Citadel of Fear Read online

  Both men offered willing though surprised assent.

  “Off for the day!” thought Boots. “And where off to, I wonder? Does he give picnics to his peons? He’s a different master, then, to any I’ve met in this slave-driver’s country.”

  Having seated them in a great, cool, high-ceilinged and galleried dining-room, their host disappeared to return presently bearing a piled trayful of plunder from his own deserted kitchen.

  The food, which included chicken, the inevitable tortilla, sweet potatoes crystallised in sugar, bananas and other fruits, was as typically Mexican as the hacienda. Yet all signs failed if their host were of Spanish blood..

  No Spanish-American speaks English as if it were quite native to his tongue, and moreover, though his eyes were dark, and his hair save where it was liberally shot with gray, almost black, there was something about his keen, clean-cut face which spoke of some more northern race. “You’re from the U.S.A.?” questioned Kennedy. The question was too blunt for courtesy, but the man nodded.

  “Yes, I am an American. A Californian, though my parents were born on the Christiania Fiord.”

  “Ah, a Norseman, is it?” Boots’ eyes lighted appreciatively. He had known a Norwegian or two, and thought them fine, upstanding, hard-hitting men of their hands. “I’m very glad to know you, Mr. — “

  “My name is Svend Biornson!” The tone was so challengingly abrupt that his guests involuntarily stared. If he had expected, however, to amuse another sort of surprise, he was disappointed. He saw it instantly and laughed as if to cover some odd embarrassment.

  “Pardon my not presenting myself earlier. One forgets civilized forms in this, out-of-the-way place. And now I fancy you’d welcome a chance to wash and change to fresh garments. Will you follow me, gentlemen?”

  The cool, airy chamber to which he escorted them opened off one of the two galleries surrounding the dining-room. Its three windows overlooked the patio, and through them one could step out upon another long, open gallery. There were two beds, draped with elaborate lace work, furniture of woven grass and wicker, and a bathroom with great, porous jars of cool water.

  In his first glance about, Kennedy’s eye was caught by a thing that stood on a bracket over one of the beds. Without apology he lifted the object down and examined it curiously.

  It was an image, some ten inches high, done in brilliantly polished but unglazed porcelain. The face, though flat, bore a peculiarly genial and benignant expression. On the head was a sort of miter, adorned with black spots. A tunic, on which embroidery was simulated in red, blue and gilt enamel; a golden collar, gaiters spotted like the headdress, and dead-black sandals completed the costume.

  On the left arm a round shield was carried. The right hand grasped a stag, terminating at the top in the curved neck and head of a snake, springing out of a collar or circlet of feathers.

  It was a very beautiful piece of potter’s art, but Kennedy had another reason for appreciation and interest.

  “Quetzalcoatl, eh?” he said. “From Cholula, or did you find it around these parts?”

  Biornson, who had not observed Kennedy’s act, whirled like a flash. To the amazement of both men, his face had gone dead white, as if at receiving some intolerable shock.

  “Quetzalcoatl!” he ejaculated in a quivering voice. “Sir, what do you know of Quetzalcoatl?”

  Kennedy stared back in blank astonishment.

  “Why-this.” He held up the image. “I didn’t suppose that one of these existed, outside the museum at Mexico City. Don’t you know its value?”

  Slowly the pallor vanished from Biornison’s countenance, and his nervous hands unclenched. With another of those queer, embarrassed laughs, he took the porcelain godling from Kennedy’s hands.

  “I had forgot the thing was in here,” he muttered. “It belongs to my wife. She would be greatly annoyed if it were broken. Lucky piece, you understand. Superstition, of course, but no worse than throwing salt over your shoulder, or not walking under a ladder-all that kind of nonsense. I’ll put it in her room if you don’t mind. Got everything you want? Then I’ll leave you. Better sleep out the day-nothing like siesta-dinner whenever you desire to have it — “

  Still muttering detached phrases of hospitality, and with the image clutched firmly to his bosom, Biornson fairly escaped from the presence of his guests.

