The American garrison2 entered the town, but the body of our army encamped upon the green plains to the south.
Here we remained for several days, awaiting the order to march into the interior.
A report had reached us that the Mexican forces, under the celebrated3 Santa Anna, were concentrating at Puente Nacional; but shortly after it was ascertained4 that the enemy would make his next stand in the pass of the Cerro Gordo, about half-way between Vera Cruz and the mountains.
After the surrender of the city we were relieved from severe duty, and Clayley and I, taking advantage of this, resolved upon paying another stolen visit to our friends.
Several parties of light horse had been sent out to scour5 the country, and it had been reported that the principal guerilla of the enemy had gone farther up towards the Puente Nacional. We did not, therefore, anticipate any danger from that source.
We started after nightfall, taking with us three of our best men—Lincoln, Chane, and Raoul. The boy Jack6 was also of the party. We were mounted on such horses as could be had. The major had kept his word with me, and I bestrode the black—a splendid thoroughbred Arab.
It was a clear moonlight, and as we rode along we could not help noticing many changes.
War had left its black mark upon the objects around. The ranchos by the road were tenantless—many of them wrecked7, not a few of them entirely8 gone; where they had stood, a ray of black ashes marking the outline of their slight walls. Some were represented by a heap of half-burned rubbish still smoking and smouldering.
Various pieces of household furniture lay along the path torn or broken—articles of little value, strewed9 by the wanton hand of the ruthless robber. Here a petaté, or a palm hat—there a broken olla; a stringless bandolon, the fragments of a guitar crushed under the angry heel, or some flimsy articles of female dress cuffed10 into the dust; leaves of torn books—misas, or lives of the Santisima Maria—the labours of some zealous11 padre; old paintings of the saints, Guadalupe, Remedios, and Dolores—of the Niño of Guatepec—rudely torn from the walls and perforated by the sacrilegious bayonet, flung into the road, kicked from foot to foot—the dishonoured12 penates of a conquered people.
A painful presentiment13 began to harass14 me. Wild stories had lately circulated through the army—stories of the misconduct of straggling parties of our soldiers in the back-country. These had stolen from camp, or gone out under the pretext15 of “beef-hunting.”
Hitherto I had felt no apprehension16, not believing that any small party would carry their foraging17 to so distant a point as the house of our friends. I knew that any detachment, commanded by an officer, would act in a proper manner; and, indeed, any respectable body of American soldiers, without an officer. But in all armies, in war-time, there are robbers, who have thrown themselves into the ranks for no other purpose than to take advantage of the licence of a stolen foray.
We were within less than a league of Don Cosmé’s rancho, and still the evidence of ruin and plunder18 continued—the evidence, too, of a retaliatory19 vengeance20; for on entering a glade21, the mutilated body of a soldier lay across the path. He was upon his back, with open eyes glaring upon the moon. His tongue and heart were cut out, and his left arm had been struck off at the elbow-joint. Not ten steps beyond this we passed another one, similarly disfigured. We were now on the neutral ground.
As we entered the forest my forebodings became painfully oppressive. I imparted them to Clayley. My friend had been occupied with similar thoughts.
“It is just possible,” said he, “that nobody has found the way. By heavens!” he added, with an earnestness unusual in his manner, “I have been far more uneasy about the other side—those half-brigands and that villain22 Dubrosc.”
“On! on!” I ejaculated, digging the spurs into the flanks of my horse, who sprang forward at a gallop23.
I could say no more. Clayley had given utterance24 to my very thoughts, and a painful feeling shot through my heart.
My companions dashed after me, and we pressed through the trees at a reckless pace.
We entered an opening. Raoul, who was then riding in the advance, suddenly checked his horse, waving on us to halt. We did so.
“What is it, Raoul?” I asked in a whisper.
“Something entered the thicket25, Captain.”
“At what point?”
“There, to the left;” and the Frenchman pointed26 in this direction. “I did not see it well; it might have been a stray animal.”
