The Dust of Conflict Part 13

How long it lasted Nettie did not know, for, though she had no intention of doing so, she went to sleep, and did not hear a man come up the stairway. He had a lean face and keen blue eyes, but there was tense anxiety in them now. Appleby, who rose up, signed Harper to step aside, and in another moment the two men stood face to face-one of them dusty and worn and ragged, the other in what had been a few hours earlier immaculate dress.

"Where is my daughter?" said the latter. "There's five hundred dollars for any one who will bring her to me."

Appleby smiled a little. "She is here."

The other man shook visibly and clenched his hand, but Appleby moved out of the shadow so that his face was visible, and the American's grew quietly stern.

"Then you shall pay for this," he said.

"Hadn't you better speak to Miss Harding first?" said Appleby. "Knock at the door in front of you. I believe it is bolted inside."

Harding struck the door. There was a little cry of terror that changed to one of joyful surprise, the door swung open, and the man went inside.

It was five minutes later when he came out again, and he had a wallet in his hand when he stopped before Appleby. Then he started.

"Good Lord!" he said. "It's Broughton."

Appleby nodded, and saw that Harding was fumbling at the wallet. "No,"

he said. "I would not like you to spoil the acquaintance I am rather proud of, sir."

Harding's face was flushed as he grasped his hand. "Well," he said, "I guess the bills aren't printed that could pay you for what you have done for me. Can't you say something that's appropriate, Nettie?"

"No," said the girl quietly, though there was a faint gleam in her eyes.

"That contract is too big for me. Still, I hope you did not lose many opportunities, Mr. Broughton, through taking care of me."

Appleby turned to Harding hastily. "I hope you did not have any trouble with our men?"

"No," said Harding. "It was some time before I saw them. A mob of citizens swept me away, and when I got clear of them one of Morales'

officers came up mounted with a few men. He went off at a gallop, but shouted to a sergeant to take care of me, and the fool did it too efficiently. He was from Mallorca, and couldn't understand my Spanish, but dragged me along with him. It was an hour before I could get away, and I spent the rest of the night running up and down the town until some of your comrades found me."

Appleby nodded. "My friend here will take a few files and go with you to your hotel," he said. "Our men will have loaded themselves with all they can carry, and are scarcely likely to trouble you now. We leave at sunrise."

Harding stood silent for a moment or two, and then said slowly, "Can't you find anything better than this to do?"

"The Sin Verguenza took me in, and treated me tolerably well," said Appleby. "I feel bound to stay with them until they have made their footing good, anyway."

Harper nodded. "When you feel that you can leave them come to me," he said. "I don't want to lose sight of you."

He shook hands again, and went away with Harper and the girl; but it was scarcely two hours later when his daughter and he stood upon the flat roof of the "Four Nations," while a long line of men with rifles, who were no longer ragged, marched out of Santa Marta. One who marched with the second company looked up and waved his hand to them.

"That," said Harding gravely, "is a straight man, and he will do something by and by when he has an opportunity. It is not going to be my fault if he doesn't get one."

IX - THE BREAKING OF THE NET

THERE was no wind, and the night was very still, when Appleby lay aching in every limb behind an aloe hedge which cut off the dim white road.

Harper sat on the steaming earth close beside him contemplatively munching the end of a cigar, for smoking was distinctly inadvisable just then, and he was in need of something to stay the pangs of hunger. Here and there a dusky figure showed among the leaves, and now and then a low murmur or a soft rustling rose from the black shadow of the overhanging palms; but the scarcely audible sound sank once more into the silence, and a muleteer had just pa.s.sed along the dusty road apparently without the faintest suspicion that rather more than a hundred famis.h.i.+ng men had watched him with fingers tightening on their rifle barrels. He saw and heard nothing, which was fortunate for him, and now his voice and the tramp of his team came back faintly across the cane.

