THE HURRICANE.
Louis had not been able to restrain himself; instead of waiting, he
had persuaded Valentine and Curumilla to follow him, and all three had
advanced, gliding through bushes and underwood, to within twenty paces
of the Indian camp, so that Trangoil-Lanec met them almost immediately.
"Well?" the count asked anxiously.
"All is right! Come on!"
The chief quickly retraced his steps, and led his friends towards the
prisoners. At the sight of the four men a smile of ineffable sweetness
lit up the beautiful countenance of Rosario; even her prudence could
not repress a half-uttered cry of joy, Don Tadeo arose, and was
beginning to thank them.
"Caballero," cried the count, who was upon hot coals, "let us be quick.
These men will soon be awake again."
"Yes," Valentine added; "because if they were to surprise us we should
be compelled to have a brush."
All were aware of the justness of this observation and Trangoil-Lanec
having unfastened the horses of the prisoners, which were grazing
quietly among those of the Aucas, Don Tadeo and his daughter mounted.
The Linda, of whom nobody seemed to take any notice, sprang upon a
horse. If Valentine had not been afraid of her giving the alarm, he
would have compelled her to remain behind. The little troop set off
without impediment, and directed their course towards the natural
grotto where the horses had been left. As soon as they arrived,
Valentine made a sign.
"You had better rest here for a short time," he said; "the night is
very dark; in a few hours we will set off again; you will find in this
grotto two beds of leaves."
These words, pronounced in the usual blunt, offhand style of the
Parisian, brought a cheerful smile to the lips of the Chilians. When
they had lain down upon the leaves heaped up in the grotto, the count
called his sagacious dog to him, and said--
"Pay attention to what I order you, Cæsar: you see this young lady, do
you not, my good dog? You must be answerable for her to me."
Cæsar listened to his master, staring at him with his large
intelligent eyes and gently wagging his tail; he then laid himself
quietly down at the feet of Rosario, licking her hand. The young girl
seized his great head in her arms, and hugged him several times,
smiling at the count. Poor Louis blushed to the eyes, and left the
grotto, staggering like a drunken man--happiness almost deprived him of
his senses. He went and threw himself on the ground at a short distance
to think over, at leisure the joy which inundated his heart. He did
not observe Valentine, who leaning against a tree, followed him with a
melancholy look, for Valentine also loved Doña Rosario.
Yes, the sight of Doña Rosario had revealed to him a thing which he had
hardly thought possible, and that was, that besides this so warm and
so strong feeling, there was in his heart room for another at least as
warm and as strong.
Leaning against a tree, with his eye fixed upon the entrance to the
grotto, and his chest heaving, he recalled the smallest incidents of
his meeting with the young lady, their journey through the forest, the
words she addressed to him and smiled delightedly at the remembrance
of those delicious moments, without suspecting the danger of these
remembrances of the new feeling which had been just born in his soul.
Two hours had thus glided away, and Valentine had taken no heed of
their passage, so absorbed was he in his fantastic contemplation, when
the two Indians came up to him--
"Is our brother asleep that he does not see us?"
"No," Valentine replied, passing his hand over his burning brow, "I was
thinking."
"My brother was with the genius of dreams; he was happy,"
Trangoil-Lanec remarked, with a smile.
"Do you want me?"
"Whilst my brother has been reflecting, we have returned to the camp of
the Black Serpents. We have taken their horses, and after leading them
to a considerable distance have let them loose on the plain."
"If that is the case we may be at our ease for a few hours?" Valentine
suggested.
"I hope so," said Trangoil-Lanec, "but we must not be too confident,
the Black Serpents are cunning fellows."
"What had we better do, then?"
"Mislead our enemies by putting them upon a false track. I will set off
with the three horses of the palefaces, whilst my brother, his friend,
and Curumilla descend the rivulet, walking in its bed."
Trangoil-Lanec cut a reed a foot and a half long, and fastened each
extremity of it to the bits of the horses, in order that they might not
be able to approach each other too near, and then set off. Valentine
entered the grotto, where he found the Linda seated near her husband
and daughter, guarding their slumbers.
Louis had prepared everything; he placed Don Tadeo upon Valentine's
horse, and the Linda and Rosario upon his own, and led them into the
rivulet, after having carefully effaced their footsteps in the sand.
The little caravan advanced silently, listening to the noises of the
forest, watching the movements of the bushes, fearing at every instant
to see the ferocious eye of a Black Serpent gleam through the shade.
