CHAPTER II.
THE MOURNERS AT TODOS SANTOS.
There was a breath of spring in the soft morning air of Todos Santos--abreath so subtle and odorous that it penetrated the veil of fog beyondthe bay, and for a moment lingered on the deck of a passing steamer likean arresting memory. But only for an instant; the Ometepe, bound fromSan Francisco to San Juan del Norte, with its four seekers of theExcelsior, rolled and plunged on its way unconsciously.
Within the bay and over the restful pueblo still dwelt the golden hazeof its perpetual summer; the two towers of the old Mission church seemedto dissolve softly into the mellow upper twilight, and the undulatingvalleys rolled their green waves up to the wooded heights of SanAntonio, that still smiled down upon the arid, pallid desert. Butalthough Nature had not changed in the months that had passed since theadvent of the Excelsior, there appeared some strange mutations inthe town and its inhabitants. On the beach below the Presidio was theunfinished skeleton of a small sea-going vessel on rude stocks; on theplaza rose the framed walls and roofless rafters of a wooden building;near the Embarcadero was the tall adobe chimney of some inchoatemanufactory whose walls had half risen from their foundations; but allof these objects had evidently succumbed to the drowsy influence ofthe climate, and already had taken the appearances of later and lesspicturesque ruins of the past. There were singular innovations in thecostumes: one or two umbrellas, used as sunshades, were seen uponthe square; a few small chip hats had taken the place of the stiffsombreros, with an occasional tall white beaver; while linen coat andnankeen trousers had, at times, usurped the short velvet jacket andloose calzas of the national costume.
At San Antonio the change was still more perceptible. Beside the yawningpit of the abandoned silver mine a straggling building arose, filledwith rude machinery, bearing the legend, painted in glowing letters,"Excelsior Silver Mining Co., J. Crosby, Superintendent;" and in themidst of certain excavations assailing the integrity of the cliff itselfwas another small building, scarcely larger than a sentry-box, with theinscription, "Office: Eleanor Quicksilver Smelting Works."
Basking in that yellow morning sunlight, with his back against hisoffice, Mr. Brace was seated on the ground, rolling a cigarette. A fewfeet from him Crosby, extended on his back on the ground, was lazilypuffing rings of smoke into the still air. Both of these young gentlemenwere dressed in exaggerated Mexican costumes; the silver buttonsfringing the edge of Crosby's calza, open from the knee down to show aglimpse of the snowy under-trouser, were richer and heavier than thoseusually worn; while Brace, in addition to the crimson silk sash roundhis waist, wore a crimson handkerchief around his head, under hissombrero.
"Pepe's falling off in his tobacco," said Brace. "I think I'll have totry some other Fonda."
"How's Banks getting on with his crop?" asked Crosby. "You know he wasgoing to revolutionize the business, and cut out Cuba on that hillside."
"Oh, the usual luck! He couldn't get proper cultivators, and theInjins wouldn't work regular. I must try and get hold of some of theComandante's stock; but I'm out of favor with the old man since Winslowand I wrecked that fishing-boat on the rocks off yonder. He alwaysbelieved we were trying to run off, like Captain Bunker. That's why hestopped our shipbuilding, I really believe."
"All the same, we might have had it built and ready now but for ourlaziness. We might have worked on it nights without their knowing it,and slipped off some morning in the fog."
"And we wouldn't have got one of the women to go with us! If we aregetting shiftless here--and I don't say we're not--these women have justplanted themselves and have taken root. But that ain't all: there'sthe influence of that infernal sneak Hurlstone! He's set the Comandanteagainst us, you know; he, and the priest, the Comandante, and NellyKeene make up the real Council of Todos Santos. Between them they'veshoved out the poor little Alcalde, who's ready to give up everything todance attendance on Mrs. Brimmer. They run the whole concern, and theygive out that it's owing to them that we're given parole of the town,and the privilege of spending our money and working these mines. Who'dhave thought that sneak Hurlstone would have played his cards so well?It makes me regularly sick to hear him called 'Don Diego.'"
"Yet you're mightily tickled when that black-eyed sister of the Alcaldecalls you 'Don Carlos,'" said Crosby, yawning.
"Dona Isabel," said Brace, with some empressement, "is a lady ofposition, and these are only her national courtesies."
"She just worships Miss Keene, and I reckon she knows by this timeall about your old attentions to her friend," said Crosby, with lazymischief.
