CHAPTER XXX.

ESTELLA'S PRAYER.

"Where--where am I, Cara?"

"Be quiet my darling!" murmured the maid, as she smoothed the dark tresses back from Estella's icy forehead. "Thank Heaven you have come to yourself at last. It was a bad spell indeed!"

The pale, but still beautiful, girl lay on her bed, to which Cara and another servant had carried her. For three hours she had lain in an unconscious condition, and a local doctor had been in constant attendance. The doctor had just gone, after pronouncing her out of danger.

"What has happened?" she asked, slowly, and then the horrible truth suddenly came back to her, and she began to sob piteously.

Cara did all she could to comfort Estella, but that was but little. The girl's grief was most intense, and there seemed no way of assuaging it.

"He is dead, Cara--dead!" she moaned. "Oh, would to Heaven that I were dead, too! Why was I not by his side, when he fell, to ease his dying moments." She arose slowly and began to move across the floor unsteadily. "And this is the end--the bitter end!"

"Won't you drink a little wine, my dear mistress? It will strengthen you, I am sure."

"No, no, I could not swallow it! I can't remember what happened after he--after Lieutenant Mazenas told me the sad news."

"I heard you fall and ran in, and so did Lizette. We picked you up, and sent the lieutenant for the doctor. He has just gone, and Lieutenant Mazenas went with him."

"What did the lieutenant have to say?"

"He said he would inform your father, that is all. He was much disappointed, and half imagined you were shamming."

"Shamming," cried Estella, indignantly. "Would that I could bring to his heart one-half of the pain he has brought to mine!"

"And so say I, my dear mistress. In my opinion, the lieutenant is a brute. But, alas! your father thinks quite differently!"

"Cara, my father would compel me to marry that man!"

"I know it, the more shame to him!" cried the maid, boldly. "Now, if it was Señor Howard----"

"Don't speak of him--now that he is dead! I cannot bear it. Oh, would that I could fly from here?"

"It can be done, sweet mistress, if you will," whispered the maid.

"Can be done--how? The guards are outside, and----"

"But they are not below, and I know of a secret way out of the cellar--a way which leads to the river----"

"You must show it to me, Cara," ejaculated Estella. "I cannot remain here, to be linked to that brute; such an abominable alliance would drive me insane. I will fly, join the rebel army, and make myself known far and wide as Estella, the little Cuban rebel! I will show Lieutenant Mazenas that women are of some account in this world! Come, Cara, gather up our things, and waste not a single moment, lest it be too late to fly!"

In nervous haste Estella took the lead in picking up such articles as she wished to carry with her. The maid followed, and in five minutes the bundle was made up.

"I will go first," said Cara, "and will get the other servants out of the way, so they may think you are still up here. When you hear me start to sing, come down."

She glided out of the bedroom, and with a last look around Estella waited for the signal. Soon she heard Cara's clear voice singing in Spanish:

"A lover bold, with a heart of gold, Rode off to the distant battlefield; His heart was light, and his sword was bright-- To the enemy he ne'er would yield."

Estella waited to hear no more. She hurried to the door, threw it open, and--confronted her father.

"Hullo!" He started back in surprise. "Verily, I thought you were sick in bed. What is the meaning of this? What have you in that bundle?"

Astonished and dismayed, Estella shrank back and swung the bundle behind her. With a quick movement he tore the bundle from her hand, and emptied the contents on the floor.

"Ha! I thought as much. So you were going to run away in secret! It is well that I appeared in the nick of time. I fancy the lieutenant was right when he said you were shamming."

"Father!"

"No, no! the time is past for sweet speeches, Estella. I have resolved to take you in hand. While I am doing what I can for our noble country, you are playing the part of the rebel, both outside and in our home." He stamped his foot savagely. "This must not be! Here is an end of it!"

"Father, your opinions cannot sway me. I believe the rebels are in the right, and, what is more, my prophetic soul tells me that Cuba will one day be free--she must be free!"

"Tut, tut, child! I want no more of this. Things have come to a pretty pass when women are allowed to talk in this fashion! Put those things away, and let us come to business. The lieutenant told you of my wishes."

"You have told me of them yourself."

"You are to marry Lieutenant Mazenas to-morrow evening, at seven o'clock. The ceremony will take place in the parlor below."

"I cannot marry him, father."

"You must! Say not another word. The stories that villainous American spy circulated about Mazenas are all false. I believe he told you the fellow is dead. We both saw him slain, mowed down by a discharge from one of our cannon." She shuddered, but he kept right on. "I am glad he is no more. I wish I had kept you away from all Americans. They have poisoned your mind."

"It is your mind that is poisoned, father. If you would but----"

"Silence!" He advanced and made a movement as if to strike her, but she did not flinch, and his arm fell as suddenly as it had been raised. "I am master here. Not another word, Estella, and, remember, to-morrow night, at seven o'clock."

And he strode from the apartment as quickly as he had entered it.

Utterly overcome in mind and heart, she threw herself upon the bed. She lay there for fully half an hour, then sprang up, her lips tightly compressed.

"I will do it," she murmured, "I must!"

Hastily she summoned Cara, who, seeing the plan of escape had fallen through, and fearing the general's wrath, had kept out of sight.

"Cara," she whispered, "do you think you can leave the city without detection and find the rebel camp? Can't you do it, for my sake?"

"What--alone, my dear mistress?"

"Yes, you must go alone, for my father will now have me watched more closely than ever. Leave in the darkness to-night, and try to find Captain Martinez, and deliver to him a letter that I will write."

"I will do it," cried the maid. "I want to get out--to find out what has become of Tomasso."

"Then prepare at once. And, remember, you must not fail to deliver the letter. To me it is a matter of life or death; for rather than marry Lieutenant Mazenas, I will stab myself to the heart with this."

And she exposed the hilt of the dagger she had purchased in Santiago.

"I will do my very best," murmured Cara, and then Estella sat down to pen the letter, requesting that the rebels make an immediate advance, and come directly to her father's mansion.

She also wrote another letter, to be posted, which was addressed to her father, requesting him to at once join his troops outside of Puerto Principe.

"That will let him escape," she thought. "As for the lieutenant, I trust that he will be caught."

It was dark when Cara kissed her mistress farewell and left the mansion, the guards allowing her to pass the gate without question. As she disappeared, Estella uttered a silent prayer that her strange mission might prove successful.

The beautiful girl did not sleep throughout the warm, tropical night. From afar she heard the occasional discharge of firearms; but it was not this which kept her awake. She was thinking of her own wretched condition. If Cara failed, her case was indeed hopeless.