The Dust of Conflict Part 16

"If you feel inclined to tell me anything more I'll listen."

Appleby, who resented the man's tone as much as he was astonished at it, was about to observe that he felt no inclination to trespa.s.s further on his host's patience, but he fancied there was a warning in Nettie Harding's eyes, and Harper did not wait for him. He at once launched into an ornate account of the affray, and discreetly mentioned their present difficulties. Harding listened gravely, and then turned to Appleby.

"I have a Spanish sugar grower to visit, and you will excuse me, but I would like to see you again before you leave the hotel," he said.

"Anyway, it wouldn't be quite safe for you to take the road just now."

He went out with his daughter, and when they were in the patio the girl looked at him. "You have got to do something for them," she said quietly.

"Yes," said Harding, with a little nod, "I am going to. As it happens, it will suit me."

It was an hour later when they came back, and as the light was fading Harding bade the landlord bring a lamp before he sat down, and turned to Appleby and Harper, who were somewhat anxiously waiting him.

"You are scarcely likely to know anything about growing or crus.h.i.+ng sugar, Mr. Broughton?" he said.

"No, sir. Nothing whatever."

"Thank you!" said Harding, and glanced with a little smile at Harper. "I guess it's not necessary to ask you."

"No," said Harper tranquilly. "I know a little about anything there's money in, and what I don't I can learn. Bernardino's going to show himself 'most as quick as me. It's only modesty that's wrong with him."

"Well," said Harding dryly, "he's an Englishman. Now, Mr. Broughton, in one sense your friend is right. Adaptability is the quality we most appreciate; and a good many men in my country, including myself, have made quite a pile out of businesses they knew very little about when they took hold of them. Well, I want a straight man, with good nerves and a cool head, to run a sugar estate for me. I don't want him to cut the cane or oil the machinery-that will be done for him; but he will have to hold my interests safe, and see I'm not unduly squeezed by the gentlemen who keep order here. If he robs me on his own account he will probably hear of it. Are you willing to take hold on a six months'

trial?"

"There is a difficulty.

"Your partner? That got over, you would be willing?"

"Yes," said Appleby. "I should be devoutly thankful, too."

Harding turned to Harper. "I have a kind of notion I have seen you before. I don't mean in Santa Marta."

"Oh yes," said Harper, grinning. "You once had a deal with me. I ran you in a load of machinery without paying duty."

"You did. I fancied you would have had reasons for preferring not to remember it."

Harper laughed. "Now, it seems to me the fact that I came out ahead of Cyrus Harding ought to be a testimonial. I was fighting for my own hand then, but I never took anything I wasn't ent.i.tled to from the man who hired me-at least, if I did I can't remember it."

"Don't try it again," said Harding, with a little grim smile. "In this case, I think it would be risky. Well, I guess I can find a use for you too, but the putting you together increases the steepness of the chances you are taking. Does that strike you?"

"Yes, sir," said Appleby. "Still, I am afraid you must take both or neither."

Harding laughed. "Then I'll show you the place and what your business will be before we argue about the salary. In the meanwhile here are five dollars. Go out and buy hats, but no clothing yet. We'll get that later.

Then walk out of the village, and wait for me out of sight along the carretera. You needn't be bashful about taking the dollars. They will be deducted from your salary."

They went out and bought the hats, and had just time to spring clear of the road when two or three mounted officers trotted by. Five minutes later the officers pulled up at the hotel, and Harding, who met them in the patio, recognized Espada Morales in one who saluted him.

"You have had a pleasant drive?" he said. "The Senorita Harding I trust is well?"

Harding nodded, though he was not pleased to notice that the officer's dark eyes wandered round the patio and as though in search of somebody.

"She will be gratified to hear of your inquiry," he said. "We are going back now, and there is a kindness you could do me. I am taking two new servants to the San Cristoval sugar mill, and you may have troops or pickets who would stop us on the road."

Morales tore a slip from a little pad he took from his pocket, scribbled across it, and handed it to Harding.

"If you are questioned show them that," he said. "When you desire any other service I am at your command."

Harding took the paper and told his driver to get the mules out, while ten minutes after he and his daughter left the hotel he bade the man pull up beside two figures standing in the road. They got into the carriage when he signed to them.

"If you had waited a little longer you might have met Morales face to face, Mr. Broughton, and that foot of yours would probably have convicted a more innocent man," he said. "As it is, I have a pa.s.s from him that will prevent anybody worrying you until we reach San Cristoval."

