The odd spectacle once more overcame the gravity of the Indian; and,
resting upon his oars, he delivered himself up to a renewed spell of
laughter.
Through the network of the hammock the student could now note the
movements of those who were coming to his rescue. He saw the Indian
turn towards his companion, pointing at the same time to the singular
tableau among the tops of the trees, which the negro appeared to
contemplate with a countenance that betrayed an anxiety equal to his
own.
Don Cornelio could not make out what there was to laugh at in a
spectacle that for two mortal hours--ever since daybreak--had been
causing him the extreme of fear; but, without saying a word, he waited
for the explanation of this ill-timed hilarity.
"Let us get a little farther off!" stammered the negro; "we can
deliberate better what we should do."
"What we should do!" cried Costal, now speaking seriously; "it needs no
deliberation to tell that."
"Quite true," assented Clara, "it does not. Of course we should push
off a little; and the sooner we do it the better."
"Bah!" exclaimed Costal, "that's not what I meant;" as he spoke coolly
laying his paddle in the bottom of the canoe, and taking up his carbine.
"But what are you going to do?" anxiously asked Clara.
"_Por Dios_! to shoot one of the jaguars; what else? You shall see
presently. Keep yourself quiet, Senor student," he continued, speaking
to Don Cornelio, who still lay crouched up within the hammock, and who,
from very fear, could neither speak nor move.
At this moment one of the jaguars uttered a growl that caused the blood
to run cold through the veins of Clara. At the same time the fierce
creature was seen tearing the bark from the tamarind with his curving
claws; while, with mouth agape, and teeth set, as if in menace, he fixed
his fiery eyes upon Costal, who was nearest to him. His angry glance
had no terrors for the _tigrero_, who, gazing firmly back upon the
fierce brute, appeared to subdue him by some power of fascination.
Costal now raised the carbine to his shoulder, took deliberate aim, and
fired. Almost simultaneously with the report, the huge animal came
tumbling down from the tree, and fell with a dull, dead plash upon the
water. It was the male.
"Quick, Clara!" cried the Indian. "A stroke of the paddle--quick, or we
shall have the other upon us!"
And, as Costal spoke, he drew his long knife to be ready for defending
himself.
Anxious as the negro was to get out of the way, and making all the haste
in his power, his fears had so unnerved him that his efforts were in
vain. The female jaguar, furious at the death of her mate, and anxious
for the safety of her whelps, stayed only to utter one savage yell; and
then, bounding downward from the branches, she launched herself upon the
student. The hammock, however, oscillating violently to one side,
caused her to let go her hold, and making a second spring, she dropped
down into the canoe. The weight of her body, combined with the impetus
which her anger had given to it, at once capsized the little craft; and
Indian, negro, and jaguar went all together under water!
In a second's time all three reappeared on the surface--Clara
half-frightened out of his senses, and striking out with all the energy
of despair.
Fortunately for the negro, the old pearl-diver could swim like a shark;
and, in the twinkling of an eye, the latter had darted betwixt him and
the jaguar--his knife slung between his clenched teeth.
The two adversaries, now face to face, paused for an instant as if to
measure the distance between them. Their eyes met--those of the
tiger-hunter expressing coolness and resolution, while the orbs of the
jaguar rolled furiously in their sockets.
All at once the hunter was seen to dive; and the jaguar, astonished at
the sudden disappearance of her enemy, paused, and for a moment balanced
herself in the water. Then turning round, she commenced swimming back
towards the tree upon which she had left her young ones.
Before reaching it, however, she was seen to struggle, and sink
partially below the surface--as if some whirlpool was sucking her
underneath; then rising up again, she turned over on her back, and
floated lifeless down the current. A long red gash appeared freshly
opened in her belly; and the water around was fast becoming tinged with
the crimson stream that gushed copiously from the wound.
The Indian, in turn, came to the surface; and, after casting a look
around him, swam towards the canoe--which the current had already
carried to some distance from the trees. Overtaking it, he once more
turned the craft deck upwards; and, mounting aboard, paddled back
towards the student.
