SANCHO SETTLES HIS ACCOUNT.
In the rock passage the hush was complete. For the space of ten long
breaths Sancho stood quivering under the weird spell of the infernal red
radiance from the hidden lights, while almost invisible ahead of him
Dolores bent to listen to a last moment's communication from
Pascherette. With Milo behind him, and the great unknown ahead, the
pirate's usual fierce courage oozed out through his boots. Yet he was
hypnotized by the vague glitter that shone at the end of the tunnel--the
glitter, though he knew it not yet, of the great sliding door to the
inner mystery.
Suddenly the mighty rock reverberated and shook to a Titanic volley of
thunder, and Sancho shrieked with nervous terror. His shriek was echoed
by a rippling laugh from Dolores, and she came back swiftly toward him,
pushing Pascherette before her. She handed the little octoroon on to
Milo, and said, with a kindly pat on the girl's head: "Open, Milo, and
let thy sweetheart complete her good works. Now I shall have none but
faithful friends about me. Pascherette, thou'rt more than forgiven:
thou'rt my good friend. I shall reward thee fittingly when"--she smiled
dazzlingly at Sancho--"I have rewarded Sancho."
The rock door rolled aside, and Pascherette passed out into the storm.
Sancho's nerves gave way utterly now, and he rushed toward the opening,
screaming: "Let me out! I want air! I want none of the great chamber!
Let me pass!"
Milo again let fall the rock, pressed a huge hand on Sancho's breast,
and pushed him back, saying: "Peace, fool! Go with thy mistress. Thine
eye will never again witness the like. Go, I tell thee. Dost fear the
Sultana's justice?"
"Come, Sancho. Thou'lt be a marked man among thy fellows when I have
shown thee what they yearn to see."
Dolores again took his hand, bent her glorious eyes full upon him, and
Sancho followed her like a sheep, straight to the great door under the
jeweled yellow lantern, where he stood, stupefied with awe at the
barbaric splendors revealed.
His lips went dry, and he licked them feverishly; his single eye blazed
with avarice; the two fingers and mutilated thumb of his right hand
worked convulsively, as if he would tear the gems and plate from the
door. And Dolores watched him from under lowered lids, her rich red lips
curled scornfully, one hand half raised to warn Milo to open the great
door slowly.
"Well, Sancho, art better prepared for the greater treasures yet to be
seen?" smiled Dolores. The pirate's blazing eye seemed to dart flames as
the door slowly rose to Milo's touch.
"Sultana!" he gasped, and his speech would do no more for him.
"Enter, friend. This is thy great hour!"
The queen pushed him gently inside, following herself, and Milo let fall
the door again, standing mute and motionless on the inside while his
mistress led the pirate to the center of the great chamber and waited
until his dazzled eye adjusted itself to the subtle lighting effects.
Pascherette's last whispered communication to Dolores had told her of
Yellow Rufe's intentions; and while Sancho stood in amaze, she bent her
ear to catch the expected sound of voices through the sounding-stone
behind the tapestry. For there the little octoroon was to play a part
for Sancho's especial benefit. The thunder had become all but incessant;
with every crash the great chamber rumbled and echoed eerily; yet
between the crashes, brief as the periods were, human voices could be
heard.
"Art ready to see my treasures, Sancho?"
Dolores waved a gleaming arm around the place, indicating with one wide
gesture the glories of the walls and roof. But the pirate's senses
responded more readily to the tangible riches represented by gold and
gems, tall flagons, and jewel-incrusted lamps, littered diamonds and
rubies that strewed the big table.
"Hah!" cried Dolores, with a low, throaty laugh. "Ah! my friend, I know
thy mind. Milo!"
Milo advanced with a deep obeisance.
"Milo, open the great chests for Sancho. Let him plunge his arms to the
elbows in red gold. Then I shall show him that which lies nearest to his
deserts."
