An Eagle Flight Part 21

On a table with Persian spread, beside the trench, were the things to be put into the cornerstone, and the gla.s.s box and leaden cylinder which were to preserve for the future these souvenirs, this mummy of an epoch.

Under two long booths near at hand were sumptuous tables, one for the school-children, without wine, and heaped with fruits; the other for the distinguished visitors. The booths were joined by a sort of bower of leafy branches, where were chairs for the musicians, and tables with cakes, confitures, and carafes of water, for the public in general.

The crowd, gay in garments of many colors, was ma.s.sed under the trees to avoid the ardent rays of the sun, and the children, to better see the ceremony of the dedication, had climbed up among the branches.

Soon bands were heard in the distance. The Mongol carefully examined his construction; he seemed nervous. A man with the appearance of a peasant standing near him on the edge of the excavation and close beside the capstan watched all his movements. It was Elias, well disguised by his salakot and rustic costume.

The musicians arrived, preceded by a crowd of old and young in motley array. Behind came the alcalde, the munic.i.p.al guard officers, the monks, and the Spanish Government clerks. Ibarra was talking with the alcalde; Captain Tiago, the alferez, the curate and a number of the rich country gentlemen accompanied the ladies, whose gay parasols gleamed in the sunshine.

As they approached the trench, Ibarra felt his heart beat. Instinctively he raised his eyes to the strange scaffolding. The Mongol saluted him respectfully, and looked at him intently a moment. Ibarra recognized Elias through his disguise, and the mysterious helmsman, by a significant glance, recalled the warning in the church.

The curate put on his robes and began the office. The one-eyed sacristan held his book; a choir boy had in charge the holy water and sprinkler. The men uncovered, and the crowd stood so silent that, though the father read low, his voice was heard to tremble.

The ma.n.u.scripts, journals, money, and medals to be preserved in remembrance of this day had been placed in the gla.s.s box and the box itself hermetically sealed within the leaden cylinder.

"Senor Ibarra, will you place the box in the stone? The curate is waiting for you," said the alcalde in Ibarra's ear.

"I should do so with great pleasure," said Ibarra, "but it would be a usurpation of the honor; that belongs to the notary, who must draw up the written process."

The notary gravely took the box, descended the carpeted stairway which led to the bottom of the trench, and with due solemnity deposited his burden in the hollow of the stone already laid. The curate took the sprinkler and sprinkled the stone with holy water.

Each one was now to deposit his trowel of cement on the surface of the lower stone, to seal it to the stone held suspended by the crane when that should be lowered.

Ibarra offered the alcalde a silver trowel, on which was engraved the date of the fete, but before using it His Excellency p.r.o.nounced a short allocution in Castilian.

"Citizens of San Diego," he said, "we have the honor of presiding at a ceremony whose importance you know without explanations. We are founding a school, and the school is the basis of society, the book wherein is written the future of each race.

"Citizens of San Diego! Thank G.o.d, who has given you these priests! Thank the Mother Country, who spreads civilization in these fertile isles and protects them with the covering of her glorious mantle. Thank G.o.d, again, who has enlightened you by his priests from his divine Word.

"And now that the first stone of this building has been blessed, we, the alcalde of this province, in the name of His Majesty the King, whom G.o.d guard; in the name of the ill.u.s.trious Spanish Government, and under the protection of its spotless and ever-victorious flag, consecrate this act and begin the building of this school!

"Citizens of San Diego, long live the king! Long live Spain! Long live the religious orders! Long live the Catholic church!"

"Long live the Senor Alcalde!" replied many voices.

Then the high official descended majestically, to the strains of the orchestras, put his trowel of cement on the stone, and came back as majestically as he had gone down.

The Government clerks applauded.

Ibarra offered the trowel to the curate, who descended slowly in his turn. In the middle of the staircase he raised his eyes to the great stone suspended above, but he stopped only a second, and continued the descent. This time the applause was a little warmer, Captain Tiago and the monks adding theirs to that of the clerks.

The notary followed. He gallantly offered the trowel to Maria Clara, but she refused, with a smile. The monks, the alferez, and others descended in turn, Captain Tiago not being forgotten.

Ibarra was left. He had ordered the stone to be lowered when the curate remembered him.

"You do not put on your trowelful, Senor Ibarra?" said the curate, with a familiar and jocular air.

"I should be Juan Palomo, who made the soup and then ate it," replied Crisostomo in the same light tone.

"You go down, of course," said the alcalde, taking him by the arm in friendly fashion. "If not, I shall order that the stone be kept suspended, and we shall stay here till the Day of Judgment!"

Such a menace forced Ibarra to obey. He exchanged the silver trowel for a larger one of iron, as some people noticed, and started out calmly. Elias gave him an indefinable look; his whole being seemed in it. The Mongol's eyes were on the abyss at his feet.

Ibarra, after glancing rapidly at the block over his head, at Elias, and at the Mongol, said to Senor Juan, in a voice that trembled:

"Give me the tray and bring me the other trowel."

He stood alone. Elias no longer looked at him, his eyes were riveted on the hands of the Mongol, who, bending over, was anxiously following the movements of Ibarra. Then the sound of Ibarra's trowel was heard, accompanied by the low murmur of the clerks' voices as they felicitated the alcalde on his speech.

Suddenly a frightful noise rent the air. A pulley attached to the base of the crane sprang out, dragging after it the capstan, which struck the crane like a lever. The beams tottered, the cables broke, and the whole fabric collapsed with a deafening roar and in a whirlwind of dust.

A thousand voices filled the place with cries of horror. People fled in all directions. Only Maria Clara and Brother Salvi remained where they were, pale, mute, incapable of motion.

As the cloud of dust thinned, Ibarra was seen upright among the beams, joists and cables, between the capstan and the great stone that had fallen. He still held the trowel in his hand. With eyes frightful to look at, he regarded a corpse half buried under the beams at his feet.

"Are you unhurt? Are you alive? For G.o.d's sake, speak!" cried some one at last.

"A miracle! A miracle!" cried others.

"Come, take out the body of this man," said Ibarra, as if waking from a dream. At the sound of his voice Maria Clara would have fallen but for the arms of her friends.

Then everything was confusion. All talked at once, gestured, went hither and thither, and knew not what to do.

"Who is killed?" demanded the alferez.

"Arrest the head builder!" were the first words the alcalde could p.r.o.nounce.

They brought up the body and examined it. It was that of the Mongol. The heart no longer beat.

The priests shook Ibarra's hand, and warmly congratulated him.

"When I think that I was there a moment before!" said one of the clerks.

"It is well they gave the trowel to you instead of me," said a trembling old man.

"Don Pascal!" cried some of the Spaniards.

"Senores, the Senor Ibarra lives, while I, if I had not been crushed, should have died of fright."

Ibarra had been to inform himself of Maria Clara.

"Let the fete continue, Senor Ibarra," said the alcalde, as he came back. "Thank G.o.d, the dead is neither priest nor Spaniard! You ought to celebrate your escape! What if the stone had fallen on you!"

"He had presentiments!" cried the notary. "He did not want to go down, that was plain to be seen!"

"It's only an Indian!"

"Let the fete go on! Give us music! Mourning won't raise the dead. Captain, let the inquest be held! Arrest the head builder!"