Up the Forked River; Or, Adventures in South America Part 32

But the naval battle never took place. When all the defenders were alert and on edge, it was observed that the yacht was floating. The disappointment was felt keenly even by the bellicose cook. There was a general peering into the gloom in the hope of discerning the approaching boats, and a sigh when they failed to appear.

"It sometimes takes more courage to run away than to fight," said Major Starland with a laugh; "therefore we shall run away."

He called his orders to Captain Winton, who, having shaken off the clutch of the mud, turned the prow of the craft so as to flank the obstruction, and signalled the engineer to go ahead at moderate speed.

At the same time, he sent out a reverberating blast from the whistle, which the Atlamalcans might accept as a parting salute.

The yacht steamed carefully down the river, and in the early hours of the morning pa.s.sed Zalapata, where a few lights twinkled, and then proceeded toward the more pretentious town of San Luis. The only ones awake on the _Warrenia_ were those whose duties required them to be alert, and Captain Winton, knowing that General Bambos was absent, held the whistle mute as he went by.

If the yacht _Warrenia_ and its crew and pa.s.sengers had been called upon to pa.s.s through a series of stirring incidents while in tropical America, a rare and most gratifying experience now came to them. The weather remained calm and the run to the southern extremity of the continent was as smooth and tranquil as it had been across the Caribbean Sea. When the neighborhood of Cape Horn was reached, Major Starland, in order to keep his pledge with his father, took the wheel.

Captain Winton lit his pipe, sat down in the pilot house and grimly waited until his services were necessary.

But not for an hour were they required, except now and then, in the way of simple relief. He had pa.s.sed that danger region more than once, but never had he seen it so free of storm and rough weather. There was not a single moment when the yacht was in the slightest danger. In fact, to emphasize the wonderful, summer-like calmness of those usually turbulent waters, which are the dread of veteran navigators, Miss Starland held the spokes of the wheel for several hours. Such good fortune is not likely to come to a navigator once in a score of times.

When the yacht steamed out of the wide mouth of the Amazon and headed southward, the a.s.sumed relationship between Major Starland and his "sister" was dropped. There was no call to keep it up, since every one on board knew the truth.

The _Warrenia_ was well up the western coast of South America and steaming rapidly toward the city of the Golden Gate. Hardly a breath of air rippled the bright waters, and the sky overhead was brilliant with its myriads of stars, whose gleam was intensified in the soft crystalline atmosphere.

Major Starland was seated on a camp chair, where he and Miss Rowland were sheltered from the wind created by the motion of the yacht. She hardly needed the gaudily-colored zarape wrapped about her shoulders.

They had been talking of their strange experiences, of Manuela Estacardo, of Captain Ortega and of those whose memories were much less pleasant.

You can imagine the trend of that low, delightful conversation, for the scene, the surroundings, the time, indeed all the circ.u.mstances tended to draw them closer. What was said was too sacred in its nature, for us to quote in full: the conclusion is enough.

"Warrenia, you have played the sister for some weeks to perfection.

You must have become accustomed to hearing yourself called 'Miss Starland;' it certainly has a familiar sound by this time."

"Yes," she replied, ceasing her efforts to disengage her hand from the fingers that had made it prisoner; "it could not well be otherwise.

You know there is quite a similarity in our names."

"What I wish to ask, Sweetheart, is whether you will not agree to make a slight change in the term by which you were addressed so long."

"In what way?" she asked, as if she did not know what was coming.

"Instead of being 'Miss Starland,' will you not consent that your correct name shall be 'Mrs. Starland?'"

At first she begged for time in which to consider the proposition, but Jack was always headlong and presumptuous, as you know, and he insisted, and what could she do but consent? And among all the friends the two most pleased were "Teddy" Rowland and his partner, Tom Starland, when they heard the good news.