V “
Ican be quite as foolish as you,” Inez repeated as Roddy continued to regard her. “Some day, when this is over, when you have made it all come right, we will sit out here and pretend that we have escaped from Venezuela, that we are up North in my mother’s country—in your country. We will play these are the rocks at York Harbor, and we’ll be quite young and quite happy. Have you ever sat on the rocks at York Harbor,” she demanded eagerly, “when the spray splashed you, and the waves tried to catch your feet?”
 
Roddy was regarding her in open suspicion. He retreated warily¹.
 
“York Harbor!” he murmured. “I discovered it! It is named after me. But you! I never imagined you’d been there, and I never imagined you could be anything but serious, either. It makes you quite dangerous.”
 
“Dangerous?” murmured the girl.
 
“One is dangerous,” said Roddy, “when one is completely charming.”
 
The girl frowned, and her shoulders moved [Pg 143]slightly. “You speak,” she said, “like a Venezuelan.”
 
But Roddy was in no mood to accept reproof².
 
“I told you,” he said, “I admire the fools who rush in where angels fear to tread. There is another man I admire equally, ‘the man who runs away.’ It takes great courage to run away. I must do it now.”
 
He retreated from her. His eyes were filled with a sudden, deep delight in her, and a growing wonder. The girl regarded him steadily³.
 
“Come here,” she commanded, “and say ‘Good-by’ to me.”
 
Roddy took the slim, gauntleted hand stretched out to him, and for an instant the girl held his hand firmly, and then nodded. The smile this time was very near to tears.
 
“What you are going to do,” she said, “is the dangerous thing. You don’t know how dangerous. If I should not see you again——”
 
Roddy looked down into her eyes, and laughed from utter happiness.
 
“You will see me again,” he said.
 
His tone gave to the words a meaning which the girl entirely⁴ disregarded.
 
“You will remember,” she went on, as though he had not spoken, “that we—that I am grateful.”
 
[Pg 144]Roddy turned and smiled out at the sunlit sea.
 
“You have given me,” he answered, “other things to remember.”
 
He pulled off his sombrero and took the gauntleted hand in both of his. He bowed over it and brushed it with his lips. The girl still regarded him steadily, questioningly.
 
“Good-by,” faltered⁶ Roddy.
 
His eyes sought hers wistfully, appealingly, with all that he felt showing in them. But her own told him nothing. Roddy released her hand with an effort, as though it were bound to his with manacles.
 
“Now I know,” he said gently, “why I came to Venezuela.”
 
The girl made no answer, and silently Roddy mounted and rode away. When he had reached the place where the rocks would hide her from sight he glanced back. He saw Inez standing⁷ beside her pony⁸, leaning with her arms across the saddle, looking after him. Then, as he waved his hand, she raised hers with a gesture that seemed to Roddy partly a farewell, partly a benediction⁹.
 
The stable at which Roddy had told Pedro he would leave the pony was far in the suburbs, and by the time he had walked to Willemstad the morning was well advanced.
 
As he approached the quay¹⁰ he recognized that in his absence some event of unusual interest had claimed the attention of the people. Everywhere men were gathered in little groups, gesticulating, laughing, frowning importantly, and at the hotel Roddy was surprised to see, on the balcony leading from his room, Peter and the American Consul¹¹. The sight of him apparently¹² afforded them great satisfaction, and they waved and beckoned¹³ to him frantically¹⁴. Ignoring their last meeting, the Consul greeted Roddy as though he were an old friend.
 
“Have you heard the news?” he demanded. “It is of great local interest, and it should interest you. Last night,” he explained, “President Alvarez declared an amnesty for his political opponents living in foreign countries. All exiles may now return to their homes.”
 
He pointed¹⁶ at the small passenger steamer lying at the quay directly below the window. The Blue Peter was at the fore¹⁵, and her deck was crowded with excited, jubilant Venezuelans.
 
“You see,” explained Captain Codman, “they have lost no time.”
 
In a tone that precluded¹⁷ the possibility of discussion, Peter briskly added: “And we are going with them. I have packed your bag and paid the bill. We sail in an hour.”
 
[Pg 146]The news of the amnesty bewildered Roddy. The wonderful possibilities it so suddenly presented thrilled him. They were so important that with difficulty he made his voice appear only politely interested.
 
“And Señora Rojas?” he asked.
 
“I regret to say,” answered Captain Codman, “she decides to take advantage of the amnesty. As soon as she can arrange her affairs here she will return to Miramar, her home in Porto Cabello.”
 
