servant of Seantum, often met at the fountain to gossip. At these
times the possible union between the heads of their two houses was an
inexhaustible subject, for Seantum, the proud Nephite, was a suitor
for the hand of Ahah, a girl of mixed blood. Possible exigencies were
suggested by the fact that Ahah was believed to love Hagoth, a Lamanite
soldier; on the other hand her mother, the widowed Miriam, openly
encouraged the suit of Seantum.
Truly the plaza in the beautiful suburb, Antionum was a pleasant place
to loiter. The fountain was the life source of the city, and sooner
or later everyone came there to drink. The gorgeous flowers of the
tropics were so rich that the very bees became intoxicated and produced
a honey that was the original nectar. A long line of Biblical looking
girls carrying water jars on their heads extended from the fountain.
Alternating with oval Madonna-like faces lit with lustrous eyes was
the ardent gypsy coloring that told of mixed blood, for Lamanites and
Nephites mingled freely in the community.
"The servants at our house do not dawdle the day away," announced Abish
severely, "Our mistress looks after her household."
Sara felt the implied sneer, for the ancient halls of Seantum
languished in bachelor neglect.
"When the fair Ahah comes to preside over our household then may I have
to run home heavy laden."
"If your white faced master be not so slow that he lets Hagoth the
Lamanite walk off with her before his eyes, I could tell him things--"
"A Lamanite," laughed Sara derisively. "Ahah is not particular in
her taste. But then, poor girl, she cannot help it, it is in her
blood"--Sara stopped short, for along the street, ringing with
startling distinctness arose the cry, "Cezoram, son of Cezoram, the
chief judge, is dead."
For a moment there was absolute stillness, then wild clamor broke
forth. Rumor, with her thousand tongues told that Cezoram, chief judge
of all the Nephites, had not risen that morning and when an attendant
went to wake him he found him lying naturally in his bed--dead. He had
been struck upon the head as he slept, by an assassin who had come and
gone as stealthily as the night air.
"Who killed him?" inquired Abish plucking at the arm of a man who
passed with broad strides, muttering in his beard.
"Who should it be but the Gadiantons, a handful of robbers, the mention
of whose very name blanches the faces of the people and shakes the
government. The Nephite officials are in secret league with them else
we would not be so terrorized. Two chief judges slain within a year:
Cezoram the elder struck down as he sat upon the judgment seat; his son
and successor most foully murdered in his room! Is there no end to our
endurance?"
"The Gadiantons!" Bursting with her news Abish caught up her
half-filled jars and hurried out through some deserted gardens that
she might more quickly arrive home. As she picked her way through
some overgrown vines she stopped suddenly. Her eye had caught sight
of a familiar crest. Across the open space was the stalwart figure of
Hagoth clothed in the tiger skin, his badge of knighthood. By his side
in flaunting red petticoat walked a Lamanite girl. At the edge of the
woods he returned the basket he had been carrying and the head of the
plumed chief bent low over her.
"Hagoth making love to an Indian; I wonder what Ahah will say?"
Later she heard what her mistress had to say, and the servant's tale
lost nothing in the telling of it.
II.
IN THE PATIO OF MIRIAM.
A party of four sat at the supper board of Miriam. It was spread in
the roofed cloisters, midway between the patio where the margherites,
like Psyche, flirted with their own fair image in the fountain, and the
house, where, through gold embroidered gauze curtains, an occasional
glimpse was had of a vast inner apartment set with mosaics.
Before the guests, who sat on mats, were spread tempting dulces
(sweets) and heaped up salvers of the strange fruits of the tropics,
the butter, eggs, and custards that grow on trees.
A servant brought cups of frothing chocolate to the two women, Ahah,
whose gold crowned head rose like an aureole above the sea foam green
of her gown, and her mother Miriam, massive and handsome despite her
years. Shem, an aged traveler from the far south, was scooping out
spoonfuls of papaya, a peptonized squash, while Seantum leaned against
a marble pillar, his pale face with its weak features peering luridly
through clouds of tobacco smoke.
The murder of the morning was under discussion.
"Who are these Gadiantons?" asked Shem, who was a stranger in the
country. "Methinks it was they who robbed a pack train of a merchant in
our town. Though he carried the matter to the tribunal he could get no
restitution."
