CHAPTER XI.

THE TWO CAPTAINS OF THE "GOLETA."

Whilst señora Bustamente was formally taking some refreshment, Gladsden

summoned Ignacio.

"Lieutenant," said he, sternly, "it is a honour for me to have Madam

Vázquez, the bride of Benito Vázquez, the pearl diver, to present to

you."

Ignacio bowed, and darted from his widely distended eyes an enormous

show of admiration at the young Mexican.

"The famous pearl fisher," murmured he; "the take will be rare and

splendid now."

"This lady," continued the master, "is our passenger, you are

answerable for her being treated with the utmost deference, and the

greatest attention by all the crew. We'll fashion a cabin for her

hereabouts. All the men are forbidden to enter here under any pretence

whatever. Do'ye hear, Master Ignacio?"

"Yes."

"Then what the mischief are you staring for?"

"Ha, Señora Vázquez?" he repeated. "Surely I behold with admiration

dazed eyes the incomparable daughter of the martial hacendero, don José

de Miranda."

"Eh! How now, what do you know of the lady?"

"Only that she was the chosen bride of his Excellency, don Aníbal

Cristobal."

"Eh? Why, of course!"

"And that illustrious scoundrel," went on the late lieutenant of

banditti, with a refreshing air of morality, "after having had the

poor don tracked to his death by the venomous Apache, to whom I owe my

brother's loss--one to him! A thousand devils pull at him--the captain

not my lamented Pepillo--after all that show of hatred to him who took

the lady out of his clutches, don Aníbal will not allow the double

removal unimpeded, I'll wager you a thousand ounces against one poor,

old, worn dollar, of the señorita and his dear _Burlonilla_."

"Indeed! We'll see about that."

The speaker marked a curious mixture of fear and doubt flit across the

visage of Ignacio.

Benito, seeing that he was only in the way of his young wife's settling

down in her new home, and having some neglected preparations to make

ashore, proposed a hasty return thither.

The captain all the less reluctantly coincided with his expressed

intention, as he had a confidential message to transmit to the British

vice-consul--a young Jewish gentleman on whom he believed he could rely

in such an emergency as impended.

In Benito's absence, captain Gladsden took further precautions.

Disliking a budding smile on the phiz of Ignacio, he ordered him below,

placing Bristol Jem at the head of affairs in his stead, and charged

the carpenter to hurry on his woodwork. The rest of the time was given

up to completing the readiness to start.

Going on 3 p.m. the Englishman was walking the deck under an umbrella,

when he perceived a boat pushing off from the wharf. It could not be

Benito, in this huge shallow punt, impelled by eight oars, in the bow

of which six armed men in uniform were standing, while at the stern

were seated two persons in gay array.

One was a stout dame, extravagantly caparisoned; the other, a tall

man in almost as brilliant and absurd an attire. The latter was not

altogether unfamiliar to the captain, and he smiled in anticipation of

the affair to be communicated.

Whilst the heavily laden embarkation bore down upon the cutter with a

leisure which was insulting, Gladsden ordered his ensign to be dipped

three times. Immediately he had the satisfaction of perceiving the flag

of the British consul execute the same movement. Benito had, therefore,

delivered his message, to which this courtesy was an acknowledgment.

Gladsden went below, and approaching the bulkhead, behind which doña

Dolores was ensconced, whispered to her:

"Lady! I have reason to suppose that a boat is coming hither with

persons on board whose intention is to seize on you and take you

to land in the absence of your husband. Now, you need not worry

yourself. Don't show any tokens of being here. I have answered for your

protection to don Benito, and I know quite how to take care of you, as

well as my craft, against all the desperadoes in the Intendencia of all

Sonora."

"Oh, do so, sir!" returned the young lady, a prey to deep emotion,

spite of the Englishman's confident and jesting accent, "And we shall

bless you! Out of the little window I, too, have espied the skiff

coming; and I have recognised my aunt and the pretender to my hand. I

would rather die than fall into their hands! Oh, why--oh, why is not

Benito here?"

