The girl sank back again with a smile of happiness. A deep silence fell upon the room. At the feet of the priest Catalina huddled and wept softly. Marcelena, in the shadow of the bed where she might not be seen, rocked silently back and forth with breaking heart.
"Padre--you will--say Ma.s.ses for me?" The words were scarcely audible.
"Yes, _carita_."
"I--have no money--no money. He promised to give me--money--and clothes--"
"There, _carita_, I will say Ma.s.ses for you without money--every day, for a year. And you shall have clothes--ah, carita, in heaven you shall have everything."
The candle sputtered, and went out. The moon flooded the room with ethereal radiance.
"Padre--lift me up--it grows dark--oh, Padre, you are so good to me--so good."
"No, child, it is not I who am good to you, but the blessed Christ.
See him, _carita_--there--there in the moonlight he stands!"
The smoke from a neighboring chimney drifted slowly past the window and shone white in the silvery beams. The girl, supported by the arm of the priest, gazed at it through dimming eyes in reverent awe.
"Padre," she whispered, "it is the Saviour! Pray to him for me."
"Yes, child." And turning toward the window the priest extended his hand.
"Blessed Saviour," he prayed, "this is one of thy stricken lambs, lured by the wolf from the fold. And we have brought her back. Dost thou bid her come?"
The sobs of the weeping woman at his feet floated through the room.
"Ah, thou tender and pitying Master--best friend of the sinning, the sick, and the sorrowing--we offer to thee this bruised child. We find no sin, no guile, in her; for after the ignorant code of men she has paid the last farthing for satisfying the wolf"s greed. Dost thou bid her come?"
In the presence of death he felt his own terrible impotence. Of what avail then was his Christianity? Or the Church"s traditional words of comfort? The priest"s tears fell fast. But something within--perhaps that "something not ourselves"--the voice of Israel"s almost forgotten G.o.d--whispered a hope that blossomed in this pet.i.tion of tenderest love and pity. He had long since ceased to pray for himself; but in this, the only prayer that had welled from his chilled heart in months, his pitying desire to humor the wishes of a dying girl had unconsciously formulated his own soul"s appeal.
"Blessed Saviour, take her to thine arms; shield her forever more from the carnal l.u.s.t of the wolf; lift her above the deadening superst.i.tions and hypocritical creeds of those who touch but to stain; take her, Saviour, for we find her pure, innocent, clean; suffering and sorrow have purged away the sin. Dost thou bid her come?"
The scent of roses and orange blossoms from the garden below drifted into the room on the warm breeze. A bird, awakened by the swaying of its nest, peeped a few sweet notes of contentment, and slept again.
"We would save her--we would cure her--but we, too, have strayed from thee and forgotten thy commands--and the precious gift of healing which thou didst leave with men has long been lost. But thou art here--thy compa.s.sionate touch still heals and saves. Jesus, unique son of G.o.d, behold thy child. Wilt thou bid her come?"
"What says he, Padre?" murmured the sinking girl.
The priest bent close to her.
"He says come, _carita_--come!"
With a fluttering sigh the tired child sank back into the priest"s arms and dropped softly into her long sleep.
CHAPTER 17
The twisted, turbid "Danube of New Granada," under the gentle guidance of its patron, Saint Mary Magdalene, threads the greater part of its sinuous way through the heart of Colombia like an immense, slow-moving mora.s.s. Born of the arduous tropic sun and chill snows, and imbued by the river G.o.d with the nomadic instinct, it leaps from its pinnacled cradle and rushes, sparkling with youthful vigor, down precipice and perpendicular cliff; down rocky steeps and jagged ridges; whirling in merry, momentary dance in shaded basins; singing in swirling eddies; roaring in boisterous cataracts, to its mad plunge over the lofty wall of Tequendama, whence it subsides into the dignity of broad maturity, and begins its long, wandering, adult life, which slowly draws to a sluggish old age and final oblivion in the infinite sea. Toward the close of its meandering course, long after the follies and excesses of early life, it takes unto itself a consort, the beautiful Cauca; and together they flow, broadening and deepening as life nears its end; merging their destinies; sharing their burdens; until at last, with labors ended, they sink their ident.i.ties in the sunlit Caribbean.
