THE ROUT COMPLETE.
At this declaration of the modern "_Ego civis Romanus_," captain
Matasiete rather stepped behind the woman than otherwise, as a wary
warrior chooses a cotton bale for breastwork when bullets are likely to
fly.
"Tut, tut, tut! What is all this farrago to me? In plain words, I come
for my daughter whom you took off shore and have on this, I am afraid,
piratical craft. I summon you to restore my child straightway, or I'll
give you a tough bird to pick!"
Gladsden impudently looked from her to the salteador and then back
again, as if he were in doubt which was "the old bird" she offered for
plucking.
"And you will have me to deal with my fresh hand at ship ruling,
Señor," cried don Aníbal at last, having edged over, to the gangway,
and seeing the skiff drawn near enough for the soldiers, eager for the
fray under the taunts of the seamen, to haply clamber on board to his
aid.
The boatmen, whom he knew something of, and who might have numbered
more than one of the former crew of the _Little Joker_, could be relied
on to back up the musketeers, he believed.
"My young Captain, if you play the resistant, hang me if I shall not
bring you to reason and decorate a shark's tooth with fragments of your
hide! Even yet, you do not know of what I am capable! _Rayo de Dios_.
Mind yourself! Patience is not one of my virtues!"
The consul intimated to Gladsden that there was no necessity of an
outbreak of temper, as, while the brigantine's crew could lay out the
soldiers comfortably in a twinkling, his own boat's crew could eat up
the skiff's propelling force without salt.
"Will you answer me, sir," resumed the stout lady.
"Señorita," Gladsden responded, with all the self-possession possible,
"I do not know what you are driving at. I have nothing to do with
your bucket of tar--I mean your family affairs, and I do not want to
dip into it. If your kinswoman has left your agreeable society, I
daresay she had her grounds of action. It is no lookout of mine, and
I shall keep my fingers clear of it, I tell you. Whether you go around
rummaging for her or not, I shall pay no heed, so long as you do not
flounce about my ship, hardly of your burthen for such carasolling,
telling me your troubles. As for this gentleman," he went on, spinning
round so fiercely on Master Matasiete, with the new log line of
nominatives, "I warn him charitably that if he does not stick his long
cabbage cutter between his legs and scuttle off _instanter_, I will
hurl him, his names and titles, his long nose and long moustache, clean
over the side to regale the harbour scavenger. This little programme
being clearly laid down, I rather think you twain had better drop back
into your boat."
He thereupon turned his back on my lady as if to give his men the
order. She retreated a step, but, turning as red in the gills as a
turkey-cock, blurted out--
"Stay, stay, master Captain. You shall not slide out of it thus. I have
an order of the secretary of the colonel governor to take my dear child
back from any place whatever."
"Suppose you are good enough to let me inspect this warrant, madam?"
said Mr. Lyons, quietly.
"I have no objections. _You_ are not a boor. Your residence here has
civilised _you_. Is it not perfectly in order?"
"Beautifully inscribed, madam," replied the pro-consul; "only that writ
does not run here!"
"Why not, pray?" she exclaimed, haughtily, bridling up at the implied
slight to Mexico.
"Simply because the Port Governor himself has no right to issue search
warrants for foreign vessels, even though the application is backed
up by so noted a banker as don Stefano Garcia. In the first place,
your complaint ought to have been laid before me--from the moment
an Englishman is accused. I would have then opened an inquiry, and
if it appeared proper that the British shipping in port should be
examined I would have so advised Colonel Fontoro, and my chancellor
would have been charged to accompany you in the investigation. I
do not say that, on account of the somewhat slow movements of that
peculiar creature, the 'red tape worm,'" he added, smiling softly, "all
these indispensable regulations would not have tried your ladyship's
patience, but, I believe, our office is credited with more celerity
than your own government houses. At all events, as the forms have been
ignored, this order has no value. I also think you had better retire,
for this captain, as he notified you very kindly, has the right to
tumble you neck and crop over the board, and what little I know of him
makes it certain that he will not hesitate to carry out his warning if
either of you continue obstinately to stay here contrary to his will!"
