CHAPTER XXXI.
“Is it our business if there should be something concealed?” the German asked when called upon to help pry the masked door open. “The house is not ours.”
His companions, full of excitement, broke out upon him. Where was his enterprise, his romance, his courage! It was a deserted house. Perhaps its owners knew nothing of this door.
Their excitement was contagious; and he went with them in search of a lever. They found saplings that bent and dry sticks that broke. But their determination increased with the obstacles; and at last the right touch was given, the door was on the hinge and rolled slowly back, disclosing a dim descent between walls, with a light shining across from below.
All three recoiled a moment at their own success. “We enter at our risk,” said the German. “We have no right here.”
The other two went down cautiously, and after a moment called to him, and he followed. They had pried open an old chest from which the lock dropped almost at a touch, and were eagerly pulling out the twigs and dry leaves with which it was filled. All had the same thought. Surelysuch pains would be taken only to conceal a treasure. And it must have been there a very long time.
One of them went up to keep watch while the other two worked, changing hands; for the chest was large, and the débris could be removed only in sifting handfuls.
When the bottom was reached, a chorus of somewhat bitter laughter rose; for there was nothing there but a few rough stones. It had evidently been prepared as a mockery, probably long years before.
They prepared to go on their way. But first they went to the mouth of the cave, and outside on the narrow ledge. There was no passage. Only chasms, precipices, and a dashing torrent that sprinkled them as it fell, met their eyes.
They went up, leaving the door open, mounted their donkeys, and started for the station.
At a little distance down through the pines they met a man and woman coming up. The woman’s face was covered with a veil, the man only nodded in passing them.
“Don Claudio Loredan!” said Elena to herself when they had passed. “What in the name of heaven brings him here!”
At the turn of the path the three travelers paused to look back at the old house with its background of mountains.
“Farewell, El Dorado!” said the Viscomte de Courcelles.
“Farewell, my Promised Land!” said Don Claudio Loredan.
The German paused a moment when the others went on, looking back dreamily. “Farewell, Io!” he said.
“It is strange,” he said, rejoining his companions, “that sometimes on leaving a place or person one scarcely knows the name of, there comes a feeling of sadness, almost of irreparable loss.”
“I suppose,” said the Frenchman, “that the veiled lady we have just met is one of the exiles from the Olives. I wonder if they expect her at home.”
She was expected. She was looked for joyously and longingly. The people of San Salvador remained watching all the afternoon. The men sent up to follow Iona had not returned. Doubtless all three were waiting to accompany Elena. They watched the turn of the mountain path, sure that they would take the outer one next the town. Spyglasses were ready to catch the first glimpse of their coming.
“They are coming! They are coming!”
The flutter of a garment was visible around the rock.
Tacita looked through a glass that rested on a man’s shoulder. Her other hand was in her husband’s arm.
“It is Elena!” she said, “She comes first, and is on foot. She holds her handkerchief hanging straight down at her side. Now she stops and liftsboth her arms, then drops them again. It must mean grief for the peril we have been in. The men follow with the donkeys. They seem to carry heavy baggage, or something— What are they doing? There is no one else. What do they carry? O Dylar, where is Iona?”
She gave him the glass, her face losing its light, and growing pale and frightened. The little company on the heights was now plainly seen.
Dylar took the glass, looked through it, and took it away from his eyes. His face was livid.
“My God!” he said. “Where is Iona!”
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTESSilently corrected obvious typographical errors and variations in spelling.Retained archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as printed.
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