CHAPTER XXXII.

NIGHTLY IN MY DUNGEON THE MAGICIAN MEMORY WOULD UNROLL THAT SCENE.

So at last justice had laid hold of me, but I thought it a very shaky

hold--so much so that I was confident that I could break away from her,

so that she could never weigh me in her balance.

I will not enter into the details of events in Havana for the next few

days--briefly told, I was nominally a prisoner; actually so, as regards

leaving the barracks. The commander, Col. Vascos, was a warm friend,

and, living in the barrack, he wanted me to dine at his table, but as I

was already planning an escape, I deemed it best not to accept.

My wife spent many hours with me daily. All my meals were brought from

the hotel. Nunn was kept a prisoner for two days, then liberated. I took

him into my confidence, telling him I was going to escape, and directed

him to make all outside arrangements for that event, and he was greatly

rejoiced when I told him he should accompany me in my flight.

Pinkerton, was awake to the danger of losing his man, and had lodged a

written protest with the English and American Consuls against my being

confined in the police barracks.

The only result was that Col. Vascos issued an order to keep him and his

men out of the barracks.

I had a great many visitors, including officers of the army and navy,

and all were loud in protestation and indignant at my arrest. None

seemed to care whether I was guilty or not, but all demanded my

liberation, as there was no extradition treaty and no law to surrender

me. Even my lawyer, the most influential in Cuba, assured me there was

not the slightest danger of my surrender, but I knew that the bankers

Rothschild would ask Spain to give me up, and to an impecunious

Government like that of Spain the word of a Rothschild was more potent

than that of a king.

Then I knew such bright men as William A. Pinkerton (who had arrived)

and his lieutenant, Capt. John Curtin, would never have made the mistake

of coming to Cuba without full powers; therefore, feeling confident that

my surrender would be only a question of time I resolved to escape.

At my request Col. Vascos had sent a guard of soldiers to my house and

brought to the barracks two of my trunks. I had $80,000 in cash and

bonds, besides many valuables as well, in them. I gave my wife $20,000

and my servant $1,000 in gold and $5,000 in Spanish bank notes. Curtin

had in vain tried to seize my luggage, but the Spanish law stood in his

way.

All this time the rebellion in the island was in full blast, the

insurgents--consisting of native Cubans, mulattoes and negroes

(ex-slaves)--held possession of the greater part of the Eastern

provinces--that is, the whole eastern end of the island, and the western

end, called Pinar del Rio. They had kept the flame of rebellion alive

for six years and were still making a desperate and fairly successful

fight to maintain themselves. The sympathies of the American people were

with them, and they looked to our country for arms and recruits. The

former were smuggled into the island as opportunity offered by a Cuban

committee in New York. Not many, but yet some, recruits went, for it was

death to be caught going or returning, and few ever returned. The civil

conflict was murderous, neither side giving quarter. The spirit of

adventure was strong upon me, and I resolved, if I escaped, to make my

way to the Western Province and join the insurgents for a year, then

make my escape by crossing the narrow body of water between Cape San

Antonio and the mainland of Central America.

Once among the rebels all pursuit of me was at an end, as army after

army had been sent from Spain to crush the rebellion, and each had in

turn melted away before the valor of the rebels or the deadly climate.

Nunn volunteered to accompany me, and I gave him $2,000 to send to his

wife in Paris, that his mind might be easy on that score. No one knew my

real destination save Nunn and my wife. It was hard to obtain her

consent, but at last it was given. I arranged with her that she was to

leave Havana as soon as she knew I was off, cross to Key West, wait one

month there, and, if she then heard nothing of me, she was to telegraph

my sister to meet her in New York, take the steamer to that city and

live with her until I rejoined her.

Among other things, Nunn, by my orders, procured good maps of the

country. A Spanish gentleman, a warm friend, but whose name I will not

mention, was my counselor in the plot. He advised me to go to the Isle

of Pines, as Senor Andrez had promised to keep me safely from all

pursuit. I let my friends think that was my destination. I proposed as

when on my visit to embark from Cajio, but to take a westward course

along the coast, and when well off Pinar del Rio and night fell to put

about and steer to shore under cover of the darkness. Once ashore, to

get as far inland as possible before dawn. Then to keep a lookout for

any body of rebels and join them as a volunteer in the cause of "free

Cuba." We were sure of a welcome, particularly as we would come well

armed.

[Illustration: BLACK MARIA CONVEYING THE FORGERS THROUGH LONDON IN

CHAINS.]

I had made it a practice to give the sentinels in the police barracks a

bottle of brandy every day and a box of cigars every second day during

my stay, besides what were to them valuable presents, so I was highly

popular in the barracks. We had fixed on the night of March 20 for the

venture.

