II The next day Roddy and Peter sailed for Willemstad, the chief port and the capital of the tiny island colony of Holland. In twelve hours they had made their land-fall and were entering the harbor mouth. The sun was just rising, and as its rays touched the cliff from which, twelve hours later, Señora Rojas and her daughters would look toward Porto Cabello, they felt a thrill of possible adventure.
 
Roddy knew that, as a refuge for revolutionists exiled from Venezuela, Willemstad was policed with secret agents of Alvarez, and he knew that were these spies to learn that during his visit either he or Peter had called upon the family of Rojas they would be reported to Caracas as “suspect,” and the chance of their saving the Lion of Valencia would be at an end. So it became them to be careful.
 
Before leaving Porto Cabello Roddy had told McKildrick, the foreman of the Construction Company’s work there, that some boxes of new machinery¹ and supplies for his launch had gone astray and that he wished permission to cross to Curaçao to look them up. McKildrick believed the missing boxes were only an excuse for a holiday, but he was not anxious to assert his authority over the son and heir of the F. C. C., and so gave Roddy his leave of absence. And at the wharf² at Porto Cabello, while waiting for the ship to weigh anchor, Roddy had complained to the custom-house officials at having to cross to Curaçao. He gave them the same reason for the trip, and said it was most annoying.
 
In order to be consistent, when, on landing at Willemstad, three soiled individuals approached Roddy and introduced themselves as guides, he told them the same story. He was looking for boxes of machinery invoiced³ for Porto Cabello; he feared they had been carried on to La Guayra or dropped at Willemstad. Could they direct him to the office of the steamship⁴ line and to the American Consul⁵? One of the soiled persons led him across the quay⁶ to the office of the agent, and while Roddy repeated his complaint, listened so eagerly that to both Peter and Roddy it was quite evident the business of the guide was not to disclose Curaçao to strangers, but to learn what brought strangers to Curaçao. The agent was only too delighted to serve the son of one who in money [Pg 38]meant so much to the line. For an hour he searched his books, his warehouse⁷ and the quays⁸. But, naturally, the search was unsuccessful, and with most genuine apologies Roddy left him, saying that at the office of the American Consul he would continue his search for the lost boxes.
 
Meanwhile, Peter, in his character of tourist, engaged rooms for them at the Hotel Commercial, and started off alone to explore the town.
 
At the Consulate¹⁰, the soiled person listened to the beginning of Roddy’s speech, and then, apparently¹¹ satisfied he had learned all that was necessary, retreated to the outer office.
 
The Consul promptly¹² rose and closed the door.
 
The representative of the United States was an elderly man, of unusual height, with searching, honest blue eyes under white eyebrows¹³. His hair was white, his beard, worn long, was white, and his clothes were of white duck.
 
His name was Sylvanus Cobb Codman, with the added title of captain, which he had earned when, as a younger man, he had been owner and master of one of the finest whalers that ever cleared the harbor of New Bedford. During his cruises he had found the life of the West Indies much to his liking¹⁴, and when, at the age of fifty, he ceased to follow the sea, he had asked for an appointment as consul to Porto Cabello. Since then, except when at home on leave at Fairhaven, he had lived in the Spanish Americas, and at many ports had served the State Department faithfully and well. In spite of his age, Captain Codman gave a pleasant impression of strength and nervous energy. Roddy felt that the mind and body of the man were as clean as his clothes, and that the Consul was one who could be trusted.
 
As Captain Codman seated himself behind his desk he was frowning.
 
“You must look out for that guide,” he said. “He is from Caracas. He is an agent of Alvarez. It just shows,” he went on impatiently, “what little sense these spies have, that he didn’t recognize your name. The Forrester Construction Company is certainly well enough known. That the son of your father should be spied on is ridiculous.”
 
