Markham and Miss Keene; but, alas! I am required elsewhere.Ileave," he continued, turning towards Hurlstone, who was already absorbed in a whispered consultation with Padre Esteban--"I leave a sufficient escort with you to protect your party to the boats which have brought us here.You will take them to the Excelsior, and join me with the ship off Todos Santos in the morning.Adieu, my friends! Good-night, and farewell!"The priest made a vehement movement of protestation, but he was checked by Hurlstone, as, with a low bow, Senor Perkins passed out into the darkness.The next moment his voice was heard raised in command, and the measured tramp of his men gradually receded and was lost in the distance.
"Does he think," said the priest indignantly, "that I, Padre Esteban, would desert my sacred trust, and leave His Holy Temple a prey to sacrilegious trespass? Never, while I live, Diego! Call him back and tell him so!""Rather listen to me, Father Esteban," said the young man earnestly."I have a plan by which this may be avoided.From my knowledge of these Indians, I am convinced that they have been basely tricked and cajoled by some one.I believe that they are still amenable to reason and argument, and I am so certain that Iam ready to go down among them and make the attempt.The old Chief and part of his band are still encamped on the shore; we could hear them as we passed in the boats.I will go and meet them.If Isucceed in bringing them to reason I will return; if I find them intractable, I will at least divert their attention from the Mission long enough for you to embark these ladies with their escort, which you will do at the end of two hours if I do not return.""In two hours?" broke in Mrs.Brimmer, in sharp protest."Ipositively object.I certainly understood that Senor Perkins'
invitation, which, under the circumstances, I shall consider equal to a command from Mr.Brimmer, was to be accepted at once and without delay; and I certainly shall not leave Miss Chubb exposed to imminent danger for two hours to meet the caprice of an entire stranger to Mr.Brimmer.""I am willing to stay with Father Esteban, if he will let me," said Eleanor Keene quietly, "for I have faith in Mr.Hurlstone's influence and courage, and believe he will be successful."The young man thanked her with another demonstrative look that brought the warm blood to her cheek.
"Well," said Mrs.Markham promptly; "I suppose if Nell stays I must see the thing through and stay with her--even if I haven't orders from Jimmy.""There is no necessity that either Mr.or Mrs.Brimmer should be disobeyed in their wishes," said Hurlstone grimly."Luckily there are two boats; Mrs.Brimmer and Miss Chubb can take one of them with half the escort, and proceed at once to the Excelsior.I will ride with them as far as the boat.And now," he continued, turning to the old priest, with sparkling eyes, "I have only to ask your blessing, and the good wishes of these ladies, to go forth on my mission of peace.If I am successful," he added, with a light laugh, "confess that a layman and a heretic may do some service for the Church." As the old man laid his half detaining, half benedictory hands upon his shoulders, the young man seized the opportunity to whisper in his ear, "Remember your promise to tell her ALL I have told you," and, with an other glance at Miss Keene, he marshalled Mrs.Brimmer and Miss Chubb before him, and hurried them to the boat.
Miss Keene looked after him with a vague felicity in the change that seemed to have come on him, a change that she could as little account for as her own happiness.Was it the excitement of danger that had overcome his reserve, and set free his compressed will and energy? She longed for her brother to see him thus--alert, strong, and chivalrous.In her girlish faith, she had no fear for his safety; he would conquer, he would succeed; he would come back to them victorious! Looking up from her happy abstraction, at the side of Mrs.Markham, who had calmly gone to sleep in an arm-chair, she saw Father Esteban's eyes fixed upon her.With a warning gesture of the hand towards Mrs.Markham, he rose, and, going to the door of the sacristy, beckoned to her.The young girl noiselessly crossed the room and followed him into the sanctuary.
Half an hour later, and while Mrs.Markham was still asleep, Father Esteban appeared at the door of the sacristy ostentatiously taking snuff, and using a large red handkerchief to wipe his more than usually humid eyes.Eleanor Keene, with her chin resting on her hand, remained sitting as he had left her, with her abstracted eyes fixed vacantly on the lamp before the statue of the Virgin and the half-lit gloom of the nave.
Padre Esteban had told her ALL! She now knew Hurlstone's history even as he had hesitatingly imparted it to the old priest in this very church--perhaps upon the very seat where she sat.She knew the peace that he had sought for and found within these walls, broken only by his passion for her! She knew his struggles against the hopelessness of this new-born love, even the desperate remedy that had been adopted against herself, and the later voluntary exile of her lover.She knew the providential culmination of his trouble in the news brought unconsciously by Perkins, which, but a few hours ago, he had verified by the letters, records, and even the certificate of death that had thus strangely been placed in his hands! She knew all this so clearly now, that, with the instinct of a sympathetic nature, she even fancied she had heard it before.