The Freebooters Part 34

"No! No!" they shouted impetuously, and rushed into the gaping vault before them.

This vault formed a pa.s.sage wide enough for four persons to march abreast, and of sufficient height for them not to be obliged to stoop; it rose with a gentle incline, and resembled a species of labyrinth, owing to the constant turns it took. The darkness was complete, but the impulse had been given, and no other noise was audible save that of the panting breathing of these men, and their hurried footsteps, which sounded hollow on the damp ground they trod. After a twenty minutes'

march, which seemed to last an age, the Scalper's voice rose in the gloom, and uttered the single word, "Halt!" All stopped.

"Here we shall have to make our final arrangements," the Scalper continued; "but in the first place let me procure you a light, so that you may know exactly where you are."

The old man, who seemed gifted with the precious privilege of seeing in the darkness, walked about for some minutes in various directions, doubtless collecting the ingredients necessary for the fire he wished to kindle; then he struck a light, lit a piece of tinder, and almost immediately a brilliant flame seemed to leap forth from the ground, and illumined objects sufficiently for them to be distinguished. The Scalper had simply lighted a fire of dry wood, probably prepared beforehand.

The Texans looked curiously around them, so soon as their eyes, at first dazzled by the bright flames of the fire, had grown accustomed to the light. They found themselves in a very large, almost circular vault, somewhat resembling a crypt; the walls were lofty, and the roof was rounded in the shape of a dome. The ground was composed of a very fine dry sand, as yellow as gold. This room seemed cut out of the rock, for no sign of masonry was visible.

In the background, a staircase of some twenty steps, wide, and without bannister, mounted to the roof, where it terminated, and it was impossible to distinguish whether there were any trapdoor or opening.

This trap doubtless existed, but time had covered its openings with the impalpable dust, which it incessantly wears off even the hardest granite. After attentively examining the vault by the aid of a blazing log, the Jaguar returned to the old man, who had remained by the fire.

"Where are we?" he asked him. Each curiously extended his ear to hear the Scalper's answer.

"We are," he said, "exactly under the patio of the hacienda; this staircase ends in an opening I will point out to you, and which leads into a long-deserted corral, in which, if I am not mistaken, the wood stores of the hacienda are now kept."

"Good," the Jaguar answered; "but before venturing into what may be an adroitly laid trap, I should like, myself, to visit the corral of which you speak, in order to see with my own eyes, and a.s.sure myself that things are really as you say."

"I ask nothing better than to lead you to it."

"Thank you; but I do not see exactly how we shall manage to open the pa.s.sage of which you speak, without making a noise, which will immediately bring down on us the whole of the garrison, of which I am excessively afraid, as we are not at all conveniently situated for fighting."

"That need not trouble you; I pledge myself to open the trap without making the slightest noise."

"That is better; but come, time presses."

"That is true. Come."

The two men then proceeded to the flight of stairs. On reaching the top, the White Scalper thrust his head against the ceiling, and after several attempts a slab slowly rose, turned over, and fell noiselessly on its side, leaving a pa.s.sage large enough for two men to pa.s.s together. White Scalper pa.s.sed through this opening. With one bound the Jaguar stood by his side, pistol in hand, ready to blow out his brains at the first suspicious movement. But he soon perceived that the old man had no intention of betraying him, and, ashamed at the suspicion he had evidenced, he hid his weapon.

As the Scalper had stated, they found themselves in an abandoned corral--a sort of vast stall, open to the sky, in which the Americans keep their horses; but this one was quite empty. The Jaguar went up to a door behind which he heard the sound of footsteps and the clanking of arms, and a.s.sured himself that nothing was more easy than to burst this door open.

"Good," he muttered; "you have kept your word; thank you."

The Scalper did not seem to hear him; his eyes were fixed on the door with a strange intensity, and his limbs trembled, as if he had been attacked by ague. Without attempting to discover the cause of his old comrade's extraordinary emotion, the Jaguar ran to the opening, over which he bent down. John Davis was standing on the top step.

"Well?" he asked.

"All goes well. Come up, but do not make any noise."

