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Page 40
At this the latter chuckled with delight, evidently believing that the
blood-thirsty Americano was about to hew his victim in pieces, an
operation that, to him, would be vastly more entertaining than a mere
shooting. Then he stared in bewilderment; for, instead of cutting the
prisoner down, Ridge began to sever the lashings by which he was bound.
As the keen-edged machete cut through the last of these, the released
man fell forward in a faint, and the young American, catching him in
his arms, laid him on the sward. "Bring water!" he ordered, with a
sharp tone of authority, and the negro obeyed.
"You no kill him?" he asked, as he watched Ridge bathe the blood from
the unconscious man's face.
"Not now," was the evasive answer. "Where did you get him?"
Little by little, one word at a time, he gained from the taciturn negro
an idea of what had taken place while he slept. It seemed that, while
he had followed rough mountain trails in his roundabout course to and
from the refugee camp, there was a much better road to which they had
closely approached, when he was forced by exhaustion to call a halt.
After he fell asleep, Dionysio, going for water to a spring that he
knew of, had detected a sound of hoof-beats advancing along this road
from the direction of Holguin. Concealing himself near the spring, he
waited until the horseman, a Spanish officer, rode up to it. Then he
leaped upon the man, dragged him to the ground, and had him secured
almost before the astonished officer knew what was happening. He was
also dazed by a wound in the head received as he was hurled from his
horse.
Dionysio was on the point of killing him, as he had many a Spaniard,
but reflecting that the Americano whom he was guiding would doubtless
enjoy that pleasure, he generously decided to yield it to him and
reserve the victim until Ridge should finish his nap. So, after
gagging the Spaniard, that he might not disturb him who slept, Dionysio
flung him across his shoulder and carried him to camp. There he
secured him to a tree so that Ridge might see him upon awakening, and
then calmly resumed his duties as camp cook and sentry. The
unfortunate prisoner, wounded, bound, and powerless to move or speak,
tormented by heat and insects, and parched by a burning thirst, had
thus suffered for hours, while the young American who was to kill him
slept close at hand, blissfully unaware of his presence.
As Ridge pityingly cleansed the face of this enemy whose present
sufferings had been terminated by unconsciousness, he all at once
recognized it as that of the officer who had conveyed him from General
Pando's quarters to the guard-house in Holguin. At the same time,
noting a slight rustle of paper somewhere in the man's clothing, he
began a search for it, and finally discovered a despatch in an official
envelope. Carefully opening this without breaking the seal, he found
it to contain two papers. One was a personal note from General Pando
to the Spanish commander at Jiguani, calling his attention to the
other, which was an order to set forth at once with his entire force
for Santiago, where an American army was about to land, and where he
would be joined by 5000 troops from Holguin.
"This is interesting," commented Ridge, "and of course must not be
allowed to reach its destination. So I will just put in its place my
Carranza despatch to this same gentleman, informing him that the
Americans are to land at Cienfuegos. It will have added weight if it
appears to come from General Pando, and will surely start him off in a
direction where he can do no harm.
"I wonder, though, what I had best do with you," he continued,
meditatively, addressing the unconscious form beside him. "Of course
you will recognize me as soon as you are able to sit up and take
notice. Of course, also, I can't kill you in cold blood; nor can I
turn you over to the tender mercies of Dionysio, for that would amount
to exactly the same thing. I don't dare let you go, and I can't be
bothered with you as a prisoner; so what on earth I am to do with you
I'm sure I don't know. I almost wish you wouldn't wake up at all."
Just here, owing to Ridge's kindly ministrations, the cause of his
perplexity opened his eyes, looked the young American full in the face,
and smiled a faint smile in which recognition and gratitude were
equally blended.
CHAPTER XVI
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