The Rover of the Andes | Page 5

by some brief monosyllable to a remark or query put
in the Indian language occasionally by Pedro. Sometimes a gleam of
the firelight threw her fine brown features into bold relief, but on these
occasions, when Lawrence Armstrong chanced to observe them, they
conveyed no expression whatever save that of profound gravity, with a
touch, perhaps, of sadness.
The bench being awkwardly situated for a table, they had arranged a
small box, bottom up, instead. Lawrence and his new acquaintance
seated themselves on the ground, and Manuela used her saddle as a
chair.
Towards the end of their meal the two men became more
communicative, and when Pedro had lighted a cigarette, they began to
talk of their immediate future.
"You don't smoke?" remarked Pedro in passing.
"No," replied Lawrence.
"Not like the most of your countrymen," said the other.
"So much the worse," rejoined the youth.

"The worse for them or for you--which?" asked Pedro, with a
significant glance.
"No matter," returned Lawrence with a laugh.
"Well, now," resumed Pedro, after a few puffs, during the emission of
which his countenance assumed the expression of seriousness, which
seemed most natural to it, "what do you intend to do? It is well to have
that point fairly settled to-night, so that there may be no uncertainty or
delay in the morning. I would not urge the question were it not that in
the morning we must either go on together as travelling companions, or
say our final adieux and part. I am not in the habit of prying into men's
private affairs, but, to speak the bare truth, I am naturally interested in
one whose father has on more than one occasion done me good service.
You need not answer me unless you please, senhor," added the man
with the air of one who is prepared to retire upon his dignity at a
moment's notice.
"Thanks, thanks, Pedro," said the Englishman, heartily, "I appreciate
your kindness, and accept your sympathy with gratitude. Moreover, I
am glad to find that I have been thrown at such a crisis in my fortunes
into the company of one who had regard for my dear father. But I
scarce know what to do. I will give you my confidence unreservedly.
Perhaps you may be able to advise--"
"Stay," interrupted the other, on whose countenance a slightly stern
expression hovered. "Before you give me unreserved confidence, it is
but fair that I should tell you candidly that I cannot pay you back in
kind. As to private matters, I have none that would be likely to interest
any one under the sun. In regard to other things--my business is not my
own. Why I am here and what I mean to do I have no right to reveal.
Whither I am bound, however, is not necessarily a secret, and if you
choose to travel with me you undoubtedly have a right to know."
Young Armstrong expressed himself satisfied. He might have wished
to know more, but, like Pedro, he had no desire to pry into other men's
affairs, and, being of an open confiding nature, was quite ready to take
his companion on trust, even though he had been less candid and

engaging in manner than he was. After explaining that he had been
educated in Edinburgh, and trained to the medical profession, he went
on to say that he had been hastily summoned to take charge of the
sugar-mill at his father's death, and that he had expected to find an old
overseer, who would have instructed him in all that he had to do in a
business with which he was totally unacquainted.
"You see," he continued, "my father always said that he meant to retire
on his fortune, and did not wish me to carry on the business, but, being
naturally an uncommunicative man on business matters, he never gave
me any information as to details. Of course, I had expected that his
manager here, and his books, would reveal all that I required to know,
but the soldiers have settled that question. Mill and books have gone
together, and as to manager, clerks, and servants, I know not where
they are."
"Scattered, no doubt," said Pedro, "here, there, and everywhere--only
too glad to escape from a neighbourhood which has been given up to
fire and sword by way of improving its political condition!"
"I know not," returned Lawrence, sadly. "But it would be useless, I fear,
to try to ferret them out."
"Quite useless," said Pedro. "Besides, what would it avail to talk with
any of them about the affairs of a place that is now in ashes? But if
your father spoke of his fortune, he must have had at least some of it in
a bank somewhere."
"True, but I don't