The Web of the Golden Spider Part 19

"I don't believe it. I don't believe it,--not Americans. And that's one thing I insisted upon,--they are all Americans?"

"Every mother's son of 'em swore they was. Not bein' present at their birth----"

"Well, we'll look 'em over to-morrow and I'll have a talk with them.

I'm going to put it up to them squarely--good pay for good fighters.

By the Lord, Stubbs, I can't realize yet that we're actually on the way. Think of it,--in less than a month we'll be at it!"

The dinner would have done credit to the Waldorf.

It was towards its end that Togo, the j.a.panese steward, came in with a silver-topped bottle in a pail of ice. He filled the three gla.s.ses with the flourish of a man who has put a period to the end of a successful composition. Danbury arose. "Gentlemen," he said, raising his gla.s.s, "I have a toast to propose: to Her health and Her throne."

The two men rose, Wilson mystified, and silently drained their gla.s.ses. Then there was the tinkle of shivered gla.s.s as Danbury, after the manner of the English in drinking to their Queen, hurled the fragile crystal to the floor. Shortly after this Stubbs left the two men to go below and look after his charges. Danbury brought out a bottle of Scotch and a siphon of soda and, lighting his brierwood pipe, settled back comfortably on the bunk with his head bolstered up with pillows.

"Now," he said, "I'd like to know just as much of your story as you want to tell--just as much as you feel like telling, and not another word. Maybe you're equally curious about me; if so, I'll tell you something of that afterwards. There's pipes, cigars, and cigarettes--take your choice."

Wilson felt that he was under certain obligations to tell something of himself, but in addition to this he really felt a desire to confide in someone. It would be a relief. The fact remained, however, that as yet he really knew nothing of Danbury and so must move cautiously. He told him of the incident in his life which led to his leaving school, of his failure to find work in Boston, of his adventure in helping the girl to escape, which led to the house. Here he confined himself to the arrival of the owner, of his wound, and of the attack made upon him in the house. He told of his search through the dark house, of the closed cellar door, and of the blow in the head.

"Someone bundled me into a carriage, and I came to on the way to the hospital. It was the next day, after I awoke in my cot and persuaded them to let me out, that I had the good luck to run into you. My clothes had been left in the house and all I had was the lounging robe which I had put on early in the evening."

"But you had your nerve to dare venture out in that rig!"

"I had to get back to the house. The girl didn't know where I had gone, and, for all I knew, was at the mercy of the same madman who struck me."

"That's right--you had to do it. But honestly, I would rather have met twenty more maniacs in the dark than go out upon the street in that j.a.p juggler costume of yours. What happened after you left me?"

Wilson told of the empty house, of finding the note, of locating the other house, and finally of the letter and his race for the wharf.

"And then I ran into Stubbs and landed here," he concluded.

"What did Stubbs tell you of this expedition?"

"Nothing--except that we are running to Carlina."

"Yes," sighed Danbury, dreamily, "to Carlina. Well, things certainly _have_ been coming fast for you these last few days. And I'll tell you right now that when we reach Carlina if you need me or any of this crew to help you get the girl, you can count on us. We've got a pretty good job of our own cut out, but perhaps the two will work together."

He relighted his pipe, adjusted thyhe pillows more comfortably, and with hands clasped behind his head began his own story.

"To go back a little," he said, "father made a pot of money in coffee--owned two or three big plantations down around Rio; but he had no sooner got a comfortable pile together than he died. That's way back just about as far as I can remember. As a kid I wasn't very strong, and so cut out school mostly--got together a few sc.r.a.ps of learning under a tutor, but never went to college. Instead of that, the mater let me knock around. She's the best ever that way, is the mater--tends to her Bridge, gives me an open account, and, so long as she hears once a month, is happy.

"Last year I took a little trip down to Dad's plantations, and from there rounded the Horn on a sailing vessel and landed way up the west coast in Carlina. It was just chance that led me to get off there and push in to Bogova. I'd heard of gold mines in there and thought I'd have a look at them. But before I came to the gold mines I found something else."

He paused a moment. Then, without a word, rose slowly and, fumbling about a moment in a cedar chest near his bunk, drew out a photograph.

"That's she," he said laconically.

Wilson saw the features of a girl of twenty, a good profile of rather a Southern cast, and a certain poise of the head which marked her as one with generations of equally good features back of her.

If not decidedly beautiful, she was most attractive, giving an impression of an independent nature enlivened with humor. It seemed to Wilson that she might furnish a very good balance to Danbury.

"You lose the best part of her," said Danbury, reseating himself on the bunk. "You can't see the eyes and----"

Danbury roused himself and sat on the edge of the bunk leaning far forward, elbows on knees, gazing steadily at Wilson.

