LINGUAL DIFFICULTIES ACCOMPANIED BY PHYSICAL DANGERS AND FOLLOWED BY THE
ADVENT OF BANDITTI.
After several days had passed away, our travellers found themselves
among the higher passes of the great mountain range of the Andes.
Before reaching that region, however, they had, in one of the villages
through which they passed, supplied themselves each with a fresh stout
mule, besides two serviceable animals to carry their provisions and camp
equipage.
Pedro, who of course rode ahead in the capacity of guide, seemed to
possess an unlimited supply of cash, and Lawrence Armstrong had at least
sufficient to enable him to bear his fair share of the expenses of the
journey. As for Quashy, being a servant he had no expenses to bear.
Of course the finest, as well as the best-looking, mule had been given
to the pretty Manuela, and, despite the masculine attitude of her
position, she sat and managed her steed with a grace of motion that
might have rendered many a white dame envious. Although filled with
admiration, Lawrence was by no means surprised, for he knew well that in
the Pampas, or plains, to which region her father belonged, the Indians
are celebrated for their splendid horsemanship. Indeed, their little
children almost live on horseback, commencing their training long before
they can mount, and overcoming the difficulty of smallness in early
youth, by climbing to the backs of their steeds by means of a fore-leg,
and not unfrequently by the tail.
The costume of the girl was well suited to her present mode of life,
being a sort of light tunic reaching a little below the knees, with
loose leggings, which were richly ornamented with needlework. A straw
hat with a simple feather, covered her head, beneath which her curling
black hair flowed in unconfined luxuriance. She wore no ornament of any
kind, and the slight shoes that covered her small feet were perfectly
plain. In short, there was a modest simplicity about the girl's whole
aspect and demeanour which greatly interested the Englishman, inducing
him to murmur to himself, "What an uncommonly pretty girl she would be
if she were only white!"
The colour of her skin was, indeed, unusually dark, but that fact did
not interfere with the classic delicacy of her features, or the natural
sweetness of her expression.
The order of progress in narrow places was such that Manuela rode behind
Pedro and in front of Lawrence, Quashy bringing up the rear. In more
open places the young Englishman used occasionally to ride up abreast of
Manuela and endeavour to engage her in conversation. He was, to say
truth, very much the reverse of what is styled a lady's man, and had all
his life felt rather shy and awkward in female society, but being a
sociable, kindly fellow, he felt it incumbent on him to do what in him
lay to lighten the tedium of the long journey to one who, he thought,
must naturally feel very lonely with no companions but men. "Besides,"
he whispered to himself, "she is only an Indian, and of course cannot
construe my attentions to mean anything so ridiculous as love-making--
so, I will speak to her in a fatherly sort of way."
Filled with this idea, as the party came out upon a wide and beautiful
table-land, which seemed like a giant emerald set in a circlet of grand
blue mountains, Lawrence pushed up alongside, and said--
"Poor girl, I fear that such prolonged riding over these rugged passes
must fatigue you." Manuela raised her dark eyes to the youth's face,
and, with a smile that was very slight--though not so slight but that it
revealed a double row of bright little teeth--she replied softly--
"W'at you say?"
"Oh! I forgot, you don't speak English. How stupid I am!" said
Lawrence with a blush, for he was too young to act the "fatherly" part
well.
He felt exceedingly awkward, but, observing that the girl's eyes were
again fixed pensively on the ground, he hoped that she had not noticed
the blush, and attempted to repeat the phrase in Spanish. What he said
it is not possible to set down in that tongue, nor can we gratify the
reader with a translation. Whatever it was, Manuela replied by again
raising her dark eyes for a moment--this time without a smile--and
shaking her head.
Poor Lawrence felt more awkward than ever. In despair he half thought
of making trial of Latin or Greek, when Pedro came opportunely to the
rescue. Looking back he began--
"Senhor Armstrong--"
"I think," interrupted the youth, "that you may dispense with `Senhor.'"
"Nay, I like to use it," returned the guide. "It reminds me so forcibly
of the time when I addressed your good old father thus."
"Well, Senhor Pedro, call me what you please. What were you about to
say?"
"Only that we are now approaching one of the dangerous passes of the
mountains, where baggage-mules sometimes touch the cliffs with their
packs, and so get tilted over the precipices. But our mules are quiet,
and with ordinary care we have nothing to fear."
The gorge in the mountains, which the travellers soon afterwards
entered, fully justified the guide's expression "dangerous." It was a
wild, rugged glen, high up on one side of which the narrow pathway
wound--in some places rounding a cliff or projecting boulder, which
rendered the passage of the baggage-mules extremely difficult. Indeed,
one of the mules did slightly graze a rock with its burden; and,
although naturally sure-footed, was so far thrown off its balance as to
be within a hair's-breadth of tumbling over the edge and being dashed to
pieces on the rocks below, where a turbulent river rushed tumultuously
at the bottom of the glen.
