The Dust of Conflict Part 14

Then there was a shout from one of the leading fours, and a sharp order, while a man came running along the line; and the files in front of Appleby stood still looking about them. He felt his eyes grow dim, and his fingers quiver on the rifle stock, while his heart throbbed painfully. Then a mounted officer appeared, apparently on a mule; there was another order, though Appleby had no notion what it was, and while the feet commenced to shuffle Maccario cried out.

Appleby felt the rifle b.u.t.t jar on his shoulder and the barrel jump in his hand, but saw nothing for a moment beyond wisps of drifting smoke.

It hung about the aloes and obscured the road, but cries and execrations and orders came out of it, until the rifles of the Sin Verguenza flashed again. What happened to the cazadores was not apparent then, but it was evident that some at least survived, for there was a rush of feet in the smoke, and men with bayonets plunged in among the aloes. They failed to force a pa.s.sage through the horrible spines, and another blast of riflery met them in the face as they floundered and rent themselves.

They had done what men could do, for it was usually a leader's blunder that involved the troops of Spain in defeat, but no flesh and blood unsheltered could face that withering fire, and some went down among the aloes, while the rest flung themselves upon the murderous rifles.

Then the Sin Verguenza came out from their lair, and Appleby swung his hat off as he ran with a mob of ragged men behind him towards a slim, white-clad officer who was standing in the road. It was in Castilian he shouted, but a bitter laugh and the flash of a pistol answered him, and there was a glint of steel as half-seen men rallied about their leader.

The rifles, however, flashed again, and the cl.u.s.ter of cazadores melted away as the Sin Verguenza poured out into the road. Appleby sprang over the fallen officer, and stood still gasping and conscious for the first time that his foot was paining him. Shadowy men were flying round the bend of the road but there were, so far as he could see, very few of them; while the glance he cast round him showed what had happened to the rest.

"It doesn't look nice," said Harper, who appeared at his side. "Still, there's a mule team down, and I'm kind of anxious to find out if they brought anything to eat along."

He disappeared again, and Appleby circ.u.mspectly took off one of the Alcalde of Santa Marta's shoes. His foot felt hot, and the patches of stocking that clung about it were saturated, but the light was too dim to show him exactly where it was injured; so he shook the moisture from the shoe through a place where the st.i.tches had parted and put it on again, and was standing stiffly with his weight on one leg when Maccario came by.

"You have five minutes to look for anything you may have a fancy for in," he said. "There is, however, it seems, a lamentable scarcity of pesetas among the troops of Spain."

Appleby turned from him with a little gesture of disgust, and Maccario, who shrugged his shoulders, went away again. But the Sin Verguenza were expeditious, and within ten minutes had grouped themselves, with bulging pockets and haversacks made for other men, in straggling fours. Then the word was given, and they swung away at the best pace they could compa.s.s down the carretera. It cost Appleby an effort to limp along with his half company, but he managed it for a time, and n.o.body except Harper seemed to notice when he lagged behind. Then when they were straggling behind the rearmost files those in front halted as a man came up, and a murmur ran along the line.

"Morales with four companies!" said somebody. "Marching by the Adeje cross-road. If they are not deaf, those cazadores, they have heard the firing!"

"Forward!" Maccario's voice came back. "With Vincente behind us there will be ma.s.ses needed if we do not pa.s.s the Adeje road before Morales."

Then the pace grew faster, and Appleby dropped farther behind, with Harper hanging resolutely at his side. There was very little discipline among the Sin Verguenza at any time, and every man's first care was to save his own neck just then. So little by little the distance grew greater between them and the two lonely men, until when the last of them swept round a bend Appleby stopped altogether and looked at Harper.

"I can't go any farther on one foot. Push on," he said.

Harper laughed a little. "I've a st.i.tch in my side myself, and this kind of gallop takes it out of one. I feel kind of tired of the Sin Verguenza after to-night's work, anyway."

Appleby made a little impatient gesture. "Go on," he said, "go on."

