"Looks like the Punta; we"ve hit her first time," he remarked. "In about an hour I ought to get my marks. When d"you want her taken in?"
"Soon as it"s dark," Adam replied. "You"ll have to trust your lead and compa.s.s. Can"t have you whistling for a pilot, and I"d sooner you put out your lights."
"It"s your risk and not the first time I"ve broken rules. I guess I can keep her off the ground. We"ll get busy presently and heave the hatches off. The B.F. cases are right on top."
Adam nodded, and beckoned Kit when the captain went away. "You haven"t been in the Santa Marta lagoon yet. Stand by and watch the soundings and compa.s.s while Mayne takes her across the shoals. You may find it useful to know the channel."
Kit understood. Malaria and other fevers are common on low-lying belts of the Caribbean coast and skippers and mates fall sick. Moreover, the _Rio Negro_ did not always load at the regular ports. Sometimes she crept into mangrove-fringed lagoons, and sometimes stopped at lonely beaches and sent loaded boats ash.o.r.e when her captain saw the gleam of signal lights.
When it was getting dark, Kit and Adam went to the bridge and the former noted that his uncle breathed rather hard and seized the rails firmly as he climbed the ladder. The red glow of sunset had faded behind the high land and a gray haze spread across the swampy sh.o.r.e, but the water shone with pale reflections. On one side, a long, dingy smear floated across the sky. It did not move and Kit thought it had come from the funnel of a steamer whose engineer had afterwards cleaned his fires. Captain Mayne studied the fleecy trail with his gla.s.ses.
"I don"t know if that"s a coffee-boat going north; I can"t make out her hull against the land," he said. "Sometimes there"s a _guarda-costa_ hanging round the point."
"Better take no chances," Adam replied, glancing at the _Rio Negro"s_ funnel, from which a faint plume of vapor floated.
Mayne signed to the quartermaster in the pilot house and the bows swung round. Half an hour afterwards, he rang his telegraph and the clang of engines died away while the throb of the propeller stopped. In what seemed an unnatural silence, a few barefooted deck-hands began to move about, and one stood on the forecastle, where his dark figure cut against the shining sea. The rest went aft with a line the other held, and when Mayne raised his hand there was a splash as the deep-sea lead plunged. A man aft called the depth while he gathered up the line, and Mayne beckoned another, who climbed to a little platform outside the bridge and fastened a strap round his waist.
"We"re on the Santa Marta shelf, but I"m four miles off the course I set," Mayne remarked. "I want to work out the angle from the first bearing I got."
Kit went with him into the chart-room, for he knew something about navigation. They had taught him the principles of land-surveying at the agricultural college, and this had made his studies easier. When he came back the moon was getting bright, but the haze had thickened on the low ground and the heights behind had faded to a vague, formless blur. The trail of smoke had vanished, there was no wind, and the smooth swell broke against the bows with a monotonous dull roar as the _Rio Negro_ went on. She was alone on the heaving water and steaming slowly, but the noise of her progress carried far. By and by a light twinkled ahead, leaped up into a steady glow that lasted for some minutes, and then went out.
"That"s a relief," remarked Adam, who had struck a match and studied his watch. "The ground"s clear and Don Hernando has somebody he can trust waiting at the lagoon. You can let her go ahead, Captain."
Mayne rang his telegraph and Kit went into the pilot house. The dim light of the binnacle lamp touched the compa.s.s, but everything else was dark and the windows were down. Kit could see the quartermaster"s dark form behind the wheel, and the silver shining of the sea. There was a splash as the man on the platform released the whirling hand-lead. When he called the depth Mayne gave an order and the quartermaster pulled round the wheel. The swell was not so smooth now. It ran in steep undulations and in one place to starboard a broad, foaming patch appeared between the rollers. Kit knew the water was shoaling fast as the _Rio Negro_ steamed across the inclined shelf. It was risky work to take her in, because the fire had vanished and there were no marks to steer for. Mayne must trust his compa.s.s and his rough calculations.
"Tide"s running flood," he said to Adam. "She"d have steered handier if we"d gone in against the ebb; but there"s a better chance of coming off if she touches ground."
