CHAPTER VIII. The Golden Fleece | ||
8. CHAPTER VIII.
AS it was still some hours before dawn, and Freeman was too weak to travel, it was decided to encamp beside the pyramid till the following evening, and then make the trip across the desert in the comparative coolness of starlight. Meanwhile, there was something to be done, and much to be explained.
The spirit of Kamaiakan had passed away, apparently at the same moment that the peculiar case of “possession” under which Miriam had suffered came to an end. They determined to bury him at the foot of the great pyramid, which would form a fitting monument of his antique character and virtues.
Miriam, after her struggle, had lapsed
“We know that the ancient Aztecan priests were adepts in magic,” observed the professor, “and it's natural that some of their learning should have descended to their posterity. We have been clever in giving names to such phenomena, but we know perhaps even less about their esoteric meaning than the Aztecans did. I should judge that Miriam would be what is called a good `subject.' Kamaiakan discovered that fact; and as for what followed, we can only infer it from the results. I was always an admirer of Kamaiakan; but I must say I am the better resigned to his departure, from the reflection that Miriam will henceforth
“As near as I could make out, she called herself Semitzin,” put in Freeman.
“Semitzin?” repeated the general. “Why, if I'm not mistaken, there are accounts of an Aztecan princess of that name, an ancestress of my wife's family, in some old documents that I have in a box, at home.”
“That would only add the marvel of heredity to the other marvels,” said Meschines. “Suppose we leave the things we can't understand, and come to those we can?”
“I have something to say, General Trednoke,” said Freeman.
“I think I have already guessed what it may be, Mr. Freeman,” returned the general, gravely. “Old people have eyes, and hearts too, as well as young ones.”
“Come, Trednoke,” interposed the professor, with a chuckle, “your eyes might not have seen so much, if I hadn't held the lantern.”
“I love your daughter, and I told her so yesterday morning,” went on Freeman, after a pause. “I meant to tell you on my return. I know I don't appear desirable as a son-in-law. But I came here on a commission—”
“Meschines and I have talked it all over,” the general said. “When an old West-Pointer and a professor of physics get together, they are sometimes able to put two and two together. And, to tell the truth, I received a letter from a member of your syndicate, who is also an acquaintance of mine, which explained your position. Under the circumstances, I consider your course to have been honorable. You and I were both in search of the same thing, and now, as it appears, nature has sent an earthquake to do our affair for us. No operations of ours could have achieved such a result as last night's disturbance did; and if that do not prove effective, nothing else will.”
“If it turns out well, I was promised a share in the benefits,” said Freeman, “and
“After all,” interrupted Meschines, “you found your way to the spot from which the waters broke forth, and may fairly be entitled to the credit of the discovery.—Eh, Trednoke? At any rate, we found nothing. —Yes, I think they'll have to admit you to partnership, Harvey: and Miriam too,— who, by the way, seems to be the only one who actually penetrated into this cave you speak of. Maybe the removal of the chest pulled the plug out of the bung-hole, as it were: the escape of confined air through such a vent would be apt to draw water along with it. By the way, let's have a look at this same chest: it looks solid enough to hold something valuable.”
“I would like, in the first place, to hear what General Trednoke has to say about what I have told him,” said Freeman, clearing his throat.
“Miriam,” said the general, “do you wish to be married to this young man?”
The old soldier was sitting with her hand in his, and he turned to her as he spoke. She threw her arms round his neck, and pressed her face against his shoulder. “He is to me what you were to mamma,” she said, so that only he could hear.
“Then be to him what she was to me,” answered the general, kissing her. “Ah me, little girl! I am old, but perhaps this is the right way for me to grow young again. Well, if you are of the same mind six months hence—”
“Worse; it will be much worse, then,” murmured the professor. “Better make it three.”
The chest was made of some alloy of steel and nickel, impervious to rust, and very hard. It resisted all gentle methods of attack, and it was finally found necessary to force the lock with a charge of powder. Within was found another case, which was pried open with the point of the general's bowie-knife.
It was filled to the brim with precious
“I call that quite a respectable dowry,” remarked Meschines. “Upon my soul, Miriam, if I had known what you had up your sleeve, I should have thought twice before allowing a `civil engineer'—do you remember?—to run off with you so easily.”
At dawn, they prepared the body of old Kamaiakan for its interment. In doing this, the professor noted the peculiar appearance of the corpse.
“The flesh is absolutely withered,” said he, “especially those parts which were uncovered. It must have been subjected to the action of some destructive vapor or gas, fatal not only to breathe, but to come in
“Kamaiakan ascribed it to the magic of the Golden Fleece,” said Freeman.
