Part 12 (1/2)
The two quickly slid down the embankment and entered the wood.
”I had given you up,” said Will breathlessly. ”What have you done?”
The Indian's story was a very simple and natural one, and Will saw that his anxiety had been quite baseless. Azito had approached to within a quarter-mile of the hacienda, and then found himself checked. The camp was astir; sentries were placed at several points of its circuit; it was impossible to get in undetected. There was no alternative but to wait.
Will could imagine Azito sitting with the stolid patience of the Indian, clasping his knees, indifferent to the pa.s.sage of time. His opportunity came at noon, when, after the midday meal, everybody but the sentries retired for a siesta, and even they were drowsy. Slipping round the camp, he wormed his way through the undergrowth to the back of the stables. The hole in the wall had not been filled up. There was no sound from within. Wriggling through the hole, he found that the stables were deserted. The door was open. All was quiet before the hacienda. He peeped round to the right. No sentry was posted at the new stables. Evidently the prisoners had not been transferred to them.
It was impossible to search for them through the camp. Stealthily he made his way back as he had come, and going a long way round, crossed the embankment and drew near to the camp again, to view it from the other side. There was nothing to indicate the whereabouts of the prisoners.
”Did you see any one you knew?” asked Will.
”Senor Machado, senor. I saw him go in and out of the house. Once he came out with General Carabano.”
”Are there any special guards set in the camp itself?”
”None, senor, except the sentry at the door. He was asleep against the wall when I looked out from the stables.”
The absence of special guards in the camp or at the house seemed to indicate that the prisoners had been removed elsewhere. A horrible fear that they had already been shot seized upon Will. For a moment he shuddered in a cold sweat of doubt and dread. But then he remembered that the period of grace had not yet expired. Furthermore, the prisoners would be more valuable alive than dead. While they still lived there was a chance of their being ransomed. General Carabano would surely, as the Jefe had suggested, hesitate to involve himself in serious complications with the British Government. A revolutionary leader can hardly play the remorseless tyrant until success has placed him beyond criticism.
But if the prisoners, then, were still alive, as seemed probable, where were they? So far as Will knew, there was no place in the immediate neighbourhood to which they could have been taken. He was at a loss how to make any discovery on this matter without revealing his presence to the enemy. The camp was astir. To enter it now was impossible. It seemed that the only thing to do was to return to the recess, and remain there until night, trying meanwhile to think out some course of action.
Before he left, however, he determined to climb the embankment once more for a final look round. Choosing for his ascent a spot a little nearer to the camp, on gaining the top he caught sight of the small wooden cabin which had been erected for the telegraphic apparatus. Before, it was concealed from him by a row of bushes. For a moment he wondered whether the prisoners had been locked up there, but the notion was negatived immediately by the absence of a sentry. And then he laughed inwardly at the idea of the prisoners being within reach of Machado.
The telegraphist would hardly feel safe to perform his duties, if they were still required of him, with O'Connor near at hand, even though he was bound.
There was nothing to be gained by remaining longer, so Will, very despondent, made his way back with Azito through the wood to the recess in the bank. Jose reported that nothing had happened during their absence. They all had a meal; then Will went up the bank and strolled along where the vegetation did not impede walking, gloomily pondering his apparent helplessness.
Suddenly he heard a slight warning sound from Azito. He stepped hastily back among the trees, and looked up-stream, the direction in which the Indian was pointing. Coming round a bend some distance away was an object that looked like a cage or a basket. There was a man in it, standing in the middle, steering the strange vessel with a short pole as it drifted down the stream. Azito declared that he was a white man.
Will gazed at him searchingly; then almost shouted for joy. The newcomer was Joe Ruggles.
CHAPTER XI--A LEAP IN THE DARK
When Ruggles came within a few yards of the spot where the two watchers stood, Will softly hailed him. He looked round in alarm, and made as though to beat a summary retreat. Then, lifting his eyes and seeing Will among the trees, he steered towards the bank, saying--
”It's you, is it? I say, do you happen to have a gla.s.s of beer?”
”No, I haven't.”
”Perhaps it's as well, but I am powerful dry.”
”I say, I am awfully glad to see you. Hold on! I'll come down and show you the entrance to my garage. Are the others safe too?”
”Not that I know of. I wish they were. Where have you been skylarking?”
”Skylarking! Good heavens! I've been worried out of my life. I'll tell you all about it, but first tell me where the others are, and how you came here.”
The raft was drawn into the recess, and Ruggles was soon seated beside Will in the hydroplane, eating bread and cheese, and sighing for his one gla.s.s of beer and a pipe to follow.
”Not but what it's as well to do without 'em,” he said. ”If I began life over again I'd avoid beer and tobacco; at least, I would if I could. Well, the morning after you went there was a rare s.h.i.+ndy, as you may imagine, when they found your manger empty. They hauled us out and questioned us, and General Carabano looked as if he could have made a meal of us. O'Connor and I were as much surprised as he was, and wild with the Chief for not telling us. However, the General got nothing out of us, and within an hour we were put on horses and marched up-country with a strong escort of those ruffians. Our hands were tied behind us, and our horses were led, the escort being mounted too.
”I made out from what some of 'em said that their General was going to make a dash on Bolivar, and didn't think we'd be safe at the hacienda.