The pirate watched with lips no longer dry, but dripping with the saliva
of greed, while Milo flung open chest after chest, full to overflowing
with minted gold of many nations; looted jewels of royal and noble
houses, sacred vessels and glittering orders, weapons whose hilts and
scabbards, if ever made for use, could only have been used to bewilder
the eye and senses.
Again the thunder pealed; and in the tremendous hush succeeding, the
voices outside penetrated the sounding-stone in more than a whisper.
Sancho jerked up his head and fear once more shone in his single eye.
"Come, good Sancho," purred Dolores, running her soft hand down his bare
forearm. "Art frightened by petty noises, then? Plunge thy hands deep,
man! All thou canst grasp is thine for so long as thy eye can enjoy or
thy hands fondle."
Now Sancho's sordid soul surrendered. His greed conquered fear, and he
delved deep into a coffer, chattering the while with frenzy. And now
when the thunder rolled, his ears heard it not. He drew forth his hands,
and a glittering mass of wealth fell about his feet. He glared up at
Dolores, laughing ghoulishly.
"That is well, Sancho," Dolores said, and took his hand. "Now I will
show thee the rest; and I know thou'lt never tell of it. I trust thee.
Come. Put thy ear to this tapestry, and tell me what thou canst hear."
Sancho laid his ear to the cloth, and his eye gleamed brightly. Milo
stepped silently behind him.
"I hear Hanglip!" he gasped. "Is he, too, here?"
"He is outside the cliff. But whom else canst hear?"
"I hear Caliban--Spotted Dog--Stumpy--I hear a score as if they stood by
my side! And Pascherette! By the fiend! She has played Rufe a trick! And
me--" He sprang from the wall like a tiger, snatching at his weaponless
belt with slavering fury, to be gathered at once into the remorseless
hug of Milo. And he glared full into the mocking face of Dolores--soft
and generous no more, but the embodiment of awful vengeance.
For many seconds she stood regarding him contemptuously, until he
subsided helplessly in Milo's grasp; then, motioning the giant to
follow, she passed along and stopped before a life-size painting of "The
Sleeping Venus" in a massive, gilded frame. With one hand raised high at
the side, she turned a pulley-catch, and the great picture slowly fell
forward from the top until it rested slopingly on the floor, forming an
inclined entrance to a gloomy passage, dimly touched by a dark-red glow.
This was the secret outlet to the great chamber by which Milo had access
to the altar in the grove at such times as his aid was needed to
support Dolores in some exhibition of black magic. She stepped swiftly
along the passage, giving no further heed to the panic-stricken pirate
until Milo had carried and dragged him to where she awaited him. This
was still another dark excavation, running deeper yet into the bowels of
the cliff; and the devilish red glare was here intensified until
surrounding objects were vividly revealed.
"Now hear the doom of a traitor!" cried Dolores, with haughty mien.
"What! Not a traitor?" she mocked at the pirate's frantic howl of
denial. "Then Dolores has erred, perhaps. There is a test, good Sancho.
Let me see if I am wrong!"
She signed to Milo, and the giant swung Sancho around until he faced the
deepest recess of the cave. There, swathed in mummy clothes, preserved
by the chemical miracle of the stratum of red earth that formed the core
of the rock, the body of Red Jabez stood erect against the wall, bathed
in the red glow, diamonds glittering where the dead eyes had been. And
on the rock ledge at his feet stood a tall flagon of gold, in which
Dolores had brewed an awful potion for this event. Beside this ledge
stood a low brazier full of glowing charcoal; on a tabouret near by lay
several terrible implements the use of which needed no explanation.
"Look upon the face of the Red Chief, and drink this draft--'tis his
blood!" she cried, seizing the flagon and thrusting it into Sancho's
hands. "Then, if thy heart held no treachery toward me, thy life and
limbs are safe. But have a care! A lie in thy heart will surely undo
thee. Drink!"
A splitting thunder-crash filled the place with uproar; a gust of the
tempest from the outer entrance sent the wind swirling in. It was as if
the breath of the storm snatched Sancho's senses back from the
terror-land they had fled to; he ceased his howling, glared defiantly up
at the dead chief, and cried in desperation: "Give me the drink! I fear
neither gods nor devils; why should I fear you, dead man?"
