Chapter XXI: Within the Cavarale Prison

"LOOK here, Dacres, I won't have you running this risk," said Whittinghame when his subordinate unfolded his plan for investigating the place of captivity of Admiral Maynebrace and his compatriots in misfortune.

"There'll be no risk," replied Dacres. "That is, if I act with a reasonable amount of caution. Besides, I want to have another little game with old Maynebrace--bless his grey hair!"

Whittinghame shrugged his shoulders deprecatingly. "How long do you reckon this mad freak of yours will take?" he asked.

"If we leave here at daybreak to-morrow we ought to be back at the end of the fifth day. It's only half a day's journey to La Paz railway station, so de la Fosse informs me. We'll have to hire a couple of Indians to carry our professional gear and clothing, so as to give more colour to the scheme. Henri could take some of his father's men, only they might start talking about the stranded airships and give rise to suspicions."

"Honestly I don't like your scheme, Dacres, but since you think it's feasible and its results will be beneficial to our proposed operations I suppose I mustn't raise any more objections."

Henri de la Fosse entered into the project with the greatest eagerness. He, too, had cause to hate the present Valderian government like poison.

Had it not been for Zaypuru and Durango, the Frenchman and his two sons would have been able to attain their desires and return to their native country long ago. The revolution had practically ruined de la Fosse. His accumulated earnings had been fraudulently appropriated. He was almost without sufficient means to pay his passage back to Marseilles. He had, therefore, been obliged to remain in Valderia, working desperately at his profession in the hope of being able, to some extent, to retrieve his lost fortune.

When Whittinghame requested Antoine de la Fosse to name a sum for repairing the wireless gear the little Frenchman waxed indignant. He would take nothing, he replied proudly. It was a pleasurable task to be able to assist the Englishmen in their effort against Zaypuru and Durango.

Whittinghame was equally indignant. Finally the matter was compromised. Should Dacres' adventure prove a success, and should the "Meteor" contrive to rescue the prisoners from the Cavarale, de la Fosse was to put forward a claim on the British Government, and Whittinghame would back it up for all he was worth.

Antoine de la Fosse realized that he was making a great sacrifice in allowing his son to go to Naocuanha. Had it not been for the fact that he himself was the only one capable of effecting the delicate repairs to the wireless gear he would have insisted on being Dacres' companion. But having Dacres' assurance that in the event of detection the Englishman would accept all responsibility his doubts were set aside.

"Are you disguising yourself?" asked Whittinghame, for his comrade was turning out the contents of a small portmanteau in which the extraordinary "get up" he had worn on board the flagship was conspicuous.

"No," replied Dacres. "At least, not with false moustaches or whiskers. It would be too risky: the things might come adrift while I was fooling about pretending to take measurements."

"But we must take certain possibilities into the question," continued Whittinghame. "Suppose, for instance, Durango has, in spite of our surmises to the contrary, returned to Naocuanha?"

"Hardly likely," replied Dacres. "Had he done so we should have had a crowd of Valderian soldiers buzzing about before this."

The eventful morning came round. Antoine de la Fosse was to go with Dacres and Henri as far as the place where the mules had been left in charge of an Indian servant.

"By the by," remarked Whittinghame casually. "You haven't forgotten a rule. You must have one if you have to take measurements, you know."

"I'll get one," said Dacres, and presently he returned with a two-foot rule in his hand.

"If it weren't a very serious matter, Dacres, I'd simply roar with laughter," declared the Captain of the "Meteor." "I asked you simply to see what you'd do, and you've simply given the whole show away. Imagine a supposed Frenchman taking measurements in a country where the metric system is in force and using a British two-foot rule."

Dacres flushed under his tanned features.

"By Jove! I must be more careful."

"You must, not only on your account but for the sake of your companion. It's a good thing de la Fosse didn't see what you were up to."

Amid the hearty good wishes and farewells of the "Meteor's" officers and men Dacres and Henri, attired in sombreros, loose grey shirts, buckskin trousers, and native shoes fitted with formidable-looking spurs, set out on their hazardous enterprise.

Soon Dacres found himself in the high-peaked saddle of a mule. Although fairly docile as mules go, this animal required a considerable amount of skill on the part of the rider. Like most sailors Dacres rode awkwardly, hanging on more by good luck than good management, the performance causing the high-spirited Henri no end of amusement, especially when the inapt rider was slung out into the dust no less than three times during the first half hour.

"Pardon me, monsieur, I cannot help it," said young de la Fosse apologetically, although tears of laughter were trickling down his face.

"Neither can I," replied Dacres as he picked himself up and essayed to clamber into the awkward saddle.

"But if you ride thus into La Paz the Valderians will have suspicions," resumed Henri doubtfully. "In Valderia everyone rides superbly."