The four hundred Texans then rose one after the other from the vault.

Each, as he came out of the trap, silently fell in. When all had entered the corral, the Jaguar returned the slab to its place. Then, returning to his comrades, said in a low but perfectly distinct voice:

"Our retreat is now cut off; we must either conquer or die."

The insurgents made no reply; but their eyes flashed such fire, that the Jaguar comprehended that they would not give way an inch. It was a moment of terrible suspense while White Scalper was forcing the door.

"Forward!" the Jaguar shouted.

All his comrades rushed after him with the irresistible force of a torrent that is bursting its d.y.k.es.

Very different from the Texans, whose camp had so easily been invaded, the Mexicans were not asleep, but perfectly awake. By orders of the Commandant, so soon as he had left the hacienda the whole garrison got under arms, and fell in the patio, ready, if need was, to go immediately to the aid of the expeditionary corps, still, they were so far from expecting an attack, especially in this manner, that the sudden apparition of this band of demons, who seemed to have ascended from the infernal regions, caused them extraordinary surprise and terror, and during some time there was an inextricable confusion.

The Texans, skilfully profiting by the terror their presence caused, redoubled their efforts to render it impossible for their enemies to offer any lengthened resistance. But, shut up as they were in a court without an outlet, the very impossibility of flight gave the Mexicans the necessary courage to rally and fight courageously. Collected round their officers, who encouraged them by voice and example, they resolved to do their duty manly, and the combat began again with fresh obstinacy.

It was at this moment that Colonel Melendez and the soldiers who followed him burst into the patio, and by their presence were on the point of restoring to their party the victory which was slipping from them. Unfortunately, this success arrived too late: the Mexicans, surrounded by the Texans, were compelled, after a desperate resistance and prodigies of valour, to lay down their arms, and surrender at discretion.

For the second time Don Juan Melendez was prisoner to the Jaguar. As on the first occasion, he was compelled to break his sword, conquered by fatality rather than by his fortunate enemy.

The first care of the Jaguar, so soon as he was master of the fort, was to give strict orders that the females should not be insulted. The conditions imposed on the conquered by the Chief of the Texan army were the same as he had offered them at the outset. The Mexicans, persuaded that the Texans were no more than half savage men, were agreeably surprised at this lenity, which they were far from expecting, and pledged themselves without hesitation to observe scrupulously the conditions of the capitulation. The Mexican garrison was to leave the hacienda at daybreak.

The preliminaries of the surrender had scarce been agreed on between the two leaders ere piercing cries were suddenly heard from the building occupied by the women. Almost immediately the White Scalper, who had been lost out of sight during the excitement of the combat, emerged from these buildings bearing across his shoulders a woman whose long hair trailed on the ground. The old man's eyes flashed, and foam came from his mouth. In his right hand he brandished his rifle, which he held by the barrel, and fell back step by step, like a tiger at bay, before those who tried in vain to bar his pa.s.sage.

"My daughter!" Tranquil shrieked, as he rushed toward him.

He had recognised Carmela; the poor child had fainted, and seemed dead.

The Colonel and the Jaguar had also recognised the maiden, and by a common impulse hurried to her aid.

The White Scalper, recoiling step by step before the cloud of enemies that surrounded him, did not reply a word to the insults poured upon him. He laughed a dry and sharp laugh, and whenever an a.s.sailant came too near him, he raised his terrible club, and the imprudent man rolled with a fractured skull on the ground.

The hunters and the two young men, recognising the impossibility of striking this man without running the risk of wounding her they wished to save, contented themselves with gradually contracting the circle round him, so as to drive him into a corner of the court, where they would be enabled to seize him. But the ferocious old man foiled their calculations; he suddenly bounded forward, overthrew those who opposed his pa.s.sage, and climbed with headlong speed up the steps leading to the platform. On reaching the latter, he turned once again to his startled enemies, burst into a hoa.r.s.e laugh, and leaped over the breastwork into the river, bearing with him the young girl, of whom he had not loosed his hold.