Lantejas had not yet recovered from the surprise with which the
encounter, as well as the audacious _sang-froid_ exhibited by the
_tigrero_, had inspired him, when the latter arrived underneath; and,
with the same blade with which he had almost disembowelled the tiger,
opened the bottom of the hammock by cutting it lengthwise. By this
means he had resolved on delivering the student more easily than by
endeavouring to get him out over the edge.
At that moment was heard the voice of Clara, still swimming about in the
water.
"The skins of the jaguars!" cried he; "are you going to let them be
lost? They are worth twenty dollars, Costal!"
"Well, if they are," replied the Indian, "swim after and secure them. I
have no time to spare," added he, as he pulled Lantejas through the
bottom of the hammock, and lowered him down into the canoe.
"_Dios me libre_!" responded Clara; "I shall do nothing of the kind.
Who knows whether the life's quite out of them yet? They may go to the
devil for me! Heigh! Costal! paddle this way, and take me in. I have
no desire to go under those tamarinds--laced as they are by half a mile
of rattlesnakes."
"Get in gently, then!" said Costal, directing the canoe towards the
negro. "Gently, or you may capsize us a second time."
"Jesus God!" exclaimed Don Cornelio, who now for the first time had
found the power of speech; "Jesus God!" he repeated, seeing himself, not
without some apprehension, between two strange beings--the one red, the
other black--both dripping with water, and their hair covered with the
yellow scum of the waves!
"Eh! Senor student," rejoined Clara, in a good-humoured way, "is that
all the thanks you give us for the service we have done you?"
"Pardon me, _gentlemen_," stammered out Don Cornelio; "I was dreadfully
frightened. I have every reason to be thankful to you."
And, his confidence now restored, the student expressed, in fit terms,
his warm gratitude; and finished his speech by congratulating the Indian
on his escape from the dangers he had encountered.
"By my faith! it is true enough," rejoined Costal, "I have run some
little danger. I was all over of a sweat; and this cursed water coming
down from the mountains as cold as ice--_Carrambo_! I shouldn't wonder
if I should get a bad cold from the ducking."
The student listened with astonishment to this unexpected declaration.
The man whose fearful intrepidity he had just witnessed to be thinking
only of the risk he ran of getting a cold!
"Who are you?" he mechanically inquired.
"I?" said Costal. "Well, I am an Indian, as you see--a Zapoteque--
formerly the _tigrero_ of Don Matias de la Zanca; at present in the
service of Don Mariano de Silva--to-morrow, who knows?"
"Don Matias de la Zanca!" echoed the student, interrupting him; "why,
that is my uncle!"
"Oh!" said Costal, "your uncle! Well, Senor student, if you wish to go
to his house I am sorry I cannot take you there, since it lies up among
the hills, and could not be reached in a canoe. But perhaps you have a
horse?"
"I had one; but the flood has carried him off, I suppose. No matter. I
have good reasons for not regretting his loss."
"Well," rejoined Costal, "your best way will be to go with us to the
Hacienda las Palmas. There you will get a steed that will carry you to
the house of your uncle. But first," added he, turning his eyes towards
the tamarinds, "I must look after my carbine, which has been spilled out
of the canoe. It's too good a gun to be thrown away; and I can say that
it don't miss fire once in ten times. It should be yonder, where the
brute capsized us; and with your permission, Senor student, I'll just go
in search of it. Ho, Clara! paddle us back under the hammock!"
Clara obeyed, though evidently with some reluctance. The hissing of the
serpents still sounded ominously in his ears.
On arriving near the spot where the canoe had turned over, Costal stood
up in the bow; and then raising his hands, and joining them above his
head, he plunged once more under the water.
For a long time the spectators saw nothing of him; but the bubbles here
and there rising to the surface, showed where he was engaged in
searching for his incomparable carbine.
At length his head appeared above water, then his whole body. He held
the gun tightly grasped in one of his hands, and making a few strokes
towards the canoe he once more climbed aboard.
