CHAPTER XXXII.
THE PRISONER.
When the hunter finished his narrative a gloomy silence prevailed forsome minutes in the jacal. Outside the wind blew fiercely, and therain fell in torrents. The smoky flame of the candle, flickering inthe gusts, only spread an uncertain gleam over the pale faces of thesemen, who felt their hearts contracted by a sinister presentiment. Thehacendero was the first to overcome the emotion he felt. With headerect, frowning brows, and features contracted by a supreme resolution,he walked rapidly up to the prisoner, and, pulling down roughly thezarape that covered the lower part of his face, he gazed at him for amoment with an expression of grief and passion impossible to render.
"It is true, then," he at length muttered, in a dull voice, "thisman I believed so devoted to me is a traitor. I alone was blind wheneverybody around me accused him. Speak, villain, what have you done?"
"It is my place to answer that question," the count said, as he walkedforward and laid his hand on Don Anibal's arm.
The hacendero looked at him in amazement.
"You, Senor Conde?" he said.
"Yes, I, Don Anibal. I, who have only come here to tell you a frightfulsecret, and am compelled to bring a terrible accusation against thisman."
Don Anibal felt as if his heart would break.
"Oh!" he exclaimed, "What are you going to tell me, great God?"
Don Pelagio, who had hitherto leant his elbow on the table, andremained motionless and thoughtful, placed himself between the twogentlemen, and looked at them, in turn, with an expression of sorrowfulcompassion.
"Stay," he said, in a loud voice. "In the name of heaven--in the nameof our country--I command it! However terrible the revelation youhave to make, Senor Conde, may be; however great your impatience, DonAnibal, to know the full extent of your misfortunes, this is neitherthe place nor the hour for such an explanation; honour bids you bothdefer it for some hours. We must start immediately, for the hour hasarrived. If we delayed for a few moments the fruit of all our labourand efforts would be lost. What do you apprehend? This man is in yourpower, and will not escape. You will soon be able to inflict on him thepunishment which he doubtless deserves."
"Oh!" the hacendero exclaimed, sorrowfully, "Suppose this villainescaped our vengeance, my friend; I feel a foreboding of some frightfulmisfortune."
The count and the hunter looked down sadly. Father Sandoval gentlylaid his hand on the shoulder of the hacendero, who had fallen into anequipal, and buried his face in his hands.
"Courage, friend," he said to him, softly. "God is watching. Hisjustice never sleeps. Remember the precept written on the heart ofevery man of honour, 'Do your duty, no matter what may happen.'"
The hacendero replied with a choking sob.
"You no longer belong to yourself," the priest continued, more warmly;"your head and your arm are claimed by your country. Be a man, howevergreat the sorrow that awaits you; draw yourself up, and become strongfor the coming contest. Every man in the world has his cup which hedrains to the dregs. Go, my friend, go where duty calls you; tomorrowyou can think of yourself, but today belongs to your country."
The hacendero, overpowered by this manly appeal, rose mechanically,pulled his hat over his eyes, and went off without uttering a word. Thepriest looked after him, tenderly.
"Oh!" he muttered, "How that man of iron must suffer to be thuscrushed!"
Then he turned to the count.
"Senor Conde," he added, laughingly, "you are my prisoner for four andtwenty hours."
"I shall not leave you till the business for which I have come isended," the count replied with a polite bow.
"Hilloh, my worthy lad," the priest continued, addressing Diego Lopez,who throughout the interview had remained motionless in his corner,with his eyes constantly fixed on the prisoner, "my provost marshalwill save you the trouble of guarding that man."
"That will be a great relief for me, Excellency."
"Good. Go and tell him to come here immediately. The prisoner issecurely bound, I presume?"
"Senor Clary himself made the knot, Excellency."
"In that case, my mind is at rest. Go."
"The more so, because I undertake to watch the villain in themeanwhile," Oliver said, as he cocked a pistol.
"Good," Diego Lopez remarked, and went out.
"Are your horses fit for a long ride, caballeros?"
"Well, hardly," the Canadian answered.
"Very well; you will choose among mine. Colonel Clary, your regiment,which you will find complete, is on escort tonight."
