CHAPTER XIX
CONDEMNED UNHEARD
A full moon hung over the white city, and the drowsy murmur of the surf broke fitfully through the music of the artillery band when Austin sat listlessly on a bench in the plaza of Santa Cruz. It was about eight o"clock in the evening, and the plaza was crowded, as usual at that hour. Peon and officer, merchant and clerk, paced slowly up and down, enjoying the cool of the evening with their wives and daughters, or sat in cl.u.s.ters outside the lighted cafes. The band was an excellent one, the crowd gravely good-humoured, and picturesquely attired, for white linen, pale-tinted draperies, sombre cloth, and green uniform formed patches of kaleidoscopic colouring as the stream of humanity flowed by under the glaring lamplight and the soft radiance of the moon.
Austin had sat there often before he went to Africa, listening to the music and watching the spectacle; but neither had any charm for him that night. The laughter sounded hollow, the waltz the band was playing had lost its swing, and the streams of light from the cafes hurt his eyes and irritated him. The deep murmur of the sea alone was faintly soothing, and remembering how often he had thought of that cool plaza, with its lights and music, in the steamy blackness of the swamps, he wondered vaguely what had happened to him. The zest and sparkle seemed to have gone out of life, and he did not attribute it to the fact that the melancholia of the swamp belt was still upon him.
He crossed the plaza, and sitting outside one of the cafes he had frequented, asked for wine. It was brought him, chilled with snow from the great peak"s summit, but the greeting of the man who kept the cafe seemed for once devoid of cordiality, and the wine sour and thin. Still, the Spaniard stood a minute or two by his chair, and, as it happened, Jacinta pa.s.sed just then with a dark-faced Spanish officer. He wore an exceedingly tight-fitting uniform, but he had a figure that carried it well, and an unmistakable air of distinction. Jacinta was also smiling at him, though she turned, and seemed to indicate somebody in the vicinity with a little gesture. As she did so her eyes rested for a moment upon Austin, who became for the first time unpleasantly conscious of his haggard face and hard, scarred hands. There was, he realised, nothing in the least distinguished about him. Then it was with a faint sense of dismay he saw that Jacinta did not mean to recognise him, for she laughed as she turned to her companion, and he heard the soft rustle of her light draperies as they went on again.
"That is the Colonel Sarramento?" he said, as carelessly as he could, though there was a faint flush in his hollow face.
"It is," said his companion. "Colonel in the military service, though he has held other offices in Cuba. A man of ability, senor, and now it is said that he will marry the English merchant"s daughter. Why not? The Senorita Brown is more Spanish than English, and she is certainly rich."
"I don"t know of any reason," said Austin listlessly, and the man turned away. He had no wish to waste his time upon an Englishman who apparently did not appreciate his conversation.
Austin sat still a little while, indignation struggling with his languor, for he was almost certain that Jacinta had seen him. He had never flattered himself that she would regard him as anything more than a friend who was occasionally useful, but he thought she might, at least, have expressed her appreciation of his latest efforts, and he was also a trifle puzzled. Jacinta, as a rule, would stop and speak to any of the barefooted peons she was acquainted with, and he had never known her to slight an acquaintance without a reason. It seemed only due to her to make quite sure she had intentionally pa.s.sed him without recognition.
He rose and strolled round the plaza until he met her again face to face where a stream of garish light fell upon them both. She allowed her eyes to rest upon him steadily, but it was the look she would have bestowed on a stranger, and in another moment she had turned to the officer at her side. Then a bevy of laughing tourists pa.s.sed between and separated them.
After that Austin strolled round the plaza several times in a far from amiable temper. He was stirred at last, and easy-going as he usually was, there was in him a certain vein of combativeness which had been shaken into activity in Africa. It was, he admitted, certainly Jacinta"s privilege to ignore him; but there were occasions on which conventionalities might be disregarded, and he determined that she should, at least, make him acquainted with her purpose in doing so. He did not mean to question it, but to hear it was, he felt, no more than his due.
It was some time before he came upon her again, talking to a Spanish lady, who, seeing him approaching with a suggestion of resolution in his att.i.tude, had sufficient sense to withdraw a pace or two and sign to another companion. Jacinta apparently recognised that he was not to be put off this time, for she indicated the vacant chairs not far away with a little wave of her fan, and when he drew one out for her sat down and looked at him.
"You are persistent," she said. "I am not sure that it was altogether commendable taste."
Austin laughed a trifle bitterly, for the pessimistic dejection the fever leaves does not, as a rule, tend to amiability, and its victim, while willing to admit that there is nothing worth worrying over, is apt to make a very human display of temper on very small provocation.
"One should not expect too much from a steamboat sobrecargo," he said.
"It is scarcely fair to compare him--for example--with a distinguished Spanish officer."
"I do not think you are improving matters," said Jacinta.
"Well," said Austin drily, "I have, you see, just come from a land where life is rather a grim affair, and one has no time to study its little amenities. I am, in fact, quite willing to admit that I have left my usual suavity behind me. Still, I don"t think that should count. You contrived to impress me with the fact that you preferred something more vigorously brusque before I went out."
Jacinta met his gaze directly with a little ominous sparkle in her eyes and straightening brows. She had laid down her fan, and there was a cold disdain in her face the man could not understand. It was unfortunate he did not know how Pancho Brown had worded his message, for it contained no intimation that he was going back to Africa.
"It"s a pity you didn"t stay there," she said.
Austin started a little. He did not see what she could mean, and the speech appeared a trifle inhuman.
"It would please me to think you haven"t any clear notion what those swamps are like," he said. "One is, unfortunately, apt to stay there altogether."