“I seed it, Cap’n,” said Lincoln, closing up; “it wur a mustang.”
“Mounted, think you?”
“I ain’t confident; I only seed its hips27. We were a-gwine too fast to get a good sight on the critter; but it wur a mustang—I seed that cl’ar as daylight.”
I sat for a moment, hesitating.
“I kin1 tell yer whether it wur mounted, Cap’n,” continued the hunter, “if yer’ll let me slide down and take a squint28 at the critter’s tracks.”
“It is out of our way. Perhaps you had better,” I added, after a little reflection. “Raoul, you and Chane dismount and go with the sergeant29. Hold their horses, Jack.”
“If yer’ll not object, Cap’n,” said Lincoln, addressing me in a whisper, “I’d rayther go ’ithout kump’ny. Thar ain’t two men I’d like, in a tight fix, better’n Rowl and Chane; but I hev done a smart chance o’ trackin’ in my time, an’ I allers gets along better when I’m by myself.”
“Very well, Sergeant; as you wish it, go alone. We shall wait for you.”
The hunter dismounted, and having carefully examined his rifle, strode off in a direction nearly opposite to that where the object had been seen.
I was about to call after him, impatient to continue our journey; but, reflecting a moment, I concluded it was better to leave him to his “instincts”. In five minutes he had disappeared, having entered the chaparral.
We sat in our saddles for half an hour, not without feelings of impatience30. I was beginning to fear that some accident had happened to our comrade, when we heard the faint crack of a rifle, but in a direction nearly opposite to that which Lincoln had taken.
“It’s the sergeant’s rifle, Captain,” said Chane.
“Forward!” I shouted; and we dashed into the thicket in the direction whence the report came.
We had ridden about a hundred yards through the chaparral, when we met Lincoln coming up, with his rifle shouldered.
“Well?” I asked.
“’Twur mounted, Cap’n—’tain’t now.”
“What do you mean, Sergeant?”
“That the mustang hed a yeller-belly on his back, and that he hain’t got ne’er a one now, as I knows on. He got cl’ar away from me—that is, the mustang. The yeller-belly didn’t.”
“What! you haven’t—?”
“But I hev, Cap’n. I had good, soun’ reason.”
“What reason?” I demanded.
“In the first place, the feller wur a gurillye; and in the next, he wur an outpost picket31.”
“How know you this?”
“Wal, Cap’n, I struck his trail on the edge of the thicket. I knowed he hedn’t kum fur, as I looked out for sign whar we crossed the crik bottom, an’ seed none. I tuk the back track, an’ soon come up with him under a big button-wood. He had been thar some time, for the ground wur stamped like a bullock-pen.”
“Well?” said I, impatient to hear the result.
“I follered him up till I seed him leanin’ for’ard on his horse, clost to the track we oughter take. From this I suspicioned him; but, gettin’ a leetle closter, I seed his gun an’ fixin’s strapped32 to the saddle. So I tuk a sight, and whumelled him. The darned mustang got away with his traps. This hyur’s the only thing worth takin’ from his carcage: it wudn’t do much harm to a grizzly33 b’ar.”
“Good heaven!” I exclaimed, grasping the glittering object which the hunter held towards me; “what have you done?”
It was a silver-handled stiletto. I recognised the weapon. I had given it to the boy Narcisso.
“No harm, I reckin, Cap’n?”
“The man—the Mexican? How did he look?—what like?” I demanded anxiously.
“Like?” repeated the hunter. “Why, Cap’n, I ’ud call him as ugly a skunk34 as yer kin skeer up any whar—’ceptin’ it mout be among the Digger Injuns; but yer kin see for yurself—he’s clost by.”
I leaped from my horse, and followed Lincoln through the bushes. Twenty paces brought us to the object of our search, upon the border of a small glade. The body lay upon its back, where it had been flung by the rearing mustang. The moon was shining full upon the face. I stooped down to examine it. A single glance was sufficient. I had never seen the features before. They were coarse and swart, and the long black locks were matted and woolly. He was a zambo; and, from the half-military equipments that clung around his body, I saw that he had been a guerillero. Lincoln was right.