“Then, again,” said Roddy mysteriously, “maybe it isn’t. I haven’t got such a clean bill of health. That’s why I came to you.” With an air which he considered was becoming in a conspirator¹⁶, he lowered his voice. “May I ask, sir,” he said, “if you are acquainted with Señora Rojas, who is in exile here?”
 
The blue eyes of the Consul opened slightly, but he answered with directness, “I am. I have that honor.”
 
“And with her daughters?” added Roddy anxiously.
 
With dignity the Consul inclined his head.
 
“I want very much to meet them—her,” corrected Roddy. “I am going to set her husband free!”
 
For a moment, as though considering whether he were not confronted by a madman, the Consul regarded Roddy with an expression of concern. Then, in the deprecatory tone of one who believes he has not heard aright, he asked, “You are going to do—what?”
 
“I am going to help General Rojas to escape,” Roddy went on briskly—“myself and another fellow. But we are afraid he won’t trust himself to us, so I am over here to get credentials¹⁷ from his wife. But, you see, I have first got to get credentials to her. So I came to ask you if you’d sort of vouch¹⁸ for me, tell her who I am—and all that.”
 
The Consul was staring at him so strangely that Roddy believed he had not made himself fully¹⁵ understood.
 
“You know what I mean,” he explained. “Credentials, something he will know came from her—a ring or a piece of paper saying, ‘These are friends. Go with them.’ Or a lock of her hair, or—or—you know,” urged Roddy in embarrassment—“credentials.”
 
“Are you jesting?” asked the older man coldly.
 
Roddy felt genuinely uncomfortable. He was conscious he was blushing. “Certainly not,” he protested. “It is serious enough, isn’t it?”
 
The voice of the Consul dropped to a whisper.
 
“Who sent you here?” he demanded. Without waiting for an answer he suddenly rose. Moving with surprising lightness to the door, he jerked it open. But if by this manœuvre he expected to precipitate¹⁹ the spy into the room, he was disappointed, for the outer office was empty. The Consul crossed it quickly to the window. He saw the spy disappearing into a neighboring wine-shop.
 
When Captain Codman again entered the inner office he did not return to his seat, but, after closing the door, as though to shut Roddy from the only means of escape, he stood with his back against it. He was very much excited.
 
“Mr. Forrester,” he began angrily, “I don’t know who is back of you, and,” he cried violently, “I don’t mean to know. I have been American Consul in these Central American countries for fifteen years, and I have never mixed myself up with what doesn’t concern me. I represent the United States government. I don’t represent anything else. I am not down here to assist any corporation, no matter how rich, any junta²¹, any revolutionary party——”
 
“Here! Wait!” cried Roddy anxiously. “You don’t understand! I am not a revolution. There is only me and Peter.”
 
“What is that?” snapped the Consul savagely²². The exclamation²³ was like the crack of a flapping jib.
 
“You see, it’s this way,” began Roddy. He started to explain elaborately. “Peter and I belong to the Secret Order——”
 
“Stop!” thundered the Consul. “I tell you I won’t listen to you!”
 
The rebuff was most embarrassing. Ignorant as to how he had offended the Consul, and uncertain as to whether the Consul had not offended him, Roddy helplessly rubbed his handkerchief over his perplexed²⁴ and perspiring²⁵ countenance²⁶. He wondered if, as a conspirator, he had not been lacking in finesse²⁷, if he had not been too communicative.
 
In the corner of the room, in a tin cage, a great green parrot, with its head cocked on one side, had been regarding Roddy with mocking, malevolent²⁸ eyes. Now, to further add to his discomfiture²⁹, it suddenly emitted a chuckle³⁰, human and contemptuous. As though choking with hidden laughter, the bird gurgled feebly, “Polly, Polly.” And then, in a tone of stern disapproval³¹, added briskly, “You talk too much!” At this flank attack Roddy flushed indignantly. He began to wish he had brought Peter with him, to give him the proper signals.
 
With his hands clinched³² behind him, and tossing his white beard from side to side, the Consul paced the room.
 
