You are at liberty to keep it until you can deliver it, or drop it out of that port-hole into the sea--as you choose.But I hear the boat returning," continued Perkins, rising gently from his seat as the sound of oars came faintly alongside, "and no doubt with Winslow's messenger.I am sorry you won't let me bring you together.I dare say he knows all about you, and it really need not alter your opinions.""One moment," said Hurlstone, stunned, yet incredulous of Perkins's revelations."You said that both the Comandante and Alcalde had arranged to send away certain ladies--are you not mistaken?""I think not," said Perkins quietly, looking over a pile of papers on the table before him."Yes, here it is," he continued, reading from a memorandum: "'Don Ramon Ramirez arranged with Pepe for the secret carrying off of Dona Barbara Brimmer.' Why, that was six weeks ago, and here we have the Comandante suborning one Marcia, a dragoon, to abduct Mrs.Markham--by Jove, my old friend!--and Dona Leonor--our beauty, was she not? Yes, here it is: in black and white.Read it, if you like,--and pardon me for one moment, while I receive this unlucky messenger."Left to himself, Hurlstone barely glanced at the memorandum, which seemed to be the rough minutes of some society.He believed Perkins; but was it possible that the Padre could be ignorant of the designs of his fellow-councilors? And if he were not--if he had long before been in complicity with them for the removal of Eleanor, might he not also have duped him, Hurlstone, and sent him on this mission as a mere blind; and--more infamously--perhaps even thus decoyed him on board the wrong ship? No--it was impossible!
His honest blood quickly flew to his cheek at that momentary disloyal suspicion.
Nevertheless, the Senor's bland revelations filled him with vague uneasiness.SHE was safe with her brother now; but what if he and the other Americans were engaged in this ridiculous conspiracy, this pot-house rebellion that Father Esteban had spoken of, and which he had always treated with such contempt? It seemed strange that Perkins had said nothing of the arrival of the relieving party from the Gulf, and its probable effect on the malcontents.Did he know it? or was the news now being brought by this messenger whom he, Hurlstone, had supplanted? If so, when and how had Perkins received the intelligence that brought him to Todos Santos? The young man could scarcely repress a bitter smile as he remembered the accepted idea of Todos Santos' inviolability--that inaccessible port that had within six weeks secretly summoned Perkins to its assistance! And it was there he believed himself secure! What security had he at all? Might not this strange, unimpassioned, omniscient man already know HIS secret as he had known the others'?
The interview of Perkins with the messenger in the next cabin was a long one, and apparently a stormy one on the part of the newcomer.
Hurlstone could hear his excited foreign voice, shrill with the small vehemence of a shallow character; but there was no change in the slow, measured tones of the Senor.He listlessly began to turn over the papers on the table.Presently he paused.He had taken up a sheet of paper on which Senor Perkins had evidently been essaying some composition in verse.It seemed to have been of a lugubrious character.The titular line at the top of the page, "Dirge," had been crossed out for the substituted "In Memoriam."He read carelessly:
"O Muse unmet--but not unwept--
I seek thy sacred haunt in vain.
Too late, alas! the tryst is kept--
We may not meet again!
"I sought thee 'midst the orange bloom, To find that thou hadst grasped the palm Of martyr, and the silent tomb Had hid thee in its calm.
"By fever racked, thou languishest On Nicaragua's"--Hurlstone threw the paper aside.Although he had not forgotten the Senor's reputation for sentimental extravagance, and on another occasion might have laughed at it, there was something so monstrous in this hysterical, morbid composition of the man who was even then contemplating bloodshed and crime, that he was disgusted.Like most sentimental egotists, Hurlstone was exceedingly intolerant of that quality in others, and he turned for relief to his own thoughts of Eleanor Keene and his own unfortunate passion.HEcould not have written poetry at such a moment!
But the cabin-door opened, and Senor Perkins appeared.Whatever might have been the excited condition of his unknown visitor, the Senor's round, clean-shaven face was smiling and undisturbed by emotion.As his eye fell on the page of manuscript Hurlstone had just cast down, a slight shadow crossed his beneficent expanse of forehead, and deepened in his soft dark eyes; but the next moment it was chased away by his quick recurring smile.Even thus transient and superficial was his feeling, thought Hurlstone.
"I have some news for you," said Perkins affably, "which may alter your decision about returning.My friends ashore," he continued, "judging from the ingenuous specimen which has just visited me, are more remarkable for their temporary zeal and spasmodic devotion than for prudent reserve or lasting discretion.They have submitted a list to me of those whom they consider dangerous to Mexican liberty, and whom they are desirous of hanging.I regret to say that the list is illogical, and the request inopportune.
Our friend Mr.Banks is put down as an ally of the Government and an objectionable business rival of that eminent patriot and well-known drover, Senor Martinez, who just called upon me.Mr.
Crosby's humor is considered subversive of a proper respect for all patriotism; but I cannot understand why they have added YOUR name as especially 'dangerous.'"Hurlstone made a gesture of contempt.
"I suppose they pay me the respect of considering me a friend of the old priest.So be it! I hope they will let the responsibility fall on me alone.""The Padre is already proscribed as one of the Council," said Senor Perkins quietly.