CHAPTER XI.
THE TWO CAPTAINS OF THE "GOLETA."
Whilst senora Bustamente was formally taking some refreshment, Gladsdensummoned Ignacio.
"Lieutenant," said he, sternly, "it is a honour for me to have MadamVazquez, the bride of Benito Vazquez, the pearl diver, to present toyou."
Ignacio bowed, and darted from his widely distended eyes an enormousshow of admiration at the young Mexican.
"The famous pearl fisher," murmured he; "the take will be rare andsplendid now."
"This lady," continued the master, "is our passenger, you areanswerable for her being treated with the utmost deference, and thegreatest attention by all the crew. We'll fashion a cabin for herhereabouts. All the men are forbidden to enter here under any pretencewhatever. Do'ye hear, Master Ignacio?"
"Yes."
"Then what the mischief are you staring for?"
"Ha, Senora Vazquez?" he repeated. "Surely I behold with admirationdazed eyes the incomparable daughter of the martial hacendero, don Josede Miranda."
"Eh! How now, what do you know of the lady?"
"Only that she was the chosen bride of his Excellency, don AnibalCristobal."
"Eh? Why, of course!"
"And that illustrious scoundrel," went on the late lieutenant ofbanditti, with a refreshing air of morality, "after having had thepoor don tracked to his death by the venomous Apache, to whom I owe mybrother's loss--one to him! A thousand devils pull at him--the captainnot my lamented Pepillo--after all that show of hatred to him who tookthe lady out of his clutches, don Anibal will not allow the doubleremoval unimpeded, I'll wager you a thousand ounces against one poor,old, worn dollar, of the senorita and his dear _Burlonilla_."
"Indeed! We'll see about that."
The speaker marked a curious mixture of fear and doubt flit across thevisage of Ignacio.
Benito, seeing that he was only in the way of his young wife's settlingdown in her new home, and having some neglected preparations to makeashore, proposed a hasty return thither.
The captain all the less reluctantly coincided with his expressedintention, as he had a confidential message to transmit to the Britishvice-consul--a young Jewish gentleman on whom he believed he could relyin such an emergency as impended.
In Benito's absence, captain Gladsden took further precautions.Disliking a budding smile on the phiz of Ignacio, he ordered him below,placing Bristol Jem at the head of affairs in his stead, and chargedthe carpenter to hurry on his woodwork. The rest of the time was givenup to completing the readiness to start.
Going on 3 p.m. the Englishman was walking the deck under an umbrella,when he perceived a boat pushing off from the wharf. It could not beBenito, in this huge shallow punt, impelled by eight oars, in the bowof which six armed men in uniform were standing, while at the sternwere seated two persons in gay array.
One was a stout dame, extravagantly caparisoned; the other, a tallman in almost as brilliant and absurd an attire. The latter was notaltogether unfamiliar to the captain, and he smiled in anticipation ofthe affair to be communicated.
Whilst the heavily laden embarkation bore down upon the cutter with aleisure which was insulting, Gladsden ordered his ensign to be dippedthree times. Immediately he had the satisfaction of perceiving the flagof the British consul execute the same movement. Benito had, therefore,delivered his message, to which this courtesy was an acknowledgment.
Gladsden went below, and approaching the bulkhead, behind which donaDolores was ensconced, whispered to her:
"Lady! I have reason to suppose that a boat is coming hither withpersons on board whose intention is to seize on you and take youto land in the absence of your husband. Now, you need not worryyourself. Don't show any tokens of being here. I have answered for yourprotection to don Benito, and I know quite how to take care of you, aswell as my craft, against all the desperadoes in the Intendencia of allSonora."
"Oh, do so, sir!" returned the young lady, a prey to deep emotion,spite of the Englishman's confident and jesting accent, "And we shallbless you! Out of the little window I, too, have espied the skiffcoming; and I have recognised my aunt and the pretender to my hand. Iwould rather die than fall into their hands! Oh, why--oh, why is notBenito here?"
