The Rover of the Andes Part 40

The negro soon informed his master of his difficulty. As he had antic.i.p.ated, it was removed at once. Horse-flesh is cheap on the Pampas. A lady's wardrobe--especially a black lady's--does not take long to pack in those regions. In less than half an hour a pa.s.sable steed was purchased from the Gauchos, and Susan mounted thereon. Her little all, in a bundle, was strapped to her true-lover's saddle, and she fell into the cavalcade, which soon afterwards left the village and rode out upon the illimitable plains.

It was not a large band, but it was composed of rare and strong materials. Our friend Pedro--alias Conrad of the Mountains--alias the Rover of the Andes--of course took the lead. Colonel Marchbanks, Manuela, and the fair Mariquita followed. Antonio, Spotted Tiger, the sportsman and his friend came next, and Lawrence with Quashy and Sooz'n brought up the rear.

In this order they set off at full gallop over the roadless plains, diverging a little here and there as the nature of the ground required, but otherwise steering a straight line in the direction of the rising sun.

CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN.

DESCRIBES SEVERAL INTERESTING AND SOMEWHAT VIOLENT PROCEEDINGS.

Over the flowering plains! Oh, there is something soul-stirring in a free, furious, prolonged gallop, where obstructions are few, where the land is almost level, and Nature reigns unfettered by the influence of man! No fences, no ditches, no ploughed lands, no enclosed estates, nothing to check even for a moment the grand onward sweep through illimitable s.p.a.ce save the capacity of endurance in steed and rider.

Of course it has its drawbacks, but we will not pause to meditate on these. Life has its drawbacks everywhere, and if we were to attempt an enumeration of them our tale would become unreasonably long, and also somewhat unprofitable.

Perhaps it adds to the zest of life the fact that many of its incidents are of such a nature that we find it difficult to say whether they are drawbacks or advantages. For instance, the jovial garrulity of Quashy was a drawback at times. At other times it was a decided advantage, and his friends and companions held such interchangeable opinions on the point that they could not readily have expressed them if called on to do so at a moment's notice.

A runaway tendency in a horse is considered by most people a disadvantage. Yet there are some people whose nerves and spirits are so const.i.tuted that they have a sneaking fondness for a horse of this disposition.

Strange though it may seem, Manuela belonged to this cla.s.s. It is said that men whose characters form a contrast are more likely to draw towards each other than those whose characters are similar. May the same principle not operate between man and the lower animals? Was it not the gentleness, tenderness, womanliness, softness of Manuela which caused her to dote upon and delight in her steed, though it was a huge, high stepping, arch-necked, rearing, plunging animal--something between an Irish hunter and a Mexican warhorse?

The steed in question had been purchased for her by her father from the Gauchos, who a.s.sured him that the animal was a remarkably good one to go. They told the simple truth, but not the whole truth, for sometimes it would "go" with its hind-legs doing double service in the way of kicking, and, at other times, it balanced that feat by giving its fore-legs a prodigious flourish while in the act of rearing. To do the creature justice, however, it could and did go ahead of its companions on the journey, and retained that position without fatigue, as was evinced by the flashing eye, distended nostril, pawing and snorting with which it received every proposal to halt.

Being a splendid rider, Manuela managed this spanking charger with infinite grace and ease, all the more that it happened to have a tender mouth, and only succeeded in getting beyond her control when it chanced to get the bit between its teeth. At first her father and the others were alarmed, and offered to change her steed for another; but she refused to change, and when they saw how fearlessly she rode, they became reconciled--all except Lawrence.

"It is the fearlessness of innocence combined with ignorance," he muttered to himself one afternoon, as Manuela's horse, without apparent provocation, presented first its tail and then its nose to the sky. The Inca princess patted the playful creature approvingly, and induced it to adopt a bounding, indiarubber-like pace. In a few minutes this was reduced to a springy walk.

Lawrence could not resist the temptation to ride forward and offer his own horse, although Colonel Marchbanks rode alongside of his daughter like an inflexible guardian.

"You will find my horse much easier to manage, Miss Marchbanks," he said, "and quite as strong and fleet as your own."

The colonel frowned, and his daughter said, "No, t'ank you, senhor,"

with a little bow and a brilliant smile.

It was one of Manuela's little fancies to revert sometimes to the broken English peculiar to her colour and costume. This was not at all relished by Lawrence. It seemed to argue a want of earnestness, which was not at all in harmony with the tremendous depth of his love for her!

He drew rein immediately and fell behind, but at that moment Manuela's horse put its foot in a biscacho-hole and stumbled. Evidently it had received a violent surprise, for, after having a second time presented its tail and nose alternately to the skies, it gave vent to an indignant snort, performed what seemed to be a pirouette on one leg, took the bit in its teeth, and bolted.

Of course the colonel put spurs to his steed, and gave chase. Instantly Lawrence did the same. As a consequence Quashy followed, and, not wishing to be left behind, the whole cavalcade went after them at full speed. The thunder of numerous hoofs acted as a sharp spur to the wild runaway. At once it became a fair race, in which each gradually took his place according to ability. The course was clear--from the Andes to the Atlantic, almost, and horses and riders were fresh!

In a remarkably short time the party straggled, and the line extended.

Soon it became evident that the colonel, Lawrence, Pedro, and Quashy were the best mounted of the troop, for these four drew far ahead of all the others; yet the runaway kept its advantage, despite the utmost efforts of Manuela's fair little arms to check it. Gradually Pedro and the colonel were left behind. Despite the utmost application of voice and spur, Quashy also dropped to the rear, and the race lay at last between our hero and the Inca princess!