The dew was heavy, as it usually is in the tropics when a clear, still night follows a day of scorching heat, and Appleby could have wrung it from the garments he had borrowed from the Alcalde's wardrobe at Santa Marta. That, however, did not trouble him, for they rested with a pleasant coolness upon his sun-scorched skin; and he was mainly conscious of a sense of emptiness and a distressful st.i.tch in his side as he watched the strip of road. It wound out from the inky shadows of the palms, led by the hedge of aloes, and was lost again in the cane that stretched away, a dim sweep of dusky green, under the moon. It was at least a week since he had had an adequate meal, and he had pa.s.sed that day crawling through a mangrove swamp, where pits of foul black mire lay beneath the great slimy roots.

Haste and concealment had, however, appeared advisable to the Sin Verguenza; for their success at Santa Marta had brought two strong battalions upon their trail, and Morales had decreed their extermination. Cut off from the hills, they had taken to a belt of reeking mangrove swamps, and Morales, who was too wise to venture his raw troops in those dim haunts of fever, had persistently drawn his net tighter about them. They had accordingly divided when supplies ran out, and the Captain Maccario, who did not know whether the rest had succeeded in breaking through, had halted those who remained with him to wait until the moon sank before making a dash for another tract of jungle. They were, indeed, almost too weary to drag themselves any further just then, and their leader had reason for believing there was a company of cazadores somewhere upon the road.

He lay a little apart from Appleby, and raised his head so that the moonlight shone into his face, which showed intent and anxious, when a palm frond rustled behind them. There was nothing astonis.h.i.+ng in this, but when the rustle repeated itself it seemed to Appleby that there was something curiously persistent in the sound. He glanced at the Spaniard, who saw him, and raised one hand as if in warning. The sound ceased, and there was once more an impressive silence, which lasted for some minutes. Then Appleby felt Harper's hand upon his shoulder.

"Look!" he said in a hoa.r.s.e whisper, and his comrade set his lips as he turned his head.

A man who had appeared without a sound stood in the white road, his rigid figure forced up sharp and black against it, and it was evident that he was peering about him. Then, with a swiftness that had its significance, he slipped back into the shadow, and moved through it, stopping a second or two now and then as though to listen. Appleby could just see him, and felt a little s.h.i.+ver run through him, for he knew the loyalist scout was running a horrible risk. He hoped the man would see nothing, for the last thing the Sin Verguenza desired was to chance a rifle shot just then. He, however, came on, treading softly and stooping as though to observe the dew-clogged dust, until he stopped again where a little pathway led in among the aloes.

Then he straightened himself, looked behind him, and turning his head stared into the shadow of the palms that lay black and impenetrable beyond the aloes, while the moonlight shone down into his face. It showed white and set against the dusky background; and Appleby, who could see the intent eyes, held his breath, for he knew the man's life hung trembling in the balance. One step would take him to his death, for another face that was drawn and haggard and had the stamp of hunger on it showed amidst the leaves behind him. The suspense lasted for a s.p.a.ce of seconds, and Appleby felt himself quivering under the tension, until the man made a sudden movement as though something suspicious had caught his eyes. Then there was a rustle of leaves, a shadowy form sprang, and the scout went down; while Appleby, who saw a flash in the moonlight, turned his head away. He heard a strangled groan and a struggling amidst the leaves, and then there was once more an impressive silence.

"Two dollars, senor!" said a dusky man breathlessly, as he came up to the Captain Maccario; and the Spaniard made a curious little gesture as he glanced at Appleby.

"You can keep them. Drag him away!" he said in Castilian. "It is the fortune of war, Don Bernardino!"

Appleby said nothing, but Harper turned to the officer. "The troops will not be far behind," he said. "Will we get through?"

Maccario shrugged his shoulders. "Who knows?" he said. "It is certain the cazadores come, but if they march past us the road is open. It is by misfortune we do not know how many there are of them."

"Where are we going if we do get through?" asked Harper.

Maccario stretching out a brown hand swept it vaguely round the horizon.

"Here and there and everywhere. The Sin Verguenza will vanish until they are wanted again. There are too many troops in this country, and it is not difficult to find a hundred men when they are together; but it is different when you chase them one by one. So Morales stamps out the insurrection, and when he sends half his troops away we come back again."

"It is not very evident how we are going to live in the meanwhile," said Appleby dryly.

Maccario laughed. "What is mine is my friend's, and there is a poor house at your service. One could reach it in a week's march, and once there we are short of nothing. This is, you understand, a grateful country."

