CHAPTER XIV.MEETING IN THE ALAMEDA.
Señor Julio Murillo reclined on a comfortable couch in the large reception-hall on the second floor of the Governor’s stately mansion, to await the return of Juan.
“I see,” he mentally commented, “the end of this revolution which has just begun. If those who precipitated the mad act were told now what the final would be, they would have no faith in what was told them being true, and would leave nothing undone to carry out their present intentions. There is no way of dealing with those who have no knowledge outside of physical self, except by physical force. It is a lamentable condition of affairs to those who cannot see the end. To me it is of no concern whatever, except that I hate to see the suffering of humanity. There is always a certain sympathy, which the initiated have with those who do not know the Law. The spread of Free Thought during the last century, caused by scientific investigations, particularly in the spirit realm, has been wonderful. Such a very great decrease in crime has never been known, or at least has never been recorded since the beginning of time, as that shownduring the last fifty years. The wane of the power of the priest and the pastor, and the great diffusion of scientific truths concerning the realm of the hidden is accountable for it. I will not do my duty if I fail to relieve the sufferings of those who do notknow, of those who can only see the things seen by the eye. Here comes Juan, poor fellow. I wish he could see the hidden. He is on the road and will soon know, however. Is it he? Are my physical eyes failing me? It cannot be; the figure is too large and does not move like a domestic; still, Juan has much spirit. It is Señor Guillermo Gonzales. Ha! ha! what a start he gave me.”
He started to rise to greet the person coming toward him whom he thought to be his scientific coworker, when he uttered a startled exclamation and fell quietly back in the deep shadows, amongst the pillows on the couch.
“It approaches with the caution and tread of Macbeth. It is not a spirit. It is of flesh and blood, and is here for no good purpose. To me it will be amusing from this moment on, to watch the many nefarious people who will try to end this physical existence of the good and great Governor. If they knew what I know, they would certainly save themselves the trouble. The light in the early morning is very uncertain, yet the outlines of face and figure I cannot discern with the physical eye, is plain through the eye of intuition. And I see the much-disguised figure of Marriet Motuble, the invincible. I must not be discovered here, or half the pleasure of knowing the object of her early call will be lost. From a physicalsense of view, to follow her over the house will be interesting. Ah, where is she going now? She stops. She listens. I wonder what she hears? Can it be that she hears my breathing, or feels the vibrations of my thoughts? I hope not; for if either be the case, this interesting scene will be denied me. She goes toward his Honor’s private bedroom. The lay of the rooms are well defined in her mind. What is it she carries in her right hand? Now she raises it. The door is opening. She will not waste a shot, I am quite sure. When she finds the Governor is not in his apartment, she will be disappointed, and hurry out for fear of being discovered, but not by this door; the more private one at the end of the suite will suit her purposes, I fancy, much better. I will have Juan follow and catch her if possible. I will have him fasten all the doors securely and bar the windows. She will lead him a lively chase; but then he will be otherwise occupied than studying and worrying over the absence of his Honor. Here he is now.”
Juan placed the breakfast on a table near the couch, and said: “Fifteen minutes is a long time to spend in preparing so simple a meal. I hope, I hope I have not tired your patience.”
“It makes no difference; in fact, I am glad I was detained. I have another commission for you,” said Señor Julio Murillo. “You know the large, aggressive señorita Marriet Motuble, do you not?”
“I do, sir; I do. She frightened me badly once. I will tell you about it,” said Juan.
“At some other time, Juan,” replied Señor JulioMurillo. “We have no time to lose. She is in the house at this moment, intent on no good purpose. See that she does not get out of the house. Tell her you have orders not to open the doors under twenty-four hours. Follow her, Juan. She must not escape.”
“But you, sir. I cannot leave you unserved,” pleaded Juan, expressing the hope that he might not have to follow Marriet Motuble.
“I need no more service, Juan. In ten minutes I will have completed my breakfast and be gone. You have no time to lose; the house must be securely fastened, for the señorita is as sly as a fox, and will escape if double caution is not quickly secured. It is necessary to detain this woman, from more points of view than one. I have nothing more to say, Juan, except for you to go.”