"I'll manage the brute all right long before we get to La Paz," declared Dacres stoutly. "Gee up, you rascal!"

Evidently the Valderian mule strongly objected to being urged on in English, for his hind-quarters suddenly reared. Dacres found himself rising in the air. Clearing the pommel by a few inches he alighted on the animal's crupper, whence he cannoned off into a particularly prickly clump of cacti.

Leaping from his saddle Henri handed the reins to his companion, then devoting his attention to the refractory mule he made it trot round and round in a small circle until the youth was almost ready to drop with sheer giddiness. This treatment also proved most subduing to the mule, for from that time Dacres had no further trouble.

The road to La Paz was with few exceptions mostly down hill. In places it wound round forbidding spurs of the mountains, where a false step would send animal and rider into the almost fathomless depths below.

So narrow was the track that Dacres wondered what would happen if they met persons coming in the opposite direction.

"That is easily managed," replied Henri when his companion expressed his doubts. "We would dismount. The other travellers would do likewise. We speak with them; they speak with us. There is no hurry in these parts. Then the mules going that way would crouch down, and the mules coming this way would step over them. It is so simple when one knows how."

"Thanks, I would rather not have any," remarked Dacres, and later on he reiterated his thanks when he found himself once more in open country.

Feeling so stiff that he could scarcely dismount Dacres arrived at La Paz. The mules were handed over to the care of a most villainous-looking innkeeper, and their baggage given to four miserable-looking Indians, who for a few centavos could be engaged to act as servants.

While waiting for the train to start--it would be a fortunate event if it left the station within an hour of the supposed time--Henri, who spoke Spanish excellently, made several judicious inquiries of the men who were loafing about--for leaning against the adobe walls and smoking huge cigars seemed the total occupation of the visible inhabitants of La Paz.

When at length the train started on its journey to the capital, young de la Fosse had an opportunity of communicating to his companion the news he had gathered from the loungers at the station.

If it were true the situation looked very grave. There were reports that a battle had been fought outside the town of Zandovar between the gallant Valderians and the invaders. The British had been compelled to retreat to their ships, leaving over five hundred men prisoners in the hands of the victors. More, two English battleships had been sunk by mines, and the rest had stood out to sea.

Dacres simply roared. The rumours were so utterly unlikely.

"It may be true," said Henri gravely. "The best generalled armies make the mistake at times. The Italians at Adowah, the Russians in Manchuria, and the English in South Africa, _par exemple._"

"Then, if it is true we'll find the Cavarale chock-a-block with British prisoners," said Dacres. "So we'll wait and see."

When, after a slow and irksome journey, the train entered Naocuanha station, Dacres and his companion were pounced upon and questioned by half a dozen gaudily-uniformed officials. Their pass had to be examined, signed and countersigned by men who could hardly write their names, their baggage being searched, and even the contents of their pockets scrutinized. Dacres realized that had he attempted to don artificial hair and whiskers as a disguise he would have been detected before he left the platform.

At length the ordeal was passed, and escorted by four soldiers the two "electrical experts" made their way to an hotel.

The city of Naocuanha was under martial law. There were troops--for the most part ill-clad, ill-armed, and badly disciplined--everywhere. Most of the shops were shut, and had their windows boarded up. In several places barricades had been thrown across the streets and machine guns placed in position. The steam-cars and public vehicles had either been kept in their sheds or pressed into military service. Everywhere notices were posted up, warning the civil population to be in their houses by sunset under pain of fine and imprisonment.

"This doesn't look like a British reverse," thought Dacres. "The whole crowd of them are in a mortal funk. That's quite evident."

Acting on his companion's advice Dacres feigned a bad headache on their arrival at the hotel and promptly went to bed. Until Henri felt fairly certain that none of the guests--who, fortunately, were few in number--understood French it was advisable for the pseudo-electrician to keep to himself.

All night long bugles were blaring and drums beating. The garrison of Naocuanha were evidently expecting an attack from the British forces in possession of Zandovar. Consequently Dacres spent a restless night, while the swarms of mosquitos that found their way in through the rents in the mosquito curtains of his bed added to his discomfort.

Next morning, after Henri had paid a compulsory visit to the commandante's office, the two men, with their Indian servants, set out for the Cavarale.

The prison stood about two miles from the city. It occupied an isolated position, being on a broad grassy plain. The building was of rectangular formation with squat square towers at the four corners. It was surrounded at a distance of twenty feet from the main walls by a mud and rubble wall surmounted by a _chevaux de frise._

In the centre of this outer enclosure on the city side was a gateway with an adobe hut close by; but this entrance was apparently neglected, for the gate stood wide open, and no one seemed to be on guard.

In the intervening space ran a dry ditch crossed by a broad wooden bridge leading to the inner gateway.

