It was in the mid-afternoon, and Henry, at his barred cell-window,
stared out into the street and wondered if any sort of breeze would ever
begin to blow from off Chiriqui Lagoon and cool the stagnant air. The
street was dusty and filthy—filthy, because the only scavengers it had
ever known since the town was founded centuries before were the carrion
dogs and obscene buzzards even then prowling and hopping about in the
debris. Low, whitewashed buildings of stone and adobe made the street a
furnace.
The white of it all, and the dust, was almost achingly intolerable to
the eyes, and Henry would have withdrawn his gaze, had not the several
ragged _mosos_, dozing in a doorway opposite, suddenly aroused and
looked interestedly up the street. Henry could not see, but he could
hear the rattling spokes of some vehicle coming at speed. Next, it
surged into view, a rattletrap light wagon drawn by a runaway horse. In
the seat a gray-headed, gray-bearded ancient strove vainly to check the
animal.
Henry smiled and marveled that the rickety wagon could hold together, so
prodigious were the bumps imparted to it by the deep ruts. Every wheel,
half-dished and threatening to dish, wobbled and revolved out of line
with every other wheel. And if the wagon held intact, Henry judged, it
was a miracle that the crazy harness did not fly to pieces. When
directly opposite the window, the old man made a last effort,
half-standing up from the seat as he pulled on the reins. One was
rotten, and broke. As the driver fell backward into the seat, his weight
on the remaining rein caused the horse to swerve sharply to the right.
What happened then—whether a wheel dished, or whether a wheel had come
off first and dished afterward—Henry could not determine. The one
incontestable thing was that the wagon was a wreck. The old man,
dragging in the dust and stubbornly hanging on to the remaining rein,
swung the horse in a circle until it stopped, facing him and snorting at
him.
By the time he gained his feet a crowd of _mosos_ was forming about him.
These were roughly shouldered right and left by the gendarmes who
erupted from the jail. Henry remained at the window and, for a man with
but a few hours to live, was an amused spectator and listener to what
followed.
Giving his horse to a gendarme to hold, not stopping to brush the filth
from his person, the old man limped hurriedly to the wagon and began an
examination of the several packing cases, large and small, which
composed its load. Of one case he was especially solicitous, even trying
to lift it and seeming to listen as he lifted.
He straightened up, on being addressed by one of the gendarmes, and made
voluble reply.
“Me? Alas senors, I am an old man, and far from home. I am Leopoldo
Narvaez. It is true, my mother was German, may the Saints preserve her
rest; but my father was Baltazar de Jesus y Cervallos é Narvaez, son of
General Narvaez of martial memory, who fought under the great Bolivar
himself. And now I am half ruined and far from home.”
Prompted by other questions, interlarded with the courteous expressions
of sympathy with which even the humblest _moso_ is over generously
supplied, he managed to be polite-fully grateful and to run on with his
tale.
“I have driven from Bocas del Toro. It has taken me five days, and
business has been poor. My home is in Colon, and I wish I were safely
there. But even a noble Narvaez may be a peddler, and even a peddler
must live, eh, senors, is it not so? But tell me, is there not a Tomas
Romero who dwells in this pleasant city of San Antonio?”
“There are any God’s number of Tomas Romeros who dwell everywhere in
Panama,” laughed Pedro Zurita, the assistant jailer. “One would need
fuller description.”
“He is the cousin of my second wife,” the ancient answered hopefully,
and seemed bewildered by the roar of laughter from the crowd.
“And a dozen Tomas Romeros live in and about San Antonio,” the assistant
jailer went on, “any one of which may be your second wife’s cousin,
Senor. There is Tomas Romero, the drunkard. There is Tomas Romero, the
thief. There is Tomas Romero—but no, he was hanged a month back for
murder and robbery. There is the rich Tomas Romero who owns many cattle
on the hills. There is....”
To each suggested one, Leopoldo Narvaez had shaken his head dolefully,
until the cattle-owner was mentioned. At this he had become hopeful and
broke in:
“Pardon me, senor, it must be he, or some such a one as he. I shall find
him. If my precious stock-in-trade can be safely stored, I shall seek
him now. It is well my misfortune came upon me where it did. I shall be
able to trust it with you, who are, one can see with half an eye, an
honest and an honorable man.” As he talked, he fumbled forth from his
pocket two silver pesos and handed them to the jailer. “There, I wish
you and your men to have some pleasure of assisting me.”
