The blade gleamed in the air, once, twice, and fell: not on the chain, but on the wrist which it fettered.There was a shriek--a crimson flash--and the chain and its prisoner were parted indeed.
One moment more, and Amyas's arrow would have been through the throat of the murderer, who paused, regarding his workmanship with a satisfied smile; but vengeance was not to come from him.
Quick and fierce as a tiger-cat, the girl sprang on the ruffian, and with the intense strength of passion, clasped him in her arms, and leaped with him from the narrow ledge into the abyss below.
There was a rush, a shout; all faces were bent over the precipice.
The girl hung by her chained wrist: the officer was gone.There was a moment's awful silence; and then Amyas heard his body crashing through the tree-tops far below.
"Haul her up! Hew her in pieces! Burn the witch!" and the driver, seizing the chain, pulled at it with all his might, while all springing from their chairs, stooped over the brink.
Now was the time for Amyas! Heaven had delivered them into his hands.Swift and sure, at ten yards off, his arrow rushed through the body of the driver, and then, with a roar as of the leaping lion, he sprang like an avenging angel into the midst of the astonished ruffians.
His first thought was for the girl.In a moment, by sheer strength, he had jerked her safely up into the road; while the Spaniards recoiled right and left, fancying him for the moment some mountain giant or supernatural foe.His hurrah undeceived them in an instant, and a cry of "English! Lutheran dogs!" arose, but arose too late.The men of Devon had followed their captain's lead: a storm of arrows left five Spaniards dead, and a dozen more wounded, and down leapt Salvation Yeo, his white hair streaming behind him, with twenty good swords more, and the work of death began.
The Spaniards fought like lions; but they had no time to fix their arquebuses on the crutches; no room, in that narrow path, to use their pikes.The English had the wall of them; and to have the wall there, was to have the foe's life at their mercy.Five desperate minutes, and not a living Spaniard stood upon those steps; and certainly no living one lay in the green abyss below.
Two only, who were behind the rest, happening to be in full armor, escaped without mortal wound, and fled down the hill again.
"After them! Michael Evans and Simon Heard; and catch them, if they run a league."The two long and lean Clovelly men, active as deer from forest training, ran two feet for the Spaniard's one; and in ten minutes returned, having done their work; while Amyas and his men hurried past the Indians, to help Cary and the party forward, where shouts and musket shots announced a sharp affray.
Their arrival settled the matter.All the Spaniards fell but three or four, who scrambled down the crannies of the cliff.
"Let not one of them escape! Slay them as Israel slew Amalek!"cried Yeo, as he bent over; and ere the wretches could reach a place of shelter, an arrow was quivering in each body, as it rolled lifeless down the rocks.
"Now then! Loose the Indians!"
They found armorers tools on one of the dead bodies, and it was done.
"We are your friends," said Amyas."All we ask is, that you shall help us to carry this gold down to the Magdalena, and then you are free."Some few of the younger grovelled at his knees, and kissed his feet, hailing him as the child of the Sun: but the most part kept a stolid indifference, and when freed from their fetters, sat quietly down where they stood, staring into vacancy.The iron had entered too deeply into their soul.They seemed past hope, enjoyment, even understanding.
But the young girl, who was last of all in the line, as soon as she was loosed, sprang to her father's body, speaking no word, lifted it in her thin arms, laid it across her knees, kissed the fallen lips, stroked the furrowed cheeks, murmured inarticulate sounds like the cooing of a woodland dove, of which none knew the meaning but she, and he who heard not, for his soul had long since fled.
Suddenly the truth flashed on her; silent as ever, she drew one long heaving breath, and rose erect, the body in her arms.
Another moment, and she had leaped into the abyss.
They watched her dark and slender limbs, twined closely round the old man's corpse, turn over, and over, and over, till a crash among the leaves, and a scream among the birds, told that she had reached the trees; and the green roof hid her from their view.
"Brave lass!" shouted a sailor.
"The Lord forgive her!" said Yeo."But, your worship, we must have these rascals' ordnance.""And their clothes too, Yeo, if we wish to get down the Magdalena unchallenged.Now listen, my masters all! We have won, by God's good grace, gold enough to serve us the rest of our lives, and that without losing a single man; and may yet win more, if we be wise, and He thinks good.But oh, my friends, remember Mr.Oxenham and his crew; and do not make God's gift our ruin, by faithlessness, or greediness, or any mutinous haste.""You shall find none in us!" cried several men."We know your worship.We can trust our general.""Thank God!" said Amyas."Now then, it will be no shame or sin to make the Indians carry it, saving the women, whom God forbid we should burden.But we must pass through the very heart of the Spanish settlements, and by the town of Saint Martha itself.So the clothes and weapons of these Spaniards we must have, let it cost us what labor it may.How many lie in the road?""Thirteen here, and about ten up above," said Cary.
"Then there are near twenty missing.Who will volunteer to go down over cliff, and bring up the spoil of them?""I, and I, and I;" and a dozen stepped out, as they did always when Amyas wanted anything done; for the ****** reason, that they knew that he meant to help at the doing of it himself.
"Very well, then, follow me.Sir John, take the Indian lad for your interpreter, and try and comfort the souls of these poor heathens.Tell them that they shall all be free.""Why, who is that comes up the road?"