When the simple-minded _Conquistadores_ first pushed their frail c.o.c.klesh.e.l.ls out into the gigantic embouchure of this tawny stream and looked vainly for the opposite sh.o.r.e, veiled by the dewy mists of a glittering morn, they unconsciously crossed themselves and, forgetful for the moment of greed and rapine and the l.u.s.t of gold, stood in reverent awe before the handiwork of their Creator. Ere the Spaniard had laid his fell curse upon this ancient kingdom of the Chibchas, the flowering banks of the Magdalena, to-day so mournfully characterized by their frightful solitudes, were an almost unbroken village from the present coast city of Barranquilla to Honda, the limit of navigation, some nine hundred miles to the south. The cupidity of the heartless, bigoted rabble from mediaeval slums which poured into this wonderland late in the sixteenth century laid waste this luxuriant vale and exterminated its trustful inhabitants. Now the warm airs that sigh at night along the great river"s uncultivated borders seem still to echo the gentle laments of the once happy dwellers in this primitive paradise.
Sitting in the rounded bow of the wretched riverine steamer Honda, Padre Jose de Rincon gazed with vacant eyes upon the scenery on either hand. The boat had arrived from Barranquilla that morning, and was now experiencing the usual exasperating delay in embarking from Calamar.
He had just returned to it, after wandering for hours through the forlorn little town, tormented physically by the myriad mosquitoes, and mentally by a surprising eagerness to reach his destination. He could account for the latter only on the ground of complete resignation--a feeling experienced by those unfortunate souls who have lost their way in life, and, after vain resistance to molding circ.u.mstances, after the thwarting of ambitions, the quenching of ideals, admit defeat, and await, with something of feverish antic.i.p.ation, the end. He had left Cartagena early that morning on the ramshackle little train which, after hours of jolting over an undulating roadbed, set him down in Calamar, exhausted with the heat and dust-begrimed. He had not seen the Bishop nor Wenceslas since the interview of the preceding day. Before his departure, however, he had made provision for the burial of the girl, Maria, and the disposal of her child. This he did at his own expense; and when the demands of doctor and s.e.xton had been met, and he had provided Marcelena with funds for the care of herself and the child for at least a few weeks, his purse was pitiably light.
Late in the afternoon the straggling remnant of a sea breeze drifted up the river and tempered the scorching heat. Then the captain of the Honda drained his last gla.s.s of red rum in the _posada_, reiterated to his political affiliates with spiritous bombast his condensed opinion anent the Government, and dramatically signaled the pilot to get under way.
Beyond the fact that Simiti lay somewhere behind the liana-veiled banks of the great river, perhaps three hundred miles from Cartagena, the priest knew nothing of his destination. There were no pa.s.sengers bound for the place, the captain had told him; nor had the captain himself ever been there, although he knew that one must leave the boat at a point called Badillo, and thence go by canoe to the town in question.
But Jose"s interest in Simiti was only such as one might manifest in a prison to which he was being conveyed. And, as a prisoner of the Church, he inwardly prayed that his remaining days might be few. The blows which had fallen, one after another, upon his keen, raw nerves had left him benumbed. The cruel bruises which his faith in man had received in Rome and Cartagena had left him listless, and without pain. He was accepting the Bishop"s final judgment mutely, for he had already borne all that human nature could endure. His severance from a life of faith and love was complete.
Nor could Jose learn when he might hope to reach Badillo, though he made listless inquiry.
"_Na, Senor Padre_," the captain had said, "we never know where to find the water. It is on the right to-day; on the left to-morrow.
There is low tide to-night; the morning may see it ten feet higher.
And Badillo--_quien sabe_? It might be washed away when we arrive."
And he shrugged his shoulders in complete disclaimer of any responsibility therefor.
The captain"s words were not idle, for the channel of the mighty river changes with the caprice of a maiden"s heart. With irresistible momentum the tawny flood rolls over the continent, now impatiently ploughing its way across a great bend, destroying plantations and abruptly leaving towns and villages many miles inland; now savagely filching away the soft loam banks beneath little settlements and greedily adding broad acres to the burden of its surcharged waters.
Mighty giants of the forest, wrested from their footholds of centuries, plunge with terrifying noise into the relentless stream; great ma.s.ses of earth, still cohering, break from their moorings and glide into the whirling waters, where, like immense islands, they journey bobbing and tumbling toward the distant sea.
Against the strong current, whose quartzose sediment tinkled metallically about her iron prow, the clumsy Honda made slow headway.
She was a craft of some two hundred tons burden, with iron hull, stern paddle wheel, and corrugated metal pa.s.senger deck and roof.