Costal now took hold of the paddle; and turning the head of the canoe in
a westerly direction commenced making way across the turbid waters
towards the Hacienda las Palmas.
Although the fury of the inundation had by this time partially subsided,
still the flood ran onward with a swift current; and what with the
danger from floating trees, and other objects that swelled the surface
of the water, it was necessary to manage the canoe with caution. Thus
retarded, it was near mid-day before the voyageurs arrived within sight
of the hacienda. Along the way Don Cornelio had inquired from his new
companions, what strange accident had conducted them to the spot where
they had found him.
"Not an accident," said Costal; "but a horseman, who appeared to be in a
terrible hurry himself, as _Por Dios_! he had need to be. He was on his
way to the house of Don Mariano, for what purpose I can't say. It
remains to be known, Senor student, whether he has been as fortunate as
you, in escaping the flood. God grant that he has! for it would be a
sad pity if such a brave young fellow was to die by drowning. Brave men
are not so plentiful."
"Happy for them who are brave!" sighed Don Cornelio.
"Here is my friend, Clara," continued Costal, without noticing the
rejoinder of the student, "who has no fear of man; and yet he is as much
afraid of tigers as if he were a child. Well, I hope we shall find that
the gallant young officer has escaped the danger, and is now safe within
the walls of the hacienda."
At that moment the canoe passed round a tope of half-submerged
palm-trees, and the hacienda itself appeared in sight, as if suddenly
rising from the bosom of the waters. A cry of joy escaped from the lips
of the student, who, half-famished with hunger, thought of the abundance
that would be found behind those hospitable walls.
While gazing upon them a bell commenced to toll; and its tones fell upon
his ears like the music of birds, for it appeared as if summoning the
occupants of the hacienda to pass into the refectory. It was, however,
the _angelus_ of noon.
At the same instant two barges were seen parting from the causeway that
led down in front, and heading towards the high ridge that ran behind
the hacienda, at a little distance on the north. In the first of these
boats appeared two rowers, with a person in a travelling costume of
somewhat clerical cut, and a mule saddled and bridled. In the second
were two gentlemen and the same number of ladies. The latter were young
girls, both crowned with luxuriant chaplets of flowers, and each
grasping an oar in her white delicate fingers, which she managed with
skill and adroitness. They were the two daughters of Don Mariano de
Silva. One of the gentlemen was Don Mariano himself, while the other
was joyfully recognised by Costal as the brave officer who had asked him
the way, and by the student as his _compagnon du voyage_ of yesterday--
Don Rafael Tres-Villas.
Shortly after, the two boats reached the foot of the Sierra; and the
traveller with the mule disembarked. Mounting into his saddle, he
saluted those who remained in the other boat; and then rode away, amidst
the words oft repeated by Don Mariano and his daughters--
"_A dios! a dios! Senor Morelos! a dios_!"
The two barges now returned towards the hacienda, arriving there nearly
at the same time as the canoe which carried the student of theology, the
Indian, and the negro.
Don Cornelio had now a better opportunity of observing the rich freight
carried in the larger of the two boats. The drapery of purple silk
which covered the seats and fell over the sides of the barge, threw its
brilliant reflections far out upon the water. In the midst of this
brilliance appeared the young ladies, seated and bending languidly upon
their oars. Now and then Marianita, in plunging her oar-blade into the
water, caused the pomegranate flowers to rain down from her hair, as she
shook them with bursts of laughter; while Gertrudis, looking from under
the purple wreath, ever and anon cast stealthy glances at the cavalier
who was seated by the side of her father.
"Senor Don Mariano!" said Costal, as the barge drew near, "here is a
guest whom I have taken the liberty to bring to your hospitable
mansion."
As the Indian delivered this speech he pointed to the student of
theology still seated in the canoe.
"He is welcome!" rejoined Don Mariano; and then, inviting the stranger
to disembark, all except Costal, Clara, and the servants, landed from
the boats, and passed out of sight through the front gateway of the
hacienda.
These taking the boats around the battlements of the building, entered
the enclosure by a gate that opened towards the rear.