The Rover of the Andes Part 41

The intention of Colonel Marchbanks was to take a hasty meal here, and push on as far as possible before night. Finding that the Gauchos were engaged at that time in breaking in some young horses, he ordered his party to off-saddle, and went with Pedro, Lawrence, and some others towards the corral while food was being prepared.

Quashy--ever mindful of the welfare of others, and ever thoughtful in regard to what he esteemed the most important things of life--hung behind to advise a daughter of the house to prepare a specially tender fowl for Susan, Manuela, and Mariquita. He even remained a few minutes to receive from the damsel a lesson in cookery.

This daughter of the Pampas whispered something to a very small brother beside her, who was remarkable chiefly for the size of his gorgeous eyes and the scantiness of his costume. With ready obedience the urchin unhooked a miniature la.s.so from the wall, and la.s.soed a large hen. How the brother and sister executed that hen was not obvious.

It was, however, quickly and effectively done between them. Then the sister took the bird to a pot of water, which chanced to be boiling at the time, and put it therein, feathers and all. To civilised people this might have seemed rather a savage process, but it was not so. The object was merely to simplify the plucking. After scalding, the feathers came off with wonderful facility, and also stuck to the girl's wet hands with equally wonderful tenacity. Was.h.i.+ng her hands, she next cut off the wings and legs of the fowl, and then separated the breast from the back. These portions she put into a small pot with some suet and water, and threw the rest away.

"Das bery good," remarked Quashy, nodding his head in approval, after which he advised the girl to treat another fowl or two in a similar manner, and then followed his master to the corral.

Here a very animated scene was being enacted. Half a dozen young horses were about to be mounted for the first time and broken in. What modern horse-trainers of the tender school would have said to the process we cannot tell. Having had no experience in such matters, one way or another, we hazard no opinion. We merely state the facts of the case.

The father of the family, mounted on a strong and steady horse, commenced the business by riding into the corral, and throwing his la.s.so over the head of a young horse, which he dragged forcibly to the gate.

Every step of the process was forcible. There was nothing equivalent to solicitation or inducement from beginning to end. Opposition, dogged and dire, was a.s.sumed as a matter of course, and was met by compulsion more dogged and more dire!

At the gate of the corral the end of the la.s.so was received by the eldest son of the family, a tall, strapping, and exceedingly handsome youth, of about twenty-three, who had been named Pizarro,--no doubt after the conqueror of Peru. He certainly resembled his namesake in courage, vigour, and perseverance, if in nothing else. The young horse displayed great unwillingness at first to quit its companions,--shaking its magnificent mane, and flouris.h.i.+ng its voluminous tail in wild disdain as it was dragged out.

But the moment it found itself outside the corral, its first idea was to gallop away. A jerk of the la.s.so checked him effectually. Another member of the household then deftly threw his la.s.so in such a manner that the prancing steed put its feet in it, and was caught just above the fetlocks. With a powerful twitch of this second la.s.so its legs were pulled from under it, and it fell with tremendous violence on its side.

Before it could rise the young Gaucho forced its head to the ground and held it there, then drew his long knife, and therewith, in a few seconds, cut off its mane. Another Gaucho performed the same operation on the hair of its tail--both acts being done, as they explained, to indicate that the horse had been once mounted.

Meanwhile Pizarro quickly put a strong hide halter on the animal's head, and a piece of hide in his mouth to serve as a bit. He also girthed a saddle on him, and, when all was ready, ordered the men who held him to let go. At the same moment he sprang into the saddle and held on.

Holding on was the point on which Pizarro had to concentrate all his attention and power during the next few minutes, for the way in which that outraged and intensely fierce creature strove to unseat him is alike beyond the power of description and conception. Jumping, plunging, kicking, rearing, bounding, and pirouetting are all sufficiently expressive terms in their way, but they are mild words with which to describe the proceedings of that creature of the Pampas while under the influence of temporary insanity. With ears flat on its neck, nostrils distended, and eyes emitting something almost like flames, the young horse absolutely screamed in its fury; but all was in vain. As well might it have tried to shake off its own tail as Pizarro!

