Part 14 (1/2)

”Stylis.h.!.+” again chimed in the major, repeating his formula.

”Rosewood chairs and tables,” continued Clayley; ”a harp, guitar, piano, sofas, ottomans, carpets knee-deep--whew!”

Not thinking of the furniture, I looked around the room strangely bewildered.

”Ha! Ha! what perplexes you, Captain?” asked Clayley.

”Nothing.”

”Ah! the girls you spoke of--the nymphs of the pond; but where the deuce are they?”

”Ay, where?” I asked, with a strange sense of uneasiness.

”Girls! what girls?” inquired the major, who had not yet learned the exact nature of our aquatic adventure.

Here the voice of Don Cosme was heard calling out--

”Pepe! Ramon! Francisco! bring dinner. _Anda! anda_!” (Be quick!)

”Who on earth is the old fellow calling?” asked the major, with some concern in his manner. ”I see no one.”

Nor could we; so we all rose up together, and approached that side of the building that looked rearward.

The house, to all appearance, had but one apartment--the room in which we then were. The only point of this screened from observation was the little veranda into which Don Cosme had entered; but this was not large enough to contain the number of persons who might be represented by the names he had called out.

Two smaller buildings stood under the olive-trees in the rear; but these, like the house, were _transparent_, and not a human figure appeared within them. We could see through the trunks of the olives a clear distance of a hundred yards. Beyond this, the mezquite and the scarlet leaves of the wild maguey marked the boundary of the forest.

It was equally puzzling to us whither the girls had gone, or whence ”Pepe, Ramon, and Francisco” were to come.

The tinkling of a little bell startled us from our conjectures, and the voice of Don Cosme was heard inquiring:

”Have you any favourite dish, gentlemen?”

Someone answered, ”No.”

”Curse me!” exclaimed the major, ”I believe he can get anything we may call for--raise it out of the ground by stamping his foot or ringing a bell. Didn't I tell you?”

This exclamation was uttered in consequence of the appearance of a train of well-dressed servants, five or six in number, bringing waiters with dishes and decanters. They entered from the porch; but how did they get into it? Certainly not from the woods without, else we should have seen them as they approached the cage.

The major uttered a terrible invocation, adding in a hoa.r.s.e whisper, ”This must be the Mexican Aladdin!”

I confess I was not less puzzled than he. Meantime the servants came and went, going empty, and returning loaded. In less than half an hour the table fairly creaked under the weight of a sumptuous dinner. This is no figure of speech. There were dishes of ma.s.sive silver, with huge flagons of the same metal, and even cups of gold!

”_Senores, vamos a comer_” (Come, let us eat, gentlemen), said Don Cosme, politely motioning us to be seated. ”I fear that you will not be pleased with my _cuisine_--it is purely Mexican--_estilo del pais_.”

To say that the dinner was not a good one would be to utter a falsehood, and contradict the statement of Major George Blossom, of the U.S.

quarter-master's department, who afterwards declared that it was the best dinner he had ever eaten in his life.

Turtle-soup first.

”Perhaps you would prefer _julienne_ or _vermicelli_, gentlemen?”