XII
WELCOME TO SEGURO!
The Princess and her party were delayed in Liverpool by the queries ofthe authorities just long enough to make them miss connections with theboat train at London. The trip had been carefully planned; this oneprovoking delay cost them another close connection at the station inParis.
"Confound it," declared the Duke of Alva; "after all this long trip itseems to take us longer still to get back to Seguro. Maledictions onthat miserable American pig. He brought bad luck from start to finish."
His cousin's face had not its usual color, but now a rosy tint flushedup for a moment as she answered sharply.
"I will not permit you to speak so of the man who at least volunteeredto risk his life for me and for my brother. He proved himself more thegentleman, Carlos, than you--with all the boasted advantage which webelieve accompanies a title."
The Duke was silent, morose and uncertain himself, for the remainder ofthe tiresome ride.
Rusty was humble as ever, but there was an expectant look in his rotundface. He inquired many times as to the exact time for the arrival ofthe train at San Fernandez, the nearest railroad station to Seguro.
From here the party would travel by motor to the old estate of thePrincess and her family. It was a twenty-five-mile ride. The countrythrough which the train was passing grew rougher with every mile.
After irritating delays and interminable waits at stations--for trainservice in Spain is the worst in Europe--San Fernandez was reached.Here they were compelled to wait in the semi-modern hotel until anautomobile could be obtained. The long ride was begun, over roughroads, no roads at all, and through mud-holes which seemed relics ofthe Flood.
"This makes me think of de Arkansaw Traveler," muttered Rusty, but hisreminiscence was unappreciated by his tired companions.
A blow-out, delay with the mending of the tire, and the fall ofdarkness wore out what spirits were left among the four voyagers. Atlast the little town was reached, and the machine was compelled to stopon the outskirts of the village, by the old post-road house, where asleepy soldier was guarding the road for some government purposes.
As the lights of the car threw their garish glare upon the portico ofthe dilapidated structure, a man in English clothes, carrying a smallsatchel, stepped out and ran down toward the machine.
"Hoopey!" howled Rusty Snow, with such sudden gusto as to frighten hiscompanions. The Duke stood up, trembling: he could not believe hiseyes. Even Nita drew back with a scream of horror, which turned intodumfounded happiness as the unmistakable features of Warren Jarvisappeared in the bright glow.
"The Ghost Breaker!" exclaimed the Duke.
The Princess merely held out her hands, with a happy warmth whichJarvis could feel through her gloves.
"How did you spring out of the earth, just here?" she cried.
"Well, I got to the town a bit late. The old carry-all that brought mebroke down three miles back and I stumbled along, knowing this was theonly road which could bring you. I stopped here for something toeat--and the place is so old that not even the townspeople come thereany more.... The food was older than the town."
He tossed his grip to Rusty, and turned toward the Duke.
"It strikes me that I won my bet, your Excellency!"
"Where did you come from? We thought you were drowned at sea."
"I _was_ nearly drowned when I slid down a rope, outside the ship andflopped into the harbor as she lay at the dock. After hiding under thecover of a lifeboat for twelve hours, I was so stiff that myquarter-mile swim was the hardest job I ever did. On shore I bought newclothes, and took the first train. Q.E.D."
"How did you get here ahead of us?" asked the Princess, stillmisbelieving her senses. "I knew you would make it--but how so fast?"
"I had a good day's start of you--even without this automobile. Butlet's get on up to that castle of yours, for I want to finish up my joband get back to America."
The Duke had been watching the expression of the American, trying invain to fathom the mystery.
"This has been a wretched hoax--you have all been in league to trickme!" he began.
But Jarvis interrupted menacingly.
"Now, listen. No whining. I stood for a good deal--I knew about thatwireless, and I guess tricks can be played both ways. May I ride withyour chauffeur, your Highness?"
She nodded, and, the obstruction in the road removed, they journeyedon, slowly but more or less surely, toward the distant castle.
"We will stop at old Pedro's inn to-night, for I am frantic to hear ofmy brother," she said as they advanced. Carlos was too deep in thoughtto speak again.
And up at that same inn the usual nightly round of mediaeval revelry wasgoing on. This ancient structure, indeterminate in age and style ofarchitecture, was built upon uneven ground. To save expense andtrouble, in the distant days of its inception, it had been built upontwo levels, without the excavating for foundations. Time and theweather had warped and twisted the old wooden floors and beams so thatby this date it had numerous levels. Yet the remaining furniture was ofsubstantial oak, and here and there could be seen evidence of theexpenditure, in days long past, of good Spanish gold.