“So that is it!” he muttered. “That is why he left Paris. That explains the Restaurador. Of course,” he added indignantly as he passed Roddy, throwing the words at him over his shoulder, “that is where the money came from!”
 
Roddy, now thoroughly³³ exasperated³⁴, protested warmly: “Look here,” he cried, “if you aren’t careful you’ll tell me something you don’t want me to know.”
 
The Consul came to an instant pause. From his great height he stood staring at his visitor, the placid³⁵ depths of his blue eyes glowering³⁶ with doubt and excitement.
 
“I give you my word,” continued Roddy sulkily, “I don’t know what you are talking about.”
 
“Do you mean to tell me,” demanded the old man truculently³⁷, “that you are not Mr. Forrester’s son?”
 
“Certainly I am his son,” cried Roddy.
 
“Then,” returned the Consul, “perhaps you will deny he is suing Alvarez for two million dollars gold, you will deny that he might get it if Alvarez were thrown out, you will deny that a—a certain person might ratify³⁸ the concession³⁹, and pay your father for the harbor improvements he has already made? You see!” exclaimed the Consul triumphantly⁴⁰. “And these missing boxes!” he cried as though following up an advantage, “shall I tell you what is in them?” He lowered his voice. “Cartridges and rifles! Do you deny it?”
 
Roddy found that at last he was on firm ground.
 
“Of course I deny it,” he answered, “because there are no boxes. They’re only an invention of mine to get me to Curaçao. Now, you let me talk.”
 
The Consul retreated behind his desk, and as Roddy spoke⁴² regarded him sternly and with open suspicion. In concluding his story Roddy said: “We have no other object in saving General Rojas than that he’s an old man, that he’s dying, and that Peter and I can’t sleep of nights for thinking of him lying in a damp cell, not three hundred yards from us, coughing himself to death.”
 
[Pg 45]At the words the eyes of the Consul closed quickly; he pressed his great, tanned, freckled⁴³ fingers nervously⁴⁴ against his lip. But instantly the stern look of the cross-examiner returned. “Go on,” he commanded.
 
“If we have cut in on some one’s private wire,” continued Roddy, “it’s an accident; and when you talk about father recovering two million dollars you are telling me things I don’t know. Father is not a chatty person. He has often said to me that the only safe time to talk of what you are doing, or are going to do, is when you have done it. So, if the Venezuelan government owes the Forrester Construction Company two millions and father’s making a fight for it, I am probably the last person in the world he would talk to about it. All I know is that he pays me twenty dollars a week to plant buoys⁴⁵. But out of working hours I can do as I please, and my friend and I please to get General Rojas out of prison.” Roddy rose, smiling pleasantly. “So, if you won’t introduce me to Señora Rojas,” he concluded, “I guess I will have to introduce myself.”
 
With an angry gesture the Consul motioned him to be seated. From his manner it was evident that Captain Codman was uncertain whether Roddy was or was not to be believed, that, in his perplexity, he was fearful of saying too much or too little.
 
“Either,” the old man exclaimed angrily, “you are a very clever young man, or you are extremely ignorant. Either,” he went on with increasing indignation, “they have sent you here to test me, or you know nothing, and you are blundering in where other men are doing work. If you know nothing you are going to upset the plans of those men. In any case I will have nothing further to do with you. I wash my hands of you. Good-morning.”
 
Then, as though excusing himself, he added sharply, “Besides, you talk too much.”
 
Roddy, deeply hurt, answered with equal asperity⁴⁶:
 
“That is what your parrot thinks. Maybe you are both wrong.”
 
When Roddy had reached the top of the stairs leading to the street, and was on the point of disappearing, the Consul called sharply to him and followed into the hall.
 
