Swift and Sure Part 10

"His Excellency is too much engaged to give audience, senor," was the reply, and the man pa.s.sed on without waiting for more.

Suddenly remembrance came to Will.

"Isn't your aunt's uncle engaged in the administration?" he asked the station-master.

"My mother's cousin, senor. I was not aware that you knew it."

"Then please will you send a message to your mother's cousin and see whether he cannot bring us to the Jefe," said Will, stifling a temptation to shake the man.

"But he is a high official, senor; he may be displeased."

"Good heavens! Don't you see it's the chance of your life! You are the man who sent the warning telegram from Santa Marta. Get your mother's cousin to take you to the Jefe: he may make you superintendent of the line."

This vision of glory was sufficiently dazzling to overcome the station-master's reluctance to trouble his relative. Mentioning the official's name, he was led along a corridor and ushered into his presence. A few words explained his errand; then the a.s.sistant secretary said he would certainly introduce him to the Jefe as the man whose timely warning had been so valuable. Will accompanied them to the room in which the Jefe sat, among a throng of officers. The a.s.sistant secretary presented his relative, magnifying his prompt.i.tude and zeal for the State. The Jefe embraced him: then, recognizing Will, gave him a finger.

"The Republic thanks you, senor," he said to the station-master; "the President will reward you. Your warning gave us time to blow up the culvert, and if I can hold the rebel Colonel Orellana at bay, I may be able to vanquish General Carabano himself. By a malign stroke of fate, scarcely an hour before I received your message, three hundred of my best troops left by steamer for Caracas, sadly reducing my garrison."

"Did you not receive a telegram from Caracas ordering the dispatch of these reinforcements, Excellency?" asked Will.

"That is true, senor," replied the Jefe, with a look of surprise.

"The order was fabricated, Excellency," said Will at once. "It was part of General Carabano's plan, managed with the connivance of one of your telegraph staff. His name is--let me think: Perugia--no, Pereira."

"Do you say so, senor?" cried the Jefe, springing up in agitation. "How do you know it?"

"I overheard a conversation between General Carabano and my Company's telegraphist, who has joined the rebels."

"Caramba! could anything be more unfortunate--or more atrocious! Captain Guzman, be so good as to have this Pereira instantly arrested. Would that I could recall the troops! But by this time they are twelve miles down-stream."

An idea struck Will.

"I have my hydroplane at the quay, Excellency," he said, "and if the steamer left only an hour ago I can easily overtake it if you will give me an order recalling the troops. In less than three hours they will be at your Excellency's disposal."

The Jefe grasped both his hands and shook them warmly.

"I cannot sufficiently thank you, senor. You will do the State a great service. If the troops return within that time they will be here almost as soon as General Carabano; it may be our salvation. Do not delay, I beg you."

"I must have a written order, Excellency."

"a.s.suredly. Senor Crespo" (addressing the a.s.sistant secretary), "kindly make out the order for my signature at once."

He turned to speak to his officers. The station-master, finding himself forgotten, stood looking very ill at ease. In a few moments the order was signed, and Will took his leave. Hurrying through the streets, he remembered that he was hungry and stopped at a shop to buy bread and cheese. But putting his hand into his pocket for the money, he discovered that he was without a single peseta.

"I came away in a hurry," he said to the scowling shopkeeper. "Look, here is an order signed by the Jefe; my mission is urgent, I will pay you when I get back, at the offices of the British Asphalt Company of Guayana."

"Very well, senor," said the man, to whom the name of the Company was well known: and Will hurried off, carrying enough food to provide himself and his two companions with a substantial meal.

Five minutes afterwards he sprang on board the hydroplane, cast off, and set her going at full speed. The current was with him, and the vessel whizzed along at forty knots, Azito standing with his pole a few feet from the wind screen, holding in his left hand a hunch of bread from which he took a bite occasionally. Will employed his left hand in the same way, steering with the right.

Caracas, he knew, was several hundreds of miles distant from Ciudad Bolivar by water. The steamer would run with the tide to the mouth of the river, or strike out by one of its arms to the sea, and then follow the coast-line. Will knew that he could overtake it long before it reached the mouth. Indeed, in less than half-an-hour Azito reported that he saw its smoke in the distance. Five minutes afterwards it was clearly visible as a spot on the river's broad expanse, and in yet another five minutes the hydroplane was alongside, Will shouting to the crowded deck that he had a message of recall from the Jefe. The steamer slowed down and stopped: Will clambered on board and handed the order to the officer in command. The vessel was instantly put about; the engines were forced to their utmost, and huge volumes of black smoke poured from the funnels, the hydroplane being made fast with a rope and towed.

The steamer was now moving against the current, and it seemed to Will to go at a snail's pace in comparison with the hydroplane. He became so bored with the slow progress and the officer's questions about his vessel that he made up his mind to quit the steamer and hasten back in advance, to inform the Jefe that the troops were on the way to his relief. He called to Jose to start the motor and drive the hydroplane alongside, slipped over by means of a rope, and was soon careering ahead of the steamer at three times its speed.

When he arrived within a few miles of the city he heard heavy firing, and as he drew nearer he recognized that the attack was being pressed in two quarters. Evidently General Carabano had made a very rapid march from the broken culvert. On reaching the quay, he left Jose and Azito in charge of the hydroplane as before, and hurried along the deserted streets to the Town Hall. The Jefe was absent. He had taken the command against General Carabano on the south-west, while Captain Guzman was engaged with Colonel Orellana on the south-east. Will hastened on to find the Jefe. He discovered him a short distance south of the town, on rising ground, his front protected by the walls of two or three gardens.

