"_Caramba!_ I have yet to see the color of the _pesos_. I do not much trust your Padre Diego."
"_Na, amigo_, a bit of rum will put new life into your soaked gizzard.
_Cierto_, this trip down the river was a taste of purgatory; but you know we may as well get used to it here, for when we _pobres_ are dead who will buy Ma.s.ses to get us out?"
"_Caramba!_" muttered the other sullenly, as he stumbled on through the darkness, "but if we have no money the priests will let us burn forever!"
The girl went along with the men silently and without complaint, even when her bare feet slipped into the deep ruts in the trail, or were painfully bruised and cut by the sharp stones and bits of wood that lay in the narrow path. Once she fell. The man addressed as Julio a.s.sisted her to her feet. The other broke into a torrent of profane abuse.
"_Na, Ricardo,_" interrupted Julio, "hold your foolish tongue and let the girl alone! You and I have cursed all the way from Simiti, but she has made no complaint. She shames me. _Caramba_, I wish I were well out of this business!"
A few minutes later they struck one of the main thoroughfares. Then the men stopped to draw on their cotton shirts and trousers before entering the town. The road was better here, and they made rapid progress. The night was far spent, and the streets were deserted. In the main portion of the town ancient Spanish lamps, hanging uncertainly in their sconces against old colonial houses, threw a feeble light into the darkness. Before one of the better of these houses Julio and the girl were halted by their companion.
"_Bien_," he said, "it is here that the holy servant of G.o.d lives.
_Caramba_, but may his _garrafon_ be full!"
They entered the open door and mounted the stone steps. On the floor above they paused in the rotunda, and Ricardo called loudly. A side door opened and a young woman appeared, holding a lighted candle aloft. Ricardo greeted her courteously. "_El Senor Padre, senorita Ana?_" he said, bowing low. "You will do us the favor to announce our arrival, no?"
The woman stared uncomprehendingly at the odd trio. "The Padre is not here," she finally said.
"_Dios y diablo!_" cried Ricardo, forgetting his courtesy. "But we have risked our skins to bring him the brat, and he not here to receive and reward us! _Caramba!_"
"But--Ricardo, he is out with friends to-night--he may return at any moment. Who is the girl? And why do you bring her here?" She stepped forward, holding the candle so that its light fell full upon her face.
As she did this the girl darted toward her and threw herself into the woman"s arms.
"Anita!" she cried, her voice breaking with emotion, "Anita--I am Carmen! Do you not know me?"
The woman fell back in astonishment. "Carmen! What! The little Carmen, my father"s--"
"Yes, Anita, I am padre Rosendo"s Carmen--and yours!"
Ana clasped the girl in her arms. "_Santa Maria_, child! What brings you here, of all places?"
Ricardo stepped forward to explain. "As you may see, senorita, it is we who have brought her here, at the command of her father, Padre Diego."
"Her father!"
"Yes, senorita. And, since you say he is not in, we must wait until he returns."
The woman stood speechless with amazement. Carmen clung to her, while Ricardo stood looking at them, with a foolish leer on his face. Julio drew back into the shadow of the wall.
"_Bien, senorita_," said Ricardo, stepping up to the child and attempting to take her arm, "we will be held to account for the girl, and we must not lose her. _Caramba!_ For then would the good Padre d.a.m.n us forever!"
Carmen shrank away from him. Julio emerged swiftly from the shadow and laid a restraining hand on Ricardo. The woman tore Carmen from his grasp and thrust the girl behind herself. "_Cierto_, friend Ricardo, we are all responsible for her," she said quickly. "But you are tired and hungry--is it not so? Let me take you to the _cocina_, where you will find roast pig and a bit of red rum."
"Rum!" The man"s eyes dilated. "_Caramba!_ my throat is like the ashes of purgatory!"
"Come, then," said the woman, holding Carmen tightly by the hand and leading the way down the steps to the kitchen below. Arriving there, she lighted an oil lamp and hurriedly set out food and a large _garrafon_ of Jamaica rum.
"There, _compadre_, is a part of your reward. And we will now wait until Padre Diego arrives, is it not so?"