To Miramar! Roddy turned suddenly to the window, and with unseeing eyes stared at the busy harbor. By sight he knew the former home of the Rojas family. In his walks he had often passed before its yellow-pillared front and windows barred with intricate screens of wrought¹⁸ iron. Through the great gates that had hung before Miramar since it had been the palace of the Spanish Governor-General, and through which four horses could pass abreast¹⁹, he had peered at the beautiful gardens. He had wondered at the moss²⁰-covered statues, at the orchids²¹ on the flamboyant²² trees, with their flowers of scarlet²³, at the rare plants, now neglected and trailing riotously²⁴ across the paths, choked with unkempt weeds. Not an hour before, when he had parted from Inez, he had determined²⁵ [Pg 147]to make sentimental²⁶ journeys to that same house. For she had walked in those gardens, it was through those gates she had swept in her carriage to take the air in the Plaza²⁷; at night, when she slept, some high-ceilinged, iron-barred room of that house had sheltered her. He had pictured himself prowling outside the empty mansion²⁸ and uncared-for garden, thinking of the exile, keeping vigil in the shadow of her home, freshly resolving to win back her father to health and freedom.
 
And now, by a scratch of the pen, the best that could happen had come to him. The house would waken to life. Instead of only the fragrance²⁹ clinging to the vase, the rose itself would bloom again. Again Inez would walk under the arch of royal palms, would drive in the Alameda, would kneel at Mass in the cool, dark church, while, hidden in the shadows, he could stand and watch her. And though, if he hoped to save her father, stealth and subterfuge³⁰ would still be necessary, he could see her, perhaps, speak to her; at least by the faithful Pedro he could send her written words, flowers, foolish gifts, that were worth only the meaning they carried with them.
 
Feeling very much of a hypocrite, Roddy exclaimed fervently³¹: “How wonderful for Señora Rojas! To be near[Pg 148] him again! Is she happy? Does it make it easier for her?”
 
With a disturbed countenance³² the Consul nodded gravely.
 
“Yes,” he answered, “she welcomed the change. She believes it means for her husband better conditions. She hopes even for his pardon; but—” The Consul shook his head impatiently, and with pitying eyes looked down upon the excited men on the steamer below them.
 
“But what?” demanded Roddy.
 
“I suspect every act of Alvarez,” the Consul explained. “This looks like the act of a generous opponent. But I cannot believe it is that. I believe he knows all that is being plotted against him. I believe this act of amnesty is only a device to put the plotters where he can get his hand on them. He is the spider inviting³³ the flies into his parlor³⁴.”
 
As the little steamer passed the harbor mouth and pushed her nose toward Porto Cabello, Roddy, with Peter at his side, leaned upon the starboard rail. Roddy had assured Inez that Peter must be given their full confidence, and he now only waited a fitting moment to tell him of what had occurred that morning, in so far, at least, as it referred to the tunnel.
 
[Pg 149]The eyes of both were turned toward Casa Blanca, now rapidly retreating from them. And, as they watched it, the mind of each occupied with thoughts of its inmates³⁵, they saw a white figure leave the house, and, moving slowly, halt at the edge of the cliff.
 
Roddy, his eyes straining toward the coast-line, took off his hat and stood with it clasped in his hands. Peter saw the movement, and to hide a smile of sympathy, looked down at the white foam³⁷ rushing below them.
 
“Roddy,” he asked, “what sort of a girl is Inez Rojas?”
 
His eyes still seeking the figure on the rocks, and without turning his head, Roddy answered with startling directness:
 
“What sort of a girl?” he growled³⁸. “The sort of a girl I am going to marry!”
 
More moved than he knew, and thinking himself secure in the excited babel about him and in the fact that the others spoke⁵ in Spanish, Roddy had raised his voice. He was not conscious he had done so until, as he spoke, he saw a man leaning on the rail with his back toward him, give an involuntary start. Furious with himself, Roddy bit his lip, and with impatience³⁹ waited for the man to disclose himself. For a moment the stranger [Pg 150]remained motionless, and then, obviously to find out who had spoken, slowly turned his head. Roddy found himself looking into the glowing, angry eyes of Pino Vega. Of the two men, Roddy was the first to recover. With eagerness he greeted the Venezuelan; with enthusiasm he expressed his pleasure at finding him among his fellow-passengers, he rejoiced that Colonel Vega no longer was an exile. The Venezuelan, who had approached trembling with resentment⁴⁰, sulkily murmured his thanks. With a hope that sounded more like a threat that they would soon meet again, he begged to be allowed to rejoin his friends.
 
“Now you’ve done it!” whispered Peter cheerily. “And he won’t let it rest there, either.”
 