The Jefe was decidedly flurried. He had only three or four hundred men against a force which he estimated to number nearly eight hundred. Will wondered how so many had been squeezed into the train. They must have been packed like sardines. Three guns had been drawn to the spot and unlimbered behind the walls; but the Jefe, when Will told him that the steamer was coming down at full speed, explained with much vehemence that when his artillerymen tried to fire the guns they found that the powder was mixed with sand. Will was not surprised. Some official had no doubt made a little fortune out of the contract.

General Carabano's attack had been twice rolled back, but he had now divided his force into two portions. One threatened the front of the Jefe's position, from the reverse slope of a hill about a quarter of a mile distant; the other was working through a small wood to the west, with the evident intention of taking the position in flank. Indeed, just after Will arrived, an enfilading fire broke out on the right, and began to thin the ranks of the men holding the gardens, for the wood through which the enemy was approaching was at a somewhat higher level, so that the defenders lost the protection of the wall running at right angles to their front. The position was already no longer tenable, and the Jefe, who had no great confidence in his men's steadiness, began to withdraw them by twenties behind barricades thrown up at the end of two streets leading towards the middle of the city. The retirement was hailed with loud shouts by the enemy, who, emboldened by their success, came pouring out of the wood, pressing the Government troops hard. The last of these to leave the gardens were closely followed by the main body of the enemy under General Carabano himself. They came yelling forward right up to the barricades. Then, however, they were met by a galling fire from the men already in position; and the General's voice could be heard ordering them to scatter and take refuge in the gardens which had lately sheltered their opponents.

It was obvious that the barricades could not be taken by direct a.s.sault without heavy loss, but the General was equal to the difficulty. While his men kept up a dropping fire from the garden, the flanking force, under Captain Espejo, skirmishing along under cover of broken country, gained a point some hundred yards beyond the barricades, and then, swinging to their right, charged through a cross lane, a movement which threatened the rear of the defenders and placed them between two fires.

The Jefe saw his peril in time, and withdrew his men hurriedly from the barricade, occupying houses commanding the intersection of the streets with the lane.

He had barely completed this operation when he saw his mistake. He was in a trap. His force was no longer mobile. The enemy, protected by the barricades which he himself had raised, could prevent him from leaving the houses, while he, though the buildings to some extent commanded the barricades, was quite unable to bring to bear upon the enemy a fire destructive enough to drive them away. General Carabano's intentions were soon clear. He ordered up Captain Espejo, and left him to hold the Jefe in check, while preparing himself to detach the rest of his men and press on by a flank march towards the centre of the city, which was practically undefended. This division of his force, which would have been hazardous in face of superior numbers, was perfectly safe in the unfortunate situation in which the Jefe was placed.

During these exciting moments Will had remained with the Jefe. That poor hara.s.sed man was in great distress of mind at having allowed himself thus to be cut off.

"How long will the steamer be?" he asked Will anxiously, standing at a window.

"It can't be far off, Excellency," replied Will. "Shall I go and hurry up the reinforcements?"

"It is a generous offer, senor, but impossible to carry out. You would certainly be shot."

"I am not so sure, Excellency. Captain Espejo's men are all beyond the barricades: the General is now some distance away; if you pour in a hot fire on the barricades when I slip out I think I might escape."

"You are a stranger, senor. You have no reason to imperil your life in our unhappy cause."

"But the very existence of my Company depends on your crushing General Carabano, Excellency. I am willing to take the risk."

"I can say no more, senor. Give me a signal when you reach the door and I will do my best for you."

Will instantly ran down the stairs. He stood at the door for a moment to make sure that the street to the right was clear; then, shouting to the Jefe, he sprinted away. Instantly there was a rattle of musketry from the windows above. Will ran a few yards up the street, one or two bullets whizzing perilously close, then darted into an alley on his right and made at full speed towards the river.

The city seemed to be deserted. All the civilians had barricaded themselves in their houses. When Will reached the quay, he saw the smoke of the steamer about a mile away. Springing into the hydroplane, he started it down-stream, and on meeting the vessel, swung round and explained in a few hurried sentences to the officer in command what was happening. The officer, who appeared to be a capable soldier, was alive to the situation. If General Carabano swooped down on the rear of Captain Guzman's force, engaged in an unequal struggle with Colonel Orellana in the south-east of the city, he might easily crush the defence in that quarter. He could then join hands with Captain Espejo and sweep the city from end to end. It was obviously the first duty of the reinforcements to save the garrison on the southeast from being crushed, and there was no time to be lost.

Accordingly the steamer went on until it reached the quay. The troops were landed, hastily formed up, and led up the steep hill streets towards the danger point, from which the sound of continuous firing, now much louder than when Will came through the city, showed that Captain Guzman was being hard pressed.

The reinforcements had barely begun the advance when a loud outburst of firing was heard, apparently not more than a few hundred yards away.

There could be no doubt that General Carabano had crossed the city and was now falling on the rear of the garrison. Will had had no military training or experience, but he realized how critical the situation was.

If Captain Guzman's defence was broken, it was doubtful whether, even with the aid of the reinforcements, the city could be saved. The officer, Colonel Blanco, ordered his men to double and to refrain from shouting.

"Go back, senor," he cried to Will: "you will be in danger."

"Not a bit of it," replied Will, in the grip of intense excitement.

He ran along beside the Colonel, wishing that he had had the forethought to borrow a rifle before he left the Jefe. He did not pause to consider that he was properly a non-combatant; he was in fact too much excited to think of his own position at all.

The head of the little column soon came in view of a large plaza, so full of smoke that it was impossible to see whether the men firing were friends or foes. But in a few moments Will caught sight of a number of Indians, wearing green feathers, swarming out of one of the streets opening on the plaza.

"They are General Carabano's bloodhounds," cried Will.