Suddenly it changed its plan, and stretched out its sinewy length to its longest stride. Pizarro fell in with the idea, encouraged it with his long sharp spurs and heavy lash, and away they went over the mighty plain like a streak of personified lightning.

It is useful sometimes to let wilful people not only have their way, but compel them to continue it. John Gilpin's spirit, when he said--

"'Twas for your pleasure you came here; You shall go back for mine."

is not unknown on the Pampas and the prairie:

After sailing away over the plain, like a s.h.i.+p going out to sea, until it was a mere speck on the horizon, Pizarro's horse thought it time to reduce its pace; but here Pizarro did not agree with it. He applied whip and spur until his steed was quite exhausted. Then he turned homewards, and galloped back to the corral, into which he turned the animal in a very broken and humble state of mind. There it found several young friends who had just been subdued in a similar manner, and it is not altogether improbable that they spent the remainder of that evening in comparing notes!

"A roughish method, but--aw--effective," remarked the sportsman to his friend.

This was true. Perhaps Quashy's remark to Lawrence was equally true:--

"Dat dood it pritty slick, ma.s.sa; but I've seed it as well dood, p'r'aps better, by kindness."

There is this, at all events, to be said in regard to the rough system, that no man but an athlete could endure the fatigue of the process, while any man--or even woman--has physical strength sufficient to conquer by love, if only he, or she, possess the requisite patience and milk of human kindness.

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT.

TREATS OF A GAUCHO YOUTH.

From these Gauchos Colonel Marchbanks learned that his troops had been seen searching for him by the eldest son, Pizarro, and that handsome youth professed himself willing to guide the party to the place where the soldiers were likely to be found. Without delay, therefore, they resumed their journey after supper, and that night encamped on the open plain.

While the party was busy making arrangements for the night, Pedro sauntered to the top of a neighbouring knoll to have what he styled a look round.

It was a clear moonlight night, and Lawrence, recognising the figure of the guide, followed him.

"Pedro," he said, on overtaking him, "how is it possible that Pizarro can guide us to where the troops are, seeing that it is some time since he saw them, and he did not know in what direction they meant to travel?

Besides, they may have changed their intentions and their route several times."

"You forget, senhor, that troops leave a broad trail, and you do not yet, I see, fully appreciate the wonderful powers of some Gauchos in tracking out men. This Pizarro, although so young, is already celebrated in that way."

"You know him, then? Why, you seem to know everybody!"

"I know every one of note," replied the guide, "for my travels have been extensive, and my memory is pretty strong. Let me give you one or two instances of Pizarro's powers. I was in this part of the country two years ago. Having occasion to pa.s.s this way, I fell in with Pizarro, and we travelled together a short time. One forenoon we were riding over the plains, when he stopped suddenly, pointed to a footprint, and said, `That is the little grey horse that was stolen from my father three years ago!' `Are you sure?' said I, almost laughing at him.

`Sure!' said he, `of course I am; moreover, I'm certain that the horse pa.s.sed here not more than half an hour ago.' `Let's follow it up, then,' said I, more in jest than earnest. But we did follow it up, and recovered the little grey horse that same evening."

"A wonderful power of observation indeed, as well as memory," said Lawrence, looking with increased interest at the young Gaucho, who could be seen, by the light of the neighbouring camp-fire, moving about in a graceful, free and easy manner, a.s.sisting in the preparation of supper.

"It was pretty well in its way," returned Pedro, "but he did a sharper thing than that last year. A gold escort was attacked somewhere in the west, and the robbers, after killing most of the men, escaped with the bags of gold. The authorities being very anxious to trace out and punish the robbers, offered a high reward for any useful information as to their whereabouts. Now it chanced that Pizarro was moving about the country at that time, and, hearing of the adventure and the reward, kept his eyes open and his wits about him a little more sharply than usual-- though he does that pretty well at all times by nature. One day he saw a little child leading a mule laden with raw hides along a narrow path.

This is a common enough sight, in no way calculated to attract particular attention; nevertheless it did attract the attention of Pizarro. I don't pretend to understand the workings of a Gaucho's mind.

