The Romance of Golden Star ...
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George Chetwynd Griffith >> The Romance of Golden Star ...
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'_Halta! quien va?_'
The words in the hated Spanish speech told me that he was a foe. As he
faced about, bringing his rifle to the ready, I drew my knife and,
before he could take aim, sent it whistling through the air with such
force and so true an aim that it took him in the windpipe and half
buried its blade in his neck. That was one of the tricks of our old
warfare which, with many others, I had taken good care not to forget.
He dropped his rifle and clasped his hands to his throat and fell
without a sound. I crept swiftly forward, pulled the knife out of his
throat and drove it into his heart. Then I quickly took off his
cartridge-belt and long coat and cap, and put them on. After that I took
his rifle and stood in his place for a little while, so that the others
might see me, and then walked back to where I had left Hartness. When he
saw me coming, his rifle-barrel moved till it covered me, and he said in
English,--
'Is that you, Vilcaroya?'
'Yes,' I said. 'The sentry was an enemy, and I have killed him. Now I am
going to take you prisoner, as though I were the sentry, and so we can
go together and find the officer who commands the sentries, and take him
prisoner or kill him.'
'All right,' he said with a laugh. 'I surrender. This isn't quite what
we call civilised warfare, but I suppose it can't be helped.'
We went back together to the place where the sentry that I had killed
had stood, and then we saw two or three others coming in towards the
place, no doubt to see why the other sentry should have left his post. I
took Hartness's rifle out of his hand, and, catching him by the arm, led
him to meet the nearest of them, as though I had taken a prisoner.
Within ten paces of them I halted, and said,--
'Is it Vilcaroya or Prada?'
'Vilcaroya to a friend, Prada to an enemy,' he answered, in the dialect
in which I had addressed him.
'Then we are friends,' I said, taking off the peaked cap that had
belonged to the other sentry, and showing him the long, straight, brown
hair that betokened my race. 'I am he who has come back from the days
that are dead--Vilcaroya, the son of Huayna-Capac.'
'And I am thy servant, Lord,' he said, bringing his rifle-butt down
between his feet, and bending his head over the muzzle. 'I am one of
those who saw the glory of my Lord in the Hall of Gold last night.'
'Then thou art one of the faithful,' I said, 'for none have betrayed the
secret or earned the swift death that would have been theirs had they
done so. Now tell me, how many of those who are on guard here to-night
may be trusted?'
'There are twenty of us here, Lord, not counting the officer in
command.'
'Nay,' I said, interrupting him, 'there are but nineteen, for he who
wore this coat and carried this rifle was an enemy, and I have killed
him, as I would have killed thee hadst thou been an enemy. Now, of these
nineteen, how many may I trust?'
'There are but five who may not be trusted, not counting the officer,
and he is a Spaniard, and must be killed.'
'That is good,' I said, for the tone in which he had said these last
words had pleased me well. 'Now this man with me is my faithful friend,
and one who will fight well for me and my people. Go on the other side
of him, and we will take him as a prisoner to the officer. Then thou
shalt see how Vilcaroya deals with his enemies.'
He bent his head in assent, and took his place beside Hartness, and as
we marched away Hartness said to me,--
'I don't think I shall have much to teach you in strategy, Vilcaroya,
but I must say that I would rather have a stand-up fight than this kind
of thing.'
'It is not like what you have told me of the warfare of the English,' I
said, 'yet if it has to be it must be. Let us get it over.'
So we marched him between us across the plain, and when we got between
the wall of the fortress and the carved stone that they called the
Inca's Seat, we saw the officer who was in command of the sentries
walking, with two soldiers beside him, from post to post, seeing that
the sentries were awake and keeping proper watch. We went to meet him,
and halted ten paces from him at his command. I had told the sentry to
reply for me, and he answered the officer's hail and said,--
'Vilcaroya!--a prisoner.'
[Illustration: It had smitten him to the heart.