Henry grinned to himself as he noted the access of interest in the old
man and of consideration for him, on the part of Pedro Zurita and the
gendarmes, caused by the present of the coins. They shoved the more
curious of the crowd roughly back from the wrecked wagon and began to
carry the boxes into the jail.
“Careful, senors, careful,” the old one pleaded, greatly anxious, as
they took hold of the big box. “Handle it gently. It is of value, and it
is fragile, most fragile.”
While the contents of the wagon were being carried into the jail, the
old man removed and deposited in the wagon all harness from the horse
save the bridle.
Pedro Zurita ordered the harness taken in as well, explaining, with a
glare at the miserable crowd: “Not a strap or buckle would remain the
second after our backs were turned.”
Using what was left of the wagon for a stepping block, and ably assisted
by the jailer and his crew, the peddler managed to get astride his
animal.
“It is well,” he said, and added gratefully: “A thousand thanks, senors.
It has been my good fortune to meet with honest men with whom my goods
will be safe—only poor goods, peddler’s goods, you understand; but to
me, everything, my way upon the road. The pleasure has been mine to meet
you. To-morrow I shall return with my kinsman, whom I certainly shall
find, and relieve from you the burden of safeguarding my inconsiderable
property.” He doffed his hat. “Adios, senors, adios!”
He rode away at a careful walk, timid of the animal he bestrode which
had caused his catastrophe. He halted and turned his head at a call from
Pedro Zurita.
“Search the graveyard, Senor Narvaez,” the jailer advised. “Full a
hundred Tomas Romeros lie there.”
“And be vigilant, I beg of you, senor, of the heavy box,” the peddler
called back.
Henry watched the street grow deserted as the gendarmes and the populace
fled from the scorch of the sun. Small wonder, he thought to himself,
that the old peddler’s voice had sounded vaguely familiar. It had been
because he had possessed only half a Spanish tongue to twist around the
language—the other half being the German tongue of the mother. Even so,
he talked like a native, and he would be robbed like a native if there
was anything of value in the heavy box deposited with the jailers, Henry
concluded, ere dismissing the incident from his mind.
* * * * *
In the guardroom, a scant fifty feet away from Henry’s cell, Leopoldo
Narvaez was being robbed. It had begun by Pedro Zurita making a profound
and wistful survey of the large box. He lifted one end of it to sample
its weight, and sniffed like a hound at the crack of it as if his nose
might give him some message of its contents.
“Leave it alone, Pedro,” one of the gendarmes laughed at him. “You have
been paid two pesos to be honest.”
The assistant jailer sighed, walked away and sat down, looked back at
the box, and sighed again. Conversation languished. Continually the eyes
of the men roved to the box. A greasy pack of cards could not divert
them. The game languished. The gendarme who had twitted Pedro himself
went to the box and sniffed.
“I smell nothing,” he announced. “Absolutely in the box there is nothing
to smell. Now what can it be? The caballero said that it was of value!”
“Caballero!” sniffed another of the gendarmes. “The old man’s father was
more like to have been peddler of rotten fish on the streets of Colon
and his father before him. Every lying beggar claims descent from the
conquistadores.”
“And why not, Rafael?” Pedro Zurita retorted. “Are we not all so
descended?”
“Without doubt,” Rafael readily agreed. “The conquistadores slew many——”
“And were the ancestors of those that survived,” Pedro completed for him
and aroused a general laugh. “Just the same, almost would I give one of
these pesos to know what is in that box.”
“There is Ignacio,” Rafael greeted the entrance of a turnkey whose heavy
eyes tokened he was just out of his siesta. “He was not paid to be
honest. Come, Ignacio, relieve our curiosity by letting us know what is
in the box.”
“How should I know?” Ignacio demanded, blinking at the object of
interest. “Only now have I awakened.”
“You have not been paid to be honest, then?” Rafael asked.
“Merciful Mother of God, who is the man who would pay me to be honest?”
the turnkey demanded.
“Then take the hatchet there and open the box,” Rafael drove his point
home. “We may not, for as surely as Pedro is to share the two pesos with
us, that surely have we been paid to be honest. Open the box, Ignacio,
or we shall perish of our curiosity.”