One of the snow-clad peaks of the higher Andes lay right before them.
One or two guanacos--animals of the lama species--gazed at them from the
other side of the gorge, and several ill-omened vultures wheeled in the
sky above, as if anticipating a catastrophe which would furnish them
with a glorious meal.
"A most suitable place for the depredations of banditti, or fellows like
Conrad of the Mountains, I should think," said Lawrence.
"Bandits are sometimes met with here," returned Pedro, quietly.
"And what if we should meet with such in a place where there is scarcely
room to fight?"
"Why then," returned the guide, with a slight curl of his moustache, "we
should have to try who could fight best in the smallest space."
"Not a pleasant prospect in the circumstances," said Lawrence, thinking
of Manuela.
For some time they rode together in silence; but Quashy, who had
overheard, the conversation, and was of a remarkably combative
disposition, though the reverse of bad-tempered or quarrelsome, could
not refrain from asking--
"W'y de Guv'mint not hab lots ob sojers an' pleece in de mountains to
squash de raskils?"
"Because Government has enough to do to squash the rascals nearer home,
Quashy," answered Pedro. "Have a care, the track gets rather steep
here."
He glanced over his shoulder at the Indian girl as he spoke. She was
riding behind with an air of perfect ease and self-possession.
"Fall to the rear, Quashy," said Pedro.
The black obeyed at once, and a minute later they turned the corner of a
jutting rock, which had hitherto shut out from view the lower part of
the gorge and the track they were following.
The sight that met their view was calculated to try the strongest
nerves, for there, not a hundred paces in advance, and coming towards
them, were ten of the most villainous-looking cut-throats that could be
imagined, all mounted, and heavily armed with carbine, sword, and
pistol.
Taken completely by surprise, the bandits--for such Pedro knew them to
be--pulled up. Not so our guide. It was one of the peculiarities and
strong points of Pedro's character that he was never taken by surprise,
or uncertain what to do.
Instantly he drew his sword with one hand, a pistol with the other, and,
driving his spurs deep into his mule, dashed down the steep road at the
banditti. In the very act he looked back, and, in a voice that caused
the echoes of the gorge to ring, shouted in Spanish--
"Come on, comrades! here they are at last! close up!"
A yell of the most fiendish excitement and surprise from Quashy--who was
only just coming into view--assisted the deception. If anything was
wanting to complete the effect, it was the galvanic upheaval of
Lawrence's long arms and the tremendous flourish of his longer legs, as
he vaulted over his mule's head, left it scornfully behind, uttered a
roar worthy of an African lion, and rushed forward on foot. He grasped
his great cudgel, for sword and pistol had been utterly forgotten!
Like a human avalanche they descended on the foe. That foe did not
await the onset. Panic-stricken they turned and went helter-skelter
down the pass--all except two, who seemed made of sterner stuff than
their fellows, and hesitated.
One of these Pedro rode fairly down, and sent, horse and all, over the
precipice. Lawrence's cudgel beat down the guard of the other,
flattened his sombrero, and stopping only at his skull, stretched him on
the ground. As for those who had fled, the appalling yells of Quashy,
as he pursued them, scattered to the winds any fag-ends of courage they
might have possessed, and effectually prevented their return. So
tremendous and sudden was the result, that Manuela felt more inclined to
laugh than cry, though naturally a good deal frightened.
Lawrence and Pedro were standing in consultation over the fallen bandit
when the negro came back panting from the chase.
"Da's wan good job dooed, anyhow," he said. "What's you be do wid
_him_?"
"What would you recommend?" asked Pedro.
The negro pointed significantly to the precipice, but the guide shook
his head.
"No, I cannot kill in cold blood, though I have no doubt he richly
deserves it. We'll bind his hands and leave him. It may be weakness on
my part, but we can't take him on, you know."
While Pedro was in the act of binding the robber, a wild shriek, as of
some one in terrible agony, startled them. Looking cautiously over the
precipice, where the sound seemed to come from, they saw that the man
whom Pedro had ridden down was hanging over the abyss by the boughs of a
small shrub. His steed lay mangled on the rocks of the river bank at
the bottom. There was an agonised expression in the man's countenance
which would have touched a heart much less soft than that of Lawrence
Armstrong. Evidently the man's power of holding on was nearly
exhausted, and he could not repress a shriek at the prospect of the
terrible death which seemed so imminent.
Being a practised mountaineer, Lawrence at once, without thought of
personal danger, and moved only by pity, slipped over the crags, and,
descending on one or two slight projections, the stability of which even
a Swiss goat might have questioned, reached the bush. A look of fierce
and deadly hate was on the robber's face, for, judging of others by
himself, he thought, no doubt, that his enemy meant to hasten his
destruction.
"Here, catch hold--I'll save you!" cried Lawrence, extending his strong
right hand.
A glance of surprise told that he was understood. The bandit let go the
hold of one of his hands and made a convulsive grasp at his rescuer.
