Part 16 (1/2)

”Jesus G.o.d!” exclaimed Don Cornelio, who now for the first time had found the power of speech; ”Jesus G.o.d!” he repeated, seeing himself, not without some apprehension, between two strange beings--the one red, the other black--both dripping with water, and their hair covered with the yellow sc.u.m of the waves!

”Eh! Senor student,” rejoined Clara, in a good-humoured way, ”is that all the thanks you give us for the service we have done you?”

”Pardon me, _gentlemen_,” stammered out Don Cornelio; ”I was dreadfully frightened. I have every reason to be thankful to you.”

And, his confidence now restored, the student expressed, in fit terms, his warm grat.i.tude; and finished his speech by congratulating the Indian on his escape from the dangers he had encountered.

”By my faith! it is true enough,” rejoined Costal, ”I have run some little danger. I was all over of a sweat; and this cursed water coming down from the mountains as cold as ice--_Carrambo_! I shouldn't wonder if I should get a bad cold from the ducking.”

The student listened with astonishment to this unexpected declaration.

The man whose fearful intrepidity he had just witnessed to be thinking only of the risk he ran of getting a cold!

”Who are you?” he mechanically inquired.

”I?” said Costal. ”Well, I am an Indian, as you see--a Zapoteque-- formerly the _tigrero_ of Don Matias de la Zanca; at present in the service of Don Mariano de Silva--to-morrow, who knows?”

”Don Matias de la Zanca!” echoed the student, interrupting him; ”why, that is my uncle!”

”Oh!” said Costal, ”your uncle! Well, Senor student, if you wish to go to his house I am sorry I cannot take you there, since it lies up among the hills, and could not be reached in a canoe. But perhaps you have a horse?”

”I had one; but the flood has carried him off, I suppose. No matter. I have good reasons for not regretting his loss.”

”Well,” rejoined Costal, ”your best way will be to go with us to the Hacienda las Palmas. There you will get a steed that will carry you to the house of your uncle. But first,” added he, turning his eyes towards the tamarinds, ”I must look after my carbine, which has been spilled out of the canoe. It's too good a gun to be thrown away; and I can say that it don't miss fire once in ten times. It should be yonder, where the brute capsized us; and with your permission, Senor student, I'll just go in search of it. Ho, Clara! paddle us back under the hammock!”

Clara obeyed, though evidently with some reluctance. The hissing of the serpents still sounded ominously in his ears.

On arriving near the spot where the canoe had turned over, Costal stood up in the bow; and then raising his hands, and joining them above his head, he plunged once more under the water.

For a long time the spectators saw nothing of him; but the bubbles here and there rising to the surface, showed where he was engaged in searching for his incomparable carbine.

At length his head appeared above water, then his whole body. He held the gun tightly grasped in one of his hands, and making a few strokes towards the canoe he once more climbed aboard.

Costal now took hold of the paddle; and turning the head of the canoe in a westerly direction commenced making way across the turbid waters towards the Hacienda las Palmas.

Although the fury of the inundation had by this time partially subsided, still the flood ran onward with a swift current; and what with the danger from floating trees, and other objects that swelled the surface of the water, it was necessary to manage the canoe with caution. Thus r.e.t.a.r.ded, it was near mid-day before the voyageurs arrived within sight of the hacienda. Along the way Don Cornelio had inquired from his new companions, what strange accident had conducted them to the spot where they had found him.

”Not an accident,” said Costal; ”but a horseman, who appeared to be in a terrible hurry himself, as _Por Dios_! he had need to be. He was on his way to the house of Don Mariano, for what purpose I can't say. It remains to be known, Senor student, whether he has been as fortunate as you, in escaping the flood. G.o.d grant that he has! for it would be a sad pity if such a brave young fellow was to die by drowning. Brave men are not so plentiful.”

”Happy for them who are brave!” sighed Don Cornelio.

”Here is my friend, Clara,” continued Costal, without noticing the rejoinder of the student, ”who has no fear of man; and yet he is as much afraid of tigers as if he were a child. Well, I hope we shall find that the gallant young officer has escaped the danger, and is now safe within the walls of the hacienda.”

At that moment the canoe pa.s.sed round a tope of half-submerged palm-trees, and the hacienda itself appeared in sight, as if suddenly rising from the bosom of the waters. A cry of joy escaped from the lips of the student, who, half-famished with hunger, thought of the abundance that would be found behind those hospitable walls.

While gazing upon them a bell commenced to toll; and its tones fell upon his ears like the music of birds, for it appeared as if summoning the occupants of the hacienda to pa.s.s into the refectory. It was, however, the _angelus_ of noon.

At the same instant two barges were seen parting from the causeway that led down in front, and heading towards the high ridge that ran behind the hacienda, at a little distance on the north. In the first of these boats appeared two rowers, with a person in a travelling costume of somewhat clerical cut, and a mule saddled and bridled. In the second were two gentlemen and the same number of ladies. The latter were young girls, both crowned with luxuriant chaplets of flowers, and each grasping an oar in her white delicate fingers, which she managed with skill and adroitness. They were the two daughters of Don Mariano de Silva. One of the gentlemen was Don Mariano himself, while the other was joyfully recognised by Costal as the brave officer who had asked him the way, and by the student as his _compagnon du voyage_ of yesterday-- Don Rafael Tres-Villas.

Shortly after, the two boats reached the foot of the Sierra; and the traveller with the mule disembarked. Mounting into his saddle, he saluted those who remained in the other boat; and then rode away, amidst the words oft repeated by Don Mariano and his daughters--