Kitabı oku: «The Pearl of the Andes: A Tale of Love and Adventure», sayfa 12
CHAPTER XXXIX.
THE BLACK SERPENTS
As soon as Curumilla and Valentine had been awakened, they saddled the horses, then the Indians sat down by the fire, making a sign to the Frenchmen to imitate them. The count was driven to despair by the slowness of his friends; if he had only listened to his own feelings, he would have instantly set out in pursuit of the ravishers; but he could not help seeing how necessary the support of the Ulmens must be to him in the decisive struggle he was about to undertake, whether for attack, defence, or following the track of the Aucas.
After a tolerably long interval, employed by our four personages in conscientiously burning their tobacco leaf, the last, Trangoil-Lanec spoke —
"The warriors are numerous," he said, "therefore we cannot hope to conquer by force. Since we have been upon their track many events must have occurred; we ought to ascertain what Antinahuel means to do with his prisoners, and whether they are really in danger. Antinahuel is ignorant of the ties which connect me with those who are in his power, he will not suspect me."
"Very well!" said Curumilla, "my brother is prudent, he will succeed. But let him carefully calculate his actions and his words whilst he is amongst them."
Valentine looked at his foster brother with astonishment.
"What does all this mean?" he asked. "Is Antinahuels track found again?"
"Yes, brother," Louis replied, in a melancholy tone, "Doña Rosario and her father are within half a league of us, and in danger of death!"
"Vive Dieu!" the young man cried, "and we are here prating."
"Alas!" Louis murmured, "what can four men do against fifty?"
"That is too true," he replied, returning dejectedly to his place. "As Trangoil-Lanec says, fighting will not avail us, we must manoeuvre."
"Chief," Louis observed, "your plan is good, but I think of two material ameliorations."
"My brother can speak, he is wise," Trangoil-Lanec replied, bowing courteously.
"We must provide against all that may happen. Go to the camp, we will follow your steps; but if you cannot rejoin us as quickly as we may wish, agree upon a signal which may inform us why, and agree also upon another signal in case your life may be in danger."
"Very well," said Curumilla; "if the chief requires our presence, he will imitate the cry of the water-hawk; if he is obliged to remain with the Aucas the song of the goldfinch will warn us of it."
"That is settled," Trangoil-Lanec answered; "but what is my brother's second observation?"
The count rummaged in his haversack, took out some paper, wrote a few words upon a sheet, which he folded and handed to the chief, saying —
"It is particularly important that those whom we wish to deliver should not thwart our plans; perhaps Don Tadeo may not recognise my brother. The chief will slip this necklace into the hands of the young pale woman."
"That shall be done; the young blue-eyed maiden shall have the necklace, the chief replied with a smile.
"Well, now," said Curumilla, "let us take the track."
"Yes, time presses," said Valentine.
Towards the evening of the second day, Trangoil-Lanec, leaving his companions to establish their encampment upon the declivity of a little hill, at the entrance of a natural grotto, clapped spurs to his horse, and was soon out of sight. He directed his course towards the spot where the Black Serpents had stopped for the night – a spot announced to the clear-sighted Indian by a thin thread of white smoke. When he arrived at a certain distance from the camp, the chief saw two Indian Black Serpents suddenly spring up before him, clothed in their war costume.
"Where is my brother going?" one of the Black Serpents asked, advancing towards him.
"Good!" the chief replied, throwing his gun, which he held in his left hand, on his shoulder. "Trangoil-Lanec has recognised the trail of his brothers the Black Serpents, and he wishes to smoke at their fire."
"My brother will follow me," the Indian remarked.
He made an imperceptible sign to his companion, who quitted his hiding place. Trangoil-Lanec followed them, casting around an apparently careless glance. In a few minutes they reached the camp, whose situation was admirably chosen.
The arrival of the warrior created a stir in the camp, which was, however, quickly repressed. Trangoil-Lanec was conducted into the presence of the chief, and as his reputation was high among his compatriots, Antinahuel, to do him honour, received him in the most elevated part or the camp. The two chiefs saluted each other.
"Is my brother Antinahuel hunting with his young men?" asked Trangoil-Lanec.
"Yes," the Toqui replied, laconically.
"Has my brother been fortunate in his hunting?"
"Very fortunate," said Antinahuel, with a sinister smile; "let my brother open his eyes."
"Wah!" said Trangoil-Lanec, "palefaces! My brother has had good sport indeed; he will get a heavy ransom for his prisoners."