Their fingers touched, but at the same moment the branch gave way, and,
with a cry of wild despair, the wretched man went headlong down.
Not, however, to destruction. The effort he had made threw him slightly
to one side of the line which his horse had taken in its fall. The
difference was very slight indeed, yet it sufficed to send him towards
another bush lower down the cliff. Still, the height he had to fall
would have ensured the breaking of all his bones if the bush had not
hurled him off with a violent rebound.
Lawrence almost felt giddy with horror. Next moment a heavy plunge was
heard. The man had fallen into a deep dark pool in the river, which was
scarce distinguishable from the cliffs above. Being fringed with
bushes, it was impossible to note whether he rose again. Lawrence was
still gazing anxiously at the pool, when something touched his cheek.
It was a lasso which Pedro had quietly dropped over his shoulders.
"Hold fast to it, senhor, you'll never get up without it," he said, in
tones so earnest that the youth became suddenly alive to the great
danger of his position. In the haste and anxiety of his descent he had
failed to note that one or two of the slight projections on which he had
placed his feet had broken away, and that therefore a return to the top
of the almost perpendicular precipice by the same route was
impracticable. Even the slight ledge on which he stood, and from which
the little shrub grew, seemed to be crumbling away beneath his great
weight. With that feeling of alarm which the sudden and unexpected
prospect of instant death brings, we presume, even to the stoutest
hearts, Lawrence clutched the line convulsively. He was ignorant at
that time of the great strength of the South American lasso, and
hesitated to trust his life entirely to it. Pedro guessed his feelings.
"Don't fear to trust it," he said, "many a wild bull it has held, four
times your size; but wait till Quashy and I get our feet well fixed--
we'll haul you up easily."
"Have you made the end fast?" cried Lawrence, looking up and
encountering the anxious gaze of the Indian maiden.
"Yes, massa, all fast," answered Quashy, whose look of horror can be
more easily imagined than described.
"Hold on, then, and _don't_ haul."
The two men obeyed, and the active youth pulled himself up hand over
hand, making good use in passing of any hollow or projection that
afforded the slightest hold for his toes. At the top he was roughly
grasped by his rescuers and dragged into safety.
"Poor fellow!" he exclaimed, on reaching the top.
"Well, massa," said Quashy, with a broad grin, "das jist w'at I's agwine
to say, but you's too quick for me."
"I meant the bandit, not myself," said Lawrence, looking over the cliff
at the pool with an expression of great pity.
"Ha! don't be uneasy about him," said Pedro, with a short laugh, as he
resumed the binding of the stunned robber. "If he's killed or drowned
he's well out o' the way. If he has escaped he'll be sure to recover
and make himself a pest to the neighbourhood for many a day to come.--
No, no, my good man, it's of no use, you needn't try it."
The latter part of this speech was in Spanish, and addressed to the
robber, who, having recovered consciousness, had made a sudden struggle
to shake off his captor. As suddenly he ceased the effort on finding
that the strength of the guide was greatly superior to his own.
In another minute Pedro stood up, having bound the bandit's hands in
front of him in a manner that rendered any effort at self-liberation
impossible--at least in a short space of time.
"There," said Pedro to Lawrence, "I'll warrant him to lead a harmless
life until to-morrow at any rate."
As he spoke he drew the man's pistols, knife, and carbine, and handed
them to Quashy.
"There," he said, "you may find these useful."
Meanwhile the robber lay quietly on his back, glancing from one to
another of the party with looks of hatred that told clearly enough how
he would have acted had he been free.
Turning to him as he was about to remount and quit the scene, Pedro said
very sternly in Spanish--
"You and I have met before, friend, and you know my powers with the
rifle at long-range. If you offer to rise from the spot where you now
lie until we have disappeared round that rocky point half a mile along
the road, you are a dead man. After we have turned the point, you may
go where you will and do what you please. I might point out that in
refraining from cutting your throat I am showing mercy which you don't
deserve--but it is useless to throw pearls to swine."
The man spoke no word of reply, though he did look a little surprised as
the party left him and rode away.
"Would it not have been safer to have bound his hands behind his back?"
asked Lawrence.
"No doubt it would, but he is secure enough for our purpose as he is.
If I had bound him as you suggest, he would have been almost certain to
perish, being quite unable to help himself. As it is, he can use his
tied hands to some extent, and, by perseverance in sawing the lines
against sharp rocks, he will set himself free at last. By that time,
however, we shall be beyond his reach."
From time to time they all glanced over their shoulders as they rode
along, but the bound man did not stir. After they had passed beyond the
point of rock before referred to, Lawrence's curiosity prompted him to
turn back and peep round.
The bandit had already risen from the ground, and could be seen walking,
as quickly as circumstances permitted, up the track by which they had
just descended.
In a few minutes his tall figure was seen to pause for a brief space at
the summit of the pass. Then it disappeared on the other side into the
gloomy recesses of the mountains.