Richard Harding Davis

“ The garden was full of rare trees, plants and flowers brought from every island of the Caribbean Sea, but Roddy did not pause to observe them. He led the way to a bench under a cluster of young bamboo trees and motioned to the girl to sit down. When she had done so he seated himself sideways on the bench and gazed at her. His eyes were filled with happiness.
“It’s quite too wonderful to be true,” he said contentedly.
Inez Rojas turned to the tropical splendor of the garden.
“Yes,” she answered. “Everything grows so fast here. The change is quite wonderful.” ”

“ All I desire, all I am sure he desires, is his freedom. There are those, powerful and well equipped, who can secure it. They do not belong to the so-called Rojas faction. You, we understand, have much influence in its counsels. We know that to carry out its plans you have quarrelled with your father, resigned from his company. If I venture to refer to your private affairs, it is only because I understand you yourself have spoken of them publicly, and because they show me that in your allegiance, in your mistaken allegiance to my husband, you are in earnest. ”

“ Caldwell laughed comfortably.
“Rojas is a back number,” he said. “He’s an old man, and a dead one. And besides—” He hesitated and glanced away.
“Well?” demanded Roddy.
“And, besides,” continued Caldwell slowly, picking his words, “Vega is going to marry his daughter, and so we win both ways. And Vega is amenable to reason. He will help us.” As though in a sudden burst of confidence he added ingratiatingly, “And you could help your father, too, if you liked. If you’ll tell me what the Rojas party mean to do I’ll set you right with your father. What do you say?” ”

“ And the men of this town hate them as much as the women fear them. Their cruelty to the political prisoners is well known, and they understand that if an uprising started here where Rojas has lived, where he is dearly loved, they need expect no mercy. They will fight, not to protect San Carlos, but for their lives.”
Vicenti spoke with such genuine feeling that had Roddy felt free to do so he would have told him of the plan to rescue Rojas. But both Peter and McKildrick had warned him that until the last moment no one, save themselves, must learn the secret of the tunnel. ”

“ Roddy asked Vicenti, as the physician of Rojas, if he thought Rojas were strong enough to lead a campaign.
“He is not,” declared Vicenti, “but we would not ask it of him. Let him only show himself and there will be no campaign. Even the government troops would desert to him. But,” he added with a sigh, “why talk of the impossible! The troops that hold San Carlos are bound to Alvarez. He has placed there only those from his own plantation; he has paid them royally. And they have other reasons for fighting to the death. ”

“ Exclaiming with impatience, McKildrick brought a rope and, making a noose, slipped it under Roddy’s arms.
“All we ask,” he said grimly, “is that when you faint you’ll fall with your head toward us. Otherwise we will bump it into a jelly.”
Roddy switched on the light in his electric torch and, like a diver descending a sea-ladder, moved cautiously down the stone steps. Holding the rope taut, Peter leaned over the opening.
“When the snakes and bats and vampires get you,” he warned, “you’ll wish you were back among the sharks!” ”

“ Until Vega is President he must stay where he is. But his wife must not know that. She believes in us. She thinks the Rojas crowd only interferes with us, and she is sending for you to ask you to urge the Rojas faction to give us a free hand.”
“I see,” said Roddy; “and while Vega is trying to be President, Rojas may die. Have you thought of that?”
“Can we help it?” protested Caldwell. “Did we put him in prison? We’ll have trouble enough keeping ourselves out of San Carlos. Well,” he demanded, “what are you going to do?” ”

“ We can only agree in advance as to the exact moment it is to fall, and then trust that nothing will hang fire, either on your side of the barrier or on ours.”
“And after we get him into the tunnel!” warned Vicenti, as excited as though the fact were already accomplished, “we must still fight for his life. The explosion will bring every soldier in the fortress to the cell, and they will follow us.”
“There’s several sharp turns in the tunnel,” said McKildrick “and behind one of them a man with a revolver could hold back the lot!”
“I speak to do that!” cried Roddy jealously. ”

“ Accepting his silence as a refusal, she turned with an exclamation to Pino Vega.
“If you will not listen to a woman,” she protested, “you may listen to a man.” With a gesture she signified Vega. He stepped eagerly forward.
“I am at your service,” he said.
“Speak to him,” Señora Rojas commanded. “Tell him! Forbid him to continue.”
Roddy received the introduction of Vega into the scene with mixed feelings. ”

“ Of course, it’s awkward to be poor,” added Roddy dispassionately, “because I had meant to ask you to marry me.”
With an exclamation the girl partly rose and then sank back, retreating to the farthest limit of the bench.
“Mr. Forrester!” she began with spirit.
“I know what you’re going to say,” interrupted Roddy confidently. “But I ought to tell you that that doesn’t weigh with me at all. I never could see,” he exclaimed impatiently, “why, if you love a girl, the fact that she is engaged should make any difference—do you? ”