My room was in the second story of the barracks, but I was allowed to go

freely through all the rooms on that floor, followed more or less by a

guard. None of the windows opened on the street. There was a room

leading to an open window, but the door was kept locked. It was arranged

to have it unlocked with the key on the inside at 10 o'clock that night.

I was to walk about as usual, and, when the hour came suddenly step

through the door, lock it behind me and then bolt through the window

into the street. Nunn and my friend were to await me outside of the

window with orders to shoot any man (not a native) who attempted to stop

me, as I feared Curtin or his men might be on guard in the street, and

once in the street I did not propose to go back again alive.

The guns and two extra revolvers had been made into a bundle and left at

the station. At a nearby room were disguises for Nunn and myself,

consisting simply of cloaks and whiskers. We intended to board the 10:30

train going South, and once well out of the station would dispense with

all disguise but the Spanish cloak each of us wore.

The day for the venture came. I had previously instructed my wife to

send word she was indisposed, and to remain at the hotel. She had very

bravely offered to be on hand and with me up to the moment I disappeared

through the door, but fearing that in the excitement some of the

soldiers might say or do something insulting, I forbade her being on the

scene. I had had an unusually large number of visitors during the day. I

felt but little anxiety over the result, save only on the side of

Pinkerton. I had a sort of suspicion or presentment that, once fairly

outside of the barracks, I would run against him. The day passed rapidly

away, and 6 o'clock came, and all the civil officials, with the horde of

hangers-on, departed, leaving the usual evening solitude in the

barracks. Soon Nunn came with my supper and cautiously produced a

revolver and belt. I strapped the belt around me under my vest, placing

the revolver under a pile of clothing. Nunn reported everything all

right. He had seen Curtin that day as usual around the hotel and

apparently unsuspicious of anything unusual going on.

The window I was to jump out of opened on the public street, and the

street would be jammed full of people at the hour I was going. Of course

there were a good many chances of failure, chiefly so because all the

police from top to bottom knew me by sight, and if one of them happened

to be one of the half hundred witnesses of my jump he might have wit

enough to seize me.

Nunn and my friend were to be under the window ready to act according to

circumstances. Above all, to be ready to seize hold of any one who

manifested any intention to detain me. Nunn was full of courage and

hope. At 7 o'clock he went away, not to see me again until we met

outside the barracks. I called the guard and three or four idle soldiers

into my room and served them out liberal doses of brandy. Unluckily

enough, however, the one on duty would drink but lightly. Soon after 8

Consul-General Torbet came in to smoke a cigar and have a chat. He

remained until nearly 10, and then departed. Then I felt the hour had

indeed come. I thrust the revolver inside my shirt, and rolled up a cap

and put it in the same place. Then calling the sentry, I gave him a

drink and a cigar, and stepping out into the hall, I began my usual

march around through the upper rooms of the barracks. I was to go out of

the window at precisely 10. It wanted ten minutes of that time. It was a

long ten minutes to me, but I marched around puffing my cigar

unconcernedly, with an eye on the door I was to slip through. At the

hour I had my watch in my hand, and was in the room farthest from the

door of exit into the room opening on the street. I walked swiftly

through the two intervening rooms and so was for a brief four or five

seconds out of sight of the slow following sentinel. I reached the door,

opened it, stepped through and instantly locked it. In a moment I was

through the open window into the little iron balcony outside. One swift

glance showed me the street thronged with people, but hesitation meant

failure and death. I climbed lightly over the railing and hung suspended

for an instant from the bottom; the crowd below made a circle from

under, and I dropped easily to the ground, bareheaded, of course. Nunn

was there, and instantly clapped a large straw hat on my head. The

strange incident did not seem to attract the least notice, for in a

moment we were lost in the crowd. I had my hand on my revolver, and had

so strong a belief I should every second be confronted by Curtin that I

was strangely surprised when I saw no sign of the gentleman. In less

time than it takes to tell it, I was down into an open hallway and then

into a room. I and Nunn, who were smooth-faced, were given bushy

whiskers and a cloak. In the mean time, I paid an agent in waiting

$10,000 in French and Spanish notes, then we hurried out of the rear

into a cab and were driven to the station, arriving just in time to

catch the 10:30 train.

The cab ride and train ride that night were happy rides. I had been a

captive and now was free. The sights and sounds all around me took on a

deeper purpose and a more significant meaning than they had ever borne

before.

