Part 55 (2/2)
She is at length stung to reply; which she does in but two words, twice repeated in wild despairing accent. They are:
”Kill me--kill me!”
Almost at the same time, and in similar strain does Inez answer her cowardly suitor, who in a corner of the grotto has alike brought her to bay.
After the dual response, there is a short interval of silence. Then De Lara, speaking for both, says:
”Senoritas! we shall leave you now; and you can go to sleep without fear of further solicitation. No doubt, after a night's rest, you'll awake to a more sensible view of matters in general, and the case as it stands. Of one thing be a.s.sured; that there's no chance of your escaping from your present captivity, unless by consenting to change your names. And if you don't consent, they'll be changed all the same.
Yes, Carmen Montijo! before another week pa.s.ses over your head, you shall be addressed as Dona Carmen de Lara.
”And you, Inez Alvarez, will be called Dona Inez Calderon. No need for you to feel dishonoured by a name among the first in California. n.o.ble as your own; ay, or any in old Spain.”
”_Hasta manana, muchacas_!” salutes De Lara, preparing to take leave.
”_Pasan Vs buena noche_!”
Calderon repeating the same formulary, the two step towards the entrance, lift up the piece of suspended sailcloth, and pa.s.s out into night. They have taken the lantern along with them, again leaving the grotto in darkness.
The girls grope their way, till their arms come in contact. Then, closing in mutual embrace, they sink together upon the cold flinty floor!
CHAPTER SIXTY FOUR.
OCEANWARDS.
Another day dawns over the great South Sea. As the golden orb shows above the crest of the central American Cordillera, its beams scatter wide over the Pacific, as a lamp raised aloft, flas.h.i.+ng its light afar.
Many degrees of longitude receive instant illumination, at once turning night into day.
An observer looking west over that vast watery expanse would see on its s.h.i.+ning surface objects that gladdened not the eyes of Balboa. In his day, only the rude Indian _balsa, or_ frail _periagua_, afraid to venture out, stole timidly along the sh.o.r.e; but now huge s.h.i.+ps, with broad white sails, and at rare intervals the long black hull of a steamer, thick smoke vomited forth from her funnel, may be descried in a offing that extends to the horizon itself.
But not always may s.h.i.+ps be seen upon it; for the commerce of the Pacific is slight compared with that of the Atlantic, and large vessels pa.s.sing along the coast of Veragua are few and far between.
On this morning, however, one is observed, and but one; she not sailing coastwise, but standing out towards mid-ocean, as though she had just left the land.
As the ascending sun dispels the night darkness around her, she can be descried as a white fleck on the blue water, her spread sails seeming no bigger than the wings of a sea-gull. Still, through a telescope-- supposing it in the hands of a seaman--she may be told to be a craft with polacca-masts; moreover, that the sails on her mizzen are not square-set, but fore-and-aft, proclaiming her a barque. For she is one; and could the observer through his gla.s.s make out the lettering upon her stern, he would read there her name, _El Condor_.
Were he transported aboard of her, unaware of what has happened, it would surprise him to find her decks deserted; not even a man at the wheel, though she is sailing with full canvas spread, even to studding-sails; no living thing seen anywhere, save two monstrous creatures covered with rust-coloured hair--mocking counterfeits of humanity.
Equally astonished would he be at finding her forecastle abandoned; sailors' chests with the lids thrown open, and togs lying loose around them! Nor would it lessen his astonishment to glance into the galley, and there behold a black man sitting upon its bench, who does not so much as rise to receive him. Nor yet, descending her cabin-stair, to see a table profusely spread, at either end guest, alike uncourteous in keeping their seats, on the laces of both an expression of agonised despair! And all _this_ might be seen on board the Chilian barque, on the morning after she was abandoned by her traitorous and piratical crew, A sad night has it been for the three unfortunates left aboard, more especially the two constrained to sit at the cabin-table. Both have bitterest thoughts, enough to fill the cup of their misery to the brim. A night of anguish for the ex-haciendado. Not because of having seen his treasure, the bulk of his fortune, borne off before his eyes; but from the double shriek which, at that same instant, reached him from the deck, announcing the seizure of things more dear. His daughter and grand-daughter were then made captive; and, from their cries suddenly leasing, he dreaded something worse--fearing them stifled by death.
Reminded of an event in Yerba Buena, as also recognising the ruffian who taunted him, made it the more probable that such had been their fate.
He almost wished it; he would rather that, than a doom too horrible to think of.
The first mate? He must have been killed too; butchered while endeavouring to defend them? The unsuspicious captain could not think of his chief officer having gone against him; and how could Don Gregorio believe the man so recommended turning traitor?
While they were thus charitably judging him, they received a crus.h.i.+ng response; hearing his voice among the mutineers--not in expostulation, or opposed, but as if taking part with them! One, Striker, called out his name, to which he answered; and, soon after, other speeches from his lips sounded clear through the cabin windows, open on that mild moonlight night.
Still listening, as they gazed in one another's face with mute astonishment, they heard a dull thud against the s.h.i.+p's side--the stroke of a boat-hook as the pinnace was shoved off--then a rattle, as the oars commence working in the tholes, succeeded by the plash of the oar-blades in the water. After that, the regular ”dip-dip,” at length dying away, as the boat receded, leaving the abandoned vessel silent as a graveyard in the mid-hour of night.
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