_To face page 228._]
As the first words left his lips the two soldiers repeated the password
and made with their rifles the movement that is called the salute. My
knife was already in my hand, and as the officer gave a command in
Spanish, it flashed once in the starlight and the next instant was
buried to the hilt in his breast. He fell, as the sentry had done,
without a cry, for it had smitten him to the heart, dead as though he
had been struck by a lightning bolt. The others stared at his fallen
body, dumb with amazement, and I heard Hartness utter a sound that might
have been one either of horror or of wonder; but I had no time to take
heed of this, so I instantly ordered the two soldiers to take the
officer's uniform off his body, and then I said to Hartness,--
'Now, you can speak Spanish and I cannot. Take this Spaniard's uniform
and his weapons, and make yourself the officer of the guard, and then
you shall help me to set a trap that the Governor shall find it a hard
matter to escape from.'
CHAPTER XI
HOW WE TOOK THE CITY OF THE SUN
Although Hartness was a much taller and broader man than the Spaniard,
his long, loose overcoat fitted him well enough for the occasion, and
when he had put on his shako, and wrapped his scarf about his neck so as
to hide his fair beard, he was disguised enough to pass in the darkness
for one of the enemy. We now took the two soldiers who had been with the
officer and visited all the posts. We found four of the sentries who
could not return the password and were therefore enemies. These we
disarmed and bound instead of killing them, for I could see that what I
had done had pleased my friend but little, though he saw that in such a
desperate venture as ours it was necessary to use desperate measures.
When we had gone the rounds and made sure of all, we buried the two dead
men, and took our prisoners into one of the caves under the carved
stones. Then I posted my men so as to guard all the approaches from the
city to the Rodadero, and after that I went with Hartness to the hidden
hole by the Sayacusca, and showed him how the way to the Hall of Gold
was opened. I did this so that the secret might be in good and safe
hands if I should fall in battle, and so that he should be able to
properly protect the welfare of Ruth and Golden Star, and fulfil my
promises to himself and the professor.
When I had turned the stone and showed him the chain, I pulled it up and
supported it as I had done before, only this time I used the carbine
which had belonged to the sentry I had killed, and to the stock of this
I fastened a long rope which Tupac had hidden there by my orders. This
rope I stretched out along the ground, hiding it as well as I could, in
a straight line away from the Sayacusca. The end I led into the entrance
of one of the many passages or tunnels which ran under the carved
stones. By the time I had done this the water had all flowed away, and
Hartness said to me,--
'Are you going to leave the entrance to your treasure-house open like
that for His Excellency to walk into to-morrow?'
'Yes,' I said, 'but it is only half open. Unless the door below is open
too there is no way out or in save this and the channel through which
the waters flow, so that His Excellency will not find much down there.'
'I see,' he said, 'a trap, and not one that I should care to see a
friend of mine walk into. But you don't mean to drown them all like rats
in a hole, do you?'
'I cannot tell that yet,' I said. 'If we can take them alive we may do
so, but unless they yield to us they shall yield to the water. Now,
everything is ready, and we have only to wait. Come and sleep for a
little and I will keep watch, and then I will sleep and you shall watch.
It will not be daylight for six hours yet, and we can do nothing more
till then.'
We went to the cavern in which I had hidden the end of the rope, and he
lay down on the soft, clean sand, and, soldier-like, was fast asleep
almost as soon as he had lain down. I left him there, and made the round
of the guards and spoke with the men, telling them as much as it was
necessary for them to know of my plans for the next day, and allowed
half of them to take two or three hours' rest, with their arms ready at
hand, while the others watched, and then I went back to Hartness and
told him to wake me in three hours, and soon was fast asleep in his
place. He came and woke me at daylight and told me that everything was
still quiet and that the sentries were all in their places.
Then, when we had breakfasted on the food that we had brought with us
from the fortress, we called in all the sentries save the two by the
Gate of Sand, and hid them among the stones and bushes, all within an
easy rifle-shot of the entrance to the water-cavern. I bade the two I
had left by the gate tell the Governor that all was well, and, when he
had ridden by, to mix with the soldiers and tell those who were for me
to separate from the others as soon as they heard my signal-cry, and
then to wait for the English captain.
