The Filibusters, Charles John Cutcliffe Hyne [best book clubs .TXT] 📗

can leave the matter safely now in Father Jupe’s hands. But how will you take your prisoners to Maxillo, Father? It would be rather delicate for us to move out of the woods here till the pardon is formally signed.”

“Quite so,” said the priest. ” If we did chance to come across any troops they might be so overcome with joy at seeing you again as to induce you to stop with them before I could get in my word.” He looked down and addressed himself to me for the first time. ” I am afraid, se�or, that under the circumstances you will have to put up with my poor escort alone. Manuel, I will trouble you for one of those English revolvers. No, loaded please. Gracias. But, Seftor Englishman, if you and your friend (who need pretend unconsciousness no longer, as I have seen him peeping at me already), if you and your friend will just honour me with an instant’s attention, I will try and give you a little confidence in my small powers.”

He fumbled with his cassock, produced a quarter dollar, and spun it in the air. It hung for an instant in the blaze of sunshine, and then was eclipsed in a grey blur of smoke, and when it was picked up again by one of the brigands, a blue lead splash was well grained into its texture.

Carew sat up. ” A very pretty trick, padre,” he said. ” I shouldn’t care to stand up before your gun at twenty paces. May I introduce Mr. Birch? My name’s Carew.”

“Charmed, I’m sure,” said the priest.

“And talking of shooting,” Carew went on, “you’re a man of the world, sir, I can see, and the fact is Birch and I had a little affair, to settle between one another, which has been delayed over long already. Your good friends here chipped into the argument just as we were commencing. If you could just spare us a couple of minutes we could get it off our minds, and the survivor, I’m sure, would be most happy to go on further with you.”

The priest rubbed his hands together and shook his head benignly. ” Mr. Carew,” he said, ” believe me I am most sorry to interrupt your amiable intentions, but you see before all things I am a man of peace; my cloth makes me so, and, in short, till you have passed beyond my care I really could not officially countenance any such little exercise as you so pleasantly hint at. Of course, afterwards, as an amateur, I should be delighted to look on, or, perhaps, if you cared for it, offer a little professional assistance.”

“Oh, all right,” said Carew; ” I quite see. Thought I’d just mention it, that’s all, as I know Birch is a busy man, and his time’s precious. Sorry, Birch, old man; our little account will have to stand over for the present.”

The priest was politeness itself, but it seemed that he was not inclined to carry complaisance too far. The horses were brought up and our legs were untied. We were hoisted into the saddles, and our feet made fast beneath the horses’ bellies with a thong of rawhide; and as our hands were still lashed behind our backs, the bridles were knotted so that they should not fall and get entangled with the horses’ feet.

The priest was full of apologies for our discomfort; talked deprecatingly about the disturbed state of the country; and in fact treated us to so much open sardonic hypocrisy that of the two I think I almost preferred the coarse, brutal insults of the man without the ears; and as it was, being a helpless prisoner, I preserved a glum, sulky silence. Carew was different. He returned pleasantry for pleasantry, irony for irony; in fact, I think he recognised in Father Jupe a man of very much his own kidney, and was almost disposed to like him though I make no doubt he would have shot the fellow down like a dog if a chance had been given him and he thought that it would have suited his purpose.

However, Father Jupe was very well able to take care of his person. He trusted the brigands apparently because he had got some great power over them. He trusted us not at all. He rode at the tails of our horses with his reins in one hand and a revolver in the other, and whenever I looked over my shoulder I always found his eyes instantly upon me.

Our ride was a long one. The brigands escorted us to the rim of the forest and sent their farewell shouts after our heels; and then we left them behind us and would have been well enough content to have seen their faces no more. Immediately before us lay foot hills, part in some sort of desultory cultivation, such as an agriculturist can manage who has to hoe the ground with a cocked rifle in his spare hand, part disfigured by the dumps of mines, part barren, and part covered with scrub forests of ilexes and dye woods; and beyond them reared up the great huddle of the Tolpec Mountains, which in three places showed white crests close beneath the burning azure of heaven.

“By Jove,” said Carew, with his eyes on the distant range, ” what an ideal place for a robber’s nest.”

“Ah no, se�or,” said the priest at our heels. “President Maxillo lives there.”

“Well, of course,” said Carew, ” one could scarcely call him a robber now, since Briggs took Dolores. His opportunities have been so very much curtailed.”

“The tide ebbs and flows, se�or, and presidents have their ups and downs. Maxillo will be up again before long.”

“I shouldn’t wonder. I’ve come to help him.”

“Yes,” said the priest, drily. “I’m bringing both you and el se�or Birch.”

