Mr. Fortescue by William Westall

W >> William Westall >> Mr. Fortescue

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20

So the work was taken in hand, some of my own people helping, and after
several months' labor the Angela, as I proposed to call her, was launched.
She had a comfortable little cabin and so soon as she was masted and
rigged would be ready for sea.

In the mean time I asked Kidd to superintend some alterations I was making
at Alta Vista, and among other things construct larger cabinets for my
mineral and entomological specimens. He did the work quite to my
satisfaction, but before it was well finished I made a portentous
discovery--several of my diamonds were missing. There could be no doubt
about it, for I knew the number to a nicety, and had counted them over and
over again. Neither could there be any doubt that Kidd was the thief.
Besides my wife, myself, and one or two of our servants, no one else had
been in the room; and our own people would not have taken the trouble to
pick up a diamond from the ground, much less steal one from my house.

My first impulse was to accuse Kidd of the theft and have him searched.
And then I reflected that I was almost as much to blame as himself.
Assuming that he knew something of the value of precious stones, I had
exposed him to temptation by leaving so many and of so great value in an
open drawer. He might well suppose that I set no store by them, and that
half a dozen or so would never be missed. So I decided to keep silence for
the present and keep a watch on Mr. Kidd's movements. It might be that he
and Yawl were thinking to steal a march on me and sail away secretly with
the sloop, and perhaps something else. They had both struck up rather
close friendships with native women.

But as I did not want to lose any more of my diamonds, and there was no
place at Alta Vista where they would be safe so long as Kidd was on the
premises, I put them in a bag in the inside pocket of a quilted vest which
I always wore on my mountain excursions, my intention being to take them
on the following day down to San Cristobal and bestow them in a secure
hiding-place.

I little knew that I should never see San Cristobal again.

CHAPTER XXX.

THE QUENCHING OF QUIPAI.

The cottage at Alta Vista had expanded little by little into a long,
single storied flat-roofed house, shaded by palm-trees and set in a fair
garden, which looked all the brighter from its contrast with the brown and
herbless hill-sides that uprose around it.

In the after part of the day on which I discovered the theft, Angela and
myself were sitting under the veranda, which fronted the house and
commanded a view of the great reservoir, the oasis and the ocean. She was
reading aloud a favorite chapter in "Don Quixote," one of the few books we
possessed. I was smoking.

Angela read well; her pronunciation of Spanish was faultless, and I always
took particular pleasure in hearing her read the idiomatic Castilian of
Cervantes. Nevertheless, my mind wandered; and, try as I might, I could
not help thinking more of the theft of the diamonds than the doughty deeds
of the Don and the shrewd sayings of Sancho Panza. Not that the loss gave
me serious concern. A few stones more or less made no great difference,
and I should probably never turn to account those I had. But the incident
revived suspicions as to the good faith of the two castaways, which had
been long floating vaguely in my mind. From the first I had rather doubted
the account they gave of themselves. And Kidd! I had never much liked him;
he had a hard inscrutable face, and unless I greatly misjudged him was
capable of bolder enterprises than petty larceny. He was just the man to
steal secretly away and return with a horde of unscrupulous
treasure-seekers, for he knew now that there were diamonds in the
neighborhood, and he must have heard that we had found gold and silver
ornaments and vessels in the old cemetery--

"_Dios mio!_ What is that?" exclaimed Angela, dropping her book and
springing to her feet, an example which I instantly followed, for the
earth was moving under us, and there fell on our ears, for the first time,
the dread sound of subterranean thunder.

"An earthquake!"

But the alarm was only momentary. In less time than it takes to tell the
trembling ceased and the thunder died away.

"Only a slight shock, after all," I said, "and I hope we shall have no
more. However, it is just as well to be prepared. I will have the mules
got out of the stable; and if there is anything inside you particularly
want you had better fetch it. I will join you in the garden presently."

As I passed through the house I saw Kidd coming out of the room where I
kept my specimens.

"What are you doing there?" I asked him, sharply.

"I went for a tool I left there" (holding up a chisel). "Did you feel the
shock?"

"Yes, and there may be another. Tell Maximiliano to get the mules out."

"If he has been after the diamonds," I thought, "he must know that I have
taken them away. I had better make sure of them." And with that I stepped
into my room, put on my quilted jacket, and armed myself with a small
hatchet and a broad-bladed, highly tempered knife, given to me by the
abbe, which served both as a dagger and a _machete_.