Towards four o'clock in the morning the Islet of the Guanaco appeared
to the delighted eyes of our travellers like a port of safety, after
the fatigues of a journey made entirely in the water. On the most
advanced point of the islet a horseman stood motionless--it was
Trangoil-Lanec; and near him the horses of the Spaniards were peaceably
grazing upon the high grass of the banks. The travellers found a fire
ready lighted, upon which was cooking the quarter of a doe, camotes and
maize tortillas.
"Eat," said Trangoil-Lanec, laconically; "but, above all, eat quickly!"
Without asking the chief for any explanation, the hungry travellers sat
down in a circle, and vigorously attacked the provisions.
"Bah!" said Valentine, gaily; "after us the end of the world--let
us eat while we can! Here is a roast joint that appears to me to be
tolerably well cooked!"
At these words of the spahi Doña Rosario looked a little surprised; the
young man was struck dumb, blushing at his rudeness, and began to eat
without venturing another word.
As soon as breakfast was over; Trangoil-Lanec, assisted by Curumilla,
employed himself in preparing one of those canoes, made of buffalo
hides sewn together, which are employed by the Indians to cross
the rivers in the desert. After placing it in the water, the chief
requested the three Spaniards to take their seats in it. The Indians
afterwards entered it for the purpose of steering it; whilst the two
Frenchmen, still in the water, led the horses by their bridles. The
passage was not long; at the end of an hour they landed, and they
continued their journey by land.
For some hours past, as it often happens in that country, the weather
had completely changed. The sun had assumed a red tint, and appeared to
swim in an ocean of vapour, which intercepted its warm rays.
"What do you think of this weather, chief?" the count asked anxiously
to Trangoil-Lanec.
"Bad--very bad," the latter replied, "unless we could possibly pass the
Sorcerer's Leap."
"Are we in danger, then?"
"We are lost," the Indian replied.
"Hum! that is not very comforting," said Valentine. "Do you think,
then, that the peril is so great?"
"Much greater than I can tell my brother. Do you think it possible to
resist the hurricane, here?"
"That is true," Valentine muttered, hanging his head. "May Heaven
preserve us!"
In fact the situation of the travellers appeared desperate. They were
following one of those roads cut in the living rock which wind round
the Andes, a road of scarcely four feet in its greatest width, which on
one side was bordered by a wall of granite more than a thousand feet
high, and on the other by precipices of incalculable depth, at the
bottom of which invisible waters coursed with dull, mysterious murmurs.
In such a spot all hope of safety seemed little short of madness. And
yet the travellers proceeded, advancing in Indian file--that is, one
after the other, silent and gloomy.
"Are we still far from the Sorcerer's Leap?" Valentine asked, after a
long silence.
"We are approaching it," Trangoil-Lanec replied.
Suddenly the brown veil which concealed the horizon was rent violently
asunder, a pale flash of lightning illuminated the heavens.
"Dismount!" Trangoil-Lanec shouted, "dismount, for your lives! Lie down
on the ground, and cling to the points of the rocks!"
Everyone followed the advice of the chief. The animals, left to
themselves, understood the danger instinctively, folded their legs
under them, and laid themselves down also upon the ground.
All at once the thunder burst forth in frightful peals, and the rain
fell like a deluge. It is not given to human pen to describe the awful
hurricane which vented its fury upon those mountains. Enormous blocks
of rock, yielding to the force of the wind and undermined by the
waters, were precipitated from the top to the bottom of the ravines
with a horrible crash; trees, hundreds of years Old, were twisted and
torn up by the roots by the blast.
Suddenly a piercing cry of agony filled the air.
"My daughter!--save my daughter!"
Heedless of the danger to which he exposed himself, Don Tadeo stood
upright in the road, his arms extended towards heaven, his hair
floating in the wind, and the lightning playing around his brow. Doña
Rosario, too weak and too delicate to cling to the sharp points of
the rocks by which her fingers were torn had been seized and carried
away, and dashed down the precipice by the tempest. The Linda, without
pronouncing a word, turned and plunged into the gulf.
"Oh!" the count cried frantically, "I will bring her back or----"
And he sprang forward; but a powerful hand withheld him.
"Stay, brother," said Valentine, in a melancholy but firm tone--"let me
encounter this peril."
"But, Valentine!"
"I insist upon it!--of what consequence is it if I die?" he added, with
an expression of bitterness. "I am not beloved!" and turning towards
Don Tadeo he said, "Courage my friend. I will restore your daughter or
perish with her!" and whistling his dog--"Find her, Cæsar--find her."
he said.
The noble animal uttered a plaintive howl, sniffed the air for an
instant in all directions, then, after a minute's hesitation wagged his
tail, turned towards his master, and dashed down the steep precipice.