’t -want me to marry Leoncia, you see.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Well, it was a hot time. It started in a <i><span lang="es" xml:lang="es">pulqueria</span></i> -where Alfaro had been drinking more mescal than was good -for him. He insulted me all right. They had to hold us -apart and take our guns away, and we separated swearing -<span class='pageno' id='Page_28'>28</span>death and destruction. That was the trouble—our quarrel -and our threats were heard by a score of witnesses.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Within two hours the Comisario himself and two gendarmes -found me bending over Alfaro’s body in a back street -in the town. He’d been knifed in the back, and I’d stumbled -over him on the way to the beach. Explain? No such -thing. There were the quarrel and the threats of vengeance, -and there I was, not two hours afterward, caught dead to -right with his warm corpse. I haven’t been back in San -Antonio since, and I didn’t waste any time in getting away. -Alfaro was very popular,—you know the dashing type that -catches the rabble’s fancy. Why, they couldn’t have been -persuaded to give me even the semblance of a trial. Wanted -my blood there and then, and I departed very pronto.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Next, up at Bocas del Toro, a messenger from Leoncia -delivered back the engagement ring. And there you are. I -developed a real big disgust, and, since I didn’t dare go back -with all the Solanos and the rest of the population thirsting -for my life, I came over here to play hermit for a while and -dig for Morgan’s treasure.... Just the same, I wonder -who did stick that knife into Alfaro. If ever I find him, -then I clear myself with Leoncia and the rest of the Solanos -and there isn’t a doubt in the world that there’ll be a -wedding. And now that it’s all over I don’t mind admitting -that Alfaro was a good scout, even if his temper did go -off at half-cock.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Clear as print,” Francis murmured. “No wonder her -father and brothers wanted to perforate me.—Why, the more -I look at you, the more I see we’re as like as two peas, -except for my mustache——”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And for this....” Henry rolled up his sleeve, and -on the left forearm showed a long, thin white scar. “Got -that when I was a boy. Fell off a windmill and through the -glass roof of a hothouse.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Now listen to me,” Francis said, his face beginning to -light with the project forming in his mind. “Somebody’s -got to straighten you out of this mess, and the chap’s name -is Francis, partner in the firm of Morgan and Morgan. You -stick around here, or go over and begin prospecting on the -Bull, while I go back and explain things to Leoncia and her -people——”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“If only they don’t shoot you first before you can explain -you are not I,” Henry muttered bitterly. “That’s the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_29'>29</span>trouble with those Solanos. They shoot first and talk afterward. -They won’t listen to reason unless it’s post mortem.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Guess I’ll take a chance, old man,” Francis assured -the other, himself all fire with the plan of clearing up the -distressing situation between Henry and the girl.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But the thought of her perplexed him. He experienced -more than a twinge of regret that the lovely creature -belonged of right to the man who looked so much like him, -and he saw again the vision of her on the beach, when, with -conflicting emotions, she had alternately loved him and -yearned toward him and blazed her scorn and contempt on -him. He sighed involuntarily.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“What’s that for?” Henry demanded quizzically.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Leoncia is an exceedingly pretty girl,” Francis -answered with transparent frankness. “Just the same, -she’s yours, and I’m going to make it my business to see -that you get her. Where’s that ring she returned? If I -don’t put it on her finger for you and be back here in a week -with the good news, you can cut off my mustache along with -my ears.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>An hour later, Captain Trefethen having sent a boat to -the beach from the <em>Angelique</em> in response to signal, the two -young men were saying good-bye.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Just two things more, Francis. First, and I forgot to -tell you, Leoncia is not a Solano at all, though she thinks -she is. Alfaro told me himself. She is an adopted child, -and old Enrico fairly worships her, though neither his blood -nor his race runs in her veins. Alfaro never told me the -ins and outs of it, though he did say she wasn’t Spanish at -all. I don’t even know whether she’s English or American. -She talks good enough English, though she got that at -convent. You see, she was adopted when she was a wee -thing, and she’s never known anything else than that Enrico -is her father.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And no wonder she scorned and hated me for you,” -Francis laughed, “believing, as she did, as she still does, -that you knifed her full blood-uncle in the back.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Henry nodded, and went on.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The other thing is fairly important. And that’s the -law. Or the absence of it, rather. They make it whatever -they want it, down in this out-of-the-way hole. It’s a long -way to Panama, and the gobernador of this state, or district, -or whatever they call it, is a sleepy old Silenus. The Jefe -Politico at San Antonio is the man to keep an eye on. He’s -<span class='pageno' id='Page_30'>30</span>the little czar of that neck of the woods, and he’s some -crooked <i><span lang="es" xml:lang="es">hombre</span></i>, take it from yours truly. Graft is too weak -a word to apply to some of his deals, and he’s as cruel and -blood-thirsty as a weasel. And his one crowning delight is -an execution. He dotes on a hanging. Keep your weather -eye on him, whatever you do.... And, well, so long. -And half of whatever I find on the Bull is yours: ... and -see you get that ring back on Leoncia’s finger.”</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c000'>Two days later, after the half-breed skipper had reconnoitered -ashore and brought back the news that all the men -of Leoncia’s family were away, Francis had himself landed -on the beach where he had first met her. No maidens with -silver revolvers nor men with rifles were manifest. All was -placid, and the only person on the beach was a ragged little -Indian boy who at sight of a coin readily consented to carry -a note up to the young senorita of the big hacienda. As -Francis scrawled on a sheet of paper from his notebook, “I -am the man whom you mistook for Henry Morgan, and I -have a message for you from him,” he little dreamed that -untoward happenings were about to occur with as equal -rapidity and frequence as on his first visit.</p> - -<p class='c000'>For that matter, could he have peeped over the out-jut of -rock against which he leaned his back while composing the -note to Leoncia, he would have been startled by a vision of -the young lady herself, emerging like a sea-goddess fresh -from a swim in the sea. But he wrote calmly on, the -Indian lad even more absorbed than himself in the operation, -so that it was Leoncia, coming around the rock from behind, -who first caught sight of him. Stifling an exclamation, she -turned and fled blindly into the green screen of jungle.</p> - -<p class='c000'>His first warning of her proximity was immediately thereafter, -when a startled scream of fear aroused him. Note -and pencil fell to the sand as he sprang toward the direction -of the cry and collided with a wet and scantily dressed young -woman who was recoiling backward from whatever had -caused her scream. The unexpectedness of the collision -was provocative of a second startled scream from her ere she -could turn and recognize that it was not a new attack but a -rescuer.</p> - -<p class='c000'>She darted past him, her face colorless from the fright, -stumbled over the Indian boy, nor paused until she was out -on the open sand.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_31'>31</span>“What is it?” Francis demanded. “Are you hurt? -What’s happened?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>She pointed at her bare knee, where two tiny drops of -blood oozed forth side by side from two scarcely perceptible -lacerations.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It was a viperine,” she said. “A deadly viperine. I -shall be a dead woman in five minutes, and I am glad, glad, -for then my heart will be tormented no more by you.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>She leveled an accusing finger at him, gasped the beginning -of denunciation she could not utter, and sank down in a -faint.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Francis knew about the snakes of Central America merely -by hearsay, but the hearsay was terrible enough. Men -talked of even mules and dogs dying in horrible agony five -to ten minutes after being struck by tiny reptiles fifteen to -twenty inches long. Small wonder she had fainted, was -his thought, with so terribly rapid a poison doubtlessly -beginning to work. His knowledge of the treatment of -snake-bite was likewise hearsay, but flashed through his -mind the recollection of the need of a tourniquet to shut off -the circulation above the wound and prevent the poison from -reaching the heart.</p> - -<p class='c000'>He pulled out his handkerchief and tied it loosely around -her leg above the knee, thrust in a short piece of driftwood -stick, and twisted the handkerchief to savage tightness. -Next, and all by hearsay, working swiftly, he opened the -small blade of his pocket-knife, burned it with several -matches to make sure against germs, and cut carefully but -remorsely into the two lacerations made by the snake’s -fangs.</p> - -<p class='c000'>He was in a fright himself, working with feverish deftness -and apprehending at any moment that the pangs of dissolution -would begin to set in on the beautiful form before him. -From all he had heard, the bodies of snake-victims began to -swell quickly and prodigiously. Even as he finished excoriating -the fang-wounds, his mind was made up to his next -two acts. First, he would suck out all poison he possibly -could; and, next, light a cigarette and with its live end -proceed to cauterize the flesh.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But while he was still making light, criss-cross cuts with -the point of his knife-blade, she began to move restlessly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Lie down,” he commanded, as she sat up, and just -when he was bending his lips to the task.</p> - -<p class='c000'>In response, he received a resounding slap alongside of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_32'>32</span>his face from her little hand. At the same instant the -Indian lad danced out of the jungle, swinging a small dead -snake by the tail and crying exultingly:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Labarri! Labarri!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>At which Francis assumed the worst.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Lie down, and be quiet!” he repeated harshly. “You -haven’t a second to lose.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But she had eyes only for the dead snake. Her relief -was patent; but Francis was no witness to it, for he was -bending again to perform the classic treatment of snake-bite.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You dare!” she threatened him. “It’s only a baby -labarri, and its bite is harmless. I thought it was a viperine. -They look alike when the labarri is small.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The constriction of the circulation by the tourniquet -pained her, and she glanced down and discovered his handkerchief -knotted around her leg.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Oh, what have you done?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>A warm blush began to suffuse her face.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But it was only a baby labarri,” she reproached him.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You told me it was a viperine,” he retorted.</p> - -<p class='c000'>She hid her face in her hands, although the pink of flush -burned furiously in her ears. Yet he could have sworn, -unless it were hysteria, that she was laughing; and he knew -for the first time how really hard was the task he had undertaken -to put the ring of another man on her finger. So he -deliberately hardened his heart against the beauty and -fascination of her, and said bitterly:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And now, I suppose some of your gentry will shoot me -full of holes because I don’t know a labarri from a viperine. -You might call some of the farm hands down to do it. Or -maybe you’d like to take a shot at me yourself.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But she seemed not to have heard, for she had arisen -with the quick litheness to be expected of so gloriously -fashioned a creature, and was stamping her foot on the sand.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It’s asleep—my foot,” she explained with laughter unhidden -this time by her hands.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You’re acting perfectly disgracefully,” he assured her -wickedly, “when you consider that I am the murderer of -your uncle.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Thus reminded, the laughter ceased and the color receded -from her face. She made no reply, but bending, with -fingers that trembled with anger she strove to unknot the -handkerchief as if it were some loathsome thing.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Better let me help,” he suggested pleasantly.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_33'>33</span>“You beast!” she flamed at him. “Step aside. Your -shadow falls upon me.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Now you are delicious, charming,” he girded, belying -the desire that stirred compellingly within him to clasp her -in his arms. “You quite revive my last recollection of you -here on the beach, one second reproaching me for not kissing -you, the next second kissing me—yes, you did, too—and the -third second threatening to destroy my digestion forever -with that little tin toy pistol of yours. No; you haven’t -changed an iota from last time. You’re the same spitfire of -a Leoncia. You’d better let me untie that for you. Don’t -you see the knot is jammed? Your little fingers can never -manage it.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>She stamped her foot in sheer inarticulateness of rage.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Lucky for me you don’t make a practice of taking your -tin toy pistol in swimming with you,” he teased on, “or -else there’d be a funeral right here on the beach pretty -pronto of a perfectly nice young man whose intentions are -never less than the best.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The Indian boy returned at this moment running with her -bathing wrap, which she snatched from him and put on -hastily. Next, with the boy’s help, she attacked the knot -again. When the handkerchief came off she flung it from -her as if in truth it were a viperine.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It was contamination,” she flashed, for his benefit.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But Francis, still engaged in hardening his heart against -her, shook his head slowly and said:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It doesn’t save you, Leoncia. I’ve left my mark on -you that never will come off.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>He pointed to the excoriations he had made on her knee -and laughed.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The mark of the beast,” she came back, turning to go. -“I warn you to take yourself off, Mr. Henry Morgan.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But he stepped in her way.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And now we’ll talk business, Miss Solano,” he said in -changed tones. “And you will listen. Let your eyes flash -all they please, but don’t interrupt me.” He stooped and -picked up the note he had been engaged in writing. “I was -just sending that to you by the boy when you screamed. -Take it. Read it. It won’t bite you. It isn’t a viperine.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Though she refused to receive it, her eyes involuntarily -scanned the opening line:</p> - -<p class='c000'><em>I am the man whom you mistook for Henry Morgan</em>...</p> - -<p class='c000'>She looked at him with startled eyes that could not comprehend -<span class='pageno' id='Page_34'>34</span>much but which were guessing many vague things.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“On my honor,” he said gravely.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You ... are ... not ... Henry?” she gasped.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“No, I am not. Won’t you please take it and read.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>This time she complied, while he gazed with all his eyes -upon the golden pallor of the sun on her tropic-touched -blonde face which colored the blood beneath, or which was -touched by the blood beneath, to the amazingly beautiful -golden pallor.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Almost in a dream he discovered himself looking into her -startled, questioning eyes of velvet brown.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And who should have signed this?” she repeated.</p> - -<p class='c000'>He came to himself and bowed.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But the name?—your name?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Morgan, Francis Morgan. As I explained there, Henry -and I are some sort of distant relatives—forty-fifth cousins, -or something like that.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>To his bewilderment, a great doubt suddenly dawned in -her eyes, and the old familiar anger flashed.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Henry,” she accused him. “This is a ruse, a devil’s -trick you’re trying to play on me. Of course you are -Henry.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Francis pointed to his mustache.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You’ve grown that since,” she challenged.</p> - -<p class='c000'>He pulled up his sleeve and showed her his left arm from -wrist to elbow. But she only looked her incomprehension -of the meaning of his action.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Do you remember the scar?” he asked.</p> - -<p class='c000'>She nodded.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Then find it.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>She bent her head in swift vain search, then shook it -slowly as she faltered:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I ... I ask your forgiveness. I was terribly mistaken, -and when I think of the way I ... I’ve treated -you ...”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“That kiss was delightful,” he naughtily disclaimed.</p> - -<p class='c000'>She recollected more immediate passages, glanced down -at her knee and stifled what he adjudged was a most -adorable giggle.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You say you have a message from Henry,” she changed -the subject abruptly. “And that he is innocent...? -This is true? Oh, I do want to believe you!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I am morally certain that Henry no more killed your -uncle than did I——”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_35'>35</span>“Then say no more, at least not now,” she interrupted -joyfully. “First of all I must make amends to you, though -you must confess that some of the things you have done and -said were abominable. You had no right to kiss me.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“If you will remember,” he contended, “I did it at the -pistol point. How was I to know but what I would get shot -if I didn’t.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Oh, hush, hush,” she begged. “You must go with me -now to the house. And you can tell me about Henry on the -way.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Her eyes chanced upon the handkerchief she had flung so -contemptuously aside. She ran to it and picked it up.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Poor, ill-treated kerchief,” she crooned to it. “To you -also must I make amends. I shall myself launder you, -and....” Her eyes lifted to Francis as she addressed -him. “And return it to you, sir, fresh and sweet and all -wrapped around my heart of gratitude....”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And the mark of the beast?” he queried.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I am so sorry,” she confessed penitently.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And may I be permitted to rest my shadow upon you?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Do! Do!” she cried gaily. “There! I am in your -shadow now. And we must start.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Francis tossed a peso to the grinning Indian boy, and, in -high elation, turned and followed her into the tropic growth -on the path that led up to the white hacienda.</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c000'>Seated on the broad piazza of the Solano Hacienda, -Alvarez Torres saw through the tropic shrubs the couple -approaching along the winding driveway. And he saw what -made him grit his teeth and draw very erroneous conclusions. -He muttered imprecations to himself and forgot his -cigarette.</p> - -<p class='c000'>What he saw was Leoncia and Francis in such deep and -excited talk as to be oblivious of everything else. He saw -Francis grow so urgent of speech and gesture as to cause -Leoncia to stop abruptly and listen further to his pleading. -Next—and Torres could scarcely believe the evidence of his -eyes, he saw Francis produce a ring, and Leoncia, with -averted face, extend her left hand and receive the ring upon -her third finger. Engagement finger it was, and Torres -could have sworn to it.</p> - -<p class='c000'>What had really occurred was the placing of Henry’s -engagement ring back on Leoncia’s hand. And Leoncia, -she knew not why, had been vaguely averse to receiving it.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_36'>36</span>Torres tossed the dead cigarette away, twisted his -mustache fiercely, as if to relieve his own excitement, and -advanced to meet them across the piazza. He did not -return the girl’s greeting at the first. Instead, with the -wrathful face of the Latin, he burst out at Francis:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“One does not expect shame in a murderer, but at least -one does expect simple decency.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Francis smiled whimsically.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“There it goes again,” he said. “Another lunatic in -this lunatic land. The last time, Leoncia, that I saw this -gentleman was in New York. He was really anxious to do -business with me. Now I meet him here and the first thing -he tells me is that I am an indecent, shameless murderer.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Senor Torres, you must apologize,” she declared angrily. -“The house of Solano is not accustomed to having its guests -insulted.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The house of Solano, I then understand, is accustomed -to having its men murdered by transient adventurers,” he -retorted. “No sacrifice is too great when it is in the name -of hospitality.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Get off your foot, Senor Torres,” Francis advised him -pleasantly. “You are standing on it. I know what your -mistake is. You think I am Henry Morgan. I am Francis -Morgan, and you and I, not long ago, transacted business -together in Regan’s office in New York. There’s my hand. -Your shaking of it will be sufficient apology under the circumstances.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Torres, overwhelmed for the moment by his mistake, took -the extended hand and uttered apologies both to Francis -and Leoncia.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And now,” she beamed through laughter, clapping her -hands to call a house-servant, “I must locate Mr. Morgan, -and go and get some clothes on. And after that, Senor -Torres, if you will pardon us, we will tell you about Henry.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>While she departed, and while Francis followed away to -his room on the heels of a young and pretty <i><span lang="es" xml:lang="es">mestiza</span></i> woman, -Torres, his brain resuming its functions, found he was more -amazed and angry than ever. This, then, was a newcomer -and stranger to Leoncia whom he had seen putting a ring on -her engagement finger. He thought quickly and passionately -for a moment. Leoncia, whom to himself he always named -the queen of his dreams, had, on an instant’s notice, engaged -herself to a strange Gringo from New York. It was unbelievable, -monstrous.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_37'>37</span>He clapped his hands, summoned his hired carriage from -San Antonio, and was speeding down the drive when Francis -strolled forth to have a talk with him about further details of -the hiding place of old Morgan’s treasure.</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c000'>After lunch, when a land-breeze sprang up, which meant -fair wind and a quick run across Chiriqui Lagoon and along -the length of it to the Bull and the Calf, Francis, eager to -bring to Henry the good word that his ring adorned Leoncia’s -finger, resolutely declined her proffered hospitality to remain -for the night and meet Enrico Solano and his tall sons. -Francis had a further reason for hasty departure. He could -not endure the presence of Leoncia—and this in no sense -uncomplimentary to her. She charmed him, drew him, to -such extent that he dared not endure her charm and draw if -he were to remain man-faithful to the man in the canvas -pants even then digging holes in the sands of the Bull.</p> - -<p class='c000'>So Francis departed, a letter to Henry from Leoncia in -his pocket. The last moment, ere he departed, was abrupt. -With a sigh so quickly suppressed that Leoncia wondered -whether or not she had imagined it, he tore himself away. -She gazed after his retreating form down the driveway until -it was out of sight, then stared at the ring on her finger with -a vaguely troubled expression.</p> - -<p class='c000'>From the beach, Francis signaled the <em>Angelique</em>, riding at -anchor, to send a boat ashore for him. But before it had -been swung into the water, half a dozen horsemen, revolver-belted, -rifles across their pommels, rode down the beach -upon him at a gallop. Two men led. The following four -were hang-dog half-castes. Of the two leaders, Francis -recognized Torres. Every rifle came to rest on Francis, and -he could not but obey the order snarled at him by the -unknown leader to throw up his hands. And Francis opined -aloud:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“To think of it! Once, only the other day—or was it a -million years ago?—I thought auction bridge, at a dollar a -point, was some excitement. Now, sirs, you on your horses, -with your weapons threatening the violent introduction of -foreign substances into my poor body, tell me what is doing -now. Don’t I ever get off this beach without gunpowder -complications? Is it my ears, or merely my mustache, you -want?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“We want you,” answered the stranger leader, whose -mustache bristled as magnetically as his crooked black eyes.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_38'>38</span>“And in the name of original sin and of all lovely lizards, -who might you be?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“He is the honorable Senor Mariano Vercara è Hijos, -Jefe Politico of San Antonio,” Torres replied.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Good night,” Francis laughed, remembering the man’s -description as given to him by Henry. “I suppose you -think I’ve broken some harbor rule or sanitary regulation by -anchoring here. But you must settle such things with my -captain, Captain Trefethen, a very estimable gentleman. I -am only the charterer of the schooner—just a passenger. -You will find Captain Trefethen right up in maritime law -and custom.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You are wanted for the murder of Alfaro Solano,” was -Torres’ answer. “You didn’t fool me, Henry Morgan, with -your talk up at the hacienda that you were some one else. I -know that some one else. His name is Francis Morgan, -and I do not hesitate to add that he is not a murderer, but -a gentleman.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Ye gods and little fishes!” Francis exclaimed. “And -yet you shook hands with me, Senor Torres.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I was fooled,” Torres admitted sadly. “But only for -a moment. Will you come peaceably?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“As if——” Francis shrugged his shoulders eloquently -at the six rifles. “I suppose you’ll give me a pronto trial -and hang me at daybreak.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Justice is swift in Panama,” the Jefe Politico replied, -his English queerly accented but understandable. “But -not so quick as that. We will not hang you at daybreak. -Ten o’clock in the morning is more comfortable all around, -don’t you think?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Oh, by all means,” Francis retorted. “Make it eleven, -or twelve noon—I won’t mind.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You will kindly come with us, Senor,” Mariano Vercara -è Hijos, said, the suavity of his diction not masking the iron -of its intention. “Juan! Ignacio!” he ordered in Spanish. -“Dismount! Take his weapons. No, it will not be necessary -to tie his hands. Put him on the horse behind -Gregorio.”</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c000'>Francis, in a venerably whitewashed adobe cell with walls -five feet thick, its earth floor carpeted with the forms of half -a dozen sleeping peon prisoners, listened to a dim hammering -not very distant, remembered the trial from which he had -just emerged, and whistled long and low. The hour was -<span class='pageno' id='Page_39'>39</span>half-past eight in the evening. The trial had begun at eight. -The hammering was the hammering together of the scaffold -beams, from which place of eminence he was scheduled at -ten next morning to swing off into space supported from the -ground by a rope around his neck. The trial had lasted -half an hour by his watch. Twenty minutes would have -covered it had Leoncia not burst in and prolonged it by the -ten minutes courteously accorded her as the great lady of -the Solano family.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The Jefe was right,” Francis acknowledged to himself -in a matter of soliloquy. “Panama justice does move -swiftly.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The very possession of the letter given him by Leoncia -and addressed to Henry Morgan had damned him. The rest -had been easy. Half a dozen witnesses had testified to the -murder and identified him as the murderer. The Jefe -Politico himself had so testified. The one cheerful note had -been the eruption on the scene of Leoncia, chaperoned by a -palsied old aunt of the Solano family. That had been sweet—the -fight the beautiful girl had put up for his life, despite -the fact that it was foredoomed to futility.</p> - -<p class='c000'>When she had made Francis roll up the sleeve and expose -his left forearm, he had seen the Jefe Politico shrug his -shoulders contemptuously. And he had seen Leoncia fling -a passion of Spanish words, too quick for him to follow, at -Torres. And he had seen and heard the gesticulation and -the roar of the mob-filled courtroom as Torres had taken the -stand.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But what he had not seen was the whispered colloquy -between Torres and the Jefe, as the former was in the thick -of forcing his way through the press to the witness box. He -no more saw this particular side-play than did he know that -Torres was in the pay of Regan to keep him away from New -York as long as possible, and as long as ever if possible, nor -than did he know that Torres himself, in love with Leoncia, -was consumed with a jealousy that knew no limit to its ire.</p> - -<p class='c000'>All of which had blinded Francis to the play under the -interrogation of Torres by Leoncia, which had compelled -Torres to acknowledge that he had never seen a scar on -Francis Morgan’s left forearm. While Leoncia had looked at -the little old judge in triumph, the Jefe Politico had advanced -and demanded of Torres in stentorian tones:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Can you swear that you ever saw a scar on Henry -Morgan’s arm?”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_40'>40</span>Torres had been baffled and embarrassed, had looked -bewilderment to the judge and pleadingness to Leoncia, and, -in the end, without speech, shaken his head that he could -not so swear.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The roar of triumph had gone up from the crowd of ragamuffins. -The judge had pronounced sentence, the roar had -doubled on itself, and Francis had been hustled out and to -his cell, not entirely unresistingly, by the gendarmes and -the Comisario, all apparently solicitous of saving him from -the mob that was unwilling to wait till ten next morning for -his death.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“That poor dub, Torres, who fell down on the scar on -Henry!” Francis was meditating sympathetically, when the -bolts of his cell door shot back and he arose to greet Leoncia.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But she declined to greet him for the moment, as she -flared at the Comisario in rapid-fire Spanish, with gestures of -command to which he yielded when he ordered the jailer to -remove the peons to other cells, and himself, with a nervous -and apologetic bowing, went out and closed the door.</p> - -<p class='c000'>And then Leoncia broke down, sobbing on his shoulder, in -his arms: “It is a cursed country, a cursed country. There -is no fair play.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And as Francis held her pliant form, meltingly exquisite -in its maddeningness of woman, he remembered Henry, in -his canvas pants, barefooted, under his floppy sombrero, -digging holes in the sand of the Bull.</p> - -<p class='c000'>He tried to draw away from the armful of deliciousness, -and only half succeeded. Still, at such slight removal of -distance, he essayed the intellectual part, rather than the -emotional part he desired all too strongly to act.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And now I know at last what a frame-up is,” he assured -her, farthest from the promptings of his heart. “If these -Latins of your country thought more coolly instead of acting -so passionately, they might be building railroads and developing -their country. That trial was a straight passionate -frame-up. They just <em>knew</em> I was guilty and were so eager -to punish me that they wouldn’t even bother for mere -evidence or establishment of identity. Why delay? They -<em>knew</em> Henry Morgan had knifed Alfaro. They <em>knew</em> I was -Henry Morgan. When one knows, why bother to find out?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Deaf to his words, sobbing and struggling to cling closer -while he spoke, the moment he had finished she was deep -again in his arms, against him, to him, her lips raised to -his; and, ere he was aware, his own lips to hers.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_41'>41</span>“I love you, I love you,” she whispered brokenly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“No, no,” he denied what he most desired. “Henry -and I are too alike. It is Henry you love, and I am not -Henry.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>She tore herself away from her own clinging, drew Henry’s -ring from her finger, and threw it on the floor. Francis was -so beyond himself that he knew not what was going to -happen the next moment, and was only saved from whatever -it might be by the entrance of the Comisario, watch in hand, -with averted face striving to see naught else than the -moments registered by the second-hand on the dial.</p> - -<p class='c000'>She stiffened herself proudly, and all but broke down -again as Francis slipped Henry’s ring back on her finger and -kissed her hand in farewell. Just ere she passed out the -door she turned and with a whispered movement of the lips -that was devoid of sound told him: “I love you.”</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c000'>Promptly as the stroke of the clock, at ten o’clock Francis -was led out into the jail patio where stood the gallows. All -San Antonio was joyously and shoutingly present, including -much of the neighboring population and Leoncia, Enrico -Solano, and his five tall sons. Enrico and his sons fumed -and strutted, but the Jefe Politico, backed by the Comisario -and his gendarmes, was adamant. In vain, as Francis was -forced to the foot of the scaffold, did Leoncia strive to get -to him and did her men strive to persuade her to leave the -patio. In vain, also, did her father and brothers protest -that Francis was not the man. The Jefe Politico smiled -contemptuously and ordered the execution to proceed.</p> - -<p class='c000'>On top the scaffold, standing on the trap, Francis declined -the ministrations of the priest, telling him in Spanish that -no innocent man being hanged needed intercessions with -the next world, but that the men who were doing the -hanging were in need of just such intercessions.</p> - -<p class='c000'>They had tied Francis’ legs, and were in the act of tying -his arms, with the men who held the noose and the black -cap hovering near to put them on him, when the voice of a -singer was heard approaching from without; and the song -he sang was:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Back to back against the mainmast,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Held at bay the entire crew....”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c000'>Leoncia, almost fainting, recovered at the sound of the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_42'>42</span>voice, and cried out with sharp delight as she descried Henry -Morgan entering, thrusting aside the guards at the gate who -tried to bar his way.</p> - -<p class='c000'>At sight of him the only one present who suffered chagrin -was Torres, which passed unnoticed in the excitement. The -populace was in accord with the Jefe, who shrugged his -shoulders and announced that one man was as good as -another so long as the hanging went on. And here arose hot -contention from the Solano men that Henry was likewise -innocent of the murder of Alfaro. But it was Francis, from -the scaffold, while his arms and legs were being untied, who -shouted through the tumult:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You tried me! You have not tried him! You cannot -hang a man without trial! He must have his trial!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And when Francis had descended from the scaffold and -was shaking Henry’s hand in both his own, the Comisario, -with the Jefe at his back, duly arrested Henry Morgan for -the murder of Alfaro Solano.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_43'>43</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER IV</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c006'>“We must work quickly—that is the one thing sure,” -Francis said to the little conclave of Solanos on the piazza -of the Solano hacienda.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“One thing sure!” Leoncia cried out scornfully ceasing -from her anguished pacing up and down. “The one thing -sure is that we must save him.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>As she spoke, she shook a passionate finger under Francis’ -nose to emphasize her point. Not content, she shook her -finger with equal emphasis under the noses of all and sundry -of her father and brothers.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Quick!” she flamed on. “Of course we must be quick. -It is that, or....” Her voice trailed off into the unvoiceable -horror of what would happen to Henry if they were -not quick.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“All Gringos look alike to the Jefe,” Francis nodded -sympathetically. She was splendidly beautiful and wonderful, -he thought. “He certainly runs all San Antonio, -and short shrift is his motto. He’ll give Henry no more -time than he gave us. We must get him out to-night.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Now listen,” Leoncia began again. “We Solanos cannot -permit this ... this execution. Our pride ... our -honor. We cannot permit it. Speak! any of you. Father—you. -Suggest something....”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And while the discussion went on, Francis, for the time -being silent, wrestled deep in the throes of sadness. -Leoncia’s fervor was magnificent, but it was for another man -and it did not precisely exhilarate him. Strong upon him -was the memory of the jail patio after he had been released -and Henry had been arrested. He could still see, with the -same stab at the heart, Leoncia in Henry’s arms, Henry -seeking her hand to ascertain if his ring was on it, and the -long kiss of the embrace that followed.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Ah, well, he sighed to himself, he had done his best. -After Henry had been led away, had he not told Leoncia, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_44'>44</span>quite deliberately and coldly, that Henry was her man and -lover, and the wisest of choices for the daughter of the -Solanos?</p> - -<p class='c000'>But the memory of it did not make him a bit happy. -Nor did the rightness of it. Right it was. That he never -questioned, and it strengthened him into hardening his heart -against her. Yet the right, he found in his case, to be the -sorriest of consolation.</p> - -<p class='c000'>And yet what else could he expect? It was his misfortune -to have arrived too late in Central America, that was -all, and to find this flower of woman already annexed by a -previous comer—a man as good as himself, and, his heart -of fairness prompted, even better. And his heart of fairness -compelled loyalty to Henry from him—to Henry Morgan, of -the breed and blood; to Henry Morgan, the wild-fire descendant -of a wild-fire ancestor, in canvas pants, and floppy -sombrero, with a penchant for the ears of strange young -men, living on sea biscuit and turtle eggs and digging up -the Bull and the Calf for old Sir Henry’s treasure.</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c000'>And while Enrico Solano and his sons talked plans and -projects on their broad piazza, to which Francis lent only -half an ear, a house servant came, whispered in Leoncia’s -ear, and led her away around the ell of the piazza, where -occurred a scene that would have excited Francis’ risibilities -and wrath.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Around the ell, Alvarez Torres, in all the medieval -Spanish splendor of dress of a great haciendado-owner, such -as still obtains in Latin America, greeted her, bowed low with -doffed sombrero in hand, and seated her in a rattan settee. -Her own greeting was sad, but shot through with curiousness, -as if she hoped he brought some word of hope.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The trial is over, Leoncia,” he said softly, tenderly, as -one speaks of the dead. “He is sentenced. To-morrow at -ten o’clock is the time. It is all very sad, most very sad. -But....” He shrugged his shoulders. “No, I shall -not speak harshly of him. He was an honorable man. His -one fault was his temper. It was too quick, too fiery. It -led him into a mischance of honor. Never, in a cool moment -of reasonableness, would he have stabbed Alfaro——”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“He never killed my uncle!” Leoncia cried, raising her -averted face.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And it is regrettable,” Torres proceeded gently and -sadly, avoiding any disagreement. “The judge, the people, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_45'>45</span>the Jefe Politico, unfortunately, are all united in believing -that he did. Which is most regrettable. But which is not -what I came to see you about. I came to offer my service -in any and all ways you may command. My life, my honor, -are at your disposal. Speak. I am your slave.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Dropping suddenly and gracefully on one knee before her, -he caught her hand from her lap, and would have instantly -flooded on with his speech, had not his eyes lighted on the -diamond ring on her engagement finger. He frowned, but -concealed the frown with bent face until he could drive it -from his features and begin to speak.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I knew you when you were small, Leoncia, so very, -very charmingly small, and I loved you always.—No, listen! -Please. My heart must speak. Hear me out. I loved -you always. But when you returned from your convent, -from schooling abroad, a woman, a grand and noble lady fit -to rule in the house of the Solanos, I was burnt by your -beauty. I have been patient. I refrained from speaking. -But you may have guessed. You surely must have guessed. -I have been on fire for you ever since. I have been consumed -by the flame of your beauty, by the flame of you -that is deeper than your beauty.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>He was not to be stopped, as she well knew, and she -listened patiently, gazing down on his bent head and wondering -idly why his hair was so unbecomingly cut, and -whether it had been last cut in New York or San Antonio.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Do you know what you have been to me ever since your -return?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>She did not reply, nor did she endeavour to withdraw her -hand, although his was crushing and bruising her flesh -against Henry Morgan’s ring. She forgot to listen, led -away by a chain of thought that linked far. Not in such -rhodomontade of speech had Henry Morgan loved and won -her, was the beginning of the chain. Why did those of -Spanish blood always voice their emotions so exaggeratedly? -Henry had been so different. Scarcely had he spoken a -word. He had acted. Under her glamor, himself glamoring -her, without warning, so certain was he not to surprise -and frighten her, he had put his arms around her and pressed -his lips to hers. And hers had been neither too startled nor -altogether unresponsive. Not until after that first kiss, arms -still around her, had Henry begun to speak at all.</p> - -<p class='c000'>And what plan was being broached around the corner of -the ell by her men and Francis Morgan? Her mind strayed -<span class='pageno' id='Page_46'>46</span>on, deaf to the suitor at her feet. Francis! Ah—she -almost sighed, and marveled, what of her self-known love for -Henry, why this stranger Gringo so enamored her heart. -Was she a wanton? Was it one man? Or another man? -Or any man? No! No! She was not fickle nor unfaithful. -And yet?... Perhaps it was because Francis and -Henry were so much alike, and her poor stupid loving -woman’s heart failed properly to distinguish between them. -And yet—while it had seemed she would have followed -Henry anywhere over the world, in any luck or fortune, it -seemed to her now that she would follow Francis even -farther. She did <em>love</em> Henry, her heart solemnly proclaimed. -But also did she love Francis, and almost did -she divine that Francis loved her—the fervor of his lips on -hers in his prison cell was inerasable; and there was a -difference in her love for the two men that confuted her -powers of reason and almost drove her to the shameful -conclusion that she, the latest and only woman of the house -of Solano, was a wanton.</p> - -<p class='c000'>A severe pinch of her flesh against Henry’s ring, caused -by the impassioned grasp of Torres, brought her back to him, -so that she could hear the spate of his speech pouring on:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You have been the delicious thorn in my side, the -spiked rowel of the spur forever prodding the sweetest and -most poignant pangs of love into my breast. I have dreamed -of you ... and for you. And I have my own name for -you. Ever the one name I have had for you: the Queen of -my Dreams. And you will marry me, my Leoncia. We -will forget this mad Gringo who is as already dead. I shall -be gentle, kind. I shall love you always. And never shall -any vision of him arise between us. For myself, I shall not -permit it. For you ... I shall love you so that it will be -impossible for the memory of him to arise between us and -give you one moment’s heart-hurt.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Leoncia debated in a long pause that added fuel to Torres’ -hopes. She felt the need to temporise. If Henry were to -be saved ... and had not Torres offered his services? -Not lightly could she turn him away when a man’s life might -depend upon him.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Speak!—I am consuming!” Torres urged in a choking -voice.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Hush! Hush!” she said softly. “How can I listen -to love from a live man, when the man I loved is yet alive?”</p> - -<p class='c000'><em>Loved!</em> The past tense of it startled her. Likewise it -<span class='pageno' id='Page_47'>47</span>startled Torres, fanning his hopes to fairer flames. Almost -was she his. She had said <em>loved</em>. She no longer bore love -for Henry. She <em>had</em> loved him, but no longer. And she, -a maid and woman of delicacy and sensibility, could not, of -course, give name to her love for him while the other man -still lived. It was subtle of her. He prided himself on his -own subtlety, and he flattered himself that he had interpreted -her veiled thought aright. And ... well, he resolved, -he would see to it that the man who was to die at -ten next morning should have neither reprieve nor rescue. -The one thing clear, if he were to win Leoncia quickly, was -that Henry Morgan should die quickly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“We will speak of it no more ... now,” he said with -chivalric gentleness, as he gently pressed her hand, rose to -his feet, and gazed down on her.</p> - -<p class='c000'>She returned a soft pressure of thanks with her own hand -ere she released it and stood up.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Come,” she said. “We will join the others. They -are planning now, or trying to find some plan, to save Henry -Morgan.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The conversation of the group ebbed away as they joined -it, as if out of half-suspicion of Torres.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Have you hit upon anything yet?” Leoncia asked.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Old Enrico, straight and slender and graceful as any of his -sons despite his age, shook his head.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I have a plan, if you will pardon me,” Torres began, but -ceased at a warning glance from Alesandro, the eldest son.</p> - -<p class='c000'>On the walk, below the piazza, had appeared two scarecrows -of beggar boys. Not more than ten years of age, by -their size, they seemed much older when judged by the -shrewdness of their eyes and faces. Each wore a single -marvelous garment, so that between them it could be said -they shared a shirt and pants. But such a shirt! And -such pants! The latter, man-size, of ancient duck, were -buttoned around the lad’s neck, the waistband reefed with -knotted twine so as not to slip down over his shoulders. His -arms were thrust through the holes where the side-pockets -had been. The legs of the pants had been hacked off with -a knife to suit his own diminutive length of limb. The tails -of the man’s shirt on the other boy dragged on the ground.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Vamos!” Alesandro shouted fiercely at them to be -gone.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But the boy in the pants gravely removed a stone which -he had been carrying on top of his bare head, exposing a -<span class='pageno' id='Page_48'>48</span>letter which had been thus carried. Alesandro leaned over, -took the letter, and with a glance at the inscription passed -it to Leoncia, while the boys began whining for money. -Francis, smiling despite himself at the spectacle of them, -tossed them a few pieces of small silver, whereupon the shirt -and the pants toddled away down the path.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The letter was from Henry, and Leoncia scanned it hurriedly. -It was not precisely in farewell, for he wrote in the -tenour of a man who never expected to die save by some -inconceivable accident. Nevertheless, on the chance of such -inconceivable thing becoming possible, Henry did manage to -say good-bye and to include a facetious recommendation to -Leoncia not to forget Francis, who was well worth remembering -because he was so much like himself, Henry.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Leoncia’s first impulse was to show the letter to the -others, but the portion about Francis with-strained her.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It’s from Henry,” she said, tucking the note into her -bosom. “There is nothing of importance. He seems to -have not the slightest doubt that he will escape somehow.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“We shall see that he does,” Francis declared positively.</p> - -<p class='c000'>With a grateful smile to him, and with one of interrogation -to Torres, Leoncia said:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You were speaking of a plan, Senor Torres?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Torres smiled, twisted his mustache, and struck an attitude -of importance.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“There is one way, the Gringo, Anglo-Saxon way, and it -is simple, straight to the point. That is just what it is, -straight to the point. We will go and take Henry out of -jail in forthright, brutal and direct Gringo fashion. It is the -one thing they will not expect. Therefore, it will succeed. -There are enough unhung rascals on the beach with which -to storm the jail. Hire them, pay them well, but only -partly in advance, and the thing is accomplished.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Leoncia nodded eager agreement. Old Enrico’s eyes -flashed and his nostrils distended as if already sniffing gunpowder. -The young men were taking fire from his example. -And all looked to Francis for his opinion or agreement. He -shook his head slowly, and Leoncia uttered a sharp cry of -disappointment in him.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“That way is hopeless,” he said. “Why should all of -you risk your necks in a madcap attempt like that, doomed -to failure from the start?” As he talked, he strode across -from Leoncia’s side to the railing in such way as to be for a -moment between Torres and the other men, and at the same -<span class='pageno' id='Page_49'>49</span>time managed a warning look to Enrico and his sons. “As -for Henry, it looks as if it were all up with him——”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You mean you doubt me?” Torres bristled.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Heavens, man,” Francis protested.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But Torres dashed on: “You mean that I am forbidden -by you, a man I have scarcely met, from the councils of the -Solanos who are my oldest and most honored friends.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Old Enrico, who had not missed the rising wrath against -Francis in Leoncia’s face, succeeded in conveying a warning -to her, ere, with a courteous gesture, he hushed Torres and -began to speak.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“There are no councils of the Solanos from which you are -barred, Senor Torres. You are indeed an old friend of the -family. Your late father and I were comrades, almost -brothers. But that—and you will pardon an old man’s -judgment—does not prevent Senor Morgan from being right -when he says your plan is hopeless. To storm the jail is -truly madness. Look at the thickness of the walls. They -could stand a siege of weeks. And yet, and I confess it, -almost was I tempted when you first broached the idea. -Now when I was a young man, fighting the Indians in the -high Cordilleras, there was a very case in point. Come, let -us all be seated and comfortable, and I will tell you the -tale....”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But Torres, busy with many things, declined to wait, and -with soothed amicable feelings shook hands all around, -briefly apologized to Francis, and departed astride his silver-saddled -and silver-bridled horse for San Antonio. One of -the things that busied him was the cable correspondence -maintained between him and Thomas Regan’s Wall Street -office. Having secret access to the Panamanian government -wireless station at San Antonio, he was thus able to relay -messages to the cable station at Vera Cruz. Not alone was -his relationship with Regan proving lucrative, but it was -jibing in with his own personal plans concerning Leoncia -and the Morgans.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“What have you against Senor Torres, that you should -reject his plan and anger him?” Leoncia demanded of -Francis.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Nothing,” was the answer, “except that we do not -need him, and that I’m not exactly infatuated with him. -He is a fool and would spoil any plan. Look at the way he -fell down on testifying at my trial. Maybe he can’t be -trusted. I don’t know. Anyway, what’s the good of trusting -<span class='pageno' id='Page_50'>50</span>him when we don’t need him? Now his plan is all -right. We’ll go straight to the jail and take Henry out, -if all you are game for it. And we don’t need to trust -to a mob of unhung rascals and beach-sweepings. If the -six men of us can’t do it, we might as well quit.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“There must be at least a dozen guards always hanging -out at the jail,” Ricardo, Leoncia’s youngest brother, a lad -of eighteen, objected.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Leoncia, her eagerness alive again, frowned at him; but -Francis took his part.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Well taken,” he agreed. “But we will eliminate the -guards.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The five-foot walls,” said Martinez Solano, twin brother -to Alvarado.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Go through them,” Francis answered.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But how?” Leoncia cried.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“That’s what I am arriving at. You, Senor Solano, -have plenty of saddle horses? Good. And you, Alesandro, -does it chance you could procure me a couple of sticks -of dynamite from around the plantation? Good, and better -than good. And you, Leoncia, as the lady of the hacienda, -should know whether you have in your store-room a plentiful -supply of that three-star rye whiskey?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Ah, the plot thickens,” he laughed, on receiving her -assurance. “We’ve all the properties for a Rider Haggard -or Rex Beach adventure tale. Now listen. But wait. I -want to talk to you, Leoncia, about private theatricals....”</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_51'>51</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER V.</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c006'>It was in the mid-afternoon, and Henry, at his barred -cell-window, stared out into the street and wondered if -any sort of breeze would ever begin to blow from off Chiriqui -Lagoon and cool the stagnant air. The street was dusty -and filthy—filthy, because the only scavengers it had ever -known since the town was founded centuries before were -the carrion dogs and obscene buzzards even then prowling -and hopping about in the debris. Low, whitewashed buildings -of stone and adobe made the street a furnace.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The white of it all, and the dust, was almost achingly -intolerable to the eyes, and Henry would have withdrawn -his gaze, had not the several ragged <i><span lang="ht" xml:lang="ht">mosos</span></i>, dozing in a -doorway opposite, suddenly aroused and looked interestedly -up the street. Henry could not see, but he could hear the -rattling spokes of some vehicle coming at speed. Next, it -surged into view, a rattletrap light wagon drawn by a runaway -horse. In the seat a gray-headed, gray-bearded -ancient strove vainly to check the animal.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Henry smiled and marveled that the rickety wagon could -hold together, so prodigious were the bumps imparted to it -by the deep ruts. Every wheel, half-dished and threatening -to dish, wobbled and revolved out of line with every -other wheel. And if the wagon held intact, Henry judged, -it was a miracle that the crazy harness did not fly to pieces. -When directly opposite the window, the old man made a -last effort, half-standing up from the seat as he pulled on -the reins. One was rotten, and broke. As the driver fell -backward into the seat, his weight on the remaining rein -caused the horse to swerve sharply to the right. What happened -then—whether a wheel dished, or whether a wheel -had come off first and dished afterward—Henry could not -determine. The one incontestable thing was that the wagon -was a wreck. The old man, dragging in the dust and -stubbornly hanging on to the remaining rein, swung the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_52'>52</span>horse in a circle until it stopped, facing him and snorting -at him.</p> - -<p class='c000'>By the time he gained his feet a crowd of <i><span lang="ht" xml:lang="ht">mosos</span></i> was -forming about him. These were roughly shouldered right -and left by the gendarmes who erupted from the jail. Henry -remained at the window and, for a man with but a few -hours to live, was an amused spectator and listener to -what followed.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Giving his horse to a gendarme to hold, not stopping to -brush the filth from his person, the old man limped hurriedly -to the wagon and began an examination of the several packing -cases, large and small, which composed its load. Of -one case he was especially solicitous, even trying to lift it -and seeming to listen as he lifted.</p> - -<p class='c000'>He straightened up, on being addressed by one of the -gendarmes, and made voluble reply.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Me? Alas senors, I am an old man, and far from home. -I am Leopoldo Narvaez. It is true, my mother was German, -may the Saints preserve her rest; but my father was Baltazar -de Jesus y Cervallos é Narvaez, son of General Narvaez -of martial memory, who fought under the great Bolivar -himself. And now I am half ruined and far from home.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Prompted by other questions, interlarded with the courteous -expressions of sympathy with which even the humblest -<i><span lang="ht" xml:lang="ht">moso</span></i> is over generously supplied, he managed to be -polite-fully grateful and to run on with his tale.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I have driven from Bocas del Toro. It has taken -me five days, and business has been poor. My home is in -Colon, and I wish I were safely there. But even a noble -Narvaez may be a peddler, and even a peddler must live, -eh, senors, is it not so? But tell me, is there not a Tomas -Romero who dwells in this pleasant city of San Antonio?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“There are any God’s number of Tomas Romeros who -dwell everywhere in Panama,” laughed Pedro Zurita, the -assistant jailer. “One would need fuller description.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“He is the cousin of my second wife,” the ancient -answered hopefully, and seemed bewildered by the roar of -laughter from the crowd.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And a dozen Tomas Romeros live in and about San -Antonio,” the assistant jailer went on, “any one of which -may be your second wife’s cousin, Senor. There is Tomas -Romero, the drunkard. There is Tomas Romero, the thief. -There is Tomas Romero—but no, he was hanged a month -back for murder and robbery. There is the rich Tomas -<span class='pageno' id='Page_53'>53</span>Romero who owns many cattle on the hills. There is....”</p> - -<p class='c000'>To each suggested one, Leopoldo Narvaez had shaken his -head dolefully, until the cattle-owner was mentioned. At -this he had become hopeful and broke<a id='t53'></a> in:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Pardon me, senor, it must be he, or some such a one -as he. I shall find him. If my precious stock-in-trade -can be safely stored, I shall seek him now. It is well my -misfortune came upon me where it did. I shall be able to -trust it with you, who are, one can see with half an eye, -an honest and an honorable man.” As he talked, he -fumbled forth from his pocket two silver pesos and handed -them to the jailer. “There, I wish you and your men to -have some pleasure of assisting me.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Henry grinned to himself as he noted the access of interest -in the old man and of consideration for him, on the -part of Pedro Zurita and the gendarmes, caused by the -present of the coins. They shoved the more curious of the -crowd roughly back from the wrecked wagon and began to -carry the boxes into the jail.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Careful, senors, careful,” the old one pleaded, greatly -anxious, as they took hold of the big box. “Handle it -gently. It is of value, and it is fragile, most fragile.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>While the contents of the wagon were being carried -into the jail, the old man removed and deposited in the -wagon all harness from the horse save the bridle.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Pedro Zurita ordered the harness taken in as well, explaining, -with a glare at the miserable crowd: “Not a strap -or buckle would remain the second after our backs were -turned.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Using what was left of the wagon for a stepping block, -and ably assisted by the jailer and his crew, the peddler -managed to get astride his animal.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is well,” he said, and added gratefully: “A thousand -thanks, senors. It has been my good fortune to meet -with honest men with whom my goods will be safe—only -poor goods, peddler’s goods, you understand; but to me, -everything, my way upon the road. The pleasure has been -mine to meet you. To-morrow I shall return with my kinsman, -whom I certainly shall find, and relieve from you -the burden of safeguarding my inconsiderable property.” He -doffed his hat. “Adios, senors, adios!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>He rode away at a careful walk, timid of the animal he -bestrode which had caused his catastrophe. He halted and -turned his head at a call from Pedro Zurita.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_54'>54</span>“Search the graveyard, Senor Narvaez,” the jailer advised. -“Full a hundred Tomas Romeros lie there.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And be vigilant, I beg of you, senor, of the heavy box,” -the peddler called back.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Henry watched the street grow deserted as the gendarmes -and the populace fled from the scorch of the sun. Small -wonder, he thought to himself, that the old peddler’s voice -had sounded vaguely familiar. It had been because he had -possessed only half a Spanish tongue to twist around the -language—the other half being the German tongue of the -mother. Even so, he talked like a native, and he would be -robbed like a native if there was anything of value in the -heavy box deposited with the jailers, Henry concluded, ere -dismissing the incident from his mind.</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c000'>In the guardroom, a scant fifty feet away from Henry’s -cell, Leopoldo Narvaez was being robbed. It had begun -by Pedro Zurita making a profound and wistful survey of -the large box. He lifted one end of it to sample its weight, -and sniffed like a hound at the crack of it as if his nose -might give him some message of its contents.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Leave it alone, Pedro,” one of the gendarmes laughed -at him. “You have been paid two pesos to be honest.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The assistant jailer sighed, walked away and sat down, -looked back at the box, and sighed again. Conversation -languished. Continually the eyes of the men roved to the -box. A greasy pack of cards could not divert them. The -game languished. The gendarme who had twitted Pedro -himself went to the box and sniffed.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I smell nothing,” he announced. “Absolutely in the -box there is nothing to smell. Now what can it be? The -caballero said that it was of value!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Caballero!” sniffed another of the gendarmes. “The -old man’s father was more like to have been peddler of -rotten fish on the streets of Colon and his father before him. -Every lying beggar claims descent from the conquistadores.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And why not, Rafael?” Pedro Zurita retorted. “Are -we not all so descended?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Without doubt,” Rafael readily agreed. “The conquistadores -slew many——”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And were the ancestors of those that survived,” Pedro -completed for him and aroused a general laugh. “Just the -same, almost would I give one of these pesos to know what -is in that box.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_55'>55</span>“There is Ignacio,” Rafael greeted the entrance of a -turnkey whose heavy eyes tokened he was just out of his -siesta. “He was not paid to be honest. Come, Ignacio, -relieve our curiosity by letting us know what is in the box.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“How should I know?” Ignacio demanded, blinking at -the object of interest. “Only now have I awakened.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You have not been paid to be honest, then?” Rafael -asked.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Merciful Mother of God, who is the man who would -pay me to be honest?” the turnkey demanded.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Then take the hatchet there and open the box,” Rafael -drove his point home. “We may not, for as surely as -Pedro is to share the two pesos with us, that surely have we -been paid to be honest. Open the box, Ignacio, or we shall -perish of our curiosity.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“We will look, we will only look,” Pedro muttered nervously, -as the turnkey prized off a board with the blade of -the hatchet. “Then we will close the box again and——Put -your hand in, Ignacio. What is it you find?... eh? -what does it feel like? Ah!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>After pulling and tugging, Ignacio’s hand had reappeared, -clutching a cardboard carton.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Remove it carefully, for it must be replaced,” the -jailer cautioned.</p> - -<p class='c000'>And when the wrappings of paper and tissue paper were -removed, all eyes focused on a quart bottle of rye whiskey.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“How excellently is it composed,” Pedro murmured in -tones of awe. “It must be very good that such care be -taken of it.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is Americano whiskey,” sighed a gendarme. “Once, -only, have I drunk Americano whiskey. It was wonderful. -Such was the courage of it, that I leaped into the bull-ring -at Santos and faced a wild bull with my hands. It is -true, the bull rolled me, but did I not leap into the ring?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Pedro took the bottle and prepared to knock its neck off.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Hold!” cried Rafael. “You were paid to be honest.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“By a man who was not himself honest,” came the retort. -“The stuff is contraband. It has never paid duty. -The old man was in possession of smuggled goods. Let us -now gratefully and with clear conscience invest ourselves -in its possession. We will confiscate it. We will destroy -it.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Not waiting for the bottle to pass, Ignacio and Rafael unwrapped -fresh ones and broke off the necks.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_56'>56</span>“Three stars—most excellent,” Pedro Zurita orated in -a pause, pointing to the trade mark. “You see, all Gringo -whiskey is good. One star shows that it is very good; two -stars that it is excellent; three stars that it is superb, the -best, and better than beyond that. Ah, I know. The -Gringos are strong on strong drink. No pulque for them.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And four stars?” queried Ignacio, his voice husky from -the liquor, the moisture glistening in his eyes.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Four stars? Friend Ignacio, four stars would be either -sudden death or translation into paradise.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>In not many minutes, Rafael, his arm around another -gendarme, was calling him brother and proclaiming that it -took little to make men happy here below.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The old man was a fool, three times a fool, and thrice -that,” volunteered Augustino, a sullen-faced gendarme, who -for the first time gave tongue to speech.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Viva Augustino!” cheered Rafael. “The three stars -have worked a miracle. Behold! Have they not unlocked -Augustino’s mouth?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And thrice times thrice again was the old man a fool!” -Augustino bellowed fiercely. “The very drink of the gods -was his, all his, and he has been five days alone with it -on the road from Bocas del Toro, and never taken one little -sip. Such fools as he should be stretched out naked on -an ant-heap, say I.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The old man was a rogue,” quoth Pedro. “And when -he comes back to-morrow for his three stars I shall arrest -him for a smuggler. It will be a feather in all our caps.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“If we destroy the evidence—thus?” queried Augustino, -knocking off another neck.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“We will save the evidence—thus!” Pedro replied, -smashing an empty bottle on the stone flags. “Listen, -comrades. The box was very heavy—we are all agreed. -It fell. The bottles broke. The liquor ran out, and so were -we made aware of the contraband. The box and the broken -bottles will be evidence sufficient.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The uproar grew as the liquor diminished. One gendarme -quarreled with Ignacio over a forgotten debt of ten centavos. -Two others sat upon the floor, arms around each other’s -necks, and wept over the miseries of their married lot. -Augustino, like a very spendthrift of speech, explained his -philosophy that silence was golden. And Pedro Zurita became -sentimental on brotherhood.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Even my prisoners,” he maundered. “I love them as -<span class='pageno' id='Page_57'>57</span>brothers. Life is sad.” A gush of tears in his eyes made -him desist while he took another drink. “My prisoners are -my very children. My heart bleeds for them. Behold! I -weep. Let us share with them. Let them have a moment’s -happiness. Ignacio, dearest brother of my heart. -Do me a favor. See, I weep on your hand. Carry a bottle -of this elixir to the Gringo Morgan. Tell him my sorrow -that he must hang to-morrow. Give him my love and bid -him drink and be happy to-day.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And as Ignacio passed out on the errand, the gendarme -who had once leapt into the bull-ring at Santos, began -roaring:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I want a bull! I want a bull!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“He wants it, dear soul, that he may put his arms -around it and love it,” Pedro Zurita explained, with a fresh -access of weeping. “I, too, love bulls. I love all things. -I love even mosquitoes. All the world is love. That is the -secret of the world. I should like to have a lion to play -with....”</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c000'>The unmistakable air of “Back to Back Against the -Mainmast” being whistled openly in the street, caught -Henry’s attention, and he was crossing his big cell to the -window when the grating of a key in the door made him -lie down quickly on the floor and feign sleep. Ignacio staggered -drunkenly in, bottle in hand, which he gravely presented -to Henry.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“With the high compliments of our good jailer, Pedro -Zurita,” he mumbled. “He says to drink and forget that -he must stretch your neck to-morrow.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“My high compliments to Senor Pedro Zurita, and tell -him from me to go to hell along with his whiskey,” Henry -replied.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The turnkey straightened up and ceased swaying, as if -suddenly become sober.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Very well, senor,” he said, then passed out and locked -the door.</p> - -<p class='c000'>In a rush Henry was at the window just in time to encounter -Francis face to face and thrusting a revolver to him -through the bars.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Greetings, <span lang="es" xml:lang="es">camarada</span>,” Francis said. “We’ll have you -out of here in a jiffy.” He held up two sticks of dynamite, -with fuse and caps complete. “I have brought this pretty -crowbar to pry you out. Stand well back in your cell, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_58'>58</span>because real pronto there’s going to be a hole in this wall that -we could sail the <em>Angelique</em> through. And the <em>Angelique</em> is -right off the beach waiting for you.—Now, stand back. I’m -going to touch her off. It’s a short fuse.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Hardly had Henry backed into a rear corner of his cell, -when the door was clumsily unlocked and opened to a babel -of cries and imprecations, chiefest among which he could -hear the ancient and invariable war-cry of Latin-America, -“Kill the Gringo!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Also, he could hear Rafael and Pedro, as they entered, -babbling, the one: “He is the enemy of brotherly love”; -and the other, “He said I was to go to hell—is not that -what he said, Ignacio?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>In their hands they carried rifles, and behind them urged -the drunken rabble, variously armed, from cutlasses and -horse-pistols to hatchets and bottles. At sight of Henry’s -revolver, they halted, and Pedro, fingering his rifle unsteadily, -maundered solemnly:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Senor Morgan, you are about to take up your rightful -abode in hell.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But Ignacio did not wait. He fired wildly and widely -from his hip, missing Henry by half the width of the cell -and going down the next moment under the impact of -Henry’s bullet. The rest retreated precipitately into the -jail corridor, where, themselves unseen, they began discharging -their weapons into the room.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Thanking his fortunate stars for the thickness of the walls, -and hoping no ricochet would get him, Henry sheltered in a -protecting angle and waited for the explosion.</p> - -<p class='c000'>It came. The window and the wall beneath it became -all one aperture. Struck on the head by a flying fragment, -Henry sank down dizzily, and, as the dust of the mortar and -the powder cleared, with wavering eyes he saw Francis -apparently swim through the hole. By the time he had -been dragged out through the hole, Henry was himself again. -He could see Enrico Solano and Ricardo, his youngest born, -rifles in hand, holding back the crowd forming up the street, -while the twins, Alvarado and Martinez, similarly held back -the crowd forming down the street.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But the populace was merely curious, having its lives to -lose and nothing to gain if it attempted to block the way of -such masterful men as these who blew up walls and stormed -jails in open day. And it gave back respectfully before the -compact group as it marched down the street.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_59'>59</span>“The horses are waiting up the next alley,” Francis told -Henry, as they gripped hands. “And Leoncia is waiting -with them. Fifteen minutes’ gallop will take us to the -beach, where the boat is waiting.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Say, that was some song I taught you,” Henry grinned. -“It sounded like the very best little bit of all right when I -heard you whistling it. The dogs were so previous they -couldn’t wait till to-morrow to hang me. They got full of -whiskey and decided to finish me off right away. Funny -thing that whiskey. An old caballero turned peddler -wrecked a wagon-load of it right in front of the jail——”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“For even a noble Narvaez, son of Baltazar de Jesus y -Cervallos è Narvaez, son of General Narvaez of martial -memory, may be a peddler, and even a peddler must live, -eh, senors, is it not so?” Francis mimicked.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Henry looked his gleeful recognition, and added soberly:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Francis, I’m glad for one thing, most damn glad....”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Which is?” Francis queried in the pause, just as they -swung around the corner to the horses.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“That I didn’t cut off your ears that day on the Calf when -I had you down and you insisted.”</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_60'>60</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER VI</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c006'>Mariano Vercara e Hijos, Jefe Politico of San Antonio, -leaned back in his chair in the courtroom and with a quiet -smile of satisfaction proceeded to roll a cigarette. The case -had gone through as prearranged. He had kept the little old -judge away from his <i><span lang="pt" xml:lang="pt">mescal</span></i> all day, and had been rewarded -by having the judge try the case and give judgment according -to program. He had not made a slip. The six peons, -fined heavily, were ordered back to the plantation at Santos. -The working out of the fines was added to the time of their -contract slavery. And the Jefe was two hundred dollars -good American gold richer for the transaction. Those -Gringos at Santos, he smiled to himself, were men to tie to. -True, they were developing the country with their <em>henequen</em> -plantation. But, better than that, they possessed money -in untold quantity and paid well for such little services as he -might be able to render.</p> - -<p class='c000'>His smile was even broader as he greeted Alvarez Torres.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Listen,” said the latter, whispering low in his ear. -“We can get both these devils of Morgans. The Henry -pig hangs to-morrow. There is no reason that the Francis -pig should not go out to-day.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The Jefe remained silent, questioning with a lift of his -eyebrows.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I have advised him to storm the jail. The Solanos -have listened to his lies and are with him. They will surely -attempt to do it this evening. They could not do it sooner. -It is for you to be ready for the event, and to see to it that -Francis Morgan is especially shot and killed in the fight.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“For what and for why?” the Jefe temporised. “It is -Henry I want to see out of the way. Let the Francis one -go back to his beloved New York.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“He must go out to-day, and for reasons you will appreciate. -As you know, from reading my telegrams through -the government wireless——”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_61'>61</span>“Which was our agreement for my getting you your -permission to use the government station,” the Jefe -reminded.