It was midnight. Silence and darkness had fallen on that grass-bound
highway that joined the oceans. Not a breath stirred the tall
herbage. All was still as death, save for the distant mingled voices
of the tropic night. Yet on either side the way, some two leagues
short of Venta Cruz, that reedy pasture might have been seen to nod
from time to time with a strange unaccustomed motion.
Save that, there was nothing to show a traveller that the sea of
grass, through which his way led him, held stranger fish than all the
rest of the wide expanse on either hand. Yet so it was. Strange
fish, both black and white, lay there as still as serpents.
For thither had our captain led us as the most fitting spot for our
venture, being, as Pedro showed, the farthest from Spanish relief and
most convenient for our retreat with the plunder. So there I lay at
Frank's side, and about me half our band, cutting strange figures.
For Frank had made us put on our shirts over our other clothes, so
that we might know friend from foe in the coming struggle.
Farther on, upon the other side of the way, was Mr. Oxenham, with
Harry and the rest, so placed that he might stop the head of the
Treasurer's _recua_ while we dealt with the tail. By this order,
too, we might use our bows without fear of hurting our friends.
Between Frank and me lay a Spanish soldier fast bound. Our two
Cimaroon guides had captured him on our march from the grove where we
had lain hid all the afternoon. From him we had gathered
intelligence which confirmed all that our espial had told us. Before
this Frank had been loath to believe our good luck, thinking so
strange a chance savoured of a trap to undo us. But this soldier, as
soon as he learned who our captain was, was so overjoyed at knowing
he would be softly dealt with that he gave us full knowledge of how
to proceed, which he was the better able to do seeing that he himself
was one of those hired to guard the Treasurer. All this, he swore,
was honest truth, as he was a gentleman soldier. He seemed to wish
nothing so much as our success, which we better could understand when
he craved in return for his intelligence that our captain would not
only save him from the Cimaroons, but also deal with him as he had
with others in like place, giving him sufficient of the plunder to
keep him and his mistress. He courteously promised in addition to
make our names famous throughout all Spain and the Indies if we did
this; but I think Frank was not very earnest to have his trumpet
blown by such false lips. And I noted that as we lay there he had
his dagger ready to curb any desire our prisoner might have to alarm
his master when he approached.
It seemed hours that we lay there in the dim starlight. The tall
grass about us hid everything from us but the white shirts of our
comrades. We heard nothing but the drawing of our own breath, the
beating of our own hearts, howsoever hard we strained our ears for a
sound of the _recuas_. In truth, it could not have been past an hour
before a puff of wind from the northward stirred the grass above us,
and with it came the distant tinkle of bells.
It was but a _recua_ from Venta Cruz, we knew, all of which we had
resolved to let pass as only carrying merchandise for the city and
Peru. Yet it made my heart beat faster for a while, till the breeze
died again; and even as it ceased came another tinkle from the
direction of the city. Every man moved to listen better, making the
grass rustle, and Frank held up his hand to quiet them. The tinkling
died away again as the _recua_ passed down to some hollow, where the
sound of its bells was drowned to us.
Night is day on this the most notable highway in the world, as I have
shown, and great and rich is the traffic either way in the cool hours
between sunset and dawn, when the Plate Fleet is lying in Nombre de
Dios, and all the Spanish Main is stirring with the life, and hopes,
and fears it brings.
It was natural, then, to hear on the round stones with which years
ago Pizarro had paved the way the clatter of a horse's feet coming up
from Venta Cruz, and mingling with the rise and fall of the distant
tinkling. As the sound drew near, Pedro, who had been lying with his
head pressed against the ground, crawled towards us like a snake.
'It is a _cabalero_,' whispered he.
'How do you know that?' says Frank.
'I can hear he has a page-boy running at his stirrup,' answered the
Cimaroon, whose ears seemed to turn to eyes in the dark. 'It is easy
to hear on the hard road. Listen!'
'Well, whatever he be, let him pass,' said Frank, for so we had
determined. Yet very gladly, I think, would Pedro have made a dash
at the gentleman's throat.
On came the horse at a gentle trot till, when he came about opposite
Mr. Oxenham's party, we heard a plunging, as though he had taken
fright at something, and immediately after he dashed past us at a
false gallop on the way to the city.