Then the driver flicked the mules, and they rolled swiftly forward into the soft darkness that now hid the cane and dimmed the long white road.

XI - THE ALCALDE'S BALL

CYRUS HARDING thoroughly understood the importance of trifles, and possessed a quick insight, which went far to insure the success of whatever he took in hand. It was because of this he picked Appleby and Harper up by the roadside in place of driving away with them from the "Golden Fleece," and seized the opportunity of obtaining a pa.s.s from Colonel Morales. The driver was in his service, and Harding had discovered one or two facts concerning him which rendered a hint that his silence would be advisable tolerably effective. Thus no questions were asked them when they were twice stopped by a patrol, and skirting Santa Marta in the darkness they reached the San Cristoval hacienda without attracting undesirable attention.

Next morning Harding also drove back to Santa Marta and purchased clothing, apparently for himself, so that when his new a.s.sistants made their appearance there was nothing about them that was likely to excite anybody's curiosity; while the doctor who dressed Appleby's foot was allowed to surmise that it had been injured in the crus.h.i.+ng mill. He had, it was suspected, liberationist sympathies, so that it was of no great importance that he was not quite convinced. Appleby, being installed as general manager, showed a facility of comprehension and an administrative ability that would probably have astonished any one who had not Harding's talent for handling men; and when some little time had pa.s.sed the latter left him in charge without misgivings while he made a business visit to New York. As he purposed to return promptly he also left his daughter with the wife of the Spanish banker at Santa Marta, and it was about that time the Alcalde of the latter place gave a ball to celebrate certain successes of the Spanish arms. The Sin Verguenza had disappeared, and there was at least every outward sign of tranquillity in that district.

That was how it came about that Appleby and Miss Harding, who had seen a good deal of each other in the meanwhile sat out in the moonlight on a veranda of the Alcalde's house overlooking the patio. It was filled with flowers, and in place of the Sin Verguenza's revelry the tinkle of guitars, swish of costly dresses, light patter of feet, and decorous laughter came out from the open windows that blazed with light. Nettie Harding was also now attired as became her station, and the soft s.h.i.+mmer of pearls emphasized the whiteness of her neck. Still, she remembered the last time she had entered that patio, and a faint tinge of color came into her cheek as her eyes rested for a moment on the veranda above them. As it happened, Appleby, without intending it, met her eyes a moment later, and each realized what the other's thoughts were. The man turned his head suddenly, but he felt he could not gaze across the patio indefinitely, and when he looked round again he saw the girl had laid her fan upon her knee and was regarding him curiously.

"There is a difference, is there not?" she said.

Appleby sat still, feeling distinctly uncomfortable, and wondering what was expected of him, though he was not altogether astonished, because he knew Nettie Harding's spirit.

"Yes," he said. "The place is a good deal prettier now. These folks have quite an artistic taste, you know."

The girl laughed softly. "Oh yes. Still, do you never come out of your sh.e.l.l? We, as you may have noticed, are rather fond of doing so, and at least occasionally say what we think."

Appleby hoped he appeared unconcerned, for, though he knew Miss Harding could be daring, he could not quite decide whether she had quite understood the position on that eventful night, and hoped she had not.

"The difference you mention is at least to my advantage," he said. "You may remember that I was a ragged outcast then."

"And now, I think, you are on the way to prosperity. You have made a good friend-Mr. Appleby."

Appleby started. He had felt it inc.u.mbent on him to give Harding an outline of his story, and had, at the latter's recommendation, applied for a cedilla personale, or certificate of nationality, which it was desirable for aliens to possess just then in his own name; but it had not occurred to him that Harding might be communicative. Still, a curious friends.h.i.+p or camaraderie, of a kind that would have been scarcely possible in England, had sprung up between him and the girl, and he saw that she expected something of him.

"I hope I have made two," he said. "Indeed, I fancy I owe the improvement in my affairs to the second one."

"Wouldn't it be more flattering to consider how much was due to your own abilities?"

Appleby laughed. "I was never considered clever, but I am not quite a fool. There is, one surmises, no scarcity of talented young Americans, and I fancy a good many of them would be glad to serve Cyrus Harding.

Still, I don't know anybody I would sooner take a kindness from."

"You will have to deserve it, and that implies a question. The Sin Verguenza may come back again?"