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And of which I do not complain,” Torres assured him. -“But as I was saying, you know my relations with the -New York Regan are confidential and important.” He -touched his hand to his breast pocket. “I have just -received another wire. It is imperative that the Francis -pig be kept away from New York for a month—if forever, -and I do not misunderstand Senor Regan, so much the -better. In so far as I succeed in this, will you fare well.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But you have not told me how much you have received, -nor how much you will receive,” the Jefe probed.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is a private agreement, and it is not so much as you -may fancy. He is a hard man, this Senor Regan, a hard -man. Yet will I divide fairly with you out of the success -of our venture.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The Jefe nodded acquiescence, then said:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Will it be as much as a thousand gold you will get?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I think so. Surely the pig of an Irish stock-gambler -could pay me no less a sum, and five hundred is yours if pig -Francis leaves his bones in San Antonio.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Will it be as much as a hundred thousand gold?” was -the Jefe’s next query.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Torres laughed as if at a joke.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It must be more than a thousand,” the other persisted.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And he may be generous,” Torres responded. “He -may even give me five hundred over the thousand, half of -which, naturally, as I have said, will be yours as well.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I shall go from here immediately to the jail,” the Jefe -announced. “You may trust me, Senor Torres, as I trust -you. Come. We will go at once, now, you and I, and you -may see for yourself the preparation I shall make for this -Francis Morgan’s reception. I have not yet lost my cunning -with a rifle. And, as well, I shall tell off three of the -gendarmes to fire only at him. So this Gringo dog would -storm our jail, eh? Come. We will depart at once.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>He stood up, tossing his cigarette away with a show of -determined energy. But, half way across the room, a ragged -boy, panting and sweating, plucked his sleeve and whined:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I have information. You will pay me for it, most high -Senor? I have run all the way.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I’ll have you sent to San Juan for the buzzards to peck -<span class='pageno' id='Page_62'>62</span>your carcass for the worthless carrion that you are,” was the -reply.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The boy quailed at the threat, then summoned courage -from his emptiness of belly and meagerness of living and -from his desire for the price of a ticket to the next bull-fight.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You will remember I brought you the information, Senor. -I ran all the way until I am almost dead, as you can behold, -Senor. I will tell you, but you will remember it was I who -ran all the way and told you first.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Yes, yes, animal, I will remember. But woe to you if -I remember too well. What is the trifling information? It -may not be worth a centavo. And if it isn’t I’ll make you -sorry the sun ever shone on you. And buzzard-picking of -you at San Juan will be paradise compared with what I shall -visit on you.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The jail,” the boy quavered. “The strange Gringo, -the one who was to be hanged yesterday, has blown down -the side of the jail. Merciful Saints! The hole is as big -as the steeple of the cathedral! And the other Gringo, the -one who looks like him, the one who was to hang to-morrow, -has escaped with him out of the hole. He dragged him out -of the hole himself. This I saw, myself, with my two eyes, -and then I ran here to you all the way, and you will -remember....”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But the Jefe Politico had already turned on Torres witheringly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And if this Senor Regan be princely generous, he may -give you and me the munificent sum that was mentioned, -eh? Five times the sum, or ten times, with this Gringo -tiger blowing down law and order and our good jail-walls, -would be nearer the mark.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“At any rate, the thing must be a false alarm, merely the -straw that shows which way blows the wind of this Francis -Morgan’s intention,” Torres murmured with a sickly smile. -“Remember, the suggestion was mine to him to storm the -jail.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“In which case you and Senor Regan will pay for the -good jail wall?” the Jefe demanded, then, with a pause, -added: “Not that I believe it has been accomplished. It is -not possible. Even a fool Gringo would not dare.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Rafael, the gendarme, rifle in hand, the blood still oozing -down his face from a scalp-wound, came through the courtroom -door and shouldered aside the curious ones who had -begun to cluster around Torres and the Jefe.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_63'>63</span>“We are devastated,” were Rafael’s first words. “The -jail is ‘most destroyed. Dynamite! A hundred pounds of -it! A thousand! We came bravely to save the jail. But -it exploded—the thousand pounds of dynamite. I fell unconscious, -rifle in hand. When sense came back to me, I -looked about. All others, the brave Pedro, the brave -Ignacio, the brave Augustino—all, all, lay around me dead!” -Almost could he have added, “drunk”; but, his Latin-American -nature so compounded, he sincerely stated the -catastrophe as it most valiantly and tragically presented -itself to his imagination. “They lay dead. They may not -be dead, but merely stunned. I crawled. The cell of the -Gringo Morgan was empty. There was a huge and monstrous -hole in the wall. I crawled through the hole into -the street. There was a great crowd. But the Gringo -Morgan was gone. I talked with a moso who had seen and -who knew. They had horses waiting. They rode toward -the beach. There is a schooner that is not anchored. It -sails back and forth waiting for them. The Francis Morgan -rides with a sack of gold on his saddle. The moso saw it. -It is a large sack.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And the hole?” the Jefe demanded. “The hole in the -wall?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Is larger than the sack, much larger,” was Rafael’s -reply. “But the sack is large. So the moso said. And -he rides with it on his saddle.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“My jail!” the Jefe cried. He slipped a dagger from -inside his coat under the left arm-pit and held it aloft by the -blade so that the hilt showed as a true cross on which a finely -modeled Christ hung crucified. “I swear by all the Saints -the vengeance I shall have. My jail! Our justice! Our -law!——Horses! Horses! Gendarme, horses!” He -whirled about upon Torres as if the latter had spoken, -shouting: “To hell with Senor Regan! I am after my -own! I have been defied! My jail is desolated! My law—our -law, good friends—has been mocked. Horses! -Horses! Commandeer them on the streets. Haste! -Haste!”</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c000'>Captain Trefethen, owner of the <em>Angelique</em>, son of a Maya -Indian mother and a Jamaica negro father, paced the narrow -after-deck of his schooner, stared shoreward toward San -Antonio, where he could make out his crowded long-boat -returning, and meditated flight from his mad American -<span class='pageno' id='Page_64'>64</span>charterer. At the same time he meditated remaining in -order to break his charter and give a new one at three times -the price; for he was strangely torn by his conflicting bloods. -The negro portion counseled prudence and observance of -Panamanian law. The Indian portion was urgent to unlawfulness -and the promise of conflict.</p> - -<p class='c000'>It was the Indian mother who decided the issue and made -him draw his jib, ease his mainsheet, and begin to reach -in-shore the quicker to pick up the oncoming boat. When -he made out the rifles carried by the Solanos and the -Morgans, almost he put up his helm to run for it and leave -them. When he made out a woman in the boat’s sternsheets, -romance and thrift whispered in him to hang on and -take the boat on board. For he knew wherever women<a id='t64'></a> -entered into the transactions of men that peril and pelf as -well entered hand in hand.</p> - -<p class='c000'>And aboard came the woman, the peril and the pelf—Leoncia, -the rifles, and a sack of money—all in a scramble; -for, the wind being light, the captain had not bothered to -stop way on the schooner.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Glad to welcome you on board, sir,” Captain Trefethen -greeted Francis with a white slash of teeth between his -smiling lips. “But who is this man?” He nodded his -head to indicate Henry.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“A friend, captain, a guest of mine, in fact, a kinsman.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And who, sir, may I make bold to ask, are those gentlemen -riding along the beach in fashion so lively?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Henry looked quickly at the group of horsemen galloping -along the sand, unceremoniously took the binoculars from -the skipper’s hand, and gazed through them.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It’s the Jefe himself in the lead,” he reported to -Leoncia and her menfolk, “with a bunch of gendarmes.” -He uttered a sharp exclamation, stared through the glasses -intently, then shook his head. “Almost I thought I made -out our friend Torres.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“With our enemies!” Leoncia cried incredulously, remembering -Torres’ proposal of marriage and proffer of service -and honor that very day on the hacienda piazza.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I must have been mistaken,” Francis acknowledged. -“They are riding so bunched together. But it’s the Jefe all -right, two jumps ahead of the outfit.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Who is this Torres duck?” Henry asked harshly. -“I’ve never liked his looks from the first, yet he seems -always welcome under your roof, Leoncia.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_65'>65</span>“I beg your parson, sir, most gratifiedly, and with my -humilius respects,” Captain Trefethen interrupted suavely. -“But I must call your attention to the previous question, -sir, which is: who and what is that cavalcade disporting -itself with such earnestness along the sand?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“They tried to hang me yesterday,” Francis laughed. -“And to-morrow they were going to hang my kinsman there. -Only we beat them to it. And here we are. Now, Mr. -Skipper, I call your attention to your head-sheets flapping -in the wind. You are standing still. How much longer -do you expect to stick around here?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Mr. Morgan, sir,” came the answer, “it is with dumbfounded -respect that I serve you as the charterer of my -vessel. Nevertheless, I must inform you that I am a -British subject. King George is my king, sir, and I owe -obedience first of all to him and to his laws of maritime -between all nations, sir. It is lucid to my comprehension -that you have broken laws ashore, or else the officers ashore -would not be so assiduously in quest of you, sir. And it is -also lucid to clarification that it is now your wish to have -me break the laws of maritime by enabling you to escape. -So, in honor bound, I must stick around here until this little -difficulty that you may have appertained ashore is adjusted -to the satisfaction of all parties concerned, sir, and to the -satisfaction of my lawful sovereign.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Fill away and get out of this, skipper!” Henry broke -in angrily.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Sir, assuring you of your gratification of pardon, it is -my unpleasant task to inform you of two things. Neither -are you my charterer; nor are you the noble King George to -whom I give ambitious allegiance.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Well, I’m your charterer, skipper,” Francis said pleasantly, -for he had learned to humor the man of mixed words -and parentage. “So just kindly put up your helm and sail -us out of this Chiriqui Lagoon as fast as God and this failing -wind will let you.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is not in the charter, sir, that my <em>Angelique</em> shall -break the laws of Panama and King George.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I’ll pay you well,” Francis retorted, beginning to lose -his temper. “Get busy.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You will then recharter, sir, at three times the present -charter?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Francis nodded shortly.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_66'>66</span>“Then wait, sir, I entreat. I must procure pen and -paper from the cabin and make out the document.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Oh, Lord,” Francis groaned. “Square away and get a -move on first. We can make out the paper just as easily -while we are running as standing still. Look! They are -beginning to fire.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The half-breed captain heard the report, and, searching -his spread canvas, discovered the hole of the bullet high up -near the peak of the mainsail.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Very well, sir,” he conceded. “You are a gentleman -and an honorable man. I trust you to affix your signature -to the document at your early convenience——Hey, you -nigger! Put up your wheel! Hard up! Jump, you black -rascals, and slack away mainsheet! Take a hand there, -you, Percival, on the boom-tackle!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>All obeyed, as did Percival, a grinning shambling Kingston -negro who was as black as his name was white, and as did -another, addressed more respectfully as Juan, who was more -Spanish and Indian than negro, as his light yellow skin -attested, and whose fingers, slacking the foresheet, were as -slim and delicate as a girl’s.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Knock the nigger on the head if he keeps up this -freshness,” Henry growled in an undertone to Francis. -“For two cents I’ll do it right now.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But Francis shook his head.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“He’s all right, but he’s a Jamaica nigger, and you know -what they are. And he’s Indian as well. We might as -well humor him, since it’s the nature of the beast. He -means all right, but he wants the money, he’s risking his -schooner against confiscation, and he’s afflicted with -<em>vocabularitis</em>. He just must get those long words out of his -system or else bust.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Here Enrico Solano, with quivering nostrils and fingers -restless on his rifle as with half an eye he kept track of the -wild shots being fired from the beach, approached Henry and -held out his hand.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I have been guilty of a grave mistake, Senor Morgan,” -he said. “In the first hurt of my affliction at the death of -my beloved brother, Alfaro, I was guilty of thinking you -guilty of his murder.” Here old Enrico’s eyes flashed with -anger consuming but unconsumable. “For murder it was, -dastardly and cowardly, a thrust in the dark in the back. I -should have known better. But I was overwhelmed, and -the evidence was all against you. I did not take pause of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_67'>67</span>thought to consider that my dearly beloved and only -daughter was betrothed to you; to remember that all I had -known of you was straightness and man-likeness and courage -such as never stabs from behind the shield of the dark. I -regret. I am sorry. And I am proud once again to welcome -you into my family as the husband-to-be of my Leoncia.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And while this whole-hearted restoration of Henry Morgan -into the Solano family went on, Leoncia was irritated -because her father, in Latin-American fashion, must use so -many fine words and phrases, when a single phrase, a handgrip, -and a square look in the eyes were all that was called -for and was certainly all that either Henry or Francis would -have vouchsafed had the situation been reversed. Why, -why, she asked of herself, must her Spanish stock, in such -extravagance of diction, seem to emulate the similar extravagance -of the Jamaica negro?</p> - -<p class='c000'>While this reiteration of the betrothal of Henry and -Leoncia was taking place, Francis, striving to appear uninterested, -could not help taking note of the pale-yellow sailor -called Juan, conferring for’ard with others of the crew, -shrugging his shoulders significantly, gesticulating passionately -with his hands.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_68'>68</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER VII</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c006'>“And now we’ve lost both the Gringo pigs,” Alvarez Torres -lamented on the beach as, with a slight freshening of the -breeze and with booms winged out to port and starboard, the -<em>Angelique</em> passed out of range of their rifles.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Almost would I give three bells to the cathedral,” -Mariano Vercara è Hijos proclaimed, “to have them within -a hundred yards of this rifle. And if I had will of all Gringos -they would depart so fast that the devil in hell would be -compelled to study English.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Alvarez Torres beat the saddle pommel with his hand in -sheer impotence of rage and disappointment.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The Queen of my Dreams!” he almost wept. “She is -gone and away, off with the two Morgans. I saw her climb -up the side of the schooner. And there is the New York -Regan. Once out of Chiriqui Lagoon, the schooner may -sail directly to New York. And the Francis pig will not have -been delayed a month, and the Senor Regan will remit no -money.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“They will not get out of Chiriqui Lagoon,” the Jefe said -solemnly. “I am no animal without reason. I am a man. -I know they will not get out. Have I not sworn eternal -vengeance? The sun is setting, and the promise is for a -night of little wind. The sky tells it to one with half an eye. -Behold those trailing wisps of clouds. What wind may be, -and little enough of that, will come from the north-east. It -will be a head beat to the Chorrera Passage. They will not -attempt it. That nigger captain knows the lagoon like a -book. He will try to make the long tack and go out past -Bocas del Toro, or through the Cartago Passage. Even so, -we will outwit him. I have brains, reason. Reason. -Listen. It is a long ride. We will make it—straight down -the coast to Las Palmas. Captain Rosaro is there with the -<em>Dolores</em>.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_69'>69</span>“The second-hand old tugboat?—that cannot get out of -her own way?” Torres queried.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But this night of calm and morrow of calm she will -capture the <em>Angelique</em>,” the Jefe replied. “On, comrades! -We will ride! Captain Rosaro is my friend. Any favor is -but mine to ask.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>At daylight, the worn-out men, on beaten horses, -straggled through the decaying village of Las Palmas and -down to the decaying pier, where a very decayed-looking -tugboat, sadly in need of paint, welcomed their eyes. Smoke -rising from the stack advertised that steam was up, and the -Jefe was wearily elated.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“A happy morning, Senor Capitan Rosaro, and well met,” -he greeted the hard-bitten Spanish skipper, who was reclined -on a coil of rope and who sipped black coffee from a mug -that rattled against his teeth.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It would be a happier morning if the cursed fever had -not laid its chill upon me,” Captain Rosaro grunted sourly, -the hand that held the mug, the arm, and all his body -shivering so violently as to spill the hot liquid down his chin -and into the black-and-gray thatch of hair that covered his -half-exposed chest. “Take that, you animal of hell!” he -cried, flinging mug and contents at a splinter of a half-breed -boy, evidently his servant, who had been unable to repress -his glee.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But the sun will rise and the fever will work its will -and shortly depart,” said the Jefe, politely ignoring the -display of spleen. “And you are finished here, and you are -bound for Bocas del Toro, and we shall go with you, all of -us, on a rare adventure. We will pick up the schooner -<em>Angelique</em>, calm-bound all last night in the lagoon, and I shall -make many arrests, and all Panama will so ring with your -courage and ability, Capitan, that you will forget that the -fever ever whispered in you.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“How much?” Capitan Rosaro demanded bluntly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Much?” the Jefe countered in surprise. “This is an -affair of government, good friend. And it is right on your -way to Bocas del Toro. It will not cost you an extra -shovelful of coal.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“<span lang="es" xml:lang="es">Muchacho!</span> More coffee!” the tug-skipper roared at -the boy.</p> - -<p class='c000'>A pause fell, wherein Torres and the Jefe and all the -draggled following yearned for the piping hot coffee brought -by the boy. Captain Rosaro played the rim of the mug -<span class='pageno' id='Page_70'>70</span>against his teeth like a rattling of castanets, but managed to -sip without spilling and so to burn his mouth.</p> - -<p class='c000'>A vacant-faced Swede, in filthy overalls, with a soiled cap -on which appeared “Engineer,” came up from below, -lighted a pipe, and seemingly went into a trance as he sat on -the tug’s low rail.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“How much?” Captain Rosaro repeated.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Let us get under way, dear friend,” said the Jefe. -“And then, when the fever-shock has departed, we will -discuss the matter with reason, being reasonable creatures -ourselves and not animals.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“How much?” Captain Rosaro repeated again. “I am -never an animal. I always am a creature of reason, whether -the sun is up or not up, or whether this thrice-accursed fever -is upon me. How much?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Well, let us start, and for how much?” the Jefe -conceded wearily.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Fifty dollars gold,” was the prompt answer.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You are starting anyway, are you not, Capitan?” Torres -queried softly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Fifty——gold, as I have said.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The Jefe Politico threw up his hands with a hopeless -gesture and turned on his heel to depart.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Yet you swore eternal vengeance for the crime committed -on your jail,” Torres reminded him.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But not if it costs fifty dollars,” the Jefe snapped back, -out of the corner of his eye watching the shivering captain -for some sign of relenting.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Fifty gold,” said the Captain, as he finished draining -the mug and with shaking fingers strove to roll a cigarette. -He nodded his head in the direction of the Swede, and -added, “and five gold extra for my engineer. It is our -custom.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Torres stepped closer to the Jefe and whispered:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I will pay for the tug myself and charge the Gringo -Regan a hundred, and you and I will divide the difference. -We lose nothing. We shall make. For this Regan pig -instructed me well not to mind expense.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>As the sun slipped brazenly above the eastern horizon, -one gendarme went back into Las Palmas with the jaded -horses, the rest of the party descended to the deck of the tug, -the Swede dived down into the engine-room, and Captain -Rosaro, shaking off his chill in the sun’s beneficent rays, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_71'>71</span>ordered the deck-hands to cast off the lines, and put one of -them at the wheel in the pilot-house.</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c000'>And the same day-dawn found the <em>Angelique</em>, after a night -of almost perfect calm, off the mainland from which she had -failed to get away, although she had made sufficient northing -to be midway between San Antonio and the passages of -Bocas del Toro and Cartago. These two passages to the -open sea still lay twenty-five miles away, and the schooner -truly slept on the mirror surface of the placid lagoon. Too -stuffy below for sleep in the steaming tropics, the deck was -littered with the sleepers. On top the small house of the -cabin, in solitary state, lay Leoncia. On the narrow runways -of deck on either side lay her brothers and her father. -Aft, between the cabin companionway and the wheel, side -by side, Francis’ arm across Henry’s shoulder, as if still -protecting him, were the two Morgans. On one side of<a id='t71'></a> the -wheel, sitting, with arms on knees and head on arms, the -negro-Indian skipper slept, and just as precisely postured, on -the other side of the wheel, slept the helmsman, who was -none other than Percival, the black Kingston negro. The -waist of the schooner was strewn with the bodies of the -mixed-breed seamen, while for’ard, on the tiny forecastlehead, -prone, his face buried upon his folded arms, slept the -lookout.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Leoncia, in her high place on the cabin-top, awoke first. -Propping her head on her hand, the elbow resting on a bit of -the poncho on which she lay, she looked down past one side -of the hood of the companionway upon the two young men. -She yearned over them, who were so alike, and knew love -for both of them, remembered the kisses of Henry on her -mouth, thrilled till the blush of her own thoughts mantled -her cheek at memory of the kisses of Francis, and was -puzzled and amazed that she should have it in her to love -two men at the one time. As she had already learned of -herself, she would follow Henry to the end of the world and -Francis even farther. And she could not understand such -wantonness of inclination.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Fleeing from her own thoughts, which frightened her, she -stretched out her arm and dangled the end of her silken scarf -to a tickling of Francis’ nose, who, after restless movements, -still in the heaviness of sleep, struck with his hand at what -he must have thought to be a mosquito or a fly, and hit -Henry on the chest. So it was Henry who was first awakened. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_72'>72</span>He sat up with such abruptness as to awaken -Francis.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Good morning, merry kinsman,” Francis greeted. -“Why such violence?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Morning, morning, and the morning’s morning, comrade,” -Henry muttered. “Such was the violence of your -sleep that it was you who awakened me with a buffet on my -breast. I thought it was the hangman, for this is the -morning they planned to kink my neck.” He yawned, -stretched his arms, gazed out over the rail at the sleeping -sea, and nudged Francis to observance of the sleeping -skipper and helmsman.</p> - -<p class='c000'>They looked so bonny, the pair of Morgans, Leoncia -thought; and at the same time wondered why the English -word had arisen unsummoned in her mind rather than a -Spanish equivalent. Was it because her heart went out so -generously to the two Gringos that she must needs think of -them in their language instead of her own?</p> - -<p class='c000'>To escape the perplexity of her thoughts, she dangled the -scarf again, was discovered, and laughingly confessed that -it was she who had caused their violence of waking.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Three hours later, breakfast of coffee and fruit over, she -found herself at the wheel taking her first lesson of steering -and of the compass under Francis’ tuition. The <em>Angelique</em>, -under a crisp little breeze which had hauled around well to -north’ard, was for the moment heeling it through the water -at a six-knot clip. Henry, swaying on the weather side of -the after-deck and searching the sea through the binoculars, -was striving to be all unconcerned at the lesson, although -secretly he was mutinous with himself for not having first -thought of himself introducing her to the binnacle and the -wheel. Yet he resolutely refrained from looking around or -from even stealing a corner-of-the-eye glance at the other -two.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But Captain Trefethen, with the keen cruelty of Indian -curiosity and the impudence of a negro subject of King -George, knew no such delicacy. He stared openly and -missed nothing of the chemic drawing together of his charterer -and the pretty Spanish girl. When they leaned over -the wheel to look into the binnacle, they leaned toward each -other and Leoncia’s hair touched Francis’ cheek. And the -three of them, themselves and the breed skipper, knew the -thrill induced by such contact. But the man and woman -knew immediately what the breed skipper did not know, and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_73'>73</span>what they knew was embarrassment. Their eyes lifted to -each other in a flash of mutual startlement, and drooped -away and down guiltily. Francis talked very fast and loud -enough for half the schooner to hear, as he explained the -lubber’s point of the compass. But Captain Trefethen -grinned.</p> - -<p class='c000'>A rising puff of breeze made Francis put the wheel up. -His hand to the spoke rested on her hand already upon it. -Again they thrilled, and again the skipper grinned.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Leoncia’s eyes lifted to Francis’, then dropped in confusion. -She slipped her hand out from under and terminated -the lesson by walking slowly away with a fine assumption of -casualness, as if the wheel and the binnacle no longer interested -her. But she had left Francis afire with what he -knew was lawlessness and treason as he glanced at Henry’s -shoulder and profile and hoped he had not seen what had -occurred. Leoncia, apparently gazing off across the lagoon -to the jungle-clad shore, was seeing nothing as she thoughtfully -turned her engagement ring around and around on her -finger.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But Henry, turning to tell them of the smudge of smoke -he had discovered on the horizon, had inadvertently seen. -And the negro-Indian captain had seen him see. So the -captain lurched close to him, the cruelty of the Indian -dictating the impudence of the negro, as he said in a low -voice:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Ah, be not downcast, sir. The senorita is generously -hearted. There is room for both you gallant gentlemen in -her heart.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And the next fraction of a second he learned the inevitable -and invariable lesson that white men must have their privacy -of intimate things; for he lay on his back, the back of his -head sore from contact with the deck, the front of his head, -between the eyes, sore from contact with the knuckles of -Henry Morgan’s right hand.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But the Indian in the skipper was up and raging as he -sprang to his feet, knife in hand. Juan, the pale-yellow -mixed breed, leaped to the side of his skipper flourishing -another knife, while several of the nearer sailors joined in -forming a semi-circle of attack on Henry, who, with a quick -step back and an upward slap of his hand, under the pin-rail, -caused an iron belaying pin to leap out and up into the air. -Catching it in mid-flight, he was prepared to defend himself. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_74'>74</span>Francis, abandoning the wheel and drawing his automatic as -he sprang, was through the circle and by the side of Henry.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“What did he say?” Francis demanded of his kinsman.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I’ll say what I said,” the breed skipper threatened, the -negro side of him dominant as he built for a compromise of -blackmail. “I said——”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Hold on, skipper!” Henry interrupted. “I’m sorry I -struck you. Hold your hush. Put a stopper on your jaw. -Saw wood. Forget. I’m sorry I struck you. I....” -Henry Morgan could not help the pause in speech during -which he swallowed his gorge rising at what he was about -to say. And it was because of Leoncia, and because she -was looking on and listening, that he said it. “I ... I -apologize, skipper.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is an injury,” Captain Trefethen stated aggrievedly. -“It is a physical damage. No man can perpetrate a -physical damage on a subject of King George’s, God bless -him, without furnishing a money requital.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>At this crass statement of the terms of the blackmail, -Henry was for forgetting himself and for leaping upon the -creature. But, restrained by Francis’ hand on his shoulder, -he struggled to self-control, made a noise like hearty laughter, -dipped into his pocket for two ten-dollar gold-pieces, -and, as if they stung him, thrust them into Captain Trefethen’s -palm.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Cheap at the price,” he could not help muttering aloud.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is a good price,” the skipper averred. “Twenty -gold is always a good price for a sore head. I am yours to -command, sir. You are a sure-enough gentleman. You -may hit me any time for the price.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Me, sir, me!” the Kingston black named Percival volunteered -with broad and prideless chucklings of subservience. -“Take a swat at me, sir, for the same price, any time, now. -And you may swat me as often as you please to pay....”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But the episode was destined to terminate at that instant, -for at that instant a sailor called from amidships:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Smoke! A steamer-smoke dead aft!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The passage of an hour determined the nature and import -of the smoke, for the <em>Angelique</em>, falling into a calm, was -overhauled with such rapidity that the tugboat <em>Dolores</em>, at -half a mile distance through the binoculars, was seen fairly -to bristle with armed men crowded on her tiny for’ard deck. -Both Henry and Francis could recognize the faces of the -Jefe Politico and of several of the gendarmes.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_75'>75</span>Old Enrico Solano’s nostrils began to dilate, as, with his -four sons who were aboard, he stationed them aft with him -and prepared for the battle. Leoncia, divided between -Henry and Francis, was secretly distracted, though outwardly -she joined in laughter at the unkemptness of the -little tug, and in glee at a flaw of wind that tilted the -<em>Angelique’s</em> port rail flush to the water and foamed her along -at a nine-knot clip.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But weather and wind were erratic. The face of the -lagoon was vexed with squalls and alternate streaks of calm.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“We cannot escape, sir, I regret to inform you,” Captain -Trefethen informed Francis. “If the wind would hold, sir, -yes. But the wind baffles and breaks. We are crowded -down upon the mainland. We are cornered, sir, and as good -as captured.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Henry, who had been studying the near shore through the -glasses, lowered them and looked at Francis.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Shout!” cried the latter. “You have a scheme. It’s -sticking out all over you. Name it.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Right there are the two <i><span lang="es" xml:lang="es">Tigres</span></i> islands,” Henry elucidated. -“They guard the narrow entrance to Juchitan Inlet, -which is called El Tigre. Oh, it has the teeth of a tiger, -believe me. On either side of them, between them and the -shore, it is too shoal to float a whaleboat unless you know -the winding channels, which I do know. But between them -is deep water, though the El Tigre Passage is so pinched that -there is no room to come about. A schooner can only run -it with the wind abaft or abeam. Now, the wind favors. -We will run it. Which is only half my scheme——”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And if the wind baffles or fails, sir—and the tide of the -inlet runs out and in like a race, as I well know—my beautiful -schooner will go on the rocks,” Captain Trefethen -protested.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“For which, if it happens, I will pay you full value,” -Francis assured him shortly and brushed him aside. “—And -now, Henry, what’s the other half of your scheme?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I’m ashamed to tell you,” Henry laughed. “But it -will be provocative of more Spanish swearing than has been -heard in Chiriqui Lagoon since old Sir Henry sacked San -Antonio and Bocas del Toro. You just watch.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Leoncia clapped her hands, as with sparkling eyes she -cried:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It must be good, Henry. I can see it by your face. -You must tell <em>me</em>.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_76'>76</span>And, aside, his arm around her to steady her on the -reeling deck, Henry whispered closely in her ear, while -Francis, to hide his perturbation at the sight of them, made -shift through the binoculars to study the faces on the pursuing -tug. Captain Trefethen grinned maliciously and exchanged -significant glances with the pale-yellow sailor.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Now, skipper,” said Henry, returning. “We’re just -opposite El Tigre. Put up your helm and run for the -passage. Also, and pronto, I want a coil of half-inch, old, -soft, manila rope, plenty of rope-yarns and sail twine, that -case of beer from the lazarette, that five-gallon kerosene can -that was emptied last night, and the coffee-pot from the -galley.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But I am distrained to remark to your attention that -that rope is worth good money, sir,” Captain Trefethen -complained, as Henry set to work on the heterogeneous gear.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You will be paid,” Francis hushed him.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And the coffee-pot—it is almost new.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You will be paid.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The skipper sighed and surrendered, although he sighed -again at Henry’s next act, which was to uncork the bottles -and begin emptying the beer out into the scuppers.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Please, sir,” begged Percival. “If you must empty -the beer please empty it into me.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>No further beer was wasted, and the crew swiftly laid the -empty bottles beside Henry. At intervals of six feet he -fastened the recorked bottles to the half-inch line. Also, he -cut off two-fathom lengths of the line and attached them like -streamers between the beer bottles. The coffee-pot and two -empty coffee tins were likewise added among the bottles. -To one end of the main-line he made fast the kerosene can, -to the other end the empty beer-case, and looked up to -Francis, who replied:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Oh, I got you five minutes ago. El Tigre must be -narrow, or else the tug will go around that stuff.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“El Tigre is just that narrow,” was the response. -“There’s one place where the channel isn’t forty feet -between the shoals. If the skipper misses our trap, he’ll go -around, aground. Say, they’ll be able to wade ashore from -the tug if that happens.—Come on, now, we’ll get the stuff -aft and ready to toss out. You take starboard and I’ll take -port, and when I give the word you shoot that beer case out -to the side as far as you can.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Though the wind eased down, the <em>Angelique</em>, square before -<span class='pageno' id='Page_77'>77</span>it, managed to make five knots, while the <em>Dolores</em>, doing six, -slowly overhauled her. As the rifles began to speak from the -<em>Dolores</em>, the skipper, under the direction of Henry and -Francis, built up on the schooner’s stern a low barricade of -sacks of potatoes and onions, of old sails, and of hawser -coils. Crouching low in the shelter of this, the helmsman, -managed to steer. Leoncia refused to go below as the firing -became more continuous, but compromised by lying down -behind the cabin-house. The rest of the sailors sought -similar shelter in nooks and corners, while the Solano men, -lying aft, returned the fire of the tug.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Henry and Francis, in their chosen positions and waiting -until the narrowness of El Tigre was reached, took a hand in -the free and easy battle.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“My congratulations, sir,” Captain Trefethen said to -Francis, the Indian of him compelling him to raise his head -to peer across the rail, the negro of him flattening his body -down until almost it seemed to bore into the deck. “That -was Captain Rosaro himself that was steering, and the way -he jumped and grabbed his hand would lead one to conclude -that you had very adequately put a bullet through it. That -Captain Rosaro is a very hot-tempered hombre, sir. I can -almost hear him blaspheming now.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Stand ready for the word, Francis,” Henry said, laying -down his rifle and carefully studying the low shores of the -islands of El Tigre on either side of them. “We’re almost -ready. Take your time when I give the word, and at -‘three’ let her go.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The tug was two hundred yards away and overtaking fast, -when Henry gave the word. He and Francis stood up, and -at “three” made their fling. To either side can and beer-case -flew, dragging behind them through the air the beaded -rope of pots and cans and bottles and rope-streamers.</p> - -<p class='c000'>In their interest, Henry and Francis remained standing in -order to watch the maw of their trap as denoted by the -spread of miscellaneous objects on the surface of their -troubled wake. A fusillade of rifle shots from the tug made -them drop back flat to the deck; but, peering over the rail, -they saw the tug’s forefoot press the floated rope down and -under. A minute later they saw the tug slow down to a -stop.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Some mess wrapped around that propeller,” Francis -applauded. “Henry, salute.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Now, if the wind holds ...” said Henry modestly.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_78'>78</span>The <em>Angelique</em> sailed on, leaving the motionless tug to grow -smaller in the distance, but not so small that they could not -see her drift helplessly onto the shoal, and see men going -over the side and wading about.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“We just must sing our little song,” Henry cried jubilantly, -starting up the stave of “Back to Back Against the -Mainmast.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Which is all very nice, sir,” Captain Trefethen interrupted -at the conclusion of the first chorus, his eyes glistening -and his shoulders still jiggling to the rhythm of the -song. “But the wind has ceased, sir. We are becalmed. -How are we to get out of Juchitan Inlet without wind? -The <em>Dolores</em> is not wrecked. She is merely delayed. Some -nigger will go down and clear her propeller, and then she has -us right where she wants us.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It’s not so far to shore,” Henry adjudged with a measuring -eye as he turned to Enrico.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“What kind of a shore have they got ashore here, Senor -Solano?” he queried. “Maya Indians and haciendados—which?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Haciendados and Mayas, both,” Enrico answered. -“But I know the country well. If the schooner is not safe, -we should be safe ashore. We can get horses and saddles -and beef and corn. The Cordilleras are beyond. What -more should we want?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But Leoncia?” Francis asked solicitously.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Was born in the saddle, and in the saddle there are few -Americanos she would not weary,” came Enrico’s answer. -“It would be well, with your acquiescence, to swing out the -long boat in case the <em>Dolores</em> appears upon us.”</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_79'>79</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER VIII</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c006'>“It’s all right, skipper, it’s all right,” Henry assured the breed -captain, who, standing on the beach with them, seemed loath -to say farewell and pull back to the <em>Angelique</em> adrift half a -mile away in the dead calm which had fallen on Juchitan -Inlet.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is what we call a diversion,” Francis explained. -“That is a nice word—<em>diversion</em>. And it is even nicer when -you see it work.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But if it don’t work,” Captain Trefethen protested, -“then will it spell a confounded word, which I may name as -<em>catastrophe</em>.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“That is what happened to the <em>Dolores</em> when we tangled -her propeller,” Henry laughed. “But we do not know the -meaning of that word. We use <em>diversion</em> instead. The -proof that it will work is that we are leaving Senor Solano’s -two sons with you. Alvarado and Martinez know the passages -like a book. They will pilot you out with the first -favoring breeze. The Jefe is not interested in you. He is -after us, and when we take to the hills he’ll be on our trail -with every last man of his.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Don’t you see!” Francis broke in. “The <em>Angelique</em> is -trapped. If we remain on board he will capture us and the -<em>Angelique</em> as well. But we make the diversion of taking to -the hills. He pursues us. The <em>Angelique</em> goes free. And -of course he won’t catch us.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But suppose I do lose the schooner!” the swarthy -skipper persisted. “If she goes on the rocks I will lose her, -and the passages are very perilous.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Then you will be paid for her, as I’ve told you before,” -Francis said, with a show of rising irritation.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Also are there my numerous expenses——”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Francis pulled out a pad and pencil, scribbled a note, and -passed it over, saying:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Present that to Senor Melchor Gonzales at Bocas del -<span class='pageno' id='Page_80'>80</span>Toro. It is for a thousand gold. He is the banker; he is -my agent, and he will pay it to you.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Captain Trefethen stared incredulously at the scrawled bit -of paper.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Oh, he’s good for it,” Henry said.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Yes, sir, I know, sir, that Mr. Francis Morgan is a -wealthy gentleman of renown. But how wealthy is he? Is -he as wealthy as I modestly am? I own the <em>Angelique</em>, free -of all debt. I own two town lots, unimproved, in Colon. -And I own four water-front lots in Belen that will make me -very wealthy when the Union Fruit Company begins the -building of the warehouses——”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“How much, Francis, did your father leave you?” Henry -quipped teasingly. “Or, rather, how many?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Francis shrugged his shoulders as he answered vaguely: -“More than I have fingers and toes.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Dollars, sir?” queried the captain.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Henry shook his head sharply.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Thousands, sir?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Again Henry shook his head.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Millions, sir?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Now you’re talking,” Henry answered. “Mr. Francis -Morgan is rich enough to buy almost all of the Republic of -Panama, with the Canal cut out of the deal.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The negro-Indian mariner looked his unbelief to Enrico -Solano, who replied:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“He is an honorable gentleman. I know. I have cashed -his paper, drawn on Senor Melchor Gonzales at Bocas del -Toro, for a thousand pesos. There it is in the bag there.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>He nodded his head up the beach to where Leoncia, in -the midst of the dunnage landed with them, was toying with -trying to slip cartridges into a Winchester rifle. The bag, -which the skipper had long since noted, lay at her feet in -the sand.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I do hate to travel strapped,” Francis explained embarrassedly -to the white men of the group. “One never -knows when a dollar mayn’t come in handy. I got caught -with a broken machine at Smith River Comers, up New York -way, one night, with nothing but a check book, and, d’you -know, I couldn’t get even a cigarette in the town.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I trusted a white gentleman in Barbadoes once, who -chartered my boat to go fishing flying fish——” the captain -began.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Well, so long, skipper,” Henry shut him off. “You’d -<span class='pageno' id='Page_81'>81</span>better be getting on board, because we’re going to hike.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And for Captain Trefethen, staring at the backs of his -departing passengers, remained naught but to obey. Helping -to shove the boat off, he climbed in, took the steering sweep, -and directed his course toward the <em>Angelique</em>. Glancing back -from time to time, he saw the party on the beach shoulder -the baggage and disappear into the dense green wall of -vegetation.</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c000'>They came out upon an inchoate clearing, and saw gangs -of peons at work chopping down and grubbing out the roots -of the virgin tropic forest so that rubber trees for the -manufacture of automobile tires might be planted to replace -it. Leoncia, beside her father, walked in the lead. Her -brothers, Ricardo and Alesandro, in the middle, were burdened -with the dunnage, as were Francis and Henry, who -brought up the rear. And this strange procession was met -by a slender, straight-backed, hidalgo-appearing, elderly -gentleman, who leaped his horse across tree-trunks and -stump-holes in order to gain to them.</p> - -<p class='c000'>He was off his horse, at sight of Enrico, sombrero in hand -in recognition of Leoncia, his hand extended to Enrico in -greeting of ancient friendship, his lips wording words and his -eyes expressing admiration to Enrico’s daughter.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The talk was in rapid-fire Spanish, and the request for -horses preferred and qualifiedly granted, ere the introduction -of the two Morgans took place. The haciendado’s horse, -after the Latin fashion, was immediately Leoncia’s, and, -without ado, he shortened the stirrups and placed her astride -in the saddle. A murrain, he explained, had swept his -plantation of riding animals; but his chief overseer still -possessed a fair-conditioned one which was Enrico’s as soon -as it could be procured.</p> - -<p class='c000'>His handshake to Henry and Francis was hearty as well -as dignified, as he took two full minutes ornately to state that -any friend of his dear friend Enrico was his friend. When -Enrico asked the haciendado about the trails up toward the -Cordilleras and mentioned oil, Francis pricked up his ears.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Don’t tell me, Senor,” he began, “that they have -located oil in Panama?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“They have,” the haciendado nodded gravely. “We -knew of the oil ooze, and had known of it for generations. -But it was the Hermosillo Company that sent its Gringo -engineers in secretly and then bought up the land. They -<span class='pageno' id='Page_82'>82</span>say it is a great field. But I know nothing of oil myself. -They have many wells, and have bored much, and so much -oil have they that it is running away over the landscape. -They say they cannot choke it entirely down, such is the -volume and pressure. What they need is the pipe-line to -ocean-carriage, which they have begun to build. In the -meantime it flows away down the canyons, an utter loss of -incredible proportion.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Have they built any tanks?” Francis demanded, his -mind running eagerly on Tampico Petroleum, to which most -of his own fortune was pledged, and of which, despite the -rising stock-market, he had heard nothing since his departure -from New York.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The haciendado shook his head.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Transportation,” he explained. “The freight from -tide-water to the gushers by mule-back has been prohibitive. -But they have impounded much of it. They have lakes of -oil, great reservoirs in the hollows of the hills, earthen-dammed, -and still they cannot choke down the flow, and -still the precious substance flows down the canyons.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Have they roofed these reservoirs?” Francis inquired, -remembering a disastrous fire in the early days of Tampico -Petroleum.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“No, Senor.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Francis shook his head disapprovingly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“They should be roofed,” he said. “A match from the -drunken or revengeful hand of any peon could set the whole -works off. It’s poor business, poor business.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But I am not the Hermosillo,” the haciendado said.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“For the Hermosillo Company, I meant, Senor,” Francis -explained. “I am an oil-man. I have paid through the -nose to the tune of hundreds of thousands for similar accidents -or crimes. One never knows just how they happen. -What one does know is that they do happen——”</p> - -<p class='c000'>What more Francis might have said about the expediency -of protecting oil reservoirs from stupid or wilful peons, was -never to be known; for, at the moment, the chief overseer -of the plantation, stick in hand, rode up, half his interest -devoted to the newcomers, the other half to the squad of -peons working close at hand.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Senor Ramirez, will you favor me by dismounting,” his -employer, the haciendado, politely addressed him, at the -same time introducing him to the strangers as soon as he -had dismounted.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_83'>83</span>“The animal is yours, friend Enrico,” the haciendado -said. “If it dies, please return at your easy convenience -the saddle and gear. And if your convenience be not easy, -please do not remember that there is to be any return, save -ever and always, of your love for me. I regret that you and -your party cannot now partake of my hospitality. But the -Jefe is a bloodhound, I know. We shall do our best to send -him astray.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>With Leoncia and Enrico mounted, and the gear made -fast to the saddles by leather thongs, the cavalcade started, -Alesandro and Ricardo clinging each to a stirrup of their -father’s saddle and trotting alongside. This was for making -greater haste, and was emulated by Francis and Henry, who -clung to Leoncia’s stirrups. Fast to the pommel of her -saddle was the bag of silver dollars.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is some mistake,” the haciendado was explaining to -his overseer. “Enrico Solano is an honorable man. Anything -to which he pledges himself is honorable. He has -pledged himself to this, whatever it may be, and yet is -Mariano Vercara é Hijos on their trail. We shall mislead -him if he comes this way.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And here he comes,” the overseer remarked, “without -luck so far in finding horses.” Casually he turned on the -laboring peons and with horrible threats urged them to do -at least half a day’s decent work in a day.</p> - -<p class='c000'>From the corner of his eye, the haciendado observed the -fast-walking group of men, with Alvarez Torres in the lead; -but, as if he had not noticed, he conferred with his overseer -about the means of grubbing out the particular stump the -peons were working on.</p> - -<p class='c000'>He returned the greeting of Torres pleasantly, and inquired -politely, with a touch of devilry, if he led the party -of men on some oil-prospecting adventure.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“No, Senor,” Torres answered. “We are in search of -Senor Enrico Solano, his daughter, his sons, and two tall -Gringos with them. It is the Gringos we want. They have -passed this way, Senor?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Yes, they have passed. I imagined they, too, were -in some oil excitement, such was their haste that prevented -them from courteously passing the time of day and stating -their destination. Have they committed some offence? -But I should not ask. Senor Enrico Solano is too honorable -a man——”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Which way did they go?” the Jefe demanded, thrusting -<span class='pageno' id='Page_84'>84</span>himself breathlessly forward from the rear of his gendarmes -with whom he had just caught up.</p> - -<p class='c000'>And while the haciendado and his overseer temporized -and prevaricated, and indicated an entirely different direction, -Torres noted one of the peons, leaning on his spade, -listen intently. And still while the Jefe was being misled -and was giving orders to proceed on the false scent, Torres -flashed a silver dollar privily to the listening peon. The -peon nodded his head in the right direction, caught the coin -unobserved, and applied himself to his digging at the root -of the huge stump.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Torres countermanded the Jefe’s order.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“We will go the other way,” Torres said, with a wink -to the Jefe. “A little bird has told me that our friend -here is mistaken and that they have gone the other way.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>As the posse departed on the hot trail, the haciendado -and his overseer looked at each other in consternation and -amazement. The overseer made a movement of his lips -for silence, and looked swiftly at the group of laborers. -The offending peon was working furiously and absorbedly, -but another peon, with a barely perceptible nod of head, -indicated him to the overseer.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“There’s the little bird,” the overseer cried, striding -to the traitor and shaking him violently.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Out of the peon’s rags flew the silver dollar.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Ah, ha,” said the haciendado, grasping the situation. -“He has become suddenly affluent. This is horrible, that -my peons should be wealthy. Doubtless, he has murdered -some one for all that sum. Beat him, and make him confess.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The creature, on his knees, the stick of the overseer -raining blows on his head and back, made confession of -what he had done to earn the dollar.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Beat him, beat him some more, beat him to death, -the beast who betrayed my dearest friends,” the haciendado -urged placidly. “But no——caution. Do not beat him to -death, but nearly so. We are short of labor now and -cannot afford the full measure of our just resentment. -Beat him to hurt him much, but that he shall be compelled -to lay off work no more than a couple of days.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Of the immediately subsequent agonies, adventures, and -misadventures of the peon, a volume might be written -which would be the epic of his life. Besides, to be beaten -nearly to death is not nice to contemplate or dwell upon. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_85'>85</span>Let it suffice to tell that when he had received no more -than part of his beating; he wrenched free, leaving half his -rags in the overseer’s grasp, and fled madly for the jungle, -outfooting the overseer who was unused to rapid locomotion -save when on a horse’s back.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Such was the speed of the wretched creature’s flight, -spurred on by the pain of his lacerations and the fear of -the overseer, that, plunging wildly on, he overtook the -Solano party and plunged out of the jungle and into them -as they were crossing a shallow stream, and fell upon his -knees, whimpering for mercy. He whimpered because of -his betrayal of them. But this they did not know, and -Francis, seeing his pitiable condition, lingered behind long -enough to unscrew the metal top from a pocket flask and -revive him with a drink of half the contents. Then Francis -hastened on, leaving the poor devil muttering inarticulate -thanks ere he dived off into the sheltering jungle in a -different direction. But, underfed, overworked, his body -gave way, and he sank down in collapse in the green covert.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Next, Alvarez Torres in the lead and tracking like a -hound, the gendarmes at his back, the Jefe panting in the -rear from shortness of breath, the pursuit arrived at the -stream. The foot-marks of the peon, still wet on the dry -stones beyond the margin of the stream, caught Torres’ -eye. In a trice, by what little was left of his garments, -the peon was dragged out. On his knees, which portion -of his anatomy he was destined to occupy much this day, -he begged for mercy and received his interrogation. And -he denied knowledge of the Solano party. He, who had -betrayed and been beaten, but who had received only -succor from those he had betrayed, felt stir in him some -atom of gratitude and good. He denied knowledge of the -Solanos since in the clearing where he had sold them for -the silver dollar. Torres’ stick fell upon his head, five -times, ten times, and went on falling with the certitude -that in all eternity there would be no cessation unless he -told the truth. And, after all, he was a miserable and -wretched thing, spirit-broken by beatings from the cradle, -and the sting of Torres’ stick, with the threat of the plenitude -of the stick that meant the death his own owner, the -haciendado, could not afford, made him give in and point -the way of the chase.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But his day of tribulation had only begun. Scarcely -had he betrayed the Solanos the second time, and still on -<span class='pageno' id='Page_86'>86</span>his knees, when the haciendado, with the posse of neighboring -haciendados and overseers he had called to his help, -burst upon the scene astride sweating horses.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“My peon, senors,” announced the haciendado, itching -to be at him. “You maltreat him.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And why not?” demanded the Jefe.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Because he is mine to maltreat, and I wish to do it -myself.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The peon crawled and squirmed to the Jefe’s feet and -begged and entreated not to be given up. But he begged -for mercy where was no mercy.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Certainly, senor,” the Jefe said to the haciendado. -“We give him back to you. We must uphold the law, -and he is your property. Besides, we have no further use -for him. Yet is he a most excellent peon, senor. He -has done what no peon has ever done in the history of -Panama. He has told the truth twice in one day.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>His hands tied together in front of him and hitched -by a rope to the horn of the overseer’s saddle, the peon -was towed away on the back-track with a certain apprehension -that the worst of his beatings for that day was -very imminent. Nor was he mistaken. Back at the plantation, -he was tied like an animal to a post of a barbed wire -fence, while his owner and the friends of his owner who -had helped in the capture went into the hacienda to take -their twelve o’clock breakfast. After that, he knew what -he was to receive. But the barbed wire of the fence, and -the lame mare in the paddock behind it, built an idea -in the desperate mind of the peon. Though the sharp barbs -of the wire again and again cut his wrist, he quickly sawed -through his bonds, free save for the law, crawled under the -fence, led the lame mare through the gate, mounted her -barebacked, and, with naked heels tattooing her ribs, galloped -her away toward the safety of the Cordilleras.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_87'>87</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER IX</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c006'>In the meantime the Solanos were being overtaken, and -Henry teased Francis with:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Here in the jungle is where dollars are worthless. They -can buy neither fresh horses, nor can they repair these two -spineless creatures, which must likewise be afflicted with -the murrain that carried off the rest of the haciendado’s -riding animals.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I’ve never been in a place yet where money wouldn’t -work,” Francis replied.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I suppose it could even buy a drink of water in hell,” -was Henry’s retort.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Leoncia clapped her hands.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I don’t know,” Francis observed. “I have never been -there.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Again Leoncia clapped her hands.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Just the same I have an idea I can make dollars work -in the jungle, and I am going to try it right now,” Francis -continued, at the same time untying the coin-sack from -Leoncia’s pommel. “You go ahead and ride on.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But you must tell <em>me</em>,” Leoncia insisted; and, aside, -in her ear as she leaned to him from the saddle, he whispered -what made her laugh again, while Henry, conferring -with Enrico and his sons, inwardly berated himself for -being a jealous fool.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Before they were out of sight, looking back, they saw -Francis, with pad and pencil out, writing something. What -he wrote was eloquently brief, merely the figure “50.” -Tearing off the sheet, he laid it conspicuously in the middle -of the trail and weighted it down with a silver dollar. -Counting out forty-nine other dollars from the bag, he -sowed them very immediately about the first one and ran -up the trail after his party.</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c000'>Augustino, the gendarme who rarely spoke when he was -<span class='pageno' id='Page_88'>88</span>sober, but who when drunk preached volubly the wisdom -of silence, was in the lead, with bent head nosing the track -of the quarry, when his keen eyes lighted on the silver -dollar holding down the sheet of paper. The first he -appropriated; the second he turned over to the Jefe. Torres -looked over his shoulder, and together they read the mystic -“50.” The Jefe tossed the scrap of paper aside as of -little worth, and was for resuming the chase, but Augustino -picked up and pondered the “50” thoughtfully. Even as -he pondered it, a shout from Rafael advertised the finding -of another dollar. Then Augustino knew. There were fifty -of the coins to be had for the picking up. Flinging the note -to the wind, he was on hands and knees overhauling the -ground. The rest of the party joined in the scramble, -while Torres and the Jefe screamed curses on them in a -vain effort to make them proceed.</p> - -<p class='c000'>When the gendarmes could find no more, they counted -up what they had recovered. The toll came to forty-seven.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“There are three more,” cried Rafael, whereupon all -flung themselves into the search again. Five minutes more -were lost, ere the three other coins were found. Each -pocketed what he had retrieved and obediently swung into -the pursuit at the heels of Torres and the Jefe.</p> - -<p class='c000'>A mile farther on, Torres tried to trample a shining -dollar into the dirt, but Augustino’s ferret eyes had been -too quick, and his eager fingers dug it out of the soft earth. -Where was one dollar, as they had already learned, there -were more dollars. The posse came to a halt, and while -the two leaders fumed and imprecated, the rest of the -members cast about right and left from the trail.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Vicente, a moon-faced gendarme, who looked more like -a Mexican Indian than a Maya or a Panamanian “breed,” -lighted first on the clue. All gathered about, like hounds -around a tree into which the ‘possum has been run. In -truth, it was a tree, or a rotten and hollow stump of one, -a dozen feet in height and a third as many feet in diameter. -Five feet from the ground was an opening. Above the -opening, pinned on by a thorn, was a sheet of paper the -same size as the first they had found. On it was written -“100.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>In the scramble that ensued, half a dozen minutes were -lost as half a dozen right arms strove to be first in dipping -into the hollow heart of the stump to the treasure. But -the hollow extended deeper than their arms were long.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_89'>89</span>“We will chop down the stump,” Rafael cried, sounding -with the back of his machete against the side of it to -locate the base of the hollow. “We will all chop, and we -will count what we find inside and divide equally.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>By this time their leaders were frantic, and the Jefe had -begun threatening, the moment they were back in San -Antonio, to send them to San Juan where their carcasses -would be picked by the buzzards.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But we are not back in San Antonio, thank God,” said -Augustino, breaking his sober seal of silence in order to -enunciate wisdom.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“We are poor men, and we will divide in fairness,” -spoke up Rafael. “Augustino is right, and thank God for -it that we are not back in San Antonio. This rich Gringo -scatters more money along the way in a day for us to pick -up than could we earn in a year where we come from. I, -for one, am for revolution, where money is so plentiful.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“With the rich Gringo for a leader,” Augustino supplemented. -“For as long as he leads this way could I follow -forever.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“If,” Rafael nodded agreement, with a pitch of his -head toward Torres and the Jefe, “if they do not give us -opportunity to gather what the gods have spread for us, -then to the last and deepest of the roasting hells of hell -for them. We are men, not slaves. The world is wide. -The Cordilleras are just beyond. We will all be rich, and -free men, and live in the Cordilleras where the Indian -maidens are wildly beautiful and desirable——”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And we will be well rid of our wives, back in San -Antonio,” said Vicente. “Let us now chop down this -treasure tree.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Swinging their machetes with heavy, hacking blows, the -wood, so rotten that it was spongy, gave way readily before -their blades. And when the stump fell over, they counted -and divided, in equity, not one hundred silver dollars, but -one hundred and forty-seven.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“He is generous, this Gringo,” quoth Vicente. “He -leaves more than he says. May there not be still more?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And, from the debris of rotten wood, much of it crumbled -to powder under their blows, they recovered five more coins, -in the doing of which they lost ten more minutes that drove -Torres and Jefe to the verge of madness.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“He does not stop to count, the wealthy Gringo,” said -Rafael. “He must merely open that sack and pour it -<span class='pageno' id='Page_90'>90</span>out. And that is the sack with which he rode to the beach -of San Antonio when he blew up with dynamite the wall -of our jail.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The chase was resumed, and all went well for half an -hour, when they came upon an abandoned freehold, already -half-overrun with the returning jungle. A dilapidated, straw-thatched -house, a fallen-in labor barracks, a broken-down -corral the very posts of which had sprouted and leaved into -growing trees, and a well showing recent use by virtue of -a fresh length of riata attaching bucket to well-sweep, -showed where some man had failed to tame the wild. And, -conspicuously on the well-sweep, was pinned a familiar sheet -of paper on which was written “300.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Mother of God!—a fortune!” cried Rafael.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“May the devil forever torture him in the last and -deepest hell!” was Torres’ contribution.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“He pays better than your Senor Regan,” the Jefe -sneered in his despair and disgust.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“His bag of silver is only so large,” Torres retorted. -“It seems we must pick it all up before we catch him. -But when we have picked it all up, and his bag is empty, -then will we catch him.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“We will go on now, comrades,” the Jefe addressed his -posse ingratiatingly. “Afterwards, we will return at our -leisure and recover the silver.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Augustino broke his seal of silence again.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“One never knows the way of one’s return, if one ever -returns,” he enunciated pessimistically. Elated by the pearl -of wisdom he had dropped, he essayed another. “Three -hundred in hand is better than three million in the bottom -of a well we may never see again.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Some one must descend into the well,” spoke Rafael, -testing the braided rope with his weight. “See! The riata -is strong. We will lower a man by it. Who is the brave -one who will go down?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I,” said Vicente. “I will be the brave one to go -down——”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And steal half that you find,” Rafael uttered his -instant suspicion. “If you go down, first must you count -over to us the pesos you already possess. Then, when you -come up, we can search you for all you have found. After -that, when we have divided equitably, will your other pesos -be returned to you.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Then will I not go down for comrades who have no -<span class='pageno' id='Page_91'>91</span>trust in me,” Vicente said stubbornly. “Here, beside the -well, I am as wealthy as any of you. Then why should I -go down? I have heard of men dying in the bottom of -wells.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“In God’s name go down!” stormed the Jefe. “Haste! -Haste!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I am too fat, the rope is not strong, and I shall not go -down,” said Vicente.</p> - -<p class='c000'>All looked to Augustino, the silent one, who had already -spoken more than he was accustomed to speak in a week.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Guillermo is the thinnest and lightest,” said Augustino.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Guillermo will go down!” the rest chorused.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But Guillermo, glaring apprehensively at the mouth of -the well, backed away, shaking his head and crossing himself.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Not for the sacred treasure in the secret city of the -Mayas,” he muttered.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The Jefe pulled his revolver and glanced to the remainder -of the posse for confirmation. With eyes and head-nods -they gave it.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“In heaven’s name go down,” he threatened the little -gendarme. “And make haste, or I shall put you in such a -fix that never again will you go up or down, but you will -remain here and rot forever beside this hole of perdition.—Is -it well, comrades, that I kill him if he does not go down?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is well,” they shouted.</p> - -<p class='c000'>And Guillermo, with trembling fingers, counted out the -coins he had already retrieved, and, in the throes of fear, -crossing himself repeatedly and urged on by the hand-thrusts -of his companions, stepped upon the bucket, sat -down on it with legs wrapped about it, and was lowered -away out of the light of day.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Stop!” he screamed up the shaft. “Stop! Stop! -The water! I am upon it!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Those on the sweep held it with their weight.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I should receive ten pesos extra above my share,” he -called up.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You shall receive baptism,” was called down to him, -and, variously: “You will have your fill of water this day”; -“We will let go”; “We will cut the rope”; “There will -be one less with whom to share.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The water is not nice,” he replied, his voice rising like -a ghost’s out of the dark depth. “There are sick lizards, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_92'>92</span>and a dead bird that stinks. And there may be snakes. It -is well worth ten pesos extra what I must do.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“We will drown you!” Rafael shouted.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I shall shoot down upon you and kill you!” the Jefe -bullied.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Shoot or drown me,” Guillermo’s voice floated up; -“but it will buy you nothing, for the treasure will still be -in the well.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>There was a pause, in which those at the surface questioned -each other with their eyes as to what they should do.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And the Gringos are running away farther and farther,” -Torres fumed. “A fine discipline you have, Senor Mariano -Vercara è Hijos, over your gendarmes!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“This is not San Antonio,” the Jefe flared back. “This -is the bush of Juchitan. My dogs are good dogs in San -Antonio. In the bush they must be handled gently, else -may they become wild dogs, and what then will happen to -you and me?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is the curse of gold,” Torres surrendered sadly. “It -is almost enough to make one become a socialist, with a -Gringo thus tying the hands of justice with ropes of gold.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Of silver,” the Jefe corrected.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You go to hell,” said Torres. “As you have pointed -out, this is not San Antonio but the bush of Juchitan, and -here I may well tell you to go to hell. Why should you and -I quarrel because of your bad temper, when our prosperity -depends on standing together?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Besides,” the voice of Guillermo drifted up, “the water -is not two feet deep. You cannot drown me in it. I have -just felt the bottom and I have four round silver pesos in -my hand right now. The bottom is carpeted with pesos. -Do you want to let go? Or do I get ten pesos extra for the -filthy job? The water stinks like a fresh graveyard.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Yes! Yes!” they shouted down.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Which? Let go? Or the extra ten?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The extra ten!” they chorused.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“In God’s name, haste! haste!” cried the Jefe.</p> - -<p class='c000'>They heard splashings and curses from the bottom of the -well, and, from the lightening of the strain on the riata, -knew that Guillermo had left the bucket and was floundering -for the coin.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Put it in the bucket, good Guillermo,” Rafael called -down.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I am putting it in my pockets,” up came the reply. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_93'>93</span>“Did I put it in the bucket you might haul it up first and -well forget to haul me up afterward.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The double weight might break the riata,” Rafael -cautioned.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The riata may not be so strong as my will, for my will -in this matter is most strong,” said Guillermo.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“If the riata should break ...” Rafael began again.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I have a solution,” said Guillermo. “Do you come -down. Then shall I go up first. Second, the treasure shall -go up in the bucket. And, third and last, shall you go up. -Thus will justice be triumphant.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Rafael, with dropped jaw of dismay, did not reply.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Are you coming, Rafael?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“No,” he answered. “Put all the silver in your pockets -and come up together with it.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I could curse the race that bore me,” was the impatient -observation of the Jefe.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I have already cursed it,” said Torres.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Haul away!” shouted Guillermo. “I have everything -in my pockets save the stench; and I am suffocating. Haul -quick, or I shall perish, and the three hundred pesos will -perish with me. And there are more than three hundred. -He must have emptied his bag.”</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c000'>Ahead, on the trail, where the way grew steep and the -horses without stamina rested and panted, Francis overtook -his party.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Never again shall I travel without minted coin of the -realm,” he exulted, as he described what he had remained -behind to see from the edge of the deserted plantation. -“Henry, when I die and go to heaven, I shall have a stout -bag of cash along with me. Even there could it redeem me -from heaven alone knows what scrapes. Listen! They -fought like cats and dogs about the mouth of the well. -Nobody would trust anybody to descend into the well unless -he deposited what he had previously picked up with those -that remained at the top. They were out of hand. The -Jefe, at the point of his gun, had to force the littlest and -leanest of them to go down. And when he was down he -blackmailed them before he would come up. And when he -came up they broke their promises and gave him a beating. -They were still beating him when I left.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But now your sack is empty,” said Henry.