CHAPTER XV.
THE LIZARD.
Pepe el Lagarto was pleading his innocence of the only thing which hecounted sin, and asseverating his devotion to the only being he loved;and this, condensed, is the story to which Mrs. Brundage attached allmeanings but the right one.
He had been in THEIR hands, oh! many months. He did whatTHEY would, so long as they paid him in coca-leaf to chew, alittle cocaine when the leaves ran out, and enough food to live by.
THEY could get coca-leaf--but the Lizard could get it from noother. Nothing mattered but the leaves--and Dicco el Cojeante. Fiveyears it was since Pepe had seen him; Pepe had taken to the sea oncemore to find him, perhaps, in England.
Oh, yes! Last night they had brought in a woman--a lady abducted. Hewould have put his knife in her, had THEY so bidden him--untilhe knew that she was El Cojeante's woman. Now, he would knifeTHEM, any or all, before El Cojeante's woman should lose a hair.
As he knew the sun at his rising, so surely had he known El Cojeantewhen he had struck his first blow at the doctor that was a black bull.He had run from the house lest El Cojeante should slay Pepe beforeknowing him.
Hidden as the Lizard they called him hides in winter, he had seen theblack doctor in pursuit of El Cojeante escaping with his woman that wasclad in Dutch Fridji's skirt and the loose coat of a man. And, since heknew that God and the Saints will take the side of the man whom none canoutwit, Pepe crept back to the house.
Here Dick interrupted:
"You left your companero de grillos for fear of the Black Bull!" heexclaimed.
Pepe smiled, shaking his head.
"It was for fear of that which came to el toro erizado," he answered."Very wise was I, and prudent, for but three minutes since did I seehim, and in his throat la navaja de la ramera Holandesa." He made amovement with his hand, and added: "I remembered the days when I andDicco threw the knife."
He had gone back, he shamelessly continued, to learn how the land lay;for, should they be all dead, as he almost expected, for Pepe therewould be pickings.
To find Dicco el Cojeante again, time was plenty, for la senorita con elpelo rojo must set the pace.
In the hall, Melchardo was not yet come back to his sense; that otherthat had fallen with him--Heberto, the London man--was pouring water onMelchardo's head, while upstairs screamed la Holandesa.
And then came imperious clamour of the telephone. Pepe felt it wasangry.
Boldly he pushed past the London man and went to the room of theinstrument.
Through the machine spoke one Bayliss, teniente de Melchardo--chief ofTHOSE in Millsborough, having charge of the tooth-drawing--elnegocio dental, that was a cloak to cover great traffic in cocaine,opium and hashish. And Pepe knew this Bayliss for a man, if less subtle,even more prompt and terrible in action than Melchardo himself. But whenPepe answered with a password of Melchard's, Bayliss replied withquestions in a stream--what of the venture of yesterday? Had they foundthe new drug? Were they safe from pursuit?
And it was well for Pepe that this questioning was broken by the handthat tore the instrument from his fingers and pushed him aside. It wasMelchardo, the man of sweet odours, weak upon his feet, but strong inhis mind.
When Pepe would have sidled away, Melchardo bade him keep close. Drivendesperate by his enemies, he must trust what friend was at hand. "Standby lest I need thee," he had said. "For very soon there will be hell topay, if I act not now and with vigour."
So Pepe el Lagarto sunned himself in the window, and listened. And heheard Melchardo put the whole cuadrilla de morfinistas under orders todraw a net around the man who had fled with the precious powder of thenew drug and the girl who knew too much.
"For I tell you, Senor Dicco," he said, "that it is the web of a spider.He is the great Arana that sits in the midst, to run out and to seizeand to devour. It began in the Millsborough and Lowport sleeping-housesof the slant-eyed men of the sea, and spreads every day wider and widerits meshes and stays. Some day the web will cover the great towns andcountries of the world, unless----"
"Unless a great Ticodromo come, Pepe. Tell thy tale quickly," said Dick.
Five parties had Melchard sent out from Millsborough; two cars, as ifgoing to the fair and cricket match at Ecclesthorpe, or the races atTimsdale-Horton, each with four men; and three motor-cycles withsidecars, two men apiece. And their five bases, as Pepe showed upon thetable with bread-crumbs, were set at Gallowstree Dip, in the hollowhalf-way between "The Goat in Boots" and Ecclesthorpe; again, hard bythe railway-junction of Harthborough; thirdly, at the joining of theEcclesthorpe parish-road with the highway to London; fourthly, betweenthis and Millsborough, at "The Coach and Horses" Inn; and fifth, byMargetstowe village, where the woodland track from Monkswood Cottageruns into the seaward road over against "The Goat in Boots."
