CHAPTER V.
THE WORK OF THE NORTHER
During the rest of that day and the earlier part of the next the weathercontinued fairly good, and the unloading went steadily on. In the manyintervals of his duties, Ned tried hard to drive his mental fever away,and amused himself as best he might. The city itself was worth lookingat, with its tiers of streets rising one above another from the shore.He saw several churches, and some of them were large, with massivetowers and steeples.
"The Mexicans must have been richer than they are now," he said tohimself, "when those things were built. They cost piles of money."
He had no idea how rich a country it is, or how much richer it might be,if its wonderful natural resources were to be made the most of. As forthe city, he had heard that Vera Cruz contained about seven or eightthousand people, besides its military garrison, its foreigners, and acontinually varying mob of transient visitors from the interior. Zuroagahad told him, moreover, that it was from the latter that any gringo likehimself would be in danger of violence. They were a vindictive,bloodthirsty class of men, most of them, for they retained undiminishedthe peculiar characteristics of their Indian ancestors.
"I don't care to run against any of them," thought Ned. "I don't likethis _tierra caliente_ country, anyhow. It's too hot to live in."
Then he thought a great deal of the wonderful land of forests andmountains which lay beyond the fever-haunted lowlands, and he longedmore and more for a good look at the empire which Hernando Cortes wonfrom the old Montezumas and their bloody war-god, Huitzilopochtli.
In the afternoon of the second day the sky was manifestly putting on athreatening aspect. The wind began to rise and the sea began to roughen.The men discharging the cargo hastened their work, and it was evidentthat the last of the lighter barges would soon be setting out for theshore. Ned was staring at them and recalling all the yarns he had heardconcerning the destructive power of a gulf "norther," when Captain Kempcame walking slowly toward him, with a face which appeared to express nosort of unusual concern for anything in the world. Nevertheless, hesaid:
"Get ready now, Ned, as sharp as you can. There comes your boat. I shallsend some papers by the colonel. Senor Zuroaga's luggage all went onshore yesterday. I think some other men will have to be looking out forthemselves before long. If the _Goshhawk_ should drag her anchors and goashore, I hope there won't be too much sea running for good boats tolive in."
"I'm all ready now!" exclaimed Ned, as he sprang away, but he went witha curious question rising in his mind: "What if a cable were more'n halfcut through? Wouldn't it be likely to break and let go of an anchor, ifit were pulled at too hard by a gale of wind? I don't really knowanything about it, but Senor Zuroaga thinks that Captain Kemp is acurious man to deal with. Father thinks that he is a good sailor, too."
All the wardrobe that Ned had on board was easily contained in awaterproof satchel of moderate size, and he was half-glad now thatthere was no more of it, it went so quickly over into the large yawlthat was waiting alongside when he returned on deck. It was a four-oaredboat, and Colonel Tassara, at the stern, beckoned to him withoutspeaking, as if he might have reasons for silence as well as haste.
"In with you, Ned," said Captain Kemp. "I'll try to see you within a dayor two. Take good care of yourself. Good day, colonel."
The Mexican officer only bowed, and in a moment more the yawl wasfighting her difficult way over the rapidly increasing waves, for thefirst strength of the norther had really come, and there might soon be agreat deal more of it,--for the benefit of the _Goshhawk_.
"There!" muttered Captain Kemp, as he saw them depart, "I haven't morethan a good boat's crew left on board. We'll take to the life-boat assoon as the cable parts. There isn't any use in trying to save this barkunder all the circumstances. I've done my duty. I couldn't havecalculated on heavy shot first, and then for a whole gang of cruiserswatching for me off the coast. This 'ere norther, too! Well, I didn'tmake the war, and I don't see that I ought to lose any money by it. Iwon't, either."
Whatever was his exact meaning, the mate and four other men who remainedevidently agreed with him, from what they were shortly saying to oneanother. It might also have been taken note of by a careful observerthat the mate was a Scotchman, and that the four others were all fromLiverpool. Whoever had put so much contraband of war on board the_Goshhawk_ had not entrusted it entirely to the eccentricities of a lotof out-and-out American sailors, with peculiar notions concerning theirflag.
On went Colonel Tassara's yawl, and it was not likely to meet any otherboat that evening. As the rollers increased in size momentarily, Nedbegan to have doubts as to whether such a boat had any reasonable hopeof reaching the shore. It was now pitch-dark also, and he could but feelthat his adventures in Mexico were beginning in a remarkably unpleasantmanner. The landing could not have been made at any place along thebeach, where the surf was breaking so dangerously, and it looked almostas perilous to approach the piers and wharves.
"How on earth are we to do it?" exclaimed Ned, in English, but noanswer came from the hard-breathing rowers.
