CHAPTER THREE.
LINGUAL DIFFICULTIES ACCOMPANIED BY PHYSICAL DANGERS AND FOLLOWED BY THEADVENT OF BANDITTI.
After several days had passed away, our travellers found themselvesamong the higher passes of the great mountain range of the Andes.
Before reaching that region, however, they had, in one of the villagesthrough which they passed, supplied themselves each with a fresh stoutmule, besides two serviceable animals to carry their provisions and campequipage.
Pedro, who of course rode ahead in the capacity of guide, seemed topossess an unlimited supply of cash, and Lawrence Armstrong had at leastsufficient to enable him to bear his fair share of the expenses of thejourney. As for Quashy, being a servant he had no expenses to bear.
Of course the finest, as well as the best-looking, mule had been givento the pretty Manuela, and, despite the masculine attitude of herposition, she sat and managed her steed with a grace of motion thatmight have rendered many a white dame envious. Although filled withadmiration, Lawrence was by no means surprised, for he knew well that inthe Pampas, or plains, to which region her father belonged, the Indiansare celebrated for their splendid horsemanship. Indeed, their littlechildren almost live on horseback, commencing their training long beforethey can mount, and overcoming the difficulty of smallness in earlyyouth, by climbing to the backs of their steeds by means of a fore-leg,and not unfrequently by the tail.
The costume of the girl was well suited to her present mode of life,being a sort of light tunic reaching a little below the knees, withloose leggings, which were richly ornamented with needlework. A strawhat with a simple feather, covered her head, beneath which her curlingblack hair flowed in unconfined luxuriance. She wore no ornament of anykind, and the slight shoes that covered her small feet were perfectlyplain. In short, there was a modest simplicity about the girl's wholeaspect and demeanour which greatly interested the Englishman, inducinghim to murmur to himself, "What an uncommonly pretty girl she would beif she were only white!"
The colour of her skin was, indeed, unusually dark, but that fact didnot interfere with the classic delicacy of her features, or the naturalsweetness of her expression.
The order of progress in narrow places was such that Manuela rode behindPedro and in front of Lawrence, Quashy bringing up the rear. In moreopen places the young Englishman used occasionally to ride up abreast ofManuela and endeavour to engage her in conversation. He was, to saytruth, very much the reverse of what is styled a lady's man, and had allhis life felt rather shy and awkward in female society, but being asociable, kindly fellow, he felt it incumbent on him to do what in himlay to lighten the tedium of the long journey to one who, he thought,must naturally feel very lonely with no companions but men. "Besides,"he whispered to himself, "she is only an Indian, and of course cannotconstrue my attentions to mean anything so ridiculous as love-making--so, I will speak to her in a fatherly sort of way."
Filled with this idea, as the party came out upon a wide and beautifultable-land, which seemed like a giant emerald set in a circlet of grandblue mountains, Lawrence pushed up alongside, and said--
"Poor girl, I fear that such prolonged riding over these rugged passesmust fatigue you." Manuela raised her dark eyes to the youth's face,and, with a smile that was very slight--though not so slight but that itrevealed a double row of bright little teeth--she replied softly--
"W'at you say?"
"Oh! I forgot, you don't speak English. How stupid I am!" saidLawrence with a blush, for he was too young to act the "fatherly" partwell.
He felt exceedingly awkward, but, observing that the girl's eyes wereagain fixed pensively on the ground, he hoped that she had not noticedthe blush, and attempted to repeat the phrase in Spanish. What he saidit is not possible to set down in that tongue, nor can we gratify thereader with a translation. Whatever it was, Manuela replied by againraising her dark eyes for a moment--this time without a smile--andshaking her head.
Poor Lawrence felt more awkward than ever. In despair he half thoughtof making trial of Latin or Greek, when Pedro came opportunely to therescue. Looking back he began--
"Senhor Armstrong--"
"I think," interrupted the youth, "that you may dispense with `Senhor.'"
"Nay, I like to use it," returned the guide. "It reminds me so forciblyof the time when I addressed your good old father thus."
"Well, Senhor Pedro, call me what you please. What were you about tosay?"
"Only that we are now approaching one of the dangerous passes of themountains, where baggage-mules sometimes touch the cliffs with theirpacks, and so get tilted over the precipices. But our mules are quiet,and with ordinary care we have nothing to fear."
The gorge in the mountains, which the travellers soon afterwardsentered, fully justified the guide's expression "dangerous." It was awild, rugged glen, high up on one side of which the narrow pathwaywound--in some places rounding a cliff or projecting boulder, whichrendered the passage of the baggage-mules extremely difficult. Indeed,one of the mules did slightly graze a rock with its burden; and,although naturally sure-footed, was so far thrown off its balance as tobe within a hair's-breadth of tumbling over the edge and being dashed topieces on the rocks below, where a turbulent river rushed tumultuouslyat the bottom of the glen.