Juan’s head fell low, and without a word he walked slowly in the direction Marriet Motuble had disappeared.
Julio Murillo finished his meal quickly, descended the stairs noiselessly, and in an instant had disappeared from the house.
Juan encountered the aggressive señorita sooner than he had calculated. Evidently the many rooms and openings on the floor had confused her, and she had lost her bearings. And now as she was retracing her steps, no doubt in the hope of finding the private stairway which led to a door opening onto the back lawn, she faced Juan before either was aware of the presence of the other.
The invincible señorita was equal to the emergency,but Juan fell over against a wall, trembling and frightened, and prayed that she would pass him unobserved.
Again he was doomed to disappointment, for instead of passing him unobserved, or if observed, hurrying by him in the hope of escaping without being detected, the very instant she saw him she walked bravely up, and slapping him on the shoulder, said:
“Hello, Juan. You seem to have been on guard all night, or else something unusual has happened to get you up at this early hour. Come, Juan, you are my friend; let me into your secret. I mean, of course, the secret of the household.”
“Well,” replied Juan, with some spirit, as he pushed her hand off his shoulder and moved away from her, “you seem to know more about this house than I do.”
“Ha! ha! Juan,” laughed the señorita. “Ha! ha! there are tricks in all trades, and by the time you have lived through five existences andremembereverything in each life and take advantage of your learning, you will know more about some things than some other people who do notremember. Ha! ha! Juan, why don’t you drink some of your master’s ‘Memory Fluid’—a gallon or so, to start on? Ha! ha! That ‘Liquid from the Sun’s Rays’ is wonderful! It could not be otherwise, as his Honor is such a wonderful man. But come, Juan, tell me where he is. In which room? And see, this is for your trouble.” She held up a twenty-dollar gold coin, which shone brightly in the dim light of the early morning. “A twenty-dollar gold coin cannot be picked up every moment, Juan. Do you know a good thing when you see it?”
“See me; do you, miss, see me? Well, I will stand here until I starve to death, or am killed, before I would tell you anything about his Honor’s affairs, if you offered me ten times that amount of money. I don’t need any money. I have plenty to eat and wear. But I haven’t time to stand here in his Honor’s private bedrooms talking to a lady at this early hour in the morning or at any other hour of the day.”
“Well, well,amigo,you are a loyal servant. I only wanted to know if his Honor has recovered from the fright I gave him a few days ago. I really do not recall to mind the exact date,” persisted Miss Motuble.
To which Juan replied: “The Governor is not so easily frightened as you seem to imagine.Younever frightened him; you simply overpowered him by means of your superior physical force.”
“Whew!” was the surprised beginning of Miss Motuble’s reply. “Whew! think of this great logician living all these years in Chihuahua and until this moment undiscovered. I have done humanity a great act of kindness by coming up here, even if my original object in coming was what the physical world calls villainous.”
“There has been more than one person here to-night for the same purpose. But the Governor is alive and well, and will so remain until the end of time.”
“Juan,” tantalizingly replied Miss Motuble, “you are fast becoming a man of science. Association has done it all, Juan—done it all.”
At that moment a small figure in white appeared in the room where they stood.
“It is the ghost of Catalina,” said Juan.
“It is no ghost. It is Catalina herself. She is a somnambulist. You do not know what that word means, do you, Juan? It means she walks in her sleep. Come; we will follow her,” concluded Miss Motuble. Catalina walked quietly to the far end of the room in the direction she was going, then, turning around, she retraced her steps and entered her own room. She was closely followed by Marriet Motuble. Juan took advantage of the occasion to slip away unobserved and to carry out the instructions of Julio Murillo.
