CHAPTER XIV.
THE VELORIO.
It was very late when the conspirators separated, and when the lastgroups of officers left the rancho, the sound of the Indian horses andmules proceeding to market was audible on the paved highway. Althoughthe darkness was still thick, the stars were beginning to die out in theheavens, the cold was becoming sharper--in a word, all foretold that daywould soon break.
The two travellers had seated themselves again at a corner of the table,opposite one another, and were dumb and motionless as statues. The hostwalked about the room with a busy air, apparently arranging and clearingup, but very anxious in reality, and desirous, in his heart, to be ridas soon as possible of these two singular customers, whose silence andsobriety inspired him with but slight confidence.
At length the person who had always spoken on his own behalf and thatof his companion struck the table twice, and the landlord hurried up atthis summons.
"What do you wish for, excellency?" he asked, with an obsequious air.
"I tell you what, landlord," the stranger continued, "it strikes me thatyour criado is a long time in returning; he ought to have been backbefore this."
"Pardon me, excellency, but it is a long journey from here to theSecunda Monterilla, especially when you are obliged to walk it. Still, Ibelieve the peon will soon be back."
"May Heaven hear you! Give us each a glass of tamarind water."
At this moment, when the landlord brought the draught, there was a tapat the door.
"Perhaps it is our man," the stranger said.
"That is possible, your excellency," the landlord answered, as he wentto open the door on the chain, which left only a passage of a fewinches, much too narrow for the visitor to enter the house against thewish of its owner. This precautionary measure, which is at once veryprudent and simple, is generally adopted all through Mexico, owingto the slight confidence with which the police organization in thisblessed country, which is the refuge of scoundrels of every description,inspires the inhabitants.
After exchanging a few words in a low voice with the new arrival, thelandlord unhooked the chain and opened the door.
"Excellency," he said to the stranger, who was slowly sipping histamarind water, "here is your messenger."
"At last," the traveller said, gladly, as he placed his horn mug on thetable.
The peon entered, politely doffed his hat and bowed.
"Well, my friend," the stranger asked him, "did you find the person towhom I sent you?"
"Yes, excellency, I had the good fortune to find him at home on hisreturn from a tertulia in the Calle San Agustin."
"Ah, ah! and what did he say on receiving my note?"
"Well, excellency, he is a caballero, for sure; for he first gave mea piastre, and then said to me, 'Go back as quick as you can walk,and tell the gentleman who sent you that I shall be at the meeting heappoints as soon as yourself.'"
"So that----"
"He will probably be here in a few minutes."
"Very good, you are a clever lad," the stranger answered; "here isanother piastre for you, and now you can retire."
"Thanks, your excellency," the peon said, joyfully pocketing hispiastre. "Caray! I should be a rich man with only two nights a monthlike this."
And after bowing a second time, he left the room to go and sleep, inall probability, in the corral. The peon had told the truth, for hehad scarce left the room ten minutes ere a rather loud voice was heardwithout: horses stamped, and not only was the door struck, but therewere several loud calls.
"Open the door without fear," the stranger said; "I know that voice."
The ranchero obeyed, and several persons entered the inn.
"At last you have returned, my dear Valentine," the newcomer exclaimedin French, as he walked quickly towards the travellers, who, for theirpart, went to meet him.
"Thanks for your promptitude in responding to my invitation, my dearRallier," the hunter answered.
The ranchero bit his lips on hearing them talk in a language he did notunderstand.
"Hum! they are Ingleses," he muttered spitefully. "I suspected they mustbe gringos."
It is a general rule with the lower class Mexicans that all foreignersare English, and consequently hunters or gringos.
"Come here, No Lusacho," Valentine said, addressing the landlord, whowas turning his hat between his fingers with an air of considerableembarrassment, "I have to talk on important matters with thesegentlemen, and as I do not wish to be disturbed by you, I propose thatyou should give me up this room for an hour."
"Excellency," he muttered.
"I understand, you expect to be paid. Very good, I will pay you, but oncondition that no one, not even yourself, comes in till I call."
"Still, your excellency----."
"Listen to me without interruption. Day will not break for two hours, soyou will not open your rancho till then, and, consequently, you have nocustomers to expect. I will pay an ounce for each hour; will that suityou?"
"I should think so, your excellency; at that price I will sell you thewhole day if you wish."
"That is not necessary," the hunter said, with a laugh; "but youunderstand I want fair play--no ears on the listen, or eyes at the slitsof the panelling."
