The Filibusters by Charles John Cutcliffe Hyne (book club suggestions TXT) 📖

“Where?”

“Here, in Los Angeles. She and Don Juan came here when he made up his mind to turn against Briggs Puentos, I mean, bless his change of names and she settled down in her palace here whilst he went off to sea.”

“And she isn’t interfered with?”

“My dear Birch, what do you want? We don’t fight against women. But I’ve no doubt she’s pretty carefully watched, and quite knows it. However, if you want to learn more, go and call. I’ve no doubt she’ll receive you.”

“Will you come with me?”

“No,” he snapped, ” I will not. I haven’t seen Julia since she came into the country, and don’t intend to as long as she is married to that brute. But you go if you think it will be useful. I wish you would, in fact: I’d like to know how she’s going on. And I’ve no doubt you’ll be amused. Delicia’s there I beg her pardon Lady Carew is staying in the palace, and you and she will be able to exchange views on the Tolpec district.”

“Donna Delicia! ” said I, regularly startled. “Why you don’t mean to say old Maxillo let her go?”

“Of course he did. Haven’t you heard?”

“This is the first word. You must remember I’ve been with you all the time.”

“Well, it’s fact enough. I’d have told you before, only I took it for granted you’d heard. Yes, the old gentleman was apparently very much upset at the turn affairs had taken, and strung up half a dozen of his suite out of hand so as to teach the rest smartness. But as that did not make the lady a widow, and as he was too much of a churchman to encumber her with another husband till she was rid of her last, he sent her to Dolores with an escort and a sarcastic note of condolence to Briggs. Speaking impartially, I think it was the best thing he could have done.”

“Why, yes. Donna Delicia is delightful when she chooses, but I can imagine she would not make a pleasant guest if she was kept at a place against her will. Why didn’t she stay on at Dolores?”

“Perhaps she found it painful. Anyway she must have known her presence (under the circumstances) would be painful to Briggs. So she came off to Donna Julia’s house here in Los Angeles, to wait.”

“To wait! what for? Till she’s a widow?”

“To wait till she’s the wife of a president, I suppose,” said Fluellen drily. ” If one states the question so, it cuts both ways. For the life of me I can’t make the lady out.”

“Then you have seen her?”

“Of course. She’s a lot too openly grateful to Carewto suit the taste of Don Esteban Puentos.”

“What, does she really care for the scoundrel?”

“My dear Birch, ask me to do most kinds of impossibility, and I’ll try. But don’t ask me to state what Delicia really thinks when she doesn’t mean to say. She’s got a lawful husband, there’s no getting over that; he’s clever, and a strong, and a daring man, as even his bitterest enemy will admit; and it’s not in the nature of woman to deny him some admiration. Whether she’s any affection for him is quite another matter. She’ll laugh and joke over it, and say ‘ Yes ‘ and ‘ No ‘ in two consecutive breaths. But there’s one thing she’s solid on: she’s the lawful Lady Carew, and no other need apply for the post of husband whilst Carew’s above the daisies.”

“Which our chief will not like.”

“Naturally.”

“And did he promise to shoot Carew when he could lay hands on him, or did he offer to do the Quixotic and abdicate the Presidency in his favour?”

“I am not in their confidence, but knowing the pair of them fairly well, I should say, neither. He is not the kind of man to give up anything he has set his mind on; and she is not the sort of woman to ask favours which would certainly be refused. Moreover, whatever they thought about the matter, they did not show it outwardly. In fact, to all outward seeming they feel much the same as they did before. Eh, well ” Fluellen sighed heavily ” I suppose it doesn’t cut either of them very deeply, or they couldn’t help letting it show somehow.”

We both went off to our bedrooms then, and whatever Fluellen did, I can answer for it that I put in six hours the solidest sleep a man could do this side of the grave. It was well into the morning when I woke, and as I lay in bed and got through my matutinal coffee and roll, I argued with myself as to whether a call at the Carmoy palace was advisable. Of course, it would be eminently unpleasant, because, come to think of it, there are nicer occupations than going to socially interview the wives of a couple of men whom you hope in the very near future to kill; but I am getting imbued with my chiefs motto of ” before all Sacaronduca,” and I argued the matter out on the lines of whether or not such an interview would help the business Fluellen and I had in hand. And finally, after coldly and dispassionately looking the matter through, I came to the conclusion that it would not. I have a tolerable conceit of my own tongue-power a purser on big ships learns how to make use of talk but I was not likely to get anything out of the Carmoy Palace which I did not know already. Delicia was there; Delicia would receive me; and I was quite sure Delicia would not let out, either herself or through the lips of her friend, anything she wished to be hid. It was much more likely that Delicia would extract news out of me.