Asleep, with his head on the square table by the fireplace, was Pedro,the old proprietor. Two villagers sat at another table in the side ofthe big room playing cards, with wordy arguments about their winningsand losses.
A young woman of perhaps twenty-three, dark-skinned, dark-eyed anddark-tressed, crossed the floor from an adjoining room, to answer aknock at the door.
From the room she had left came the sound of singing and mandolines.
"Hello, Vardos--any more news?" she asked of the peasant who enteredthe portal bearing a basket of food.
"Still no word or sign of the Prince," he said apologetically, avoidingher scornful look. "Here's yesterday's basket untouched as usual."
"And you left to-day's basket at the castle gate?" she asked sharply.
"Yes, this is the fifteenth night," he replied, looking back at thedoor.
"You haven't given up hope yet?"
The man shook his head sadly.
"I gave up hope when he went in. I waited to-night until dark before Icame away from the moat."
"Once to-night I thought I saw a light in the tower, Vardos."
"If you did, Senorita Dolores, it was an unblessed flame." He sank intoa chair weakly. "Once when I called to-night a wail came back to me. Itsounded like a sigh of the damned. It may have been only the windthrough the grated window. But it chilled my heart."
"You are a silly coward," retorted Dolores. "But what then, Vardos?"
"When I called the second time something moved in the turret of thekeep, and my soul was joyful. Then, with a harsh cry, a black ugly birdflew from the turret, straight toward where the sun had set.... On myleft, mind you, the sinister side,--the left--the left!"
The castanets and music in the other room grew louder.
"Oh, if the good Princess were only here!" moaned the girl. "She couldhelp. She could do something."
"She's on her way," he told her hopelessly, "but what can she do--whatcan anyone do, with the imps of darkness all about her?"
"She would go straight into that castle after her brother. Ah, she is agreat lady, with a great heart. Then will the villagers have it saidthat they let their own Princess go in alone, as they did theirPrince?"
"God forbid that it should come to that!" muttered the Prince'sretainer, as he handed her the basket. "Good-night, senorita."
As he started for the door the girl called after him.
"Will you go again to-morrow, Vardos?"
"Yes, senorita. I will go forever, until I know for sure that it isuseless. Good-night."
His words as he passed through the old portal were drowned by thecheering and applause which followed some especial favorite who hadended a song.
Dolores looked sadly at the basket, the tears streaming down her face.She lifted the napkin, showing the simple but nourishing food
which hadbeen untouched by the missing Prince. She crossed herself, with awhispered prayer for his safety, crossing the room to the ancientpantry.
The dreams of Pedro were rudely interrupted. The big door suddenlyopened to admit a character very different from the weaklings who madehis tavern their rendezvous. He was dark-skinned as the rest of thecrew, red-faced as old Pedro (from the same faithful indulgence invintages), not younger than forty, yet aggressive, vibrating withphysical power, elasticity, and an overweening insolence. His manner ofapproach--and he entered this tavern with the same studied grace withwhich he swaggered into half a hundred others--seemed to indicate thathe delighted in disorganizing and terrorizing whatever he might findestablished and orderly--wherever he might find it!
Beholding the somnolent proprietor, he advanced quietly to the middleof the big room. Then, with malicious enjoyment of the effect, hebanged his riding-crop violently upon the table, close to the tavernkeeper's ear.
"Hey, you Pedro!" he roared. "Wake up, you blockhead--wake up, I say!"
There was only a response of snores.
"You, Pedro, attention! What's the matter here? Where are you? Wake upand stop your dreaming!"
At this the startled landlord leaped to his feet, bowing through forceof habit.
"Ah, Senor Robledo! One thousand pardons!" he gasped timorously. "Whatcan I do for you, sir?"
"You're a wretch of a tavern keeper," and the newcomer advanced uponthe unhappy Pedro as though about to slay him for his drowsiness.
"Yes, senor! You are always right." The man humbly endeavored tocollect his wits. "How may I serve your lordship?"
The bully swaggered, puffed his cheeks, and feeling that his host wasfinally awake to the seriousness of the situation, he cried out oncemore: "My horse stands outside by the post. He has been hard ridden,for I have come on an important mission. Varlet, go out and wash hismouth, dry him down, and don't give him water until he has cooled off.Are you finally awake, you idiotic Pedro?"
The tavern keeper gulped fearsomely, and bowed his most fetching bow,without result.
