The Mystery of The Barranca

by Herman Whitaker

  CHAPTER XIX

  As before said, the last piece of machinery and the first rain arrivedsimultaneously at Santa Gertrudis. The break in the summer heat camewith a south wind which herded mountainous vapors in from the warmPacific. All night the rain fell in sheets that set the thirsty arroyosrunning bank-high and raised the river ten feet. Then, after thepleasant tropical fashion, the downpour ceased, and day broke with ablaze of sunlight over the Barranca.

  "Sinbad's valley of diamonds!"

  It was Billy's metaphor when he came out with Seyd from breakfast, and,trite as the comparison might be, nothing else could better describe themillions of wet jewels that flashed in the dark mantle of pine above andembroidered the green cloak of the jungle beneath. Yesterday had seenthe last touches put on the aerial cable which would be soon droppingbuckets of ore into the red jaws of the furnace two thousand feet below.From the edge of the plateau it ran, a streak of silver fringed withglittering rain drops, down and out to the smelter; and when, in thepride of his heart, Billy loosed the brakes the first vibration threwoff a cloud of prismatic spray.

  "Balanced to a hair! You see, the weight of one full bucket issufficient to start the chain."

  "Fine!" Seyd echoed. "Runs like a clock. Another week and we'll berunning steady."

  Standing there, watching the buckets sail up and down like greatiron birds, they gave themselves up to the joy of accomplishment;as once before, permitted fancy to run amuck through the goldenfuture. And after their hard labors and prolonged anxieties a littleself-congratulation was quite in order. If, one way or another, theysucceeded in meeting their first note they really could be counted insplendid shape, for their shipments of copper matte would be on themarket before the second fell due.

  Billy nodded assent when Seyd spoke. "Francesca said they would be hometo-day. I think I'll run down there and tackle Don Luis."

  Between them were no secrets, and when Seyd rode away an hour later withCaliban at his heels Billy called after him: "And say, old man, have itout with the girl. If she has half the brains I have always allowed hershe'll easily see the accidental way in which it all came about."

  Though the advice merely restated his own intention, Seyd found itinspiring. Riding down the Barranca staircases, he whistled and sang.While following the trail through the long succession of ranchos,jungle, hamlets, he lived over again that first ride with Francesca.Very plainly he now perceived that it dated his love, that in thepauses of his stealthy study she had ensnared him with her richpersonality.

  "She got you then," he mused, adding, with a burst of feeling thatastonished himself, "And now I'll get her--if I have to take her byforce."

  Planning and dreaming, he rode along until the sight of the river,flowing swiftly and deep over the San Nicolas ford, broke up hisreverie. Only a mile away, on the other side, the hacienda lay in fullview, yet it appeared at first as if they would have to turn back. Butafter nosing up and down the banks Caliban presently flushed a peon anda dugout. With the horses swimming behind, they were ferried over, androde across the tree-studded pastures, which were still clad in summerbrown.

  At the sight of the amber walls in their setting of low brown hillsSeyd's pulses had quickened, and, interpreting everything by his ownfeeling, it seemed to him that the dark women who peeped from theirdoorways, the swart vaqueros, and the slender girls that passed to andfro with _ollas_ balanced ahead, all turned faces of welcome. But whenat last he reined in before the shut gates of the _casa_ he experienceda sudden, cold revulsion. Like so many eyes, the iron studs stared fromthe oaken face of the door, until the sudden sliding of a hatch revealedthe wrinkled visage of Paulo, the Spanish administrador.

  With his employer's toleration of the gringo the administrador had nosympathy. Malice sparkled in his small brown eyes while he answeredSeyd's question. "As you see, senor, the _casa_ is empty. The senora andthe _nina_"--he used the family diminutive for Francesca--"are still athacienda El Quiss. Don Luis? He has gone again to Ciudad, Mexico, totalk with Porfirio Diaz himself about the gringo dam. I do not know whenhe will return," he replied, further, "nor the senora."

  His high spirits dashed to the ground, Seyd sat his horse, oppressedwith heavy forebodings, for the disappointment raised vivid memoriesof the suddenness with which the girl had been snatched out of his lifeon two other occasions. Sick at heart, he refused for himself therefreshment that the house's tradition compelled Paulo to offer, andspent the hour required for the beasts' feeding in heavy brooding.

  From this, however, he roused himself presently to a lighter mood."After all, the week is only up to-day," he urged. "She might easilybe detained beyond her expectations."

  At first he thought of leaving a note. But, realizing the formal termsin which it would have to be couched might make an unfavorableimpression, he left, instead, verbal regrets. That settled, he had timeto think of Don Luis, and, being now on practical ground, came to aquick conclusion. Forgetting all about his promise not to travel alone,he sent Caliban back to the mine while he went himself straight out tothe station.

