WHO? GRAMONT?
As he scrambled through the window--as I let him down by his hands, so
that, with the length of his arm and mine together, his feet were not
more than a yard from the ground--I heard those others outside the
door. Heard also the woman shriek:
"There is none in here, I tell you--pigs, idiots! If they have
escaped, 'tis to the street or to the roof. Search those rooms first.
This is my chamber. _Diôs!_ Are you men to enter thus a woman's
apartment!"
"So be it," the leader said. "We will. But, remember, if we find them
not we will search this room. Remember!" and we heard him and the
others striding off to some other part of the house.
By this time I was myself half out of the window. From the creature I
had felled to the floor there came no sound; but from the door outside
I heard the woman whisper:
"Renato, come forth. Quick, I say! If they find you here you are lost.
You will be taken--sent to the colonies. Come forth!"
Then I waited to hear no more, understanding clearly enough that the
woman had herself been sheltering in her own room some malefactor,
probably some lover. And, doubtless, he had thought we were seeking
for him, had found him in that darkened room--that we were the
alguazils. His presence was explained.
Taking Juan by the hand, I passed rapidly by the stables as we went
away from the street and up into the garden beyond--a small place,
neglected and dirty, in which I had noticed, when we arrived, numbers
of enormous turnips growing--vegetables much used in the country.
Then, a moment later, we were close by a low, whitewashed wall--'twas
not so high as my head--over which I helped Juan, following instantly
myself.
"Heaven knows," I said, "where we are now, except that we have left
the inn behind. This may be the garden of some great _residéncia_, or
of another inn. Well, we must get through somehow into the street
beyond."
"And afterward?" Juan asked, his face close to mine, as though trying
to see me in the dark of the night. "Afterward?"
"God knows what--afterward! We shall never get out of the gates, 'tis
certain. There are five--all are doubtless warned by now. Pity 'tis we
did not follow our friend's suggestion and disguise ourselves. That
way, we might have been safe. I as a monk, you as a woman, we should
never have been recognised."
"'Tis too late," said Juan. "Too late now. We must go on; on to the
end. Yet I wonder where that friend, Jaime, is. Perhaps taken, his
disguise seen through."
We had reached the house to which this garden belonged by now--a
different one from the neglected thing we had lately left, well cared
for, and with great tubs of oleanders and orange trees placed about it
at regular intervals, as we could now see by the rising moon, which
was peeping over the chimney tops and casting its rays along a broad
path which we had followed; were close up to the house, a great white
one, with this, its garden side, full of windows covered with
_persianas_, or jalousies, and from some of them lights streaming.
"'Tis an inn, for sure," I said, "and full of--hark! whose voice is
that?"
Yet there was no need to ask; 'twas a voice not easily forgotten which
was speaking now; the voice of the man, Señor, or "Father," Jaime.
"Ay," we heard in those rich, sonorous tones, "alive, and here to call
you to account."
And following this we heard another voice, supplicating, wailing,
screaming, almost: "No! No! No! Mercy! Pardon!"
Beneath the moon's increasing rays we gazed into each other's eyes,
then quickly, together--as if reading each other's thoughts also--we
moved toward where those sounds proceeded from.
Toward a room in the angle of the great white house, with a door
opening on to the garden in which we stood--'twas open now, though
half across it hung a heavy curtain of some thick material. It was
easy enough to guess how 'twas that curtain was thrown half back and
the door stood open.
That way Jaime had come upon his prey.
Standing behind that door, behind that heavy half-fallen curtain,
this was what we saw: The man Jaime, with in his hand a drawn
sword--doubtless he had hidden it beneath his monk's gown since he
returned to the assumption of the latter.
In front of Jaime, upon his knees, his hands clasped, his white hair
streaming behind him, was the man whose name I had deemed to be
Carstairs, or Cuddiford, but which Juan had averred was in truth James
Eaton.
"Alive!" Jaime went on. "Alive. Villain, answer for your treachery ere
I slay you. Where is my wealth--my child's wealth. Where is my
daughter?"
As he spoke I heard a gasp, a moan beside me, felt a trembling. And,
looking down, I saw Juan staring into the room, his eyes distended as
though he was fascinated.
"My child," Jaime went on. "My child. Where is she?"
"I--I--do not know," the old man muttered--hissed in a whisper. "I
do--not know. She left me--years ago. Yet--I loved her."
"Liar. I have heard of you in the Indies. You stole the wealth I left
in your hands for her--you drove her forth. Answer. Is she dead?"
"I lost all in trade," Eaton moaned again, "all, all. I thought
to double it--you were dead--they said so--would never come back.
I--I----"
"Look," whispered Juan in my ear. "Look behind you."
At his words I turned, and then I knew that we were lost, indeed. Lost
forever.
The men from Chantada, accompanied by those of Lugo, were in this
garden--had followed us over the wall, had found out our way of
escape.
We were doomed! The garrote--the stake--were very near now.
They saw us at once, in an instant--doubtless our forms stood out
clearly enough in the beams of the lamp as they poured forth into the
garden--and made straight for us, their swords drawn, the unbrowned
barrels of their musketoons and pistols gleaming in the moonlight. And
the leader shouted, as he ran slightly ahead of the others: "You
cannot escape again. Move and we fire on you!"
Yet we heeded him not, but with a bound leapt into the room where
those two were--leapt in while I cried: "Jaime, we are undone. Assist
us again."
Then swift as lightning I shut the door to, let fall the curtain and
drew my sword. "I will never yield to them," I said. "Juan and I
escape or die here together."
