Part 33 (1/2)
”If you had been in that boat, dear,” she said sweetly, ”you would realize the topsy-turvy condition of our brains Even Mr Gray hiht sink any moment
So what can you expect of those excitable Chileans? Besides, the thing was done so quickly that ere swept away by the tide before any one fully understood as happening Anyhow, you had the best of it, as events transpired What are the discoveries you spoke of?”
”Well, so the coal”
”But ould do such a thing?”
”That is hard to say The captain believes that the culprit will be found out through the insurance policies He and the others were discussing the affair one day in the chart-house--soon after the dynaes were discovered--and you cannot tell how surprised I was to hear him mention Ventana's name in connection with it”
”Ventana's na her pallid as a statue There was a gasp in her voice which startled her own ears
Lest her agitation should be noted too keenly, she bent forward and propped her face on her clenched hands, staring fixedly at the distant cliffs in a supreme effort to appear apathetic Elsie heard that dry sob, but her friend's see a little whether or not Christobal's veiled hint regarding a by-gone tenderness between the two ht of the shi+p's break-down
Indeed, so warm-hearted was she that she hesitated a ether better for Isobel to be prepared for the revelations which the successful end of the shi+p's voyage would assuredly bring forth So, pondering unspoken thoughts the while, she told the others exactly what Tollemache, Christobal and Courtenay had said, and even revealed to them that which Courtenay himself did not yet know
”You reot into trouble soon after we sailed from Valparaiso?” she said ”His naht, but not seriously, and he and I are quite chued by athe coal-trimmers--”
”Oh, Miss Maxwell, come quick!” screamed Mrs Somerville, for Isobel had lurched sideways out of her chair in a fainting fit, and the missionary's as barely able to save her head fro the shi+p's rails
Joey was shot out of Elsie's lap with such surprising speed that he trotted aithout any exhibition of lausted, for at least fiveof his intelligence would brighten up when he heard the wholly unlooked-for story which Christobal was translating to Courtenay, word for word, as it was dragged hesitatingly out of Suarez
The Argentine le for possession of the pro to loss of consciousness, suppleht have choked to death had he not been rescued within a few ht, and it was not until th to enable him to question the Indians on board
Courtenay wished specially to find out what chance, if any, there was of the Alaculof attack being renewed When Christobal assured hiht safely leave his bunk, he asked the doctor to bring the Spaniard to the fore-cabin, in which the wounded savages lay under an aruard
It was obvious that so his changed appearance, the instant he spoke to the, and Suarez was so disconcerted by the tidings they conveyed that he sta the Spanish rendering
”This fellow is telling us just as ood for us to know,” said Courtenay, sternly, when the interpreter avoided his accusing gaze ”Bid him out with the whole truth, Christobal, or it shall be his pleasing task to escort his dear friends back to their faer A shi+p's life-boat had been driven ashore lower down the coast Fourteen men had landed; they were captured by the Indians, after a useless resistance, in which three were killed The dead houlish feast next day, and the others were bound securely, and placed in a cave, in order to be killed at intervals, an exact parallel to the fate of Suarez's own companions five years earlier
But, on this occasion, a woman intervened Suarez confessed, very reluctantly, that there was a girl in the tribe to whoe He said that she cooked for hiathered shell-fish for their joint needs when the larder was otherwise empty He declared that the relations between them were those of master and servant, but the poor creature had fallen in love with hirief when he disappeared It was difficult to analyze her motives, but she had undoubtedly freed the eleven sailors, and led them over the rocks at loater to the haunted cave on Guanaco Hill The Indians dared not follow; but they took good care that no canoes were obtainable in which the unhappy fugitives could reach the shi+p, and they were confident that hunger would soon drive theer when he understood the significance of this staggering story
”It coot away from the _Kansas_ in No 3 life-boat fell into the hands of the savages early on the day of the shi+p's arrival here Suarez slipped his cable that night, being aware at the time that eleven white captives were still alive Yet he said no word, not even when he heard that we had seen one of the boat's water-casks in a canoe He, a Christian, bolted and remained silent, while some poor creature of a woman risked her life, and ran counter to all her natural instincts, in the endeavor to save the men of his own race What sort of rasp the purport of Courtenay's words
He besought the senor captain to have patience with hi tomb, and felt that he would yield up his life rather than return Therefore, when he sa in nuht it best to remain silent as to the fate of the boat's crew In the first place, he fully expected that they had been killed by the Indians, ould be enraged by his own disappearance Secondly, he alone kne hopeless any attempt at a rescue s of those who had befriended hi the hapless beings in the hands of the savages?
There was a certain plausibleness in this reasoning which curbed Courtenay's wrath, though it in no way diust which filled his soul What quality was there lacking in the Latin races which rendered them so untrustworthy? His crew had n his cohtful death on the barren island, and here was Suarez hugging to his breast a ghastly secret which chance alone had brought to light
He strove hard to repress the contee, as it was essential that the broken-spirited htened out of his new-born candor