^ Dec. 22,, 1900.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
487 
Never mind. You escape with little compared to what 
the others will get. The question now is, what to do with 
you? I cannot turn you loose. I have no authority for 
that, and I don't want to keep an innocent man in prison 
for months awaiting trial, I think I shall let you make 
your escape. Yes, that's it. I will tell the guard to 
allow you the freedom of the patio and not put you back 
in a cell. At a quarter past midnight get near to the big 
gate and glide out. The sentry on guard there at that time 
will have his orders not to see you. Once outside, make 
yourself scarce as fast as you can get back to Puerto 
Cabello and keep quiet." 
I thanked him very heartily and went back to prison 
with my guard, thinking how much better a fellow the 
Comandante was than I had imagined him, or even than 
he looked. And I was very glad not to be locked up in 
that cell, which was insufferably hot and filled with a 
deadly stench. I was much better off sitting on the 
cool flags with my back against a wall in a quiet corner, 
and though there were numbers of soldiers about, none 
of them gave the slightest attention to me. 
But while I sat there thinking a vehement suspicion of 
the Comandante sprang up in my mind. His little malignant 
eyes, crafty smile and savage chuckle were not signs of a 
man likely to do a kindly action for justice's sake, and, 
knowing that I stood between him and Carmen Mendez, he 
certainly would want me put out of the way. To tell the 
truth, I was very much perturbed in mind, and doubtful 
about the prudence of trying that mode of escape. If I 
could have patience to wait a few days my relatives would 
bring to bear influence enough to get me free. 
My cogitations were interrupted by a young fellow who 
greeted me cordially and sat beside me. It was Jaime de 
Santos, a younger broiher of the Comandante. I had 
known him in Puerto Cabello, but only slightly, because he 
was with Madriz, Arrieta and the rest of that gang, all 
gamblers and perhaps worse, of whom my uncle had a 
horror. 
"How do 5'^ou come to be here?" I asked. 
"Because the particular devil who takes care to pro- 
vide my personal bad luck has betrayed me into the hands 
of my brother, the Comandante." 
"What!" I cried. "Are you too suspected of being a 
revolutionist?" 
"Worse than that by far. The last time I went to 
Curacao I inadvertently took with me forty of his dearly 
beloved gold ouzas. He, I knew very well, had plenty 
more, while I really needed them for a stake. If he had 
been a good brother he would have said, 'Poor Jaime 
needs them. Poor Jaime is welcome to them.' Not be- 
ing a good brother, he said instead, 'I will give Jaime 
the devil if I ever get hold of him,' and in such matters 
Ruiz keeps his word. He will put me in one of the lower 
dungeon cellars where the water comes in and keep me 
there until I rot — if the rats don't eat me first — unless my 
friends among them refund his forty onzas, which I 
know the crowd too well to expect." 
An inspiration of the moment prompted me to say, "You 
can be free within half an hour if you wish." 
"It is a bad joke," he replied. 
"It is not a joke. My arrest has been a mistake, for I 
have nOvhing to do with this revolution, but, not wishing 
to admit that by publicly setting me free, the Comandante 
has agreed to connive at my escape to-night on condition, 
that I get away from La Guayra as quickly as possible." 
"Caramba ! How I would like to accept that condi- 
tion!" 
"Very well, you ma3' take my place," 
"You cannot mean it. What would you do?" 
"Wait "for my relatives to get me out and remain in 
La Guayra so long as suits me." 
"You are bold ; I am prudent. If you are not going tO' 
take the chance I will be very glad to do so. What am 
I to do?" 
"Fifteen minutes after the guard is changed at mid- 
night simply slip out past the sentry at the gate, who will 
have orders not to see an escaping prisoner at that time. 
Once outside, fly if you can." 
"It is simple. And see, they are shifting the guard 
now. Only fifteen minutes to wait." 
The sentries were changed with a slatternly sort of 
approximation to military form, and the men who came 
off duty either threw themselves on their hammocks in 
the guard room or sat down against the wall outside and 
slept. Those who went on guard leaned their guns against 
the wall, yawned and lighted cigars. 
Jaime arose and glided along the further wall of the 
patio toward the gate. No one seemed to observe him. 
