The Rover of the Andes by Robert Michael Ballantyne (8 ebook reader .TXT) 📖

you have acted your part well; but my well-meant efforts have been utterly in vain."

"How so!"

"Why, because the poor wretch has fallen hopelessly in love with you in spite of your disguise--ay, and in spite of his own efforts to the contrary, for I have watched him carefully, and regard him as an uncommonly fine specimen of an amiable, self-denying, and honourable man. And now, as I had feared, your father is furious at his presuming even to think of you, though I have done my best to show him that he has acted nobly all through our journey; that, after all, he may not really care for you at all, and that at all events you have given him no encouragement whatever, and do not care a straw for _him_."

Manuela flushed deeply at the last words, and there was the slightest possible contraction of her fine eyebrows as she replied, somewhat loftily--

"Senhor Pedro, you are a kind friend and a faithful guide, but you pretend to a greater knowledge of these matters than you possess. You do not understand my beloved father as well as I do, and you are totally ignorant of the state of my feelings. However, I believe you have done all for the best, and my earnest request now is that, having discharged what you conceive to be your duty on this point, you will say and do nothing more."

"Your will would be law in this matter, even if I were not under such a deep debt of gratitude to you," returned Pedro, "and it is all the more easy to obey you now that I have handed you over to your father and am no longer responsible. Are you aware that we start immediately in pursuit of the Indians who have attacked and murdered the poor people of Rolland's Ranch?"

"Yes, my father has told me all about it."

"Has he told you that you and Mariquita are to accompany the force so far on the road, and that when we get beyond the disturbed district I am to carry you on with a small party to Buenos Ayres, while the main body pursues the savages?"

"Yes, he told me that too," replied Manuela; "but," she added, with a little hesitation, "he did not say who was to go with our small detachment."

The slightest possible twinkle in Pedro's eye indicated suppressed feeling as he replied that he also was ignorant on that point--the only things which he was quite sure of being, that Senhor Armstrong and Quashy were to go with the main body.

"Indeed!" exclaimed the maiden in surprise. "I had thought Senhor Armstrong objected to fighting."

Pedro laughed. "So he does, senhorina; but when the rescue of captive women and children is in the case, he holds fighting to be a duty, as you are aware. But I must go now," continued Pedro, becoming grave and earnest as he took the girl's hand. "Words can never express my feelings towards you and your father, dear Manuela. Indeed I have never been in the habit of saying much--least of all when I have felt much. Mariquita and I will bless you both to the latest hour of our lives. Adieu. We meet in the morning at the house in which you are staying-- Lawrence has named it the house with the rustic porch--and we start from there. You are all ready, I suppose?"

"Yes. You know I have little luggage to look after," said Manuela, with a laugh, "and I shall continue to travel as an Indian girl--as an Inca princess!"

"Indeed. Why so?"

"That, Senhor Pedro, is a matter with which you have nothing whatever to do!"


CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.


COLONEL MARCHBANKS PROVES TO BE NOT SO GOOD A GENERAL AS HE GETS CREDIT FOR, AND LAWRENCE STANDS SELF-CONVICTED.

It has been stated that our hero had agreed to join Colonel Marchbanks in the pursuit of the Indians, not because the troops sought to avenge the murders which had been committed, but because several women and children had been carried off, and the rescue of these formed the main object of the expedition.

There can be no doubt, however, that the desire of Lawrence to join in such a praiseworthy adventure was not a little stimulated by the fact that Manuela was to accompany her father, at least a part of the way, and he naturally hoped to have some opportunities of speaking to her-- perhaps of riding beside her, as he had so often done when he imagined her to be a daughter of the Incas.

But alas! the course of his love being true and deep--remarkably deep-- was doomed to run in its proverbially rugged course.

Colonel Marchbanks, when leading his men to "glory"--or otherwise--like a true soldier, as he was, invariably moved with an advance and rear-guard. Like a cautious father, he placed Lawrence in the rear-guard, and arranged that there should be a considerable distance between it and the main body.

We may remark in passing that when the first burst of the old gentleman's anger with Lawrence was over he had generously resolved, in consideration of what the young man had done for his daughter, to make no further allusion to the ballroom scene, but merely to hold the presumptuous youth politely at arm's-length, and take especial care that the two young people should not again have an opportunity of meeting alone. He laid no command on either of them, but simply trusted to his own wisdom and watchfulness.

Being as it were a freelance, Lawrence, he knew, would naturally ride in the force very much where he pleased. He had therefore cleverly provided against the evil consequences that might flow from such freedom by making a little arrangement at a brief and final interview the evening before they set out.

