The Mystery of The Barranca

by Herman Whitaker

  CHAPTER XXII

  Riding at a hard gallop, Seyd had cut down Sebastien's lead by a fullhour in the run along the rim. At the sight of the beacon--which thepeons were now thatching with grass--he, also, reined in. But, havinglearned from them that Sebastien and Francesca had passed two hours ago,he rode on down the staircases at a pace which showed little respect forhis neck.

  Nearly an hour later he stopped again on the very knoll from which hehad overlooked El Quiss. If he had looked northward it would have beenpossible to see Sebastien at the head of the mule train which waswriggling like a mottled brown snake across the wet green pastures. Butduring the quarter hour that Seyd remained there his gaze never left thedistant pink of the hacienda walls.

  Somehow their solid realism cooled his fever and brought order to hisrioting senses. "Well, you are here! Now what are you going to do? What_can_ you do?" The still small voice of Reason rose above the storm."These, you know, are not the days of chivalry. It is no longer thefashion for a jilted lover to snatch his bride from the horns of thealtar. And if it were"--Reason here observed a deadly pause--"whatchance would you have against Sebastien and his retainers?"

  "But I must see her! I _will_ see her!" The still small voice wasdrowned in a gush of passion. "There have been too many accidentsalready. Not till I hear from her own lips that she has done this of herfree will shall I quit."

  "Sounds good." Reason agreed only to differ. "But it has onedrawback--she might not care to be interviewed in her bridal chamber."

  The suggestion was ill-timed, for it started a new riot among hissenses. "I'll see her! I _will_ have speech with her!" It went roaringthrough his brain.

  But how to compass it? Had he known the name of Caliban's woman's cousinit would have been difficult enough! Not knowing it, the thing wasalmost impossible. He was tossing on successive waves of feeling thatnow urged him forward, again carried him back in the undertow ofdespair, when there came a patter of nude feet behind him.

  "Senor! senor! _Mira!_ The beacons! The beacons!"

  It was one of the peons whom he had left above. "Ride, senor! Ride andgive warning lest they have not seen it at El Quiss! I go to my womanand children!" Shouting it, he swung at right angles and flew down thevalley at top speed.

  Almost as quickly Seyd galloped off. One glance had shown the tall smokeplumes which were rising like ghostly sentinels above the black edge ofthe pine, and with it there burst upon him a vivid picture of the muddysea behind the great dam. Crossing the river that morning, he hadnoticed that the floods were running above last year's highest mark, andalmost as plainly as by actual sight his imagination pictured the wavewhich had just leaped, like a huge yellow hound, over the broken dam. Asolid wall of water, he saw it sweeping down the valley, lapping upvillages, ranches, _jacals_, with greedy tongues. Roweling the flanks ofhis tired beast, he drove on. Yet, despite his apprehension, the phraserang in his mind like a clashing bell:

  "I shall see her! Now I shall see her!"

  While he was still half a mile away he saw two mounted men dash out ofthe patio gates and ride off at right angles, north and south. Afterthem came a crowd on foot, and as they opened to let him through Seydnoted with wonder that all were women. His surprise deepened when,driving in through the gates, he almost rode over Francesca, who stoodwith Roberta against her skirts in the deserted patio. While, breathinghard after his wild ride, he sat looking down upon her she returned hisgaze with big mournful eyes.

  "You are--alone?"

  "Yes." Hesitating, she went on, "Don Sebastien left an hourago--immediately after our arrival--with the men to work on the dam."

  He almost shouted. It was inconceivable, except on a supposition thatfilled him with sudden hope. "Then it isn't true? If it were, he wouldnot have left you. He lied! Paulo lied! All day I have ridden hard onyour trail to disprove it! He lied! Tell me that Paulo lied!"

  It was not necessary to reply in words. The slender weaving fingers, herquivering distress, the pity and grief of her eyes, made answer.

  "Oh, how could you?" But his natural sense of justice instantly asserteditself. "But no! I have only myself to blame. I played the fool allthrough. Yet, I meant well--but I explained that in my letter."

  "I only received it two hours ago. Oh, why didn't you send it sooner?"

  "I did--wrote the instant I got the paper. It lay here four days."

  Now, only twenty miles away, at speed swifter than bird flight, the wavewas leaping over the jungle with plumage of tangled debris streaming outbehind. Even then they might have caught its distant roar. But, blind toall but the fortuitous chance that had dogged their love to this unhappyconclusion, they stood gazing at each other in distress and despair.

  "We have been unfortunate, you and I." She spoke, mournfully, at last."And this is the end."

  He would not accept it. In thought he was storming the barrier her acthad placed between them when her sorrowful voice answered the muteappeal of his eyes. "_Si_, the end. If Sebastien had not been so kind!He took advantage of my anger to place bars between you and me, butthere he rests. His consideration deserves some return, and the least Ican offer is the outward semblance of good wifehood. You must go!"

