Part 17 (2/2)
”I have had a bit of experience among the Igorrotes of Luzon,” replied Ronie, ”and you can count upon me not running headlong into an ambush.
What a beautiful night it is,” he could not refrain from adding.
”If you think this is delightful, sergeant, you ought to witness a night on the Orinoco in the great rubber country of the south.”
Without making any reply to this, Ronie stole silently forward upon foot, soon finding himself in the midst of the beehive homes of the small coffee planters. But not a soul seemed to occupy the primitive dwellings without doors or windows, but left free for the pa.s.sage of the night breeze.
”It is singular no one should be awake,” he mused, ”but the houses appear to be as deserted as if they had never been occupied. There is a mystery about this I do not understand. I am inclined to risk my chances and enter one of them. I will if they all prove to look as empty as these.”
With these thoughts in his mind he moved stealthily along past hut after hut, reached by avenues bordered by stately, flowering plants of tropical brightness and verdure. But everywhere he went prevailed the utter loneliness and emptiness which had first struck him as so unusual. Finally, satisfied in his own mind regarding the actual situation, he ventured to enter one of the dwellings, though not without extreme caution. He crept along under cover of a row of broad-leafed guamos bearing pods eight or ten inches in length, which were filled with rows of black beans enveloped in a pulp of snowy whiteness and agreeable sweetness. But if these facts had been known to the young scout at this time they would certainly have been unheeded by him, as he made his stealthy advance. He was aware that the time for his return to Riva Baez was nearly pa.s.sed, but he disliked to return until the mystery of the silent town had been solved. So he continued his advance until at last he stood on the earth floor under the thatched roof, where the complete silence of undisturbed repose reigned.
The conviction which had at first forced itself upon him had before this become a settled fact. The dwelling was entirely deserted. Not only was this the case with the hut he had entered, but it was true of all the others. Caro was an abandoned town!
Anxious now to return to his companions with the intelligence, he lost no further time in retracing his steps, but he had barely gained the road when he was aware of the approach of a horse! Ay, listening a moment, he was certain there were two of them. Knowing it was necessary for him to be on the alert for enemies, he drew back into the ma.s.s of plants and waited until he should obtain a good view of the riders who were abroad, half expecting one of them to be Riva Baez. He was rewarded a moment later by the sight of his guide, who had become uneasy and had come in search of him. A signal from him attracted the Venezuelan's attention, and he showed unfeigned delight at finding his leader so quickly.
Riva Baez expressed little surprise when Ronie told him that Caro was a deserted settlement, though he could offer no satisfactory explanation for the fact.
”El Capitan may have taken them all captives, or butchered them in cold blood.”
”There is nothing to show that violence has been done them. The huts are simply deserted, just as if the owners had been called suddenly away for a brief absence.”
”True, Sergeant Rand. Shall we stop here a while or push on toward the next place?”
”We have no time to waste at this stage of action,” replied the energetic young American. ”Let's move on into the country of the insurgents. We can learn nothing by keeping away from them. The day will soon be breaking.”
”_Si_, sergeant; I am at your command. We will climb the hill back of us, and then turn to the right. At the top of the hill I think a call will bring our comrades.”
”The safer call is to go to them. I will wait on the hill while you are gone.”
From the vantage he had gained where he waited for his companions to rejoin him, Ronie obtained a wide sweep of the surrounding country, a view he knew was likely to prove of great value to him in his future actions. He could not follow, even in the pale light of the western moon, which was beginning to lose its glory before the coming of the new light on the eastern horizon, the trend of the mountain ranges as he had not been able to do before. He was really in the region of a distinct offshoot of mountains from those that lead away from the greatest mountain chain on the globe, the mighty Andes. The mountain system which crosses Venezuela in this district is an offset from the eastern Cordillera, and runs down to the Caribbean Sea in irregular conformity with the eastern sh.o.r.e of the Lake of Maracaibo. From this chain the Venezuelan system of two ranges, running almost side by side, extends toward the east, the most northerly branch, which follows quite closely to the seash.o.r.e culminating in the Island of Trinidad. As he looked down upon it in the still morning atmosphere, the whole panorama of country appeared like a solid ma.s.s of forest, uneven, it is true, but unbroken by the hand of man. The intense silence which had hung over deserted Caro was intensified here, so that it became oppressive.
Ronie could not fully throw off this spirit of utter loneliness which weighed down his very soul, so that he exclaimed involuntarily, in an undertone:
”Strange I should feel so impressed that something wrong is going to happen. Somehow, I cannot shake off the impression that I stand in the presence of a power that portends me mortal danger.”
He had only partially succeeded in overcoming this pa.s.sing weakness when he hailed with delight the reappearance of his companions, and the five then moved ahead with their accustomed caution.
Half an hour later, when the light of the new day was beginning to penetrate the tropical foliage with growing brightness, they were still slowly moving along the narrow way, overhung by tall, graceful trees, adorned at their tops with brilliant flowers, when the silence of the scene was suddenly broken by a loud rifle shot. It was, in fact, two reports blending into one, for two bullets cleft the air; with a swift, hissing sound. One of these struck the horse ridden by Riva Baez, and the poor animal reared suddenly into the air, and snorted with pain and terror. The other bullet cut away a lock of hair from the temple of Ronie, and for an instant he was stunned by the force of the shot.
CHAPTER XX.
ADVENTURES AND SURPRISES.
While Riva Baez was struggling with his wounded horse, whose sudden plunge had nearly unseated him, Ronie was also active, but in quite another manner. The flash of the shots from the treetops had not sent out its blaze of lurid light before he had discovered a pair of dark forms crouching in the foliage overhead, and the double report had not died away before he had covered one of these with his rifle, his clear, ringing voice exclaiming:
”Hold, there! Move an inch, and I will send a bullet through your head!”
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