A MEETING IN THE DESERT.
About three musket shots' distance from the hacienda, in a thicket of
nopals, mastic trees, and mesquites, intermingled with a few mahogany
cedars, wild cottonwood trees, and pines, just an hour before sunset, a
horseman dismounted; hobbled his horse, a magnificent mustang, with
flashing eyes and fine chest; then, after turning an inquiring glance
around, probably satisfied with the profound silence and tranquility
pervading at the spot, he made his arrangements for camping.
The man had passed middle life: he was an Indian warrior of great height
dressed in the Comanche costume in its utmost purity. Although he
appeared to be sixty years of age, he seemed gifted with great vigour,
and no sign of decrepitude could be traced in his muscular limbs and
intelligent face: the eagle's feather fixed in the centre of his warlock
allowed him to be recognised as a chief. This man was Eagle-head, the
Comanche chief.
After laying his rifle by his side he collected dry wood, and lit a
fire; then he threw several yards of tasajo on the ashes, with several
maize tortillas; and all these preparations for a comfortable supper
made, he filled his calumet, crouched near the fire, and began smoking
with that placid calmness which never deserts the Indians under any
circumstances.
Two hours thus passed peacefully, and nothing disturbed the repose the
chief was enjoying. Night succeeded day; darkness had invaded the
desert, and with it the silence of solitude began to reign in the
mysterious depths of the prairie.
The Indian still remained motionless, contenting himself with turning
now and then to his horse, which was gaily devouring the climbing peas
and the young buds of the trees.
Suddenly Eagle-head looked up, bent forward, and, without otherwise
disturbing himself, stretched out his hand to his rifle, while the
mustang left off eating, laid back its ears, and neighed noisily. Still
the forest appeared as calm as ever. It needed all an Indian's sharp ear
to have heard a suspicious rustling through the silence.
At the end of a moment the chiefs frowning brows returned to their
proper position, he re-assumed his easy posture, and lifting his two
forefingers to his mouth, imitated with rare perfection, for two or
three minutes, the harmonious, modulations of the centzontle, or Mexican
nightingale: the horse had also begun eating again.
Only a few minutes passed ere the cry of the nighthawk was twice heard
in the direction of the river. Soon after the sound of horses became
audible, mingled with the cracking of branches and the rustling of
leaves, and two mounted men made their appearance. The chief did not
turn to see who they were; he had probably recognised them, and knew
that they alone, or at any rate one of them, were to come to him here.
These two horsemen were Don Louis and Belhumeur. They hobbled their
horses by the side of the chiefs, lay down by the fire, and, on the
Indian's silent invitation, vigorously attacked the supper prepared for
them. They had left the Rancho the previous evening, and ridden without
the loss of a moment to join the chief.
The Count de Lhorailles had invited them at the pulquería to join his
party, but Belhumeur had declined the offer. Not knowing for what
purpose the Indian chief had appointed to meet him, he did not care to
mix up a stranger in his friend's affairs. Still, the three men had
parted on excellent terms, and the count pressed Don Louis and the
Canadian to pay him a visit at Guetzalli, an offer to which they had
replied evasively.
Singular is the effect of sympathy. The impression the count produced on
the two adventurers was so unfavourable for him, that the latter, while
replying with the utmost politeness, had not thought it wise to give
their names, and had employed the greatest reserve, carrying their
prudence to such an extent as to leave him ignorant of their
nationality, by continuing to converse in Spanish, though at the first
word he uttered they recognised him to be a Frenchman.
When they had ended their meal Belhumeur filled his pipe, and put out
his hand to take up a coal.
"Wait," the chief said sharply.
This was the first word the Indian uttered; up to that moment the three
men had not interchanged a syllable. Belhumeur looked at him.
"H'm!" he said, "What is the matter now?"
"I do not know yet," the chief answered. "I have heard a suspicious
rustling in the bushes; and at a great distance off, to leeward of us,
several buffaloes peacefully grazing took to flight without any apparent
cause."
"Hum!" the Canadian went on, "That is growing serious. What do you
think, Louis?"
"In the desert," the latter replied slowly, "everything has a
cause--nothing happens by accident. I believe we had better be on our
guard. Stay!" he added, as he raised his head, and pointed out to his
friends several birds that passed rapidly away over them. "Have you
often seen at this hour a flight of condors soaring in the sky?"