“Don’t you suppose I know that better than you do,” returned Roddy miserably⁴¹. He beat the rail with his fist. “It should not have happened in a thousand years,” he wailed⁴². “He must not know I have ever even seen her.”
 
“He does know,” objected Peter, coming briskly to the point. “What are you going to do?”
 
“Lie to him,” said Roddy. “He is an old friend of the family. She told me so herself. She thought even of appealing to him before she appealed to us. If he finds out I have met her alone at daybreak, I have either got to tell him why[Pg 151] we met and what we are trying to do, or he’ll believe, in his nasty, suspicious, Spanish-American way, that I am in love with her, and that she came there to let me tell her so.”
 
Roddy turned on Peter savagely⁴³.
 
“Why didn’t you stop me?” he cried.
 
“Stop you—talking too much?” gasped⁴⁴ Peter. “Is that my position? If it is, I resign.”
 
The moon that night threw black shadows of shrouds⁴⁵, and ratlines across a deck that was washed by its radiance as white as a bread-board. In the social hall, the happy exiles were rejoicing noisily, but Roddy stood apart, far forward, looking over the ship’s side and considering bitterly the mistake of the morning. His melancholy⁴⁶ self-upbraidings were interrupted by a light, alert step, and Pino Vega, now at ease, gracious and on guard, stood bowing before him.
 
“I do not intrude⁴⁷?” he asked.
 
Roddy, at once equally on guard, bade him welcome.
 
“I have sought you out,” said the Venezuelan pleasantly, “because I would desire a little talk with you. I believe we have friends in common.”
 
“It is possible,” said Roddy. “I have been in Porto Cabello about four months now.”
 
“It was not of Porto Cabello that I spoke,” continued[Pg 152] Vega, “but of Curaçao.” He looked into Roddy’s eyes suddenly and warily, as a swordsman holds the eyes of his opponent. “I did not understand,” he said, “that you knew the Rojas family?”
 
“I do not know them,” answered Roddy.
 
Vega turned his back to the moon, so that his face was in shadow. With an impatient gesture he flicked⁴⁸ his cigarette into the sea. As though he found Roddy’s answer unsatisfactory, he paused. He appeared to wish that Roddy should have a chance to reconsider it. As the American remained silent, Vega continued, but his tone now was openly hostile.
 
“I have been Chief of Staff to General Rojas for years,” he said. “I have the honor to know his family well. Señora Rojas treats me as she did her son, who was my dearest friend. I tell you this to explain why I speak of a matter which you may think does not concern me. This morning, entirely against my will, I overheard you speaking to your friend. He asked you of a certain lady. You answered boldly you intended to marry her.” Vega’s voice shook slightly, and he paused to control it. “Now, you inform me that you are not acquainted with the Rojas family. What am I to believe?”
 
“I am glad you spoke of that,” said Roddy [Pg 153]heartily. “I saw that you overheard us, and I was afraid you’d misunderstand me——”
 
The Venezuelan interrupted sharply.
 
“I am well acquainted with your language!”
 
“You speak it perfectly,” Roddy returned, “but you did not understand it as I spoke it. The young lady is well known in Willemstad. Our Consul, as you are aware, is her friend. He admires her greatly. He told me that she is half American. She has been educated like an American girl, she rides, she plays tennis. What my friend said to me was, ‘What sort of a girl is Señorita Rojas?’ and I answered, ‘She is the sort of girl I am going to marry,’ meaning she is like the girls in my own country, one of our own people, like one of the women I some day hope to marry.”
 
Roddy smiled and shrugged⁴⁹ his shoulders.
 
“Now do you understand?” he asked.
 
The Venezuelan gave no answering smile. His eyes shone with suspicion. Roddy recognized that between his desire to believe and some fact that kept him from believing, the man was acutely suffering.
 
“Tell me, in a word,” demanded Vega sharply, “give me your word you do not know her.”
 
“I don’t see,” said Roddy, “that this is any of your damned business!”
 
[Pg 154]The face of Vega checked him. At his refusal to answer, Roddy saw the look of jealousy⁵⁰ that came into the man’s eyes and the torment⁵¹ it brought with it. He felt a sudden pity for him, a certain respect as for a fellow-sufferer. He himself had met Inez Rojas but twice, but, as he had told her, he knew now why he had come to Venezuela. This older man had known Inez for years, and to Roddy, arguing from his own state of mind regarding her, the fact was evidence enough that Vega must love her also. He began again, but now quietly, as he would argue with a child.
 
“I see no reason for making any mystery of it,” he said. “I did meet Miss Rojas. But I can’t say I know her. I met her when she was out riding with her groom⁵². I thought she was an American. She needed some help, which I was able to give her. That is all.”
 