There was light enough for Appleby to see the roguish twinkle in the Spaniard's dark eyes, and he shook his head. "No," he said. "While I fought with the Sin Verguenza I lived as they did, but it would not suit me to lie idle and levy contributions upon the country."

"Well," said Maccario reflectively, "in the meanwhile you come with me, and we may, perhaps, find means of sending you back to the sea. Just now I do not know whether any of us will get very far. We have two leagues to make by the carretera before we find cover, and there are cazadores on the road; while the Captain Vincente will be upon us by daylight if we stay here."

The others understood as much already, and it was because they did not know exactly where the cazadores were they were lying there. It was also a somewhat important question, and they lay still waiting for an answer until a faintly rhythmic sound came out of the silence. It sank beyond hearing, but rose again, a trifle louder; and Appleby's heart throbbed as he recognized the tramp of marching men, while a half-articulate sound rose from the Sin Verguenza. They were hungry and very weary, and starvation waited them if they crawled back into the swamps; while the road that led to safety was closed by the troops. It was, however, evident that their leader knew his business, and Appleby fancied that if the detachment was not a strong one they might still break through.

In the meanwhile the rhythmic tramp was steadily growing louder, and he could tell by the stirring of those about him that they were waiting in strained expectancy, until there was a patter of footsteps, and a man came running down the road. He flung himself down gasping beside Maccario, and his voice was breathless as he said, "It is one company only."

"Good!" said Maccario dryly. "If they see nothing it is also well. Then the road will be open from here to Adeje. On the other hand, if they have good eyes it is unfortunate for them."

There was a faint rattle and clicking as the men fidgeted with magazine slide, or snapped open breaches to make sure that a cartridge lay in the chamber. Then an impressive silence followed, which seemed to grow more intense as the tramp of marching men came ringing sharply down the dim white road. Perhaps the officer who led them trusted to the scout who would never bring him a warning back again, or had lately arrived from Spain, and did not know that the man who sought the Sin Verguenza was apt to find them where he least expected. Then a faintly musical jingling and the rattle of wheels became audible too, and Appleby shook his weariness from him as, with the dust rolling about them, dim figures swung into sight round a bend of the road. The carretera was a broad one, and they appeared to be marching carelessly in open fours, for laughter and the hum of voices came out of the dust.

Raising his head a little he glanced behind him, but the Sin Verguenza were ominously still and silent now, and he could only see Maccario's shoulder, and in places a glint of metal where the moonlight sifted down. Again a quiver ran through him, and his heart thumped painfully as he watched the men below through the openings between the aloes. Then he set his lips and grappled with an almost uncontrollable desire to cry out and warn them. He had been hunted by them, and had seen their handiwork in the ashes of burnt aldeas that had given his comrades shelter; but for that Morales was responsible, and the men were for the most part conscripts reft from their homes in Spain, and going with laughter on their lips to their doom. The Sin Verguenza struck at night, in silence, and were seldom contented with a strategetical victory.

Still, because the rattle of riflery carries far, they held their hand while several loose fours shuffling through the dust went by, and Appleby felt a trifle easier.

Then there was another s.p.a.ce of waiting before the dust that had commenced to sift down grew thicker again as the head of the company swung round the bend. They were also marching easily with gaps between the files, and the jingle of sling, swivel, scabbard, and canteen rang through their trampling, while the rifles twinkled as the fours swung across the breadths of moonlight between the shadows of the palms. They were young men, most of them, and some little more than boys; while here and there one or two, still unprovided with tropical outfit, wore the kepi and the cazadores, green; but Appleby had seen the men of the Peninsula fight before, and checked a groan. He was one of the Sin Verguenza, and knew what awaited him if Morales was successful, but the work on hand seemed horrible to him just then.

The tension grew almost insupportable, when one of the soldiers who had a clear voice started the "Campanadas," and the refrain, that spoke of grapes and kisses, rolled from four to four. Melodious as it was it seemed to jar with a horrible discordance upon the silence. Still, there was a chance that the troops might pa.s.s unscathed yet if their officers saw nothing, and it was with tingling nerves Appleby watched the fours swing by. Half the company had pa.s.sed him now.