"And so, you are caught," said Pepe, "in a cage, with horse road andrail road beyond the bars."
"And you heard all this, in the talk which Melchard made with histeniente through the telephone?" asked Dick.
"All this," replied Pepe, "is what I tell you, from what I hear, fromwhat I know, and from what I have seen."
"Pepe, I have an automobile of great speed. It is over there at 'TheCoach and Horses.' You must take us across the moor, I will creep in andget the car, while you keep the lady hidden. I will drive out, and----"
"It is too late, Dicco. For while Melchardo talked and made commands,there was a sound from above of the breaking of wood and blows of ahammer, and the screaming of the woman was hushed. And before he hadcome to an end with the ordering, that Dutch Fury, set free by Heberto,springs into the room of the telephone, with blood in her eyes, andhalf-naked. When she knew what he was about, she asked him in her sharpvoice:
"'Have you told him first to find the man's car?'
"'What car? What man?' says Melchardo.
"'The devil that laid me out, and you fools too,' quoth Fridji. 'The manthat knew who stole the girl; the man that knew where you'd taken her;the man who had her out of this house three hours after we fetched herin. He came--he _must_ have come in a car, and by the London Road. Andhe must have left the car near by,' she cried, cursing Melchardo. 'Giveme a little writing on a paper, with a signature which none candecipher, saying that the gentleman sends for his car which he left inkeeping, when the master of "The Coach and Horses" put him on the way to"The Myrtles." And give me money, so that I pay him more than waspromised. If that devil get to his car, he will hang us all. But I willmyself drive it half-way hither,' said la Holandesa, 'and send it overthe road's edge by the way.'"
And after these things, said Pepe, she went to clothe herself, Melchardosat him down to write, and Heberto, the London man, was set to cleaningand preparing for the road that automobile in which they had fetched lasenorita roja from the south; and him, Pepe, they despatched scoutingafter Ocklee the Bull, to learn what might have been his luck in dealingwith El Cojeante and the girl.
"And behind my teeth," he concluded, "I smiled, knowing well that I wentto learn how thou hadst dealt with Ocklee."
"And how, Lagarto marrullero, shall we now deal with ourselves?" askedDick. "Tell me that."
"Melchardo waits awhile for me and my news," murmured the Lizardthoughtfully, shifting his geographical bread-crumbs. "If I be too longaway, he will move without my words to misguide him."
Then he set forth how, since Bayliss had taken his orders, there hadelapsed full time for each one of the pickets to reach its post, thoughperhaps not yet for regular contact to have been established by thepatrols betwixt point and point. But the Senorita must be waked at onceand take the road with Dicco, moving towards the best, or weakest, barsof the cage; for, though the net was spread, the great spider himselfwas not yet amove down its spokes and round the felloe.
"Come soon," said Pepe, "and I will set you in the best way, and thenback to send the Spider on the worst."
And under his soft, dog's eyes Pepe for the first time showed white,smiling teeth.
"Amigo de gri
llos," said Dick, in the voice which Pepe knew so well, buthad never before heard unsteady, "she has not slept an hour since Ithought her mind astray."
Then Pepe, fumbling at an inner pocket, spoke swiftly what wisdom was inhim.
"Dicco must get gaiters, rough trousers, and a hat. La senorita mustchange the Dutchwoman's skirt for whatever this old dame can furnish.When I leave you, feed her always, a little at a time. Talk, make love,make laugh."
"And if the strength fail altogether?" asked Dick, for a moment humblebefore this wizened wisdom.
"Better the spur and the whip than the wolves should eat the mare,"answered Pepe. And he drew a little box from his pocket. "It is theleaves," he said. "They are not evil like the drugs of shops and cities.If she flag and is without strength by the way, let her chew a little,whilst you fill her mind with other thoughts. Then will she endure tillDicco wins."
Dick turned to Mrs. Brundage, and, to her relief, spoke at last inEnglish.
"Madam," he said, "the Marquis and his myrmidons must be hoodwinked.Talking of hoods and winking suggests a sun-bonnet----"
"Silly, old-fashioned things!" said the woman. "But mebbe I have onethat I wore whilst Brundage was courtin'."
"And a plain blouse?" Dick continued. "And perhaps a darker skirt----"
"And hair in a plait down her back," cried the woman, greeting with achuckle her first game of make-believe for many a long year; "yournobleman might pass his daughter twenty times like that, an' never would'e know 'er."