  "What! Leave you--now?" Recalled to a sudden realization of theirimminent danger, he pleaded, "First let me place you in safety?"

  "No." She nodded toward a saddled horse under the gateway. "In a fewminutes I can overtake the people. With you will go my--"

  While they talked Roberta had wandered over to the gates. Now shesuddenly cried: "Oh, senora! Don Sebastien!"

  Seyd's view of the trail was limited by a swing to the south that cutoff all but a couple of hundred yards. As he made, instinctively, tomove forward Francesca caught his bridle. "No! no! He must not see you!If he finds you here--with me--oh, has there not been trouble enough?"Her distracted glance circled the courtyard. "See, the old guardhouse!Dismount--quickly! Lead in your horse, then I will ride with the childto meet him!"

  As a matter of fact, he felt like anything but hiding. His eye lit witha hard gray gleam. But in these premises that he had forced upon her itwas not for him to pick and choose. He yielded to her pleading, "For mysake?"

  Dismounting, he led his horse in through the arched doorway, and as sheclosed the door upon him Francesca added a last hurried instruction. "Hewill undoubtedly turn with me. Give us time to gain cover under theoaks, then take you the trail to the south. It reaches high groundquickly. And ride hard"--her voice broke in a sob--"for if you should beovertaken by the water what in this miserable world would be left forme?"

  "And this is the end?" He caught her hand between the closing doors.

  "The end--for thy sake." She dropped into the tender second person ofthe Spanish. "_Si_, if you wish it."

  Left alone, Seyd stood listening, the soft touch of her lips thrillingupon his. In the guardhouse, used now for a storeroom, all but onewindow was blocked by piles of sacked maize, but as his eyes grewaccustomed to the half gloom he made out the massive beams which held upthe heavy roof. The wall from which the one window looked out formedpart of the hacienda's southern face, and, remembering that the trailinclined in that direction, he moved over to it when he caught theclatter of departing hoofs. Deeply recessed in the thick wall, the lowsill afforded standing room, and by peering obliquely through the barshe caught first the flutter of her skirt, then gradually she forged intofull view. About three hundred yards away the trail ran in among shadeoaks, cedars, and great spreading banyans, that were strewn in clumpsall over the pastures. But just before she rode in among them Sebastienand Pancho, his _mozo_, galloped out from among the trees.

  Even if the wind had not been dashing the sheeting rain in his face itwould have been impossible for Seyd to have caught a distant murmur ofvoices. But he saw the _mozo_ lift Roberta from Francesca's beast, andlead off, with his mistress following. Then Sebastien came galloping ontoward the gates.

  "Coming for something--money or papers," Seyd thought. "Just for fear helooks in--"<
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  At the far end of the room a pile of sacked beans formed a naturalstall, and he had no more than gotten his horse behind it when theclatter of hoofs broke in the court. He could not, of course, seeSebastien dismount. But, faint as they were, his highly keyed sensesrecorded the vibrations of the other's footsteps as he followed themuddy horse tracks across to the guardhouse.

  Outside the door Sebastien stopped. In the tense pause that followedSeyd's hand went to his gun. At first the act was due to the naturalinstinct of self protection, but in the very moment of its inceptionthat gave place to a second, more powerful impulse that dyed his faceand neck with a dark flush. Drawing the weapon, he trained it across asack at the door, and at that moment no primitive man in hiding at themouth of his enemy's cave was ever obsessed by a fiercer lust to kill.All of his trials and long travail, despair, seemed in his disorderedfancy to materialize just then in Sebastien's person. And it would be soeasy! A slight pressure of his finger the instant he showed in thedoorway, then--the flood!

  In a flash the pros and cons of it passed through his mind. If thecircumstances were reversed he knew exactly the course that Sebastienwould take. And almost as he thought it came proof--first the grating ofthe key in the lock of the inner door, next the groaning complaint ofrusty hinges as Sebastien swung to the iron outer doors which had notbeen used for a score of years, finally the wooden crash of the oakenbars falling into their staples.

  It was all over before Seyd really understood. With knowledge thereflashed upon him the thought of the flood. Rushing across the floor, heleaped and threw all of his weight against the inner door. It hardlyshook, and the recoil threw him flat on the floor. As he rose came theclatter of Sebastien's departing hoofs, and running across to the windowhe was just in time to see him come in view. On the skirts of the timberhe reined suddenly in and sat his beast, listening. Then, after a quickglance northward, he galloped on.

  And Seyd, at the window, also heard.

  Above the sough of the wind which drove the sheeting rain into his facehe caught the roar of the oncoming flood.