you that I tried to make you care for me, hoping you would do what I
wished. I did not mean to tell you that, instead, I learned to care
for you. If you despise me I will understand; if you can still love
me----"
"_If_ I love you?" cried Roddy. "I love you _so_----"
For an instant, as though to shut out the look in his face, the eyes
of the girl closed. She threw out her hands quickly to stop him.
"Then," she begged, "help me not to think of you. Not to think of
myself. We are young. We are children. He is old: every moment counts
for him. If this is the big thing in our lives we hope it is, it will
last always! But with him each moment may mean the end; a horrible
end, alone, among enemies, in a prison. You must give me your
word--you must promise me not to tempt me to think of you. You are
very generous, very strong. Help me to do this. Promise me until he is
free you will not tell me you care for me, never again, until he is
free. Or else"--her tone was firm, though her voice had sunk to a
whisper. She drew back, and regarded him unhappily, shaking her
head--"or else, I must not see you again."
There was a moment's silence, and then Roddy gave an exclamation of
impatience, of protest.
"If you ask it!" he said, "I promise. How _soon_ am I to see you
again?"
Inez moved from him toward the house. At a little distance she stopped
and regarded him in silence. Her eyes were wistful, reproachful.
"It was so hard to ask," she murmured, "and you've promised so
easily!"
"How dare you!" cried Roddy. "How dare you! Easy!" He rushed on
wildly, "When I want to cry out to the whole world that I love you,
when I feel that every stranger sees it, when my heart beats, 'Inez,
Inez, Inez,' so that I know the people in the street can hear it too.
If I hadn't promised you to keep silent," he cried indignantly,
"because you asked it, I'd tell you now that no other woman in all the
world is loved as I love you! Easy to be silent!" he demanded, "when
every drop of blood calls to you, when I breathe only when you
breathe----"
"Stop!" cried the girl. For an instant she covered her face with her
hands. When she lowered them her eyes were shining, radiant, laughing
with happiness.
"I am so sorry!" she whispered penitently. "It was wicked. But," she
pleaded, "I did so want to hear you say it just once more!"
She was very near to him. Her eyes were looking into his. What she saw
in them caused her to close her own quickly. Feeling blindly with
outstretched hands, she let herself sway toward him, and in an instant
she was wrapped in his arms with his breathless kisses covering her
lips and cheeks.
For Roddy the earth ceased revolving, he was lifted above it and heard
the music of the stars. He was crowned, exalted, deified. Then the
girl who had done this tore herself away and ran from him through the
garden.
Neither Inez nor Roddy was in a mood to exchange polite phrases in the
presence of Mrs. Broughton, and they at once separated, each in a
different direction, Roddy returning to his home. There he found Sam
Caldwell. He was in no better frame of mind to receive him, but
Caldwell had been two hours waiting and was angry and insistent.
"At last!" he exclaimed. "I have been here since eleven. Don't tell
me," he snapped, "that you've been spearing eels, because I won't
believe it."
"What can I tell you," asked Roddy pleasantly, "that you will
believe?"
That Caldwell had sought him out and had thought it worth his while to
wait two hours for an interview seemed to Roddy to show that in the
camp of his enemies matters were not moving smoothly, and that, in
their opinion, he was of more interest than they cared to admit.
Caldwell began with an uneasy assumption of good-fellowship.
"I have come under a flag of truce," he said grinning. "We want to
have a talk and see if we can't get together."
"Who are 'we'?" asked Roddy.
"Vega, myself, and Senora Rojas."
"Senora Rojas!" exclaimed Roddy gravely. "Are you not mistaken?"
"She sent me here," replied Caldwell. "These are my credentials." With
a flourish and a bow of marked ceremony, he handed Roddy a letter.
It came from Miramar, and briefly requested that Mr. Forrester would
do the Senora Rojas the honor to immediately call upon her.
Roddy caught up his hat. The prospect of a visit to the home of Inez
enchanted him, and he was as greatly puzzled as to what such a visit
might bring forth.
"We will go at once!" he said.
But Caldwell hung back.
"I'd rather explain it first," he said.
Already Roddy resented the fact that Caldwell was serving as the
ambassador of Madame Rojas, and there was, besides, in his manner
something which showed that in that service he was neither zealous nor
loyal.
"Possibly Senora Rojas can do that herself," said Roddy.
