Part 26 (2/2)
The man was ready with his answer, and blurted it out eagerly, like a schoolboy who longs to make his own voice heard before all others.
”Horses,” said the fellow, a dusky South American, whose swarthy features were deeply lined and pitted. ”Trust me to pick the right sort when they're wanted. You told me to seek mounts strong enough to carry us across a rough country, and fix a rate to be paid for 'em. I went a little better. There ain't many cattle in this place, so that one hasn't to look far. But along over there,” and he jerked his head over his left shoulder, ”there's a biggish farm, where there's a dozen mounts. We'll want six, I guess, five for ourselves, and one for the dollars.”
”Seven,” corrected Jaime suddenly. ”Seven, my comrade.”
All looked at him curiously. Their chief was not wont to make mistakes, but here it looked as if he were miscalculating. However, Jaime smiled serenely back at them. ”Seven horses without doubt,” he said quietly, blowing a cloud of smoke from his lips, and cutting it asunder with a wave of his ringed fingers. ”Precisely that number.”
”I don't follow; six is the figure I put it at,” came the answer.
”Unless----” and at the thought the rascal's face lit up with glee, ”unless you reckon the dollars'll be too many for one bag.”
But the leader of the band shook his head, and smiled ambiguously.
”Seven horses will be required,” he said slowly. ”Tell us more of the business. You arranged the payment?”
”I fixed the business in a different manner. I scouted round a little, and soon found that, at nighttime, there were but one man and a woman about the place. The stables are well away from the house, and easy to get at. I fixed that there wouldn't be any payment.”
There was a cunning expression about his face as he looked round at his comrades, while the lines about his eyes were sunken deeper. Jaime rewarded him with a loud ”Bravo!” ”You begin well with us, comrade,” he said eagerly. ”The report is a good one. But one little matter occurs to me: this farm is near the works, eh? It is connected by telephone?”
The other rascal at once relieved him of the doubt. ”It lies packed away in a hollow, just on the edge of the zone,” he said. ”The folks ain't never seen a telephone.”
”Then that matter is agreed upon. We can now begin to decide what each one of us is to do. I'll tell you right now what I had intended. To call away attention from the place where the money's banked we decided to cause an upset pretty adjacent. Well, now, the Culebra cutting seemed to be the most likely spot of all. I've been thinking and planning. A ruction there could be heard way up and down the line, and would set people running. The point was, how to cause that ruction.”
There was more than pa.s.sing interest on the faces of his followers. In their opinion this leader of theirs was a fine fellow, a cunning man, one whom it was an honour to follow. They awaited the details of his plan with eagerness, not to say anxiety.
”And how did you fix it?” asked one of the men, proceeding to light his cigarette by means of the candle burning before him. ”Another train let loose? A shot under the wheels of a pa.s.senger coach? A dozen diggers sent scuttling?”
There was a sn.i.g.g.e.r on his face, quickly copied by the others. Jaime showed his pleasure by smiling broadly. After all, it was one of his pleasures in life to have the praise and high opinion of his following.
He pulled at his cigarette thoughtfully, and then proceeded with his plan.
”We've played too many of those games already,” he said, with a short laugh. ”The officials of the ca.n.a.l are always on the lookout. But the plan I fastened on to would have taken their breath away, if it didn't manage to deprive some of them of the same for good and always. I'd been watching those rock drills, and the powder men laying their shots. It seemed to me that once the shots were wired, and connected to the firing cables, a man had only to get to the firing-point and operate the igniter. I got asking questions. I've done a bit on electricity works before now, and I soon saw that the thing was possible. With a little luck I could fire their shots for them.”
The faces about him showed doubt and a lack of comprehension, for Jaime was far more intelligent than any of the other members of his rascally band. ”What was the object of firing those shots?” they asked themselves. But their leader soon explained the matter.
”It is like this,” he said suavely, as if describing an everyday matter: ”the shots are laid ready for firing, and when the works are cleared the man who operates the igniter gets to work and explodes them, one by one or in batches, according to the wiring. Well, now, if the place is cleared of workers, there's no damage done, though rocks and dirt fly out in all directions. But if there was an accident--if, for instance, I happened to meddle with the igniter before the works were cleared--there'd be a tremendous ruction, and that's what we're wanting.”
The diabolical nature of his suggestion dawned only slowly upon the minds of his following; but when it did so, when they fully comprehended his meaning, their faces flushed with enthusiasm. Each of the five had worked on the ca.n.a.l, and had seen those dynamite shots fired. Tons of earth and rock spouted in all directions. That they had witnessed. To remain in the neighbourhood meant certain death for many, injury for not a few, and a commotion which the officials and workers had so far never experienced. There was joy on their faces. They banged the table with their fists, and stretched across to grasp the rascally palm of their leader; but Jaime silenced them with uplifted hand.
”It sounded right, I grant,” he said between the puffs of smoke; ”but there was a fly in the ointment. The igniter is kept under lock and key.
The place is guarded. These canny Americans know that those shots mean danger, and they don't run risks. If I tried the game, the chances are I should be disturbed or taken in the act of trying. So I wiped it out; I started in to think out another plan, something noisy, something that would draw all officials to the spot, away from the place where the money is lying. And at last I fixed it. One of you men will change places with a hand at Pedro Miguel, where they're building in their foundations for one of the big locks at the end of the Culebra cutting.
You'll work with the rest till the whistles go at sundown, and then, when the coast is clear, you'll sneak back to the workings. I'll give you the rest of the plan later on; but you'll be the one to create a most almighty ruction, you'll be the one to draw off every official, and while they're busy we others'll get to work at the money. It'll be eight o'clock before we can meet at this farm, and an hour later will take us into the bush. Next morning we'll be right away in the swamps, with friends about us, while the police will be following the old fellow, who will put to sea the previous evening.”
They sat in silence for a while, Jaime regarding each one of his band in turn, scrutinizing their faces closely, as if seeking for something in particular. Then he fastened upon one of them, and stretched across to grip his hand.
”Juan is a brave man,” he said impressively; ”he will take the post of which I have spoken. To him falls the honour of creating such a trouble that those who go for the dollars may be able to take them easily. It is a post worth the having.”
The rascal greedily accepted it He was one of Jaime's old hands, and had complete confidence in his chief. Moreover, he had now helped him in so many risky operations that fear did not enter into his calculations.
Why should it, indeed, seeing that all others would be in ignorance? The plot was being hatched in secrecy. None would know that anything was to happen until the moment arrived. The hard-working officials of the ca.n.a.l would be unable to recover from their astonishment before he and his friends were gone. Juan drank deeply from the cup before him, and replenished the vessel from a stone jar standing on the table.
”It is settled; whatever the plan, it is accomplished,” he said with the greatest a.s.surance.
<script>