The Free Lances Part 14

"But what would you have me do."

"Show yourself _complaisant_ to the Colonel. Only in appearance, as I've said; and only for a time till you've tried your power over him, and see with what success."

"I'm sure it would fail."

"I don't think it would, _amiga mia_; and will not, if you go about it according to instructions. Though it may cost you some unpleasantness, Luisita, and an effort, you'll make it for my sake, won't you? And as a reward," pursued the Countess, as if to render her appeal more surely effective, "I shall do as much for you, and in a similar way. For I, too, intend counterfeiting complacency in a certain quarter, and in the interest of a different individual--Don Florencio. Now, you understand me?"

"Not quite yet."

"Never mind. I'll make it more plain by-and-by. Only promise me that you'll do--"

"Dearest Ysabelita! I'd do anything for you."

"And Don Florencio. I thought that would secure your consent. Well, _mil mil gracias_! But what a game of cross-purposes we'll be playing; I for you, and you for me, and neither for ourselves! Let us hope we may both win."

By this the carriage had stopped in front of the Casa Valverde to set down Dona Luisa. The Countess alighted also, ordering the horses home.

It was but a step to her own house, and she could walk it. For she had something more to say which required saying there and then. Pa.s.sing on into the _patio_, far enough to be beyond earshot of the "cochero," and there stopping, she resumed the dialogue at the point where she had left off.

"We must set to work at once," she said; "this very day, if opportunity offer. Perhaps in the procession--"

"Oh! Ysabel?" interrupted the other. "How I dislike the thought of this procession--making merry as it were, and he in a prison! And we must pa.s.s it too--its very doors! I'm sure I shall feel like springing out of the carriage and rus.h.i.+ng inside to see him."

"That would be just the way to ensure your not seeing him--perhaps, never more. The very opposite is what you must do, or you'll spoil all my plans. But I'll instruct you better before we start out."

"You insist, then, on our going?"

"Of course, yes; for the very reason--the very purpose we've been speaking of. That's just why I ask you to take me with you. It will never do to offend his High Mightiness, angry as we may be with him.

I'm now sorry at having shown temper; but how could I help it, hearing Ruperto called a robber? However, that may be all for the best. So, upstairs; turn out your _guarda-roba_, and your jewel case; array yourself in your richest apparel, and be in readiness for the gilded coach when it comes round. _Carramba_!" she added after drawing out her jewelled watch,--one of Losada's best--and glancing at its dial, "we haven't a moment to spare, I must be off to my toilet too."

She had made a step in the direction of the street, when suddenly turning again she added--

"As a last word, lest I might forget it. When next you appear in the Grand Presence drop that forlorn doleful look. Misery is the weakest weapon either man or woman can make use of--the very worst advocate in any cause. So don't show it, especially in the company of Don Carlos Santander, where in all likelihood you will be before the end of another hour. Try to look cheerful, put on your sweetest smile, though it be a feigned one, as I intend doing for Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna."

She took her departure now; but as she pa.s.sed out through the _saguan_ a cloud could be seen upon her countenance, more than that from the shadow of the arched gateway, telling that she herself needed quite as much as her friend, admonition to be cheerful.

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.

IN THE SEWERS.

Along with a score of other prisoners, the "chain-gang" of the Acordada, Kearney, Rock, Rivas, and the dwarf were conducted out into the street, and on the Calle de Plateros. Dominguez, the gaoler, went with them-- having received orders to that effect--carrying a heavy _cuarta_ with hard raw-hide lash knotted at the end. Their escort consisted of two or three files of the prison guard, dirty looking soldiers of the _infanteria_, in coa.r.s.e linen uniforms, stiff shakoes on their heads, their arm the old-fas.h.i.+oned flint-lock musket.

The scavengers had still their ankle chains on, coupled two and two, these lengthened, however, to give more freedom to their work. One reason for keeping them chained is to economise the strength of the guard, a single sentry thus being as good as a dozen. Of course, it is an additional precaution against escape, a thing which might seem impossible under the muzzles of muskets and bayonets fixed. But to desperadoes such as are some of the Acordada gaol-birds it would not be so if left leg free. More than once had the attempt been made, and with success; for in no city is it easier, or indeed so easy. In the Mexican metropolis there are whole districts where the policeman fears to show his face, and a criminal pursued, even by soldiers in uniform, would have every door thrown open to him, and every opportunity given for stowing himself away. Get he but out into the country, and up to the mountains--on all sides conveniently near--his chances are even better, since the first man there met may be either footpad or _salteador_.

