Up the Forked River by Edward Sylvester Ellis (ebook audio reader .txt) 📕

puffs of his cigarette toward the ceiling.

Major Starland felt that he was getting on swimmingly. He had already decided to hand over to President Bambos the amount of the damages for the injury to the property of one of his citizens, quite content to place it to his personal account of profit and loss. Uneasy over the prolonged absence of Miss Starland, he would quickly arrange matters with her during the impending interview.

"I have a pleasant surprise for you," said the President, after his caller had expressed his acknowledgments; "the Senorita made known so warm a wish to see her brother that I hastened to take her, as she and I supposed, to him."

"I do not understand your Excellency."

"She is now at Zalapata, whither she went in our gunboat."

"When?"

"Last night; we must have met on the way, for you could scarcely have made the voyage between the capitals since sunrise."

This remark explained that night trip of the _General Yozarro_, whose going the Major had seen and whose returning he had heard.

"Yes," added his host; "she had but to make known her wish, when she and her friend Senorita Manuela, my niece, became my guests on my gunboat, and were landed at Zalapata last evening, where she will be disappointed to find you absent, though your meeting will be deferred but a short time."

With many acknowledgments, Major Starland bade President Yozarro good bye, passed out into the hall and hurried down the street to the wharf, where Captain Guzman was placidly awaiting him. The same drowsiness that he had noted on his arrival, brooded over everything, and no time was lost in casting off and heading down the river.

But during the absence of the American, the Captain had had a visitor, who did not step ashore, but helped in getting the boat under way, and showed by his action, that he meant to remain with them, if they did not object thereto.

"Who is he?" asked Starland, at the first opportunity to speak privately to his friend.

"Martella, a deserter from President Yozarro."

"That won't do, Captain; I cannot permit him to go with us."

"Not so, Major; he is more valuable than you think; he will tell you something you ought to know."


CHAPTER IX.

The little craft was fairly under way, and with favoring wind and current, ought to reach Zalapata in the course of ten or twelve hours. Martella, the new recruit, so to speak, seeing there was nothing just then for him to do, sat down at the bow of the boat and smoked his cigarette, while Captain Guzman kept company with Major Starland at the stern.

"Two years ago, when there was war between Atlamalco and Zalapata," explained the native officer, "we captured a party of raiders in the mountains and shot them all excepting one. He was Martella, who, being wounded, was saved at my prayer. Since then we have been friends."

"He ought to be your life friend if there is any such thing as gratitude in his nature."

"I have been to see him and he comes to see me. Martella is one who speaks the truth."

"I was not aware that--barring yourself--there was any man in this part of the world who had that virtue."

"What did President Yozarro tell you?" asked the Captain so bluntly that the American resented it.

"You have no warrant for asking that question."

"Pardon me, Major; I do not ask to know what he said about the claim of President Bambos, for I already know that."

"You do! Well, what was it?"

"He said he would pay the amount of the claim and asked you to tell President Bambos he is very sorry."

"You are right; that is what he said."

"But he did not pay you the money; and, begging pardon again, Major, you intended to pay it yourself to President Bambos, as if it came from General Yozarro."

"You would be called a mind reader, Captain, in my country, for you are right in everything you say. It will spoil his game, however, if General Bambos is as keen as you."

"If he is, he will not let you discover it; he is determined to go to war against General Yozarro, and no matter what you do, you cannot prevent it, unless----"

"Unless what?"

"You take away the cause of his making war."

"The cause! You speak in riddles."

Instead of directly replying, the Captain asked the startling question:

"You inquired of General Yozarro about the Senorita, your sister: what answer did he make to you?"

"You have not forgotten the tugboat we saw pass down the river last night; I heard it returning to Atlamalco."

"So also did I."

"On its first voyage, it carried my sister as one of the passengers, she not knowing I had left Zalapata, and she is there awaiting my coming."

Captain Guzman, sitting at the elbow of the American, gazed off toward the wooded plain as if in reverie. His words did not seem to be addressed to any one, but were as if he communed with himself:

"Five hours after the gunboat went up the river, it passed where we were resting on its way back to Atlamalco. The distance from where we were to Zalapata is eighty miles and to make the trip the boat would need eight or ten hours."

"What the mischief are you driving at? General Yozarro told me he took the lady thither."

Captain Guzman withdrew his gaze from the shore, and looking calmly in the face of Major Starland, said:

"General Yozarro lied."