"Say, those eyes do keep a fellow up, don't they? I had only to see them once to know that I'd fight for them as long as I lived. Queer what a girl's eyes--_the_ girl's eyes--will do. I'll never forget that first time. She was sitting in one of those palm-filled cafes where the sun sprinkles in across the floor. She was dressed in black, not a funeral black, but one of those fluffy things that make crepe look like royal purple. She had a rose, a long-stemmed rose, in her bodice, and one of those Spanish lace things over her hair. I can see her now,--almost reach out and touch her. I went in and took a table not far away and ordered a drink. Then I watched her out of the corner of my eye. She was with an older woman, and, say--she didn't see a man in that whole room. As far as they were concerned they might have been so many flies buzzing round among the palms. Then a couple of government officers lounged in and caught sight of her. They all know her down there 'cause she is of the blood royal. Her grandmother's sister was the last queen and was murdered in cold blood. Yes, sir, and there weren't men enough there to get up and shoot the bunch who did it. Pretty soon these fellows began to get fresh. She didn't mind them, but after standing it as long as she decently could, she rose and prepared to go out.

"Go out, with an American in the place? Not much! There was a row, and at the end of it they carried the two officers off on a stretcher.

Then they pinched me and it cost me $500 to get out.

"But it gave me the chance to meet her later on and learn all about how she had been cheated out of her throne. You see the trouble was that republics had been started all around Carlina,--they grow down there like mushrooms,--so that soon some of these chumps thought they must go and do the same thing, although everything was going finely and they were twice as prosperous under their queen as the other fellows were under their grafting presidents. Then one of the wild-eyed ones stabbed Queen Marguerite, her grandaunt, you know, and the game was on. Isn't it enough to make your blood boil? As a matter of fact, the whole blamed shooting-match wouldn't make a state the size of Rhode Island, so it isn't worth much trouble except for the honor of the thing. There is a bunch of men down there who have kept the old traditions alive by going out into the streets and shooting up the city hall every now and then, but they've mostly got shot themselves for their pains,--which hasn't done the princess any good.

I studied the situation, and the more I thought of her getting done in this way, the madder I got. So I made up my mind she should have her old throne back. She said she didn't want it, but that was only because she didn't want me to get mixed up in it. At first it did look like a kind of dubious enterprise, but I prowled around and then I discovered a trump card. Up in the hills there is a bunch of wild Indians who have always balked at a republic, mostly because the republic tried to clean them out just to keep the army in practice.

"But the Chief, the Grand Mogul and priest of them all, is this same man Stubbs doesn't like--the same who, for some devilish reason of his own chose this particular time to sail for South America. But he isn't a bad lot, this Valverde, though he _is_ a queer one. He speaks English like a native and has ways that at times make me think he is half American. But he isn't--he is a heathen clear to his backbone, with a heathen heart and a heathen temper. When he takes a dislike to a man he's going to make it hot for him some day or other. It seems that he is particularly sore against the government now because of a certain expedition sent up there a little over a year ago, and because of the loss of a heathen idol which----"

"What?" broke in Wilson, half rising from his chair. "Is this----"

"The priest, they all call him. Mention the priest down there and they knew whom you mean."

"Go on," said Wilson, breathing a bit more rapidly.

"Do you know him? Maybe you caught a glimpse of him that day you were at the house. He was there."

"No, I don't know him," answered Wilson, "but--but I have heard of him. It seems that he is everywhere."

"He is a queer one. He can get from one place to another more quickly and with less noise than anyone I ever met. He's a bit uncanny that way as well as other ways. However, as I said, he's been square with me and it didn't take us long to get together on a proposition for combining our interests; I to furnish guns, ammunition, and as many men as possible, he to fix up a deal with the old party, do the scheming, and furnish a few hundred Indians. I've had the boat all ready for a long while, and Stubbs, one of Dad's old skippers, out for men. Yesterday he jumped at me from Carlina, where I thought he was, 10,000 miles away by sea, and gave the word. Now he is off again on the Columba and is to meet me in Choco Bay."

Danbury relighted his pipe and added between puffs over the match:

"Now you know the whole story and where we're going. Are you with us?"

"Yes," answered Wilson, "I am with you."

But his head was whirling. Who was this man who struck at him in the dark, and with whom he was now joined in an expedition against Carlina? One thing was sure; that if the priest was on the boat with Sorez it boded ill for the latter. It was possible the girl might never reach Carlina.

"Now for terms. I'll give you twenty a week and your keep to fight this out with me. Is it a bargain?"

"Yes," answered Wilson.

"Shake on it."

Wilson shook. Danbury rang for the steward.

"Togo--a bottle. We must drink to her health."

CHAPTER XIII

_Of Powder and Bullets_