Vega approached Roddy, leaning forward as though he were about to spring on him. His eyes were close to Roddy’s face.
 
“And what was the nature of this help?” he demanded.
 
“You are impertinent,” said Roddy.
 
“Answer me!” cried the Venezuelan. “I have the right. No one has a better right.”
 
He flung up his right arm dramatically, and held [Pg 155]it tense and trembling, as though it were poised⁵³ to hurl⁵⁴ a weapon.
 
“You were watched!” he cried hysterically⁵⁵. “I know that you met. And you tried to deceive me. Both of you. She will try, also——”
 
The moonlight disappeared before the eyes of Colonel Vega, and when again he opened them he was looking dizzily up at the swaying masts and yards. Roddy, with his hand at Vega’s throat, was forcing his shoulders back against the rail. His free hand, rigid⁵⁶ and heavy as a hammer, swung above the Venezuelan’s face.
 
“Yesterday,” panted Roddy, “I saved your life. If you insult that girl with your dirty, Latin mind, so help me—I will take it!”
 
He flung the man from him, but Vega, choking with pain and mortification⁵⁷, staggered forward.
 
“It is you who insult her,” he shrieked⁵⁸. “It is I who protect her. Do you know why? Do you know what she is to me? She is my promised wife!”
 
For a moment the two men stood, swaying with the gentle roll of the ship, staring into each other’s eyes. Above the sound of the wind in the cordage and the whisper of the water against the ship’s side, Roddy could hear himself breathing in slow, heavy respirations. Not for an instant did he [Pg 156]doubt that the man told the truth. Vega had spoken with a conviction that was only too genuine, and his statement, while it could not justify⁵⁹, seemed to explain his recent, sudden hostility⁶⁰. With a sharp effort, Roddy recovered himself. He saw that no matter how deeply the announcement might affect him, Vega must believe that to the American it was a matter of no possible consequence.
 
“You should have told me this at first,” he said quietly. “I thought your questions were merely impertinent.”
 
Roddy hesitated. The interview had become poignantly⁶² distasteful to him. He wished to get away; to be alone. He was conscious that a possibility had passed out of his life, the thought of which had been very dear to him. He wanted to think, to plan against this new condition. In discussing Inez with this man, in this way, he felt he was degrading her and his regard for her. But he felt also that for her immediate⁶³ protection he must find out what Vega knew and what he suspected. With the purpose of goading⁶⁴ him into making some disclosure, Roddy continued insolently⁶⁵:
 
“And I still think they are impertinent.”
 
Roddy’s indignation rose and got the upper hand. He cast caution aside.
 
[Pg 157]“With us,” he continued, “when a woman promises to marry a man—he does not spy on her.”
 
“We spied on you,” protested Vega. “We did not think it would lead us to——”
 
Roddy cut him off with a sharp cry of warning.
 
“Be careful!” he challenged.
 
“You met in the road——”
 
“So I told you,” returned Roddy.
 
“You dismounted and talked with her.”
 
Roddy laughed, and with a gesture of impatience motioned Vega to be silent.
 
“Is that all?” he demanded.
 
The Venezuelan saw the figure he presented. Back of him were hundreds of years of Spanish traditions, in his veins⁶⁶ was the blood of generations of ancestors by nature suspicious, doubting, jealous. From their viewpoint he was within his rights; they applauded, they gave him countenance; but by the frank contempt of the young man before him his self-respect was being rudely handled. Not even to himself could he justify his attitude.
 
“In my country,” he protested, “according to our customs, it was enough.”
 
The answer satisfied and relieved Roddy. It told him all he wished to know. It was now evident that Vega’s agent had seen only the first [Pg 158]meeting, that he was not aware that Inez followed after Roddy, or that the next morning by the seashore they had again met. The American brought the interview to an abrupt⁶⁷ finish.
 
“I refuse,” said Roddy loftily, “to discuss this matter with you further. If the mother of Señorita Rojas wishes it, I shall be happy to answer any questions she may ask. I have done nothing that requires explanation or apology. I am responsible to no one. Good-night.”
 
“Wait!” commanded Vega. “You will find that here you cannot so easily avoid responsibilities. You have struck me. Well, we have other customs, which gentlemen——”
 
“I am entirely at your service,” said Roddy. He made as magnificent a bow as though he himself had descended⁶⁸ from a line of Spanish grandees⁶⁹. Vega’s eyes lit with pleasure. He was now playing a part in which he felt assured he appeared to advantage. He almost was grateful to Roddy for permitting him to reëstablish himself in his own esteem⁷⁰.
 
“My friends shall wait upon you,” he said.
 