Below the pa.s.senger deck, and well forward on the hull, stood the huge, wood-burning boiler, whose incandescent stack pierced the open s.p.a.ce where the gasping travelers were forced to congregate to get what air they might. Midway on this deck she carried a few cabins at either side. These, bare of furnishings, might accommodate a dozen pa.s.sengers, if the insufferable heat would permit them to be occupied. Each traveler was obliged to supply his own bedding, and likewise hammock, unless not too discriminating to use the soiled cot provided. Many of those whose affairs necessitated river travel--and there was no other mode of reaching the interior--were content at night to wrap a light blanket about them and lie down under their mosquito nets on the straw mats--_petates_--with which every _peon_ goes provided. Of service, there was none that might be so designated. A few dirty, half-dressed negro boys from the streets of Barranquilla performed the functions of steward, waiting on table with unwashed hands, helping to sling hammocks, or a.s.sisting with the carving of the freshly killed beef on the slippery deck below.
Accustomed as he had been to the comforts of Rome, and to the less elaborate though still adequate accommodations which Cartagena afforded, Jose viewed his prison boat with sinking heart. Iron hull, and above it the glowing boiler; over this the metal pa.s.senger deck; and above that the iron roof, upon which the fierce tropical sun poured its flaming heat all day; clouds of steam and vapor from the hot river enveloping the boat--had the Holy Inquisition itself sought to devise the most refined torture for a man of delicate sensibilities like Jose de Rincon, it could not have done better than send him up the great river at this season and on that miserable craft, in company with his own morbid and soul-corroding thoughts.
The day wore on; and late in the evening the Honda docked at the pretentious town of Maganguey, the point of transfer for the river Cauca. Like the other pa.s.sengers, from whom he had held himself reservedly aloof, Jose gladly seized the opportunity to divert his thoughts for a few moments by going ash.o.r.e. But the moments stretched into hours; and when he finally learned that the boat would not leave until daybreak, he lapsed into a state of sullen desperation which, but for the Rincon stubbornness, would have precipitated him into the dark stream. Aimlessly he wandered about the town, avoiding any possible _rencontre_ with priests, or with his fellow-pa.s.sengers, many of whom, together with the baccha.n.a.lian captain, he saw in the various _cantinas_, making merry over rum and the native _anisado_.
The moon rose late, bathing the whitewashed town in a soft sheen and covering with its yellow veil the filth and squalor which met the priest at every turn as he wandered through its ill-lighted streets.
Maganguey in plan did not depart from the time-honored custom of the Spaniards, who erected their cities by first locating the church, and then building the town around it. So long as the church had a good location, the rest of the town might shift for itself. Some of the better buildings dated from the old colonial period, and had tile roofs and red brick floors. Many bore scars received in the internecine warfare which has raged in the unhappy country with but brief intervals of peace since the days of Spanish occupation. But most of the houses were of the typical mud-plastered, palm-thatched variety, with dirt floors and scant furniture. Yet even in many of these Jose noted pianos and sewing machines, generally of German make, at which the housewife was occupied, while naked babes and squealing pigs--the latter of scarcely less value than the former--fought for places of preferment on the damp and grimy floors.
Wandering, blindly absorbed in thought, into a deserted road which branched off from one of the narrow streets on the outskirts of the town, Jose stumbled upon a figure crouching in the moonlight. Almost before he realized that it was a human being a hand had reached up and caught his.
"_Buen Padre!_" came a thick voice from the ma.s.s, "for the love of the good Virgin, a few _pesos_!"
A beggar--perhaps a bandit! Ah, well; Jose"s purse was light--and his life of no value. So, recovering from his start, he sought in his pockets for some _billetes_. But--yes, he remembered that after purchasing his river transportation in Calamar he had carefully put his few remaining bills in his trunk.
"_Amigo_, I am sorry, but I have no money with me," he said regretfully. "But if you will come to the boat I will gladly give you something there."
At this the figure emitted a scream of rage, and broke into a torrent of sulphurous oaths. "_Na_, the Saints curse you beggarly priests! You have no money, but you rob us poor devils with your lies, and then leave us to rot to death!"
"But, _amigo_, did I not say--" began Jose soothingly.
"_Maldito!_" shrilled the figure; "may Joseph and Mary and Jesus curse you! A million curses on you, _maldito_!" Pulling itself upward, the shapeless thing sank its teeth deep into the priest"s hand.
With a cry of pain the startled Jose tore himself loose, his hand dripping with blood. At the same time the figure fell over into the road and its enveloping rags slipped off, disclosing in the bright moonlight a loathsome, distorted face and elephantine limbs, covered with festering sores.