A Queen's Error Part 22

I did as he bid me, and within five minutes had the pleasure of tearing the handkerchief with which she was gagged from my darling's mouth; and before all the a.s.sembled pa.s.sengers kissing her upon the lips as I gave her insensible into the arms of her aunt.

I think I had earned those kisses!

CHAPTER XIII

DON JUAN D'ALTA

No sooner had we pa.s.sed through the cyclists than they formed across the road and, dismounting, took up positions behind any cover which they discovered in the rough ground.

To my astonishment they unstrapped rifles from their machines, and as soon as the robbers appeared in pursuit greeted them with a rapid fire evidently from magazines. I saw several saddles emptied as they turned and rode off.

A few minutes after St. Nivel and his friends rejoined us.

"That was a lucky thought of mine," he said, laughing, when he had gripped my hand and congratulated me on our escape.

I remembered seeing the bicycles being put into the train at Monte Video, and the magazine rifles of course were in the guard's van, and ought to have been used when the robbers attacked us, but they came too suddenly and there was no time to get them.

From that time forward things went easily enough; steam was soon up, and we were away again to Valoro within half an hour. At the next station a special restaurant car was attached; we were treated like heroes, sitting amid the popping of champagne corks relating our adventures, and this went on long after the morning had broken.

But I, tired out, soon sought my bed in the sleeping-car, but not before I had been a.s.sured at the door of the ladies' car, by Mrs.

Darbyshire, now all tears and smiles, that Dolores had regained consciousness, and was unhurt, save for bruises and, of course, a severe shock.

I slept until within an hour of our running into Valoro station late in the afternoon, and just had time to have a delicious bath and emerge fresh and hungry into the restaurant car in which St. Nivel, Lady Ethel, and Dolores looking very pale and ill, were just finishing lunch. My darling sat beside me while I lunched and held my hand--when it was disengaged--unheeded by Mrs. Darbyshire. This lady, I think, considered that the case had got beyond her and had better be relegated to a higher court--Don Juan d'Alta--for judgment.

Dolores even lighted my cigarette for me, but soon after her aunt took her away to prepare to leave the train.

"What on earth made you hand that poor devil of a brigand chief that box of cigars, Jack?" I asked St. Nivel, when we were alone with Ethel, and he had restored my precious casket to me; "he might have taken it and got the whole shoot."

"At that moment," replied St. Nivel, glancing through the rings of his cigar smoke quite affectionately at me, "I wished he _would_ take it.

Things looked very ugly for you, and we were powerless to help you. I thought if he took the cigar case the casket would at least be with you and you would know it and could use your own discretion about giving them the tip if your life were threatened as I imagined it would be."

"Very clever of you, Jack," I answered, "and I'm very much obliged to you for thinking of it, but I am glad that the poor devil didn't take it after all. I believe it to be my duty to take it to Don Juan d'Alta, even at the risk of my life."

St. Nivel sat thinking a moment or two; then he spoke.

"Why do you use the term 'poor devil'?" he asked, "when you speak of the robber chief?"

I told him why. I told him how I had shot him.

"Well, really, Bill," he said very seriously, "I wish the thing _had_ gone. It has already cost several lives, and seems to carry ill-luck with it. Who knows how many more lives may be sacrificed? Of course, there cannot be a doubt but that the train was held up solely to obtain it; the taking of the hundred dollars a head was simply a ruse to cover the other. Old Frampton says such a raid on a train is a thing unheard of now in Aquazilia."

"Yes," I answered, "but it came to a good round sum all the same.

Well, at any rate," I continued, as the train ran into Valoro station, "we've brought the thing to its destination, and we're all safe and sound, so there's _something_ to be thankful for!"

At Valoro, things were "all right" as my man Brooks put it; news of the attack on the train, in which was the British Minister, had reached the capital, and a troop of cavalry awaited to escort him to his Legation.

"As I understand you have something of importance to deliver in Valoro," said Sir Rupert Frampton to me as we left the train, "I think you had better come in my carriage. I am taking Mrs. Darbyshire and the Senorita with me too. They both want rea.s.suring, and the morale of the escort will do that. I shall take them right home."

"Thank you very much," I answered, "that will suit me down to the ground. My mission is to deliver a packet to Don Juan d'Alta himself."

"Then come along," added Sir Rupert, "for, of course, the ladies are going there too."

In a few minutes we were driving out of the station yard in a fine carriage, surrounded by soldiers.

It was the first time I had ever ridden with an escort, and I liked it.

We left the immense terminus, which would not have disgraced the finest city in Europe, and turned up a great boulevard leading to the higher part of the city where amid trees we could see many fine white houses.

"That is our house!" cried Dolores, as we left the houses behind and came out into the country. "Look, aunt! look, William!"

I did look and saw on the crest of the hill we were approaching, far away to the left, a long range of white buildings, relieved with towers, which looked like a small castle.

It filled me with apprehension, for it was a sign of the great wealth of her father--the wealth which I feared would be a bar to our union.

I think she was surprised at the glum look on my face for the rest of the little journey.

"Are you sorry to go and see my father?" she asked plaintively, with a sweet look in her blue eyes. "I am sure he will be very glad to see _you_ and to thank you for saving me. He is a very kind man is my father," she added solemnly, "very kind to me, and very kind to his reptiles."

Before them all--Mrs. Darbyshire was now quite resigned--I took her hand and pressed it.

"It is a very easy thing to be kind to _you_, Dolores," I said. "I should find the difficulty in being kind to the reptiles."

"But you will humour my father, won't you?" she asked, and then dropped her voice, "for both our sakes?"

The amount of interest dear old Sir Rupert Frampton took in distant scenery during this drive, and the many objects of interest he pointed out to Mrs. Darbyshire to divert her attention from us, made me his willing slave for life. For, indeed, I was agitated at the prospect of the interview which was to come in a few minutes with old Don Juan d'Alta, not only for our sake, but for the sake of the dear old lady at Bath, who I doubted not was now dead, and the packet she had confided to my care.

It was a comfort to sit with Dolores' little hand in mine. My other clasped the precious packet in my trousers pocket.

At last we drove into a great avenue filled with the most luxuriant tropical vegetation, very carefully tended, for there were men at work everywhere.

The escort wheeled away into line as we swept under a great gla.s.s-roofed portiere, and came to a halt at a fine flight of marble steps, where Sir Rupert left us and drove away with the soldiers clattering around him.

Yes, the home of my Dolores was like a modern palace.

Overcome with seeing it again, I think she forgot even me for the moment. She ran gaily up the steps, trilling with laughter.

"Where is father?" she cried.

That gentleman answered her question in person.

At the head of the steps appeared an old man dressed in black with an abundance of perfectly white hair which surrounded a very good-humoured, wrinkled face, almost as brown as a berry. It was the face of an aristocrat, but of an aristocrat who lived in the open air, and a good deal under the burning sun of an Aquazilian summer.

He came forward with a very loving smile on his old face and took his little daughter in his arms.

Their greeting was in Spanish and therefore most of it was lost to me, but I took it to be a very affectionate one. This over, the conversation turned in my direction and broke into English.