"No, she can't!" returned Caldwell sharply, "because she doesn't know,
and we don't mean to tell her. But I am going to tell _you_."
"Better not!" warned Roddy.
"I'll take the chance," said Caldwell. His manner was conciliating,
propitiatory. "I'll take the chance," he protested, "that when you
learn the truth you won't round on your own father. It isn't natural,
it isn't human!"
"Caldwell on the Human Emotions!" exclaimed Roddy, grinning.
But Caldwell was too truly in earnest to be interrupted.
"Your father's spending two millions to make Vega President," he went
on rapidly. "We've got to have him. We need him in our business. _You_
think Rojas would make a better President. Maybe he would. But not for
us. He's too old-fashioned. He's----"
"Too honest?" suggested Roddy.
"Too honest," assented Caldwell promptly. "And there's another slight
objection to him. He's in jail. And you," Caldwell cried, raising his
finger and shaking it in Roddy's face, "can't get him out. We can't
take San Carlos, and neither can you. They have guns there that in
twenty minutes could smash this town into a dust-heap. So you see,
what you hope to do is impossible, absurd! Now," he urged eagerly,
"why don't you give up butting your head into a stone wall, and help
your father and me?"
He stopped, and in evident anxiety waited for the other to speak, but
Roddy only regarded him steadily. After a pause Roddy said: "_I'm_ not
talking. You're the one that's talking. And," he added, "you're
talking too much, too!"
"I'll risk it!" cried Caldwell stoutly. "I've never gone after a man
of sense yet that I couldn't make him see things my way. Now, Senora
Rojas," he went on, "only wants one thing. She wants to get her
husband out of prison. She thinks Vega can do that, that he means to
do it, that I mean to do it. Well--we _don't_."
Roddy's eyes half closed, the lines around his mouth grew taut, and
when he spoke his voice was harsh and had sunk to a whisper.
"I tell you," he said, "you're talking too much!"
But neither in Roddy's face nor voice did Caldwell read the danger
signals.
"It doesn't suit our book," he swept on, "to get him out. Until Vega
is President he must stay where he is. But his wife must not know
that. She believes in _us_. She thinks the Rojas crowd only interferes
with us, and she is sending for you to ask you to urge the Rojas
faction to give us a free hand."
"I see," said Roddy; "and while Vega is trying to be President, Rojas
may die. Have you thought of that?"
"Can we help it?" protested Caldwell. "Did _we_ put him in prison?
We'll have trouble enough keeping ourselves out of San Carlos. Well,"
he demanded, "what are you going to do?"
"At present," said Roddy, "I'm going to call on Madame Rojas."
On their walk to Miramar, Caldwell found it impossible to break down
Roddy's barrier of good nature. He threatened, he bullied, he held
forth open bribes; but Roddy either remained silent or laughed.
Caldwell began to fear that in trying to come to terms with the enemy
he had made a mistake. But still he hoped that in his obstinacy Roddy
was merely stupid; he believed that in treating him as a factor in
affairs they had made him vainglorious, arrogant. He was sure that if
he could convince him of the utter impossibility of taking San Carlos
by assault he would abandon the Rojas crowd and come over to Vega. So
he enlarged upon the difficulty of that enterprise, using it as his
argument in chief. Roddy, in his turn, pretended he believed San
Carlos would fall at the first shot, and, as he intended, persuaded
Caldwell that an attack upon the prison was the fixed purpose of the
Rojas faction.
Roddy, who as a sentimental burglar had so often forced his way into
the grounds of Miramar, found a certain satisfaction in at last
entering it by the front door, and by invitation. His coming was
obviously expected, and his arrival threw the many servants into a
state of considerable excitement. Escorted by the major-domo, he was
led to the drawing-room where Madame Rojas was waiting to receive him.
As he entered, Inez and her sister, with Vega and General Pulido and
Colonel Ramon, came in from the terrace, and Caldwell followed from
the hall.
With the manner of one who considered himself already a member of the
household, Vega welcomed Roddy, but without cordiality, and with
condescension. To Inez, although the sight of her caused him great
embarrassment, Roddy made a formal bow, to which she replied with one
as formal. Senora Rojas, having ordered the servants to close the
doors and the windows to the terrace, asked Roddy to be seated, and
then placed herself in a chair that faced his. The others grouped
themselves behind her. Roddy felt as though the odds were hardly fair.