Mile after mile was pa.s.sed as they flew like the wind over the rolling plains, scarcely impeded at all by the Pampas gra.s.s, which was not long at that season, but at last they came to a ridge on which there was a line of low bushes. By that time, by dint of hard spurring, Lawrence had managed to get up almost alongside of the girl, whose look of gleeful excitement was now changed to one of wild anxiety.

"Try to pull just a little harder!" cried Lawrence, "your horse won't be able to jump it."

Manuela tried, but she had already put forth all her strength, and if that had been twice what it was, the effect on the powerful creature would probably have been just the same.

As the danger drew nearer, Lawrence made desperate efforts to increase his speed. He was so far successful that when they finally came to the line of bushes, the horses were almost abreast of each other. Horses of the Pampas are not usually jumpers, but Manuela's horse must have had a touch of the hunter in him, for he rose to the leap, and went up like a rocket. Lawrence, on the other hand, went crashing through the obstruction like the shot of an eighty-ton gun! The leap evidently took more time than the crash, which was fortunate, for it enabled Lawrence to get well alongside at the moment the fore-feet of Manuela's horse touched the ground, and just as the poor girl herself, unused to leaping, fairly lost her balance as well as her presence of mind and fell backward half fainting. She would have fallen to the ground if Lawrence had not caught her round the waist, and dragged her to the pommel of his own saddle. It was one of those cases of rescue which men are apt--perhaps justifiably so--to style providential, for no planning or judgment or energy on the part of Lawrence could have arranged that Manuela should have been at the apex of her leap when her powers failed, so that she should fall from that height, as it were, almost into his arms!

A few bounds more and they were safe. As if it had understood this, and felt that further effort was needless, the runaway steed stopped abruptly, and, after looking round in unreasonable surprise, began quietly to crop the herbage at its feet.

One by one the rest of the party came up, full of congratulations.

"You dood dat well, ma.s.sa," said Quashy, who was the first to arrive, grinning all over; "and dat _was_ a bu'ster," he added, surveying the gap in the bush through which Lawrence had crashed.

"Please set me down before the others come up!" whispered Manuela, who, having, as we have said, half fainted, had allowed her head to fall on her rescuer's shoulder.

Lawrence wished that circ.u.mstances might have admitted of his continuing the journey as they were then situated, but propriety required him to say--

"Here, Quash,--lend a hand."

The negro vaulted to the ground, and received Manuela into his arms just as Pedro and the colonel galloped up.

"Thank you, Senhor Armstrong, thank you heartily," said the latter, as he dismounted, and, sitting down on a mound, drew his child to his side.

"I'm not hurt, not a bit," sighed Manuela, with a slight attempt at a smile.

"Thank G.o.d for that, but you are shaken a little," returned the old soldier with an anxious look. "Here Pedro, Quashy, fetch me the flask from my saddle."

By the time a cup of the flask's contents was administered to Manuela, Mariquita and Susan were kneeling beside her, and the rest were standing round.

"A splendid leap!--aw--couldn't have been much better done if--aw--it had been an English hunter," remarked the sportsman in an undertone to his friend. "But, I say, don't it strike you that the colonel is uncommonly--aw--sweet on that little Indian girl."

"She's no more an Indian girl than you are," replied his friend, with a laugh.

"Aw--you don't say so?" returned the sportsman, with a slight elevation of his eyebrows.

"Let us go," said Manuela, rising; "I am much better, only a little shaken by such a leap. But--but I should like another--"

"Yes, to be sure, another horse," interrupted the colonel; "who will exchange?--a quiet one, of course."

"Here you is, kurnel," said Quashy, with a beaming countenance, as he led forward his horse. "Quiet as a lamb, 'cept when you aggrawates him.

Nebber goes no faster dan you wants him to,--sometimes not so fast! an'

wouldn't run away even if you was to ax him on your knees."

"After such recommendation," said the colonel, turning to Manuela, "I suppose you will accept of this steed."

The Inca princess accepted it with a beam of grat.i.tude to Quashy, who thereupon mounted the runaway horse, and in a few minutes the whole cavalcade was sweeping over the plain as swiftly as ever.

Afternoon brought them to a solitary Gaucho hut. They came first upon the corral rather suddenly, for it was concealed in a hollow. It was an enclosure of strong rough posts stuck into the ground, on many of which were perched a number of gorged vultures and hawks.

The ground around it was covered with bones, bullocks' horns, wool, carca.s.ses of horses, and other refuse, which induced the travellers to keep carefully to windward of it. On a slight rising ground, close at hand, stood the mud hut of the family to which it belonged.

Although living in a state little short of savagery, this family, being descended from one of the best old families of Spain--at least, so they believed--maintained much of the dignity, good manners, and ceremony that characterised the old Spaniards. It comprised several generations, of whom a great-great-grandfather, blind, deaf, and benignant, formed the head, and a baby, fat, wide awake, and uproarious, formed the tail.

Between these there was a band of men, women, girls, and boys, whom we will not even attempt to describe, further than to say that they were all black-eyed, sunburnt, and more or less pretty and handsome.

The travellers rode up to the door of the mud mansion, and, according to Pampas etiquette, awaited permission to dismount. This was quickly given with much urbanity by a handsome middle-aged man, who was the active head of the household.