This the sly rogue offered, knowing well that Lady Biddy would not consent to an act which he himself had shown would be the greater cruelty, and with the sole intent, I take it, to insinuate himself into my lady's good graces. All that she desired, therefore, was that the young woman should be placed on one of the pack-mules until she had recovered from the exhaustion into which her grief had thrown her. Whereupon Lewis de Pino, with as good grace as he could muster, ordered her leather collar to be unbolted, and a place to be made for her on one of the mules, making the young woman understand at the same time that it was by the wish of Lady Biddy that this indulgence was granted her. This she understood well enough, for being freed she rushes to Lady Biddy, embraces her knees, pressing her face against them; but this done, ere hand could be laid on her, she darted off with a cry like a startled blackbird into the wood.
Coming to a distance, she had yet so much feeling that gratitude rose in her bosom above the instinct of self-preservation, and she turned about, raising her arms in the air as if to bless Lady Biddy. At that moment, seeing her thus exposed, a Portugal cocks his musket, and, clapping it to his shoulder, fires at her; but by good chance I, standing not more than a yard off, was enabled by a quick movement to fling the fellow's arm up, whereby the ball passed harmlessly over her head. With another wild cry of joy she turned about and fled out of sight, nor did any of the Portugals attempt to follow her more than a score of yards or so, for loaded as they were with their arms, to pursue her, who was light on foot as any deer, was a profitless folly.
This business did not prove more clearly than words what a liar Lewis de Pino was, for surely the girl would not so joyously have recovered freedom if that was true that he told of the barbarity of her kinsfolk. But for all this he did persevere in defending himself as we continued our march, and, to my mortification, Lady Biddy allowed herself, as I judged by her manner, to be beguiled by his crafty tongue. So that I was not much better pleased with her this day than I had been the day before.
Indeed, it was past my comprehension how one of her understanding could fail to see that this Lewis de Pino, for all his good looks and fair speaking, was an arrant rascal; but that was no such extraordinary matter neither, for as the day began to draw in I began to doubt whether I had not suffered him to deceive me, who was by no means under the charm of his personal gifts. For, taking note of the position of the sun pretty frequently, and making all allowance for the turns of the path in winding amongst the mountains, I came to the conclusion that we had been traveling for these two days full south, and rather a point or so to the east of it than to the west. Then calling to mind as well as I could the look of the chart, it grew upon me that we were not making in the direction of Caracas at all, by reason that the chain of mountains there set down ran east and west, with Caracas lying not more than half a dozen leagues from the sea.
As this conviction became stronger, I was troubled beyond description, for to go back was out of the question; while to go on was to lay ourselves more inevitably in the power of Lewis de Pino. So, with a heart like any lump of lead, I laid me in my net that night; yet might I have counted myself a happy man at that time could I have foreseen the greater trouble that was to come, as I shall show in the next chapter.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
I AM OVERCOME AND CLAPPED UP IN ONE OF THOSE STRONG TOWERS.
We set out from that station the next morning about seven o'clock with another pole of six slaves added to our number, and, toiling upwards, in about two hours we came out of the woods into a very wild, rocky country, where scarcely any herb grew for the height and abundance of stone. Sometimes the path wound along the edge of horrid precipices, and sometimes between prodigious high rocks, and this way I counted we crossed over a low chain of mountains; for about noon we began to descend again, but the road so steep and foul with loose stones that 'twas as much as the mules could do to keep their feet at times. As for the poor slaves, their pain was great indeed, by reason of being yoked to the poles one behind the other; for if one slipped she was as good as strangled in her collar; and if those behind could not keep pace with those before, they were like all to be thrown down. To see the sweat pouring down their dusky skins, the agony in their faces, the blood on their feet and legs cut by the sharp stones, was enough to melt any heart of stone. Yet that which did move me was their silence in the midst of their suffering; no herd of spent cattle could have shown more patient endurance.
An hour of sliding and stumbling brought us to a station at the bottom of this rocky valley; but it was unlike the other two, in having no trees around it, and a stone wall in place of a stockade; besides that, it was twice as big. The tower also was greater and stronger here, and the men had not that same aspect, but looked ten times more cruel and brutal. Every man of them carried arms, as if he mistrusted his fellows, and all had a very hang-dog look in their sullen faces. This, I take it, came partly of their living always in that grim, barren valley, where the sun never shone; and partly of their occupation, which was to goad on and watch over the slaves who worked mines in that region; for I observed that men's looks do take on the aspect of the surroundings and the character of the company they keep; and truly these fellows looked as sullen and forbidding as the rocks, with something of that dull, hopeless expression that marked the faces of their slaves.