“Before you go,” the old man whispered earnestly, “I want you clearly to understand my position toward the Rojas family. When I was Consul in Porto Cabello, General Rojas became the best friend I had. Since I have been stationed here it has been my privilege to be of service to his wife. His daughters treat me as kindly⁴⁷ as though I were their own grandfather. No man on earth could wish General Rojas free as much as I wish it.” The voice of Captain Codman trembled. For an instant his face, as though swept with sudden pain, twisted in strange lines. “No one,” he protested, “could wish to serve him as I do, but I warn you if you go on with this you will land in prison yourself, and you will bring General Rojas to his death. Take my advice—and go back to Porto Cabello, and keep out of politics. Or, what is better—go home. You are too young to understand the Venezuelans, and, if you stay here, you are going to make trouble for many people. For your father, and for—for many people.”
 
As though with the hope of finally dissuading⁴⁸ Roddy, he added ominously⁴⁹, “And these Venezuelans have a nasty trick of sticking a knife——”
 
“Oh, you go to the devil!” retorted Roddy.
 
As he ran down the dark stairs and out into the glaring street he heard faintly the voice of the parrot pursuing him, with mocking and triumphant⁴¹ jeers⁵⁰.
 
The Consul returned slowly to his office, and, sinking into his chair, buried his face in his great, knotty⁵¹ hands and bent⁵² his head upon the table. [Pg 48]A ray of sunshine, filtering through the heavy Venetian blinds, touched the white hair and turned it into silver.
 
For a short space, save for the scratching of the parrot at the tin bars of his cage, and the steady drip, drip of the water-jar, there was no sound; then the voice of the sea-captain, as many times before it had been raised in thanksgiving in the meeting-house in Fairhaven, and from the deck of his ship as she drifted under the Southern Cross, was lifted in entreaty⁵³. The blue eyes, as the old man raised them, were wet; his bronzed fists fiercely interlocked.
 
“Oh, Thou,” he prayed, “who walked beside me on the waters, make clear to me what I am to do. I am old, but I pray Thee to let me live to see Thine enemies perish, to see those who love Thee reunited once more, happy, at home. If, in Thy wisdom, even as Thou sent forth⁵⁴ David against Goliath, Thou hast sent this child against Thine enemies, make that clear to me. His speech is foolish, but his heart seems filled with pity. What he would do, I would do. But the way is very dark. If I serve this boy, may I serve Thee? Teach me!”
 
Outside the Consulate, Roddy found his convoy⁵⁵, the guide, waiting for him, and, to allay⁵⁶ the suspicion of that person, gave him a cable to put on the wire for McKildrick. It read: “No trace of freight; it may come next steamer; will wait.”
 
He returned to the agent of the line and told him he now believed the freight had been left behind in New York and that he would remain in Willemstad until the arrival of the next steamer, which was due in three days.
 
At the hotel he found Peter anxiously awaiting him. Having locked themselves in the room the two conspirators⁵⁷ sat down to talk things over. From what had escaped the Consul, Roddy pointed²⁰ out certain facts that seemed evident: Alvarez had not paid the Forrester Construction Company, or, in a word, his father, for the work already completed in the last two years. His father, in order to obtain his money, was interested in some scheme to get rid of Alvarez and in his place put some one who would abide⁵⁸ by the terms of the original concession. This some one might be Rojas, and then, again, might not. As Peter suggested, the Construction Company might prefer to back a candidate for president, who, while he might not be so welcome to the Venezuelans, would be more amenable⁵⁹ to the wishes of the F. C. C. It also would probably prefer to assist a man younger than Rojas, one more easily controlled, perhaps one [Pg 50]less scrupulously⁶⁰ honest. It also seemed likely that if, by revolution, the men of the Construction Company intended to put in the field a candidate of their own, they would choose one with whom they could consult daily, not one who, while he might once have been a popular idol⁶¹, had for the last two years been buried from the sight of man, and with whom it now was impossible to communicate.
 
The longer they discussed the matter the more sure they became that Rojas could not be the man for whom the Construction Company was plotting.
 
“If Rojas isn’t the choice of the F. C. C.,” argued Roddy, “his being free, or in prison, does not interest them in the least. While, on the other hand, if Rojas is the candidate father is backing, the sooner he is out of prison the better for everybody.
 