Catalina climbed upon her little bed, and to all appearances went to sleep. Marriet Motuble wanted to speak to the child, yet hesitated. Going close to the bed and gazing intently on her upturned face, she said: “She is very much of a child, indeed. I will not speak to her. Juan, show me over the house.” Juan made no reply, and turning around, she discovered for the first time that he was not present. “That is a cool way of treating a guest. I will report the actions of this domestic to his Honor the first time I meet him. Think of it. I, Marriet Motuble, in her sixth life, with a full and complete remembrance of each, being left to pilot myself through the grand mansion of the great Governor of Chihuahua. It seems that the manners of domestics, and some people who are not domestics, to-day are as much out of order as they were in the nineteenth century. The nonprogression of some people is not to be accounted for; at least, I shall not occupy my mind trying to figure it out. There are other things of more consequence. For instance, werethe revolutionists successful in killing his Honor, and his coworkers? If so, where are their bodies? If not, where are the revolutionists? There are no signs of any disturbers of peace having been here. I’ll make a hasty search through the house, and quietly make my exit.”
No sooner had Marriet Motuble passed from the room, than Catalina sprang from her bed, quickly put on a street dress, and in a few minutes was out of the house. She passed on without attracting any attention.
The streets were alive with trades-people hurrying to their respective places of business. In the great bustle, no one noticed the child. Marriet Motuble, too, evaded the guardianship of Juan, and was soon lost in the crowds on the streets. Everywhere there were large numbers of policemen, and now and then small squads of soldiers hurried by, all of whom evidently had a place in view which they were bent on reaching at an early hour.
As she wandered on and on through one crowded street after another, she met here and there a face whom she recognized as a revolutionary sympathizer, many of whom had been amongst the crowd in the store room the evening before, and heard her deliver a sympathetic speech, disguised as a man. How none of them recognized her. How could they, when no one had any suspicions that the speaker of the previous evening was a woman in disguise. Marriet Motuble’s face wore a look of serious disappointment.
Approaching a small group of men she inquired thehour, and on being told it was five o’clock, she then asked if the morning paper was out and what news there was about the persons intent on disturbing the peace. Several expressed themselves as considering the condition of affairs very alarming; while others who joined the crowd thought the affair would be of no further consequence.
While the small crowd were talking, the cry of: “All about the Revolutionists,” “Prisoners accused of Treason against the United States of America,” from a hundred or more news-carriers, rang out loud and long.
Every person present bought a paper, the great dailyChihuahuan.
Marriet Motuble opened her paper, and as she walked hurriedly toward the Mexican Annex, read to herself:
“Seventy-five of the revolutionary party traced by detectives to the home of Governor Lehumada, where all but a few, who escaped during the trouble which occurred while the arrests were being made, are now lodged behind the prison bars awaiting trial. The object of these fanatics was to take the life of the Governor, which would precipitate the State into a fearful excitement, and aid them in getting a hold upon the ignorant, and in increasing their nefarious deeds. The promoters of the revolutionary sentiments: Don Francisco R. Cantu y Falomir, Father Hernandez, and the Rev. J. T. Note, who were arrested and placed in jail on a charge of treason against the Government, have escaped.”
“Escaped!” exclaimed Marriet Motuble. “Escaped,and I did not know it till now. Well, I never will tellThe Chihuahuanwhere I got the first knowledge of the affair. Ha! ha! I would bet on J. T. Note every time. He was slick in the other life that I knew him. He was a foreign missionary. He came down to this country, which was then a part of the fastly waning Republic of Mexico, to teach the descendants of the Aztecs and the Spanish conquerors the Protestant faith. He represented a large body of proselytes who were jealous of the hold the Catholic Church had on the Mexican Republic. He exhorted and pleaded with the poor, downtrodden people, to believe as the Protestants believed; to renounce their faith in catholicism. He without question wanted thecentavosthe ignorant creatures stole and begged for, and he got them, many of them at that. And he built himself a fine place of worship and clothed himself and family in purple and fine linen, as the Bible expresses it, and lived off the fat of the land from the sale of thezarapaswhich were donated for the use of the poor, ignorant peons whom he had converted. Yes, he is slick. Now he is in the same boat that the priests were in then. The faith in the teachings of the lazy creatures is waning. There should be more corn-fields to plough and ditches to dig, and everyone who subscribes himself priest or pastor should be compelled to dig so many hundred feet every year, even if they missed part of their prayers and confessions. Yes, J. T. Note will wiggle out of this affair somehow, as he has out of jail. It may be, through the instrumentality of the presentrégimehe and his associates will be ebonized and put in amuseum, where they will be of much interest to the future generations.
