THE MOTOR-CYCLE
Mr. O'Hagan was surprised at the rapidity with which this offensive
movement had been executed. It was a bold stroke on the part of the
enemy to make their way across the hills during the hours of darkness,
and showed that they had among them a vigorous and enterprising leader.
Its effect upon the fortunes of the Mollendists was likely to be
serious. The success of their cause depended on the extent to which
they could enlist active support among the disaffected. They had many
sympathisers in San Rosario and the capital, but the most of these were
too timid or too cautious to carry their sympathy into action. A great
success would no doubt bring an influx of recruits; but a set-back such
as this would not only discourage recruiting, but also dishearten those
who had already taken up arms. Defeat breeds desertion.
The outlook was very gloomy. But Mr. O'Hagan was a man whose energies
were stimulated by adversity. He had been wont to say that his
plantation was too successful: he was growing soft. The present
situation was a challenge to the qualities that had lain dormant in him
since he hung up his sword at the close of the Chilian war.
Mollendo expected that some of the fugitives from the camp would in
course of time make their way to the hut in the hills which Mr. O'Hagan
had just left. There he always kept a small supply of provisions. It
was therefore decided to return thither. Several mounted men joined
them on the march, and within a few hours after reaching the hut the
party was augmented by about two score, several of them wounded. These
were attended by a medical student who had thrown in his lot with the
Mollendists. There was great despondency among the little force. Some
were disposed to continue their flight and even to abandon the cause;
but Mr. O'Hagan set himself to rally them, appealing to their courage as
caballeros and hidalgos, a compliment which especially flattered the
mestizos among them.
Mr. O'Hagan was too old a campaigner to run any risks with a small force
demoralised by their recent reverse. His first concern was to restore
their morale. The great difficulty was provisions. The small supply in
the hut would soon be exhausted, and in the inhospitable hills there was
no chance of obtaining any food except wild fruit from the bushes. The
river swarmed with fish, however, and Mr. O'Hagan, to give the men
employment, set some of them to weave a seine net out of the creeping
plants that flourished along the banks. With this primitive implement
they caught a good number of fish.
Meanwhile he sent out half a dozen men to bring in any more fugitives
whom they might meet, and Romana with another man to discover what the
enemy were doing. When these scouts returned late at night, they
reported that the main body of the enemy had withdrawn southward, either
to San Rosario or to San Juan. They were partly gendarmes, the mounted
police of the province, partly the irregular troops which the Prefect
attached to his cause by the hope of plunder. The camp was still
occupied, but Romana had not been able to ascertain by how many.
One of the last comers among the fugitives declared that he had seen the
Prefect himself in the action. This seemed doubtful to Mr. O'Hagan, but
Mollendo assured him that it was not at all improbable. The Prefect was
a man of great, if spasmodic, energy, and of much personal courage and
resource. In Spanish America no man could arrive at his position of
virtual dictator without such qualities. He must have guessed that his
escaped prisoner had taken refuge in the Mollendist camp, and having so
much at stake had himself led the attack upon it, instead of leaving it
to the gobernador, of whose prowess he had a mean opinion, by no means
unjustified. Indeed, Senor Fagasta was in disgrace. The Prefect had
accused him of conniving at the prisoner's escape, and put him under
arrest in his own house--a prelude to another demand for money.
It seemed strange that the greater part of the Prefect's force should
have been withdrawn so soon after the capture of the camp. Mollendo
suggested that he was anxious not to be absent too long from San Juan.
He had many enemies there, secret if not active; and if he allowed
himself to be lured into the wilds he might return from a successful
campaign only to find himself, as it were, locked out of his own house.
No doubt he reckoned on the demoralising effect of his sudden swoop to
break up the Mollendist party, and had left a portion of his force to
harry the remnant at their leisure.
The position was discussed between Mollendo and Mr. O'Hagan in the hut.
Tim was close at hand, giving eager attention to all that his elders
said.
"I am much to blame for allowing the enemy to surprise me," said
Mollendo bitterly. "I ought to have guarded my back door more
diligently, but I was relying on the gobernador's known want of
enterprise. He boasts of what he is going to do, but I have never known
him to do anything."
"Don't take it to heart, excellency," said Mr. O'Hagan. "You were not
to know that the Prefect would take matters into his own hands, nor
would he have done so, I suspect, but for me. It is therefore incumbent
on me, as the cause of your misfortune, to do what I can to retrieve
it."
