The Rover of the Andes, Robert Michael Ballantyne [my reading book .TXT] 📗

shoulder, "you know that I would not for all the world permit, or induce you to do anything that would risk your happiness. I now come to ask you seriously if you--if you are in--in short, if you admire this young fellow."

Instead of answering, Manuela, while searching carefully for any other little hole that might have been made, or that was on the eve of being made, by any other little toe, asked the astounding question--

"Is he rich, father?"

A mixture of surprise and annoyance marked the old man's tone and look as he replied--

"Why, what has _that_ got to do with it?"

"Have you not over and over again warned me, father, to beware of those gay young fellows who haven't got two sixpences to rub against each other, but have presumption enough to trifle with the affections of all the silly girls in the world. And are you sorry that I should have laid your lessons to heart?"

"Tut, child, don't talk nonsense. Whether he is rich or poor is a mere matter of moonshine. The question I have to settle just now is--Are you fond of him?"

"Well, no, father, I can't exactly say that I--"

"I knew it! I was _sure_ of it! The presumptuous puppy!" shouted the old man of war, jumping up, overturning a work-table with its innumerable contents, and striding towards the door.

"Stay, father!" said Manuela, in a tone that military discipline forbade him to disobey, and holding out both her hands with an air and grace that love forbade him to resist. "I _don't_ admire him, and I'm _not_ fond of him," continued the Inca princess, vehemently, as she grasped her parent's hands; "these terms are ridiculously inadequate. I love him, father--I _adore_ him--I--"

She stopped abruptly, for a noise at the glass-door caused her to turn her eyes in that direction. It was Quashy, who stood there staring at them with all his eyes, and grinning at them with more than all his mouth--to say nothing of his ears!

"You black baboon!" shouted the colonel, when able to speak.

"Oh, nebber mind me, kurnel," said Quashy, with a deprecatory air, "'skuse me. I's on'y habin' a stroll in de gardin an' come here kite by haxidint. Go on wid your leetle game, an' nebber mind me. I's on'y a nigger."

Colonel Marchbanks could not decide whether to laugh or storm. Manuela decided the question for him by inviting the negro to enter, which he did with humble urbanity.

"Shake hands with him, father. He's only a nigger, as he says, but he's one of the very best and bravest and most faithful niggers that _I_ ever had to do with."

"You's bery good, Miss--a'most as good as Sooz'n."

"Oh, well, have it all your own way," cried the colonel, becoming reckless, and shaking the negro's hand heartily; "I surrender. Lawrence will dine with us this evening, Manuela, so you'd better see to having covers laid for three--or, perhaps, for four. It may be that Senhor Quashy will honour us with--"

"T'ankee, kurnel, you's bery kind, but I's got a prebious engagement."

"A previous engagement, eh?" repeated the colonel, much tickled with the excuse.

"Yes, kurnel; got to 'tend upon Massa Lawrence; but if you'll allow me to stan' behind his chair an' _wait_, I'll be much pleased to listen to all you says, an' put in a word now an' den if you chooses."

And so, good reader, all things came about as the little princess of the Incas had arranged, long before, in her own self-willed little mind. Shall we trouble you with the details? Certainly not. That would be almost an insult to your understanding.

But we will trouble you to mount one of the fleetest steeds of the Pampas and fly with us over the mighty plains into the wildest regions of the Andes.

Though wild, we need not tell you that it is a lovely region, for you have been there already. It is the Mariquita Valley. No longer a silent wilderness, however, as when we saw it last, for, not very long after the events which we have just described, Lawrence Armstrong and his blooming bride, accompanied by the white-haired colonel and the irrepressible Quashy, and another band of miners and selected emigrants, entered that valley in a sort of triumphal procession, and were met and escorted to the head of it by another triumphal procession, which was under the command of Conrad of the Mountains, whose pretty daughter was the first to welcome Manuela to her new home.

But now dismount. Put on these wings and soar with us to the brow of yonder cliff, from which we can have a grand bird's-eye view of the vale almost from its entrance to the point where it is lost and absorbed in the majestic recesses of the higher Andes.

See you yon cottage-like edifice, close to Pedro's old home, with the rustic porch in front, and the well-stocked garden around? That is the residence of the overseer of the silver-mine, Lawrence Armstrong, Esquire. The residence as well as the garden is well-stocked; for we have ventured to gallop with you over Time as well as Space--one result being that there are at least three descendants of the Incas, (by the mother's side), romping in the garden.