"The toldo of Antinahuel is solitary – he wants a squaw to inhabit it."
"Good! I understand; my brother will take one of the pale women."
"The blue-eyed maiden will be the wife of a chief."
"Wah! but why does my brother detain the Great Eagle?"
Antinahuel only replied by a smile, the expression of which the chief could not mistake.
"Oh, good!" he rejoined; "my brother is a great chief – who is able to fathom his thoughts?"
The Araucano warrior rose, quitted Antinahuel, and walked about the camp, the order and position of which he feigned to admire, but in reality he drew nearer and nearer, in an almost imperceptible manner, to that part at which the prisoners were seated.
"Let my brother look," Antinahuel said, pointing to Doña Rosario; "does not that woman deserve to espouse a chief?"
"She is pretty!" Trangoil-Lanec replied, coldly; "But I would give all the palefaces in the world for one bottle of such firewater as I have here."
"Has my brother some firewater?" Antinahuel asked, whose eyes sparkled at the thought.
"Yes," the chief replied; "look!"
The Toqui turned round, and the Aucas profited by the movement to cleverly let fall upon Rosario's lap the paper committed to his charge by Louis.
"Look!" he said "the sun is sinking, the maukawis is singing his first evening song; my brother will follow me, he and his warriors will empty these bottles."
The two chiefs walked away, and a few minutes after all the Indians were satisfactorily employed in emptying the bottles brought by the Ulmen.
Doña Rosario could not at first imagine what a message sent to her in such a curious manner could mean, and she looked at her father.
"Read, my Rosario!" Don Tadeo said, softly.
The young girl tremblingly took the note, opened it, and read it with a secret joy. It contained only these few laconic words, but they were sufficient to cause a smile.
"Take courage, señorita, we are preparing everything for saving you at last."
After having read, or rather devoured these words, she gave the note to her father.
"Who can this friend be who is watching over us? What can he do?"
"Why should we doubt the infinite goodness of God, my child?" said Don Tadeo. "Ungrateful girl! Have you forgotten the two brave Frenchmen?"
The young girl smiled through her tears, leaning fondly upon her father.
The Linda could not suppress a feeling of jealousy at this caress of which she had no share; but the hope that her daughter would soon be liberated, rendered her quite happy.
In the meantime the Indians continued drinking. Many of the Aucas were in a helpless state of intoxication. Trangoil-Lanec and Antinahuel were at length the only drinkers. But even the strength of the renowned Toqui was not of avail against the insidious poison he quaffed so greedily; his eyes closed, and he fell backwards – fast asleep.
Trangoil-Lanec waited for a few moments, carefully surveying the camp in which he and the prisoners were the only persons awake; then, when he had ascertained to a certainty that the Black Serpents had really allowed themselves to be caught in the snare he had laid for them, he rose cautiously, made a sign of encouragement to the prisoners, and disappeared into the forest.
"Is that an enemy or a friend?" murmured the Linda anxiously.
"Oh, I have long known that man!" replied Don Tadeo; "his is a noble heart! He is devoted body and soul to our friends."
CHAPTER XL.
THE HURRICANE
Louis had not been able to restrain himself; instead of waiting, he had persuaded Valentine and Curumilla to follow him, and all three had advanced, gliding through bushes and underwood, to within twenty paces of the Indian camp, so that Trangoil-Lanec met them almost immediately.
"Well?" the count asked anxiously.
"All is right! Come on!"
The chief quickly retraced his steps, and led his friends towards the prisoners. At the sight of the four men a smile of ineffable sweetness lit up the beautiful countenance of Rosario; even her prudence could not repress a half-uttered cry of joy, Don Tadeo arose, and was beginning to thank them.
"Caballero," cried the count, who was upon hot coals, "let us be quick. These men will soon be awake again."
"Yes," Valentine added; "because if they were to surprise us we should be compelled to have a brush."
All were aware of the justness of this observation and Trangoil-Lanec having unfastened the horses of the prisoners, which were grazing quietly among those of the Aucas, Don Tadeo and his daughter mounted. The Linda, of whom nobody seemed to take any notice, sprang upon a horse. If Valentine had not been afraid of her giving the alarm, he would have compelled her to remain behind. The little troop set off without impediment, and directed their course towards the natural grotto where the horses had been left. As soon as they arrived, Valentine made a sign.
"You had better rest here for a short time," he said; "the night is very dark; in a few hours we will set off again; you will find in this grotto two beds of leaves."
