The Guerilla Chief Part 18

They had accomplished whatever purpose had kept them near the field; and they were now _en route_ for some more distant scene of action.

I had been actually _riding after them_--on that headlong chase which carried me into the midst of their improvised ambuscade!

As a prisoner, my position lay in the rear--only one or two files of the cuadrilla riding behind me.

I could see Rayas in front, at the head of his band.

I wondered he did not hang back for the purpose of taunting me with his triumphant speeches. I could only account for his not doing so, by the supposition that he was a man of patience, and that my hour of torture had not arrived.

That I should have to suffer some fearful indignity, in all likelihood, and the loss of my life, I felt certain. What had occurred between myself and the brigand chief, had established a relations.h.i.+p that must end in the ruin of one or the other; and it was clear that I was to be the victim. It needed not that hideous grin with which he had regarded me, on becoming his prisoner--nor the jovial style in which he talked of a _revanche_,--to a.s.sure me that for this mild term I might subst.i.tute the phrase--"Deadly revenge!"

He had promised his a.s.sociates a spectacle on their arrival at La Rinconada. I had no doubt, that in that spectacle I was myself to be the prominent figure; or at all events the chief _sufferer_.

I had been riding for some time, absorbed in meditations, that I need not p.r.o.nounce painful. Circ.u.mstanced as I was, they could not be pleasant. It was only in an occasional and involuntary glance, that my eyes had rested upon Rayas, at the head of his cuadrilla.

I had not noticed a peculiar personage riding by his side. This arose from the fact, that the individual in question was of shorter stature than the other _salteadores_, by nearly the head, and therefore hidden from my view by the bodies of the brigands habitually interposed between us.

After cresting the ridge above mentioned, and commencing the descent on its opposite side, I could command a better view of those in front; and then it was that the individual, riding alongside of Rayas, attracted my attention. Not only attracted it, but fixed it, to the exclusion of every other thought--even the reflections I had been hitherto indulging in, upon my own unfortunate situation.

At the first glance I had mistaken the companion of the robber chief for a man, or a boy closely approximating to manhood. There was a man's hat upon the head--the usual low-crowned, broad-brimmed _sombrero_.

Moreover, the style of equitation was that of a man--a leg on each side of the saddle.

It was only at the second glance that my gaze became fixed--only after perceiving, by the long plaits of hair hanging down to the croup of the saddle--along with some peculiarities of shape and costume--that the companion of the robber chief was a _woman_!

There was nothing in the discovery to cause me surprise. Both the hat on the head, and the mode--_a la d.u.c.h.esse de Berri_--in which the woman was mounted, were sights that could be seen any day upon the roads of Mexico, or in the streets of its cities. Both were but the common fas.h.i.+ons of the country.

What fixed my attention was the fact, that I fancied I knew the woman-- or rather girl, as she appeared to be--that I had seen her before!

It was only the back of the head and shoulders I was yet permitted to see; but there was sufficient idiosyncracy about these, to beget within me a vague idea of identification.

I had hardly time to enter into the field of conjecture, when a slight turn in the path brought the faces of the leading riders _en profile_ to my view; among others, that of the girl.

A shot through the heart could not have been more painful, or caused me to start more abruptly, than the sight of that face.

"Lola Vergara!"

Story 1, Chapter XXII.

DARK SUSPICIONS.

I cannot describe the painful impression produced upon me, at seeing the Jarocha in such strange companions.h.i.+p.

At first I was inclined to disbelieve the evidence of my eyes, and to think that I was being cheated by a resemblance.

But as the path turned into a second zigzag, more abrupt than the first, the profile became a quarter-face portrait; and there was no chance for me to avoid the conviction that Lola Vergara was riding alongside Ramon Rayas!

A countenance like hers was not common. It was too beautiful to have had a counterpart, even in that land of lovely graces.

Besides, I now recognised the dress, the same worn by the Jarocha when I had last seen her, some six hours before, with only the addition of the sombrero, which had been donned, no doubt, as a protection against the hot beams of a tropical sun.

I had just time to a.s.sure myself of the ident.i.ty of the girl; when the road, having reached the bottom of the hill, turned straight again; and from that time till the cuadrilla came to a halt, I could only catch occasional glimpses, either of the robber captain, or of the fair equestrian moving onward by his side.