"I am an honest man, your excellency."
"I am ready to believe so; but I warn you, because in the event of myseeing an eye or an ear lap, I shall immediately fire a bullet at it asa recommendation to prudence, and I have the ill luck to be a dead shot.Does the bargain suit you with those conditions?"
"Perfectly, your excellency. I shall keep a strict watch over my people,so that you shall not be disturbed."
"You are a splendid landlord, and I predict that you will make a rapidfortune, for I see that you thoroughly understand your own interests."
"I try to satisfy the gentry who honour my poor abode with theirpresence."
"Excellently reasoned! Here are the two promised ounces, and fourpiastres in the bargain for the refreshments you are going to serve us.Have these gentlemen's horses taken to the corral, and have the goodnessto leave us."
The landlord bowed with a grimacing smile, brought, with a speed farfrom common with people of his calling, the refreshments ordered, andgave the hunter a deep bow.
"Now," he said, "your excellency is in your own house, and no one shallenter without your orders."
While Valentine was making this bargain with the ranchero, his friendsremained silent, laughing inwardly at the hunter's singular mode ofproceeding, and the unanswerable arguments he employed to avoid anespionage almost always to be found in such places, when the master doesnot scruple to betray those who pay him best.
"Now," said Valentine, so soon as the door closed behind the landlord,"we shall talk at least in safety."
"Speak Spanish, my friend," said M. Rallier.
"Why so? It is so delightful to converse in one's own tongue, when,like me, you have so few opportunities for doing so. I assure you thatCurumilla will not feel offended."
"Hum; I did not say this on behalf of the chief, whose friendship foryou I am well acquainted with."
"Who then?"
"For Don Martial, who has accompanied me, and has important matters tocommunicate to you."
"Oh, oh, that changes the question," said the hunter, at oncesubstituting Spanish for the French he had hitherto employed. "Are youthere, my dear Don Martial?"
"Yes, senor," the Tigrero answered, emerging from the gloom in which hehad remained up to this moment, "and very happy to see you."
"Who else have you brought with you, Don Antonio?"
"Me, my friend," said a third person, as he let the folds of his cloakfall. "My brother thought that it would be better to have a companion,in the event of an alarm."
"Your brother was right, my dear Edward, and I thank him for the goodidea, which procures me the pleasure of shaking your hand a few momentssooner. And now, senores, if you are agreeable, we will sit down andtalk, for, if I am not mistaken, we h
ave certain things to tell eachother which are most important for us."
"That is true!" Antonio Rallier answered, as he sat down, in which hewas immediately imitated by the rest.
"If you like," Valentine continued, "we will proceed in regularrotation; that is, I fancy, the way to finish more quickly, for you knowthat moments are precious."
"First, and before all else, my friend," said Antonio Rallier, "permitme to thank you once again, in my own name and that of my family, forthe services you rendered me in our journey across the Rocky Mountains.Without you, without your watchful friendship and courageous devotion,we should never have emerged from those frightful gorges, but must haveperished miserably in them."
"What good is it, my friend, to recall at this moment----"
"Because," Antonio Rallier continued eagerly, "I wish you to bethoroughly convinced that you can dispose of us all as you please. Ourarms, purses, and hearts, all belong to you."
"I know it, my friend, and you see that I have not hesitated to makeuse of you, at the risk even of compromising you. So let us leave thissubject, and come to facts. What have you done?"
"I have literally followed your instructions; according to your wish, Ihave hired and furnished for you a house in Tacuba Street."
"Pardon me, but you know that I am very slightly acquainted with Mexico,for I have visited that city but rarely, and each time without stopping."
"The Tacuba is one of the principal streets in Mexico; it faces thepalace, and is close to the street in which I reside with my family."
"That is famous. And in whose name did you take the house?"
"In that of Don Serapio de la Ronda. Your servants arrived two days ago."
"You mean----"
"I mean Belhumeur and Black Elk; the former is your steward and thelatter your valet. They have made all the arrangements, and you canarrive when you please."
"Today, then."
"I will act as your guide."
"Thank you; what next?"
"Next, my brother Edward has taken, in his own name, at the San Lazarogate, a small house, where ten horses, belonging to the purest mustangbreed, were at once placed in a magnificent corral."
"That concerns Curumilla; he will live in that house with your brother."
"And now one other thing, my friend."
"Speak!"
"You will not be angry with me?"
"With you? nonsense!" said Valentine, holding out his hand.