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Which is our present and most pressing trouble,” -<span class='pageno' id='Page_94'>94</span>Francis agreed. “Had I sufficient pesos I could keep the -pursuit well behind us forever. I’m afraid I was too -generous. I did not know how cheap the poor devils were. -But I’ll tell you something that will make your hair stand -up. Torres, Senor Torres, Senor Alvarez Torres, the elegant -gentleman and old-time friend of you Solanos, is leading -the pursuit along with the Jefe. He is furious at the delay. -They almost had a rupture because the Jefe couldn’t keep -his men in hand. Yes, sir, and he told the Jefe to go to -hell. I distinctly heard him tell the Jefe to go to hell.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Five miles farther on, the horses of Leoncia and her father -in collapse, where the trail plunged into and ascended a dark -ravine, Francis urged the others on and dropped behind. -Giving them a few minutes’ start, he followed on behind, a -self-constituted rearguard. Part way along, in an open -space where grew only a thick sod of grass, he was dismayed -to find the hoof-prints of the two horses staring at him as -large as dinner plates from out of the sod. Into the hoof-prints -had welled a dark, slimy fluid that his eye told him -was crude oil. This was but the beginning, a sort of seepage -from a side stream above off from the main flow. A hundred -yards beyond he came upon the flow itself, a river of -oil that on such a slope would have been a cataract had it -been water. But being crude oil, as thick as molasses, it -oozed slowly down the hill like so much molasses. And -here, preferring to make his stand rather than to wade -through the sticky mess, Francis sat down on a rock, laid -his rifle on one side of him, his automatic pistol on the other -side, rolled a cigarette, and kept his ears pricked for the first -sounds of the pursuit.</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c000'>And the beaten peon, threatened with more beatings and -belaboring his over-ridden mare, rode across the top of the -ravine above Francis, and, at the oil-well itself, had his -exhausted animal collapse under him. With his heels he -kicked her back to her feet, and with a stick belabored her -to stagger away from him and on and into the jungle. And -the first day of his adventures, although he did not know it, -was not yet over. He, too, squatted on a stone, his feet out -of the oil, rolled a cigarette, and, as he smoked it, contemplated -the flowing oil-well. The noise of approaching -men startled him, and he fled into the immediately adjacent -jungle, from which he peered forth and saw two strange men -<span class='pageno' id='Page_95'>95</span>appear. They came directly to the well, and, by an iron -wheel turning the valve, choked down the flow still further.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“No more,” commanded the one who seemed to be -leader. “Another turn, and the pressure will blow out the -pipes—for so the Gringo engineer has warned me most -carefully.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And a slight flow, beyond the limited safety, continued to -run from the mouth of the gusher down the mountain side. -Scarcely had the two men accomplished this, when a body -of horsemen rode up, whom the peon in hiding recognized as -the haciendado who owned him and the overseers and -haciendados of neighboring plantations who delighted in -running down a fugitive laborer in much the same way that -the English delight in chasing the fox.</p> - -<p class='c000'>No, the two oil-men had seen nobody. But the haciendado -who led saw the footprints of the mare, and spurred -his horse to follow, his crowd at his heels.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The peon waited, smoked his cigarette quite to the finish, -and cogitated. When all was clear, he ventured forth, -turned the mechanism controlling the well wide open, -watched the oil fountaining upward under the subterranean -pressure and flowing down the mountain in a veritable river. -Also, he listened to and noted the sobbing, and gasping, and -bubbling of the escaping gas. This he did not comprehend, -and all that saved him for his further adventures was the -fact that he had used his last match to light his cigarette. -In vain he searched his rags, his ears, and his hair. He was -out of matches.</p> - -<p class='c000'>So, chuckling at the river of oil he was wantonly running -to waste, and, remembering the canyon trail below, he -plunged down the mountainside and upon Francis, who -received him with extended automatic. Down went the -peon on his frayed and frazzled knees in terror and supplication -to the man he had twice betrayed that day. Francis -studied him, at first without recognition, because of the -bruised and lacerated face and head on which the blood had -dried like a mask.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Amigo, amigo,” chattered the peon.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But at that moment, from below on the ravine trail, -Francis heard the clatter of a stone dislodged by some man’s -foot. The next moment he identified what was left of the -peon as the pitiable creature to whom he had given half the -contents of his whiskey flask.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_96'>96</span>“Well, amigo,” Francis said in the native language, “it -looks as if they are after you.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“They will kill me, they will beat me to death, they are -very angry,” the wretch quavered. “You are my only -friend, my father and my mother, save me.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Can you shoot?” Francis demanded.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I was a hunter in the Cordilleras before I was sold into -slavery, Senor,” was the reply.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Francis passed him the automatic, motioned him to take -shelter, and told him not to fire until sure of a hit. And to -himself he mused: The golfers are out on the links right -now at Tarrytown. And Mrs. Bellingham is on the clubhouse -veranda wondering how she is going to pay the three -thousand points she’s behind and praying for a change of -luck. And——here am I,—Lord! Lord——backed up to -a river of oil....</p> - -<p class='c000'>His musing ceased as abruptly as appeared the Jefe, -Torres, and the gendarmes down the trail. As abruptly he -fired his rifle, and as abruptly they fell back out of sight. -He could not tell whether he had hit one, or whether the -man had merely fallen in precipitate retreat. The pursuers -did not care to make a rush of it, contenting themselves -with bushwhacking. Francis and the peon did the same, -sheltering behind rocks and bushes and frequently changing -their positions.</p> - -<p class='c000'>At the end of an hour, the last cartridge in Francis’ rifle -was all that remained. The peon, under his warnings and -threats, still retained two cartridges in the automatic. But -the hour had been an hour saved for Leoncia and her people, -and Francis was contentedly aware that at any moment he -could turn and escape by wading across the river of oil. So -all was well, and would have been well, had not, from above, -come an eruption of another body of men, who, from behind -trees, fired as they descended. This was the haciendado and -his fellow haciendados, in chase of the fugitive peon—although -Francis did not know it. His conclusion was that -it was another posse that was after him. The shots they -fired at him were strongly confirmative.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The peon crawled to his side, showed him that two shots -remained in the automatic he was returning to him, and -impressively begged from him his box of matches. Next, -the peon motioned him to cross the bottom of the canyon -and climb the other side. With half a guess of the creature’s -intention, Francis complied, from his new position of vantage -<span class='pageno' id='Page_97'>97</span>emptying his last rifle cartridge at the advancing posse and -sending it back into shelter down the ravine.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The next moment, the river of oil flared into flame from -where the peon had touched a match to it. In the following -moment, clear up the mountainside, the well itself sent a -fountain of ignited gas a hundred feet into the air. And, in -the moment after, the ravine itself poured a torrent of flame -down upon the posse of Torres and the Jefe.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Scorched by the heat of the conflagration, Francis and -the peon clawed up the opposite side of the ravine, circled -around and past the blazing trail, and, at a dog-trot, raced -up the recovered trail.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_98'>98</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER X</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c006'>While Francis and the peon hurried up the ravine-trail in -safety, the ravine itself, below where the oil flowed in, had -become a river of flame, which drove the Jefe, Torres, and -the gendarmes to scale the steep wall of the ravine. At the -same time the party of haciendados in pursuit of the peon -was compelled to claw back and up to escape out of the -roaring canyon.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Ever the peon glanced back over his shoulder, until, with -a cry of joy, he indicated a second black-smoke pillar rising -in the air beyond the first burning well.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“More,” he chuckled. “There are more wells. They -will all burn. And so shall they and all their race pay for -the many blows they have beaten on me. And there is a -lake of oil there, like the sea, like Juchitan Inlet it is so big.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And Francis recollected the lake of oil about which the -haciendado had told him—that, containing at least five million -barrels which could not yet be piped to sea transport, -lay open to the sky, merely in a natural depression in the -ground and contained by an earth dam.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“How much are you worth?” he demanded of the peon -with apparent irrelevance.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But the peon could not understand.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“How much are your clothes worth—all you’ve got on?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Half a peso, nay, half of a half peso,” the peon admitted -ruefully, surveying what was left of his tattered rags.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And other property?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The wretched creature shrugged his shoulders in token -of his utter destitution, then added bitterly:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I possess nothing but a debt. I owe two hundred and -fifty pesos. I am tied to it for life, damned with it for life -like a man with a cancer. That is why I am a slave to the -haciendado.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Huh!” Francis could not forbear to grin. “Worth two -hundred and fifty pesos less than nothing, not even a cipher, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_99'>99</span>a sheer abstraction of a minus quantity without existence -save in the mathematical imagination of man, and yet here -you are burning up not less than millions of pesos’ worth of -oil. And if the strata is loose and erratic and the oil leaks -up outside the tubing, the chances are that the oil-body of -the entire field is ignited—say a billion dollars’ worth. Say, -for an abstraction enjoying two hundred and fifty dollars’ -worth of non-existence, you are some hombre, believe me.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Nothing of which the peon understood save the word -“hombre.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I am a man,” he proclaimed, thrusting out his chest -and straightening up his bruised head. “I am a hombre -and I am a Maya.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Maya Indian—you?” Francis scoffed.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Half Maya,” was the reluctant admission. “My -father is pure Maya. But the Maya women of the Cordilleras -did not satisfy him. He must love a mixed-breed woman -of the <i><span lang="es" xml:lang="es">tierra caliente</span></i>. I was so born; but she afterward -betrayed him for a Barbadoes nigger, and he went back to -the Cordilleras to live. And, like my father, I was born to -love a mixed breed of the <i><span lang="es" xml:lang="es">tierra caliente</span></i>. She wanted -money, and my head was fevered with want of her, and I -sold myself to be a peon for two hundred pesos. And I saw -never her nor the money again. For five years I have been -a peon. For five years I have slaved and been beaten, and -behold, at the end of five years my debt is not two hundred -but two hundred and fifty pesos.”</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c000'>And while Francis Morgan and the long-suffering Maya -half-breed plodded on deeper into the Cordilleras to overtake -their party, and while the oil fields of Juchitan continued to -go up in increasing smoke, still farther on, in the heart of -the Cordilleras, were preparing other events destined to -bring together all pursuers and all pursued—Francis and -Henry and Leoncia and their party; the peon; the party of -the haciendados; and the gendarmes of the Jefe, and, along -with them, Alvarez Torres, eager to win for himself not only -the promised reward of Thomas Regan but the possession of -Leoncia Solano.</p> - -<p class='c000'>In a cave sat a man and a woman. Pretty the latter was, -and young, a <i><span lang="es" xml:lang="es">mestiza</span></i>, or half-caste woman. By the light of -a cheap kerosene lamp she read aloud from a calf-bound tome -which was a Spanish translation of Blackstone. Both were -barefooted and bare-armed, clad in hooded gabardines of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_100'>100</span>sackcloth. Her hood lay back on her shoulders, exposing -her black and generous head of hair. But the old man’s -hood was cowled about his head after the fashion of a monk. -The face, lofty and ascetic, beaked with power, was pure -Spanish. Don Quixote might have worn precisely a similar -face. But there was a difference. The eyes of this old -man were closed in the perpetual dark of the blind. Never -could he behold a windmill at which to tilt.</p> - -<p class='c000'>He sat, while the pretty <i><span lang="es" xml:lang="es">mestiza</span></i> read to him, listening -and brooding, for all the world in the pose of Rodin’s -“Thinker.” Nor was he a dreamer, nor a tilter of windmills, -like Don Quixote. Despite his blindness, that ever -veiled the apparent face of the world in invisibility, he was -a man of action, and his soul was anything but blind, penetrating -unerringly beneath the show of things to the heart -and the soul of the world and reading its inmost sins and -rapacities and noblenesses and virtues.</p> - -<p class='c000'>He lifted his hand and put a pause in the reading, while -he thought aloud from the context of the reading.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The law of man,” he said with slow certitude, “is -to-day a game of wits. Not equity, but wit, is the game of -law to-day. The law in its inception was good; but the way -of the law, the practice of it, has led men off into false -pursuits. They have mistaken the way for the goal, the -means for the end. Yet is law law, and necessary, and -good. Only, law, in its practice to-day, has gone astray. -Judges and lawyers engage in competitions and affrays of -wit and learning, quite forgetting the plaintiffs and defendants, -before them and paying them, who are seeking equity -and justice and not wit and learning.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Yet is old Blackstone right. Under it all, at the bottom -of it all, at the beginning of the building of the edifice of the -law, is the quest, the earnest and sincere quest of righteous -men, for justice and equity. But what is it that the Preacher -said? ‘They made themselves many inventions.’ And the -law, good in its beginning, has been invented out of all its -intent, so that it serves neither litigants nor injured ones, -but merely the fatted judges and the lean and hungry -lawyers who achieve names and paunches if they prove -themselves cleverer than their opponents and than the -judges who render decision.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>He paused, still posed as Rodin’s “Thinker,” and meditated, -while the <i><span lang="es" xml:lang="es">mestiza</span></i> woman waited his customary signal -to resume the reading. At last, as out of a profound of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_101'>101</span>thought in which universes had been weighed in the balance, -he spoke:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But we have law, here in the Cordilleras of Panama, -that is just and right and all of equity. We work for no -man and serve not even paunches. Sack-cloth and not -broadcloth conduces to the equity of judicial decision. Read -on, Mercedes. Blackstone is always right if always rightly -read—which is what is called a paradox, and is what modern -law ordinarily is, a paradox. Read on. Blackstone is the -very foundation of human law—but, oh, how many wrongs -are cleverly committed by clever men in his name!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Ten minutes later, the blind thinker raised his head, -sniffed the air, and gestured the girl to pause. Taking her -cue from him, she, too, sniffed:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Perhaps it is the lamp, O Just One,” she suggested.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is burning oil,” he said. “But it is not the lamp. -It is from far away. Also, have I heard shooting in the -canyons.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I heard nothing——” she began.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Daughter, you who see have not the need to hear that -I have. There have been many shots fired in the canyons. -Order my children to investigate and make report.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Bowing reverently to the old man who could not see but -who, by keen-trained hearing and conscious timing of her -every muscular action, knew that she had bowed, the young -woman lifted the curtain of blankets and passed out into the -day. At either side the cave-mouth sat a man of the peon -class. Each was armed with rifle and machete, while -through their girdles were thrust naked-bladed knives. At -the girl’s order, both arose and bowed, not to her, but to the -command and the invisible source of the command. One of -them tapped with the back of his machete against the stone -upon which he had been sitting, then laid his ear to the -stone and listened. In truth, the stone was but the out-jut -of a vein of metalliferous ore that extended across and -through the heart of the mountain. And beyond, on the -opposite slope, in an eyrie commanding the magnificent -panorama of the descending slopes of the Cordilleras, sat -another peon who first listened with his ear pressed to -similar metalliferous quartz, and next tapped response with -his machete. After that, he stepped half a dozen paces to -a tall tree, half-dead, reached into the hollow heart of it, -and pulled on the rope within as a man might pull who was -ringing a steeple bell.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_102'>102</span>But no sound was evoked. Instead, a lofty branch, fifty -feet above his head, sticking out from the main-trunk like a -semaphore arm, moved up and down like the semaphore arm -it was. Two miles away, on a mountain crest, the branch of -a similar semaphore tree replied. Still beyond that, and -farther down the slopes, the flashing of a hand-mirror in the -sun heliographed the relaying of the blind man’s message -from the cave. And all that portion of the Cordilleras -became voluble with coded speech of vibrating ore-veins, -sun-flashings, and waving tree-branches.</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c000'>While Enrico Solano, slenderly erect on his horse as an -Indian youth and convoyed on either side by his sons, -Alesandro and Ricardo, hanging to his saddle trappings, -made the best of the time afforded them by Francis’ rearguard -battle with the gendarmes, Leoncia, on her mount, -and Henry Morgan, lagged behind. One or the other was -continually glancing back for the sight of Francis overtaking -them. Watching his opportunity, Henry took the back-trail. -Five minutes afterward, Leoncia, no less anxious -than he for Francis’ safety, tried to turn her horse about. -But the animal, eager for the companionship of its mate -ahead, refused to obey the rein, cut up and pranced, and -then deliberately settled into a balk. Dismounting and -throwing her reins on the ground in the Panamanian method -of tethering a saddle horse, Leoncia took the back-trail on -foot. So rapidly did she follow Henry, that she was almost -treading on his heels when he encountered Francis and the -peon. The next moment, both Henry and Francis were -chiding her for her conduct; but in both their voices was the -involuntary tenderness of love, which pleased neither to hear -the other uttering.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Their hearts more active than their heads, they were -caught in total surprise by the party of haciendados that -dashed out upon them with covering rifles from the surrounding -jungle. Despite the fact that they had thus -captured the runaway peon, whom they proceeded to kick -and cuff, all would have been well with Leoncia and the two -Morgans had the owner of the peon, the old-time friend of -the Solano family, been present. But an attack of the -malarial fever, which was his due every third day, had -stretched him out in a chill near the burning oilfield.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Nevertheless, though by their blows they reduced the peon -to weepings and pleadings on his knees, the haciendados were -<span class='pageno' id='Page_103'>103</span>courteously gentle to Leoncia and quite decent to Francis -and Henry, even though they tied the hands of the latter -two behind them in preparation for the march up the ravine -slope to where the horses had been left. But upon the -peon, with Latin-American cruelty, they continued to -reiterate their rage.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Yet were they destined to arrive nowhere, by themselves, -with their captives. Shouts of joy heralded the debouchment -upon the scene of the Jefe’s gendarmes and of the Jefe -and Alvarez Torres. Arose at once the rapid-fire, staccato, -bastard-Latin of all men of both parties of pursuers, trying -to explain and demanding explanation at one and the same -time. And while the farrago of all talking simultaneously -and of no one winning anywhere in understanding, made -anarchy of speech, Torres, with a nod to Francis and a sneer -of triumph to Henry, ranged before Leoncia and bowed low -to her in true and deep hidalgo courtesy and respect.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Listen!” he said, low-voiced, as she rebuffed him with -an arm movement of repulsion. “Do not misunderstand -me. Do not mistake me. I am here to save you, and, no -matter what may happen, to protect you. You are the lady -of my dreams. I will die for you—yes, and gladly, though -far more gladly would I live for you.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I do not understand,” she replied curtly. “I do not -see life or death in the issue. We have done no wrong. I -have done no wrong, nor has my father. Nor has Francis -Morgan, nor has Henry Morgan. Therefore, sir, the matter -is not a question of life or death.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Henry and Francis, shouldering close to Leoncia, on either -side, listened and caught through the hubble-bubble of many -voices the conversation of Leoncia and Torres.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is a question absolute of certain death by execution -for Henry Morgan,” Torres persisted. “Proven beyond -doubt is his conviction for the murder of Alfaro Solano, who -was your own full-blood uncle and your father’s own full-blood -brother. There is no chance to save Henry Morgan. -But Francis Morgan can I save in all surety, if——”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“If?” Leoncia queried, with almost the snap of jaws of -a she-leopard.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“If ... you prove kind to me, and marry me,” Torres -said with magnificent steadiness, although two Gringos, -helpless, their hands tied behind their backs, glared at him -through their eyes their common desire for his immediate -extinction.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_104'>104</span>Torres, in a genuine outburst of his passion, though his -rapid glances had assured him of the helplessness of the two -Morgans, seized her hands in his and urged:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Leoncia, as your husband I might be able to do something -for Henry. Even may it be possible for me to save -his life and his neck, if he will yield to leaving Panama -immediately.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You Spanish dog!” Henry snarled at him, struggling -with his tied hands behind his back in an effort to free them.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Gringo cur!” Torres retorted, as, with an open backhanded -blow, he struck Henry on the mouth.</p> - -<p class='c000'>On the instant Henry’s foot shot out, and the kick in -Torres’ side drove him staggering in the direction of Francis, -who was no less quick with a kick of his own. Back and -forth like a shuttlecock between the battledores, Torres was -kicked from one man to the other, until the gendarmes -seized the two Gringos and began to beat them in their -helplessness. Torres not only urged the gendarmes on, but -himself drew a knife; and a red tragedy might have happened -with offended Latin-American blood up and raging, -had not a score or more of armed men silently appeared and -silently taken charge of the situation. Some of the mysterious -newcomers were clad in cotton singlets and trousers, -and others were in cowled gabardines of sackcloth.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The gendarmes and haciendados recoiled in fear, crossing -themselves, muttering prayers and ejaculating: “The Blind -Brigand!” “The Cruel Just One!” “They are his people!” -“We are lost.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But the much-beaten peon sprang forward and fell on his -bleeding knees before a stern-faced man who appeared to be -the leader of the Blind Brigand’s men. From the mouth of -the peon poured forth a stream of loud lamentation and -outcry for justice.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You know that justice to which you appeal?” the -leader spoke gutturally.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Yes, the Cruel Justice,” the peon replied. “I know -what it means to appeal to the Cruel Justice, yet do I -appeal, for I seek justice and my cause is just.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I, too, demand the Cruel Justice!” Leoncia cried with -flashing eyes, although she added in an undertone to Francis -and Henry: “Whatever the Cruel Justice is.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It will have to go some to be unfairer than the justice -we can expect from Torres and the Jefe,” Henry replied in -similar undertones, then stepped forward boldly before the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_105'>105</span>cowled leader and said loudly: “And I demand the Cruel -Justice.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The leader nodded.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Me, too,” Francis murmured low, and then made loud -demand.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The gendarmes did not seem to count in the matter, while -the haciendados signified their willingness to abide by whatever -justice the Blind Brigand might mete out to them. -Only the Jefe objected.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Maybe you don’t know who I am,” he blustered. “I -am Mariano Vercara è Hijos, of long illustrious name and -long and honorable career. I am Jefe Politico of San -Antonio, the highest friend of the governor, and high in the -confidence of the government of the Republic of Panama. -I am the law. There is but one law and one justice, which -is of Panama and not the Cordilleras. I protest against this -mountain law you call the Cruel Justice. I shall send an -army against your Blind Brigand, and the buzzards will -peck his bones in San Juan.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Remember,” Torres sarcastically warned the irate Jefe, -“that this is not San Antonio, but the bush of Juchitan. -Also, you have no army.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Have these two men been unjust to any one who has -appealed to the Cruel Justice?” the leader asked abruptly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Yes,” asseverated the peon. “They have beaten me. -Everybody has beaten me. They, too, have beaten me and -without cause. My hand is bloody. My body is bruised -and torn. Again I appeal to the Cruel Justice, and I -charge these two men with injustice.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The leader nodded and to his own men indicated the -disarming of the prisoners and the order of the march.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Justice!—I demand equal justice!” Henry cried out. -“My hands are tied behind my back. All hands should be -so tied, or no hands be so tied. Besides, it is very difficult -to walk when one is so tied.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The shadow of a smile drifted the lips of the leader as -he directed his men to cut the lashings that invidiously -advertised the inequality complained of.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Huh!” Francis grinned to Leoncia and Henry. “I -have a vague memory that somewhere around a million years -ago I used to live in a quiet little old burg called New York, -where we foolishly thought we were the wildest and -wickedest that ever cracked at a golf ball, electrocuted an -<span class='pageno' id='Page_106'>106</span>Inspector of Police, battled with Tammany, or bid four -nullos with five sure tricks in one’s own hand.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Huh!” Henry vouchsafed half an hour later, as the -trail, from a lesser crest, afforded a view of higher crests -beyond. “Huh! and hell’s bells! These gunny-sack chaps -are not animals of savages. Look, Henry! They are -semaphoring! See that near tree there, and that big one -across the canyon. Watch the branches wave.”</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c000'>Blindfold for a number of miles at the last, the prisoners, -still blindfolded, were led into the cave where the Cruel -Justice reigned. When the bandages were removed, they -found themselves in a vast and lofty cavern, lighted by many -torches, and, confronting them, a blind and white-haired -man in sackcloth seated on a rock-hewn throne, with, beneath -him, her shoulder at his knees, a pretty <span lang="es" xml:lang="es">mestiza</span> -woman.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The blind man spoke, and in his voice was the thin and -bell-like silver of age and weary wisdom.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The Cruel Justice has been invoked. Speak! Who -demands decision and equity?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>All held back, and not even the Jefe could summon heart -of courage to protest against Cordilleras law.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“There is a woman present,” continued the Blind Brigand. -“Let her speak first. All mortal men and women -are guilty of something or else are charged by their fellows -with some guilt.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Henry and Francis were for with-straining her, but with -an equal smile to them she addressed the Cruel Just One in -clear and ringing tones:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I only have aided the man I am engaged to marry to -escape from death for a murder he did not commit.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You have spoken,” said the Blind Brigand. “Come -forward to me.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Piloted by sackcloth men, while the two Morgans who -loved her were restless and perturbed, she was made to -kneel at the blind man’s knees. The <span lang="es" xml:lang="es">mestiza</span> girl placed his -hand on Leoncia’s head. For a full and solemn minute -silence obtained, while the steady fingers of the Blind One -rested about her forehead and registered the pulse-beats of -her temples. Then he removed his hand and leaned back -to decision.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Arise, Senorita,” he pronounced. “Your heart is clean -<span class='pageno' id='Page_107'>107</span>of evil. You go free.—Who else appeals to the Cruel -Justice?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Francis immediately stepped forward.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I likewise helped the man to escape from an undeserved -death. The man and I are of the same name, and, distantly, -of the same blood.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>He, too, knelt, and felt the soft finger-lobes play delicately -over his brows and temples and come to rest finally on the -pulse of his wrist.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is not all clear to me,” said the Blind One. “You -are not at rest nor at peace with your soul. There is trouble -within you that vexes you.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Suddenly the peon stepped forth and spoke unbidden, his -voice evoking a thrill as of the shock of blasphemy from the -sackcloth men.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Oh, Just One, let this man go,” said the peon passionately. -“Twice was I weak and betrayed him to his enemy -this day, and twice this day has he protected me from my -enemy and saved me.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And the peon, once again on his knees, but this time at -the knees of justice, thrilled and shivered with superstitious -awe, as he felt wander over him the light but firm finger-touches -of the strangest judge man ever knelt before. -Bruises and lacerations were swiftly explored even to the -shoulders and down the back.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The other man goes free,” the Cruel Just One announced. -“Yet is there trouble and unrest within him. Is -one here who knows and will speak up?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And Francis knew on the instant the trouble the blind -man had divined within him—the full love that burned in -him for Leoncia and that threatened to shatter the full -loyalty he must ever bear to Henry. No less quick was -Leoncia in knowing, and could the blind man have beheld -the involuntary glance of knowledge the man and woman -threw at each other and the immediate embarrassment of -averted eyes, he could have unerringly diagnosed Francis’ -trouble. The <span lang="es" xml:lang="es">mestiza</span> girl saw, and with a leap at her heart -scented a love affair. Likewise had Henry seen and unconsciously -scowled.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The Just One spoke:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“An affair of heart undoubtedly,” he dismissed the matter. -“The eternal vexation of woman in the heart of man. -Nevertheless, this man stands free. Twice, in the one day, -has he succored the man who twice betrayed him. Nor has -<span class='pageno' id='Page_108'>108</span>the trouble within him aught to do with the aid he rendered -the man said to be sentenced to death undeserved. Remains -to question this last man; also to settle for this beaten -creature before me who twice this day has proved weak out -of selfishness, and who has just now proved bravely strong -out of unselfishness for another.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>He leaned forward and played his fingers searchingly over -the face and brows of the peon.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Are you afraid to die?” he asked suddenly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Great and Holy One, I am sore afraid to die,” was the -peon’s reply.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Then say that you have lied about this man, say that -his twice succoring of you was a lie, and you shall live.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Under the Blind One’s fingers the peon cringed and wilted.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Think well,” came the solemn warning. “Death is -not good. To be forever unmoving, as the clod and rock, is -not good. Say that you have lied and life is yours. Speak!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But, although his voice shook from the exquisiteness of -his fear, the peon rose to the full spiritual stature of a man.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Twice this day did I betray him, Holy One. But my -name is not Peter. Not thrice in this day will I betray him. -I am sore afraid, but I cannot betray him thrice.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The blind judge leaned back and his face beamed and -glowed as if transfigured.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Well spoken,” he said. “You have the makings of a -man. I now lay my sentence upon you: From now on, -through all your days under the sun, you shall always think -like a man, act like a man, be a man. Better to die a man -any time, than live a beast forever in time. The Ecclesiast -was wrong. A dead lion is always better than a live dog. -Go free, regenerate son, go free.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But, as the peon, at a signal from the <span lang="es" xml:lang="es">mestiza</span>, started to -rise, the blind judge stopped him.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“In the beginning, O man who but this day has been -born man, what was the cause of all your troubles?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“My heart was weak and hungry, O Holy One, for a -mixed-breed woman of the tierra caliente. I myself am -mountain born. For her I put myself in debt to the haciendado -for the sum of two hundred pesos. She fled with the -money and another man. I remained the slave of the -haciendado, who is not a bad man, but who, first and -always, is a haciendado. I have toiled, been beaten, and -have suffered for five long years, and my debt is now become -<span class='pageno' id='Page_109'>109</span>two hundred and fifty pesos, and yet I possess naught but -these rags and a body weak from insufficient food.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Was she wonderful?—this woman of the tierra -caliente?” the blind judge queried softly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I was mad for her, Holy One. I do not think now -that she was wonderful. But she was wonderful then. The -fever of her burned my heart and brain and made a task-slave -of me, though she fled in the night and I knew her -never again.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The peon waited, on his knees, with bowed head, while, -to the amazement of all, the Blind Brigand sighed deeply -and seemed to forget time and place. His hand strayed -involuntarily and automatically to the head of the <span lang="es" xml:lang="es">mestiza</span>, -caressed the shining black hair and continued to caress it -while he spoke.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The woman,” he said, with such gentleness that his -voice, still clear and bell-like, was barely above a whisper. -“Ever the woman wonderful. All women are wonderful ... -to man. They love our fathers; they birth us; we -love them; they birth our sons to love their daughters and -to call their daughters wonderful; and this has always been -and shall continue always to be until the end of man’s time -and man’s loving on earth.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>A profound of silence fell within the cavern, while the -Cruel Just One meditated for a space. At the last, with a -touch dared of familiarity, the pretty <span lang="es" xml:lang="es">mestiza</span> touched him -and roused him to remembrance of the peon still crouching -at his feet.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I pronounce judgment,” he spoke. “You have received -many blows. Each blow on your body is quittance in -full of the entire debt to the haciendado. Go free. But -remain in the mountains, and next time love a mountain -woman, since woman you must have, and since woman is -inevitable and eternal in the affairs of men. Go free. You -are half Maya?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I am half Maya,” the peon murmured. “My father is -a Maya.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Arise and go free. And remain in the mountains with -your Maya father. The tierra caliente is no place for the -Cordilleras-born. The haciendado is not present, and therefore -cannot be judged. And after all he is but a haciendado. -His fellow haciendados, too, go free.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The Cruel Just One waited, and, without waiting, Henry -stepped forward.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_110'>110</span>“I am the man,” he stated boldly, “sentenced to the -death undeserved for the killing of a man I did not kill. He -was the blood-uncle of the girl I love, whom I shall marry -if there be true justice here in this cave in the Cordilleras.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But the Jefe interrupted.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Before a score of witnesses he threatened to his face to -kill the man. Within the hour we found him bending over -the man’s dead body that was yet warm and limber with -departing life.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“He speaks true,” Henry affirmed. “I did threaten the -man, both of us heady from strong drink and hot blood. I -was so found, bending over his dead warm body. Yet did -I not kill him. Nor do I know, nor can I guess, the coward -hand in the dark that knifed out his life through the back -from behind.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Kneel both of you, that I may interrogate you,” the -Blind Brigand commanded.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Long he interrogated with his sensitive, questioning fingers. -Long, and still longer, unable to attain decision, his -fingers played over the faces and pulses of the two men.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Is there a woman?” he asked Henry Morgan pointedly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“A woman wonderful. I love her.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is good to be so vexed, for a man unvexed by woman -is only half a man,” the blind judge vouchsafed. He addressed -the Jefe. “No woman vexes you, yet are you -troubled. But this man”—indicating Henry—“I cannot -tell if all his vexation be due to woman. Perhaps, in part, -it may be due to you, or to what some prompting of evil may -make him meditate against you. Stand up, both men of -you. I cannot judge between you. Yet is there the test -infallible, the test of the Snake and the Bird. Infallible it -is, as God is infallible, for by such ways does God still -maintain truth in the affairs of men. As well does Blackstone -mention just such methods of determining the truth -by trial and ordeal.”</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_111'>111</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XI</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c006'>To all intents it might have been a tiny bull-ring, that pit in -the heart of the Blind Brigand’s domain. Ten feet in depth -and thirty in diameter, with level floor and perpendicular -wall, its natural formation had required little work at the -hands of man to complete its symmetry. The sackcloth -men, the haciendados, the gendarmes—all were present, save -for the Cruel Just One and the <span lang="es" xml:lang="es">mestiza</span>, and all were lined -about the rim of the pit, as an audience, to gaze down upon -some bull-fight or gladiatorial combat within the pit.</p> - -<p class='c000'>At command of the stern-faced leader of the sackcloth -men who had captured them, Henry and the Jefe descended -down a short ladder into the pit. The leader and several of -the brigands accompanied them.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Heaven alone knows what’s going to happen,” Henry -laughed up in English to Leoncia and Francis. “But if it’s -rough and tumble, bite and gouge, or Marquis of Queensbury -or London Prize Ring, Mister Fat Jefe is my meat. But -that old blind one is clever, and the chances are he’s going -to put us at each other on some basis of evenness. In -which case, do you, my audience, if he gets me down, stick -your thumbs up and make all the noise you can. Depend -upon it, if it’s he that’s down, all his crowd will be thumbs -up.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The Jefe, overcome by the trap into which he had -descended, in Spanish addressed the leader.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I shall not fight with this man. He is younger than I, -and has better wind. Also, the affair is illegal. It is not -according to the law of the Republic of Panama. It is -extra-territorial and entirely unjudicial.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is the Snake and the Bird,” the leader shut him off. -“You shall be the Snake. This rifle shall be in your hands. -The other man shall be the Bird. In his hand shall be the -bell. Behold! Thus may you understand the ordeal.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>At his command, one of the brigands was given the rifle -<span class='pageno' id='Page_112'>112</span>and was blindfolded. To another brigand, not blindfolded, -was given a silver bell.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The man with the rifle is the Snake,” said the leader. -“He has one shot at the Bird who carries the bell.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>At signal to begin, the bandit with the bell, tinkled it at -extended arm’s length and sprang swiftly aside. The man -with the rifle lowered it as if to fire at the space just vacated -and pretended to fire.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You understand?” the leader demanded of Henry and -the Jefe.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The former nodded, but the latter cried exultantly:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And I am the Snake?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You are the Snake,” affirmed the leader.</p> - -<p class='c000'>And the Jefe was eager for the rifle, making no further -protests against the extra-territoriality of the proceedings.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Are you going to try to get me?” Henry warned the -Jefe.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“No, Senor Morgan. I am merely going to get you. I -am one of the two best shots in Panama. I have two score -and more of medals. I can shoot with my eyes shut. I -can shoot in the dark. I have often shot, and with precision, -in the dark. Already may you count yourself a dead -man.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Only one cartridge was put into the rifle, ere it was handed -to the Jefe after he was blindfolded. Next, while Henry, -equipped with the tell-tale bell, was stationed directly across -the pit, the Jefe was faced to the wall and kept there while -the brigands climbed out of the pit and drew the ladder up -after them. The leader, from above, spoke down:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Listen carefully, Senor Snake, and make no move until -you have heard. The Snake has but one shot. The Snake -cannot tamper with his blindfold. If he so tampers it is our -duty to see that he immediately dies. The Snake has no -time limit. He may take the rest of the day, and all of the -night, and the remainder of eternity ere he fires his one shot. -As for the Bird, the one rule is that never must the bell -leave his hand, and never may he stop the clapper of it -from making the full noise intended of the clapper against -the sides of the bell. Should he do so, then will he immediately -die. We are here above you, both of you Senors, -rifles in hand, to see that you die the second you infract any -of the rules. And now, God be with the right, proceed!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The Jefe turned slowly about and listened, while Henry, -essaying gingerly to move with the bell, caused it to tinkle.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_113'>113</span>The rifle was quick to bear upon the sound, and to pursue -it as Henry ran. With a quick shift he transferred the bell -to the other extended hand and ran back in the opposite -direction, the rifle sweeping after him in inexorable pursuit. -But the Jefe was too cunning to risk all on a chance shot, -and slowly advanced across the arena. Henry stood still, -and the bell made no sound.</p> - -<p class='c000'>So unerringly had the Jefe’s ear located the last silvery -tinkle, and so straightly did he walk despite his blindfold, -that he advanced just to the right of Henry and directly at -the bell. With infinite caution, provoking no tinkle, Henry -slightly raised his arm and permitted the Jefe’s head to go -under the bell with a bare inch of margin.</p> - -<p class='c000'>His rifle pointed, and within a foot of the pit-wall, the -Jefe halted in indecision, listened vainly for a moment, then -made a further stride that collided the rifle muzzle with the -wall. He whirled about, and, with the rifle extended, like -any blind man felt out the air-space for his enemy. The -muzzle would have touched Henry had he not sprung away -on a noisy and zig-zag course.</p> - -<p class='c000'>In the center of the pit he came to a frozen pause. The -Jefe stalked past a yard to the side and collided with the -opposite wall. He circled the wall, walking cat-footed, his -rifle forever feeling out into the empty air. Next he ventured -across the pit. After several such crossings, during -which the stationary bell gave him no clue, he adopted a -clever method. Tossing his hat on the ground for the mark -of his starting point, he crossed the edge of the pit on a -shallow chord, extended the chord by a pace farther along -the wall, and felt his way back along the new and longer -chord. Again against the wall, he verified the correctness -of the parallelness of the two chords, by pacing back to his -hat. This time, with three paces along the wall from the -hat, he initiated his third chord.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Thus he combed the area of the pit, and Henry saw that -he could not escape such combing. Nor did he wait to be -discovered. Tinkling the bell as he ran and zigzagged and -exchanging it from one hand to the other, he froze into -immobility in a new place.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The Jefe repeated the laborious combing out process; but -Henry was not minded longer to prolong the tension. He -waited till the Jefe’s latest chord brought him directly upon -him. He waited till the rifle muzzle, breast high, was -within half a dozen inches of his heart. Then he exploded -<span class='pageno' id='Page_114'>114</span>into two simultaneous actions. He ducked lower than the -rifle and yelled “Fire!” in stentorian command.</p> - -<p class='c000'>So startled, the Jefe pulled the trigger, and the bullet -sped above Henry’s head. From above, the sackcloth men -applauded wildly. The Jefe tore off his blindfold and saw -the smiling face of his foe.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is well—God has spoken,” announced the sackcloth -leader, as he descended into the pit. “The man uninjured -is innocent. Remains now to test the other man.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Me?” the Jefe almost shouted in his surprise and consternation.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Greetings, Jefe,” Henry grinned. “You <em>did</em> try to get -me. It’s my turn now. Pass over that rifle.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But the Jefe, with a curse, in his disappointment and rage -forgetting that the rifle had contained only one cartridge, -thrust the muzzle against Henry’s heart and pulled the -trigger. The hammer fell with a metallic click.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is well,” said the leader, taking away the rifle and -recharging it. “Your conduct shall be reported. The test -for you remains, yet must it appear that you are not acting -like God’s chosen man.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Like a beaten bull in the ring seeking a way to escape -and gazing up at the amphitheatre of pitiless faces, so the -Jefe looked up and saw only the rifles of the sackcloth men, -the triumphing faces of Leoncia and Francis, the curious -looks of his own gendarmes, and the blood-eager faces of -the haciendados that were like the faces of any bull-fight -audience.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The shadowy smile drifted the stern lips of the leader as -he handed the rifle to Henry and started to blindfold him.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Why don’t you make him face the wall until I’m -ready?” the Jefe demanded, as the silver bell tinkled in his -passion-convulsed hand.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Because he is proven God’s man,” was the reply. “He -has stood the test. Therefore he cannot do a treacherous -deed. You now must stand the test of God. If you are -true and honest, no harm can befall you from the Snake. -For such is God’s way.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Far more successful as the hunter than as the hunted one, -did the Jefe prove. Across the pit from Henry, he strove -to stand motionless; but out of nervousness, as Henry’s -rifle swept around on him, his hand trembled and the bell -tinkled. The rifle came almost to rest and wavered ominously -<span class='pageno' id='Page_115'>115</span>about the sound. In vain the Jefe tried to control his -flesh and still the bell.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But the bell tinkled on, and, in despair, he flung it away -and threw himself on the ground. But Henry, following -the sound of his enemy’s fall, lowered the rifle and pulled -trigger. The Jefe yelled out in sharp pain as the bullet -perforated his shoulder, rose to his feet, cursed, sprawled -back on the ground, and lay there cursing.</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c000'>Again in the cave, with the <span lang="es" xml:lang="es">mestiza</span> beside him at his -knee, the Blind Brigand gave judgment.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“This man who is wounded and who talks much of the -law of the tierra caliente, shall now learn Cordilleras law. -By the test of the Snake and the Bird has he been proven -guilty. For his life a ransom of ten thousand dollars gold -shall be paid, or else shall he remain here, a hewer of wood -and a carrier of water, for the remainder of the time God -shall grant him to draw breath on earth. I have spoken, -and I know that my voice is God’s voice, and I know that -God will not grant him long to draw breath if the ransom be -not forthcoming.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>A long silence obtained, during which even Henry, who -could slay a foe in the heat of combat, advertised that such -cold-blooded promise of murder was repugnant to him.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The law is pitiless,” said the Cruel Just One; and again -silence fell.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Let him die for want of a ransom,” spoke one of the -haciendados. “He has proved a treacherous dog. Let -him die a dog’s death.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“What say you?” the Blind Brigand asked solemnly. -“What say you, peon of the many beatings, man new-born -this day, half-Maya that you are and lover of the woman -wonderful? Shall this man die the dog’s death for want of -a ransom?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“This man is a hard man,” spoke the peon. “Yet is my -heart strangely soft this day. Had I ten thousand gold I -would pay his ransom myself. Yea, O Holy One and Just, -and had I two hundred and fifty pesos, even would I pay off -my debt to the haciendado of which I am absolved.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The old man’s blind face lighted up to transfiguration.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You, too, speak with God’s voice this day, regenerate -one,” he approved.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But Francis, who had been scribbling hurriedly in his -<span class='pageno' id='Page_116'>116</span>check book, handed a check, still wet with the ink, to the -<span lang="es" xml:lang="es">mestiza</span>.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I, too, speak,” he said. “Let not the man die the -dog’s death he deserves, proven treacherous hound that he -is.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The <span lang="es" xml:lang="es">mestiza</span> read the check aloud.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is not necessary to explain,” the Blind Brigand shut -Francis off. “I am a creature of reason, and have not lived -always in the Cordilleras. I was trained in business in -Barcelona. I know the Chemical National Bank of New -York, and through my agents have had dealings with it -aforetime. The sum is for ten thousand dollars gold. This -man who writes it has told the truth already this day. The -check is good. Further, I know he will not stop payment. -This man who thus pays the ransom of a foe is one of three -things: a very good man; a fool; or a very rich man. Tell -me, O Man, is there a woman wonderful?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And Francis, not daring to glance to right or left, at -Leoncia or Henry, but gazing straight before him on the -Blind Brigand’s face, answered because he felt he must so -answer:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Yes, O Cruel Just One, there is a woman wonderful.”</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_117'>117</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XII</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c006'>At the precise spot where they had been first blindfolded by -the sackcloth men, the cavalcade halted. It was composed -of a number of the sackcloth men; of Leoncia, Henry, and -Francis, blindfolded and mounted on mules; and of the -peon, blindfolded and on foot. Similarly escorted, the -haciendados, and the Jefe and Torres with their gendarmes, -had preceded by half an hour.</p> - -<p class='c000'>At permission given by the stern-faced leader, the captives, -about to be released, removed their blindfolds.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Seems I’ve been here before,” Henry laughed, looking -about and identifying the place.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Seems the oil-wells are still burning,” Francis said, -pointing out half the field of day that was eaten up by the -black smoke-pall. “Peon, look upon your handiwork. For -a man who possesses nothing, you are the biggest spender -I ever met. I have heard of drunken oil-kings lighting -cigars with thousand dollar bank-notes, but here are you -burning up a million dollars a minute.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I am not a poor man,” the peon boasted in proud -mysteriousness.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“A millionaire in disguise!” Henry twitted.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Where do you deposit?” was Leoncia’s contribution. -“In the Chemical National Bank?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The peon did not understand the allusions, but knew that -he was being made fun of, and drew himself up in proud -silence.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The stern leader spoke:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“From this point you may now go your various ways. -The Just One has so commanded. You, senors, will dismount -and turn over to me your mules. As for the senorita, -she may retain her mule as a present from the Just One, -who would not care to be responsible for compelling any -senorita to walk. The two senors, without hardship, may -walk. Especially has the Just One recommended walking -<span class='pageno' id='Page_118'>118</span>for the rich senor. The possession of riches, he advised, -leads to too little walking. Too little walking leads to -stoutness; and stoutness does not lead to the woman wonderful. -Such is the wisdom of the Just One.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Further, he has repeated his advice to the peon to -remain in the mountains. In the mountains he will find -his woman wonderful, since woman he must have; and it is -wisest that such woman be of his own breed. The woman -of the tierra caliente are for the men of the tierra caliente. -The Cordilleras women are for the Cordilleras men. God -dislikes mixed breeds. A mule is abhorrent under the sun. -The world was not intended for mixed breeds, but man has -made for himself many inventions. Pure races interbred -leads to impurity. Neither will oil nor water congenially -intermingle. Since kind begets kind, only kind should mate. -Such are the words of the Just One which I have repeated as -commanded. And he has especially impressed upon me to -add that he knows whereof he speaks, for he, too, has sinned -in just such ways.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And Henry and Francis, of Anglo-Saxon stock, and -Leoncia of the Latin, knew perturbation and embarrassment -as the vicarious judgment of the Blind Brigand sank home. -And Leoncia, with her splendid eyes of woman, would have -appealed protest to either man she loved, had the other been -absent; while both Henry and Francis would have voiced -protest to Leoncia had either of them been alone with her. -And yet, under it all, deep down, uncannily, was a sense of -the correctness of the Blind Brigand’s thought. And heavily, -on the heart of each, rested the burden of the conscious -oppression of sin.</p> - -<p class='c000'>A crashing and scrambling in the brush diverted their -train of thought, as descending the canyon slope on desperately -slipping and sliding horses, appeared on the scene the -haciendado with several followers. His greeting of the -daughter of the Solanos was hidalgo-like and profound, and -only less was the heartiness of his greeting to the two men -for whom Enrico Solano had stood sponsor.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Where is your noble father?” he asked Leoncia. “I -have good news for him. In the week since I last saw you, -I have been sick with fever and encamped. But by swift -messengers, and favoring winds across Chiriqui Lagoon to -Bocas del Toro, I have used the government wireless—the -Jefe of Bocas del Toro is my friend—and have communicated -with the President of Panama—who is my ancient -<span class='pageno' id='Page_119'>119</span>comrade whose nose I rubbed as often in the dirt as did he -mine in the boyhood days when we were schoolmates and -cubicle-mates together at Colon. And the word has come -back that all is well; that justice has miscarried in the court -at San Antonio from the too great but none the less worthy -zeal of the Jefe Politico; and that all is forgiven, pardoned, -and forever legally and politically forgotten against all of the -noble Solano family and their two noble Gringo friends——”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Here, the haciendado bowed low to Henry and Francis. -And here, skulking behind Leoncia’s uncle, his eyes chanced -to light on the peon; and, so lighting, his eyes blazed with -triumph.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Mother of God, thou has not forgotten me!” he -breathed fervently, then turned to the several friends who -accompanied him. “There he is, the creature without -reason or shame who has fled his debt of me. Seize him! -I shall put him on his back for a month from the beating he -shall receive!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>So speaking, the haciendado sprang around the rump of -Leoncia’s mule; and the peon, ducking under the mule’s -nose, would have won to the freedom of the jungle, had not -another of the haciendados, with quick spurs to his horse’s -sides, cut him off and run him down. In a trice, used to -just such work, the haciendados had the luckless wight on -his feet, his hands tied behind him, a lead-rope made fast -around his neck.</p> - -<p class='c000'>In one voice Francis and Henry protested.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Senors,” the haciendado replied, “my respect and consideration -and desire to serve you are as deep as for the -noble Solano family under whose protection you are. Your -safety and comfort are sacred to me. I will defend you from -harm with my life. I am yours to command. My hacienda -is yours, likewise all I possess. But this matter of this -peon is entirely another matter. He is none of yours. He -is <em>my</em> peon, in <em>my</em> debt, who has run away from <em>my</em> -hacienda. You will understand and forgive me, I trust. -This is a mere matter of property. He is <em>my</em> property.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Henry and Francis glanced at each other in mutual perplexity -and indecision. It was the law of the land, as they -thoroughly knew.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The Cruel Just One did remit my debt, as all here will -witness,” the peon whispered.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is true, the Cruel Justice remitted his debt,” Leoncia -verified.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_120'>120</span>The haciendado smiled and bowed low.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But the peon contracted with me,” he smiled. “And -who is the Blind Brigand that his foolish law shall operate -on my plantation and rob me of my rightful two hundred -and fifty pesos?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“He’s right, Leoncia,” Henry admitted.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Then will I go back to the high Cordilleras,” the peon -asserted. “Oh, you men of the Cruel Just One, take me -back to the Cordilleras.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But the stern leader shook his head.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Here you were released. Our orders went no further. -No further jurisdiction have we over you. We shall now -bid farewell and depart.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Hold on!” Francis cried, pulling out his check book -and beginning to write. “Wait a moment. I must settle -for this peon now. Next, before you depart, I have a favor -to ask of you.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>He passed the check to the haciendado, saying:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I have allowed ten pesos for the exchange.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The haciendado glanced at the check, folded it away in -his pocket, and placed the end of the rope around the -wretched creature’s neck in Francis’ hand.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The peon is now yours,” he said.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Francis looked at the rope and laughed.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Behold! I now own a human chattel. Slave, you -are mine, my property now, do you understand?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Yes, Senor,” the peon muttered humbly. “It seems, -when I became mad for the woman I gave up my freedom -for, that God destined me always afterward to be the -property of some man. The Cruel Just One is right. It -is God’s punishment for mating outside my race.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You made a slave of yourself for what the world has -always considered the best of all causes, a woman,” -Francis observed, cutting the thongs that bound the peon’s -hands. “And so, I make a present of you to yourself.” -So saying, he placed the neck-rope in the peon’s hand. -“Henceforth, lead yourself, and put not that rope in any -man’s hand.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>While the foregoing had been taking place, a lean old -man, on foot, had noiselessly joined the circle. Maya -Indian he was, pure-blooded, with ribs that corrugated -plainly through his parchment-like skin. Only a breech-clout -covered his nakedness. His unkempt hair hung in -dirty-gray tangles about his face, which was high-cheeked -<span class='pageno' id='Page_121'>121</span>and emaciated to cadaverousness. Strings of muscles -showed for his calves and biceps. A few scattered snags -of teeth were visible between his withered lips. The hollows -under his cheek-bones were prodigious. While his eyes, -beads of black, deep-sunk in their sockets, burned with the -wild light of a patient in fever.</p> - -<p class='c000'>He slipped eel-like through the circle and clasped the -peon in his skeleton-like arms.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“He is my father,” proclaimed the peon proudly. -“Look at him. He is pure Maya, and he knows the -secrets of the Mayas.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And while the two re-united ones talked endless explanations, -Francis preferred his request to the sackcloth leader -to find Enrico Solano and his two sons, wandering somewhere -in the mountains, and to tell them that they were -free of all claims of the law and to return home.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“They have done no wrong?” the leader demanded.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“No; they have done no wrong,” Francis assured him.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Then it is well. I promise you to find them immediately, -for we know the direction of their wandering, and -to send them down to the coast to join you.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And in the meantime shall you be my guests while -you wait,” the haciendado invited eagerly. “There is a -freight schooner at anchor in Juchitan Inlet now off my -plantation, and sailing for San Antonio. I can hold her -until the noble Enrico and his sons come down from the -Cordilleras.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And Francis will pay the demurrage, of course,” Henry -interpolated with a sly sting that Leoncia caught, although -it missed Francis, who cried joyously:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Of course I will. And it proves my contention that a -checkbook is pretty good to have anywhere.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>To their surprise, when they had parted from the sackcloth -men, the peon and his Indian father attached themselves -to the Morgans, and journeyed down through the -burning oil-fields to the plantation which had been the scene -of the peon’s slavery. Both father and son were unremitting -in their devotion, first of all to Francis, and, next, -to Leoncia and Henry. More than once they noted father -and son in long and earnest conversations; and, after Enrico -and his sons had arrived, when the party went down to -the beach to board the waiting schooner, the peon and -his Maya parent followed along. Francis essayed to say -<span class='pageno' id='Page_122'>122</span>farewell to them on the beach, but the peon stated that -the pair of them were likewise journeying on the schooner.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I have told you that I was not a poor man,” the peon -explained, after they had drawn the party aside from the -waiting sailors. “This is true. The hidden treasure of -the Mayas, which the conquistadores and the priests of the -Inquisition could never find, is in my keeping. Or, to be -very true, is in my father’s keeping. He is the descendant, -in the straight line, from the ancient high priest of the -Mayas. He is the last high priest. He and I have talked -much and long. And we are agreed that riches do not -make life. You bought me for two hundred and fifty pesos, -yet you made me free, gave me back to myself. The gift -of a man’s life is greater than all the treasure in the world. -So are we agreed, my father and I. And so, since it is the -way of Gringos and Spaniards to desire treasure, we will -lead you to the Maya treasure, my father and I, my father -knowing the way. And the way into the mountains begins -from San Antonio and not from Juchitan.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Does your father know the location of the treasure?—just -where it is?” Henry demanded, with an aside to -Francis that this was the very Maya treasure that had led -him to abandon the quest for Morgan’s gold on the Calf -and to take to the mainland.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The peon shook his head.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“My father has never been to it. He was not interested -in it, caring not for wealth for himself. Father, bring forth -the tale written in our ancient language which you alone of -living Mayas can read.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>From within his loin-cloth the old man drew forth a -dirty and much-frayed canvas bag. Out of this he pulled -what looked like a snarl of knotted strings. But the strings -were twisted sennit of some fibrous forest bark, so ancient -that they threatened to crumble as he handled them, while -from under the touch and manipulation of his fingers a fine -powder of decay arose. Muttering and mumbling prayers -in the ancient Maya tongue, he held up the snarl of knots, -and bowed reverently before it ere he shook it out.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The knot-writing, the lost written language of the -Mayas,” Henry breathed softly. “This is the real thing, -if only the old geezer hasn’t forgotten how to read it.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>All heads bent curiously toward it as it was handed to -Francis. It was in the form of a crude tassel, composed -of many thin, long strings. Not alone were the knots, and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_123'>123</span>various kinds of knots, tied at irregular intervals in the -strings, but the strings themselves were of varying lengths -and diameters. He ran them through his fingers, mumbling -and muttering.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“He reads!” cried the peon triumphantly. “All our -old language is there in those knots, and he reads them -as any man may read a book.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Bending closer to observe, Francis and Leoncia’s hair -touched, and, in the thrill of the immediately broken contact, -their eyes met, producing the second thrill as they -separated. But Henry, all eagerness, did not observe. He -had eyes only for the mystic tassel.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“What d’you say, Francis?” he murmured. “It’s big! -It’s big!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But New York is beginning to call,” Francis demurred. -“Oh, not its people and its fun, but its business,” he -added hastily, as he sensed Leoncia’s unuttered reproach -and hurt. “Don’t forget, I’m mixed up in Tampico Petroleum -and the stock market, and I hate to think how many -millions are involved.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Hell’s bells!” Henry ejaculated. “The Maya treasure, -if a tithe of what they say about its immensity be true, -could be cut three ways between Enrico, you and me, and -make each of us richer than you are now.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Still Francis was undecided, and, while Enrico expanded -on the authenticity of the treasure, Leoncia managed to -query in an undertone in Francis’ ear:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Have you so soon tired of ... of treasure-hunting?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>He looked at her keenly, and down at her engagement -ring, as he answered in the same low tones:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“How can I stay longer in this country, loving you as -I do, while you love Henry?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>It was the first time he had openly avowed his love, and -Leoncia knew the swift surge of joy, followed by the no -less swift surge of mantling shame that she, a woman who -had always esteemed herself good, could love two men -at the same time. She glanced at Henry, as if to verify -her heart, and her heart answered yes. As truly did she -love Henry as she did Francis, and the emotion seemed -similar where the two were similar, different where they -were different.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I’m afraid I’ll have to connect up with the <em>Angelique</em>, -most likely at Bocas del Toro, and get away,” Francis told -<span class='pageno' id='Page_124'>124</span>Henry. “You and Enrico can find the treasure and split -it two ways.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But the peon, having heard, broke into quick speech -with his father, and, next, with Henry.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You hear what he says, Francis,” the latter said, -holding up the sacred tassel. “You’ve got to go with us. -It is you he feels grateful to for his son. He isn’t giving -the treasure to us, but to you. And if you don’t go, he -won’t read a knot of the writing.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But it was Leoncia, looking at Francis with quiet wistfulness -of pleading, seeming all but to say, “Please, for -my sake,” who really caused Francis to reverse his decision.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_125'>125</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XIII</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c006'>A week later, out of San Antonio on a single day, three -separate expeditions started for the Cordilleras. The -first, mounted on mules, was composed of Henry, Francis, -the peon and his ancient parent, and of several of the -Solano peons, each leading a pack-mule, burdened with -supplies and outfit. Old Enrico Solano, at the last moment, -had been prevented from accompanying the party because -of the bursting open of an old wound received in the revolutionary -fighting of his youth.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Up the main street of San Antonio the cavalcade proceeded, -passing the jail, the wall of which Francis had -dynamited, and which was only even then being tardily -rebuilt by the Jefe’s prisoners. Torres, sauntering down -the street, the latest wire from Regan tucked in his pocket, -saw the Morgan outfit with surprise.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Whither away, senors?” he called.</p> - -<p class='c000'>So spontaneous that it might have been rehearsed, Francis -pointed to the sky, Henry straight down at the earth, the -peon to the right, and his father to the left. The curse -from Torres at such impoliteness, caused all to burst into -laughter, in which the mule-peons joined as they rode along.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Within the morning, at the time of the siesta hour, while -all the town slept, Torres received a second surprise. This -time it was the sight of Leoncia and her youngest brother, -Ricardo, on mules, leading a third that was evidently -loaded with a camping outfit.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The third expedition was Torres’ own, neither more nor -less meager than Leoncia’s, for it was composed only of -himself and one, José Mancheno, a notorious murderer of -the place whom Torres, for private reasons, had saved from -the buzzards of San Juan. But Torres’ plans, in the -matter of an expedition, were more ambitious than they -appeared. Not far up the slopes of the Cordilleras dwelt -the strange tribe of the Caroos. Originally founded by runaway -<span class='pageno' id='Page_126'>126</span>negro slaves of Africa and Carib slaves of the Mosquito -Coast, the renegades had perpetuated themselves with -stolen women of the tierra caliente and with fled women -slaves like themselves. Between the Mayas beyond, and -the government of the coast, this unique colony had maintained -itself in semi-independence. Added to, in later days, -by runaway Spanish prisoners, the Caroos had become a -hotchpotch of bloods and breeds, possessing a name and -a taint so bad that the then governing power of Colombia, -had it not been too occupied with its own particular political -grafts, would have sent armies to destroy the pest-hole. -And in this pest-hole of the Caroos José Mancheno had -been born of a Spanish-murderer father and a <span lang="es" xml:lang="es">mestiza</span>-murderess -mother. And to this pest-hole José Mancheno -was leading Torres in order that the commands of Thomas -Regan of Wall Street might be carried out.</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c000'>“Lucky we found him when we did,” Francis told -Henry, as they rode at the rear of the last Maya priest.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“He’s pretty senile,” Henry nodded. “Look at him.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The old man, as he led the way, was forever pulling out -the sacred tassel and mumbling and muttering as he fingered -it.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Hope the old gentleman doesn’t wear it out,” was -Henry’s fervent wish. “You’d think he’d read the directions -once and remember them for a little while instead of -continually pawing them over.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>They rode out through the jungle into a clear space that -looked as if at some time man had hewn down the jungle -and fought it back. Beyond, by the vista afforded by the -clearing, the mountain called Blanco Rovalo towered high -in the sunny sky. The old Maya halted his mule, ran -over certain strings in the tassel, pointed at the mountain, -and spoke in broken Spanish:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It says: <em>In the foot-steps of the God wait till the eyes -of Chia flash.</em>”</p> - -<p class='c000'>He indicated the particular knots of a particular string -as the source of his information.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Where are the foot-steps, old priest?” Henry demanded, -staring about him at the unbroken sward.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But the old man started his mule, and, with a tattoo -of bare heels on the creature’s ribs, hastened it on across -the clearing and into the jungle beyond.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_127'>127</span>“He’s like a hound on the scent, and it looks as if the -scent is getting hot,” Francis remarked.</p> - -<p class='c000'>At the end of half a mile, where the jungle turned to -grass-land on swift-rising slopes the old man forced his -mule into a gallop which he maintained until he reached -a natural depression in the ground. Three feet or more -in depth, of area sufficient to accommodate a dozen persons -in comfort, its form was strikingly like that which some -colossal human foot could have made.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The foot-step of the God,” the old priest proclaimed -solemnly, ere he slid off his mule and prostrated himself in -prayer. “<em>In the foot-step of the God must we wait till -the eyes of Chia flash</em>——so say the sacred knots.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Pretty good place for a meal,” Henry vouchsafed, -looking down into the depression. “While waiting for the -mumbo-jumbo foolery to come off, we might as well stay -our stomachs.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“If Chia doesn’t object,” laughed Francis.</p> - -<p class='c000'>And Chia did not object, at least the old priest could -not find any objection written in the knots.</p> - -<p class='c000'>While the mules were being tethered on the edge of the -first break of woods, water was fetched from a nearby -spring and a fire built in the foot-step. The old Maya -seemed oblivious of everything, as he mumbled endless -prayers and ran the knots over and over.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“If only he doesn’t blow up,” Francis said.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I thought he was wild-eyed the first day we met him -up in Juchitan,” concurred Henry. “But it’s nothing -to the way his eyes are now.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Here spoke the peon, who, unable to understand a word -of their English, nevertheless sensed the drift of it.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“This is very religious, very dangerous, to have anything -to do with the old Maya sacred things. It is the -death-road. My father knows. Many men have died. -The deaths are sudden and horrible. Even Maya priests -have died. My father’s father so died. He, too, loved -a woman of the tierra caliente. And for love of her, for -gold, he sold the Maya secret and by the knot-writing led -tierra caliente men to the treasure. He died. They all -died. My father does not like the women of the tierra -caliente now that he is old. He liked them too well in -his youth, which was his sin. And he knows the danger -of leading you to the treasure. Many men have sought -during the centuries. Of those who found it, not one -<span class='pageno' id='Page_128'>128</span>came back. It is said that even conquistadores and pirates -of the English Morgan have won to the hiding-place and -decorated it with their bones.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And when your father dies,” Francis queried, “then, -being his son, you will be the Maya high priest?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“No, senor,” the peon shook his head. “I am only -half-Maya. I cannot read the knots. My father did not -teach me because I was not of the pure Maya blood.