“Whenever you like,” Roddy answered. He started up the deck and returned again to Vega. “Understand me,” he whispered, “as long as I’m enjoying the hospitality of your country I accept[Pg 159] the customs of your country. If you’d made such a proposition to me in New York I’d have laughed at you.” Roddy came close to Vega and emphasized his words with a pointed finger. “And understand this! We have quarrelled over politics. You made an offensive remark about Alvarez; I defended him and struck you. You now demand satisfaction. That is what happened. And if you drag the name of any woman into this I won’t give you satisfaction. I will give you a thrashing until you can’t stand or see.”
 
Roddy found Peter in the smoking-room, and beckoning⁷¹ him on deck, told him what he had done.
 
“You’re a nice White Mouse!” cried Peter indignantly. “You’re not supposed to go about killing⁷² people; you’re supposed to save lives.”
 
“No one is ever killed in a duel⁷³,” said Roddy; “I’ll fire in the air, and he will probably miss me. I certainly hope so. But there will be one good result. It will show Alvarez that I’m not a friend of Vega’s, nor helping⁷⁴ him in his revolution.”
 
“You don’t have to shoot a man to show you’re not a friend of his,” protested Peter.
 
They were interrupted by the hasty approach of Vega’s chief advisers⁷⁵ and nearest friends, General Pulido and Colonel Ramon.
 
[Pg 160]“Pino seems in a hurry,” said Roddy. “I had no idea he was so bloodthirsty.”
 
“Colonel Vega,” began Pulido abruptly⁷⁶, “has just informed us of the unfortunate incident. We have come to tell you that no duel can take place. It is monstrous⁷⁷. The life of Colonel Vega does not belong to him, it belongs to the Cause. We will not permit him to risk it needlessly. You, of all people, should see that. You must apologize.”
 
The demand, and the peremptory⁷⁸ tone in which it was delivered, caused the fighting blood of Roddy’s Irish grandfathers to bubble in his veins.
 
“‘Must’ and ‘apologize!’” protested Roddy, in icy tones; “Those are difficult words, gentlemen.”
 
“Consider,” cried Pulido, “what great events hang upon the life of Colonel Vega.”
 
“My own life is extremely interesting to me,” said Roddy. “But I have done nothing which needs apology.”
 
Colonel Ramon now interrupted anxiously.
 
“You risked your life for Pino. Why now do you wish to take it? Think of his importance to Venezuela, of the happiness he will bring his country, and think what his loss would mean to your own father.”
 
“My father!” exclaimed Roddy. “What has my father to do with this?”
 
[Pg 161]The two Venezuelans looked at each other in bewilderment, and then back at Roddy sternly and suspiciously.
 
“Are you jesting?” demanded General Pulido.
 
“Never been more serious in my life,” said Roddy.
 
The two officers searched his face eagerly.
 
“It is as Pino says,” exclaimed Pulido, with sudden enlightenment. “He is telling the truth!”
 
“Of course I’m telling the truth!” cried Roddy fiercely. “Are you looking for a duel, too?”
 
“Tell him!” cried Pulido.
 
“But Mr. Forrester’s orders!” protested Colonel Ramon.
 
“He is more dangerous,” declared Pulido, “knowing nothing, than he would be if he understood.”
 
He cast a rapid glance about him. With a scowl⁷⁹, his eyes finally rested upon Peter.
 
“I’ll be within knockout distance if you want me,” said that young man to Roddy, and moved to the rail opposite.
 
When he had gone, Pulido bent⁸⁰ eagerly forward.
 
“Do you not know,” he demanded, “what it is your father is doing in our country?”
 
Roddy burst forth⁸¹ impatiently, “No!” he protested. “And I seem to be the only man in the country who doesn’t.”
 
[Pg 162]The two officers crowded close to him. In sepulchral⁸² tones, Pulido exclaimed dramatically. He spoke as though he were initiating⁸³ Roddy into a secret order.
 
“Then understand,” he whispered, “that your father supports Pino Vega with five million bolivars; that Vega, whose life you are seeking, is the man your father means to make President of Venezuela. Now do you understand?”
 
For a long time Roddy remained silent. Then he exclaimed in tones of extreme exasperation⁸⁴:
 
“I understand,” he said, “that, if my father had given me his telephone number, he would have saved me a lot of trouble. No wonder everybody suspects me.”
 
“And now,” declared Pulido anxiously, “you are one of us!”
 
“I am nothing of the sort,” snapped Roddy. “If my father does not wish to tell me his plans I can’t take advantage of what I learn of them from strangers. I shall go on,” he continued with suspicious meekness⁸⁵, “with the work Father has sent me here to do. Who am I, that I should ............