On that mound a little way on the other side of Pedro's cottage stands another building. It resembles the home of Lawrence, but with enough of difference to afford the charm of variety. It is the home of the fine young Cornish youth who worked his way across the sea as a sailor, and accompanied Pedro to the mountains. That trip effectually settled _his_ business, and resulted in the conversion of Mariquita into Mrs Ansty. The change may not strike ordinary readers as being very romantic, but it was attended with much felicity.

In the small clump of wood just behind Pedro's cottage--where you see the lakelet or tarn glittering in the sunlight, and sending its infant waters to brawl over the neighbouring precipices and scamper down the valley--stands a group of huts. These form the homes of Ignacio, the old hunter, and Spotted Tiger with his family. Ignacio, you see,--still tough and straight, as though he had made up his mind to live and hunt for ever--has a strange power of attracting men to him, and has induced his Indian friend to forsake his old home in the low grounds and dwell with him in the mountains. Of course Spotted Tiger has brought his wife with him, and Leetle Cub, (no longer little), and all the other cubs, including poor Manca, the sick girl, who--thanks to Dr Armstrong's skill, and change of scene, and God's blessing on all--is no longer sick, but, on the contrary, robust and grateful.

Strange to say, our English sportsman is living with Ignacio just now, with several sporting friends. He has been back to England and out again since we last saw him, and goes aw-ing all over the settlement with as much nonchalance and latent vigour as ever--when not better engaged with Ignacio and Spotted Tiger, and Leetle Cub, in the mountains.

In Lawrence's garden, among the romping descendants of the Incas, (by the mother's side), may be seen four whitey-brown creatures. These are the children of Quashy and Susan. Two of them are little Quashys and two are little "Sooz'ns." They are not, of course, all named so, but Quashy says if he had "fifty little bustin' gurls he'd regard 'em all as little Sooz'ns," and Susan retorts that if she had "five hundred little bad boys she'd call 'em all Quashys." They dwell in a small hut in rear of the cottage of Massa Lawrence, for Quashy is his gardener and "_Sooz'n_" his washerwoman, and the little Quashys and "Sooz'ns" are playmates of the little Incas, (by the mother's side).

Antonio, the ex-bandit, is assistant gardener to the Armstrongs, and it is said that that once ferocious man has become so changed under the influence of Christian treatment, that he not only serves his master faithfully, but has even made more than one attempt to rescue an old enemy named Cruz from his evil ways. He has not yet been successful, but he is strong in faith and hope. Colonel Marchbanks, who has finally retired from the army, dwells with the Armstrongs, and has organised the miners and settlers into a local force of which he is the chief.

For the place has grown much of late in importance as well as in numbers, and in such a wild region there is need for defensive arrangements. It has other arrangements, also, of a much more important kind in which the Word of God plays the chief part, and Conrad of the Mountains lends a helping hand. That earnest rover has built a church and a schoolhouse, and, when at home, does what in him lies to advance the cause of true religion and education. But he has not ceased to wander in the mountains. True to his instincts as a reformer and lover of mankind, he visits with ceaseless activity the great and widely separated centres of population in South America, never losing sight of the great object he has set before him in the amelioration of the condition of the people.

Most people think him a mysterious madman. Some, who know him well, think him an over-sanguine enthusiast, but all agree in regarding him as a calm, gentle, amiable man, with a determination of purpose that nothing can turn aside, and with an intense desire for the welfare and advancement of the country which Mariquita the elder called her native land. Indeed it is thought by some that Pedro must have made to his wife some pledge or promise with reference to that subject, but no one can ascertain the truth of that now.

There is ground for this belief, however, for, as we sit on our perch, overlooking the valley, we see this Pedro, this Conrad of the Mountains, seated in the bower on the mound behind his dwelling, resting contemplatively at the well-loved spot, after one of his periodical returns. Mariquita the younger is beside him. They are both looking earnestly at the grave, and conversing about the time when they shall once again meet the lost one by the side of Jesus in the better land.

Till that day came, Pedro continued unflinchingly to prosecute his self-imposed task, whatever it might be. Whether or what success attended his efforts we cannot tell; yet have we reason to hope that his labour was not in vain. But of this much we are certainly sure, that, to the end of his days on earth he continued to be known as the Rover of the Andes; and when Death--at last--overtook him and arrested his benignant course, it found him advancing with trembling steps towards the old place, and closed with him, finally, as he pillowed his head on Mariquita's grave.

THE END.