第25章

THE GENTLE CASTAWAYS.

Miss Keene was awakened from a heavy sleep by a hurried shake of her shoulder and an indefinite feeling of alarm.Opening her eyes, she was momentarily dazed by the broad light of day, and the spectacle of Mrs.Brimmer, pale and agitated, in a half-Spanish dishabille, standing at her bedside.

"Get up and dress yourself, my dear, at once," she said hurriedly, but at the same time attentively examining Miss Keene's clothes, that were lying on the chair: "and thank Heaven you came here in an afternoon dress, and not in an evening costume like mine! For something awful has happened, and Heaven only knows whether we'll ever see a stitch of our clothes again.""WHAT has happened?" asked Miss Keene impatiently, sitting up in bed, more alarmed at the unusual circumstance of Mrs.Brimmer's unfinished toilet than at her incomplete speech.

"What, indeed! Nobody knows; but it's something awful--a mutiny, or shipwreck, or piracy.But there's your friend, the Commander, calling out the troops; and such a set of Christy Minstrels you never saw before! There's the Alcalde summoning the Council;there's Mr.Banks raving, and running round for a steamboat--as if these people ever heard of such a thing!--and Captain Bunker, what with rage and drink, gone off in a fit of delirium tremens, and locked up in his room! And the Excelsior gone--the Lord knows where!""Gone!" repeated Miss Keene, hurrying on her clothes."Impossible!

What does Father Esteban tell you? What does Dona Isabel say?""That's the most horrible part of it! Do you know those wretched idiots believe it's some political revolution among ourselves, like their own miserable government.I believe that baby Isabel thinks that King George and Washington have something to do with it; at any rate, they're anxious to know to what side you belong! So; for goodness' sake! if you have to humor them, say we're all on the same side--I mean, don't you and Mrs.Markham go against Miss Chubb and me."Scarcely knowing whether to laugh or cry at Mrs.Brimmer's incoherent statement, Miss Keene hastily finished dressing as the door flew open to admit the impulsive Dona Isabel and her sister Juanita.The two Mexican girls threw themselves in Miss Keene's arms, and then suddenly drew back with a movement of bashful and diffident respect.

"Do, pray, ask them, for I daren't," whispered Mrs.Brimmer, trying to clasp a mantilla around her, "how this thing is worn, and if they haven't got something like a decent bonnet to lend me for a day or two?""The Senora has not then heard that her goods, and all the goods of the Senores and Senoras, have been discovered safely put ashore at the Embarcadero?""No?" said Mrs.Brimmer eagerly.

"Ah, yes!" responded Dona Isabel."Since the Senora is not of the revolutionary party."Mrs.Brimmer cast a supplicatory look at Miss Keene, and hastily quitted the room.Miss Keene would have as quickly followed her, but the young Ramirez girls threw themselves again tragically upon her breast, and, with a mysterious gesture of silence, whispered,--"Fear nothing, Excellencia! We are yours--we will die for you, no matter what Don Ramon, or the Comandante, or the Ayuntamiento, shall decide.Trust us, little one!--pardon--Excellencia, we mean.""What IS the matter?" said Miss Keene, now thoroughly alarmed, and releasing herself from the twining arms about her."For Heaven's sake let me go! I must see somebody! Where is--where is Mrs.

Markham?"

"The Markham? Is it the severe one?--as thus,"--said Dona Isabel, striking an attitude of infantine portentousness.

"Yes," said Miss Keene, smiling in spite of her alarm.

"She is arrested."

"Arrested!" said Eleanor Keene, her cheeks aflame with indignation.

"For what? Who dare do this thing?"

"The Comandante.She has a missive--a despatch from the insurrectionaries."Without another word, and feeling that she could stand the suspense no longer, Miss Keene forced her way past the young girls, unheeding their cries of consternation and apology, and quickly reached the patio.A single glance showed her that Mrs.Brimmer was gone.With eyes and cheeks still burning, she swept past the astounded peons, through the gateway, into the open plaza.Only one idea filled her mind--to see the Commander, and demand the release of her friend.How she should do it, with what arguments she should enforce her demand, never occurred to her.She did not even think of asking the assistance of Mr.Brace, Mr.Crosby, or any of her fellow-passengers.The consciousness of some vague crisis that she alone could meet possessed her completely.

The plaza was swarming with a strange rabble of peons and soldiery;of dark, lowering faces, odd-looking weapons and costumes, mules, mustangs, and cattle--a heterogeneous mass, swayed by some fierce excitement.That she saw none of the Excelsior party among them did not surprise her; an instinct of some catastrophe more serious than Mrs.Brimmer's vague imaginings frightened but exalted her.

With head erect, leveled brows, and bright, determined eyes she walked deliberately into the square.The crowd parted and gave way before this beautiful girl, with her bared head and its invincible crest of chestnut curls.Presently they began to follow her, with a compressed murmur of admiration, until, before she was halfway across the plaza, the sentries beside the gateway of the Presidio were astonished at the vision of a fair-haired and triumphant Pallas, who appeared to be leading the entire population of Todos Santos to victorious attack.In vain a solitary bugle blew, in vain the rolling drum beat an alarm, the sympathetic guard only presented arms as Miss Keene, flushed and excited, her eyes darkly humid with gratified pride, swept past them into the actual presence of the bewildered and indignant Comandante.