"Wait!" Dolores laid a hand on his arm, and stayed the flagon at his
lips. "Wait, till I tell thee more. Then, if thou art guiltless, and go
from here with the treasure I gave thee, thou'lt know thy friends and
thy foes.
"Didst think Yellow Rufe was free? Thou fool! Thy wits are powerless
before a woman's. Did my pretty Pascherette tell him he might go free,
taking my sloop, escaping my vengeance, as thou didst think to? Didst
hear those voices? Then I tell thee, Sancho, that ten-score count, that
Rufe doubtless made in fear and trembling, but sufficed to raise his
hopes. For ere he had gained the sloop and started her anchor,
Pascherette had done her work. The stranger's schooner is full of my
men, waiting for Rufe to come for his booty. Let him take alarm, then
how far may he win? Thou'lt never know, false Sancho, for I have no
doubt of thy treachery. Now drink, if thou darest!"
"Then, by the fiend, I dare!" shouted the pirate. Something in the tang
of the gale sweeping in from the unseen entrance reassured him of the
existence of the outer world; persuaded him that by taking a desperate
chance he might yet throw dust in the eyes of this terrible woman and go
hence with the secret of the great chamber. "I dare, Dolores! Blood, d'
ye say? What fitter drink for a pirate?"
He lifted the flagon, took a deep draft in great gulps, so that his
determination might carry him; then his eye sparkled, he took the flagon
from his lips, and grinned at Milo. "By the great Red Chief!" he cried.
"This is justice indeed! I drink to ye, Sultana, and to Milo, ye big
jester!" and finished the drink with a greedy swallow.
Then the flagon clattered to the ground, Sancho's face went livid, and
his mouth opened wide and loosely, as his body and limbs were seized
with subtle pains. His brain, too, felt an awful numbness creeping upon
it; for the draft had done its work. The rarest of wine from her store,
Dolores had mingled with it a devilish powder that first sapped the
strength, then attacked the brain, and eventually snapped the cord of
intelligence, leaving the victim a driveling imbecile. But that point
had not yet been reached. It would come perhaps in one hour, two, three,
perhaps six--but inevitably it must come. For the present the pirate
was simply in the grip of the unknown, yet having full power to realize,
but not resist, the tangible terrors at hand.
"Milo, hasten the rest. I shall await thee at the gate. Put forth this
traitor by the Grove outlet, and see to it that he takes with him
neither power to see beauty, to utter treason, or to ever feel again the
scalding touch of coveted gold. Make speed, I command thee, for I hear
my stout trusty ones clamoring for the chase!"
Dolores disappeared through the secret outlet, sprang down behind the
altar, and ran through the Grove. Beside the cliff were huddled Hanglip
and Stumpy, Caliban, and Spotted Dog, drenched with the teeming rain,
restless with impatience, peering ever to seaward in the lightning
flashes that continually illumined the scene.
Among them Dolores appeared, suddenly, mysteriously, as coming from the
skies, and after a choke of amazement Stumpy flung a hand seaward, and
shouted above the turmoil of wind and rain:
"Queen o' Night, thou'lt need thy magic now! See, there flies the
villain!"
Dolores looked, and smiled disdainfully. The torrential rain beat upon
her bare head and shoulders, causing her to glisten and shine like a
golden goddess; but she heeded it not at all; her eyes sought out what
Stumpy had indicated. And there, in the next lightning-flash, flying
seaward, was the sloop. Rufe had taken alarm, and had foregone his plan
of looting the schooner.
"Let him go; he'll fly not far," she said calmly. "Come with me to the
great rock, my bold fellows; daylight shall show thee Rufe where I would
have him--paying the price, as Sancho has paid!"
She glided around the rock, followed by her silent faithfuls, while from
the Grove rang a shriek of mortal agony that sent fierce hearts aquiver
with terror.