The Mystery of The Barranca

  CHAPTER XXIV

  From the time Seyd rode into the hacienda up to that moment less thantwenty minutes had passed, but events had leaped to a conclusion.

  The barrier of debris across the outer buildings had diminished theforce of the blow upon the house, and had the water gained instantaccess to the interior and equalized the pressure it might have stood.As the wave raced past, level with the high wall, the patio presentedfor an instant a curious resemblance to a square vessel pressed downtill its edges just rose above the water. The next, its stout walls fellinward, and over them a yellow wave leaped at the house. Reinforced byits partition walls, it withstood for a few seconds the enormouspressure. Then above the cracking and grinding of debris and the mingledroar of the flood rose the boom of doors and windows blown out of theirframes.

  Because of its length the guardhouse went first. Feeling it trembleunder his feet, Seyd lifted Francesca and held her face in against hisbreast. Not that he was in the least resigned. Never in all his life hadhe felt a keener desire to live. His glance darted hither and thither,and when, freed by the fall of the stone lintels, a patio gate sprangout of the yellow cauldron almost at his feet he snatched up Francesca,leaped, and landed in its very center. Falling under her, he was, for aninstant, breathless. But in the few seconds that he lay there gaspingcircumstances worked in their favor. Thrust by the impact into therecoil of the wave from the house wall, the gate was heaved out of thepatio, and passed the guardhouse just before the heavy tiled roofcollapsed with the walls.

  Almost in an instant the house crumbled and melted with scarcely asplash. Sitting up a few seconds later, Seyd looked back on all that wasleft of El Quiss, the barrier of debris rising, a black reef, out of ayellow sea. A mile ahead the wave roared on, its furious crescendo againreduced to a booming diapason. While the gate was being carried withincredible swiftness across the El Quiss pastures the roar sank to adistant hum, and presently died altogether, leaving only the quietlapping of the waters in the falling dusk.

  So quickly had it all passed that Seyd found it hard to believe theywere floating in comparative safety. The gate, which was ten feet bytwelve in size and four inches thick, floated evenly, and if anoccasional wave ran across it the tepid rain water of the tropics causedno discomfort. Neither were they in danger from the debris, logs, anduprooted trees which floated at equal speed on currents that weresetting back to the river. With a pole that he picked up Seyd was ableto keep out of the way of the few that rolled and tumbled when theirbranches caught on the bottom, and when at last they drifted on thedeeper, slower currents of the river he turned to Francesca, who hadremained a huddled, sobbing heap just where she fell.

  She looked up when he touched her shoulder. "Oh, I feel wicked!" shecried, remorsefully. "If I had only waited for a few more days, givenyou time to explain, he would still be alive."

  "It was perfectly natural," Seyd comforted her. "He would absolve youfrom all blame were he here, for with all his faults he was big andbrave."

  "You really think that he would?" She looked up with tearful anxiety.

  "I'm sure of it. How could he do otherwise?"

  "But he was--my husband. And I left him--for you."

  "Yet I do not think that he held you in blame."

  Kneeling beside her, with one arm around her shoulders, he gave hisreason--Sebastien's last salute. Even if this started her tears anewshe, nevertheless, felt comforted. When a black shape forged out of thedusk alongside, and he had to return to his pole, her natural spiritreasserted itself.

  "Here am I, crying like a child instead of helping. What can I do?"

  There was really nothing. But to keep her from brooding he placed her onwatch. "If you'll keep a lookout I'll take a shove at everything thatfloats in reach. The current is setting across the river, and we havenearly twenty miles to work in. With any old luck we ought to be able toland at Santa Gertrudis."

  Thick dusk presently merged into night, but they were helped by a fullmoon which shed a dew of light through the falling rain. Not that theyvoyaged without hazard. Twice they were almost swamped by trees whichrolled over under the thrust of Seyd's pole. Farther down they narrowlyescaped shipwreck on wooded islands. Yet, thrusting and hauling, heworked steadily with the favoring current, and they had gained almostacross when, rounding a bend, they sighted a distant light.