When I had seen the mules safely tethered, and warned the servants and
others to run into the open if there should be another shock, I returned
to Angela, who had resumed her seat in the veranda.

"Equipped for the mountains! Where away now, _caro mio_?" she said,
regarding me with some surprise.

"Nowhere. At any rate, I have no present intention of running away. I have
put on my jacket because of these diamonds, and brought my hatchet and
hunting-knife because, if the house collapses, I should not be able to get
them at the very time they would be the most required."

"If the house collapses! You think, then, we are going to have a bad
earthquake?"

"It is possible. This is an earthquake country; there has been nothing
more serious than a slight trembling since long before the abbe died; and
I have a feeling that something more serious is about to happen.
Underground thunder is always an ominous symptom.--Ah! There it is again.
Run into the garden. I will bring the chairs and wraps."

The house being timber built and one storied, I had little fear that it
would collapse; but anything may happen in an earthquake, and in the
garden we were safe from anything short of the ground on which we stood
actually gaping or slipping bodily down the mountain-side.

The second shock was followed by a third, more violent than either of its
predecessors. The earth trembled and heaved so that we could scarcely
stand. The underground thunder became louder and continuous and, what was
even more appalling, we could distinctly see the mountain-tops move and
shake, as if they were going to fall and overwhelm us.

But even this shock passed off without doing any material mischief, and I
was beginning to think the worst was over when one of the servants drew my
attention to the great reservoir. It smoked and though there was no wind
the water was white with foam and running over the banks.

This went on several minutes, and then the water, as if yielding to some
irresistible force, left the sides, and there shot out of it a gigantic
jet nearly as thick as the crater was wide and hundreds of feet high. It
broke in the form of a rose and fell in a fine spray, which the setting
sun hued with all the colors of the rainbow.

It was the most splendid sight I had ever seen and the most
portentous--for I knew that the crater had become active, and remembering
how long it had taken to fill I feared the worst.

The jet went on rising and falling for nearly an hour, but as the mass of
the water returned to the crater, very little going over the sides, no
great harm was done.

"Thank Heaven for the respite!" exclaimed Angela, who had been clinging to
me all the time, trembling yet courageous. "Don't you think the danger is
now past, my Nigel?"

"For us, it may be. But if the crater has really become active. I fear
that our poor people at San Cristobal will be in very great danger
indeed."

"No! God alone--Hearken!"

A muffled peal of thunder which seemed to come from the very bowels of the
earth, followed by a detonation like the discharge of an army's artillery,
and the sides of the crater opened, and with a wild roar the pent-up
torrent burst forth, and leaping into the lake, rolled, a mighty avalanche
of water, toward the doomed oasis.

We looked at each other in speechless dismay. Nothing could resist that
terrible flood; it would sweep everything before it, for, though its
violence might be lessened before it reached the sea, only the few who
happened to be near the coast could escape destruction.

Nobody spoke; the roar of the cataract deafened us, the awfulness of the
catastrophe made us dumb. We were as if stunned, and I was conscious of
nothing save a sickening sense of helplessness and despair.

For an hour we stood watching the outpouring of the water. In that hour
Quipai was destroyed and its people perished.

As the blood-red sun sank into the bosom of the broad Pacific, a great
cloud of smoke and steam, mingled with stones and ashes, was puffed out of
the crater and a stream of fiery lava, bursting from the breach in the
side of the mountain, followed in the wake of the water.

The uproar was terrific; explosion succeeded explosion; great stones
hurled through the air and fell back into the crater with a din like
discharges of musketry, and whenever there came a lull we could hear the
hissing of the water as it met the lava.

We remained in the garden the night through. Nobody thought of going
indoors; but after a while we became so weary with watching and
overwrought with excitement that, despite the danger and the noise we
could not keep our eyes open. Before the southern cross began to bend we
were all asleep, Angela and I wrapped in our cobijas, the others on the
turf and under the trees.

When I opened my eyes the sun was rising majestically above the
Cordillera, but its rays had not yet reached the ocean. I rose and looked
around. The crater was still smoking, and a mist hung over the oasis, but
the lava had ceased to flow, and not a zephyr moved the air, not a tremor
stirred the earth. Only the blackened throat of the volcano and the
ghastly rent in its side were there to remind us of the havoc that had
been wrought and the ruin of Quipai.