When the witnesses of this extraordinary act of folly had recovered from the stupor into which it threw them, and rushed on the platform, their anxious glances in vain interrogated the river--the waters had rea.s.sumed their ordinary limpidness. White Scalper had disappeared with the unhappy victim whom he had so audaciously carried off. To accomplish this unheard-of ravishment he had surrendered the Larch-tree hacienda to the Texan army. What motive had impelled the strange man to this unqualifiable action? The impenetrable mystery that enveloped his life rendered any supposition impossible.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE CONSPIRATORS.

More fortunate than dramatic authors, the romancers, being bound by no rules of time and place, can, at their pleasure, transport their action and characters from one country to another, and then return to their starting point, not having any account to give of the time that has elapsed, or of the s.p.a.ce they have traversed. Employing in our turn this privilege, we will momentarily quit the Indian border, on the skirt of which our story has. .h.i.therto pa.s.sed, and crossing at a leap over about two hundred miles, beg the reader to follow us to Galveston, in the centre of Texas, four months after the events we chronicled in our last chapter.

At the period when our story is laid, that city, in which General Lallemand wished to found the _Champ d'Asyle_--that sublime Utopia of a n.o.ble and broken heart--was far from that commercial prosperity which the progress of civilization, successive immigrations, and, most of all, the speculations of bold capitalists, have caused it to attain during the last few years. We shall therefore describe it such as it was during our stay in America, leaving out of sight the enormous transformations it has since undergone.

Galveston is built on the small sandy islet of St. Louis, which almost closes up the mouth of the Rio Trinidad. At that time the houses were low, mostly built of wood, and surrounded by gardens planted with fragrant trees, which impregnated the atmosphere with delicious odours.

Unfortunately there is one thing that cannot alter--the climate and the nature of the soil. The suffocating heat that almost continually prevails in the town corrodes the earth and changes it into an impalpable dust, in which you sink up to the knees, and which, at the least breath of air, penetrates into the eyes, mouth, and nostrils; myriads of mosquitoes, whose stings are extremely painful; and, above all, the bad quality of the water, which the inhabitants collect with great difficulty in plank reservoirs during the rainy season, and which the sun renders boiling--these grievous occurrences, especially for Europeans, render a residence at Galveston insupportable, and even most dangerous.

The Texans themselves so greatly fear the deadly influence of this climate that, during the torrid heat of summer, rich persons emigrate by hundreds to the mainland, so that the town, which becomes almost suddenly deserted by this momentary departure, a.s.sumes a look of sad desolation which is painful to behold.

About four in the afternoon, at the moment when the rising sea breeze began to refresh the atmosphere, a little Indian canoe, made of beech bark, left the mainland, and vigorously impelled by two men supplied with wide sculls, proceeded toward the city and pulled alongside the plank quay, which served at that time as the landing place. So soon as the canoe was stationary, a third person, carelessly reclining in the stern sheets, rose, looked round him as if to recognise the spot where he was; then, taking a spring, he landed on the quay. The canoe immediately turned round, though not a syllable had been exchanged between the scullers and the pa.s.senger they had brought.

The latter then pulled his hat over his eyes, wrapped himself carefully in the folds of a wide zarape of Indian fabric and striking colour, and proceeded hastily towards the centre of the city. After a walk of a few minutes the stranger stopped in front of a house, whose comfortable appearance and well-tended garden showed that it belonged to a person who, if not rich, was in easy circ.u.mstances. The door was ajar; the stranger pushed it, entered, and closed it after him; then, without any hesitation, like a man sure of what he was about, he crossed the garden, in which he met n.o.body, entered the pa.s.sage of the house, turned to the right, and found himself in a room modestly, though comfortably furnished.

On reaching this room the stranger fell into a butaca with the air of a tired man delighted to rest after a long journey, took off his zarape, which he placed on the equipal, threw his hat upon it, and then, when he had made himself comfortable, he rolled a husk cigarette, struck a light with a gold mechero he took from his pocket, lit his papelito, and was soon surrounded by a dense cloud of bluish and fragant smoke, which rose above his head and formed a species of halo.