For nearly an hour we sat and watched for the coming of the enemy, and
then at last we saw a troop of horse come up out of the valley round the
end of the fortress. After them came some officers on horseback, with
the Governor riding at their head, and then another troop of horse, in
all about three hundred men. The first troop, led by the Governor and
his officers, came on towards the Sayacusca, and the others halted and
spread themselves out along the ridge that runs round it. When they saw
the empty hole and the steps leading down into the darkness, they all
crowded round, peering down into it. Then two lanterns were lighted and
some of them went down.
They had all dismounted from their horses and were indulging their
curiosity without suspicion. I waited till they were nearly all in my
trap, and then came the moment to close it. My long, wailing cry rang
out loud and shrill through the hollow, and was taken up by my men in
hiding, and in an instant all was confusion. I heard my name shouted
from one to the other, and saw more than half of the troopers in the
hollow leave their ranks and gallop away towards the plain. Then I took
aim at a trooper who was watching the officer's horses, and fired. The
bullet struck his horse, and it reared up and threw him, and then fell
and lay kicking on the ground. At this all the others took fright and
broke loose and galloped away in all directions. At the same instant the
rifles of my men began cracking all round, and saddle after saddle was
emptied as the bullets found their marks.
'I'm going to catch one of those horses,' said Hartness suddenly to me,
'then I'll ride out and bring those other fellows up and show them what
to do. That'll be more in my line than this sort of work. Good-bye; you
will see or hear of me again before long.'
The next moment he was gone, and I had not fired many more shots before
I saw him, mounted on one of the officers' horses, galloping through the
hollow towards the ridge. All this time none of my men had shown
themselves, and the constant stream of shots coming from all sides of
them had thrown the Governor's troops into utter confusion. The officers
were shouting orders which no one listened to, the horses were galloping
wildly about, rearing and plunging with the pain of their wounds, and
many of the soldiers had already taken to flight, believing, in their
panic, that the hollow was full of hidden enemies.
We kept up the fire from our hiding-places until we heard shouts and
cheers coming from the ridge, and I looked and saw Hartness with a drawn
sword in his hand, leading a body of some hundred and fifty troopers
down into the hollow.
Now I saw that we should be able to end the battle quickly, so I sent up
my signal-cry again and called for my own men to come out. Then I pulled
the rope and released the chain, and ran out towards my men, shouting to
them to close round the entrance to the water-cavern and shoot all who
tried to get out. Some three or four sought to escape and were shot, and
then the rest, seeing my men running at them with the bayonet, and the
other troopers coming up, led by a stranger, lost heart, and crowded
back into the cleft, firing their revolvers wildly as they went.
The next moment we heard cries of terror coming up out of the darkness,
mingled with the rushing of water, and the Governor, followed by about
six of his officers, came leaping up the steps to find a line of
bayonets drawn up across the mouth. With the waters surging up behind
them, and the bayonets in front of them, there was nothing for them but
surrender or death.
Hartness, who had now dismounted, ordered the men to fall back a pace,
and, as they did so, he went through the line with his sword in one hand
and a revolver in the other, and said to the Governor,--
'Senor, will you yield or go back down yonder?'
'We must yield,' said the Governor, 'since there is no choice. But who
are you, and what are you, an Englishman, doing here in arms against the
Government?'
'Who I am matters nothing just now,' he replied, 'and as for your
Government, it no longer exists. That must be enough for you. Now,
senores, give up your swords and revolvers quietly and no harm shall
come to you. You, Senor Prada, give your sword to this caballero here,
who is the Inca Vilcaroya and lawful ruler of this country.'
The Governor turned and stared at me, dumb with amazement at these
strange words, and all the others stared too, for, like him, they had
no doubt heard the legend of my strange fate. He drew his sword, and as
he did so I covered him with my revolver, and extended my hand to take
it. He held the hilt out to me with a trembling hand. I took it in
silence, and then I turned from him and said to my men,--
'Bring these Spaniards out and bind them safely, then follow me to the
Seat of the Incas.'
When they saw that the victory was with us, and that the Governor
himself was our prisoner, together with many of the chief of his
officers, those of the soldiers who had not been for me when they came
were glad enough now to secure themselves by shouting my name and
obeying my orders, and when I moved away towards the seat, they followed
me, laughing and cheering, well pleased to see their hated masters
prisoners in their midst.