  “What ails the poor man?” queried Boots. “Did they think we’d steal his china manikin, do you suppose?”

  Kennedy scowled and shrugged.

  “I suppose,” he retorted, “that this Biornson, if that’s his real name, is a rather queer sort, and that while w are in this house his eccentricities will bear watching.”

  Weary though both were, they did not find it easy to fall asleep. There was something oppressive about this vast, silent hacienda. The mystery of its emptiness, the mystery of its very existence, combined with the odd manners of their host to fill their brains with riddles. They lay silent, uneasy, while outside the drowsy heat increased and even, the vociferous bird-life ceased its clamor.

  Out of the silence, however, rest was born at last, and it was late in the afternoon when they woke.

  “By the way, Mr. Kennedy,” Boots said, “if you’ll forgive changing the subject to something more recent, what was the bit of bric-a-brac that Biornson snatched out of your hand? Quetz-Quetz- what was the name of it?”

  “Quetzalcoatl. A piece of old Aztec work. Down in Yucatan one can pick up all sorts of stone and terra-cotta images among the ruins, but not like that.”

  “And this Quetz-what’s-his-name-who was he? One o’ the poor heathens idols, maybe?”

  “The lord of the air. The fathered serpent.” Kennedy was generally willing to talk, when he could air some superior knowledge. “By tradition he was a man, a priest, who was afterward deified for his beneficent acts and character. It is said that he ruled Mexico in its Golden Age-Anahuac they called it then-and when he left his people he promised to return at the head of a race of men as white as himself.

  “He was a white god, you must understand. For that reason, when the Spaniards first landed the natives believed the lost god’s promise had been kept. Images of him are common enough, but not in porcelain of that quality. Biornson surprised me into giving away its real value, like a fool, but at that I could pay him a good price for the thing and still make a profit. It would bring almost any sum from a New York collector.”

  “Don’t deceive yourself that he didn’t know its value! You could see in his eye that he did.”

  “What do you think of Biornson, anyway?”

  “A fine, soft-spoken man-after the first minute.”

  “Did you notice how he boggled over his name? Svend Biornson! I dare swear he has another, and one he has reason to conceal.”

  But the other’s retort was cold and to the point.

  “We Irish do hate an informer. Are you ready yet to go down?”

  Save for a look of black resentment, Kennedy made no reply. However, as their briefest discussions generally ended in a clash, Boots ignored the glance and passed out to the dining-room gallery. There was yet no sound of life in the house, but on descending and finding their way out into the patio, they discovered Biornson there and he was not alone.

  Seated on a stone bench by the fountain was a woman. She was a tall, slender person, of unusual beauty, and Boots thought her dark eyes and hair and peculiarly roselike complexion reminiscent of the child who had first greeted them. She was dressed in a simple gown of some silky, leaf-green material, and as she talked with Biornson her hand fondled the long, soft ears of a white hound, whose head rested on her knee.

  None of the three seemed at first aware of the guests’ approach, but as they came nearer the woman’s face lifted with a quick, startled attention. She sprang to her feet, and the dog, as if in imitation, reared up beside her. On its hind legs the brute stood nearly as tall as she; and an ominous rumble issued from its throat.

  “Quiet!” cried Biornson shar
ply. He laid a hand on beast’s neck, pushing it downward. “Gentlemen, I had hardly expected you to awaken so early.”

  He had grasped the hound by its silky white fur, for it wore no collar, and under that insecure hold the animal surged disobediently forward. Its eyes flamed in a menace more savage than the bared fangs beneath; and as the dog seemed about to spring, Biornson flung his arms about its neck. In a flash it turned and tried to reach his face with snapping jaws.

  At that the woman, whose dark, startled eyes had been fixed on the strangers, seemed for the first time to become aware of her pet’s misbehavior. She spoke to it in a murmur of soft, indistinguishable syllables, and the hound, which had so resented Biornson’s interference, subsided instantly. A moment later it was flat on the ground at her feet.

  “That’s a fine dog,” approved Boots, “and you’ve a finer command over him, madam. May I ask what breed he is?”

  Before the woman could reply, Biornson intervened.