"Don't be under any uneasiness," reiterated the other; "I shall keep my

pledge to your husband. Only, I say again, keep _perdue_, and do not

reveal your presence by any noise."

"I promise to obey you, sir Captain. You are a really good man! Heaven

will benefit you for the protection you accord me. I shall go on

praying for you and myself!"

"Very well; so pluck up, Señorita, and soon the fun will be over!"

He remounted to the deck. He glanced over the bay, and went to the stem

with his marine glass, looking over the oncoming "scow" contemptuously

to view the shore near the consul's habitation. A longboat, manned by

twelve oarsmen, and carrying the English flag at the stern, was seen to

quit the pier and steer for the _Burlonilla_, making good time.

The port was "getting lively."

Though things were going on nicely enough, Gladsden did not mean to

be taken unawares, and, not to be blamed for neglecting to take any

precaution, he had a cutlass and a brace of boarding pistols laid

handily on the sliding cover of the companionway. In those waters one

never knows how matters may turn out, and, to prevent the turning out

being unpleasant, a man is easiest when thoroughly on his guard.

Though the English representative's boat had left the shore some time

after the native one, it was not slow in overhauling it, outstripping

it without deigning to hail it or otherwise notice it, and ran

alongside the _Little Joker_ on the seaward side, while the other boat

was rather far away.

"Glad to see you, Mr. Lyons," said Gladsden, receiving the

deputy-consul, warmly.

"Yes, here I am, Captain. You can do anything you like with me, you

know. Only, as your messenger was in a hurry to be off, I am very

little informed upon passing matters, and I may be able to act better

in your interest if you acquaint me how things stand and move."

Gladsden briefly told the story.

"Is that all!" exclaimed deputy-consul Lyons, laughing finely, as Jews

do. "Don't you be alarmed, but let me deal with this fellow. The friend

of don Stefano must be a suspicious character, and that he is the chief

of the in-country night marchers, and also the doer of little piracies

with this same brigantine does not, therefore, startle me. But your

visitors are hailing you. You might receive them with that bulldog

sweetness of demeanour which characterise us British," he went on,

smiling shyly. "Before all, put away those weapons, quite useless. The

affair will finish with more of a display of brass than steel or lead."

"I will hope so, though it's a thing of indifference," replied the

master of the _Little Joker_. "Anyway, I rely on you."

"That's the best."

So the cabin boy removed the weapons, while his captain, accompanied by

the British sub-consul, strode to the gangway thrown open in the low

waist, arriving just in time to offer his hand to the lady passenger

of the shallop. Behind her the drolly accoutred sham Chilian commodore

scrambled aboard.

Doña Josefa de Miranda was of elephantine form, with her hair, neck,

ears, and arms literally laden with gems, gold eagles, and Mexican

coins, pierced and strung in the shape of collars and bracelets. A

thousand dollar China crape shawl showed all its florid pattern in

embroidery, spread on her broad shoulder. A figured muslin dress, much

too short, was caught in at what she probably flattered herself was a

waist, by a sash sprinkled with precious stones. A profusion of costly

rings shone on her gloved hands. It was manifest that don José de

Miranda in his flight had left some valuables which his kinswoman had

forestalled the executors in securing.

Nothing could be more repulsive in its uncomeliness than the swarthy

lineaments of this corpulent being, whose carping physiognomy and small

glistening coffee coloured eyes wore an expression of indescribable

spitefulness.

Close to her escort, captain Gladsden undoubtedly recognised the

scarred hook nose, hatchet face, and lank figure of his gambling

opponent. It was the same grotesque uniform which had been donned to

astonish the natives at the supper table of don Stefano.