"Restitution!" Miriam smiled grimly. "How can we expect justice when
the Nephite officials are in secret league with the robbers?"
"They have been a menace to our nation since their organization,"
hastily interposed Seantum, anxious to change the subject.
"Indeed." Shem thoughtfully stroked his long beard while his Jewish
face bent forward with interest.
"The chief judges have been their victims ever since Kishkumen, an
unscrupulous adventurer stabbed the judge Pahoran. The good Heleman
would have suffered a like fate had not a servant of his overheard
the plot and killed Kishkuman first. The blackguard followers of this
professional assassin were organized into a secret society by Gadianton
who introduced Satan's own machinations. After that the bandits fled to
the mountain where they have subsisted ever since."
"Cannot they be apprehended?" asked Shem astonished.
"They hold the mountain fastnesses and rout every army sent against
them. Only occasionally do they infest the valleys to drive off the
cattle," explained Seantum surprised at the other's ignorance.
"They'd do well if they drove off only the cattle," remarked Miriam
sharply. "They swooped down upon a village when most of the men were
away at the late war, and carried off the women and children."
"The Gadianton robbers are dreadful men." Ahah shuddered. "They brought
one who had been taken prisoner to fight upon the sacrificial stone
before Tubaloth, king of the Lamanites. With one foot chained to the
rock and armed only with sword and shield he fought and vanquished
eight warriors. The king granted him his freedom."
"They will surely punish this slayer of Cezoram," suggested Shem.
"Certainly, if they can find him."
"Must a whole nation quail before those bloodthirsty barbarians,"
exclaimed Ahah passionately. Remembering that it was whispered that
Seantum himself, like many of the officials, was helpless against the
bandits, she asked suddenly: "Seantum, why don't you lead an army
against them?"
"Impossible!" returned that effeminate youth. "Perhaps our friend,
the husky Lamanite, will undertake the task," he added sneeringly.
"They say that Tubaloth's young men are deserting the army to join the
robbers. The king has sworn vengeance on them."
"When did the Nephites have to call upon their ancient enemies for
help?" interposed Miriam haughtily.
The meal was finished and despite the fuming of Seantum and the open
displeasure of her mother, Ahah excused herself on the plea of illness
and fled to her room Although the servants came in and lighted the
torches, for the three that remained, the light had gone out.
[Illustration: "With one foot chained to the rock the Gadianton robber
fought and vanquished eight warriors."]
III.
THE BALCONY.
Ahah threw herself in the hammock on the balcony that her apartment
opened on. She was shaken with rage, but the more violent the passion
the sooner does it consume itself. Destruction would have descended on
the head of Hagoth, if it had appeared at that moment; as it was her
anger had just three hours to cool.
The stars hung low in the tropic heavens; a nearby field was illumined
by the phosphorescent glow of flitting fireflies; below a tree burst
into a galaxy of white stars.
As she clenched her small hands until the nails cut the palms, Ahah was
not in a mood to contemplate scenery.
"Flirting with a Lamanite frump, indeed! How do I know that Hagoth
has not a dozen Indian loves among his own people?" Hitherto Ahah had
been so engrossed by her condescension in loving a mere Lamanite, that
the possibility of anyone else loving him had never occurred to her.
That Hagoth had been whole souled in his devotion to her she admitted.
Nothing wins a woman quite so quick as the knowledge that a man has
staked his all on her. Else why had she stooped to love him?
Slowly she lived over their acquaintance; all the details were graven
on her brain. It had been romantic from the start. The horses of the
Lamanite king were running away, dragging the broken chariot behind
them. The driver had been hurled out in turning the corner and Tubaloth
himself was reeling, when the careening animals were stopped by the
impact of a lithe body hurled full at their heads. The catapult was
Hagoth who thereafter was knighted and received the order of the tiger,
a distinction he valued less than the murmured thanks of a mother who
caught up her little brown baby that had been playing in the road
directly in the way of the runaway. Since then Ahah's every meeting
with Hagoth had tightened the grip on her heart. Yet the thing that
made her angriest of all was that she should care so much.
[Illustration: HALL OF THE MONOLITHS, MITLA]
[Illustration: PALACE RUINS AT MITLA]
When a plumed crest of sable hue loomed up above the passion flower of
the balcony she started up as if she had not been looking long for that
apparition.
