"Forward, gentlemen," I cried. "Great work lies ahead of us."
It was full time we started. We had paused but a few minutes at the
inn, but already in the distance behind us signs of commotion in the
direction of the station were to be discerned.
Only one thought found place in my mind, however. It was not for the
danger we had escaped, nor the work that lay ahead, nor the risk
inseparable from this close companionship with the two Carlists, of
whose desperate character I had had full evidence. Sarita was but four
hours ahead of me, and we should meet at latest in Daroca.
*CHAPTER XXIV*
*A CHECK*
We were all three well mounted, and we rattled our horses along at a
good pace, quickening soon into a smart gallop, until we felt that the
risks of pursuit from Rubio's men or the soldiery were over, and then we
slackened and took matters more leisurely. We had five and twenty miles
to cover, and a good deal of the road was rough and hilly enough to make
us desirous to save our horses as much as possible.
But the slower pace gave the greater opportunity for conversation, and
in this I knew there must be a certain amount of risk that something
might be said which would rouse my companions' doubts of my sincerity.
So far they had an absolute conviction that I was heart and soul with
them in the cause, that I was a very Carlist of Carlists, and one to
whom they owed that kind of rough-and-ready obedience which a recognised
leader might rightly demand.
So long as we were engaged together in escaping from the police there
was little chance of their making any compromising discoveries about me;
but every mile that carried us nearer to Daroca was also bringing me
face to face with a very different position, in which a hundred pitfalls
would threaten me with discovery in every direction. There were a
thousand things I should be expected to know, and any number of people
whom I ought to be able to recognise; and failure in any one of them
might bring the glaring search-light of suspicion of treachery upon me.
A mere hint that I was a spy would expose me instantly to the imminent
peril of death.
These considerations made me thoughtful, as well they might, and I rode
plunged in deep thought. But I could see no alternative except to leave
everything to blind chance and just do what my wits might suggest as
each crisis arose. Sarita was ahead, and, as I knew, in danger; and to
Sarita I would go, let the peril be what it might, and come from either
Government men or Carlists.
"Have you formed any plans, senor?" asked Cabrera, in his strong, deep
voice, as we rode side by side. Garcia was riding some hundred yards
ahead at my suggestion, to warn us of trouble should any threaten us,
and we could only make out his form indistinctly in the evening gloom.
"How can we plan till we know what is happening with our friends? If
all is well, we must carry on the fight; if all ill, we can only scatter
and hide. A child can plan so far, and the wisest of us no farther. I
am very anxious."
"You are right. Things have gone badly. Instead of the simultaneous
risings, the Government have got their hands in first, and have dealt us
a heavy blow," he answered, rather dismally.
"How came you to let the young Pretender escape? I saw you carry him
off, with rare cleverness; and when you drove away with him I believed
the day was won for Spain."
"In the devil's name I don't know how it was done," he answered, with
genuine feeling. "For my part, I am shamed. I know only that once,
when the carriage stopped, I saw a horseman and a riderless horse
closing in on us, and got down to learn the cause, fearing trouble. It
must have been the devil himself, I think, in the flesh, and hell
organised a miracle to save the Pretender. The horseman rode me
down--me, Juan Cabrera--and stretched me senseless on the road before I
had a thought of his intention, and when I came to, the thing had
happened. How many men there were with him, I know not--Garcia, who
came running up at the close, swears that there was never more than
one--but it can't be true. If ever we meet--and I should know him again
in twenty thousand men--and there is an ounce of strength left in my
arm, I'll use it to plunge a knife into the heart of the man who dealt
that blow at me and Spain."
"Good. You were ever a man prompt to action, Cabrera; and you must have
been bewitched." This touched his superstition, however.
"The Holy Saints forefend," he said, hurriedly, crossing himself. "But
I believe it truth that he was no man, but the devil in the shape of a
man. And, mark you, senor," he cried, eagerly, "what else could it be
but wizards' work? Didn't Correja's horse fall and stun him at the very
moment of all others when this could have happened? Aye, and what but
the devil could send Garcia's horse galloping off at the same moment?
But I'll never cease to search for him, and if I don't find him on earth
I'll wait till I get to purgatory, and bribe the devil with gift of my
soul to point him out to me. The curse of all hell upon him!" And then,
somewhat incongruously, he crossed himself again, as though to give
additional power to his curse.
"Aye, the Fates have been against us," said I: and not caring to push
the subject further, and feeling profoundly thankful that his power to
recognise me had fallen so far short of his most vindictive desire, I
urged my horse to a canter, and we rode on in silence. But his talk
made me feel how peril was here always close at my very elbow.