"Are we going away?" the count asked.
"This very instant."
The Mexican general clapped his hands, and an officer came in.
"Order your men to mount noiselessly, Captain. Are the horses shod withfelt, as I ordered?"
"Yes, Excellency."
"Good; we shall start in ten minutes. You can go."
"Are we bound on an expedition?" the Canadian asked.
"Yes," the general replied, laconically.
"iCaray!" the hunter exclaimed, as he rubbed his hands merrily, "Thatis what I call being in luck's way, arriving just in time for anexpedition."
"Which will probably be serious," the general resumed.
"All the better; there will be something to gain in that case."
At this moment the provost marshal appeared at the door of the jacal,accompanied by a dozen soldiers.
"Caballero," the general said to him, "I confide this prisoner to you,for whom I hold you responsible. Do you understand?"
"Perfectly, General," the provost answered respectfully. "Come, my men,seize the fellow."
The majordomo was led away by the soldiers. During the whole timethe Indian had remained in the jacal, he had been cold and stoical,as if what was going on around him did not affect him in the least.As he went out he gave a sarcastic glance at the company and smiledcontemptuously.
"I must watch that villain," the hunter said to himself, "he is surelymeditating some Indian devilry."
A noise of men and horses, followed by the clang of arms, informed thegeneral that his orders had been carried out.
"Let us be off, senores," he said.
They left the jacal. When the general and his escort had mounted,Father Sandoval placed himself at the head of the column.
"Forward, caballeros," he said, in a loud, firm voice, "and may heavenbe gracious to us!"
The horsemen started a gallop, passing silently and rapidly through thedarkness, like the wild horseman in the German ballad. While they werecrossing the camp, one thing greatly surprised the hunter, though hedid not dare ask for an explanation. On all sides burnt bivouac fires,sending myriads of sparks up into the air, but he could not notice asingle sentry. The most perfect silence reigned; men, horses, guns andbaggage had become invisible; the camp was or seemed to be entirelydeserted. The entrenchments were abandoned; no sentry shouted, "Whogoes there?" no vidette arrested the detachment. In a word, the entireMexican army seemed to have faded away in smoke.
The escort left the camp, and then the pace, already rapid, increasedin velocity. They proceeded toward the mountains which rose gloomyand frowning on the horizon in the first gleams of daylight. A littlein the rear of the regiment of lancers, of which it formed as it werea second rearguard, came a detachment of fifty soldiers. They werethe provost marshal's guard. In the midst of them was the majordomo,fastened with a strap upon a horse behind its rider. Sotavento, or theStag, whichever the reader likes to call him, appeared to have lostnone of his assurance or courage; his face was calm, and his eyes aloneflashed at intervals, like those of a wild beast. On his right and lefttwo troopers, carbine on thigh, carefully watched him.
They galloped on thus for nearly three hours; the sky grew less gloomy,and the outlines of the hills began to stand out upon the horizon. Thedetachment halted for a short time, on reaching one of those countlessstreams which intersect the desert, and which it was necessary to ford.On the other bank could be seen the l
ast squadrons of lancers, enteringat a gallop a canyon whose scarped and almost perpendicular sideswere only covered with a stunted and sparse vegetation. With his armsfastened down on his chest, and his body attached by a strap, it seemedan impossibility for Sotavento to escape; hence his guardians who, aswe said, did not let him out of sight, considered it unnecessary to tiehis legs under the horse's belly.
The majordomo, however, far from yielding to a despair unworthy ofhim, seriously thought of escaping, and coolly calculated in his mindall the chances of success left him. We must confess that they werevery small. Still, the Indian was determined to fly at all risks; heknew very well that the grave suspicions would soon be converted intoa certainty, and that when this certainty was once acquired, his deathwould immediately ensue. Death did not terrify the Indian; he had seenit too often and under too many shapes to fear it; but, if he died,what would become of his vengeance, which he had followed up for somany years with feline patience, and which he was now on the point ofseeing satiated?
Hence, ever since the moment he was led into the jacal, all histhoughts were directed to one object--flight. Crouched up like a tigeron the watch, his eyes incessantly sounded the darkness, seeking theopportunity which did not offer itself, and which he did not meanto lose when it presented itself. This long expected opportunity hebelieved had at length arrived, and he made all his preparations totake advantage of it.
