CHAPTER XI--JOSE HAS AN ENEMY
"I like them all, the pretty girls, I like them all whether dark or fair, But above the rest, I like the best The girl with the golden hair!"
rang out the charming tenor voice of Jose, while he thrummed adelightful accompaniment on the piano.
Dinner was over, and the major, and his guests were sitting in themoonlight on the broad piazza. Windows and doors were stretched as wideas possible; the curtains in the red drawing room were drawn back andJose was entertaining the company.
"I sing it translated," he called, as he finished the song, "that it maybe understood."
Whereupon Jimmie winked at Stephen, and looked at Mollie; the majorsmiled indulgently, and the others were all more or less conscious thatSpaniards always liked blond girls because they were so rare in Spain.
Mollie herself, however, was unconscious that she was being sung about.She was looking out across the moonlit stretches of lawn and meadows,her little hands folded placidly in her lap.
"Do you dance as well as sing, Mr. Martinez?" she asked in her high,sweet voice.
"I can dance, yes," replied Jose, "but I like best dancing with another.I do not like to dance alone."
"But there is no one else here who dances Spanish fancy dances, isthere?" demanded Miss Sallie.
There was a silence.
"Don't all speak at once," cried Jimmie. "I will play for you, Jose, ifyou will try dancing alone," he added. "I am afraid we can't help you inany of your Spanish dances."
"Very well," replied Jose. "I will, then, try a dance of the Basquecountry, if Madamoiselle Mollie will be so kind as to lend me her scarf.I must have a hat also."
He disappeared through the window and returned in a moment with abroad-brimmed felt hat he had found in the hall. Mollie handed him herpink scarf with a border of wild roses, and walking composedly up to theend of the long piazza he stood perfectly still, waiting for the musicto begin. Jimmie struck up a Spanish dance with the sound of castanetsin the bass.
"How's that for a tune?" he called out.
"Very good, very good," answered Jose. Then he started the strange dancewhile the others watched spellbound.
The boys, who had been rather scornful of a man's dancing fancy dances,confessed afterwards that there was nothing effeminate in Jose'sdancing, no pirouetting and twisting on one toe like Jimmie Butler's oneaccomplishment in ballet-dancing. They gathered that it was a sort ofbullbaiting dance. It began with a series of advances and retreats, witha springy step always in time to the throb of the music.
The young Spaniard was very graceful and lithe. He seemed to haveforgotten that he was on the piazza of foreigners in a strange country.The dance grew quicker and quicker. Suddenly he drew a long curveddagger from his belt and made a lunge at some imaginary obstacle,probably the bull he was baiting.
Bab, who was nearest the dancer, rose to her feet quickly, and then satdown rather limply.
"The knife, the knife!" she said to herself. "It is the highwayman'sknife!"
And now the handsome dancer was kneeling at Mollie's feet offering herthe scarf.
He had risen and was bowing to the company, when whir-r-r! something hadwhizzed past his head, just scratched his forehead and then planteditself in the wooden frame of the window behind him.
Was Barbara dreaming; or had she lost her senses?
The knife in the wall was the same, or exactly like the knife Jose hadbeen using in the dance.
In a moment everything was in wild confusion.
"Go into the house, ladies!" commanded the major.
The four boys leaped from the piazza, to run down the assassin, so theythought, but the figure vaguely outlined for an instant in the shadowsof the trees, was as completely hidden as if the earth had opened andswallowed it up.
Jose, in a big chair in the drawing room, was being ministered to byMiss Sallie and the girls, while the major, with a glass of water, wasstanding over him on one side and the housekeeper, on the other, wasbinding his head with a linen handkerchief.
Whir-r-r! Something Whizzed Past His Head.]
"Major," Miss Sallie was saying, "this country is full of assassins androbbers. I believe we shall all be murdered in our beds. I am reallyterribly frightened. We have had nothing but attacks since we left NewYork. And, now, this poor young man is in danger. Who could it havebeen, do you suppose, and what good did it do to hurl a knife into themidst of a perfectly harmless company like that!"
"The country is a little wild, Sallie," replied the majorapologetically, "but I have never heard of anything like this happeningbefore. Of course, there are highwaymen everywhere. There are thoseGypsies in the forest. Perhaps it was one of them."
Just then the boys returned, and the attention of the others wasdistracted from Jose, who still sat quietly, his lips pressed together.
Barbara, who had been standing a little way off, turned to him quickly.
"The knife?" she asked, but stopped without finishing, for Jose hadfixed her glance with a look of such appeal that she could say no more.
"By the way," observed Jimmie Butler, "where is the knife?"
"Sticking in the wall of course," replied Stephen.
The two boys ran out on the piazza, but returned empty-handed.
"Mystery of mysteries!" cried Jimmie, "the knife is gone!"
"It is impossible," exclaimed the major. "We have not left this room. Wecould see anyone who came upon the piazza."
"Well, it's gone," said Jimmie. "While you were nursing Jose, somebodymust have crept up and got it."