I roused the people and bade them prepare breakfast, for though thousands
may perish in a night, the survivors must eat on the morrow. The house,
albeit considerably shaken, was still intact, but several of the doors
were so tightly jammed that I had to break them open with my hatchet.

When breakfast was ready I woke Angela.

"Is it real, or have I been dreaming?" she asked, with a shudder, looking
wildly round.

"It is only too real," I said, pointing to the smoking crater.

"_Misericordia!_ what shall we do?"

"First of all, we must go down to the oasis and see whether any of the
people are left alive."

"You are right. When we have done what we can for the others it will be
time enough to think about ourselves."

"Are there any others?" I thought, for I greatly doubted whether we should
find any alive, except, perhaps, Yawl and the three or four men who were
helping him. But I kept my misgivings to myself, and after breakfast we
set off. Angela and myself were mounted, and I assigned a mule to Kidd.
The man might be useful, and, circumstanced as we were, it would have been
bad policy to give him the cold shoulder. We also took with us provisions,
clothing, and a tent, for I was by no means sure that we should find
either food or shelter on the oasis.

As we passed the volcano I looked into the crater. Nearly level with the
breach made by the water was a great mass of seething lava, which I
regarded as a sure sign that another eruption might take place at any
moment. The valley lake had disappeared; banks, trees, soil, dwellings,
all were gone, leaving only bare rocks and burning lava. Of San Cristobal
there was not a vestige; the oasis had been converted into a damp and
steaming gully, void of vegetation and animal life. But, as I had
anticipated, the force of the flood was spent before it reached the coast.
Much of the water had overflowed into the desert and been absorbed by the
sand, and the little that remained was now sinking into the earth and
being evaporated by the sun.

For hours Angela and I rode on in silence; our distress was too deep for
words.

"Quipai is gone," she murmured at length, shuddering and looking at me
with tear-filled eyes.

"Yes, gone and forever. As entirely as if it had never been. It is worse
than the carnage of a great battle. These poor people! Nature is more
cruel than man."

"But surely! will you not try to restore the oasis and re-create Quipai?"

"To do that, _cara mia_, would require another Abbe Balthazar and sixty
years of life. And to what end? Sooner or later our work would be
destroyed as his has been, even if we were allowed to begin it. The
volcano may be active for ages. We must go."

"Whither?"

"Back to the world, that in new scenes and occupation we may perchance
forget this crowning calamity."

"It is something to have been happy so long."

"It is much; it is almost everything. Whatever the future may have in
store for us, darling, nothing can deprive us of the sunny memories of the
past, and the happiness we have enjoyed at Quipai."

"True, and if this misfortune were not so terrible--But God knows best. It
ill becomes me, who never knew sorrow before, to repine.--Yes, let us go.
But how?"

"By sea. I fear you would never survive the hazards and hardships of a
journey over the Cordillera, and dearly as I love you--because I love
you--I would rather have you die than be captured by Indians and made the
wife of some savage cacique. Yes, we must go by sea, in the sloop built by
these two castaways. Yet, even in that there will be a serious risk; for
if they suspect I have the diamonds in my possession--and I am afraid the
suspicion is inevitable--they will probably--"

"What?"

"Try to murder us."

"Murder us! For the diamonds?"

"Yes, my Angela, for the diamonds. In the world which you have never seen
men commit horrible crimes for insignificant gains, and I have here in my
pocket the value of a king's ransom. Even the average man could hardly
withstand so great a temptation, and all we know of these sailors is that
one of them is a thief."

"What will you do then?"

"First of all, I must find a safer hiding-place for our wealth than my
pockets; and we must be ever on our guard. The voyage will not be long,
and we shall be three against two."

"Three! You will take Ramon, then?"

"Certainly--if he will go with us."

"Of course he will. Ramon would follow you to the world's end. And the
other sailor--Yawl--may have been drowned in the flood."

"I don't think so. The flood did not go much farther than this, and Yawl
was busy with his boat. But we shall soon know; the cliffs are in sight."

CHAPTER XXXI.

NORTH BY WEST.

Besides Yawl and his helpers, we found on the beach about thirty men and
women, the saved of two thousand. Among them was one of the priests
ordained by the abbe. All had lived in the lower part of the oasis, and
when the volcano began spouting water, after the third earthquake, they
fled to the coast and so escaped. Though naturally much distressed (being
bereft of home, kindred, and all they possessed), they bore their
misfortunes with the uncomplaining stoicism so characteristic of their
race.

