THE ROCK.
But when setting forward so hastily, Valentine had considered the peril of the situation more than the possibility of travelling far at a quick pace. At the end of a very few miles the horses, overridden for two days together, and exceedingly weakened by the hurricane, could scarcely be kept going; whip and spur were obliged to be constantly applied to keep them on their legs. At length, after an hour spent in fruitless efforts. Don Tadeo, whose horse, a noble, well-bred animal had just stumbled twice from sheer weakness, was the first to call Valentines attention to the impossibility of going farther at present.
"I know it—I feel it!" the young man replied; "the poor animals are foundered; but what can we do? We must kill them, if it be necessary!"
"Let us proceed, then, whatever may happen!" said Don Tadeo.
"Besides," the young man continued, "a minute gained is an age for us; by break of day Louis may be back. If our horses had been rested, we might have reached the hacienda tonight; only the farther we get the better the chance of escaping those who are pursuing us. But, your pardon, Don Tadeo, the Indian chief is making me a sign."
After leaving Don Tadeo, he drew nearer to the Ulmen.
"Well, chief?" he asked.
"Does my brother reckon upon being able to go much farther?" said the Indian.
"Pardieu! chief, you have put exactly the same question to me that Don Tadeo has."
"What does the great chief say?"
"Why, he says that our horses are completely knocked up."
"Ooch! and what does my brother with the golden hair mean to do?"
"How can I tell? Let Trangoil-Lanec advise me; he is a warrior, renowned in his tribe."
"I think I have a good idea."
"Pray let us have it, chief; your ideas are always excellent."
The Indian bowed modestly.
"Let my brother listen to me," he said. "Perhaps Antinahuel is already on our track; if he is not, it will not be long before he is. If he comes up with us we shall be killed. What can three men do against sixty? But not far distant from hence I know a place where we can easily defend ourselves. Many moons ago, ten warriors of my tribe and myself stood our ground at that place for fourteen whole days against two hundred palefaces. Does my brother understand?"
"Perfectly, perfectly, chief! Guide us to this place; and if it please God that we reach it, I swear that Antinahuel and his mosotones shall find somebody to answer them."
Trangoil-Lanec then took the guidance of the little troop, and led them slightly aside from the road. In the interior of South America what we in Europe agree to call roads do not exist; but there are instead an infinite number of paths traced by wild animals, which all finish, after numberless meanderings, by leading to rivulets or rivers, which for ages have served as drinking places to the beasts of the desert.
The Indians alone possess the secret of directing their course with certainty in these apparently inextricable labyrinths; so after a march of twenty minutes our travellers found themselves, without knowing how, on the banks of a charming river. In the centre of which arose an enormous block of granite.
Valentine uttered a cry of joy at sight of this natural fortress. The horses, as if they understood that they had at length arrived at a place of safety, entered the water willingly. This block of granite was hollow. By a gentle ascent it was easy to mount to the summit, which formed a platform of more than forty square feet. The horses were concealed in a corner of the grotto, where they seemed glad to lie down. Valentine did his best to barricade the entrance to the fortress. This being done, a fire was lighted.
Cæsar had of his own accord posted himself on the platform—a vigilant sentinel. The Frenchman kept awake, whilst his companions, yielding to fatigue, slept soundly.
"I will go and take a little rest," Valentine said to Trangoil-Lanec, who awoke, casting an anxious look around him; "the night is over."
"Silence!" the chief murmured.
The two men listened: a stifled growl fell upon their ears.
"That is my dog!—it is Cæsar warning us!" the young man cried.
He and the chief sprang simultaneously to the platform. In vain he looked around on all sides, nothing appeared, the same tranquillity seemed to reign around them. Nothing denoted movement but the high grass on the banks of the river, which waved gently, as if bent by the breeze. Valentine, for a minute, thought his dog was deceived, and was preparing to descend, when he suddenly seized him by the middle and forced him to lie flat upon the platform, while several shots resounded, half a score balls came hissing to be flattened against the rock, and a number of arrows flew over the platform—a second more, and Valentine would have been killed.
This attack was succeeded by a horrible yelling which was repeated by the echoes of the two banks. This was the war cry of the Aucas, who, to the number of more than forty, appeared upon the shore. Valentine and the chief discharged their guns almost at hazard among the crowd. Two men fell, and the Indians suddenly disappeared among the thick bushes and high grass. The silence, for an instance disturbed, was restored so promptly, that if the bodies of the two Indians had not remained stretched upon the sand, the scene might have passed for a dream. The young man took advantage of the minutes respite afforded by the enemy to descend into the grotto. At the noise of the fusillade and of the cry of the Indians, Doña Rosario had started from her sleep in great terror. Seeing her father seize his gun to mount to the platform, she threw herself into his arms, imploring him not to leave her.
"Father! father!" she cried, "pray do not leave me alone, or let me follow you! Here I should become mad with terror!"
