CHAPTER XV
ROLLO INTERVENES
With eyes injected, wide open mouth, and dropped jaw the man sat allfallen together in his seat, the gold ornaments still strewed about him,the pencil with which he had been checking them fallen from hisnerveless grasp.
"I have accounted for the old lady," said Rollo, who with the eagerprofessional assistance of La Giralda had been gagging and securing theTia. La Giralda with a wicked glee also undertook the office of searcherof her rival's person, into the details of which process the unlearnedhistorian may not enter--suffice to say that it was whole-hearted andthorough, and that it resulted in a vast series of objects being slungupon the table, many of them plundered from Don Luis's own house andothers doubtless secreted during the process of overhauling Ramon'sstrong box.
"Ah-ah, most excellent Tia, you will not refuse me a peseta as my sharenext time you go out a-caudle-ing!" said La Giralda, all in a grinningtriumph when she had finished, and to fill the cup yet fuller, wasadjusting her friend's gag to a more excellent advantage.
"Stay where you are, Luis Fernandez," said El Sarria, sternly, as he satdown with his pistols on either side of him. "I advise you not to movehand or foot, if you set any value upon your life. I shall have much tosay to you before--before the morning!"
And the doomed man, recognising the accents of deadly intent in his latefriend's voice, let his head sink into his hands with a hopeless moan.
"Meantime I will put these things in order," said the Scot, in whosemilitary blood ran the instinct of loot, and he was beginning to throwall the objects of value indiscriminately into the open chest when ElSarria checked him.
"I will take only what is mine own--and hers," he said, "but meantimeabide. There is much to be said and done first!"
Then he turned his broad deeply lined brow upon Fernandez, who lookedinto his eyes as the trembling criminal, hopeless of mercy, waits theblack cap and the sentence.
Rollo had settled the Tia on the floor with her head on a roll ofhousehold stuffs which she herself had rolled up in her cloak fortransport.
La Giralda asked her friend if she felt herself as comfortable as mightbe, and the Tia looked up at her with the eyes of a trapped wild-cat.Then the Scot stood on guard by the door which led to the staircase, hissword drawn in his hand. The picturesqueness of the scene at the tableappealed to the play-actor in him.
El Sarria held the documents in his hand which Fernandez had been aboutto destroy, and waved them gently in his enemy's face as a king'sadvocate might a written indictment in a speech of accusation.
"You betrayed me to the death, friend Luis, did you not? You revealedmy hiding-place. That is count the first!" he began.
And the wretched man, his lips dry and scarce obeying his will, stroveto give utterance to the words, "It was all my brother's doing. I swearit was my brother!"
"Bah," said El Sarria, "do not trouble to lie, Luis, being so near theOther Bar where all must speak truth. You knew. You were the trustedfriend. Your brother was not, and even if you were not upon the spot, asI thought, the blood-hounds were set on the trail by you and by noother."
Fernandez made no reply, but sank his head deeper between his hands asif to shut out his judge and probable executioner from his sight.
"Pass, then," said the outlaw, "there is so much else that it mattersnot whether you were at the Devil's Canyon or no. At any rate, youdecoyed my wife here, by a letter purporting to be written to DoloresGarcia by her husband----"
"Concha Cabezos lies. She was a liar from the beginning. That also wasmy brother. I swear to you!" cried the wretched man, in so pitiful anaccent that for the first time Rollo felt a little sorry for him.
But there was no gleam of pity in the eyes of Ramon. Instead, he lifteda pistol and toyed with it a moment thoughtfully.
"Luis," he said, "your brother has his own sins to answer for. Beneaththe fig-tree in the corner an hour or two ago, his sins ran him toearth. Whether at this moment he is alive or dead I know not--neithercare. But you cannot saddle him, in the flesh or out of it, with yourpeccadilloes. Be a man, Luis. You used not to be a coward as well as athief and a murderer."
But neither insults nor appeals could alter the fixed cloud of doom thatoverspread the face of Don Luis. He did not again interrupt, but heardthe recital of El Sarria in silence, without contradiction andapparently without hope.
"You brought my wife here by this forged letter while you knew I wasalive and while you were plotting your best to kill me. You procured myoutlawry, and the confiscation of my property--which I doubt not you andthe worthy Alcalde de Flores shared between you. You have kept my wifedrugged by that hell-cat these many days, lest she should find out yourdeceit. You plotted to slay the child of her womb--_my son_, Luis, doyou hear, _my only son_!"
The outlaw's voice mounted into a solemn and awful tone of accusation,like a man in hell calling the roll of his own past happinesses.
"Now, Luis Fernandez," thundered Ramon, after a period of silence, "whathave you to say to all this? Have you any reasons to advance why youshould not die by my hand?"
"Ramon, Ramon, do not kill me in my sins," cried the wretched man. "Bythe memory of our boyhood together let me at least receive absolutionand go clean!"
"Even as you would have made me go unshriven by the mouth of the Devil'sCanyon--even as this very night you sent forth to the holy ministry ofthe worm, and the consolations of the clod the young child, unblessedand unbenisoned, without touch of priestly hand or sprinkling drop ofholy water! Even so, Luis, friend of my youth, according to the measureye mete it shall be measured to you again. The barley bushel is goodmeasure also for the rye!"
Rollo, standing by the door and looking over the heads of accuser andaccused, saw through a window the first green streaks of a doubtful dawndrawn livid and chill athwart a black sky. He went across to El Sarriaand whispered in his ear. Fernandez lifted up his head and eyed the Scotwith a kind of dull curiosity as if he wondered what his part in theaffair might be. And the keen and restless eyes of the Tia watched himalso, from where she lay pillowed on her stolen bundle like a bound andhelpless Fury.
In quick whispers Rollo urged a plan of action upon El Sarria, by whichhe hoped to obtain a reprieve and perhaps his life for the wretched man.But he did not advert to this, only to the necessity of haste, and tothe perilous state of Dolores. This was indeed his great argument.Whatever happened she must be cared for. The matter of the traitorscould be arranged later. While Ramon sat considering, the active eyes ofthe young Scot discovered a small iron-faced door open at one corner ofthe chamber. He went across and pulled aside the curtain which halfconcealed the entrance.
"A regular strong room, by Jove!" he cried; "here is everythingcomfortable for our friends while we settle our other affairs. We shallneed our good Senor Don Luis, from time to time during the morning, butI doubt not he will oblige us."
Rollo sounded all over the strong room of the mill-house for any signsof another possible exit, but all was solid masonry. Besides which, thechests of valuables and papers, the casks of fine liquors and smuggledcigars proved that this was intended for a secret wall chamber in whichto conceal the valuables of the house in case of alarm. Suchhiding-places are not uncommon in the old houses of Spain, as Rolloknew, though this was the first he had seen.
"Give yourself the pain of entering, Senor," he said to Fernandez, andwithout waiting for any overt permission from Ramon, he caught up theold hag Tia Elvira in his arms and carried her, bundle and all, into theroom.
"Here I am compelled to leave you for the time being in the dark, DonLuis," he said courteously. "But I think you will agree that your stateis not the less gracious for that. I shall return immediately andpresent certain propositions for your consideration."
"You are an Englishman," cried Fernandez, "you will not stand by and seea man murdered in cold blood."
"The blood is none so cold that I can see," said Rollo, shrugging hisshoulders. "I will do the best I can for you, Senor; only do
not try anytricks with us. The least sign of further treachery will be fatal, andwe have many friends about us."
The Firebrand Page 15