The chief shook his head.
"There is something the matter," he muttered: "the dogs of Apaches are
hunting."
"'Tis possible," Belhumeur said.
"Before all," the Frenchman observed, "let us put out the fire; its
gleam, slight as it is, might betray us."
His companions followed his advice, and the fire was extinguished in a
second.
"My brother, the paleface, is prudent," the chief said courteously. "He
knows the desert. I am happy to see him by my side."
Don Louis thanked the chief courteously.
"And now," Belhumeur went on, "we are almost invisible--no visible
danger threatens us; so let us hold a council. The chief had the first
scent of peril: it is, therefore, his place to tell us what he
observed."
The Indian wrapped him up in his fresada; the three men drew closer, so
as to be able to speak in a whisper, and the council commenced.
"Since sunrise this morning," Eagle-head said, "I have been marching in
the desert. I was anxious to reach the place of meeting, and proceeded
in a straight line to arrive sooner. All along the road I found evident
signs of the passage of a numerous band; the tracks were wide and full,
like those made by a party of warriors so large they care not for
discovery. These trails continued for a long distance, then suddenly
disappeared: it was impossible for me to find them again."
"Deuce, deuce!" the Canadian muttered, "That is awkward."
"At first I did not pay much attention to trail, but presently I began
to feel restless, and that is the reason I have mentioned it to you."
"What reason rendered you restless?"
"I believe that the expedition whose passage I discovered is directed
against the great cabin of the palefaces at Guetzalli."
"What makes you suppose so?" Louis asked.
"This. At the hour the alligator leaves the mud of the bank to plunge
again into the Gila, the sound of horses a short distance off compelled
me, lest I should be discovered, to bury myself in a thicket of
mangroves and floripondios. When sheltered from a surprise I looked out.
A band of palefaces passed within bow-shot of me, in the direction of
Guetzalli."
"I know who they were," Belhumeur remarked. "What next?"
"I recognised, in spite of the care he had taken to render himself
unrecognisable, the man who served as guide to the party; then I guessed
the infernal scheme formed by the Apache dogs."
"Who was it?"
"A man my brother knows. It is Wah-sho-che-gorah, the Black Bear, the
principal chief of the White Crow tribe."
"If you are not mistaken, chief, horrible things will be done ere long.
The Black Bear is the implacable enemy of the whites."
"That was the reason I spoke to my brother. But, after all what does it
concern us? In the desert each man has enough to do in taking care of
himself, without troubling about others."
The Canadian shook his head.
"Yes, what you say is true," he replied. "We ought, perhaps, to abandon
the inhabitants of the hacienda to their fate, and not interfere in
matters which may cause us great misery."
"Do you intend to act thus?" the Frenchman asked sharply.
"I do not say so positively," the Canadian replied; "but the case is a
difficult one. We shall have to deal with numerous enemies."
"Yes, but the men about to be surprised are your fellow countrymen."
"It is true; and it is that which renders the affair so awkward. I do
not wish to see these unhappy beings scalped. On the other hand, we run
the risk, by hurrying rashly into danger, of ourselves being the victims
of our devotion."
"Why reflect thus?"
"By Jove! In order to weigh the for and against. There is nothing I
detest so much as rushing headlong into an enterprise of which I have
not calculated the consequences beforehand. When I have done so I care
for nothing."
Don Louis could not refrain from smiling at this singular reasoning.
"I have my plan," the Canadian went on a moment later. "The night will
not pass without our learning something new. Let us draw near the bank
of the river. I am greatly mistaken, or we shall soon obtain there the
there the information we require before we make up our minds. Our horses
run no risk here: we can leave them; besides, they would only prove an
embarrassment for us."
The three men lay down on the ground, and began crawling silently in the
direction indicated by Belhumeur.
The night was magnificent, the moon brilliant, and the atmosphere so
diaphanous, that objects might have been distinguished for a great
distance on an open plain. The three adventurers did not leave their
covert; but, on arriving at the skirt of the forest, they hid themselves
in an almost inextricable thicket, and waited with that patience so
characteristic of the wood rangers.
