Whats the matter with trying the Bull? Francis queried.
Thats my idea right now, was the answer, though Ive got another clue for over on the mainland. Those old-timers had a way of noting down their latitude and longitude whole degrees out of the way.
Ten North and Ninety East on the chart might mean Twelve North and Ninety-two East, Francis concurred. Then again it might mean Eight North and Eighty-eight East. They carried the correction in their heads, and if they died unexpectedly, which was their custom, it seems, the secret died with them.
Ive half a notion to go over to the Bull and chase those turtle-catchers back to the mainland, Henry went on. And then again Id almost like to tackle the mainland clue first. I suppose youve got a stock of clues, too?
Sure thing, Francis nodded. But say, Id like to take back what I said about not sharing.
Say the word, the other encouraged.
Then I do say it.
Their hands extended and gripped in ratification.
Morgan and Morgan strictly limited, chortled Francis.
Assets, the whole Caribbean Sea, the Spanish Main, most of Central America, one chest full of perfectly no good old clothes, and a lot of holes in the ground, Henry joined in the others humor. Liabilities, snake-bite, thieving Indians, malaria, yellow fever
And pretty girls with a habit of kissing total strangers one moment, and of sticking up said total strangers with shiny silver revolvers the next moment, Francis cut in. Let me tell you about it. Day before yesterday, I rowed ashore over on the mainland. The moment I landed, the prettiest girl in the world pounced out upon me and dragged me away into the jungle. Thought she was going to eat me or marry me. I didnt know which. And before I could find out, whats the pretty damsel do but pass uncomplimentary remarks on my mustache and chase me back to the boat with a revolver. Told me to beat it and never come back, or words to that effect.
Whereabouts on the mainland was this? Henry demanded, with a tenseness which Francis, chuckling his reminiscence of the misadventure, did not notice.
Down toward the other end of Chiriqui Lagoon, he replied. It was the stamping ground of the Solano family, I learned; and they are a red peppery family, as I found out. But I havent told you all. Listen. First she dragged me into the vegetation and insulted my mustache; next she chased me to the boat with a drawn revolver; and then she wanted to know why I didnt kiss her. Can you beat that?
And did you? Henry demanded, his hand unconsciously clinching by his side.
What could a poor stranger in a strange land do? It was some armful of pretty girl
The next fraction of a second Francis had sprung to his feet and blocked before his jaw a crushing blow of Henrys fist.
I I beg your pardon, Henry mumbled, and slumped down on the ancient sea chest. Im a fool, I know, but Ill be hanged if I can stand for
There you go again, Francis interrupted resentfully. As crazy as everybody else in this crazy country. One moment you bandage up my cracked head, and the next moment you want to knock that same head clean off of me. As bad as the girl taking turns at kissing me and shoving a gun into my midrif.
Thats right, fire away, I deserve it, Henry admitted ruefully, but involuntarily began to fire up as he continued with: Confound you, that was Leoncia.
What if it was Leoncia? Or Mercedes? Or Dolores? Cant a fellow kiss a pretty girl at a revolvers point without having his head knocked off by the next ruffian he meets in dirty canvas pants on a notorious sand-heap of an island?
When the pretty girl is engaged to marry the ruffian in the dirty canvas pants
You dont mean to tell me the other broke in excitedly.
It isnt particularly amusing to said ruffian to be told that his sweetheart has been kissing a ruffian she never saw before from off a disreputable Jamaica niggers schooner, Henry completed his sentence.
And she took me for you, Francis mused, glimpsing the situation. I dont blame you for losing your temper, though you must admit its a nasty one. Wanted to cut off my ears yesterday, didnt you?
Yours is just as nasty, Francis, my boy. The way you insisted that I cut them off when I had you down ha! ha!
Both young men laughed in hearty amity.
Its the old Morgan temper, Henry said. He was by all the accounts a peppery old cuss.
No more peppery than those Solanos youre marrying into. Why, most of the family came down on the beach and peppered me with rifles on my departing way. And your Leoncia pulled her little popgun on a long-bearded old fellow who might have been her father and gave him to understand shed shoot him full of holes if he didnt stop plugging away at me.
It was her father, Ill wager, old Enrico himself, Henry exclaimed. And the other chaps were her brothers.