"Don't be under any uneasiness," reiterated the other; "I shall keep mypledge to your husband. Only, I say again, keep _perdue_, and do notreveal your presence by any noise."
"I promise to obey you, sir Captain. You are a really good man! Heavenwill benefit you for the protection you accord me. I shall go onpraying for you and myself!"
"Very well; so pluck up, Senorita, and soon the fun will be over!"
He remounted to the deck. He glanced over the bay, and went to the stemwith his marine glass, looking over the oncoming "scow" contemptuouslyto view the shore near the consul's habitation. A longboat, manned bytwelve oarsmen, and carrying the English flag at the stern, was seen toquit the pier and steer for the _Burlonilla_, making good time.
The port was "getting lively."
Though things were going on nicely enough, Gladsden did not mean tobe taken unawares, and, not to be blamed for neglecting to take anyprecaution, he had a cutlass and a brace of boarding pistols laidhandily on the sliding cover of the companionway. In those waters onenever knows how matters may turn out, and, to prevent the turning outbeing unpleasant, a man is easiest when thoroughly on his guard.
Though the English representative's boat had left the shore some timeafter the native one, it was not slow in overhauling it, outstrippingit without deigning to hail it or otherwise notice it, and ranalongside the _Little Joker_ on the seaward side, while the other boatwas rather far away.
"Glad to see you, Mr. Lyons," said Gladsden, receiving thedeputy-consul, warmly.
"Yes, here I am, Captain. You can do anything you like with me, youknow. Only, as your messenger was in a hurry to be off, I am verylittle informed upon passing matters, and I may be able to act betterin your interest if you acquaint me how things stand and move."
Gladsden briefly told the story.
"Is that all!" exclaimed deputy-consul Lyons, laughing finely, as Jewsdo. "Don't you be alarmed, but let me deal with this fellow. The friendof don Stefano must be a suspicious character, and that he is the chiefof the in-country night marchers, and also the doer of little piracieswith this same brigantine does not, therefore, startle me. But yourvisitors are hailing you. You might receive them with that bulldogsweetness of demeanour which characterise us British," he went on,smiling shyly. "Before all, put away those weapons, quite useless. Theaffair will finish with more of a display of brass than steel or lead."
"I will hope so, though it's a thing of indifference," replied themaster of the _Little Joker_. "Anyway, I rely on you."
"That's the best."
So the cabin boy removed the weapons, while his captain, accompanied bythe British sub-consul, strode to the gangway thrown open in the lowwaist, arriving just in time to offer his hand to the lady passengerof the shallop. Behind her the drolly accoutred sham Chilian commodorescrambled aboard.
Dona Josefa de Miranda was of elephantine form, with her hair, neck,ears, and arms literally laden with gems, gold eagles, and Mexicancoins, pierced and strung in the shape of collars and bracelets. Athousand dollar China crape shawl showed all its florid pattern inembroidery, spread on her broad shoulder. A figured muslin dress, muchtoo short, was caught in at what she probably flattered herself was awaist, by a sash sprinkled with precious stones. A profusion of costlyrings shone on her gloved hands. It was manifest that don Jose deMiranda in his flight had left some valuables which his kinswoman hadforestalled the executors in securing.
Nothing could be more repulsive in its uncomeliness than the swarthylineaments of this corpulent being, whose carping physiognomy and smallglistening coffee coloured eyes wore an expression of indescribablespitefulness.
Close to her escort, captain Gladsden undoubtedly recognised thescarred hook nose, hatchet face, and lank figure of his gamblingopponent. It was t
he same grotesque uniform which had been donned toastonish the natives at the supper table of don Stefano.
