Part 37 (1/2)

”Well, we have been fortunate,” Desmond said. ”I will see to your wound, my man, when we get a little farther. If those fellows had not been so scared with our sudden charge that they fired almost at random, we might have lost half our number.”

They stopped half a mile farther, and Desmond examined the trooper's arm.

”The ball has gone through the flesh,” he said, ”without touching the bone, so you will soon have the use of it again.”

He bound the wound tightly up with the soldier's sash; and then made, with his own, a sling.

”You may as well put the other arm in your jacket,” he said, ”and I will tie it round your neck. The air is cold upon the hills.”

”We did that well, sir,” the sergeant said, as they rode on again.

”If you had not thought of taking shelter, and shaking them up, we should all have been shot down before we reached them.

”Is there any chance of another attack, sir?”

”None at all. I should think a messenger was sent to them, yesterday, telling them our strength; and no doubt they thought that, with sixty men, they would be certain to overpower us. That is probably the whole of the band, and in any case, as they would not imagine that we could pa.s.s them, they are not likely to have set another ambush.”

They slept that night at Almarez, made a short journey to Oropesa, and a long one on the following day to Toledo, where Desmond dismissed his escort, with a handsome reward for their services, and upon the next afternoon rode with Mike into Madrid. The Duke of Orleans looked astonished when he entered the room.

”What! Back already, Major Kennedy? Surely you cannot have carried out all the work that I entrusted to you?”

”By no means, Your Royal Highness; but what I did carry out was so important that I deemed it my duty to ride back at once, to acquaint you with what I have discovered. There is the report, sir.”

The duke took it.

”It is a bulky one,” he said. ”Tell me its purport in as few words as possible.”

”I have discovered, sir, that the report sent by the governor of the supply of provisions and stores in Badajos is altogether inaccurate, that frauds to an enormous extent have been perpetrated, that the supply of powder and cartridges is less by two-thirds than was represented, and that similar deficiencies exist in every department.”

”This is indeed serious,” the duke said. ”The possession of Badajos is essential to us. It blocks the way to an enemy's advance, and indeed, they can scarce move forward until it is captured. Now, tell me more about it; or no, I will read your report, and then question you concerning it.”

A heavy frown settled on the duke's brow, as he perused the doc.u.ment.

”Infamous!” he exclaimed, when he had finished. ”And you say that two attempts were made to murder you that night, and that the Spanish colonel who gave you so much a.s.sistance was a.s.sa.s.sinated, and the commissaries shot the next morning? It shows how anxious the governor was to remove from his path all those who could inculpate him.

”And how did you manage to get out of the toils? For it was clearly of no use killing the minor witnesses, and allowing you to ride here to report the facts.”

”I saw that, sir; and as I learned that eight or ten troopers had been sent off, late the night before, I concluded that the road would be sure to be beset, for doubtless some of the contractors would feel it as essential as the governor did, that my mouth should be silenced and my report suppressed. I therefore started early. Keeping by byroads, we were not molested until we had nearly reached the summit of the sierra, when we found a party of some sixty men barring the road. We had a fight with them, and succeeded in getting through with no further damage than a ball through the arm of one of my escort, and that, fortunately, was only a flesh wound.”

”But tell me how it was that so small a party escaped so easily?”

Desmond then recounted the incidents of the fight.

”Admirably contrived, sir!” the duke said warmly. ”Excellent generals.h.i.+p! You first attack their centre and drive them off the road, then you compel them to weaken themselves by throwing out flanking parties. You keep these out of musket shot, and then charge on their weakened centre after drawing their fire. I am not surprised that, with such generals.h.i.+p, you got off almost scatheless.

”And now, sir, I must ask you to come with me to the king. The matter is too serious for a moment's delay. I must lay the whole case before His Majesty.”

Leaving Desmond in the antechamber, he went in to the king, read the full report to him, and added the details he had heard from Desmond.

”I have met with many bad cases of Spanish corruption and peculation,” the king said, when he had finished, ”but this is by far the worst. Steps must be taken instantly to secure the governor, arrest the contractors, and fill up the magazines. What do you propose?”