CHAPTER XVII.
A CUNNING RUSE.
"Speaking about joining our forces," said Colonel Marchand, "under the circumstances it will be impossible for me to fulfill my promise to you when I wrote. Neither would it be practicable to carry out plans made under different conditions. Join our army for a while; it will prove a lively vacation for you, and just as soon as this little cloud blows over we will start. We will have the government behind us, too. It is a great undertaking in more senses than one. I expect to become regularly attached to Castro's army within a short time. In fact, I am away now only temporarily. What do you say to becoming comrades under Castro?"
"I should want to consult Harrie before I decided," replied Ronie.
"So you shall. Now that is settled, let us talk of other matters. It is perfectly natural, however, that you should cast your fortunes with ours for a short time. Venezuela does not forget that it was due to Miranda's experience gained in fighting for the independence of the Great Republic that he learned something of what might come to his native land, and that it was the friendship of Lafayette, Hamilton and Fox which encouraged him to push forward. When the revolution opened in 1810, the United States furnished Venezuela with her munitions of war. Two years later, when the earthquake destroyed twenty thousand of our people, she sent supplies with a liberal hand to us. In this crisis, which I believe is to be the most important affair in her history, we stand in need of Northern friendship. Europe is against us, and in the jealousy of the powers there would gladly hail any pretext upon which she could seize us."
"The Monroe Doctrine must be a great safeguard to you."
"If it hadn't been for that these little South American republics would have been swallowed by European powers long before this."
"While the swallowing would have caused some bloody wars."
"Very true, but we are used to that. There has not been a time within my remembrance when there has not been a war of some form in process. Speaking of the European nations swallowing us, you may forget that we are three times as large as France or Germany, and five times as large as Italy. We are larger than any European country outside of Russia. Something of its natural features may be understood from the fact that it holds within its domain some beautiful bodies of inland water, the largest of which, Lake Maracaibo, is somewhat larger than Lake Ontario. Within the republic are over a thousand rivers, the largest of which is the Orinoco, next in size to the Amazon of the rivers of South America.
"In regard to its physical features, the country may be divided into three great zones, increasing in size according to the following order: First, the zone of agriculture; second, the zone of grazing land; last, the larger in area than both of the others, the zone of the forests. There are two seasons, the wet and the dry, called winter and summer.
"Venezuela is thinly populated, having about two and one-half millions of inhabitants. They still preserve the type of the Spanish race, which afforded them origin, though they have become largely a cosmopolitan race, due to the mixture with the natives. These have retained to a wonderful extent their primitive beauty, so the men are manly and symmetrical, the women graceful and beautiful."
"How is it about the wild horses our geographies describe as still roaming with flowing manes and foaming nostrils and llanoes and pampas?" asked Ronie.
"They disappeared before the buffalo vanished from your Western plains. I would say also of the people, instead of the wild beauties your books tell you are yet living in almost primitive simplicity, you will find, when you get to the capital, women and maidens looking quite as anxiously for the fashion sheet from Paris as her sisters in New York. We are apt to think the only civilization is that around us. How well do I remember that my first impressions were that the little space about me in which I was reared comprised the world. Gradually my vision extended, and my knowledge expanded, until I find it is a big old world, and that it holds many people."
Colonel Marchand's kindly words, and his willingness to inform his friends, put our couple very much at their ease. Ronie improved the first opportunity to speak of that matter which was frequently uppermost in his mind, the finding of his mother's photograph under such peculiar circumstances. He was unable to offer any solution of the mystery, while he showed a deep concern.
"I cannot think your mother would come to this country, even with the hope of meeting you, without first sending me word of her intentions. Of course, I should have tried and met her at La Guayra."
"You have not heard from her?"
"Not a word, though I did expect to get a letter in regard to your coming. I feel very sure the photograph must have been brought from New York by some disinterested party, who came into possession of it by accident. I cannot imagine anything else, though this is rather hard to believe."