As Hagoth swung himself easily in front of her she faced him with the
accusation, "You are late."
"I have been watching the lights below for hours. I thought you were
there with Seantum."
"Did he stay so long with mother? I left them hours ago--to wait here
alone, while you, forsooth, amused yourself with an Indian girl--Ugh."
"Ahah!"
"I tell you, you were seen walking in the woods with her, whispering to
her, carrying her basket, and they said she was pretty," she finished
with a wail.
"It is a mistake. I--"
"A mistake! Look at me," she cried fiercely, "You, a Lamanite, an
associate of laboring wenches, have made me weep. I, Ahah, who do not
shed tears once in five years have wept this night over you." She
laughed bitterly.
"But the girl gave me some information from a relative of hers."
"What could I expect, I who without reason, against the warnings of my
friends, the opposition of my relatives, have squandered my attention
on you."
"Ahah you possess the best part of my life, but if I am bringing you
such unhappiness--"
That brought her to terms. Her face shone with transcendent light.
"See, Hagoth," she breathed earnestly, "Beautiful as this is, I lie
awake nights worrying where it will end. I am too much of a coward
to flee with you for I fear to fail in the new life. You must raise
yourself to my station. You have youth, strength, brains and my faith
in you."
"And if I win out."
"I will marry you."
"I accept the challenge. In forty days I shall return to claim my own."
Ahah looked startled. "How do you propose to do it?"
"Because of what you have promised me this night, I shall confide to
you my secret, though the success of the venture itself depends on
silence. At dawn I take command of a party of Lamanites that goes into
the mountains to destroy the Gadiantons."
"Oh"--Ahah reeled and she felt the world slipping from under her, such
terror did the name of the dread robbers inspire.
"If I win, any favor within the gift of Tubaloth, king of the
Lamanites, is mine."
"If you should fail?"
"I fail! You will admit I shall have a splendid tomb, the snow clad
summit of Mt. Misti."
Ahah with a moan threw up her arms to shut out the torturous vision for
the Gadiantons not only murdered but mangled their victims.
He came closer; his eyes blazed with triumph; his voice was tense with
suppressed emotion. "Remember in forty days you are mine," and he was
gone.
Ahah threw herself against the post. "You shall not go. I tell you I
won't let you," she screamed. In her desperation she almost hurled
herself over the balcony, but no answer came. Hagoth had vanished into
the night whence he had come. Overwhelmed with remorse for driving him
on: steeped in her own misery, she lay where she had fallen until the
mocking birds began to sing and the day emerged from the night like
Venus, new born, from the sea.
Rising, she dashed the crumpled bell of the passion flower under her
feet and entering her apartment she threw herself upon the bed.
When Abish stole softly up to tell her young mistress that the bath
water was ready she found her buried among the cushions with all her
clothes on, breathing heavily. Throwing a silken shawl over her, she
turned and tiptoed out.
IV.
THE TRIUMPH.
Ahah lay languidly back in the boat and dabbled her white hand in the
water. Seantum opposite, equally lazy, was doing nothing more strenuous
than watch the sunlight on her hair of burnished copper. The servant
Abish knelt in the bottom of the boat trying to bring order out of
the chaos of flowers with which the craft was loaded. It was the
festival of flowers and Ahah had insisted on buying some of every kind
she saw. As she had selected them for their gaudiness the effect was
picturesque. The boatman who stood in striped cotton garment with bare
brown feet and broad brimmed hat drove the canoe along the sluggish
canal by means of a pole.
They were enroute to the floating gardens of Miramar. Conversation
languished while they looked at the panorama, for the canal was alive
with graceful craft as this was a special feast day. There were boats
loaded with poppies; others banked with pink rosebuds; more modest
symphonies in purple and electric blues,--violets and forget-me-nots,
like a demozel, left a fragrant trail behind them. They passed cargoes
of green vegetables bound for the city, and houseboats which carried
not only the family and their household furniture, but also the
livestock, dogs, chickens and parrots.
Gayest of all were the flat bottomed boats filled with troubadours.
These children of the sun lent the richness of their voices to
the tinkle of their stringed instruments. Everyone seemed bent on
merry-making, and as a lonely heart is never so desolate as when buried
in a gay crowd, so Ahah felt more poignant misery by contrast.