"Good heavens!" exclaimed Miss Sallie. "Do you mean to say that themurderer has been that close to us again? Do close those windows anddraw the curtains."
"Yes, do so," said the major. "Mary," he continued to the housekeeper,who was entering at that moment with a basin of water, "I wish you wouldhave all the men on the place sent to me. Some of them may be asleep,but wake them up. We shall scour every part of the estate to-night. Ifthere's anybody hiding around here we shall rout him out."
Mary hurried off to deliver her orders, while the boys ran to theirrooms to get on tennis shoes and collect various weapons.
"I am sorry Jose was scratched," Martin confided to Alfred, "but--well,this is pretty good sport, old man. Don't you think so?"
"By Jove, it is," replied Alfred with enthusiasm. "If that assassinshould leap at us in the dark I should like to give him a nip with thisshillalah. What a beastly coward he was to attack a man when his backwas turned!"
And with that, he waved a big knotted club, one of Stephen'spossessions, around his head, and glared ferociously.
"Come on, boys," called Stephen. "We haven't a moment to lose. The manwill be well away if we don't hurry. We are going to ride in twos anddivide the place in sections."
In another ten minutes a company of horsemen rode off in the moonlight,two by two, while the frightened maid-servants locked and barred thehouse doors and windows.
Jose had begged to be allowed to go along, but the major had silencedhim by saying that Miss Sallie and the girls needed a protector, andthat under the circumstances it was better for him to stay at home andlook after them. Even the old major was rather enjoying the zest of aman-hunt, and his eyes flashed with a new fire under his grizzledeyebrows.
But nothing happened and the assassin remained at large. The huntersscoured the country, searched the forest on the outskirts of the TenEyck estate, and woke the sleeping Gypsies to demand what they knew. TheGypsies knew nothing, and at midnight the horsemen returned.
The house was silent. Everyone had gone to bed except Jose, who sat inthe library listening for every sound that creaked through the oldplace. He met Major Ten Eyck and the boys at the front door, holding acandle high and peering anxiously into the dark to see what quarry theyhad brought home.
And, when he saw they had no prisoner bound to the horse with the ropesthat the major had ordered his man to take along, a look of strangerelief came into the Spaniard's face. He brea
thed a deep sigh, smiled ashe thanked them, said good-night and went up the broad stairway with thesame smile still clinging to his lips.
In the meantime Bab was stretched out beside the sleeping Ruth, wideawake, going over the events of that tumultuous day.
She felt that these events had no connection with each other, and yetdeep down in her inner consciousness she was searching for the link thatbound all the strange happenings together. She was not quite sure nowwhether she had seen the face in the library or not. She had been sotired and hot. It might, after all, have been a dream. But the footstepsin the dust on the attic floor, coming from the wall, what of them?
And last, though most strange and mysterious of all, the two daggers?Jose had been saved just in time from the stigma of suspicion by theappearance of the other dagger, for, in the moment she had seen the two,Bab had realized they were absolutely alike.
She could not believe Jose was a highwayman, and yet there were certainthings that looked very black. It was true he had not known where theywere going, but she imagined he could have found it out.
Was it his figure she had seen behind the curtain that morning,listening? Whoever it was heard the exact route of their trip, withexplicit directions from the major. Undoubtedly, Bab believed, theeavesdropper was the highwayman.
Furthermore, what did they know about Jose? It is true he had comebearing credentials, but such things were easily fixed up by experts,and the major was a simple old fellow who never doubted anybody until hehad to.
On the other hand, Jose had every appearance of being a gentleman. Hehad proved himself to be brave by knocking down the tramp twice his sizeat Sleepy Hollow. There was an air of sincerity about him which shecould not fail to recognize. He was graceful and charming. Everybodyliked him, even those who had been inclined to feel prejudiced at first.
Would the Spaniard have dared to use the same dagger in the dance thathe had used to slash their tires with? It was assuredly amazinglyreckless, and yet he might have trusted to the darkness and risked it.
But the look he gave her when she started to speak of the twin daggers!What could that have meant? Was he trying to shield his own enemy?
Should she speak to the major or should she say nothing?
On the whole, Barbara thought it would be better to keep quiet for a dayor two. It might be that Miss Sallie would insist on taking them awayafter this last attack; but she believed Ruth's and the major's prayerswould prevail, and that they would all stay through the visit.
They had planned so many delightful parties it seemed a shame to breakup on the very first day of their visit. And, after all, Miss Sallie hada great tenderness for the major, a tenderness lasting through thirtyyears.
Then Barbara dropped off to sleep, and in the old house only one othersoul was still awake as the clock in the hall chimed the hour of two.
In his room, by the light of a flickering candle, Jose sat examining thedagger that had so baffled Bab's curiosity. On his face was anexpression of sorrow and bitterness that would certainly have arousedher pity had she seen him that moment. At last he shook his headhopelessly, muttered something in Spanish, and blew out the candle.
But before getting into bed he picked up the dagger again.
"Even in America," he said in English, "even in this far country it isthe same. But I will not endure it," he muttered. "It is too much!"
Putting his dagger under the pillow, he crept to bed.