The immediate question was how to dispose of these unfortunates. I could
not take them away in the sloop, and I knew that they would prefer to
remain in the neighborhood where they were born. But the oasis was
uninhabitable. A few weeks and it would be merged once more in the desert
from which it had been so painfully won. Therefore I proposed that they
should settle at Alta Vista under charge of the priest. Alta Vista being
above the volcano no outburst of lava could reach them, and the _azequia_
being intact beyond that point they could easily bring more land under
cultivation and live in comfort and abundance.

To this proposal the survivors and the priest gladly and gratefully
assented. They were very good, those poor Indians, and seemed much more
concerned over our approaching departure than their own fate, beseeching
us, with many entreaties, not to leave them. Angela would have yielded,
but I was obdurate. I could not see that it was in any sense our duty to
bury ourselves in a remote corner of the Andes for the sake of a score or
two of Indians who were very well able to do without us. What could be the
good of building up another colony and creating another oasis merely that
the evil genii of the mountains might destroy them in a night? Had the
abbe, instead of spending a lifetime in making Quipai, devoted his
energies to some other work, he might have won for himself enduring fame
and permanently benefited mankind. As it was, he had effected less than
nothing, and I was resolved not to court his fate by following his
example.

Those were the arguments I used to Angela, and in the end she not only
fully agreed with me that it was well for us to go, but that the sooner we
went the better. The means were at hand. Yawl could have the yacht ready
for sea within twenty-four hours. There was little more to do than head
the sails and get water and provisions on board. I had the casks filled
forthwith--for the water in the channels was fast draining away--set some
of the people to work preparing _tasajo_, and sent Ramon with the mules
and two _arrieros_ to Alta Vista for the remainder of our clothing,
bedding, and several other things which I thought would be useful on the
voyage.

Ramon, I may mention, was my own personal attendant. He had been brought
up and educated by Angela and myself, and was warmly attached to us. In
disposition he was bright and courageous, in features almost European;
there could be little doubt that he was descended from some white
castaway, who had landed on the coast and been adopted by this tribe. He
said it would break his heart if we left him behind, so we took him with
us, and he has ever since been the faithful companion of my wanderings and
my trusty friend.

My wife and I slept in our tent, Kidd and Yawl on the sloop. As the sails
were not bent nor the boat victualled, I had no fear of their giving us
the slip in the night. In the morning Ramon and the _arrieros_ returned
with their lading, and by sunset we had everything on board and was ready
for a start.

The next thing was to settle our course. I wanted to reach a port where
I could turn some of my diamonds into cash and take shipping for England,
the West Indies, or the United States. We were between Valparaiso and
Callao, and the former place, as being on the way, seemed the more
desirable place to make for. But as the prevailing winds on the coast are
north and northwest a voyage in the opposite direction would involve much
beating up and nasty fetches, and, in all probability, be long and
tedious. For these reasons I decided in favor of Callao, and told Kidd to
shape our course accordingly.

"Just as you like, sir," he said; "it is all the same to Yawl and me where
we go. But it's a longish stretch to Callao. Don't you think we had better
make for some nearer place? There's Islay, and there's Arica; and I doubt
whether our water will last out till we get to Callao."

"We must make it last till we get to Callao," I answered, sharply; "except
under compulsion I will put in neither at Islay nor Arica."

"All right, sir! We are under your orders, and what you say shall be done,
as far as lies in our power."

Kidd's answer was civil but his manner was surly and defiant, and it
struck me that he might have some special reason for desiring to avoid
Callao. But I was resolved to go thither, so that in case of need I might
claim the protection of the British consul, whom I was sure to find there.
I was by no means sure that I should find one either at Islay or Arica. I
knew something of the ways of Spanish revenue officers, and as I had no
papers, it was quite possible that (in the absence of a consul) I might be
cast into prison and plundered of all I possessed, especially if Mr. Kidd
should hint that it included a bag of diamonds.

The sloop's accommodation for passengers was neither extensive nor
luxurious. The small cabin aft was just big enough to hold Angela and
myself, and once in it, we were like rats in a hole, as, to get out, we
had to climb an almost perpendicular ladder. Kidd and Yawl were to sleep,
turn and turn about, in a sort of dog-house which they had contrived in
the bows. Ramon would roll himself in his _cobija_ and sleep anywhere.