The sentry in the gate conveniently turned his back and 
Jaime slipped out. The trick was done. I just got one 
vanishing glimpse of hirti in the gate light taking to his 
heels. Then, almost immediately, two rifle shots, so close 
together as almost to sound like one, rang out from the 
street in the direction he had disappeared 
Instanthf there was wild commotion among the guard. 
Half-dressed soldiers springing up half asleep and rush- 
ing out. of the gate, some of them with their guns and 
others without. Sentries left their posts without hesi- 
tancy, nobody looking behind him. 
I did not lose a second in throwing upon me a soldier's 
jacket, picking up the rifle on which it had been hung 
against the wall and pushing my way out unnoticed in the 
confusion. Hardly twenty paces from the gate we came 
to the body of Jaime de Santos, face upward in the gut- 
ter, its breast torn open by two bullets that went through 
from the back at close range. I understood what the 
Comandante had arranged for me. The soldiers knew 
neither Jaime nor me. A flying man was all they recog- 
nized — their duty simply to make him a corpse. 
"But the fellow was to be let escape," said one, inno- 
cently. 
"What a sad mistake," exclaimed another in a tone of 
mock lamentation, and all grinned. 
I slipped out of the crowd down a dark little side street, 
threw away the jacket but kept the loaded rifle, and made 
my way swiftly to Carmen's window. 
The dear girl was sitting behind the bars weeping. 
Luis had stopped long enough in his flight to tell her of 
the fiasco and say he feared I had been caught. At sight 
of me her grief quickly changed to joy, but she had 
sufficient seff-control to refrain from outcry, which is 
alpost more th^ft could reasonably be expected of a girl. 
"Alas!" I said, "I may remain but a moment. They 
are doubtless pursuing me, and I must get up on the 
mountain before daybreak." 
"Wait here a minute," she replied, and vanished. 
She said "a minute," but it was fully five minutes, and 
seemed to me five hours that I waited, imagining the 
soldiers just coming around the corner every second. 
Then the big house door softly opened, and, to my amaze- 
ment, Carmen stepped into the street, carrying a heavy 
bag of something in her arms, 
"What does this mean ?" I asked. 
"That I am going to the mountain with you," she re- 
plied firmly. "Take this bag and give me the gun ; I can 
carry it better." 
"What is in the bag?" 
"Bread, a small cheese, some cold meat and. some eggs 
that I hope will not be smashed before we find some way 
of cooking them." 
Ah ! surely there never was another girl so brave, lov- 
ing, and practical as my Carmen, 
For a couple of hours or more we toiled up the infernal 
path by which the Indian mail carriers traveled in those 
days, straight up or down the mountain's face, between 
La Guayra and Caracas. People called it a path, but it 
wasn't any more than a parallel of latitude is a highway. 
For myself I didn't mind it. but it was very hard on Car- 
men. Here and there were rock ledges like gigantic stairs, 
each step 5 or 6 feet high, to be climbed. Sometimes we 
had to edge along precipices, the abysses below which, had 
-the moon given light enough for us to look down into 
them, would have turned us dizzy. Once it was neces- 
sary to swing across a ravine by a vine pendent from a 
tree. Ah ! it was a nightmare journey, but just when we 
felt ourselves exhausted we found the little family of 
Indians I had hoped to come across, who were known to 
have haunted one little plateau half way up the mountain 
for at least two generations past. They sold pretty trifles 
and rendered small services to- travelers by the mule road, 
which there touched the mail route, but had few patrons 
now, most persons preferring to go by the longer but more 
comfortable diligence road, which ran almost where the 
railroad has since been built. The only white person 
they had seen in two weeks, they said, was Father Josef, 
who went by on his mule, riding up to Caracas, four days 
before, and whose return they now expected at any mo- 
ment. 
"Hide us in a place of safety as easily reached as pos- 
sible," I told them, "and then be sure to catch Father 
Josef as he comes down. Tell him that Rafael Garcia has 
imperative need of him, and bring him to me." 
Within half an hour we were in what we felt to be 
absolute security, and there, completely worn out. Carmen 
went to sleep sitting up against one tree, and I slept 
propped up by another a rod away from her. 
So the genial old priest found us and waked us by his 
hearty "Well, well! Did I ever see a spectacle the like 
of this?" Taking my hand and glancing roguishly at the 
blushing girl, he continued jocosely, "Upon my soul, when 
a young man with as pretty a girl to keep him company 
as you have has 'imperative need' of the society of a 
priest also, it is surely a mighty high compliment to the 
priest." 
