"_Na_, Padre, you would not find her. Come, I will go home with you."
He took Jose"s arm again and led him, blindly stumbling, to the parish house.
By this time the little town was agog with excitement. People ran from house to house, or gathered on the street corners, discussing the event.
"_Caramba!_" shrilled one wrinkled beldame, "but Simiti was very quiet until the _Cura_ came!"
"_Na_, senora," cried another, "say, rather, until that wicked little hada was brought here by Rosendo!"
"_Cierto_, she is an _hada_!" put in a third; "she cured Juanita of goitre by her charms! I saw it!"
"_Caramba_! she works with the evil one. I myself saw her come from the old church on the hill one day! _Bien_, what was she doing? I say, she was talking with the bad angel which the blessed Virgin has locked in there!"
"Yes, and I have seen her coming from the cemetery. She talks with the buzzards that roost on the old wall, and they are full of evil spirits!"
"And she brought the plague two years ago--who knows?" piped another excitedly.
"_Quien sabe_? But it was not the real plague, anyway."
"_Bueno_, and that proves that she caused it, no?"
"_Cierto_, _senora_, she cast a spell on the town!"
Jose sat in his little house like one in a dream. Fernando remained with him. Dona Maria had gone to the jail to see Rosendo. Juan had returned that morning to Bodega Central, and Lazaro was at work on the plantation across the lake. Jose thought bitterly that the time had been singularly well chosen for the _coup_. Don Mario"s last words burned through his tired brain like live coals. In a sense the Alcalde was right. He had been selfishly absorbed in the girl. But he alone, excepting Rosendo, had any adequate appreciation of the girl"s real nature. To the stagnant wits of Simiti she was one of them, but with singular characteristics which caused the more superst.i.tious and less intelligent to look upon her as an uncanny creature, possessed of occult powers.
Moreover, Jose had duped Don Mario with a.s.surances of cooperation. He had allowed him to believe that Rosendo was searching for La Libertad, and that he should partic.i.p.ate in the discovery, if made. Had his course been wholly wise, after all? He could not say that it had.
But--G.o.d above! it was all to save an innocent child from the blackest of fates! If he had been stronger himself, this never could have happened. Or, perhaps, if he had not allowed himself to be lulled to sleep by a fancied security bred of those long months of quiet, he might have been awake and alert to meet the enemy when he returned to the attack. Alas! the devil had left him for a season, and Jose had laid down "the shield of faith," while he lost himself in the intellectual content which the study of the new books purchased with his ancestral gold had afforded. But evil sleeps not; and with a persistency that were admirable in a better cause, it returned with unbated vigor at the moment the priest was off his guard.
Dawn broke upon a sleepless night for Jose. The Alcalde had sent word that Fernando must remain with the priest, and that no visits would be permitted to Rosendo in the jail. Jose had heard nothing from Carmen, and, though often during the long night he sought to know, as she would, that G.o.d"s protection rested upon her; and though he sought feebly to prove the immanence of good by knowing no evil, the morning found him drawn and haggard, with corroding fear gnawing his desolate heart. Fernando remained mute; and Dona Maria could only learn that the constable had been seen leading the girl into Don Mario"s house shortly after Rosendo"s arrest.
At an early hour the people, buzzing with excitement, a.s.sembled for the trial, which was held in the town hall, a long, empty adobe house of but a single room, with dirt floor, and a few rough benches. The Alcalde occupied a broken chair at one end of the room. The trial itself was of the simplest order: any person might voice his opinion; and the final verdict was left to the people.
In a shaking voice, his frame tremulous with nervous agitation, Rosendo recounted the birth of the child at Badillo, and the manner of her coming into his family. He told of Diego"s appointment to Simiti, and of the loss of his own daughter. Waxing more and more energetic as his recital drew out, he denounced Diego as the prince of liars, and as worthy of the violent end which he was certain to meet if ever that renegade priest should venture near enough for him to lay his hands upon him. The little locket was produced, and all present commented on the probable ident.i.ty of the girl"s parents. Many affected to detect a resemblance to Diego in the blurred photograph of the man. Others scouted the idea. Don Mario swore loudly that it could be no other.
Diego had often talked to him, sorrowfully, and in terms of deepest affection, about the beautiful woman whose love he had won, but whom his vows of celibacy prevented from making his lawful wife. The Alcalde"s recital was dramatic to a degree, and at its close several excitedly attempted to address the mult.i.tude at the same time.
Oratory flowed on an ever rising tide, accompanied by much violent gesticulation and expectoration by way of emphasis. At length it was agreed that Diego had been, in times past, a bad man, but that the verbal proofs which he had given the Alcalde were undoubtedly valid, inasmuch as the Bishop stood behind them--and Don Mario a.s.sured the people that they were most certainly vouched for by His Grace. The day was almost carried when the eloquent Alcalde, in glowing rhetoric, painted the splendid future awaiting the girl, under the patronage of the Bishop. How cruel to retain her in dreary little Simiti, even though Diego"s claim still remained somewhat obscure, when His Grace, learning of her talents, had summoned her to Cartagena to be educated in the convent for a glorious future of service to G.o.d! Ah, that a like beautiful career awaited all the children of Simiti!