"Not knowing whether you had sufficient funds at your disposal--and youwill agree with me that you will require a large sum----?"
"I know it. Well?"
"Well, I----"
"I see I must come to your assistance, my poor Antonio. As you believeme a poor devil of a hunter not possessed of a farthing, and are sodelicate minded yourself, you have placed in a corner of the room, orin some article of furniture, of which you want to give me the key anddon't know how, fifty or perhaps one hundred thousand piastres, with thereservation to offer me more, should not that sum prove sufficient."
"Would you be angry with me had I done so?"
"On the contrary, I should be most grateful to you."
"In that case I am glad."
"Glad of what, my dear Antonio?"
"That you accept the hundred thousand piastres."
Valentine smiled.
"I am delighted to find that you are the man I judged you to be. Still,while thanking you from my heart for the service you wish to render me,I do not accept it."
"Do you refuse, Valentine?" he said mournfully.
"Let us understand each other, my friend. I do not refuse; I simply tellyou that I do not want the money, and here is the proof," he added,as he took from his pocket a folded paper, which, he handed to hiscountryman, "you, as a banker, may know the firm of Thornwood, Davison,and Co."
"It is the richest in San Francisco."
"Then open that paper and read."
Mr. Rallier obeyed.
"An unlimited credit opened at my house," he exclaimed in a voicetremulous with joy.
"Does that displease you?" Valentine asked with a smile.
"On the contrary; but you must be rich in that case."
A cloud of sadness passed over the hunter's forehead.
"I have grieved you, my friend."
"Alas! as you know, there are certain wounds which never close. Yes, myfriend, I am rich; Curumilla, Belhumeur, and myself alone, now that myfoster-mother is dead, know in Apacheria the richest placer that existsin the world. It was for the purpose of going to this placer that I didnot accompany you to Mexico; now you understand; but what do I care forthis incalculable fortune, when my heart is dead, and the joy of my lifeis for ever annihilated!"
And under the weight of the deep emotion that crushed him, the hunterhung his head down and stifled a sob. Curumilla arose amid the generalsilence, for no one ventured to offer ordinary consolation for thisgrief, and laid his hand on Valentine's shoulder--
"Koutonepi," he said to him in a hollow voice, "remember that you havesworn to avenge our brother."
The hunter drew himself up as if stung by a serpent, and pressing thehand the Indian offered him, he looked at him for a moment with strangefixedness.
"Women alone weep for the dead, because they are unable to avenge them,"the Indian continued in the same harsh, cutting accent.
"Yes, you are right," the hunter answered with feverish energy; "I thankyou, chief, for having recalled me to myself."
Curumilla laid his friend's hand on his heart, and stood for an instantmotionless; at length he let it fall, sat down again, and wrappinghimself in his zarape, he returned to his habitual silence, from whichso grave a circumstance alone could have aroused him. Valentine passedhis hand twice over his forehead, which was bathed in cold perspiration,and attempted a faint smile.
"Forgive me, my friends, for having forgotten, during a moment, thecharacter I have assumed," he said in a gentle voice.
Their hands were silently extended to him.
"Now," he exclaimed in a firm voice, in whose notes traces of the pasttempest were still audible, "let us speak of that poor Dona Anita deTorres."
"Alas!" said the elder Rallier, "I cannot tell you anything, althoughmy sister Helena, her companion at the Convent of the Bernardines, towhich I sent her in accordance with your wish, has let me know that shewould have grand news for us in a few days."
"I will give you that news, with your permission," Don Martial saidat this moment, suddenly joining in the conversation, to which he hadhitherto listened with great indifference.
"Do you know anything?" Valentine asked him.
"Yes, something most important; that is why I was so anxious to speakwith you."
"Speak then, my friend, speak, we are listening."
The Tigrero, without further pressing, at once reported, in the fullestdetails, his interview with Don Sebastian Guerrero's capataz. The threeFrenchmen listened with the most serious attention, and when he hadfinished his story, Valentine rose--
"Let us be off, senores," he said, "we have no time to lose; perhapsheaven offers us, at this moment, the opportunity we have been so longawaiting."
The others rose without asking the hunter for any explanation, and afew minutes later Valentine and his comrades were galloping along thehighway in the direction of Mexico.
"I do not know what diabolical plot they are forming," No Lusachomuttered, on seeing them disappear in the distance; "but they are worthygentlemen, and let the ounces slip through their fingers like so muchwater."
And he entered the rancho, the door of which he now left open, for daywas breaking.