Unluckily, nothing could be proved through the telephone people, though
there was certain circumstantial evidence against one or two Mexican
women, as I heard through Eagle March. But American families who
employed Mexicans were privately informed of the existence of a possible
plot against them, and consequently a number of Mexican servants in El
Paso were thrown out of employment at an hour's notice. The authorities
did all they could to keep any report out of the papers, but, of course,
did not succeed, and the "extras" had choice tit-bits of sensation for
that afternoon. The mysterious threat of an impending raid was enlarged
upon, too, and to calm the public, as well as impress "the other side of
the river," it was decided to have a great parade of troops through the
town. A day was settled upon to be called "Army Day"; but meanwhile,
precautions were taken to guard against any "surprise coup," such as had
been carried out across the Rio Grande at Juarez by a few
Constitutionalists against Federals, one night some months before.
The crowds who had been out to stare at the concentration camp, peopled
with dark-faced thousands of men, women, and children, trailed in
procession as near as they were allowed to approach the field guns
placed on a bare, brown eminence whence their long noses pointed grimly
across the river. There were six of these guns the day I saw them, all
guns of Captain March's battery; but owing to their alignment, and the
position of El Paso's few skyscrapers between this hill and the river,
only four of the guns would threaten destruction to any buildings in the
town, in case the artillery had to be brought into action.
The other two could be fired in the unlikely event of a disturbance, it
was believed, without danger to American property. I heard this, with
lots of other exciting details of the preparations going on, from Tony
Dalziel, who thought--whether rightly or wrongly--that he could chat to
me on the one great subject of interest without indiscretion. He told me
among other things, that if fire had to be opened on Juarez, just across
the river, he understood from talk he heard that these two comparatively
innocuous guns would alone be used at first. If the damage they did on
the opposite side were enough to force the enemy to capitulate in haste,
the other four guns would remain silent, and El Paso intact. But, said
Tony (and his fellow officers said the same), in spite of the persistent
rumour of a raid, it was almost certain now that there would be no
trouble. It was whispered that because Americans had given sanctuary to
Federal troops in flight, and for other reasons not so widely known,
General Carranza had wanted to organize an attack on the United States
frontier across the Rio Grande, temptingly shrunken by a long drought;
but it was reported at the same time that General Villa had forcibly
opposed the suggestion, and it was very improbable that any serious
attempt would be made to carry it out.
It was Tuesday when I gave the alarm of the poison plot, and Thursday
was the day gossip suggested for a raid. Nevertheless, the people were
no longer nervous. They felt a joyful confidence in the troops who had
been sent to reinforce the garrison at Fort Bliss, and even the most
bloodcurdling newspaper headlines had at length lost much of their
gruesomeness.
By this time Milly Dalziel was as well as ever once more, and using her
regained health to make a "dead set" at Eagle March. (I shouldn't tell
this of her, if what she did later hadn't influenced events in a
strange, dramatic way.) She couldn't let Eagle alone; and she showed her
feelings so plainly--as a very rich girl sometimes thinks she may do
with a comparatively poor man--that even Eagle himself, despite his lack
of self-conceit and his preoccupation with thoughts of Di, couldn't help
understanding. He kept out of Milly's way as often as he could, but she
attributed this retirement to the calls of duty; and at last began to
behave so foolishly that for her own sake he gently snubbed her.
Poor Milly Dalziel had not her pretty, bright red hair for nothing. Her
impulsive emotions, which she concealed badly, and her fiery temper were
its natural accompaniments. When it burst upon her that Eagle March did
not admire her as she admired him, and thought it best she should
realize this once for all, she suffered a wild reaction of feeling. From
being slavishly, ridiculously in love, she flew to the other extreme;
and after an embarrassing little scene, in which Eagle firmly avoided
her, she broke out to me in hysterical abuse of him. He was rude; he was
"no gentleman"; and she didn't see how I could make a friend of such an
ungracious brute. The one thing he could do was to fly, and she only
wished he _would_ fly--far away, and never be seen again.
I was too sorry for the girl to resent as I ought to have resented her
childish but mean abuse. I knew, only too well, how much it hurt to be
in love with Eagle March, and not to have him care an American red cent
in return. I let Milly talk for a while, and then tried to soothe her
down, saying that she would feel differently about everything next day.