The silence which brooded over the desert was so intense that the
slightest sounds were perceptible. A leaf falling on the water, a pebble
detaching itself from the bank, the slow and continuous murmur of the
water running over its gravel bed, the rustling of the owl's wing as it
fluttered from branch to branch, were the only distinguishable sounds.
For several hours the three men remained motionless and watchful, eye
and ear strained, with the finger on the trigger of the rifle, through
fear of a surprise; but nothing had yet happened to corroborate the
suspicions of Eagle-head, or the previsions of Belhumeur. Suddenly Louis
felt the chief's arm resting gently on his shoulder, as he pointed to
the river. The Frenchman rose on his knees and looked.
An almost imperceptible movement agitated the surface of the river, as
if an alligator were floating along.
"Oh, oh!" Belhumeur muttered; "I fancy that is what we are expecting."
A black mass soon appeared, floating rather than swimming on the water,
and noiselessly advancing toward the spot where the hunters were in
ambush. At the end of a few moments, this body, whatever it might be,
stopped, and the cry of the prairie dog was heard several times
repeated.
At once the howl of the coyote broke forth forcibly so near the three
men, that, spite of themselves, they shuddered, and a man hanging by
the hands dropped down from an oak tree, scarcely three yards from the
spot where they were.
This man wore the Mexican costume.
"Come, chief," he said in a low voice, though not venturing down to the
river, "come, we are alone."
The man thus addressed emerged from the water, and clambered up the bank
to join the person awaiting him.
"My brother speaks too loudly," he said. "In the desert a man is never
alone; the leaves have eyes, the trees ears."
"Bah! What you say, has not common sense. Who on earth would play the
spy on us? With the exception of your warriors, who are probably
concealed in the neighbourhood, no one can see or hear us."
The Indian shook his head. Now that he was standing only a few spaces
from the adventurers, Belhumeur perceived that Eagle-head was not
mistaken, and that the man was really the Black Bear. The two men stood
for a moment silently gazing at each other. The Mexican was the first to
speak.
"You have manoeuvred well," he said in an insinuating voice. "I know not
how you managed it, but you have succeeded in entering the fort."
"Yes," the Indian replied.
"Now we have only our final arrangements to make. You are a great chief
in whom I place the utmost confidence. Here is what I promised you. I
ought not to pay you till afterwards, but I do not wish the slightest
cloud to rise between us."
The Indian silently rejected the purse the other held out to him.
"The Black Bear has reflected," he said coldly.
"On what, may I ask?"
"A warrior is not a woman to waste his words. What my brother offered
the Black Bear, the Apache chief refuses."
"Which means?"
"That all is broken off."
The Mexican repressed with difficulty a sign of disappointment.
"Then," he said, "You have not warned your warriors? When I give the
order you will not attack the hacienda?"
"The Black Bear has warned his warriors. He will attack the palefaces."
"What did you say this moment? I confess that I do not comprehend you,
chief."
"Because the paleface will not comprehend. The Black Bear will attack
the hacienda, but on his own account."
"That was agreed between us, I fancy."
"Yes; but the Black Bear has seen the singing bird. His hut is empty: he
wishes to place in it the young pale virgin."
"Scoundrel!" the Mexican shouted in his wrath; "You would betray me in
that way?"
"How have I betrayed the paleface?" the Indian replied, still perfectly
calm. "He offered me a bargain; I refused it. I see nothing dishonest in
that."
The Mexican bit his lip with rage; he was caught, and could make no
reply.
"I will revenge myself," he said, stamping his foot.
"The Black Bear is a powerful chief; he laughs at the croaking of the
ravens. The paleface can do nothing against him."
With a movement swift as thought, the Mexican rushed on the Indian,
seized him by the throat, and, drawing his dagger, raised it to strike
him. But the Apache carefully watched the actions of his opponent: by a
movement no less swift he freed himself from his grasp, and with one
bound was out of reach.
"The paleface has dared to touch a chief," he said in a hoarse voice;
"he shall die."
The Mexican shrugged his shoulders and seized the pistol in his girdle.
It is impossible to say how this scene would have ended, had not a new
incident happened to change its features completely. From the same tree
in which the Mexican had been hidden a few moments previously, another
individual suddenly fell, rushed on the chief, and hurled him to the
ground before he could make a gesture to defend himself, so thoroughly
was he off his guard.
"By Jove!" Belhumeur muttered with a stifled laugh, "there must be a
legion of devils in that tree."