Before going on board I made such arrangements as I hoped would insure us
against foul play. I stitched one half of the diamonds in my waist-belt;
the other half my wife hid away in her dress. Among the things brought
down from Alta Vista was an exquisite little dagger with a Damascened
blade, which I gave to Angela. I had my hunting-knife, and Ramon his
_machete_.

I laid it down as a rule from which there was to be no departure, that
Ramon and I were neither to sleep at the same time nor be in the cabin
together, and that when we had anything particular to say we should say it
in Quipai. As it happened, he knew a little English; I had taught my wife
my mother-tongue, and Ramon, by dint of hearing it spoken, and with a
little instruction from me and from her, had become so far proficient in
the language that he could understand the greater part of what was said.
This, however, was not known to Kidd and Yawl; I told him not to let them
know; but whenever opportunity occurred to listen to their conversation,
and report it to me. I thought that if they meditated evil against us I
might in this way obtain timely information of their designs; and I
considered that, in the circumstances (our lives being, as I believed, in
jeopardy), the expedient was quite justifiable.

We sailed at sunset and got well away, and the clear sky and resplendent
stars, the calm sea and the fair soft wind augured well for a prosperous
voyage. Yet my heart was sad and my spirits were low. The parting with our
poor Indians had been very trying, and I could not help asking myself
whether I had acted quite rightly in deserting them, whether it would not
have been nobler (though perhaps not so worldly wise) to throw in my lot
with theirs and try to recreate the oasis, as Angela had suggested. I also
doubted whether I was acting the part of a prudent man in embarking my
wife, my fortune, and myself on a wretched little sloop (which would
probably founder in the first storm), under the control of two men of whom
I knew no good, and who, as I feared, might play us false?

But whether I had acted wisely or unwisely, there was no going back now,
and as I did not want Angela to perceive that I was either dubious or
downcast, I pulled myself together, put on a cheerful countenance, and
spoke hopefully of our prospects.

She was with us on deck, Kidd being at the helm.

"I have no very precise idea how far we maybe from Callao," I said, "but
if this wind lasts we should be there in five or six days at the outside.
Don't you think so, Kidd?"

"May be. You still think of going to Callao, then?"

"Still think of going to Callao! I am determined to go to Callao. Why do
you ask? Did not I distinctly say so before we started?"

"I thought you had maybe changed your mind. And Callao won't be easy to
make. Neither Yawl nor me has ever been there; we don't know the bearings,
and we have no compass, and I don't know much about the stars in these
latitudes."

"But I do, and better still, I have a compass."

"A compass! Do you hear that, Bill Yawl? Mr. Fortescue has got a compass.
Go to Callao! Why, we can go a'most anywhere. Where have you got it,
sir--in the cabin?"

"Yes, Abbe Balthazar and I made it, ever so long since. It is only rudely
fashioned, and has never been adjusted, but I dare say it will answer the
purpose as well as another."

"Of course it will, and if you'll kindly bring it here, it'll be a great
help. I reckon if I keep her head about--"

"Nor' by west."

"Ay, ay, sir, that's it, I have no doubt. If I keep her head nor' by west,
I dare say we shall fetch Callao as soon as you was a-saying just now. But
Bill and me should have the compass before us when we're steering; and
to-morrow we'll try to rig up a bit of a binnacle. You, perhaps, would not
mind fetching it now, sir?--Bring that patent lantern of yours, Bill."

I fetched the compass and Yawl the lantern, made of a glass bottle and a
piece of copper sheeting (like the rest of our equipments, the spoil of
the sea).

Kidd was quite delighted with the compass, the card of which was properly
marked and framed in a block of wood, and said it could easily be
suspended on gimbals and fixed on a binnacle.

After a while, Angela, who felt tired, went below, and I with her, but
only to fetch my _cobija_ and a pillow, for, as I told Kidd, I intended to
remain on deck all night, the cabin being too close and stuffy for two
persons. This was true, yet not the whole truth. I had another reason; I
saw that nothing would be easier than for Kidd or Yawl to slip on the
cabin-hatch while I was below, and so have us at their mercy, for Ramon,
though a stalwart youth enough, could not contend with the two sailors
single-handed.

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20