“The treatise on ‘Uses of Ebony Fluid,’ which I found lying on the Governor’s desk in his private office the first day I called there, speaks of using it to preserve the body in its present shape, after the spirit of life has passed out. The use of a few drops of ‘Ebony Fluid’ turns all such animal matter black as ebony, and preserves it through all eternity. This gives me an idea. The copy of his treatise on ‘Mental Fotography,’ which I took with me from the room, will enable me to experiment with this lightning process of fotography known only to his Honor, Messrs. Julio Murillo and Guillermo Gonzales, and to spring a surprise upon them. Well, these meditations will save for another time. What is this: ‘The Governor Spirited Away! He has not been seen at the Mansion since eleven-thirty last night. Much fear is entertained that foul play has been done. At this hour no news of his whereabouts can be had. Much rioting and plundering by sympathizers from both the Catholic and Protestant faith in many of the States. Those who are opposed to free thought and the scientific demonstration of spiritualistic advancement constitute a large body of the revolutionists.’”
Folding upThe Chihuahuan, and placing it in her coat-pocket, after the fashion of business men, she increased her pace.
“Ah!” she exclaimed, as she turned a corner which put her on the street facing the Mexican Annex; “if there is not the child Catalina. Something is takingplace which I cannot ferret. She must not see me. I will hurry to the Annex, disguise myself, and follow this child, who is wiser than her years,” concluded the invincible Marriet Motuble, as she hurried on with lightning tread.
Catalina Martinet walked slowly on, now and then glancing around as if she expected some one. On reaching the Alameda she increased her steps and walked up to the magnificent statue of George Washington. After viewing it intently for a moment, she sat down on a rustic seat near by. “I will sit here and watch for her. She must be punished in this life for her misdeeds. She, as well as ‘The Plunger from Kansas,’ escaped in the other life. She was a peace disturber then, and who can say she is not a peace disturber now? Ah, here comes a person who makes one feel like there is no ill in the world. Her presence has the same effect on me, after seeing Marriet Motuble, that oil does on a deep burn. It heals and cools the fever caused by evil thoughts. I love her; she is my angel of light,” concluded Catalina Martinet, as she sprang from her seat in eager excitement, and ran to meet the object of her love.
Helen Hinckley clasped her fondly in her arms, and exclaimed: “It is a very early hour, sweet child, for you to be out and alone. I knew you would be here; that is why I came this way.”
“I expected you, Miss Hinckley. You must help me as you did the Governor, if I need help. He is safe, is he not?” said Catalina.
“You expected me, you say? Well, that is a coincidence.Yes, child, the great Governor, author and scientific man is safe and unharmed. He is beyond the pale of the revolutionists. No great harm can attend; the great Divine Influence will protect him from physical destruction, but often his existence physically will be in danger of annihilation. Come, dear, tell me why you are out, and in what way I can serve you. We are both working to accomplish the same result,” said the beautiful Helen Hinckley, as she pressed the child’s soft white hands to her lips.
“I am out,” answered Catalina, “to look after several people; those who should be compelled to repent of their evil ways in this life, that others in a life to come may not be imposed upon by them.”
“So far,” said Helen Hinckley, “your answer is logical and full of feeling. But who are the people about whom you have reached such a conclusion?”
“The main person is ‘The Plunger from Kansas.’ He is in hiding and in disguise. He lingers and lingers in this city; yet it is hard to get him to the bar of justice.”
“That is true, child; there is a great mental magnet that holds him here in spite of himself. And if by some means he becomes asubject, he will walk up by his own free will and acknowledge the debt he owes to me and others, and will proffer the money. The day of reckoning is sure to come. Do not let the Plunger give you one moment of uneasiness, dear,” added Miss Hinckley.
“I am not uneasy. I am only anxious to get out of the body again; and I wish to serve his Honor allthat is possible before I go,” was the rather serious reply of Catalina.
“You are unhappy, child. Why is it, when you are surrounded by every comfort, and are dearly beloved by his Honor? He could not love a child of his own any more. Do not wish to leave. I will be lonely when you are gone. And his Honor, I cannot say how badly he will feel. I do not like to see a little girl so serious.”