"My attentions to Miss Keene were simply those of an ordinaryacquaintance, and were never as strongly marked as yours to Mrs.Brimmer."
"Who has deserted ME as Miss Keene did YOU," rejoined Crosby.
Brace's quick color had risen again, and he would have made some sharpretort, but the jingling of spurs caught his ear. They both turnedquickly, and saw Banks approaching. He was dressed as a vaquero, butwith his companions' like exaggeration of detail; yet, while his spurswere enormous, and his sombrero unusually expansive, he still clung tohis high shirt-collars and accurately tied check cravat.
"Well?" he said, approaching them.
"Well?" said Crosby.
"Well?" repeated Brace.
After this national salutation, the three Americans regarded each othersilently.
"Knocked off cultivating to-day?" queried Crosby, lighting a freshcigarette.
"The peons have," said Banks; "it's another saint's day. That's thefourth in two weeks. Leaves about two clear working days in each week,counting for the days off, when they're getting over the effects of theothers. I tell you what, sir, the Catholic religion is not suited to aworking civilization, or else the calendar ought to be overhauled anda lot of these saints put on the retired list. It's hard enough to haveall the Apostles on your pay-roll, so to speak, but to have a lot offellows run in on you as saints, and some of them not even men or women,but IDEAS, is piling up the agony! I don't wonder they call the place'All Saints.' The only thing to do," continued Banks severely, "isto open communication with the desert, and run in some of the heathentribes outside. I've made a proposition to the Council offering to takefive hundred of them in the raw, unregenerate state, and turn 'emover after a year to the Church. If I could get Hurlstone to do somelog-rolling with that Padre, his friend, I might get the bill through.But I'm always put off till to-morrow. Everything here is 'Hasta manana;hasta manana,' always. I believe when the last trump is sounded, they'llsay, 'Hasta manana.' What are YOU doing?" he said, after a pause.
"Waiting for your ship," answered Crosby sarcastically.
"Well, you can laugh, gentlemen--but you won't have to wait long.According to my calculations that Mexican ship is about due now. And Iain't basing my figures on anything the Mexican Government is goingto do, or any commercial speculation. I'm reckoning on the CatholicChurch."
The two men languidly looked towards him. Banks continued gravely,--
"I made the proper inquiries, and I find that the stock of rosaries,scapularies, blessed candles, and other ecclesiastical goods, is runninglow. I find that just at the nick of time a fresh supply always comesfrom the Bishop of Guadalajara, with instructions from the Church. Now,gentlemen, my opinion is that the Church, and the Church only, knows thesecret of the passage through the foggy channel, and keeps it to itself.I look at this commercially, as a question of demand and supply. Well,sir; the only real trader here at Todos Santos is the Church."
"Then you don't take in account the interests of Brimmer, Markham, andKeene," said Brace. "Do you suppose they're doing nothing?"
"I don't say they're not; but you're confounding interests withINSTINCTS. They haven't got the instinct to find this place, and allthat they've done and are doing is blind calculation. Just look at thefacts. As the filibuster who captured the Excelsior of course changedher name, her rig-out, and her flag, and even got up a false registerfor her, she's as good as lost, as far as the world knows, u
ntil shelands at Quinquinambo. Then supposing she's found out, and the wholestory is known--although everything's against such a proposition--thenews has got to go back to San Francisco before the real search will bebegun. As to any clue that might come from Captain Bunker, that's stillmore remote. Allowing he crossed the bar and got out of the channel,he wasn't at the right time for meeting a passing steamer; and the onlycoasters are Mexican. If he didn't die of delirium tremens or exposure,and was really picked up in his senses by some other means, he wouldhave been back with succor before this, if only to get our evidence toprove the loss of the vessel. No, sir sooner or later, of course, theSan Francisco crowd are bound to find us here. And if it wasn't for mycrops and our mine, I wouldn't be in a hurry for them; but our FIRSThold is the Church."
He stopped. Crosby was asleep. Brace arose lazily, lounged into hisoffice, and closed his desk.
"Going to shut for the day?" said Banks, yawning.
"I reckon," said Brace dubiously; "I don't know but I'd take a littlepasear into the town if I had my horse ready."
"Take mine, and I'll trapse over on foot to the Ranche withCrosby--after a spell. You'll find him under that big madrono, if he hasnot already wound himself up with his lariat by walking round it. ThoseMexican horses can't go straight even when they graze--they must feed ina circle. He's a little fresh, so look out for him!"
"All the better. I'd like to get into town just after the siesta."