"Together!" Juan echoed, drawing also his weapon forth.
There was but time to see a still more frightened glance on Eaton's
face than before--if added terror could come into a man's eyes more
than had been when those eyes had glinted up at Jaime as he stood over
him, it came now as Juan sprang to my side, his hat fallen off and his
hair dishevelled--while those men were at the door giving on to the
garden. And in an instant it was burst open by them--'twas but a poor
frail thing!--they were in the room.
"Yield!" the leader cried, "yield, or you die here at once!"
But now Jaime was by our side; three blades were flashing in their
faces; we were driving them back, assisted also by a fourth--the negro
servant of Eaton, who had sprung into the room from another door. Yet
that assistance lasted but a second. Doubtless the unhappy wretch
preferred it, thinking it was his master who was in danger! A pistol
was fired by some one, and I saw him reel back, falling heavily on the
floor, dead, with a bullet between his eyes. And, as he did so, from
Eaton there came a scream, while he flung himself over the creature's
body.
With those others pistols were now the order of the day, fired
ineffectually at first, while still I and the leader fought
hand-to-hand around the room. And I had him safe. I knew if I was not
cut down from behind that he was mine. My blade was under and over his
guard. I prepared for the last lunge, when--curses on the luck!--a
bullet took me in the right forearm; there ran through that arm, up to
my shoulder, a feeling of numbness, a burning twinge; my sword fell
with a clang to the floor.
And in another moment two of them had sprung on and secured me; two
others had grasped Juan, and disarmed him, too.
And now there was none on our side to oppose himself to them but
Jaime.
"Shoot him down! Kill him!" the leader cried. Then added: "You fool,
there is naught against you, yet, if you court fate, receive it."
But, great fighter as he was, what could he do against all those? One
hung upon his sword arm, another clasped a leg, a third was dragging
at his neck from behind, a fourth holding his monkish gown.
In another moment he, too, was disarmed. We were beaten--prisoners!
The lives of all of us were at an end. None could doubt that!
The leader drew a long breath, then turned to where, at the open door
of the passage, were gathered the landlord, as I supposed; several
_facchinos_ and some trembling women servants, white to the lips, and
said:
"Observe, all you. I take these men--these _asasinos_ within your
house. I denounce these two," and he indicated Juan and me, "the one
as an English spy and a man who fought against us at Vigo, this other
one, this boy, as his comrade and accomplice. Bear witness to my
words, also to their deeds of blood."
From that crowd in the passage there came murmurs and revilings in
reply: "You should have slain them here," some said; "Better the
garrote or the flames in the _plaza da Mercado_," said others.
"As for this monk, this false monk--for such I know him now to
be--easy enough to recognise him as one of the brigands we fought with
the other night--had he not joined in this fray he had been safe. We
sought him not. Now, also, the flames or the garrote for him." Then,
breaking off, he exclaimed: "Who is this--and that black slave lying
dead there?" and he pointed to Eaton and the other. "Who are they?"
"A gentleman and his servant staying in this, my house," the landlord
said, speaking for the first time, "doubtless assaulted by the
_vagabundos_. Oh! 'tis terrible."
"Off with these three," the leader said. "To the prison in the
ramparts to-night--the judge to-morrow."
And as he gave his orders his men and the men of Lugo with him formed
round us, prepared to obey.
But, now, for the first time Eaton spoke, approaching the leader
fawningly, speaking in a soft voice.
"Señor," he said, "ere you take them away, a word. This one," looking
at me, "you knew already--at Chantada; I have told you who and what he
is. For the boy it matters not. He is but a follower."
Yet as he spoke I noticed he carefully avoided Juan's eyes, fixed full
blaze on him as they flamed from out of his now white, marble face.
"These, I say, you know," he went on. "But for this other one--this
pretended monk, this brigand of the night--you do not know him; nor
who he is and what has been. Let me tell you."
"Viper," Jaime murmured. "Villain. Thief! Yet," he continued, "I stoop
not to ask your silence. Speak. Tell all. But, James Eaton, beware.
Caged tigers sometimes break their bars and get free."
"Yours will never be broken," the leader said, looking at the same
time with a wondering glance from one to the other.
"'Tis true. 'Tis very true," Eaton went on, his voice oily,
treacherous as before. "Yet since you might break yours, I give this
gentleman a double reason for binding you faster. Sir," turning to him
whom he so addressed, "this monk, this brigand as he appears, would be
an innocent man were he that alone, in comparison with what he really
is."
"Who in the name of all the fiends is he, then? Answer quick."
"A murderer," the old man hissed now, raising his voice, "not
four-fold, but four thousand-fold. See," and he pointed his fingers at
Jaime, "see in him the man who sacked Maracaibo, Guayaquil, Campeachy;
the man who has burnt men and women alive in their houses like pigs in
a stye, sunk countless Spanish and French ships, plundered, murdered,
ravished--the arch-villain of the Caribbean Sea--not dead, but alive,
and trapped at last. The buccaneer, filibuster, pirate--Gramont!"
Amidst their voices--their shouts and cries--for all in Spain had
known that awful name, though its owner had long been deemed dead and
lost at sea--I heard a cry--it was a scream--from Juan; I saw him reel
as he stood by my left side, then stagger heavily against me,
supported from falling to the floor only by my unwounded arm around
him.
He had fainted.
And, as I held up the drooping form, I learnt the secret hidden from
me for so many days. I knew now what it was that Sir George Rooke had
earlier learnt. I penetrated the disguise of Juan Belmonte.