HOW A MAN MAY CARRY A MESSAGE AND NOT KNOW HIMSELF TO BE A MESSENGER
"There's no call for bad blood between you and me, Jim," said Barlow,
plainly ill at his ease. "We've always been friends; let's stay
friends. If we can't pull together in the deal that's comin', why,
let's just split our trail two ways and let it go at that."
"Fair enough," cried Kendric heartily. His companion thrust out a
hand; Kendric took it warmly. Barlow looked relieved.
"And," continued the sailor, "there's no sense forgettin' what we ran
into this port for in the first place. There's the loot; no matter how
or when we come at it, both together or single, we split it even?"
"Fair again. The old-time Barlow talking."
"All I've held out on you, Jim, is the exact location, so far as I know
it. I'll spill that to you now, best I can. Then you can play out
your string your way and I can play it out my way. As Juarez tipped me
off, you've got three peaks to sail by; whether it's the three we saw
first or the ones right off here, back of the house, I don't know any
more than you do. But it ought to be easy tellin' when a man's on the
spot. The middle peak ought to be a good fifty feet higher than the
others and flat lookin' on top. In a ravine, between the tall boy and
the one at the left, Juarez said there was a lot of scrub trees and
brush. He said plow through the brush, keepin' to the up edge when you
can get to it, until you come to about the middle of the patch. There
a man would find a lot of loose rock, boulders that looked like they'd
slid off the mountain. This rock, and the Lord knows how much of it
there is, covers the hole that the old priest's writin' said that loot
was in. And that's the yarn, every damn' word of it."
"If it's the place back of the house," said Kendric, "it'll be a night
job, all of it. It's not a half mile off and plain sight from here.
Now, what's the likelihood of Escobar having been there ahead of us?"
"Escobar's out of the runnin'." Barlow's eyes glinted with his
satisfaction. "He's corked up here tighter'n a fly in a bottle. He
isn't allowed to stick nose outside the walls after dark; and he isn't
allowed to ride out of sight in the daytime. Those are little
Escobar's orders. And, by cracky, I'll bet he minds 'em."
"Who told you all that?"
"She did."
"What's she close-herding him for?"
"Doesn't trust him; can you blame her? She's takin' her chances, and
she knows it, plannin' the big things ahead. And she's not missin' a
bet."
"And more," remarked Kendric drily, "she hankers for the loot herself?"
"She wouldn't know a thing about it," protested Barlow. "Escobar would
keep his mouth shut; he's wise hog enough for that."
"But she does know, Twisty. She knows that Escobar knifed Juarez; she
knows why; she knows pretty nearly as much about the thing as we know."
"She knows a lot of things," mused Barlow. But he shook his head:
"She's shootin' high, Headlong; no penny-ante game for her! Not that
what we're lookin' for sounds little; but it ain't in her path and
she's not turnin' aside for anything. And she's the richest lady in
Mexico right now. Those pearls of hers, man, are worth over a hundred
thousand dollars, or I'm a fool. I saw them again tonight; she let me
have them in my hands. And that ruby; did you see it? Why, kings
can't sport stones like that in their best Sunday crowns."
"She contends that she is a descendent of the old Mexican kings,"
offered Kendric coolly. "And any treasure, left by the Montezumas, she
claims by right of inheritance!"
"She couldn't get across with a claim like that, could she? Not in any
law court, Jim?"
"Not unless the jurors were all men and she could get them off alone,
one at a time, and whisper in their ears," grunted Kendric.
Barlow laughed and they dropped the subject. Kendric told Barlow what
he had learned during the evening; how the walls were sentinelled and
how at the present moment under the same roof with them was an American
girl, held for ransom.
"And, according to Escobar," he concluded, watching his old friend's
face, "the trick is put over with the connivance of Miss Castelmar.
This would seem to be one of the headquarters of the great national
game!"
"Well?" snapped the sailor. "What of it? If you can get away with a
game like that it pays big and fast. And who the devil sent you and me
down this way to preach righteousness? It's their business--but,
cut-throat cur that that little bandit hop o' my thumb is, I don't
believe a word he says."
"And if you did believe, it would be just the same?" There was a queer
note in his voice. "Well, Twisty, old mate, I guess you've said it.
Our trail forks. Good night."
"Good night," growled Barlow. Each went into his own bedroom; the
doors closed after them.
For a couple of hours Kendric sat in the dark by his window, staring
out into the gardens, pondering. Of two things he was certain: He was
not going to remain shut up in the Hacienda Montezuma if there was a
way to break for the open; and he was not going to leave Lower
California without his share of the buried treasure or at least without
knowing that the tale was a lie. And, little by little, a third
consideration forced itself in with its place with these matters; he
could not get out of his mind the picture of the "poor little kid of a
girl" in Escobar's hands. Like any other strong man, Kendric had a
quick sympathy and pity for the weak and abused. Never, he thought,
had he seen an individual less equipped to contend with such forces
than was the little American girl.