The Mexican and the man who had come so luckily to his help had securely
tied the Indian with a reata.
"Now you are in my power, chief," the Mexican said, "and you will be
obliged to consent to my terms."
The Apache grinned, and uttered a shrill whistle.
At this signal fifty Indian warriors appeared, as if they had sprung from
the ground, and that so suddenly, that the two white men were
surrounded in an instant by an impassable circle.
"Deuce!" Belhumeur said in an aside, "that complicates matters. How will
they get out of that?"
"And we?" Louis whispered in his ear.
The Canadian replied by that shrug of the shoulders which signifies in
all languages, "We must trust in Heaven," and began looking again,
interested as he was in the highest degree by the unexpected changes of
scene.
"Cucharés!" the Mexican said to his companion, "Hold that scoundrel
tight and at the least suspicious movement kill him like a dog."
"Be calm, Don Martial," the lepero answered, pulling from his vaquera
boot a knife, whose sharp blade flashed with a bluish tinge in the
moon's rays.
"What decision does the Black Bear come to?" the Tigrero went on,
addressing the chief lying at his feet.
"The life of a chief belongs to thee, dog of the palefaces: take it if
thou darest!" the Apache replied with a smile of contempt.
"I will not kill you: not because I am afraid, for I know not such a
feeling," the Mexican said, "but because I disdain to shed the blood of
an enemy who is defenceless, even if he be, like you, an unclean
coyote."
"Kill me, I say, if thou canst, but insult me not. Hasten! For my
warriors may lose patience, sacrifice thee to their wrath, and thou
mightest die unavenged."
"You are jesting; you know perfectly well that your warriors will not
move an inch so long as I hold you thus. I propose to offer you peace."
"Peace!" the chief said, and his eyes flashed. "On what conditions?"
"Two only. Cucharés, unfasten the reata, but watch him closely."
The lepero obeyed.
"Thanks," the chief said as he rose to his knees. "Speak; I am
listening--my ears are open. What are these conditions?"
"First, my comrade and myself will be free to retire whither we please."
"Good, and next?"
"Next, you will pledge yourself to remain with your warriors, and not
return to the hacienda in the disguise you have assumed for the next
twenty-four hours."
"Is that all?"
"It is all."
"Listen to me in your turn, then, paleface. I accept your conditions,
but I must tell you mine."
"Speak."
"I will not re-enter the hacienda save with the eagle feather in my
war-tuft, at the head of my warriors, and that before the sun has thrice
set behind the lofty peaks of the mountains of the day."
"You are boasting, Apache; it is impossible for you to enter the
hacienda save by treachery."
"We shall see;" and smiling with a sinister air, he added, "the singing
bird will go into the hut of an Apache chief to cook his game."
The Mexican shrugged his shoulders contemptuously.
"Try to take the hacienda and carry off the maiden," he said.
"I will try. Your hand."
"Here it is."
The chief turned to his warriors, holding the Tigrero's hand clasped in
his own.
"Brothers!" he said in a loud voice, and with an accent of supreme
majesty, "this paleface is the friend of the Black Bear--let no one
molest him."
The warriors bowed respectfully, and fell back to the right and left, to
leave a passage for the two white men.
"Farewell!" the Black Bear said, saluting his enemy. "In twenty-four
hours I shall be on your trail."
"You are mistaken, dog of an Apache," Don Martial replied disdainfully;
"I shall be on yours."
"Good! We are, then, certain of meeting," the Black Bear said.
And he retired with a slow and firm step, followed by his warriors,
whose footfalls soon died away in the depths of the forest.
"On my faith, Don Martial," the lepero said, "I believe that you were
wrong to let that Indian dog escape so easily."
The Tigrero shrugged his shoulders.
"Were we not obliged to get out of the wasp's nest into which we had
thrust our heads?" he said. "Bah! It is only put off for a time. Let us
go and find our horses."
"One moment if you will grant it me," Belhumeur said, leaving his hiding
place, and advancing politely with his two comrades.
"What's this?" Cucharés said, pulling out his knife again, while Don
Martial coolly cocked his pistols.
"This? Caballero," Belhumeur said quietly, "I fancy you can see plainly;
enough."
"I see three men."
