It was with a feeling of profound thankfulness that I turned into my
bunk that morning. The clattering of feet on deck, and the slapping of
the water against the sides, greeted my ears like the sweetest music.
Only a few hours before I had deemed myself as good as a dead man. I
had been the prisoner of a man without the bowels of compassion, and,
what was worse, I knew that I had proved myself a traitor, and had not
the ghost of a chance of effecting my escape. Now, however, I was free
once more, and in a few days my mission to Equinata would be
accomplished; after which I should be at liberty to return to England,
to marry Molly, and to settle down to a very different life to that
which I had been leading for the past few weeks. When I fell asleep,
it was to dream that I was back at Falstead once more. I was smoking a
pipe in the front garden, and Molly, seated in the shade of our
favourite tree, was reading me an account of a terrible revolution
that had taken place in the Republic of Equinata.
"The President, Jose de Hermanos is his name," she said, "has been
assassinated. It appears that he married the niece of his predecessor,
General Fernandez!"
That would have been strange enough in all conscience!
Owing, I suppose, to the lateness of my retiring, I was not very early
astir, and when I reached the deck I made my way up to the bridge. It
was the second mate's watch, but I had not been there very long before
Captain Ferguson left his cabin and joined us. Thereupon the mate,
with a knowledge of what was correct under such circumstances, crossed
to the other side of the bridge, leaving us free to talk together
concerning the events of the previous night.
"You don't know what a fright I had, Mr. Trevelyan," said the captain.
"I sent a boat ashore as directed, and after waiting an hour and a
half it returned to report that you had not put in an appearance. I
had quite made up my mind that you had been captured."
"As a matter of fact, I was," I replied, and proceeded to give him an
outline of my adventures during the evening.
"This will be the last of this sort of business for me," he said,
when he heard me out. "The game is far from being worth the candle. I
wonder what the end of it all will be? From what I gathered when
ashore, and also from what you have told me, I have come to the
conclusion that whatever Don Silvestre's ambition may be, he has lost
his hold upon Equinata. If he is fool enough to return, I fancy he
will find that the other's party is still too strong for him. The part
of a President of a South American Republic is not an easy one to
play."
"The wonder to me is that they ever get any one to play it at all," I
answered. "Thank goodness, however, we have fulfilled our portion of
the contract; we have got Fernandez, and that's all that can be
expected of us."
"I think I understood you to say that the lady who accompanies him is
a relative?"
"She is his niece, and a very beautiful woman."
"If you were to ask me, I should say that I was more afraid of her
than of him. Stand by and keep your eye open for squalls, would be my
motto if I had to deal with her."
"You may be very sure that I will do that," I replied. "I think I know
the length of her ladyship's foot."
I thought of the time we had spent together in the balcony of the
Opera House, and how strangely her seriousness had affected me. It
was difficult to believe that it had all been a mere piece of acting.
Half-an-hour or so later, when I had left the bridge and had walked
aft, Fernandez made his appearance on deck.
"Good-morning, senor," I said, with a bow to him. "In compliment to
you we are favoured with a delightful morning."
"Delightful indeed," he replied, throwing a glance over the stern. "We
are well on our way, I suppose, and steering due north, I observe. Let
me see, if I am not mistaken, that should be in the direction of----"
Here he looked at me interrogatively, as if he expected me to answer
his question.
"In the direction of New York, shall we say?" I answered. "If we
continue as we are going long enough, I have no doubt we shall see the
Goddess of Liberty holding her torch aloft."
"The illustration is scarcely a pleasing one," he returned, "since I
am a prisoner. The Goddess of Liberty has not done very much for me.
But there, nothing is to be gained by repining! I have been in worse
positions than this before to-day, and have always managed to get out
of them with some sort of credit to myself."
"I hope you may do so in this instance," I answered, "but not while I
have the charge of you."
He looked at me steadily for a few seconds.
"Do you know, Senor Trevelyan," he said at last, "I have come to the
conclusion that I like you. I did not do so at first, but my opinion
of you has changed."
"I am very glad to hear you say so," I replied; "but I confess I can
scarcely see why you should have changed your mind regarding myself.
If there is one man in the world whom I despise, it is myself."
"And I fancy I can understand why," he continued, still with the same
grave look upon his face. "You must not, however, think badly of
yourself, for I can assure you, you have managed this business
remarkably well. The plot was excellently arranged. There is one
thing, however, that puzzles me; that is, how Hermanos managed to
overcome the Guards at the cartel? I quite imagined that the men were
to be relied on."
"I cannot give you any information on that point," I replied, knowing
that it was useless to endeavour to conceal the fact that Hermanos was
present on that occasion. "I had no knowledge of the affair until the
door was opened and I discovered that I was free."
