“An amusing fool,” replied Señor Bazán, with a whimsical twinkle. “How you expect to get out again is too much for my feeble old wits. Not in a Colombian sailing boat of any kind. Every sailor of Cartagena crosses himself when he hears the name of El Tigre Amarillo Grande. The muleteers and men of the river are carrying it back into the mountains. It will soon spread as far away as Bogotá.”
“Then why in the name of common sense did you fetch me in from La Popa?” was the blunt question.
“How could I refuse, Señor Cary, when you appealed to my hospitality, you a friend of my niece, the Señorita Fernandez?”
This answer was palpably evasive. Here was a riddle which only time and the crotchety impulses of Ramon Bazán could disclose. The puzzled young man was in no mind to confide that his love for Teresa had urged him to this blind adventure. Cross-currents were already visible. The uncle of Teresa had some design of his own in harboring the sailor refugee. The situation was cleared of immediate peril, however, and Richard Cary concluded that he was not to be betrayed. The rasping voice of Ramon Bazán awoke him from a reverie.
“You suspected Colonel Fajardo of plotting to kill you? Why?”
“Jealousy,” was the admission. “And I was warned that he had a bad record.”
“Jealousy, Señor Cary?” twittered the old gentleman, highly diverted. “And the woman was that spitfire of a Teresa! I had my suspicions, but it is not politic to wag the tongue too much in Cartagena. As it turned out, this Colonel Fajardo convicted himself.”
“The deuce he did,” cried Richard Cary. “Then my conscience is clear from start to finish. What do you mean? How did he convict himself?”
“He fled next day—disappeared like smoke. Afraid because you were not dead? Perhaps. Afraid of a plot he had hatched while half-drunk? The fact is that he was seen for the last time on the wharf before the Tarragona sailed. Yes, he ran away somewhere, and so confessed himself a guilty man.”
“He was that kind,” said Cary. “The blackguard invited me to sit and drink with him in a café a little while before his gunmen attacked me. So he lost his nerve and decided to make himself scarce. How did he get away?”