It is impossible to depict the rage which swayed the stout woman as
she heard this speech, in a firm voice and peremptory tone. She flew
out against the speaker, the captain and all the grinning crew, to the
Chinese cook and cabin boy themselves, with all the strongest insults
and threats in her resonant Castilian tongue, to which had been added
the native additions not found in dictionaries of the Spanish Academy,
which glanced off blunted from the frigid Englishman, however.
The prudent captain of salteadores and pirates, as the case might
be, took care not to intervene while under don Jorge Federico's eye.
His own wandered after he had secured an open way to retreat, and he
managed, unseen by the others, to exchange a glance with Ignacio, whose
head just peeped up out of the fore hatch, where he was ensconced.
"This is all very well," cried the enormous virago at last, "I do
withdraw because you are all in the plot against me, and I have no
power, poor little weak woman (_afeniquita_) that I am to enforce my
rights! But I'll spend half my fortune to punish this outrage. Oh, that
the guns of the island would blow you over the little stars if you
seek to escape me. We shall meet again, you puppy; come, Don Aníbal
Cristobal de Luna y Pizarro y Amalgro de Cortes, follow me. I have
taken a vow that you shall be my son-in-law; and you shall wear that
title though it cost me my own name."
"You are not likely to lose yours by marriage," observed Mr. Gladsden,
accompanying her to the side opening. "At least, I'll back that opinion
roundly."
"Vulgar buffoon!" she exclaimed, shrugging her shoulders till her
jewels jingled like a head mule's bells. "Come, dear Don Aníbal; let us
leave this Indian canoe. I repeat that you shall be the husband of my
daughter."
The Mexican had stepped into the boat, spite of the rule to give
place to the dame, and omitted to offer his hand, as a fresh arrival
shocked his sight. It was Benito Vázquez Bustamente, coming off with
his baggage in a shore boat, managed by a couple of Indians, one young
enough to be the grandchild of the other. Both had those bloodshot eyes
which are the living tokens of a life as a pearl diver.
"You may bestow _your_ daughter on whom you like," interposed the young
Mexican, at one spring impatiently clearing the shallop and the ducking
heads of the startled soldiers, and alighting between the robber
captain and that of the _Burlonilla_, who seemed about to step into
the flat boat and cuff the Mexican even there. "But doña Dolores is
only your niece, and you lie after the most shameful pattern when you
pretend to the honour of being her mother."
This unexpected address so dumbfounded the huge señora, that she almost
fell back upon the soldier, and would have done so only that the prick
of a bayonet, "peaking up," broke into her absence of mind, due to the
consternation.
Amid a roar of laughter as she floundered upon the nearly crushed
soldier, trying to right her upon her feet, the shallop was pushed off,
and the Indians of Benito aiding the movement and from it glancing to
the brigantine's side, their little boat took its place, and began to
discharge the baggage which the pearl diver had collected to make his
wife's voyage more comfortable.
A little while after the deputy-consul, thanked warmly by all parties
concerned, entered his longboat, and was rapidly transported to land,
even before the infuriated don Aníbal and the lady whom he had so
feebly cavaliered arrived at the pier side. It seemed to him, as he
glanced amusedly into it, that a strange face had been added to the
crew, but his attention was immediately diverted by smoke beyond
the breakwater, denoting the coming of a steamer, and he forbore to
increase the humiliation of the two Mexicans by dwelling on them.
Not a quarter of an hour afterwards, as the steamer was signalled,
and showing her private emblem, was telegraphed to don Stefano Garcia
as the _Casta Susana_, of Acapulco, direct from the Sandwich Islands,
consigned to him, the goleta left the port, speeding under all sail,
right through the steamer's trailing smoke.
For one second this vapour eclipsed the _Burlonilla_, which seeing,
Matasiete standing on the pier head beside the baffled señora Maria
Josefa, remarked:
"There is nothing under canvas that can take that craft; but I will
have a try at it with steam. Will you come?"
"Anywhere!" cried the vindictive sister of don José de Miranda,
"Anywhere, if revenge only flourishes there."
"I think," muttered Ignacio to himself behind this worthy pair, "that
don Jorge Federico had far better have left me first officer of the
Burlonilla. At the same rank on board of the _Casta Susana_, methinks I
shall handle my brother's pearls before he does."