"Which is a contingency you naturally wished to avoid? I congratulated you upon your prudence once before. Still, you, at least, seemed quite acquainted with the characteristics of the fever belt of Western Africa when you went out. Your friends the mailboats" officers must have told you. That being so, why did you go?"
"A persistent dropping will, it is said, in time wear away considerably harder material than I am composed of. Words are also, one could fancy, even more efficacious than water in that respect."
A trace of colour crept into Jacinta"s face, and her brows grew straighter. The lines of her slight form became more rigid, and she was distinctly imperious in her anger.
"Oh, I understand!" she said. "Well, I admit that I was the cause of your going, and now you have come to reproach me for sending you. Well, I will try to bear it, and if I do show any anger it will not be at what you say, but at the fact that one who I to some extent believed in should consider himself warranted in saying anything at all. No doubt, you will not recognise the distinction, but in the meanwhile you haven"t quite answered my question. You were a free agent, after all, and I could use no compulsion. Why did you go?"
Austin"s temper had grown no better during the interview, which was unfortunate for him, because an angry man is usually at a disadvantage in the presence of a woman whose indignation with him is largely tempered by a chilling disdain.
"That," he said, reflectively, "is a point upon which I cannot be quite certain, though the whole thing was, naturally, in most respects a piece of egregious folly. Still, your good opinion had its value to me, especially as it was very evident that I could never expect anything more. A little brutal candour is, I think, admissible now and then."
The colour had faded out of Jacinta"s face, but the sparkle was a trifle plainer in her eyes. "So you recognised that! Under the circ.u.mstances, it was wise of you, though how far you were warranted in telling me is a question we needn"t go into now. It is a pity you ever went at all."
"In one sense I almost think it is," said Austin, gazing at her bewilderedly. "Still, there is a good deal I can"t understand. I am in the dark, you see."
"Then I suppose I must try to make it clear to you. I am an essentially practical person, and any ardour you possess has. .h.i.therto been qualified by a very commendable discretion; but we are not very old, after all, and there is, fortunately, something in most of us which is occasionally stronger than the petty prudence we guide ourselves by. Now and then, as you gracefully suggest, it leads us into folly, which we have, perhaps, really no great reason to be sorry for. Well, for a little while you shook off the practical and apparently aspired after the ideal. You went out to Africa because you fancied it would please me, and it did. One may admit that a thing of that kind appeals to a woman"s vanity. Still, of course, one could scarcely expect you to adhere to such a purpose. We have grown too wise to indulge in unprofitable sentimentality, and our knights errant do not come back upon their shields. They are practical gentlemen, who appreciate the comfort of a whole skin."
"I"m afraid you"re confusing historical periods, and the times have certainly changed. They now use an empty gun case in Western Africa, I believe, and if they can"t get that, any old blanket or piece of canvas that happens to be available."
"It should be a comfort to know that you need never antic.i.p.ate anything so unpleasant."
This time the colour suffused Austin"s pallid face. It was clear that she was taunting him with cowardice in leaving Jefferson, and her contempt appeared so wholly unreasonable that he would make no attempt to vindicate himself. It did not appear likely to be successful in any case, and the pessimistic bitterness the fever leaves was still upon him.
"Well," he said quietly, "I had looked for a slightly different reception; but it presumably isn"t dignified to complain, especially when it"s evident it wouldn"t do any good, while I scarcely think there is anything to be gained by extending our conversation. You see, I am, naturally, aware that my character is a somewhat indifferent one already. You will, no doubt, excuse me?"
Jacinta made him a little inclination over her lifted fan.
"If you will tell the Senora Anasona yonder that I am waiting, I should be much obliged," she said.
It was five minutes later when Austin was admitted to the cable office as a favour, and handed a despatch from a Las Palmas banking agency.
"Your draft will be honoured to the extent of 200," it ran.
He smiled grimly as he thrust it into his pocket, and, wandering round the plaza again, came upon Muriel Gascoyne and Mrs. Hatherly sitting in two of the chairs laid out in front of a hotel. He felt tempted to slip by, but remembered that he had a duty to Jefferson. Mrs. Hatherly shook hands with him, and though he fancied there was a restraint in her cordiality, Muriel turned to him impulsively.
"Tell me everything," she said. "The letter has not arrived."
"There is a good deal of it," said Austin, with a smile.
"Then don"t waste time."
Austin roused himself with an effort. Her tense interest and her simplicity, which, it seemed to him, had in it so much that was admirable, appealed to him, and he determined that she, at least, should know what Jefferson had done for her. The artistic temperament had also its influence on him, and he made her and her companion see the steaming swamps and feel the stress and strain of effort in the stifling hold, while it was his pleasure that Jefferson should stalk, a lean, dominant figure, through all the varied scenes. He felt, when he concluded, that he had drawn those sombre pictures well, and it would be Jefferson"s fault if he did not henceforward pose before the girl"s fancy as a knightly hero of romance. There were, naturally, difficulties to be overcome, for he recognised that she must be forced to comprehend that chivalric purposes must, nowadays, be wrought out by most prosaic means, and that the clash of the encounter occasionally leaves its mark upon a man. Still, he saw that he had succeeded when the simple pride shone through the moisture that gathered in the girl"s big blue eyes, and he was moved to sympathy when she rose with a little gasp.
"I must tell Jacinta. I don"t feel quite able to thank you, Mr. Austin; but you will understand," she said.
She left them, and Mrs. Hatherly turned and looked at Austin very graciously.
"So you are going back?" she said.
"Of course," said Austin. "There is a Spanish boat to Las Palmas to-morrow, and nothing to keep me now I have got the money. I don"t mind admitting that the asking for it was harder than anything I did in Africa."
The little lady nodded, with a very kindly light in her eyes. "Yes," she said, "I can understand that, but in one sense I am not exactly pleased.
Why didn"t you come to me?"