“We will look, we will only look,” Pedro muttered nervously, as the
turnkey prized off a board with the blade of the hatchet. “Then we will
close the box again and——Put your hand in, Ignacio. What is it you
find?... eh? what does it feel like? Ah!”
After pulling and tugging, Ignacio’s hand had reappeared, clutching a
cardboard carton.
“Remove it carefully, for it must be replaced,” the jailer cautioned.
And when the wrappings of paper and tissue paper were removed, all eyes
focused on a quart bottle of rye whiskey.
“How excellently is it composed,” Pedro murmured in tones of awe. “It
must be very good that such care be taken of it.”
“It is Americano whiskey,” sighed a gendarme. “Once, only, have I drunk
Americano whiskey. It was wonderful. Such was the courage of it, that I
leaped into the bull-ring at Santos and faced a wild bull with my hands.
It is true, the bull rolled me, but did I not leap into the ring?”
Pedro took the bottle and prepared to knock its neck off.
“Hold!” cried Rafael. “You were paid to be honest.”
“By a man who was not himself honest,” came the retort. “The stuff is
contraband. It has never paid duty. The old man was in possession of
smuggled goods. Let us now gratefully and with clear conscience invest
ourselves in its possession. We will confiscate it. We will destroy it.”
Not waiting for the bottle to pass, Ignacio and Rafael unwrapped fresh
ones and broke off the necks.
“Three stars—most excellent,” Pedro Zurita orated in a pause, pointing
to the trade mark. “You see, all Gringo whiskey is good. One star shows
that it is very good; two stars that it is excellent; three stars that
it is superb, the best, and better than beyond that. Ah, I know. The
Gringos are strong on strong drink. No pulque for them.”
“And four stars?” queried Ignacio, his voice husky from the liquor, the
moisture glistening in his eyes.
“Four stars? Friend Ignacio, four stars would be either sudden death or
translation into paradise.”
In not many minutes, Rafael, his arm around another gendarme, was
calling him brother and proclaiming that it took little to make men
happy here below.
“The old man was a fool, three times a fool, and thrice that,”
volunteered Augustino, a sullen-faced gendarme, who for the first time
gave tongue to speech.
“Viva Augustino!” cheered Rafael. “The three stars have worked a
miracle. Behold! Have they not unlocked Augustino’s mouth?”
“And thrice times thrice again was the old man a fool!” Augustino
bellowed fiercely. “The very drink of the gods was his, all his, and he
has been five days alone with it on the road from Bocas del Toro, and
never taken one little sip. Such fools as he should be stretched out
naked on an ant-heap, say I.”
“The old man was a rogue,” quoth Pedro. “And when he comes back
to-morrow for his three stars I shall arrest him for a smuggler. It will
be a feather in all our caps.”
“If we destroy the evidence—thus?” queried Augustino, knocking off
another neck.
“We will save the evidence—thus!” Pedro replied, smashing an empty
bottle on the stone flags. “Listen, comrades. The box was very heavy—we
are all agreed. It fell. The bottles broke. The liquor ran out, and so
were we made aware of the contraband. The box and the broken bottles
will be evidence sufficient.”
The uproar grew as the liquor diminished. One gendarme quarreled with
Ignacio over a forgotten debt of ten centavos. Two others sat upon the
floor, arms around each other’s necks, and wept over the miseries of
their married lot. Augustino, like a very spendthrift of speech,
explained his philosophy that silence was golden. And Pedro Zurita
became sentimental on brotherhood.
“Even my prisoners,” he maundered. “I love them as brothers. Life is
sad.” A gush of tears in his eyes made him desist while he took another
drink. “My prisoners are my very children. My heart bleeds for them.
Behold! I weep. Let us share with them. Let them have a moment’s
happiness. Ignacio, dearest brother of my heart. Do me a favor. See, I
weep on your hand. Carry a bottle of this elixir to the Gringo Morgan.
Tell him my sorrow that he must hang to-morrow. Give him my love and bid
him drink and be happy to-day.”
And as Ignacio passed out on the errand, the gendarme who had once leapt
into the bull-ring at Santos, began roaring:
“I want a bull! I want a bull!”
“He wants it, dear soul, that he may put his arms around it and love
it,” Pedro Zurita explained, with a fresh access of weeping. “I, too,
love bulls. I love all things. I love even mosquitoes. All the world is
love. That is the secret of the world. I should like to have a lion to
play with....”
