CHAPTER VIII
THE BLACK JAGUAR
It was so dark that the two could see but a narrow stretch of masonry on which they stood and a tossing sea beyond. Behind them heaved up the ma.s.s of the castle, mighty and somber. A fierce wind was blowing in from the gulf, and it whistled and screamed about the great walls. The rain, bitter and cold, lashed against them like hail. Shut off so long from the outer air they shivered now, but the shiver was merely of the air.
Their spirit was as high as ever and they faced their crisis with undaunted souls.
Yet they were far from escape. The wind was of uncommon strength, seeming to increase steadily in power, and a half mile of wild waters raced between them and the town. Weaker wills would have yielded and turned back to prison, but not they. They ran eagerly along the edge of the masonry, pelted by rain and wind.
"There must be a boat tied up somewhere along here," exclaimed Ned. "The castle, of course, keeps communication with the town!"
"Yes, here it is!" said Obed. "Fortune favors the persistent. It"s only a small boat, and it"s a big sea before us, but, Ned, my lad, we"ve got to try it. We can"t look any further. Listen! That"s the alarm in the castle."
They heard shouts and clash of arms above the roaring of the wind. They picked in furious haste at the rope that held the boat, cast it loose, and sprang in, securing the oars. The waves at once lifted them up and tossed them wildly. It was perhaps fortunate that they lost control of their boat for a minute or two. Two musket shots were fired at them, but good aim in the darkness at such a bobbing object was impossible. Ned heard one of the bullets whistle near, and it gave him a queer, creepy feeling to realize that for the first time in his life someone was firing at him to kill.
"Can you row, Ned?" asked White.
"Yes."
"Then pull with all your strength. Bend as low as you can at the same time. They"ll be firing at us as long as we are in range."
They strove for the cover of the darkness, but they were compelled to devote most of their efforts to keeping themselves afloat. The little boat was tossed here and there like a bit of plank. Spray from the sea was dashed over them, and, in almost a moment, they were wet through and through. The captured musket lay in the bottom and rolled against their feet. The wind shrieked continually like some wild animal in pain.
Many torches appeared on the wharf that led up to the castle, and there was a noise of men shouting to one another. The torches disclosed the little boat rising and falling with the swell of the sea, and numerous shots were now fired, but all fell short or went wild.
"I don"t think we"re in much danger from the muskets," said Obed, "so we won"t pay any more attention to them. But in another minute they"ll have big boats out in pursuit We must make for the land below the town, and get away somehow or other in the brush. If we were to land in the town itself we"d be as badly off as ever. Hark, there goes the alarm!"
A heavy booming report rose above the mutter of the waters and the screaming of the wind. One of the great guns on the castle of San Juan de Ulua had been fired. After a brief interval it was followed by a second shot and then a third. The reports could be heard easily in Vera Cruz, and they said that either a fresh revolution had begun, or that prisoners were escaping. The people would be on the watch. White turned the head of the boat more toward the south.
"Ned," he said, "we must choose the longer way. We cannot run any risk of landing right under the rifles of Santa Anna"s troops. Good G.o.d!"
Some gunner on the walls of San Juan de Ulua, of better sight and aim than the others, had sent a cannon ball so close that it struck the sea within ten feet of them. They were deluged by a water spout and again their little vessel rocked fearfully. Obed White called out cheerfully:
"Still right side up! They may shoot more cannon b.a.l.l.s at us, Ned, but they won"t hit as near as that again!"
"No, it"s not likely," said Ned, "but there come the boats!"
Large boats rowed by eight men apiece had now put out, but they, too, were troubled by the wind and the high waves, and the boat they pursued was so small that it was lost to sight most of the time. The wind and darkness while a danger on the one hand were a protection on the other.
Fortunately both current and wind were bearing them in the direction they wished, and they struggled with the energy that the love of life can bring. All the large boats save one now disappeared from view, but the exception, having marked them well, came on, gaining. An officer seated in the prow, and wrapped in a long cloak, hailed them in a loud voice, ordering them to surrender.
"Ned," said Obed White, "you keep the boat going straight ahead and I"ll answer that man. But I wish this was a rifle in place of a musket."
He picked up the musket and took aim. When he fired the leading rower on the right hand side of the pursuing boat dropped back, and the boat was instantly in confusion. White laid down the musket and seized the oar again.
"Now, Ned," he exclaimed, "if we pull as hard as we can and a little harder, we"ll lose them!"
The boat, driven by the oars and the wind, sprang forward. Fortune, as if resolved now to favor fugitives who had made so brave a fight against overwhelming odds, piled the clouds thicker and heavier than ever over the bay. The little boat was completely concealed from its pursuers.
Another gun boomed from San Juan de Ulua, and both Ned and Obed saw its flash on the parapet, but, hidden under the kindly veil of the night, they pulled straight ahead with strong arms. The sea seemed to be growing smoother, and soon they saw an outline which they knew to be that of the land.
"We"re below the town now," said Obed. "I don"t know any particular landing place, but it"s low and sandy along here. So I propose that we ride right in on the the highest wave, jump out of the boat when she strikes and leave her."