"Some day I shall hope to be even with our friend Hermanos," Fernandez
replied, more to himself than to me. "I have always had my suspicions
about the man, but I never dreamt that he would rise to such a height
as he has done in this affair. I deemed him a coward throughout."
"And a coward he is," I answered. "He is scheming now to save his own
neck."
"The most dangerous conspirator you can have to deal with," Fernandez
remarked. "Such a man lacks the saving grace of Ambition. He who risks
his life for fame and fortune must have something good in him, but the
individual who embarks upon a conspiracy, and who would throw over and
denounce his friends on finding that his own participation in the plot
is about to be discovered, is neither fish, flesh, nor fowl. There was
a time when I could have had Hermanos for the holding up of a finger,
but I wanted men of firmer metal, men like yourself, for instance."
"You pay me a great compliment," I answered. "Unfortunately, however,
we met too late in the day. My services were already bespoken."
At that moment a steward approached him with a cup of chocolate and a
roll.
"This is luxury in bondage," he remarked as he took it. Then, with a
smile, he added: "If you had been breakfasting in the cartel this
moment, I should probably have only allowed you bread and water."
"With a dozen bullets in my body to help me digest it," I thought to
myself.
It was considerably past ten o'clock before the Senorita made her
appearance on deck. The question of her attire had occurred to me
earlier, and, in consequence, I had procured for her a cloth
pilot-coat from the third mate, who, as fortune had it, was only a
little fellow, and had placed it at her door. This she now wore, and
though the garment was somewhat incongruous, when the rest of her
attire was taken into consideration, the effect was by no means
unbecoming. On leaving the companion she looked about her, and then
ran her eye along the sky-line, as if in the hope of being able to
discover her whereabouts. The yacht was pitching a little at the time,
but I noticed that she balanced herself as cleverly as any old sailor
could have done. She bade us good-morning, but did not take the chair
I offered her.
"I wonder what they are doing at the palace," she said, more to her
uncle than to myself. "I hope they will not forget to feed my poor
little birds. I wonder if I shall ever see them again?"
"So long as there is life there is hope," replied the President. "Is
that not so, Senor Trevelyan?"
"I believe so," I answered. "Who knows but that you may be back in La
Gloria again before many months are past. Who is likely to be
appointed President in your absence?"
"General Sagana," Fernandez returned; "and, by the way, he was the man
who introduced you to me. I must endeavour to remember that fact when
next he and I meet!"
The expression on his face as he said this was not altogether a
pleasant one.
Hour after hour we steamed steadily on our course. The day was warm,
the sea as smooth as glass, and the sky a perfect blue. We passed two
vessels, but signalled neither. By midday our run totalled a hundred
and twenty-five miles, a very fair record, all things considered. As
for my passengers and myself we spent the greater part of the day
under the for'ard awning, where we amused ourselves and each other as
best we could. Had any stranger looked in upon us, he or she would
have found it difficult to realize our respective positions. I had not
the appearance of a gaoler, and no one would have guessed that the
President, leaning back in his chair, cigar in mouth, was the head of
an influential country and an abducted citizen.
The memory of our dinner that evening will never be effaced from my
mind. It forms one of a number of strange mental pictures connected
with that more than extraordinary time. The Senorita, who had
discarded the pea-jacket I have already referred to, appeared in all
the bravery of her previous evening's apparel. The President had
perforce to follow her example, and though he had discarded his
ribbon, he still wore his orders. I on my part, out of compliment to
them, dressed myself with great care, while Captain Ferguson, who
shared the meal with us, had also made an elaborate toilet. The
beautiful saloon, the noiseless servants, the lavish table
decorations, the excellent _menu_, and the rare wines, all combined to
play their parts in a scene that must almost be without a parallel.
After dinner we adjourned to the deck above, where we seated ourselves
and smoked until bed-time.
It would have been instructive to have known what thoughts were
passing in the minds of the various members of our party as we men lay
in our chairs upon the deck. That the Senorita was really the
President's niece I do not, and shall never believe. I have my own
reasons for making this statement, and they are fairly conclusive. The
President himself was an adventurer of the most determined
description. Ferguson was a sea captain and but little better--(he was
a married man, so I discovered later, and his wife kept a small girls'
school in a village near Plymouth), while I--well, you know all there
is to tell so far as I am concerned, so I need say no more on that
subject. Taken altogether, however, we were a queer quartette.
At ten o'clock the Senorita declared herself sleepy and retired to her
cabin, Ferguson went up to the bridge to see how things were there,
while the President and I started to patrol the deck. In the hour that
followed I learnt more of his past life than I had ever known before.