  “Just a hound of the hills,” he said quickly. “Astrid, these gentlemen are those of whom I told you.” He presented them more formally and, as Boots had expected, introduced the lady as his wife.

  The name “Astrid” had a Scandinavian sound, and her beauty might well be as Norse as her husband’s ancestry, but they had little time to study her. After murmuring a few shy words of welcome, she excused herself and left the guests to Biornson’s entertainment.

  As her green-clad form, with the white hound pressing close beside, receded into the inner shadows, the eyes of one man followed with a gleam of interest not aroused by her beauty.

  Her accent was the thing that troubled Archer Kennedy. That it was neither American, Norwegian, nor Spanish he was ready to take oath. Her appearance, too, had a vague hint of something different from any white woman he had ever seen. Yet surely no dark blood flowed in those pink-nailed hands, nor behind such rose-leaf cheeks.

  Dismissing the problem as immaterial, he returned to his host.

  CHAPTER II. The Moth Girl

  “MR. KENNEDY, we should go early to bed, for I think we’ll be leaving the morn just so soon as we can barrow or buy means of travel.”

  Rising, Boots cast away his brown leaf-cigarette with an impatient gesture.

  It was now nine in the evening, and for half an hour, following another picked-up meal eaten by the three men alone together, they had sat in silence.

  During that afternoon and evening Biornson’s embarrassment had taken refuge in a distinct coldness and reserve. Their questions he put aside, or calmly left unanswered, but there was a worried line between his brows and he had developed a speculative, tight-tipped and narrow-eyed way of watching his guests which made it clear to him they were a Problem with a capital P.

  Boots, who possessed more worldly knowledge than his years or careless manner would indicate, began to look speculative himself. Men with secrets to keep sometimes dispose of their Problems in an unpleasantly summary manner, and certainly this ravine was secret.

  To believe that such a vivid jewel in the barren Collados del Demonio had been kept from knowledge of the world by accident was folly. In the common course of events, the plantation would have been famed if only for its isolation.

  By what means and for what reason had Biornson prevented the spreading of its repute? From the first they had sensed something wrong in the ravine. As time passed, and their host’s peculiar manner became more and more emphatic, they began to believe that nothing was right.

  At Boots’ half-irritated suggestion, Biornson rose with suspicious alacrity, and Kennedy could do less than follow suit, though he scowled in the darkness. For hours he had been waiting with the patience of a cat at a rat-hole for their host to let slip some careless word or phrase that would give him the key to a possibly profitable mystery. But he and young Boots were an ill-matched couple, and he was more annoyed than surprised that his watch should be put an end to by the latter’s impatience.

  Having for the second time escorted them to their gallery beds, Biornson handed the small triple candelabra he had brought to Boots and bade them a brief good night. Then he closed the heavy door behind them and a second later there came certain unmistakable sounds from outside, followed by the unhurried footsteps of their departing host.

  With an oath Kennedy sprang for the door and wrenched vainly at the handle. As his ears had already informed him, it was locked and not only that but bolted.

  With the sudden frenzy of the trapped, he kicked it, beat at it with his hands; then, with the same furious and futile energy, sprang across the room and attacked the solid wooden shutters which, though he had not at first observed them, were closed when they entered.

  Still holding the candelabra, Boots stood near the middle of the room and watched his companion from under drawn, troubled brows. After a moment he set down the candles, took one stride forward, and grasping Kennedy by the shoulder forced him away and into a wicker armchair.

  “That’s no way to behave,” he said reprovingly. “D’ye want to be frightening Mrs. Biornson with your bangings and your yells like a he banshee? Your throat’s not cut yet, nor like to be.”

  “You young fool!” snarled the other. “Shall we sit here quiet till they do it? Use that big body of yours to some purpose and help me break out before that cursed brigand comes back!”

  “He’ll not come back.”

  “How do you know?”

  “‘Tis not reasonable he should. For why would he entertain us all day, herd us off alone with himself for watchman, keep his wife and bit child from our company lest they drop some word to betray them, and he plotting to murder us the night? All the hours we lay sleeping here-why, a bit of a knife-thrust would have just as well settled the business then. Better, for he’s put us on guard now with this foolishness of locked doors and barred shutters.”