Lovely lizards! ejaculated Francis. Say, dont you think life is liable to become a trifle monotonous when youre married into such a peaceful, dove-like family as that! He broke off, struck by a new idea. By the way, Henry, since they all thought it was you, and not I, why in thunderation did they want to kill you? Some more of your crusty Morgan temper that peeved your prospective wifes relatives?
Henry looked at him a moment, as if debating with himself, and then answered.
I dont mind telling you. It is a nasty mess, and I suppose my temper was to blame. I quarreled with her uncle. He was her fathers youngest brother
Was? interrupted Francis with significant stress on the past tense.
Was, I said, Henry nodded. He isnt now. His name was Alfaro Solano, and he had some temper himself. They claim to be descended from the Spanish conquistadores, and they are prouder than hornets. Hed made money in logwood, and he had just got a big henequen plantation started farther down the coast. And then we quarreled. It was in the little town over there San Antonio. It may have been a misunderstanding, though I still maintain he was wrong. He always was looking for trouble with me didnt want me to marry Leoncia, you see.
Well, it was a hot time. It started in a pulqueria where Alfaro had been drinking more mescal than was good for him. He insulted me all right. They had to hold us apart and take our guns away, and we separated swearing death and destruction. That was the trouble our quarrel and our threats were heard by a score of witnesses.
Within two hours the Comisario himself and two gendarmes found me bending over Alfaros body in a back street in the town. Hed been knifed in the back, and Id stumbled over him on the way to the beach. Explain? No such thing. There were the quarrel and the threats of vengeance, and there I was, not two hours afterward, caught dead to right with his warm corpse. I havent been back in San Antonio since, and I didnt waste any time in getting away. Alfaro was very popular, you know the dashing type that catches the rabbles fancy. Why, they couldnt have been persuaded to give me even the semblance of a trial. Wanted my blood there and then, and I departed very pronto.
Next, up at Bocas del Toro, a messenger from Leoncia delivered back the engagement ring. And there you are. I developed a real big disgust, and, since I didnt dare go back with all the Solanos and the rest of the population thirsting for my life, I came over here to play hermit for a while and dig for Morgans treasure Just the same, I wonder who did stick that knife into Alfaro. If ever I find him, then I clear myself with Leoncia and the rest of the Solanos and there isnt a doubt in the world that therell be a wedding. And now that its all over I dont mind admitting that Alfaro was a good scout, even if his temper did go off at half-cock.
Clear as print, Francis murmured. No wonder her father and brothers wanted to perforate me. Why, the more I look at you, the more I see were as like as two peas, except for my mustache
And for this Henry rolled up his sleeve, and on the left forearm showed a long, thin white scar. Got that when I was a boy. Fell off a windmill and through the glass roof of a hothouse.
Now listen to me, Francis said, his face beginning to light with the project forming in his mind. Somebodys got to straighten you out of this mess, and the chaps name is Francis, partner in the firm of Morgan and Morgan. You stick around here, or go over and begin prospecting on the Bull, while I go back and explain things to Leoncia and her people
If only they dont shoot you first before you can explain you are not I, Henry muttered bitterly. Thats the trouble with those Solanos. They shoot first and talk afterward. They wont listen to reason unless its post mortem.
Guess Ill take a chance, old man, Francis assured the other, himself all fire with the plan of clearing up the distressing situation between Henry and the girl.
But the thought of her perplexed him. He experienced more than a twinge of regret that the lovely creature belonged of right to the man who looked so much like him, and he saw again the vision of her on the beach, when, with conflicting emotions, she had alternately loved him and yearned toward him and blazed her scorn and contempt on him. He sighed involuntarily.
Whats that for? Henry demanded quizzically.
Leoncia is an exceedingly pretty girl, Francis answered with transparent frankness. Just the same, shes yours, and Im going to make it my business to see that you get her. Wheres that ring she returned? If I dont put it on her finger for you and be back here in a week with the good news, you can cut off my mustache along with my ears.
An hour later, Captain Trefethen having sent a boat to the beach from the Angelique in response to signal, the two young men were saying good-bye.
Just two things more, Francis. First, and I forgot to tell you, Leoncia is not a Solano at all, though she thinks she is. Alfaro told me himself. She is an adopted child, and old Enrico fairly worships her, though neither his blood nor his race runs in her veins. Alfaro never told me the ins and outs of it, though he did say she wasnt Spanish at all. I dont even know whether shes English or American. She talks good enough English, though she got that at convent. You see, she was adopted when she was a wee thing, and shes never known anything else than that Enrico is her father.
