“Goes with us,” returned Ames. “I can not spare her for a moment. Madam Beaubien will have charge of the house during our absence. We will be back here, weather favorable, in three weeks––or not at all!”
“Yet, she will know––”
“Nothing. I take the trip, ostensibly, for the change; to get away from those who are hounding me here; for recuperation––anything! Go, now, and make ready!” The man’s eyes glistened like live coals, and his sunken cheeks took on a feverish glow.
That night the Cossack, enveloped in gloom, steamed noiselessly out of New York harbor, and turned her prow to the 249 South. And when she had entered the high sea, Captain McCall from his bridge aloft sent a message down to the waiting engineer:
“Full speed ahead!”
CHAPTER 20
Cartagena’s slumber of centuries had been broken by nearly four years of civil warfare. But on the day that the lookout in the abandoned convent of Santa Candelaria, on the summit of La Popa, flashed the message down into the old city that a steam yacht had appeared on the northern horizon, she was preparing to sink back again into quiet dreams. For peace was being concluded among the warring political factions. The country lay devastated and blood-soaked; but the cause of Christ had triumphed, and the Church still sat supreme in the councils of Bogotá. Cartagena was en fête; the last of the political agitators would be executed on the morrow. And so the lookout’s message was received with indifference, even though he embellished it with the comment that the boat must be privately owned, as no ships of the regular lines were due to arrive that day.
Quietly the graceful craft swept down past Tierra Bomba and into the Boca Chica, between the ancient forts of San Fernando and San Josè, and came to anchor out in the beautiful harbor, a half mile from the ancient gate of the clock. A few curious idlers along the shore watched it and commented on its perfect lines. And the numerous officials of the port lazily craned their necks at it, and yawningly awaited the arrival of the skiff that was immediately lowered and headed for the pier.