"Indeed, you are not at all mistaken. Three men who have been unseen
witnesses of the scene you ended so bravely--three men who held
themselves ready to come to your aid had it been necessary, and who now
offer to make common cause with you, to prevent the plunder of the
hacienda by the Apaches. Does that suit you?"
"That depends," the Tigrero said. "I must know first what interest urges
you to act in this manner."
"That of being agreeable to you in the first place," Belhumeur replied
politely, "and next, the desire to save the scalps of the poor wretches
menaced by those infernal redskins."
"In that case I heartily accept your offer."
"Be good enough, then, to follow us to our camping ground, that we may
discuss the plan of the campaign."
So soon as Cucharés noticed that the men who presented themselves so
strangely were really friends, he returned his knife to his boot, and
went in search of the horses, which had been left a short distance off.
He arrived at this moment, leading the two horses, and the five men
proceeded together to the camping ground.
"Take care," Belhumeur said to Don Martial; "you have made yourself an
implacable enemy this night. If you do not make haste to kill him, one
day or another the Black Bear will kill you. The Apaches never pardon an
insult."
"I know it; so I shall take my precautions, you may be sure."
"That is your concern. Perhaps it would have been better to get rid of
him, at the risk of what might have happened afterwards."
"How could I imagine I had friends so near me? Oh, had I but known it!"
"Well, it is of no use crying over spilt milk."
"Do you believe that he will keep scrupulously the conditions he
accepted?"
"You do not know the Black Bear; he is a man of noble sentiments and has
a way of his own for understanding points of honour. You saw that during
your entire discussion he disdained to play any trickery: his words were
always frank."
"They were."
"Be certain, therefore, that he will keep his promise."
The conversation was interrupted. Don Martial had suddenly become
pensive. The Apache's menaces gave him a good deal to think about. The
camp was reached, and Eagle-head immediately set to work rekindling the
fire.
"What are you about?" Belhumeur observed to him. "You will reveal our
presence."
"No," the Indian said, shaking his head. "The Black Bear has retired
with his warriors: they are far away at present; so we need not take
useless precautions."
The fire soon cracked again. The five men crouched round it joyfully,
lit their pipes and began smoking.
"I don't care," the Canadian presently said. "Had it not been for the
extraordinary coolness you displayed I do not know how you would have
escaped."
"Let us now see how best to foil the plans of those red devils," said
the Mexican.
"It is very simple," Louis interposed. "One of us will proceed tomorrow
to the hacienda, to warn the owner of what has passed this night. He
will be on his guard and all will be right."
"Yes, I believe those are the best means, and we will employ them."
"Five men are as nothing against five hundred," observed Eagle-head;
"we must warn the palefaces."
"That is assuredly the plan we must follow," the Tigrero remarked; "but
which of us will consent to go to the hacienda? Neither my comrade nor
myself can do so."
"I fancy there is some love story hidden under all this," the Canadian
observed cunningly. "I can understand that you would find a difficulty
in--"
"What need of further discussion?" Louis interrupted. "With tomorrow's
dawn I will go to the hacienda; I undertake to explain to the owner all
the dangers that menace him in their fullest details."
"That is agreed on, then, and all is settled," Belhumeur said.
"Then, so soon as our horses have rested, my comrade and myself will
return to Guaymas."
"No, you will not, if you please," the Frenchman objected. "I fancy it
is proper that you should know the result of the mission I undertake,
for it concerns you even more than us. I suspect--"
The Mexican repressed a lively movement of annoyance.
"You are right," he replied; "I did not think of that. I will therefore
await your return."
The hunters interchanged a few more remarks, then wrapped themselves in
their blankets, lay down on the ground, and speedily fell asleep. The
profoundest silence fell on the clearing, which was but dimly lighted by
the reddish rays of the expiring fire. The adventurers had been asleep
about two hours, when the branches of a shrub were gently parted and a
man made his appearance.
He stopped for a moment, seemed to be listening, then crawled without
the slightest sound toward the spot where the Tigrero was reposing. It
would have been easy to recognise the Black Bear by the light of the
fire. The Apache chief plucked his scalping knife from his girdle, and
laid it gently on the Tigrero's chest; then casting a parting glance
around, to convince himself that the five men slept, he retired with the
same precautions, and soon disappeared in the shrub, which closed upon
him.