One of the snow-clad peaks of the higher Andes lay right before them.One or two guanacos--animals of the lama species--gazed at them from theother side of the gorge, and several ill-omened vultures wheeled in thesky above, as if anticipating a catastrophe which would furnish themwith a glorious meal.
"A most suitable place for the depredations of banditti, or fellows likeConrad of the Mountains, I should think," said Lawrence.
"Bandits are sometimes met with here," returned Pedro, quietly.
"And what if we should meet with such in a place where there is scarcelyroom to fight?"
"Why then," returned the guide, with a slight curl of his moustache, "weshould have to try who could fight best in the smallest space."
"Not a pleasant prospect in the circumstances," said Lawrence, thinkingof Manuela.
For some time they rode together in silence; but Quashy, who hadoverheard, the conversation, and was of a remarkably combativedisposition, though the reverse of bad-tempered or quarrelsome, couldnot refrain from asking--
"W'y de Guv'mint not hab lots ob sojers an' pleece in de mountains tosquash de raskils?"
"Because Government has enough to do to squash the rascals nearer home,Quashy," answered Pedro. "Have a care, the track gets rather steephere."
He glanced over his shoulder at the Indian girl as he spoke. She wasriding behind with an air of perfect ease and self-possession.
"Fall to the rear, Quashy," said Pedro.
The black obeyed at once, and a minute later they turned the corner of ajutting rock, which had hitherto shut out from view the lower part ofthe gorge and the track they were following.
The sight that met their view was calculated to try the strongestnerves, for there, not a hundred paces in advance, and coming towardsthem, were ten of the most villainous-looking cut-throats that could beimagined, all mounted, and heavily armed with carbine, sword, andpistol.
Taken completely by surprise, the bandits--for such Pedro knew them tobe--pulled up. Not so our guide. It was one of the peculiarities andstrong points of Pedro's character that he was never taken by surprise,or uncertain what to do.
Instantly he drew his sword with one hand, a pistol with the other, and,driving his spurs deep into his mule, dashed down the steep road at thebanditti. In the very act he looked back, and, in a voice that causedthe echoes of the gorge to ring, shouted in Spanish--
"Come on, comrades! here they are at last! close up!"
A yell of the most fiendish excitement and surprise from Quashy--who wasonly just coming into view--assisted the deception. If anything waswanting to complete the effect, it was the galvanic upheaval ofLawrence's long arms and the tremendous flourish of his longer legs, ashe vaulted ove
r his mule's head, left it scornfully behind, uttered aroar worthy of an African lion, and rushed forward on foot. He graspedhis great cudgel, for sword and pistol had been utterly forgotten!
Like a human avalanche they descended on the foe. That foe did notawait the onset. Panic-stricken they turned and went helter-skelterdown the pass--all except two, who seemed made of sterner stuff thantheir fellows, and hesitated.
One of these Pedro rode fairly down, and sent, horse and all, over theprecipice. Lawrence's cudgel beat down the guard of the other,flattened his sombrero, and stopping only at his skull, stretched him onthe ground. As for those who had fled, the appalling yells of Quashy,as he pursued them, scattered to the winds any fag-ends of courage theymight have possessed, and effectually prevented their return. Sotremendous and sudden was the result, that Manuela felt more inclined tolaugh than cry, though naturally a good deal frightened.
Lawrence and Pedro were standing in consultation over the fallen banditwhen the negro came back panting from the chase.
"Da's wan good job dooed, anyhow," he said. "What's you be do wid_him_?"
"What would you recommend?" asked Pedro.
The negro pointed significantly to the precipice, but the guide shookhis head.
"No, I cannot kill in cold blood, though I have no doubt he richlydeserves it. We'll bind his hands and leave him. It may be weakness onmy part, but we can't take him on, you know."
While Pedro was in the act of binding the robber, a wild shriek, as ofsome one in terrible agony, startled them. Looking cautiously over theprecipice, where the sound seemed to come from, they saw that the manwhom Pedro had ridden down was hanging over the abyss by the boughs of asmall shrub. His steed lay mangled on the rocks of the river bank atthe bottom. There was an agonised expression in the man's countenancewhich would have touched a heart much less soft than that of LawrenceArmstrong. Evidently the man's power of holding on was nearlyexhausted, and he could not repress a shriek at the prospect of theterrible death which seemed so imminent.
Being a practised mountaineer, Lawrence at once, without thought ofpersonal danger, and moved only by pity, slipped over the crags, and,descending on one or two slight projections, the stability of which evena Swiss goat might have questioned, reached the bush. A look of fierceand deadly hate was on the robber's face, for, judging of others byhimself, he thought, no doubt, that his enemy meant to hasten hisdestruction.
"Here, catch hold--I'll save you!" cried Lawrence, extending his strongright hand.