"Siesta!" echoed Banks, lying comfortably down in the shade just vacatedby Brace; "that's another of their shiftless practices. Two hours out ofevery day--that's a day out of the week--spent in a hammock; and duringbusiness hours too! It's disgraceful, sir, simply disgraceful."
He turned over and closed his eyes, as if to reflect on its enormity.
Brace had no difficulty in finding the mare, although some troublein mounting her. But, like his companions, having quickly adoptedthe habits of the country, he had become a skillful and experiencedhorseman, and the mustang, after a few springless jumps, which failedto unseat him, submitted to his rider. The young man galloped rapidlytowards Todos Santos; but when within a few miles of the pueblo heslackened his pace. From the smiles and greetings of wayfarers--amongwhom were some pretty Indian girls and mestizas--it was evident thatthe handsome young foreigner, who had paid them the compliment ofextravagantly adopting their national costume, was neither an unfamiliarnor an unpleasing spectacle. When he reached the posada at the top ofthe hilly street, he even carried his simulation of the local customs tothe point of charging the veranda at full speed, and pulling up suddenlyat the threshold, after the usual fashion of vaqueros. The impetuousapparition brought a short stout man to the door, who, welcoming himwith effusive politeness, conducted him to an inner room that gaveupon a green grass courtyard. Seated before a rude table, sippingaguardiente, was his countryman Winslow and two traders of the pueblo.They were evidently of the number already indicated who had adoptedthe American fashions. Senor Ruiz wore a linen "duster" in place ofhis embroidered jacket, and Senor Martinez had an American beard, or"goatee," in imitation of Mr. Banks. The air was yellow with the fumesof tobacco, through which the shrewd eyes of Winslow gleamed murkily.
"This," he said to his countryman, in fluent if not elegant Spanish,indicating the gentleman who had imitated Banks, "is a man of ideas, anda power in Todos Santos. He would control all the votes in his districtif there were anything like popular suffrage here, and he understandsthe American policy."
Senor Martinez here hastened to inform Mr. Brace that he had longcherished a secret and enthusiastic admiration for that grand andmagnanimous nation of which his friend was such a noble representative;that, indeed, he might say it was an inherited taste, for had not hisgrandfather once talked with the American whaling Capitano Coffino andpartaken of a subtle spirit known as "er-r-rum" on his ship at Acapulco?
"There's nothing mean about Martinez," said Winslow to Braceconfidentially, in English. "He's up to anything, and ready from theword 'Go.' Don't you think he's a little like Banks, you know--a sort ofMexican edition. And there is Ruiz, he's a cattle dealer; he'd be a goodfriend of Banks if Banks wasn't so infernally self-opinionated. But Ruizain't a fool, either. He's picked up a little English--good American, Imean--from me already."
Senor Ruiz here smiled affably, to show his comprehension; and addedslowly, with great gravity,--
"It is of twenty-four year I have first time the Amencano of yourbeautiful country known. He have buy the hides and horns of thecattle--for his ship--here."
"Here?" echoed Brace. "I thought no American ship--no ship at all--hadbeen in here for fifty years."
Ruiz shrugged his shoulders, and cast a glance at his friend Martinez,lowered his voice and lifted his eyelashes at the same moment, and,jerking his yellow, tobacco-stained thumb over his arm, said,--
"Ah--of a verity--on the beach--two leagues away."
"Do you hear that?" said Winslow, turning complacently to Brace andrising to his feet. "Don't you see now what hogwash the Commander,Alcalde, and the priest have been cramming down our throats about thisplace being sealed up for fifty years. What he says is all Gospel truth.That's what I wanted you fellows to hear, and you might have heardbefore, only you were afraid of compromising yourselves by talking withthe people. You get it into your heads--and the Comandante helped you toget it there--that Todos Santos was a sort of Sleepy Hollow, and thatno one knew anything of the political changes for the last fifty years.Well, what's the fact? Ask Ruiz there, and Martinez, and they'll bothtell you they know that Mexico got her independence in 1826, and thatthe Council keep it dark that they may perpetuate themselves. Theyknow," he continued, lowering his voice, "that the Commander'scommission from the old Viceroy isn't worth the paper it is stampedupon."
"But what about the Church?" asked Brace hesitatingly, rememberingBanks' theory.