"No, sir. I guess I told you I couldn't run."

"I'm dead lame," said Appleby. "You can't carry me."

"Well, I'm not going to try. We'll hustle along, and it's quite likely we'll get somebody to take us in."

Appleby made a last effort, but his voice shook a little as he said, "This is not your business, Harper. You can't do anything for me. Don't be a fool!"

Harper laid a hard hand on his shoulder. "Now, I have no use for arguing. We are white men alone in a heathen country, and you can't help not being an American, anyway. When he's in a tight place I don't go back on my partner. You lean on me, and we'll come to a hole we can crawl into by and by."

He slipped his arm under Appleby's shoulder, and they shuffled on alone down the dim white road. There was silence all about them, and the tramp of the Sin Verguenza came back more and more faintly out of the distance until it ceased altogether.

X - AN UNEXPECTED MEETING

IT was almost cold and very still when Appleby looked out from his lair among the cane. Morning had not come but the clump of trees that had been a mere blur of shadow when he last awakened had grown into definite form, and rose black and solemn against the eastern sky. This was no longer dusky indigo, but of a softer color tinged with a faint pearly gray, while detached stalks of cane seemed to be growing into visibility. Then he stood up with a little shiver, his torn garments clinging about him wet with the dew, and became vaguely conscious that he was very uncomfortable. His limbs ached with weariness, and there was a distressful stiffness in his hip-joint which those who have slept on damp ground are acquainted with, while his foot throbbed painfully.

These sensations, however, vanished, and left him intent and alert, for a sound he recognized came quivering through the still, cool air. It was evident that Harper heard it also, for he rose stiffly, and his face showed faintly white as he turned in the direction of the carretera which ran through the cane some fifty yards away.

"Troops! It's kind of fortunate we crawled in here," he said.

Appleby nodded, for he had pa.s.sed the greater part of six months hiding from the troops of Spain, and the tramp of marching men was unpleasantly familiar to him, while now, as it grew louder in a dull staccato, it seemed unusually portentous and sinister. The earth lay still and peaceful, wrapped in shadow, while the pearly grayness changed to a pale ruby gleam in the eastern sky; but that beat of human feet jarred dissonantly through nature's harmonies.

It swelled in slow crescendo, a rhythm of desecration, while the thin jingle of steel and a confused rattling that had still a measured cadence also became audible. The two men who heard it sat very still among the cane, until Appleby, who was not usually a prey to apprehensive fancies, started at the clack of Harper's rifle as he snapped down the lever and closed the breach again. The sound seemed to ring about them with a horrible distinctness.

"They seem in a hurry, and that's quite fortunate for us," said Harper.

"Anyway, if they see us they're not going to get me while there's anything in the magazine. I've no use for being stood up with my hands tied against a wall."

Appleby said nothing, but his brown fingers stiffened on the wet Marlin rifle, and Harper smiled in a somewhat sardonic fashion when he saw the glint in his half-closed eyes. Reticence is not accounted a virtue in his country, but the Englishman's immobility was eloquent, and his comrade was satisfied that if the worst came they would not start out on the unknown trail alone. Then four by four dim figures swung out of the shadows, and the cane seemed to shiver in unison with their trampling as they went by with a forest of sloped rifles wavering above them. Here and there a mounted officer showed above the rest; while even when the leading fours were lost again in the shadows there seemed no end to them, and there was still no slackening in the sonorous beat of feet. At last, however, laden beasts appeared with men who straggled about them, then two or three more sections with rifles trailed; and Appleby drew in a deep breath when once more the gap between the cane was empty.

"There will be no room for the Sin Verguenza now, and n.o.body will be likely to take us in," he said. "What is to be done, Harper?"

"Go to sleep!" said the American tranquilly. "I wouldn't worry about the Sin Verguenza. Quite a few of them have picked up enough to retire on. I wish I hadn't handed my haversack to black Domingo when I went back for you. That's what's troubling me."