"It is because Carmen is with me that I wanted you, 
father," I replied seriously. 
"Don't I know it? Good children that you are," he 
answered, "and willing and happy I'll be — even before 
asking how I come to find you here — to make you man 
and wife, for well I know the consent of your parents. 
Carmen Mendez, and I'll take Rafael's word for it there's 
no opposition on his side." 
I hastened to assure him of the entire approbation of 
everybody on my side who had a right to form an 
opinion. 
The prescribed duties having been complied with, some 
excellent fatherly advice given to each of us, and the 
simple ceremony pronounced that climaxed my happiness, 
Father Josef said, cheerily: 
" 'The better the day, the better the deed,' but what 
better deed could there be than the joining of two inno- 
cent, loving hearts on Christmas Day?" 
"Christmas Day!" Carmen and I ejaculated together. 
So it was, and neither of us had remembered it until that 
moment. 
"Don't you know it, ye heathen?" demanded the priest 
in pretended horror. 
"I knew yesterday," answered Carmen, "but if your 
heart had been almost broken and you were forced to run 
away from home at midnight " 
"Leaving the house door wide open, I'll be bound." 
"Indeed I didn't. I locked it and dropped the key inside 
through the window." 
"Do you mind that now. Rafael ? W^hat a thoughtful 
wife you have. Oh, man, if she takes it into her head to 
play tricks on you, you'll be as a thread on her 
fingers." 
"And I also knew to-day would be Christmas," I said, 
not caring to reply to his banter, "but evading assassina- 
tion, escaping from prison and fleeing with the girl of my 
heart to the mountain, all in one night, knocked the calen- 
dar temporarily out of my head." 
"And small wonder if it did. Now you'll observe I 
haven't asked you a question, but if you don't fully satisfy 
the burning curiosity you've stirred up, it'll go hard with 
you. Go on now." 
I told him the whole story just as I have told you 
here, and he listened without a word until I was done. 
Then his lips moved a few moments, as if in silent 
prayer, and sighing, he said : 
"May God be merciful to the poor young gambler and 
thief cut off in his sins without a moment for repentance ; 
but I can't see that you are to blame, my son. It was his 
own brother who killed him, and he was bound to come 
to a bad end some time, as all the family are, I fear. I 
know them well. But There now, that's enough for 
the likes of them. What are we going to have for a 
Christmas dinner worthy of the day?" 
Carmen rather ruefully displayed our simple provisions, 
but the priest shook his head and passed judgment kindly, 
"Too good for a fast day and good enough for any other 
day in the year for a hungry man, but not the thing at all 
for Christmas. We must do better than that, We must 
^ook a dinpef," ^ 
"Cook a dinner !" cried Carmen. "With nothing to 
cook and nothing to cook with?" 
"Hut tut, my child," he laughed, "I wasn't for ten 
years a missionary among the Indians without learning 
something. Stand by a while and witness some of the 
miracles of the Church. You, Rafael, the first thing you 
do, build a big fire, and when it's well started, lay in it 
half a dozen stones the size of your two fists to get red 
hot. I must have something that Indian has got for me." 
Putting one hand to the side of his mouth he imitated 
to perfection the call of the guacamayo, or macaw, and 
repeated it with a slightly different intonation. • Evidently 
the Indians understood the signal, for in a few minutes 
the head of their family trotted into view carrying some- 
thing which, as he came nearer, was seen to be a fine 
large freshly killed iguana. 
"It will not be good roasted in the ashes," said Carmen. 
"You are right, and pleased I am to see Rafael has 
so wise a little housewife, but that's not the way I'll cook 
it. I shall make a stew as good as you ever ate." 
"A stew! Without any pot?" 
"The earth is full of pots, as I'll prove to you directly." 
The Indian, in obedience to some instructions in his own 
language, went away, and was gone for some time. Mean- 
while Carmen cleaned and cut up the iguana while Father 
Josef with his hands and large hunting knife scooped a 
hole in the ground, deep, round, smooth and solidly 
packed sides and bottom. I had enough to do getting 
wood for my big fire and keeping it up. When the Indian 
returned he brought a big ball of clay from under some 
strean), which he had worked with water until it was like 
moderately soft dough. With this Father Josef lined the 
hole in the ground half or three-quarters of an inch thick. 
