His voice shook with excitement. The words had scarcely left his lips before Luiz gave a loud whistle. In response to it three other men made their appearance from the wood.
"Hermanos," I said, taking control of affairs, as the party began to don their masks, "you and two of your men had better stand here to stop the horses." Then turning to the others, I continued: "You two, follow me; and, if you don"t want to be recognized, let me do whatever talking there is to be done."
The noise made by the approaching carriage could now be distinctly heard. At most it could not be more than a quarter of a mile away. My heart was beating like a sledge-hammer. Closer and closer came the vehicle, then it turned the corner, and we could plainly see its lights. In a very few minutes it would be upon us. Without exception we had all drawn back into the shadow of the cliff, so that they could have no idea of our presence. Descending the little decline, the carriage entered the cleft between the rocks. The lights from the vehicle flashed like angry eyes upon us.
"Stop!" I cried in Spanish, and as I did so Hermanos and his two companions sprang into the centre of the road. The driver of the carriage, seeing the revolvers pointed at him, pulled up his horses so suddenly that they fell back upon their haunches. Meanwhile I had sprung to the carriage-door and had opened it. "General Fernandez," I cried, "you are my prisoner. I am armed, and if you move hand or foot, I give you warning, I shall shoot you."
Meanwhile one of my companions had taken a lamp from the socket and had turned it upon the interior of the carriage. By its light I was enabled to convince myself that we had made no mistake. Fernandez was seated in the corner nearest me, and, to my great astonishment, the Senorita was beside him. I will do the President the justice of saying that, at such a trying moment, he comported himself like a brave man.
His voice was as calm as ever I had heard it when he addressed me.
"Ah! so it"s you, Senor Trevelyan, is it?" he said. "I thought I had stopped your little game! What"s the meaning of this?"
"It means that the scheme you did your best to frustrate has succeeded after all," I answered. "But I have no time to spare. I must therefore ask you to alight without further parley. Let me a.s.sure you it would be no use your attempting to resist. There are six of us here, and we are all armed."
"It is evident, then, that you have the advantage of me," he continued, still with the same imperturbable good-humour. "Well, what must be must, I suppose," and with that he descended from the carriage and stepped into the road.
Before I could stop her the Senorita had done the same.
"Where you go I follow," she said, addressing the President. "I am sure we can rely upon Senor Trevelyan"s doing us no harm."
"If you do as I ask you not a hair of your head shall be harmed, Senorita," I replied. Then turning to the President once more, I added: "Before we proceed further it would, perhaps, be as well to make sure that you are not armed, General! We cannot afford to run any risk."
Fernandez gave a short laugh as he took a revolver from his pocket and handed it to me.
"I was going to use this upon you as soon as I had an opportunity,"
he said. "I see, however, that I am not to be permitted to do so!"
I turned to the coachman.
"Now, off you go!" I cried. "If you stop anywhere between here and the palace I"ll take care that you hear about it later. You can tell them, when you get there, that the President and the Senorita have gone into the country for a change of air, and that you don"t quite know when they will be back."
The man did not answer, but looked at Fernandez as if for instructions. Seeing that the other did not speak, he whipped up his horses and drove off without another word, leaving his master and mistress prisoners with us.
"Now we in our turn will be off," I said, as he disappeared over the brow of the hill. "I must ask you, Senor President, to be good enough to walk ahead. The Senorita and I will follow you."
It was a silent little party that made its way down the hill-side towards the beach. First walked the President with an armed man on either side of him, his niece and myself followed next, whilst Hermanos and two of his fellow-conspirators brought up the rear. No one would have imagined that, only a few hours before, the Senorita and I had been waltzing round the ball-room at La Gloria as partners, or that the President and I had been seated amicably together discussing the politics of Equinata in all apparent friendliness. I must say in common fairness that, even under these trying circ.u.mstances, the Senorita behaved herself with as much coolness as did her fellow-prisoner. Not once did she flinch or show the least sign of fear.
The path from the road to the sh.o.r.e was an exceedingly rough one, little better in fact than a goat-track, and as the Senorita was still wearing her light dancing-shoes, it must have been an unenviable experience for her. Once her dress was caught by a cactus leaf, and I stopped to extricate it for her. I hoped that my action might break the silence that had so far characterized our march.
"Thank you, senor," she said gravely, and, without another word, continued her walk.
"Senorita," I said at last, "I can quite understand how angry you must feel with me. I suppose it is only natural that you should be. Yet, strange though it may appear, I cannot help feeling ashamed."