I had for a few brief days been a captive, shut out from nature's sights

and sounds, and that brief deprivation awoke in me a feeling of

appreciation for the feast that is everywhere around us spread with a

lavish hand. My mind was in a tumult of delight, and I almost forgot I

was a fugitive; fortunately the Spaniard is not a suspicious animal, and

no notice was taken of us; and so we bumped slowly on southward through

the tropic night.

Seven o'clock on the morning of the 11th found us at Guisa, a small

station on the railroad about ninety miles from Havana and west from

Cajio some twenty miles. Our friend here procured us horses, and,

bidding him good-bye, Nunn and I started on our ride to Cajio. We were

both greatly elated over the success of our adventure. Our friends had

procured for us police passports and gun permits under the names of

Parish and Ellis.

I had a chronometer, several valuable diamonds, a revolver and gun. Nunn

carried a canvas bag containing, among other things, 250 capital cigars,

tobacco, matches and 300 cartridges. Then we had good maps of the island

and current charts of the Gulf of Mantabano, with its hundreds of rocky

inlets, spreading everywhere along the south coast. But, armed as we

were, it would never do to be picked up by any Spanish boat or patrol

anywhere near the rebel border. It probably meant death if we were

captured.

I think on the whole it would have been the wiser plan to have gone to

Senor Andrez's plantation at San Jose. The fear in that case was that if

an order arrived from Madrid to deliver me up I might not be safe even

in the Isle of Pines. At Cajio I resolved to lose myself so far as the

Spanish authorities were concerned, and only travel by night. If we

remained on land this would be necessary, as soldiers were everywhere

and our police passports would not hold good if we were found traveling

in the direction of the rebel lines.

I proposed going by sea, and then all our voyaging would necessarily be

by night, for there were Spanish gunboats everywhere patrolling around

the shores, but there were innumerable small inlets where we could draw

up our boat, lay perdu during the day and spy out the next island to

sail to at night.

[Illustration: CASTS OF THE HEADS OF NOTORIOUS CRIMINALS.]

We arrived in due time at Cajio, and here our passports were demanded by

a little yellow monkey of a sergeant. I did not quite like having

passports scrutinized and determined to try and avoid any more of it.

We found no boat at Cajio, nor could we buy, or, if we bought, could not

manage one alone. The only thing we could do was to charter one with a

crew of four men. During my stay in Cuba I had been studying Spanish. I

had become a tolerably proficient speaker, so I had no great difficulty

in associating with the natives.

I found my idea of joining the rebels by sea impracticable, and as to go

by land was perilous in the extreme, I made up my mind to send Nunn back

to Havana and to make the venture alone. I did not care to chance his

life, and I also felt that it was safer for one than for two.

Forty miles away was the last fortified post on the Rio Choerra, at the

small town of Voronjo. Once across that small stream I would be on

neutral ground, liable at any time to fall in with a rebel band.

Nunn was very plucky and most devoted. He by no means wanted to go back,

but at last consented.

I determined to chance traveling on the beach by night. So at 12 o'clock

the day after our arrival at Cajio we mounted our horses and announced

that we were returning to Havana. Two miles away, at the small hamlet of

Zoringa, we put our horses out and struck for the beach about four miles

west of Cajio. Then we went a few yards into the jungle and sat down for

our last talk and to wait for the darkness. We were no longer master and

servant, but friends. The hours went slowly by; we did not say much, but

felt strongly. We had good cigars and smoked almost incessantly.

I told him to see Curtin, to give him my regards and laugh at him in a

nice way, and to tell my wife that I would limit my stay with the rebels

to a year. I told Nunn to send for his wife to join him in New York, and

my wife would take her into service so that they could be together.

I did not dare to keep the gun we had, but retained the revolvers in a

belt around my waist. They were rather old-fashioned, and, as the sequel

proved, the ammunition was not waterproof or else was defective. I had

two bottles of water, a hundred cigars in my pocket, 300 cartridges,

four pounds of dried beef and a loaf of bread. I wore a soft hat and had

on a fine pair of English walking boots, an important article for the

tramp ahead of me. I wore my chronometer tied by a stout string. I sent

my wife all my valuables save three diamond studs, $700 in gold and

$5,000 in notes, mostly Spanish bank notes, and I kept $10,000 in bonds.

Nunn cut me a stout ironwood cudgel as a handy weapon.

At last the night came, and still we waited, loath to say good-bye. We

had come out of the jungle and were sitting in the still warm sand

talking in low tones and watching the stars. At last when my watch told

me it was 10 we rose, and, shaking hands warmly, parted, he going east

to Cajio, I west toward Pinar del Rio and the rebel camps.

Of course, my great danger lay in meeting soldiers who would stop me.