I knew very well that his career had been an extraordinary one, but I
had never dreamt that it had been so strange as his telling made it
appear. He was born in a village near Madrid. His parents were poor
but of noble birth. In due course he entered the army, but after a
time the life of a private soldier disgusted him, and he exchanged the
profession of arms for that of an assistant to a sugar planter on the
island of St. Vincent. An unfortunate love affair with the planter's
daughter threw him upon the world again, penniless. From the island he
drifted to the mainland of South America, saw a good deal of
Revolutionary fighting, and for the first time tried his hand at the
fascinating game of politics. The result was by no means satisfactory,
for he had the misfortune to throw in his lot with the losing side.
After a certain particularly stubborn battle he was captured and
condemned to be shot--a foretaste of the fate he had arranged for me.
At the last moment, however, the sentence was commuted to penal
servitude for life, and he was sent to the mines. Eventually he was
liberated and took service with the man who, up to that time, had been
his greatest enemy. He climbed the ladder of fame, and in time he
managed to win a fair amount of power in the land; another Revolution,
however, cast this power to the winds, and sent him flying post-haste
to the islands of the Pacific. In one way and another he enlarged his
experience there, saw life as a trader, a pearler, and an agent for
the native labour traffic as he euphemistically termed it. At last he
found himself on board a schooner returning to Valparaiso. It was then
that he first met Silvestre, and for some considerable time the two
men were on the most friendly terms. Fernandez, who had been warned as
to what was shortly to happen, discovered a post for the time being as
a clerk to an auctioneer. Then came the big Revolution--Fernandez
chose the winning side, Silvestre the losing. The latter departed to
Equinata--which country at that time was just coming into
notice--while his friend remained in Chili to derive what profit he
could for himself from his loyalty to the party he had assisted into
Power.
"As soon as I had saved sufficient money, however," he continued, "I
quitted the Republic and, after one or two other adventures with which
I will not trouble you, found myself stranded in Equinata. To my
astonishment I discovered that my old partner Silvestre had made the
best use of his time there, and by an extraordinary manipulation of
circumstances had managed to become a person of considerable
importance in the Republic. So far as I was concerned, however, there
was another _hegira_, and this time at a somewhat short notice. I next
visited the United States, afterwards crossed the Atlantic to Europe,
and, after an absence of some three years, found myself once more in
La Gloria. When I reached that country I discovered that a strange
change had taken place. Silvestre, who, though he had held a position
of some importance when I was last in Equinata, had shown no sign of
any great ability, was now President, and had even greater ambitions.
Needless to say I threw in my lot with him and----"
"Eventually ousted him from his position?" I put in. "I have heard
that part of the story from the man himself."
"Yes, I confess I did oust him," he answered, taking his cigar from
his mouth and knocking the ash off against the rail. "The victory is
to the strongest, and if Silvestre had been stronger than I--well--he
would have won. As it was, he fled the country. Whereupon I picked up
the reins of Government, played the game as I thought it should be
played, and now find myself and all my plans upset, I trust you will
forgive my plain speaking, by a man who only a few months ago was
chief officer on board a South American mail-boat. Who can say what
the next chapter of the story will be?"
"Well, you have had a very good innings, and I don't see that you have
any right to complain."
"Perhaps not," he replied. "But don't run away with the idea that,
because you've trapped me, I am beaten. I'm a long way off that!
Believe me, I know exactly how far you are concerned in the business,
and I tell you this, if you are wise, you will be advised by me, and
drop out of it as soon as you can. The time will come when Don Guzman
de Silvestre and I will have to settle accounts together, and if you
are a prudent man you will have balanced your books with him and have
departed long before that."
"I think I am very well able to take care of myself," I remarked.
"Ah! We all think that! Sometimes, however, we find we are wrong."
A few moments later he bade me good-night and retired to his cabin. I
accompanied him so far as the saloon companion entrance and then
returned to my chair on deck. I had not been there many minutes before
Ferguson joined me.
"We shall have to keep a sharp look-out on our friend, Don Fernandez,"
he said, after he had lit a cigar. "I don't trust him a little bit."
"How so?" I inquired. "What has he been up to now?"
"Nothing very much that I know of," the captain replied, "but I have a
sort of notion that he has been endeavouring to sound some of the men
as to the chance of seizing the boat. He has said nothing outright,
but Reston (the boatswain) tells me he dropped a hint to him that a
large reward would be forthcoming if he and his niece were helped
ashore again. He has a most persuasive manner, unlimited wealth, and
there's not very much, I fancy, that he would stop at."
"I suppose you can place implicit trust in your officers and crew?" I
said.
"Implicit trust," he answered. "But with a man like Fernandez aboard
one cannot take too many precautions."
