Part 28 (1/2)

Struggling, not only in the arms of Caldwell but in those of Pulido and the valet, Vega was borne to the terrace. As he was pushed from the window he stretched out his arm toward Roddy.

”When we meet again,” he cried, ”I kill you!”

Roddy looked after him with regret. More alarming to him than the prospect of a duel was the prospect of facing Senora Rojas. For the moment Vega and his personal danger had averted the wrath that Roddy knew was still to come, but with the departure of Vega he saw it could no longer be postponed. He turned humbly to Senora Rojas. The scene through which that lady had just pa.s.sed had left her trembling; but the sight of Roddy confronting her seemed at once to restore her self-possession. Anxiously, but in a tone of deep respect, Roddy addressed her:

”I have the great honor,” he said, ”to inform----”

After one indignant glance Senora Rojas turned from him to her daughter. Her words sounded like the dripping of icicles.

”You will leave the room,” she said. She again glanced at Roddy. ”You will leave the house.”

Not since when, as a child, he had been sent to stand in a corner had Roddy felt so guilty. And to his horror he found he was torn with a hysterical desire to laugh.

”But, Madame Rojas,” he protested hastily, ”it is impossible for me to leave until I make clear to you----”

In the fas.h.i.+on of the country, Senora Rojas clapped her hands.

”Surely,” she exclaimed, ”you will not subject me to a scene before the servants.”

In answer to her summons the doors flew open, and the frightened servants, who had heard of the blood-stained messenger, pushed into the room. With the air of a great lady dismissing an honored guest Senora Rojas bowed to Roddy, and Roddy, accepting the inevitable, bowed deeply in return.

As he walked to the door he cast toward Inez an unhappy look of apology and appeal. But the smile with which she answered seemed to show that, to her, their discomfiture was in no way tragic. Roddy at once took heart and beamed with grat.i.tude. In the look he gave her he endeavored to convey his a.s.surance of the devotion of a lifetime.

”Good-by,” said Inez pleasantly.

”Good-by,” said Roddy.

On coming to Porto Cabello Sam Caldwell had made his headquarters at the home of the United States Consul, who owed his appointment to the influence of Mr. Forrester, and who, in behalf of that gentleman, was very justly suspected by Alvarez of ”pernicious activity.” On taking his leave of Senora Rojas, which he did as soon as Roddy had been shown the door, Caldwell hastened to the Consulate, and, as there might be domiciliary visits to the houses of all the Vegaistas, Colonel Ramon, seeking protection as a political refugee, accompanied him.

The police had precipitated the departure of Vega from the city by only a few hours. He had planned to leave it and to join his adherents in the mountains that same afternoon, and it was only to learn the result of the final appeal to Roddy that he had waited. As they hastened through the back streets to the Consulate, Ramon said:

”It was not worth waiting for. Young Forrester told nothing. And why?

Because he knows nothing!”

”To me,” growled Caldwell, ”he makes a noise like a joker in the pack.

I don't mind telling you he's got me listening. He wouldn't have thrown up his job and quarrelled with his father and Senora Rojas if he wasn't pretty sure he was in right. Vega tells me, three weeks ago Roddy went to Curacao to ask Madame Rojas to help him get her husband out of prison. Instead, she turned him down _hard_. But did that phase him? No! I believe he's still working--working at this moment on some plan of his own to get Rojas free. Every night he goes out in his launch with young De Peyster. Where do they go? They _say_ they go fis.h.i.+ng. Well, maybe! We can't follow them, for they douse the lights and their motor is too fast for us. But, to me, it looks like a rescue, for the only way they could rescue Rojas would be from the harbor. If they have slipped him tools and he is cutting his way to the water, some dark night they'll carry him off in that d.a.m.ned launch. And then,” he exclaimed angrily, ”where would I be? That old Rip Van Winkle has only got to show his face, and it would be all over but the shouting. He'd lose us what we've staked on Vega, and he'd make us carry out some of the terms of our concession that would cost us a million more.”

Ramon exclaimed with contempt.

”Forrester!” he cried. ”He is only a boy!”

”Any boy,” snapped Caldwell impatiently ”who is clever enough to get himself engaged to the richest girl in Venezuela, under the guns of her mother and Pino Vega, is old enough to vote. I take my hat off to him.”

The Venezuelan turned his head and looked meaningly at Caldwell; his eyes were hard and cruel.

”I regret,” he said, ”but he must be stopped.”

”No, you don't!” growled Caldwell; ”that's not the answer. We won't stop _him_. We'll let _him_ go! It's the other man we'll stop--Rojas!”