"Now, young senhor," he said, in his usual abrupt way, "although a volunteer in this expedition, and not versed in military matters, you must of course put yourself under my orders, and consider yourself one of my troopers."

Oh! of course, of course, Lawrence had not the slightest objection to do so. He was quite ready to do whatever was required of him, if only he might assist in the rescue of hapless captives; and although he knew nothing of military matters, still, in the event of an engagement, he might prove himself useful as a surgeon.

"Humph! We don't deal much in surgeons in this country. It is usually do or die with us," replied the colonel, with a grim smile. "However, we shall see. Meanwhile, I have appointed you to the charge of some of the baggage-mules. Your late experience must have made you somewhat expert in such matters, and your duty will be with the rear-guard. One of my officers will show you your position in the morning. Good-night."

Lawrence left with a quiet "Good-night, colonel," and with a very unquiet feeling that somehow things might not turn out precisely as he had hoped.

Later that night Manuela appeared before her stern father dressed in the old familiar costume of an Indian girl, and with her fair skin stained dark brown. Usually the old soldier met his child with a beaming smile, that lit up his rugged visage with tenderness, as a gleam of sunshine sometimes illumines the rugged peaks of the Andes, but on this occasion he received her with a frown compounded of love and annoyance.

"How now, child? This is an unseasonable time for such foolery."

"I want to travel in my old dress, father," she replied, with a winning smile that almost tore the old man's heart in twain;--and there are such smiles, reader, let us assure you, though you may not have had the good fortune to see them yet!

"You certainly shall do nothing of the sort, my dear," returned the stern old man, as if he were laying down one of the Medo-Persic laws-- for he was very tough, you know, and had great power of control over his feelings, especially the softer ones.

"Oh, I'm _so_ sorry you don't like it!" said the Inca princess, with a little look of humble disappointment which was infinitely more heartrending than the smile; "but do you know, father, I have ridden so long in this costume, and in the gentleman fashion, that I feel quite sure--at least, I think--I should be utterly knocked up the first day if I were to begin a long hard journey in the ladies' position. Then, you know, I could not dare to ride so in ordinary female dress and with a white face; the thing would look ridiculous--wouldn't it? And, of course, everybody knows that Pedro arrived here with an Indian girl in his band, so the thing will seem quite natural, and nobody will notice me, especially if I keep near to Pedro; and the soldiers will just think--if they think at all--that you have left your daughter behind."

"Ah, well, that alters the case, Manuela," said the colonel, with most un-Medo-Persic hesitancy, and still frowning a little at his ink-bottle--not at his daughter. "Of course, if it had been merely one of your whims, _nothing_ would have induced me to let you go in such guise, but there is truth in what you say, and--yes--a good thought, you shall travel near Pedro. Good-night. Go to bed, love. You will need all the rest you can obtain between now and morning."

"Good-night, darling father. I would kiss you if I had not just put on the stain."

She retired, and soon after laid her pretty brown cheek on her pillow in placid contentment, while her grim father arranged his war plans so that Pedro should travel with the _advance-guard_.

There was a soft, fresh, exhilarating breeze blowing from the Pampas as the troop issued from the little town at a gallop, when the first streak of dawn became visible.

There was order, doubtless, in all the arrangements, but all seemed utter confusion to Lawrence as he assisted the young officer under whose special command he was placed to look after the mules. Some faint evidence of order, however, began to reveal itself to his uneducated mind when he observed that the confusion abated on the main body moving off and leaving him with a small band behind. His perception of order might have been still further though unpleasantly increased had he known that the advance-guard, with Manuela in its train, had started a considerable time previously. But he had not much time to think, for the command was almost immediately given to mount and ride.

Quashy was beside him, for, being his servant, Colonel Marchbanks had said he might do with him as he pleased. But Quashy was silent, for his spirit was chafed. His master observed the fact after the first half-hour's gallop.

"What ails you, Quash?"

"I can't abide peepil," growled the negro, "what says `aw!'"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that Aw's agwine wid us."

"What--the sportsman--eh?"

"Yes, massa. On'y I don't b'lieve he ever sported nuffin but a swagger, and--and--`aw!' W'en I git up dis mornin' I heerd 'im say to his friend: `I say, Jack, wouldn't it--aw--be dooced good fun to go and-- aw--hab a slap at de Injins?' If de Injins send a spear troo his libber--aw--he'll not t'ink it sitch fun!"

"That's true, Quash, but the same may be