“Oh, I didn’t mean that,” said Carew. ” I mean I was coming out to help him when I left Dolores.”

“I thought I had the honour of hearing that you set out to take part in a duel?”

“Certainly. But that was only an incident by tHe way. As Birch could tell you if he chose, I’ve made Dolores too hot to hold me. It was to my interest to try and upset Briggs, and I’ve been working pretty hard to that end. Somehow or other I’ve got dropped on, and had to bolt. If Briggs caught me now he’d have me shot on sight; and so I’ve set out to offer myself as a volunteer to Maxillo.”

“Sefior,” said the priest, ” let me call your attention to the scenery. It would be hard to find a prettier setting to a fairy tale.”

“I didn’t suppose you would believe me,” said Carew, ” but what I’ve been telling you’s fact for all that, as you’ll probably find out for yourself before long. However, I don’t want to quarrel with you, padre. But for your kind interference I’d merely be grilled meat by this time.”

“Don’t mention it, amigo,” said the priest warmly. ” I’m always glad to help anyone I think will be of use to me.”

With these amiable pleasantries Carew and Father Jupe beguiled the way, whilst I held a glum silence. If the priest had rescued us from earless Manuel and his crew, I was tolerably confident he had not done it from any humane desire to save us discomfort; he wanted to make use of us in some other way; and as to what that way would be I had unpleasant qualms. Maxillo had not got any nice reputation for civility to his enemies; there was about as much chivalry in the man as there is in the ordinary half-bred Indian; and it was just as likely we had escaped one set of tortures to come in for another series equally abominable. He had managed to get hold of a couple of our poor fellows who had done him no particular harm, and when, as I rode, I remembered the method of their death, my teeth got on edge till I thought they would have grated themselves into splinters. So that no detail of the horror should be lost, it had chanced that I myself was the officer in charge of the detachment which found their poor mutilated bodies.

Presently, however, a new front was put on the situation. We had got up over the hummocky foot hills by that time, and were entering the main chain of the mountains by a narrow, rocky defile, where the road was little more than a torrent bed. To force such a place with troops would have been as easy as climbing to the moon. A couple of decently placed machine guns and a dozen rifles could have held the pass against an army. And probably because of the absurdity of making an attack there, it was quite unguarded. Except for the clashing of small waterfalls, and the moan of the wind amongst the peaks, there was not a sound of movement anywhere.

“Seftores,” said Father Jupe, ” there are parts of Sacaronduca which have been under various masters. Dolores, Los Angeles, and other portions of the country are at present in the grip of that very clever filibuster, your Don Esteban Puentos. But these mountains here have never been trespassed upon. As far back as records reach they have been in the hands of our family. The Spaniards came, but they never conquered us, never even attacked us. From time to time we took unto ourselves Spanish women, and the old Indian blood was revivified by the new strain; just as I believe in England your countrymen are bred from many different stocks. But such as we are, we have endured, and if through the course of ages we have not always held our grip on the lower ground, at least we have never been evicted from the mountains.”

“Are they worth taking?” asked Carew. “They look chilly and barren enough. Or have you mines up here?”

“We have our little comforts,” said the priest. “For instance, we have amongst us a lady called Donna Delicia.”

“The deuce you have?” said I with a start. To tell the truth I had forgotten all about her till that moment.

“You will perhaps gratify us by dancing at her wedding,” said the priest.

“Not much,” said I, ” if she marries up here.”

“Well,” said the priest with a shrug, ” if you do not dance at the wedding, I can guarantee you will dance before it. And if you don’t do as you are bid I am afraid you’ll both be sorry I didn’t leave you to undergo friend Manuel’s little pleasantries.”

“You old devil,” I said viciously. ” I wish I could get at you.”

“Now don’t get ruffled, my dear Mr. Birch,” said the priest with his lazy smile. ” It’s so useless to lose one’s temper over trifles. Look at Carew, how cool and cheerful he is. I’m sure he’d like to hear of the little eccentricities by which my brother can show his displeasure on those who annoy him.”

“Your brother?” I said.

“Yes; don’t you know, I’m Jupe Maxillo, and I should have been Archbishop of Dolores if you gentlemen had not come to interfere.”

“And so at present?”

“At present, Mr. Birch, I am merely a simple country parson, with so much time upon my hands that I can spare a moment now and again to help with my friend’s affairs. You know we country clergy in Sacaronduca are notorious for our genial meddling. But just now all my thoughts are set upon one thing. I want to make my dear brother and that sweet Donna Delicia happy at one and the same time, and at present the lady seems to have some foolish objections. I’m bringing you with