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

we could scarcely sit in the saddles; even the indomitable Jupe was giving signs that the strain was beginning to tell upon him. The scent of cigarette smoke reached us, lying stale and stagnant in the breathless air, And then of their own accord the fagged horses divined rest and forage ahead, and quickened to a lumbering trot to reach it.

We drew up with a clatter before the portico, and could almost smell the cool air from within coming out of the gloom with the cigarette smoke. There was a lazy chatter of salutations, and a few indolent hands stretched out to take our bridles. What was said was beyond our following, as the Tolpec dialect is quite unlike Spanish, even Sacaronducan Spanish; but it was easy to guess from the tone that Father Jupe was the hero of the moment, and the subject for hearty congratulations, and that we were looked upon as being unmistakable prisoners, and possibly victims.

When the explanations were over, a couple of men signed to us to follow them, and the priest bade us farewell for the present, with ironical politeness. He was always polite, that infernal priest, whatever he had got to say.

The men who had us in charge did not trouble to be civil. We were tired, and stiff, and wanted to go slowly. They seemed inclined to hustle us, but they did not persist in this. They got one look apiece from Carew, and concluded to let us go our own pace. Carew certainly has a very handy way of looking ugly at times.

However, go we had to, quick or slow, and, come to think of it, we had no special cause for objecting. We had been treated pleasantly enough in this mountain valley up till then. And so we were taken (or driven, if you like it better) into a big airy room on the ground floor, with a barred window, of course, and a good deal of bare wall and whitewash. It was just the ordinary bedroom of the country districts, with a couple of “quatres” with mosquito bars over them, and an earthenware basin and a gourd of water on a stone shelf.

We washed in part of the water and drank up the rest, and then a fellow brought us in a couple of jugs of wine and a couple of plates of some sort of garlicky sausage mess, fried up with beans and peppers. It seemed they didn’t intend to starve us, and we supped gratefully enough, though it was an effort to keep awake even to eat. Then I for one lifted the mosquito bar, and fell back on the ” quatre.” But I think Carew must have hesitated, for I heard him say, ” Birch; look here, Birch. About that duel of ours. We have a chance to settle it now, and the Lord knows when we may get another.”

But I was past plucking up a bit of spirit then. I had ridden, and I had eaten, and I had lain me down; and not to save even my honour could I have roused myself from that drowsiness. My lips mumbled something, I don’t know what; and in the midst of mumbling, I tumbled off into the deadest kind of unconsciousness.

However, a sea training, even for a purser, whatever its other results may be, has one good effect: it teaches one to extract the maximum of rest out of a given amount of sleep. I don’t know how long we were left there undisturbed, but it could not have been more than three or three and a half hours at the outside, because the sun was only just upon its setting when they roused us. I was fairly rested, with all my wits ready to occupy themselves with what came next. Carew was in the usual condition of a man who has not had his sleep out; and amongst other things he was in a vile temper.

It was Maxillo himself who did us the honour of paying a visit, and a dozen lusty well-armed men trooped into the room at his heels so as to be ready for emergencies. The ex-President was not a bit like his sardonical brother. He was a little, shrivelled, pompous man, with a yellow face, and a bright black eye, and a regular rattrap of a mouth. He came to the point with curt directness.

“Now, you two,” he said, ” I’ve got you here, and I’m going to make you useful, or you will suffer for it.”

“It was my intention to come,” said Carew, “and offer you my services.”

“I shall take the services I require, and then dismiss you,” said Maxillo coldly.

“1 have done with Briggs and Briggs has done with me. It suits my purpose to put you on the throne again, and you will find that I shall do it faithfully and effectually.”

“I shall find nothing of the sort. I refuse to let you meddle. To be accurate, Seftor Carew, I doubt both your faith and your capability. You have been treacherous once, and you would be treacherous again if it suited your purpose; you have obviously been unsuccessful over your own affairs or you would not have come in this direction now; and I do not choose that you should have the opportunity of bungling with my interests.”

Carew’s face darkened.

“I make no doubt,” the little man went on contemptuously, ” that you flatter yourself you can make an ugly enemy. But I leave you to your own convenience about that matter. After you have done what I want here, you will be free to go where you like, and to do what you like. If you fail to do what I want, you will not go, that is all. The matter will be decided one way or the other before tomorrow morning.” He turned to me. ” Your name is Birch, I believe, sir, and my agents in your army tell me that you have the character of being a sensible man. My brother respited you from a very painful death, but you must understand that you were respited, not necessarily reprieved. The reprieve you must earn yourself.”

“May I ask the process?”

Maxillo had his face under good command, but I could have sworn his mouth twitched then. “By persuading an acquaintance of yours, Donna Delicia, to honour me with her hand in marriage. At one time, not very long ago, she offered it to me freely under conditions and I refused. Since then history has moved on. I desire to marry her now, for political reasons.”

“I know Donna Delicia’s will,” said I. ” Mere words of mine are not likely to change it.”

Maxillo waved aside the interruption, and went on. “You will please to picture her situation. My agents have had their orders for long enough, and, on the whole, they have served me faithfully. It is true they did not find out at first that she was backing your Briggs ” the name seemed to stick somewhat in his throat “your Briggs and his filibusters; but as soon as she declared herself, they watched their opportunity, and they spirited her away from Dolores with a success and an absence of trace which I am sure even you must own was masterly. And so she came to my poor house here, and again I had the honour of placing myself at her feet.

“I asked that she should honour me with her hand in marriage; she refused. I pointed out as delicately as might be the compromising situation in which she found herself with a discarded suitor, and suggested marriage as a simple end to the scandal. She replied that she did not care a fig for scandal ” Maxillo sighed ” and that I believe is true. Physical coercion I did not see my way to use, even to gain so weighty an end for, mark you, se�ores, the man who gains Donna Delicia as his wife gains the presidential throne of Sacaronduca as her portion. I am convinced of that now. But now fate, and my dear brother Jupe, have put in my way a piece of moral suasion which I do not think she can resist.”

“You old he-goat,” broke out Carew; ” if you think you’ll get help from me after your recent politeness, you’ve come to the wrong shop. You’d better try Birch.”

“Seflor Maxillo,” I said, ” you seemed to dislike treachery, and I’m afraid the other thing may be equally intolerable to you. I must tell you that before all things I am loyal to General Briggs, and so naturally therefore I cannot help you to take away his promised wife. Besides, I am quite a humble person, a mere secretary, and I am sure Donna Delicia would give very little weight to my advice. You know quite well she sets a high value on her own opinion.”

“Well, Mr. Maxillo,” said Carew, ” there you have it from both of us; we’ll see you at the devil first. And now, what’s next?”

Maxillo stamped with passion. ” You escaped, it seems, being roasted to death? Defy me further, and you shall find there are worse things than that. You saw the fields of sorghum and sugar cane as you rode down the valley? We boil down the juice of those, when the season comes, in great iron coppers which hold a thousand gallons. I’ll fill two of these a third full of water and put you in, and then light the fires beneath. That brigand Manuel threatened to roast you to death, did he? Well, you were saved from that, and you shall be boiled to death instead if you force me to it, and Delicia shall watch your writhings whilst the water heats. Carrajo! Defy me, would you?”