Indeed any one who met a stranger and a foreigner heading west would

either stop him or give an alarm, and if once arrested (passports so

near the enemy's camp were useless) it meant death, or what was quite as

bad, incarceration in a filthy prison until my case was reported on to

the Captain-General in Havana. That, of course, meant my return to

Havana and possibly to England.

Everything is very primitive in Cuba. The common people--that is, the

whites and free people--live in mere huts or cabins, and sleep in

hammocks under roofs open on two sides. All go to bed soon after sunset,

so there was no danger in night traveling, save only in meeting the

sentries or running on some detached post of soldiers.

In case of meeting these, I had resolved to plunge into the tropical

jungle which came close down to the beach.

Neither night traveling nor the situation had any terrors for me. I

felt my only danger lay in stumbling upon some outpost or sentry who

might perceive me before I saw him and so cover me with his rifle before

challenging, but I knew from observation since my arrival in Cuba that

the discipline among the Spanish soldiers was very slack, and I had a

pretty firm belief that isolated sentries usually took a nap while

waiting the relief.

After leaving Nunn I started out at a quick pace, alert and confident.

The moon had gone down, but the Caribbean Sea was lovely in the

starlight, and between watching the phosphorescent ripples of the waters

and listening to the night noises of the jungle I soon discovered I was

enjoying my jaunt and found myself anticipating the pleasure of the

free, open life ahead of me when once beyond the Spanish outposts and a

soldier of fortune. I thought what a story of adventure I would have to

relate when a year or two later I rejoined my wife and friends, and I

felt that a good record won in a fight for "free Cuba" would make men

willing to forget my past.

I found my westward march frequently interrupted by spooks--some rock,

stump or bush would, to my suspicious eye, take on the human form until

I thought it was a sentry on guard and meant danger. Once or twice I

sought the shelter of the jungle and spent a long time watching for some

sign of movement. On one occasion I painfully made a circuit of nearly a

mile to pass a projecting mass of bushes in the belief that there were

men behind it. The air was balmy as on a June night at home. I trudged

along with my two bottles of water slung across my shoulder tied to a

cord, and between them and my revolvers and cartridges I was pretty well

loaded down.

Nowhere during the night did I come across any fresh water, but was

fated to have a water adventure before daylight which I did not relish.

Soon after midnight I sat down on the sand well in the shadow of some

palmetto trees and had a very enjoyable lunch of bread and dried beef,

washed down by water from my bottle; then lighting a cigar and reclining

at full length on the dry sand I passed a pleasant half hour enjoying

the fine Havana. I looked forward to the hours of daylight to be spent

reclining at ease in the jungle with many anticipations of pleasure. I

had a supply of fine cigars, plenty to think about, and the

consciousness of having overcome serious difficulties gave me a feeling

of elation--then my surroundings were so novel and I was fond of outdoor

life.

At 4 o'clock the sky put on a ragged edge of gray in the east, and

feeling pretty well satisfied with my progress I began to think of

selecting a retreat for the hours of daylight. Suddenly I found myself

upon what was evidently the neck of a swamp extending far and wide into

the land. I had discovered during the night that there was a

well-traveled road skirting and following the beach at a distance of a

few hundred yards, but there was danger of my meeting some one there, so

I stuck to the beach.

In the middle of the swamp was a clear space of water with marshy banks.

As it was nearly daylight, and being in no hurry, my presence in the

country unknown, and in no immediate danger, I determined to halt and

not tackle the swamp until nightfall again. Then, if seen by any one, I

would have some hours of darkness to make myself scarce in the

neighborhood.

Turning to follow the edge of the swamp I saw before me on a little

lower level than where I stood in the sand what appeared a plot of vivid

green grass, and without any precaution stupidly stepped with my full

weight upon it, and instantly found myself floundering in four feet of

mud and water. I had fallen, and getting back on the solid ground I

found myself wet to the shoulders, my legs covered with mud and my

pistols, bread, etc., soaking with salt water. At once I ran across the

beach and sat down in the warm water of the sea, washing off the mud

as well as possible. Then I made my way into the jungle, crossing the

road, and going into the thicket a short distance sat down waiting for

daylight, purposing to remain concealed near enough to the road to see

all passers-by, so that I might judge what sort of people I was among.

[Illustration: DARTMOOR CONVICT ESTABLISHMENT.--ABOUT 2000 PRISONERS.]