'Why has he changed his pace?' said Frank quickly.
'For no reason that I can tell,' said Pedro, 'unless the others
showed themselves.'
'They can never have been so mad,' said Frank. 'And yet I think he
must have seen them. Did the page come by us?'
'No,' answered Pedro.
'Did he go back?' asked Frank.
'I could not hear,' said the Cimaroon.
'Surely they must have shown themselves,' said Frank. 'Yet there is
nothing for it but to lie still and wait.'
I thought of Sergeant Culverin and his _agua ardiente_, but held my
peace. Silently we lay again listening breathlessly to the sound of
the galloping horse dying away in the distance towards Panama, and
the growing clamour of the bells on either hand, not knowing how far
we were descried, and being wholly unable to find out. Had the
horseman seen anything, and would he warn the _recuas_ of their
danger? As we listened the full jangling of the mule-bells ceased
and gave place to a fitful tinkle. It was now the sound of mules at
a standstill, which shook themselves or tried to lick the places
where the flies had galled them. Faint cries of impatient men
mingled with the broken sound, and at last we could not doubt but
that they had stopped. Frank and Pedro looked at each other blankly.
'They have surely been warned,' said Pedro.
'Still we must wait,' said Frank, with his stern look settling hard
on his resolute face. 'It is in God's hand. Peradventure the gold
was well gotten by this Treasurer, and it is not His will that we
should take it from him.'
With this cold comfort we had to content ourselves and listen again.
Very soon the bells towards Venta Cruz pealed full again, and in a
few minutes Pedro knew they were returning. Our wits were now wholly
bent towards the city. Would they come on and trust to the
Treasurer's guard? That was all we could ask ourselves. The answer
came before many minutes were past.
Again the full jangle broke the stillness. They had moved again. As
loud as ever it sounded, and our hopes beat high, but only for a
short space. Lower and lower sank the sound, till we could hardly
hear it. Pedro whispered to Frank, who held up his hand to calm some
who had half risen, hoping for an order to pursue.
It was plain they were fast losing patience, when suddenly the faint
tinkling waxed again, till it burst out with a full-toned peal not
half a mile from us. Then I knew it was but a deep hollow in the
road that had kept the sound from us. Louder and louder it grew,
till we could hear each bell sweet and distinct, for the Spaniards
love to have them strong and full-toned for comfort on their long and
dreary marches.
I saw Frank's whistle, on which he always gave us the signal to
attack, glisten in the starlight as he pulled it out. I drew my
rapier silently. Now we could hear the men cursing their mules and
beating them, as though they were in hot haste. Now they were
abreast of us. Still we stirred not. Mule after mule we could hear
go by, almost deafening us with the clang of their bells, though not
a hair could we see in our dark lair. A whole train so passed, and
then came another. Now was our time. The whistle gleamed at Frank's
lips. I gripped my hilt hard. Shrilly went up the signal, clear
above the jangling bells.
In a moment we were on our feet, rushing through the grass breast
high on two full trains of mules. Whether there were soldiers there
we could not tell, yet no armour could I descry. There was no time
to think. Already I heard Mr. Oxenham's voice shouting to the
leading carriers to stop, and we were amongst them.
Every one knocked over or seized the man in front of him. I rushed
with Frank to the rear to stay any man escaping. We knew our other
company had stopped the front _recua_, for the mules all began lying
down, as is their wont when they are halted.
They were soon all stretched peacefully in the way, and it was all
over. Not a sign of resistance was there. We hardly knew what to
make of it. There was not a Spaniard in all the train, much less a
Treasurer and his daughter.
'Hold that false Spaniard fast, Jasper,' cried Frank. 'If he has
deceived us, as I fear he has, he shall rue the day.'
So I clung to my charge, the prisoner we had brought along with us,
while the rest made discovery of our capture. Bale after bale they
cut, but no treasure was to be found. Nothing was in them but
victuals for the fleet. Frank sent for the chief carrier to learn
where the gold was, as we had little time to spare, and then we knew
the worst.
