The Rifle Rangers Part 10

On approaching the house we halted; and after charging the men to remain silent, I advanced alone to reconnoitre.

CHAPTER TEN.

ADVENTURE WITH A CAYMAN.

The lane suddenly opened upon a pasture, but within this a thick hedge of jessamines, forming a circle, barred the view.

In this circle was the house, whose roof only could be seen from without.

Not finding any opening through the jessamines, I parted the leaves with my hands, and looked through. The picture was dream-like; so strange, I could scarcely credit my senses.

On the crest of the little hillock stood a house of rare construction-- unique and unlike anything I had ever seen. The sides were formed of bamboos, closely picketed, and laced together by fibres of the _pita_.

The roof--a thatch of palm-leaves--projected far over the eaves, rising to a cone, and terminating in a small wooden cupola with a cross. There were no windows. The walls themselves were translucent; and articles of furniture could be distinguished through the interstices of the bamboos.

A curtain of green _barege_, supported by a rod and rings, formed the door. This was drawn, discovering an ottoman near the entrance, and an elegant harp.

The whole structure presented the _coup-d'oeil_ of a huge birdcage, with its wires of gold!

The grounds were in keeping with the house. In these, the evidence of neglect, which had been noticed without, existed no longer. Every object appeared to be under the training of a watchful solicitude.

A thick grove of olives, with their gnarled and spreading branches and dark-green leaves, stretched rearward, forming a background to the picture. Right and left grew clumps of orange and lime trees. Golden fruit and flowers of brilliant hues mingled with their yellow leaves; spring and autumn blended upon the same branches!

Rare shrubs--exotics--grew out of large vessels of j.a.panned earthenware, whose brilliant tints added to the voluptuous colouring of the scene.

A _jet d'eau_, crystalline, rose to the height of twenty feet, and, returning in a shower of prismatic globules, stole away through a bed of water-lilies and other aquatic plants, losing itself in a grove of lofty plantain-trees. These, growing from the cool watery bed, flung out their broad glistening leaves to the length of twenty feet.

So signs of human life met the eye. The birds alone seemed to revel in the luxuriance of this tropical paradise. A brace of pea-fowl stalked over the parterre in all the pride of their rainbow plumage. In the fountain appeared the tall form of a flamingo, his scarlet colour contrasting with the green leaves of the water-lily. Songsters were trilling in every tree. The mock-bird, perched upon the highest limb, was mimicking the monotonous tones of the parrot. The toucans and trogons flashed from grove to grove, or balanced their bodies under the spray of the _jet d'eau_; while the humming-birds hung upon the leaves of some honeyed blossom, or prinkled over the parterre like straying sunbeams.

I was running my eye over this dream-like picture, in search of a human figure, when the soft, metallic accents of a female voice reached me from the grove of plantains. It was a burst of laughter--clear and ringing. Then followed another, with short exclamations, and the sound of water as if dashed and sprinkled with a light hand.

What must be the Eve of a paradise like this! The silver tones were full of promise. It was the first female voice that had greeted my ears for a month, and chords long slumbering vibrated under the exquisite touch.

My heart bounded. My first impulse was "forward", which I obeyed by springing through the jessamines. But the fear of intruding upon a scene _a la Diane_ changed my determination, and my next thought was to make a quiet retreat.

I was preparing to return, and had thrust one leg back through the hedge, when a harsh voice--apparently that of a man--mingled with the silvery tones.

"_Anda!--anda!--hace mucho calor. Vamos a volver_." (Hasten!--it is hot. Let us return.)

"_Ah, no, Pepe! un rat.i.to mas_." (Ah, no, Pepe! a little while longer.)

"_Vaya, carrambor_!" (Quick, then!)

Again the clear laughter rang out, mingled with the clapping of hands and short exclamations of delight.

"Come," thought I, once more entering the parterre, "as there appears to be one of my own s.e.x here already, it cannot be very _mal a propos_ to take a peep at this amus.e.m.e.nt, whatever it be."