"I am not angry, senor," she replied. "My only regret is that we should have been so weak as to have made such a miscalculation. I thought my uncle had caused you to be arrested?"
"He certainly did have me arrested, but I managed to escape," I answered. "Doubtless, if your uncle had had his way, he would have had me shot at daybreak."
"It is more than likely," she replied, still with the same gravity.
"And all things considered, I am not at all sure it would not have been better for the happiness of Equinata could this event have taken place."
After such a speech there was not much to be said, so we continued our walk in silence. Ten minutes later we reached the beach, walked along it for a hundred yards or so, and then found ourselves beside the yacht"s gig, which had been pulled up on the sh.o.r.e to await our coming. As soon as they saw us the boat"s crew, led by the chief officer, made their appearance from a hollow in the sand-hills where they had been concealed.
"Permit me to help you into the boat," I said to the Senorita, moving towards it as I spoke. "When you are on board we can push her out into deeper water."
She accordingly took my hand and stepped into the boat, after which the men ran it into the water.
"Now, Mr. President," I continued, "if you will be so kind as to get in, I think we had better be moving."
He hesitated for a moment.
"Before we do so, might I have a word with you in private, Senor Trevelyan?" he said. "I will not detain you more than a few moments."
I answered in the affirmative, and we moved a few paces away together.
To make sure that he played no trick upon me, I took my revolver from my pocket and carried it somewhat ostentatiously in my hand. He noticed the precaution and gave utterance to one of his peculiar laughs.
"You need have no fear," he said. "I shall not run away. My heart, as you may have heard, is a little weak, and I am afraid a sharp run on this sand would not tend to improve it. Let us talk here. Now, Senor Trevelyan, I am going to put a very simple question to you. I very naturally presume that you have been well paid by my rival, Don Guzman de Silvestre, to effect my capture and deportation?"
"It is scarcely necessary for me to admit that fact," I answered.
"Yes! All things considered, I am _very_ well paid."
"Needless to remark," he continued, "I have no desire to leave Equinata. Nor am I anxious to find myself in my old enemy"s hands. The question I wish to put to you, therefore, is this: What would your price be to let me go?"
"I cannot answer that question," I replied, "and for the simple reason that I am unable to let you go at all."
"I should be willing to pay a large sum in cash, and, what is more, I would give you a substantial guarantee that, if you would leave La Gloria to-morrow, I would let you depart in peace."
"I am very sorry, General Fernandez," I said, "but I am afraid you have made some little mistake in your estimation of my character. I will be perfectly candid with you, and will admit that, if I could live the past few weeks over again, I should not be treating you as I am doing to-night. However, I have accepted Don Guzman"s offer, and I have taken his money. For that reason I cannot take yours, nor can I let you go, glad as I should be to do so. I wonder what you would have done with me, had I not had the good fortune to escape from the cartel to-night?"
"I can tell you exactly," he answered. "You would have shared your quarters with some of your fellow-conspirators, and I should have shot you in the morning. Experience has taught me that there is nothing like dispatch in these matters. Strike home, and strike hard, is my motto."
"So I have been given to understand," I replied dryly. "And now let us return to the boat."
"You are still determined not to let me go?" he said. "What do you say to an offer of twenty thousand pounds, in English money?"
"I could not do it for fifty thousand," I replied. "Come along, sir, the dawn will soon be here, and I am anxious to be out of Equinata before it comes."
He gave a little shrug of the shoulders as I spoke, and then moved towards the boat.
"One more question," he said before we joined the others. "Where are you going to take me?"
"I shall hope to be able to show you that in a very short time," I answered. "For the present, however, it must remain a secret. Now, sir, into the boat, if you please."
Before he got in he turned to Don Jose de Hermanos, who was standing with his friends by the water"s edge.
"Farewell, Don Jose," he said, as genially as if he were addressing a valued acquaintance. "I wonder whether you and I are destined to meet again? As you are aware, I have a good memory for both friends and enemies! I once imagined that you and I would have been able to work together. I believe we should have done so, had not you committed yourself too deeply to my rival before I was able to bring my influence to bear upon you. I should put that mask in my pocket if I were you. You forget that you have a mole upon your chin."
The man he addressed stepped back a pace as if he had been struck. He had disguised himself so carefully that he thought detection was impossible. Nevertheless, he had omitted to conceal a disfigurement on the lower portion of his countenance that was sufficient to reveal his ident.i.ty to any one at all acquainted with him. His astonishment may have accounted for his failure to reply to the other"s speech.