And no wonder she scorned and hated me for you, Francis laughed, believing, as she did, as she still does, that you knifed her full blood-uncle in the back.
Henry nodded, and went on.
The other thing is fairly important. And thats the law. Or the absence of it, rather. They make it whatever they want it, down in this out-of-the-way hole. Its a long way to Panama, and the gobernador of this state, or district, or whatever they call it, is a sleepy old Silenus. The Jefe Politico at San Antonio is the man to keep an eye on. Hes the little czar of that neck of the woods, and hes some crooked hombre, take it from yours truly. Graft is too weak a word to apply to some of his deals, and hes as cruel and blood-thirsty as a weasel. And his one crowning delight is an execution. He dotes on a hanging. Keep your weather eye on him, whatever you do And, well, so long. And half of whatever I find on the Bull is yours: and see you get that ring back on Leoncias finger.
Two days later, after the half-breed skipper had reconnoitered ashore and brought back the news that all the men of Leoncias family were away, Francis had himself landed on the beach where he had first met her. No maidens with silver revolvers nor men with rifles were manifest. All was placid, and the only person on the beach was a ragged little Indian boy who at sight of a coin readily consented to carry a note up to the young senorita of the big hacienda. As Francis scrawled on a sheet of paper from his notebook, I am the man whom you mistook for Henry Morgan, and I have a message for you from him, he little dreamed that untoward happenings were about to occur with as equal rapidity and frequence as on his first visit.
For that matter, could he have peeped over the out-jut of rock against which he leaned his back while composing the note to Leoncia, he would have been startled by a vision of the young lady herself, emerging like a sea-goddess fresh from a swim in the sea. But he wrote calmly on, the Indian lad even more absorbed than himself in the operation, so that it was Leoncia, coming around the rock from behind, who first caught sight of him. Stifling an exclamation, she turned and fled blindly into the green screen of jungle.
His first warning of her proximity was immediately thereafter, when a startled scream of fear aroused him. Note and pencil fell to the sand as he sprang toward the direction of the cry and collided with a wet and scantily dressed young woman who was recoiling backward from whatever had caused her scream. The unexpectedness of the collision was provocative of a second startled scream from her ere she could turn and recognize that it was not a new attack but a rescuer.
She darted past him, her face colorless from the fright, stumbled over the Indian boy, nor paused until she was out on the open sand.
What is it? Francis demanded. Are you hurt? Whats happened?
She pointed at her bare knee, where two tiny drops of blood oozed forth side by side from two scarcely perceptible lacerations.
It was a viperine, she said. A deadly viperine. I shall be a dead woman in five minutes, and I am glad, glad, for then my heart will be tormented no more by you.
She leveled an accusing finger at him, gasped the beginning of denunciation she could not utter, and sank down in a faint.
Francis knew about the snakes of Central America merely by hearsay, but the hearsay was terrible enough. Men talked of even mules and dogs dying in horrible agony five to ten minutes after being struck by tiny reptiles fifteen to twenty inches long. Small wonder she had fainted, was his thought, with so terribly rapid a poison doubtlessly beginning to work. His knowledge of the treatment of snake-bite was likewise hearsay, but flashed through his mind the recollection of the need of a tourniquet to shut off the circulation above the wound and prevent the poison from reaching the heart.
He pulled out his handkerchief and tied it loosely around her leg above the knee, thrust in a short piece of driftwood stick, and twisted the handkerchief to savage tightness. Next, and all by hearsay, working swiftly, he opened the small blade of his pocket-knife, burned it with several matches to make sure against germs, and cut carefully but remorsely into the two lacerations made by the snakes fangs.
He was in a fright himself, working with feverish deftness and apprehending at any moment that the pangs of dissolution would begin to set in on the beautiful form before him. From all he had heard, the bodies of snake-victims began to swell quickly and prodigiously. Even as he finished excoriating the fang-wounds, his mind was made up to his next two acts. First, he would suck out all poison he possibly could; and, next, light a cigarette and with its live end proceed to cauterize the flesh.
But while he was still making light, criss-cross cuts with the point of his knife-blade, she began to move restlessly.
Lie down, he commanded, as she sat up, and just when he was bending his lips to the task.