"The Church--caramba! the priests were ever with the Escossas, thearistocrats, and against the Yorkenos, the men of the Republic--thepeople," interrupted Martinez vehemently; "they will not accept, theywill not proclaim the Republic to the people. They shut their eyes,so--. They fold their hands, so--. They say, 'Sicut era principio etnunc et semper in secula seculorum!' Look you, Senor, I am not of theChurch--no, caramba! I snap my fingers at the priests. Ah! whatthey give one is food for the bull's horns, believe me--I have read'Tompano,' the American 'Tompano.'"
"Who's he?" asked Brace.
"He means Tom Paine! 'The Age of Reason'--you know," said Winslow,gazing with a mixture of delight and patronizing pride at the Radicalsof Todos Santos. "Oh! he's no fool--is Martinez, nor Ruiz either! Andwhile you've been flirting with Dona Isabel, and Banks has been tryingto log-roll the Padre, and Crosby going in for siestas, I'VE found themout. And there are a few more--aren't there, Ruiz?"
Ruiz darted a mysterious glance at Brace, and apparently not trustinghimself to speak, checked off his ten fingers dramatically in the airthrice.
"As many of a surety! God and liberty!"
"But, if this is so, why haven't they DONE something?"
Senor Martinez glanced at Senor Ruiz.
"Hasta manana!" he said slowly.
"Oh, this is a case of 'Hasta manana!'" said Brace, somewhat relieved.
"They can wait," returned Winslow hurriedly. "It's too big a thing torush into without looking round. You know what it means? Either TodosSantos is in rebellion against the present Government of Mexico, orshe is independent of any. Her present Government, in any event,don't represent either the Republic of Mexico or the people of TodosSantos--don't you see? And in that case WE'VE got as good a right hereas any one."
"He speaks the truth," said Ruiz, grasping a hand of Brace and Winsloweach; "in this we are--as brothers."
"God and liberty!" ejaculated Martinez, in turn seizing the otherdisengaged hands of the Americans, and completing the mystic circle.
"God and liberty!" echoed a thin chorus from their host and a fewloungers who had entered unperceived.
Brace fe
lt uneasy. He was not wanting in the courage or daring of youth,but it struck him that his attitude was by no means consistent with hisattentions to Dona Isabel. He managed to get Winslow aside.
"This is all very well as a 'free lunch' conspiracy; but you'reforgetting your parole," he said, in a low voice.
"We gave our parole to the present Government. When it no longer exists,there will be no parole--don't you see?"
"Then these fellows prefer waiting"--
"Until we can get OUTSIDE help, you understand. The first American shipthat comes in here--eh?"
Brace felt relieved. After all, his position in regard to the Alcalde'ssister would not be compromised; he might even be able to extend someprotection over her; and it would be a magnanimous revenge if he couldeven offer it to Miss Keene.
"I see you don't swear anybody to secrecy," he said, with a laugh;"shall I speak to Crosby, or will you?"
"Not yet; he'll only see something to laugh at. And Banks and Martinezwould quarrel at once, and go back on each other. No; my idea is to letsome outsider do for Todos Santos what Perkins did for Quinquinambo. Doyou take?"
His long, thin, dyspeptic face lit up with a certain small politicalcunning and shrewdness that struck Brace with a half-respect.
"I say, Winslow; you'd have made a first-class caucus leader in SanFrancisco."
Winslow smiled complacently. "There's something better to play on herethan ward politics," he replied. "There's a material here that--likethe mine and the soil--ain't half developed. I reckon I can show Bankssomething that beats lobbying and log-rolling for contracts. I've letyou into this thing to show you a sample of my prospecting. Keep it toyourself if you want it to pay. Dat's me, George! Good-by! I'll be outto the office to-morrow!"
He turned back towards his brother politicians with an expressionof satisfied conceit that Brace for a moment envied. The latter evenlingered on the veranda, as if he would have asked Winslow anotherquestion; but, looking at his watch, he suddenly recollected himself,and, mounting his horse, cantered down towards the plaza.
The hour of siesta was not yet over, and the streets were stilldeserted--probably the reason why the politicians of Todos Santos hadchosen that hour for their half secret meeting. At the corner of theplaza he dismounted and led his horse to the public hitching-post--gnawnand nibbled by the teeth of generations of mustangs--and turned into thenarrow lane flanked by the walls of the Alcalde's garden. Halfwaydown he stopped before a slight breach in the upper part of the adobebarrier, and looked cautiously around. The long, shadowed vista of thelane was unobstructed by any moving figure as far as the yellow light ofthe empty square beyond. With a quick leap he gained the top of the walland disappeared on the other aide.