The Dust of Conflict Part 40

"One would not presume to question the word of Colonel Morales," said Appleby with rather more than a trace of irony. "In this case there was also the fact that your distinguished countrymen have already incurred a serious responsibility. Spain cannot afford to offer any unnecessary provocation to two other nations just now."

The contempt in Morales' little laugh was not a.s.sumed. "Pshaw! It is evident you do not understand the Castilians, Senor Appleby. One would almost fancy that you were trifling with me."

"I am afraid you rate my courage too high," said Appleby, who glanced at the clock. "It is, however, difficult to decide. The thing suggested was unpleasant, and you understand that one has prejudices. Perhaps that is because I have not lived very long in Cuba. Still, I admit that what we saw in the plaza was suggestive, but there is the difficulty that I cannot commit my comrade, who may have different notions."

Once more Morales fixed his dark eyes upon him, and Appleby, who could feel his heart throbbing, wondered if he had blundered in not a.s.suming at least a trace of anxiety. He fancied that Morales must suspect that there was something behind his indifferent att.i.tude, but, tingling with suspense as he was, the role was very difficult to play. It was essential that he should lead the officer on with the hope of making terms until the guard was changed. The minute finger of the little clock scarcely seemed to move, while he could feel that the damp was beaded on his forehead.

Morales, however, laughed. "I fancy he could be left you. Still, I wished him to hear-that he should know whom he was indebted to in case we did not arrive at an understanding. Well, I will be frank. We will a.s.sume that the offer I made you is open still."

Appleby stood silent for almost half a minute, which appeared interminable, feeling that Morales' eyes never left his face. Then there was a tramp of feet in the patio, followed by a tread on the stairway, and it was only by strenuous effort that he retained his immobility. The guard was being changed a minute or two earlier than he had expected.

A voice rose from outside, somebody tapped at the door and Morales appeared to check an exclamation of impatience when a man came in. He was dressed immaculately in white linen and spotless duck, and carried a costly Panama hat in his hand.

"With many excuses, senor, I venture to do myself this honor," he said.

"You may remember you were once pleased to express your approbation of my poor tobacco."

Appleby contrived to smile, though it cost him an effort, but Harper gasped, and there was for a moment a silence they both found it difficult to bear. Appleby in the meanwhile saw the gleam in Morales'

eyes, but was quite aware that a Castilian gentleman rates his own dignity too highly to consider it necessary to impress it upon every stranger.

"It is an intrusion," he said quietly. "I do not understand why the sentries admitted you."

The tobacco merchant made a little deprecatory gesture, and Appleby felt his hands tremble as he watched the man move a step nearer the officer's chair.

"It was not their fault. I slipped by when the guard was changed," he said. "One would make excuses for such boldness, but you understand the necessities of business. Now, I have here examples of a most excellent tobacco."

Morales turned, apparently to summon one of the guards. "Still, the man who let you pa.s.s will be sorry!"

Then there was a little click-clack that sounded horribly distinct, and as he swung round again a pistol glinted in the tobacco merchant's hand.

"Senor," said the latter, "it would be advisable to sit very still."

Morales became suddenly rigid, but his eyes were very steady as he glanced at the stranger. "One begins to understand," he said. "Are you not, however, a little indiscreet, senor? There is a guard scarcely thirty feet away. A sound also travels far in this building."

The tobacco merchant laughed. "Will you open the door, Senor Harper, that Colonel Morales may see his guard?"

Harper rose, and when he flung the door open the sentry was revealed. He stood in the corridor gazing into the lighted room, but though the situation must have been evident to him, his face was expressionless, and his erect figure showed motionless against the shadow behind him.

Then for just a moment a flush of darker color swept into Morales' olive cheek, and Appleby fancied that he winced.

"That man is taking a heavy risk," he said. "There is a half-company of his comrades in the cuartel."

The tobacco merchant smiled. "Then one would fancy, senor, that some of them had mutinied."

Morales said nothing for a moment, and Appleby surmised that he was wondering how many of his men had remained loyal. Then he made a little impatient gesture.

"Well," he said, "what do you want from me?"

"A very little thing, senor. No more than the liberty of a certain peon, Domingo Pereira. I do not ask the freedom of these friends of mine.

That, as you can comprehend, is unnecessary."

