CHAPTER XXXII
LOVE'S VISION
It was late when Walthew led Blanca's mule through the rebel camp to thetable under a tree where Don Martin sat writing. There was a half moonin the sky, and as they passed between the rows of motionless, darkfigures stretched on the ground, here and there an upturned face caughtthe light and shone a livid white. In places a sentry's form wassilhouetted, vague and black, against the sky, but except for this allwas wrapped in puzzling shadow, and silence brooded over the camp.
One of Don Martin's staff sat beside the table, smoking a cigarette,another lay asleep near by, but a small lamp burned steadily near theleader's hand, lighting up his grave face against the gloom. He put downhis pen and waited when Walthew stopped the mule and helped the girl todismount.
"I have had the honor of escorting the senorita from Rio Frio, wherewith her help I got my partner out of the _carcel_," he said.
"Yes," Don Martin returned in a quiet voice, "I have heard something ofthis. I am told that you met my daughter at the _hacienda_ Perez. Was itby accident?"
Walthew, remembering Grahame's remarks on the subject, feltembarrassed, for the steadiness of Don Martin's glance was significant.
"Certainly!" he answered. "I had never heard of the _hacienda_ before Ireached it. For all that, I would not have kept away if I had known thesenorita was there."
"One must acknowledge your frankness," Don Martin remarked. "Well, whathappened afterward?"
Walthew looked at Blanca, but she seemed to be smiling as she unfoldedher fan, and he began a brief account of their adventures.
"And your comrade is with you?" asked Don Martin. "I was told of hisescape, but you have been some time on the way. Our friends who lost youin Rio Frio arrived this morning."
Blanca laughed.
"I cannot walk like a peon," she explained.
"But you came on a mule!"
"We had gone some distance when Carson, the trader, lent it to us."
Walthew had not mentioned their meeting with the President's messenger,and Don Martin looked surprised.
"Carson!" he exclaimed. "If I did not believe Mr. Grahame was a man ofhonor, I should not know what to think."
"Mr. Walthew also is a man of honor," Blanca retorted in a meaning tone."But I have news which you must hear at once."
Don Martin turned to Walthew.
"You will give me a few minutes; then I will see you again."
Taking this as a dismissal, Walthew went back to where Grahame waswaiting and smoked a cigarette with him. Soon after he had finished it,a drowsy soldier beckoned him and he returned to Sarmiento. When hereached the table Blanca had gone.
"Senor," he said, "I have a favor to ask; but the accident that I wasthrown into Miss Sarmiento's company at the _hacienda_ and Rio Frio hasnothing to do with it. You must understand that. I want your consent tomy marriage to your daughter."
"Ah!" said Don Martin. "You have learned that she is willing?"
Walthew felt half guilty when he thought of the kiss beneath thewindow-sill, but he looked at Don Martin steadily.
"I thought it better to follow your customs," he explained. "Blanca doesnot know I meant to ask you. But I want to say that my mind has beenmade up for some time. It was for her sake that I determined to stay onthe coast and give you all the help I could."
There was a gleam of amusement in Don Martin's eyes.
"Then my daughter gained us a useful ally. But, so far, you have spokenfor yourself. What about your parents? Blanca Sarmiento is not anAmerican."
Walthew hesitated for a moment.
"They may feel some surprise, but I believe it will vanish when theyhave seen her; and I choose my wife to please myself. I think I havemeans enough to make my way without any help, though I haven't a greatdeal."
"How much?"
Sarmiento nodded when Walthew told him.
"It is enough; you would be thought a rich man in this country. Still,I would prefer to have your father's consent. It is our custom that amarriage should be arranged with the approval of both families."
"But you are a progressive and don't count much on customs. I understandthat you mean to cut out all those that stop your people from goingahead."
"It is true to some extent," Don Martin admitted with a smile. "For allthat, one may believe in progress in the abstract, and yet hesitateabout making risky experiments that touch one's own family. However, ifBlanca is willing, I can trust her to you."
"I'll try to deserve your confidence," Walthew answered, and added witha naively thoughtful air: "My people will come round; the only thingthey'll insist on is that I enter the family business, and that's goingto be easier than I thought."
