THE BEAUTIFUL PRISONER'S FRIEND.
In quick, clear tones, the double playing lieutenant of the prairie pirate resumed his speech.
"A full explanation about me would lead us afar, so come to the essential point," said he. "To begin with, when you want to ask or tell me something, let Drudge know it. He is completely devoted to you."
"I know that, señor."
"And as we must look ahead, it being likely that Captain Kidd may be in a whim, or for good reasons forbid you visitors, here is a little scroll in Spanish, with what is called a Table of Second Sight Signals, used by conjurors. The questions are innocent and commonplace enough, but they stand for phrases of meaning. You can address me thus direct on the march, and not a soul can suspect we are carrying on a correspondence."
"I'll soon have that by heart, señor," she exclaimed.
"And teach this young friend the same. The captain will have his work cut out with two women leagued against him and a spy in the garrison, I promise you. Nevertheless, you must bear in mind that patience and stratagem will alone bring us success. Keep up your bearing of dislike to me, in order that nobody can guess we are secretly in tie."
"Understanding all the importance of that advice, I shall conform to it."
"Captain Kidd is sly, and at the faintest hint of our relations, it would be all over with me."
"I shall obey you in all ways, señor, and you shall be satisfied with your pupil," she said, gently, but firmly.
"One question: what is Captain Kidd's behaviour towards you?"
"So, so; his is an overbearing character of self-will, and he is insensible to sentiment; often days pass without his thinking to throw a word, good, bad or indifferent towards me; but I must honestly confess that he never forgets the respect due to my sex, age, and education. However impulsive, absurdly freakish, and even passionate he might be too, many a daughter is less ill treated than me his prisoner."
"It's a comfort to learn that there is one bright spot in that dark heart. My plans as regards him depend on the information I heap up. So tell me if you ever knew the captain before he stole you away from your boarding school at New Orleans, kept by the Misses Featherley?"
"I really cannot answer you with a certainty, señor. Still, there is now and then a tone of his voice, and even a look of his eyes (which I remarked to be very strong to require spectacles) not altogether new to me. I may be deceiving myself as to that, but I am pretty sure that he is disguised more or less."
"If he were known to you in your earliest years, where would that be?"
"Why, señor, as I speak Spanish and English as if they were born in me, having only had to acquire French at New Orleans, I have always believed what was told me, that my father was an English merchant, who married a Mexican lady, and that I lost both of them by an Indian attack."
"Who introduced you at that school, where the terms were high, I have heard say?"
"It was, indeed, a fashionable seminary. I was an orphan, true, but some near kinsman was taking care of my future."
"Who was this?"
"I never saw him, and his steward only once. I cannot even describe him, but an elder schoolmate pictured him as a middle-aged man, stout and strong, not particularly tall, stern and dark, with a shifting eye and rough skin."
"And his name?"
"This major-domo was called Mathias Corvino. One of the Miss Featherleys told me that he had become an independent gentleman, and lived in New York in great style."
"Do you suppose that in the husk of Captain Kidd could abide this same Mathias Corvino, señorita?"
"I have not the skill to say so, but when the captain is angry, I am reminded of that man."
"Your information is to the point, and has its value. Well, whatever the disguise of our friend the captain, depend upon it that in time I shall have him at bay, and he will show his real traitorous face!"
"And now, may I just put one question to you, señor?"
"Go ahead."
"You know many things," she observed, very gravely, and lapsing into English unwittingly. "Pray tell me, have I parents, have I kinsfolk?"
"Yes. A mother, no; a father, yes—if he has not passed away during a year. A brother younger than you too!"
"A brother! Oh, tell me about him."
"I am sorry to say that I am quite ignorant of the fate of your brother Lewis."
"Lewis!"
"But you must not despair, señorita. Mark this, whatever mishap your brother ran, you have been watched by at least one friend of your father's, and had the villain who abducted you from your home attempted to suppress you by murder, an avenger, if not a defender, would have appeared by your side in the New Mexican gentleman named Don Gregorio Peralta."
"I know him, the grey headed gentleman who spoke to me when the school was out on promenade. He told me he was my friend. Where is he? Pray tell me."