These words, pronounced in the usual blunt, offhand style of the Parisian, brought a cheerful smile to the lips of the Chilians. When they had lain down upon the leaves heaped up in the grotto, the count called his sagacious dog to him, and said —
"Pay attention to what I order you, Cæsar: you see this young lady, do you not, my good dog? You must be answerable for her to me."
Cæsar listened to his master, staring at him with his large intelligent eyes and gently wagging his tail; he then laid himself quietly down at the feet of Rosario, licking her hand. The young girl seized his great head in her arms, and hugged him several times, smiling at the count. Poor Louis blushed to the eyes, and left the grotto, staggering like a drunken man – happiness almost deprived him of his senses. He went and threw himself on the ground at a short distance to think over, at leisure the joy which inundated his heart. He did not observe Valentine, who leaning against a tree, followed him with a melancholy look, for Valentine also loved Doña Rosario.
Yes, the sight of Doña Rosario had revealed to him a thing which he had hardly thought possible, and that was, that besides this so warm and so strong feeling, there was in his heart room for another at least as warm and as strong.
Leaning against a tree, with his eye fixed upon the entrance to the grotto, and his chest heaving, he recalled the smallest incidents of his meeting with the young lady, their journey through the forest, the words she addressed to him and smiled delightedly at the remembrance of those delicious moments, without suspecting the danger of these remembrances of the new feeling which had been just born in his soul.
Two hours had thus glided away, and Valentine had taken no heed of their passage, so absorbed was he in his fantastic contemplation, when the two Indians came up to him —
"Is our brother asleep that he does not see us?"
"No," Valentine replied, passing his hand over his burning brow, "I was thinking."
"My brother was with the genius of dreams; he was happy," Trangoil-Lanec remarked, with a smile.
"Do you want me?"
"Whilst my brother has been reflecting, we have returned to the camp of the Black Serpents. We have taken their horses, and after leading them to a considerable distance have let them loose on the plain."
"If that is the case we may be at our ease for a few hours?" Valentine suggested.
"I hope so," said Trangoil-Lanec, "but we must not be too confident, the Black Serpents are cunning fellows."
"What had we better do, then?"
"Mislead our enemies by putting them upon a false track. I will set off with the three horses of the palefaces, whilst my brother, his friend, and Curumilla descend the rivulet, walking in its bed."
Trangoil-Lanec cut a reed a foot and a half long, and fastened each extremity of it to the bits of the horses, in order that they might not be able to approach each other too near, and then set off. Valentine entered the grotto, where he found the Linda seated near her husband and daughter, guarding their slumbers.
Louis had prepared everything; he placed Don Tadeo upon Valentine's horse, and the Linda and Rosario upon his own, and led them into the rivulet, after having carefully effaced their footsteps in the sand.
The little caravan advanced silently, listening to the noises of the forest, watching the movements of the bushes, fearing at every instant to see the ferocious eye of a Black Serpent gleam through the shade.
Towards four o'clock in the morning the Islet of the Guanaco appeared to the delighted eyes of our travellers like a port of safety, after the fatigues of a journey made entirely in the water. On the most advanced point of the islet a horseman stood motionless – it was Trangoil-Lanec; and near him the horses of the Spaniards were peaceably grazing upon the high grass of the banks. The travellers found a fire ready lighted, upon which was cooking the quarter of a doe, camotes and maize tortillas.
"Eat," said Trangoil-Lanec, laconically; "but, above all, eat quickly!" Without asking the chief for any explanation, the hungry travellers sat down in a circle, and vigorously attacked the provisions.
"Bah!" said Valentine, gaily; "after us the end of the world – let us eat while we can! Here is a roast joint that appears to me to be tolerably well cooked!"
At these words of the spahi Doña Rosario looked a little surprised; the young man was struck dumb, blushing at his rudeness, and began to eat without venturing another word.
As soon as breakfast was over; Trangoil-Lanec, assisted by Curumilla, employed himself in preparing one of those canoes, made of buffalo hides sewn together, which are employed by the Indians to cross the rivers in the desert. After placing it in the water, the chief requested the three Spaniards to take their seats in it. The Indians afterwards entered it for the purpose of steering it; whilst the two Frenchmen, still in the water, led the horses by their bridles. The passage was not long; at the end of an hour they landed, and they continued their journey by land.
For some hours past, as it often happens in that country, the weather had completely changed. The sun had assumed a red tint, and appeared to swim in an ocean of vapour, which intercepted its warm rays.
