The Dust of Conflict Part 46

"If you are coming with me, Mr. Palliser, you have no time to lose," he said. "You may, however, find my company dangerous, especially if we can't get into Santa Marta and reach the banker's house while it's dark."

Tony smiled. "I'm not coming, sir."

"Well," said Harding, glancing at him curiously, "I guess you know your own affairs best. Maccario sent that fellow word to be ready to smuggle me in, Appleby."

"He will be waiting, and you are not likely to have much difficulty with the patrols when you are inside the town. Still, it is a big risk, sir."

Harding laughed. "I have been taking steep chances all my life, and I have quite a few dollars scattered up and down this country which I can't afford to throw away. They're not exactly mine, since it seems to me that I'm holding them in trust for my daughter Nettie. Now, I guess I've kept those men of yours long enough already."

He shook hands with Tony, and the men below flung up their rifles to the slope when he and Appleby went down the stairway. Maccario walked down the tram-line with them, and then stopped a moment when they reached the road, where Harding laid his hand on Appleby's arm.

"I leave you in charge of San Cristoval and my affairs here with every confidence," he said.

"I shall endeavor to deserve it, sir," said Appleby. "Still, it is not quite out of the question that Morales may burn the hacienda."

Harding smiled. "The hacienda can be built again, and they can't blow up the land. It will stop right there all the time, in spite of them."

"Still, they could seize it."

"Well," said Harding, with quiet confidence, "when we have chased every Spanish soldier out of Cuba I'll get it back again, and that is just what is going to happen before very long. It's quite difficult to freeze a citizen of my country out of his property."

"Unless an American trust casts covetous eyes upon it," said Appleby.

Harding laughed as he shook hands with him and Maccario, and then turned away with a smile still upon his The four Sin Verguenza plodded behind him down the road, and Maccario glanced at his companion.

"One would not have fancied the Senor Harding knew he was taking a heavy risk," he said.

"Still, I think it was quite plain to him."

Maccario glanced across the cane towards Santa Marta. "I had many friends there, and he has one or two at most. Morales is a daring and clever man-but it is his misfortune that in this affair he has others of the same kind against him."

"That is an admission," said Appleby, with a little smile "If you count the Senor Harper, two of them come from America."

Maccario laughed. "And one from England! Men of that kind are not confined to any one country, my friend. Still, they are perhaps more plentiful in the Peninsula-and Cuba-than elsewhere."

Appleby said nothing, and they walked slowly back to the hacienda.

Rather more than a fortnight pa.s.sed uneventfully, and save for a few affairs between outposts and patrols there was no outbreak of hostilities. Morales lay in Santa Marta with the country rising against him, and Maccario patiently waited his time, for the Sin Verguenza were growing stronger every day. The insurrection was still largely sporadic and indifferently organized, and since each leader acted for the most part independently what was happening elsewhere only concerned the Sin Verguenza indirectly, while the struggle had become almost a personal question between them and Morales. In the meanwhile Appleby heard that Harding had eluded the latter's vigilance and left Santa Marta.

Then late one night a man came gasping up the veranda stairway, and Appleby and Maccario descended half-dressed to meet him in the big living-room. The dust was white upon him, and he blinked at them out of half-closed eyes, while Appleby noticed that he limped a little.

Maccario pointed to a chair, and poured him out a gla.s.s of wine.

"You have come a long way?" he said.

"From Brena Abajo. I left there in the afternoon the day before yesterday."

"On a mule?"

The man smiled grimly as he pointed to his broken shoes.

"I came on these," he said.

Maccario turned to Appleby. "Our friend walks fast. It is counted a four days' journey. Still, I think he knows that one seldom gains anything by trifling with the Sin Verguenza."

A little gleam crept into the man's dark eyes. "One walks fast when he is eager for vengeance," he said. "I had a little wine-shop, and a comrade who I trusted, four days ago. Comes a column of Candotto's Peninsulares, and there is an asking of questions of the Alcalde, who is not a friend of mine. Andres, it is discovered, has smuggled rifles to the friends of liberty in the mountains."

Maccario made a little gesture. "It went hard with your friend?"

"He died with a jibe at Candotto, who would discover where our comrades were. The wine-shop is a heap of ashes now, but that night the friends of liberty came out from the barrancos and crept in upon Brena Abajo."

"They drove the soldiers out?"

"No," said the man very quietly. "The Peninsulares fought well. There are many dead patriots in the streets of Brena Abajo, and only Candotto's men left to bury them."

Maccario straightened himself suddenly in his chair. "It was a strong column?"

"No, senor. Four companies only. It seems Morales had sent for them."

Maccario turned to Appleby. "Now we know why Morales, who does nothing without a motive, was waiting. Well, they will march slowly, fearing another attack, with a section or two thrown forward in case there were friends of ours waiting them among the cane. The Colonel Candotto would, however, send messengers to Morales."

The man laughed in a curiously grim fashion. "Then they would never reach him. The paths are watched, and the friends of liberty are bold now there is to be war with America."

"I think our friend is right," said Maccario, who stood up with a little smile. "The service he has done us will be remembered in due time.

Senor, the major-domo whom you will find below will give you food and show you where you can sleep."

The man went out, and Appleby glanced at his comrade with a little flush in his face.

"I think our time has come," he said.

Maccario's dark eyes sparkled. "We march in an hour. Candotto's men will march circ.u.mspectly, and lie behind the walls of an aldea at night. When they reach Santa Marta it will be to-morrow evening, and they will not find Morales then."

"No," said Appleby. "I think we can get in, but it will be a risk. It would have been certain in another week or two. We were growing stronger every day."

Maccario smiled dryly. "There are times when one cannot wait too long, my friend."

He went out upon the veranda, a man called out sharply in the shadows below, there was a hum of voices, and dim figures swarmed into the patio. Then there was a tramp of feet and a jingling of steel, lights flashed in the windows, and Appleby, slipping clear of the bustle, entered Tony's room. He lighted the little lamp, and then sat down on the bed. Tony lay close beside him sleeping quietly, and Appleby felt a curious little thrill as he looked down on him. The man had wronged him grievously, but the bond which had grown strong in happier days bound them together still.

The room was very hot, and the quiet face that was almost boyish yet was beaded with perspiration, but Appleby saw there was a stamp upon it which it had not borne in England. Tony, it seemed, had changed, and Appleby felt that he might still do his work with credit, and be the stronger because of his fall. Then as he struggled with a faint sense of envy and bitterness Tony opened his eyes and smiled.

"You there, Bernard? I was back at Northrop with you and Violet a moment ago," he said drowsily.

"Still, you are in Cuba now," said Appleby.

Tony appeared to be endeavoring to collect his thoughts. "It is difficult to realize it, and I can't quite persuade myself I'm awake yet," he said. "The sun was shining on the lawn, and I could see the red geraniums and the little blue lobelia round the border as clearly as I ever saw anything in my life. You were talking to Violet, and the trouble between us seemed to have gone. Why couldn't you let me sleep on?"

"I felt tempted to," said Appleby gravely. "Still, you see, we are marching to a.s.sault Santa Marta almost immediately."

Tony sprang out of bed, and was half dressed when he turned to Appleby again with a sparkle in his eyes.