  “Murderers are not logical.” Kennedy’s first flurry of rage and fear was past, and a cold hatred for the man who had imprisoned them was replacing it. “You were fool enough to let him know we have money in our belts. You may wait if you choose to be pig-stuck and robbed, but my motto is-strike first and strike hard. Help me out of here and I’ll show you how to deal with this Biornson’s sort.”

  “Will you so? Now hear me, Mr. Kennedy, and just remember that, though you’re older nor me and of perhaps more refined education, yet in the last showing and betwixt the two of us ‘tis myself has the upper hand. You’ll make no more disturbance, but you’ll lay down, or sit there in your chair, till such time as I see fit to act. Then you’ll do as I say and no otherwise. Dye understand all that?”

  Kennedy glowered blackly up at him, making no reply, but Boots seemed content to take his obedience for granted. Turning away, he made a brief, careless inspection of door and shutters, then flung himself on the bed and lay quiet.

  Time passed. The candles burned down toward their sockets and the closed room grew swelteringly hot, but still neither man spoke to the other.

  Once or twice Kennedy rose and paced up and down the floor, or drank from a clay water-jar on the table. But the giant figure on the bed did not stir. The iron muscles of a hibernating bear were never less restless than the Irishman’s when he had no occasion for their use.

  Yet at last he yawned, stretched, and sat up. “We’ll go now;” he coolly announced. “Now blow out the candles!”

  He caught at the edge of the shutter as the hinges gave way. Pushing it a little further outward he worked the bolts loose and eased it carefully down on the balcony outside.

  Sullenly the other followed, as the dominant Irishman stepped out on the balcony. Around them the inner walls of the hacienda rose dark and silent. Not a light showed anywhere.

  “A poor jailer who trusts to doors and shutters alone,” thought Boots. “It speaks well for his lack of practice that he’s set not even the dog to watch us-or we’ll hope he’s not set the dog!”

  With his boots slung about his neck, he cautiously climbed the railing; a moment later he was ha
nging by his fingers to the edge of the balcony floor, whence he dropped, to land with scarcely any sound, for all his weight, on the hard clay that paved the patio.

  Again Kennedy followed, but not caring to risk a broken leg he improvised a rope from the bedding, slid down it, and at that made more noise than the Irishman.

  No one, however, seemed to have been aroused, and in three minutes they stood together safe outside the hacienda. Once clear of their room, there had been nothing to hinder escape, for the wooden gates were merely shut to, and neither locked, barred nor guarded.

  About them night lay so black, so oppressively breathless, that it gave almost the impression of a solid, surrounding substance. They were in a region where rain, when it does fall, comes always between two suns. This night the world was roofed with thick cloud, like a lid shut down on the air, compressing it to the earth, making it heavy and unsatisfying to the lungs.

  “We’re in for a storm,” whispered Boots. “I’d not reckoned on a night like this.”

  “Reckoned on it for what?” Kennedy’s tone was keenly unpleasant. “To go after another sand-bath? If you are too cowardly to settle with Biornson, let me go back alone. I’ll engage to find him, and by the time I’m through he’ll be glad enough to let us have supplies or anything else-if he’s still alive.”

  “Time enough for all that tomorrow. Body o’ me, little man, have you no curiosity? I brought you out here to find the secret Biornson’s so set on concealing, and all you can think of is retaliation and general blood-letting! This ravine isn’t all the plantation. ‘Tis a grand big hacienda. He’s not crops enough in the ravine to support it, and I’ve a notion that the upper end leads to the place or the thing he wants hidden.

  “We’ll find out what it is, and then go leave the poor man in peace, since he’s so afeared of us. But see it I will, if only to make clear to him his mistake in locking us up so uncourteously.”

  The other swore, as he realized that Boots’ curiosity was a thing cherished purely for its own sake. Boots steered him away from the hacienda, down to the stream, and along the narrow path that followed it.