Thirty days had elapsed since Hagoth's sudden departure. Since then
she had had no word from him, and her veiled inquiries had elicited no
news. "He is so bent on his man's enterprise, that he would not stop to
consider a woman," she exclaimed petulantly, but her good sense told
her it would not be wise for him to send her a message. Again, she was
consumed with a wild fear that he was dead and during the long hours
of the night saw him die twenty deaths in as many different ways. In
the meantime she went calmly about her affairs and continued to endure
Seantum as there was nothing else to do.
They had planned to spend the day in the rustic bowers of a planter at
Miramar, but as they wound in and out among the floating gardens,--at
first nothing but patches of variegated green, it was evident that
some unusual occurrence was happening on shore. Market venders had
deserted their stalls and women had left their meat sizzling on the
brazeros,--open air stoves of clay containing glowing charcoal.
"What's the matter," called Seantum to a hoary boatman.
"They say the Gadiantons are destroyed," he answered.
Ahah was on her feet swaying in the boat, "Who did it," she cried as if
her life hung on the answer.
"A Lamanite by the name of Hagoth. One of his men stopped off here.
He's over in the square there now." Without waiting for the boat to
stop, Ahah bounded quickly to the oozy mud of the shore and was up the
bank in a moment. Running swiftly she reached the excited crowd and
made her way through it. In the center she recognized one of Hagoth's
lieutenants.
"You are going back to Antionum?" she queried breathlessly.
On his answer in the affirmative, she begged eagerly. "Then you will
let us take you back in our boat?" She tossed him a golden seon. As if
he were in his chief's secret he gladly accepted the invitation, and
Seantum was doomed to hear his rival's praises lauded on the return
trip which had begun so auspiciously for him.
While the warrior recited the story of the expedition in his crude way,
Ahah hung on every word.
"When we started we had to hew our way through the underbrush; higher
up it was easier climbing but the tropical downpour descended in
bucketfuls and drenched us to the skin. Under foot it was so slimy we
slipped back a step for every two we advanced. The guides lost the
trail and we slunk under the trees while they found the path.
"Later we spent the night in a cave. The fire went out as it was as
much a man's life was worth to descend into the barranca for wood. The
roof leaked and we woke up with our heads in a pool of water.
"The next morning the ravines were raging torrents. Advancing under
these difficulties we finally descried above the tree tops the misty
expanse of Lake Ticaca. Like all high waters it is sullen, cold and
deep. There on the shores we found the log hut of an old Nephite whose
only daughter had been carried away by the Gadiantons. He had lived
there as a hermit vowing vengeance ever since. He offered to act as
guide and lent us his two boats. It took many trips across the lake to
get all of our party over and when we reached the bluffs on the other
side Hagoth's plans became apparent.
"The reason that the robber's rendezvous had never been discovered was
because of the impassable ravines that hedge it in on all sides.
"Hagoth proposed to take the shortest route straight across the summit
of Mt. Misti which towers eighteen thousand feet into the air. So up we
climbed, up into the rarified atmosphere, among the pines and cedars.
Occasionally the clouds below us parted like the veil of a Turkish
beauty, affording us seductive glimpses of the tropics at reeling
distances below. We passed the timber line and traveled across the lava
beds, undulating hills of black ashes. Here grew a yellow daisy with
frosted leaves; somewhere below the clouds lay the world; but our goal
was the snow clad peak that cut the sky in two.
"The ascent through the snow was bitterly cruel; some of the men were
bleeding at the nose, others found it difficult to breathe, while some,
with palpitation of the heart were crawling on their hands and knees.
We were all temporarily blinded by the sun on the snow.
"At the top we skirted the sulphurous crater for a mile and a half and
on the other side, slid down the snow clad peak on mats. Then we had to
make quick work of it, for provisions that are carried as a man pack
are light.
"Six hundred feet below us in the barranca was the camp of the
Gadiantons. A gruesome spectacle they made in the light of the camp
fire. Despite the cold, their lean brown limbs were bare save where
they had decorated them with blood. Their loins were swathed in
sheepskin and their shaven heads cockaded with feathers. Altogether,
we were glad that the depth of the canyon lay between us. All night we
toiled loosening the great boulders of the cliff that had been eroded
into great blocks. At dawn of the second day we started several of them
over the cliff by way of good morning. They cut great oak trees off
from their roots, and crumbled to pieces in the ravine below. They did
not do much damage but they brought the robbers out from their lair.
