CHAPTER IV.
SERPENT AND VIPER.
Dona Rosario stood motionless, her arms crossed, her head haughtilyraised, and her look disdainful. The Linda leaped from her horse, andseizing her by the arm, shook her violently.
"Oh, oh!" she said, in a bitterly mocking tone, "my pretty dear! Thisis the way you oblige people to come after you: is it?"
Dona Rosario only replied to this flood of words by a look of coldcontempt.
"Ah!" the exasperated courtesan exclaimed, clutching her arm, "I willbring down that proud spirit!"
"Madam," Rosario replied, mildly, "you hurt me very much."
"Serpent!" the Linda shrieked, "why can I not crush you beneath myheel?"
Rosario staggered a few paces; her foot struck against a root, and shefell. In her fall her forehead came in contact with a sharp stone; sheuttered a feeble cry of pain, and fainted. The Indian chief, at thesight of the large gash in the young girl's forehead, uttered a roarlike that of a wild beast. He leant over her raised her tenderly, andendeavoured to stop the bleeding.
"Fie!" said the Linda, with a jeering laugh; "are you going to play theold woman--you, the first chief of your nation?"
Antinahuel remained silent; for an instant he felt an inclination tostab the fury: he darted a glance at her so loaded with anger andhatred, that she was terrified, and instinctively made a movement as ifto put herself on the defensive. As yet the attentions of Antinahuelhad no effect; Rosario remained still senseless. In a few minutesthe Linda was reassured by observing that love occupied more of thethoughts of the chief than hatred.
"Come, tie the creature upon a horse," she said.
"This woman belongs to me," Antinahuel replied, "and I alone have theright of disposing of her."
"Not yet, chief; a fair exchange: when you have delivered the general,I will give her up to you."
"My sister forgets," said Antinahuel, "that I have fifty mosotones withme."
"What does that signify?" she replied.
"It signifies," he replied, "that I am the stronger."
"Indeed!" she said, sneeringly, "is that the way you keep yourpromises?"
"I love this woman," he said, in a deep voice.
"_Caray!_ I know that well enough," she replied.
"I will not have her suffer."
"See there, now," she cried, still jeering; "I give her up to youexpressly that she may suffer."
"If such is my sisters thought, she is mistaken."
"Chief, my friend, you do not know what you are talking about; you areignorant of the hearts of white women."
"I do not understand my sister."
"No; you do not comprehend that this woman will never love you--thatshe will never entertain for you anything but contempt and disdain."
"Oh!" Antinahuel replied, "I am too great a chief to be thus despisedby a woman."
"You will see you are, though; in the meantime I demand my prisoner."
"My sister shall not have her."
"Then try to take her from me!" she shrieked; and springing like atiger cat, she pushed away the chief, and seized the young girl, towhose throat she applied her dagger so closely that blood stained thepoint.
Antinahuel uttered a terrible cry.
"Stop!" he shouted in consternation; "I consent to everything."
"Ah!" cried the Linda, with a smile of triumph, "I knew I should havethe last word."
The chief bit his fingers with powerless rage but he was too wellacquainted with this woman to continue a struggle which he knew mustinfallibly terminate in the maiden's death. By a prodigy of selfcommand he forced his face to assume a smile, and said in a mild voice--
"Wah! my sister is excited! Of what consequence is it to me whetherthis woman is mine now or in a few hours hence?"
"Yes, but only when General Bustamente is no longer in the hands of hisenemies, Chief."
"Be it so!" he said, "since my sister requires it; let her act as shethinks fit."
"Very well; but my brother must prove his faith to me."
"What security can I give my sister, that will thoroughly satisfy her?"he said with a bitter smile.
"This," she replied, with a sneer; "let my brother swear by the bonesof his ancestors that he will not oppose anything it shall please me todo, till the general is free."
The chief hesitated; the oath the Linda requested him to take was oneheld sacred by the Indians, and they dreaded breaking it in the highestdegree; such is their respect for the ashes of their fathers. ButAntinahuel had fallen into a snare, from which it was impossible forhim to extricate himself.
"Good!" he said, smiling; "let my sister be satisfied. I swear uponthe bones of my father that I will not oppose her in anything she mayplease to do."
"Thank you," the Linda answered; "my brother is a great warrior."
Antinahuel had no other plausible pretext for remaining: he slowly,and, as if regretfully, rejoined his mosotones, got into his saddle,and set off, darting at the Linda a last glance, that would havecongealed her with fear if she had seen it.
"Poor puling creature!" she said. "Don Tadeo, it is you I wound intorturing your leman! Shall I at length force you to restore to me mydaughter?"
The Indian peons attached to her service had remained with her. In theheat of the pursuit the horses, abandoned by Curumilla and brought backby the scouts, had remained with the troop.
"Bring hither one of those horses!" she commanded.
The courtesan had the poor girl placed across one of the horses, withher face towards the sky; then she ordered that the feet and hands ofher victim should be brought under the belly of the animal and solidlyfastened with cords by the ankles and wrists.
"The woman is not firm upon her legs," she said, with a dry, nervouslaugh.
The poor girl gave scarcely any signs of life; her countenance hadan earthy, cadaverous hue, and the blood flowed copiously. Her body,horribly cramped by the frightful posture in which she was tied, hadnervous starts, and dreadfully hurt her wrists and ankles, into whichthe cords began to enter. A hollow rattle escaped from her oppressedchest.
The Pearl of the Andes: A Tale of Love and Adventure Page 4