CHAPTER XXVII
DR. BAROSA SCORES
BAROSA was carrying a sheet or two of writing paper, and in the glance I caught of his profile as he shut the door carefully behind him, I noticed that his hard strong features were paler than usual. His set determined expression and manner were those of a man who knows he is face to face with a grave crisis.
“You are surprised to see me, Mr. Donnington,” he said as he turned to me; and his voice, deep and vibrating, confirmed my diagnosis.
“Yes, I am.”
“Let me explain. The Contesse Inglesia has told me what has passed between you and that you desire to have a written statement from me concerning Mademoiselle Dominguez and her relations; and I thought it could be more conveniently drawn up at once.”
“I am waiting for her to leave the house with me.”
“I am aware of that. She will no doubt be here in a moment and can perhaps assist us in writing this. Will you tell me what you wish written?”
“I have told the contesse; and you are quite able to do all I need,” I answered shortly.
“You will understand how profoundly I myself am concerned by all this. My liberty, my life, and what is far more to me than my life, are at stake. You have ascertained all our plans, and I feel it imperative to ask what use you intend to make of anything you compel me to write.”
“It will never be used at all unless it should become necessary in order to explain Mademoiselle Dominguez’ connexion with your plot.”
“Become necessary?” he repeated. “What does that mean?”
“If the plot should be discovered and she should be in any danger.”
“But it has been discovered already. It has failed. You discovered it because of the facts which had come to your knowledge as the result of the Rua Catania affair.”
“I do not intend to discuss the matter with you, Dr. Barosa. You can do as you please about writing what I require.”
“And if I refuse?”
I shrugged my shoulders. “You must infer what you will.”
“I will put it on another ground. I accepted unconditionally your pledge of secrecy and was instrumental in saving you subsequently from very serious consequences at the hands of those who questioned your good faith. As a return for that service I ask you to tell me exactly what you know.”
“The service of which you speak was followed by your secret visit to my rooms—with Henriques; and Major Sampayo told me this morning the object of that visit,” I said very drily. “Sampayo was very frank about you.”
“What did he say?” he asked, quite unruffled by this thrust.
“You can ask him on his return. And now, I am going.”
He had remained close to the door and he turned and locked it and put the key in his pocket.
“Our interview cannot end in this abrupt way, Mr. Donnington. The cause I have at heart may be ruined by you. You have told Contesse Inglesia that you were on the Rampallo the night before last, and I must know what you overheard and what use you intend to make of that information.”
“Open that door or give me the key,” I said sternly.
“I shall do neither. I am armed, as probably you are; and if you wish to force a struggle you must do so.”
Like a fool, I had come without a revolver; but I clapped my hand to my pocket as if I had one there; and then paused. “I don’t want your blood on my head,” I exclaimed.
But he was not deceived. “Ah, I perceive you have not thought that precaution necessary,” he said quietly. “Well, I mean you no harm, but we must talk this thing out and then I pledge you my word to open the door. Will you answer my questions?”
I was, in a mess, and if I was to get out, it would not be by force; unless I could succeed in catching him off his guard. So I threw myself into a chair and laughed. “You are right. I am not armed. But the weapon I have is stronger than a revolver. I had my suspicions roused about the Rampallo, and I got on board her in time to hear all your discussion on the news which M. Dagara sent you.”
“Ah, as a spy!” he sneered.
“Yes; as a spy, if you like. As a result, Captain Gompez and his companions carried me off instead of the king; and this morning my men from the Stella came aboard and I returned here.”
“Where are my friends now?”
“On the Rampallo in charge of my people.”
“Why did you interfere? What could it matter to you?”
“You know perfectly well. Sampayo told you, after my interview with him three days ago. He begged you to cut the net in which you had involved Mademoiselle Dominguez. He told me this morning what I had only suspected before and what the Contesse Inglesia does not even suspect—your real motive.”
“He has lied to you of course.”
“Lies or truth, it doesn’t alter the present situation. Even if you draw your revolver and put one of its bullets in my head you won’t help matters. I have taken that precaution, you may be perfectly certain.”
“You mean to betray us all to the Government?” he asked after a pause, during which he drew his hand slowly from his pocket.
“I tell you what I have already told the contesse. My object is entirely personal. You can fight out your battle with your Government in your own way; but I mean to gain my end. When once that is gained, I shan’t be more minutes in Lisbon than I can help.”
Again he paused. He realized no doubt that he had to choose between giving up Miralda or sacrificing his cause and all concerned in it. A dilemma searching enough to make him thoughtful.
“You will give me your pledge to keep absolutely silent?” he asked at length.
“It is for me to impose conditions, not for you.”
“How do I know that all has occurred as you tell me?”
“You can please yourself. I have a paper signed by Sampayo and Gompez and all the rest of them.”
“Show it me.”
“Certainly.”
This might offer me the chance I sought. I took it out and held it toward him, intending to close with him the instant he came near enough. But he was too wary. “Throw it to me,” he said.
“You can read it from there,” I replied, and held it up so that he could do so.
“And where is the Rampallo now?”
I smiled and shook my head. “I have been very frank as to what has occurred; but what is going to occur is my own business.”
“You say these men have let you make them prisoners?”
“They say so themselves here.”
“And they are absolutely in your power to deliver them up to the Government when you please?”
“Absolutely. And they will be given up and a full statement of the facts made, unless I determine otherwise.”
That hit him as hard as I intended.
“When?” he rapped out.
“That also I must leave you guessing. If you are under the belief that by keeping me here or doing me any sort of mischief you will prevent all this getting out, you are merely deluding yourself.”
He paused once more and then tossed up his hands. “You have left me no option,” he said with a sigh. “What do you wish me to write?”
