PREPARATIONS FOR A RESCUE.
We will now leave the Comanche camp for a season, and return to the Hacienda del Río, belonging to Count de Melgosa, whither we have before taken the reader, and to which the count ordered the wounded man to be conveyed. When they approached the hacienda, the Canadian remarked to the count that perhaps Don Melchior, owing to his weakness, could not be able to stand crossing the stream, and the ascent of the hill, which was rendered more fatiguing by the steepness of the path that led to the front gate. The count began laughing.
"What is it that amuses your Excellency?" the Canadian asked.
"Well," the count answered, "I am laughing at your simplicity, my friend."
"My simplicity!"
"Yes; I fancied you better acquainted with strategics."
"What do you mean?"
"Hang it all! You ought to know that a good general never lets himself be besieged without having the means to break the blockade when he thinks proper."
"Ah, ah!" the hunter said with a smile, "I suspected it; but no matter. Go on, Excellency."
"Does it interest you?"
"Enormously."
"Ah!" he said, giving him an inquiring glance.
"Oh, simply from an artistic point of view."
"Very good; well, I wish to prove to you what value I set on you, and what faith I have in your honour."
"You were wrong to doubt it, Excellency."
"I believe so. Then I will show you what no living being has ever yet seen."
"By Jove, Excellency, permit me to remark to you that what you are doing is most imprudent."
"With anyone else it would certainly be so; but are you not my friend?"
"I hope so, Excellency."
"In that case, it is no longer imprudent, but merely a mark of confidence. Diego López," he added, turning to the peon, "go to the right."
"Excellency," the latter said respectfully, "if we go to the right after passing that clump of larches, sumachs, and floripondios, we shall come to an impassable belt of rocks which border the river on that side."
"Nonsense," the count continued with a smile; "never mind; go on."
Diego López bowed, and at once went in the direction ordered. The road had to be cut with the axe, and they only advanced step by step. After about an hour of extremely fatiguing toil, the band reached, as Diego López had predicted, the foot of an enormous and irregular mass of rocks heaped on each other to a great height. They were forced to halt, owing to the material impossibility of going any further.
"You see, Excellency," Diego López said, with the satisfaction of a servant who believes he has got the best of his master.
"Yes, yes, I see," the count replied, as he attentively examined the rocks; "be kind enough, Señor Clary, to hold my horse for a moment."
He dismounted, threw the bridle to the Canadian, and said to the peon—
"Come hither, Diego."
The latter followed him without a word, vainly torturing his brain to guess what his master intended to do. The count walked straight up to the rocks; on reaching a certain spot he stooped, and after a moment's reflection, said—
"Thrust your gun barrel into that crack, and press."
The peon obeyed with the passive resignation of a good servant, and after a few efforts a rather large block started and fell to the ground.
"Very good," the count said; "go on; now this one." A second stone, larger than the first, fell, and revealed the entrance of a cave.
"Now," the count continued, "enlarge the passage."
"By heavens!" the Canadian exclaimed, "That is prodigious, and we can pass through, horses and all."
"Of course. Do you not know that all the haciendas of any size in this country were built by the first conquistadors of the country, who, being daily exposed to the attacks of the Indians, were obliged to dig passages of this nature, which allowed them, in the event of a siege, to procure provisions, or call in the aid of their friends and allies?"
"And you are not afraid to show this passage to me?" the Canadian said, in wonderment.
"Why should I be afraid? I repeat, that you are a friend, and that I have faith in you."
"That is true," the Canadian replied; "but, no matter," he added, with a shake of his head, "you have run a tremendous risk."
"Nonsense," the count continued, with a careless shrug of the shoulder. "With you?"
While they were conversing, Diego López and his comrades had worked so well that the entrance was now wide enough for the little band to pass.
"Come," said the count.
They went in, and when the last peon had passed through, the count continued—
"Now, Diego López, put the stones back in their place as well as you can, for it is useless to show other people the road we have taken."
The peons set to work, and in less than half an hour the entrance was once more hermetically closed, and so skilfully, that no one could have detected it from the outside. The passage in which the Spaniards found themselves was probably lighted by a multitude of imperceptible fissures, which at the same time renewed the stock of air; for although the entrance had been stopped up, it was not dark, and it was perfectly easy to breathe. Cut in the rock, the roof of this passage was lofty enough for a man to pass through comfortably on horseback—it was arched; the ground was dry and covered with a fine sand of a golden-yellow.
The count placed himself at the head of the little party and gave a signal to start. At first the passage descended rather abruptly, and from the noise the travellers heard over their heads, they understood that they were passing beneath the bed of the river; but gradually the ground rose gently, and the passage ascended with innumerable windings, opening out every now and then into long galleries, which showed that the first owners of this hacienda, as prudent people, retained several issues. At regular distances, they came to massive iron doors, which the count opened by touching a hidden spring, and which closed again after the travellers.