"What do you think of this weather, chief?" the count asked anxiously to Trangoil-Lanec.
"Bad – very bad," the latter replied, "unless we could possibly pass the Sorcerer's Leap."
"Are we in danger, then?"
"We are lost," the Indian replied.
"Hum! that is not very comforting," said Valentine. "Do you think, then, that the peril is so great?"
"Much greater than I can tell my brother. Do you think it possible to resist the hurricane, here?"
"That is true," Valentine muttered, hanging his head. "May Heaven preserve us!"
In fact the situation of the travellers appeared desperate. They were following one of those roads cut in the living rock which wind round the Andes, a road of scarcely four feet in its greatest width, which on one side was bordered by a wall of granite more than a thousand feet high, and on the other by precipices of incalculable depth, at the bottom of which invisible waters coursed with dull, mysterious murmurs. In such a spot all hope of safety seemed little short of madness. And yet the travellers proceeded, advancing in Indian file – that is, one after the other, silent and gloomy.
"Are we still far from the Sorcerer's Leap?" Valentine asked, after a long silence.
"We are approaching it," Trangoil-Lanec replied.
Suddenly the brown veil which concealed the horizon was rent violently asunder, a pale flash of lightning illuminated the heavens.
"Dismount!" Trangoil-Lanec shouted, "dismount, for your lives! Lie down on the ground, and cling to the points of the rocks!"
Everyone followed the advice of the chief. The animals, left to themselves, understood the danger instinctively, folded their legs under them, and laid themselves down also upon the ground.
All at once the thunder burst forth in frightful peals, and the rain fell like a deluge. It is not given to human pen to describe the awful hurricane which vented its fury upon those mountains. Enormous blocks of rock, yielding to the force of the wind and undermined by the waters, were precipitated from the top to the bottom of the ravines with a horrible crash; trees, hundreds of years Old, were twisted and torn up by the roots by the blast.
Suddenly a piercing cry of agony filled the air.
"My daughter! – save my daughter!"
Heedless of the danger to which he exposed himself, Don Tadeo stood upright in the road, his arms extended towards heaven, his hair floating in the wind, and the lightning playing around his brow. Doña Rosario, too weak and too delicate to cling to the sharp points of the rocks by which her fingers were torn had been seized and carried away, and dashed down the precipice by the tempest. The Linda, without pronouncing a word, turned and plunged into the gulf.
"Oh!" the count cried frantically, "I will bring her back or – "
And he sprang forward; but a powerful hand withheld him.
"Stay, brother," said Valentine, in a melancholy but firm tone – "let me encounter this peril."
"But, Valentine!"
"I insist upon it! – of what consequence is it if I die?" he added, with an expression of bitterness. "I am not beloved!" and turning towards Don Tadeo he said, "Courage my friend. I will restore your daughter or perish with her!" and whistling his dog – "Find her, Cæsar – find her." he said.
The noble animal uttered a plaintive howl, sniffed the air for an instant in all directions, then, after a minute's hesitation wagged his tail, turned towards his master, and dashed down the steep precipice.
CHAPTER XLI.
LA BARRANCA
As soon as Valentine was suspended from the abrupt edge of the precipice, and obliged to ascertain carefully where to place his foot, his excitement was dispersed to give place to the cool and lucid determination of the brave man. The task he had undertaken was not an easy one. In his perilous descent his eyes became useless to him; his hands and feet were his only guides. Often did he feel the stone upon which he thought he had placed his foot firmly crumble as he began to trust his weight to it, and the branch he had seized break in his grasp.
But firm in his resolution, he kept descending, following as far as was possible the track of his dog, who at a short distance beneath him stopped, from time to time, to guide him by his yelpings.
Presently he stopped to take breath, still continuing to repeat to his dog the words he had never ceased to cry from the commencement of his descent —
"Find her, Cæsar, find her!"
Suddenly the dog was mute. Much alarmed, Valentine renewed his call. It then appeared to him that, at about twenty feet below the spot where he then was, he could perceive a white form; but its outlines were so vague and indistinct that he thought he must be the sport of an illusion, and he ventured to lean still further over, to assure himself that he was not deceived.
At this moment, he felt himself strongly pulled back. Like a man delivered from a frightful nightmare, he took a confused glance around him. Cæsar with his forepaws firmly fixed upon the rock, was holding the end of his poncho in his clenched teeth.
"Can you reply to me now?" the Linda said.