“That Mademoiselle Dominguez and her brother were forced into this affair by you and that she was never aware of the nature of the communications she received from Dagara.”
“I will write it,” he said at once. “Here is the key of the door;” and he threw the key to me as he crossed to a table and sat down to write.
I drew a breath of relief. I had won more easily than I had anticipated. Whatever his intentions had been at the outset of the interview, he had apparently abandoned them on learning that to do anything to me would not avert discovery or save his companions.
He found some difficulty in wording the paper and tore up a couple of sheets with an exclamation of impatience. Several minutes were spent in this way.
When he had finished the writing he handed it to me. “Will that do?”
I read it carefully. It was almost in the words I had used, and I folded it up and put it in my pocket, well satisfied that, should any emergency arise requiring its use, it would prove a sufficient confirmation of the story I had to tell.
“I am satisfied,” I said.
“You will leave Lisbon at once, Mr. Donnington, and will keep absolutely silent as to all that has occurred?”
“Yes, unless circumstances arise in which I am compelled to use this document on Mademoiselle Dominguez’ behalf.”
“I quite understand that, and can accept your word absolutely,” he replied. As I went toward the door, he added: “You will pardon the means I adopted to secure this interview, and will understand how vital it was that I should know the position precisely?”
“So long as you recognize it, that’s enough for me.”
“Oh, wait one moment,” he cried, as I put the key in the lock. “We have forgotten one very important point. I have been intensely disturbed by all this, as you will have seen; and that is the cause of my oversight. You will arrange for my friends to be set at liberty at once?”
“Certainly; as soon as practicable.”
“To-day, I mean?”
“That is not possible. The Rampallo is out at sea. I will send the Stella after her; but it will be at least two days before the two yachts can be back in port.”
His face clouded. “That is very serious. These officers are absent from their regiment without leave and exceedingly awkward questions may be asked. It may mean ruin for them.”
“I presume they knew the risk they were running.”
“Had they succeeded there would have been no risk of course. On the contrary, they would have had their reward. Had the cause of their failure been other than it was, they would have been able to return to duty at once; but as it is——” he broke off and paced the room in great perturbation. “Could you have them put on shore somewhere along the coast so as to save time?”
“No. The Rampallo has steamed straight out into the Atlantic.”
He tossed up his hands with an exclamation of despair. “I beg you to remain a minute while we consider this. I can think of but one way. It may be two days, you say?”
“Possibly less,” I replied. “We parted company this morning about seven o’clock. The Rampallo makes about eight or nine knots under easy steam and was about forty miles out. The Stella covers two knots to her one; and if we assume that the Rampallo has nine hours start, and allow for the time necessary to pick her up, the Stella should reach her in about twelve hours. The Rampallo would be about twenty-four hours on the homeward run and should make the river the day after to-morrow in the early morning.”
“If they returned in your yacht they would be here sooner.”
“But the Stella will not return here.”
“Could you not let her do so? The matter is very serious indeed.”
“No. I shall send orders that my men are to return to the Stella. Those who took the Rampallo to sea must bring her back.”
“You will not be surprised if I press you to let them return in your yacht. I do press it, very earnestly indeed.”
“I can’t do it, Dr. Barosa.”
“Well, then, I must fall back on my first thought. The Rampallo must be wrecked, and Gompez and the rest take to the boat. That would give a plausible reason for their absence.”
I smiled. It was certainly ingenious. “The weather has been rather against anything of that sort,” I reminded him.
“That is not serious. As I gather it, you will send out an order at once to your boat to go after the Rampallo and just take off the men you have on her. Will you let me send a letter by—your captain will it be?”
“Captain Bolton.”
“Well, will you let me send a letter by him to Gompez?”
“Yes, if you give it me at once.”
He began to write it at once and, as before, found difficulty in framing it, and tore up several sheets. “I can trust your captain to deliver it unopened?” he asked.
“Of course you can. But I must ask you to get it done,” I said impatiently.
He made a fresh start; wrote a dozen lines or so, and again tore up the sheet, this time with a muttered oath of vexation.
“I am sorry to try your patience so, Mr. Donnington; but I have been so disturbed that I am scarcely master of my thoughts. Will you let me send this to your boat later on? Or will you write your instructions to your captain and let me send them both together?”
“Yes, that will do as well,” I said.
He got up from the table and made way for me. I began a note to the skipper telling him to hunt up the Rampallo and take off Burroughs and the men; and was proceeding to add that he should then steam to Plymouth, when it occurred to me that I might possibly persuade Miralda and her mother to leave on the Stella at once.
I paused and by chance glanced in a mirror just opposite me, in which I saw Barosa. He was watching me with a look of cunning, gloating triumph that in an instant my suspicions awoke. He was fooling me. All his show of concern for his companions, his inability to master his thoughts, his suggestion about wrecking the Rampallo and all the rest of it, were tricks, nothing more, to fool me to put this order into his hands so that he might get his friends at liberty.
Careful not to let him know that I had seen him, I resumed the writing. But after adding a couple of lines I scribbled the word “Cancelled” in big sprawling letters right across the paper, rose with a laugh and tore it into minute fragments. “I’m like you, Dr. Barosa, I cannot write. I’ll see my skipper and tell him personally; and you can send your letter to him later. I’ll tell him to wait for it.”
“That will answer the same purpose, of course,” he said, not quite successful in hiding his chagrin. “I will send it to the yacht in less than an hour.”
“Will you see that Mademoiselle Dominguez comes to me?” I said, and unlocked the door.
As I threw open the door he caught me by the arm. “Wait a moment, there is another——”
The sentence was not finished. I turned at his voice and a cloth was thrown over my head, I was seized before I had a chance to resist, my arms were pinioned and a gag thrust into my mouth; and I was carried down the stairs and flung on the floor of a room the door of which was locked and bolted.