“Wal, Cap’n,” said he, after I had concluded my examination of the corpse35, “ain’t he a picter?”
“You think he was waiting for us?”
“For us or some other game—that’s sartin.”
“There’s a road branches off here to Medellin,” said Raoul, coming up.
“It could not have been for us: they had no knowledge of our intention to come out.”
“Possibly enough, Captain,” remarked Clayley in a whisper to me. “That villain would naturally expect us to return here. He will have learned all that has passed: Narcisso’s escape—our visits. You know he would watch night and day to trap either of us.”
“Oh, heavens!” I exclaimed, as the memory of this man came over me; “why did I not bring more men? Clayley, we must go on now. Slowly, Raoul—slowly, and with caution—do you hear.”
The Frenchman struck into the path that led to the rancho, and rode silently forward. We followed in single file, Lincoln keeping a look-out some paces in the rear.
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1
kin
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| n.家族，亲属，血缘关系；adj.亲属关系的，同类的 | |
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garrison
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| n.卫戍部队；驻地，卫戍区；vt.派(兵)驻防 | |
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3
celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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4
ascertained
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| v.弄清，确定，查明( ascertain的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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5
scour
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| v.搜索；擦，洗，腹泻，冲刷 | |
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6
jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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7
wrecked
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| adj.失事的，遇难的 | |
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8
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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9
strewed
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| v.撒在…上( strew的过去式和过去分词 )；散落于；点缀；撒满 | |
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10
cuffed
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| v.掌打，拳打( cuff的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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zealous
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| adj.狂热的，热心的 | |
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12
dishonoured
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| a.不光彩的，不名誉的 | |
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presentiment
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| n.预感，预觉 | |
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harass
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| vt.使烦恼，折磨，骚扰 | |
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pretext
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| n.借口，托词 | |
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16
apprehension
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| n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑 | |
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17
foraging
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| v.搜寻（食物），尤指动物觅（食）( forage的现在分词 )；（尤指用手）搜寻（东西） | |
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18
plunder
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| vt.劫掠财物，掠夺；n.劫掠物，赃物；劫掠 | |
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19
retaliatory
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| adj.报复的 | |
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20
vengeance
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| n.报复，报仇，复仇 | |
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21
glade
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| n.林间空地，一片表面有草的沼泽低地 | |
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22
villain
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| n.反派演员，反面人物；恶棍；问题的起因 | |
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23
gallop
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| v./n.(马或骑马等)飞奔；飞速发展 | |
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24
utterance
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| n.用言语表达，话语，言语 | |
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thicket
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| n.灌木丛，树林 | |
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26
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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27
hips
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| abbr.high impact polystyrene 高冲击强度聚苯乙烯，耐冲性聚苯乙烯n.臀部( hip的名词复数 )；[建筑学]屋脊；臀围（尺寸）；臀部…的 | |
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28
squint
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| v. 使变斜视眼, 斜视, 眯眼看, 偏移, 窥视; n. 斜视, 斜孔小窗; adj. 斜视的, 斜的 | |
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29
sergeant
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| n.警官，中士 | |
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impatience
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| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
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31
picket
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| n.纠察队；警戒哨；v.设置纠察线；布置警卫 | |
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32
strapped
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| adj.用皮带捆住的，用皮带装饰的；身无分文的；缺钱；手头紧v.用皮带捆扎(strap的过去式和过去分词)；用皮带抽打；包扎；给…打绷带 | |
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33
grizzly
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| adj.略为灰色的，呈灰色的；n.灰色大熊 | |
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34
skunk
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| n.臭鼬，黄鼠狼；v.使惨败，使得零分；烂醉如泥 | |
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35
corpse
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| n.尸体，死尸 | |
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