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Updated: June 16, 2025
I told Señor Carera that I should only be too glad to profit by the opportunity, and that on any day and at any hour which he might name I would be ready. "I will see the teniente, and let you know further in the course of to-morrow," said Carera, after a moment's thought. "The affair will require nice management. There are patrols on every road.
This closed the discussion for the time being, and we went on deck, where Carera once more obsequiously joined us, much to our disgust; for it seemed probable that, if this sort of thing was to continue, we should find the fellow far too attentive to suit our ulterior plans.
But to our intense, though secret, mortification, Carera at length resolved to keep straight on; and thus another of our cherished hopes was disappointed.
She was rigged with three masts; and, from the great length of her graceful tapering yards, she must have been capable of showing an enormous spread of canvas to the breeze. With an eye to future business, I not only noted the direction in which she was steering, but also questioned Carera about her; but that individual was or professed to be totally unacquainted with her.
A Carmelite friar, a venerable old man, with the hot tears fast falling from his old eyes over his wrinkled cheeks, whom I presently found to be the excellent Padre Carera, sat in a large chair by the bedside, with a silver cup in his hand, beside which lay a large crucifix of the same metal; he had just administered extreme unction, and the viaticum, he fondly hoped, would prove a passport for his dear child to another and a better world.
Yet I stood riveted to the spot, until I was aroused by the deep toned voice of Padre Carera, who, lifting up his hands towards heaven, addressed the Almighty in extempore prayer, beseeching his mercy to our erring sister who had just departed. The unusualness of this startled me.
"But how did Carera find out where I was? and what assurance had you that when I asked for a priest they would bring you?" "That was easy enough. This is a small military post as well as an occasional prison, some of the soldiers are always drinking at the pulperia round the corner, and they talk in their cups. I even know the countersign for to-night.
I could see that Carera was even more discomposed than ourselves at the approach of the boat, but he would not for a moment listen to my proposal to arm the felucca's people, hastily explaining and possibly he was right that the display of weapons would be only too likely to further excite our coming visitors and lead to some overt act productive of a terrible disaster.
Carera was still standing up in the stern-sheets peering eagerly over the boat's larboard bow; and the men were all intently looking over their right shoulders. Presently I saw them lay their oars cautiously inboard, and then all hands ranged themselves along the larboard side of the boat, careening her almost gunwale-to as they stretched their arms over her side.
The perspiration was pouring off the poor fellows' faces and bare arms in streams, but they still worked away, looking eagerly at me every time I shot a hasty glance astern, as if anxious to gather from my expressive countenance what hopes of escape still remained. At length we reached the mouth of the channel, and I dared no longer withdraw my eyes for a single instant from Carera.
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