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

AND now it becomes my duty to tell of the final disbanding of Carew’s most capable gang of ruffians, and the final solving of the marriage question between him and Donna Delicia.

Fluellen and I said good-bye to the Rabbit and her people (by Captain Meadey’s most kind and formal permission), and got ashore at Pueblo. Carew had oppressed the place ruthlessly, and being still sore from their skinning, any enemy of Carew’s was a friend of theirs. Indeed, the good folks of Pueblo gave us a public reception; wanted us to stay and be feted with fireworks, a ball, and a banquet, on three successive nights; and in fact fairly bubbled with their demonstrations of loyalty to the Briggs regime. We could go hunting after that devil Carew ” manana” they said; but we pointed out that the ” manana” principle would have to be suspended if Carew was to be caught, and so, as they honestly wished the man every ill, and as they themselves were not called upon to hustle personally for his capture, they provided us with four good horses, and gave us a shower of blessings and fireworks as a send-off.

It was not difficult to follow in Carew’s track. He had a hundred and fifty men in his company, and they did not carry a baggage train. Carew’s idea for supplying the commissariat might not be pleasant from the point of view of the country he passed through, though it was eminently satisfactory from a military standpoint. He had a gift for foraging that we of the Expeditionary Force at one time used to describe as heavenly, though I can quite imagine that the people he foraged from would set down his peculiar talent as emanating from somewhere extremely far from heaven.

On this particular march he and his men always swapped the mount they bestrode for a better so soon as it came into their sight; they always contrived to halt at some good plump village, which they squeezed of everything available before they left it. Let them receive smiles and no opposition, and they were the mildest-mannered brigands imaginable; they would be civil to the men and more than civil to the ladies. But let any irritable person object to parting with the cream of his stock, and show an ugly front in defence of his fancied rights, and the face of things would change at once. With equal glibness these predatory gentlemen would hang the objector to a branch of one of the village shade-trees as an example to his fellow-rustics, and would loudly profess their entire willingness to provide similar tutoring for anyone else who desired it.

Like the late Father O’Flynn, Sir William Carew undoubtedly ” had a wonderful way with him.” It was seldom that he had to resort to these disciplinary hangings. The villagers who came in for his visits rendered up what he was pleased to covet with the best grace they could muster. Indeed, during the whole of that chase we only came across two authentic instances where he had hanged obstructionists, and only a paltry three who had been in any way damaged by gunshots. In Sacaronduca, of course, they regard these matters more lightly than they do in England; indeed, the Spaniard of Central America would feel dull without his periodical revolution and occasional irruption of self-styled guerillas into his dwellingplace. Such a state of things has always been part of the course of life since the countries thereabouts threw off the hated yoke of Spain. They had a firm government then and personal security. Now they have very little government at all and no personal security worth speaking about.

But still, being human, they are apt to resent being robbed after the event, and as a consequence we received excellent treatment and full information as we scurried along at the guerillas’ heels. We had two good horses apiece to ride turn and turn about, but it took us all we knew not to lose ground. We did not, you understand, want to do anything so Quixotic as catch the fellows up just then, as that would have spelled useless suicide. We knew, if you will remember, that Don Juan Carmoy had gone on ahead presumably on the expectation of raising a force in his own particular country; we noted with grim enjoyment that Carew and his ruffians were heading for Carmoy’s district; and we held the amiable hope that we should be able to entirely upset their little plans. Twice we came across telegraph wires and jerked off lengthy messages to Briggs at Dolores, to Coffin, who was commanding at Los Angeles, and elsewhere; and three times where more modern communication was impossible, we despatched mounted couriers to the nearest wire office; and in fact kept all our chiefs posted as accurately as if they had been riding with Carew themselves.

In this way, then, both Carew and Juan Carmoy were being caught at a distinct disadvantage, and although we, like them, were quite ignorant of the measures that would be taken for their embarrassment, we had this advantage: we were complacently certain that our friends would be up and doing to get in a heavy blow at them, whilst they so far were quite unaware that their movements were known.

Railways, as I have said before, were conspicuous in Sacaronduca by their absence; roads were remarkable for their vileness; and in fact transit, especially transit of troops with baggage, was everywhere tedious and slow. But it appeared that Carew was not the only man with energy. Within two hours of receiving the first of our wires, Briggs had got a couple of army corps in movement from either end of the country. They were to travel in light, marching order. A desperate strait requires heroic remedies, they were to forage as they went on, after the manner of the man they were hunting. By means of wellmounted scouts they kept always in touch with the telegraph line, and as our wires twinkled into Dolores, Briggs, who had taken up his quarters night and day in the receiving office, jerked out corresponding orders to his troops.

It was like a game of chess for Briggs, with a kingdom and Donna Delicia for the stake.

Speaking of Donna Delicia, or Lady Carew, as I should perhaps more correctly style her, you would probably like to know how she viewed this final struggle, which was to decide which of the two men was really to be her husband. But on that point I can give absolutely no information. The lady stayed during all these events at the palace of Donna Julia Carmoy in Los Angeles; living in nunnish retirement, and letting no word of her wishes be carried away by a living soul. That she was well posted in what was going on I cannot but believe. Since I have first observed her she has always had the knack of gathering information without apparent exertion, and she has also possessed in high degree the talent for entirely