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And if he should die, right now, is there any other -Maya who can read the knots?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“No, senor. My father is the last living man who -knows that ancient language.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But the conversation was broken in upon by Leoncia -and Ricardo, who, having tethered their mules with the -others, were gazing sheepishly down from the rim of the -depression. The faces of Henry and Francis lighted with -joy at the sight of Leoncia, while their mouths opened and -their tongues articulated censure and scolding. Also, they -insisted on her returning with Ricardo.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But you cannot send me away before giving me something -to eat,” she persisted, slipping down the slope of -the depression with pure feminine cunning in order to place -the discussion on a closer and more intimate basis.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Aroused by their voices, the old Maya came out of a -trance of prayer and observed her with wrath. And in -wrath he burst upon her, intermingling occasional Spanish -words and phrases with the flood of denunciation in Maya.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“He says that women are no good,” the peon interpreted -in the first pause. “He says women bring quarrels among -men, the quick steel, the sudden death. Bad luck and -God’s wrath are ever upon them. Their ways are not -God’s ways, and they lead men to destruction. He says -women are the eternal enemy of God and man, forever -keeping God and man apart. He says women have ever -cluttered the foot-steps of God and have kept men away -from travelling the path of God to God. He says this -woman must go back.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>With laughing eyes, Francis whistled his appreciation -of the diatribe, while Henry said:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Now will you be good, Leoncia? You see what a -Maya thinks of your sex. This is no place for you. California’s -the place. Women vote there.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The trouble is that the old man is remembering the -woman who brought misfortune upon him in the heyday of -<span class='pageno' id='Page_129'>129</span>his youth,” Francis said. He turned to the peon. “Ask -your father to read the knot-writing and see what it says -for or against women traveling in the foot-steps of God.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>In vain the ancient high priest fumbled the sacred writing. -There was not to be found the slightest authoritative objection -to woman.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“He’s mixing his own experiences up with his -mythology,” Francis grinned triumphantly. “So I guess -it’s pretty near all right, Leoncia, for you to stay for a -bite to eat. The coffee’s made. After that....”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But “after that” came before. Scarcely had they -seated themselves on the ground and begun to eat, when -Francis, standing up to serve Leoncia with tortillas, had -his hat knocked off.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“My word!” he said, sitting down. “That was sudden. -Henry, take a squint and see who tried to pot-shoot me.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The next moment, save for the peon’s father, all eyes -were peeping across the rim of the foot-step. What they -saw, creeping upon them from every side, was a nondescript -and bizarrely clad horde of men who seemed members of -no particular race but composed of all races. The breeds -of the entire human family seemed to have moulded their -lineaments and vari-colored their skins.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The mangiest bunch I ever laid eyes on,” was Francis’ -comment.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“They are the Caroos,” the peon muttered, betraying -fear.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And who in——” Francis began. Instantly he -amended. “And who in Paradise are the Caroos?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“They come from hell,” was the peon’s answer. “They -are more savage than the Spaniard, more terrible than -the Maya. They neither give nor take in marriage, nor -does a priest reside among them. They are the devil’s -own spawn, and their ways are the devil’s ways, only -worse.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Here the Maya arose, and, with accusing finger, denounced -Leoncia for being the cause of this latest trouble. -A bullet creased his shoulder and half-whirled him about.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Drag him down!” Henry shouted to Francis. “He’s -the only man who knows the knot-language; and the eyes -of Chia, whatever that may mean, have not yet flashed.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Francis obeyed, with an out-reach of arm to the old -fellow’s legs, jerking him down in a crumpled, skeleton-like -fall.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_130'>130</span>Henry loosed his rifle, and elicited a fusillade in response. -Next, Ricardo, Francis, and the peon joined in. But the -old man, still running his knots, fixed his gaze across the -far rim of the foot-step upon a rugged wall of mountain -beyond.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Hold on!” shouted Francis, in a vain attempt to make -himself heard above the shooting.</p> - -<p class='c000'>He was compelled to crawl from one to another and -shake them into ceasing from firing. And to each, separately, -he had to explain that all their ammunition was -with the mules, and that they must be sparing with the -little they had in their magazines and belts.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And don’t let them hit you,” Henry warned. -“They’ve got old muskets and blunderbusses that will drive -holes through you the size of dinner-plates.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>An hour later, the last cartridge, save several in Francis’ -automatic pistol, was gone; and to the irregular firing of -the Caroos the pit replied with silence. José Mancheno -was the first to guess the situation. He cautiously crept -up to the edge of the pit to make sure, then signaled to -the Caroos that the ammunition of the besieged was exhausted -and to come on.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Nicely trapped, senors,” he exulted down at the defenders, -while from all around the rim laughter arose from -the Caroos.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But the next moment the change that came over the -situation was as astounding as a transformation scene in -a pantomime. With wild cries of terror the Caroos were -fleeing. Such was their disorder and haste that numbers -of them dropped their muskets and machetes.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Anyway, I’ll get you, Senor Buzzard,” Francis pleasantly -assured Mancheno, at the same time flourishing his -pistol at him.</p> - -<p class='c000'>He leveled his weapon as Mancheno fled, but reconsidered -and did not draw trigger.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I’ve only three shots left,” he explained to Henry, -half in apology. “And in this country one can never -tell when three shots will come in handiest, ‘as I’ve found -out, beyond a doubt, beyond a doubt.’”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Look!” the peon cried, pointing to his father and to -the distant mountainside. “That is why they ran away. -They have learned the peril of the sacred things of Maya.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The old priest, running over the knots of the tassel in -an ecstasy that was almost trance-like, was gazing fixedly -<span class='pageno' id='Page_131'>131</span>at the distant mountainside, from which, side by side and -close together, two bright flashes of light were repeating -themselves.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Twin mirrors could do it in the hands of a man,” was -Henry’s comment.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“They are the eyes of Chia,” the peon repeated. “It -is so written in the knots as you have heard my father say. -<em>Wait in the foot-steps of the God till the eyes of Chia -flash.</em>”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The old man rose to his feet and wildly proclaimed: -“<em>To find the treasure we must find the eyes!</em>”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“All right, old top,” Henry soothed him, as, with his -small traveler’s compass he took the bearings of the flashes.</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c000'>“He’s got a compass inside his head,” Henry remarked -an hour later of the old priest, who led on the foremost -mule. “I check him by the compass, and, no matter -how the natural obstacles compel him to deviate, he comes -back to the course as if he were himself a magnetic needle.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Not since leaving the foot-step, had the flashings been -visible. Only from that one spot, evidently, did the rugged -landscape permit the seeing of them. Rugged the country -was, broken into arroyos and cliffs, interspersed with forest -patches and stretches of sand and of volcanic ash.</p> - -<p class='c000'>At last the way became impassable for their mounts, -and Ricardo was left behind to keep charge of the mules -and mule-peons and to make a camp. The remainder of -the party continued on, scaling the jungle-clad steep that -blocked their way by hoisting themselves and one another -up from root to root. The old Maya, still leading, was oblivious -to Leoncia’s presence.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Suddenly, half a mile farther on, he halted and shrank -back as if stung by a viper. Francis laughed, and across -the wild landscape came back a discordant, mocking echo. -The last priest of the Mayas ran the knots hurriedly, -picked out a particular string, ran its knots twice, and -then announced:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“<em>When the God laughs, beware!—so say the knots.</em>”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Fifteen minutes were lost ere Henry and Francis succeeded -in only partly convincing him, by repeated trials of -their voices, that the thing was an echo.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Half an hour later, they debouched on a series of abrupt-rolling -sand-dunes. Again the old man shrank back. From -<span class='pageno' id='Page_132'>132</span>the sand in which they strode, arose a clamor of noise. -When they stood still, all was still. A single step, and -all the sand about them became vocal.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“<em>When the God laughs, beware!</em>” the old Maya warned.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Drawing a circle in the sand with his finger, which -shouted at him as he drew it, he sank down within it on -his knees, and as his knees contacted on the sand arose -a very screaming and trumpeting of sound. The peon -joined his father inside the noisy circle, where, with his -forefinger, the old man was tracing screeching cabalistic -figures and designs.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Leoncia was overcome, and clung both to Henry and -Francis. Even Francis was perturbed.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The echo was an echo,” he said. “But here is no -echo. I don’t understand it. Frankly, it gets my goat.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Piffle!” Henry retorted, stirring the sand with his foot -till it shouted again. “It’s the barking sand. On the -island of Kauai, down in the Hawaiian Islands, I have been -across similar barking sands——quite a place for tourists, -I assure you. Only this is a better specimen, and much -noisier. The scientists have a score of high-brow theories -to account for the phenomenon. It occurs in several other -places in the world, as I have heard. There’s only one -thing to do, and that is to follow the compass bearing -which leads straight across. Such sands do bark, but -they have never been known to bite.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But the last of the priests could not be persuaded out -of his circle, although they succeeded in disturbing him -from his prayers long enough to spout a flood of impassioned -Maya speech.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“He says,” the son interpreted, “that we are bent on -such sacrilege that the very sands cry out against us. He -will go no nearer to the dread abode of Chia. Nor will I. -His father died there, as is well known amongst the Mayas. -He says he will not die there. He says he is not old -enough to die.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The miserable octogenarian!” Francis laughed, and -was startled by the ghostly, mocking laugh of the echo, -while all about them the sand-dunes bayed in chorus. -“Too youthful to die! How about you, Leoncia? Are -you too young to die yet a while?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Say,” she smiled back, moving her foot slightly so as -to bring a moan of reproach from the sand beneath it. -“On the contrary, I am too old to die just because the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_133'>133</span>cliffs echo our laughter back at us and because the sandhills -bark at us. Come, let us go on. We are very close -to those flashings. Let the old man wait within his circle -until we come back.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>She cast off their hands and stepped forward, and as -they followed, all the dunes became inarticulate, while -one, near to them, down the sides of which ran a slide -of sand, rumbled and thundered. Fortunately for them, -as they were soon to learn, Francis, at abandoning the -mules, had equipped himself with a coil of thin, strong -rope.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Once across the sands they encountered more echoes. -On trials, they found their halloes distinctly repeated as -often as six or eight times.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Hell’s bells,” said Henry. “No wonder the natives -fight shy of such a locality!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Wasn’t it Mark Twain who wrote about a man whose -hobby was making a collection of echoes?” Francis -queried.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Never heard of him. But this is certainly some fine -collection of Maya echoes. They chose the region wisely -for a hiding place. Undoubtedly it was always sacred, -even before the Spaniards came. The old priests knew the -natural causes of the mysteries, and passed them over to -the herd as mystery with a capital ‘M’ and supernatural -in origin.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Not many minutes afterward they emerged on an open, -level space, close under a crannied and ledge-ribbed cliff, -and exchanged their single-file mode of progression to three-abreast. -The ground was a hard, brittle crust of surface, -so crystalline and dry as never to suggest that it was -aught else but crystalline and dry all the way down. In -an ebullition of spirits, desiring to keep both men on an -equality of favor, Leoncia seized their hands and started -them into a run. At the end of half a dozen strides the -disaster happened. Simultaneously Henry and Francis -broke through the crust, sinking to their thighs, -and Leoncia was only a second behind them in breaking -through and sinking almost as deep.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Hell’s bells!” Henry muttered. “It’s the very devil’s -own landscape.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And his low-spoken words were whispered back to him -from the nearby cliffs on all sides and endlessly and -sibilantly repeated.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_134'>134</span>Not at first did they fully apprehend their danger. It -was when, by their struggles, they found themselves waist-deep -and steadily sinking, that the two men grasped the -gravity of the situation. Leoncia still laughed at the predicament, -for it seemed no more than that to her.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Quicksand,” Francis gasped.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Quicksand!” all the landscape gasped back at him, and -continued to gasp it in fading ghostly whispers, repeating -it and gossiping about it with gleeful unction.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It’s a pot-hole filled with quicksand,” Henry corroborated.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Maybe the old boy was right in sticking back there on -the barking sands,” observed Francis.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The ghostly whispering redoubled upon itself and was -a long time in dying away.</p> - -<p class='c000'>By this time they were midway between waist and -arm-pits and sinking as methodically as ever.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Well, somebody’s got to get out of the scrape alive,” -Henry remarked.</p> - -<p class='c000'>And, even without discussing the choice, both men began -to hoist Leoncia up, although the effort and her weight -thrust them more quickly down. When she stood, free -and clear, a foot on the nearest shoulder of each of the -two men she loved, Francis said, though the landscape -mocked him:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Now, Leoncia, we’re going to toss you out of this. -At the word ‘Go!’ let yourself go. And you must strike -full length and softly on the crust. You’ll slide a little. -But don’t let yourself stop. Keep on going. Crawl out -to the solid land on your hands and knees. And, whatever -you do, don’t stand up until you reach the solid land.—Ready, -Henry?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Between them, though it hastened their sinking, they -swung her back and forth, free in the air, and, the third -swing, at Francis’ “Go!” heaved her shoreward.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Her obedience to their instructions was implicit, and, -on hands and knees, she gained the solid rocks of the shore.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Now for the rope!” she called to them.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But by this time Francis was too deep to be able to -remove the coil from around his neck and under one arm. -Henry did it for him, and, though the exertion sank him -to an equal deepness, managed to fling one end of the rope -to Leoncia.</p> - -<p class='c000'>At first she pulled on it. Next, she fastened a turn -<span class='pageno' id='Page_135'>135</span>around a boulder the size of a motor car, and let Henry -pull. But it was in vain. The strain or purchase was so -lateral that it seemed only to pull him deeper. The quicksand -was sucking and rising over his shoulders when -Leoncia cried out, precipitating a very Bedlam of echoes:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Wait! Stop pulling! I have an idea! Give me all the -slack! Just save enough of the end to tie under your -shoulders!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The next moment, dragging the rope after her by the -other end, she was scaling the cliff. Forty feet up, where -a gnarled and dwarfed tree rooted in the crevices, she -paused. Passing the rope across the tree-trunk, as over -a hook, she drew in the slack and made fast to a boulder -of several hundredweight.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Good for the girl!” Francis applauded to Henry.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Both men had grasped her plan, and success depended -merely on her ability to dislodge the boulder and topple it -off the ledge. Five precious minutes were lost, until she -could find a dead branch of sufficient strength to serve -as a crowbar. Attacking the boulder from behind and -working with tense coolness while her two lovers continued -to sink, she managed at the last to topple it over the -brink.</p> - -<p class='c000'>As it fell, the rope tautened with a jerk that fetched -an involuntary grunt from Henry’s suddenly constricted -chest. Slowly, he arose out of the quicksand, his progress -being accompanied by loud sucking reports as the sand -reluctantly released him. But, when he cleared the -surface, the boulder so outweighed him that he shot shoreward -across the crust until directly under the purchase -above, when the boulder came to rest on the ground beside -him.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Only Francis’ head, arms, and tops of shoulders were -visible above the quicksand when the end of the rope -was flung to him. And, when he stood beside them on -terra firma, and when he shook his fist at the quicksand -he had escaped by so narrow a shave, they joined with -him in deriding it. And a myriad ghosts derided them -back, and all the air about them was woven by whispering -shuttles into an evil texture of mockery.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_136'>136</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XIV</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c006'>“We can’t be a million miles away from it,” Henry said, -as the trio came to pause at the foot of a high steep -cliff. “If it’s any farther on, then the course lies right -straight over the cliff, and, since we can’t climb it and -from the extent of it it must be miles around, the source -of those flashes ought to be right here.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Now could it have been a man with looking-glasses?” -Leoncia ventured.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Most likely some natural phenomenon,” Francis -answered. “I’m strong on natural phenomena since those -barking sands.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Leoncia, who chanced to be glancing along the face of -the cliff farther on, suddenly stiffened with attention and -cried, “Look!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Their eyes followed hers, and rested on the same point. -What they saw was no flash, but a steady persistence of -white light that blazed and burned like the sun. Following -the base of the cliff at a scramble, both men remarked, -from the density of vegetation, that there had been no -travel of humans that way in many years. Breathless -from their exertions, they broke out through the brush -upon an open-space where a not-ancient slide of rock from -the cliff precluded the growth of vegetable life.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Leoncia clapped her hands. There was no need for -her to point. Thirty feet above, on the face of the cliff, -were two huge eyes. Fully a fathom across was each of -the eyes, their surfaces brazen with some white reflecting -substance.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The eyes of Chia!” she cried.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Henry scratched his head with sudden recollection.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I’ve a shrewd suspicion I can tell you what they’re -composed of,” he said. “I’ve never seen it before, but -I’ve heard old-timers mention it. It’s an old Maya trick. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_137'>137</span>My share of the treasure, Francis, against a perforated -dime, that I can tell you what the reflecting stuff is.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Done!” cried Francis. “A man’s a fool not to take -odds like that, even if it’s a question of the multiplication -table. Possibly millions of dollars against a positive bad -dime! I’d bet two times two made five on the chance -that a miracle could prove it. Name it? What is it? The -bet is on.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Oysters,” Henry smiled. “Oyster shells, or, rather, -pearl-oyster shells. It’s mother-of-pearl, cunningly -mosaicked and cemented in so as to give a continuous reflecting -surface. Now you have to prove me wrong, so -climb up and see.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Beneath the eyes, extending a score of feet up and down -the cliff, was a curious, triangular out-jut of rock. Almost -was it like an excrescence on the face of the cliff. The -apex of it reached within a yard of the space that intervened -between the eyes. Rough inequalities of surface, -and cat-like clinging on Francis’ part, enabled him to ascend -the ten feet to the base of the excrescence. Thence, -up to the ridge of it, the way was easier. But a twenty-five-foot -fall and a broken arm or leg in the midst of such -isolation was no pleasant thing to consider, and Leoncia, -causing an involuntary jealous gleam to light Henry’s eyes, -called up:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Oh, do be careful, Francis!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Standing on the tip of the triangle he was gazing, now -into one, and then into the other, of the eyes. He drew his -hunting knife and began to dig and pry at the right-hand -eye.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“If the old gentleman were here he’d have a fit at -such sacrilege,” Henry commented.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The perforated dime is yours,” Francis called down, -at the same time dropping into Henry’s outstretched palm -the fragment he had dug loose.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Mother-of-pearl it was, a flat piece cut with definite -purpose to fit in with the many other pieces to form the -eye.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Where there’s smoke there’s fire,” Henry adjudged. -“Not for nothing did the Mayas select this God-forsaken -spot and stick these eyes of Chia on the cliff.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Looks as if we’d made a mistake in leaving the old -gentleman and his sacred knots behind,” Francis said.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_138'>138</span>“The knots should tell all about it and what our next -move should be.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Where there are eyes there should be a nose,” Leoncia -contributed.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And there is!” exclaimed Francis. “Heavens! That -was the nose I just climbed up. We’re too close up against -it to have perspective. At a hundred yards’ distance it -would look like a colossal face.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Leoncia advanced gravely and kicked at a decaying deposit -of leaves and twigs evidently blown there by tropic -gales.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Then the mouth ought to be where a mouth belongs, -here under the nose,” she said.</p> - -<p class='c000'>In a trice Henry and Francis had kicked the rubbish -aside and exposed an opening too small to admit a man’s -body. It was patent that the rock-slide had partly blocked -the way. A few rocks heaved aside gave space for Francis -to insert his head and shoulders and gaze about with a -lighted match.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Watch out for snakes,” warned Leoncia.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Francis grunted acknowledgment and reported:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“This is no natural cavern. It’s all hewn rock, and -well done, if I’m any judge.” A muttered expletive announced -the burning of his fingers by the expiring match-stub. -And next they heard his voice, in accents of surprise: -“Don’t need any matches. It’s got a lighting system of -its own——from somewhere above——regular concealed -lighting, though it’s daylight all right. Those old Mayas -were certainly some goers. Wouldn’t be surprised if we -found an elevator, hot and cold water, a furnace, and a -Swede janitor.—Well, so long.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>His trunk, and legs, and feet disappeared, and then -his voice issued forth:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Come on in. The cave is fine.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And now aren’t you glad you let me come along?” -Leoncia twitted, as she joined the two men on the level -floor of the rock-hewn chamber, where, their eyes quickly -accustoming to the mysterious gray-percolation of daylight, -they could see about them with surprising distinctness. -“First, I found the eyes for you, and, next, the mouth. -If I hadn’t been along, most likely, by this time, you’d -have been half a mile away, going around the cliff and -going farther and farther every step you took.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_139'>139</span>“But the place is bare as old Mother Hubbard’s cupboard,” -she added, the next moment.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Naturally,” said Henry. “This is only the antechamber. -Not so sillily would the Mayas hide the treasure -the conquistadores were so mad after. I’m willing to wager -right now that we’re almost as far from finding the actual -treasure as we would be if we were not here but in San -Antonio.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Twelve or fifteen feet in width and of an unascertainable -height, the passage led them what Henry judged forty -paces, or well over a hundred feet. Then it abruptly narrowed, -turned at a right angle to the right, and, with a -similar right angle to the left, made an elbow into another -spacious chamber.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Still the mysterious percolation of daylight guided the -way for their eyes, and Francis, in the lead, stopped so suddenly -that Leoncia and Henry, in a single file behind, -collided with him. Leoncia in the center, and Henry on -her left, they stood abreast and gazed down a long avenue -of humans, long dead, but not dust.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Like the Egyptians, the Mayas knew embalming and -mummifying,” Henry said, his voice unconsciously sinking -to a whisper in the presence of so many unburied dead, who -stood erect and at gaze, as if still alive.</p> - -<p class='c000'>All were European-clad, and all exposed the impassive -faces of Europeans. About them, as to the life, were draped -the ages-rotten habiliments of the conquistadores and of the -English pirates. Two of them, with visors raised, were -encased in rusty armor. Their swords and cutlasses were -belted to them or held in their shriveled hands, and through -their belts were thrust huge flintlock pistols of archaic model.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The old Maya was right,” Francis whispered. -“They’ve decorated the hiding place with their mortal -remains and been stuck up in the lobby as a warning to -trespassers.—Say! If that chap isn’t a real Iberian! I’ll -bet he played haia-lai, and his fathers before him.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And that’s a Devonshire man if ever I saw one,” -Henry whispered back. “Perforated dimes to pieces-of-eight -that he poached the fallow deer and fled the king’s -wrath in the first forecastle for the Spanish Main.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Br-r-r!” Leoncia shivered, clinging to both men. “The -sacred things of the Mayas are deadly and ghastly. And -there is a classic vengeance about it. The would-be -<span class='pageno' id='Page_140'>140</span>robbers of the treasure-house have become its defenders, -guarding it with their unperishing clay.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>They were loath to proceed. The garmented spectres of -the ancient dead held them temporarily spell-bound. Henry -grew melodramatic.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Even to this far, mad place,” he said, “as early as -the beginning of the Conquest, their true-hound noses led -them on the treasure-scent. Even though they could not -get away with it, they won unerringly to it.—My hat -is off to you, pirates and conquistadores! I salute you, -old gallant plunderers, whose noses smelt out gold, and -whose hearts were brave sufficient to fight for it!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Huh!” Francis concurred, as he urged the other two -to traverse the avenue of the ancient adventurers. “Old -Sir Henry himself ought to be here at the head of the procession.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Thirty paces they took, ere the passage elbowed as -before, and, at the very end of the double-row of mummies, -Henry brought his companions to a halt as he pointed and -said:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I don’t know about Sir Henry, but there’s Alvarez -Torres.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Under a Spanish helmet, in decapitated medieval -Spanish dress, a big Spanish sword in its brown and withered -hand, stood a mummy whose lean brown face for all the -world was the lean brown face of Alvarez Torres. Leoncia -gasped, shrank back, and crossed herself at the sight.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Francis released her to Henry, advanced, and fingered -the cheeks and lips and forehead of the thing, and laughed -reassuringly:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I only wish Alvarez Torres were as dead as this dead one -is. I haven’t the slightest doubt, however, but what Torres -descended from him——I mean before he came here to take -up his final earthly residence as a member of the Maya -Treasure Guard.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Leoncia passed the grim figure shudderingly. This time, -the elbow passage was very dark, compelling Henry, who -had changed into the lead, to light numerous matches.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Hello!” he said, as he paused at the end of a couple -of hundred feet. “Gaze on that for workmanship! Look -at the dressing of that stone!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>From beyond, gray light streamed into the passage, -making matches unnecessary to see. Half into a niche -was thrust a stone the size of the passage. It was apparent -<span class='pageno' id='Page_141'>141</span>that it had been used to block the passage. The dressing -was exquisite, the sides and edges of the block precisely -aligned with the place in the wall into which it was made to -dovetail.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I’ll wager here’s where the old Maya’s father died,” -Francis exclaimed. “He knew the secret of the balances -and leverages that pivoted the stone, and it was only partly -pivoted, as you’ll observe——”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Hell’s bells!” Henry interrupted, pointing before him -on the floor at a scattered skeleton. “It must be what’s -left of him. It’s fairly recent, or he would have been -mummified. Most likely he was the last visitor before us.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The old priest said his father led men of the tierra -caliente here,” Leoncia reminded Henry.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Also,” Francis supplemented, “he said that none returned.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Henry, who had located the skull and picked it up, -uttered another exclamation and lighted a match to show -the others what he had discovered: Not only was the -skull dented with what must have been a blow from a -sword or a machete, but a shattered hole in the back of -the skull showed the unmistakable entrance of a bullet. -Henry shook the skull, was rewarded by an interior rattling, -shook again, and shook out a partly flattened bullet. -Francis examined it.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“From a horse-pistol,” he concluded aloud. “With -weak or greatly deteriorated powder, because, in a place -like this, it must have been fired pretty close to point -blank range and yet failed to go all the way through. And -it’s an aboriginal skull all right.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>A right-angled turn completed the elbow and gave them -access to a small but well-lighted rock chamber. From a -window, high up and barred with vertical bars of stone a -foot thick and half as wide, poured gray daylight. The -floor of the place was littered with white-picked bones of -men. An examination of the skulls showed them to be -those of Europeans. Scattered among them were rifles, -pistols, and knives, with, here and there, a machete.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Thus far they won, across the very threshold to the -treasure,” Francis said, “and, from the looks, began to -fight for its possession before they laid hands on it. Too -bad the old man isn’t here to see what happened to his -father.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_142'>142</span>“Might there not have been survivors who managed to -get away with the loot?” suggested Henry.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But at that moment, casting, his eyes from the bones to a -survey of the chamber, Francis saw what made him say:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Without doubt, no. See those gems in those eyes. -Rubies, or I never saw a ruby!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>They followed his gaze to the stone statue of a squat -and heavy female who stared at them red-eyed and open-mouthed. -So large was the mouth that it made a caricature -of the rest of the face. Beside it, carved similarly -of stone, and on somewhat more heroic lines, was a more -obscene and hideous male statue, with one ear of proportioned -size and the other ear as grotesquely large as the -female’s mouth.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The beauteous dame must be Chia all right,” Henry -grinned. “But who’s her gentleman friend with the elephant -ear and the green eyes?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Search me,” Francis laughed. “But this I do know: -those green eyes of the elephant-eared one are the largest -emeralds I’ve ever seen or dreamed of. Each of them is -really too large to possess fair carat value. They should -be crown jewels or nothing.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But a couple of emeralds and a couple of rubies, no -matter what size, should not constitute the totality of the -Maya treasure,” Henry contended. “We’re across the -threshold of it, and yet we lack the key——”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Which the old Maya, back on the barking sands, undoubtedly -holds in that sacred tassel of his,” Leoncia -said. “Except for these two statues and the bones on the -floor, the place is bare.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>As she spoke, she advanced to look the male statue over -more closely. The grotesque ear centered her attention, -and she pointed into it as she added: “I don’t know about -the key, but there is the key-hole.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>True enough, the elephantine ear, instead of enfolding -an orifice as an ear of such size should, was completely -blocked up save for a small aperture that not too remotely -resembled a key-hole. They wandered vainly about the -chamber, tapping the walls and floor, seeking for cunningly-hidden -passageways or unguessable clues to the hiding place -of the treasure.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Bones of tierra caliente men, two idols, two emeralds -of enormous size, two rubies ditto, and ourselves, are all -the place contains,” Francis summed up. “Only a couple -<span class='pageno' id='Page_143'>143</span>of things remain for us to do: go back and bring up -Ricardo and the mules to make camp outside; and bring -up the old gentleman and his sacred knots if we have to -carry him.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You wait with Leoncia, and I’ll go back and bring -them up,” Henry volunteered, when they had threaded -the long passages and the avenues of the erect dead and -won to the sunshine and the sky outside the face of the -cliff.</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c000'>Back on the barking sands the peon and his father knelt -in the circle so noisily drawn by the old man’s forefinger. -A local rain squall beat upon them, and, though the peon -shivered, the old man prayed on oblivious to what might -happen to his skin in the way of wind and water. It was -because the peon shivered and was uncomfortable that he -observed two things which his father missed. First, he -saw Alvarez Torres and José Mancheno cautiously venture -out from the jungle upon the sand. Next, he saw a miracle. -The miracle was that the pair of them trudged steadily -across the sand without causing the slightest sound to -arise from their progress. When they had disappeared -ahead, he touched his finger tentatively to the sand, and -aroused no ghostly whisperings. He thrust his finger into -the sand, yet all was silent, as was it silent when he -buffeted the sand heartily with the flat of his palm. The -passing shower had rendered the sand dumb.</p> - -<p class='c000'>He shook his father out of his prayers, announcing:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The sand no longer is noisy. It is as silent as the -grave. And I have seen the enemy of the rich Gringo -pass across the sand without sound. He is not devoid of -sin, this Alvarez Torres, yet did the sand make no sound. -The sand has died. The voice of the sand is not. Where -the sinful may walk, you and I, old father, may walk.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Inside the circle, the old Maya, with trembling forefinger -in the sand, traced further cabalistic characters; and the -sand did not shout back at him. Outside the circle it was -the same——because the sand had become wet, and because -it was the way of the sand to be vocal only when -it was bone-dry under the sun. He fingered the knots of -the sacred writing tassel.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It says,” he reported, “that when the sand no longer -talks it is safe to proceed. So far I have obeyed all instruction. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_144'>144</span>In order to obey further instruction, let us now -proceed.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>So well did they proceed, that, shortly beyond the -barking sands, they overtook Torres and Mancheno, -which worthy pair slunk off into the brush on one side, -watched the priest and his son go by, and took up their -trail well in the rear. While Henry, taking a short cut, -missed both couples of men.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_145'>145</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XV</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c006'>“Even so, it was a mistake and a weakness on my part -to remain in Panama,” Francis was saying to Leoncia, as -they sat side by side on the rocks outside the cave entrance, -waiting Henry’s return.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Does the stock market of New York then mean so much -to you?” Leoncia coquettishly teased; yet only part of it -was coquetry, the major portion of it being temporization. -She was afraid of being alone with this man whom she -loved so astoundingly and terribly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Francis was impatient.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I am ever a straight talker, Leoncia. I say what I -mean, in the directest, shortest way——”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Wherein you differ from us Spaniards,” she interpolated, -“who must garnish and dress the simplest thoughts -with all decorations of speech.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But he continued undeterred what he had started to say.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“There you are a baffler, Leoncia, which was just what -I was going to call you. I speak straight talk and true talk, -which is a man’s way. You baffle in speech, and flutter -like a butterfly——which, I grant, is a woman’s way and -to be expected. Nevertheless, it is not fair ... to me. -I tell you straight out the heart of me, and you understand. -You do not tell me your heart. You flutter and baffle, -and I do not understand. Therefore, you have me at a -disadvantage. You know I love you. I have told you -plainly. I? What do I know about you?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>With downcast eyes and rising color in her cheeks, she -sat silent, unable to reply.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You see!” he insisted. “You do not answer. You -look warmer and more beautiful and desirable than ever, -more enticing, in short; and yet you baffle me and tell me -nothing of your heart or intention. Is it because you are -woman? Or because you are Spanish?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>She felt herself stirred profoundly. Beyond herself, yet -<span class='pageno' id='Page_146'>146</span>in cool control of herself, she raised her eyes and looked -steadily in his as steadily she said:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I can be Anglo-Saxon, or English, or American, or -whatever you choose to name the ability to look things -squarely in the face and to talk squarely into the face of -things.” She paused and debated coolly with herself, and -coolly resumed. “You complain that while you have -told me that you love me, I have not told you whether -or not I love you. I shall settle that forever and now. I -do love you——”</p> - -<p class='c000'>She thrust his eager arms away from her.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Wait!” she commanded. “Who is the woman now? -Or the Spaniard? I had not finished. I love you. I am -proud that I love you. Yet there is more. You have -asked me for my heart and intention. I have told you -part of the one. I now tell you all of the other: I <em>intend</em> -to marry Henry.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Such Anglo-Saxon directness left Francis breathless.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“In heaven’s name, why?” was all he could utter.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Because I love Henry,” she answered, her eyes still -unshrinkingly on his.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And you ... you say you love <em>me</em>?” he quavered.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And I love you, too. I love both of you. I am a good -woman, at least I always used to think so. I still think -so, though my reason tells me that I cannot love two men -at the same time and be a good woman. I don’t care -about that. If I am bad, it is I, and I cannot help myself -for being what I was born to be.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>She paused and waited, but her lover was still speechless.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And who’s the Anglo-Saxon now?” she queried, with -a slight smile, half of bravery, half of amusement at the -dumbness of consternation her words had produced in him. -“I have told you, without baffling, without fluttering, my -full heart and my full intention.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But you can’t!” he protested wildly. “You can’t -love me and marry Henry.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Perhaps you have not understood,” she chided -gravely. “I intend to marry Henry. I love you. I love -Henry. But I cannot marry both of you. The law will -not permit. Therefore I shall marry only one of you. -It is my intention that that one be Henry.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Then why, why,” he demanded, “did you persuade -me into remaining?”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_147'>147</span>“Because I loved you. I have already so told you.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“If you keep this up I shall go mad!” he cried.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I have felt like going mad over it myself many times,” -she assured him. “If you think it is easy for me thus to -play the Anglo-Saxon, you are mistaken. But no Anglo-Saxon, -not even you whom I love so dearly, can hold -me in contempt because I hide the shameful secrets of -the impulses of my being. Less shameful I find it, for -me to tell them, right out in meeting, to you. If this be -Anglo-Saxon, make the most of it. If it be Spanish, -and woman, and Solano, still make the most of it, for -I am Spanish, and woman——a Spanish woman of the -Solanos——”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But I don’t talk with my hands,” she added with a -wan smile in the silence that fell.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Just as he was about to speak, she hushed him, and both -listened to a crackling and rustling from the underbrush -that advertised the passage of humans.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Listen,” she whispered hurriedly, laying her hand -suddenly on his arm, as if pleading. “I shall be finally -Anglo-Saxon, and for the last time, when I tell you what -I am going to tell you. Afterward, and for always, I shall -be the baffling, fluttering, female Spaniard you have -chosen for my description. Listen: I love Henry, it is -true, very true. I love you more, much more. I shall -marry Henry ... because I love him and am pledged -to him. Yet always shall I love you more.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Before he could protest, the old Maya priest and his -peon son emerged from the underbrush close upon them. -Scarcely noticing their presence, the priest went down -on his knees, exclaiming, in Spanish:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“For the first time have my eyes beheld the eyes of -Chia.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>He ran the knots of the sacred tassel and began a -prayer in Maya, which, could they have understood, ran -as follows:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“O immortal Chia, great spouse of the divine Hzatzl -who created all things out of nothingness! O immortal -spouse of Hzatzl, thyself the mother of the corn, the divinity -of the heart of the husked grain, goddess of the rain and -the fructifying sun-rays, nourisher of all the grains and -roots and fruits for the sustenance of man! O glorious -Chia, whose mouth ever commands the ear of Hzatzl, to -thee humbly, thy priest, I make my prayer. Be kind to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_148'>148</span>me, and forgiving. From thy mouth let issue forth the -golden key that opens the ear of Hzatzl. Let thy faithful -priest gain to Hzatzl’s treasure——Not for himself, O -Divinity, but for the sake of his son whom the Gringo -saved. Thy children, the Mayas, pass. There is no need -for them of the treasure. I am thy last priest. With me -passes all understanding of thee and of thy great spouse, -whose name I breathe only with my forehead on the stones. -Hear me, O Chia, hear me! My head is on the stones -before thee!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>For all of five minutes the old Maya lay prone, quivering -and jerking as if in a catalepsy, while Leoncia and Francis -looked curiously on, themselves half-swept by the unmistakable -solemnity of the old man’s prayer, non-understandable -though it was.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Without waiting for Henry, Francis entered the cave a -second time. With Leoncia beside him, he felt quite like -a guide as he showed the old priest over the place. The -latter, ever reading the knots and mumbling, followed behind, -while the peon was left on guard outside. In the -avenue of mummies the priest halted reverently——not -so much for the mummies as for the sacred tassel.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is so written,” he announced, holding out a particular -string of knots. “These men were evil, and robbers. -Their doom here is to wait forever outside the inner room -of Maya mystery.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Francis hurried him past the heap of bones of his father -before him, and led him into the inner chamber, where first -of all, he prostrated himself before the two idols and -prayed long and earnestly. After that, he studied certain -of the strings very carefully. Then he made an<a id='t148'></a> announcement, -first in Maya, which Francis gave him to know -was unintelligible, and next in broken Spanish:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“<em>From the mouth of Chia to the ear of Hzatzl</em>——so is -it written.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Francis listened to the cryptic utterance, glanced into -the dark cavity of the goddess’ mouth, stuck the blade of -his hunting-knife into the key-hole of the god’s monstrous -ear, then tapped the stone with the hilt of his knife and -declared the statue to be hollow. Back to Chia, he was -tapping her to demonstrate her hollowness, when the old -Maya muttered:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“<em>The feet of Chia rest upon nothingness.</em>”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_149'>149</span>Francis caught by the idea, made the old man verify -the message by the knots.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Her feet <em>are</em> large,” Leoncia laughed, “but they rest -on the solid rock-floor and not on nothingness.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Francis pushed against the female deity with his hand -and found that she moved easily. Gripping her with both -hands, he began to wrestle, moving her with quick jerks -and twists.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“<em>For the strong men and unafraid will Chia walk</em>,” -the priest read. “But the next three knots declare: -<em>Beware! Beware! Beware!</em>”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Well, I guess, that nothingness, whatever it is, won’t -bite me,” Francis chuckled, as he released the statue after -shifting it a yard from its original position.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“There, old lady, stand there for a while, or sit down -if that will rest your feet. They ought to be tired after -standing on nothing for so many centuries.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>A cry from Leoncia drew his gaze to the portion of the -floor just vacated by the large feet of Chia. Stepping -backward from the displaced goddess, he had been just -about to fall into the rock-hewn hole her feet had concealed. -It was circular, and a full yard in diameter. In vain he -tested the depth by dropping lighted matches. They fell -burning, and, without reaching bottom, still falling, were -extinguished by the draught of their flight.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It looks very much like nothingness without a bottom,” -he adjudged, as he dropped a tiny stone fragment.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Many seconds they listened ere they heard it strike.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Even that may not be the bottom,” Leoncia suggested. -“It may have been struck against some projection from -the side and even lodged there.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Well, this will determine it,” Francis cried, seizing an -ancient musket from among the bones on the floor and -preparing to drop it.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But the old man stopped him.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The message of the sacred knots is: <em>whoso violates -the nothingness beneath the feet of Chia shall quickly and -terribly die</em>.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Far be it from me to make a stir in the void,” -Francis grinned, tossing the musket aside. “But what -are we to do now, old Maya man? From the mouth of -Chia to the ear of Hzatzl sounds easy——but how?—and -what? Run the sacred knots with thy fingers, old top, -and find for us <em>how</em> and <em>what</em>.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_150'>150</span>For the son of the priest, the peon with the frayed knees, -the clock had struck. All unaware, he had seen his last -sun-rise. No matter what happened this day, no matter -what blind efforts he might make to escape, the day was -to be his last day. Had he remained on guard at the cave-entrance, -he would surely have been killed by Torres and -Mancheno, who had arrived close on his heels.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But, instead of so remaining, it entered his cautious, -timid soul to make a scout out and beyond for possible foes. -Thus, he missed death in the daylight under the sky. Yet -the pace of the hands of the clock was unalterable, and -neither nearer nor farther was his destined end from him.</p> - -<p class='c000'>While he scouted, Alvarez Torres and José Mancheno -arrived at the cave-opening. The colossal, mother-of-pearl -eyes of Chia on the wall of the cliff were too much for the -superstition-reared Caroo.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Do you go in,” he told Torres. “I will wait here and -watch and guard.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And Torres, with strong in him the blood of the ancient -forebear who stood faithfully through the centuries in the -avenue of the mummy dead, entered the Maya cave as -courageously as that forebear had entered.</p> - -<p class='c000'>And the instant he was out of sight, José Mancheno, -unafraid to murder treacherously any living, breathing -man, but greatly afraid of the unseen world behind unexplainable -phenomena, forgot the trust of watch and ward -and stole away through the jungle. Thus, the peon, returning -reassured from his scout and curious to learn the -Maya secrets of his father and of the sacred tassel, found -nobody at the cave mouth and himself entered into it -close upon the heels of Torres.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The latter trod softly and cautiously, for fear of disclosing -his presence to those he trailed. Also his progress was -still further delayed by the spectacle of the ancient dead -in the hall of mummies. Curiously he examined these -men whom history had told about, and for whom history -had stopped there in the antechamber of the Maya gods. -Especially curious was he at the sight of the mummy at -the end of the line. The resemblance to him was too -striking for him not to see, and he could not but believe -that he was looking upon some direct great-ancestor of his.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Still gazing and speculating, he was warned by approaching -foot-steps, and glanced about for some place to hide. -A sardonic humor seized him. Taking the helmet from -<span class='pageno' id='Page_151'>151</span>the head of his ancient kin, he placed it on his own head. -Likewise did he drape the rotten mantle about his form, -and equip himself with the great sword and the great -floppy boots that almost fell to pieces as he pulled them -on. Next, half tenderly, he deposited the nude mummy -on its back in the dark shadows behind the other mummies. -And, finally, in the same spot at the end of the line, his -hand resting on the sword-hilt, he assumed the same posture -he had observed of the mummy.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Only his eyes moved as he observed the peon venturing -slowly and fearfully along the avenue of upright corpses. -At sight of Torres he came to an abrupt stop and with -wide eyes of dread muttered a succession of Maya prayers. -Torres, so confronted, could only listen with closed eyes -and conjecture. When he heard the peon move on he -stole a look and saw him pause with apprehension at the -narrow elbow-turn of the passage which he must venture -next. Torres saw his chance and swung the sword aloft -for the blow that would split the peon’s head in twain.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Though this was the day and the very hour for the peon, -the last second had not yet ticked. Not there, in the thoroughfare -of the dead, was he destined to die under the -hand of Torres. For Torres held his hand and slowly -lowered the point of the sword to the floor, while the peon -passed on into the elbow.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The latter met up with his father, Leoncia, and Francis, -just as Francis was demanding the priest to run the knots -again for fuller information of the how and what that -would open the ear of Hzatzl.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Put your hand into the mouth of Chia and draw forth -the key,” the old man commanded his reluctant son, who -went about obeying him most gingerly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“She won’t bite you——she’s stone,” Francis laughed -at him in Spanish.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The Maya gods are never stone,” the old man reproved -him. “They seem to be stone, but they are alive, and -ever alive, and under the stone, and through the stone, and -by the stone, as always, work their everlasting will.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Leoncia shuddered away from him and clung against -Francis, her hand on his arm, as if for protection.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I know that something terrible is going to happen,” -she gasped. “I don’t like this place in the heart of a -mountain among all these dead old things. I like the blue -of the sky and the balm of the sunshine, and the widespreading -<span class='pageno' id='Page_152'>152</span>sea. Something terrible is going to happen. -I know that something terrible is going to happen.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>While Francis reassured her, the last seconds of the last -minute for the peon were ticking off. And when, summoning -all his courage, he thrust his hand into the mouth -of the goddess, the last second ticked and the clock -struck. With a scream of terror he pulled back his hand -and gazed at the wrist where a tiny drop of blood exuded -directly above an artery. The mottled head of a snake -thrust forth like a mocking, derisive tongue and drew back -and disappeared in the darkness of the mouth of the -goddess.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“A viperine!” screamed Leoncia, recognising the reptile.</p> - -<p class='c000'>And the peon, likewise recognising the viperine and -knowing his certain death by it, recoiled backward in -horror, stepped into the hole, and vanished down the nothingness -which Chia had guarded with her feet for so -many centuries.</p> - -<p class='c000'>For a full minute nobody spoke, then the old priest said: -“I have angered Chia, and she has slain my son.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Nonsense,” Francis was comforting Leoncia. “The -whole thing is natural and explainable. What more natural -than that a viperine should choose a hole in a rock for a lair? -It is the way of snakes. What more natural than that a -man, bitten by a viperine, should step backward? And what -more natural, with a hole behind him, than that he should -fall into it——”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“That is then just natural!” she cried, pointing to a -stream of crystal water which boiled up over the lips of -the hole and fountained up in the air like a geyser. “He -is right. Through stone itself the gods work their everlasting -will. He warned us. He knew from reading the -knots of the sacred tassel.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Piffle!” Francis snorted. “Not the will of the gods, -but of the ancient Maya priests who invented their gods -as well as this particular device. Somewhere down that -hole the peon’s body struck the lever that opened stone -flood-gates. And thus was released some subterranean body -of water in the mountain. This is that water. No goddess -with a monstrous mouth like that could ever have existed -save in the monstrous imaginations of men. Beauty and -divinity are one. A real and true goddess is always beautiful. -Only man creates devils in all their ugliness.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_153'>153</span>So large was the stream that already the water was -about their ankles.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It’s all right,” Francis said. “I noticed, all the -way from the entrance, the steady inclined plane of the -floors of the rooms and passages. Those old Mayas were -engineers, and they built with an eye on drainage. See how -the water rushes away out through the passage.—Well, old -man, read your knots, where is the treasure?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Where is my son?” the old man counter-demanded -in dull and hopeless tones. “Chia has slain my only born. -For his mother I broke the Maya law and stained the -pure Maya blood with the mongrel blood of a woman of -the tierra caliente. Because I sinned for him that he -might be, is he thrice precious to me. What care I for -treasure? My son is gone. The wrath of the Maya gods -is upon me.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>With gurglings and burblings and explosive air-bubblings -that advertised the pressure behind, the water fountained -high as ever into the air. Leoncia was the first to notice -the rising depth of the water on the chamber floor.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is half way to my knees,” she drew Francis’ attention.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And time to get out,” he agreed, grasping the situation. -“The drainage was excellently planned, perhaps. -But that slide of rocks at the cliff entrance has evidently -blocked the planned way of the water. In the other -passages, being lower, the water is deeper, of course, than -here. Yet is it already rising here on the general level. -And that way lies the only way out. Come!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Thrusting Leoncia to lead in the place of safety, he -caught the apathetic priest by the hand and dragged him -after. At the entrance of the elbow turn the water was -boiling above their knees. It was to their waists as they -emerged into the chamber of mummies.</p> - -<p class='c000'>And out of the water, confronting Leoncia’s astounded -gaze, arose the helmeted head and ancient-mantled body -of a mummy. Not this alone would have astounded her, -for other mummies were over-toppling, falling and being -washed about in the swirling waters. But this mummy -moved and made gasping noises for breath, and with eyes -of life stared into her eyes.</p> - -<p class='c000'>It was too much for ordinary human nature to bear——a -four-centuries old corpse dying the second death by -drowning. Leoncia screamed, sprang forward, and fled -<span class='pageno' id='Page_154'>154</span>the way she had come, while Francis, in his own way -equally startled, let her go past as he drew his automatic -pistol. But the mummy, finding footing in the swift rush -of the current, cried out:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Don’t shoot! It is I—Torres! I have just come back -from the entrance. Something has happened. The way -is blocked. The water is over one’s head and higher than -the entrance, and rocks are falling.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And your way is blocked in this direction,” Francis -said, aiming the revolver at him.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“This is no time for quarreling,” Torres replied. “We -must save all our lives, and, afterwards, if quarrel we -must, then quarrel we will.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Francis hesitated.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“What is happening to Leoncia?” Torres demanded -slyly. “I saw her run back. May she not be in danger -by herself?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Letting Torres live and dragging the old man by the -arm, Francis waded back to the chamber of the idols, followed -by Torres. Here, at sight of him, Leoncia screamed -her horror again.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It’s only Torres,” Francis reassured her. “He gave -me a devil of a fright myself when I first saw him. But -he’s real flesh. He’ll bleed if a knife is stuck into him.—Come, -old man! We don’t want to drown here like rats -in a trap. This is not all of the Maya mysteries. Read the -tale of the knots and get us out of this!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The way is not <em>out</em> but <em>in</em>,” the priest quavered.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And we’re not particular so long as we get away. But -how can we get in?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“From the mouth of Chia to the ear of Hzatzl,” was the -answer.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Francis was struck by a sudden grotesque and terrible -thought.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Torres,” he said, “there is a key or something inside -that stone lady’s mouth there. You’re the nearest. Stick -your hand in and get it.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Leoncia gasped with horror as she divined Francis’ vengeance. -Of this Torres took no notice, and gaily waded -toward the goddess, saying: “Only too glad to be of -service.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And then Francis’ sense of fair play betrayed him.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Stop!” he commanded harshly, himself wading to the -idol’s side.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_155'>155</span>And Torres, at first looking on in puzzlement, saw what -he had escaped. Several times Francis fired his pistol -into the stone mouth, while the old priest moaned “Sacrilege!” -Next, wrapping his coat around his arm and hand, -he groped into the mouth and pulled out the wounded viper -by the tail. With quick swings in the air he beat its -head to a jelly against the goddess’ side.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Wrapping his hand and arm against the possibility of -a second snake, Francis thrust his hand into the mouth -and drew forth a piece of worked gold of the shape and size -of the hole in Hzatzl’s ear. The old man pointed to the -ear, and Francis inserted the key.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Like a nickle-in-the-slot machine,” he remarked, as -the key disappeared from sight. “Now what’s going to -happen? Let’s watch for the water to drain suddenly -away.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But the great stream continued to spout unabated out -of the hole. With an exclamation, Torres pointed to the -wall, an apparently solid portion of which was slowly rising.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The way out,” said Torres.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“<em>In</em>, as the old man said,” Francis corrected. “Well, -anyway, let’s start.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>All were through and well along the narrow passage beyond, -when the old Maya, crying, “My son!” turned and -ran back.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The section of wall was already descending into its original -place, and the priest had to crouch low in order to pass it. -A moment later, it stopped in its old position. So accurately -was it contrived and fitted that it immediately shut off the -stream of water which had been flowing out of the idol room.</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c000'>Outside, save for a small river of water that flowed out of -the base of the cliff, there were no signs of what was vexing -the interior of the mountain. Henry and Ricardo, arriving, -noted the stream, and Henry observed:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“That’s something new. There wasn’t any stream of -water here when I left.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>A minute later he was saying, as he looked at a fresh slide -of rock: “This was the entrance to the cave. Now there is -no entrance. I wonder where the others are.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>As if in answer, out of the mountain, borne by the spouting -stream, shot the body of a man. Henry and Ricardo pounced -upon it and dragged it clear. Recognizing it for the priest, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_156'>156</span>Henry laid him face downward, squatted astride of him, and -proceeded to give him the first aid for the drowned.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Not for ten minutes did the old man betray signs of life, -and not until after another ten minutes did he open his eyes -and look wildly about.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Where are they?” Henry asked.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The old priest muttered in Maya, until Henry shook more -thorough consciousness into him.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Gone——all gone,” he gasped in Spanish.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Who?” Henry demanded, shook memory into the resuscitated -one, and demanded again.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“My son; Chia slew him. Chia slew my son, as she slew -them all.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Who are the rest?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Followed more shakings and repetitions of the question.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The rich young Gringo who befriended my son, the -enemy of the rich young Gringo whom men call Torres, and -the young woman of the Solanos who was the cause of all -that happened. I warned you. She should not have come. -Women are always a curse in the affairs of men. By her -presence, Chia, who is likewise a woman, was made angry. -The tongue of Chia is a viperine. By her tongue Chia struck -and slew my son, and the mountain vomited the ocean upon -us there in the heart of the mountain, and all are dead, slain -by Chia. Woe is me! I have angered the gods. Woe is me! -Woe is me! And woe upon all who would seek the sacred -treasure to filch it from the gods of Maya!”</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_157'>157</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XVI</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c006'>Midway between the out-bursting stream of water and the -rock-slide, Henry and Ricardo stood in hurried debate. Beside -them, crouched on the ground, moaned and prayed the -last priest of the Mayas. From him, by numerous shakings -that served to clear his addled old head, Henry had managed -to extract a rather vague account of what had occurred inside -the mountain.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Only his son was bitten and fell into that hole,” Henry -reasoned hopefully.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“That’s right,” Ricardo concurred. “He never saw any -damage, beyond a wetting, happen to the rest of them.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And they may be, right now, high up above the floor in -some chamber,” Henry went on. “Now, if we could attack -the slide, we might open up the cave and drain the water -off. If they’re alive they can last for many days, for lack of -water is what kills quickly, and they’ve certainly more water -than they know what to do with. They can get along without -food for a long time. But what gets me is how Torres -got inside with them.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Wonder if he wasn’t responsible for that attack of the -Caroos upon us,” Ricardo suggested.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But Henry scouted the idea.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Anyway,” he said, “that isn’t the present proposition——which -proposition is: how to get inside that mountain on -the chance that they are still alive. You and I couldn’t go -through that slide in a month. If we could get fifty men to -help, night and day shifts, we might open her up in forty-eight -hours. So, the primary thing is to get the men. Here’s -what we must do. I’ll take a mule and beat it back to that -Caroo community and promise them the contents of one of -Francis’ check-books if they will come and help. Failing -that, I can get up a crowd in San Antonio. So here’s where -I pull out on the run. In the meantime, you can work out -trails and bring up all the mules, peons, grub and camp -<span class='pageno' id='Page_158'>158</span>equipment. Also, keep your ears to the cliff——they might -start signalling through it with tappings.”</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c000'>Into the village of the Caroos Henry forced his mule——much -to the reluctance of the mule, and equally as much to -the astonishment of the Caroos, who thus saw their stronghold -invaded single-handed by one of the party they had -attempted to annihilate. They squatted about their doors -and loafed in the sunshine, under a show of lethargy hiding -the astonishment that tingled through them and almost put -them on their toes. As has been ever the way, the very -daring of the white man, over savage and mongrel breeds, -in this instance stunned the Caroos to inaction. Only a -man, they could not help but reason in their slow way, a -superior man, a noble or over-riding man, equipped with -potencies beyond their dreaming, could dare to ride into their -strength of numbers on a fagged and mutinous mule.</p> - -<p class='c000'>They spoke a mongrel Spanish which he could understand, -and, in turn, they understood his Spanish; but what he told -them concerning the disaster in the sacred mountain had no -effect of rousing them. With impassive faces, shrugging -shoulders of utmost indifference, they listened to his proposition -of a rescue and promise of high pay for their time.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“If a mountain has swallowed up the Gringos, then is it -the will of God, and who are we to interfere between God -and His will?” they replied. “We are poor men, but we -care not to work for any man, nor do we care to make war -upon God. Also, it was the Gringos’ fault. This is not their -country. They have no right here playing pranks on our -mountains. Their troubles are between them and God. We -have troubles enough of our own, and our wives are unruly.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Long after the siesta hour, on his third and most reluctant -mule, Henry rode into sleepy San Antonio. In the main -street, midway between the court and the jail, he pulled up -at sight of the Jefe Politico and the little fat old judge, with, -at their heels, a dozen gendarmes and a couple of wretched -prisoners——runaway peons from the henequen plantations -at Santos. While the judge and the Jefe listened to Henry’s -tale and appeal for help, the Jefe gave one slow wink to the -judge, who was his judge, his creature, body and soul of him.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Yes, certainly we will help you,” the Jefe said at the -end, stretching his arms and yawning.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_159'>159</span>“How soon can we get the men together and start?” -Henry demanded eagerly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“As for that, we are very busy——are we not, honorable -judge?” the Jefe replied with lazy insolence.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“We are very busy,” the judge yawned into Henry’s face.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Too busy for a time,” the Jefe went on. “We regret -that not to-morrow nor next day shall we be able to try and -rescue your Gringos. Now, a little later——”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Say next Christmas,” the judge suggested.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Yes,” concurred the Jefe with a grateful bow. “About -next Christmas come around and see us, and, if the pressure -of our affairs has somewhat eased, then, maybe possibly, we -shall find it convenient to go about beginning to attempt to -raise the expedition you have requested. In the meantime, -good day to you, Senor Morgan.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You mean that?” Henry demanded with wrathful face.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The very face he must have worn when he slew Senor -Alfaro Solano treacherously from the back,” the Jefe soliloquized -ominously.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But Henry ignored the later insult.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I’ll tell you what you are,” he flamed in righteous wrath.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Beware!” the judge cautioned him.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I snap my fingers at you,” Henry retorted. “You -have no power over me. I am a full-pardoned man by the -President of Panama himself. And this is what you are. -You are half-breeds. You are mongrel pigs.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Pray proceed, Senor,” said the Jefe, with the suave -politeness of deathly rage.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You’ve neither the virtues of the Spaniard nor of the -Carib, but the vices of both thrice compounded. Mongrel -pigs, that’s what you are and all you are, the pair of you.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Are you through Senor?—quite through?” the Jefe -queried softly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>At the same moment he gave a signal to the gendarmes, -who sprang upon Henry from behind and disarmed him.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Even the President of the Republic of Panama cannot -pardon in anticipation of a crime not yet committed——am I -right, judge?” said the Jefe.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“This is a fresh offense,” the judge took the cue promptly. -“This Gringo dog has blasphemed against the law.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Then shall he be tried, and tried now, right here, immediately. -We will not bother to go back and reopen court. -We shall try him, and when we have disposed of him, we -shall proceed. I have a very good bottle of wine——”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_160'>160</span>“I care not for wine,” the judge disclaimed hastily. -“Mine shall be mescal. And in the meantime, and now, -having been both witness and victim of the offense and there -being no need of evidence further than what I already -possess, I find the prisoner guilty. Is there anything you -would suggest, Senor Mariano Vercara é Hijos?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Twenty-four hours in the stocks to cool his heated Gringo -head,” the Jefe answered.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Such is the sentence,” the judge affirmed, “to begin at -once. Take the prisoner away, gendarmes, and put him in -the stocks.”</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c000'>Daybreak found Henry in the stocks, with a dozen hours -of such imprisonment already behind him, lying on his back -asleep. But the sleep was restless, being vexed subjectively -by nightmare dreams of his mountain-imprisoned companions, -and, objectively, by the stings of countless mosquitoes. -So it was, twisting and squirming and striking at -the winged pests, he awoke to full consciousness of his predicament. -And this awoke the full expression of his profanity. -Irritated beyond endurance by the poison from a -thousand mosquito-bites, he filled the dawn so largely with -his curses as to attract the attention of a man carrying a bag -of tools. This was a trim-figured, eagle-faced young man, -clad in the military garb of an aviator of the United States -Army. He deflected his course so as to come by the stocks, -and paused, and listened, and stared with quizzical admiration.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Friend,” he said, when Henry ceased to catch breath. -“Last night, when I found myself marooned here with half -my outfit left on board, I did a bit of swearing myself. But -it was only a trifle compared with yours. I salute you, sir. -You’ve an army teamster skinned a mile. Now if you don’t -mind running over the string again, I shall be better equipped -the next time I want to do any cussing.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And who in hell are you?” Henry demanded. “And -what in hell are you doing here?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I don’t blame you,” the aviator grinned. “With a face -swollen like that you’ve got a right to be rude. And who -beat you up? In hell, I haven’t ascertained my status yet. -But here on earth I am known as Parsons, Lieutenant Parsons. -I am not doing anything in hell as yet; but here in -Panama I am scheduled to fly across this day from the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_161'>161</span>Atlantic to the Pacific. Is there any way I may serve you -before I start?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Sure,” Henry nodded. “Take a tool out of that bag of -yours and smash this padlock. I’ll get rheumatism if I have -to stick here much longer. My name’s Morgan, and no man -has beaten me up. Those are mosquito-bites.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>With several blows of a wrench, Lieutenant Parsons -smashed the ancient padlock and helped Henry to his feet. -Even while rubbing the circulation back into his feet and -ankles, Henry, in a rush, was telling the army aviator of the -predicament and possibly tragic disaster to Leoncia and -Francis.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I love that Francis,” he concluded. “He is the dead -spit of myself. We’re more like twins, and we must be distantly -related. As for the senorita, not only do I love her but -I am engaged to marry her. Now will you help? Where’s -the machine? It takes a long time to get to the Maya Mountain -on foot or mule-back; but if you give me a lift in your -machine I’d be there in no time, along with a hundred sticks -of dynamite, which you could procure for me and with which -I could blow the side out of that mountain and drain off the -water.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Lieutenant Parsons hesitated.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Say yes, say yes,” Henry pleaded.</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c000'>Back in the heart of the sacred mountain, the three imprisoned -ones found themselves in total darkness the instant -the stone that blocked the exit from the idol chamber had -settled into place. Francis and Leoncia groped for each other -and touched hands. In another moment his arm was around -her, and the deliciousness of the contact robbed the situation -of half its terror. Near them they could hear Torres -breathing heavily. At last he muttered:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Mother of God, but that was a close shave! What next, -I wonder?