"The accomplices of your abductor tried to kill him to prevent Captain Kidd being followed. His wound, however, was serious without being mortal. I will warrant that, as soon as he could fork a steed, he set out on the pursuit of you."
"Oh, then you hope he will overtake us?"
"He or another will be at our side soon," answered the false lieutenant, ambiguously.
"You are not trifling with me?"
"I am not that kind of Wolverine," answered Master Corkey Joe with a forced laugh. "I say Don Gregorio, spite of his age, is on our track, because he loved your father. Your father is also afoot, and, at last accounts, hoped to enlist in his aid some mountain trappers. They are not sordid men—often have they been known to lay aside a whole season's harvest of incredible toil to rescue a man or woman of their colour from the red men, or to flock to the border when the cry of an Indian outbreak commanded all gun bearers to fill a loophole in the forts. But this troop which surrounds us is bent on a mission hostile to the first explorers of this region, and its stores of fiery spirit and ammunition are intended to be sold to the Indians, clean counter to the laws of the United States and British Dominion, and to the regulations of the fur trade companies. So Captain Kidd's organisation is doomed! And you must be saved when it is crushed."
"Have I, indeed, friends in this vast loneliness?"
"In the midst of those mountains draped in untrodden snows, in those unfathomable canyons, upon the plain and within the caverns that profoundly tunnel the glaciers, upwards of fifty brave, strong, and honest men, are invisibly repeating my call to them."
"Your calls?"
"I have been talking to them whilst we were conversing here."
"I do not understand, señor."
"On these immense wastes, the voice is insignificant, but the clear air allows the vision to travel far. Not only is there one general code of signals by fire at night and smoke by day, but the trappers, who are now independent since the ruin of the American fur companies, retain in use the alphabet they employed. Since the captain left me control of the camp, I have had the fires placed as I chose, and their position as the columns of smoke ascend has telegraphed for miles around that one of their allies—I—is here in want of assistance. Not a soul suspects it, but already I am sure some of the hunters are carefully proceeding hither and inspecting the camp. Soon I shall sally out and meet one or other of them, and the end will be arranged for."
"Oh, señor, this incredible good news fills me with joy! At last I am happy!" she exclaimed, with her eyes full of tears. "Oh, be true to me, man whom I have misjudged, and yet who evinces so much devotion! Be true to me, for if this, is a cheat, you might as well have driven a dagger through my heart!"
"Keep faith in me, señorita. I mean to save you as surely as to punish a great scoundrel! This I have sworn, or the buzzards will have a meal off my bones."
"I will rely on you, my friend," giving him her hand cordially.
"Besides," said he, "it looks as if my friends were already at work. Three of the band have been cut off already."
"Nay, sir," interrupted a third voice, "you are only half right now. Who the remover of two of them is, I can tell you: not a dweller in these parts, but a young Englishman, who has done so much out of attachment to—to my father."
It was Miss Maclan. Her sleep had been interrupted at last by the dialogue, and, sitting up, she had listened for a few minutes before she presumed it meet to interpose.
In well-chosen words, she hastened to inform Corkey Joe fully on the attempt at her rescue, and of the abrupt apparition of the Half-breed who had dragged away Mr. Dearborn.
"Cherokee Bill!" ejaculated the false bandit, in great glee. "What did I tell you, señorita? Why, we are living right among friends!"
He seemed to forget the ladies, who affectionately embraced, as he reflected on the incident no longer a mystery to him.
"Farewell," he said at last, "above all, do not let this joyous hope of yours be manifested. You must wear a mask, too, whatever singular events may occur. This Cherokee Bill is an inseparable companion of the oldest trapper of the Rocky Mountains, and there is no trick too artful or impudent that he may not essay. Rest assured the Yager of the Yellowstone Valley, as this trapper is called, will give Kidd a teaser before long."
He bowed and left the excavation. Soon after he might have been seen perambulating the camp, cold, calm, and wary, directing the nourishing of the fires, and puffing easily at a huge meerschaum pipe with a very short stem, secured by a string to his buttonhole against loss. No one suspected what a chat he had with the beautiful prisoner.