Helen Hinckley took the strange child on her lap as she concluded, and pressed her face to her bosom.
Catalina put her arms around her neck and as she kissed her fondly on the cheek, said: “Before I remembered, I was not serious; but I took spells of crying, and without any reason whatever I cried to be called Catalina Lehumada. Then on the day I went to sell flowers and saw the bad, bad man who caused me grief in the life gone by, I remembered. Señor Julio Murillo says he put a small bottle of ‘Memory Fluid’ near by, so I could not help inhaling the fumes, and that is what made me remember. Then I knew why I felt as I did about not being his little girl. It is enough to make any one serious to be born into a family in which there is no harmony whatever with one’s life. When I see the Plunger repentant, and hear Marriet Motuble confess her sins, and the man who made me faint, mend his ways, I will go, and return, I hope, into a sphere of harmony. There comes Marriet Motuble. I must follow her instead of her following me.”
“Where is she, child? queer, interesting, lovely,spiritual darling that you are, tell me, where is Marriet Motuble?” quickly spoke Catalina’s companion.
“Do you see that large man dressed in steel-grey clothes, who walks like a lawyer? Yes? That person is not a man. Marriet Motuble is the name of the person. She is out for no good. Less than an hour ago she was in his Honor’s mansion.”
“Impossible! How did she enter?” cried Miss Hinckley, as she arose to watch Marriet Motuble, the friend of her other life, now parading nervously before the great Mexican Annex.
“Stranger in this life than in the life she lived in the nineteenth century. She is kind-hearted enough and true in a way. Her strange actions are due to her inability to control her violent temper, on the one hand, and to temper her jealousy, on the other.”
“It is her love for his Honor, and the assurance she has that he cares not for her, that causes her strange actions in this life. She is looking for you. She believes you know where his Honor is, and if she follows you she will find him. Look, Miss Hinckley, look; a dreadful fight is taking place yonder, I want to go. I may be needed,” cried Catalina.
“Quite true, child. We will go. Listen to the reports of the guns. How horrible to send one out of the body in such an uproarious fashion. Why can’t they use the noiseless guns? This is simply barbarism.”
“I want to go,” impatiently cried Catalina. “I must go. Miss Hinckley, come with me. I am impatient to finish my work here and go. I cannot longerendure the family relations into which I was born. It is a living death to me. Look at the crowd! His Honor may be there and in danger. His work has only begun; he must not be retarded in it.”
Helen Hinckley took the strange child, strange to the uninitiated, by the hand, looked intently into her sweet upturned face, which she kissed fondly, and without a word they started briskly toward the street where the fight was taking place.
“Oh, I wish I were there,” impatiently cried Catalina. “If I had wings I would fly.”
“Stop, dear; put your right palm on my left palm and slip your left hand under this strap. That is correct. We cannot fly like birds in the sky, but we can sail along at a slow, steady rate, much faster than we can walk; and if necessary, we can rise above the crowd and escape.”
“How splendid!” cried Catalina, as she felt herself rising from the ground. “How splendid! Miss Hinckley, you are my angel. You will carry me safely. His Honor cannot live much longer in this life unless you are with him. My dear papa! I love him, oh, so much! Hewill bemy papa some day, when I return.”
“He loves you now, as if you were his child, and so do I,” whispered Helen Hinckley to Catalina.
“I will beyourchild, too.Yoursand hisHonor’s,” answered the child, happy in the thought that she would have in a life to come harmonious environments.
The crowd grew greater, and by the time Miss Hinckley and her little companion reached the placewhere the trouble was occurring, ten thousand people had collected themselves together, and from the threats and cries against the Governor and his scientific coworkers, many amongst them evidently were of the revolutionary party.
Miss Hinckley and Catalina quietly pushed themselves into the thickest of the crowd, and had it not been for the fact that they could hold themselves above the crowd, both would have suffered for the want of pure, wholesome air.
At first no one paid any attention to them, but when Miss Hinckley saw men fall back dying, she cried: “Stand back, gentlemen!” and everyone looked at her in surprise.