This was the signal for the girl to turn on me, which she did so
ferociously that I began to fear I must find an excuse to cut my visit
short. I wanted to stay; I had very little money for travelling, and I
was sure Father would send funds with reluctance, especially as he no
doubt hoped that Tony and I would after all come together. With Di and
me both safely disposed of to rich husbands, he would be free to marry
Kitty Main, or do anything he pleased. With this thought in my mind, the
situation looked rather desperate, and that night--Thursday night--I was
lying awake to wonder what I could do, when suddenly the night silence
which falls on lively El Paso after twelve was broken with the noise of
a tremendous explosion.
The huge bulk of the hotel quivered, as if struck with a Titan's hammer,
and it must have been the same with every other building in town. I
jumped out of bed mechanically, not knowing what I did. Only my body
acted. For an instant my brain was dazed--connection cut off. The first
thing I really knew, I found myself standing at the open window clinging
to the curtains. "What is it? What is it?" I was stammering out aloud.
And before I could get any answer from within, again came the same
appalling sound. With that, as if a second shock could restore the
senses stolen by the one preceding, I guessed that what I had heard must
be gunfiring on the hill.
"The raid has come, then, after all!" I thought, with awe rather than
fear; and thousands of other people must have been thinking the same
thought at the same moment.
It was a clear, starry night, the sky glittering like a blue, spangled
robe that scintillates with the motion of a dancer, and the electric
lamps of the city below lighting the streets as brightly as if the moon
were up. When I first reached the high window and stared down from it, I
had the impression that those streets were empty, but immediately after
the second shot and its reverberating echo, dark figures began swarming
out. Heads appeared in every visible window of the hotel. Electricity
was switched on in darkened rooms, and women showed themselves in their
nightgowns, with hair streaming over their shoulders, or hair lamentably
absent, careless whether they were seen or not. I heard screaming and
shouting, and then all such small sounds were swallowed up in another
roar--the third.
My thoughts flew to Eagle. If there were a raid he would be in danger.
He might be killed, and I should never see him again. I didn't think at
the minute what might happen to the rest of us. Nothing and no one
seemed to matter except Eagle. Still only half conscious of what I did,
unable to decide what might be best to do, I dropped on my knees to pray
that Eagle might be safe. But I had only just begun to stammer out my
appeal when there came a sharp tapping at the door. "Let us in--let us
in!" Milly's voice cried, and Mrs. Dalziel quaveringly repeated the same
words.
I shot back the bolt, and the two in their nightgowns almost fell into
the room. Milly, crying, seized me in her arms and begged me to forgive
her for all her unkindness to me. We should probably be dead in a few
minutes or hours, and she wanted to die at peace. As she faltered on,
Mrs. Dalziel sobbed that Tony would be killed, and their fears made me
brave. I was suddenly convinced that there had been no raid and said so.
"I'm sure there's nothing to be afraid of," I insisted stoically.
"Remember, we've heard only three cannon shots, or sounds like shots.
There'd be constant firing if there had been a Mexican surprise. And
there _couldn't_ have been a 'surprise' after all the warnings we had.
Anyhow, a handful of Mexicans wouldn't dare, with all those troops and
guns on the spot."
"But what can have happened if it isn't an attack?" wailed Mrs. Dalziel.
"If only my son were here!"
"Did the shots come from our side of the river, or the other?" Milly
asked, speaking more to herself than to me, for one was as ignorant on
the subject as the other. "_I_ couldn't tell for sure, could you?"
"No," I said. "I hadn't thought of the other side. I just took it for
granted it was our own guns firing for some reason or other."
"But _what_ reason?" persisted Milly. "Why should they fire three shots
in the dead of the night, and then stop?"
"Perhaps it's maneuvers, or a firing drill, or something," I hazarded
weakly, feeling all the time that it was nothing of the sort.
"Perhaps," Mrs. Dalziel and Milly both agreed, looking a little relieved
by my silly supposition.
"Shall we hurry up and dress ourselves and go downstairs?" I suggested.
"See what a lot of people are in the streets. The whole town's surprised
out of its wits, and wild to know what's happened. Why shouldn't we
know, too?"
"Oh, yes, let's go down," cried Milly. "By this time Thérèse is certain
to be in mother's room, in hysterics and nothing else! We'll make her
stop and drape herself in a blanket and dress us."
"Thank goodness I can dress myself, and in five minutes," I said. They
went hesitatingly out, forgetting to close my door, and before I could
do so myself I heard Thérèse's voice across the hall.