This was a more imposing affair, the stone archway being surmounted by the arms of the republic. The door was of very massive wood and pierced by a wicket. On either side were loopholes so that the approach could be commanded by rifle fire if necessary; while above each of the four towers grinned the barrels of an old type of machine gun of the Nordenfeldt pattern.

Pacing up and down the parapet or else lolling in the shade of the towers were several sentries, each with the inevitable cigar or cigarette in his mouth. They eyed the approaching strangers with apparent unconcern, making no attempt to challenge them.

Directly Henri pulled the bell the wicket was opened and a serjeant gruffly demanded to know the business of the two strangers.

In reply young de la Fosse pulled out the pass and presented it. The fellow took the document, pretended to read it while holding it upside down, and calling to a soldier who happened to be standing close by, bade him hand the pass to the serjeant of the guard.

Apparently, this non-commissioned officer could make no more of it than did his subordinate; but, throwing aside his cigar, he leisurely strolled off to the quarters of the commandante of the prison.

Half an hour later the Frenchman and the pseudo compatriot were permitted to enter. An empty store was allotted for the reception of their belongings, and the Indians were told to remain there until wanted.

"You remain also," said Henri in a low voice to Dacres. "I have to see the commandante."

Presently Henri returned with a bundle of papers, showing the general plan of the prison on a large scale, and the various parts that it was proposed to fit with electric lighting apparatus.

To show undue energy would arouse suspicion, so the two electricians spent quite an hour in ostentatiously examining the documents before proceeding with the actual work of "measuring up."

Then, having offered a cigarette to the soldier told off to attend on them, Henri and Dacres made their way to the _patio_ or courtyard in the centre of the quadrangle.

While busy with the tape Dacres kept his eyes wide open. Evidently three sides of the building were intended for the prisoners' quarters, for they were lighted by small square windows heavily barred and at a height of twenty feet from the ground. The remaining side was in the occupation of the troops who formed the joint rôle of garrison and jailers, while in one corner of the _patio_ and farthest remote from the entrance was a stone building in which the commandante of the prison lived. It was two-storyed, with a flat roof, from which a light gangway communicated with the flats of the quarters surrounding the quadrangle. A covered way also led from the commandante's residence to the guard room.

"The commandante says that he is busy to-day and does not wish to be disturbed by having men to measure the rooms of his house," said Henri, "so that will be much better for us. We can go sooner to the quarters of the prisoners."

"Very good," assented Dacres.

They conversed in English, since Dacres was a precious bad French scholar. There was no need to do otherwise since de la Fosse, by a simple, seemingly aimless question to the soldier who accompanied them, found out that he understood no language but his own.

Having finished their ostentatious work in the _patio_, Henri tapped the plan he held in his hand and pointed significantly towards the prison-buildings.

The soldier shrugged his shoulders indifferently, then slouched towards the door. In response to a knock the door was opened by a fierce-looking mulatto who, apparently satisfied that the two foreigners were properly escorted, passed them in without further ado.

The prison was two-storyed. The cells on the ground floor were not lighted from without, and were constructed for the reception of common criminals. Recently these occupants had been transferred _en bloc_ to the civil prison in Naocuanha, and consequently they were now unoccupied. The political and foreign prisoners were distributed in cells on the upper story, to the number of nearly a hundred. Of these nine were Englishmen, including the two who were arrested before the outbreak of hostilities, and whose detention formed one of the principal causes of the rupture between Great Britain and the republic of Valderia. In addition to the nine were partisans of the late President San Bonetta who, having escaped the extreme measures adopted by the ferocious Diego Zaypuru, were still in rigorous confinement and in constant fear of being summoned to execution.

Fearing to cause suspicions by asking where the British prisoners were lodged, Dacres and his companion had to take each cell in order, measuring the distance from the centre of the corridor, and the height of the position of the proposed lamp. To hurry over the task would raise doubts in the officials' minds as to the _bona fides_ of the avowed electricians. Thus the short working-day ended without Dacres having an opportunity of entering into communication with any of his former brother-officers.

On the following day the prospect looked brighter, since there was no needless delay in the _patio._ Don Alonzo da Costa, the commandante, was still indisposed to allow the electricians to enter his quarters, so, thankfully, Dacres and his companion resumed their tedious tour of the cells.

At length the jailer unlocked the door of a cell situated in the north-east angle of the building, and the two engineers solemnly filed into the room.

It was slightly larger than the others, but sparely furnished, the latter consisting of a plain deal table and chair, and an iron cot-frame, on the foot of which were two rolled blankets and a thin straw mattress.

As the men entered a stentorian voice exclaimed,

"Bless my soul, Dacres, what on earth are you doing here?"

The speaker was his late chief, Rear-Admiral Maynebrace.