'Ah, most worthy _cabalero_,' said the chief carrier, who seemed a
very tall, sensible fellow, 'they have played you a trick, for which
none is to blame but yourself.'
'But was not the Treasurer of Lima to pass first to-night?' asked
Frank impatiently.
'Since you know that I will tell you all,' answered the man. 'Sure
enough he was to come with all his gold and family and jewels, but
half-way hither a _cabalero_ met us in hot haste, saying he had seen
something alive, half white, half black, rolling in the grass, and he
feared there was danger. So he urged his Excellency to turn back and
send on the victual _recuas_ to try and spring the trap, if there was
one. We have done it, and crave indulgence, since it was but our
orders, noble captain.'
I saw Frank's face darken with anger in the flare of the torches we
had now kindled. He turned quickly from the muleteer to us who stood
by.
'Mr. Oxenham,' said he sternly, in a firm low voice, 'it was one of
your company that spoiled all, for it was ere he reached us that this
discreet gentleman changed his pace. What does it mean?'
'Sergeant,' said Harry, who now stepped forward, 'report yourself for
punishment!'
Very unsteadily the poor Sergeant came up and gave a reeling salute.
He was plainly very drunk, yet to judge by his melancholy face
sobered enough to know what he had done.
'I could not help it, Captain Drake,' blurted the unhappy man. 'I
had not seen a horse for nigh on a year. I could not choose but look
when I heard him come. It would have been well, but the Cimaroon who
was with me jumped on my back to pull me down, and so we rolled over,
and the enemy's horse descried us.'
'Enough,' said Frank sharply; 'you are a fool, and shall smart for
your folly, but not now. We have other work. Go! You are Mr.
Waldyve's prisoner.'
With another salute a little more steadily he faced about and
withdrew, crestfallen beyond all words. I could see Frank was
consumed with anger, but yet he gave it not rein, for he had need of
his calmness. That we were thus disappointed by the folly of one of
our own company was bad enough when we had come so near to so great
success, but there was worse beyond.
Our case was a very desperate one, that was plain. We had failed,
and nothing was left us but to escape as quickly as we could to our
ships, or at least the forest, ere the Spaniards could gather a force
to attack us. How far they had discovered us was our only doubt, and
Frank again questioned the muleteer to find out what they knew of our
numbers.
'Nay, that I know not,' said the man. 'Yet I am persuaded that
unless you make haste away they will be upon you with all the force
they can muster. They have good reason to fear your strength, or
otherwise his Excellency would have trusted to his own guard. I tell
you this because I owe them a grudge for making me a cat's-paw.'
'But why did he not trust to his guard?' asked Frank.
'Why, for good reason enough. "What folk can these be?" he says to
the gentleman that met us. "Well," says he, "there are only two who
would have stomach for this wild stroke into the heart of
Tierra-Firme, where no pirate has ever dared to set his foot before.
I tell your Excellency it is Drake or the Devil." "Say rather the
Devil Drake," says his Excellency, and thereupon very easily is
persuaded to send me on instead of himself.'
This answer after his own heart brought a smile to the general's face
in spite of his anger, and helped him to calmly choose what course we
should take. There were but two. One was to return by the terrible
long and painful way we had come; the other the short way along the
road through Venta Cruz. The former was the safest, but we were all
wearied out and footsore. Moreover, though disappointed of the gold
and jewels, we had some two loads of silver to carry. I know not if
it were past our strength to attempt it, but I know that desperate as
we were over our cruel failure it was long past our inclination.
Pedro, who told us all this, stood waiting for an answer as the
captain pondered. I knew what Frank was thinking of, for he
presently looked hard at the Cimaroon. In success he doubted not
their faith. In failure could he trust them? This was the last and
greatest of our perils, enough in all to have crushed a heart less
stout than his.
'Pedro,' says he suddenly, still staring hard at the chief out of his
wide blue eyes, 'will you give me your hand not to forsake me if I do
it?'
The Cimaroon knew what he meant; so did we all. He drew his muscular
black frame to the full height very proudly before he answered.
'Captain Drake,' says he then, 'you and I are chiefs who have sworn
company. Rather would I die at your feet than leave you to your
enemies, if you dare hold to it, as I know you dare.'