"You are right," I replied. "At the same time, I must admit that I
like the man. More, perhaps, than I do--well, another gentleman with
whom we are both acquainted."
Ferguson understood my meaning.
"I understand," he replied. "And what's more I agree with you."
When we had chatted for upwards of an hour I bade him good-night, and
went below to my cabin to fall asleep and dream that Fernandez had
seized the boat and was going to make me walk the plank at daylight.
In two days we were due to arrive at the island. From the progress we
were making, and from the glimpse I had of the chart, it struck me
that we should reach San Diaz between six and seven o'clock in the
evening.
At four o'clock on the following afternoon I was standing at the
taffrail, looking at the frothing wake astern, and thinking of
something very far removed from Equinata and her President. As a
matter of fact I was wondering how long it would be before I should
see Falstead again, and what sort of welcome I should receive from
Molly and my mother on my return, when I caught the sound of a light
footstep behind me. I turned my head to discover the Senorita. She
came and stood beside me resting her jewelled hands upon the rail. It
did not take me long to become aware that she was in one of her
curious moods. Her manner was most persuasive and seductive to a
degree, and once or twice I found myself admiring her beauty, and for
the moment forgetting how dangerous a woman she was.
"I am afraid, Senorita," I said, "that since we danced together in the
Opera House I have fallen woefully in your estimation."
"Why should that be so?" she answered. "I admire your resource, and
however much I may deplore it, cannot help but admire the cleverness
with which you carried out your scheme, in spite of the opposition you
received. Had you been working for us I should have offered you my
heartiest congratulations, but since we are the victims of your skill,
you can scarcely expect me to be so magnanimous. Oh! Senor Trevelyan,
how I wish I could have persuaded you to side with us. But you had
already cast in your lot with the enemy. At one time I had almost
begun to think that I was deceived in you, but the other night when
you refused my uncle's bribe I realized your real character. To a man
of such enterprise as you possess anything is possible. Have you never
experienced a longing for power yourself? If I were a man, my ambition
would be limitless. As it is, I can only admire what I see of it in
others!"
Recalling that conversation now, it seems as plain to me as daylight
that she was doing her best to hoodwink me. I must confess, however,
that at the time I failed entirely to see through her motive. As I
have said before she was a beautiful woman, and she had the advantage
of also being an extremely clever one. No one will ever know the
temptations she placed before me that evening, and I think it says
something for my love for Molly--not to mention my sense of duty to
Silvestre, that I did not give way to her. By some mysterious means
she had discovered the bond that existed between Ferguson and myself;
she knew also that I was all-powerful aboard the yacht, and if she did
not prevail upon me to turn the boat's head about and convey them back
to Equinata, well, it was certainly not for want of trying. I proved
adamant, however, and when at last she left me and went below it must
have been with the consciousness that she had not only failed in her
scheme but had done herself harm into the bargain.
"You have had the pleasure of my niece's company for some considerable
time," said Fernandez, when I joined him some minutes later. "I hope
you have had a pleasant and instructive conversation!"
There was a scarcely-concealed sneer in his voice that I did not fail
to notice.
"The Senorita has been endeavouring to undermine my loyalty to
Silvestre," I said, blurting out the truth without fear of the
consequences. "She has promised me, on your behalf, all sorts of
rewards if I will turn traitor and run the boat back to La Gloria."
"And I gather from your tone that she was not successful," he replied.
"You are a very pillar of rectitude, my friend."
"What is more," I continued, ignoring his sneer, and making up my mind
to let him have it from the shoulder while I was about it, "I hear
from Captain Ferguson that you have been endeavouring to tamper with
the crew. I should be sorry, senor, to be compelled to confine you to
your cabin for the rest of the voyage, but if this sort of thing
continues I fear there will be no other course left open to me."
"You surely would not have me neglect an opportunity when it presents
itself?" he returned, still with the same curious smile upon his face.
"I have as much right to try to help myself out of this hole as you
had to get me into it. However, as your men appear to be as immaculate
and bribe-proof as their leaders, I will give you my assurance that I
will not tamper with their honour again. Will that satisfy you?"
"As long as you stick to it," I replied. "But I warn you that I shall
keep a strict watch upon you, and if you play me false you know what
you may expect."
From that moment I had no more trouble with either of them. The
Senorita adopted a haughty air towards me. The President, on the other
hand, made himself even more agreeable to me than he had been before.
One day later, and, as I expected, a little before sun-down, a small
speck appeared upon the horizon. This gradually increased in size
until it developed into a small densely-wooded island.
"That," said Ferguson, who was standing beside me on the bridge, "is
San Diaz!"
"And, thank goodness, our destination!"