“Well,” rejoined the other, “he may have been right; but, for my part, the only magic that I can find in it lies in the fact that it is made of pure wool, which undoubtedly possesses remarkable sanative properties; or maybe the fiery soul of Semitzin was powerful enough to repel all harmful influences. The poor old fellow himself, being clad in cotton, and with no soul but his own, was destroyed. Let us wrap him in his blanket, and bid him farewell—and with him, I hope, to all that is uncanny
The last rites having been paid to the dead, the party mounted their horses and rode out of the gorge on to the long levels of the desert.
“Who come yonder?” said Freeman.
“A couple of Mexicans, I think,” said the general.
“One of them is a woman,” said Meschines.
“They look very weary,” remarked Freeman.
Miriam fixed her eyes on the approaching pair for a moment, and then said, “They are Señor de Mendoza and Grace Parsloe.”
And so, indeed, they were; and thus, in this lonely spot, all the dramatis personæ of this history found themselves united.
In answer to the obvious question, how Grace and De Mendoza happened to be there, it transpired that, left to their own devices, they had undertaken no less an
Meanwhile, Grace had time to think over all that happened, and to arrive at certain conclusions. She was at bottom a good girl, though liable to be led away by her imagination, her vanity, and her temperament. Don Miguel's best qualities had revealed themselves to her in the desert: he had always thought of her before himself, had done all that in him lay to save her from fatigue and suffering, and had stuck to her faithfully when he might perhaps have
The general, as her guardian, did not withhold his approval; but when Grace drew him aside and besought him never to reveal to her intended the fact that she had once been a shop-girl, the old warrior smiled.
“You can depend upon me to keep your secret, if you wish it, my dear,” said he; “but I warn you that such concealments between husband and wife are not wise. He loves you and would only love you the
But Grace pictured to herself the aristocratic pride of an hidalgo shocked by the suggestion of the plebeianism of trade; and she would not consent to the revelation. But the general's prediction was fulfilled sooner than might have been expected.
For, after they were married, Don Miguel decided to visit the Atlantic coast on the wedding journey; and one of the first notable places they reached was, of course, New York. Don Miguel was delighted, and was never weary of strolling up Fifth Avenue and down Broadway, with his beautiful wife on his arm. He marvelled at the vast white pile of the Fifth Avenue Hotel; he frowned
And one afternoon it happened that as they were strolling along Broadway, between Twenty-third Street and Union Square, and were crossing one of the side-streets, a horse belonging to one of Lord and Taylor's delivery-wagons became frightened, and bolted round the corner. One of the hind wheels of the vehicle came in contact with Grace's shoulder, and knocked her down. The blow and the fall stunned her. Don Miguel's grief and indignation were expressed with tropical energy; and a by-stander said, “Better carry her into the store, mister; it's their wagon run her down, and they can't do less than look after her.”
The counsel seemed reasonable, and Don
“This lady are my wife,” he said, with dignity. “She not any more Miss Parsloe.”
“Oh, Grace has got married!” exclaimed the young ladies, one to another; and then an elderly man, evidently in authority, came forward and said, “I suppose you are aware, sir, that Miss Parsloe was formerly one of our girls here; and a very clever and useful girl she was. I need not say how sorry we are for this accident: I have sent for the
At this juncture, Grace opened her eyes: she looked from one face to another, and knew that fate had brought the truth to light. But the physical shock tempered the severity of the mental one: besides, she could not help being pleased at the sight of so many well-remembered and friendly faces; and, finally, her husband did not look by any means so angry and scandalized as she had feared he would. Indeed, he appeared almost gratified. The truth probably was, he was flattered to see his wife the centre of so much interest and attention, and at the discovery that she had been in some way an honored appanage of so imposing an establishment. So, by the time Grace was well enough to be driven back to her hotel, the señor was prattling cheerfully and familiarly with all and sundry, and was promising to bring his wife back there the next day, to
Such was Grace's punishment: it was not very severe; but then her fault had been a venial one; and the episode was of much moral benefit to her. She liked her husband all the better for having nothing more to conceal from him; her vanity was rebuked, and her false pride chastened; and when, in after-years, her pretty daughters and black-haired sons gathered about her knees, she was wont to warn them sagely against the un-American absurdity of fearing to work for their living, or being ashamed to have it known.
But the married life of Miriam and Harvey Freeman was characteristically American in its happiness. The representatives of the oldest and of the latest inhabitants of this continent, their union seemed to produce the flower of what was best in both. Their wedding is still remembered in that region, as being everything that a Southern Californian wedding should be; and the bride, as
CHAPTER VIII. The Golden Fleece | ||