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“There’ll be many nexts before we get out of this neck of -the woods,” Francis assured him. “And we might as well -start getting out.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The method of procedure was quickly arranged. Placing -Leoncia behind him, her hand clutching the hem of his -jacket so as to be guided by him, he moved ahead with his -left hand in contact with the wall. Abreast of him, Torres -felt his way along the right-hand wall. By their voices -<span class='pageno' id='Page_162'>162</span>they could thus keep track of each other, measure the width -of the passage, and guard against being separated into forked -passages. Fortunately, the tunnel, for tunnel it truly was, -had a smooth floor, so that, while they groped their way, -they did not stumble. Francis refused to use his matches -unless extremity arose, and took precaution against falling -into a possible pit by cautiously advancing one foot at a time -and ascertaining solid stone under it ere putting on his weight. -As a result, their progress was slow. At no greater speed -than half a mile an hour did they proceed.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Once only did they encounter branching passages. Here -he lighted a precious match from his waterproof case, and -found that between the two passages there was nothing to -choose. They were as like as two peas.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The only way is to try one,” he concluded, “and, if it -gets us nowhere, to retrace and try the other. There’s one -thing certain: these passages lead somewhere, or the Mayas -wouldn’t have gone to all the trouble of making them.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Ten minutes later he halted suddenly and cried warning. -The foot he had advanced was suspended in emptiness where -the floor should have been. Another match was struck, and -they found themselves on the edge of a natural cavern of -such proportions that neither to right nor left, nor up nor -down, nor across, could the tiny flame expose any limits to -it. But they did manage to make out a rough sort of stairway, -half-natural, half-improved by man, which fell away -beneath them into the pit of black.</p> - -<p class='c000'>In another hour, having followed the path down the length -of the floor of the cavern, they were rewarded by a feeble -glimmer of daylight, which grew stronger as they advanced. -Before they knew it, they had come to the source of it——being -much nearer than they had judged; and Francis, tearing -away vines and shrubbery, crawled out into the blaze of -the afternoon sun. In a moment Leoncia and Torres were -beside him, gazing down into a valley from an eyrie on a -cliff. Nearly circular was the valley, a full league in diameter, -and it appeared to be mountain-walled and cliff-walled for -its entire circumference.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is the Valley of Lost Souls,” Torres utterly solemnly. -“I have heard of it, but never did I believe.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“So have I heard of it and never believed,” Leoncia -gasped.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And what of it?” demanded Francis. “We’re not lost -souls, but good flesh-and-blood persons. We should worry.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_163'>163</span>“But Francis, listen,” Leoncia said. “The tales I have -heard of it, ever since I was a little girl, all agreed that no -person who ever got into it ever got out again.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Granting that that is so,” Francis could not help smiling, -“then how did the tales come out? If nobody ever -came out again to tell about it, how does it happen that -everybody outside knows about it?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I don’t know,” Leoncia admitted. “I only tell you -what I have heard. Besides, I never believed. But this -answers all the descriptions of the tales.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Nobody ever got out,” Torres affirmed with the same -solemn utterance.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Then how do you know that anybody got in?” Francis -persisted.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“All the lost souls live here,” was the reply. “That is -why we’ve never seen them, because they never got out. I -tell you, Mr. Francis Morgan, that I am no creature without -reason. I have been educated. I have studied in Europe, -and I have done business in your own New York. I know -science and philosophy; and yet do I know that this is the -valley, once in, from which no one emerges.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Well, we’re not in yet, are we?” retorted Francis with -a slight manifestation of impatience. “And we don’t have -to go in, do we?” He crawled forward to the verge of the -shelf of loose soil and crumbling stone in order to get a better -view of the distant object his eye had just picked out. “If -that isn’t a grass-thatched roof——”</p> - -<p class='c000'>At that moment the soil broke away under his hands. In -a flash, the whole soft slope on which they rested broke -away, and all three were sliding and rolling down the steep -slope in the midst of a miniature avalanche of soil, gravel, -and grass-tufts.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The two men picked themselves up first, in the thicket of -bushes which had arrested them; but, before they could get -to Leoncia, she, too, was up and laughing.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Just as you were saying we didn’t have to go into the -valley!” she gurgled at Francis. “Now will you believe?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But Francis was busy. Reaching out his hand, he caught -and stopped a familiar object bounding down the steep slope -after them. It was Torres’ helmet purloined from the chamber -of mummies, and to Torres he tossed it.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Throw it away,” Leoncia said.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It’s the only protection against the sun I possess,” was -his reply, as, turning it over in his hands, his eyes lighted -<span class='pageno' id='Page_164'>164</span>upon an inscription on the inside. He showed it to his companions, -reading it aloud:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“DA VASCO.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I have heard,” Leoncia breathed.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And you heard right,” Torres nodded. “Da Vasco was -my direct ancestor. My mother was a Da Vasco. He came -over the Spanish Main with Cortez.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“He mutinied,” Leoncia took up the tale. “I remember -it well from my father and from my Uncle Alfaro. With a -dozen comrades he sought the Maya treasure. They led a -sea-tribe of Caribs, a hundred strong including their women, -as auxiliaries. Mendoza, under Cortez’s instructions, pursued; -and his report, in the archives, so Uncle Alfaro told -me, says that they were driven into the Valley of the Lost -Souls where they were left to perish miserably.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And he evidently tried to get out by the way we’ve just -come in,” Torres continued, “and the Mayas caught him -and made a mummy of him.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>He jammed the ancient helmet down on his head, saying:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Low as the sun is in the afternoon sky, it bites my -crown like acid.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And famine bites at me like acid,” Francis confessed. -“Is the valley inhabited?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I should know, Senor,” Torres replied. “There is the -narrative of Mendoza, in which he reported that Da Vasco -and his party were left there ‘to perish miserably.’ This I -do know: they were never seen again of men.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Looks as though plenty of food could be grown in a place -like this——” Francis began, but broke off at sight of Leoncia -picking berries from a bush. “Here! Stop that, Leoncia! -We’ve got enough troubles without having a very charming -but very much poisoned young woman on our hands.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“They’re all right,” she said, calmly eating. “You can -see where the birds have been pecking and eating them.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“In which case I apologize and join you,” Francis cried, -filling his mouth with the luscious fruit. “And if I could -catch the birds that did the pecking, I’d eat them too.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>By the time they had eased the sharpest of their hunger-pangs, -the sun was so low that Torres removed the helmet -of Da Vasco.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“We might as well stop here for the night,” he said. “I -left my shoes in the cave with the mummies, and lost Da -<span class='pageno' id='Page_165'>165</span>Vasco’s old boots during the swimming. My feet are cut to -ribbons, and there’s plenty of seasoned grass here out of -which I can plait a pair of sandals.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>While occupied with this task, Francis built a fire and -gathered a supply of wood, for, despite the low latitude, the -high altitude made fire a necessity for a night’s lodging. Ere -he had completed the supply, Leoncia, curled up on her side, -her head in the hollow of her arm, was sound asleep. Against -the side of her away from the fire, Francis thoughtfully -packed a mound of dry leaves and dry forest mould.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_166'>166</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XVII</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c006'>Daybreak in the Valley of the Lost Souls, and the Long -House in the village of the Tribe of the Lost Souls. Fully -eighty feet in length was the Long House, with half as much -in width, built of adobe bricks, and rising thirty feet to a -gable roof thatched with straw. Out of the house feebly -walked the Priest of the Sun——an old man, tottery on his -legs, sandal-footed, clad in a long robe of rude home-spun -cloth, in whose withered Indian face were haunting reminiscences -of the racial lineaments of the ancient conquistadores. -On his head was a curious cap of gold, arched over by a -semi-circle of polished golden spikes. The effect was obvious, -namely, the rising sun and the rays of the rising sun.</p> - -<p class='c000'>He tottered across the open space to where a great hollow -log swung suspended between two posts carved with totemic -and heraldic devices. He glanced at the eastern horizon, -already red with the dawning, to reassure himself that he -was on time, lifted a stick, the end of which was fiber-woven -into a ball, and struck the hollow log. Feeble as he was, and -light as was the blow, the hollow log boomed and reverberated -like distant thunder.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Almost immediately, while he continued slowly to beat, -from the grass-thatched dwellings that formed the square -about the Long House, emerged the Lost Souls. Men and -women, old and young, and children and babes in arms, they -all came out and converged upon the Sun Priest. No more -archaic spectacle could be witnessed in the twentieth-century -world. Indians, indubitably they were, yet in many of their -faces were the racial reminiscences of the Spaniard. Some -faces, to all appearance, were all Spanish. Others, by the -same token, were all Indian. But betwixt and between, the -majority of them betrayed the inbred blend of both races. -But more bizarre was their costume——unremarkable in -the women, who were garbed in long, discreet robes of home-spun -cloth, but most remarkable in the men, whose home-spun -<span class='pageno' id='Page_167'>167</span>was grotesquely fashioned after the style of Spanish -dress that obtained in Spain at the time of Columbus’ first -voyage. Homely and sad-looking were the men and women—as -of a breed too closely interbred to retain joy of life. -This was true of the youths and maidens, of the children, -and of the very babes against breasts——true, with the -exception of two, one, a child-girl of ten, in whose face was -fire, and spirit, and intelligence. Amongst the sodden faces -of the sodden and stupid Lost Souls, her face stood out like -a flaming flower. Only like hers was the face of the old Sun -Priest, cunning, crafty, intelligent.</p> - -<p class='c000'>While the priest continued to beat the resounding log, -the entire tribe formed about him in a semi-circle, facing the -east. As the sun showed the edge of its upper rim, the priest -greeted it and hailed it with a quaint and medieval Spanish, -himself making low obeisance thrice repeated, while the -tribe prostrated itself. And, when the full sun shone clear of -the horizon, all the tribe, under the direction of the priest, -arose and uttered a joyful chant. Just as he had dismissed -his people, a thin pillar of smoke, rising in the quiet air -across the valley, caught the priest’s eye. He pointed it out, -and commanded several of the young men.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It rises in the Forbidden Place of Fear where no member -of the tribe may wander. It is some devil of a pursuer -sent out by our enemies who have vainly sought our hiding-place -through the centuries. He must not escape to make -report, for our enemies are powerful, and we shall be destroyed. -Go. Kill him that we may not be killed.”</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c000'>About the fire, which had been replenished at intervals -throughout the night, Leoncia, Francis, and Torres lay -asleep, the latter with his new-made sandals on his feet and -with the helmet of Da Vasco pulled tightly down on his head -to keep off the dew. Leoncia was the first to awaken, and -so curious was the scene that confronted her, that she -watched quietly through her down-dropped lashes. Three -of the strange Lost Tribe men, bows still stretched and -arrows drawn in what was evident to her as the interrupted -act of slaying her and her companions, were staring with -amazement at the face of the unconscious Torres. They -looked at each other in doubt, let their bows straighten, and -shook their heads in patent advertisement that they were not -going to kill. Closer they crept upon Torres, squatting on -<span class='pageno' id='Page_168'>168</span>their hams the better to scrutinize his face and the helmet, -which latter seemed to arouse their keenest interest.</p> - -<p class='c000'>From where she lay, Leoncia was able privily to nudge -Francis’ shoulder with her foot. He awoke quietly, and -quietly sat up, attracting the attention of the strangers. -Immediately they made the universal peace sign, laying -down their bows and extending their palms outward in token -of being weaponless.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Good morning, merry strangers,” Francis addressed -them in English, which made them shake their heads while -it aroused Torres.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“They must be Lost Souls,” Leoncia whispered to -Francis.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Or real estate agents,” he smiled back. “At least the -valley is inhabited.—Torres, who’re your friends? From -the way they regard you, one would think they were relatives -of yours.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Quite ignoring them, the three Lost Souls drew apart a -slight distance and debated in low sibilant tones.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Sounds like a queer sort of Spanish,” Francis observed.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It’s medieval, to say the least,” Leoncia confirmed.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It’s the Spanish of the conquistadores pretty badly gone -to seed,” Torres contributed. “You see I was right. The -Lost Souls never get away.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“At any rate they must give and be given in marriage,” -Francis quipped, “else how explain these three young -huskies?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But by this time the three huskies, having reached agreement, -were beckoning them with encouraging gestures to -follow across the valley.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“They’re good-natured and friendly cusses, to say the -least, despite their sorrowful mug,” said Francis, as they -prepared to follow. “But did you ever see a sadder-faced -aggregation in your life? They must have been born in the -dark of the moon, or had all their sweet gazelles die, or something -or other worse.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It’s just the kind of faces one would expect of lost -souls,” Leoncia answered.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And if we never get out of here, I suppose we’ll get to -looking a whole lot sadder than they do,” he came back. -“Anyway, I hope they’re leading us to breakfast. Those -berries were better than nothing, but that is not saying -much.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>An hour or more afterward, still obediently following their -<span class='pageno' id='Page_169'>169</span>guides, they emerged upon the clearings, the dwelling places, -and the Long House of the tribe.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“These are descendants of Da Vasco’s party and the -Caribs,” Torres affirmed, as he glanced over the assembled -faces. “That is incontrovertible on the face of it.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And they’ve relapsed from the Christian religion of -Da Vasco to old heathen worship,” added Francis. “Look -at that altar——there. It’s a stone altar, and, from the -smell of it, that is no breakfast, but a sacrifice that is -cooking, in spite of the fact that it smells like mutton.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Thank heaven it’s only a lamb,” Leoncia breathed. -“The old Sun Worship included human sacrifice. And -this is Sun Worship. See that old man there in the long -shroud with the golden-rayed cap of gold. He’s a sun -priest. Uncle Alfaro has told me all about the sun-worshipers.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Behind and above the altar, was a great metal image of -the sun.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Gold, all gold,” Francis whispered, “and without -alloy. Look at those spikes, the size of them, yet so pure -is the metal that I wager a child could bend them any way -it wished and even tie knots in them.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Merciful God!—look at that!” Leoncia gasped, indicating -with her eyes a crude stone bust that stood to one -side of the altar and slightly lower. “It is the face -of Torres. It is the face of the mummy in the Maya -cave.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And there is an inscription——” Francis stepped -closer to see and was peremptorily waved back by the -priest. “It says, ‘Da Vasco.’ Notice that it has the -same sort of helmet that Torres is wearing.—And, say! -Glance at the priest! If he doesn’t look like Torres’ full -brother, I’ve never fancied a resemblance in my life!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The priest, with angry face and imperative gesture, motioned -Francis to silence, and made obeisance to the cooking -sacrifice. As if in response, a flaw of wind put out the -flame of the cooking.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The Sun God is angry,” the priest announced with -great solemnity, his queer Spanish nevertheless being intelligible -to the newcomers. “Strangers have come among -us and remain unslain. That is why the Sun God is angry. -Speak, you young men who have brought the strangers -alive to our altar. Was not my bidding, which is ever -<span class='pageno' id='Page_170'>170</span>and always the bidding of the Sun God, that you should -slay them?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>One of the three young men stepped tremblingly forth, -and with trembling forefingers pointed at the face of Torres -and at the face of the stone bust.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“We recognised him,” he quavered, “and we could -not slay him for we remembered prophecy and that our -great ancestor would some day return. Is this stranger -he? We do not know. We dare not know nor judge. -Yours, O priest, is the knowledge, and yours be the judgment. -Is this he?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The priest looked closely at Torres and exclaimed incoherently. -Turning his back abruptly, he rekindled the -sacred cooking fire from a pot of fire at the base of an -altar. But the fire flamed up, flickered down, and died.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The Sun God is angry,” the priest reiterated; whereat -the Lost Souls beat their breasts and moaned and lamented. -“The sacrifice is unacceptable, for the fire will not burn. -Strange things are afoot. This is a matter of the deeper -mysteries which I alone may know. We shall not sacrifice -the strangers ... now. I must take time to inform -myself of the Sun God’s will.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>With his hands he waved the tribespeople away, ceasing -the ceremonial half-completed, and directed that the three -captives be taken into the Long House.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I can’t follow the play,” Francis whispered in Leoncia’s -ear, “but just the same I hope here’s where we eat.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Look at that pretty little girl,” said Leoncia, indicating -with her eyes the child with the face of fire and spirit.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Torres has already spotted her,” Francis whispered -back. “I caught him winking at her. He doesn’t know -the play, nor which way the cat will jump, but he isn’t -missing a chance to make friends. We’ll have to keep -an eye on him, for he’s a treacherous hound and capable of -throwing us over any time if it would serve to save his -skin.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Inside the Long House, seated on rough-plaited mats of -grass, they found themselves quickly served with food. -Clear drinking water and a thick stew of meat and vegetables -were served in generous quantity in queer, unglazed -pottery jars. Also, they were given hot cakes of ground -Indian corn that were not altogether unlike tortillas.</p> - -<p class='c000'>After the women who served had departed, the little -girl, who had led them and commanded them, remained. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_171'>171</span>Torres resumed his overtures, but she, graciously ignoring -him, devoted herself to Leoncia who seemed to fascinate -her.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“She’s a sort of hostess, I take it,” Francis explained. -“You know—like the maids of the village in Samoa, who -entertain all travellers and all visitors of no matter how -high rank, and who come pretty close to presiding at all -functions and ceremonials. They are selected by the high -chiefs for their beauty, their virtue, and their intelligence. -And this one reminds me very much of them, except that -she’s so awfully young.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Closer she came to Leoncia, and, fascinated though she -patently was by the beautiful strange woman, in her -bearing of approach there was no hint of servility nor sense -of inferiority.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Tell me,” she said, in the quaint archaic Spanish of -the valley, “is that man really Capitan Da Vasco returned -from his home in the sun in the sky?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Torres smirked and bowed, and proclaimed proudly: “I -am a Da Vasco.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Not <em>a</em> Da Vasco, but Da Vasco himself,” Leoncia -coached him in English.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It’s a good bet—play it!” Francis commanded, likewise -in English. “It may pull us all out of a hole. I’m -not particularly stuck on that priest, and he seems the -high-cockalorum over these Lost Souls.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I have at last come back from the sun,” Torres told -the little maid, taking his cue.</p> - -<p class='c000'>She favored him with a long and unwavering look, in -which they could see her think, and judge, and appraise. -Then, with expressionless face, she bowed to him respectfully, -and, with scarcely a glance at Francis, turned to -Leoncia and favored her with a friendly smile that was an -illumination.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I did not know that God made women so beautiful -as you,” the little maid said softly, ere she turned to go -out. At the door she paused to add, “The Lady Who -Dreams is beautiful, but she is strangely different from -you.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But hardly had she gone, when the Sun Priest, followed -by a number of young men, entered, apparently for the purpose -of removing the dishes and the uneaten food. Even -as some of them were in the act of bending over to pick -up the dishes, at a signal from the priest they sprang upon -<span class='pageno' id='Page_172'>172</span>the three guests, bound their hands and arms securely -behind them, and led them out to the Sun God’s altar -before the assembled tribe. Here, where they observed -a crucible on a tripod over a fierce fire, they were tied to -fresh-sunken posts, while many eager hands heaped fuel -about them to their knees.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Now buck up—be as haughty as a real Spaniard!” -Francis at the same time instructed and insulted Torres. -“You’re Da Vasco himself. Hundreds of years before, you -were here on earth in this very valley with the ancestors -of these mongrels.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You must die,” the Sun Priest was now addressing -them, while the Lost Souls nodded unanimously. “For -four hundred years, as we count our sojourn in this valley, -have we slain all strangers. You were not slain, and -behold the instant anger of the Sun God: <em>our altar fire -went out</em>.” The Lost Souls moaned and howled and -pounded their chests. “Therefore, to appease the Sun -God, you shall now die.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Beware!” Torres proclaimed, prompted in whispers, -sometimes by Francis, sometimes by Leoncia. “I am Da -Vasco. I have just come from the sun.” He nodded with -his head, because of his tied hands, at the stone bust. “I -am that Da Vasco. I led your ancestors here four hundred -years ago, and I left you here, commanding you to remain -until my return.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The Sun Priest hesitated.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Well, priest, speak up and answer the divine Da -Vasco,” Francis spoke harshly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“How do I know that he is divine?” the priest countered -quickly. “Do I not look much like him myself? -Am I therefore divine? Am I Da Vasco? Is he Da Vasco? -Or may not Da Vasco be yet in the sun?—for truly I know -that I am man born of woman three-score and eighteen -years ago and that I am not Da Vasco.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You have not spoken to Da Vasco!” Francis threatened, -as he bowed in vast humility to Torres and hissed -at him in English: “Be haughty, damn you, be haughty.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The priest wavered for the moment, and then addressed -Torres.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I am the faithful priest of the sun. Not lightly can -I relinquish my trust. If you are the divine Da Vasco, then -answer me one question.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Torres nodded with magnificent haughtiness.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_173'>173</span>“Do you love gold?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Love gold!” Torres jeered. “I am a great captain -in the sun, and the sun is made of gold. Gold? It is like -to me this dirt beneath my feet and the rock of which your -mighty mountains are composed.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Bravo,” Leoncia whispered approval.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Then, O divine Da Vasco,” the Sun Priest said humbly, -although he could not quite muffle the ring of triumph in -his voice, “are you fit to pass the ancient and usual -test. When you have drunk the drink of gold, and can -still say that you are Da Vasco, then will I, and all of -us, bow down and worship you. We have had occasional -intruders in this valley. Always did they come athirst for -gold. But when we had satisfied their thirst, inevitably -they thirsted no more, for they were dead.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>As he spoke, while the Lost Souls looked on eagerly, -and while the three strangers looked on with no less keenness -of apprehension, the priest thrust his hand into the -open mouth of a large leather bag and began dropping -handfuls of gold nuggets into the heated crucible of the -tripod. So near were they, that they could see the gold -melt into fluid and rise up in the crucible like the drink it -was intended to be.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The little maid, daring on her extraordinary position in -the Lost Souls Tribe, came up to the Sun Priest and spoke -that all might hear.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“That is Da Vasco, the Capitan Da Vasco, the divine -Capitan Da Vasco, who led our ancestors here the long long -time ago.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The priest tried to silence her with a frown. But the -maid repeated her statement, pointing eloquently from the -bust to Torres and back again; and the priest felt his grip -on the situation slipping, while inwardly he cursed the -sinful love of the mother of the little girl which had made -her his daughter.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Hush!” he commanded sternly. “These are things -of which you know nothing. If he be the Capitan Da -Vasco, being divine he will drink the gold and be unharmed.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Into a rude pottery pitcher, which had been heated in the -pot of fire at the base of the altar, he poured the molten -gold. At a signal, several of the young men laid aside their -spears, and, with the evident intention of prying her teeth -apart, advanced on Leoncia.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_174'>174</span>“Hold, priest!” Francis shouted stentoriously. “She -is not divine as Da Vasco is divine. Try the golden drink -on Da Vasco.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Whereat Torres bestowed upon Francis a look of malignant -anger.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Stand on your haughty pride,” Francis instructed him. -“Decline the drink. Show them the inside of your -helmet.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I will not drink!” Torres cried, half in a panic as the -priest turned to him.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You shall drink. If you are Da Vasco, the divine capitan -from the sun, we will then know it and we will fall -down and worship you.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Torres looked appeal at Francis, which the priest’s narrow -eyes did not fail to catch.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Looks as though you’ll have to drink it,” Francis said -dryly. “Anyway, do it for the lady’s sake and die like a -hero.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>With a sudden violent strain at the cords that bound -him, Torres jerked one hand free, pulled off his helmet, -and held it so that the priest could gaze inside.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Behold what is graven therein,” Torres commanded.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Such was the priest’s startlement at sight of the inscription, -DA VASCO, that the pitcher fell from his hand. The -molten gold, spilling forth, set the dry debris on the ground -afire, while one of the spearmen, spattered on the foot, -danced away with wild yells of pain. But the Sun Priest -quickly recovered himself. Seizing the fire pot, he was -about to set fire to the faggots heaped about his three -victims, when the little maid intervened.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The Sun God would not let the great captain drink -the drink,” she said. “The Sun God spilled it from your -hand.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And when all the Lost Souls began to murmur that there -was more in the matter than appeared to their priest, the -latter was compelled to hold his hand. Nevertheless was he -resolved on the destruction of the three intruders. So, -craftily, he addressed his people.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“We shall wait for a sign.—Bring oil. We will give the -Sun God time for a sign.——Bring a candle.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Pouring the jar of oil over the faggots to make them -more inflammable, he set the lighted stub of a candle in -the midst of the saturated fuel, and said:</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_175'>175</span>“The life of the candle will be the duration of the -time for the sign. Is it well, O People?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And all the Lost Souls murmured, “It is well.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Torres looked appeal to Francis, who replied:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The old brute certainly pinched on the length of -the candle. It won’t last five minutes at best, and, maybe, -inside three minutes we’ll be going up in smoke.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“What can we do?” Torres demanded frantically, while -Leoncia looked bravely, with a sad brave smile of love, -into Francis’ eyes.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Pray for rain,” Francis answered. “And the sky is -as clear as a bell. After that, die game. Don’t squeal too -loud.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And his eyes returned to Leoncia’s and expressed what -he had never dared express to her before——his full heart -of love. Apart, by virtue of the posts to which they were -tied and which separated them, they had never been so -close together, and the bond that drew them and united -them was their eyes.</p> - -<p class='c000'>First of all, the little maid, gazing into the sky for the -sign, saw it. Torres, who had eyes only for the candle -stub, nearly burned to its base, heard the maid’s cry and -looked up. And at the same time he heard, as all of them -heard, the droning flight as of some monstrous insect in -the sky.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“An aeroplane,” Francis muttered. “Torres, claim it -for the sign.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But no need to claim was necessary. Above them not -more than a hundred feet, it swooped and circled, the -first aeroplane the Lost Souls had ever seen, while from it, -like a benediction from heaven, descended the familiar:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Back to back against the mainmast,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Held at bay the entire crew.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c000'>Completing the circle and rising to an elevation of nearly -a thousand feet, they saw an object detach itself directly -overhead, fall like a plummet for three hundred feet, then -expand into a spread parachute, with beneath it like a -spider suspended on a web, the form of a man, which last, -as it neared the ground, again began to sing:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Back to back against the mainmast,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Held at bay the entire crew.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_176'>176</span>And then event crowded on event with supremest -rapidity. The stub of the candle fell apart, the flaming -wick fell into the tiny lake of molten fat, the lake flamed, -and the oil-saturated faggots about it flamed. And Henry, -landing in the thick of the Lost Souls, blanketing a goodly -portion of them under his parachute, in a couple of leaps -was beside his friends and kicking the blazing faggots -right and left. Only for a second did he desist. This was -when the Sun Priest interfered. A right hook to the jaw -put that aged confidant of God down on his back, and, -while he slowly recuperated and crawled to his feet, Henry -slashed clear the lashings that bound Leoncia, Francis, and -Torres. His arms were out to embrace Leoncia, when she -thrust him away with:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Quick! There is no time for explanation. Down on -your knees to Torres and pretend you are his slave——and -don’t talk Spanish; talk English.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Henry could not comprehend, and, while Leoncia reassured -him with her eyes, he saw Francis prostrate himself -at the feet of their common enemy.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Gee!” Henry muttered, as he joined Francis. “Here -goes. But it’s worse than rat poison.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Leoncia followed him, and all the Lost Souls went down -prone before the Capitan Da Vasco who received in their -midst celestial messengers direct from the sun. All went -down, except the priest, who, mightily shaken, was meditating -doing it, when the mocking devil of melodrama in -Torres’ soul prompted him to overdo his part.</p> - -<p class='c000'>As haughtily as Francis had coached him, he lifted his -right foot and placed it down on Henry’s neck, incidentally -covering and pinching most of his ear.</p> - -<p class='c000'>And Henry literally went up in the air.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You can’t step on my ear, Torres!” he shouted, at -the same time dropping him, as he had dropped the priest -with his right hook.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And now the beans are spilled,” Francis commented -in dry and spiritless disgust. “The Sun God stuff is -finished right here and now.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The Sun Priest, exultantly signaling his spearmen, -grasped the situation. But Henry dropped the muzzle of -his automatic pistol to the old priest’s midrif; and the -priest, remembering the legends of deadly missiles propelled -by the mysterious substance called “gunpowder,” smiled -appeasingly and waved back his spearmen.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_177'>177</span>“This is beyond my powers of wisdom and judgment,” -he addressed his tribespeople, while ever his wavering glance -returned to the muzzle of Henry’s pistol. “I shall appeal -to the last resort. Let the messenger be sent to wake the -Lady Who Dreams. Tell her that strangers from the sky, -and, mayhap, the sun, are here in our valley. And that -only the wisdom of her far dreams will make clear to us -what we do not understand, and what even I do not understand.”</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_178'>178</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XVIII</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c006'>Convoyed by the spearmen, the party of Leoncia, the two -Morgans, and Torres, was led through the pleasant fields, -all under a high state of primitive cultivation, and on across -running streams and through woodland stretches and knee -deep pastures where grazed cows of so miniature a breed -that, full-grown, they were no larger than young calves.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“They’re milch cows without mistake,” Henry commented. -“And they’re perfect beauties. But did you ever -see such dwarfs! A strong man could lift up the biggest -specimen and walk off with it.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Don’t fool yourself,” Francis spoke up. “Take that -one over there, the black one. I’ll wager it’s not an ounce -under three hundredweight.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“How much will you wager?” Henry challenged.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Name the bet,” was the reply.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Then a hundred even,” Henry stated, “that I can lift it -up and walk away with it.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Done.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But the bet was never to be decided, for the instant Henry -left the path he was poked back by the spearmen, who -scowled and made signs that they were to proceed straight -ahead.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Where the way came to lead past the foot of a very rugged -cliff, they saw above them many goats.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Domesticated,” said Francis. “Look at the herd boys.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I was sure it was goat-meat in that stew,” Henry -nodded. “I always did like goats. If the Lady Who -Dreams, whoever she may be, vetoes the priest and lets us -live, and if we have to stay with the Lost Souls for the rest -of our days, I’m going to petition to be made master goatherd -of the realm, and I’ll build you a nice little cottage, -Leoncia, and you can become the Exalted Cheese-maker to -the Queen.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But he did not whimsically wander farther, for, at that -<span class='pageno' id='Page_179'>179</span>moment, they emerged upon a lake so beautiful as to bring -a long whistle from Francis, a hand-clap from Leoncia, and -a muttered ejaculation of appreciation from Torres. Fully -a mile in length it stretched, with more than half the same -in width, and was a perfect oval. With one exception, no -habitation broke the fringe of trees, bamboo thickets, and -rushes that circled its shore, even along the foot of the cliff -where the bamboo was exceptionally luxuriant. On the -placid surface was so vividly mirrored the surrounding -mountains that the eye could scarcely discern where reality -ended and reflection began.</p> - -<p class='c000'>In the midst of her rapture over the perfect reflection, -Leoncia broke off to exclaim her disappointment in that the -water was not crystal clear:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“What a pity it is so muddy!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“That’s because of the wash of the rich soil of the valley -floor,” Henry elucidated. “It’s hundreds of feet deep, that -soil.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The whole valley must have been a lake at some time,” -Francis concurred. “Run your eye along the cliff and see -the old water-lines. I wonder what made it shrink.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Earthquake, most likely—opened up some subterranean -exit and drained it off to its present level—and keeps on -draining it, too. Its rich chocolate color shows the amount -of water that flows in all the time, and that it doesn’t have -much chance to settle. It’s the catch-basin for the entire -circling watershed of the valley.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Well, there’s one house at least,” Leoncia was saying -five minutes later, as they rounded an angle of the cliff and -saw, tucked against the cliff and extending out over the -water, a low-roofed bungalow-like dwelling.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The piles were massive tree-trunks, but the walls of the -house were of bamboo, and the roof was thatched with grass-straw. -So isolated was it, that the only access, except by -boat, was a twenty-foot bridge so narrow that two could not -walk on it abreast. At either end of the bridge, evidently -armed guards or sentries, stood two young men of the tribe. -They moved aside, at a gesture of command from the Sun -Priest, and let the party pass, although the two Morgans did -not fail to notice that the spearmen who had accompanied -them from the Long House remained beyond the bridge.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Across the bridge and entered into the bungalow-like -dwelling on stilts, they found themselves in a large room -better furnished, crude as the furnishings were, than they -<span class='pageno' id='Page_180'>180</span>would have expected in the Valley of Lost Souls. The grass -mats on the floor were of fine and careful weave, and the -shades of split bamboo that covered the window-openings -were of patient workmanship. At the far end, against the -wall, was a huge golden emblem of the rising sun similar to -the one before the altar by the Long House. But by far -most striking, were two living creatures who strangely inhabited -the place and who scarcely moved. Beneath the -rising sun, raised above the floor on a sort of dais, was a -many-pillowed divan that was half-throne. And on the -divan, among the pillows, clad in a softly-shimmering robe -of some material no one of them had seen before, reclined -a sleeping woman. Only her breast softly rose and softly fell -to her breathing. No Lost Soul was she, of the inbred and -degenerate mixture of Carib and Spaniard. On her head was -a tiara of beaten gold and sparkling gems so large that almost -it seemed a crown.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Before her, on the floor, were two tripods of gold——the -one containing smouldering fire, the other, vastly larger, a -golden bowl fully a fathom in diameter. Between the -tripods, resting with outstretched paws like the Sphinx, with -unblinking eyes and without a quiver, a great dog, snow-white -of coat and resembling a Russian wolf-hound, stedfastly -regarded the intruders.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“She looks like a lady, and seems like a queen, and certainly -dreams to the queen’s taste,” Henry whispered, and -earned a scowl from the Sun Priest.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Leoncia was breathless, but Torres shuddered and crossed -himself, and said:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“This I have never heard of the Valley of Lost Souls. -This woman who sleeps is a Spanish lady. She is of the pure -Spanish blood. She is Castilian. I am as certain, as that I -stand here, that her eyes are blue. And yet that pallor!” -Again he shuddered. “It is an unearthly sleep. It is as if -she tampered with drugs, and had long tampered with -drugs——”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The very thing!” Francis broke in with excited whispers. -“The Lady Who Dreams drug dreams. They must keep -her here doped up as a sort of super-priestess or super-oracle.—That’s -all right, old priest,” he broke off to say in Spanish. -“If we wake her up, what of it? We have been brought -here to meet her, and, I hope, awake.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The Lady stirred, as if the whispering had penetrated her -profound of sleep, and, for the first time, the dog moved, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_181'>181</span>turning his head toward her so that her down-dropping -hand rested on his neck caressingly. The priest was imperative, -now, in his scowls and gestured commands for silence. -And in absolute silence they stood and watched the awakening -of the oracle.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Slowly she drew herself half upright, paused, and re-caressed -the happy wolf hound, whose cruel fangs were -exposed in a formidable, long-jawed laugh of joy. Awesome -the situation was to them, yet more awesome it became to -them when she turned her eyes full upon them for the first -time. Never had they seen such eyes, in which smouldered -the world and all the worlds. Half way did Leoncia cross -herself, while Torres, swept away by his own awe, completed -his own crossing of himself and with moving lips -of silence enunciated his favorite prayer to the Virgin. Even -Francis and Henry looked, and could not take their gaze -away from the twin wells of blue that seemed almost dark -in the shade of the long black eyelashes.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“A blue-eyed brunette,” Francis managed to whisper.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But such eyes! Round they were, rather than long. -And yet they<a id='t181'></a> were not round. Square they might have -been, had they not been more round than square. Such -shape had they that they were as if blocked off in the -artist’s swift and sketchy way of establishing circles out -of the sums of angles. The long, dark lashes veiled them -and perpetuated the illusion of their darkness. Yet was -there no surprise nor startlement in them at first sight -of her visitors. Dreamily incurious were they, yet were -they languidly certain of comprehension of what they -beheld. Still further, to awe those who so beheld, her -eyes betrayed a complicated totality of paradoxical alivenesses. -Pain trembled its quivering anguish perpetually -impending. Sensitiveness moistly hinted of itself like a -spring rain-shower on the distant sea-horizon or a dew-fall -of a mountain morning. Pain—ever pain—resided in the -midst of languorous slumberousness. The fire of immeasurable -courage threatened to glint into the electric spark of -action and fortitude. Deep slumber, like a palpitant, tapestried -background, seemed ever ready to obliterate all in -sleep. And over all, through all, permeating all, brooded -ageless wisdom. This was accentuated by cheeks slightly -hollowed, hinting of asceticism. Upon them was a flush, -either hectic or of the paint-box.</p> - -<p class='c000'>When she stood up, she showed herself to be slender -<span class='pageno' id='Page_182'>182</span>and fragile as a fairy. Tiny were her bones, not too-generously -flesh-covered; yet the lines of her were not thin. -Had either Henry or Francis registered his impression -aloud, he would have proclaimed her the roundest thin -woman he had ever seen.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The Sun Priest prostrated his aged frame till he lay -stretched flat out on the floor, his old forehead burrowing -into the grass mat. The rest remained upright, although -Torres evidenced by a crumpling at the knees that he would -have followed the priest’s action had his companions shown -signs of accompanying him. As it was, his knees did partly -crumple, but straightened again and stiffened under the -controlled example of Leoncia and the Morgans.</p> - -<p class='c000'>At first the Lady had no eyes for aught but Leoncia; -and, after a careful looking over of her, with a curt upward -lift of head she commanded her to approach. Too imperative -by far was it, in Leoncia’s thought, to proceed from -so etherially beautiful a creature, and she sensed with immediacy -an antagonism that must exist between them. -So she did not move, until the Sun Priest muttered harshly -that she must obey. She approached, regardless of the -huge, long-haired hound, threading between the tripods and -past the beast, nor would stop until commanded by a second -nod as curt as the first. For a long minute the two women -gazed steadily into each other’s eyes, at the end of which, -with a flicker of triumph, Leoncia observed the other’s eyes -droop. But the flicker was temporary, for Leoncia saw that -the Lady was studying her dress with haughty curiosity. -She even reached out her slender, pallid hand and felt -the texture of the cloth and caressed it as only a woman -can.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Priest!” she summoned sharply. “This is the third -day of the Sun in the House of Manco. Long ago I told -you something concerning this day. Speak.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Writhing in excess of servility, the Sun Priest quavered:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“That on this day strange events were to occur. They -have occurred, O Queen.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Already had the Queen forgotten. Still caressing the -cloth of Leoncia’s dress, her eyes were bent upon it in -curious examination.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You are very fortunate,” the Queen said, at the same -time motioning her back to rejoin the others. “You are -well loved of men. All is not clear, yet does it seem that -you are too well loved of men.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_183'>183</span>Her voice, mellow and low, tranquil as silver, modulated -in exquisite rhythms of sound, was almost as a distant -temple bell calling believers to worship or sad souls to quiet -judgment. But to Leoncia it was not given to appreciate -the wonderful voice. Instead, only was she aware of anger -flaming up to her cheeks and burning in her pulse.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I have seen you before, and often,” the Queen went -on.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Never!” Leoncia cried out.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Hush!” the Sun Priest hissed at her.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“There,” the Queen said, pointing at the great golden -bowl. “Before, and often, have I seen you there.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You——also, there,” she addressed Henry.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And you,” she confirmed to Francis, although her -great blue eyes opened wider and she gazed at him long——too -long to suit Leoncia, who knew the stab of jealousy -that only a woman can thrust into a woman’s heart.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The Queen’s eyes glinted when they had moved on to -rest on Torres.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And who are you, stranger, so strangely appareled, the -helmet of a knight upon your head, upon your feet the -sandals of a slave?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I am Da Vasco,” he answered stoutly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The name has an ancient ring,” she smiled.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I am the ancient Da Vasco,” he pursued, advancing -unsummoned. She smiled at his temerity but did not stay -him. “This is the helmet I wore four hundred years ago -when I led the ancestors of the Lost Souls into this valley.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The Queen smiled quiet unbelief, as she quietly asked:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Then you were born four hundred years ago?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Yes, and never. I was never born. I am Da Vasco. -I have always been. My home is in the sun.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Her delicately stenciled brows drew quizzically to interrogation, -though she said nothing. From a gold-wrought -box beside her on the divan she pinched what seemed a -powder between a fragile and almost transparent thumb -and forefinger, and her thin beautiful lips curved to gentle -mockery as she casually tossed the powder into the great -tripod. A sheen of smoke arose and in a moment was -lost to sight.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Look!” she commanded.</p> - -<p class='c000'>And Torres, approaching the great bowl, gazed into it. -What he saw, the rest of his party never learned. But -the Queen herself leaned forward and gazing down from -<span class='pageno' id='Page_184'>184</span>above, saw with him, her face a beautiful advertisement -of gentle and pitying mockery. And what Torres himself -saw was a bedroom and a birth in the second story of the -Bocas del Toro house he had inherited. Pitiful it was, -with its last secrecy exposed, as was the gently smiling pity -in the Queen’s face. And, in that flashing glimpse of magic -vision, Torres saw confirmed about himself what he had -always guessed and suspected.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Would you see more,” the Queen softly mocked. “I -have shown you the beginning of you. Look now, and -behold your ending.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But Torres, too deeply impressed by what he had already -seen, shuddered away in recoil.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Forgive me, Beautiful Woman,” he pleaded. “And -let me pass. Forget, as I shall hope ever to forget.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is gone,” she said, with a careless wave of her hand -over the bowl. “But I cannot forget. The record will persist -always in my mind. But you, O Man, so young of life, -so ancient of helmet, have I beheld before this day, there in -my Mirror of the World. You have vexed me much of late -with your portending. Yet not with the helmet.” She -smiled with quiet wisdom. “Always, it seems to me, I saw -a chamber of the dead, of the long dead, upright on their -unmoving legs and guarding through eternity mysteries alien -to their faith and race. And in that dolorous company did -it seem that I saw one who wore your ancient helmet.... -Shall I speak further?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“No, no,” Torres implored.</p> - -<p class='c000'>She bowed and nodded him back. Next, her scrutiny -centred on Francis, whom she nodded forward. She stood -up upon the dais as if to greet him, and, as if troubled by -the fact that she must gaze down on him, stepped from the -dais to the floor so that she might gaze up into his face as -she extended her hand. Hesitatingly he took her hand in -his, then knew not what next to do. Almost did it appear -that she read his thought, for she said:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Do it. I have never had it done to me before. I have -never seen it done, save in my dreams and in the visions -shown me in my Mirror of the World.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And Francis bent and kissed her hand. And, because she -did not signify to withdraw it, he continued to hold it, while, -against his palm, he felt the faint but steady pulse of her -pink finger-tips. And so they stood in pose, neither speaking, -Francis embarrassed, the Queen sighing faintly, while -<span class='pageno' id='Page_185'>185</span>the sex anger of woman tore at Leoncia’s heart, until Henry -blurted out in gleeful English:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Do it again, Francis! She likes it!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The Sun Priest hissed silencing command at him. But -the Queen, half withdrawing her hand with a startle like a -maiden’s, returned it as deeply as before into Francis’ clasp, -and addressed herself to Henry.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I, too, know the language you speak,” she admonished. -“Yet am I unashamed, I, who have never known a man, -do admit that I like it. It is the first kiss that I have ever -had. Francis——for such your friend calls you——obey -your friend. I like it. I do like it. Once again kiss my -hand.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Francis obeyed, waited while her hand still lingered in -his, and while she, oblivious to all else, as if toying with -some beautiful thought, gazed lingeringly up into his eyes. -By a visible effort she pulled herself together, released his -hand abruptly, gestured him back to the others, and addressed -the Sun Priest.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Well, priest,” she said, with a return of the sharpness -in her voice, “You have brought these captives here for a -reason which I already know. Yet would I hear you state -it yourself.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“O Lady Who Dreams, shall we not kill these intruders -as has ever been our custom? The people are mystified and -in doubt of my judgment, and demand decision from you.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And you would kill?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Such is my judgment. I seek now your judgment that -yours and mine may be one.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>She glanced over the faces of the four captives. For -Torres, her brooding expression portrayed only pity. To -Leoncia she extended a frown; to Henry, doubt. And upon -Francis she gazed a full minute, her face growing tender, -at least to Leoncia’s angry observation.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Are any of you unmarried?” the Queen asked suddenly. -“Nay,” she anticipated them. “It is given me to know -that you are all unmarried.” She turned quickly to Leoncia. -“Is it well,” she demanded, “that a woman should have -two husbands?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Both Henry and Francis could not refrain from smiling -their amusement at so absurdly irrelevant a question. But -to Leoncia it was neither absurd nor irrelevant, and in her -cheeks arose the flush of anger again. This was a woman, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_186'>186</span>she knew, with whom she had to deal, and who was dealing -with her like a woman.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is not well,” Leoncia answered, with clear, ringing -voice.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is very strange,” the Queen pondered aloud. “It is -very strange. Yet is it not fair. Since there are equal numbers -of men and women in the world, it cannot be fair for -one woman to have two husbands, for, if so, it means that -another woman shall have no husband.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Another pinch of dust she tossed into the great bowl of -gold. The sheen of smoke arose and vanished as before.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The Mirror of the World will tell me, priest, what disposition -shall be made of our captives.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Just ere she leaned over to gaze into the bowl, a fresh -thought deflected her. With an embracing wave of arm she -invited them all up to the bowl.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“We may all look,” she said. “I do not promise you we -will see the same visions of our dreams. Nor shall I know -what you will have seen. Each for himself will see and -know.——You, too, priest.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>They found the bowl, six feet in diameter that it was, half-full -of some unknown metal liquid.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It might be quicksilver, but it isn’t,” Henry whispered -to Francis. “I have never seen the like of any similar metal. -It strikes me as hotly molten.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is very cold,” the Queen corrected him in English. -“Yet is it fire.—You, Francis, feel the bowl outside.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>He obeyed, laying his full palm unhesitatingly to the -yellow outer surface.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Colder than the atmosphere of the room,” he adjudged.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But look!” the Queen cried, tossing more powder upon -the contents. “It is fire that remains cold.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is the powder that smokes with the heat of its own -containment,” Torres blurted out, at the same time feeling -into the bottom of his coat pocket. He drew forth a pinch -of crumbs of tobacco, match splinters, and cloth-fluff. -“This will not burn,” he challenged, inviting invitation by -extending the pinch of rubbish over the bowl as if to drop -it in.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The Queen nodded consent, and all saw the rubbish fall -upon the liquid metal surface. The particles made no indentation -on that surface. Only did they transform into smoke -that sheened upward and was gone. No remnant of ash -remained.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_187'>187</span>“Still is it cold,” said Torres, imitating Francis and feeling -the outside of the bowl.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Thrust your finger into the contents,” the Queen suggested -to Torres.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“No,” he said.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You are right,” she confirmed. “Had you done so, -you would now be with one finger less than the number with -which you were born.” She tossed in more powder. “Now -shall each behold what he alone will behold.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And it was so.</p> - -<p class='c000'>To Leoncia was it given to see an ocean separate her and -Francis. To Henry was it given to see the Queen and Francis -married by so strange a ceremony, that scarcely did he -realise, until at the close, that it was a wedding taking place. -The Queen, from a flying gallery in a great house, looked -down into a magnificent drawing-room that Francis would -have recognized as builded by his father had her vision been -his. And, beside her, his arm about her, she saw Francis. -Francis saw but one thing, vastly perturbing, the face of -Leoncia, immobile as death, with thrust into it, squarely -between the eyes, a slender-bladed dagger. Yet he did not -see any blood flowing from the wound of the dagger. Torres -glimpsed the beginning of what he knew must be his end, -crossed himself, and alone of all of them shrank back, refusing -to see further. While the Sun Priest saw the vision of -his secret sin, the face and form of the woman for whom -he had betrayed the Worship of the Sun, and the face and -form of the maid of the village at the Long House.</p> - -<p class='c000'>As all drew back by common consent when the visions -faded, Leoncia turned like a tigress, with flashing eyes, upon -the Queen, crying:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Your mirror lies! Your Mirror of the World lies!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Francis and Henry, still under the heavy spell of what -they had themselves beheld, were startled and surprised by -Leoncia’s outburst. But the Queen, speaking softly, replied:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“My Mirror of the World has never lied. I know not -what you saw. But I do know, whatever it was, that it is -truth.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You are a monster!” Leoncia cried on. “You are a -vile witch that lies!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You and I are women,” the Queen chided with sweet -gentleness, “and may not know of ourselves, being women. -Men will decide whether or not I am a witch that lies or a -woman with a woman’s heart of love. In the meanwhile, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_188'>188</span>being women and therefore weak, let us be kind to each -other.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“——And now, Priest of the Sun, to judgment. You, as -priest under the Sun God, know more of the ancient rule and -procedure than do I. You know more than do I about myself -and how I came to be here. You know that always, -mother and daughter, and by mother and daughter, has the -tribe maintained a Queen of Mystery, a Lady of Dreams. -The time has come when we must consider the future generations. -The strangers have come, and they are unmarried. -This must be the wedding day decreed, if the generations to -come after of the tribe are to possess a Queen to dream for -them. It is well, and time and need and place are met. I -have dreamed to judgment. And the judgment is that I -shall marry, of these strangers, the stranger allotted to me -before the foundations of the world were laid. The test is -this: If no one of these will marry, then shall they die and -their warm blood be offered up by you before the altar of the -Sun. If one will marry me, then all shall live, and Time -hereafter will register our futures.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The Sun Priest, trembling with anger, strove to protest, -but she commanded:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Silence, priest! By me only do you rule the people. -At a word from me to the people—well, you know. It is -not any easy way to die.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>She turned to the three men, saying:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And who will marry me?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>They looked embarrassment and consternation at one -another, but none spoke.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I am a woman,” the Queen went on teasingly. “And -therefore am I not desirable to men? Is it that I am not -young? Is it, as women go, that I am not beautiful? Is it -that men’s tastes are so strange that no man cares to clasp -the sweet of me in his arms and press his lips on mine as -good Francis there did on my hand?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>She turned her eyes on Leoncia.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You be judge. You are a woman well loved of men. -Am I not such a woman as you, and shall I not be loved?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You will ever be kinder to men than to women,” Leoncia -answered——cryptically as regarded the three men who -heard, but clearly to the woman’s brain of the Queen. “And -as a woman,” Leoncia continued, “you are strangely beautiful -and luring; and there are men in this world, many men, -who could be made mad to clasp you in their arms. But I -<span class='pageno' id='Page_189'>189</span>warn you, Queen, that in this world are men, and men, and -men.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Having heard and debated this, the Queen turned abruptly -to the priest.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You have heard, priest. This day a man shall marry -me. If no man marries me, these three men shall be offered -up on your altar. So shall be offered up this woman, who, -it would seem, would put shame upon me by having me less -than she.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Still she addressed the priest, although her message was -for the others.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“There are three men of them, one of whom, long cycles -before he was born, was destined to marry me. So, priest, I -say, take the captives away into some other apartment, and -let them decide among themselves which is the man.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Since it has been so long destined,” Leoncia flamed -forth, “then why put it to the chance of their decision? You -know the man. Why put it to the risk? Name the man, -Queen, and name him now.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The man shall be selected in the way I have indicated,” -the Queen replied, as, at the same time, absently she tossed -a pinch of powder into the great bowl and absently glanced -therein. “So now depart, and let the inevitable choice be -made.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>They were already moving away out of the room, when a -cry from the Queen stopped them.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Wait!” she ordered. “Come, Francis. I have seen -something that concerns you. Come, gaze with me upon the -Mirror of the World.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And while the others paused, Francis gazed with her upon -the strange liquid metal surface. He saw himself in the -library of his New York house, and he saw beside him the -Lady Who Dreams, his arm around her. Next, he saw her -curiosity at sight of the stock-ticker. As he tried to explain -it to her, he glanced at the tape and read such disturbing -information thereon that he sprang to the nearest telephone -and, as the vision faded, saw himself calling up his broker.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“What was it you saw?” Leoncia questioned, as they -passed out.</p> - -<p class='c000'>And Francis lied. He did not mention seeing the Lady -Who Dreams in his New York library. Instead, he replied:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It was a stock-ticker, and it showed a bear market on -Wall Street somersaulting into a panic. Now how did she -know I was interested in Wall Street and stock-tickers?”</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_190'>190</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XIX</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c006'>“Somebody’s got to marry that crazy woman,” Leoncia spoke -up, as they lolled upon the mats of the room to which the -priest had taken them. “Not only will he be a hero by -saving our lives, but he will save his own life as well. Now, -Senor Torres, is your chance to save all our lives and your -own.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Br-r-r!” Torres shivered. “I would not marry her -for ten million gold. She is too wise. She is terrible. She—how -shall I say?—she, as you Americans say, gets my goat. -I am a brave man. But before her I am not brave. The -flesh of me melts in a sweat of fear. Not for less than ten -million would I dare to overcome my fear. Now Henry and -Francis are braver than I. Let one of them marry her.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But I am engaged to marry Leoncia,” Henry spoke up -promptly. “Therefore, I cannot marry the Queen.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And their eyes centered on Francis, but, before he could -reply, Leoncia broke in.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is not fair,” she said. “No one of you wants to marry -her. The only equitable way to settle it will be by drawing -lots.” As she spoke, she pulled three straws from the mat -on which she sat and broke one off very short. “The man -who draws the short straw shall be the victim. You, Senor -Torres, draw first.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Wedding bells for the short straw,” Henry grinned.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Torres crossed himself, shivered, and drew. So patently -long was the straw, that he executed a series of dancing steps -as he sang:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“No wedding bells for me,</div> - <div class='line in6'>I’m as happy as can be ...”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c000'>Francis drew next, and an equally long straw was his -portion. To Henry there was no choice. The remaining -straw in Leoncia’s hand was the fatal one. All tragedy was -<span class='pageno' id='Page_191'>191</span>in his face as he looked instantly at Leoncia. And she, -observing, melted in pity, while Francis saw her pity and -did some rapid thinking. It was the way out. All the perplexity -of the situation could be thus easily solved. Great -as was his love for Leoncia, greater was his man’s loyalty to -Henry. Francis did not hesitate. With a merry slap of his -hand on Henry’s shoulder, he cried:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Well, here’s the one unattached bachelor who isn’t -afraid of matrimony. I’ll marry her.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Henry’s relief was as if he had been reprieved from impending -death. His hand shot out to Francis’ hand, and, -while they clasped, their eyes gazed squarely into each -other’s as only decent, honest men’s may gaze. Nor did -either see the dismay registered in Leoncia’s face at this -unexpected denouement. The Lady Who Dreams had been -right. Leoncia, as a woman, was unfair, loving two men and -denying the Lady her fair share of men.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But any discussion that might have taken place, was prevented -by the little maid of the village, who entered with -women to serve them the midday meal. It was Torres’ -sharp eyes that first lighted upon the string of gems about -the maid’s neck. Rubies they were, and magnificent.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The Lady Who Dreams just gave them to me,” the -maid said, pleased with their pleasure in her new possession.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Has she any more?” Torres asked.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Of course,” was the reply. “Only just now did she -show me a great chest of them. And they were all kinds, -and much larger; but they were not strung. They were like -so much shelled corn.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>While the others ate and talked, Torres nervously smoked -a cigarette. After that, he arose and claimed a passing indisposition -that prevented him from eating.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Listen,” he quoth impressively. “I speak better -Spanish than either of you two Morgans. Also, I know, I -am confident, the Spanish woman character better. To show -you my heart’s in the right place, I’ll go in to her now and -see if I can talk her out of this matrimonial proposition.”</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c000'>One of the spearmen barred Torres’ way, but, after going -within, returned and motioned him to enter. The Queen, -reclined on the divan, nodded him to her graciously.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You do not eat?” she queried solicitously; and added, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_192'>192</span>after he had reaffirmed his loss of appetite, “Then will you -drink?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Torres’ eyes sparkled. Between the excitement he had -gone through for the past several days, and the new adventure -he was resolved upon, he knew not how, to achieve, he -felt the important need of a drink. The Queen clapped her -hands, and issued commands to the waiting woman who -responded.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is very ancient, centuries old, as you will recognize, -Da Vasco, who brought it here yourself four centuries ago,” -she said, as a man carried in and broached a small wooden -keg.</p> - -<p class='c000'>About the age of the keg there could be no doubt, and -Torres, knowing that it had crossed the Western Ocean -twelve generations before, felt his throat tickle with desire to -taste its contents. The drink poured by the waiting woman -was a big one, yet was Torres startled by the mildness of it. -But quickly the magic of four-centuries-old spirits began to -course through his veins and set the maggots crawling in his -brain.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The Queen bade him sit on the edge of the divan at her -feet, where she could observe him, and asked:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You came unsummoned. What is it you have to tell -me or ask of me?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I am the one selected,” he replied, twisting his moustache -and striving to look the enticingness of a male man on -love adventure bent.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Strange,” she said. “I saw not your face in the Mirror -of the World. There is ... some mistake, eh?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“A mistake,” he acknowledged readily, reading certain -knowledge in her eyes. “It was the drink. There is magic -in it that made me speak the message of my heart to you, I -want you so.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Again, with laughing eyes, she summoned the waiting -woman and had his pottery mug replenished.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“A second mistake, perhaps will now result, eh?” she -teased, when he had downed the drink.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“No, O Queen,” he replied. “Now all is clarity. My -true heart I can master. Francis Morgan, the one who kissed -your hand, is the man selected to be your husband.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is true,” she said solemnly. “His was the face I -saw, and knew from the first.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Thus encouraged, Torres continued.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I am his friend, his very good best friend. You, who -<span class='pageno' id='Page_193'>193</span>know all things, know the custom of the marriage dowry. -He has sent me, his best friend, to inquire into and examine -the dowry of his bride. You must know that he is among the -richest of men in his own country, where men are very -rich.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>So suddenly did she arise on the divan that Torres cringed -and half shrank down, in his panic expectance of a knife-blade -between his shoulders. Instead, the Queen walked -swiftly, or, rather, glided, to the doorway to an inner apartment.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Come!” she summoned imperiously.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Once inside, at the first glance around, Torres knew the -room for what it was, her sleeping chamber. But his eyes -had little space for such details. Lifting the lid of a heavy -chest of ironwood, brass-bound, she motioned him to look in. -He obeyed, and saw the amazement of the world. The little -maid had spoken true. Like so much shelled corn, the chest -was filled with an incalculable treasure of gems——diamonds, -rubies, emeralds, sapphires, the most precious, the purest -and largest of their kinds.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Thrust in your arms to the shoulders,” she said, “and -make sure that these baubles be real and of the adamant of -flint, rather than illusions and reflections of unreality -dreamed real in a dream. Thus may you make certain report -to your very rich friend who is to marry me.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And Torres, the madness of the ancient drink like fire in -his brain, did as he was told.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“These trifles of glass are such an astonishment?” she -plagued. “Your eyes are as if they were witnessing great -wonders.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I never dreamed in all the world there was such a -treasure,” he muttered in his drunkenness.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“They are beyond price?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“They are beyond price.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“They are beyond the value of valor, and love, and -honor?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“They are beyond all things. They are a madness.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Can a woman’s or a man’s true love be purchased by -them?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“They can purchase all the world.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Come,” the Queen said. “You are a man. You have -held women in your arms. Will they purchase women?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Since the beginning of time women have been bought -<span class='pageno' id='Page_194'>194</span>and sold for them, and for them women have sold themselves.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Will they buy me the heart of your good friend Francis?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>For the first time Torres looked at her, and nodded and -muttered, his eyes swimming with drink and wild-eyed with -sight of such array of gems.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Will good Francis so value them?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Torres nodded speechlessly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Do all persons so value them?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Again he nodded emphatically.</p> - -<p class='c000'>She began to laugh in silvery derision. Bending, at haphazard -she clutched a priceless handful of the pretties.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Come,” she commanded. “I will show you how I value -them.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>She led him across the room and out on a platform that -extended around three sides of a space of water, the fourth -side being the perpendicular cliff. At the base of the cliff -the water formed a whirlpool that advertised the drainage -exit for the lake which Torres had heard the Morgans speculate -about.</p> - -<p class='c000'>With another silvery tease of laughter, the Queen tossed -the handful of priceless gems into the heart of the whirlpool.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Thus I value them,” she said.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Torres was aghast, and, for the nonce, well-nigh sobered -by such wantonness.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And they never come back,” she laughed on. “Nothing -ever comes back. Look!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>She flung in a handful of flowers that raced around and -around the whirl and quickly sucked down from sight in the -center of it.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“If nothing comes back, where does everything go?” -Torres asked thickly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The Queen shrugged her shoulders, although he knew that -she knew the secret of the waters.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“More than one man has gone that way,” she said -dreamily. “No one of them has ever returned. My mother -went that way, after she was dead. I was a girl then.” She -roused. “But you, helmeted one, go now. Make report to -your master——your friend, I mean. Tell him what I possess -for dowry. And, if he be half as mad as you about the bits -of glass, swiftly will his arms surround me. I shall remain -here and in dreams await his coming. The play of the water -fascinates me.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Dismissed, Torres entered the sleeping chamber, crept -<span class='pageno' id='Page_195'>195</span>back to steal a glimpse of the Queen, and saw her sunk down -on the platform, head on hand, and gazing into the whirlpool. -Swiftly he made his way to the chest, lifted the lid, -and stowed a scooping handful into his trousers’ pocket. Ere -he could scoop a second handful, the mocking laughter of the -Queen was at his back.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Fear and rage mastered him to such extent, that he sprang -toward her, and pursuing her out upon the platform, was only -prevented from seizing her by the dagger she threatened him -with.