The great carved rock which is called the Inca's Seat is, as I have
already said, a great rounded mass of stone rising up from the plain of
the Rodadero, and carved into many seats. On the top there are three
broad seats, the middle one higher than all the rest, and it was here
that my forefathers had sat to watch the building of the great fortress,
and sometimes to give audience to their people.
Now I sat on it, and the soldiers drew themselves up round the rock,
with the prisoners in the midst of them, and I spoke to them, and told
them freely of the strange things that had happened to me, and how I had
come back to the Land of the Four Regions to drive out their oppressors
and restore the just and gentle rule of my ancestors. Then I had the
Governor brought up and stood before me, and bade Francis Hartness come
and sit on my right hand and speak to him for me, and by his lips I told
him that unless the city was surrendered to me before evening he and all
his officers should die, and all the houses of the Spaniards in the city
should be given to the flames and no pity shown to any man, woman or
child of them, for as they had treated my people so I had sworn to treat
them unless they yielded.
You may think how troubled he was at hearing such words as these, since
he knew from what he had seen that there was conspiracy and treachery
among his own men, and he had no knowledge of how far this had gone, or
which of his men he could trust, and so this man, who but a few hours
before had been master of the whole valley, and had looked upon the
Indios, as he called them, as little better than slaves, now answered me
humbly enough and prayed me not to murder him when he was helpless in my
power. And to this I answered him that the blood of my people had been
crying out for many generations against his people, and that this was
the day not of mercy but of vengeance, and that I would do as I had said
unless the city were delivered to me.
Then I descended from the seat and mounted the Governor's horse, and
after I had sent a company of twelve men to ride quickly down to the
city and go through all the streets, shouting my name as a signal to
tell my people that all was well, and that the moment for them to rise
against their oppressors had come, I took my place beside Hartness at
the head of our little army, and with our prisoners well guarded close
behind us we set out on our way back to Cuzco.
As we approached the city we heard the sound of the church-bells being
rung wildly, and looking down, we could see the streets and squares full
of people, and as we got nearer still we heard the cracking of rifles
and the shouts and cries of men in conflict.
'There is either a fight or a riot going on down there,' said Hartness
to me, 'and if many of the soldiers remain faithful to the Government
there'll be some bloodshed before to-night. Have you any idea how many
there are?'
'There were more than two thousand soldiers in the city yesterday,' I
said, 'and out of these more than half have already taken my gold and
sworn faith to me. Of the rest many are wavering, and when they see we
have taken the Governor prisoner I think they will come over.'
'Very likely,' he said; 'but how about those machine-guns in the
barracks? There are three Gatlings and two Maxims, and if they keep
those and work them properly they'll just sweep the streets and squares
clear, you know.'
'I have promised fifty pounds' weight of gold for each of them,' I said;
'and, more than that, there should be no ammunition for them by this
time if what the sentries told us is true.'
'Yes,' he said, 'if we can get hold of that, or even the best part of
it, I don't think there will be much danger. However, as everything
depends on that, I think we had better go straight to the Cuartel first.
If we have that we have Cuzco.'
We entered the city by the street of El Triunfo, and made our way
straight to the great Plaza. As we rode along three abreast we were
greeted by joyful cries from the crowds of Indians who parted to leave a
way for us through the midst of them. Tupac and his comrades had done
their work well, and all night the people had been thronging into the
city from the surrounding country. All the shops and houses of the
Spaniards were already shut up, and although none knew the truth of what
was happening, all thought that the revolution had already broken out in
Cuzco and so had made themselves as safe as they could.
A little way from the entrance to the great square we came upon Tupac at
the head of some two hundred of the men of San Sebastian, armed with
knives and guns and pistols of all sorts which they had taken during the
night from the towns and villages around, where they had been doing the
work I had bidden them do. He told me that there were more than a
thousand soldiers in the city waiting only for me to show myself to kill
their officers and come over to us, and that the others would fight
without heart, if they fought at all, now that the Governor was
taken--for half of the people of Cuzco were for the Government and half
for the Revolution, and so the city would be divided against itself and
all would be confusion as soon as the fighting began.