Although night was passing away and the first gleams of dawn werealready beginning to spread across the horizon large pearly bands,which gradually assumed all the colours of the rainbow, the darknesswas still so great that it was difficult to make objects outdistinctly, even at a short distance. During the whole of the journeySotavento had remained gloomy and silent, with his head hanging overhis chest, and careful not to give the soldiers who watched him theslightest pretext to redouble their vigilance; but for all that he wasnot idle, and his pretended immobility had an incessant and obstinatelabour. The Indian was quietly nibbling with his teeth, which were assharp as those of a wild beast, the leathern straps which bound hishands. When the detachment reached the riverbank the thongs were bittenthrough, although his hands were still secured.
The provost, after sending a trooper to examine the ford, went acrosswith one half of his men. Excepting at the spot where the soldierstraversed the stream, the banks were scarped and abrupt, and consistedof rocks piled irregularly on each other, and rising to a considerableheight above the water. The order was given to bring the prisoneracross, and the soldier, behind whom he was fastened, trotted up to theriverbank. The ford was too narrow for three riders to pass abreast,and hence only one of the guards accompanied the prisoner. The latterprepared for action. He understood that, if he did not profit by theopportunity chance now afforded him, he would not find another.
The horses entered the river, and were soon up to their girths inwater. The soldier behind whom Sotavento was fastened, had quite enoughto do in keeping his horse in the line of the ford, and, at the sametime, raising his weapons, so that they should not be wetted; hence hepaid but slight attention to his prisoner. All at once, at the momenthe reached the middle of the stream, the soldier received a terribleshock, and was unsaddled and hurled into the river before he hadtime even to utter a cry. Sotavento had boldly leapt into the water,dragging the trooper after him. A terrible struggle went on for a fewseconds between the two men; but the soldier, feeling himself lost,and clinging eagerly to life, undid the strap that attached him to theprisoner, and rose to the surface in order to breathe.
"Look out! Look out!" the other trooper exclaimed as he halted; "Theprisoner is escaping."
This shout produced disorder among the party, who at once gallopedin all directions with their eyes fixed on the stream in the hope ofpursuing the prisoner. But then a terrible thing occurred. The soldierwho had been the first to give the alarm, felt himself suddenly draggedoff his horse into the water, struggling vainly in the furious clutchof the majordomo, who had seized him by the throat and was pitilesslystrangling him. With the rapidity of a wild beast, the Indian seizedthe knife which the soldier wore in his boot, brandished it over hisenemy's head and scalped him; then, casting the dying man from him, hebestrode his horse, waved the scalp with a triumphant cry, and makingthe animal quit the ford, in which the couple had struggled up to theirwaist in water, he went down the current amid a shower of bullets whichdashed up the spray all around him.
The horse, held by a firm hand, swam vigorously down with the current,still keeping to the centre of the stream. On both banks horsemen weregalloping, shouting to each other, and trying in vain to approach theriver, which was defended by impassable masses of rock. Still, ifthe scarped banks offered an obstacle to his pursuers, they equallyprevented the majordomo from reaching land. His horse was beginning topant, its strength was nearly exhausted, and it swam feebly. The Indianlooked round him anxiously, caring little for the soldiers, but seeingwith terror that the further he went the more difficult it became toland on either side.
In spite of the provost's repeated orders, the soldiers, despairing tocatch up the fugitive, and perceiving the futility of their efforts,gave up the pursuit. The Indian was consequently alone; still, inspite of the certainty of having thrown out his foes, he feared thathe had but changed his manner of death. At the moment when his horsewas beginning to sink and beat the water with its forelegs, the chiefuttered a shout of joy. In the very centre of the river was an isleteasy of approach, and not more than sixty yards from him.
The Indian did not hesitate; removing his horse's bit, which wastroublesome to it, he dived and swam vigorously toward the islet.The animal, freed from its rider's weight, seemed to regain its oldstrength, and, impelled by instinct, also proceeded in the samedirection. A quarter of an hour after, man and horse walked together upthe sandy bank of the island. They were saved!