Though no longer privileged with a fair view either of Ramon Rayas or Lola Vergara, the painful impression produced by their juxtaposition continued to harra.s.s my soul; and during the half hour that intervened before arriving at the halting-place of the brigands, I gave myself up to reflections and conjectures imbued with the extreme of bitterness.

My first thought, put in the shape of a mental interrogatory, was, whether the Jarocha was a consenting party to the companions.h.i.+p in which I now saw her?

The position, such as it was, looked more than suspicious. Her dread of Rayas, loudly expressed on the preceding night, might, after all, have been nothing more than hypocrisy; nay, it might have been real, and yet it might have resulted in the a.s.sociation now before my eyes!

I had seen enough of women to convince me, that terror is too often the true weapon by which their affections may be a.s.sailed and conquered; and that the possession of absolute power may turn their hate, if not into love, at least into a feeling near akin to it.

I remembered some expressions in reference to Rayas, that, on the night before, had fallen from the lips of Lola Vergara. To me they had been unintelligible at the time, though producing a vague sense of doubt, about the honesty as to her declared antipathy to the man.

These were now recalled, with, as I fancied, a clearer comprehension of their import.

In fine, why should she be there, riding by his side, voluntarily: for there was no appearance of compulsion; but rather of _complaisance_.

No! I should not say that. The glimpse I had had of her face did not give me that idea. On the contrary, I saw, or fancied that I saw a pale cheek, a downcast glance, and a sorrowful expression of countenance.

I was not certain of this; I would have given much to have been a.s.sured of it; and my intent gaze was directed to this end, when the straightening of the road, and the interposition of the salteadores, cut short my investigation.

The fancy that she looked sad--in keeping with her name of Dolores--was some consolation; which enabled me, with a certain tranquillity of mind, to sustain that forced traverse through the chapparal in the companions.h.i.+p of the salteadores.

There was one circ.u.mstance that surprised while it pained me as well.

Why did Lola not look round?

During all the time my eyes had been on her, she had not turned hers towards the rear, nor even to one side or the other. This I thought strange, whether her presence among the robbers was forced or voluntary.

Was she aware of the capture which they had made--an officer of the American army? Or could she be acquainted with the more particular fact, as to who was the individual made prisoner?

I could not think that she was cognisant of either circ.u.mstance; and yet she had not looked back. If no other feeling, that of natural curiosity, proverbially strong in her s.e.x, would have prompted her to turn her head.

She had not done so. Surely, after what had pa.s.sed between us on the preceding night, she could not be indifferent to my forlorn condition-- scarcely even to the uniform that distinguished me from my captors?

Such conduct was not compatible with the character of woman, whether Mexican or American. Lola Vergara could not have known of the capture which the robbers had accomplished; she could not be aware of my presence in the rear of the cuadrilla.

There was consolation in my thinking so, slight as it may be deemed. It would have been a grievous reflection to have believed her to be a sharer in the fortunes of my captors;--to have known that she was a partic.i.p.ator of all that had transpired;--to imagine that she had even a suspicion of who it was who was riding, fast bound to a horse, behind her.

I did not wrong her by the belief I felt convinced she was unconscious of all--at least of the last circ.u.mstance.

I was confirmed in this conviction by something that had occurred, as we parted from the spot where I had been captured. A short halt had been made by the robbers, during which they had been joined by a party that had not been present at their ambuscade. In all likelihood, the Jarocha had been one of this party, and might have been ignorant of what had pa.s.sed.

This was probable enough; though for myself I had been at the time too much engrossed with my misfortune to take heed to what was transpiring around me.

The explanation satisfied, at the same time that it pleased me. I could give credence to no other. After what had pa.s.sed on the preceding night--my protection extended to her brother--my sympathy for herself-- my profession of something more--her own apparent reciprocation of that something--surely Lola Vergara could not be my enemy?

In all I saw there was a mystery that needed elucidation.

Ere long I obtained it. The cuadrilla came to a halt at a rancheria or collection of huts, all of which appeared to be uninhabited--their owners no doubt having fled at the approach of the robber band.