UNDER THE MASK.
When Corkey Joe had almost come up beside Drudge, the latter exchanged a knowing glance with him, and, drawing a sheet of tarpaulin aside from the doorway in the rocks, glided like a serpent within. As the canvas fell behind him, the bandit captain's representative calmly took the sentinel's place.
Drudge entered a kind of passage between rocks, covered over with tree stuff and mud, with the snow heaped on that again to hermetically roof it in. Thus to a second doorway of a cave, he found a hanging of buffalo robes fastened on a cottonwood rod.
He hemmed and hawed a couple of times to give a polite notification of his approach, and after making sure he was alone, stepped within the fur portière.
Prairie travellers are like the Turks in carrying with them such furniture as may transform a cave or a hut into a nest of luxury. Captain Kidd had, therefore, had a delightful snuggery made of the dugout, lined with rugs, blankets and furs, so that cold, damp, and wind were excluded. In the centre of this lair, too, a large silver chafing dish, which might have been stolen from some Central American church treasury, contained clear pine knots, which diffused rather an agreeable and, certainly, a wholesome odour. The low seats were all folding, to be transported readily, but were heaped with furs. A couch of the same valuable material was occupied by a sleeping girl: it was poor Miss Maclan, making up with a prolonged rest for her exhaustion.
In a hammock of grass cloth, hung low, another girl, younger and slighter, with a truly American complexion and contour, gently was swinging. She was well within her teens; a sweet and lofty type of beauty such as Raphael and Murillo painted in their most inspired moments. Her large black eyes seemed to reflect thoughts oftener of heaven than of earth; her transparent skin, fine as satin, showed the blue network of the delicate veins, and offered a violent contrast to black hair in thick and long tresses. Her irresistible charm was heightened by the permanent sadness which covered her lineaments and compelled pity. She smiled faintly on beholding Drudge, and bade him welcome in a tuneful voice as she gave him her little hand.
"But I ought to scold you, friend," she said, "for coming too often. If that hateful man, whose very slave I am, should catch you here, where you could find no excuse to be, ill would befall you."
"That's so, señorita," the youth replied, lightly enough, "but you need not be alarmed about me this time. My only danger is that you will think me intrusive. Captain Kidd has left the camp, and the depth of the snow makes going so slow, that I should not wonder if he made a long stay of it. They have been having another jangle, all in my hearing, for," he went on, with a bitter smile, "they reckon me as an idiot, and go on as if nobody were by."
"Poor Leon!" she sighed, kindly.
"Don't be sorry about that, señorita," he hastened to proceed, "for that's my safeguard. Otherwise I could not watch over you as over a sister. The hour is nigh for me to prove my devotion, methinks."
"I very well know that I can count on Leon with entire trust. Is not our cause, our hope, the same? Misfortune unites us. But I must own that, knowing your implacable hatred for this wretch who holds us in his power, I am often afraid that you will burst out into some imprudence that will destroy you and leave me without a friend in the world. Unless," she added, with a glance at the sleeper, whom their subdued tones did not affect, "this is a new friend whom heaven has accorded me in my distress."
"Rather a spy whom the odious captain thinks to plant in your confidence," returned Leon, with jealousy and doubt. "Coming from the captain, I would not take an angel as a being of light."
"You are wrong there. We have not exchanged many words, Leon, but already we are sisters. Think! She has lost a father lately, and has been hunted by Indians! Poor girl! Her fate is at least as dreadful as mine, and her heart wounds still bleeding. We can trust her, though I have not told her all."
"Tell her nothing superfluous," he cried. "The slave must be cunning and prudent, or he will never have the chance to obtain his freedom. Many a time, though, I have let go the chance to obtain it alone."
"You were right! For what would have become of a boy like you in these deserts in a storm such as shook the earth last night? You would be a mite!"
Leon the Drudge smiled disdainfully, and his pale face was set in an expression of energetic will.
"That is not the fear that held me, señorita," he replied. "I am young, but Indian boys go on the warpath at my age. I have broken in horses that great men about this camp have shrank from backing, and can back a mule or fire a shot to the centre with any of them. But for my double oath, I should have been alone—yes, but free on the prairie, long before this!"
"Explain! For you speak beyond my comprehension."
"Señorita, I made a vow to be revenged on this horde of villainous men, and not to fly save with you. You have not been spared so long but for some fiendish end which a man of honour is bound to loathe beforehand and baffle when discovered. That is why I remain, and why, however tempting the opportunities to slip away, I shall remain until it is possible for you to follow me."
"Alas! I am too closely guarded for that. A princess could not be more narrowly watched if she were affianced to the grandest king on earth and by her hand her father would be saved from ruin."
"Maybe you are more free than you imagine, señorita."