He also told me that the official who is called the Sub-Prefect had
brought out two of the machine-guns and had planted them at each end of
the terrace in front of the cathedral, and made a proclamation that
unless everyone left the streets within an hour he would have them
cleared with bullets.
When I told this to Hartness he said,--
'Then we must have those two guns first. Tell Tupac to break his men up
into little bands of about half-a-dozen each and send them round into
all the streets leading to the square, and tell everyone that isn't
armed to keep out of the way if they don't want to get hurt. Then you
ride on with the prisoners and a guard of fifty men, and let them be
ready to shoot sharply. Tell them to aim at the knees and not to empty
their magazines too fast. I'll look after the guns. They won't fire on
you for fear of killing the Governor and the rest. Now, forward!'
I did as he said. Tupac's men broke up and disappeared as though by
magic. I took the reins of the horse on which the Governor was bound and
bade half-a-dozen of my men to do the same with the others. Then two and
two we trotted into the square, Tupac running along by my horse's head.
It was covered with groups of people all talking and looking and
pointing about them, and on the terrace before the cathedral there were
two companies of soldiers, one at each end, drawn up behind a
machine-gun.
As soon as the people saw me ride in with the Governor bound beside me a
great shout went up and many came running towards me, but I waved them
back and shouted to them to leave the square and guard all the streets
leading into it. I did this so that those who understood me, and were
therefore friends, might escape out of harm's way before the guns began
to fire.
Then I drew my revolver and put it to the Governor's head and bade Tupac
tell him to order the men away from the guns, and that if a shot was
fired he should be the first to die.
So, as there was no help for it, he did so, and called to the officers
to come down and speak with him, but instead of obeying they shouted
some orders to their men and I saw them making ready to fire the guns,
for, as we found out afterwards, they were men who would have joined the
revolution when it broke out.
But before the guns could be trained on us Hartness's troop swung round
into the square. The twenty foot soldiers sent a volley along the
terrace, firing low as he had told them, and killing and wounding nearly
half of the men at the guns. Then there came a rattling volley from the
cavalry and another from my own men, and then, with a great shout and a
clattering of hoofs, Hartness leapt his horse up the steps at the end
of the terrace, where the street slopes up nearly level with it at the
back by the cathedral, and charged down on the rear of the enemy just as
the gun was swung round.
As he did this I led my men round to the other end of the terrace, where
I saw that the men had begun fighting among themselves, and thus I knew
that some of them were our friends and were seeking to prevent the
others from training the gun on us. I halted, and ordered thirty of my
men to dismount and take the gun, which they did with very little
trouble, for the others, seeing how they were outnumbered, either threw
down their arms and ran away, or surrendered. Two of the officers were
killed and another one taken prisoner.
Meanwhile Hartness had cleared the other end of the terrace, and taken
the other gun after killing nearly every man who had defended it. But
scarcely had this been done than we heard the rattle of drums and the
sound of bugles, and saw two columns of men marching at the double out
of the Plaza Del Cabildo, where the barracks are, and the other past the
Church of the Jesuits, which is at the other end of the square.
'Are those friends or enemies, or both?' Hartness asked me, when he had
ordered the two guns to be trained, one on each of the columns, and sat
down behind one of them himself.
'If there are friends among them,' I said, 'they know what to do, and
when they have done it you can fire.'
Even as I spoke the two columns seemed to break up. Scores of men broke
out of the ranks, shouting my name and cheering, and these all ran
together towards the fountain in the middle of the square. The rest
stopped in wonder and confusion, their officers shouting furiously at
them, and ordering them to fire on the deserters. Some obeyed, others,
when they saw the guns trained on them, ran away and hid themselves in
doorways, and then Hartness gave the order to fire.
Instantly every sound was drowned by the terrible voices of the
machine-guns. Hartness glanced once along the barrel of his, and then
sent a torrent of bullets full into the middle of the broken column that
had come down from the Plaza Del Cabildo. Then he moved it a little from
side to side, and then stopped. When the smoke had drifted away I saw
that there was not a living being in that corner of the square, only
huddled heaps of corpses and bodies of animals. Then he turned the gun
on the other corner into which the other gun was firing, and soon not a
man or an animal was left alive there also.
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