Presently the moon rose, and the brilliant, streaming light flooded the
whole landscape until it was as bright as day. The road was fast
getting rougher and more hilly; the country wilder and more rugged; and
the mountains lay to our left, the peaks towering up to great heights,
majestic and grand in the bathing moonlight. The air was solemnly
still; only the sounds of our horses' feet, the creaking of the saddle
leather, and the musical jingle jangle of the bits breaking the silence.
"We have covered many more than old Tomaso's ten miles, and should be
safe," I said once, as we were walking our horses up one of the steep,
short hills which now checked our progress constantly; but the words
were scarcely out of my lips when Cabrera laid his hand on my bridle arm
and checked his horse.
"Halt, senor. I hear Garcia coming back;" and a moment later his figure
and that of another horseman were silhouetted on the top of the hill,
and they came down to us at a sharp trot.
"There is danger ahead, senor," cried Garcia, as he rode up. "Andreas
has come back to meet and warn us. The soldiers are out in some force
between here and Daroca. Young Juan has taken the senorita to a
hiding-place until the road is clearer, and Andreas here will guide us
by another way."
"Tell me all you know, Andreas," I said to the lad, a sharp,
bright-looking fellow of about eighteen or twenty.
"All went well till we were some five miles from Daroca, senor. I was
keeping to the main road, not expecting any interruption, when I heard
from a friend, who had driven out from the town, that he had passed a
number of mounted soldiers, on patrol work, and he believed that all the
ways into the town were guarded."
"Did you yourself see any soldiers?"
"Not then, but soon afterwards, senor. I climbed a tree on one of the
hillsides, and could make out several parties of them. Perhaps eight or
ten soldiers, or a dozen may be, in each."
"Were any riding this way, or were they merely stationary?"
"Riding this way, senor, not fast, just patrol pace; and I saw them stop
one or two peasant folk and question them."
"And then?"
"I saw I could not bring the senorita into the town, senor, and thought
the best thing to do was to take her to a safe hiding-place and then
ride back, as my grandfather told me."
The news set me thinking fast. It was ugly enough from the Carlist
point of view, but it promised to prove a perfect Godsend to me. I
should catch Sarita before she could get to Daroca and join the rest of
her Carlist friends.
"Where is the hiding-place?" I asked next.
"It lies about a league from the main road, senor. The house of the
farmer Calvarro; you will know him, senors," he said to my companions,
who nodded.
"Very shrewdly chosen," declared Cabrera, readily.
"And very cleverly acted altogether, my lad," I added. "Can you bring
us by a safe path to the house, and afterwards guide us into the town?"
"I can bring you to the house, senor; but I doubt getting into Daroca.
That depends upon the soldiers' vigilance. I can try."
"Forward, then," I cried, eager to get to Sarita.
"It is a very difficult path--a mere mountain track in places--and we
must go cautiously and slowly; but it is the only one," said the lad.
He trotted back to the foot of the hill, where he put his horse at a low
gate, and led us at a smart gallop--he could ride like a centaur, and
his horse seemed as fearless as he was--across two or three fields, and
away up the hill by the side of some vineyards; behind a wood, where the
shadows were as dark as night, and the path absolutely
indistinguishable.
"This is ominous news, Cabrera," I said, when the pace slackened.
"About the worst it could be," he answered, gloomily.
"I read it that Rubio has set the telegraph to work, having learnt, or
guessed, that we were making for Daroca. And this is the reception
prepared for us."
"True; but what are all these soldiers doing round Daroca? It means
more than you fear, senor. They are going to strike, and strike hard at
our very heart. If the headquarters in Daroca are seized, what hope is
there for the cause?"
"We cannot tell yet. It may not be so bad as that. The cause is the
cause of righteousness, and must succeed. We must wait."
"Wait, aye, it is always wait, till one's stomach sickens and pines on
the diet," he cried, bitterly. "We must get into Daroca before the
night's many hours older, let the soldiers swarm where they please."
"My intention is this--to go to this Calvarro's house, join the
senorita, and either make a dash for the town with her, or send in on
the chance of help getting out to us."
"One plan is as good as another, I fear. The Fates are fighting against
us, senor; and when that's so, the best is no better than the worst, and
the worst no worse than the best," he replied, growing more and more
despondent as matters grew more threatening. That is ever the way with
fatalists.
"These Fates have a human shape and a name well known in Spain,
Cabrera--the name of Sebastian Quesada. It is his brain, and not fate,
that is engineering the destruction of the cause."
"Then why wasn't he dealt with? Are there no arms strong to strike, no
blades sharp to pierce, no wit cunning to find the means, no courage
ready to give life for life? By the Holy Virgin, are we all cowards?