“ When she lowered them her eyes were shining, radiant, laughing with happiness.
“I am so sorry!” she whispered penitently. “It was wicked. But,” she pleaded, “I did so want to hear you say it just once more!”
She was very near to him. Her eyes were looking into his. What she saw in them caused her to close her own quickly. Feeling blindly with outstretched hands, she let herself sway toward him, and in an instant she was wrapped in his arms with his breathless kisses covering her lips and cheeks. ”

“ He stopped, and in evident anxiety waited for the other to speak, but Roddy only regarded him steadily. After a pause Roddy said: “I’m not talking. You’re the one that’s talking. And,” he added, “you’re talking too much, too!”
“I’ll risk it!” cried Caldwell stoutly. “I’ve never gone after a man of sense yet that I couldn’t make him see things my way. Now, Señora Rojas,” he went on, “only wants one thing. She wants to get her husband out of prison. She thinks Vega can do that, that he means to do it, that I mean to do it. Well—we don’t.” ”

“ That he would be able to escape seemed all but impossible.
“At the same time,” continued Vicenti, “our own party is in readiness. If Vega reaches his followers and starts on his march to the capital we will start an uprising here in favor of Rojas. If we could free Rojas and show him to the people, nothing could save Alvarez. Alvarez knows that as well as ourselves. But without artillery it is impossible to subdue the fortress of San Carlos. We can take this city; we can seize the barracks, the custom-house, but not San Carlos. ”

“ Believe me, I do not. I am doing nothing,” he protested gently, “that can bring harm to your husband. No one outside of your own family can wish more sincerely for his safety.”
The chorus of men interrupted him with an incredulous laugh and murmurs of disbelief.
Roddy turned upon them sharply.
“We can dispense with the claque,” he said. “My interview is with Madame Rojas. If you gentlemen have anything to discuss with me later you will come out of it much better if that lady is not present. If you don’t know what I mean,” he added significantly, “Caldwell can tell you.” ”

“ You’ve either got to stop working against us, or go home. Which do you want to do? And before you answer,” Caldwell added, “you ought to know that, as it is, you don’t stand very high at headquarters. When your father got word you’d been fighting Vega, our friend, in defense of Alvarez, the man that’s robbing us, that’s giving us all this trouble, he was naturally pretty hot. He said to me: ‘Roddy isn’t down there to mix up in politics, but if he does, he must mix up on our side. ”

“ From a smile in the eyes of the girl herself Roddy guessed that she also found the meeting not without its humorous side. Roddy soon discovered he could not adjust his feelings to the exigencies of an afternoon call. After doing his duty as an adopted uncle to the Broughton children and to his hostess and her tea and to Peter, in permitting him ten minutes’ talk with Inez, he brought that interview to an abrupt end.
“Miss Rojas,” he exclaimed, “you haven’t seen Mrs. Broughton’s garden in two years, have you? Such a lot of things grow up in two years. Let me introduce them to you.” ”

“ After a pause, Roddy said: “I take it that is in answer to a cable from you.”
“Exactly,” assented Caldwell. “I informed your father you were insubordinate to my authority, and that I had been reliably informed you were hostile to our interests. What you do as an individual doesn’t count for much, but as the son of your father, apparently down here at least, it does. ”

“ Caldwell cried, raising his finger and shaking it in Roddy’s face, “can’t get him out. We can’t take San Carlos, and neither can you. They have guns there that in twenty minutes could smash this town into a dust-heap. So you see, what you hope to do is impossible, absurd! ”

“ It is not fair that strangers to my father should be taking a risk that should fall to one of his children. It would mean so much, it would make me so happy, if I could feel I had done any little thing for him. ”

“ It is, of course, an obstacle, but if you are the right man, and the other man is not, it certainly is best for everybody that you should make that plain to her before she marries the wrong man. In your case it certainly has made no difference to me, and I mean to fight for you until you turn back from the altar. ”

“ His manner was conciliating, propitiatory. “I’ll take the chance,” he protested, “that when you learn the truth you won’t round on your own father. It isn’t natural, it isn’t human!”
“Caldwell on the Human Emotions!” exclaimed Roddy, grinning.
But Caldwell was too truly in earnest to be interrupted.
“Your father’s spending two millions to make Vega President,” he went on rapidly. “We’ve got to have him. We need him in our business. You think Rojas would make a better President. Maybe he would. But not for us. He’s too old-fashioned. He’s——”
“Too honest?” suggested Roddy. ”