"What I'd like," he thought longingly, "would be to make a break for
the border; to round up about twenty of the boys and to swoop down on
this place like a gale out of hell! Clean 'em for fair, pick the
little Gordon girl up and race back to the border with her. If it
wasn't so blamed far----"
But he realized, even while he let his angry fancies run, that he was
dreaming impossibilities. He knew, also, that to take up the matter
through the regular diplomatic channels would be a process too
infinitely slow to suit the situation. It was either a single-handed
job for Jim Kendric, or else it was up to the girl's father to pay down
the twenty-five thousand dollars.
"I'd give a good deal for a talk with old Bruce West," he told himself.
"His outfit lies close in to these diggings; wonder if he has any
American boys working for him? Why, a dozen of us, or a half dozen,
would stand this place on end! Yes; I'd like to see Bruce."
A score of reasons flocked to him why it was desirable to see young
West. The boy was a friend, and it would be a joy just to grip him by
the hand again after three years; Bruce had written to him to come and
now that events had led him so near, he should grant the request; Bruce
was having his own troubles, no doubt against the lawlessness of
Escobar, Rios and the rest. And finally, he and Bruce might work
things together so that both should derive benefit. Bruce might be in
a position to befriend Gordon's little daughter.
So much did Kendric dwell on the subject that night that it claimed his
first thoughts when he woke in the early dawn. And therefore, when
Zoraida's message was handed to him at the breakfast table, he stared
at it with puzzled eyes asking himself if the amazing creature had read
his thoughts through thick walls of adobe.
The message was typewritten, even to the signature. It said:
"No doubt Señor Kendric would like to see his old friend Señor West.
If he will only set his signature below what follows he will be given a
horse, permission to ride and instructions as to direction. Zoraida."
And below were the words, with date and a dotted line for him to sign:
"I pledge my word, as a gentleman, to Zoraida Castelmar, that I will
return to her at Hacienda Montezuma not later than daybreak twenty-four
hours from now. . . ."
"A take or leave proposition, clean cut," he comprehended promptly.
And as promptly he decided to take it. The maid who had brought him
the paper was offering pen and ink. He accepted and wrote swiftly:
"Jim Kendric."
"Has Barlow breakfasted yet?" he asked, returning to his coffee.
"An hour ago, Señor. He has gone out."
"Alone?"
"No, señor. With La Señorita Zoraida."
"Hm," said Kendric. "And Rios? And Escobar?"
"Señor Rios went to bed late; it is his custom, señor." The girl
looked as though she could tell him more but, with a quick glance over
her shoulder, contented herself with saying only: "Señor Escobar is
with the men outside."
"And the American girl? Miss Gordon?"
"Asleep still, señor."
"Has Escobar been near her?"
"No, señor. She has been alone except for me and Rosita. _La
pobrecita_," she added, almost in a whisper. "She is so frightened."
"Be kind to her," said Kendric. He, too, looked over his shoulder. In
his pocket were the few fifty-dollar bills left to him from his oil
shares. "What is your name?"
"Juanita," she told him.
"All right, Juanita; take this." He slipped a bill along the
tablecloth toward her. "Give Rosita half, you keep half. And be kind
to Miss Gordon."
"Oh, señor!" she cried, as in protest. But she took the bank note.
Kendric felt better for the transaction; he finished his breakfast with
rare appetite.
"Now," he cried, jumping up, "for the horse. Is it ready?"
Juanita, the folded paper in her hands, went with him to the door.
"The horse is ready, Señor Americano," she told him. "It remains only
for me to tell the boy that you have promised to return."
Sure enough, pawing the gravel in front of the house, half jerking off
his feet the _mestizo_ holding it, was a tall, rangy sorrel horse
looking as fine an animal as any man in a hurry could wish.
"Señor Kendric will ride, Pedro," called Juanita. "Give him the horse."
Pedro gave the reins over to Kendric and turned away toward the
stables. Kendric swung up into the saddle and for a moment curbed the
big sorrel's dash toward the gates, to say meditatively to Juanita:
"If I took that paper away from you and made a run for it, what then?"
A look of fear leaped into the girl's dark eyes and she drew hastily
back, clutching the paper to her breast.
"Señor!" she cried, breathless and aghast. "You would not! She--she
would kill me!"
"She would _what_?" he scowled.
"She would give me to her cat, her terrible, terrible cat, to play
with!" Juanita shivered, and drew still further back. "With my life I
must guard this paper until it goes from my hand into her hand."
He laughed his disbelief and gave his horse his head at last. They
shot away through the shrubberry; the horse slid to a standstill before
the closed gate. Of the man smoking a cigaret before it Kendric said
curtly:
"You are to let me through. And direct me to Bruce West's ranch."
"Si, señor." The man opened the gate. "It is yonder; up the valley.
The trail will carry you up over the mountain; there are piled stones
to mark the way to the pass. In an hour, from the other side of the
ridge, you will see houses. Ten miles from there."