"Now, pray do not fill me with any baseless hopes. And talk less loud, lest you awake that poor slumberer. Alas! I weep, it being only a girl—a child who is incapable of doing anything but wail and pray for deliverance."
"Your defenders, if not deliverers, are at hand."
"At hand? I see no one but you, poor boy, and this sorrowing woman, who can only pray with me."
"I talk of men—men determined, able, and daring—one of whom you have seen."
"The man they call the Wolverine!" she ejaculated, hiding her eyes like a child to whom Bogey was promised to appear, "A man that terrifies me! He is the second self of this horrid Captain Kidd. His name pourtrays him, and his sight fills me with dread."
Drudge smiled softly.
"What has his name and his appearance got to do with it?" he cried. "Both may be put on! The gem and gold are not at all prepossessing when natural. How does the domestic dog escape being devoured by the prairie wolves when abandoned at a camp? He joins them, frisks with them, and howls more loudly than they! If Corkey Joe resembled a missionary, he would stand pretty conspicuous out from our gang of Border Terrors. It is by putting on their style that he has hoodwinked them."
"Oh, if I could be sure that you are not cheated, and that this fright of a man is truly what you say!"
"I say so straight. The Carcajieu may or may not be a beauty, but his look is only skin-deep anyhow. I'll answer for his faithfulness with my own head. I know what he is worth."
"Then, tell me—"
"No, I cannot, señorita," he interrupted sharply. "I promised to keep the secret. No more, beyond his being your most devoted."
"Now, Leon, do not fill me up with a belief of which the removal would be heartbreaking!"
"No fear of that, señorita!"
"Very well; spite of the repulsion he causes, I will be polite to him, kind—I will even speak to him—"
"Why not at once?"
"Oh, not at once!"
"I say that is best, for it's a first-rate chance, the captain and the chiefs being out of the camp, and Joe the ruling spirit. Do you consent to receive him?"
"But I would rather—that is, a little preparation. Let me consult with this young lady."
"It is not her secret! Do you waver? Do you recoil?"
"No!" she cried, at the taunt, with a decisive tone, which startled and thrilled him; "Let him come! Go, bring him, Leon!"
"He waits yonder, as the sentry in my stead."
"Let him come, and heaven grant that you are not deceived!"
As Drudge departed the young girl leaned breathlessly forward with an anxious gaze for the person who replaced him in the doorway.
Behind Corkey Joe the screen fell, forming a dark background to set his figure off. The right-hand man of the gold seekers' leader had not modified his aspect or apparel, and yet there was a change which elicited an exclamation of surprise from the girl. His step was firm, his usually stern and spiteful face beaming with pity and frankness. The features that had originated invincible repulsion were still there, but, with the morose and mocking expression, had vanished all foundation for distrust and dread. He stepped forward and saluted her respectfully.
She glanced towards the sleeper.
"Let her repose," he observed, with even more sympathy in his eyes of cold steel blue; "she will need her strength restored for what we all may have to pass through."
"No doubt," she sighed. Fixing a clear gaze on the man, she smiled faintly, and promptly held out her hand, saying, "Heaven bless you, unsuspected friend, for being alone in this host of heartless men, to take some interest in a poor orphan!"
"Señorita," answered Joe, in Spanish-American, which tongue she had used, "I have only joined this bad set at the peril of my life, in pursuance of my duty, incidental to which comes in the rescue of you."
"Leon told me so."
"Then he spoke the truth."
The brief silence was broken by the prisoner.
"I am almost sorry, though, that you have ventured to speak to me," she said; "the captain is so jealous a tyrant, that anything makes me tremble. Still, your voice inspires a confidence of which I was very much in want, and, notwithstanding your not engaging appearance—" for the sunshine seemed to have left Lieutenant Joe's countenance again, so that he glowered unpleasantly as ever—"something within tells me that your heart is too good to deceive me, and that you really intend to do me a good service."
"The little bird in your bosom sings the truth, señorita. If needs must, I shall lay down my life to save yours—though that's no more than an American is brought up to do for the fair sex. As for my looks, those artist fellows don't come out here to paint tailor's models and opera lobby heroes. Besides, if you ever saw a church procession in Mexico, you may remember the Devil that the monks flog and the boys pluck by the tail. He's no pattern of manly beauty; but, very often, he is the widow's son and the best young man of the town, come to shuck off his mask and shear off the claws. 'Shouldn't wonder," he went on, smiling, "but that, without paint and powder, your bridegroom would be pretty jealous if he had me for best man and I drew the bridesmaids' eyes to my corner. At present, my ugly mug, and my talk, and my warpath gait are too useful to be laid on the shelf. I thank you sincerely, young lady, for the confidence you are kind enough to put there, in my hand, and it will not be a parrot's age before I shall try to justify it."
"I believe you, señor, and I, too, shall be glad to have the time come."
"And now, moments being counted, to business! We may never get such a chance again."