Appleby laughed, and rolled into the little hollow he had made for himself with the careless disregard of the future which is not infrequently the adventurer's most valuable possession. He also slept soundly, and the sun was high when he awakened with a start to see a man looking down on him. He was dressed in unstarched linen, frayed but very clean, and a big straw hat, while he held a hoe and a basket in one hand, and stood regarding Appleby with grave curiosity.

"There is much sun to-day, senor," he said.

Appleby shifted his hand from the rifle and laid it restrainingly on Harper, who staggered to his feet, for there was something that inspired him with confidence in the man's dark eyes.

"Are there troops on the road?" he asked.

"No," said the man. "None between here and Arucas. The senores are-"

"Friends of liberty!" and Harper grinned as he straightened himself and turned to Appleby. "Hadn't you better tell him the question is where can two patriots get anything to eat?"

The man glanced at their haggard faces and torn garments, which were white with dust and clammy with dew.

"Ave Maria!" he said softly, and taking a small loaf from the basket broke it into two pieces. One he held out with a bottle of thin red wine, while he glanced at the other half of the loaf deprecatingly.

"One must eat to work," he said, as if in explanation. "There is always work for the poor, and between the troops and the Sin Verguenza they have very little else here."

A flush crept into Appleby's forehead, and Harper pulled out a few pesetas, which was all he had, but the man shook his head.

"No, senor," he said. "It is for the charity, and one cannot have the liberty for nothing. Still, there are many contributions one must make, and I cannot do more."

Appleby, who understood the significance charity has in Spain, took the provisions and lifted his battered hat as the man turned away; but when he had taken a pace or two he came back again and dropped a little bundle of maize-husk cigarettes and a strip of cardboard matches beside them. Then, without a word, he plodded away down a little path while Harper looked at Appleby with wonder in his eyes.

"I guess there are men like him in every nation, though they're often quite hard to find," he said. "More style about him than a good many of our senators have at home. Well, we'll have breakfast now, and then get on again."

They ate the half loaf and drank the wine; but Harper looked grave when Appleby took off his shoe. His foot seemed badly swollen, but he desisted from an attempt to remove the torn and clotted stocking with a wry smile, and put on the shoe again. Then he limped out into the road and plodded painfully down it under the scorching sun all that morning without plan or purpose, though he knew that while it lay not far from Santa Marta the Insurgents had friends and sympathizers in the aldea of Arucas, which was somewhere in front of them. They met n.o.body. The road wound away before them empty as well as intolerably hot and dusty, though here and there a group of men at work in the fields stopped and stared at them; and they spent an hour making what Harper called a traverse round a white aldea they were not sure about. Then they lay down awhile in a ruined garden beside the carretera.

There was a nispero tree in the garden laden with acid yellow fruit, and Appleby ate the handful Harper brought him greedily, for he was slightly feverish and grimed with dust. Then they smoked the peasant's maize-husk cigarettes and watched the purple lizards crawl about the fire-blackened ruins of the house. They could hear the rasp of machetes amidst the cane and the musical clink of hoes, while now and then a hum of voices reached them from the village; and once, with a great clatter, a mounted man in uniform went by.

Harper lay still, drowsily content to rest; but those sounds of human activity troubled Appleby. The men who made them had work to do, and a roof to shelter them when their toil was done, but he was drifting aimlessly as the red leaves he had watched from the foot-bridge one winter day in England. Tony stood beside him then, and he wondered vaguely what Tony was doing now-playing the part of gentleman steward to G.o.dfrey Palliser with credit to himself and the good will of his uncle's tenants, riding through English meadows, meeting men who were glad to welcome him in London clubs, or basking in the soft gleam of Violet Wayne's eyes. It was the latter only that Appleby envied him; and he wondered whether Tony, who had so much, knew the full value of the love that had been given him as the crown of all, and then brushed the thoughts away when Harper rose.

"We have got to make Arucas by to-night, or lie out starving, which is a thing I have no use for," he said. "It's a long hustle."