Had I had my way, the young Pretender had never escaped! This comes of
woman's work and silly fears and sickly sentiment. What is his life, or
Quesada's, or of any one of them, more than that of the meanest of us?
My arm, aye, and my life, too, could have been had for the asking. As
if you could drive the wild beast of revolution with a silken thread;
with your senorita here, and your senorita there! And now, the force we
were afraid to use is to be turned to crush us."
"Will railing at what hasn't been done help us to think of what we have
to do?" I asked, sternly. "What sort of courage or wit is that which
finds its tongue when the hour to act has passed? If those are your
thoughts about the senorita, who has risked her liberty and her life to
rush now into the thickest of the danger when peril is at its height, go
back and save your skin. There is still time to fly; but don't plague
us and pollute the air with your doleful cries."
"Good," cried Garcia, who had listened to us in silence. "That crack on
your head, Cabrera, has knocked the wit out of you. What is it but the
act of a jackass to bray in the face of danger?"
"By the God that made me, I am a fool and have fallen low to be the butt
of your clumsy wit, Garcia, and, the Holy Saints help me, to deserve
your gibes and have no answer. Senor, I beg your forgiveness; and if I
grumble again, put a bullet in my head and I'll say it serves me right.
The senorita, the Virgin bless her lovely face, shan't lack help while I
can give it. But I'm the better for my growl."
We rode forward again then, the ground offering a little better going;
and when we had to walk the horses next, I called the lad Andreas to my
side and questioned him more closely as to what he had seen and heard of
the doings in Daroca, and about our chance of getting into the town from
the farm where he had left Sarita.
"I forgot to tell you, senor, that I hinted to Juan that if the senorita
would let him leave her, he should try and make his way into Daroca--no
one would suspect him--and find out how things were going there and
return to Calvarro's with his report."
"You are a clever, farseeing lad;" and I gave him a liberal reward for
his wit. "Now think, is there no way by which we could possibly steal
into the town? It is most urgent."
"There is but one possible way, senor, and it is right on the other side
of Daroca from Calvarro's. We should have to make a wide circuit over
the shoulder of the hills to the north through the thick olive woods
there. I know the route, but even on horseback it would take some hours
to cover it."
"Still, at the worst it could be done?"
"Yes, at the worst, senor."
"And how long, think you, could anyone lie concealed at Calvarro's?"
"I can scarcely say, senor. It must depend upon how wide the soldiers
push out their search parties, and how well those who guide them know
the country. But they would have difficulty in finding anyone in Daroca
to act as guide; and without a guide the soldiers themselves might pass
and repass the place without suspicion."
"Even in daylight?"
"Yes, even in daylight, senor."
"And you think we shall find no soldiers between here and there?"
"I believe there is no chance of it--but Senor Cabrera knows the place
and can answer that as well as I."
"Good, push on then with all possible haste," I said, and dropping back
to Cabrera I told him that I had made a change in my plan.
"Andreas tells me it is still possible to get into and out of Daroca
without being seen, and what I think should be done is this: Send one of
the lads by the quickest way into the town to warn our friends and to
prepare a party to come to us; and you, or perhaps better, both you and
Garcia, go with the other lad to meet them by the longer way, and bring
them to us at Calvarro's. We can make the place our headquarters for
the time."
"I think you're forgetting one thing, senor," he replied, with a grim
smile. "If there's a means of getting into Daroca, the senorita won't
stop at Calvarro's, but will insist on going herself. Indeed, I shall
be more than a little surprised if we find she hasn't gone before we
reach Calvarro's at all."
Knowing Sarita as I did, I felt the truth of this.
"We will see," I said; and as our young guide again hurried us forward
then I said no more. The way was more open for a mile or two now, and
we rattled forward at a sharp trot in single file. Then came another
steep climb up the shoulder of the mountain and down on the other side,
both so steep that we had to dismount and lead our horses, and at the
bottom I was told we were within a mile of our destination.
Instinctively then we rode in dead silence, keeping to cover for every
possible yard of the way, Andreas leading some little distance ahead.
Suddenly we saw him halt, turn in the saddle, hold up a hand to warn us,
and then slip from his horse and lead him right under the shadow of some
olive trees. We followed his example, and a minute later he came back on
foot.
"Soldiers, on the road down there," he whispered, pointing ahead of us.
"We have to cross the road and must wait. You may leave your horse,
senor, he is trained like the rest, and will stand for hours if need be.
We can creep forward and watch them."
He and I went forward then, and he led me to a point from which,
ourselves unseen, we could see the road below.