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Thief,” she said quietly. “Without honor are you. -And the way of all thieves in this valley is death. I shall -summon my spearmen and have you thrown into the whirling -water.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And his extremity gave Torres cunning. Glancing apprehensively -at the water that threatened him, he ejaculated a -cry of horror as if at what strange thing he had seen, sank -down on one knee, and buried his convulsed face of simulated -fear in his hands. The Queen looked sidewise to see what -he had seen. Which was his moment. He rose in the air -upon her like a leaping tiger, clutching her wrists and wresting -the dagger from her.</p> - -<p class='c000'>He wiped the sweat from his face and trembled while he -slowly recovered himself. Meanwhile she gazed upon him -curiously, without fear.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You are a woman of evil,” he snarled at her, still shaking -with rage, “a witch that traffics with the powers of darkness -and all devilish things. Yet are you woman, born of woman, -and therefore mortal. The weakness of mortality and of -woman is yours, wherefore I give you now your choice of two -things. Either you shall be thrown into the whirl of water -and perish, or ...”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Or?” she prompted.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Or....” He paused, licked his dry lips, and burst -forth. “No! By the Mother of God, I am not afraid. Or -marry me this day, which is the other choice.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You would marry me for me? Or for the treasure?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“For the treasure,” he admitted brazenly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But it is written in the Book of Life that I shall marry -Francis,” she objected.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Then will we rewrite that page in the Book of Life.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“As if it could be done!” she laughed.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Then will I prove your mortality there in the whirl, -whither I shall fling you as you flung the flowers.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_196'>196</span>Truly intrepid Torres was for the time—intrepid because -of the ancient drink that burned in his blood and brain, and -because he was master of the situation. Also, like a true -Latin-American, he loved a scene wherein he could strut and -elocute.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Yet she startled him by emitting a hiss similar to the Latin -way of calling a servitor. He regarded her suspiciously, -glanced at the doorway to the sleeping chamber, then -returned his gaze to her.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Like a ghost, seeing it only vaguely out of the corner of -his eye, the great white hound erupted through the doorway. -Startled again, Torres involuntarily stepped to the side. But -his foot failed to come to rest on the emptiness of air it -encountered, and the weight of his body toppled him down off -the platform into the water. Even as he fell and screamed -his despair, he saw the hound in mid-air leaping after him.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Swimmer that he was, Torres was like a straw in the grip -of the current; and the Lady Who Dreams, gazing down upon -him fascinated from the edge of the platform, saw him disappear, -and the hound after him, into the heart of the whirlpool -from which there was no return.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_197'>197</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XX</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c006'>Long the Lady Who Dreams gazed down at the playing -waters. At last, with a sighed “My poor dog,” she arose. -The passing of Torres had meant nothing to her. Accustomed -from girlhood to exercise the high powers of life and -death over her semi-savage and degenerate people, human -life, per se, had no sacredness to her. If life were good and -lovely, then, naturally, it was the right thing to let it live. -But if life were evil, ugly, and dangerous to other lives, then -the thing was to let it die or make it die. Thus, to her, -Torres had been an episode——unpleasant, but quickly over. -But it was too bad about the dog.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Clapping her hands loudly as she entered her chamber, to -summon one of her women, she made sure that the lid of the -jewel chest was raised. To the woman she gave a command, -and herself returned to the platform, from where she could -look into the room unobserved.</p> - -<p class='c000'>A few minutes later, guided by the woman, Francis entered -the chamber and was left alone. He was not in a -happy mood. Fine as had been his giving up of Leoncia, he -got no pleasure from the deed. Nor was there any pleasure -in looking forward to marrying the strange lady who ruled -over the Lost Souls and resided in this weird lake-dwelling. -Unlike Torres, however, she did not arouse in him fear or -animosity. Quite to the contrary, Francis’ feeling toward -her was largely that of pity. He could not help but be impressed -by the tragic pathos of the ripe and lovely woman -desperately seeking love and a mate, despite her imperious -and cavalier methods.</p> - -<p class='c000'>At a glance he recognized the room for what it was, and -idly wondered if he were already considered the bridegroom, -sans discussion, sans acquiescence, sans ceremony. In his -brown study, the chest scarcely caught his attention. The -Queen, watching, saw him evidently waiting for her, and, -after a few minutes, walk over to the chest. He gathered -<span class='pageno' id='Page_198'>198</span>up a handful of the gems, dropped them one by one carelessly -back as if they had been so many marbles, and turned -and strolled over to examine the leopard skins on her couch. -Next, he sat down upon it, oblivious equally of couch or -treasure. All of which was provocative of such delight to the -Queen that she could no longer with-strain herself to mere -spying. Entering the room and greeting him, she laughed:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Was Senor Torres a liar?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“<em>Was?</em>” Francis queried, for the need of saying something, -as he arose before her.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“He no longer is,” she assured him. “Which is neither -here nor there,” she hastened on as Francis began to betray -interest in the matter of Torres’ end. “He is gone, and it is -well that he is gone, for he can never come back. But he -did lie, didn’t he?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Undoubtedly,” Francis replied. “He is a confounded -liar.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>He could not help noticing the way her face fell when he -so heartily agreed with her concerning Torres’ veracity.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“What did he say?” Francis questioned.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“That he was the one selected to marry me.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“A liar,” Francis commented dryly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Next he said that you were the selected one—which was -also a lie,” her voice trailed off.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Francis shook his head.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The involuntary cry of joy the Queen uttered touched his -heart to such tenderness of pity that almost did he put his -arms around her to soothe her. She waited for him to speak.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I am the one to marry you,” he went on steadily. “You -are very beautiful. When shall we be married?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The wild joy in her face was such that he swore to himself -that never would he willingly mar that face with marks of -sorrow. She might be ruler over the Lost Souls, with the -wealth of Ind and with supernatural powers of mirror-gazing; -but most poignantly she appealed to him as a lonely -and naïve woman, overspilling of love and totally unversed -in love.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And I shall tell you of another lie this Torres animal -told to me,” she burst forth exultantly. “He told me that -you were rich, and that, before you married me, you desired -to know what wealth was mine. He told me you had sent -him to inquire into what riches I possessed. This I know -was a lie. You are not marrying me for that!”—with a -scornful gesture at the jewel chest.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_199'>199</span>Francis shook his head.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You are marrying me for myself,” she rushed on in -triumph.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“For yourself,” Francis could not help but lie.</p> - -<p class='c000'>And then he beheld an amazing thing. The Queen, this -Queen who was the sheerest autocrat, who said come here -and go there, who dismissed the death of Torres with its -mere announcement, and who selected her royal spouse -without so much as consulting his prenuptial wishes, this -Queen began to blush. Up her neck, flooding her face to her -ears and forehead, welled the pink tide of maidenly modesty -and embarrassment. And such sight of faltering made -Francis likewise falter. He knew not what to do, and felt -a warmth of blood rising under the sun-tan of his own face. -Never, he thought, had there been a man-and-woman situation -like it in all the history of men and women. The mutual -embarrassment of the pair of them was appalling, and to save -his life he could not have summoned a jot of initiative. -Thus, the Queen was compelled to speak first.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And now,” she said, blushing still more furiously, “you -must make love to me.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Francis strove to speak, but his lips were so dry that he -licked them and succeeded only in stammering incoherently.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I never have been loved,” the Queen continued bravely. -“The affairs of my people are not love. My people are -animals without reason. But we, you and I, are man and -woman. There must be wooing, and tenderness——that -much I have learned from my Mirror of the World. But I -am unskilled. I know not how. But you, from out of the -great world, must surely know. I wait. You must love me.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>She sank down upon the couch, drawing Francis beside -her, and true to her word, proceeded to wait. While he, -bidden to love at command, was paralyzed by the preposterous -impossibility of so obeying.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Am I not beautiful?” the Queen queried after another -pause. “Are not your arms as mad to be about me as I am -mad to have them about me? Never have a man’s lips -touched my lips. What is a kiss like——on the lips, I mean? -Your lips on my hand were ecstasy. You kissed then, not -alone my hand, but my soul. My heart was there, throbbing -against the press of your lips. Did you not feel it?”</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c000'>“And so,” she was saying, half an hour later, as they sat -<span class='pageno' id='Page_200'>200</span>on the couch hand in hand, “I have told you the little I -know of myself. I do not know the past, except what I have -been told of it. The present I see clearly in my Mirror of -the World. The future I can likewise see, but vaguely; nor -can I always understand what I see. I was born here. So -was my mother, and her mother. How it chanced is that -always into the life of each queen came a lover. Sometimes, -as you, they came here. My mother’s mother, so it was -told me, left the valley to find her lover and was gone a long -time——for years. So did my mother go forth. The secret -way is known to me, where the long dead conquistadores -guard the Maya mysteries, and where Da Vasco himself -stands whose helmet this Torres animal had the impudence -to steal and claim for his own. Had you not come, I should -have been compelled to go forth and find you, for you were -my appointed one and had to be.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>A woman entered, followed by a spearman, and Francis -could scarce make his way through the quaint antiquated -Spanish of the conversation that ensued. In commingled -anger and joy, the Queen epitomized it to him.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“We are to depart now to the Long House for our wedding. -The Priest of the Sun is stubborn, I know not why, -save that he has been balked of the blood of all of you on his -altar. He is very blood-thirsty. He is the Sun Priest, but -he is possessed of little reason. I have report that he is -striving to turn the people against our wedding——the -dog!” She clinched her hands, her face set, and her eyes -blazed with royal fury. “He shall marry us, by the ancient -custom, before the Long House, at the Altar of the Sun.”</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c000'>“It’s not too late, Francis, to change your mind,” Henry -urged. “Besides, it is not fair. The short straw was mine. -Am I not right, Leoncia?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Leoncia could not reply. They stood in a group, at the -forefront of the assembled Lost Souls, before the altar. Inside -the Long House the Queen and the Sun Priest were -closeted.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You wouldn’t want to see Henry marry her, would you, -Leoncia?” Francis argued.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Nor you, either,” Leoncia countered. “Torres is the -only one I’d like to have seen marry her. I don’t like her. -I would not care to see any friend of mine her husband.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You’re almost jealous,” commented Henry. “Just -<span class='pageno' id='Page_201'>201</span>the same, Francis doesn’t seem so very cast down over his -fate.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“She’s not at all bad,” Francis retorted. “And I can -accept my fate with dignity, if not with equanimity. And -I’ll tell you something else, Henry, now that you are harping -on this strain: she wouldn’t marry you if you asked her.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Oh, I don’t know,” Henry began.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Then ask her,” was the challenge. “Here she comes -now. Look at her eyes. There’s trouble brewing. And the -priest’s black as thunder. You just propose to her and see -what chance you’ve got while I’m around.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Henry nodded his head stubbornly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I will——but not to show you what kind of a woman-conqueror -I am, but for the sake of fair play. I wasn’t playing -the game when I accepted your sacrifice of yourself, -but I am going to play the game now.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Before they could prevent him, he had thrust his way to -the Queen, shouldered in between her and the priest, and -began to speak earnestly. And the Queen laughed as she -listened. But her laughter was not for Henry. With shining -triumph she laughed across at Leoncia.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Not many moments were required to say no to Henry’s -persuasions, whereupon the Queen joined Leoncia and -Francis, the priest tagging at her heels, and Henry, following -more slowly, trying to conceal the gladness that was his at -being rejected.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“What do you think,” the Queen addressed Leoncia -directly. “Good Henry has just asked me to marry him, -which makes the fourth this day. Am I not well loved? -Have you ever had four lovers, all desiring to marry you on -your wedding day?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Four!” Francis exclaimed.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The Queen looked at him tenderly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Yourself, and Henry whom I have just declined. And, -before either of you, this day, the insolent Torres; and, just -now, in the Long House, the priest here.” Wrath began -to fire her eyes and cheeks at the recollection. “This Priest -of the Sun, this priest long since renegade to his vows, this -man who is only half a man, wanted me to marry him! The -dog! The beast! And he had the insolence to say, at the -end, that I should not marry Francis. Come. I will show -him.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>She nodded her own private spearmen up about the group, -and with her eyes directed two of them behind the priest -<span class='pageno' id='Page_202'>202</span>to include him. At sight of this, murmurs began to arise in -the crowd.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Proceed, priest,” the Queen commanded harshly. -“Else will my men kill you now.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>He turned sharply about, as if to appeal to the people, -but the speech that trembled to his lips died unuttered at -sight of the spear-points at his breast. He bowed to the -inevitable, and led the way close to the altar, placing the -Queen and Francis facing him, while he stood above on the -platform of the altar, looking at them and over them at the -Lost Souls.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I am the Priest of the Sun,” he began. “My vows are -holy. As the vowed priest I am to marry this woman, the -Lady Who Dreams, to this stranger and intruder, whose -blood is already forfeit to our altar. My vows are holy. I -cannot be false to them. I refuse to marry this woman to -this man. In the name of the Sun God I refuse to perform -this ceremony——”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Then shall you die, priest, here and now,” the Queen -hissed at him, nodding the near spearmen to lift their spears -against him, and nodding the other spearmen to face the -murmuring and semi-mutinous Lost Souls.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Followed a pregnant pause. For less than a minute, but -for nearly a minute, no word was uttered, no thought was -betrayed by a restless movement. All stood, like so many -statues; and all gazed upon the priest against whose heart -the poised spears rested.</p> - -<p class='c000'>He, whose blood of heart and life was nearest at stake in -the issue, was the first to act. He gave in. Calmly he -turned his back to the threatening spears, knelt, and, in -archaic Spanish, prayed an invocation of fruitfulness to the -Sun. Returning to the Queen and Francis, with a gesture -he made them fully bow and almost half kneel before him. -As he touched their hands with his finger-tips he could not -forbear the involuntary scowl that convulsed his features.</p> - -<p class='c000'>As the couple arose, at his indication, he broke a small -corn-cake in two, handing a half to each.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The Eucharist,” Henry whispered to Leoncia, as the -pair crumbled and ate their portions of cake.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The Roman Catholic worship Da Vasco must have -brought in with him, twisted about until it is now the -marriage ceremony,” she whispered back comprehension, -although, at sight of Francis thus being lost to her, she was -<span class='pageno' id='Page_203'>203</span>holding herself tightly for control, her lips bloodless and -stretched to thinness, her nails hurting into her palms.</p> - -<p class='c000'>From the altar the priest took and presented to the Queen -a tiny dagger and a tiny golden cup. She spoke to Francis, -who rolled up his sleeve and presented to her his bared left -forearm. About to scarify his flesh, she paused, considered -till all could see her visibly think, and, instead of breaking -his skin, she touched the dagger point carefully to her -tongue.</p> - -<p class='c000'>And then arose rage. At the taste of the blade she threw -the weapon from her, half sprang at the priest, half gave -command to her spearmen for the death of him, and shook -and trembled in the violence of her effort for self-possession. -Following with her eyes the flight of the dagger to assure -herself that its poisoned point should not strike the flesh of -another and wreak its evilness upon it, she drew from the -breast-fold of her dress another tiny dagger. This, too, she -tested with her tongue, ere she broke Francis’ skin with the -point of it and caught in the cup of gold the several red blood-drops -that exuded from the incision. Francis repeated the -same for her and on her, whereupon, under her flashing eyes, -the priest took the cup and offered the commingled blood -upon the altar.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Came a pause. The Queen frowned.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“If blood is to be shed this day on the altar of the Sun -God——” she began threateningly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>And the priest, as if recollecting what he was loath to do, -turned to the people and made solemn pronouncement that -the twain were man and wife. The Queen turned to Francis -with glowing invitation to his arms. As he folded her to him -and kissed her eager lips, Leoncia gasped and leaned closely -to Henry for support. Nor did Francis fail to observe and -understand her passing indisposition, although when the -flush-faced Queen next sparkled triumph at her sister -woman, Leoncia was to all appearance proudly indifferent.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_204'>204</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XXI</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c006'>Two thoughts flickered in Torres’ mind as he was sucked -down. The first was of the great white hound which had -leaped after him. The second was that the Mirror of the -World told lies. That this was his end he was certain, yet -the little he had dared permit himself to glimpse in the -Mirror had given no hint of an end anything like this.</p> - -<p class='c000'>A good swimmer, as he was engulfed and sucked on in -rapid, fluid darkness, he knew fear that he might have his -brains knocked out by the stone walls or roof of the subterranean -passage through which he was being swept. But -the freak of the currents was such that not once did he -collide with any part of his anatomy. Sometimes he was -aware of being banked against water-cushions that tokened -the imminence of a wall or boulder, at which times he -shrank as it were into smaller compass, like a sea-turtle -drawing in its head before the onslaught of sharks.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Less than a minute, as he measured the passage of time -by the holding of his breath, elapsed, ere, in an easier-flowing -stream, his head emerged above the surface and he -refreshed his lungs with great inhalations of cool air. Instead -of swimming, he contented himself with keeping afloat, and -with wondering what had happened to the hound and with -what next excitement would vex his underground adventure.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Soon he glimpsed light ahead, the dim but unmistakable -light of day; and, as the way grew brighter, he turned his -face back and saw what made him proceed to swim with a -speed-stroke. What he saw was the hound, swimming high, -with the teeth of its huge jaws gleaming in the increasing -light. Under the source of the light, he saw a shelving bank -and climbed out. His first thought, which he half carried -out, was to reach into his pocket for the gems he had stolen -from the Queen’s chest. But a reverberant barking that -grew to thunder in the cavern reminded him of his fanged -pursuer, and he drew forth the Queen’s dagger instead.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_205'>205</span>Again two thoughts divided his judgment for action. -Should he try to kill the swimming brute ere it landed? Or -should he retreat up the rocks toward the light on the chance -that the stream might carry the hound past him? His -judgment settled on the second course of action, and he fled -upward along a narrow ledge. But the dog landed and -followed with such four-footed certainty of speed that it -swiftly overtook him. Torres turned at bay on the cramped -footing, crouched, and brandished the dagger against the -brute’s leap.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But the hound did not leap. Instead, playfully, with jaws -widespread of laughter, it sat down and extended its right -paw in greeting. As he took the paw in his hand and shook -it, Torres almost collapsed in the revulsion of relief. He -laughed with exuberant shrillness that advertised semi-hysteria, -and continued to pump the hound’s leg up and -down, while the hound, with wide jaws and gentle eyes, -laughed as exuberantly back.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Pursuing the shelf, the hound contentedly at heel and -occasionally sniffing his calves, Torres found that the narrow -track, paralleling the river, after an ascent descended to it -again. And then Torres saw two things, one that made him -pause and shudder, and one that made his heart beat high -with hope. The first was the underground river. Rushing -straight at the wall of rock, it plunged into it in a chaos of -foam and turbulence, with stiffly serrated and spitefully -spitting waves that advertised its swiftness and momentum. -The second was an opening to one side, through which -streamed white daylight. Possibly fifteen feet in diameter -was this opening, but across it was stretched a spider web -more monstrous than any product of a madman’s fancy. -Most ominous of all was the debris of bones that lay beneath. -The threads of the web were of silver and of the thickness of -a lead pencil. He shuddered as he touched a thread with -his hand. It clung to his flesh like glue, and only by an -effort that agitated the entire web did he succeed in freeing -his hand. Upon his clothes and upon the coat of the dog he -rubbed off the stickiness from his skin.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Between two of the lower guys of the great web he saw -that there was space for him to crawl through the opening -to the day; but, ere he attempted it, caution led him to test -the opening by helping and shoving the hound ahead of him. -The white beast crawled and scrambled out of sight, and -Torres was about to follow when it returned. Such was the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_206'>206</span>panic haste of its return that it collided with him and both -fell. But the man managed to save himself by clinging with -his hands to the rocks, while the four-footed brute, not able -so to check itself, fell into the churning water. Even as -Torres reached a hand out to try to save it, the dog was -carried under the rock.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Long Torres debated. That farther subterranean plunge -of the river was dreadful to contemplate. Above was the -open way to the day, and the life of him yearned towards the -day as a bee or a flower toward the sun. Yet what had the -hound encountered to drive it back in such precipitate -retreat? As he pondered, he became aware that his hand was -resting on a rounded surface. He picked the object up, and -gazed into the eyeless, noseless features of a human skull. -His frightened glances played over the carpet of bones, and, -beyond all doubt, he made out the ribs and spinal columns -and thigh bones of what had once been men. This inclined -him toward the water as the way out, but at sight of the -foaming madness of it plunging through solid rock he -recoiled.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Drawing the Queen’s dagger, he crawled up between the -web-guys with infinite carefulness, saw what the hound had -seen, and came back in such vertigo of retreat that he, too, -fell into the water, and, with but time to fill his lungs with -air, was drawn into the opening and into darkness.</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c000'>In the meanwhile, back at the lake dwelling of the Queen, -events no less portentous were occurring with no less equal -rapidity. Just returned from the ceremony at the Long -House, the wedding party was in the action of seating itself -for what might be called the wedding breakfast, when an -arrow, penetrating an interstice in the bamboo wall, flashed -between the Queen and Francis and transfixed the opposite -wall, where its feathered shaft vibrated from the violence of -its suddenly arrested flight. A rush to the windows looking -out upon the narrow bridge, showed Henry and Francis the -gravity of the situation. Even as they looked, they saw the -Queen’s spearman who guarded the approach to the bridge, -midway across it in flight, falling into the water with the -shaft of an arrow vibrating out of his back in similar fashion -to the one in the wall of the room. Beyond the bridge, on -the shore, headed by their priest and backed by their women -<span class='pageno' id='Page_207'>207</span>and children, all the male Lost Souls were arching the air -full with feathered bolts from their bows.</p> - -<p class='c000'>A spearman of the Queen tottered into the apartment, -his limbs spreading vainly to support him, his eyes glazing, -his lips beating a soundless message which his fading life -could not utter, as he fell prone, his back bristling with -arrow shafts like a porcupine. Henry sprang to the door that -gave entrance from the bridge, and, with his automatic, -swept it clear of the charging Lost Souls who could advance -only in single file and who fell as they advanced before his -fire.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The siege of the frail house was brief. Though Francis, -protected by Henry’s automatic, destroyed the bridge, by no -method could the besieged put out the blazing thatch of roof -ignited in a score of places by the fire-arrows discharged -under the Sun Priest’s directions.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“There is but one way to escape,” the Queen panted, on -the platform overlooking the whirl of waters, as she clasped -one hand of Francis in hers and threatened to precipitate -herself clingingly into his arms. “It wins to the world.” -She pointed to the sucking heart of the whirlpool. “No -one has ever returned from that. In my Mirror I have beheld -them pass, dead always, and out to the wider world. Except -for Torres, I have never seen the living go. Only the dead. -And they never returned. Nor has Torres returned.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>All eyes looked to all eyes at sight of the dreadfulness of -the way.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“There is no other way?” Henry demanded, as he drew -Leoncia close to him.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The Queen shook her head. About them already burning -portions of the thatch were falling, while their ears were -deafened by the blood-lust chantings of the Lost Souls on -the lake-shore. The Queen disengaged her hand from -Francis’, with the evident intention of dashing into her sleeping -room, then caught his hand and led him in. As he stood -wonderingly beside her, she slammed down the lid on the -chest of jewels and fastened it. Next, she kicked aside the -floor matting and lifted a trap door that opened down to the -water. At her indication, Francis dragged over the chest -and dropped it through.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Even the Sun Priest does not know that hiding place,” -she whispered, ere she caught his hand again, and, running, -led him back to the others on the platform.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is now time to depart from this place,” she announced.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_208'>208</span>“Hold me in your arms, good Francis, husband of mine, and -lift me and leap with me,” she commanded. “We will lead -the way.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And so they leapt. As the roof was crashing down in a -wrath of fire and flying embers, Henry caught Leoncia to -him, and sprang after into the whirl of waters wherein -Francis and the Queen had already disappeared.</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c000'>Like Torres, the four fugitives escaped injury against the -rocks and were borne onward by the underground river to -the daylight opening where the great spider-web guarded the -way. Henry had an easier time of it, for Leoncia knew how -to swim. But Francis’ swimming prowess enabled him to -keep the Queen up. She obeyed him implicitly, floating low -in the water, nor clutched at his arms nor acted as a drag -on him in any way. At the ledge, all four drew out of the -water and rested. The two women devoted themselves to -wringing out their hair, which had been flung adrift all about -them by the swirling currents.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is not the first mountain I have been in the heart of -with you two,” Leoncia laughed to the Morgans, although -more than for them was her speech intended for the Queen.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is the first time I have been in the heart of a mountain -with my husband,” the Queen laughed back, and the barb of -her dart sank deep into Leoncia.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Seems as though your wife, Francis, and my wife-to-be, -aren’t going to hit it off too well together,” Henry said, with -the sharpness of censure that man is wont to employ to -conceal the embarrassment caused by his womankind.</p> - -<p class='c000'>And, as inevitable result of such male men’s ways, all that -Henry gained was a silence more awkward and more embarrassing. -The two women almost enjoyed the situation. -Francis cudgeled his brains vainly for some remark that -would ameliorate matters; while Henry, in desperation, arose -suddenly with the observation that he was going to “explore -a bit,” and invited, by his hand out to help her to her feet, -the Queen to accompany him. Francis and Leoncia sat on -for a moment in stubborn silence. He was the first to break -it.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“For two cents I’d give you a thorough shaking, Leoncia.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And what have I done now?” she countered.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“As if you didn’t know. You’ve been behaving abominably.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_209'>209</span>“It is you who have behaved abominably,” she half-sobbed, -in spite of her determination to betray no such -feminine signs of weakness. “Who asked you to marry -her? You did not draw the short straw. Yet you must -volunteer, must rush in where even angels would fear to -tread? Did I ask you to? Almost did my heart stop beating -when I heard you tell Henry you would marry her. I thought -I was going to faint. You had not even consulted me; yet -it was on my suggestion, in order to save you from her, that -the straws were drawn——yes, and I am not too little -shameless to admit that it was because I wanted to save you -for myself. Henry does not love me as you led me to believe -you loved me. I never loved Henry as I loved you, as I do -love you even now, God forgive me.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Francis was swept beyond himself. He caught her and -pressed her to him in a crushing embrace.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And on your very wedding day,” she gasped reproachfully -in the midmost of his embrace.</p> - -<p class='c000'>His arm died away from about her.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And this from you, Leoncia, at such a moment,” he -murmured sadly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And why not?” she flared. “You loved me. You gave -me to understand, beyond all chance of misunderstanding, -that you loved me; yet here, to-day, you went out of your -way, went eagerly and gladly, and married yourself to the -first woman with a white skin who presented herself.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You are jealous,” he charged, and knew a heart-throb of -joy as she nodded. “And I grant you are jealous; but at -the same time, exercising the woman’s prerogative of lying, -you are lying now. What I did, was not done eagerly nor -gladly. I did it for your sake and my sake——or for Henry’s -sake, rather. Thank God, I have a man’s honor still left to -me!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Man’s honour does not always satisfy woman,” she -replied.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Would you prefer me dishonorable?” he was swift on the -uptake.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I am only a woman who loves,” she pleaded.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You are a stinging, female wasp,” he raged, “and you -are not fair.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Is any woman fair when she loves?” she made the great -confession and acknowledgment. “Men may succeed in living -in their heads of honor; but know, and as a humble woman -<span class='pageno' id='Page_210'>210</span>I humbly state my womanhood, that woman lives only in -her heart of love.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Perhaps you are right. Honor, like arithmetic, can be -reasoned and calculated. Which leaves a woman no morality, -but only ...”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Only moods,” Leoncia completed abjectly for him.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Calls from Henry and the Queen put an end to the conversation, -for Leoncia and Francis quickly joined the others -in gazing at the great web.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Did you ever see so monstrous a web!” Leoncia exclaimed.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I’d like to see the monster that made it,” said Henry.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And I’d rather see than be it,” Francis paraphrased from -the “Purple Cow.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is our good fortune that we do not have to go that -way,” the Queen said.</p> - -<p class='c000'>All looked inquiry at her, and she pointed down to the -stream.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“That is the way,” she said. “I know it. Often and -often, in my Mirror of the World, have I seen the way. -When my mother died and was buried in the whirlpool, I -followed her body in the Mirror, and I saw it come to this -place and go by this place still in the water.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But she was dead,” Leoncia objected quickly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The rivalry between them fanned instantly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“One of my spearmen,” the Queen went on quietly, “a -handsome youth, alas, dared to look at me as a lover. He -was flung in alive. I watched him, too, in the Mirror. When -he came to this place he climbed out. I saw him crawl under -the web to the day, and I saw him retreat backward from the -day and throw himself into the stream.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Another dead one,” Henry commented grimly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“No; for I followed him on in the Mirror, and though -all was darkness for a time and I could see nothing, in the -end, and shortly, under the sun he emerged into the bosom -of a large river, and swam to the shore, and climbed the -bank——it was the left hand bank as I remember well——and -disappeared among large trees such as do not grow in -the Valley of the Lost Souls.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But, like Torres, the rest of them recoiled from thought of -the dark plunge through the living rock.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“These are the bones of animals and of men,” the Queen -warned, “who were daunted by the way of the water and -who strove to gain the sun. Men there are there——behold! -<span class='pageno' id='Page_211'>211</span>Or at least what remains of them for a space, the bones, ere, -in time, the bones, too, pass into nothingness.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Even so,” said Francis, “I suddenly discover a pressing -need to look into the eye of the sun. Do the rest of you -remain here while I investigate.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Drawing his automatic, the water-tightness of the cartridges -a guarantee, he crawled under the web. The moment -he had disappeared from view beyond the web, they heard -him begin to shoot. Next, they saw him retreating backward, -still shooting. And, next, falling upon him, two yards -across from black-haired leg-tip to black-haired leg-tip, the -denizen of the web, a monstrous spider, still wriggling with -departing life, shot through and through again and again. -The solid center of its body, from which the legs radiated, -was the size of a normal waste-basket, and the substantial -density of it crunched audibly as it struck on Francis’ -shoulders and back, rebounded, the hairy legs still helplessly -quivering, and pitched down into the wave-crisping water. -All four pair of eyes watched the corpse of it plunge against -the wall of rock, suck down, and disappear.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Where there’s one, there are two,” said Henry, looking -dubiously up toward the daylight.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is the only way,” said the Queen. “Come, my -husband, each in the other’s arms let us win through the -darkness to the sun-bright world. Remember, I have never -seen it, and soon, with you, shall I for the first time see it.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Her arms open in invitation, Francis could not decline.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is a hole in the sheer wall of a precipice a thousand -feet deep,” he explained to the others the glimpse he had -caught from beyond the spider web, as he clasped the Queen -in his arms and leaped off.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Henry had gathered Leoncia to him and was about to leap, -when she stopped him.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Why did you accept Francis’ sacrifice?” she demanded.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Because ...” He paused and looked at her wonderingly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Because I wanted you,” he completed. “Because I -was engaged to you as well, while Francis was unattached. -Besides, if I’m not greatly mistaken, Francis appears to be a -pretty well satisfied bridegroom.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“No,” she shook her head emphatically. “He has a -chivalrous spirit, and he is acting his part in order not to -hurt her feelings.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Oh, I don’t know. Remember, before the altar, at the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_212'>212</span>Long House, when I said I was going to ask the Queen to -marry me, that he bragged she wouldn’t marry me if I did -ask? Well, the conclusion’s pretty obvious that he wanted -her himself. And why shouldn’t he? He’s a bachelor. And -she’s some nice woman herself.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But Leoncia scarcely heard. With a quick movement, -leaning back in his arms away from him so that she could -look him squarely in the eyes, she demanded:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“How do you love me? Do you love me madly? Do you -love me badly madly? Do I mean that to you, and more, -and more, and more?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>He could only look his bewilderment.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Do you?—do you?” she urged passionately.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Of course I do,” he made slow answer, “but it would -never have entered my head to describe it that way. Why, -you’re the one woman for me. Rather would I describe it -as loving you deeply, and greatly, and enduringly. Why, -you seem so much a part of me that I feel almost as if I had -always known you. It was that way from the first.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“She is an abominable woman!” Leoncia broke forth -irrelevantly. “I hated her from the first.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“My! What a spitfire! I hate to think how much you -would have hated her had I married her instead of Francis.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“We’d better follow them,” she put an end to the discussion.</p> - -<p class='c000'>And Henry, very much be-puzzled, clasped her tightly and -leaped off into the white turmoil of water.</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c000'>On the bank of the Gualaca River sat two Indian girls -fishing. Just up-stream from them arose the precipitous -cliff of one of the buttresses of the lofty mountains. The main -stream flowed past in chocolate-colored spate; but, directly -beneath them, where they fished, was a quiet eddy. No less -quiet was the fishing. No bites jerked their rods in token -that the bait was enticing. One of them, Nicoya, yawned, -ate a banana, yawned again, and held the skin she was -about to cast aside suspended in her hand.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“We have been very quiet, Concordia,” she observed to -her companion, “and it has won us no fish. Now shall I -make a noise and a splash. Since they say ‘what goes up -must come down,’ why should not something come up after -something has gone down? I am going to try. There!”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_213'>213</span>She threw the banana peel into the water and lazily -watched the point where it had struck.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“If anything comes up I hope it will be big,” Concordia -murmured with equal laziness.</p> - -<p class='c000'>And upon their astonished gaze, even as they looked, arose -up out of the brown depths a great white hound. They -jerked their poles up and behind them on the bank, threw -their arms about each other, and watched the hound gain -the shore at the lower end of the eddy, climb the sloping -bank, pause to shake himself, and then disappear among -the trees.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Nicoya and Concordia giggled.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Try it again,” Concordia urged.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“No; you this time. And see what you can bring up.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Quite unbelieving, Concordia tossed in a clod of earth. -And almost immediately a helmeted head arose on the flood. -Clutching each other very tightly, they watched the man -under the helmet gain the shore where the hound had landed -and disappear into the forest.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Again the two Indian girls giggled; but this time, urge as -they would, neither could raise the courage to throw anything -into the water.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Some time later, still giggling over the strange occurrences, -they were espied by two young Indian men, who were hugging -the bank as they paddled their canoe up against the -stream.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“What makes you laugh,” one of them greeted.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“We have been seeing things,” Nicoya gurgled down to -them.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Then have you been drinking pulque,” the young man -charged.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Both girls shook their heads, and Concordia said:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“We don’t have to drink to see things. First, when -Nicoya threw in a banana skin, we saw a dog come up out -of the water——a white dog that was as big as a tiger of the -mountains——”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And when Concordia threw in a clod,” the other girl -took up the tale, “up came a man with a head of iron. It -is magic. Concordia and I can work magic.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“José,” one of the Indians addressed his mate, “this -merits a drink.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And each, in turn, while the other with his paddle held -the canoe in place, took a swig from a square-face Holland -gin bottle part full of pulque.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_214'>214</span>“No,” said José, when the girls had begged him for a -drink. “One drink of pulque and you might see more white -dogs as big as tigers or more iron-headed men.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“All right,” Nicoya accepted the rebuff. “Then do you -throw in your pulque bottle and see what you will see. We -drew a dog and a man. Your prize may be the devil.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I should like to see the devil,” said José, taking another -drain at the bottle. “The pulque is a true fire of bravery. -I should very much like to see the devil.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>He passed the bottle to his companion with a gesture to -finish it.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Now throw it into the water,” José commanded.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The empty bottle struck with a forceful splash, and the -evoking was realized with startling immediacy, for up to -the surface floated the monstrous, hairy body of the slain -spider. Which was too much for ordinary Indian flesh and -blood. So suddenly did both young men recoil from the -sight that they capsized the canoe. When their heads -emerged from the water they struck out for the swift current, -and were swiftly borne away down stream, followed -more slowly by the swamped canoe.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Nicoya and Concordia had been too frightened to giggle. -They held on to each other and waited, watching the magic -water and out of the tails of their eyes observing the -frightened young men capture the canoe, tow it to shore, -and run out and hide on the bank.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The afternoon sun was getting low in the sky ere the -girls summoned courage again to evoke the magic water. -Only after much discussion did they agree both to fling in -clods of earth at the same time. And up arose a man and a -woman——Francis and the Queen. The girls fell over backward -into the bushes, and were themselves unobserved as -they watched Francis swim with the Queen to shore.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It may just have happened——all these things may just -have happened at the very times we threw things into the -water,” Nicoya whispered to Concordia five minutes later.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But when we threw one thing in, only one came up,” -Concordia argued. “And when we threw two, two came -up.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Very well,” said Nicoya. “Let us now prove it. Let -us try again, both of us. If nothing comes up, then have -we no power of magic.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Together they threw in clods, and uprose another man -and woman. But this pair, Henry and Leoncia, could swim, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_215'>215</span>and they swam side by side to the natural landing place, -and, like the rest that had preceded them, passed on out of -sight among the trees.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Long the two Indian girls lingered. For they had agreed -to throw nothing, and, if something arose, then would coincidence -be proved. But if nothing arose, because nothing -further was by them evoked, they could only conclude that -the magic was truly theirs. They lay hidden and watched -the water until darkness hid it from their eyes; and, slowly -and soberly, they took the trail back to their village, overcome -by an awareness of having been blessed by the gods.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_216'>216</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XXII</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c006'>Not until the day following his escape from the subterranean -river, did Torres reach San Antonio. He arrived on foot, -jaded and dirty, a small Indian boy at his heels carrying the -helmet of Da Vasco. For Torres wanted to show the helmet -to the Jefe and the Judge in evidence of the narrative -of strange adventure he chuckled to tell them.</p> - -<p class='c000'>First on the main street he encountered the Jefe, who -cried out loudly at his appearance.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Is it truly you, Senor Torres?” The Jefe crossed himself -solemnly ere he shook hands.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The solid flesh, and, even more so, the dirt and grit of the -other’s hand, convinced the Jefe of reality and substance.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Whereupon the Jefe became wrathful.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And here I’ve been looking upon you as dead!” he exclaimed. -“That Caroo dog of a José Mancheno! He came back -and reported you dead——dead and buried until the Day -of Judgment in the heart of the Maya Mountain.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“He is a fool, and I am possibly the richest man in -Panama,” Torres replied grandiosely. “At least, like the -ancient and heroic conquistadores, I have braved all dangers -and penetrated to the treasure. I have seen it. Nay——”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Torres’ hand had been sunk into his trousers’ pocket to -bring forth the filched gems of the Lady Who Dreams; but -he withdrew the hand empty. Too many curious eyes of -the street were already centered upon him and the draggled -figure he cut.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I have much to say to you,” he told the Jefe, “that -cannot well be said now. I have knocked on the doors of -the dead and worn the shrouds of corpses. And I have consorted -with men four centuries dead but who were not dust, -and I have beheld them drown in the second death. I have -gone through mountains, as well as over them, and broken -bread with lost souls, and gazed into the Mirror of the -World. All of which I shall tell you, my best friend, and the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_217'>217</span>honorable Judge, in due time, for I shall make you rich -along with me.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Have you looked upon the pulque when it was sour?” -the Jefe quipped incredulously.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I have not had drink stronger than water since I last -departed from San Antonio,” was the reply. “And I shall -go now to my house and drink a long long drink, and after -that I shall bathe the filth from me, and put on garments -whole and decent.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Not immediately, as he proceeded, did Torres gain his -house. A ragged urchin exclaimed out at sight of him, -ran up to him, and handed him an envelope that he knew -familiarly to be from the local government wireless, and -that he was certain had been sent by Regan.</p> - -<p class='c009'><em>You are doing well. Imperative you keep party away -from New York for three weeks more. Fifty thousand -if you succeed.</em></p> - -<p class='c000'>Borrowing a pencil from the boy, Torres wrote a reply -on the back of the envelope:</p> - -<p class='c009'><em>Send the money. Party will never come back from -mountains where he is lost.</em></p> - -<p class='c000'>Two other occurrences delayed Torres’ long drink and -bath. Just as he was entering the jewelry store of old -Rodriguez Fernandez, he was intercepted by the old Maya -priest with whom he had last parted in the Maya mountain. -He recoiled as from an apparition, for sure he was that the -old man was drowned in the Room of the Gods. Like the -Jefe at sight of Torres, so Torres, at sight of the priest, -drew back in startled surprise.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Go away,” he said. “Depart, restless old man. You -are a spirit. Thy body lies drowned and horrible in the -heart of the mountain. You are an appearance, a ghost. -Go away, nothing corporeal resides in this illusion of you, -else would I strike you. You are a ghost. Depart at once. -I should not like to strike a ghost.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But the ghost seized his hands and clung to them with -such beseeching corporality as to unconvince him.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Money,” the ancient one babbled. “Let me have -money. Lend me money. I will repay——I who know the -secrets of the Maya treasure. My son is lost in the mountain -with the treasure. The Gringos also are lost in the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_218'>218</span>mountain. Help me to rescue my son. With him alone -will I be satisfied, while the treasure shall all be yours. But -we must take men, and much of the white man’s wonderful -powder and tear a hole out of the mountain so that the water -will run away. He is not drowned. He is a prisoner of the -water in the room where stand the jewel-eyed Chia and -Hzatzl. Their eyes of green and red alone will pay for -all the wonderful powder in the world. So let me have the -money with which to buy the wonderful powder.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But Alvarez Torres was a strangely constituted man. -Some warp or slant or idiosyncrasy of his nature always -raised insuperable obstacles to his parting with money when -such parting was unavoidable. And the richer he got the -more positively this idiosyncrasy asserted itself.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Money!” he asserted harshly, as he thrust the old priest -aside and pulled open the door of Fernandez’s store. “Is -it I who should have money—. I who am all rags and -tatters as a beggar. I have no money for myself, much less -for you, old man. Besides, it was you, and not I, who led -your son to the Maya mountain. On your head be it, not -on mine, the death of your son who fell into the pit under -the feet of Chia that was digged by your ancestors and not -by mine.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Again the ancient one clutched at him and yammered for -money with which to buy dynamite. So roughly did Torres -thrust him aside that his old legs failed to perform their -wonted duty and he fell upon the flagstones.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The shop of Rodriguez Fernandez was small and dirty, -and contained scarcely more than a small and dirty showcase -that rested upon an equally small and dirty counter. -The place was grimy with the undusted and unswept filth -of a generation. Lizards and cockroaches crawled along -the walls. Spiders webbed in every corner, and Torres saw, -crossing the ceiling above, what made him step hastily to -the side. It was a seven-inch centipede which he did not -care to have fall casually upon his head or down his back -between shirt and skin. And, when he appeared crawling -out like a huge spider himself from some inner den of an -unventilated cubicle, Fernandez looked like an Elizabethan -stage-representation of Shylock——withal he was a dirtier -Shylock than even the Elizabethan stage could have -stomached.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The jeweler fawned to Torres and in a cracked falsetto -humbled himself even beneath the dirt of his shop. Torres -<span class='pageno' id='Page_219'>219</span>pulled from his pocket a haphazard dozen or more of the -gems filched from the Queen’s chest, selected the smallest, -and, without a word, while at the same time returning the -rest to his pocket, passed it over to the jeweler.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I am a poor man,” he cackled, the while Torres could -not fail to see how keenly he scrutinised the gem.</p> - -<p class='c000'>He dropped it on the top of the show case as of little -worth, and looked inquiringly at his customer. But Torres -waited in a silence which he knew would compel the garrulity -of covetous age to utterance.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Do I understand that the honorable Senor Torres seeks -advice about the quality of the stone?” the old jeweler finally -quavered.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Torres did no more than nod curtly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is a natural gem. It is small. It, as you can see -for yourself, is not perfect. And it is clear that much -of it will be lost in the cutting.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“How much is it worth?” Torres demanded with impatient -bluntness.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I am a poor man,” Fernandez reiterated.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I have not asked you to buy it, old fool. But now that -you bring the matter up, how much will you give for -it?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“As I was saying, craving your patience, honorable senor, -as I was saying, I am a very poor man. There are days -when I cannot spend ten centavos for a morsel of spoiled -fish. There are days when I cannot afford a sip of the -cheap red wine I learned was tonic to my system when I -was a lad, far from Barcelona, serving my apprenticeship -in Italy. I am so very poor that I do not buy costly -pretties——”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Not to sell again at a profit?” Torres cut in.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“If I am sure of my profit,” the old man cackled. “Yes, -then will I buy; but, being poor, I cannot pay more than -little.” He picked up the gem and studied it long and carefully. -“I would give,” he began hesitatingly, “I would -give——but, please, honorable senor, know that I am a -very poor man. This day only a spoonful of onion soup, -with my morning coffee and a mouthful of crust, passed -my lips——”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“In God’s name, old fool, what will you give?” Torres -thundered.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Five hundred dollars—but I doubt the profit that will -remain to me.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_220'>220</span>“Gold?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Mex.,” came the reply, which cut the offer in half -and which Torres knew was a lie. “Of course, Mex., only -Mex., all our transactions are in Mex.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Despite his elation at so large a price for so small a -gem, Torres play-acted impatience as he reached to take -back the gem. But the old man jerked his hand away, loath -to let go of the bargain it contained.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“We are old friends,” he cackled shrilly. “I first saw -you, when, a boy, you came to San Antonio from Boca del -Toros. And, as between old friends, we will say the sum is -gold.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And Torres caught a sure but vague glimpse of the enormousness, -as well as genuineness, of the Queen’s treasure -which at some remote time the Lost Souls had ravished from -its hiding place in the Maya Mountain.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Very good,” said Torres, with a quick, cavalier action -recovering the stone. “It belongs to a friend of mine. He -wanted to borrow money from me on it. I can now lend him -up to five hundred gold on it, thanks to your information. -And I shall be grateful to buy for you, the next time we meet -in the pulqueria, a drink—yes, as many drinks as you can -care to carry—of the thin, red, tonic wine.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And as Torres passed out of the shop, not in any way -attempting to hide the scorn and contempt he felt for the fool -he had made of the jeweler, he knew elation in that Fernandez, -the Spanish fox, must have cut his estimate of the gem’s -value fully in half when he uttered it.</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c000'>In the meanwhile, descending the Gualaca River by canoe, -Leoncia, the Queen, and the two Morgans, had made better -time than Torres to the coast. But ere their arrival and -briefly pending it, a matter of moment that was not appreciated -at the time, had occurred at the Solano hacienda. -Climbing the winding pathway to the hacienda, accompanied -by a decrepit old crone whose black shawl over head and -shoulders could not quite hide the lean and withered face of -blasted volcanic fire, came as strange a caller as the hacienda -had ever received.</p> - -<p class='c000'>He was a Chinaman, middle-aged and fat, whose moon-face -beamed the beneficent good nature that seems usual with -fat persons. By name, Yi Poon, meaning “the Cream of -the Custard Apple,” his manners were as softly and richly -oily as his name. To the old crone, who tottered beside him -<span class='pageno' id='Page_221'>221</span>and was half-supported by him, he was the quintessence of -gentleness and consideration. When she faltered from sheer -physical weakness and would have fallen, he paused and gave -her chance to gain strength and breath. Thrice, at such -times, on the climb to the hacienda, he fed her a spoonful of -French brandy from a screw-cap pocket flask.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Seating the old woman in a selected, shady corner of the -piazza, Yi Poon boldly knocked for admittance at the front -door. To him, and in his business, back-stairs was the -accustomed way; but his business and his wit had taught him -the times when front entrances were imperative.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The Indian maid who answered his knock, took his message -into the living room where sat the disconsolate Enrico Solano -among his sons—disconsolate at the report Ricardo had -brought in of the loss of Leoncia in the Maya Mountain. The -Indian maid returned to the door. The Senor Solano was -indisposed and would see nobody, was her report, humbly -delivered, even though the recipient was a Chinese.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Huh!” observed Yi Poon, with braggart confidence for -the purpose of awing the maid to carrying a second message. -“I am no coolie. I am smart Chinaman. I go to school -plenty much. I speak Spanish. I speak English. I write -Spanish. I write English. See—I write now in Spanish for -the Senor Solano. You cannot write, so you cannot read -what I write. I write that I am Yi Poon. I belong Colon. -I come this place to see Senor Solano. Big business. Much -important. Very secret. I write all this here on paper -which you cannot read.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But he did not say that he had further written:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“<em>The Senorita Solano. I have great secret.</em>”</p> - -<p class='c000'>It was Alesandro, the eldest of the tall sons of Solano, who -evidently had received the note, for he came bounding to -the door, far outstripping the returning maid.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Tell me your business!” he almost shouted at the fat -Chinese. “What is it? Quick!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Very good business,” was the reply, Yi Poon noting the -other’s excitement with satisfaction. “I make much money. -I buy—what you call—secrets. I sell secrets. Very nice -business.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“What do you know about the Senorita Solano?” Alesandro -shouted, gripping him by the shoulder.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Everything. Very important information——”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But Alesandro could no longer control himself. He almost -<span class='pageno' id='Page_222'>222</span>hurled the Chinaman into the house, and, not relaxing his -grip, rushed him on into the living room and up to Enrico.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“He has news of Leoncia!” Alesandro shouted.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Where is she?” Enrico and his sons shouted in chorus.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Hah!—was Yi Poon’s thought. Such excitement, although -it augured well for his business, was rather exciting for him -as well.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Mistaking his busy thinking for fright, Enrico stilled his -sons back with an upraised hand, and addressed the visitor -quietly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Where is she?” Enrico asked.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Hah!—thought Yi Poon. The senorita was lost. That -was a new secret. It might be worth something some day, -or any day. A nice girl, of high family and wealth such as -the Solanos, lost in a Latin-American country, was information -well worth possessing. Some day she might be married—there -was that gossip he had heard in Colon—and some -later day she might have trouble with her husband or her -husband have trouble with her——at which time, she or her -husband, it mattered not which, might be eager to pay high -for the secret.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“This Senorita Leoncia,” he said, finally, with sleek -suavity. “She is not your girl. She has other papa and -mama.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But Enrico’s present grief at her loss was too great to -permit startlement at this explicit statement of an old secret.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Yes,” he nodded. “Though it is not known outside -my family, I adopted her when she was a baby. It is -strange that you should know this. But I am not interested -in having you tell me what I have long since known. What -I want to know now is: <em>where is she now</em>?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Yi Poon gravely and sympathetically shook his head.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“That is different secret,” he explained. “Maybe I find -that secret. Then I sell it to you. But I have old secret. -You do not know the name of the Senorita Leoncia’s papa -and mama. I know.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And old Enrico Solano could not hide his interest at the -temptation of such information.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Speak,” he commanded. “Name the names, and prove -them, and I shall reward.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“No,” Yi Poon shook his head. “Very poor business. I -no do business that way. You pay me I tell you. My -secrets good secrets. I prove my secrets. You give me five -<span class='pageno' id='Page_223'>223</span>hundred pesos and big expenses from Colon to San Antonio -and back to Colon and I tell you name of papa and mama.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Enrico Solano bowed acquiescence, and was just in the act -of ordering Alesandro to go and fetch the money, when the -quiet, spirit-subdued Indian maid created a diversion. Running -into the room and up to Enrico as they had never seen -her run before, she wrung her hands and wept so incoherently -that they knew her paroxysm was of joy, not of sadness.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The Senorita!” she was finally able to whisper hoarsely, -as she indicated the side piazza with a nod of head and glance -of eyes. “The Senorita!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And Yi Poon and his secret were forgotten. Enrico and -his sons streamed out to the side piazza to behold Leoncia -and the Queen and the two Morgans, dropping dust-covered -off the backs of riding mules recognizable as from the pastures -of the mouth of the Gualaca River. At the same time two -Indian man-servants, summoned by the maid, cleared the -house and grounds of the fat Chinaman and his old crone of -a companion.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Come some other time,” they told him. “Just now -the Senor Solano is very importantly busy.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Sure, I come some other time,” Yi Poon assured them -pleasantly, without resentment and without betrayal of the -disappointment that was his at his deal interrupted just ere -the money was paid into his hand.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But he departed reluctantly. The place was good for his -business. It was sprouting secrets. Never was there a -riper harvest in Canaan out of which, sickle in hand, a husbandman -was driven! Had it not been for the zealous -Indian attendants, Yi Poon would have darted around the -corner of the hacienda to note the newcomers. As it was, -half way down the hill, finding the weight of the crone too -fatiguing, he put into her the life and ability to carry her own -weight a little farther by feeding her a double teaspoonful of -brandy from his screw-top flask.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Enrico swept Leoncia off her mule ere she could dismount, -so passionately eager was he to fold her in his arms. For -several minutes ensued naught but noisy Latin affection as -her brothers all strove to greet and embrace her at once. -When they recollected themselves, Francis had already helped -the Lady Who Dreams from her mount, and beside her, her -hand in his, was waiting recognition.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“This is my wife,” Francis told Enrico. “I went into -the Cordilleras after treasure, and behold what I found. Was -there ever better fortune?”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_224'>224</span>“And she sacrificed a great treasure herself,” Leoncia -murmured bravely.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“She was queen of a little kingdom,” Francis added, with -a grateful and admiring flash of eyes to Leoncia, who quickly -added:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And she saved all our lives but sacrificed her little -kingdom in so doing.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And Leoncia, in an exaltation of generousness, put her arm -around the Queen’s waist, took her away from Francis, and -led the way into the hacienda.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_225'>225</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XXIII</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c006'>In all the magnificence of medieval Spanish and New World -costume such as was still affected by certain of the great -haciendados of Panama, Torres rode along the beach-road -to the home of the Solanos. Running with him, at so easy -a lope that it promised an extension that would outspeed -the best of Torres’ steed, was the great white hound that had -followed him down the subterranean river. As Torres turned -to take the winding road up the hill to the hacienda, he -passed Yi Poon, who had paused to let the old crone gather -strength. He merely noticed the strange couple as dirt of -the common people. The hauteur that he put on with his -magnificence of apparel forbade that he should betray any -interest further than an unseeing glance.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But him Yi Poon noted with slant Oriental eyes that -missed no details. And Yi Poon thought: He looks very -rich. He is a friend of the Solanos. He rides to the house. -He may even be a lover of the Senorita Leoncia.—Or a -worsted rival for her love. In almost any case, he might be -expected to buy the secret of the Senorita Leoncia’s birth, -and he certainly looks rich, most rich.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Inside the hacienda, assembled in the living room, were -the returned adventurers and all the Solanos. The Queen, -taking her turn in piecing out the narrative of all that had -occurred, with flashing eyes was denouncing Torres for his -theft of her jewels and describing his fall into the whirlpool -before the onslaught of the hound, when Leoncia, at the -window with Henry, uttered a sharp exclamation.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Speak of the devil!” said Henry. “Here comes Torres -himself.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Me first!” Francis cried, doubling his fist and flexing his -biceps significantly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“No,” decreed Leoncia. “He is a wonderful liar. He -is a very wonderful liar, as we’ve all found out. Let us have -some fun. He is dismounting now. Let the four of us disappear.—Father!” -<span class='pageno' id='Page_226'>226</span>With a wave of hand she indicated -Enrico and all his sons. “You will sit around desolated -over the loss of me. This scoundrel Torres will enter. You -will be thirsty for information. He will tell you no one can -guess what astounding lies about us. As for us, we’ll hide -behind the screen there.—Come! All of you!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And, catching the Queen by the hand and leading the way, -with her eyes she commanded Francis and Henry to follow -to the hiding place.</p> - -<p class='c000'>And Torres entered upon a scene of sorrow which had been -so recently real that Enrico and his sons had no difficulty in -acting it. Enrico started up from his chair in eagerness of -welcome and sank weakly back. Torres caught the other’s -hand in both his own and manifested deep sympathy and -could not speak from emotion.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Alas!” he finally managed heart-brokenly. “They are -dead. She is dead, your beautiful daughter, Leoncia. And -the two Gringo Morgans are dead with her. As Ricardo, -there, must know, they died in the heart of the Maya Mountain.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is the home of mystery,” he continued, after giving -due time for the subsidence of the first violent outburst of -Enrico’s grief. “I was with them when they died. Had -they followed my counsel, they would all have lived. But -not even Leoncia would listen to the old friend of the Solanos. -No, she must listen to the two Gringos. After incredible -dangers I won my way out through the heart of the mountain, -gazed down into the Valley of Lost Souls, and returned -into the mountain to find them dying——”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Here, pursued by an Indian man-servant, the white hound -bounded into the room, trembling and whining in excitement -as with its nose it quested the multitudinous scents of the -room that advertised his mistress. Before he could follow -up to where the Queen hid behind the screen, Torres caught -him by the neck and turned him over to a couple of the -Indian house-men to hold.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Let the brute remain,” said Torres. “I will tell you -about him afterward. But first look at this.” He pulled -forth a handful of gems. “I knocked on the doors of the -dead, and, behold, the Maya treasure is mine. I am the -richest man in Panama, in all the Americas. I shall be -powerful——”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But you were with my daughter when she died,” Enrico -interrupted to sob. “Had she no word for me?”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_227'>227</span>“Yes,” Torres sobbed back, genuinely affected by the -death-scene of his fancy. “She died with your name on her -lips. Her last words were——”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But, with bulging eyes, he failed to complete his sentence, -for he was watching Henry and Leoncia, in the most natural, -casual manner in the world stroll down the room, immersed -in quiet conversation. Not noticing Torres, they crossed -over to the window still deep in talk.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You were telling me her last words were ...?” Enrico -prompted.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I ... I have lied to you,” Torres stammered, while he -sparred for time in which to get himself out of the scrape. -“I was confident that they were as good as dead and would -never find their way to the world again. And I thought to -soften the blow to you, Senor Solano, by telling what I am -confident would be her last words were she dying. Also, -this man Francis, whom you have elected to like. I thought -it better for you to believe him dead than know him for the -Gringo cur he is.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Here the hound barked joyfully at the screen, giving the -two Indians all they could do to hold him back. But Torres, -instead of suspecting, blundered on to his fate.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“In the Valley there is a silly weak demented creature -who pretends to read the future by magic. An altogether -atrocious and blood-thirsty female is she. I am not denying -that in physical beauty she is beautiful. For beautiful she -is, as a centipede is beautiful to those who think centipedes -are beautiful. You see what has happened. She has sent -Henry and Leoncia out of the Valley by some secret way, -while Francis has elected to remain there with her in sin——for -sin it is, since there exists in the valley no Catholic priest -to make their relation lawful. Oh, not that Francis is infatuated -with the terrible creature. But he is infatuated -with a paltry treasure the creature possesses. And this is -the Gringo Francis you have welcomed into the bosom of your -family, the slimy snake of a Gringo Francis who has even -dared to sully the fair Leoncia by casting upon her the looks -of a lover. Oh, I know of what I speak. I have seen——”</p> - -<p class='c000'>A joyous outburst from the hound drowned his voice, and -he beheld Francis and the Queen, as deep in conversation as -the two who had preceded them, walk down the room. The -Queen paused to caress the hound, who stood so tall against -her that his forepaws, on her shoulders, elevated his head -above hers; while Torres licked his suddenly dry lips and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_228'>228</span>vainly cudgeled his brains for some fresh lie with which to -extricate himself from the impossible situation.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Enrico Solano was the first to break down in mirth. All -his sons joined him, while tears of sheer delight welled out of -his eyes.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I could have married her myself,” Torres sneered malignantly. -“She begged me on her knees.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And now,” said Francis, “I shall save you all a dirty -job by throwing him out.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But Henry, advancing swiftly, asserted:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I like dirty jobs equally. And this is a dirty job particularly -to my liking.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Both the Morgans were about to fall on Torres, when the -Queen held up her hand.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“First,” she said, “let him return to me, from there in -his belt, the dagger he stole from me.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Ah,” said Enrico, when this had been accomplished. -“Should he not also return to you, lovely lady, the gems he -filched?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Torres did not hesitate. Dipping into his pocket, he laid a -handful of the jewels on the table. Enrico glanced at the -Queen, who merely waited expectantly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“More,” said Enrico.</p> - -<p class='c000'>And three more of the beautiful uncut stones Torres added -to the others on the table.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Would you search me like a common pickpocket?” he -demanded in frantic indignation, turning both trousers’ -pockets emptily inside out.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Me,” said Francis.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I insist,” said Henry.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Oh, all very well,” Francis conceded. “Then we’ll do -it together. We can throw him farther off the steps.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Acting as one, they clutched Torres by collar and trousers -and started in a propulsive rush for the door.</p> - -<p class='c000'>All others in the room ran to the windows to behold Torres’ -exit; but Enrico, quickest of all, gained a window first. And, -afterward, into the middle of the room, the Queen scooped -the gems from the table into both her hands, and gave the -double handful to Leoncia, saying:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“From Francis and me to you and Henry——your -wedding present.”</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c000'>Yi Poon, having left the crone by the beach and crept back -to peer at the house from the bushes, chuckled gratifiedly to -<span class='pageno' id='Page_229'>229</span>himself when he saw the rich caballero thrown off the steps -with such a will as to be sent sprawling far out into the -gravel. But Yi Poon was too clever to let on that he had -seen. Hurrying away, he was half down the hill ere overtaken -by Torres on his horse.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The celestial addressed him humbly, and Torres, in his -general rage, lifted his riding whip savagely to slash him -across the face. But Yi Poon did not quail.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The Senorita Leoncia,” he said quickly, and arrested the -blow. “I have great secret.” Torres waited, the whip still -lifted as a threat. “You like ‘m some other man marry that -very nice Senorita Leoncia?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Torres dropped the whip to his side.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Go on,” he commanded harshly. “What is the secret?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You no want ‘m other man marry that Senorita -Leoncia?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Suppose I don’t?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Then, suppose you have secret, you can stop other -man.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Well, what is it? Spit it out.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But first,” Yi Poon shook his head, “you pay me six -hundred dollars gold. Then I tell you secret.