At length, after marching for about three-quarters of an hour in this inextricable labyrinth, the count stopped before a massive oak door, entirely covered with thick plates of iron.
"We have arrived," he said.
"What do you mean?" the Canadian remarked, "Not at the hacienda, I suppose?"
"Yes, we are at the hacienda; and, more than that, we are at the entrance of the court leading to the corral."
"That is impossible," said the Canadian.
The count smiled and touched a spring. The door opened, and the Canadian repressed a cry of surprise as the count informed him they were really in an inner court of the hacienda, which was at this moment empty. The travellers entered, and then the gate was closed so hermetically, and so thoroughly formed a part of the wall through the stones with which it was covered, that in spite of the attention with which the adventurer examined it, it was impossible for him to discover its exact position.
"It is prodigious!" he muttered.
"Not at all," the count replied, gently; "it is, on the contrary, a very ordinary affair, only due to the skill of the workman who was intrusted with the job. But let us lose no more time here; Diego López, convey the wounded man to the green room. Do not trouble yourself about your horse, Señor Clary, it will be taken care of; come."
"Hang it, the beast is valuable; and were it only for the sake of the person from whom I obtained it, I should not like any accident to happen to it."
"As for that, be at your ease; your horse will be as well taken care of as if it belonged to me."
Completely reassured by this promise, the Canadian dismounted and accompanied his host into the house. The count's unexpected arrival and the mysterious way in which he entered the hacienda caused some surprise to his people, who did not understand how he could have got in unseen by any of the sentries in a so carefully guarded fortress. The reception the countess gave the adventurer was not merely polite, but even affectionate, and very different from the somewhat dry manner in which she greeted him on the first occasion. Don Melchior was put to bed; and when the count and the Canadian entered the green room, the doctor of the hacienda was attending to him. The young man was asleep.
"Well," the count asked, presently, "what do you think about your patient, doctor?"
The doctor, or, to speak more correctly, the barber, who undertook that duty, drew himself up, pursed his eyebrows, and replied gravely—
"This young man is as well as his state allows him to be. I have bled him copiously, which, I believe, will produce a favourable result; in two days, if no serious accident occur, I can promise you that he will feel but little of the numerous contusions he has received."
"Thanks, doctor, for your good prognostics; attend to this young man as you would to myself; I have the greatest wish to hear him talk as soon as possible, even if he cannot get about."
"I will give you that satisfaction this very evening, Excellency," the doctor answered. "When the patient awakes, his strength will have returned sufficiently to allow him to answer any questions you may think proper to ask him."
The count and the adventurer exchanged a glance of satisfaction on hearing this. The doctor's prediction was realized, for shortly before sunset Don Melchior opened his eyes. At first he was somewhat astonished to find himself lying in bed and attended by a doctor; but when the latter had told him in a few words how, on being found half dead, he was transported to the spot where he now was, his memory at once returned, and he earnestly begged the doctor to inform the count that as he was refreshed by the bleeding and rested by the sleep which had resulted from it, he earnestly requested to see his saviour in order to thank him for the service he had done him, and to ask him to let him return as soon as possible to the Hacienda del Barrio, where matters of the greatest importance summoned him. The count and the Canadian proceeded straight to the young man, and after congratulating him on the fortunate change which had taken place in him in so short a time, pressed him to tell them all that had happened.
Don Melchior, on recognizing the count, who during his visit to the hacienda had displayed much interest in him, had no difficulty in recounting what had happened in the fullest detail, the more so because knowing the count to be on very intimate terms with Don Aníbal Saldibar, he hoped that the Spanish gentleman might help him in the plan he meditated. The count was overwhelmed with grief on hearing the misfortune which had happened to Doña Emilia, and immediately suspected that the daring abduction to which she had been a victim was the revenge of the Red Buffaloes, those constant foes of Don Aníbal. But there was some mystery about this skilfully arranged and boldly executed expedition. He suspected treachery, though it was impossible to rest those suspicions on one person more than another. His anxiety was the greater because it was probable that the ravishers, after their snare was successful, had returned to the impenetrable deserts which served them as refuge, and where it was impossible to pursue them, especially owing to the state of confusion into which the country was thrown by the decisive pronunciamiento of which Don Aníbal was one of the principal chiefs, and was stripped of any hope of cooperation from the Spaniards. The situation was serious, and the count did not know how to escape from it.
"Listen to me," said the Canadian, who during the young man's recital had not made the slightest remark. "The affair of which you are talking, is beyond the pale of the common law. Spanish troops will be of no more use to you than Mexican. You have to deal with redskins, do not overlook that fact."