With that they gripped hands, and Frank, turning cheerfully to the
company, gave us his resolution.
'Seeing we have failed, lads,' said he, 'we must even haste back to
our ships as fast as we may, from which we have been too long absent
already, that we may defend them in case they be attacked, and
moreover to let things quiet down a bit till we can try again. For
try again we will, since I am resolved not to leave this coast till
our voyage be made. Well, there are two ways back--one the long and
weary track by which we came, the other short and quick, but it lies
through Venta Cruz.' He paused a moment to see the effect of his
words, which seemed to catch the breath of those who listened, and
they looked from one to the other as he went on. 'By the long way
half of us will drop with fatigue, to be picked up by Spaniards. The
short way is easy along the high road. The mules will carry us as
far as the town, and then all we have to do is to force a passage. I
am for the short way; who is for the long?'
Not a man spoke, half of them being still breathless, I think, at the
thought of this desperate expedient. Had any other man proposed it
we should have set him down for a mad fellow, but we had all come to
think that nothing was too hard for us under our heroic general, and
not a man demurred.
'Then we are all for the short way,' cried Frank. 'Mount then, and
away! There is no time to lose, if we do not want the whole Panama
garrison at our heels.'
In a few minutes we were all ambling on our borrowed steeds on the
road towards Venta Cruz, silent and oppressed with thinking of our
forlorn attempt, yet each desperate and resolved to do his best. So
we continued till within a mile of the town, where the road entered
the forest again. A very perilous pass it looked, and Frank called
on us to draw rein. The road was but from ten to twelve feet wide,
and on either side a dense wall of tangled boughs and vines, reaching
high above our heads, as thick as any well-kept Kentish hedge. For
in that land the growth of the woods is so fast and rank that were it
not that men were always at work shredding and ridding the way, it
would be altogether lost and overgrown in one year. This constant
cutting had made the leafy walls on either hand as dense as I have
said, so that a man could hardly push through them without hurt.
Just as we drew rein I saw dimly, from where I rode in front with
Frank, that our two Cimaroons had stopped about half a flight ahead
of us. We drew near, and saw they were snuffing the air through
their widely-distended nostrils like hounds.
'Small shot in the wood!' they said, as we came to them.
'Where?' says Frank. 'Can you see them?'
'No,' said the elder Cimaroon; 'but we can smell their matches. It
is sure the wood is full of them on either hand.'
We could neither see nor smell anything, but doubted not it was as
these strangely gifted men had said. The Spaniards had been too
quick for us; they were ready. Clearly it was to be no Nombre de
Dios affair again.
'What is to be done?' said I.
'Why, go through with it,' said Frank. 'Now, lads, the wood is full
of harquebusiers in ambush; we must force a passage. Hold your fire
till their first volley is spent. Then one old English salute, and
at them at push of pike in the old fashion!'
Our prisoner and the _recuas_ were now turned away, with strict
charge that none should follow us on pain of death. The Cimaroons
divided the burden of the silver amongst them, and once more we
pressed on.
'Ho! stand!' suddenly comes out of the darkness, and a Spanish
captain glittering in brilliant harness steps into the road.
'Ho!' returns Frank, as though the road were his own, 'stand and
declare yourself!'
'_Que gente?_' says the Spaniard, very proud.
'English,' says Frank, blowing up the match of his pistol; 'what
would you?'
'Gentlemen Englishmen,' cries the Spaniard, 'it pains me to be so
discourteous as to deny you passage this way. In the name of his
most Catholic and Puissant Majesty the King of Spain, I bid you yield
yourselves; and promise you, on the word and faith of a Castilian and
a gentleman soldier, in that case to use you with all courtesy.'
'Most worthy captain,' says Frank, 'it is utter grief to me that we
are in too great haste to grant you this favour, and are forced to
inform you, notwithstanding your courteous offer, that for the honour
of her most High and Mighty Majesty the Queen of England, Defender of
the Faith, we must have passage this way.'
A sharp crack from Frank's pistol was the fitting conclusion to his
speech, and I saw the Spaniard reel. Then there was a roar in front
of us. Long tongues of flame leaped from the thickets ahead on
either hand. A hot iron seemed to sear my leg. Frank clapped his
hand to his thigh, and the man on the other side of me fell forward
with a terrible cry. Thick and fast their shot whistled by. The
Cimaroons had entirely disappeared, and we took what shelter we could.