With the exception of Inez, who understood that any sign she might
make in his favor would do him harm, all those present were opposed to
him. This fact caused Roddy to gaze about him in pleasurable
excitement and smile expectantly. He failed to see how the interview
could lead to any definite result. Already he had learned from
Caldwell more than he had suspected, and all that he needed to know,
and, as he was determined on account of her blind faith in Vega to
confide nothing to Senora Rojas, he saw no outcome to the visit as
important as that it had so soon brought him again into the presence
of Inez.
"Mr. Forrester," began Senora Rojas, "I have asked you to call on me
to-day at the suggestion of these gentlemen. They believe that where
they might fail, an appeal from me would be effective. I am going to
speak to you quite frankly and openly; but when you remember I am
pleading for the life of my husband you will not take offense. With no
doubt the best of motives, you have allied yourself with what is known
as the Rojas faction. Its object is to overthrow the President and to
place my husband at Miraflores. To me, the wife of General Rojas, such
an undertaking is intolerable. All I desire, all I am sure he desires,
is his freedom. There are those, powerful and well equipped, who can
secure it. They do not belong to the so-called Rojas faction. You, we
understand, have much influence in its counsels. We know that to carry
out its plans you have quarrelled with your father, resigned from his
company. If I venture to refer to your private affairs, it is only
because I understand you yourself have spoken of them publicly, and
because they show me that in your allegiance, in your mistaken
allegiance to my husband, you are in earnest. But, in spite of your
wish to serve him, I have asked you here to-day to beg you and your
friends to relinquish your purpose. His wife and his children feel
that the safety of General Rojas is in other hands, in the hands of
those who have his fullest confidence and mine." In her distress,
Senora Rojas leaned forward. "I beg of you," she exclaimed, "do as I
ask. Leave my husband to me and to his friends. What you would do can
only interfere with them. And it may lead directly to his death."
She paused, and, with her eyes fixed eagerly on Roddy's face, waited
for his answer. The men standing in a group behind her nodded
approvingly. Then they also turned to Roddy and regarded him sternly,
as though challenging him to resist such an appeal. Roddy found his
position one of extreme embarrassment. He now saw why Senora Rojas had
received him in the presence of so large an audience. It was to render
a refusal to grant her request the more difficult. In the group drawn
up before him he saw that each represented a certain interest, each
held a distinctive value. The two daughters were intended to remind
him that it was against a united family he was acting; Caldwell was to
recall to him that he was opposing the wishes of his father, and Vega
and the two officers naturally suggested to whom Senora Rojas referred
when she said her interests were in the hands of powerful and
well-equipped friends. Should he tell the truth and say that of the
plans of the Rojas faction he knew little or nothing, Roddy was sure
he would not be believed. He was equally certain that if, in private,
he confided his own plan to Senora Rojas and told her that within the
next forty-eight hours she might hope to see her husband, she would at
once acquaint Vega and Caldwell with that fact. And, after the
confidence made him by Caldwell, what he and Vega might not do to keep
Rojas off the boards, he did not care to think. He certainly did not
deem it safe to test their loyalty. He, therefore, determined that as
it was impossible to tell his opponents the truth, he had better let
them continue to believe he was a leader in the Rojas party, and that,
with it, his only purpose was an open attack upon the fortress.
"I need not say," protested Roddy gravely, "that I am greatly
flattered by your confidence. It makes me very sorry that I cannot be
equally frank. But I am only a very unimportant member of the great
organization that has for its leader General Rojas----"
"And I," interrupted Senora Rojas, "am the wife of that leader. Are my
wishes of no weight?"
"I fear, madame," begged Roddy, in deprecatory tones, "that to
millions of Venezuelans General Rojas is considered less as the
husband than as the only man who can free this country from the hands
of a tyrant."
At this further sign of what seemed fatuous obstinacy, Senora Rojas
lost patience.
"A tyrant!" she exclaimed quickly. "I must protest, Mr. Forrester,
that the word comes strangely from one who has denounced my husband as
a traitor."
The attack confused Roddy, and to add to his discomfort it was greeted
by the men in the rear of Senora Rojas with a chorus of approving
exclamations. Roddy raised his eyes and regarded them gravely. In a
tone of stern rebuke Senora Rojas continued:
"We have been frank and honest," she said, "but when we cannot tell
whether the one with whom we treat runs with the hare or the hounds,
it is difficult."
Again from the men came the murmur of approval, and Roddy, still
regarding them, to prevent himself from speaking pressed his lips
tightly together.