While the men ate and drank voraciously, interpolating their actions at frequent intervals with bits of vivid comment on their river trip, the woman cast many anxious glances toward the steps leading to the floor above. From time to time she replenished Ricardo"s gla.s.s, and urged him to drink. The man needed no invitation. Physical exhaustion and short rations while on the river had prepared him for just what the woman most desired to accomplish, and as gla.s.s after gla.s.s of the fiery liquor burned its way down his throat, she saw his scant wit fading, until at last it deserted him completely, and he sank into a drunken torpor. Then, motioning to Julio, who had consumed less of the rum, she seized the senseless Ricardo by the feet, and together they dragged him out into the _patio_ and threw him under a _platano_ tree.
"But, senorita--" began Julio in remonstrance, as thoughts of Diego"s wrath filtered through his befuddled brain.
"Not a word, _hombre_!" she commanded, turning upon him. "If you lay a hand upon this child my knife shall find your heart!"
"But--my pay?"
"How much did Padre Diego say he would give you?" she demanded.
"Three _pesos oro_--and rations," replied the man thickly.
"Wait here, then, and I will bring you the money."
Still retaining Carmen"s hand, she mounted the steps, listening cautiously for the tread of her master. Reaching the rotunda above, she drew Carmen into the room from which she had emerged before, and, bidding her conceal herself if Diego should arrive, took her wallet and hastily descended to where the weaving Julio waited.
"There, _amigo_," she said hurriedly, handing him the money. "Now do you go--at once! And do not remain in Banco, or Padre Diego will surely make you trouble. Your life is not safe here now. Go!" She pointed to the door; and Julio, impressed with a sense of his danger, lost no time in making his exit.
Returning to Carmen, the woman seated herself and drew the girl to her. "Carmen, child!" she cried, trembling, as her eyes searched the girl. "Tell me why you are here!"
"I do not know, Anita dear," murmured the girl, nestling close to the woman and twining an arm about her neck; "except that day before yesterday the Alcalde put padre Rosendo into the jail--"
"Into the jail!"
"Yes, Anita dear. And then, when I was going to see him, Fernando ran out of Don Mario"s house and told me I must go in and see the Alcalde.
Julio Gomez and this man Ricardo were there talking with Don Mario in the _patio_. Then they threw a _ruana_ over me and carried me out through the _patio_ and around by the old church to the Boque trail.
When we got to the trail they made me walk with them to the Inanea river, where they put me into a canoe. They paddled fast, down to the Boque river; then to the Magdalena; and down here to Banco. They did not stop at all, except when steamboats went by--oh, Anita, I never saw a steamboat before! What big, noisy things they are! But Padre Jose had often told me about them. And when the big boats pa.s.sed us they made me lie down in the canoe, and they put the _ruana_ over me and told me if I made any noise they would throw me into the river.
But I knew if I just kept still and knew--really _knew_--that G.o.d would take care of me, why, He would. And, you see, He did, for He brought me to you." A tired sigh escaped her lips as she laid her head on the woman"s shoulder.
"But--oh, _Santa Maria_!" moaned the woman, "you are not safe here!
What can I do?--what can I do?"
"Well, Anita dear, you can know that G.o.d is here, can"t you? I knew that all the way down the river. And, oh, I am so glad to see you!
Why, just think, it is eight years since you used to play with me! And now we will go back to Simiti, will we not, Anita?"
"Pray to the Virgin to help us, child! You may have influence with her--I have none, for my soul is lost!"
"Why, Anita dear, that is not true! You and I are both G.o.d"s children, and He is right here with us. All we have to do is to know it--just really _know_ it."
"But, tell me, quick--Diego may be here any moment--why did he send Ricardo for you?"
The girl became very serious. "Anita dear, Padre Diego says I am his child."
"What!"
"Yes--his daughter--that he is my father. But--is it really so, Anita?"
"_Madre de Dios!_" cried the woman. "What a beast!--what a beast! He saw you in Simiti when he was last there--and you are now a beautiful--No, child, you are not his daughter! The wretch lies--he is a sink of lies! He is rotten with sin! Oh, _Dios_!"