A glance of surprise told that he was understood. The bandit let go thehold of one of his hands and made a convulsive grasp at his rescuer.Their fingers touched, but at the same moment the branch gave way, and,with a cry of wild despair, the wretched man went headlong down.
Not, however, to destruction. The effort he had made threw him slightlyto one side of the line which his horse had taken in its fall. Thedifference was very slight indeed, yet it sufficed to send him towardsanother bush lower down the cliff. Still, the height he had to fallwould have ensured the breaking of all his bones if the bush had nothurled him off with a violent rebound.
Lawrence almost felt giddy with horror. Next moment a heavy plunge washeard. The man had fallen into a deep dark pool in the river, which wasscarce distinguishable from the cliffs above. Being fringed withbushes, it was impossible to note whether he rose again. Lawrence wasstill gazing anxiously at the pool, when something touched his cheek.It was a lasso which Pedro had quietly dropped over his shoulders.
"Hold fast to it, senhor, you'll never get up without it," he said, intones so earnest that the youth became suddenly alive to the greatdanger of his position. In the haste and anxiety of his descent he hadfailed to note that one or two of the slight projections on which he hadplaced his feet had broken away, and that therefore a return to the topof the almost perpendicular precipice by the same route wasimpracticable. Even the slight ledge on which he stood, and from whichthe little shrub grew, seemed to be crumbling away beneath his greatweight. With that feeling of alarm which the sudden and unexpectedprospect of instant death brings, we presume, even to the stoutesthearts, Lawrence clutched the line convulsively. He was ignorant atthat time of the great strength of the South American lasso, andhesitated to trust his life entirely to it. Pedro guessed his feelings.
"Don't fear to trust it," he said, "many a wild bull it has held, fourtimes your size; but wait till Quashy and I get our feet well fixed--we'll haul you up easily."
"Have you made the end fast?" cried Lawrence, looking up andencountering the anxious gaze of the Indian maiden.
"Yes, massa, all fast," answered Quashy, whose look of horror can bemore easily imagined than described.
"Hold on, then, and _don't_ haul."
The two men obeyed, and the active youth pulled himself up hand overhand, making good use in passing of any hollow or projection thatafforded the slightest hold for his toes. At the top he was roughlygrasped by his rescuers and dragged into safety.
"Poor fellow!" he exclaimed, on reaching the top.
"Well, massa," said Quashy, with a broad grin, "das jist w'at I's agwineto say, but you's too quick for me."
"I meant the bandit, not myself," said Lawrence, looking over the cliffat the pool with an expression of great pity.
"Ha! don't be uneasy about him," said Pedro, with a short laugh, as heresumed the binding of the stunned robber. "If he's killed or drownedhe's well out o' the way. If he has escaped he'll be sure to recoverand make himself a pest to the neighbourhood for many a day to come.--No, no, my good man, it's of no use, you needn't try it."
The latter part of this speech was in Spanish, and addressed to therobber, who, having recovered consciousness, had made a sudden struggleto shake off his captor. As suddenly he ceased the effort on findingthat the strength of the guide was greatly superior to his own.
In another minute Pedro stood up, having bound the bandit's hands infront of him in a manner that rendered any effort at self-liberationimpossible--at least in a short space of time.
"There," said Pedro to Lawrence, "I'll warrant him to lead a harmlesslife until to-morrow at any rate."
As he spoke he drew the man's pistols, knife, and carbine, and handedthem to Quashy.
"There," he said, "you may find these useful."
Meanwhile the robber lay quietly on his back, glancing from one toanother of the party with looks of hatred that told clearly enough howhe would have acted had he been free.
Turning to him as he was about to remount and quit the scene, Pedro saidvery sternly in Spanish--
"You and I have met before, friend, and you know my powers with therifle at long-range. If you offer to rise from the spot where you nowlie until we have disappeared round that rocky point half a mile alongthe road, you are a dead man. After we have turned the point, you maygo where you will and do what you please. I might point out that inrefraining from cutting your throat I am showing mercy which you don'tdeserve--but it is useless to throw pearls to swine."
The man spoke no word of reply, though he did look a little surprised asthe party left him and rode away.
"Would it not have been safer to have bound his hands behind his back?"asked Lawrence.
"No doubt it would, but he is secure enough for our purpose as he is.If I had bound him as you suggest, he would have been almost certain toperish, being quite unable to help himself. As it is, he can use histied hands to some extent, and, by perseverance in sawing the linesagainst sharp rocks, he will set himself free at last. By that time,however, we shall be beyond his reach."
From time to time they all glanced over their shoulders as they rodealong, but the bound man did not stir. After they had passed beyond thepoint of rock before referred to, Lawrence's curiosity prompted him toturn back and peep round.
The bandit had already risen from the ground, and could be seen walking,as quickly as circumstances permitted, up the track by which they hadjust descended.
In a few minutes his ta
ll figure was seen to pause for a brief space atthe summit of the pass. Then it disappeared on the other side into thegloomy recesses of the mountains.