"My daughter," Don Tadeo replied, "your mother will remain with you, I must join your friends; would you wish that I should abandon them in such circumstances? It is my cause they are defending; my place is with them! Come! Courage, my darling Rosario, time is precious!"
The young girl sank helplessly on the ground.
"That is true!" she said; "Pardon me, my father."
For her part, without speaking a word, the Linda had drawn her dagger, and placed herself at the entrance of the grotto. At this moment Valentine appeared.
"Thanks, Don Tadeo," he said, "but we can dispense with your presence above. The Black Serpents will, no doubt, attempt to cross the river and gain entrance to the grotto, of which they certainly know the existence. Remain here, then, if you please, and watch their movements carefully."
Valentine had calculated rightly. The Indians perceiving the inutility of firing at a block of granite against which their balls were flattened, changed their tactics. They divided themselves into two bands, one of which kept firing; whilst the other, led by Antinahuel, ascended the course of the river. When they arrived at a certain distance, the Indians hastily constructed rafts, upon which they allowed themselves to float upon the stream straight toward the rock. Valentine and his companions, knowing that they had nothing to fear from those who kept firing at the rock from the bank, descended to the grotto.
The young man's first care was to place Doña Rosario in safety. This duty performed, he took his post with his companions. A raft, mounted by seven Indians, tossed about violently by the current, all at once was dashed against the rock, and the Indians, howling their war cry, sprang off, brandishing their arms; but the three men, with the Linda, who insisted upon joining them, threw themselves upon them, and, before they had secured their footing, beat them down with the stocks of their guns, and cast back their bodies into the river.
But scarcely had they got rid of these when two other rafts came down, followed almost immediately by a third and a fourth, carrying at least thirty men in the whole. For an instant the mêlée was terrible in that confined spot, where they fought man to man, foot to foot. The Linda, trembling for her daughter, with her hair streaming and her eyes flashing, defended herself like a lioness, powerfully seconded by her three companions, who performed prodigies of valour. But, overpowered by numbers, the besieged men were at length obliged to give ground.
A minutes truce ensued, during which the Auras counted their numbers. Six of them were stretched dead. On the side of the besieged, Valentine had received a cut from a hatchet on the head; but as he had seen it coming, and had moved promptly on one side, it was not a deep wound. Trangoil-Lanec's left arm was severely wounded. Don Tadeo and the Linda were unhurt.
Valentine cast a painful glance towards the spot which served as a shelter for Rosario, and then thought of nothing but nobly sacrificing his life. He was the first to recommence the fight. Suddenly a violent fusillade was heard.
"Courage," Valentine shouted—"courage!—here are our friends!"
Followed by his companions, a second time he scaled the barricade, and threw himself into the mêlée. All at once a cry for help of the most heart-rending agony resounded from the grotto. The Linda turned round, and uttering a shriek more like the roar of a wild beast than the cry of a woman, threw herself upon Antinahuel, in whose arms Rosario was struggling. Antinahuel, surprised by this unexpected attack, left his hold of the young girl, and recognised the Linda.
"Stand back!" he said, in a deep guttural voice.
But the Linda, without replying, sprang headlong upon him, and plunged her dagger into his chest.
"Die, she wolf!" he howled.
The Linda fell.
"My mother—oh, my mother!" Rosario cried, in agony, kneeling down close to her, and covering her with kisses. The chief stooped to seize the young girl again, but then a new adversary stood firmly before him; it was Valentine. The Toqui rushed upon the Frenchman.
Valentine was brave, active, and vigorous, but he had to contend with a man whom he would never have been able to resist if he had not been weakened by his wounds. The oily body of the Indian presented no hold for the Frenchman, whilst his enemy, on the contrary, had seized him by the cravat. Neither Trangoil-Lanec nor Don Tadeo could render their companion any assistance, occupied as they were in defending themselves against the Aucas.
It was all over with Valentine. Already his ideas began to lose their lucidity, he only resisted mechanically, when he felt the fingers which grasped his neck gradually relax; with a last concentration of rage, he collected all his strength, and succeeded in disengaging himself. But his enemy, far from attacking him, fell backwards—he was dead!
"Ah!" the Linda cried, with an expression impossible to be conveyed, "she is saved!"
And she sank back fainting in the arms of her daughter, clasping tightly in her hand the dagger with which she had pierced Antinahuel to the heart. All eagerly assembled round the unfortunate woman, who, by killing the inveterate enemy of her daughter, had so nobly retrieved her faults.
At length she sighed faintly, opened her eyes, and fixing a dim look upon those who surrounded her, she convulsively seized her daughter and Don Tadeo, drew them towards her, and contemplated them.
"Oh! I was too happy! Both of you had pardoned me; but God decreed that it should not be! Will this terrible death disarm His justice? Pray—pray for me!—that—that—hereafter—we may meet again in heaven!"
She was dead!
"My God!" said Don Tadeo, "have pity on her!"
And he knelt down by the body. His companions piously imitated him.