BRIAN DE BOIS GUILBERT
There was just one thing that saved Jim at this juncture. It was an
incident which he did not guess at the time and I am not sure that he
became aware of it in later life, and yet there are reasons to surmise
that he may have heard of it.
As has not been related, the big guardian of the señorita in the cell
high up in the tower, had started to give the alarm to the gang in the
banquet hall by pressing a button near the door. James Darlington had
seen her make the move to ring, and his alarm had been added to by the
cry of warning from the crazy woman. He had to run for his life as the
reader well knows.
So much Jim was aware of but he did not see what had happened when the
red headed woman started to give the alarm. The Señorita da Cordova was
not a cowed and spiritless girl and in spite of the terror of her
situation, when she saw the intention of her jailer she glided the
length of the cell with remarkable swiftness and caught the arm of the
woman. The señorita was not a delicate creature either, and in spite of
her apparent pallor, she showed a lithe agility in struggling with this
giant of a woman, who had the strength of two ordinary men and was
probably nearly the equal of the redoubtable Jim himself.
After a struggle lasting some minutes, the girl was thrown with severe
violence against the wall of the cell and lay there stunned and bleeding
from a cut on the forehead, but her efforts had given Jim time to reach
the library which he had to pass and bolt and lock the door to it,
before ever the chase began. Meanwhile the unfortunate woman who had
been of so much help to Jim had time to flee to a remote corner of the
house, where she would be free from pursuit.
James had determined to make his escape the same way he had gotten in,
join his comrade, the engineer, who was outside and together plan a new
attack. Perhaps they could get the aid of the Federal authorities.
At that moment Jim's eye fell on the hollow figure in armor which he had
dubbed Brian de Bois Guilbert, and he determined instantly to carry out
the plan that had first occurred to him, which from its very wildness
might spell success. At least try it he would; anything was better than
leaving the young Spanish girl in the hands of this evil crew,
especially as the Mexican dwarf had openly declared his intention of
making love to her.
Hastily Jim lit the wax candles on the mantel, that sent their soft
gleam through the long, beautiful room, and gave him sufficient light to
work by. Now Jim was not only deft, but desperate. How he got into that
suit of medieval armor, he could not tell. It would be doubtful if he
could have done so in cold blood, but he was spurred on by the terror of
the situation. It was just like a man pursued and in danger of immediate
capture by his enemies, who comes to a chasm that in ordinary moments he
would not think of attempting to cross, but he leaps it because he has
to, or fall into the hands of those who pursue him.
As the renegades rushed through the wide hall, with roar of harsh
voices, the big hound in the lead, Jim was nearly all saddled and
bridled and ready for the fray. It was with a strange feeling of
exultation and also of safety that James Darlington found himself thus
accoutered and discovered that he could move with comparative ease in
the glittering armor on which shone the lights of the candles from above
the fireplace.
It was easy to imagine Jim, who was large enough in his own proper
person, and now a figure of gigantic size, to be a hero of old Romance;
who with three plumed helmets, unheralded and unknown enters the lists
to rescue the oppressed and beautiful heroine from the hands of the
ruthless destroyer.
Perhaps Jim was a hero, but I will give a considerable sum to the boy or
girl who first finds in the many thrilling narratives of "The Frontier
Boys," our friend James spoken of or referred to as "our hero." But to
leave this realm of fancy and to come back to the practical world of our
narrative.
Jim knew that the time allowed him was apt to be very short before he
would be compelled to make his début in his new character, as the man
with the iron jaw, mailed fist and steel legs, so he gripped his heavy
sword, which none but he could wield (see Walter Scott, who preceded the
present writer by some years). I hope you will forgive this jesting, but
Jim was a great hand to make fun in the very presence of danger, a trait
peculiar to the American character, and so I may be pardoned for
following in his footsteps, for I, too, am an American.
Jim advanced toward the door, and he was thoroughly pleased and
encouraged to discover that he could move with comparative ease though
not noiselessly of course. But what did a little noise inside the room
amount to, when there came the roar of the pursuers outside, for they
had returned upon Jim's trail, guided by the hound.
The crisis had now come. The huge beast knew that his prey was inside,
and he rushed against the door with all of his maddened bulk, and his
great bark boomed through the castle, and filled with fury the Mexican
bandits who raged on the outside; then came the voice of their leader.
"Back, you fools," he cried; "away from that door."
They were quick to obey, and at that instant there came the sharp report
of a pistol; the bullet splintered through the thick casement but it
glanced from Jim's steel breastplate, but this attack aroused him to
action. With a thrill and tremor of the nerves which he could not
repress, he drew back the bolts and with a cry, the impulse of his
humorous excitement, "Desdichado to the Rescue!" he flung the door wide
open, and stepped with clanging stride through the smoke into the dimly
lit hall.
To have seen that great steel-clad figure moving with sudden life would
have struck terror to even the stoutest hearts, and shaken the steadiest
nerves. But these superstitious Mexicans were driven almost out of their
excitable minds by the sudden horror of this seeming apparition. Of one
accord they fled, gibbering, towards the stairs, one falling in a faint
from fright before he reached them. Even the dwarf who was not afraid of
the Powers of Darkness themselves, retreated slowly, sullenly and
suspiciously down the hall.
But there was one of all that gang who did not flee, and that was the
valiant hound. He sprang full for Jim as the latter stepped from the
room into the hall. Jim was not altogether unprepared for this, for he
had reckoned that the hound would be the one to make him trouble. If it
had not been for the protection of the armor which he wore it would have
gone hard with the youth.
But his own strength with the added weight of his suit of mail enabled
him to meet the fierce rush of the beast without losing his footing. It
also saved his arm and shoulder from being torn by the grip of the
animal's jaws. It only dented him as the expression goes. Then with a
short arm thrust of his sword he put the hound out of business.
Determined to follow up his advantage and make the rout thorough, he
advanced to the head of the staircase.
The dwarf had just reached the foot of the stairs, and looking up he saw
the giant figure in armor and with a snarl he took quick aim and fired,
the bullet glancing from the helm of Jim's armor and making a long
furrow in the plaster of the ceiling.
Jim had no idea of quietly standing there as a tin target for his enemy
to fire at. There was, he noted, a small marble bust on a pedestal near
the top of the staircase. This he seized in his iron grasp and hurled it
at the elfish figure in the hall below. Now James was "quite some"
thrower as they say in the state of Jersey. The dwarf was marvelously
quick, too, but the white flash of stone came near getting him and as he
dodged he slipped and fell and the bust busted in all directions, one
fragment cutting his cheek, with its sharp impact.
"Look out, Jim! Look out quick!" so a friend would have cried but it was
too late.
While the men had all fled in utter fear, a woman was coming quickly to
retrieve their reverse. "Red Annie," as she was known, strong, strident
and feared by everyone within the castle, was on the trail. She was not
to be fooled for an instant by this figure in armor. Noiseless as a
lioness she crept up behind Jim and as he half turned to find another
weapon to his hand he saw her, but not soon enough. With a mighty shove
she sent him toppling down the stairs. However, Jim was able to
partially save himself by gripping at the balustrade.