* * * * *
The unmistakable air of “Back to Back Against the Mainmast” being
whistled openly in the street, caught Henry’s attention, and he was
crossing his big cell to the window when the grating of a key in the
door made him lie down quickly on the floor and feign sleep. Ignacio
staggered drunkenly in, bottle in hand, which he gravely presented to
Henry.
“With the high compliments of our good jailer, Pedro Zurita,” he
mumbled. “He says to drink and forget that he must stretch your neck
to-morrow.”
“My high compliments to Senor Pedro Zurita, and tell him from me to go
to hell along with his whiskey,” Henry replied.
The turnkey straightened up and ceased swaying, as if suddenly become
sober.
“Very well, senor,” he said, then passed out and locked the door.
In a rush Henry was at the window just in time to encounter Francis face
to face and thrusting a revolver to him through the bars.
“Greetings, camarada,” Francis said. “We’ll have you out of here in a
jiffy.” He held up two sticks of dynamite, with fuse and caps complete.
“I have brought this pretty crowbar to pry you out. Stand well back in
your cell, because real pronto there’s going to be a hole in this wall
that we could sail the _Angelique_ through. And the _Angelique_ is right
off the beach waiting for you.—Now, stand back. I’m going to touch her
off. It’s a short fuse.”
Hardly had Henry backed into a rear corner of his cell, when the door
was clumsily unlocked and opened to a babel of cries and imprecations,
chiefest among which he could hear the ancient and invariable war-cry of
Latin-America, “Kill the Gringo!”
Also, he could hear Rafael and Pedro, as they entered, babbling, the
one: “He is the enemy of brotherly love”; and the other, “He said I was
to go to hell—is not that what he said, Ignacio?”
In their hands they carried rifles, and behind them urged the drunken
rabble, variously armed, from cutlasses and horse-pistols to hatchets
and bottles. At sight of Henry’s revolver, they halted, and Pedro,
fingering his rifle unsteadily, maundered solemnly:
“Senor Morgan, you are about to take up your rightful abode in hell.”
But Ignacio did not wait. He fired wildly and widely from his hip,
missing Henry by half the width of the cell and going down the next
moment under the impact of Henry’s bullet. The rest retreated
precipitately into the jail corridor, where, themselves unseen, they
began discharging their weapons into the room.
Thanking his fortunate stars for the thickness of the walls, and hoping
no ricochet would get him, Henry sheltered in a protecting angle and
waited for the explosion.
It came. The window and the wall beneath it became all one aperture.
Struck on the head by a flying fragment, Henry sank down dizzily, and,
as the dust of the mortar and the powder cleared, with wavering eyes he
saw Francis apparently swim through the hole. By the time he had been
dragged out through the hole, Henry was himself again. He could see
Enrico Solano and Ricardo, his youngest born, rifles in hand, holding
back the crowd forming up the street, while the twins, Alvarado and
Martinez, similarly held back the crowd forming down the street.
But the populace was merely curious, having its lives to lose and
nothing to gain if it attempted to block the way of such masterful men
as these who blew up walls and stormed jails in open day. And it gave
back respectfully before the compact group as it marched down the
street.
“The horses are waiting up the next alley,” Francis told Henry, as they
gripped hands. “And Leoncia is waiting with them. Fifteen minutes’
gallop will take us to the beach, where the boat is waiting.”
“Say, that was some song I taught you,” Henry grinned. “It sounded like
the very best little bit of all right when I heard you whistling it. The
dogs were so previous they couldn’t wait till to-morrow to hang me. They
got full of whiskey and decided to finish me off right away. Funny thing
that whiskey. An old caballero turned peddler wrecked a wagon-load of it
right in front of the jail——”
“For even a noble Narvaez, son of Baltazar de Jesus y Cervallos è
Narvaez, son of General Narvaez of martial memory, may be a peddler, and
even a peddler must live, eh, senors, is it not so?” Francis mimicked.
Henry looked his gleeful recognition, and added soberly:
“Francis, I’m glad for one thing, most damn glad....”
“Which is?” Francis queried in the pause, just as they swung around the
corner to the horses.
“That I didn’t cut off your ears that day on the Calf when I had you
down and you insisted.”