Show 7 THE VALE LE OF ARAGON by FRED mclaughlin T of the blade of copyright by bobba morrill coo co WITO service CHAPTER IX 14 the spirit of the dead of the six hundred and fifty men who had gone so blithely to the investment of the town of maracay karacay Mar acay scarce four hundred remained starve lings trapped in a strip of jungle that lies between the valencia range and the sea blocked on the north by the sea itself on the south ili by an army patrolling the road that followed the crest of the range and menaced in the rear by an ever approaching body 0 of f well accoutered and well fed spanish troops adolfo de fuentes himself a led them and it must have afforded f lm lim a deal of joy it if iv we e had bolivar monahan v ventured doctor lindsay laughed does our irish venezuelan patriot who comes from killarney and who therefore meet believe in fairies imagine that general bolivar might free us from this impasse sure said the irishman at a word from simon bolivar men will spring full armed like spirits out of the earth but we the spirit of bolivar with us now instead we have a spineless jellyfish who sits and broods over his blunders knowing that we face starvation t ion or capture by the puerto cabello garrison when the army behind us shall have pushed us westward to the mouth of this funnel of jungle that holds us helpless ten days before this a vastly superior force had pushed us out of marmay Mara icay fighting every foot of the way we had been beaten back ever back eastward and northward we had gone contending desperately hopelessly yet never giving up each night finding us farther into the spanish area weaker less able to endure with a morale that gave way with the slow passage of time between colonel plot and myself an armed truce existed whether by some miraculous turn of good fortune we won free or whether the malevolent jungle or the spaniards claimed us the result to mo me would be the same for the friendship of a few trusted aides of bolivar might never save me in a court because I 1 was wa guilty and could not offer a defense yet no apprehension of what PI ill might do to ine me could prevail against my happiness because I 1 had seen the senorita again had caught the tender cadences of her voice had won forgiveness gi veness As the days went by the shoulders of our soldiers drooped the light went out of their eyes and the flesh went off their bodies for food we had almost none and the desperate heat of the overwhelming jungle sickened them and the gloom and silence of this dread desolation entered their souls yet that vital spark still burned within them we came ono one day to a great rent in the close packed trees and the interlacing ter lacing vines of our forest prison it was such a path as some monster dragon of tile the deep emerging from the soil sea might have made in its passage through the jungle yet we knew that no dragon of the deep existed knew that no animal might have laid these mighty trees flat and pushed others out of its path I 1 recalled the day of the storm and tile the wreck of the santa lucrecia Luc and the dark bulk that had passel passed in the gloom as I 1 fought for my afe life with the waves I 1 remembered that tile the tremendous thrust of the wind had bad lifted the ocean into the maze of woods and had deposited me in a tree the santa lucrecia then had freed herself from the clutches of the reef and riding the elevated waters of the tidal wave had driven over the flat floor of the jungle which lay only a few feet above the level of the sea and had found at last a grave in the forest fores whence it had come and the santa lucrecia Luc I 1 remembered had a cargo of arms and ammunition and food foidl I 1 colonel pint said 1 I in the long silence that had held us may not this small army of ours given food and arms and powder and ball win through the lines of spain if I 1 fill them with tood food and put weapons and ammunition into their hands are you mad lie he cried if I 1 do these things my colonel may I 1 ask that this court will be forgot that my wounded arm and the broken door at claracay SIar Alar acay and the senorita lindsay and captain monahan Alo may witness said pint and ho he smiled my promise to forget claracay BIar Blar acay if you yo obtain the manna for these starving sol set diers 1 I will tell you then my colonel that this path marks the first and last land passage of the santa luerecia Luc and it if we only follow it we will come u upon pen a store sufficient for an army for three days we ate and rested and caroused unmindful of the forces of spain for we could have held this ship against an army and tho the lean indians indiana filled out like dogs at a feast and eyes brightened and shoulders squared and patriotism flamed again and strength came back to us strength of body and mind and spirit and a ad the will to win was ours oars and a desire to pit against the enemy this renewed vigor that belonged to us we put away ono one more gargantuan al meal cal a breakfast and took each two pistols and a musket and sufficient ammunition to carry us through a score of skirmishes and then we set the torch to the good ship santa LL Loc cr ecla in a dozen dozea different places we turned our faces southward toward the barrier range where an enemy awaited us and with songs of victory on our lips we drove onward up the timbered slopes while names flames spurted skyward from the doomed ship and spreading into the jungle fashioned a raging hell behind us we emerged from the cover of the forest and fell upon the thin line that held the heights they must have considered us shrieking demons from the fiery pit that we had left for they broke crying out in th the falness of their terrors and cast their weapons away as useless against the imps who had just escaped from the blazing tumult that devoured the jungle on we went ever southward down the forested incline that led toward the vast basin of lake valencia east of valencia we swept across tile the fields 00 lindsay and captain monahan may witness said pint still smiling that were checkered with green and brown free atlant at last of enemy interference we skirted the lake and bent our steps toward the town of tina quillo near which we knew would