Kendric rode through and as he did so his figure straightened in the
saddle, his shoulders squared, he put up his head. Free and in the
open, if only for twenty-four hours. And with a horse, a real horse,
between his knees. He looked off to the left to Barlow's three peaks;
the sun was gilding the top of the tallest and it was unquestionable
that it was flat-topped. But he did not dwell long upon buried gold
nor yet on the query which suggested itself: "Where were Barlow and
Zoraida riding so early?" The immediate present and the immediate
surroundings were all that he cared to interest himself in on a day
like this.
The man at the gate had said it was ten miles from the far side of the
ridge to the Bruce West ranch house; the entire distance, therefore,
from the Hacienda Montezuma would be about double that distance. The
trail, once he reached the hills, was a dilatory, leisurely affair,
thoroughly Mexican; it sought out the gentlest slope always and
appeared in no haste to arrive anywhere. Well, his mood could be made
to suit the trail's; he was in no hurry, having all day for his talk
with young West.
The higher he rose above the floor of Zoraida's grassy valley the
steeper did his trail become, flanked with cliffs, at times looking too
sheer ahead for a horse. But always the path twisted between the
boulders and found the possible way up. So he came into a splendid
solitude, a region of naked rocks, of a few windblown trees, of little
open level spaces grown up with dry brush and wiry grass; of defiles
through stone-bound ways that were so narrow two men could not have
ridden through them abreast, so crooked that a man often could not see
ten steps ahead or ten steps behind, so deep that he must throw his
head far back to see the barren cliff tops above him. Strips of sky,
seen thus, were deep, deep blue.
It was not at all strange, he told himself during one of his meditative
moments while his horse climbed valiantly, that Zoraida should know of
his friendship with Bruce West, nor that she should understand his
natural desire to ride where he was going this morning. Everyone in
the border town had known of his letter at the postoffice; further, it
was not in the least unlikely that Señorita Castelmar would know of the
letter when it was dropped into the slot at the Mexican postoffice.
What did strike him as odd, however, was that she should consent to his
leaving the ranch, realizing that he knew much of her own plans and
would doubtless speak freely of them and of the American girl held in
her house for ransom.
"Not only was she willing for me to see Bruce," he decided; "she wanted
me to. Why?"
His trail led him into the last narrow defile to be encountered before
reaching the summit. So closely did the rocks press in on each side
that often his tapaderos brushed the sheer wall. He made a turn, none
too wide for the body of his horse and drew sudden rein, looking into
two rifle barrels. The men covering him lay a dozen feet above his
head upon a bare, flat rock. He could see only the hands upon their
guns, the heads under their tall hats, the shoulders. But he was near
enough to mark a business-like look in the hard black eyes.
"You've got the drop on me, _compañeros_," he said lightly. "What's
the game?"
A third man appeared on foot in the trail before him, stepping out from
behind a shoulder of rock. He came on until he could have put out a
hand to the sorrel's reins.
"Where do you ride so early?" asked the man on foot, his voice quiet
but vaguely hostile. "On what errand?"
"What business is it of yours, my friend?" returned Kendric.
"I know the horse," called one of the figures above. "It is El Rey,
from the stables of La Señorita."
"Then the rider must have a message. Or a sign. Or he has stolen the
horse, which would go bad with him!"
"Curse you and your signs and messages," cried Kendric hotly. "It's a
free country and I ride where I please."
The man before him only smiled.
"Let me look at your saddle strings," he said.
Kendric stared wonderingly; was the fellow insane? What in the name of
folly did he mean by a thing like this? Surely not just the
opportunity to draw close enough to strike with a knife; the rifles
above made such strategy useless.
So he sat still and contented himself with watching. The man came a
step closer, twisted El Rey's head aside, pressed close and looked at
the rawhide strings on one side of the saddle. Then he moved to the
other side and repeated the process. Immediately he drew back, lifting
his hat widely.
"Pass on, señor," he said courteously. "_Viva La Señorita_!"
Kendric spurred by him and rode on, passing abruptly out of a
wilderness of tumbled boulders into a grassy flat. He turned in the
saddle; nowhere was there sign of another than himself upon the
mountain. Curiously he looked at his saddle strings; in one of them a
slit had been made through which the end of the string had been passed;
a double knot had been tied just below the slit. In no other
particular was any one of the strings in the least noteworthy.
"As good a way to carry a message as any," he grunted. "With not even
the messenger aware of the tidings he brings!"
The incident impressed him deeply. Zoraida, at the game she played,
was in deadly earnest. Her commands went far and through many channels
and were obeyed. The passes through the mountains were in her hands.
The sunlight fell warm and golden about him; the full morning was
serene; a stillness as of ineffable peace lay across the solitudes.
And yet he felt that the placid promise was a lie; that the laughing
loveliness of the day was but a mask covering much strife. In the full
light he moved on not unlike a man groping in absolute darkness,
uncertain of the path he trod, suspicious of pitfalls, knowing only
that his direction was in hands other than his own. Hands that looked
soft and that were relentless; hands that blazed with barbaric jewels.
There had been a knot in a rawhide string, and a bandit in the
mountains had lifted his hat and had said simply: "Long live _La
Señorita_!"