I approached the row of plantain-trees, whose leaves screened the speakers from view.

"_Lupe! Lupe! mira! que bonito_!" (Lupe! Lupe! look here! What a pretty thing!)

"_Ah, pobrecito! echalo, Luz, echalo_." (Ah! poor little thing! fling it back, Luz.)

"_Voy luego_," (Presently.)

I stooped down, and silently parted the broad, silken leaves. The sight was divine!

Within lay a circular tank, or basin, of crystal water, several rods in diameter, and walled in on all sides by the high screen of glossy plantains, whose giant leaves, stretching out horizontally, sheltered it from the rays of the sun.

A low parapet of mason-work ran around, forming the circ.u.mference of the circle. This was j.a.panned with a species of porcelain, whose deep colouring of blue and green and yellow was displayed in a variety of grotesque figures.

A strong jet boiled up in the centre, by the refraction of whose ripples the gold and red fish seemed multiplied into myriads.

At a distant point a bed of water-lilies hung out from the parapet; and the long, thin neck of a swan rose gracefully over the leaves. Another, his mate, stood upon the bank drying her snowy pinions in the sun.

A different object attracted me, depriving me, for awhile, of the power of action.

In the water, and near the jet, were two beautiful girls clothed in a sort of sleeveless, green tunic, loosely girdled. They were immersed to the waist. So pellucid was the water that their little feet were distinctly visible at the bottom, s.h.i.+ning like gold.

Luxuriant hair fell down in broad flakes, partially shrouding the snowy development of their arms and shoulders. Their forms were strikingly similar--tall, graceful, fully developed, and characterised by that elliptical line of beauty that, in the female form more than in any other earthly object, ill.u.s.trates the far-famed curve of Hogarth.

Their features, too, were alike. "Sisters!" one would exclaim, and yet their complexions were strikingly dissimilar. The blood, mantling darker in the veins of one, lent an olive tinge to the soft and wax-like surface of her skin, while the red upon her cheeks and lips presented an admixture of purple. Her hair, too, was black; and a dark shading along the upper lip--a moustache, in fact--soft and silky as the tracery of a crayon, contrasted with the dazzling whiteness of her teeth. Her eyes were black, large, and almond-shaped, with that expression which looks _over_ one; and her whole appearance formed a type of that beauty which we a.s.sociate with the Abencerrage and the Alhambra. This was evidently the elder.

The other was the type of a distinct cla.s.s of beauty--the golden-haired blonde. Her eyes were large, globular, and blue as turquoise. Her hair of a chastened yellow, long and luxuriant; while her skin, less soft and waxen than that of her sister, presented an effusion of roseate blushes that extended along the snowy whiteness of her arms. These, in the sun, appeared as bloodless and transparent as the tiny gold-fish that quivered in her uplifted hand.

I was riveted to the spot. My first impulse was to retire, silently and modestly, but the power of a strange fascination for a moment prevented me. Was it a dream?

"_Ah! que barbara! pobrecito--ito--ito_!" (Ah! what a barbarian you are! poor little thing!)

"_Comeremos_." (We shall eat it.)

"_Por Dios! no! echalo, Luz, o tirare la agua en sus ojos_." (Goodness!

no! fling it in, Luz, or I shall throw water in your eyes.) And the speaker stooped as if to execute the threat.

"_Ya--no_," (Now I shall not), said Luz resolutely.

"_Guarda te_!" (Look out, then!)

The brunette placed her little hands close together, forming with their united palms a concave surface, and commenced das.h.i.+ng water upon the perverse blonde.

The latter instantly dropped the gold-fish, and retaliated.

An exciting and animated contest ensued. The bright globules flew around their heads, and rolled down their glittering tresses, as from the pinions of a swan; while their clear laughter rang out at intervals, as one or the other appeared victorious.

A hoa.r.s.e voice drew my attention from this interesting spectacle.

Looking whence it came, my eye rested upon a huge negress stretched under a cocoa-tree, who had raised herself on one arm, and was laughing at the contest.