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I’ll pay you,” Torres said readily, although without the -slightest thought of keeping his word. “You tell me first, -then, if no lie, I’ll pay you.—See!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>From his breast pocket he drew a wallet bulging with paper -bills; and Yi Poon, uneasily acquiescing, led him down the -road to the crone on the beach.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“This old woman,” he explained, “she no lie. She sick -woman. Pretty soon she die. She is afraid. She talk to -priest along Colon. Priest say she must tell secret, or die -and go to hell. So she no lie.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Well, if she doesn’t lie, what is it she must tell?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You pay me?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Sure. Six hundred gold.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Well, she born Cadiz in old country. She number one -servant, number one baby nurse. One time she take job -with English family that come traveling in her country. -Long time she work with that family. She go back along England. -Then, bime by——you know Spanish blood very hot——she -get very mad. That family have one little baby girl. -She steal little baby girl and run away to Panama. That -little baby girl Senor Solano he adopt just the same his own -daughter. He have plenty sons and no daughter. So that -<span class='pageno' id='Page_230'>230</span>little baby girl he make his daughter. But that old woman -she no tell what name belong little girl’s family. That -family very high blood, very rich, everybody in England -know that family. That family’s name ‘Morgan.’ You -know that name? In Colon comes San Antonio men who -say Senor Solano’s daughter marry English Gringo named -Morgan. That Gringo Morgan the Senorita Leoncia’s -brother.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Ah!” said Torres with maleficent delight.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You pay me now six hundred gold,” said Yi Poon.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Thank you for the fool you are,” said Torres with untold -mockery in his voice. “You will learn better perhaps some -day the business of selling secrets. Secrets are not shoes or -mahogany timber. A secret told is no more than a whisper -in the air. It comes. It goes. It is gone. It is a ghost. -Who has seen it? You can claim back shoes or mahogany -timber. You can never claim back a secret when you have -told it.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“We talk of ghosts, you and I,” said Yi Poon calmly. -“And the ghosts are gone. I have told you no secret. You -have dreamed a dream. When you tell men they will ask -you who told you. And you will say, ‘Yi Poon.’ But Yi -Poon will say, ‘No.’ And they will say, ‘Ghosts,’ and -laugh at you.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Yi Poon, feeling the other yield to his superior subtlety of -thought, deliberately paused.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“We have talked whispers,” he resumed after a few -seconds. “You speak true when you say whispers are -ghosts. When I sell secrets I do not sell ghosts. I sell -shoes. I sell mahogany timber. My proofs are what I sell. -They are solid. On the scales they will weigh weight. You -can tear the paper of them, which is legal paper of record, -on which they are written. Some of them, not paper, you -can bite with your teeth and break your teeth upon. For -the whispers are already gone like morning mists. I have -proofs. You will pay me six hundred gold for the proofs, or -men will laugh at you for lending your ears to ghosts.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“All right,” Torres capitulated, convinced. “Show me -the proofs that I can tear and bite.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Pay me the six hundred gold.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“When you have shown me the proofs.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The proofs you can tear and bite are yours after you -have put the six hundred gold into my hand. You promise. -A promise is a whisper, a ghost. I do not do business with -ghost money. You pay me real money I can tear or bite.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_231'>231</span>And in the end Torres surrendered, paying in advance for -what did satisfy him when he had examined the documents, -the old letters, the baby locket and the baby trinkets. And -Torres not only assured Yi Poon that he was satisfied, but -paid him in advance, on the latter’s insistence, an additional -hundred gold to execute a commission for him.</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c000'>Meanwhile, in the bathroom which connected their bedrooms, -clad in fresh underlinen and shaving with safety -razors, Henry and Francis were singing:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Back to back against the mainmast,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Held at bay the entire crew....”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c000'>In her charming quarters, aided and abetted by a couple -of Indian seamstresses, Leoncia, half in mirth, half in sadness, -and in all sweetness and wholesomeness of generosity, -was initiating the Queen into the charmingness of civilized -woman’s dress. The Queen, a true woman to her heart’s -core, was wild with delight in the countless pretties of texture -and adornment with which Leoncia’s wardrobe was stored. -It was a maiden frolic for the pair of them, and a stitch here -and a take-up there modified certain of Leoncia’s gowns to -the Queen’s slenderness.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“No,” said Leoncia judicially. “You will not need a -corset. You are the one woman in a hundred for whom a -corset is not necessary. You have the roundest lines for a -thin woman that I ever saw. You ...” Leoncia paused, -apparently deflected by her need for a pin from her dressing -table, for which she turned; but at the same time she swallowed -the swelling that choked in her throat, so that she was -able to continue: “You are a beautiful bride, and Francis -can only grow prouder of you.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>In the bathroom, Francis, finished shaving first, broke off -the song to respond to the knock at his bedroom door and -received a telegram from Fernando, the next to the youngest -of the Solano brothers. And Francis read:</p> - -<p class='c009'><em>Important your immediate return. Need more margins. -While market very weak but a strong attack on -all your stocks except Tampico Petroleum, which is -strong as ever. Wire me when to expect you. Situation -is serious. Think I can hold out if you start to return -at once. Wire me at once.</em></p> - -<div class='lg-container-r c008'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'><em>Bascom.</em></div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_232'>232</span>In the living room the two Morgans found Enrico and his -sons opening wine.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Having but had my daughter restored to me,” Enrico -said, “I now lose her again. But it is an easier loss, Henry. -To-morrow shall be the wedding. It cannot take place too -quickly. It is sure, right now, that that scoundrel Torres is -whispering all over San Antonio Leoncia’s latest unprotected -escapade with you.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Ere Henry could express his gratification, Leoncia and the -Queen entered. He held up his glass and toasted:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“To the bride!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Leoncia, not understanding, raised a glass from the table -and glanced to the Queen.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“No, no,” Henry said, taking her glass with the intention -of passing it to the Queen.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“No, no,” said Enrico. “Neither shall drink the toast -which is incomplete. Let me make it:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“To the brides!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You and Henry are to be married to-morrow,” Alesandro -explained to Leoncia.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Unexpected and bitter though the news was, Leoncia controlled -herself, and dared with assumed jollity to look Francis -in the eyes while she cried:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Another toast! To the bridegrooms!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Difficult as Francis had found it to marry the Queen and -maintain equanimity, he now found equanimity impossible -at the announcement of the immediate marriage of Leoncia. -Nor did Leoncia fail to observe how hard he struggled to -control himself. His suffering gave her secret joy, and with -a feeling almost of triumph she watched him take advantage -of the first opportunity to leave the room.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Showing them his telegram and assuring them that his -fortune was at stake, he said he must get off an answer and -asked Fernando to arrange for a rider to carry it to the -government wireless at San Antonio.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Nor was Leoncia long in following him. In the library she -came upon him, seated at the reading table, his telegram -unwritten, while his gaze was fixed upon a large photograph -of her which he had taken from its place on top the low bookshelves. -All of which was too much for her. Her involuntary -gasping sob brought him to his feet in time to catch her -as she swayed into his arms. And before either knew it their -lips were together in fervent expression.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_233'>233</span>Leoncia struggled and tore herself away, gazing upon her -lover with horror.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“This must stop, Francis!” she cried. “More: you -cannot remain here for my wedding. If you do, I shall not -be responsible for my actions. There is a steamer leaves San -Antonio for Colon. You and your wife must sail on it. You -can easily catch passage on the fruit boats to New Orleans -and take train to New York. I love you!—you know it.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The Queen and I are not married!” Francis pleaded, -beside himself, overcome by what had taken place. “That -heathen marriage before the Altar of the Sun was no marriage. -In neither deed nor ceremony are we married. I -assure you of that, Leoncia. It is not too late——”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“That heathen marriage has lasted you thus far,” she -interrupted him with quiet firmness. “Let it last you to -New York, or, at least, to ... Colon.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The Queen will not have any further marriage after our -forms,” Francis said. “She insists that all her female line -before her has been so married and that the Sun Altar ceremony -is sacredly binding.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Leoncia shrugged her shoulders non-committally, although -her face was stern with resolution.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Marriage or no,” she replied, “you must go—to-night—the -pair of you. Else I shall go mad. I warn you: I shall -not be able to withstand the presence of you. I cannot, I -know I cannot, be able to stand the sight of you while I am -being married to Henry and after I am married to Henry.—Oh, -please, please, do not misunderstand me. I do love -Henry, but not in the ... not in that way ... not in the -way I love you. I—and I am not ashamed of the boldness -with which I say it—I love Henry about as much as you love -the Queen; but I love you as I should love Henry, as you -should love the Queen, as I know you do love me.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>She caught his hand and pressed it against her heart.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“There! For the last time! Now go!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But his arms were around her, and she could not help but -yield her lips. Again she tore herself away, this time fleeing -to the doorway. Francis bowed his head to her decision, -then picked up her picture.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I shall keep this,” he announced.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You oughtn’t to,” she flashed a last fond smile at him. -“You may,” she added, as she turned and was gone.</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c000'>Yet Yi Poon had a commission to execute, for which Torres -<span class='pageno' id='Page_234'>234</span>had paid him one hundred gold in advance. Next morning, -with Francis and the Queen hours departed on their way to -Colon, Yi Poon arrived at the Solano hacienda. Enrico, -smoking a cigar on the veranda and very much pleased with -himself and all the world and the way the world was going, -recognized and welcomed Yi Poon as his visitor of the day -before. Even ere they talked, Leoncia’s father had dispatched -Alesandro for the five hundred pesos agreed upon. -And Yi Poon, whose profession was trafficking in secrets, -was not averse to selling his secret the second time. Yet -was he true to his salt, in so far as he obeyed Torres’ instructions -in refusing to tell the secret save in the presence of -Leoncia and Henry.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“That secret has the string on it,” Yi Poon apologized, -after the couple had been summoned, as he began unwrapping -the parcel of proofs. “The Senorita Leoncia and the -man she is going to marry must first, before anybody else, -look at these things. Afterward, all can look.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Which is fair, since they are more interested than any -of us,” Enrico conceded grandly, although at the same time -he betrayed his eagerness by the impatience with which he -motioned his daughter and Henry to take the evidence to one -side for examination.</p> - -<p class='c000'>He tried to appear uninterested, but his side-glances -missed nothing of what they did. To his amazement, he -saw Leoncia suddenly cast down a legal-appearing document, -which she and Henry had read through, and throw her arms, -whole-heartedly and freely about his neck, and whole-heartedly -and freely kiss him on the lips. Next, Enrico saw -Henry step back and exclaim in a dazed, heart-broken way:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But, my God, Leoncia! This is the end of everything. -Never can we be husband and wife!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Eh?” Enrico snorted. “When everything was -arranged! What do you mean, sir? This is an insult! -Marry you shall, and marry to-day!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Henry, almost in stupefaction, looked to Leoncia to speak -for him.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is against God’s law and man’s,” she said, “for a -man to marry his sister. Now I understand my strange love -for Henry. He is my brother. We are full brother and -sister, unless these documents lie.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And Yi Poon knew that he could take report to Torres that -the marriage would not take place and would never take -place.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_235'>235</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XXIV</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c006'>Catching a United Fruit Company boat at Colon within -fifteen minutes after landing from the small coaster, the -Queen’s progress with Francis to New York had been a swift -rush of fortunate connections. At New Orleans a taxi from -the wharf to the station and a racing of porters with hand -luggage had barely got them aboard the train just as it -started. Arrived at New York, Francis had been met by -Bascom, in Francis’ private machine, and the rush had continued -to the rather ornate palace R.H.M. himself, Francis’ -father, had built out of his millions on Riverside Drive.</p> - -<p class='c000'>So it was that the Queen knew scarcely more of the great -world than when she first started her travels by leaping into -the subterranean river. Had she been a lesser creature, she -would have been stunned by this vast civilisation around her. -As it was, she was royally inconsequential, accepting such -civilization as an offering from her royal spouse. Royal he -was, served by many slaves. Had she not, on steamer and -train, observed it? And here, arrived at his palace, she took -as a matter of course the showing of house servants that -greeted them. The chauffeur opened the door of the limousine. -Other servants carried in the hand baggage. Francis -touched his hand to nothing, save to her arm to assist her to -alight. Even Bascom—a man she divined was no servitor—she -also divined as one who served Francis. And she could -not but observe Bascom depart in Francis’ limousine, under -instruction and command of Francis.</p> - -<p class='c000'>She had been a queen, in an isolated valley, over a handful -of savages. Yet here, in this mighty land of kings, her -husband ruled kings. It was all very wonderful, and she -was deliciously aware that her queenship had suffered no -diminishing by her alliance with Francis.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Her delight in the interior of the mansion was naïve and -childlike. Forgetting the servants, or, rather, ignoring them -as she ignored her own attendants in her lake dwelling, she -<span class='pageno' id='Page_236'>236</span>clapped her hands in the great entrance hall, glanced at the -marble stairway, tripped in a little run to the nearest apartment, -and peeped in. It was the library, which she had -visioned in the Mirror of the World the first day she saw -Francis. And the vision realized itself, for Francis entered -with her into the great room of books, his arm about her, -just as she had seen him on the fluid-metal surface of the -golden bowl. The telephones, and the stock-ticker, too, she -remembered; and, just as she had foreseen herself do, she -crossed over to the ticker curiously to examine, and Francis, -his arm still about her, stood by her side.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Hardly had he begun an attempted explanation of the -instrument, and just as he realized the impossibility of -teaching her in several minutes all the intricacies of the stock -market institution, when his eyes noted on the tape that -Frisco Consolidated was down twenty points—a thing unprecedented -in that little Iowa railroad which R.H.M. had -financed and builded and to the day of his death maintained -proudly as so legitimate a creation, that, though half the -banks and all of Wall Street crashed, it would weather any -storm.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The Queen viewed with alarm the alarm that grew on -Francis’ face.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is magic—like my Mirror of the World?” she half-queried, -half-stated.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Francis nodded.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It tells you secrets, I know,” she continued. “Like my -golden bowl, it brings all the world, here within this very -room, to you. It brings you trouble. That is very plain. -But what trouble can this world bring you, who are one of its -great kings?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>He opened his mouth to reply to her last question, halted, -and said nothing, realizing the impossibility of conveying -comprehension to her, the while, under his eyelids, or at the -foreground of his brain, burned pictures of great railroad and -steamship lines, of teeming terminals and noisy docks; of -miners toiling in Alaska, in Montana, in Death Valley; of -bridled rivers, and harnessed waterfalls, and of power-lines -stilting across lowlands and swamps and marshes on two-hundred-foot -towers; and of all the mechanics and economics -and finances of the twentieth century machine-civilization.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It brings you trouble,” she repeated. “And, alas! I -cannot help you. My golden bowl is no more. Never again -shall I see the world in it. I am no longer a ruler of the -<span class='pageno' id='Page_237'>237</span>future. I am a woman merely, and helpless in this strange, -colossal world to which you have brought me. I am a woman -merely, and your wife, Francis, your proud wife.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Almost did he love her, as, dropping the tape, he pressed -her closely for a moment ere going over to the battery of -telephones. She is delightful, was his thought. There is -neither guile nor malice in her, only woman, all woman, -lovely and lovable——alas, that Leoncia should ever and -always arise in my thought between her whom I have and -herself whom I shall never have!</p> - -<p class='c000'>“More magic,” the Queen murmured, as Francis, getting -Bascom’s office, said:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Mr. Bascom will undoubtedly arrive back in half an hour. -This is Morgan talking——Francis Morgan. Mr. Bascom left -for his office not five minutes ago. When he arrives, tell him -that I have started for his office and shall not be more than -five minutes behind him. This is important. Tell him I am -on the way. Thank you. Good bye.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Very naturally, with all the wonders of the great house yet -to be shown her, the Queen betrayed her disappointment -when Francis told her he must immediately depart for a -place called Wall Street.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“What is it,” she asked, with a pout of displeasure, “that -drags you away from me like a slave?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is business——and very important,” he told her with -a smile and a kiss.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And what is Business that it should have power over -you who are a king? Is business the name of your god whom -all of you worship as the Sun God is worshipped by my -people?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>He smiled at the almost perfect appositeness of her idea, -saying:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is the great American god. Also, is it a very terrible -god, and when it slays it slays terribly and swiftly.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And you have incurred its displeasure?” she queried.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Alas, yes, though I know not how. I must go to Wall -Street——”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Which is its altar?” she broke in to ask.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Which is its altar,” he answered, “and where I must -find out wherein I have offended and wherein I may placate -and make amends.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>His hurried attempt to explain to her the virtues and -functions of the maid he had wired for from Colon, scarcely -interested her, and she broke him off by saying that evidently -<span class='pageno' id='Page_238'>238</span>the maid was similar to the Indian women who had attended -her in the Valley of Lost Souls, and that she had been -accustomed to personal service ever since she was a little girl -learning English and Spanish from her mother in the house -on the lake.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But when Francis caught up his hat and kissed her, she -relented and wished him luck before the altar.</p> - -<p class='c000'>After several hours of amazing adventures in her own -quarters, where the maid, a Spanish-speaking Frenchwoman, -acted as guide and mentor, and after being variously measured -and gloated over by a gorgeous woman who seemed -herself a queen and who was attended by two young women, -and who, in the Queen’s mind, was without doubt summoned -to serve her and Francis, she came back down the grand -stairway to investigate the library with its mysterious telephones -and ticker.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Long she gazed at the ticker and listened to its irregular -chatter. But she, who could read and write English and -Spanish, could make nothing of the strange hieroglyphics -that grew miraculously on the tape. Next, she explored the -first of the telephones. Remembering how Francis had -listened, she put her ear to the transmitter. Then, recollecting -his use of the receiver, she took it off its hook and placed -it to her ear. The voice, unmistakably a woman’s, sounded -so near to her that in her startled surprise she dropped the -receiver and recoiled. At this moment, Parker, Francis’ old -valet, chanced to enter the room. She had not observed -him before, and, so immaculate was his dress, so dignified -his carriage, that she mistook him for a friend of Francis -rather than a servitor——a friend similar to Bascom who had -met them at the station with Francis’ machine, ridden inside -with them as an equal, yet departed with Francis’ commands -in his ears which it was patent he was to obey.</p> - -<p class='c000'>At sight of Parker’s solemn face she laughed with embarrassment -and pointed inquiringly to the telephone. -Solemnly he picked up the receiver, murmured “A mistake,” -into the transmitter, and hung up. In those several -seconds the Queen’s thought underwent revolution. No -god’s nor spirit’s voice had been that which she had heard, -but a woman’s voice.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Where is that woman?” she demanded.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Parker merely stiffened up more stiffly, assumed a -solemner expression, and bowed.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“There is a woman concealed in the house,” she charged -<span class='pageno' id='Page_239'>239</span>with quick words. “Her voice speaks there in that thing. -She must be in the next room——”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It was Central,” Parker attempted to stem the flood of -her utterance.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I care not what her name is,” the Queen dashed on. -“I shall have no other woman but myself in my house. Bid -her begone. I am very angry.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Parker was even stiller and solemner, and a new mood -came over her. Perhaps this dignified gentleman was higher -than she had suspected in the hierarchy of the lesser kings, -she thought. Almost might he be an equal king with Francis, -and she had treated him peremptorily as less, as much less.</p> - -<p class='c000'>She caught him by the hand, in her impetuousness noting -his reluctance, drew him over to a sofa, and made him sit -beside her. To add to Parker’s discomfiture, she dipped -into a box of candy and began to feed him chocolates, -closing his mouth with the sweets every time he opened it -to protest.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Come,” she said, when she had almost choked him, “is -it the custom of the men of this country to be polygamous?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Parker was aghast at such rawness of frankness.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Oh, I know the meaning of the word,” she assured him. -“So I repeat: is it the custom of the men of this country -to be polygamous?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“There is no woman in this house, besides yourself, -madam, except servant women,” he managed to enunciate. -“That voice you heard is not the voice of a woman in this -house, but the voice of a woman miles away who is your -servant, or is anybody’s servant who desires to talk over the -telephone.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“She is the slave of the mystery?” the Queen questioned, -beginning to get a dim glimmer of the actuality of the -matter.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Yes,” her husband’s valet admitted. “She is a slave -of the telephone.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Of the flying speech?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Yes, madam, call it that, of the flying speech.” He -was desperate to escape from a situation unprecedented in -his entire career. “Come, I will show you, madam. This -slave of the flying speech is yours to command both by night -and day. If you wish, the slave will enable you to talk with -your husband, Mr. Morgan——”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Now?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Parker nodded, arose, and led her to the telephone.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_240'>240</span>“First of all,” he instructed, “you will speak to the -slave. The instant you take this down and put it to your -ear, the slave will respond. It is the slave’s invariable way -of saying ‘Number?’ Sometimes she says it, ‘Number? -Number?’ And sometimes she is very irritable.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“When the slave has said ‘Number,’ then do you say -‘Eddystone 1292,’ whereupon the slave will say ‘Eddystone -1292?’ and then you will say, ‘Yes, please——‘”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“To a slave I shall say ‘please’?” she interrupted.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Yes, madam, for these slaves of the flying speech are -peculiar slaves that one never sees. I am not a young man, -yet I have never seen a Central in all my life.—Thus, next, -after a moment, another slave, a woman, who is miles away -from the first one, will say to you, ‘This is Eddystone 1292,’ -and you will say, ‘I am Mrs. Morgan. I wish to speak with -Mr. Morgan, who is, I think, in Mr. Bascom’s private -office.’ And then you wait, maybe for half a minute, or for -a minute, and then Mr. Morgan will begin to talk to you.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“From miles and miles away?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Yes, madam——just as if he were in the next room. -And when Mr. Morgan says ‘Good-bye,’ you will say ‘Good-bye,’ -and hang up as you have seen me do.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And all that Parker had told her came to pass as she -carried out his instructions. The two different slaves obeyed -the magic of the number she gave them, and Francis talked -and laughed with her, begged her not to be lonely, and promised -to be home not later than five that afternoon.</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c000'>Meanwhile, and throughout the day, Francis was a very -busy and perturbed man.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“What secret enemy have you?” Bascom again and -again demanded, while Francis shook his head in futility of -conjecture.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“For see, except where your holdings are concerned, the -market is reasonable and right. But take your holdings. -There’s Frisco Consolidated. There is neither sense nor logic -that it should be beared this way. Only your holdings are -being beared. New York, Vermont and Connecticut, paid -fifteen per cent. the last four quarters and is as solid as -Gibraltar. Yet it’s down, and down hard. The same with -Montana Lode, Death Valley Copper, Imperial Tungsten, -Northwestern Electric. Take Alaska Trodwell——as solid -as the everlasting rock. The movement against it started -<span class='pageno' id='Page_241'>241</span>only yesterday late. It closed eight points down, and to-day -has slumped twice as much more. Every one, stock in -which you are heavily interested. And no other stocks involved. -The rest of the market is firm.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“So is Tampico Petroleum firm,” Francis said, “and -I’m interested in it heaviest of all.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Bascom shrugged his shoulders despairingly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Are you sure you cannot think of somebody who is doing -this and who may be your enemy?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Not for the life of me, Bascom. Can’t think of a soul. -I haven’t made any enemies, because, since my father died, -I have not been active. Tampico Petroleum is the only -thing I ever got busy with, and even now it’s all right.” He -strolled over to the ticker. “There. Half a point up for -five hundred shares.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Just the same, somebody’s after you,” Bascom assured -him. “The thing is clear as the sun at midday. I have -been going over the reports of the different stocks at issue. -They are colored, artfully and delicately colored, and the -coloring matter is pessimistic and official. Why did Northwestern -Electric pass its dividend? Why did they put that -black-eye stuff into Mulhaney’s report on Montana Lode? -Oh, never mind the rest of the black-eying, but why all this -activity of unloading? It’s clear. There’s a raid on, and it -seems on you, and it’s not a sudden rush raid. It’s been -slowly and steadily growing. And it’s ripe to break at the -first rumor of war, at a big strike, or a financial panic——at -anything that will bear the entire market.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Look at the situation you’re in now, when all holdings -except your own are normal. I’ve covered your margins, -and covered them. A grave proportion of your straight collateral -is already up. And your margins keep on shrinking. -You can scarcely throw them overboard. It might start a -break. It’s too ticklish.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“There’s Tampico Petroleum, smiling as pretty as you -please——it’s collateral enough to cover everything,” Francis -suggested. “Though I’ve been chary of touching it,” he -amended.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Bascom shook his head.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“There’s the Mexican revolution, and our own spineless -administration. If we involved Tampico Petroleum, and -anything serious should break down there, you’d be finished, -cleaned out, broke.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And yet,” Bascom resumed, “I see no other way out -<span class='pageno' id='Page_242'>242</span>than to use Tampico Petroleum. You see, I have -almost exhausted what you have placed in my hands. And -this is no whirlwind raid. It’s slow and steady as an -advancing glacier. I’ve only handled the market for you -all these years, and this is the first tight place we’ve got -into. Now your general business affairs? Collins has the -handling and knows. You must know. What securities can -you let me have? Now? And to-morrow? And next week? -And the next three weeks?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“How much do you want?” Francis questioned back.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“A million before closing time to-day.” Bascom pointed -eloquently at the ticker. “At least twenty million more in -the next three weeks, if——and mark you that <em>if</em> well——if -the world remains at peace, and if the general market remains -as normal as it has been for the past six months.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Francis stood up with decision and reached for his hat.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I’m going to Collins at once. He knows far more about -my outside business than I know myself. I shall have at -least the million in your hands before closing time, and I’ve -a shrewd suspicion that I’ll cover the rest during the next -several weeks.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Remember,” Bascom warned him, as they shook hands, -“it’s the very slowness of this raid that is ominous. It’s -directed against you, and it’s no fly-by-night affair. Whoever -is making it, is doing it big, and must be big.”</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c000'>Several times, late that afternoon and evening, the Queen -was called up by the slave of the flying speech and enabled -to talk with her husband. To her delight, in her own room, -by her bedside, she found a telephone, through which, by -calling up Collins’ office, she gave her good night to Francis. -Also, she essayed to kiss her heart to him, and received back, -queer and vague of sound, his answering kiss.</p> - -<p class='c000'>She knew not how long she had slept, when she awoke. -Not moving, through her half-open eyes she saw Francis -peer into the room and across to her. When he had gone -softly away, she leapt out of bed and ran to the door in time -to see him start down the staircase.</p> - -<p class='c000'>More trouble with the great god Business——was her -surmise. He was going down to that wonderful room, the -library, to read more of the dread god’s threats and warnings -that were so mysteriously made to take form of written -speech to the clicking of the ticker. She looked at herself -<span class='pageno' id='Page_243'>243</span>in the mirror, adjusted her hair, and with a little love-smile -of anticipation on her lips put on a dressing-gown——another -of the marvelous pretties of Francis’ forethought and providing.</p> - -<p class='c000'>At the entrance of the library she paused, hearing the -voice of another than Francis. At first thought she decided -it was the flying speech, but immediately afterward she knew -it to be too loud and near and different. Peeping in, she -saw two men drawn up in big leather chairs near to each -other and facing. Francis, tired of face from the day’s -exertions, still wore his business suit; but the other was clad -in evening dress. And she heard him call her husband -“Francis,” who, in turn, called him “Johnny.” That, -and the familiarity of their conversation, conveyed to her -that they were old, close friends.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And don’t tell me, Francis,” the other was saying, -“that you’ve frivoled through Panama all this while without -losing your heart to the senoritas a dozen times.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Only once,” Francis replied, after a pause, in which the -Queen noted that he gazed steadily at his friend.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Further,” he went on, after another pause, “I really -lost my heart——but not my head. Johnny Pathmore, O -Johnny Pathmore, you are a mere flirtatious brute, but I -tell you that you’ve lots to learn. I tell you that in Panama -I found the most wonderful woman in the world——a woman -that I was glad I had lived to know, a woman that I would -gladly die for; a woman of fire, of passion, of sweetness, of -nobility, a very queen of women.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And the Queen, listening and looking upon the intense -exaltation of his face, smiled with proud fondness and certitude -to herself, for had she not won a husband who remained -a lover?</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And did the lady, er——ah——did she reciprocate?” -Johnny Pathmore ventured.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The Queen saw Francis nod as he solemnly replied.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“She loves me as I love her——this I know in all -absoluteness.” He stood up suddenly. “Wait. I will -show her to you.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And as he started toward the door, the Queen, in roguishness -of a very extreme of happiness at her husband’s confession -she had overheard, fled trippingly to hide in the wide -doorway of a grand room which the maid had informed her -was the drawing room, whatever such room might be. Deliciously -imagining Francis’ surprise at not finding her in -<span class='pageno' id='Page_244'>244</span>bed, she watched him go up the wide marble staircase. In -a few moments he descended. With a slight chill at the -heart she observed that he betrayed no perturbation at not -having found her. In his hand he carried a scroll or roll -of thin, white cardboard. Looking neither to right nor left, -he re-entered the library.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Peeping in, she saw him unroll the scroll, present it before -Johnny Pathmore’s eyes, and heard him say:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Judge for yourself. There she is.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But why be so funereal about it, old man?” Johnny -Pathmore queried, after a prolonged examination of the -photograph.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Because we met too late. I was compelled to marry -another. And I left her forever just a few hours before she -was to marry another, which marriage had been compelled -before either of us ever knew the other existed. And the -woman I married, please know, is a good and splendid -woman. She will have my devotion forever. Unfortunately, -she will never possess<a id='t244'></a> my heart.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>In a great instant of revulsion, the entire truth came to -the Queen. Clutching at her heart with clasped hands, she -nearly fainted of the vertigo that assailed her. Although -they still talked inside the library, she heard no further word -of their utterance as she strove with slow success to draw -herself together. Finally, with indrawn shoulders, a little -forlorn sort of a ghost of the resplendent woman and wife -she had been but minutes before, she staggered across the -hall and slowly, as if in a nightmare wherein speed never -resides, dragged herself upstairs. In her room, she lost all -control. Francis’ ring was torn from her finger and stamped -upon. Her boudoir cap and her turtle-shell hairpins joined -the general havoc under her feet. Convulsed, shuddering, -muttering to herself in her extremity, she threw herself upon -her bed and only managed, in an ecstasy of anguish, to remain -perfectly quiet when Francis peeped in on his way to -bed.</p> - -<p class='c000'>An hour, that seemed a thousand centuries, she gave him -to go to sleep. Then she arose, took in hand the crude -jeweled dagger which had been hers in the Valley of the Lost -Souls, and softly tiptoed into his room. There on the -dresser it was, the large photograph of Leoncia. In thorough -indecision, clutching the dagger until the cramp of her palm -and fingers hurt her, she debated between her husband and -Leoncia. Once, beside his bed, her hand raised to strike, an -<span class='pageno' id='Page_245'>245</span>effusion of tears into her dry eyes obscured her seeing so that -her dagger-hand dropped as she sobbed audibly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Stiffening herself with changed resolve, she crossed over -to the dresser. A pad and pencil lying handy, caught her -attention. She scribbled two words, tore off the sheet, and -placed it upon the face of Leoncia as it lay flat and upturned -on the surface of polished wood. Next, with an unerring -drive of the dagger, she pinned the note between the pictured -semblance of Leoncia’s eyes, so that the point of the blade -penetrated the wood and left the haft quivering and upright.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_246'>246</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XXV</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c006'>Meanwhile, after the manner of cross purposes in New York, -wherein Regan craftily proceeded with his gigantic raid on -all Francis’ holdings while Francis and Bascom vainly strove -to find his identity, so in Panama were at work cross purposes -which involved Leoncia and the Solanos, Torres and -the Jefe, and, not least in importance, one, Yi Poon, the -rotund and moon-faced Chinese.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The little old judge, who was the Jefe’s creature, sat -asleep in court in San Antonio. He had slept placidly for -two hours, occasionally nodding his head and muttering profoundly, -although the case was a grave one, involving twenty -years in San Juan, where the strongest could not survive -ten years. But there was no need for the judge to consider -evidence or argument. Before the case was called, decision -and sentence were in his mind, having been put there -by the Jefe. The prisoner’s lawyer ceased his perfunctory -argument, the clerk of the court sneezed, and the judge -woke up. He looked about him briskly and said:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Guilty.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>No one was surprised, not even the prisoner.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Appear to-morrow morning for sentence.——Next -case.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Having so ordered, the judge prepared to settle down into -another nap, when he saw Torres and the Jefe enter the -courtroom. A gleam in the Jefe’s eye was his cue, and he -abruptly dismissed court for the day.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I have been to Rodriguez Fernandez,” the Jefe was explaining -five minutes later, in the empty courtroom. “He -says it was a natural gem, and that much would be lost in -the cutting, but that nevertheless he would still give five -hundred gold for it.——Show it to the judge, Senor Torres, -and the rest of the handful of big ones.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And Torres began to lie. He had to lie, because he could -not confess the shame of having had the gems taken away -<span class='pageno' id='Page_247'>247</span>from him by the Solanos and the Morgans when they threw -him out of the hacienda. And so convincingly did he lie -that even the Jefe he convinced, while the judge, except -in the matter of brands of strong liquor, accepted everything -the Jefe wanted him to believe. In brief, shorn of -the multitude of details that Torres threw in, his tale was -that he was so certain of the jeweler’s under-appraisal that -he had despatched the gems by special messenger to his -agent in Colon with instructions to forward to New York to -Tiffany’s for appraisement that might lead to sale.</p> - -<p class='c000'>As they emerged from the courtroom and descended the -several steps that were flanked by single adobe pillars marred -by bullet scars from previous revolutions, the Jefe was -saying:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And so, needing the ægis of the law for our adventure -after these gems, and, more than that, both of us loving -our good friend the judge, we will let him in for a modest -share of whatever we shall gain. He shall represent us in -San Antonio while we are gone, and, if needs be, furnish -us with the law’s protection.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Now it happened that behind one of the pillars, hat pulled -over his face, Yi Poon half-sat, half-reclined. Nor was he -there by mere accident. Long ago he had learned that -secrets of value, which always connoted the troubles of -humans, were markedly prevalent around courtrooms, -which were the focal points for the airing of such troubles -when they became acute. One could never tell. At any -moment a secret might leap at one or brim over to one. -Therefore it was like a fisherman casting his line into the -sea for Yi Poon to watch the defendant and the plaintiff, -the witnesses for and against, and even the court hanger-on -or casual-seeming onlooker.</p> - -<p class='c000'>So, on this morning, the one person of promise that Yi -Poon had picked out was a ragged old peon who looked as -if he had been drinking too much and yet would perish -in his condition of reaction if he did not get another drink -very immediately. Bleary-eyed he was, and red-lidded, -with desperate resolve painted on all his haggard, withered -lineaments. When the courtroom had emptied, he had -taken up his stand outside on the steps close to a pillar.</p> - -<p class='c000'>And why? Yi Poon had asked himself. Inside remained -only the three chief men of San Antonio——the Jefe, Torres, -and the judge. What connection between them, or any -of them, and the drink-sodden creature that shook as if -<span class='pageno' id='Page_248'>248</span>freezing in the scorching blaze of the direct sun-rays? Yi -Poon did not know, but he did know that it was worth while -waiting on a chance, no matter how remote, of finding out. -So, behind the pillar, where no atom of shade protected -him from the cooking sun which he detested, he lolled on -the steps with all the impersonation of one placidly infatuated -with sun-baths. The old peon tottered a step, -swayed as if about to fall, yet managed to deflect Torres -from his companions, who paused to wait for him on the -pavement a dozen paces on, restless and hot-footed as if -they stood on a grid, though deep in earnest conversation. -And Yi Poon missed no word nor gesture, nor glint of eye -nor shifting face-line, of the dialogue that took place between -the grand Torres and the wreck of a peon.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“What now?” Torres demanded harshly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Money, a little money, for the love of God, senor, a -little money,” the ancient peon whined.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You have had your money,” Torres snarled. “When -I went away I gave you double the amount to last you twice -as long. Not for two weeks yet is there a centavo due you.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I am in debt,” was the old man’s whimper, the while -all the flesh of him quivered and trembled from the nerve-ravishment -of the drink so palpably recently consumed.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“On the pulque slate at Peter and Paul’s,” Torres, with -a sneer, diagnosed unerringly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“On the pulque slate at Peter and Paul’s,” was the -frank acknowledgment. “And the slate is full. No more -pulque can I get credit for. I am wretched and suffer a -thousand torments without my pulque.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You are a pig creature without reason!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>A strange dignity, as of wisdom beyond wisdom, seemed -suddenly to animate the old wreck as he straightened up, for -the nonce ceased from trembling, and gravely said:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I am old. There is no vigor left in the veins or the -heart of me. The desires of my youth are gone. Not even -may I labor with this broken body of mine, though well I -know that labor is an easement and a forgetting. Not even -may I labor and forget. Food is a distaste in my mouth -and a pain in my belly. Women—they are a pest that it -is a vexation to remember ever having desired. Children—I -buried my last a dozen years gone. Religion—it frightens -me. Death—I sleep with the terror of it. Pulque—ah, -dear God! the one tickle and taste of living left to me!</p> - -<p class='c000'>“What if I drink over much? It is because I have much -<span class='pageno' id='Page_249'>249</span>to forget, and have but a little space yet to linger in the -sun, ere the Darkness, for my old eyes, blots out the sun -forever.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Impervious to the old man’s philosophy, Torres made an -impatient threat of movement that he was going.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“A few pesos, just a handful of pesos,” the old peon -pleaded.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Not a centavo,” Torres said with finality.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Very well,” said the old man with equal finality.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“What do you mean?” Torres rasped with swift suspicion.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Have you forgotten?” was the retort, with such emphasis -of significance as to make Yi Poon wonder for what -reason Torres gave the peon what seemed a pension or an -allowance.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I pay you, according to agreement, to forget,” said -Torres.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I shall never forget that my old eyes saw you stab the -Senor Alfaro Solano in the back,” the peon replied.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Although he remained hidden and motionless in his -posture of repose behind the pillar, Yi Poon metaphorically -sat up. The Solanos were persons of place and wealth. That -Torres should have murdered one of them was indeed a -secret of price.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Beast! Pig without reason! Animal of the dirt!” -Torres’ hands clenched in his rage. “Because I am kind -do you treat me thus! One blabbing of your tongue and I -will send you to San Juan. You know what that means. -Not only will you sleep with the terror of death, but never -for a moment of waking will you be free of the terror of -living as you stare upon the buzzards that will surely and -shortly pick your bones. And there will be no pulque in -San Juan. There is never any pulque in San Juan for the -men I send there. So? Eh? I thought so. You will wait -two weeks for the proper time when I shall again give you -money. If you do not wait, then never, this side of your -interment in the bellies of buzzards, will you drink pulque -again.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Torres whirled on his heel and was gone. Yi Poon watched -him and his two companions go down the street, then -rounded the pillar to find the old peon sunk down in collapse -at his disappointment of not getting any pulque, groaning -and moaning and making sharp little yelping cries, his body -quivering as dying animals quiver in the final throes, his -<span class='pageno' id='Page_250'>250</span>fingers picking at his flesh and garments as if picking off -centipedes. Down beside him sat Yi Poon, who began a -remarkable performance of his own. Drawing gold coins -and silver ones from his pockets he began to count over -his money with chink and clink that was mellow and liquid -and that to the distraught peon’s ear was as the sound of -the rippling and riffling of fountains of pulque.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“We are wise,” Yi Poon told him in grandiloquent -Spanish, still clinking the money, while the peon whined -and yammered for the few centavos necessary for one drink -of pulque. “We are wise, you and I, old man, and we -will sit here and tell each other what we know about men -and women, and life and love, and anger and sudden death, -the rage red in the heart and the steel bitter cold in the -back; and if you tell me what pleases me, then shall you -drink pulque till your ears run out with it, and your eyes -are drowned in it. You like that pulque, eh? You like one -drink now, <em>now</em>, soon, very quick?”</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c000'>The night, while the Jefe Politico and Torres organized -their expedition under cover of the dark, was destined to -be a momentous one in the Solano hacienda. Things began -to happen early. Dinner over, drinking their coffee and -smoking their cigarettes, the family, of which Henry was -accounted one by virtue of his brotherhood to Leoncia, sat -on the wide front veranda. Through the moonlight, up the -steps, they saw a strange figure approach.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is like a ghost,” said Alvarado Solano.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“A fat ghost,” Martinez, his twin brother, amended.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“A Chink ghost you couldn’t poke your finger through,” -Ricardo laughed.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The very Chink who saved Leoncia and me from -marrying,” said Henry Morgan, with recognition.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The seller of secrets,” Leoncia gurgled. “And if he -hasn’t brought a new secret, I shall be disappointed.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“What do you want, Chinaman?” Alesandro, the eldest -of the Solano brothers, demanded sharply.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Nice new secret, very nice new secret maybe you buy,” -Yi Poon murmured proudly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Your secrets are too expensive, Chinaman,” said Enrico -discouragingly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“This nice new secret very expensive,” Yi Poon assured -him complacently.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_251'>251</span>“Go away,” old Enrico ordered. “I shall live a long -time, yet to the day of my death I care to hear no more -secrets.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But Yi Poon was suavely certain of himself.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“One time you have very fine brother,” he said. “One -time your very fine brother, the Senor Alfaro Solano, die -with knife in his back. Very well. Some secret, eh?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But Enrico was on his feet quivering.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You know?” he almost screamed his eager interrogation.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“How much?” said Yi Poon.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“All I possess!” Enrico cried, ere turning to Alesandro -to add: “You deal with him, son. Pay him well if he can -prove by witness of the eye.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You bet,” quoth Yi Poon. “I got witness. He got -good eye-sight. He see man stick knife in the Senor Alfaro’s -back in the dark. His name ...”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Yes, yes,” Enrico breathed his suspense.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“One thousand dollars his name,” said Yi Poon, hesitating -to make up his mind to what kind of dollars he could -dare to claim. “One thousand dollars gold,” he concluded.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Enrico forgot that he had deputed the transaction to his -eldest son.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Where is your witness?” he shouted.</p> - -<p class='c000'>And Yi Poon, calling softly down the steps into the shrubbery, -evoked the pulque-ravaged peon, a real-looking ghost -who slowly advanced and tottered up the steps.</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c000'>At the same time, on the edge of town, twenty mounted -men, among whom were the gendarmes Rafael, Ignacio, -Augustino, and Vicente, herded a pack train of more than -twenty mules and waited the command of the Jefe to -depart on they knew not what mysterious adventure into -the Cordilleras. What they did know was that, herded carefully -apart from all other animals, was a strapping big mule -loaded with two hundred and fifty pounds of dynamite. -Also, they knew that the delay was due to the Senor Torres, -who had ridden away along the beach with the dreaded -Caroo murderer, José Mancheno, who, only by the grace of -God and of the Jefe Politico, had been kept for years from -expiating on the scaffold his various offenses against life and -law.</p> - -<p class='c000'>And, while Torres waited on the beach and held the -Caroo’s horse and an extra horse, the Caroo ascended on -<span class='pageno' id='Page_252'>252</span>foot the winding road that led to the hacienda of the Solanos. -Little did Torres guess that twenty feet away, in the jungle -that encroached on the beach, lay a placid-sleeping, pulque-drunken, -old peon, with, crouching beside him, a very alert -and very sober Chinese with a recently acquired thousand -dollars stowed under his belt. Yi Poon had had barely time -to drag the peon into hiding when Torres rode along in the -sand and stopped almost beside him.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Up at the hacienda, all members of the household were -going to bed. Leoncia, just starting to let down her hair, -stopped when she heard the rattle of tiny pebbles against -her windows. Warning her in low whispers to make no noise, -José Mancheno handed her a crumpled note which Torres -had written, saying mysteriously:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“From a strange Chinaman who waits not a hundred -feet away on the edge of the shrubbery.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And Leoncia read, in execrable Spanish:</p> - -<p class='c009'>“First time, I tell you secret about Henry Morgan. -This time I have secret about Francis. You come along -and talk with me now.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Leoncia’s heart leaped at mention of Francis, and -as she slipped on a mantle and accompanied the Caroo it -never entered her head to doubt that Yi Poon was waiting -for her.</p> - -<p class='c000'>And Yi Poon, down on the beach and spying upon Torres, -had no doubts when he saw the Caroo murderer appear -with the Solano senorita, bound and gagged, slung across -his shoulder like a sack of meal. Nor did Yi Poon have any -doubts about his next action, when he saw Leoncia tied -into the saddle of the spare horse and taken away down -the beach at a gallop, with Torres and the Caroo riding on -either side of her. Leaving the pulque-sodden peon to sleep, -the fat Chinaman took the road up the hill at so stiff a -pace that he arrived breathless at the hacienda. Not content -with knocking at the door, he beat upon it with his -fists and feet and prayed to his Chinese gods that no peevish -Solano should take a shot at him before he could explain -the urgency of his errand.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“O go to hell,” Alesandro said, when he had opened the -door and flashed a light on the face of the importunate caller.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I have big secret,” Yi Poon panted. “Very big brand -new secret.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_253'>253</span>“Come around to-morrow in business hours,” Alesandro -growled as he prepared to kick the Chinaman off the premises.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I don’t sell secret,” Yi Poon stammered and -gasped. “I make you present. I give secret now. The -Senorita, your sister, she is stolen. She is tied upon a horse -that runs fast down the beach.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But Alesandro, who had said good night to Leoncia, not -half an hour before, laughed loudly his unbelief, and prepared -again to boot off the trafficker in secrets. Yi Poon -was desperate. He drew forth the thousand dollars and -placed it in Alesandro’s hand, saying:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You go look quick. If the Senorita stop in this house -now, you keep all that money. If the Senorita no stop, -then you give money back....”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And Alesandro was convinced. A minute later he was -rousing the house. Five minutes later the horse-peons, their -eyes hardly open from sound sleep, were roping and saddling -horses and pack-mules in the corrals, while the Solano tribe -was pulling on riding gear and equipping itself with weapons.</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c000'>Up and down the coast, and on the various paths leading -back to the Cordilleras, the Solanos scattered, questing -blindly in the blind dark for the trail of the abductors. As -chance would have it, thirty hours afterward, Henry alone -caught the scent and followed it, so that, camped in the -very Footstep of God where first the old Maya priest had -sighted the eyes of Chia, he found the entire party of twenty -men and Leoncia cooking and eating breakfast. Twenty to -one, never fair and always impossible, did not appeal to -Henry Morgan’s Anglo-Saxon mind. What did appeal to -him was the dynamite-loaded mule, tethered apart from the -off-saddled forty-odd animals and left to stand by the careless -peons with its load still on its back. Instead of -attempting the patently impossible rescue of Leoncia, and -recognising that in numbers her woman’s safety lay, he stole -the dynamite-mule.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Not far did he take it. In the shelter of the low woods, -he opened the pack and filled all his pockets with sticks of -dynamite, a box of detonators, and a short coil of fuse. -With a regretful look at the rest of the dynamite which he -would have liked to explode but dared not, he busied himself -along the line of retreat he would have to take if he -<span class='pageno' id='Page_254'>254</span>succeeded in stealing Leoncia from her captors. As Francis, -on a previous occasion at Juchitan, had sown the retreat -with silver dollars, so, this time, did Henry sow the retreat -with dynamite——the sticks in small bundles and the fuses, -no longer than the length of a detonator, and with detonators -fast to each end.</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c000'>Three hours Henry devoted to lurking around the camp -in the Footstep of God, ere he got his opportunity to signal -his presence to Leoncia; and another precious two hours -were wasted ere she found her opportunity to steal away -to him. Which would not have been so bad, had not -her escape almost immediately been discovered and had not -the gendarmes and the rest of Torres’ party, mounted, been -able swiftly to overtake them on foot.</p> - -<p class='c000'>When Henry drew Leoncia down to hide beside him in -the shelter of a rock, and at the same time brought his -rifle into action ready for play, she protested.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“We haven’t a chance, Henry,” she said. “They are -too many. If you fight you will be killed. And then what -will become of me? Better that you make your own escape, -and bring help, leaving me to be retaken, than that you -die and let me be retaken anyway.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But he shook his head.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“We are not going to be taken, dearest sister. Put your -trust in me and watch. Here they come now. You just -watch.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Variously mounted, on horses and pack mules—whichever -had come handiest in their haste—Torres, the Jefe, -and their men clattered into sight. Henry drew a sight, -not on them, but on the point somewhat nearer where he -had made his first plant of dynamite. When he pulled -trigger, the intervening distance rose up in a cloud of smoke -and earth dust that obscured them. As the cloud slowly dissipated, -they could be seen, half of them, animals and men, -overthrown, and all of them dazed and shocked by the explosion.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Henry seized Leoncia’s hand, jerked her to her feet, -and ran on side by side with her. Conveniently beyond his -second planting, he drew her down beside him to rest and -catch breath.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“They won’t come on so fast this time,” he hissed -<span class='pageno' id='Page_255'>255</span>exultantly. “And the longer they pursue us the slower -they’ll come on.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>True to his forecast, when the pursuit appeared, it moved -very cautiously and very slowly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“They ought to be killed,” Henry said. “But they -have no chance, and I haven’t the heart to do it. But I’ll -surely shake them up some.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Again he fired into his planted dynamite, and again, -turning his back on the confusion, he fled to his third -planting.</p> - -<p class='c000'>After he had fired off the third explosion, he raced Leoncia -to his tethered horse, put her in the saddle, and ran on beside -her, hanging on to her stirrup.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_256'>256</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XXVI</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c006'>Francis had left orders for Parker to call him at eight o’clock, -and when Parker softly entered he found his master still -asleep. Turning on the water in the bathroom and preparing -the shaving gear, the valet re-entered the bedroom. -Still moving softly about so that his master would have the -advantage of the last possible second of sleep, Parker’s eyes -lighted on the strange dagger that stood upright, its point -pinning through a note and a photograph and into the hard -wood of the dresser-top. For a long time he gazed at the -strange array, then, without hesitation, carefully opened -the door to Mrs. Morgan’s room and peeped in. Next, he -firmly shook Francis by the shoulder.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The latter’s eyes opened, for a second betraying the incomprehension -of the sleeper suddenly awakened, then lighting -with recognition and memory of the waking order he had -left the previous night.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Time to get up, sir,” the valet murmured.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Which is ever an ill time,” Francis yawned with a smile.</p> - -<p class='c000'>He closed his eyes with a, “Let me lie a minute, Parker. -If I doze, shake me.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But Parker shook him immediately.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You must get up right away, sir. I think something has -happened to Mrs. Morgan. She is not in her room, and there -is a queer note and a knife here that may explain. I don’t -know, sir——”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Francis was out of bed in a bound, staring one moment at -the dagger, and next, drawing it out, reading the note over -and over as if its simple meaning, contained in two simple -words, were too abstruse for his comprehension.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Adios forever,” said the note.</p> - -<p class='c000'>What shocked him even more, was the dagger thrust -between Leoncia’s eyes, and, as he stared at the wound -made in the thin cardboard, it came to him that he had seen -this very thing before, and he remembered back to the lake-dwelling -<span class='pageno' id='Page_257'>257</span>of the Queen when all had gazed into the golden -bowl and seen variously, and when he had seen Leoncia’s -face on the strange liquid metal with the knife thrust between -the eyes. He even put the dagger back into the cardboard -wound and stared at it some more.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The explanation was obvious. The Queen had betrayed -jealousy against Leoncia from the first, and here, in New -York, finding her rival’s photograph on her husband’s -dresser, had no more missed the true conclusion than had she -missed the pictured features with her point of steel. But -where was she? Where had she gone?——she who was the -veriest stranger that had ever entered the great city, who -called the telephone the magic of the flying speech, who -thought of Wall Street as a temple, and regarded Business -as the New York man’s god. For all the world she was as -unsophisticated and innocent of a great city as had she been -a traveler from Mars. Where and how had she passed the -night? Where was she now? Was she even alive?</p> - -<p class='c000'>Visions of the Morgue with its unidentified dead, and of -bodies drifting out to sea on the ebb, rushed into his brain. -It was Parker who steadied him back to himself.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Is there anything I can do, sir? Shall I call up the -detective bureau? Your father always——”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Yes, yes,” Francis interrupted quickly. “There was -one man he employed more than all others, a young man -with the Pinkertons——do you remember his name?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Birchman, sir,” Parker answered promptly, moving -away. “I shall send for him to come at once.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And thereupon, in the quest after his wife, Francis entered -upon a series of adventures that were to him, a born New -Yorker, a liberal education in conditions and phases of New -York of which, up to that time, he had been profoundly -ignorant. Not alone did Birchman search, but he had at -work a score of detectives under him who fine-tooth-combed -the city, while in Chicago and Boston, he directed the -activities of similar men.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Between his battle with the unguessed enemy of Wall -Street, and the frequent calls he received to go here and -there and everywhere, on the spur of the moment, to identify -what might possibly be his wife, Francis led anything but a -boresome existence. He forgot what regular hours of sleep -were, and grew accustomed to being dragged from luncheon -or dinner, or of being routed out of his bed, to respond to -hurry calls to come and look over new-found missing ladies. -<span class='pageno' id='Page_258'>258</span>No trace of one answering her description, who had left the -city by train or steamer had been discovered, and Birchman -assiduously pursued his fine-tooth combing, convinced -that she was still in the city.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Thus, Francis took trips to Mattenwan and down Blackwell’s, -and the Tombs and the All-Night court knew his -presence. Nor did he escape being dragged to countless -hospitals nor to the Morgue. Once, a fresh-caught shoplifter, -of whom there was no criminal record and to whom -there was no clew of identity, was brought to his notice. -He had adventures with mysterious women cornered by -Birchman’s satellites in the back rooms of Raines’ Hotels, -and, on the West Side, in the Fifties, was guilty of trespassing -upon two comparatively innocent love-idyls, to the -embarrassment of all concerned including himself.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Perhaps his most interesting and tragic adventure was in -the ten-million-dollar mansion of Philip January, the Telluride -mining king. The strange woman, a lady slender, had -wandered in upon the Januarys a week before, ere Francis -came to see her. And, as she had heartbreakingly done -for the entire week, so she heartbreakingly did for Francis, -wringing her hands, perpetually weeping, and murmuring -beseechingly: “Otho, you are wrong. On my knees I tell -you you are wrong. Otho, you, and you only, do I love. -There is no one but you, Otho. There has never been any -one but you. It is all a dreadful mistake. Believe me, -Otho, believe me, or I shall die....”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And through it all, the Wall Street battle went on against -the undiscoverable and powerful enemy who had launched -what Francis and Bascom could not avoid acknowledging -was a catastrophic, war-to-the-death raid on his fortune.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“If only we can avoid throwing Tampico Petroleum into -the whirlpool,” Bascom prayed.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I look to Tampico Petroleum to save me,” Francis -replied. “When every security I can lay hand to has been -engulfed, then, throwing in Tampico Petroleum will be like -the eruption of a new army upon a losing field.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And suppose your unknown foe is powerful enough to -swallow down that final, splendid asset and clamor for -more?” Bascom queried.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Francis shrugged his shoulders.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Then I shall be broke. But my father went broke half -a dozen times before he won out. Also was he born broke. -I should worry about a little thing like that.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_259'>259</span>For a time, in the Solano hacienda, events had been moving -slowly. In fact, following upon the rescue of Leoncia -by Henry along his dynamite-sown trail, there had been no -events. Not even had Yi Poon appeared with a perfectly -fresh and entirely brand new secret to sell. Nothing had -happened, save that Leoncia drooped and was apathetic, that -neither Enrico nor Henry, her full brother, nor her Solano -brothers who were not her brothers at all, could cheer her.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But, while Leoncia drooped, Henry and the tall sons of -Enrico worried and perplexed themselves about the treasure -in the Valley of the Lost Souls, into which Torres was even -then dynamiting his way. One thing they did know, namely, -that the Torres’ expedition had sent Augustino and Vicente -back to San Antonio to get two more mule-loads of dynamite.</p> - -<p class='c000'>It was Henry, after conferring with Enrico and obtaining -his permission, who broached the matter to Leoncia.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Sweet sister,” had been his way, “we’re going to go -up and see what the scoundrel Torres and his gang are doing. -We do know, thanks to you, their objective. The dynamite -is to blow an entrance into the Valley. We know where -the Lady Who Dreams sank her treasure when her house -burned. Torres does not know this. The idea is that we -can follow them into the Valley, when they have drained -the Maya caves, and have as good a chance, if not a better -chance than they in getting possession of that marvelous -chest of gems. And the very tip of the point is that we’d -like to take you along on the expedition. I fancy, if we -managed to get the treasure ourselves, that you wouldn’t -mind repeating that journey down the subterranean river.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But Leoncia shook her head wearily.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“No,” she said, after further urging. “I never want to -see the Valley of the Lost Souls again, nor ever to hear it -mentioned. There is where I lost Francis to that woman.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It was all a mistake, darling sister. But who was to -know? I did not. You did not. Nor did Francis. He -played the man’s part fairly and squarely. Not knowing -that you and I were brother and sister, believing that we -were truly betrothed——as we were at the time——he refrained -from trying to win you from me, and he rendered -further temptation impossible and saved the lives of all -of us by marrying the Queen.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I miss you and Francis singing your everlasting ‘Back -to back against the mainmast,’” she murmured sadly and -irrelevantly.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_260'>260</span>Quiet tears welled into her eyes and brimmed over as she -turned away, passed down the steps of the veranda, crossed -the grounds, and aimlessly descended the hill. For the -twentieth time since she had last seen Francis she pursued -the same course, covering the same ground from the time -she first espied him rowing to the beach from the <em>Angelique</em>, -through her dragging him into the jungle to save him from -her irate menfolk, to the moment, with drawn revolver, -when she had kissed him and urged him into the boat and -away. This had been his first visit.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Next, she covered every detail of his second visit from -the moment, coming from behind the rock after her swim -in the lagoon, she had gazed upon him leaning against the -rock as he scribbled his first note to her, through her startled -flight into the jungle, the bite on her knee of the labarri -(which she had mistaken for a deadly viperine), to her recoiling -collision against Francis and her faint on the sand. -And, under her parasol, she sat down on the very spot where -she had fainted and come to, to find him preparing to suck -the poison from the wound which he had already excoriated. -As she remembered back, she realized that it had been the -pain of the excoriation which brought her to her senses.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Deep she was in the sweet recollections of how she had -slapped his cheek even as his lips approached her knee, -blushed with her face hidden in her hands, laughed because -her foot had been made asleep by his too-efficient tourniquet, -turned white with anger when he reminded her that she -considered him the murderer of her uncle, and repulsed his -offer to untie the tourniquet. So deep was she in such fond -recollections of only the other day that yet seemed separated -from the present by half a century, such was the wealth of -episode, adventure, and tender passages which had intervened, -that she did not see the rattletrap rented carriage -from San Antonio drive up the beach road. Nor did she see -a lady, fashionably clad in advertisement that she was from -New York, dismiss the carriage and proceed toward her on -foot. This lady, who was none other than the Queen, -Francis’ wife, likewise sheltered herself beneath a parasol -from the tropic sun.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Standing directly behind Leoncia, she did not realize that -she had surprised the girl in a moment of high renunciation. -All that she did know was that she saw Leoncia draw from -her breast and gaze long at a tiny photograph. Over her -shoulder the Queen made it out to be a snapshot of Francis, -<span class='pageno' id='Page_261'>261</span>whereupon her mad jealousy raged anew. A poniard flashed -to her hand from its sheath within the bosom of her dress. -The quickness of this movement was sufficient to warn -Leoncia, who tilted her parasol forward so as to look up -at whatever person stood at her back. Too utterly dreary -even to feel surprise, she greeted the wife of Francis Morgan -as casually as if she had parted from her an hour before. -Even the poniard failed to arouse in her curiosity or fear. -Perhaps, had she displayed startlement and fear, the Queen -might have driven the steel home to her. As it was, she -could only cry out.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You are a vile woman! A vile, vile woman!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>To which Leoncia merely shrugged her shoulders, and -said:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You would better keep your parasol between you and -the sun.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>The Queen passed round in front of her, facing her and -staring down at her with woman’s wrath compounded of -such jealousy as to be speechless.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Why?” Leoncia was the first to speak, after a long -pause. “Why am I a vile woman?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Because you are a thief,” the Queen flamed. “Because -you are a stealer of men, yourself married. Because -you are unfaithful to your husband——in heart, at least, -since more than that has so far been impossible.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I have no husband,” Leoncia answered quietly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Husband to be, then——I thought you were to be married -the day after our departure.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I have no husband to be,” Leoncia continued with the -same quietness.</p> - -<p class='c000'>So swiftly tense did the other woman become that Leoncia -idly thought of her as a tigress.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Henry Morgan!” the Queen cried.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“He is my brother.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“A word which I have discovered is of wide meaning, -Leoncia Solano. In New York there are worshippers at certain -altars who call all men in the world ‘brothers,’ all -women ‘sisters.’”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“His father was my father,” Leoncia explained with -patient explicitness. “His mother was my mother. We are -full brother and sister.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And Francis?” the other queried, convinced, with -sudden access of interest. “Are you, too, his sister?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Leoncia shook her head.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_262'>262</span>“Then you do love Francis!” the Queen charged, smarting -with disappointment.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You have him,” said Leoncia.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“No; for you have taken him from me.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Leoncia slowly and sadly shook her head and sadly gazed -out over the heat-shimmering surface of Chiriqui Lagoon.</p> - -<p class='c000'>After a long lapse of silence, she said, wearily, “Believe -that. Believe anything.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I divined it in you from the first,” the Queen cried. -“You have a strange power over men. I am a woman not -unbeautiful. Since I have been out in the world I have -watched the eyes of men looking at me. I know I am not -all undesirable. Even have the wretched males of my Lost -Valley with downcast eyes looked love at me. One dared -more than look, and he died for me, or because of me, and -was flung into the whirl of waters to his fate. And yet you, -with this woman’s power of yours, strangely exercise it -over my Francis so that in my very arms he thinks of you. -I know it. I know that even then he thinks of you!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Her last words were the cry of a passion-stricken and -breaking heart. And the next moment, though very little -to Leoncia’s surprise, being too hopelessly apathetic to be -surprised at anything, the Queen dropped her knife in the -sand and sank down, buried her face in her hands, and surrendered -to the weakness of hysteric grief. Almost idly, -and quite mechanically, Leoncia put her arm around her -and comforted her. For many minutes this continued, when -the Queen, growing more calm, spoke with sudden determination.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I left Francis the moment I knew he loved you,” she -said. “I drove my knife into the photograph of you he -keeps in his bedroom, and returned here to do the same -to you in person. But I was wrong. It is not your fault, -nor Francis’. It is my fault that I have failed to win his -love. Not you, but I it is who must die. But first, I -must go back to my valley and recover my treasure. In -the temple called Wall Street, Francis is in great trouble. -His fortune may be taken away from him, and he requires -another fortune to save his fortune. I have that fortune, -and there is no time to lose. Will you and yours help me? -It is for Francis’ sake.”