As said, the street to which the scavengers were taken was the Calle de Plateros, where it ends at the Alameda Gate. The covering flags of the _zancas_ had been already lifted off, exposing to view the drain brimful of liquid filth the tools were beside--scoops, drags, and shovels having been sent on before.

Soon, on arriving on its edge, Dominguez, who kept close by the two couples in which were the Tejanos, ordered them to lay hold and fall to.

There could be no question of refusal or disobedience. From the way he twirled the _quirt_ between his fingers it looked as though he wished there was, so that he might have an excuse for using it. Besides, any hanging back would be rewarded by a blow from the b.u.t.t of a musket, and, persisted in, possibly a bayonet thrust--like as not to lame the refractory individual for life.

There was no need for such violent measures now. The others of the gang had done scavenger work before; and knowing its ways, went at it as soon as the word was given. _Nolens volens_ Kearney and Cris Rock, with their chain partners, had to do likewise; though, perhaps, never man laid hold of labourer's tool with more reluctance than did the Texan.

It was a long shafted shovel that had been a.s.signed to him, and the first use he made of the implement was to swing it round his head, as though he intended bringing it down on that of one of the sentries who stood beside.

"Durnashun!" he shrieked out, still brandis.h.i.+ng the tool and looking the soldier straight in the face. "If 'twarn't that the thing 'ud be o' no use, an' _you_ ain't the one as is to blame, I'd brain ye on the spot, ye ugly yaller-belly. Wage! Let me get back to Texas, and grip o' a good rifle, the Mexikin as k.u.ms my way may look out for partickler forked lightnin'!"

Though not comprehending a word of what was said the little manikin of a _militario_ was so frightened by the big fellow's gestures as to spring back several feet, with a look of alarm so intense, yet so comical, as to set the Texan off into a roar of laughter. And still laughing, he faced towards the sewer, plunged in his implement, and set to work with the others.

At first the task was comparatively clean and easy--a sort of skimming affair--the scavengers keeping upon the pavement. The necessity had not yet arisen for them going down into the drain.

After a time, however, as the liquid got lower and the sediment at the bottom too stiff to be _conveniently_ scooped up, a number of them were ordered to "step in." It was a cruel, brutal order, and Bill Sykes would have declined sending his "bull-dawg" into that sewer after rats.

But Dominguez, a sort of Mexican Bill Sykes, had no scruples about this with the unfortunates he had charge of, and with a "_carajo_," and a threatening flourish of his whip, he repeated the order. One or two of the _forzados_ took the plunge good-humouredly, even to laughing, as they dropped into the stuff, waist deep, sending the mud in splashes all round. The dainty ones went in more leisurely, some of them needing a little persuasion at the point of the bayonet.

Cris Rock was already down, having gone voluntarily. Only one of each couple had been ordered below; and, much as he disliked the dwarf, he had no wish to see him drowned or suffocated, which the diminutive creature would well-nigh have been in the horrible cesspool. Tall as the Texan was, the stuff reached up to his thighs, the surface of the street itself being on a level with his arm-pits, while only the heads of the others could be seen above the stones.

Neither Kearney nor Rivas had yet taken the plunge. They still stood on the brink, discussing the question of precedence. Not that either wished the other to do the disagreeable; instead, the reverse. Strange as it may appear, knowing or believing him to be a bandit, the young Irishman had taken a liking to the Mexican, and the feeling was reciprocated, so that each was now trying to restrain the other from entering the ugly gulf.

But their friendly contest was cut short by the brutal gaoler; who, advancing, grasped Rivas by the shoulder, and with his other hand pointing downward shouted "_Abajo_!"

There was no help for it but obey; the alternative sure of being something worse. For the man so rudely commanded went down willingly; indeed, with alacrity, to satisfy his impulse of friends.h.i.+p for the _Irlandes_.