"You don"t want to touch ground and stop there with the B.F. goods on board," Adam replied.
After this, there was silence except when Mayne gave an order. White upheavals broke the pa.s.sing swell on both sides of the ship. She rolled with violent jerks and at regular intervals the bows swung up. When they sank, a dark ma.s.s with a ragged top cut off the view from the pilot-house, and Kit knew it was a mangrove forest. He could see no break in the wall of trees that grew out of the water, but they were not far off when there was a heavy jar, and the Rio Negro stopped. The floor of the pilot-house slanted and Kit and the quartermaster fell against the wheel. Then there was a roar as a white-topped roller came up astern and broke about the vessel"s rail in boiling foam. She lifted, struck again, and went on with an awkward lurch.
"Port; hard over!" Mayne shouted hoa.r.s.ely, and Kit helped the quartermaster to pull round the wheel.
The order disturbed him, since it looked as if Mayne was off his course.
The swell broke angrily ahead, but in one place, some distance to one side, the wall of forest looked less solid than the rest. A roar came out of the mist and Kit knew it was the beat of surf on a hidden beach. This told him where he was, because a sandy key protected the mouth of the lagoon; but he doubted if Mayne could get round the point. The tide was carrying the vessel on and there was broken water all about.
She went on, with engines thumping steadily; the hollow in the forest opened up until it became a gap and Kit could not see trees behind it.
Mayne gave another sharp order, and Kit and the quartermaster pulled at the wheel. The dark bows swung, the speed quickened, and the rolling stopped. The throb of the screw and thump of engines echoed across misty woods and there was a curious gurgling noise that Kit thought was made by the tide rippling among the mangrove roots. The air got damp and steamy and a sour smell filled the pilot-house. Kit knew the odors of rotting leaves, spices, and warm mud.
In the meantime, he was kept occupied at the wheel for Mayne changed his course as the trees rolled past, until the telegraph rang and the engines stopped. Then there was silence until he heard the splash of the anchor and the roar of running chain. As the _Rio Negro_ slowly swung round, the winches rattled and her boats were hoisted out. Kit got into one with Adam and landed on a muddy beach. Dark figures came down to meet them, horses were waiting at the edge of the forest, and a few minutes later they mounted and plunged into the gloom.
CHAPTER II
THE PRESIDIO
Dazzling sunshine flooded the belt of sand where the shadows of dusty palmettos quivered beyond the Moorish arch; the old presidio smelt like a brick-kiln and the heat outside was nearly intolerable. In the middle of the dirty patio a fountain splashed in a broken marble basin, and it was dim, and by contrast cool, under the arcade where Kit sat among the crumbling pillars. The presidio was a relic of Spanish dominion and its founders had built it well, copying, with such materials as they could get, stately models the Moors had left in the distant Peninsula. A part had fallen and blocks of sun-baked mud lay about in piles, but the long, white front, with its battlemented top and narrow, barred windows stood firm. In spite of the ruinous patio, the presidio was the finest building in the town.
The others, so far as Kit could see, were squares of mud, for the most part whitewashed, although some were colored pink and cream. The glare they reflected was dazzling, but a row of limp palmettos ran between them and the s.p.a.ce in front of the presidio, and here and there Kit noted rounded ma.s.ses of vivid green. Except for the splash of the fountain, all was very quiet, and although the shadows had lengthened it looked as if the half-breed citizens were still enjoying their afternoon sleep. Now and then a barefooted sentry noiselessly pa.s.sed the arch. He wore a dirty white uniform and ragged palm-leaf hat, but carried a good modern rifle, and Kit knew where the latter had come from. The country was rich with coffee, rubber, sugar, and dyewoods. Its inhabitants, however, for the most part, preferred political intrigue to cultivation; its government was corrupt, and prosperity had vanished with the Spaniards" firm rule.