"We know it perfectly well," the count interrupted; "but how does that advance us?"
"Pardon me, Excellency, but I am acquainted with Indian habits. During the fifteen years I have been traversing the desert in all directions I have had time to study them, hence I believe myself in a position to give you good advice."
"Speak, my friend, speak," the count exclaimed.
"Explain yourself, caballero," the young man said imploringly.
"One of two things will happen," the Canadian continued. "Either the redskins have seized Doña Emilia and her daughter in order to massacre them, or they have carried them off for the purpose of obtaining a ransom. In the first place they will not kill them for a week, because if it be a revenge, as you say, they desire to take on their enemies, they will sacrifice their victims in the presence of the whole nation assembled for a species of holiday, which will necessitate a great loss of time in convening the scattered tribes. In the second case, you have nothing to fear for the life of the ladies; and tomorrow, possibly today, they will send to the hacienda a messenger to settle the amount of ransom."
"Hum! What you do us the honour of telling us is doubtless very sensible," the count remarked; "but I do not yet see the nature of the advice you wish to give us."
"Patience," the Canadian continued with a shake of his head, "my advice is this. Tomorrow, at sunrise, I will start for the Hacienda del Barrio. If no Indian has appeared, after reporting the result of my embassy, and warning Don Aníbal of what has happened, I will have a talk with my friend Moonshine. He knows the Indians as well as I do, perhaps better. Well, if he shares my opinion, we will both start on the trail of the redskins, and they will be very cunning, I swear, if we do not discover them. That is my advice."
"Yes," the count answered, "your reasoning is excellent, and the plan you propose is the only one feasible; but what can two men do alone against several hundreds? You will be killed without any advantage."
"Well, if you can hit on a better scheme, I shall not oppose it."
"I do not say that I can. I merely believe that your idea, good in principle, is bad in its mode of execution; that is to say, where two men would perish, ten or fifteen would infallibly succeed."
"But where will you find that number of men to volunteer running such risks?"
"I will be the first," Don Melchior said warmly.
"And I the second," the count said more calmly.
"You?" the Canadian remarked, with surprise.
"Yes, I, my friend," he continued. "I have an old account to settle with the redskins generally, and the Red Buffaloes particularly. They are my enemies also. The marks of their claws have been for a long time imprinted on my flesh. Who knows whether I shall not avenge myself, while fancying that I am only avenging a friend?"
"Hence," said Don Melchior, "we will start tomorrow at sunrise."
"I alone," the Canadian answered; "your presence at the hacienda would be more injurious than useful. Allow Don Aníbal's grief time to calm before presenting yourself to him."
The young man felt the force of the adventurer's reasoning, and hung his head sadly, though without offering any objection.
"I will accompany you, señor," said the count. "I trust that my intervention with Don Aníbal will not prove in vain."
"What are you thinking of, Excellency? In the present state of affairs, do you not fear being regarded as an enemy?"
"Politics have nothing to do with the step I propose taking in your company, señor. Moreover, do you not remember that I have sworn never more to serve the Spanish government? I am, therefore, free to act as I please."
"I have no remarks to make to you on that subject, Excellency; perhaps it is better that it should be so; besides, you know better than I do what line of conduct you ought to hold."
"Believe me, my friend, that the one I am adopting is the best."
"Then," Don Melchior remarked, sadly, "you condemn me to remain here?"
"Yes, till you receive fresh orders, my friend," the Canadian said good-humouredly; "but do not feel vexed, young gentleman; get well again as quickly as you can, and you shall enter on the campaign against the redskins in our company."
"Do you promise me that?" the young man asked, with a start of joy.
"I swear it, on the faith of Oliver Clary. You are too brave to be left behind."
The young man thanked him warmly, and feeling easier in his mind, he fell back on his bed, and was soon fast asleep. On the morrow at sunrise the count and the Canadian entered the chamber of the wounded man to take leave of him, but they found him dressed and ready to start.
"You know very well that you are not to accompany us."
"It is not my intention either," he answered.
"Still you are preparing to leave the hacienda."
"Yes, and probably at the same time as yourself."
"Hum!" said the Canadian, as he took a side glance at the young man, whose handsome masculine face, pale with suffering, had an expression of energetic will. "You seem quite resolved," he said.
"Whatever may happen, yes."
There was a silence.
"Very good," the Canadian continued; "wait for me here for six hours."
"What are you going to do?" Don Melchior exclaimed.
"On my return I will tell you: do you pledge me your word?"
"I do."
"Very good."
Without adding a word, Oliver went out, making the count a sign to follow him.