"How can you know that?"

"Do you not see that the gunboat could not do what he said it did? But Martella here was on the boat and knows all."

"Call him, that I may question him."

"No need of that; I have questioned him; I know that your real business with General Yozarro was to meet the Senorita, your sister, and I know all that Martella knows."

"And what is that?"

"Senoritas Starland and Estacardo were passengers on the boat, but ten miles down the river they went ashore, and, under the escort of two soldiers, set out for the summer home of General Yozarro."

"Where is that?"

"A mile from the river among the mountains; the air there is cooler than at Atlamalco, and General Yozarro spends much of the hot season at _Castillo Descanso_, or 'Castle of Rest.' Senorita Estacardo is his niece; he is a widower; he loves your sister and he hopes by his kindness and attention to win her for his wife, and to do this, he sees he must keep you and her apart as long as he can."

"The infernal scoundrel! She shall die before wedding him!"

"He knows how you feel: that is why he strives to keep you apart."

"He'll have a good time in doing it! Do you know the path that leads to the summer quarters of this precious dog?"

"Well enough to guide you thither, but Martella knows it better than I."

"Can he be hired to guide us thither?"

"No, for he will do so without pay."

"I shall join General Bambos in his war against Yozarro, and we'll make him pay dear for his deviltry."

"Do you prefer the friendship of General Bambos to that of General Yozarro?"

"I don't care a picayune for either, but I will use one against the other."

"You forget that there is no choice between the good will of the two. When you came up the forked river you first called at Zalapata."

"What of it?"

"General Bambos was a guest on your yacht."

"Yes."

"He met Senorita Starland; he has a wife and several children, but he loves the Senorita as much as does General Yozarro."

"What a couple of wretches! Do you tell me that _that_ is why he means to go to war with General Yozarro?"

"That is his reason; I could not tell you before; his claim for damages is a pretext; he hopes to defeat General Yozarro and to compel him to give up the Senorita. Neither he nor General Yozarro cares for you, whom they regard as an obstacle; they will be glad to put you out of the way."


CHAPTER X.

All this seemed incredible and yet a little reflection convinced Major Starland that the sagacious native was right. The American had two treacherous enemies to meet in the Dictators who professed to be his friends.

"I will go back to Atlamalco; I will call the dog to account; what will he dare say for himself?"

"I am sure," observed the soft-voiced Captain, "that Major Starland will not be so unwise as that."

"Why will it be unwise?"

"General Yozarro will not see you when you return."

"He dare not refuse! I will bring up my yacht and lay his confounded town under tribute."

"He has a gunboat."

"All you folks refer to that tub as a gunboat, when it is only an old tug, which he has painted over and fitted up with a couple of six-pounders. It is not worth taking into consideration: I will force myself into his presence and compel him to undo what he has done and to beg my pardon on his knees."

The Captain indulged in his expressive shrug and smoked in silence. He was giving the American a few minutes in which to regain his poise. The American did so.

"Why did Martella leave his service?" he abruptly asked.

"General Yozarro caused his brother to be shot, because he ran the gunboat aground the other day. It was upon a mound formed under water one night by the forked river, which no one could see. The boat was not injured, but he shot Martella's brother, who was the pilot. Martella, therefore, hates him."

"No more than I do. Had I known what you have told me when talking with him this forenoon, I should have put a bullet through his carcass."

"There are better ways than that; let us go to the home of General Yozarro in the mountains and bring away the Senorita; Martella will go with us."

"He will be shot as a deserter if taken prisoner."

"He won't be taken prisoner; perhaps, too, he may gain the chance to slay General Yozarro; it will delight his heart if he can do so."

"No more than it will delight mine; talk with him, Captain; if he will help me through with this business, he will never regret it."

Captain Guzman made his way past the sail to the bow where the native was sitting, gazing thoughtfully back over the stream they were leaving behind them. He turned his head as his friend approached, and the two talked in low tones, both seemingly calm, though each was stirred by strong emotion. Then the Captain came back to the American, who, with his hand on the tiller, was holding the boat to her course. He ran in quite close to the southern shore and was studying the Rubio Mountains, whose craggy crests were visible in the sky throughout the whole voyage between the capitals of the republics. He was consumed with resentment that anyone had dared to hold the daughter of an American citizen a guest without her consent,--in other words a prisoner, as if she were a criminal. Manifestly there was a "sovereign remedy"