  On his arrival there, however--so late that he had to call Peters outof his bed--he was not a little surprised to find that nothing had beenseen of Don Luis. It was, of course, easily possible that he had boardedthe train at a flag station ten miles up the line that was nearer to ElQuiss. But when, next evening, a thorough search of his usual haunts inMexico City failed to yield sight or sign of Don Luis, Seyd began togrow suspicious. Suspicion developed into a certainty when on his returntwo days later Peters informed him that Don Luis had taken the up trainthat very morning.

  "He came from San Nicolas, too," Peters added. "I shouldn't wonder if hewas there all the time. Looks to me like he's trying to dodge you."

  Intentional or not, it left Seyd in a serious plight. A second trip toMexico City would take three days. Adding two more to get Billy away inthe event of Don Luis's refusal of further time, less than three weekswould be left of their month of grace. It was not to be thought of; and,though the afternoon rains were draping the mountains with heavy graysheets, he rode out to the inn that night. Crossing the river early nextmorning, he sent Billy away at once.

  "You'll have to spend twelve hours in Mexico City anyway," he instructedhim, concerning Don Luis, "so you might as well try to find him. If yousucceed, no trifling! Get his fist on a written extension. If hedoesn't come through--and I have my doubts--chase right on home toCalifornia. With the photos of the prospect and plant you ought not tohave much trouble in raising enough to cover the note. And the minuteyou get it wire me credits on Mexico City."

  Hardly expecting it, he was not surprised when Billy wired, two dayslater, that he was leaving that evening for the States. Under themessage Peters had scribbled, "Don Luis came in to-day on Number Nine.Go right down and see him."

  Half an hour after receipt of the message Seyd and Caliban were again ontheir way.

  For nearly a week now it had rained heavily night and day, and here andthere on the bottoms small inundations gave early warning of comingfloods. Though the river still ran in its banks opposite San Nicolas,the dugout in which they crossed was swept with the swimming horses halfa mile downstream before they made a landing, and it was easily to beseen that another week's rain would cut off travel on that side of thestream.

  Riding in to the great square, Seyd's pulses beat a lively accompanimentto the thought: "It is now the end of the second week. She is sure to behome." Yet in the moment of its riotous birth the hope gave place toblack misgivings at the sight of the shut house.

  His spirits touched zero when the sliding hatch left Paulo's wrinkledvisage framed again in the blank oaken face of the door. "Don Luis isstill in Mexico, senor." He anticipated Seyd's question.

  "But he returned--was seen the day before yesterday at the station."

  "At the station, senor? How could that be?" His brown beads of eyesblinked in uneasy surprise; then in an instant the wrinkled mask fellinto an expression of simple cunning. "Or, if so, then it must
be thathe has gone to join the senora and the _nina_, who are still at ElQuiss."

  She was not there! For the third time he found himself confronted bysilence, mysterious and complete as that which had attended her previousdisappearances. But, though oppressed by a weight of care, he tried tohide his bitter disappointment from the administrador's inquisition.Once again he spent a black hour while the beasts were feeding. Hisbroodings, riding homeward, shed no light on the enigma. A night of darkthought left him baffled, furious, in good fettle for the news thatCaliban gleaned from a passing charcoal-burner.

  "Don Luis must have been there, senor, for Benito saw him ride forththis morning. He has gone north to see for himself the gringo dam."

  "Oh, he has, has he!" Seyd ground the words out between his teeth. "Theold fox! But now I'll chase him into his earth."

  In this, however, he had forgotten to allow for the rains which, drivingdown the Barranca in great wet sheets, caused Don Luis to put in at ElQuiss, there to wait in the leisurely fashion of the country until theweather should break and Sebastien have time to accompany him. Arrivingat the power plant after two days' wallowing on jungle trails, Seydfound himself foiled once more in their little game of hide and seek.

  The trip, however, was not altogether wasted, for the pert youngChicagoan in charge gave him uproarious welcome. "So you're the fellowthat has been bucking the whole state of Guerrero! I'm awfully glad toknow you, Mr. Seyd, though I'm puzzled yet as to how you managed to holdout. It took a whole regiment of Diaz's _rurales_ to establish us here,and if they were withdrawn even now we wouldn't last long."

  Also it was worth the labor to see the dam. A huge earthen structure,nearly a hundred feet high, it spanned the Barranca just where thevalley nipped in from a wide angle to a passage a quarter mile wide.Behind it a muddy lake stretched as far as the eye could reach, andwhile standing in the center Seyd recalled and quoted Peters'sprediction.

  "'Boulders big as churches were piled up in the bed of the stream likepebbles, and if that dam was built of solid concrete instead of claythey'd go through it like it was dough.'"

  The Chicagoan, however, laughed at the quotation. "If the devil himselfwas bowling them I'd defy him to knock off a single chip. She's solid,and the sluiceways allow ample flood escape. Nothing but an earthquakecould touch it--a jim dandy, at that."