Had Carlos Santander been there likely the position would have been reversed, and Kearney compelled to "take the ditch." But the Governor of the Acordada had control of details, and to his hostility and spleen, late stirred by that wordy encounter with Rivas, the latter was no doubt indebted for the partiality shown him by Don Pedro's head turnkey.

In time, all were disposed of: one of each couple down in the sewer, pitching out its sweet contents; the other pressing them back upon the pavement to prevent their oozing in again. Either way the work was now nasty enough; but for those below, it was a task too repulsive to set even the lowest pariah at.

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.

THE PROCESSION.

Disagreeable as was their job, some of the _forzados_ made light of it, bandying jests with the street pa.s.sengers, who did not find it safe to go too near them. A scoopful of the inky liquid could be flung so as to spoil the polish on boots, or sent its splashes over apparel still higher. Even the vigilance of the sentries could not prevent this, or rather they cared not to exercise it. The victims of such practical jokes were usually either of the cla.s.s _felado_, or the yet more humble aboriginals, accustomed to be put upon by the soldiers themselves, who rather relished the fun.

But only the more abandoned of the gaol-birds behaved in this way, many of them seeming to feel the degradation more than aught else. For among them, as we know, were men who should not have been there. Some may have seen friends pa.s.sing by, who gave them looks of sympathy or pity, and possibly more than one knew himself under eyes whose expression told of a feeling stronger than either of these--love itself. Indeed this last, or something akin to it, seemed the rule rather than the exception. In Mexico, he must be a deeply disgraced criminal whose sweetheart would be ashamed of him; and every now and then, a brown-skinned "muchacha" might be seen crossing to where the scavengers were at work, and, with a muttered word or two, pa.s.sing something into a hand eagerly outstretched to receive it. The sentries permitted this, after examining the commodity so tendered, and seeing it a safe thing to be entrusted to the receiver. These gifts of friends.h.i.+p, or _gages d'amour_, were usually eatables from the nearest cook-shop; their donors well knowing that the fare of the Acordada was neither plentiful nor sumptuous.

But beyond these interested ones, few of the pedestrians stopped or even looked at the chain-gang. To most, if not all, it was an ordinary spectacle, and attracted no more attention than would a crossing-sweeper on a London street. Not as much as the latter, as he is often an Oriental. On that particular day, however, the party of scavengers presented a novelty, in having the two Tejanos in it; with a yet greater one in the odd juxtaposition of Cris Rock and his diminutive "mate." In Mexico, a man over six feet in height is a rarity, and as Cris exceeded this by six inches, a rarer sight still was he. The colossus coupled to the dwarf, as Gulliver to Lilliputian--a crooked Lilliputian at that--no wonder that a knot of curious gazers collected around them, many as they approached the grotesque spectacle uttering e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.ns of surprise.

"_Ay Dios_!" exclaimed one. "_Gigante y enano_!" (a giant and a dwarf)--"and chained together! Who ever saw the like?"

Such remarks were continually pa.s.sing among the spectators, who laughed as they listened to them. And though the Texan could not tell what they said, their laughter "riled" him. He supposed it a slur upon his extraordinary stature, of which he was himself no little proud, while they seemed to regard it sarcastically. Could they have had translated to them the rejoinders that now and then came from his lips, like the rumbling of thunder, they would have felt their sarcasm fully paid back, with some change over. As a specimen:--

"Devil darn ye, for a set of yaller-jawed pigmies! Ef I hed about a millyun o' ye out in the open purairu, I'd gie you somethin' to larf at.

Dod-rot me! ef I don't b'lieve a pack o' coycoats ked chase as many o'

ye as they'd count themselves; and arter runnin' ye down 'ud scorn to put tooth into yur stinkin' carca.s.ses!"

Fortunately for him, the "yaller-jawed pigmies" understood not a word of all this; else, notwithstanding his superior size and strength, he might have had rough handling from them. Without that, he was badly plagued by their behaviour, as a bull fretted with flies; which may have had something to do with his readiness to go down into the drain. There, up to his elbows, he was less conspicuous, and so less an object of curiosity.