When this precious pair came in upon the deck of the _Little Joker_,

the armed men attempted to follow. But Mr. Holdfast--whose enforced

stay in the fort, penniless, scornfully used by the Guaymasians, had

filled him with terrible detestation of all Mexicans in general, and

Western ones in particular--gleefully obeyed his orders by bidding

them keep their distance. At once the corporal seemed indisposed to

bow to this injunction, and seized the Turk's head at the end of the

rope guard of the gangplank, thus railed to assist the lady, the first

officer, without losing an atom of his habitual coolness, shoved the

skiff head off so roughly with his foot as to make the soldier lose his

balance and fall between the two gunnels into the water. This, to the

laughter of the seamen, who cherish an animosity towards soldiers, and,

furthermore, against the armed police, always seeking an excuse to be

manifested. Luckily, the soldier had kept his hold of the main ropes,

and hung long enough to be lifted up into the boat to the disapproval,

if a certain splash of a tail in the water not remote, signified

anything, of a shark which had immediately prepared to sup on him

instead of the cook's waste.

Meanwhile, without deigning to attach the least interest to this

suggestive episode, the massive dame, giving the new master of the

brigantine a lofty look, used her most cutting tone to demand,

haughtily, if she were addressing the commander of the bark.

"Yes, madam," replied Gladsden, bowing stiffly, "for which recent

coming into possession I am happy, because it procures me the honour of

receiving on my deck as weighty a personage as your ladyship appears to

be. To whom have I the favour of speaking?"

The proud woman announced herself, sonorously, as "Doña Maria Josefa

Dolores Miranda y Pedrosa y Saltabadil de la Cruz de Carbaneillo y

Merlusa." The hearer bowed deeply at each bead on the string, darting a

look aslant as if he feared the little brigantine was rather top-heavy

with all these names. Then she pointed to her companion, who had been

eyeing the ship's new crew with an annoyed face which was diverting

enough to anyone in the secret of his interest, like an exhibition of a

curious wild beast.

"This is--for you need save yourself the trouble to name an old

acquaintance--Don Aníbal Cristobal de Luna y Pizarro Almagro de

Cortes," took up the gibing captain, with a wink for the consulary

assistant. "It is rather crushing, besides, your ladyship, to have here

a descendant of three of the conquerors."

Don Aníbal was curling his moustache to keep his countenance. His

native impudence was oozing out at every pore.

"This gentleman," proceeded the important lady, "is my son-in-law,

hence his accompanying me."

"Your daughter must be a happy woman to be the mate of so brilliant an

officer, an admiral, at least, I suppose?"

"Well, the alliance will not come off for a little spell, within these

four-and-twenty hours, sir. To conduce to that beneficent result, you

see me here."

"I am fully aware, Señorita," returned Gladsden, getting tired of

keeping up the chaff, "that I would never have boasted the possession

of this craft but for don Aníbal, but, in compensation, I hardly

believe he comes to me to be furnished with a wife, unfortunately,

unless it be the _gunner's daughter_, to which alliance he is heartily

welcome to my consent. I am afraid he will go away a bachelor for all

the marriageable young ladies here."

It is lamentable to record that the sailors, who had been bandying

verbal bonbons with the soldiers, chafing on the shallop, raised a

laugh at the expense of Don Aníbal, who perfectly well understood, in

his other part of pirate, that to marry the gunner's daughter, is to be

bound, face down, on a cannon and there undergo a flogging. So he drew

himself up with a savage gleam in the eyes:

"Mind what you say, or I will have you to know that I am very rich, and

otherwise of good position. It will be easy for me to make you repent

any insolence to me or my friend. So, take my caution for it, you had

better be respectful, and not forget whom you are addressing."

Gladsden slapped the Panama on his head which he had so far held in

hand.

"If it comes to that, ma'am," he said, "you must allow me to remark,

with all the respect that you claim, and which I will show you inasmuch

as you are of the gentle sex, and for that reason solely, that you are

labouring under an error. You don't seem fairly to know whom you are

talking to! I am the captain and owner of this goleta, and, moreover,

I am a foreigner. My deck is the same thing as a piece of the country

under the colours of which I sail. However grand you may be over there,

on land, your power falls pretty flat on these planks. I have the

honour to present to you the deputy of Her Britannic Majesty's Consul

who will bear me out in my observation."