"Why did you refuse in the beginning?"
"It's rather hard to explain. I wanted to get into touch with realities,to learn what I was good for and find my proper level."
Sarmiento made a sign of comprehension.
"And in searching for what you call realities, you have found yourself."
Walthew recognized the truth of this. It was not that in facing dangerand hardship he had gained steadiness and self-control, because he hadnever lacked courage, but he had acquired a clearer conception ofessential things. He would no longer be content to accept thoughtlesslythe conventional view. His comrade had taught him much by his coolnessin time of strain and his stubborn tenacity when things went wrong. Itwas not for nothing that Grahame had hawk-like eyes: he had the gift ofseeing what must be done. But, after all, it was from hardship itselfthat Walthew had learned most, and in the light of that knowledge hedetermined to go home. The work he was best fitted for was waiting inthe smoky, industrial town; it was not the task he had longed for, butit was his, and he would be content now.
Don Martin smiled.
"You may try to persuade Blanca to go with you to your country, if youwish. I want a talk with your comrade now. Will you send him to me?"
Walthew left him with a light heart, and shortly afterward Grahamejoined Don Martin.
"Senor," said the leader, "you have kept your agreement with usfaithfully, and I do not know that we have any further claim, but Iunderstand that you do not mean to leave us yet."
"No," Grahame replied quietly; "I shall see you through."
"Good! Another body of our friends is gathering at a village to which Iwill send you with a guide. They are well armed and determined. I offeryou command."
"Where is the senorita Cliffe?" Grahame wanted to know.
"At a _hacienda_ two or three hours' ride back. She is in good hands,and at daybreak my daughter leaves to join her."
Grahame was sensible of keen disappointment.
"When do you wish me to start?" he asked.
"As soon as possible; but you'd better take an hour's rest."
"I'm ready now if you will give me my orders."
When, a few minutes later, he rode away with the guide, Walthew andBlanca left the camp and followed a path that led through a field ofrustling sugar-cane.
"We must not go far," Blanca protested. "This is quite against mypeople's idea of what is correct."
"It's a sign of the change you're going to make for me. You might havebeen something like a princess here, and you'll be the wife of a plainAmerican citizen, instead."
"I never wanted to be a princess," she said; "and certainly not aconspirator. All I really hoped for was one faithful subject."
"You have one whose loyalty won't change. But you mustn't expect toomuch, because I'm giving up my adventurous career and turning businessman. Men like Bolivar and the other fellow you wanted me to copy aren'tborn every day--and I'm not sure we'd appreciate them if they were."
Blanca laughed.
"You are a pessimist, but I will tell you a secret. It needs courage tobe the wife of a great soldier and I am not brave enough." Her voicefell to a low, caressing note. "One's heart shrinks from sending the manone loves into danger."
Walthew stopped in the path and faced the girl. She was smiling. Thehalf-moo
n, now high overhead, shed its beams down in a weird light thatlay over everything like a mantle of blue silver. All about them thetall cane whispered in the wind.
Walthew opened his arms, and Blanca cuddled to him.
"It is so wonderful!" he breathed, after the first long kiss. "Sowonderful that you are really going back to the States with me!"
"You are not going back the same," she smiled up at him; and he stoopedand kissed the smile.
"----You have seen the vision," she finished; "romance has touched you."
"It was you who opened my eyes. Perhaps now they are dazzled; but wewill never let the vision quite fade. Romance shall spread her brightwings above the home I'm going to build you on the river bluff----"
Again he found her mouth, and drank deep.
The silence was broken by a rattle of leather and a jingle of steel thatstartled them, and as they turned quickly and walked up the path a darkfigure rose out of the gloom ahead and stood before them, sinister andthreatening. When Walthew had answered the sentry's challenge, Blancashivered.
"I had forgotten for a few minutes," she said. "Rio Frio is not takenyet, and you must fight for us."
"For two or three days, if all goes well. It can't be a long struggle.Rio Frio is bound to fall."
Blanca clung closer to him.
"I cannot keep you," she said; "but how I wish the days were over! Thereis nothing of the princess in me; I am only an anxious girl."