  "Caliban's, for sure! Only another hour to food and fire!" Seyd cheeredher.

  He had, however, his own misgivings. As they drew into the shadow of theBarranca wall the moonlight grew fainter, and, drifting later over thesubmerged jungle, they were hard put to avoid the treetops whichupreared like huge mushrooms above the flood. More than once they werealmost swept off the raft by bejucos, vegetable cables, which stretchedfrom top to top, and as these grew thicker Seyd saw that disaster wasmerely a question of time. He was hoping desperately that theircapsizing would not entail too long a swim, when out of the obscurityrose a huge black shape.

  With a shock that threw them both down, the raft grounded in shallowwater.

  It was the plateau on which the new smelter stood. But, changed as itwas in the new geography of the flood, Seyd did not recognize it until,scrambling ashore with Francesca, he saw above the dark mass of thebuildings the cable and iron ore buckets in dim outline against the sky.

  "Why, it's the smelter!" he shouted, in glad surprise. "Ever since theexplosion we have kept a man here on guard. _Ola!_ Calixto! _Ola! Ola!_"

  While he was calling a yellow oblong broke out of the building's mass,framing the black silhouette of a man. "It is the _jefe_!" They heardhis comment to his woman inside, then, uttering a volley of surprised"_Caramba's!_" he came rushing down the bank with his lantern.

  When Francesca's pale wet face shone under its sudden glow he droppedthe lantern, which, fortunately, did not go out. Picking it up again, helighted their way to the adobe that had served Billy for house andoffice while the smelter was building.

  For use during the rains, a chimney and wide hearth had been installedin the adobe, and while Calixto was building a roaring fire Seyddirected a piratical raid on Billy's trunks. At first his searchreturned only muddy overalls and soiled clothing of various sorts, butat the very bottom--just as they had been placed by the hands of acareful mother--a new suit of flannel pajamas and a voluminous woolenbathrobe appeared. When, with some misgivings, and confused, hesuggested a change, a touch of the girl's old archness flashed out. Hersmile was almost mischievous as she returned thanks.

  "I'm sorry there's nothing better to offer." The smile emboldened him toadd: "But they will serve till we have something to eat. Then you mayhave the fire all to yourself to dry your own things."

  She smiled again when, returning with food and coffee prepared byCalixto's woman, he exclaimed, "You look like the Queen of Sheba!"

  With the brown-black hair swinging almost to her knees and thebathrobe--a gorgeous affair in pink chosen with an eye to Billy's vividtaste--belted in to her waist and pajamas ballooning beneath over smallbare feet, she did look Oriental. When the coffee and food had relit hereyes and restored her usual faint color he was sure that she had neverlooked so distractingly pretty. The effect was not diminished either byher small vexed frowns at the revelations of smooth whiteness caused bythe persistent slipping of the wide sleeves. When, as they sat by thefire after the meal, warmth and fatigue moved her to a yawn and hecaught the full redness of her mouth before she could cover it theintimacy of it all sent the blood drumming through his pulses. If herserious eyes restrained him, they did not repress his thought.

  "I have you--now! I have you at last, and I'll never let you go again!"

  Undoubtedly she furnished the inspiration which kindled a sudden lightin his eyes. "Why not?" he urged against the one objection that occurredin his thought. "It's an awful smash at the conventions, but--it's theonly way. He locked me in to drown--and do you suppose that he'dhesitate if he were here now in my shoes? I guess not. And if he would,I won't. By the Lord, I'll do it!"

&nb
sp; He rose soon after reaching his conclusion. "You must be very tired, soI'll go now and leave you to dry your things. You know, we start earlyin the morning."

  "Start early?" She opened her sleepy eyes.

  "Listen!" He took her gently by both shoulders. "We have been held apartso far by all sorts of accidents and misunderstandings. You know howclosely we came to utter shipwreck?" Her shiver answering, he went on,"Now, will you trust--leave all to me?"

  She had been no woman if she had not divined the restraint behind hisquiet during the last warm hour, and, rising suddenly upon small baretoes, she paid him for his consideration. "I will do anything you say."