"My horse is almost dead on his legs. Be kind to him. I've had a hardride over these miserable province roads. As for me--I want a flask of... well ... of something decent. I know that's not in your line. Steplively now; and mind you, draw it from your private cask. My temper isno better than it should be, to-night."
The old man bowed and started to leave the big room.
The blustering guest howled at him once more, punctuating his remarkswith the butt of the whip.
"Where's your daughter?"
The old man trembled and bowed once more.
"I'll call her," Pedro said apologetically. "She'll be right here,sir."
He went to the door at the right, and shouted quaveringly: "Dolores!Dolores! Dolores!... There, senor, she will come at once."
"And, Pedro--if that rat-infested larder of yours is empty, get itfilled before the Duke arrives," added Robledo. "Yes ... the Duke. Heis coming to-night. Don't stand and stare, but hurry up and see to myhorse."
"Yes, senor!... Yes, yes!"
And he tottered away on his errands.
Dolores had entered in response to the call. At first she did notobserve the newcomer, whose back was toward her.
"Yes, father," she began. "Why do you wish me?"
"Dolores," Robledo turned toward her impatiently. "Did you not know Ihad come?"
"Oh, it's you?" and there was a scornful sniff from the girl.
"Well, well, can't you say you're glad to see me?"
The jade was hard to impress, where others showed abjection before theterrorist.
"I can, but I won't. Where's my father?"
"Never mind your father--I want to talk to you."
"Is it so, Senor Robledo? Well, you won't in that tone."
He intercepted her in the center of the room, catching her wrist andturning her about to face him.
"What do you want to say to me?"
"You little devil!... Come here, don't try to get away." The girl wastugging to release herself. "What's come over you these days? You areabout as fond and sweet-tempered as a tigress. Anyone would think thatyou didn't care for me at all. What have I done, Dolores?"
"It is what you have not done. For fifteen days your Prince has been inneed of you, and you have not had the courage to go to him. Let go mywrist."
Don Robledo laughed, yet with a quaver in his voice, for there was adepth of passion here, intensified by the spirited resistance of thegirl.
"Who's the little spitfire trying to tear to pieces now?"
"You!" she snapped back. "Don Robledo--sword-fighter--toreador--fire-eater--hero of a hundred duels!... You--Don Robledo--_coward_!"
He clumsily chuckled her under the chin.
"I asked you to-day," she continued, as she threw his hand away fromher face, "I begged you to go into the castle and rescue your Prince. Iask you now to answer the signal that I just saw in the tower window,where he can see our lights. Perhaps he has burned something, a scrapof paper, in the hope that some of you, his retainers, would notice itand come to his assistance. But--he doesn't know what a pack of cowardsyou all are, or he would have saved his matches. So, it's DonRobledo--_coward_!"
The big man snarled.
"Coward--never a coward in a fair fight in the open, and I'll meet thebest man that walks the earth." Here he faced the inquisitive andthoroughly awed villagers. "Any two or three!"
He banged the table with his riding-crop to punctuate the emphasis.
"I don't ask you to kill one or two or three of these poor whimperingsheep of Seguro. I ask you to dare something, at risk to yourself. Togo to the aid of your Prince.... There isn't a man among you--who_dares_! _Dios!_ How I could love _such a man_!"
They had not heard the thrum of the motors on the roadway outside. Thedoor opened, and the first of the party to enter was the Duke. Hewalked quietly into the room, overhearing the words of Dolores.
"A pretty little speech!" he observed sarcastically.
"Your Excellency!" cried Robledo, taking off his hat. "Welcome back toSeguro."
"Yes, I am well come to Seguro."
The natives doffed their hats, and like Pedro bowed and howled in thetime-honored peasant way.
"The Duke! The Duke!"
"Pedro, go out and help the Princess and her servants with the luggage.I want to speak to you alone, Robledo. Hurry, while the others aredelayed with that execrable car. I walked a hundred yards to get herefirst."
He turned toward Dolores with a scowl.
"Those are charming sentiments for your fellow-townsmen, whose healthycommon sense prevents them from rushing to a fool's death. Still, allfools are not dead yet. One of them will be here to-night. And you,senorita, will doubtless be pleased to look over him, as he has comeall the way from America for the privilege of entering the castle andplaying your hero."
Dolores looked at Robledo, as she parried:
"And did her Highness have to go all the way to America to find him?"
"Yes, indeed. He's from America, where all the fools come from!"
And the villagers joined in a merry chorus of intelligent laughter!
The Ghost Breaker: A Novel Based Upon the Play Page 12