Colonel Tassara seemed now to be steering a southerly course, instead ofdirectly landward, and Ned calculated that this would carry them pastall of the usual landing-places. It also gave them narrow escapes fromrolling over and over in the troughs between several high waves. On thewhole, therefore, it was a pretty rough boating excursion, but it wasnot a long one. It did take them almost past the city front, and at lastNed thought he saw a long, black shadow reaching out at the boat. It wasbetter than a shadow, for it was a long wooden pier, old enough to havebeen built by Cortes himself. The waves were breaking clean over it,but, at the same time, it was breaking them, so that around in the leeof it the water was less boisterous, and the yawl might reach the beachin safety. There was no wharf, but all Ned cared for was that he saw nosurf, and he felt better than he had at any moment since leaving the_Goshhawk_. It was the same, for they said so, emphatically, with theboatmen and Colonel Tassara.
"One of the men will take your bag," said the colonel to Ned, as soon asthey were out on shore. "We will go right along to my house, and weshall hardly meet anybody just now. I'm glad of that. Santa Maria, howdark it is getting! This will be the worst kind of norther."
A couple of lanterns had been taken from the boat. They had previouslybeen lighted by the colonel with much difficulty, and without them itwould have been impossible to follow the stony, grassy pathway by whichNed Crawford made his first invasion of the Mexican territory. He didnot now feel like annexing any of it, although Mexican patriots assertedthat their title to Vera Cruz or the city of Mexico itself was no betterthan their right to Texas. His gloomy march was a short one, and only afew shadowy, unrecognized human beings passed him on the way.
The party came to a halt before a one-story stone dwelling, with a longpiazza in front of it, close to the weedy sidewalk of a crooked andstraggling street. It was apparent that this was not in the aristocraticquarter of the city, if it had one. A door in the middle of the houseswung open as they arrived, and the boatman who carried Ned's bag put itdown on the threshold. The lanterns went away with him and his fellowrowers, but other lights made their appearance quickly,--after the doorhad closed behind Ned and Colonel Tassara. Not one of the boat's crewhad obtained a peep into the house, or had seen any of its occupants.Ned was now aware that he had entered a broad hall-like passageway,which appeared to run through the house, and to have several doors oneach side. One of these doors had opened to let the new light in, andthrough it also came Senor Zuroaga, two other men, and a young girl, whoat once threw her arms around the neck of Colonel Tassara.
"O father!" she exclaimed, "I am so glad! Mother and I were sofrightened! We were afraid you would be drowned."
"My dear little daughter," he responded, sadly, "I fear there will bemore than one lot of poor fellows drowned to-night. This storm isfearful!"
It seemed, in fact, to be getting worse every minute, and Ned wasthinking of the _Gosh
hawk_ and the state of her cable, even while he wasbeing introduced to the pretty Senorita Felicia Tassara, and then to hermother, a stately woman, who came to meet her husband withoutcondescending to say how badly she had been alarmed on his account.
"She's just about the proudest-looking woman I ever saw," thought Ned,for, although she welcomed him politely, she at once made him awarethat she did not consider him of any importance whatever. He was only ayoung gringo, from nobody knew where, and she was a Mexican lady of highrank, who hated Americans of all sorts.
Ned's only really hearty greeting came from Senor Zuroaga, who seemed tohim, under the circumstances, like an old friend.
"Carfora, my dear fellow," he said, "you and the colonel must come in toyour supper----"
"Why, senor," expostulated Ned, "I'm wet through, and so is he."
"I declare!" exclaimed Zuroaga. "What's in my head that I shouldoverlook that? You must change your rig. Come this way with me."
Ned followed him, bag in hand, through a narrow passage which opened atthe right, and they went on almost to the end of it. The room which theythen entered was only seven feet wide, but it was three times as long,and it was oddly furnished. Instead of a bedstead, a handsome hammock,with blankets, sheets, and a pillow in it, hung at one side, and thehigh window was provided with mosquito nettings. There was no carpet onthe floor, but this was clean, and a good enough dressing-bureau stoodat the further end of the room. Before the mirror of this, the senor setdown the lamp he had been carrying, and said to Ned:
"My dear Carfora, I have explained to the haughty senora that you arethe son of an American merchant, and of a good family, so that she willnot really treat you like a common person. She is descended from theoldest families of Spain, and there is no republicanism in her. Thesooner you are ready, the better. I will be back in five minutes."
Open came the bag, but the best Ned could do in the way of style was avery neat blue suit. What he would have called the swallow-tails, whichSenora Tassara might have expected as the dinner dress of a moreimportant guest, could hardly be required of a young fellow just escapedfrom a norther. As soon as he felt that he had done his best, he turnedtoward the door, but it opened to let in Senor Zuroaga in fullregulation dinner costume. How he could have put it on so quicklypuzzled Ned, but he asked no questions. It was quite possible, however,that even the descendant of Cortes and the Montezumas was a little bitin awe of the matronly descendant of the ancient Spanish grandees. Shemight be a powerful personage in more ways than one. At all events, Nedwas led out to the central hall and across it, to where an uncommonlywide door stood open, letting out a flood of illumination.
