United States or Austria ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
But, if what you say about hating Leborge is true, I will put you in a place where you will be able to see him. You have a pistol, I know. If you see Leborge raise pistol or knife against me, shoot, and shoot quickly! I will make you rich!" Stuart thought to himself that if the conspirators were to come to quarreling, that was the very time he would keep still.
"I suppose you know that I would have no scruples in shooting you if you betrayed us," he remarked. Stuart looked up. "I don't know it," he answered. "Manuel or Leborge might do it, but I think you'd have a lot of scruples in shooting an unarmed boy." "Surely you can't expect me to save your life merely to run my own neck in a noose?"
It was a pleasant smile, but Stuart was keen enough to grasp that a man who smiles when he is insulted must either be a craven or a dangerous man with an inordinate gift of self-control. Cecil could not be a coward, or such men as Manuel and Leborge would not so evidently fear him, therefore the other character must befit him. Another word which repeated itself frequently was "Panama."
"The way I get it," he mused, "Father's on the trail of some plot against the United States. This plot is breaking loose, here, in Haiti. This Manuel Polliovo's in it, and so is a negro General, Cesar Leborge. There's a third, but the papers don't say who he is. "Now," he went on, "I've two things to do. I've got to find Father and I've got to find out this plot. Which comes first?"
Peering out cautiously from his post of observation in the embrasure, Stuart saw that both Manuel and Leborge hesitated at the entrance to the dark passage which led from the Dining Hall and Queen's Chamber to the inner court, from whence went the paths leading respectively to the outer gate, whither Manuel must go, and to the battlements, where Leborge was to reappear as the ghost of Christophe.
Likewise, with this plot in hand, Manuel feared lest he should be outmanoeuvred at the last. Following Cecil's example, Leborge and Manuel rolled out to the center of the room some blocks that had fallen from the walls, and sat down. Stuart noticed that the Cuban so placed himself that he was well out of a possible line of fire between the negro general and the embrasure where the boy was hidden.
Yet each man wanted the business done as quickly as possible, and wanted to be free from the danger of assassination by his comrades. Leborge drew from his pocket a paper which he showed to the other two, and, in turn, Manuel and Cecil produced documents, the Englishman using his left hand only and never dropping the barrel of his revolver.
And thinking, my dear Leborge, is sometimes dangerous." The huge negro nodded assent and hung back while Manuel descended the stair. At the entrance into the high room, ringed with windows, in a small ruined opening of which Stuart crouched watching, Manuel waited for Leborge. Together they entered.
His hand flashed to his pocket, none the less. The figure laughed, a harsh coarse laugh which Manuel knew and recognized at once. "General Leborge," he exclaimed, surprise and self-annoyance struggling in his voice. "It is you!" "But Yes, my friend, it is I. You see, I am not so daring as you. I came secretly. I have been here three days, waiting for you." "But the meeting was set for today!"
"Then," said Manuel, raising his voice a trifle in a way which Stuart knew he was meant to hear, "the sooner I get down to Cap Haitien the better. I had trouble enough to get up." "It might be well," suggested the Englishman, "if Leborge should repeat his trick of appearing as the ghost of Christophe.
Word Of The Day