CHAPTER XXXII.
WE INVESTIGATE THE AZOTEA.
Hildegarde gave a cry of joy at sight of me, advanced a step, holding out her arms, and springing past Robbins, I snatched her to my heart.
Bless her, she did not shrink back from me in the least, and yet I am sure I must have presented a far from fastidious appearance at that moment, not having been given an opportunity to tidy myself up after my immersion in the sea.
Perhaps I looked a little heroic—perhaps she rememberedthat all had been done in her cause, and this glorified me in her eyes.
It was just as well.
Surely, we had little time to think of these things, when freedom must be our first aim.
Robbins appeared to look at it in a different light; I imagined he felt sorry to see so fair a creature in the arms of so disreputable a wretch as I must have appeared.
At any rate, he came in and locked the door from the inside.
“Ah! madam, have pity on him, and give him half a chance to wash up, to brush his hair and look like himself. Twenty-four hours in a dungeon after that swim in the sea—do you wonder he appears like a tramp?” he said.
Then I grew ashamed myself, and realized how very tough my appearance must be.
But Hildegarde felt no repugnance, only sweet, womanly pity.
“My poor Morgan—and all for me—oh, how I love you! Never mind, there is a long future for me to prove it. Come, here are water, soap and a towel, and here my own brushes. I know you’ll feel better for Mr. Robbins’ suggestion.”
“Perhaps it may take some of the fierceness out of me, but I reckon I’ll make a good enough fighter, even as a gentleman,” I remarked, grimly.
Somehow, when I saw Robbins nodding eagerly at my words, a dim suspicion floated into my mind that perhaps he had a reason back of this desire to make me presentable; but it was so intangible, I failed to grasp it.
I believe that was really the most satisfactory toilet I ever made, for she stood there, holding the towel, and then with her own hands gave me the brushes, while Robbins dusted my clothes with a little whisk broom.
Five minutes completed the metamorphosis, and I felt like a new man.
“Now,” I said, “let me greet you as a gentleman, and not as a tramp.”
She willingly allowed me to infold her, and held up her pretty mouth to receive my warm kisses, for two years is a long time in which to do penance for one’s sins.
All of which must have been highly edifying to bachelor Robbins; I remembered him at length, and closed the little seance.
The twinkle in his gray eyes may not have signified much, but I imagined he was more than a little amused.
“Now that ceremony is over, I’m ready to carry out any other suggestions of yours, old fellow. They’re all good, every one of them. So, kindly give your orders.”
I saw Hildegarde regard me with some surprise, as though she thought I should be the one to assume charge; you see, her ideas had jumped around to the other extreme, and she could not now conceive of my failing in any undertaking, however difficult.
“You see, my dear, Robbins is engineering this affair—turn about is fair play. Besides, while I’ve been cooling my heels in that blessed dungeon and juggling with the puzzlingmenuoffrijoles,tortillasand water, he has used his time to advantage, and allied us with the revolutionary party, so that we are no longer friendless in an enemy’s country—perhaps to-morrow we may even be touching elbows with the new president himself—who knows?”
Plainly, I hardly believe Hildegarde understood one-half that I said, but her confidence in me was sublime, and she nodded and smiled as though it were revealed to her as plain as the largest bookprint.
Robbins went to the door and unlocked it.
I supposed we were about to make our exit from thecasa in an orderly way, reaching the street and proceeding to some quarters already arranged for in this comprehensive scheme of the mate, whence we of the male sex could sally out when the alarm bells gave the signal that every revolutionist should be on the street.
It was not to be quite so easy.
Fortune had not grown weary of buffeting her votaries, and we were yet to experience the joy of winning what we secured.
When I heard the racket from below, I fancied the uprising had burst into a flame prematurely, and that the house of the alcalde was fated to bear its first fruits.
It was not so.
Robbins jumped at another conclusion, and, as it turned out, his hazard was the true one.
My escape had become known through some mischance—Heaven alone knows how; perhaps some fellow venturing below, with a little scheme of his own on tap, that concerned the wine bin of the mayor, had heard the agonizing groans of Cerberus, and, being more valiant than most of his kind, had investigated, with the result of discovery.
That was the most reasonable supposition.
However, men care little about cause when the effect is what they have to battle with.
And those cries told Robbins the enemy must speedily be at our door.
Already they swarmed up the stairs, and our escape in that quarter seemed cut off.
Hildegarde had turned very pale, but she was a brave little woman, and possessed an abiding faith in two men.
“We must run for it—this way, quick. There is one road out, only one.”
Robbins spoke even while in motion, for time whenmeasured by heartbeats can not be wasted in long explanations.
My hand clutched her arm, and together we hurried in the wake of our big friend, the mate.
I had not the faintest notion regarding the immediate plans of Robbins, until we came to a short flight of steps leading aloft.
Here he stopped.
Then I saw where the desperate condition of affairs had hurried him.
To theazotea!
These stairs led to the flat roof, where, in common with houses in sub-tropical countries, the inmates have arranged things for comfort during many an evening when the breeze enjoyed here cools the heated cheek.
“Up with you, Morgan,” he said.
I did not waste breath in asking questions—Robbins ran the game, and mine must be the duty of blind, unswerving obedience.
Besides, the shouts were so close to us, I expected at any instant to see those who gave utterance to them.
So I assisted Hildegarde up.
As we emerged and gained the roof, I found the stars shining overhead.
It was a grand night for a revolution, the air so clear that all sounds must carry near and far.
Bending down, I discovered that the opening in the roof through which we had come could be closed in time of need by a couple of wooden doors.
Robbins, upon gaining theazotea, bent down and quietly dropped these; it would hardly have mattered if he had banged them, since the noise below was so very deafening—they had found the nest empty, the bird flown.
Of course, search would follow—every nook and corner of the bigcasacoming in for the closest investigation.
And some bright mind, groping for ideas, would think of the roof, when it must speedily be discovered where we were at bay.
What then?
The first thing to be done, of course, was to secure the trap by some means so that it could not be opened from below.
While Robbins stood upon it they might heave and batter all they pleased, without budging such a Colossus; but Robbins could not occupy all his time in making a statue of himself; besides, he would be needed elsewhere, and perchance, bullets might come soaring up through that trap that would make his tenure of office very uncertain.
I had an idea.
My eye in roving about theazoteahad already lighted upon some chairs and settees gathered under a section near by that seemed to be protected by a temporary awning.
These I eagerly pounced upon, to discover to my great joy, they were for the most part of iron, painted to resist the weather.
And Robbins, seeing me stagger under the weight of the largest settee I could find, sprang to assist in looting the pile.
By the time we had deposited a few of those articles of garden furniture upon the trap, it must needs be a modern Samson who could lift it from below.
The wind seemed blowing from a favorable quarter so far as our cause was concerned.
Looking back after the lapse of time, when the mad excitement no longer sends the hot blood leaping like molten lava through the veins, and when one can weigh things calmly and dispassionately, I am still of the positive conviction that we made no mistakes, and in accepting chances as they came were wisely guided in our selection.
They had found us out.
Already eager hands were hammering at the double trap, and a dozen voices united in declaring their ideas regarding the why and wherefore of such strange obstinacy on the part of the doors.
I heard the alcalde’s resonant voice—no danger of mistaking it even among two score—the same old stock of favorite Spanish swear words that had done such noble duty in the gardens at the time we had held the roof of the toolhouse.
Where would they attack us, now that this avenue of escape was cut off? Was there another trap which we had failed to notice, or might we expect them to climb over the raised parapet that ran around theazotea?
I was trying to clear my mind of this puzzling question when a shriek from Hildegarde smote upon my hearing, and galvanized me into action.