Realizing that Colonel Marchand had affairs that needed his attention, Ronie and Jack asked if they might look about the town, and the simple request being granted, they passed the next few hours in exploring the place, though finding little to interest them. The regular inhabitants had nearly all fled, and those who had remained appeared ill at ease under the existing conditions, as they might have been expected to be.
"I tell you what it is, Jack," said Ronie, "it looks to me as if these revolutions are sapping the very life out of the country."
"Ay, lad; and now it looks as if you and I were to become actors in one of them. I wonder what is going on yonder."
These words were spoken by Jack as their attention was caught by the sight of a group of people gathered near the building where they had been lodged. As they advanced with quickening steps, it became evident that a fight or street brawl was in process. Around this a couple of dozen or more civilians had clustered, and by the way they encircled the combatants it looked as if they were trying to shield them from the gaze of the soldiers, should any of these happen to come that way. For a wonder not one of these was in sight at that moment, though the steady tread of the sentry within the building could be heard as he paced back and forth with measured step.
"Better give them a wide berth," declared Jack. "It never does any one good to get mixed up in one of these senseless encounters. Why, if you should go to the assistance of one of them, thinking he was being abused, the chances are more than even he would join with the other in abusing you. By the horn of rock—Gibraltar, if you please! this does not seem to be a fight by common brawlers, for their mantas show they belong to the better class of civilians."
The garment which had attracted the attention of Jack was the manta or poncho made of white linen, which has the quality of repelling the heat of the sun on a warm day. These garments are worn almost continually by certain classes, among them the vaqueros, or riders of the pampas. That of the latter consists of two blankets sewed together, one of a dark blue color and the other of a bright red. These hues are universally selected for a purpose, as they receive light and heat differently, and are used so as to afford the best results. Thus in dark and cloudy days the dark side of the blanket is turned outward; on other days this is reversed. The double blanket thus formed is quite two yards square, with a hole in the center to admit the head of the owner. Its purpose is two-fold, to protect the rider from the heavy dews and showers of the tropics, and to spread under him at night when there is no place to sling up his hammock. But the effect of this linen manta worn by these street fighters was even better than that of the woolen cobija of the vaqueros. These mantas worn by this twain were fancifully embroidered, and showed that they were expensive garments. At a distance they would present a striking, picturesque appearance.
Our heroes found it difficult to get near enough to obtain a view of the stirring scene in the little opening made by the encircling on-lookers, and, caring little for the affair, anyway, quietly retreated. Then, the alarm having been spread, no doubt, the soldiers began to appear in sight, and a squad led by an orderly started in to disperse the crowd. But the spectators seemed too earnest to be easily driven off, while the soldiers themselves quickly became so interested in the contest that they tried little more than to get a good look at the tableau.
"I never saw a Venezuelan yet who didn't relish a good fight," remarked Jack.
"But look there, Jack!" exclaimed Ronie. "What is going on that way?"
As Ronie pointed toward the rear of the building already mentioned, Jack saw half a dozen loungers hanging along in a manner suspiciously like a row of loafers, and not in knots, as men of this kind usually congregate.
"See! two of them are helping away a woman. Why, Jack! it is the prisoner, Señora de Caprian! She is trying to escape."
In a moment the whole situation was plain to them. The brawl and fight was simply a ruse to catch the attention of the soldiers while the captive woman made her escape. So cleverly had it been carried out so far, that it was likely to succeed beyond the most sanguine expectation.
Ronie glanced hurriedly around to see that the orderly and his men were in the thickest of the mob, oblivious of all except the hand-to-hand tussle. Another minute and the captive would be beyond recapture, except, possibly, after a long chase. His first thought was that of gladness for the unfortunate woman, then he remembered that there was another side to the question, and that it might be well to retain her as a prisoner of war. He decided quickly upon his course of action; whether it was right or wrong must be proven in the future.