“Anyway,” added Roddy, with the airy fatalism of one who nails his banner to the mast, “if my father is going to lose two millions because you and I set an old man free, then father is going to lose two millions.”
 
Having arrived at this dutiful conclusion Roddy proposed that, covertly⁶², in the guise⁶³ of innocent sight-seers, they should explore the town, and from a distance reconnoitre the home of Señora Rojas. They accordingly hired one of the public landaus of Willemstad and told the driver to show them the places of interest.
 
But in Willemstad there are no particular places of interest. It is the place itself that is of interest. It is not like any other port in the world.
 
“It used to be,” Roddy pointed out, “that every comic opera had one act on a tropical island. Then some fellow discovered Holland, and now all comic operas run to blonde girls in patched breeches and wooden shoes, and the back drops are ‘Rotterdam, Amsterdam, any damn place at all.’ But this town combines both the ancient and modern schools. Its scene is from Miss Hook of Holland, and the girls are out of Bandanna⁶⁴ Land.”
 
Willemstad is compact and tiny, with a miniature governor and palace. It is painted with all the primary colors, and, though rain seldom falls on Curaçao Island, it is as clean as though the minute before it had been washed by a spring shower and put out in the sun to dry. Saint Ann Bay, which is the harbor of Willemstad, is less of a bay than a canal. On entering it a captain from his bridge can almost see what the people in the houses on either bank are eating for breakfast. These houses are modeled like those that border the canals of The Hague. They have the same peaked roofs, the front running in steps to a point, the flat façades, the many stories. But they are painted in the colors of tropical Spanish-America, in pink, yellow, cobalt blue, and behind the peaked points are scarlet⁶⁵ tiles. Under the southern sun they are so brilliant, so theatrical⁶⁶, so unreal, that they look like the houses of a Noah’s Ark fresh from the toy shop. There are two towns: Willemstad, and, joined to it by bridges, Otrabanda. It is on the Willemstad side that the ships tie up, and where, from the deck to the steamer, one can converse⁶⁷ quite easily with the Monsanto brothers in their drawing-room, or with the political exiles on the balconies of the Hotel Commercial. The streets are narrow and, like the streets of Holland, paved with round cobblestones as clean as a pan of rolls just ready for the oven. Willemstad is the cleanest port in the West Indies. It is the Spotless Town of the tropics. Beyond the town are the orange plantations⁶⁸, and the favorite drive is from Willemstad through these orange trees around the inner harbor, or the Schottegat, to Otrabanda, and so back across the drawbridge of Good Queen Emma into Willemstad. It is a drive of little over two hours, and Roddy and Peter found it altogether charming.
 
About three miles outside of Willemstad they came upon the former home of a rich Spanish planter, which had been turned into a restaurant, and which, once the Groot du Crot, was now the Café Ducrot. There is little shade on the Island of Curaçao and the young men dived into the shadows of the Ducrot garden as into a cool bath. Through orange trees and spreading palmettos, flowering bushes and a tangle⁶⁹ of vines, they followed paths of pebbles⁷⁰, and wandered in a maze⁷¹ in which they lost themselves.
 
“It is the enchanted⁷² garden of the sleeping princess,” said Peter. “And there are her sleeping attendants,” he added, pointing at two waiters who were slumbering⁷³ peacefully, their arms stretched out upon the marble-top tables.
 
It seemed heartless to awaken⁷⁴ them, and the young men explored further until they found a stately, rambling⁷⁵ mansion⁷⁶ where a theatrical landlord with much rubbing of his hands brought them glasses and wonderful Holland gin.
 
“We must remember the Café Ducrot,” said Roddy, as they drove on. “It is so quiet and peaceful.”
 
Afterward⁷⁷ they recalled his having said this, and the fact caused them much amusement.
 
From the Café Ducrot the road ran ............