"Good enough," said Ned. "Yes, that"s the land. I can see it plainly now, and here comes our wave."
The crest of the great wave lifted them up, and bore them swiftly inland, the two increasing the speed with their oars. They went far up on a sandy beach, where the boat struck. They sprang out, Obed taking with him the unloaded musket, and ran. The retreating water caught them about the ankles and pulled hard, but could not drag them back. They pa.s.sed beyond the highest mark of the waves, and then dropped, exhausted, on the ground.
"We"ve got all Mexico now to escape in," said Obed White, "instead of that pent-up castle."
The alarm gun boomed once more from San Juan de Ulua, and reminded them that they could not linger long there. The rain was still falling, the night was cold, and, after their tremendous strain, they would need shelter as well as refuge.
"They"ll be searching the beach soon," said Obed, "and we"d best be off.
It"s against my inclination just now to stay long in one place. A rolling stone keeps slick and well polished, and that"s what I"m after."
"I think our safest course is to travel inland just as fast and as far as we can," said Ned.
"Correct. Good advice needs no bush."
They started in the darkness across the sand dunes, and walked for a long time. They knew that a careful search along the beach would be made for them, but the Mexicans were likely to feel sure when they found nothing that they had been wrecked and drowned.
"I hope they"ll think the sea got us," said Ned, "because then they won"t be searching about the country for us."
"We weren"t destined to be drowned that time," said Obed with great satisfaction. "It just couldn"t happen after our running such a gauntlet before reaching the sea. But the further we get away from salt water the safer we are."
"It was my plan at first," said Ned, "to go by way of the sea from Vera Cruz to a Texan port."
"Circ.u.mstances alter journeys. It can"t be done now. We"ve got to cut across country. It"s something like a thousand miles to Texas, but I think that you and I together, Ned, can make it."
Ned agreed. Certainly they had no chance now to slip through by the way of Vera Cruz, and the sea was not his element anyhow.
The rain ceased, and a few stars came out. They pa.s.sed from the sand dunes into a region of marshes. Constant walking kept their blood warm, and their clothes were drying upon them. But they were growing very tired and they felt that they must rest and sleep even at the risk of recapture.
"There"s a lot of gra.s.s growing on the dry ground lying between the marshes," said Ned, "and I suppose that the Mexicans cut it for the Vera Cruz market. Maybe we can find something like a haystack or a windrow.
Dry gra.s.s makes a good bed."
They hunted over an hour and persistence was rewarded by a small heap of dry gra.s.s in a little opening surrounded by thorn bushes. They spread one covering of it on the ground, covered themselves to the mouth with another layer, and then went sound asleep, the old, unloaded musket lying by Obed White"s side.
The two slept the sleep of deep exhaustion, the complete relaxation of both body and mind. Boy and man they had pa.s.sed through ordeals that few can endure, but, healthy and strong, they suffered merely from weariness and not from shattered nerves. So they slept peacefully and their breathing was long and deep. They were warm as they lay with the gra.s.s above and below them like two blankets. It had not rained much here, and the gra.s.s had dried before their coming, so they were free from danger of cold.
The night pa.s.sed and the brilliant Mexican day came, touching with red and gold the town that curved about the bay, and softening the tints of the great fortress that rose on the rocky isle. All was quiet again within San Juan de Ulua and Vera Cruz. It had become known in both castle and town that two Texans, boy and man, had escaped from the dungeons under the sea only to find a grave in the sea above. Their boat had been found far out in the bay where the returning waves carried it, but the fishes would feed on their bodies, and it was well, because the Texans were wicked people, robbers and brigands who dared to defy the great and good Santa Anna, the father of his people.
Meanwhile, the two slept on, never stirring under the gra.s.s. It is true that the boy had dreams of a mighty castle from which he had fled and of a roaring ocean over which he had pa.s.sed, but he landed happily and the dream sank away into oblivion. Peons worked in a field not a hundred yards away, but they sought no fugitives, and they had no cruel thoughts about anything. That Spanish strain in them was wholly dormant now. They had heard in the night the signal guns from San Juan de Ulua and the tenderest hearted of them said a prayer under his breath for the boy whom the storm had given to the sea. Then they sang together as they worked, some soft, crooning air of love and sacrifice that had been sung among the hills of Spain before the Moor came. Perhaps if they had known that the boy and man were asleep only a hundred yards away, the tenderest hearted among them at least would have gone on with their work just the same.
Ned was the first to awake and it was past noon. He threw off the gra.s.s and stood up refreshed but a little stiff. He awoke Obed, who rose, yawning tremendously and plucking wisps of gra.s.s from his hair. The droning note of a song came faintly, and the two listened.
"Peons at work in a field," said the boy, looking through the trees.
"They don"t appear to be very warlike, but we"d better go in the other direction."
"You"re right," said Obed. "It"s best for us to get away. If we tempt our fate too much it may overtake us, but before we go let"s take a last view of our late home, San Juan de Ulua. See it over there, cut out in black against the blue sky. It"s a great fortress, but I"m glad to bid it farewell."