A table carrying some very small gla.s.ses and coffee-cups stood in the arcade. Don Hernando Alvarez occupied the other side, and Kit imagined it was not by accident he sat with his back to a whitewashed pillar, since he was in the shadow and as he wore white clothes could not be seen a short distance off. Don Hernando"s hair was coa.r.s.e and his skin dark. His face was well molded, although the cheek-bones were prominent; his black eyes were keen and his thin lips firm. He wore a plain red sash, with no other touch of color except a bit of riband on his breast. It was obvious that he was not a Peninsular, as pure-blooded Spaniards call themselves, but he looked like a man who must be reckoned on. Just then his dark face was moody.
"You have come in good time," he said to Adam Askew, in Castilian. "I think the curtain will soon go up for the last act of the drama, but the plot is obscure and I do not know the end."
"I imagine the action will be rapid," Adam replied. "Unless you have changed much, you are cut out for your part."
"Ah," said Alvarez, "one gets cautious as one gets old. One loses the young man"s quick, sure touch."
"That is so, to some extent," Adam agreed, and indicated Kit. "It explains why I have a partner; my brother"s son. Still, perhaps one sees farther when one is old."
Alvarez bowed to Kit. "You have a good model, senor; a man who seldom hesitates and whose word goes. A rare thing in this country; I do not know about yours." Then he turned to Adam with a hint of anxiety. "How far do you see now?"
"I see what I have to do and that is enough. The consequences come afterwards."
Alvarez"s face cleared. "You were always a gambler, but you run some risk if you bet on me." He was silent for a moment and then resumed: "In a sense, I envy you; you have a partner you can trust, but I stand alone.
My son was found in the plaza with a knife in his back, and the man who killed him goes unpunished."
"Galdar was somewhere behind that deed, although I do not see his object yet," Adam remarked.
"The people liked Maccario and his removal cleared the ground. My enemy is cunning and, I think, did not mean to force a conflict until my friends had gone. Now there are not many left and the time has come.
Morales died of poison, Diaz of snake-bite, and Vinoles was shot by a curious accident. So far, I have escaped; perhaps because I was lucky, and perhaps because it was not certain the people would choose Galdar if I followed my friends."
"I have wondered why you hold on. For a president of this country, you have had a good run. I think I would have left after a few prosperous years and located at Havana, for example."
Alvarez smiled. "There was a time when we had money in the treasury and I might have gone; but it was too late afterwards. Part of the revenue stopped in Galdar"s hands--that was one way of embarra.s.sing me--and I was forced to use the rest to undermine his plots. Now I am drawing on my small private estate."
"But why didn"t you go while there was something left? You are not extravagant and do not need much."
Kit thought Adam"s remark was justified. Alvarez lived with Indian frugality and looked ascetic; besides he had been long in power and had no doubt had opportunities for enriching himself at his country"s expense. Kit liked Alvarez, but did not think him much honester than other Spanish-American rulers he had met.
"It was partly for my daughter"s sake I remained," Alvarez replied. "She is at a Spanish convent and I would not leave her poor. Then I had my son"s death to avenge." He paused and added with a deprecatory smile: "Moreover I have thought I can rule this country better than my rival."
"That"s a sure thing," Adam agreed, in English. "Well, you had better tell me how you think matters are going. If I"m to help you properly I want to know."
Alvarez looked about. All was very quiet; there was n.o.body in the patio, and it was some distance to the nearest window in the wall that faced the pillars. For all that, he lowered his voice and answered in hesitating English with an American accent.
"It is hard to tell; a gamble in which one takes steep chances! Perhaps half the people with an object are for Galdar, and half for me. Those who have none will wait and back the man they think will win. So far, I have the soldiers, but their pay is behind and they are badly armed and drilled. They will stand by me if I can give them machine-guns and pay off arrears. But this must be done soon, without Galdar knowing. The next president will be the man who strikes before the other is ready."
"What will the thing cost altogether?" Adam asked.
He looked thoughtful when Alvarez told him, and then nodded. "All right.
You"ll get some of the guns to-morrow and another lot is on the way. Go ahead; I"ll help you put the business over."
Alvarez filled the little gla.s.ses with a liquor that had a strong spicy smell and when his guests lifted them touched theirs with his.