The narrow road was now full of choking sulphurous smoke. We could
see nothing but here and there the leaping flash of a harquebuss or
the glimmer of a match. Almost as suddenly as it had begun their
fire slackened, and then a merry trill went up, shrill and clear,
from Frank's whistle.
We were all out in the road again in a minute. Bow-strings were
singing, and small shot barking, as arrows and slugs went tearing
into the dense smoke. Then we knew our silence had done its work,
and brought the enemy rashly out of their cover. Shrieks, groans,
curses, followed our discharge, and gave us courage to advance, which
we did at a run through the choking smoke. Still we could not come
to push of pike. They seemed to be retreating before us.
'Where are the Cimaroons?' said I, as I ran by Frank's side.
'I know not,' he said; 'God grant they have not deserted us.'
The words were hardly out of his mouth when an unearthly yell arose
behind us, and Pedro bounded past towards the town. In a moment the
air was rent with the horrible screams of his people. Encouraged, as
I think, by hearing us advance, they had issued from the cover, where
their horror of gunpowder had driven them. Howsoever they had feared
before, they were now most terrible to behold.
Like incarnate fiends they bounded on before us, leaping, dancing,
casting up their arms, and all the while yelling, '_Yó pehó! Yó
pehó!_' in most evil sort, and singing unearthly spells, after the
fashion of their own savage warfare. Their frenzy seemed to give
them more than human power; and even as they ran they leaped so high
as I never saw before, nor all the while did they cease to discharge
their deadly arrows and awful war-cries.
Whether it were witchcraft or not I cannot tell, but very soon we
were all as mad as they, and ran so fast that before the Spaniards
reached the town gate we overtook many of them. They tried to make a
stand, but it was to no purpose. The Cimaroons burrowed into the
thickets like snakes, and drew them forth by the heels, never ceasing
to yell their rhythmic '_Yó pehó! Yó pehó!_' Half of the enemy we
now saw were monks, who kicked and screamed most lustily till they
were speared by the maddened Cimaroons.
Still a few pikemen boldly held their ground with the captain; and in
this struggle a few more of us were wounded. The Cimaroons fought
like demons. One close by me was run through with a pike, whereupon,
so mad was he, that he drew himself along the shaft till he could
reach the Spaniard who held it, and then stabbed his enemy to the
death.
Such a sight of frantic, wanton daring I never saw. It seemed to
strike terror into our enemy; for incontinently with a cry of horror
they fled, and we leaped after them so fast that all entered the town
together--sailors, Spaniards, friars, and Cimaroons, in one confused
throng.
We gave them no time to recover their senses, but hustled them clean
into the monastery, where we locked them up. In a very short space
the town was fairly in our hands, and all quiet. Guards were set at
the gate where we had entered, and also at the bridge at the other
end of the town, whereby we should have to pass out over the river to
continue our way. Then we had leisure to look to our wounds, which,
though many, were slight, seeing that the enemy had but powdered us
with hail-shot. The man who first fell by me was the only one of the
company sorely hurt, and he died very soon after.
Our business in the town occupied us about an hour and a half.
Amongst other merchandise we dealt in were above a thousand bulls and
pardons which had newly come out of Rome. With these the mariners
made more sport than was needful, yet the church and all other things
ecclesiastic were respected.
We found some women there, moreover, with new-born infants, who had
come thither because no Spanish child may safely be born in Nombre de
Dios by reason of its pestilent airs. These were terribly affrighted
by our presence, and would not be content till the general went to
them himself as soon as he had leisure, to show it was indeed Francis
Drake who had taken the town, whereby they were forthwith comforted,
knowing that in his hands they were safe, as indeed they were, even
from the fury of the Cimaroons, who very faithfully kept their word
to the general, and hurt no one after the fight was done.
Our dealings, though not large, brought us no little comfort for the
loss of our Treasurer, and it was more heavily laden than when we
entered that we continued our way, after blocking the bridge to
prevent pursuit.