"And I trust much in your valour and skill, general."
"I thank you, excellency. Our most urgent need is food; the next is
arms and ammunition; the next, men. That is the order in which our
fortunes must be built up. And I confess that at the moment I am rather
at a loss as to what steps to advise."
"We could get a certain amount of food at our own place," suggested Tim.
"There can be no harm in robbing what we have been robbed of."
"That is all very well, but Pardo is in possession, no doubt with
gendarmes to support him; and the enemy lie between us and home. It is
very necessary to keep a careful watch on their movements, and I
propose, with your consent, excellency, to send two scouts forward
to-night to see what they are doing."
"Let me be one, Father," said Tim eagerly.
"You are rather too young," said Mr. O'Hagan, remembering his wife's
injunctions. "Many of his excellency's men are no doubt experienced in
such work."
"Let the boy go, general," said Mollendo. "I have already formed a high
opinion of his courage. Such a task would give him invaluable
experience. And if you send Nicolas Romana as the second scout, you
need have no fear; the boy will be safe with Romana, one of the most
active and trustworthy of my adherents."
Mr. O'Hagan felt himself in a difficulty. It would certainly weaken his
own position with Mollendo if he refused to let his boy take a share in
the operations. After so direct a proposal he could hardly hesitate to
employ Tim when he would employ any one else. After a brief inward
conflict he said:
"Very well, excellency; the boy must win his spurs; he shall go."
Tim was delighted, Romana scarcely less; he felt much flattered by his
chief's praises. Soon after dark, therefore, the two set off on
horseback. It was a cold night; a biting wind blew down from the
mountains; and the scouts were not sorry when, arriving within a few
miles of the camp, they had to dismount and proceed on foot. They led
their horses some distance from the track, and tethered them in a clump
of trees, placing on their return three large boulders at the side of
the path to mark the place. If they should have to hurry back in the
darkness, without such signposts they might very well overshoot the
spot. Then, keeping on the hill-side above the track, they crept along,
listening for sounds from the enemy's outposts.
They were within half a mile of the camp when they had the first
indication of the enemy's presence. They heard the sound of horses
champing their bits in the distance, and a low murmur of voices. Moving
stealthily forward, they found that two or three men were posted on the
track. As far as they could tell, this was the only precaution taken by
the enemy against surprise from this quarter.
The scouts wormed their way foot by foot towards the camp. Their course
was difficult. They durst not advance along the track itself; and the
hill-side above was rugged and broken, littered with loose stones which
had been removed at some time from the Inca buildings. Their route
brought them presently to a spot from which they saw a slight glow
ahead. It evidently came from a camp fire; but the fire itself was
hidden from them by the ruined wall. Skirting the enclosure, they made
their way to the side where, as they knew by the sounds, the horses were
tethered. Here they caught the footfalls of a sentry moving to and fro
outside the wall. They stole past him to a point where the hill fell
away steeply, crawled up the slope until they gained the foot of the
wall, and clambering up its ruined face, peered over into the interior
of the courtyard. The horses just beneath them snorted with alarm;
their movements, quiet as they were, or their scent, had disturbed the
sensitive beasts. The sentry close by stopped; but after a silent pause
of a few moments resumed his beat.
The scouts clung to the wall, their eyes just above its top. They saw
three fires in the courtyard; all were dying down. Around each lay a
number of men, wrapped in their cloaks. They could not count them;
indeed, only when the breeze stirred the embers could they distinguish
the forms at all. But it was easier to count the horses, ranged in a
close rank with their heads towards the wall. There were ninety. A
similar line stood against the adjacent wall at right angles.
Altogether there must be at least a hundred and eighty animals.
There seemed to be no chance of making any more discoveries, and the
twain were about to move away, when a sudden gust of wind stirred the
nearest of the dull fires to a momentary flame. By its light Tim caught
a glimpse of his motor-cycle resting against the wall on the far side of
the enclosure. He nudged Romana's elbow to draw his attention to it.
Neither dared to speak.
They remained thus for a few seconds; then, by a second nudge, Tim
intimated his intention to retire. They let themselves down silently,
and crept up the hill-side. When they were out of earshot from the camp,
Tim said in a whisper:
"Romana, I am going to get my bike."