When this precious pair came in upon the deck of the _Little Joker_,the armed men attempted to follow. But Mr. Holdfast--whose enforcedstay in the fort, penniless, scornfully used by the Guaymasians, hadfilled him with terrible detestation of all Mexicans in general, andWestern ones in particular--gleefully obeyed his orders by biddingthem keep their distance. At once the corporal seemed indisposed tobow to this injunction, and seized the Turk's head at the end of therope guard of the gangplank, thus railed to assist the lady, the firstofficer, without losing an atom of his habitual coolness, shoved theskiff head off so roughly with his foot as to make the soldier lose hisbalance and fall between the two gunnels into the water. This, to thelaughter of the seamen, who cherish an animosity towards soldiers, and,furthermore, against the armed police, always seeking an excuse to bemanifested. Luckily, the soldier had kept his hold of the main ropes,and hung long enough to be lifted up into the boat to the disapproval,if a certain splash of a tail in the water not remote, signifiedanything, of a shark which had immediately prepared to sup on himinstead of the cook's waste.
Meanwhile, without deigning to attach the least interest to thissuggestive episode, the massive dame, giving the new master of thebrigantine a lofty look, used her most cutting tone to demand,haughtily, if she were addressing the commander of the bark.
"Yes, madam," replied Gladsden, bowing stiffly, "for which recentcoming into possession I am happy, because it procures me the honour ofreceiving on my deck as weighty a personage as your ladyship appears tobe. To whom have I the favour of speaking?"
The proud woman announced herself, sonorously, as "Dona Maria JosefaDolores Miranda y Pedrosa y Saltabadil de la Cruz de Carbaneillo yMerlusa." The hearer bowed deeply at each bead on the string, darting alook aslant as if he feared the little brigantine was rather top-heavywith all these names. Then she pointed to her companion, who had beeneyeing the ship's new crew with an annoyed face which was divertingenough to anyone in the secret of his interest, like an exhibition of acurious wild beast.
"This is--for you need save yourself the trouble to name an oldacquaintance--Don Anibal Cristobal de Luna y Pizarro Almagro deCortes," took up the gibing captain, with a wink for the consularyassistant. "It is rather crushing, besides, your ladyship, to have herea descendant of three of the conquerors."
Don Anibal was curling his moustache to keep his countenance. Hisnative impudence was oozing out at every pore.
"This gentleman," proceeded the important lady, "is my son-in-law,hence his accompanying me."
"Your daughter must be a happy woman to be the mate of so brilliant anofficer, an admiral, at least, I suppose?"
"Well, the alliance will not come off for a little spell, within thesefour-and-twenty hours, sir. To conduce to that beneficent result, yousee me here."
"I am fully aware, Senorita," returned Gladsden, getting tired ofkeeping up the chaff, "that I would never have boasted the possessionof this craft but for don Anibal, but, in compensation, I hardlybelieve he comes to me to be furnished with a wife, unfortunately,unless it be the _gunner's daughter_, to which alliance he is heartilywelcome to my consent. I am afraid he will go away a bachelor for allthe marriageable young ladies here."
It is lamentable to record that the sailors, who had been bandyingverbal bonbons with the soldiers, chafing on the shallop, raised alaugh at the expense of Don Anibal, who perfectly well understood, inhis other part of pirate, that to marry the gunner's daughter, is to bebound, face down, on a cannon and there undergo a flogging. So he drewhimself up with a savage gleam in the eyes:
"Mind what you say, or I will have you to know that I am very rich, andotherwise of good position. It will be easy for me to make you repentany insolence to me or my friend. So, take my caution for it, you hadbetter be respectful, and not forget whom you are addressing."
Gladsden slapped the Panama on his head which he had so far held inhand.
"If it comes to that, ma'am," he said, "you must allow me to remark,with all the respect that you claim, and which I will show you inasmuchas you are of the gentle sex, and for that reason solely, that you arelabouring under an error. You don't seem fairly to know whom you aretalking to! I am the captain and owner of this goleta, and, moreover,I am a foreigner. My deck is the same thing as a piece of the countryunder the colours of which I sail. However grand you may be over there,on land, your power falls pretty flat on these planks. I have thehonour to present to you the deputy of Her Britannic Majesty's Consulwho will bear me out in my observation."