  Nevertheless, while that enormous volume of water hung suspended, as itwere, over the valley, Seyd felt nervous. Traveling homeward the nextday, he measured with a careful eye the valley floor, and, using lastyear's high-water mark as a base for his calculations, concluded thatonly San Nicolas, the smelter, and one or two haciendas that stood onhigher ground would escape destruction if the dam should happen toburst. Approaching El Quiss, he noted, in particular, that, standing onlevel ground, it would surely be inundated.

  For some fifteen miles his trail ran through Sebastien's lands, and,climbing in one place over a knoll, it afforded a view of the haciendabuildings across the rain-swept pastures. As, reining in, Seyd watchedthe faint pink of the walls flash out and fade in the shifting vapors hewas seized with a mad impulse to ride in. But his native good sensequickly reasserted itself, for a moment's reflection showed that theintrusion could only result in humiliation for Francesca and himself.The knowledge, however, did not render her proximity less maddening. Hewas sitting there restlessly chafing when Caliban's voice suddenly rosebehind.

  "If it were desired to leave a message there is one I know that couldplace it in her own hands."

  Startled, Seyd swung in the saddle. He had known long ago that kindlyusage had transformed the hunchback into a faithful friend, but he wasnot prepared either for the sympathy that softened his glittering beadsof eyes or his uncanny divination.

  "_Si._" The hunchback nodded. "A cousin of my woman is in DonSebastien's household service. 'Twould be easy to pass a paper by thelittle maid you picked out of the river. The senorita keeps her alwaysclose to her own body."

  Before he finished Seyd had cut a pencil and was writing on the back ofan envelope under cover of his raincoat. At first he gave free vent tohis feelings, but, remembering the danger of interception, he tore itup and wrote instead a humorous protest against her continued absence.Then, after instructing Caliban to take all the time necessary toprocure an answer, he journeyed on alone.

  It was well, too, that he gave the hunchback free rein, for three dayselapsed before he returned to the mine soaked to the marrow by thecontinuous rains that had raised the floods almost to last year's mark."With Don Sebastien one goes slowly," he explained. "If the sharp eyeof him had once touched me 'twould have been a short shrift under thenearest tree. For two days I lay close in the _jacal_ of my woman'scousin before she brought me this."

  It was a considerable package, and Seyd rather wondered at its sizewhile tearing away the dried corn leaves in which Caliban had wrappedit. When the last leaf fell off he stared at first in surprise, then,as his eye fell on the ink scores, in utter consternation at theAlbuquerque _Times_. Minutes passed before he could command words tosend the hunchback away, then, sitting down by the table, he leaned hishead on his hand and remained for some time plunged in black reflection.

  From a long distance in time and space his first insincerity had comehome to roost. But, while he saw himself as the designer of his ownundoing, he was by no means resigned. Presently hard, mutinous lightsbroke in his gloomy eyes. The stubborn fighter awoke. Throwing thetraitorous sheet across the room, he picked up a pen and began to write.

  Wasting no time in wonder at the fortuitous chance that had placed thepaper in Francesca's hands, he wrote steadily on the story of his lovefrom the first doubtful beginnings to its actual consummation. Veryclearly he explained his first natural dislike to intrude his personalaffairs upon people for whom he had no reason to suppose they would havethe slightest interest, the later honorable intention that had alwaysbeen frustrated by unfavorable circumstances. And he finished with astatement that is never unwelcome in a woman's ear:

  "No matter what comes I shall always love you."

  Steady rain all that day and night had given the floods another lift andsent the river roaming wide through the jungle. Once again the valleyopposite the mine was converted into a great lake dotted with woodedislands between which swift currents hurtled floating debris. Profitingby last year's lesson, Seyd had had two roomy dugouts fitted with oarsand rowlocks, and early the next morning he rowed Caliban acrosshimself. Returning, he was to send a smoke signal to call the boat, andwhen, on the afternoon of the fourth day, Seyd spied the thin bluespiral through a break in the drifting rain he almost cracked his backrowing across the flood.

  But his glowing hope died at the shake of the hunchback's head. "Thesenorita is gone with her mother and Don Luis to San Nicolas, senor. Butshe is to return to El Quiss in a few days. The cousin of my woman hadit from Roberta, the little maid. She is still there, and will deliverthe letter when the senorita returns."

  The news was not altogether bad, for Francesca, at least, was now at SanNicolas. Within the hour Seyd crossed the river to the inn--where ahorse was to be had for hire--and his purpose gained strength from awire that he found waiting there from Billy.

  "San Francisco burned to the ground. Not a cent to be raised in California. Am going east."

  In view of the aforesaid game of hide and seek he had been playing withDon Luis the situation looked very dark. But, serious as it was, when,halfway to San Nicolas, he met Paulo riding at the head of a mule trainloaded with fagots it was wiped altogether out of his mind.

  "We go to build beacons along the rim of the Barranca to give warningagainst the bursting of the gringo dam," he answered Seyd. "_Si_, DonLuis and the senora are at the _casa_. The senorita?" His creases drewinto a malevolent grin. "The senora, you mean. She was married two hoursago to Don Sebastien."