Knowing how near Senora Rojas might be to attaining the one thing she
most desired, his regret at her distress was genuine, and that, in her
ignorance, she should find him a most objectionable young man he could
well understand. The fact aroused in him no resentment. But to his
secret amusement he found that the thought uppermost in his mind was
one of congratulation that Inez Rojas was more the child of her
Venezuelan father than of her American mother. Even while he deeply
sympathized with Senora Rojas, viewed as a future mother-in-law, she
filled him with trepidation. But from any point he could see no health
in continuing the scene, and he rose and bowed.
"I am sorry," he said, "but I cannot find that any good can come of
this. I assure you, you are mistaken in thinking I am of any
importance, or that I carry any weight with the Rojas party. Believe
me, I do not. I am doing nothing," he protested gently, "that can
bring harm to your husband. No one outside of your own family can wish
more sincerely for his safety."
The chorus of men interrupted him with an incredulous laugh and
murmurs of disbelief.
Roddy turned upon them sharply.
"We can dispense with the claque," he said. "My interview is with
Madame Rojas. If you gentlemen have anything to discuss with me later
you will come out of it much better if that lady is not present. If
you don't know what I mean," he added significantly, "Caldwell can
tell you."
Senora Rojas had no interest in any annoyance Roddy might feel toward
her guests. She recognized only that he was leaving her. She made a
final appeal. Rising to her feet, she exclaimed indignantly:
"I refuse to believe that against the wishes of myself and my family
you will persist in this. It is incredible! I can no longer be content
only to ask you not to interfere--I forbid it."
She advanced toward him, her eyes flashing with angry tears. Roddy, in
his sympathy with her distress, would have been glad, with a word, to
end it, but he felt he could not trust to her discretion. Her next
speech showed him that his instinct was correct. Accepting his silence
as a refusal, she turned with an exclamation to Pino Vega.
"If you will not listen to a woman," she protested, "you may listen
to a man." With a gesture she signified Vega. He stepped eagerly
forward.
"I am at your service," he said.
"Speak to him," Senora Rojas commanded. "Tell him! Forbid him to
continue."
Roddy received the introduction of Vega into the scene with mixed
feelings. To the best of his ability he was trying to avoid a quarrel,
and in his fuller knowledge of the situation he knew that for Senora
Rojas it would be best if she had followed his wishes, and had brought
the interview to an end. That Vega, who was planning treachery to
Rojas, should confront him as the champion of Rojas, stirred all the
combativeness in Roddy that he was endeavoring to subdue. When Vega
turned to him he welcomed that gentleman with a frown.
"As the son of this house," Vega began dramatically, "as the
representative, in his absence, of General Rojas, I forbid you to
meddle further in this affair."
The demand was unfortunately worded. A smile came to Roddy's eyes, and
the color in his cheeks deepened. He turned inquiringly to Senora
Rojas.
"The son of this house," he repeated. "The gentleman expresses himself
awkwardly. What does he mean?"
Since Inez had entered the room Roddy had not once permitted himself
to look toward her. Now he heard from where she stood a quick movement
and an exclamation.
For an instant, a chill of doubt held him silent. Within the very
hour, she had told him that to keep him loyal to her father she had
traded on his interest in her. Had she, for the same purpose and in
the same way, encouraged Vega? To Roddy, she had confessed what she
had done, and that she loved him. With that he was grandly content.
But was she still hoping by her promise of marriage to Vega to hold
him in allegiance, not to herself, but to her father? Was her
exclamation one of warning? Had he, by his question, precipitated some
explanation that Inez wished to avoid? He cast toward her a glance of
anxious inquiry. To his relief, Inez reassured him with a nod, and a
smile of trust and understanding.
The exchange of glances was lost neither upon Vega nor upon Senora
Rojas. In turn, they looked at each other, their eyes filled with
angry suspicion.
What she had witnessed caused Senora Rojas to speak with added
asperity.
"Colonel Vega has my authority for what he says," she exclaimed. "He
_is_ the son of this house. He is the future husband of my daughter
Inez."
The exclamation that now came from Inez was one of such surprise and
protest that every one turned toward her.
The girl pushed from her the chair on which she had been leaning and
walked toward her mother. Her eyes were flashing, but her manner was
courteous and contained.
"Why do you say that?" she asked quietly. "Has Colonel Vega told you
that, as he has told others? Because it is not true!"