When a side of the mountain crashed down, Zorum, the leader of the
band, came out and called a truce.
"Hagoth descended to parley with him; he left instructions with us
to wipe out the band in case he did not return. He offered them
their choice of death or surrender. The terms were that they return
to civilization and become decent citizens. It is one thing to die
gloriously on the field of battle, and another to have the life crushed
out of you like a rat in a hole. There was no possible way of escape
as before they could get out, the top of the mountain would bury them
alive, leaving them all like one of their men who had already been hit
by a rolling boulder and whose remains were but a mangled mass in the
gulley. They surrendered. They didn't seem to be enjoying themselves
much up there in the mountains, anyway. So Hagoth just brought them
down with him."
Seantum, as he leaned back in the boat and heard of the success of his
rival, watched Ahah's expressive face, now agonizing in fear, again
exulting in Hagoth's triumph. He knew that he had lost.
By the time the victorious warriors entered the city Ahah was on her
balcony waving her scarf. Amid strains of barbaric music and the
hurrahs of the populace she beheld her chieftain borne through the
streets in the gilded chariot of the Lamanite king. As he glanced in
her direction Hagoth removed his sable plume and let the sun caress the
glossy black head she loved so well. Behind him stalked the Gadianton
robbers, frightful apparitions to the awe-struck people. The travel
stained Lamanite soldiers brought up the rear.
During all the feasting that followed, when Hagoth sat on the right
hand of the king, and the great of the nation assembled at the board to
hear him lauded and glorified, the chief panted for the time when all
this tinsel should be over and he should be alone with a girl and claim
his reward.
[Illustration: ZORABEL]
GENERAL MORONI.
I.
THE CAPITULATION OF THE LAMANITES.
Moroni leaned back in his chair under the canopy of his tent. Another
man, under the strain that the young general had passed through, would
have looked wan and haggard. He possessed that inexhaustible vitality
characteristic of great leaders, that can be drained heavily and still
meet all emergencies.
"A messenger to see you, sir," announced a young lieutenant, pulling
back the flap of the tent.
Moroni looked up to behold an Indian of powerful build. As he entered
the fur mantle fell from his shoulders leaving them bare. As their
eyes rested on the superb figure whose skin glittered like polished
mahogany, the captains in the room ejaculated in admiration. The new
comer's bold eyes scanned every face and finally rested on that of the
youngest man in the room.
"I address the commander-in-chief of the Nephite forces?" he presumed.
Moroni eyed him keenly, as he inclined his head.
"Zerahemnah, leader of the Lamanites, sends greetings, and asks when he
can meet you to make terms."
"Let him come at high noon to yonder eminence," replied Moroni.
The messenger bowed and silently withdrew. As his magnificent form
disappeared, the captains whose composure had been perfect during
the interview, threw back their heads and raised a shout of triumph.
To them it meant the end of the war at practically their own terms.
Hostilities had ceased since the night before. The Nephite forces,
though outnumbered two to one, had triumphed over their ancient
enemies. The battle had been long and stubbornly fought until night
closed down to stop the conflict. The captains, picturesque in their
bandages, had fresh sword cuts as proof of their valor, but even they
did not know that the battle would go down in history as the greatest
that the Lamanites had ever fought. The Indians were ably generaled,
for Zerahemnah, himself a Zoramite, a descendent of the servant of
Laban, had placed the bloodthirsty Amalekites as officers among them.
Little wonder that they fought like dragons.
That the Nephites had vanquished them against such odds was due to
three things: they were fighting for their liberty as the Lamanites
had tried to take them into bondage; they had superior arms and were
protected by armor while their dusky antagonists fought almost naked:
Moroni by strategy had surrounded the Lamanites by the Nephites, had
penned in Zerahemnah's forces between two wings of his own, and crushed
them.
With spies he had determined the line of the Lamanite march. Then he
placed one of his generals, Lehi, with his command in ambush behind the
hill Riplah. When Zerahemnah advanced to the banks of the river Sidon,
Lehi attacked him and finally drove him across the river.