But as it happened, I might have saved myself the trouble of coming to a decision over the matter. Before I had finished my coffee and roll a message was brought in that caused me to leap out of bed and dress with the best of my speed. The English gunboat, the Rabbit, had hove to off the port, and had sent a boat ashore with an ultimatum concerning I couldn’t quite make out what, and threatened that unless she got satisfaction in some three hours’ time she would open a bombardment.

Fluellen and I both came into the business room together, finishing our dressing as we walked. The Texan lieutenant of the disabled cruiser was waiting for us, smoking cigarettes. It was he who had brought the news to Government House, and I must say he seemed rather pleased with the situation than otherwise. ” Them are all awake in the forts,” said he, ” and as soon as that fool gunboat squibbs off one of her popguns, they’ll blow her into the smallest kind of matchwood. They are quite keen on the chance; it’s the first time they’ve had an opportunity of seeing what their batteries will do.”

“Rubbish,” said Fluellen. ” This mustn’t go on. We can’t afford to have international complications now. When Sacaronduca has settled down and is stronger”

“But, sir,” said the Texan, “there’ll be no international complication. If your silly, fatheaded John Bull Meadey’s his name, by the way chooses to come and ram his wooden skull against our fortifications, it’s his own fault if the consequences are a bit big. I guess our boys have savvy enough to sit tight and let him shoot first. After that, by all the rules of Christianity, it’s his funeral.”

Fluellen clapped on his pith helmet and tossed me across mine. ” Rubbish,” he said again. “This must not go on. I know Meadey. He’s just the sort of fool to do what you say. But we can’t murder him and sink his ship for all that. Birch, you and I will get a launch and go off to the Rabbit and pacify the idiot.”

We went out into the street, got a carroza, and drove rapidly down towards the quays. ” By the way, ” said I to the Texan, who was in the carriage with us, ” I haven’t heard yet what all the fuss was about. I suppose they’ve got a pretty good ‘ casus belli? ‘ ‘

“That’s the funny part of it,” he said. ” They haven’t. It’s Carew they’re mad with, and they will persist in confusing Carew with us. Carew’s on the war-path, there’s no doubt ab&ut that. And he’s bagged one of Johnny Bull’s fancy ships, and old Meadey ‘s brought in the bill right here. What’s more, he says he wants our cruiser to take away in pawn till the account’s settled, and if he doesn’t get her he’s going to let loose the whole strength of his fourpenny earthquake on the fortifications of Los Angeles. I suppose he didn’t trouble to think what we should be doing when he started action, and yet, hang it, you’d guess the man must read his service magazines sometimes and know the kind of dandy set-out we’ve got here to take care of ourselves with.”

“You can take it from me,” said Fluellen, ” that Captain Meadey knows the strength of Los Angeles armament as well as you do; and if he makes up his mind to bring them to action he’ll do it as calmly as though they amounted to half a dozen brass yacht guns. They don’t worry themselves particularly about odds in his service. If they get wiped out, they always cheer themselves by knowing that there’s heaps more British fleet to come and make things hot for the wipers.”

“Well,” said the lieutenant, ” personally I have no use for post-mortem squaring up of that description. Now, gentlemen, here we are at the quay, and there’s a naphtha launch with pressure up at the foot of those stairs. I wouldn’t go to the Rabbit, though, if I were you. John Bull Meadey is just as likely to hang you as not in his present mood.”

“I shall risk that,” said Fluellen, ” and any way it’s my duty to go. I am senior officer here in Los Angeles, and I’m vain enough to think that I’m the most capable man here for dealing with the situation. I tell you this absurd fuss may develop into something serious if it isn’t delicately handled.”

“I didn’t know you were down here officially. By Jove, of course you are senior.” The Texan drew himself up and saluted formally. “Any orders, Colonel Fluellen?

“Thanks, no.”

“Can I volunteer as an aide-de-camp, or coxswain, or something?”

“Yes,” said Fluellen, “you may come along if you like.”

“That’s what I want just now,” said the Texan, and stepped down into the naphtha launch and took the tiller. We followed, and the engineer set her going; and whilst the horses in the carroza on the quay above were still purring and blowing after the pace they had come, we had circled round, and were heading for the harbour entrance between the concrete walls.

The queer old obsolete gunboat was sawing up and down over the swells outside, with sails furled, topgallant masts struck, and the propeller giving an occasional flap just to keep her in place. She’d got ports triced up, guns run out, and her crew at their fighting quarters, and fifty years earlier she could no doubt have given a good enough account of herself. But against modern gun fire she would have been neither more nor less than a death-trap, and with very little chance of doing any return harm before she was blasted off the face of the sea.

This knowledge must have been quite common to all of her crew, but it did not seem