Chapter Fifty Three.
A Series of Surprises.
The cochero had but a confused idea of what he was carrying away with him. By the feel, watches, with chains and bracelets; besides some smaller articles wrapped in bits of paper. The uncertainty of his getting safe up the cliff hindered him from giving them even the most cursory examination, nor did he think of doing this till at sufficient distance from the card-playing party to feel sure he was beyond danger of pursuit. Then the temptation to have a look at the things, which had so strangely and unexpectedly come into his possession, became irresistible; and sitting down upon a ledge of rock, he drew them out into the light of the moon. Two watches were there, both gold, and one with a jewelled case.
“Carrai!” he exclaimed, as his eyes fell upon the latter, and became fixed in a stare of blank amazement, “can it be! It is—the Condesa’s watch—the very one she would have given me! But how came the hunchback to have it? Surely he must have stolen it. The other, too, with all these things!”
He looked at the second watch, but as it had never been in his hands before, he was unable to identify it. Still, it resembled one he had seen his mistress wearing, and most likely was the same.
The bracelets, chains, necklets, and brooches would be theirs, too; as also the rings and other bijouterie, which the dwarf had found time to do up in paper.
“Stolen them?” continued the cochero interrogatively, as he ran his eyes over the varied assortment.
“How could he? The watches he might, but the other things? Why bless me, here are two pairs of ear-rings—and these grand pendants—I’m sure I saw them in the ears of the Condesa this very day. He couldn’t have taken them without her knowing it. Santo Dios! How ever has he come by them?”
As he thus questioned and reflected, a feeling of apprehension began to creep over him. A little before leaving the house to go after his horses he had observed his young mistress and the Condesa going into the ornamental grounds. And they went alone; Don Ignacio having repaired to a private apartment, where he was accustomed to shut himself up for the examination of State papers, what if the ladies were still in the grounds, in some secluded spot, lying dead, where all these adornments had been stripped from their persons!
This horrible tableau did the faithful servant in imagination conjure up. He could not help it. Nor was the thing so very improbable. He had some earlier acquaintance with the desperate character of the dwarf, which later experience confirmed. Besides, there was the state of the country—thieves and robbers all round—men who made light of murder!
With a heaviness of heart—a painful fear that there had been murder—he stayed not to further examine the trinkets; but gathering all up again, and thrusting them back into his pocket, hurried on home.
And when home he went not to his own quarters in the coachyard, but straight into the patio—the private court of the house. There he encountered Pepita; soon as he set eyes on her, asking—
“Where are the Señoritas?”
“What’s that to you?” saucily retorted the maid.
“Nothing, if I only knew they were safe.”
“Safe! Why what’s the man thinking—talking about? Have you lost your senses, hombre?”
“No, Pepita. But the ladies have lost something. Look here!”
He had plunged both his hands into his pockets, and drawn them out again full of things that scintillated in the moonlight—watches and jewellery of different kinds, as she saw. With a woman’s curiosity, gliding swiftly forward to examine them, she recognised every article at a glance, amazement overspreading her countenance, as it lately had his.
“Ay de mi!” she exclaimed, no longer in jesting tone. “What does it all mean, José?”
“Just what I want to know myself, and why I am asking after the Señoritas. But where are they?”
“In the garden, or the grounds somewhere. They strolled out about an hour ago, and haven’t been in since.”
“Pray God, they’re still alive! Come with me, Pepita. Let us look for them. I have terrible fears.”
So appealed to, the girl gave ready assent; and side by side they hastened towards the rear of the house, behind which were the ornamental grounds extending backwards. But they had not far to go before hearing sounds that set their minds at rest, removing all anxiety—the voices of the ladies themselves. They were not only alive, but laughing!
To José and Pepita this seemed strange as anything else—a perfect mystery. Merry after parting with all those pretty things; costly, too—worth hundreds of doblones! Withal, they were so; their lightness of heart due to the knowledge thus gained, that their own lovers were still living and safe; and something of merriment, added by that odd encounter with the enano, of which they were yet conversing.
If their behaviour mystified their servants, not less were they themselves puzzled when José presented himself before them with hands held out, saying:
“I ask your pardon for intruding, but don’t these belong to your ladyships?”
They saw their watches and other effects obtained from them by “false pretences,” as they were now to learn.
The revelation that succeeded put an end to their joyous humour; their hearts that had been light for a moment were now becoming heavier than ever. The treachery of the hunchback and his intentions were manifest. He meant to guide Santander and his soldiers to the old monastery, where they would take the patriotas by surprise.
“What is to be done, Ysabel?” despairingly asked the Donna Luisa. “How can we give them warning?”
To which the cochero, not the Countess, made answer, saying:
“I can do that, Señorita.”
His confident tone reassured them; more still his making known the design he had already conceived, and his ability to execute it. He was acquainted with the old convent and the paths leading to it—every inch of them.
It needed not their united appeal to urge him to immediate departure. He was off the instant after, and long before the clock of Talpam had struck the midnight hour, well up the mountain road, with eyes looking to the right, in the direction of the Cerro Ajusco.