A little gleam crept into the officer's dark eyes. "It is a trifle difficult to understand why you place yourself under an obligation to me in respect to the peon Pereira. If there is a mutiny in the cuartel, why not take him?"

"It is simple. The affair is one that we wish to arrange quietly, but there are one or two sections who will take no part with us, and the Sergeant Suarez is an obdurate loyalist. All we ask is an order for the handing over of the prisoner to the guard. That, since it will not be known when they mutinied, will cast no discredit upon the Colonel Morales."

"And if I should not think fit to sign it?"

The tobacco merchant shrugged his shoulders. "One would recommend you to reflect," he said. "Between two Spanish gentlemen who have no wish for unpleasantness that should be sufficient. Still, you see before you three determined men and you have proof that your guard has mutinied. It is convenient that you write the order."

"You want nothing more?"

"No, senor. To be frank, my friends have no intention of seizing the cuartel. We are not in a position to hold it just now."

Morales tore a strip of paper from a pad, scribbled upon it and flung it across the table to the tobacco merchant, who pa.s.sed it to Appleby.

"You will hand that to the soldier outside," he said. "He will come back and report when he has delivered the prisoner to the guard."

Appleby went out, and the tobacco merchant laid the pistol down. "It was an unpleasant necessity," he said. "Still, one can dispense with it now we have arrived at an understanding."

Harper laughed as he clenched his big hands on the back of the chair he leaned upon.

"If the distinguished gentleman tries to get up something will happen to him," he said. "I have been figuring just where I could get him with the leg of this."

Morales made a little gesture of disgust. "The Senor Harper does not understand us. One has objections to anything unseemly, senor. I have a fancy that I have seen you in other places than the hacienda San Cristoval."

"In Alturas Pa.s.s-and elsewhere," said the tobacco merchant with a smile.

"I once had the honor of meeting the Colonel Morales in the street below us. At that time he had a sword in his hand."

Morales' face grew very grim, but he held himself in hand. "Yes. I remember now," he said. "The leader of the Sin Verguenza-Don Maccario?"

The tobacco merchant made him a little half-ironical inclination.

"Colonel Morales will appreciate the consideration I have shown him in coming myself," he said. "The affair might have been arranged differently had I sent one or two of my men who have a little account with him."

Morales said nothing, and there was silence for a s.p.a.ce of minutes. What he thought was not apparent, for though his color was a trifle darker now, he sat rigidly still, but Appleby felt himself quivering a little, and saw that Harper's lips were grimly set, while Maccario moved the fingers of one hand in a curious nervous fashion. Appleby scarcely dared wonder what was happening in the patio, though he surmised that if the Sergeant Suarez questioned the order it would go very hard with all of them, for there were, he remembered, fifty men in the cuartel, and only a handful of them had mutinied. He could feel his heart beating, and anathematized the loquaciousness of Maccario and his deference to Castilian decorum which had kept them so long. It was evident to him that any trifling unexpected difficulty would result in their destruction. At last, when every nerve in him was tingling, a man came hastily up the stairway.

"We have Domingo Pereira," he said. "The others are getting impatient, senor!"

Maccario rose and turned to Morales. "Take warning, senor. No one is safe from the Sin Verguenza, and we may not extend you as much consideration when we next meet," he said. "In the meanwhile I ask your word on the faith of a soldier of Spain that you will sit here silent for the next ten minutes."

Again Morales' eyes gleamed. "Now," he said ironically, "comes your difficulty. I will promise nothing-and a pistol is noisy. I am not sure about the extent of the mutiny."

Maccario very suggestively shook his sleeve. "In this country one carries a little implement which is silent and effective, but there is another means of obviating the difficulty. This sash of mine is of ample length and spun from the finest silk, though one would not care to subject a distinguished officer to an indignity."

"Take it off," said Harper. "I'll fix him so half his cazadores couldn't untie him. You're not going to take his word he'll sit there."

Maccario stopped him with a gesture, and turned to Morales. "It would, it seems, be wiser to promise, senor. We ask no more than ten minutes."

For a moment the officer's olive face became suffused, but the blood ebbed from it, leaving it almost pale, and it was very quietly he pledged himself. Then they turned and left him, and Harper gasped when they went out into the corridor.

"Well," he said shortly, "I don't want to go through an thing like that again. It was 'most as hard as what happened in the plaza, and it seems to me the sooner we light out of this place the better."