lie ile the lines of bolivar Goll var and where before the sun had set we fell exhausted but happy into the arms of our own verily the spirit of the dead had armed the living I 1 storm clouds were gathering in the south and east and thunder rumbled along the crest of the carabobo Car abobo hills while we stood at attention waiting for general bolivar to pin upon the jacket of colonel pint the coveted order of liberators lie he complimented the colonel upon the courage of himself and his men in breaking through the spanish lines and taking the town of maracas maracay Mar Alar acay and he offered mild apology that paez and plaza had failed to help him hold it francisco touched my elbow do not your fingers ache garde do not those capable hands of yours itch to take hold of pints throat why should they said eald 1 I tor for I 1 knew that Blo monahan nallan had talked did not pint give elve me my life por the order of liberators he said smiling a cherished decoration and to think that a man like pint should have got it As far as I 1 am concerned francisco our colonel may have it surely it will give him little joy now I 1 remember the look in pints eyes when they had rested on the senorita and a flame or rage scorched me I 1 wondered then if I 1 would not yet have to deal with the colonel and I 1 hoped in my heart that I 1 would lias illas there been any news of the senorita or of polito Francis cos finger I 1 knew was upon the pulse of venezuela none except that adolfo Is now in command of the valencia garrison and we may assume that the sen senorita orita and her brother are there also it Is good news my friend tor for valencia Is scarce twenty miles from here with only a spanish army of seven or eight thousand soldiers barring our way A simple thing In indeed deeda be jeered Jee reil for la torre and morales with nil all the available forces of spain await us on the plains of carabobo Car abobo then we meet them there francisco aye tie ile thought a moment 1 I think lu la torre made a mistake when he did not dispute our passage at buena vista he lost an advantage tai there ere I 1 I 1 cannot help believing garde that at carabobo Caro Car bobo abobo tomorrow we stand or fall the general stakes all on this last battle we win an empire or we are for ever slaves CHAPTER X the battle of carabobo Car abobo I 1 think bolivar as a toastmaster was the peer of any man I 1 have ever seen it was his wont to bring his officers together once a week in what he ha termed a dinner but which usually developed into a well ordered carouse for wine and rum and other spirituous liquors were cheap and plentiful la in venezuela bolivar demanding only obedience of his men took no note of their morals wherein I 1 think lay one of the secrets of his amazing hold bold upon his soldiers in the ibe spacious hall ball of the adobe house that was his headquarters we wa were gathered on the night before the battle of carabobo Car abobo besides bolivar there was the wise and suave marino chief of stair staff urdaneta whom the general called Ila Itaf fael nel a faithful follower of bolivar who tor for many years after the death of the liberator served his country with brilliance and distinction paez chief of the Ila llaneros neros plaza cedeno colonel rini all smiles because of his questionably won decoration colonel mackintosh colonel ferrier Ferr ler who on the morrow was de destined 5 to find the fatal bullet captain 1 n Alin chin another briton who fell upon the beld of carabobo Car abobo moore and lind say english med medicos leos captain scotti scott blon monahan aban the swarthy manuel francisco and others names to conjure with in venezuela nl the soldier had not survived the storm that wrecked the santa luerecia Luc Lue under the surface of laughter and badinage lay the tension of overwrought nerves for we felt the portent of the morrows battle men bien were called upon for speeches or toasts colonel pint whose bloodshot eyes showed the effect of the vast amount of wine that he had consumed found unsteady feet and swaying beyond the bounds of safe equilibrium related the fragment of an amour the questionable wit of which might have lifted laughter only out of wine bemused minds manuel gave an account of my unsuccessful a attempt in new orleans to imitate san isidro and my equally unsuccessful fu effort to vanquish four men which drew the attention of the gathered officers in my direction I 1 had never made a speech nor offered a toast but when bolivar encouraging cou raging eyes upon me said should we not get the voice of the united states a great nation after which we wa hope to pattern our own I 1 came slowly to my feet my mind a blank and tremors shaking me leaning against the table for support I 1 stared vacantly at the half filled wine glass in my right hand and pint noting my embarrassment laughed harshly A speech he cried gaily or it if the americanos Amerl canos mind refuses to function a toast A toast to the serrita senorita to the lovely Lamarti A silence fell upon us a grim foreboding silence for many of these men knew of my mad worship of the senorita the look that I 1 bent upon pint had nothing of friendship in it it was more like a challenge that he was drunk I 1 knew and that her name upon his lips gained nothing for a lady was a thing of equal certainty to me looking across the narrow table into the leering eyes of my tormentor I 1 felt the surge of an overwhelming fury and before I 1 had taken time to consider my act or the consequences of it I 1 had cast the contents of my wine glass Int ohis face then while pint splattered splutter ed in anger I 1 turned to bolivar that my general Is the voice of the united states where men are wont to look with reverence upon a woman the amours of colonel pint came to his feet his face flaming eyes gleaming 1 I will have his life for that ill run him through ill drive a sword I 1 1 I bowed while bolivar the furrows in his high forehead deepening and his heavy eyebrows drawing together in a portentous frown considered us 1 I think than said francisco coldly that colonel pint forgets the wounded arm of major garde it has not yet healed and the major therefore would be at a serious disadvantage TO BE BB CONTINUED |