Perhaps it was the extreme smallness of the child that struck him, causing him to think that as no father or mother would risk such a little thing with the charge of a loaded mule without a special reason, it would be as well to find out what that special reason might be.

Perhaps it was something else. Anyhow, suspicion being awakened, he followed the mule for a short distance, and soon observed that it stepped as if it carried a much heavier weight than a mere pack of hides. At once the stolen gold flashed into Pizarro's mind. He stopped the mule, cut the bandages off the hides, and there, concealed among them, found the stolen bags!"

"After that," said Lawrence, "I have no doubt whatever that he will soon find the troops."

"Neither have I," returned Pedro; "but Pizarro, and men like him, can do much more than I have told you. By a flight of birds they can tell of an approaching band of men before they are in sight, and by the cloud of dust they make when they appear they can form a close estimate of their numbers. When the Indian hordes are about to make a raid, Gauchos are warned of it by the ostriches and llamas and other timid beasts of the Pampas all travelling in one direction, and in many other ways that seem little short of miraculous they act the part of wilderness-detectives."

While continuing their journey next day, Lawrence resolved to have a chat with the Gaucho youth. Riding up alongside, he saluted him, and received a reply and a graceful bow that would have done credit to a Spanish grandee. He discovered ere long that the young man's mind, like his body, had been cast in a n.o.ble mould, and that, although ignorant of almost everything beyond his own wild plains, he was deeply imbued with reverence for Truth and Justice in all the relations of life. Indeed, his sense of these attributes of G.o.d was so strong that the constant violation of them by those around him roused in him occasional bursts of hot indignation, as Lawrence very soon found when he touched on a recent revolution which had taken place in the province of San Juan.

"Are the troops we search for sent out to aid the government of Mendoza?" demanded Pizarro, turning an earnest and frowning glance on his companion.

"I believe not," answered Lawrence; "at least I have not heard the colonel talk of such an object; but I am not in his confidence, and know nothing of his plans."

Pizarro made no rejoinder, and Lawrence, seeing by the continued frown that the youth's spirit was somewhat stirred, sought for further information by asking about Mendoza.

"Do you not know," said the Gaucho, with increased vehemence, and a good deal of fine action, "that the people of San Juan have deposed their governor, because he is a bad man?"

"I had not heard of it," said Lawrence, "but what has that to do with Mendoza?"

"You shall hear, senhor. The governor of San Juan is dishonest. He is bad in every way, and in league with the priests to rob the people. His insolence became so great lately that, as I have said, the people arose, a.s.serted their rights, and deposed him. Then the government of Mendoza sent troops to reinstate the governor of San Juan; but they have not yet succeeded! What right," continued the youth, with grand indignation,--"What right has the government of Mendoza to interfere?

Is not the province of San Juan as free to elect its own governor as the province of Mendoza? Have its men not brains enough to work out their own affairs?--ay, and they have arms strong enough to defend their rights, as the troops shall find when they try to force on the people a governor of whom they do not approve."

Lawrence felt at once that he was in the presence of one of those strong, untameable spirits, of which the world has all too few, whose love of truth and fair-play becomes, as it were, a master-pa.s.sion, and around whom cl.u.s.ter not only many of the world's good men, but-- unfortunately for the success of the good cause--also mult.i.tudes of the lower dregs of the world's wickedness, not because these dregs sympathise with truth and justice, but simply because truth-lovers are sometimes unavoidably arrayed against "the powers that be."

"I don't know the merits of the case to which you refer," said Lawrence, "but I have the strongest sympathy with those who fight or suffer in the cause of fair-play--for those who wish to `do to others as they would have others do to them.' Do the people of San Luis sympathise with those of San Juan?"

"I know not, senhor, I have never been to San Luis."

As the town referred to lay at a comparatively short distance from the other, Lawrence was much surprised by this reply, but his surprise was still further increased when he found that the handsome Gaucho had never seen any of the towns in regard to which his sense of justice had been so strongly stirred!

"Where were you born, Pizarro?" he asked.