As the ground where I stood was low and wet, and my clothes soaking, I

feared catching the fever, so made my way well back to where some fallen

trees had made a rift in the dense mass of trunks, creepers and foliage,

letting in the sunlight. There I pulled off my garments to dry, taking

great care not to let any of the poisonous leaves come into contact with

my flesh, and made myself comfortable, sitting down to lunch nearly in

the state of nature. I was more concerned over my damaged cigars than my

dampened cartridges. On examination I found the cigars but slightly wet,

so, spreading them out to dry along with the drapery, I lit one and

surveyed the position. As the moisture was already steaming out of my

garments I took matters cheerfully and considered the outlook good.

Having finished one of my bottles of water, I made up my mind to carry

only one, and to take my chance of replenishing that. So long as my

health continued perfect I did not require much water; what I feared was

that my exposure and change of diet might make me feverish; if so, I

would suffer from thirst unless I struck a hilly country.

How much company my watch was to me during those long days and nights! I

was never tired of examining it. About 10 o'clock I made my way to the

road and placed myself in a mass of foliage, where unseen by any one I

had quite a range of the road. Up to this hour I had not seen a soul. At

first I watched the little stretch of road with eagerness, but no one

appearing I turned my attention to watching the evolutions of a huge

yellow spider which was spreading its net near by. While absorbed, and

almost fascinated, I was suddenly roused by the sharp, quick beating of

hoofs on the sandy road. Giving a startled glance, I saw a man unarmed,

but evidently a soldier, gallop quickly by on a mule. Twenty minutes

later an old-fashioned cart containing four half-dressed negroes and

drawn by four wretched mules passed. The men were silent and downcast.

Before 1 o'clock thirty people had passed, several being soldiers of the

guardia civil (armed police).

Then starting to spy out the land from the bushes and vines bordering

the swamp I could see a bridge crossing the neck of the swamp, but,

worst of all, quite a collection of houses at the other side, reaching

down to the beach, and a wharf that ran out into the water quite fifty

yards, with, no doubt, a guardhouse and police station among them. I saw

my way blocked. It seemed certain there would be sentries on guard at

the bridge, or so near it as to make it impossible for me to cross

unobserved. The swamp extended inland apparently for three or four

miles, and the jungle grew so dense as to make it impossible to

penetrate it in an effort to go around, so I determined not to venture

crossing the bridge, but to swim for it.

The swamp spread on both sides of the lagoon, and there was no such

thing as wading in that almost liquid morass, so I tried to find by

daylight a place where the mud was covered with water enough at least to

make swimming possible, but no such place could I find.

Everywhere a black tangled mass of rotting leaves and creepers spread,

making such a horrible slime that I shrank from attempting to cross it

to the open water. Once over that there was the same ordeal to go

through on the other side, and I knew I could only do it at full

length--that is, to lie flat and pull myself along as well as possible.

The simplest way was to wade out into the sea, then to swim far enough

outside of the pier to escape observation from any one who might chance

to be on it.

But this involved the chance of a horrible death, the sea there swarming

with sharks, which at night come in shore. Therefore, after cogitating

the matter, I resolved to attempt the bridge, taking the risk of being

seen. It might prove fatal to be seen, as I would have to bolt back, and

once knowing a fugitive was in the jungle they might turn out and hedge

me in, unless I took the sea route. This I resolved to do, if the one by

the bridge proved impracticable.

So during the afternoon I gathered a small lot of dried limbs and broke

them off in sufficient quantity to make a raft capable of bearing about

twenty pounds. On this I intended to put my revolvers, cartridges,

cigars, etc., and also to rest lightly on it myself, pushing it before

me as I swam. After dark I crossed the road into the jungle skirting the

beach, carrying my raft, and deposited it on the sand. Lying down in the

hot sand near by smoking a cigar, I waited for the moon to go down. I

was doing more than watch the stars and moonlit water. I was saying to

myself, "What a jolly world is this!"

Then, beginning to argue of human destiny, at last I brought the

argument around to Ego, and decided that he was a pretty clever fellow,

and that the world meant to treat him well. So Ego, settling down into a

very comfortable frame of mind, lighting a fresh cigar and looking

across at the dark masses of the coral islets crowned with foliage set

in the mirrored waters, passed two delightful hours.

I watched the moon go down and was not impatient, for the beauty of the

scene more even than the novelty of the position cast a charm over the

spirit and soothed the eye and mind. I wondered how many were seeking me

and how many thousands were speculating over my identity and

whereabouts, yet not one in his wildest imagination could ever picture

the reality of my position in all its strange and magic surroundings.

Through all the coming twenty years, nightly in my dungeon, the

magician memory would unroll that scene from his pictured chambers. It

was all there--the physical that the eye took in and the thoughts evoked

and sent swarming to the brain, there to remain engraved until life and

memory end.

[Illustration: SCENE NEAR RIO JANEIRO.]