Jose at length forced himself before the people and begged them to listen to him. But, when he opened his mouth, the words stumbled and halted. For what had he to say? To tell these people that he was striving to educate the girl away from them was impossible. To say that he was trying to save her from the Church would be fatal. And to reiterate that Diego"s claim was a fabrication, added nothing of value to the evidence, for what did he know of the child"s parentage? He feebly begged them to wait until Diego"s claim had been either corroborated or annulled. But no; they had the Bishop"s corroboration, and that sufficed. "And, _Caramba_!" cried Don Mario, interrupting the priest in a loud voice, "if we oppose the Bishop, then will he send the government soldiers to us--and you know what--"
"_Cielo_, yes!" came from the mult.i.tude in one voice.
Jose sank down thoroughly beaten. His hands were tied. The case now rested with her G.o.d.
The people drew apart in little groups to discuss the matter. Don Mario"s beady eyes searched them, until he was certain of the way the tide was flowing. Then he rose and called for order.
"_Bueno_, _amigos y amigas_," he began with immense dignity; "what say you if we sum up the case as follows: The proofs have the support of the Bishop, and show that the girl is the daughter of Padre Diego.
Rosendo is guilty of having kept her from her own father, and for that he should be severely punished. Let him be confined in the jail for six months, and be forced to pay to us a fine of one thousand _pesos oro_--"
"_Caramba_! but he has no such sum," cried the people with mouths agape.
"_Bien_, I say he can get it!" retorted the Alcalde, looking meaningly at Jose. "And he should pay it for depriving the child of a father"s love and the religious instruction which he would have given her!"
Jose jumped to his feet. "Friends!" he cried, playing his last card.
"Will you not remember that more than that amount is due Rosendo for the care of the child? Who will repay him?"
The whimsical, fickle people broke into excited exclamations.
"_Cierto!_"
"The _Cura_ is right!"
"Let Rosendo pay no fine--he has no gold, anyway!"
"Cut down the sentence, Don Mario. We do not like this!"
The Alcalde saw that he had gone a bit too far. "_Bueno_, then," he amended. "We will cancel both the fine and Padre Diego"s debt to Rosendo, and the sentence shall be reduced to--what say you all?"
"A month in the jail, Don Mario, no more," suggested one.
An exclamation of approval from the crowd drowned the protest which Jose sought vainly to voice. Rosendo rose quickly; but Fernando and others seized him.
"_Bien_, it is approved," bawled the Alcalde, waving his thick arms.
"Take the prisoner to the _carcel_, _Senor Policia_," turning to the constable.
"And the girl, Senor the Alcalde--when will you send her to her father?" called some one.
"Yes, Don Mario, she must be taken to Padre Diego at once," piped a woman"s shrill voice.
"_Bien_," shouted the Alcalde, following his words with a long, coa.r.s.e laugh, "I was wise enough to know what you would decide, and sent the girl down the river last night!"
CHAPTER 25
The candles and smoky oil lamps of Banco threw a fitful shimmer out upon the great river, casting huge, spectral shadows across its muddy, swirling waters, and seeming rather to intensify the blackness that lay thick and menacing upon its restless bosom. Rivermen who follow their hazardous calling along the Magdalena do not lightly risk the dangers of travel by night in their native canoes, when at any moment a false stroke, a sudden crash against a tossing forest tree, and a cry through the inky blackness, might sound to the straining ears of hushed listeners on the distant banks the elements of another of the mighty river"s grim nocturnal tragedies.
But on the night following the trial of Rosendo in distant Simiti a canoe stole like a thing ashamed through the heavy shadows along the river"s margin, and poked its blunt nose into the ooze at the upper edge of the town. Its two scantily clad _bogas_, steaming with perspiration and flecked with mud from the charged waters, sprang lightly from the frail craft and quickly made it fast to one of the long stilts upon which a ramshackle frame house rested. Then they a.s.sisted the third occupant of the canoe, a girl, to alight; and together they wended their way up the slippery bank and toward the town above.
"_Caramba_, _compadre_!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed one of the men, stumbling into a deep rut, "it is well you know where we go. _Hombre_! but I travel no more on the river by night. And, _compadre_, we had best ask Padre Diego to offer a candle to the Virgin for our safe arrival, no?"
The other man chuckled. "To be sure, friend Julio. Don Diego has much influence with virgins."
"_Hombre_! I like not his dirty work."
"_Bien, amigo_, what would you? You are well paid; and besides, you score against that baby-faced priest, Jose, who drove you out of Simiti because you were not married to your woman. You cannot complain, _compadre_."