"How came they here?" I whispered, "so close to Calvarro's?"
"I don't understand it; but they are not on the direct road there;
merely patrolling, I think, on chance."
"I can see five," I whispered; "how many do you make out?"
"There are seven horses, senor."
"By heaven! you're right. Two must be scouting on foot. And there go
two more."
The party had halted, and, as I spoke, two of the men left the rest,
and, clambering over a gate on the other side of the road, were soon out
of sight among the shadows of a grove of trees. The rest dismounted
then, and, holding their horses, lighted cigarettes and stood chatting
together.
"Can you hear what they're saying, Andreas?"
"No, senor; but we ought to know where they're going. I can get close
down to them, if you wish, and may be able to hear their plans."
"Yes, go, but for God's sake be careful; our lives or theirs may turn on
what you do."
Without a word he slipped away from my side, and with the silence and
adroitness of a trained Indian scout he vanished, leaving me a prey to
deep anxiety.
I watched the soldiers in the road below in a fever of suspense for any
sign that they suspected his presence; but they gave none. The voices
reached me in an indistinguishable murmur, broken by an occasional laugh
and an oath in a louder tone. Now and then the horses moved and the
accoutrements rattled and jingled; and once or twice a match was struck
as some one or other of the men lighted a fresh cigarette.
This suspense continued for several minutes, and presently two of the
soldiers who had been away returned, and were greeted with eager
questions by their comrades.
Then a new fear alarmed me: that scouts would be sent up to where we lay
concealed; and a confused medley of thoughts of how we should act in
such a case and of the possible consequences rushed into my head,
increasing my anxiety and alarm a thousandfold.
It was the fear of neither capture nor death that stirred my pulses so
keenly. We were strong enough, having the advantage of surprise, to
more than cope with so small a party. But if the tussle came and any of
the men were killed, as they were sure to be, the consequences to Sarita
and myself would be incalculably compromising. If I was to have help
from the Palace, I must be able to ask for it with clean hands; and if I
were known to have taken part in a fight with the soldiery in which
lives were lost, my hope of help would be gone.
Moreover, my own feeling was one of unutterable aversion from shedding
blood, or sanctioning it to be shed. Whatever excuse the Carlists might
have in their own minds for violence, I had none. I was not one of
them, except by the accident of this association for Sarita's sake; and
for me to raise my hand to take a man's life in such a case would be
murder and nothing short of it.
Many thoughts of this kind beat themselves into my brain in the terrible
minutes that followed the return of the two scouts, until I was tempted
to go back to my companions and at all hazards order a retreat and find
some other plan of getting to Calvarro's farm and to Sarita. Had
Andreas been by my side at the moment, I should have done it, but
without him we were powerless; and to leave him behind would have been
an act of treachery and cowardice as well as folly.
Those minutes of suspense were wellnigh equal in intensity to a death
agony.
*CHAPTER XXV*
*AT CALVARRO'S*
The tension of suspense was broken at length. I caught sight of the
figures of the second couple of scouts on their return as they crossed a
patch of moonlight at a little distance, and almost at the same moment a
hand was laid on my shoulder, and the lad Andreas stood at my side. He
came as silently as a shadow out of the darkness.
"We must fly, senor, there is danger," he whispered. "They will send out
other scouts in this direction as soon as the last return. But I can
trick them."
We hurried back to our companions, and Andreas, holding his horse's
bridle, led the way. I told the other two to follow, and myself brought
up the rear, glancing back now and again in great anxiety lest the
soldiers should catch sight of us. But the lad knew his business, and a
sharp turn up the hillside to the right brought us under the cover of a
wood, and gave us an effective hiding-place.
We followed him in silence, and even the horses seemed to share a sense
of the danger, so warily did they move. They were indeed, as Andreas
had said, perfectly trained animals; and to that training we owed our
safety that night.
When we had walked on this way some few hundred yards up the hill, our
guide found a track into the wood, and along this we went, the darkness
deepening with every step, until it was impenetrable. We were some
hundred yards from the entrance, when Andreas stopped so suddenly that
we ran one against the other in a confused muddle of men and horses.
"There is a small clearing here on the right," he said in a whisper.
"If you leave your horses free they will follow mine." And so it
proved; the intelligent beasts knew his voice, and went after him with a
sagacity that astonished and delighted me. "You will be safe here, I
think, senor; and, with your permission, I will go back and find out the
soldiers' movements. There is no risk for me. But please do not touch
the horses; they will not be got to move without trouble until I return,
and will stand like statues until I tell them; and, remember, voices
travel far in such a still air--even whispers."