"Perfectly, señorita," he replied.
"You will help me to save my daughter?"
"It was in search of her that I descended."
"Thanks, caballero!" she said, fervently; "she is close by."
Doña Rosario was lying insensible caught in some thick bushes hanging over an abyss of more than a thousand feet in depth! On perceiving her, Valentine's first impression was a feeling of wild terror. But as soon as the first moment was past, and he could look at her coolly, he became satisfied that she was in perfect safety.
All this had required much time, and the storm had subsided by degrees; the mist was clearing off and the sun had reappeared. Valentine then became aware of all the horror of the situation which the darkness had till then concealed from him.
To reascend was impossible; to descend was still worse. From the clump of myrtles near which they were, the walls of the precipice descended in a plumb line, without any salient point upon which a foot could be placed. One step forward was death.
The Linda saw nothing, thought of nothing, for she had her daughter to look at. In vain Valentine racked his brains to discover some means of overcoming this apparently insuperable difficulty. A bark from Cæsar made him raise his head. Louis had found the means which Valentine had despaired of finding. Collecting the lassos which Chilian horsemen always have suspended from their saddles, he had fastened them tightly together and had formed two ropes, which he let down the precipice.
Valentine uttered a cry of joy. Rosario was saved! As soon as the lassos were within his reach he seized them and quickly constructed a chair; but here a new difficulty presented itself; how was it possible to get the insensible girl from amidst the tangled growth?
"Wait a minute!" exclaimed Linda, and bounding like a panther, she sprang into the centre of the tangled mass, which bent under her feet, took her daughter in her arms, and with a spring as sure and as rapid as the first, regained the edge of the precipice.
The young man then tied Doña Rosario in the chair, and then made a signal for hoisting it. The Aucas warriors, directed by Louis, drew the lassos gently and firmly upwards, whilst Valentine and the Linda, clinging as well as they could to points of rocks and bushes, kept the young lady steady, and secured her from collision with the sharp stones that might have wounded her.
As soon as Don Tadeo perceived his daughter, he rushed towards her with a hoarse articulate cry, and pressing her to his panting breast he sobbed aloud, shedding a flood of tears.
"Oh!" cried the girl, clinging with childish terror to her father, and clasping her arms round his neck, "father! father! I thought I must have died!"
"My child," said Don Tadeo, "your mother was the first to fly to your assistance."
The Linda's face glowed with happiness, and she held out her arms to her daughter, with a supplicating look. Rosario looked at her with a mixture of fear and tenderness, and made a motion as if to throw herself into the arms that were open to her; but she suddenly checked herself.
"Oh I cannot! I cannot!"
The Linda heaved a heavy sigh, wiped the tears which inundated her cheeks, and retired on one side.
The two Frenchmen inwardly enjoyed the sight of the happiness of Don Tadeo, happiness which in part he owed to them. The Chilian approached them, pressed their hands warmly, and then turning to Rosario, said —
"My child, love these two gentlemen, you never can discharge your debt to them."
Both the young men blushed.
"Come, come, Don Tadeo," cried Valentine, "we have lost too much time already. To horse, and let us be gone!"
In spite of the roughness of this reply, Doña Rosario, who comprehended the delicacy that had dictated it, gave the young man a look of ineffable sweetness.
The party resumed their march. The Linda was henceforward treated with respect by all. The pardon of Don Tadeo, a pardon so nobly granted, had reinstated her in their eyes. Doña Rosario herself sometimes unconsciously smiled upon her, although she could not yet feel courage enough to respond to her caresses.
At the expiration of an hour they reached the "Sorcerer's Leap." At this place the mountain was divided in two by a fissure of inconceivable depth, and about twenty-five feet wide.
This difficult passage has been thus named by the Aucas because, according to the legend, at the period when the conquest of Araucania was attempted, a Huiliche sorcerer, being closely pursued by Castilian soldiers, leaped without hesitation over the chasm, sustained in his perilous passage by the genii of the air. Whatever be the truth of this legend, a bridge exists now, and our travellers passed over it without accident.
"Ah!" Trangoil-Lanec exclaimed, "now we have room before us, we are safe!"
"Not yet," Curumilla replied, pointing with his finger to a thin column of blue smoke, which curled up towards the heavens.
"Ooch!" replied the chief, "Can that be the Black Serpents again? Can they have preceded instead of pursuing us? How does it happen that they venture in this manner upon the Chilian territory? We had better retire for the night."
