by Roy J. Snell
CHAPTER XVII THE SPANISH GIRL REAPPEARS
For three nights Pant had not visited Daego's camp. Nor had he in allthis time seen Johnny's ghost walking out upon the air. That it hadwalked, he felt quite sure. The night before, a large dugout, loaded withthe half-caste's men, had been seen to go slipping down the river.
"Just go gliding about up there in my dugout," Pant told himself an hourafter darkness set in.
He pushed his boat some distance up the river, then, lying flat down init, allowed it to drift downstream.
"Might see that ghost again to-night," he said, chuckling.
In this position it was impossible for him to see perils ahead. Aslanting snag caught his drifting boat and set it tilting. Before hecould realize what was happening he found himself struggling in the blackwaters.
Striking out with both hands, he made a grab for the overturned boat. Tohis dismay he heard it give forth a sucking sound, then saw it sink, prowfirst, in ten feet of water.
"Darn!" he muttered. "Old dugout. Waterlogged. What now?"
There was only one answer to this: shore as quickly as possible. What ifit were the enemy's shore? There were alligators in these waters, greatscaly creatures ten feet long. He had heard one barking not three rodsfrom him but a moment before.
"Here for the night," he groaned, as he reached a leaning tree trunk andclimbed upon it.
This seemed true enough. The tree grew at the edge of a marsh. There werealligators in the marsh. To travel that marsh in the dark was to courtdeath.
Imagine his relief when, just as he had resigned himself to this hardfate, he saw the dark form of a canoe drift into the shadows.
So surprised and overjoyed was he that, casting caution to the winds, hehailed the solitary boatman.
To his surprise, the answer that came back was in the high-pitched notesof a girl.
"Who--who are you?" came in the same girlish voice as the canoe halted,twice its length from the tree.
"Pant--Panther Eye," replied the boy, not knowing what else to say.
"Oh!"
To the boy's immense surprise, there was something in the girl's tonethat told plainer than words that to her his name was not strange. Moresurprising still was the manner in which, at sound of this name, shethrew all reserve aside and paddled quickly to the tree and invited himto drop into the stern.
Once he was aboard, she sent her boat shooting away across the river.Ignoring the entrance to the river trail, she drove on down the river andentered the creek, at last bringing her canoe up with a bump at theentrance of the creek trail.
Pant remembered Johnny's story of the strange Spanish girl who hadvisited their camp. Something seemed to tell him that this was the samegirl. He did not have long to wait.
During all their journey the girl had remained silent. Now she spoke:
"I was here before."
"I--I thought so," said Pant. "Why?"
"I wanted to speak to you, or your friend. You had been deserted by yourcrew. We knew why. We--we might have helped you."
"Who are 'we'?"
"Father and I. What brought you up to the Rio Hondo?" the girl askedquickly.
"The red lure."
"The red----"
"Mahogany."
"And is that all?" There was a searching note in her words.
"Quite all. Believe me, it is quite enough. Perhaps you've never felt thecharm of it. Precious, priceless, perfect wood--mahogany, the red lure.That's Johnny's name for it."
"I know," said the girl, "I, too, have felt it. I told father that wasall. He was not sure. My friend," the girl's voice dropped to a whisper,"I have helped you a little to-night."
"A lot."
"A little. You may be able to help us a great deal, father and me. We'rein trouble, not our trouble, but our country's trouble.
"Perhaps I shouldn't tell you," she hesitated, "but I guess it's right Ishould. My father is deputy for this territory. It is his duty to seethat the laws are obeyed. Someone is breaking our laws and we cannotcatch them. Not little things that do not matter much, but big thingsthat mean certain death to many." She paused for a moment. To their earscame the silent rush of water. There is something dreadfully solemn aboutthe rush of black waters through the dark.
"These laws-breakers," the girl continued, "are smuggling two things toour people--rifles and rum. You know what that means in Mexico. Riflesand rum mean revolution; cruel, senseless revolution! The Governor of thestate of Quintanaroo is a good, kind man. Revolution could never bring abetter government. But the people are simple-minded. Rum maddens theirhearts. Rifles make them want to fight. Someone is selling them both at agreat price, and we cannot catch them. One man is suspected, and that oneis----"
"Daego?"
"Daego. But we can prove nothing. Every motor boat is searched, but eachone brings only food, clothing and tools for his camp."
All at once, as Pant sat there listening to this girl, so earnest, yet soyoung, so eager to help her people, he realized that a Divine will,higher than his own, had sent him here and that his greatest mission, amoral mission, was just before him.
"I--I think I can help you," he whispered. "I know I can."
Before his mind's eye a black shadow crept up the river and in his memorythere echoed still the pop-pop of that stationary engine away in thebush.
"Give me a day, two days," he said. "Come back here day after to-morrow,two hours after dark."
"All right, my friend, and may God prosper you! We are your friends.Good-bye!"
Pant stepped upon the shore and the canoe shot silently away in thenight.
"We are your friends." How sweet were those words spoken to a lonely boyin the heart of a wilderness!