Senora Rojas, amazed and indignant, stared at her daughter as though
she doubted she had heard her.
"Inez!" she exclaimed.
"It must be set right," said the girl. "Colonel Vega presumes too far
on the services he has shown my father. I am not going to marry him. I
have told him so repeatedly. He is deceiving you in this, as he is
deceiving you in matters more important. He is neither the son of this
house nor the friend of this house. And it is time that he understood
that we know it!"
In her distress, Senora Rojas turned instinctively to Vega.
"Pino!" she exclaimed. "You _told_ me! You told me it was her secret,
that she wished to keep it even from her mother, but that you thought
it your duty to tell me. Why?" she demanded. "Why?"
Vega, his eyes flaming, in a rage of mortification and wounded vanity
threw out his arms.
"My dear lady!" he cried, "it was because I hoped! I still hope," he
protested. "Inez has been poisoned by this man!" He pointed with a
shaking finger at Roddy. "He has filled her mind with tales against
me." He turned to Inez. "Is it not true?" he challenged.
Inez regarded him coldly, disdainfully.
"No, it is not true," she said. "It is the last thing he would do.
Because, until this moment, Mr. Forrester thought that what you told
him was a fact." She raised her voice. "And he is incapable of
speaking ill of a man--" she hesitated, and then, smiling slightly as
though in enjoyment of the mischief she were making, added, "he knew
was his unsuccessful rival."
Furious, with a triumphant exclamation, Vega turned to Senora Rojas.
"You hear!" he cried. "My rival!"
Inez moved quickly toward Roddy. Placing herself at his side, she
faced the others.
Her eyes were wide with excitement, with fear at what she was about
to do. As though begging permission, she raised them to Roddy and,
timidly stretching out her hand, touched his arm. "Mother," she said,
"I am going to marry Mr. Forrester!"
VIII
The silence that greeted the announcement of Inez, was broken in a
startling fashion. Before her mother could recover from her amazement
one of the windows to the garden was thrown open, and a man burst
through it and sprang toward Vega. He was disheveled, breathless; from
a wound in his forehead a line of blood ran down his cheek. His
appearance was so alarming that all of those who, the instant before,
had been staring in astonishment at Inez now turned to the intruder.
They recognized him as the personal servant of Vega. Without
considering the presence of the others, the valet spoke as he crossed
the room.
"The police are in your house," he panted. "They have searched it;
taken the papers. They tried to stop me." He drew his hand across his
face and showed it streaked with blood. "But I escaped by the harbor.
The boat is at the wharf. You have not a moment!" His eyes wandered
toward Pulido and Ramon, and he exclaimed delightedly, "You also!" he
cried; "there is still time!"
General Pulido ran to the window.
"There is still time!" he echoed. "By the boat we can reach Quinta
Tortola at the appointed hour. Colonel Ramon," he commanded, "remain
with Senor Caldwell. You, Pino, come with me!"
But Vega strode furiously toward Roddy.
"No!" he shouted. "This man first! My honor first!"
At this crisis of his fortunes, Sam Caldwell, much to the surprise of
Roddy, showed himself capable of abrupt action. He threw his arm
around the waist of Vega, and ran him to the window.
"Damn your honor!" he shrieked. "You take your orders from _me_! Go to
the meeting-place!"
Struggling, not only in the arms of Caldwell but in those of Pulido
and the valet, Vega was borne to the terrace. As he was pushed from
the window he stretched out his arm toward Roddy.
"When we meet again," he cried, "I kill you!"
Roddy looked after him with regret. More alarming to him than the
prospect of a duel was the prospect of facing Senora Rojas. For the
moment Vega and his personal danger had averted the wrath that Roddy
knew was still to come, but with the departure of Vega he saw it could
no longer be postponed. He turned humbly to Senora Rojas. The scene
through which that lady had just passed had left her trembling; but
the sight of Roddy confronting her seemed at once to restore her
self-possession. Anxiously, but in a tone of deep respect, Roddy
addressed her:
"I have the great honor," he said, "to inform----"
After one indignant glance Senora Rojas turned from him to her
daughter. Her words sounded like the dripping of icicles.
"You will leave the room," she said. She again glanced at Roddy. "You
will leave the house."
Not since when, as a child, he had been sent to stand in a corner had
Roddy felt so guilty. And to his horror he found he was torn with a
hysterical desire to laugh.