Then, handling the now red hot stones with surprising 
deftness by means of two loops of a tough vine, he laid 
them gently in the pot and over its mouth, to keep in the 
heat, spread some leafy branches and his poncho. 
His mule he had left with the Indians, but his saddle 
bags he carefully carried along, and at this juncture 
brought forth from their capacious depths treasures — 
garlic, red peppers, salt and three bottles of Spanish red 
wine. "The luxuries of life — bread and meat — ," he re- 
marked, "one can get everywhere, but the necessaries — 
these — the prudent man carries with him. I'm seldom 
.five miles from home without them. Now we'll begin to 
get on with the dinner." And he bossed the job. 
With his hunting knife Carmen chopped fine a portion 
of our cold meat, mixed it with eggs and bread crumbs, 
flavored the mass with garlic, minced peppers, salt and 
red wine, and finally wrapped and bound small portions in 
forest leaves with slender bits of vine he brought to her. 
"They're not so good as plantain leaves, of course," he 
said, "but on a pinch they'll do very well. There's no 
harm in them, but among leaves you must be careful." 
The little bundles so made were one sort of 'liake,' a 
favorite entree with us.' 
By this time Father Josef judged his pot should be 
baked, and, upon taking out the stones, found that it was 
sufficiently. In it he put the chunks of iguana, a proper 
allowance of salt, garlic, red peppers, the Hake, and cov- 
ered all deeply with water I brought in his saddle bags 
from a nearby stream. Then he laid in a number of red 
hot stones, setting the water to boiling almost instantly. 
"If you are sure your eggs are good, we might as well 
boil them at the same time," he suggested, and they too 
were put in after he had squinted through each at the 
sun. Then the pot was covered tightly and left to seethe. 
After half an hour — by guess — the eggs and stones were 
fished out and more hot stones put in. In half an hour 
more the cooking was done. Then, when the second lot 
of stones had been removed, a half-bottle of the wine was 
stirred in and a quarter of an hour more allowed to com- 
plete the blending of this finishing flavor with the other 
ingredients of the stew. 
Ah ! how good iguana is when cooked rightly. Be gen- 
erous with your wine, liberal with the red peppers, judi- 
cious with the salt and prudent, excessively prudent, with 
the garlic. Then you will have a dish worthy of the 
gods. I have eaten much green turtle and partaken of 
the much boasted terrapin — even in Baltimore — but neither 
deserves to be compared with that glorious big lizard, the 
iguana. And our appetites that day enhanced our appre- 
ciation of it. 
We sat around the pot and dipped from it with utensils 
the priest had fashioned with marvelous dexterity from 
branches, pieces of bark and strong leaves. Of his ma- 
king too and like materials were what did duty as our 
forks, spoons and plates. Carmen's liake were delicious. 
When we could eat no more, our Christmas dinner 
ended with wine and cigarettes, of which I, fortunately, 
had a good supply. 
Father Josef, settling himself comfortably against a 
tree, heaved a sigh of plethoric content and moralized, 
"Few are the conditions of life and few the places in 
the world — except in the spots cursed by human selfish- 
ness and cruelty — where God's goodness has not made 
bounteous provision for those of his children who know 
how to seek and find it. Learn to look rightly about you, 
my children, and you will see nature everywhere ex- 
emplifying the lesson of this day — God's good will to 
man." 
***♦**■— 
It would hardly be worth while to tell how I finally got 
out of my difl[iculty. did it not involve what has always 
seemed to me an awfully dramatic execution of divine 
justice, and may be told in a few words: The Coman- 
dante, in either real rage at his brother's murder or pre- 
tended anger, assumed to hide his own criminality, at- 
tempted to shoot with his revolver the two soldiers who 
obeyed his orders. But the pistol would not work, and 
before he could make it do so one of the men shot him 
through the heart. The act was clearly one of self- 
defense, and nothing was done to the man. Within a 
week I returned to La Guayra, received a cordial welcome 
from my wife's relatives, who were already apprised of 
our marriage, and without molestation went back to 
Puerto Cabello with my wife. 
We have had a good many excellent Christmas dinners 
since, but never one that has seemed to us so joyous j»s 
that prepared by F^he? |os^f pr; n^Quntain, 