I didn't stop to put up my hair, but let it hang down my back; I didn't
even tie my shoes, or fasten more than three hooks of my easiest blouse:
one at the top, one in the middle, and one at the waist. Consequently, I
was ready before the Dalziels, but waited for them outside the door of
their suite, almost dazedly watching people--men and women, half
clothed--dashing out of their rooms toward the stairs and elevators.
Some of these were jabbering to each other, but nobody seemed to know
what had happened. They were merely wondering, as we were; and in the
big hall, where some of the lights had been switched on, we could glean
no further details. Several of the hotel employés had arrived on the
scene, more or less dressed, and they did what they could to calm their
guests. Presently one of the managers appeared, and he strongly advised
every one to remain in the hotel. If any trouble were afoot, it would be
safer indoors than out, and news might be expected soon. He had already
sent a trustworthy messenger, he explained, to inquire of the police and
the answer would be more reliable than mere wild gossip picked up in the
street, among the crowd.
Some of the older men, and all the women, took the manager's advice,
though a good many young men disregarded it, and went off foraging for
news. Those of us who remained in the house, however, didn't think of
meekly returning to our rooms. We herded together in the hall of the
hotel, in a fever of expectation, strangers hobnobbing like old
acquaintances and exchanging opinions on the mysterious alarm. The time
of waiting seemed long; but we three had not been below more than twenty
minutes, perhaps, when people who had been out began to stream back with
tidings of a sort for their families. No two men had quite the same
story to tell. One had heard that a band of _Apaches_ from a low quarter
of the town had organized a scare to stir up the military. Another had
been told on good authority that the Mexicans had fired guns from across
the river and injured one of the tall buildings in El Paso, nobody knew
which. A third assured everybody that our guns had been fired, but
charged only with blank, to frighten the Mexicans, at the moment when
they hoped to give us a surprise. By and by, the messenger dispatched by
the manager came back; but he had little new light to throw on the
situation, except to assure every one on the authority of the police
that there had been no raid, and there was no danger of any kind for the
town. Accordingly, the best thing for its inhabitants to do would be to
go to bed again.
Very few, however, seemed inclined to take this advice. Mrs. Dalziel
might have done so had Milly and I consented; but I had an idea that
Tony would come to the hotel, if possible, sooner or later, expecting us
to be anxious. I was right, for in an hour, or not much more, while we
all sat munching sandwiches, hastily provided, the familiar plump figure
in khaki stalked into the hall. Milly and I both sprang up, and Tony
directed himself toward us; but before he came near enough to speak, I
knew that something really terrible had happened. Whether he meant to
tell us the truth or not was another question. The jolly, round-faced
boy seemed to have lost the characteristics I associated most closely
with him; and when a a youth with comical features of the Billiken type
is suddenly fitted with a tragic mask, the effect is somehow more
alarming than any look of distress on a serious face.
He tried to grin, as his mother greeted him like one returning from the
dead. "Why, mater," he said, "any one'd think to see and hear you that
I'd been blown to smithereens, and this was my ghost. You'll laugh, I
guess, when I tell you what really happened. I got leave to make a dash
and put you out of your misery." When he had gone so far, he stopped,
and swallowed. He looked sick, and all the more so because of the
Billiken grin which he was afraid to let drop. His eyes wandered from
his mother to me, and I saw pain in them. I felt for the first time that
little Tony was a grown-up man.
"Well--well?" Milly urged him sharply. "Why don't you tell us?"
"I'm a bit out of breath," her brother excused himself. "I hiked over
here pretty fast--borrowed a bicycle. Give me a second to get my wind
back, sis."
But this was more than Milly could do. "Weren't you with the guns
to-night?" she asked. "You said you were going to be."
"Did I say that? Well, I was. But--but the row you all heard had nothing
to do with the _guns_, you know. At least, nothing directly. It was--the
ammunition; an accident, you see. One of our chaps dropped a lighted
match, and it set fire to part of our train of ammunition. Three shells
burst, but--but nobody was hurt--except----"
"Except who?" Milly had to break in before Tony could go on. I said
nothing at all. I only looked at him. But after that first glance he
kept his eyes away from me, I believed purposely.
"Except an orderly of--one of the officers, and--oh, very slightly
indeed--March. He's hardly hurt at all, but--you mustn't be surprised if
you don't see him around for the next few days."
The blood rushed up to Milly's pale face, but she pressed her lips
together almost viciously, and forced herself not to speak. Her
green-gray eyes flashed out one distress signal, then seemed to shut it
off deliberately and coldly.