"Walk in, senors," said Colonel Tassara, from just inside this portal,and the next moment Ned was altogether astonished.
He had been impressed, on reaching this house, that it was an old andeven dingy affair, of no considerable size, but he did not yet know thatthe older Spanish mansions were often built with only one story andaround a central courtyard. Moreover, at least in Mexico, they were aptto show few windows in front, and to be well calculated for use as akind of small forts, if revolutionary or similar occasions should askfor thick walls, with embrasures for musketry. One glance around SenoraTassara's dining-room was enough to work a revolution in Ned's ideasrelating to that establishment. It was large, high-ceilinged, and itscarpetless floor was of polished mahogany. The walls and ceiling were ofbrilliant white stucco. Upon the former were hung several trophies ofweapons and antlers of deer. In the centre, at the right, in a kind ofornamental shrine, was an ivory and ebony crucifix, which was itself apriceless work of art. The long dining-table had no cloth to conceal thefact that it was of the richest mahogany, dark with age and polishedlike a mirror. On the table was an abundance of fine china ware, none ofit of modern manufacture, but all the more valuable for that reason. Atthe end nearest Ned stood a massive silver coffee-urn, beautifullymolded, and it was not wonderful that he stood still a moment to stareat it, for it had taken him altogether by surprise.
Almost instantly a change came over the dark, handsome features ofSenora Tassara. She smiled brightly, for Ned's undisguised admiration ofthat mass of silver had touched her upon a tender spot, and she nowspoke to him with at least four times as much cordiality as she hadshown him in the hall.
"Ah, my young friend," she said, turning gracefully toward him, "so youare pleased with my coffee-urn? No table in your city of New York canshow anything like it. It is of the oldest Seville workmanship, andthere are not many such remaining in all the world. It is an heirloom."
"Senor Carfora," at that moment interrupted Colonel Tassara, "I willshow you something else that is worth more than any kind of silverware. Take a good look at this!"
He stepped to a trophy of arms which hung upon the wall near him, andtook from it a long, heavy sword, with a worn-looking but deeply chasedgold hilt. He drew it from the sheath, gazing with evident pride at itscurving blade of dull blue steel.
"I think you have never before seen a sword like that," he said. "It mayhave been made at Toledo, for all I know, but it is centuries old. Itwas won from a Moor by an ancestor of mine, at the taking of Granada,when the Moorish power was broken forever by the heroes of Spain. Whocan tell? It may have come down from the days of the Cid Campeadorhimself."
Whoever that military gentleman may have been, Ned had no idea, but hedetermined to find out some day, and just now he was glad to grasp thegolden hilt, and remember all that he had ever heard about the Moors. Hehad not at all expected to hear of them again, just after escaping froma norther in the Gulf of Mexico, but, without being aware of it, he waslearning a great deal about the old Spanish-Mexican aristocracy, andwhy it could not easily become truly republican, even in the New World,which is beginning to grow old on its own account.
Dinner was now ready, and Ned voted it a prime good one, for itconsisted mainly of chicken, with capital corn-cakes and coffee. It wasa tremendous improvement upon the dinners he had been eating at sea,cooked in the peculiar style of the caboose of the _Goshhawk_.
One large idea was becoming firmly fixed in the acute mind of the youngadventurer, and it tended to make him both watchful and silent. Not onlywas he in a country which was at war with his own, but he was in a landwhere men were apt to be more or less suspicious of each other. It wasalso quite the correct thing in good manners for him to say but little,and he was the better able to hear what the others were saying.Therefore, he could hardly help taking note that none of the party atthe dinner-table said anything about the powder on the _Goshhawk_, orconcerning a possible trip to be made to Oaxaca by any one there. Theyall appeared ready, on the other hand, to praise the patriotism,statesmanship, and military genius of that truly great man, PresidentParedes. They made no mention whatever of General Santa Anna, but theyspoke confidently of the certainty with which Generals Ampudia andArista were about to crush the invading gringos at the north, underTaylor. They also were sure that these first victories were to befollowed by greater ones, which would be gained by the Presidenthimself, as soon as he should be able to take command of the Mexicanarmies in person. If any friend of his, a servant, for instance, of theTassara family, had been listening, he would have had nothing to reportwhich would have made any other man suppose that the rulers of Mexicohad bitter, revengeful foes under that hospitable roof.
The dinner ended, and Ned was once more in his room, glad enough to getinto his hammock and go to sleep. If the norther did any howling aroundthat house, he did not hear it, but he may have missed the swing motionwhich a hammock obtains on board a ship at sea. His eyes closed just ashe was thinking:
"This is great, but I wonder what on earth is going to happen to meto-morrow."