</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_263'>263</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XXVII</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c006'>So it came about that the Valley of the Lost Souls was -invaded subterraneously from opposite directions by two -parties of treasure-seekers. From one side, and quickly, -came the Queen and Leoncia, Henry Morgan, and the -Solanos. Far more slowly, although they had started long -in advance, did Torres and the Jefe progress. The first -attack on the mountain had proved the chiefest obstacle. -To blow open an entrance to the Maya caves had required -more dynamite than they had originally brought, while the -rock had proved stubborner than they expected. Further, -when they had finally made a way, it had proved to be above -the cave floor, so that more blasting had been required to -drain off the water. And, having blasted their way in to -the water-logged mummies of the conquistadores and to the -Room of the Idols, they had to blast their way out again and -on into the heart of the mountain. But first, ere they continued -on, Torres looted the ruby eyes of Chia and the -emerald eyes of Hzatzl.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Meanwhile, with scarcely any delays, the Queen and her -party penetrated to the Valley through the mountain on -the opposite side. Nor did they entirely duplicate the course -of their earlier traverse. The Queen, through long gazing -into her Mirror, knew every inch of the way. Where the -underground river plunged through the passage and out into -the bosom of the Gualaca River it was impossible to take in -their boats. But, by assiduous search under her directions, -they found the tiny mouth of a cave on the steep wall of the -cliff, so shielded by a growth of mountain berries that only -by knowing for what they sought could they have found it. -By main strength, applied to the coils of rope which they -had brought along, they hoisted their canoes up the cliff, -portaged them on their shoulders through the winding -passage, and launched them on the subterranean river itself -where it ran so broadly and placidly between wide banks -<span class='pageno' id='Page_264'>264</span>that they paddled easily against its slack current. At other -times, where the river proved too swift, they lined the canoes -up by towing from the bank; and wherever the river made -a plunge through the solid tie-ribs of mountain, the Queen -showed them the obviously hewn and patently ancient -passages through which to portage their light crafts around.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Here we leave the canoes,” the Queen directed at last, -and the men began securely mooring them to the bank in the -light of the flickering torches. “It is but a short distance -through the last passage. Then we will come to a small -opening in the cliff, shielded by climbing vines and ferns, -and look down upon the spot where my house once stood -beside the whirl of waters. The ropes will be necessary in -order to descend the cliff, but it is only about fifty feet.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Henry, with an electric torch, led the way, the Queen -beside him, while old Enrico and Leoncia brought up the -rear, vigilant to see that no possible half-hearted peon or -Indian boatman should slip back and run away. But when -the party came to where the mouth of the passage ought to -have been, there was no mouth. The passage ceased, being -blocked off solidly from floor to roof by a debris of crumbled -rocks that varied in size from paving stones to native houses.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Who could have done this?” the Queen exclaimed -angrily.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But Henry, after a cursory examination, reassured her.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It’s just a slide of rock,” he said, “a superficial fault -in the outer skin of the mountain that has slipped; and it -won’t take us long with our dynamite to remedy it. Lucky -we fetched a supply along.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But it did take long. For what was the remainder of the -day and throughout the night they toiled. Large charges of -explosive were not used because of Henry’s fear of exciting -a greater slip along the fault overhead. What dynamite was -used was for the purpose of loosening up the rubble so that -they could shift it back along the passage. At eight the -following morning the charge was exploded that opened up -to them the first glimmer of daylight ahead. After that they -worked carefully, being apprehensive of jarring down fresh -slides. At the last, they were baffled by a ten-ton block of -rock in the very mouth of the passage. Through crevices -on either side of it they could squeeze their arms into the -blazing sunshine, yet the stone-block thwarted them. No -leverage they applied could more than quiver it, and Henry -<span class='pageno' id='Page_265'>265</span>decided on one final blast that would topple it out and down -into the Valley.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“They’ll certainly know visitors are coming, the way -we’ve been knocking on their back door for the last fifteen -hours,” he laughed, as he prepared to light the fuse.</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c000'>Assembled before the altar of the Sun God at the Long -House, the entire population was indeed aware, and -anxiously aware, of the coming of visitors. So disastrous -had been their experiences with their last ones, when the -lake dwelling had been burned and their Queen lost to them, -that they were now begging the Sun God to send no more -visitors. But upon one thing, having been passionately -harangued by their priest, they were resolved; namely, to -kill at sight and without parley whatever newcomers did -descend upon them.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Even Da Vasco himself,” the priest had cried.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Even Da Vasco!” the Lost Souls had responded.</p> - -<p class='c000'>All were armed with spears, war-clubs, and bows and -arrows; and while they waited they continued to pray before -the altar. Every few minutes runners arrived from the lake, -making the same reports that while the mountain still -labored thunderously nothing had emerged from it.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The little girl of ten, the Maid of the Long House who -had entertained Leoncia, was the first to spy out new -arrivals. This was made possible because of the tribe’s -attention being fixed on the rumbling mountain beside the -lake. No one expected visitors out of the mountain on the -opposite side of the valley.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Da Vasco!” she cried. “Da Vasco!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>All looked and saw, not fifty yards away, Torres, the Jefe, -and their gang of followers, emerging into the open clearing. -Torres wore again the helmet he had filched from his -withered ancestor in the Chamber of the Mummies. Their -greeting was instant and warm, taking the form of a flight -of arrows that arched into them and stretched two of the -followers on the ground. Next, the Lost Souls, men and -women, charged; while the rifles of Torres’ men began to -speak. So unexpected was this charge, so swiftly made and -with so short a distance to cover, that, though many fell -before the bullets, a number reached the invaders and -engaged in a desperate hand-to-hand conflict. Here the -advantage of firearms was minimized, and gendarmes and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_266'>266</span>others were thrust through by spears or had their skulls -cracked under the ponderous clubs.</p> - -<p class='c000'>In the end, however, the Lost Souls were outfought, -thanks chiefly to the revolvers that could kill in the thickest -of the scuffling. The survivors fled, but of the invaders -half were down and down forever. The women having in -drastic fashion attended to every man who fell wounded. -The Jefe was spluttering with pain and rage at an arrow -which had perforated his arm; nor could he be appeased -until Vicente cut off the barbed head and pulled out the -shaft.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Torres, beyond an aching shoulder where a club had hit -him, was uninjured; and he became jubilant when he saw -the old priest dying on the ground with his head resting on -the little maid’s knees.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Since there were no wounded of their own to be attended -to with rough and ready surgery, Torres and the Jefe led the -way to the lake, skirted its shores, and came to the ruins -of the Queen’s dwelling. Only charred stumps of piles, -projecting above the water, showed where it had once stood. -Torres was nonplussed, but the Jefe was furious.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Here, right in this house that was, the treasure chest -stood,” he stammered.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“A wild goose chase!” the Jefe grunted. “Senor -Torres, I always suspected you were a fool.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“How was I to know the place had been burned down?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You ought to have known, you who are so very wise in -all things,” the Jefe bickered back. “But you can’t fool -me. I had my eye on you. I saw you rob the emeralds and -rubies from the eye-sockets of the Maya gods. That much -you shall divide with me, and now.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Wait, wait, be a trifle patient,” Torres begged. “Let -us first investigate. Of course, I shall divide the four gems -with you——but what are they compared with a whole chest-full? -It was a light, fragile house. The chest may have -fallen into the water undamaged by fire when the roof fell in. -And water will not damage precious stones.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>In amongst the burnt piling the Jefe sent his men to investigate, -and they waded and swam about in the shoal -water, being careful to avoid being caught by the outlying -suck of the whirlpool. Augustino, the Silent, made the find, -close in to shore.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I am standing on something,” he announced, the level -of the lake barely to his knees.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_267'>267</span>Torres plunged in, and, reaching under till he buried his -head and shoulders, felt out the object.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is the chest, I am certain,” he declared. “—Come! -All of you! Drag this out to the dry land so that we may -examine into it!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But when this was accomplished, and just as he bent to -open the lid, the Jefe stopped him.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Go back into the water, the lot of you,” he commanded -his men. “There are a number of chests like this, and the -expedition will be a failure if we don’t find them. One chest -would not pay the expenses.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Not until all the men were floundering and groping in the -water, did Torres raise the lid. The Jefe stood transfixed. -He could only gaze and mutter inarticulate mouthings.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Now will you believe?” Torres queried. “It is beyond -price. We are the richest two men in Panama, in South -America, in the world. This is the Maya treasure. We -heard of it when we were boys. Our fathers and our grandfathers -dreamed of it. The Conquistadores failed to find -it. And it is ours——ours!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And, while the two men, almost stupefied, stood and -stared, one by one their followers crept out of the water, -formed a silent semi-circle at their backs, and likewise -stared. Neither did the Jefe and Torres know their men -stood at their backs, nor did the men know of the Lost Souls -that were creeping stealthily upon them from the rear. As -it was, all were staring at the treasure with fascinated amazement -when the attack was sprung.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Bows and arrows, at ten yards distance, are deadly, -especially when due time is taken to make certain of aim. -Two-thirds of the treasure-seekers went down simultaneously. -Through Vicente, who had chanced to be standing -directly behind Torres, no less than two spears and five -arrows had perforated. The handful of survivors had barely -time to seize their rifles and whirl, when the club attack was -upon them. In this Rafael and Ignacio, two of the -gendarmes who had been on the adventure to the Juchitan -oil fields, almost immediately had their skulls cracked. -And, as usual, the Lost Souls women saw to it that the -wounded did not remain wounded long.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The end for Torres and the Jefe was but a matter of -moments, when a loud roar from the mountain followed by -a crashing avalanche of rock, created a diversion. The few -Lost Souls that remained alive, darted back terror-stricken -<span class='pageno' id='Page_268'>268</span>into the shelter of the bushes. The Jefe and Torres, who -alone stood on their feet and breathed, cast their eyes up -the cliff to where the smoke still issued from the new-made -hole, and saw Henry Morgan and the Queen step into the -sunshine on the lip of the cliff.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You take the lady,” the Jefe snarled. “I shall get -the Gringo Morgan if it’s the last act of what seems a life -that isn’t going to be much longer.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Both lifted their rifles and fired. Torres, never much of -a shot, sent his bullet fairly centered into the Queen’s breast. -But the Jefe, master marksman and possessor of many -medals, made a clean miss of his target. The next instant, -a bullet from Henry’s rifle struck his wrist and traveled up -the forearm to the elbow, whence it escaped and passed on. -And as his rifle clattered to the ground he knew that never -again would that right arm, its bone pulped from wrist to -elbow, have use for a rifle.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But Henry was not shooting well. Just emerged from -twenty-four hours of darkness in the cave, not at once -could his eyes adjust themselves to the blinding dazzle of -the sun. His first shot had been lucky. His succeeding -shots merely struck in the immediate neighbourhood of the -Jefe and Torres as they turned and fled madly for the -brush.</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c000'>Ten minutes later, the wounded Jefe in the lead, Torres -saw a woman of the Lost Souls spring out from behind -a tree and brain him with a huge stone wielded in both her -hands. Torres shot her first, then crossed himself with -horror, and stumbled on. From behind arose distant calls -of Henry and the Solano brothers in pursuit, and he remembered -the vision of his end he had glimpsed but refused to -see in the Mirror of the World and wondered if this end was -near upon him. Yet it had not resembled this place of -trees and ferns and jungle. From the glimpse he remembered -nothing of vegetation——only solid rock and blazing -sun and bones of animals. Hope sprang up afresh at the -thought. Perhaps that end was not for this day, maybe -not for this year. Who knew? Twenty years might yet -pass ere that end came.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Emerging from the jungle, he came upon a queer ridge -of what looked like long disintegrated lava rock. Here he -left no trail, and he proceeded carefully on beyond it -<span class='pageno' id='Page_269'>269</span>through further jungle, believing once again in his star that -would enable him to elude pursuit. His plan of escape took -shape. He would find a safe hiding place until after dark. -Then he would circle back to the lake and the whirl of waters. -That gained, nothing and nobody could stop him. He had -but to leap in. The subterranean journey had no terrors -for him because he had done it before. And in his fancy -he saw once more the pleasant picture of the Gualaca River -flashing under the open sky on its way to the sea. Besides, -did he not carry with him the two great emeralds and two -great rubies that had been the eyes of Chia and Hzatzl? -Fortune enough, and vast good fortune, were they for any -man. What if he had failed by the Maya Treasure to -become the richest man in the world? He was satisfied. -All he wanted now was darkness and one last dive into the -heart of the mountain and through the heart of the mountain -to the Gualaca flowing to the sea.</p> - -<p class='c000'>And just then, the assured vision of his escape so vividly -filling his eyes that he failed to observe the way of his feet, -he dived. Nor was it a dive into swirling waters. It was -a head-foremost, dry-land dive down a slope of rock. So -slippery was it that he continued to slide down, although -he managed to turn around, with face and stomach to the -surface, and to claw wildly up with hands and feet. Such -effort merely slowed his descent, but could not stop it.</p> - -<p class='c000'>For a while, at the bottom, he lay breathless and dazed. -When his senses came back to him, he became aware first -of all of something unusual upon which his hand rested. -He could have sworn that he felt teeth. At length, opening -his eyes with a shudder and summoning his resolution, he -dared to look at the object. And relief was immediate. -Teeth they were, in an indubitable, weather-white jaw-bone; -but they were pig’s teeth and the jaw was a pig’s jaw. -Other bones lay about, on which his body rested, which, -on examination, proved to be the bones of pigs and of smaller -animals.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Where had he glimpsed such an arrangement of bones? -He thought, and remembered the Queen’s great golden bowl. -He looked up. Ah! Mother of God! The very place! He -knew it at first sight, as he gazed up what was a funnel -at the far spectacle of day. Fully two hundred feet above -him was the rim of the funnel. The sides of hard, smooth -rock sloped steeply in and down to him, and his eyes and -<span class='pageno' id='Page_270'>270</span>judgment told him that no man born of woman could ever -scale that slope.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The fancy that came to his mind caused him to spring -to his feet in sudden panic and look hastily round about -him. Only on a more colossal scale, the funnel in which -he was trapped had reminded him of the funnel-pits dug -in the sand by hunting spiders that lurked at the bottom -for such prey that tumbled in upon them. And, his vivid -fancy leaping, he had been frightened by the thought that -some spider monster, as colossal as the funnel-pit, might -possibly be lurking there to devour him. But no such denizen -occurred. The bottom of the pit, circular in form, was a -good ten feet across and carpeted, he knew not how deep, -by a debris of small animals’ bones. Now for what had the -Mayas of old time made so tremendous an excavation? he -questioned; for he was more than half-convinced that the -funnel was no natural phenomenon.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Before nightfall he made sure, by a dozen attempts, that -the funnel was unscalable. Between attempts, he crouched -in the growing shadow of the descending sun and panted -dry-lipped with heat and thirst. The place was a very furnace, -and the juices of his body were wrung from him in -profuse perspiration. Throughout the night, between dozes, -he vainly pondered the problem of escape. The only way -out was up, nor could his mind devise any method of getting -up. Also, he looked forward with terror to the coming of -the day, for he knew that no man could survive a full -ten hours of the baking heat that would be his. Ere the -next nightfall the last drop of moisture would have evaporated -from his body leaving him a withered and -already half-sun-dried mummy.</p> - -<p class='c000'>With the coming of daylight his growing terror added -wings to his thought, and he achieved a new and profoundly -simple theory of escape. Since he could not climb up, and -since he could not get out through the sides themselves, -then the only possible remaining way was down. Fool that -he was! He might have been working through the cool -night hours, and now he must labour in the quickly increasing -heat. He applied himself in an ecstasy of energy to -digging down through the mass of crumbling bones. Of -course, there was a way out. Else how did the funnel -drain? Otherwise it would have been full or part full of -water from the rains. Fool! And thrice times thrice a -fool!</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_271'>271</span>He dug down one side of the wall, flinging the rubbish -into a mound against the opposite side. So desperately did -he apply himself that he broke his finger-nails to the quick -and deeper, while every finger-tip was lacerated to bleeding. -But love of life was strong in him, and he knew it was a -life-and-death race with the sun. As he went deeper, the -rubbish became more compact, so that he used the muzzle -of his rifle like a crowbar to loosen it, ere tossing it up in -single and double handfuls.</p> - -<p class='c000'>By mid-forenoon, his senses beginning to reel in the heat, -he made a discovery. Upon the wall which he had uncovered, -he came upon the beginning of an inscription, -evidently rudely scratched in the rock by the point of a -knife. With renewed hope, his head and shoulders down -in the hole, he dug and scratched for all the world like a -dog, throwing the rubbish out and between his legs in -true dog-fashion. Some of it fell clear, but most of it fell -back and down upon him. Yet had he become too frantic -to note the inefficiency of his effort.</p> - -<p class='c000'>At last the inscription was cleared, so that he was able -to read:</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>Peter McGill, of Glasgow. On March 12, 1820,</div> - <div>I escaped from the Pit of Hell by this passage by</div> - <div>digging down and finding it.</div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c000'>A passage! The passage must be beneath the inscription! -Torres now toiled in a fury. So dirt-soiled was he that -he was like some huge, four-legged, earth-burrowing animal. -The dirt got into his eyes, and, on occasion, into his nostrils -and air passages so as to suffocate him and compel him to -back up out of the hole and sneeze and cough his breathing -apparatus clear. Twice he fainted. But the sun, by then -almost directly overhead, drove him on.</p> - -<p class='c000'>He found the upper rim of the passage. He did not dig -down to the lower rim; for the moment the aperture was -large enough to accommodate his lean shape, he writhed and -squirmed into it and away from the destroying sun-rays. -The cool and the dark soothed him, but his joy and the -reaction from what he had undergone sent his pulse giddily -up, so that for the third time he fainted.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Recovered, mouthing with black and swollen lips a half-insane -chant of gratefulness and thanksgiving, he crawled -on along the passage. Perforce he crawled, because it was -<span class='pageno' id='Page_272'>272</span>so low that a dwarf could not have stood erect in it. The -place was a charnel house. Bones crunched and crumbled -under his hands and knees, and he knew that his knees -were being worn to the bone. At the end of a hundred -feet he caught his first glimmering of light. But the nearer -he approached freedom, the slower he progressed, for the -final stages of exhaustion were coming upon him. He knew -that it was not physical exhaustion, nor food exhaustion, -but thirst exhaustion. Water, a few ounces of water, was -all he needed to make him strong again. And there was -no water.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But the light was growing stronger and nearer. He -noted, toward the last, that the floor of the passage pitched -down at an angle of fully thirty degrees. This made the way -easier. Gravity drew him on, and helped every failing -effort of him, toward the source of light. Very close to it, -he encountered an increase in the deposit of bones. Yet they -bothered him little, for they had become an old story, -while he was too exhausted to mind them.</p> - -<p class='c000'>He did observe, with swimming eyes and increasing numbness -of touch, that the passage was contracting both vertically -and horizontally. Slanting downward at thirty -degrees, it gave him an impression of a rat-trap, himself -the rat, descending head foremost toward he knew not what. -Even before he reached it, he apprehended that the slit -of bright day that advertised the open world beyond was -too narrow for the egress of his body. And his apprehension -was verified. Crawling unconcernedly over a skeleton that -the blaze of day showed him to be a man’s, he managed, -by severely and painfully squeezing his ears flat back, to -thrust his head through the slitted aperture. The sun beat -down upon his head, while his eyes drank in the openness -of the freedom of the world that the unyielding rock denied -to the rest of his body.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Most maddening of all was a running stream not a -hundred yards away, tree-fringed beyond, with lush meadow-grass -leading down to it from his side. And in the tree-shadowed -water, knee-deep and drowsing, stood several cows -of the dwarf breed peculiar to the Valley of Lost Souls. -Occasionally they flicked their tails lazily at flies, or -changed the distribution of their weight on their legs. He -glared at them to see them drink, but they were evidently -too sated with water. Fools! Why should they not drink, -with all that wealth of water flowing idly by!</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_273'>273</span>They betrayed alertness, turning their heads toward the -far bank and pricking their ears forward. Then, as a big -antlered buck came out from among the trees to the water’s -edge, they flattened their ears back and shook their heads -and pawed the water till he could hear the splashing. But -the stag disdained their threats, lowered his head, and drank. -This was too much for Torres, who emitted a maniacal -scream which, had he been in his senses, he would not have -recognised as proceeding from his own throat and larynx.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The stag sprang away. The cattle turned their heads -in Torres’ direction, drowsed, their eyes shut, and resumed -the flicking of flies. With a violent effort, scarcely knowing -that he had half-torn off his ears, he drew his head back -through the slitted aperture and fainted on top of the -skeleton.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Two hours later, though he did not know the passage of -time, he regained consciousness, and found his own head -cheek by jowl with the skull of the skeleton on which he -lay. The descending sun was already shining into the -narrow opening, and his gaze chanced upon a rusty knife. -The point of it was worn and broken, and he established -the connection. This was the knife that had scratched the -inscription on the rock at the base of the funnel at the -other end of the passage, and this skeleton was the bony -framework of the man who had done the scratching. And -Alvarez Torres went immediately mad.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Ah, Peter McGill, my enemy,” he muttered. “Peter -McGill of Glasgow who betrayed me to this end.—This for -you!—And this!—And this!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>So speaking, he drove the heavy knife into the fragile -front of the skull. The dust of the bone which had once -been the tabernacle of Peter McGill’s brain arose in his -nostrils and increased his frenzy. He attacked the skeleton -with his hands, tearing at it, disrupting it, filling the pent -space about him with flying bones. It was like a battle, -in which he destroyed what was left of the mortal remains -of the one time resident of Glasgow.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Once again Torres squeezed his head through the slit -to gaze at the fading glory of the world. Like a rat in the -trap caught by the neck in the trap of ancient Maya devising, -he saw the bright world and day dim to darkness as his -final consciousness drowned in the darkness of death.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But still the cattle stood in the water and drowsed and -flicked at flies, and, later, the stag returned, disdainful of -the cattle, to complete its interrupted drink.</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_274'>274</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XXVIII</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c006'>Not for nothing had Regan been named by his associates, -The Wolf of Wall Street! While usually no more than a -conservative, large-scale player, ever so often, like a -periodical drinker, he had to go on a rampage of wild and -daring stock-gambling. At least five times in his long career -had he knocked the bottom out of the market or lifted the -roof off, and each time to the tune of a personal gain of -millions. He never went on a small rampage, and he never -went too often.</p> - -<p class='c000'>He would let years of quiescence slip by, until suspicion -of him was lulled asleep and his world deemed that the Wolf -was at last grown old and peaceable. And then, like a -thunderbolt, he would strike at the men and interests he -wished to destroy. But, though the blow always fell like a -thunderbolt, not like a thunderbolt was it in its inception. -Long months, and even years, were spent in deviously preparing -for the day and painstakingly maturing the plans and -conditions for the battle.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Thus had it been in the outlining and working up of the -impending Waterloo for Francis Morgan. Revenge lay back -of it, but it was revenge against a dead man. Not Francis, -but Francis’ father, was the one he struck against, although -he struck through the living into the heart of the grave to -accomplish it. Eight years he had waited and sought his -chance ere old R.H.M.——Richard Henry Morgan——had -died. But no chance had he found. He was, truly, the -Wolf of Wall Street, but never by any luck had he found an -opportunity against the Lion—for to his death R.H.M. had -been known as the Lion of Wall Street.</p> - -<p class='c000'>So, from father to son, always under a show of fair -appearance, Regan had carried the feud over. Yet Regan’s -very foundation on which he built for revenge was meretricious -and wrongly conceived. True, eight years before -R.H.M.’s death, he had tried to double-cross him and failed; -<span class='pageno' id='Page_275'>275</span>but he never dreamed that R.H.M. had guessed. Yet -R.H.M. had not only guessed but had ascertained beyond -any shadow of doubt, and had promptly and cleverly double-crossed -his treacherous associate. Thus, had Regan known -that R.H.M. knew of his perfidy, Regan would have taken -his medicine without thought of revenge. As it was, believing -that R.H.M. was as bad as himself, believing that -R.H.M., out of meanness as mean as his own, without provocation -or suspicion, had done this foul thing to him, he -saw no way to balance the account save by ruining him, or, -in lieu of him, by ruining his son.</p> - -<p class='c000'>And Regan had taken his time. At first Francis had left -the financial game alone, content with letting his money -remain safely in the safe investments into which it had been -put by his father. Not until Francis had become for the -first time active in undertaking Tampico Petroleum to the -tune of millions of investment, with an assured many -millions of ultimate returns, had Regan had the ghost of a -chance to destroy him. But, the chance given, Regan had -not wasted time, though his slow and thorough campaign -had required many months to develop. Ere he was done, he -came very close to knowing every share of whatever stock -Francis carried on margin or owned outright.</p> - -<p class='c000'>It had really taken two years and more for Regan to prepare. -In some of the corporations in which Francis owned -heavily, Regan was himself a director and no inconsiderable -arbiter of destiny. In Frisco Consolidated he was president. -In New York, Vermont and Connecticut he was vice-president. -From controlling one director in Northwestern -Electric, he had played kitchen politics until he controlled -the two-thirds majority. And so with all the rest, either -directly, or indirectly through corporation and banking -ramifications, he had his hand in the secret springs and -levers of the financial and business mechanism which gave -strength to Francis’ fortune.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Yet no one of these was more than a bagatelle compared -with the biggest thing of all——Tampico Petroleum. In -this, beyond a paltry twenty thousand shares bought on the -open market, Regan owned nothing, controlled nothing, -though the time was growing ripe for him to sell and deal -and juggle in inordinate quantities. Tampico Petroleum was -practically Francis’ private preserve. A number of his -friends were, for them, deeply involved, Mrs. Carruthers -even gravely so. She worried him, and was not even above -<span class='pageno' id='Page_276'>276</span>pestering him over the telephone. There were others, like -Johnny Pathmore, who never bothered him at all, and who, -when they met, talked carelessly and optimistically about -the condition of the market and financial things in general. -All of which was harder to bear than Mrs. Carruthers’ perpetual -nervousness.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Northwestern Electric, thanks to Regan’s machinations, -had actually dropped thirty points and remained there. -Those on the outside who thought they knew, regarded it -as positively shaky. Then there was the little, old, solid-as-the-rock-of-Gibraltar -Frisco Consolidated. The nastiest -of rumors were afloat, and the talk of a receivership was -growing emphatic. Montana Lode was still sickly under -Mulhaney’s unflattering and unmodified report, and Weston, -the great expert sent out by the English investors, had -failed to report anything reassuring. For six months, Imperial -Tungsten, earning nothing, had been put to disastrous -expense in the great strike which seemed only just begun. -Nor did anybody, save the several labor leaders who knew, -dream that it was Regan’s gold that was at the bottom of -the affair.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The secrecy and the deadliness of the attack was what -unnerved Bascom. All properties in which Francis was interested -were being pressed down as if by a slow-moving -glacier. There was nothing spectacular about the movement, -merely a steady persistent decline that made Francis’ -large fortune shrink horribly. And, along with what he -owned outright, what he held on margin suffered even greater -shrinkage.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Then had come rumors of war. Ambassadors were receiving -their passports right and left, and half the world seemed -mobilizing. This was the moment, with the market shaken -and panicky, and with the world powers delaying in declaring -moratoriums, that Regan selected to strike. The time -was ripe for a bear raid, and with him were associated half -a dozen other big bears who tacitly accepted his leadership. -But even they did not know the full extent of his plans, -nor guess at the specific direction of them. They were in -the raid for what they could make, and thought he was in -it for the same reason, in their simple directness of pecuniary -vision catching no glimpse of Francis Morgan nor of his -ghostly father at whom the big blow was being struck.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Regan’s rumor factory began working overtime, and the -first to drop and the fastest to drop in the dropping market -<span class='pageno' id='Page_277'>277</span>were the stocks of Francis, which had already done considerable -dropping ere the bear market began. Yet Regan was -careful to bring no pressure on Tampico Petroleum. Proudly -it held up its head in the midst of the general slump, and -eagerly Regan waited for the moment of desperation when -Francis would be forced to dump it on the market to cover -his shrunken margins in other lines.</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c000'>“Lord! Lord!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Bascom held the side of his face in the palm of one hand -and grimaced as if he had a jumping toothache.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Lord! Lord!” he reiterated. “The market’s gone to -smash and Tampico Pet along with it. How she slumped! -Who’d have dreamed it!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Francis, puffing steadily away at a cigarette and quite -oblivious that it was unlighted, sat with Bascom in the -latter’s private office.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It looks like a fire-sale,” he vouchsafed.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“That won’t last longer than this time to-morrow morning——then -you’ll be sold out, and me with you,” his -broker simplified, with a swift glance at the clock.</p> - -<p class='c000'>It marked twelve, as Francis’ swiftly automatic glance -verified.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Dump in the rest of Tampico Pet,” he said wearily. -“That ought to hold back until to-morrow.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Then what to-morrow?” his broker demanded, “with -the bottom out and everybody including the office boys -selling short.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Francis shrugged his shoulders. “You know I’ve mortgaged -the house, Dreamwold, and the Adirondack Camp to -the limit.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Have you any friends?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“At such a time!” Francis countered bitterly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Well, it’s the very time,” Bascom retorted. “Look -here, Morgan. I know the set you ran with at college. -There’s Johnny Pathmore——”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And he’s up to his eyes already. When I smash he -smashes. And Dave Donaldson will have to readjust his -life to about one hundred and sixty a month. And as for -Chris Westhouse, he’ll have to take to the movies for a -livelihood. He always was good at theatricals, and I happen -to know he’s got the ideal ‘film’ face.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_278'>278</span>“There’s Charley Tippery,” Bascom suggested, though it -was patent that he was hopeless about it.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Yes,” Francis agreed with equal hopelessness. “There’s -only one thing the matter with him——his father still lives.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The old cuss never took a flyer in his life,” Bascom -supplemented. “There’s never a time he can’t put his hand -on millions. And he still lives, worse luck.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Charley could get him to do it, and would, except the -one thing that’s the matter with me.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“No securities left?” his broker queried.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Francis nodded.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Catch the old man parting with a dollar without due -security.”</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c000'>Nevertheless, a few minutes later, hoping to find Charley -Tippery in his office during the noon hour, Francis was sending -in his card. Of all jewelers and gem merchants in New -York, the Tippery establishment was the greatest. Not -only that. It was esteemed the greatest in the world. More -of the elder Tippery’s money was invested in the great -Diamond Corner, than even those in the know of most things -knew of this particular thing.</p> - -<p class='c000'>The interview was as Francis had forecast. The old man -still held tight reins on practically everything, and the son -had little hope of winning his assistance.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I know him,” he told Francis. “And though I’m going -to wrestle with him, don’t pin an iota of faith on the outcome. -I’ll go to the mat with him, but that will be about -all. The worst of it is that he has the ready cash, to say -nothing of oodles and oodles of safe securities and United -States bonds. But you see, Grandfather Tippery, when he -was young and struggling and founding the business, once -loaned a friend a thousand. He never got it back, and he -never got over it. Nor did Father Tippery ever get over it -either. The experience seared both of them. Why, father -wouldn’t lend a penny on the North Pole unless he got the -Pole for security after having had it expertly appraised. -And you haven’t any security, you see. -But I’ll tell you what. I’ll wrestle with the old -man to-night after dinner. That’s his most amiable -mood of the day. And I’ll hustle around on my own and -see what I can do. Oh, I know a few hundred thousand -won’t mean anything, and I’ll do my darnedest for something -<span class='pageno' id='Page_279'>279</span>big. Whatever happens, I’ll be at your house at nine -to-morrow——”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Which will be my busy day,” Francis smiled wanly, as -they shook hands. “I’ll be out of the house by eight.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And I’ll be there by eight then,” Charley Tippery responded, -again wringing his hand heartily. “And in the -meantime I’ll get busy. There are ideas already beginning -to sprout....”</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c000'>Another interview Francis had that afternoon. Arrived -back at his broker’s office, Bascom told him that Regan had -called up and wanted to see Francis, saying that he had -some interesting information for him.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I’ll run around right away,” Francis said, reaching for -his hat, while his face lighted up with hope. “He was -an old friend of father’s, and if anybody could pull me -through, he could.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Don’t be too sure,” Bascom shook his head, and paused -reluctantly a moment before making confession. “I called -him up just before you returned from Panama. I was very -frank. I told him of your absence and of your perilous -situation here, and——oh, yes, flatly and flat out——asked -him if I could rely on him in case of need. And he baffled. -You know anybody can baffle when asked a favor. That -was all right. But I thought I sensed more ... no, I -won’t dare to say enmity; but I will say that I was impressed ... -how shall I say?—well, that he struck me -as being particularly and peculiarly cold-blooded and non-committal.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Nonsense,” Francis laughed. “He was too good a -friend of my father’s.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Ever heard of the Conmopolitan Railways Merger?” -Bascom queried with significant irrelevance.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Francis nodded promptly, then said:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But that was before my time. I merely have heard of -it, that’s all. Shoot. Tell me about it. Give me the -weight of your mind.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Too long a story, but take this one word of advice. If -you see Regan, don’t put your cards on the table. Let him -play first, and, if he offers, let him offer without solicitation -from you. Of course, I may be all wrong, but it won’t -damage you to hold up your hand and get his play first.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>At the end of another half hour, Francis was closeted with -<span class='pageno' id='Page_280'>280</span>Regan, and the stress of his peril was such that he controlled -his natural impulses, remembering Bascom’s instruction, -and was quite fairly nonchalant about the state of his -affairs. He even bluffed.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“In pretty deep, eh?” was Regan’s beginning.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Oh, not so deep that my back-teeth are awash yet,” -Francis replied airily. “I can still breathe, and it will -be a long time before I begin swallowing.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Regan did not immediately reply. Instead, pregnantly, -he ran over the last few yards of the ticker tape.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You’re dumping Tampico Pet pretty heavily, just the -same.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And they’re snapping it up,” Francis came back, and -for the first time, in a maze of wonderment, he considered -the possibility of Bascom’s intuition being right. “Sure, -I’ve got <em>them</em> swallowing.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Just the same, you’ll note that Tampico Pet is tumbling -at the same time it’s being snapped up, which is a very -curious phenomenon,” Regan urged.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“In a bear market all sorts of curious phenomena occur,” -Francis bluffed with a mature show of wisdom. “And when -they’ve swallowed enough of my dumpings they’ll be ripe -to roll on a barrel. Somebody will pay something to get -my dumpings out of their system. I fancy they’ll pay -through the nose before I’m done with them.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But you’re all in, boy. I’ve been watching your fight, -even before your return. Tampico Pet is your last.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Francis shook his head.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I’d scarcely say that,” he lied. “I’ve got assets my -market enemies never dream of. I’m luring them on, that’s -all, just luring them on. Of course, Regan, I’m telling you -this in confidence. You were my father’s friend. Mine is -going to be some clean up, and, if you’ll take my tip, in this -short market you start buying. You’ll be sure to settle with -the sellers long in the end.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“What are your other assets?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Francis shrugged his shoulders.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“That’s what they’re going to find out when they’re full -up with my stuff.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It’s a bluff!” Regan admired explosively. “You’ve got -the old man’s nerve, all right. But you’ve got to show -me it isn’t bluff.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Regan waited, and Francis was suddenly inspired.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It is,” he muttered. “You’ve named it. I’m drowning -<span class='pageno' id='Page_281'>281</span>over my back-teeth now, and they’re the highest out of the -wash. But I won’t drown if you will help me. All you’ve -got to do is to remember my father and put out your hand -to save his son. If you’ll back me up, we’ll make them all -sick....”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And right there the Wolf of Wall Street showed his teeth. -He pointed to Richard Henry Morgan’s picture.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Why do you think I kept that hanging on the wall all -these years?” he demanded.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Francis nodded as if the one accepted explanation was -their tried and ancient friendship.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Guess again,” Regan sneered grimly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Francis shook his head in perplexity.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“So I shouldn’t ever forget him,” the Wolf went on. -“And never a waking moment have I forgotten him.——Remember -the Conmopolitan Railways Merger? Well, old -R.H.M. double-crossed me in that deal. And it was some -double-cross, believe me. But he was too cunning ever -to let me get a come-back on him. So there his picture has -hung, and here I’ve sat and waited. And now the time has -come.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You mean?” Francis queried quietly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Just that,” Regan snarled. “I’ve waited and worked -for this day, and the day has come. I’ve got the whelp -where I want him at any rate.” He glanced up maliciously -at the picture. “And if that don’t make the old gent turn -in his grave....”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Francis rose to his feet and regarded his enemy curiously.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“No,” he said, as if in soliloquy, “it isn’t worth it.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“What isn’t worth what?” the other demanded with swift -suspicion.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Beating you up,” was the cool answer. “I could kill -you with my hands in five minutes. You’re no Wolf. You’re -just mere yellow dog, the part of you that isn’t plain skunk. -They told me to expect this of you; but I didn’t believe, -and I came to see. They were right. You were all that -they said. Well, I must get along out of this. It smells -like a den of foxes. It stinks.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>He paused with his hand on the door knob and looked -back. He had not succeeded in making Regan lose his -temper.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And what are you going to do about it?” the latter -jeered.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_282'>282</span>“If you’ll permit me to get my broker on your ‘phone -maybe you’ll learn,” Francis replied.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Go to it, my laddy buck,” Regan conceded, then, with -a wave of suspicion, “—I’ll get him for you myself.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And, having ascertained that Bascom was really at the -other end of the line, he turned the receiver over to Francis.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You were right,” the latter assured Bascom. “Regan’s -all you said and worse. Go right on with your plan of campaign. -We’ve got him where we want him, though the old -fox won’t believe it for a moment. He thinks he’s going -to strip me, clean me out.” Francis paused to think up the -strongest way of carrying on his bluff, then continued. “I’ll -tell you something you don’t know. He’s the one who -manœuvred the raid from the beginning. So now you know -who we’re going to bury.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And, after a little more of similar talk, he hung up.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You see,” he explained, again from the door, “you -were so crafty that we couldn’t make out who it was. Why -hell, Regan, we were prepared to give a walloping to some -unknown that had several times your strength. And now -that it’s you, it’s easy. We were prepared to strain. But -with you it will be a walk-over. To-morrow, around this -time, there’s going to be a funeral right here in your office -and you’re not going to be one of the mourners. You’re -going to be the corpse——and a not-nice looking financial -corpse you’ll be when we get done with you.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“The dead spit of R.H.M.,” the Wolf grinned. “Lord, -how he could pull off a bluff!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It’s a pity he didn’t bury you and save me all the -trouble,” was Francis’ parting shot.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And all the expense,” Regan flung after him. “It’s -going to be pretty expensive for you, and there isn’t going -to be any funeral from this place.”</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c000'>“Well, to-morrow’s the day,” Francis delivered to -Bascom, as they parted that evening. “This time to-morrow -I’ll be a perfectly nice scalped and skinned and -sun-dried and smoke-cured specimen for Regan’s private collection. -But who’d have believed the old skunk had it in -for me! I never harmed him. On the contrary, I always -considered him father’s best friend.——If Charley Tippery -could only come through with some of the Tippery surplus -coin....”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_283'>283</span>“Or if the United States would only declare a moratorium,” -Bascom hoped equally hopelessly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>And Regan, at that moment, was saying to his assembled -agents and rumor-factory specialists:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Sell! Sell! Sell all you’ve got and then sell short. I -see no bottom to this market!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And Francis, on his way up town, buying the last extra, -scanned the five-inch-lettered headline:</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> - <div class='nf-center'> - <div>“I SEE NO BOTTOM TO THIS MARKET.—THOMAS REGAN.”</div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c000'>But Francis was not at his house at eight next morning -to meet Charley Tippery. It had been a night in which -official Washington had not slept, and the night-wires had -carried the news out over the land that the United States, -though not at war, had declared its moratorium. Wakened -out of his bed at seven by Bascom in person, who brought -the news, Francis had accompanied him down town. The -moratorium had given them hope, and there was much to do.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Charles Tippery, however, was not the first to arrive at -the Riverside Drive palace. A few minutes before eight, -Parker was very much disturbed and perturbed when Henry -and Leoncia, much the worse for sunburn and travel-stain, -brushed past the second butler who had opened the door.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“It’s no use you’re coming in this way,” Parker assured -them. “Mr. Morgan is not at home.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Where’s he gone?” Henry demanded, shifting the suit-case -he carried to the other hand. “We’ve got to see him -<i><span lang="es" xml:lang="es">pronto</span></i>, and I’ll have you know that <em>pronto</em> means quick. -And who in hell are you?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I am Mr. Morgan’s confidential valet,” Parker answered -solemnly. “And who are you?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“My name’s Morgan,” Henry answered shortly, looking -about in quest of something, striding to the library, glancing -in, and discovering the telephones. “Where’s Francis? -With what number can I call him up?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Mr. Morgan left express instructions that nobody was -to telephone him except on important business.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Well, my business is important. What’s the number?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Mr. Morgan is very busy to-day,” Parker reiterated -stubbornly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“He’s in a pretty bad way, eh?” Henry quizzed.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_284'>284</span>The valet’s face remained expressionless.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Looks as though he was going to be cleaned out to-day, -eh?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Parker’s face betrayed neither emotion nor intelligence.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“For a second time I tell you he is very busy——” he -began.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Hell’s bells!” Henry interrupted. “It’s no secret. -The market’s got him where the hair is short. Everybody -knows that. A lot of it was in the morning papers. Now -come across, Mr. Confidential Valet. I want his number. -I’ve got important business with him myself.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>But Parker remained obdurate.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“What’s his lawyer’s name? Or the name of his agent? -Or of any of his representatives?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Parker shook his head.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“If you will tell me the nature of your business with -him,” the valet essayed.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Henry dropped the suit-case and made as if about to leap -upon the other and shake Francis’ number out of him. But -Leoncia intervened.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Tell him,” she said.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Tell him!” Henry shouted, accepting her suggestion. -“I’ll do better than that. I’ll show him.—Here, come on, -you.” He strode into the library, swung the suit-case on -the reading table, and began opening it. “Listen to me, -Mr. Confidential Valet. Our business is the real business. -We’re going to save Francis Morgan. We’re going to pull -him out of the hole. We’ve got millions for him, right here -inside of this thing——”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Parker, who had been looking on with cold, disapproving -eyes, recoiled in alarm at the last words. Either the -strange callers were lunatics, or cunning criminals. Even -at that moment, while they held him here with their talk of -millions, confederates might be ransacking the upper parts -of the house. As for the suit-case, for all he knew it might -be filled with dynamite.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Here!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>With a quick reach Henry had caught him by the collar -as he turned to flee. With his other hand, Henry lifted the -cover, exposing a bushel of uncut gems. Parker showed -plainly that he was overcome, although Henry failed to guess -the nature of his agitation.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Thought I’d convince you,” Henry exulted. “Now be a<a id='t284'></a> -good dog and give me his number.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_285'>285</span>“Be seated, sir ... and madame,” Parker murmured, -with polite bows and a successful effort to control himself. -“Be seated, please. I have left the private number in Mr. -Morgan’s bedroom, which he gave to me this morning when -I helped him dress. I shall be gone but a moment to get it. -In the meantime please be seated.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Once outside the library, Parker became a most active, -clear-thinking person. Stationing the second footman at -the front door, he placed the first one to watch at the library -door. Several other servants he sent scouting into the -upper regions on the chance of surprising possible confederates -at their nefarious work. Himself he addressed, via -the butler’s telephone, to the nearest police station.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Yes, sir,” he repeated to the desk sergeant. “They -are either a couple of lunatics or criminals. Send a patrol -wagon at once, please, sir. Even now I do not know what -horrible crimes are being committed under this roof ...”</p> - -<p class='c000'>In the meantime, in response at the front door, the second -footman, with visible relief, admitted Charley Tippery, clad -in evening dress at that early hour, as a known and tried -friend of the master. The first butler, with similar relief, -to which he added sundry winks and warnings, admitted him -into the library.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Expecting he knew not what nor whom, Charley Tippery -advanced across the large room to the strange man and -woman. Unlike Parker, their sunburn and travel-stain -caught his eye, not as insignia suspicious, but as tokens -worthy of wider consideration than average New York -accords its more or less average visitors. Leoncia’s beauty -was like a blow between the eyes, and he knew she was a -lady. Henry’s bronze, brazed upon features unmistakably -reminiscent of Francis and of R.H.M., drew his admiration -and respect.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Good morning,” he addressed Henry, although he -subtly embraced Leoncia with his greeting. “Friends of -Francis?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Oh, sir,” Leoncia cried out. “We are more than -friends. We are here to save him. I have read the -morning papers. If only it weren’t for the stupidity of the -servants ...”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And Charley Tippery was immediately unaware of any -slightest doubt. He extended his hand to Henry.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I am Charley Tippery,” he said.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And my name’s Morgan, Henry Morgan,” Henry met -<span class='pageno' id='Page_286'>286</span>him warmly, like a drowning man clutching at a life preserver. -“And this is Miss Solano—the Senorita Solano—Mr. -Tippery. In fact, Miss Solano is my sister.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I came on the same errand,” Charley Tippery announced, -introductions over. “The saving of Francis, as I -understand it, must consist of hard cash or of securities -indisputably negotiable. I have brought with me what I -have hustled all night to get, and what I am confident is not -sufficient——”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“How much have you brought?” Henry asked bluntly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Eighteen hundred thousand—what have you brought?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Piffle,” said Henry, pointing to the open suit-case, -unaware that he talked to a three-generations’ gem expert.</p> - -<p class='c000'>A quick examination of a dozen of the gems picked at -random, and an even quicker eye-estimate of the quantity, -put wonder and excitement into Charley Tippery’s face.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“They’re worth millions! millions!” he exclaimed. -“What are you going to do with them?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Negotiate them, so as to help Francis out,” Henry -answered. “They’re security for any amount, aren’t -they?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Close up the suit-case,” Charley Tippery cried, “while -I telephone!—I want to catch my father before he leaves -the house,” he explained over his shoulder, while waiting -for his switch. “It’s only five minutes’ run from here.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Just as he concluded the brief words with his father, -Parker, followed by a police lieutenant and two policemen, -entered.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“There’s the gang, lieutenant—arrest them,” Parker -said.—“Oh, sir, I beg your pardon, Mr. Tippery. Not you, -of course.—Only the other two, lieutenant. I don’t know -what the charge will be—crazy, anyway, if not worse, which -is more likely.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“How do you do, Mr. Tippery,” the lieutenant greeted -familiarly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You’ll arrest nobody, Lieutenant Burns,” Charley Tippery -smiled to him. “You can send the wagon back to -the station. I’ll square it with the Inspector. For you’re -coming along with me, and this suit-case, and these suspicious -characters, to my house. You’ll have to be bodyguard—oh, -not for me, but for this suit-case. There are -millions in it, cold millions, hard millions, beautiful millions. -When I open it before my father, you’ll see a sight -<span class='pageno' id='Page_287'>287</span>given to few men in this world to see.—And now, come on -everybody. We’re wasting time.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>He made a grab at the suit-case simultaneously with -Henry, and, as both their hands clutched it, Lieutenant -Burns sprang to interfere.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I fancy I’ll carry it until it’s negotiated,” Henry -asserted.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Surely, surely,” Charley Tippery conceded, “as long -as we don’t lose any more precious time. It will take time -to do the negotiating. Come on! Hustle!”</p> - -<div class='chapter'> - <span class='pageno' id='Page_288'>288</span> - <h2 class='c005'>CHAPTER XXIX</h2> -</div> - -<p class='c006'>Helped tremendously by the moratorium, the sagging -market had ceased sagging, and some stocks were even -beginning to recover. This was true for practically every -line save those lines in which Francis owned and which -Regan was bearing. He continued bearing and making -them reluctantly fall, and he noted with joy the huge blocks -of Tampico Petroleum which were being dumped obviously -by no other person than Francis.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Now’s the time,” Regan informed his bear conspirators. -“Play her coming and going. It’s a double ruff. Remember -the list I gave you. Sell these, and sell short. For -them there is no bottom. As for all the rest, buy and buy -now, and deliver all that you sold. You can’t lose, you see, -and by continuing to hammer the list you’ll make a double -killing.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“How about yourself?” one of his bear crowd queried.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I’ve nothing to buy,” came the answer. “That will -show you how square I have been in my tip, and how -confident I am. I haven’t sold a share outside the list, so -I have nothing to deliver. I am still selling short and hammering -down the list, and the list only. There’s my killing, -and you can share in it by as much as you continue to -sell short.”</p> - -<hr class='c010' /> - -<p class='c000'>“There you are!” Bascom, in despair in his private office, -cried to Francis at ten-thirty. “Here’s the whole market -rising, except your lines. Regan’s out for blood. I never -dreamed he could show such strength. We can’t stand -this. We’re finished. We’re smashed now——you, me, all -of us——everything.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Never had Francis been cooler. Since all was lost, why -worry?—was his attitude; and, a mere layman in the game, -he caught a glimpse of possibilities that were veiled to -Bascom who too thoroughly knew too much about the game.</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_289'>289</span>“Take it easy,” Francis counseled, his new vision assuming -form and substance with each tick of a second. “Let’s -have a smoke and talk it over for a few minutes.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Bascom made a gesture of infinite impatience.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But wait,” Francis urged. “Stop! Look! Listen! -I’m finished, you say?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>His broker nodded.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You’re finished?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Again the nod.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Which means that we’re busted, flat busted,” Francis -went on to the exposition of his new idea. “Now it is -perfectly clear, then, to your mind and mine, that a man -can never be worse than a complete, perfect, hundred-percent., -entire, total bust.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“We’re wasting valuable time,” Bascom protested as he -nodded affirmation.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Not if we’re busted as completely as you’ve agreed we -are,” smiled Francis. “Being thoroughly busted, time, -sales, purchases, nothing can be of any value to us. Values -have ceased, don’t you see.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Go on, what is it?” Bascom said, with the momentarily -assumed patience of abject despair. “I’m busted higher -than a kite now, and, as you say, they can’t bust me any -higher.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Now you get the idea!” Francis jubilated. “You’re -a member of the Exchange. Then go ahead, sell or buy, -do anything your and my merry hearts decide. We can’t -lose. Anything from zero always leaves zero. We’ve shot all -we’ve got, and more. Let’s shoot what we haven’t got.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Bascom still struggled feebly to protest, but Francis beat -him down with a final:</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Remember, anything from zero leaves zero.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And for the next hour, as in a nightmare, no longer a free -agent, Bascom yielded to Francis’ will in the maddest stock -adventure of his life.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Oh, well,” Francis laughed at half-past eleven, “we -might as well quit now. But remember, we’re no worse -off than we were an hour ago. We were zero then. We’re -zero now. You can hang up the auctioneer’s flag any time -now.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>Bascom, heavily and wearily taking down the receiver, was -about to transmit the orders that would stop the battle by -acknowledgment of unconditional defeat, when the door -opened and through it came the familiar ring of a pirate -<span class='pageno' id='Page_290'>290</span>stave that made Francis flash his hand out in peremptory -stoppage of his broker’s arm.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Stop!” Francis cried. “Listen!”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And they listened to the song preceding the singer:</p> - -<div class='lg-container-b'> - <div class='linegroup'> - <div class='group'> - <div class='line'>“Back to back against the mainmast,</div> - <div class='line in2'>Held at bay the entire crew.”</div> - </div> - </div> -</div> - -<p class='c000'>As Henry swaggered in, carrying a huge and different -suit-case, Francis joined with him in the stave.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“What’s doing?” Bascom queried of Charley Tippery, -who, still in evening dress, looked very jaded and worn from -his exertions.</p> - -<p class='c000'>From his breast pocket he drew and passed over three -certified checks that totaled eighteen hundred thousand -dollars. Bascom shook his head sadly.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Too late,” he said. “That’s only a drop in the -bucket. Put them back in your pocket. It would be only -throwing them away.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But wait,” Charley Tippery cried, taking the suit-case -from his singing companion and proceeding to open it. -“Maybe that will help.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“That” consisted of a great mass of orderly bundles of -gold bonds and gilt edge securities.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“How much is it?” Bascom gasped, his courage springing -up like wild-fire.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But Francis, overcome by the sight of such plethora of -ammunition, ceased singing to gasp. And both he and -Bascom gasped again when Henry drew from his inside -pocket a bundle of a dozen certified checks. They could -only stare at the prodigious sum, for each was written for -a million dollars.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And plenty more where that came from,” Henry announced -airily. “All you have to do is say the word, -Francis, and we’ll knock this bear gang to smithereens. -Now suppose you get busy. The rumors are around everywhere -that you’re gone and done for. Pitch in and show -them, that’s all. Bust every last one of them that jumped -you. Shake ‘m down to their gold watches and the fillings -out of their teeth.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“You found old Sir Henry’s treasure after all,” Francis -congratulated.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“No,” Henry shook his head. “That represents part of -the old Maya treasure——about a third of it. We’ve got -<span class='pageno' id='Page_291'>291</span>another third down with Enrico Solano, and the last third’s -safe right here in the Jewelers and Traders’ National Bank.—Say, -I’ve got news for you when you’re ready to listen.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>And Francis was quickly ready. Bascom knew even better -than he what was to be done, and was already giving -his orders to his staff over the telephone—buying orders of -such prodigious size that all of Regan’s fortune would not -enable him to deliver what he had sold short.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Torres is dead,” Henry told him.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Hurrah!” was Francis’ way of receiving it.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Died like a rat in a trap. I saw his head sticking out. -It wasn’t pretty. And the Jefe’s dead. And ... and -somebody else is dead——”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Not Leoncia!” Francis cried out.</p> - -<p class='c000'>Henry shook his head.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Some one of the Solanos——old Enrico?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“No; your wife, Mrs. Morgan. Torres shot her, deliberately -shot her. I was beside her when she fell. Now hold -on, I’ve got other news. Leoncia’s right there in that other -office, and she’s waiting for you to come to her.—Can’t you -wait till I’m through? I’ve got more news that will give -you the right steer before you go in to her. Why, hell’s -bells, if I were a certain Chinaman that I know, I’d make -you pay me a million for all the information I’m giving you -for nothing.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Shoot——what is it?” Francis demanded impatiently.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Good news, of course, unadulterated good news. Best -news you ever heard. I—now don’t laugh, or knock my -block off——for the good news is that I’ve got a sister.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“What of it?” was Francis’ brusque response. “I -always knew you had sisters in England.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“But you don’t get me,” Henry dragged on. “This is -a perfectly brand new sister, all grown up, and the most -beautiful woman you ever laid eyes on.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“And what of it?” growled Francis. “That may be -good news for you, but I don’t see how it affects me.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Ah, now we’re coming to it,” Henry grinned. “You’re -going to marry her. I give you my full permission——”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Not if she were ten times your sister, nor if she were -ten times as beautiful,” Francis broke in. “The woman -doesn’t exist I’d marry.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Just the same, Francis boy, you’re going to marry this -one. I know it. I feel it in my bones. I’d bet on it.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I’ll bet you a thousand I don’t.”</p> - -<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_292'>292</span>“Aw, go on and make it a real bet,” Henry drawled.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Any amount you want.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Done, then, for a thousand and fifty dollars.—Now go -right into the office there and take a look at her.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“She’s with Leoncia?”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Nope; she’s by herself.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I thought you said Leoncia was in there.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“So I did, so I did. And so Leoncia <em>is</em> in there. And -she isn’t with another soul, and she’s waiting to talk with -you.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>By this time Francis was growing peevish.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“What are you stringing me for?” he demanded. “I -can’t make head nor tale of your foolery. One moment it’s -your brand new sister in there, and the next moment it’s -your wife.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Who said I ever had a wife?” Henry came back.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“I give up!” Francis cried. “I’m going on in and see -Leoncia. I’ll talk with you later on when you’re back in -your right mind.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>He started for the door, but was stopped by Henry.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Just a second more, Francis, and I’m done,” he said. -“I want to give you that steer. I am not married. There -is only one woman waiting for you in there. That one -woman is my sister. Also is she Leoncia.”</p> - -<p class='c000'>It required a dazed half minute for Francis to get it -clearly into his head. Again, and in a rush, he was starting -for the door, when Henry stopped him.</p> - -<p class='c000'>“Do I win?” queried Henry.</p> - -<p class='c000'>But Francis shook him off, dashed through the door, and -slammed it after him.</p> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> -<div class='nf-center c002'> - <div>THE END.</div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='nf-center-c1'> -<div class='nf-center c002'> - <div><span class='sc'>Cahill & Co., Ltd., Printers, London and Dublin</span></div> - </div> -</div> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c003' /> -</div> - -<table class='table0' summary='BOOKS BY JACK LONDON'> - <tr> - <td class='btt bbt blt brt c011' colspan='3'><span class='xlarge'>BOOKS BY JACK LONDON<a id='end'></a></span></td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012' colspan='2'>MICHAEL BROTHER OF JERRY</td> - <td class='brt c013'>6s. net</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c012' colspan='2'><cite>Daily Graphic</cite>—“A clever and intimate study of a thoroughbred dog—full of adventure.”</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012' colspan='2'>JERRY OF THE ISLANDS</td> - <td class='brt c013'>6s.</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c012' colspan='2'><cite>Globe</cite>—“The finest he has ever done.”</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012' colspan='2'>TURTLES OF TASMAN (Entirely New)</td> - <td class='brt c013'>1s. 6d. net</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012' colspan='2'>THE STRENGTH OF THE STRONG</td> - <td class='brt c013'>6s. and 1s. 6d. net</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c012' colspan='2'><cite>Athenæum</cite>—“All worth reading.”</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012' colspan='2'>THE NIGHTBORN</td> - <td class='brt c013'>6s. and 1s. 6d. net</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c012' colspan='2'><cite>Punch</cite>—“I defy you to read them and think of the Bosches at the same time.”</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012' colspan='2'>THE LITTLE LADY OF THE BIG HOUSE</td> - <td class='brt c013'>6s. and 1s. 6d. net</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c012' colspan='2'>“A real Londonian romance.”</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012' colspan='2'>THE JACKET</td> - <td class='brt c013'>6s. and 1s. 6d. net</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c012' colspan='2'><cite>Times</cite>—“Mr. London at his best. Emphatically a Jack Londonian <i><span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">tour-de-force</span></i>.”</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012' colspan='2'>THE VALLEY OF THE MOON</td> - <td class='brt c013'>6s. and 2s. 6d. net</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c012' colspan='2'><cite>Times</cite>—“Delightful; absorbing.”</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012' colspan='2'>JOHN BARLEYCORN</td> - <td class='brt c013'>6s. and 1s. 6d. net</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c012' colspan='2'><cite>Standard</cite>—“An amazing human document, and a treatise on a great question worthy of the consideration of social reformers.”</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012' colspan='2'>BEFORE ADAM</td> - <td class='brt c013'>1s. 6d. net</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr><td class='c014' colspan='3'>THE SCARLET PLAGUE (Entirely New) 1s. 6d. net</td></tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c012' colspan='2'><cite>Manchester Guardian</cite>—“It is sheer muscular ‘chestiness’ that wins him his popularity.”</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012' colspan='2'>THE GOD OF HIS FATHERS</td> - <td class='brt c013'>1s. 6d. net</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c012' colspan='2'><cite>Spectator</cite>—“Mr. London possesses that power of adapting himself to any period or circumstances which characterises Mr. Kipling’s work.”</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012' colspan='2'>THE IRON HEEL</td> - <td class='brt c013'>1s. 6d. net</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c012' colspan='2'><cite>World</cite>—“A story of immense interest.”</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012' colspan='2'>THE MUTINY OF THE ELSINORE</td> - <td class='brt c013'>6s. and 1s. 6d. net</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c012' colspan='2'><cite>Manchester Guardian</cite>—“Nothing quite so good as this tale of mutiny on the high seas has beat done since ‘Treasure Island.’”</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012' colspan='2'>ADVENTURE</td> - <td class='brt c013'>1s. 6d. net</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c012' colspan='2'><cite>Punch</cite>—“He has them all beat.”</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012' colspan='2'>THE CRUISE OF THE SNARK</td> - <td class='brt c013'>1s. 6d. net</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c012' colspan='2'><cite>Scotsman</cite>—“Makes a fresh and strong appeal to all those who love high adventure and good literature.”</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012' colspan='2'>THE CRUISE OF THE DAZZLER</td> - <td class='brt c013'>1s. 6d. net</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c012' colspan='2'><cite>Athenæum</cite>—“His descriptions of weather are wonderful.”</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012' colspan='2'>LOST FACE</td> - <td class='brt c013'>6s. and 1s. 6d. net</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c012' colspan='2'><cite>Daily Telegraph</cite>—“Excellent are these short stories.”</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012' colspan='2'>SOUTH SEA TALES</td> - <td class='brt c013'>6s. and 1s. 6d. net</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c012' colspan='2'><cite>Empire Magazine</cite>—“All perfect and inimitable gems.”</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012' colspan='2'>WHEN GOD LAUGHS</td> - <td class='brt c013'>6s. and 1s. 6d. net</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c012' colspan='2'><cite>Observer</cite>—“Immensely worth reading.”</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt brt c012' colspan='3'>THE ROAD (Entirely New)</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c012' colspan='2'><cite>Daily Graphic</cite>—“Wonderful things to read about.”</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012' colspan='2'>THE HOUSE OF PRIDE (Entirely New)</td> - <td class='brt c013'>1s. 6d. net</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c012' colspan='2'><cite>Daily Express</cite>—“Grips the heart and stirs the imagination.”</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012' colspan='2'>LOVE OF LIFE</td> - <td class='brt c013'>1s. 6d. net</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c012' colspan='2'><cite>Saturday Review</cite>—“Mr. London is always at his best in dog stories.”</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012' colspan='2'>SON OF THE SUN</td> - <td class='brt c013'>6s. and 1s. 6d. net</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c012' colspan='2'><cite>Dundee Advertiser</cite>—“A glorious story.”</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012' colspan='2'>SMOKE BELLEW</td> - <td class='brt c013'>6s. and 1s. 6d. net</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c012' colspan='2'><cite>Glasgow Herald</cite>—“Fine racy stuff in Mr. London’s best vein.”</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012' colspan='2'>AN ODYSSEY OF THE NORTH</td> - <td class='brt c013'>1s. 6d. net</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c012' colspan='2'><cite>Nation</cite>—“He writes a novel with something of the intensity with which an athlete shoots a goal.”</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012' colspan='2'>CHILDREN OF THE FROST</td> - <td class='brt c013'>1s. 6d. net</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='blt c012'> </td> - <td class='c012'> </td> - <td class='brt c013'> </td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='bbt blt c012'> </td> - <td class='bbt brt c012' colspan='2'><cite>Manchester Guardian</cite>—“He is the real stuff.”</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td class='bbt blt brt c011' colspan='3'>MILLS & BOON, Ltd., 49 Rupert St., London, W.1</td> - </tr> -</table> - -<div class='pbb'> - <hr class='pb c003' /> -</div> -<p> </p> -<div class='tnotes'> - -<div class='chapter'> - <h2 class='c005'>TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE</h2> -</div> - <ol class='ol_1 c002'> - <li>Moved the ad page to the <a href='#end'>end</a>. - - </li> - <li>Changed ‘broken’ to ‘broke’ on p. <a href='#t53'>53</a>. - - </li> - <li>Changed ‘woman’ to ‘women on p. <a href='#t64'>64</a>. - - </li> - <li>Added ‘of’ to p. <a href='#t71'>71</a>. - - </li> - <li>Added ‘an’ to p. <a href='#t148'>148</a>. - - </li> - <li>Changed ‘thy’ to ‘they’ on p. <a href='#t181'>181</a>. - - </li> - <li>Changed ‘posses’ to ‘possess’ on p. <a href='#t244'>244</a>. - - </li> - <li>Added ‘a’ to p. <a href='#t284'>284</a>. - - </li> - <li>Silently corrected typographical errors. - - </li> - <li>Retained anachronistic and non-standard spellings as printed. - </li> - </ol> -</div> - -<p> </p> -<p> </p> -<hr class="full" /> -<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HEARTS OF THREE***</p> -<p>******* This file should be named 54068-h.htm or 54068-h.zip *******</p> -<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> -<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/5/4/0/6/54068">http://www.gutenberg.org/5/4/0/6/54068</a></p> -<p> -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed.</p> - -<p>Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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