"Captain March!" exclaimed kind Mrs. Dalziel, with real distress. "Oh,
I'm so sorry that he should be hurt!"
"So are we all," Tony responded; and voice and face would have told me,
if I hadn't guessed before, that he was either keeping back something of
grave importance, or else carefully lying.
"Will he really be all right again in a few days?" the dear little lady
went on.
"Er--perhaps not all right, but--nothing to worry about," said Tony,
with lumbering cheerfulness. "He's in no danger of death, anyhow, that's
one good thing."
"What about Major Vandyke?" I heard myself say; and even as the question
came, I wondered why I should have thought of it in that connection. But
somehow it would out, and only my subconscious self, far down in
mysterious depths, knew the reason.
"Oh, Major Vandyke! Why, as it happens, he went over to the other side
of the river in his motor car--on business."
A flame of suspicion in me was lit by that match.
"To _Mexico_!" I exclaimed. "But I was told only this very day, by
Captain March, that no officer or soldier was allowed to cross the river
on any pretext whatever."
"That was--is--so, in an ordinary way," Tony admitted, swallowing
heavily again. "But you see that fearful row on the hill where the guns
are might--must have set a hornet's nest buzzing over there. The chaps
were likely to think we were potting at _them_--out of a clear sky,
and--er--they might have begun potting back at us in a minute or two, in
their excitement. So, to save the situation, Vandyke scooted across with
only his orderly--who's his chauffeur, too--in his own car with some
sort of white flag rigged up in a jiffy. I expect he'll get a lot of
credit for that dash when the story--I mean the facts, are out."
"It _was_ a brave thing to do!" cried Mrs. Dalziel, always delighted to
praise any one. "He must have risked his life."
"Yes," said Tony, "no doubt of that. The Mexican bridge sentries might
have fired on him in spite of the white flag. They--they did fire, I
believe. But Vandyke's all right, anyhow."
"You speak as if some one wasn't." I heard myself talking, though I
seemed not to have spoken the words deliberately.
"Only the orderly, poor chap. He was driving the car. I guess the
sentries saw him before they saw the white flag."
"They shot him?"
"Yes, unfortunately they did." Tony's voice broke a little, and that
struck me as odd; for he could not have had any personal interest, it
seemed, in Major Vandyke's chauffeur-orderly.
"I hope they didn't kill the poor fellow?" purred Mrs. Dalziel.
"I don't think he's dead yet, mater, but I'm afraid he's past speaking.
They got him in the lungs."
"Major Vandyke's come back, then," I said.
"Oh, yes, he was back in less than an hour, after a parley over there,
explaining everything and making the Constitutionalists understand we
weren't meaning them any harm. I didn't get leave to see you till just
after he had brought his car and his wounded orderly over to this side
again. And now, if your minds are calmed down, I'll be off. I've told
you no secrets. Everything I've said the papers will repeat to-morrow.
But all the same, please don't talk to any one about this business.
Promise, mater, and Milly. And I guess I don't need to ask you, Lady
Peggy. Now, good-bye. I'll see you as early as I can in the morning."
He kissed his mother, patted Milly on the arm, and gave my hand such a
shake that I should have writhed if I had worn any rings. For once,
instead of lingering, he had the air of being glad to escape from us,
but on an impulse I followed him to the door and called him back just as
he had reached the threshold.
"Tony!" I began. He turned with a start, and stopped. I had often been
invited, but had never before consented, to call him Tony.
"I want to ask you something before you go," I said.
He gave me a queer, apprehensive look. "Please don't!"
"Then I'll tell you something, instead. There isn't one word of truth in
your story about what happened. You've been making it all up."
"That's where you're mistaken," he contradicted me. "I haven't made it
up."
"If not, somebody made it up for you, and you've been ordered to put the
story round. This is what people are to believe, the version that the
papers will be given. But it's no use giving it to me. I don't believe
it. So there!"
"It's all I've got to say, and even you won't get a different word out
of me," he said despairingly. "You always did have a wonderful
imagination, Lady Peggy, but whatever you may think, for God's sake
don't blab to any one else, unless to me; and I'd rather you wouldn't
even to me. I tell you, I'm pretty near all in."
I let him go, but I made up my mind that I would not be put off with the
story which papers and public were to get. I would know the truth, and
exactly what had happened to Eagle March.