“I think you are very wise,” she said quietly. “But Lord Clanroyden will never have a thought for any woman… I am going to give you a hot drink, and then you must sleep. To-morrow will be a long day.”
Next day they came out of the foothills on to a high shelf of ground, under the peaks called the Spanish Ladies. By midday they reached Magdalena, which, since Fort Castor and Loa had gone, was now Escrick’s only base. They were here at a lower elevation, and in ordinary savannah, greening already and scented with the curious nut-like odour of a mountain spring. The cantonments, hidden in a fold of ground, could be recognised from afar by the wireless poles. Magdalena was still secure, and apparently unknown to the enemy, whose nearest post was a hundred miles distant. But the place was under strict discipline, and it was through two lines of sentries that they made their way into the dusty circle of huts and horse-lines.
Escrick himself was there, and he and Grayne had much to discuss, so Barbara and the Gobernador lunched alone in the General’s hut. The latter had lost his air of fatigue and bewilderment. His eyes scanned sharply every detail of the place, as though it was an environment, still unfamiliar, with which it was his business to become acquainted.
“These people are losing,” he told Barbara. “I feel it in the air. I felt it a week ago in the Courts of the Morning Just at present things are going badly for us.”
But there was neither disappointment nor elation in his tone. He spoke briskly, as if he had come to some decision. Later, when Escrick and Grayne joined them, it was he who directed the conversation.
“Speak to me frankly, General,” he said. “I am your commander-in-chief in name. I want an exact statement of the situation as you see it.”
Escrick had still his quiet, sleepy manner. His blue eyes were as placid as ever, and his voice had its soft drawl. But he looked an older man, and his brick-red face had been fined down and sharpened.
“Things aren’t so bad, sir. I would say they we going on according to plan, if that phrase hadn’t got blown upon. The loss of Loa don’t signify, and we always realised that sooner or later we’d be shoved out of the Courts of the Morning.”
“It will be the turn of this place next.”
“I think not. Lossberg hasn’t got on to the track of Magdalena. It will be Pacheco’s turn first. He must know about Pacheco.”
“Well, Pacheco be it! If he takes Pacheco, what will you do?”
“Shift somewhere else. It’s a big country, and aren’t tied down to any lines of communication.”
“But that can’t go on for ever. Where are you going get your supplies—your munitions and your food?”
“From Lossberg. We’ve been pretty lucky so far.”
“The railway? How is that working?”
“So-so. We worry it a bit, but he’s got the best part of a division on it now, and he’s building blockhouses. The Chief isn’t finding it so easy to keep it crippled.”
“And the Mines?”
“That’s what you might call the main front. We have a scrap there every second day. And of course we’re busy over the whole country. We don’t give Lossberg time to sit down and think.”
“General, answer me one question.” The Gobernador’s face and voice had a sudden authority which Barbara had never observed before. He seemed to be again the chairman residing at a council of the Gran Seco administration. “Are you certain that Lossberg is not winning?”
Escrick looked his questioner full in the face. “He ain’t winning. But, if you press me, our side ain’t winning neither.”
“Then he is winning. He has only to maintain himself and he is bound to win in the end. And that end is not very far distant. I should like to see your returns of supplies. Remember, I am a business man, and this is my subject.”
Papers were sent for, and the Gobernador pored over them, making calculations with a pencil. Then he asked for a map, and a big one was spread out for him on a table.
“You are losing,” he said at last. “If I made a graph of the position your line would be going down and Lossberg’s slowly rising. You know that without my telling you. In rations and ammunition you have begun these last weeks to give out more than you take in. That can only have one end.”
Escrick nodded. “Seems so,” he said dryly. “It was bound to happen. Our only chance was to delay its happening till we had made Lossberg think it could never happen. We were striking at his nerves, and the nerves of Olifa. But we have failed. Lossberg isn’t rattled one bit. He is really rather comfortable. He is planted at the Gran Seco city and at the Mines. He is getting up his stuff by the railway, and he is going to get it quite easily when his blockhouses are completed. He has sufficient reserve of vitality to take Loa and drive us out of the Courts of the Morning. Presently he will drive us out of Pacheco and Magdalena. He won’t get tired of the game and call on the President of Olifa to make peace. He is quite cheerful. Shall I tell you what will happen next?”
He leaned forward, till his lean face was close to Escrick’s.
“He is going to get the Mines started. At half-power or quarter-power, no doubt, but still started. He will find labour among the concentrados or he will import it. Soon there will be freight-trains running to Olifa as before. And we shall be driven back bit by bit into the mountains, getting fewer every day.”
“We’ve had mighty small losses so far,” said Escrick.
“They will come—never fear. From starvation, if not from bullets. Make no mistake, they will come. Do you know what we are now, General Escrick? A rebellion on the defensive, and that is the feeblest thing known to history.”
The Gobernador spoke with a passion that silenced his hearers. There was no exultation in his voice; rather it seemed to be bitter with reproach and disappointment.
Then Grayne spoke.
“We’re keeping our end up in one branch,” he said. “The air. Bobby Latimer got two enemy planes yesterday. We’ve got the whip hand of them there all right. We can fly anywhere we like in this darned country, and if we weren’t short of bombs we could mess up things considerable for old Lossberg.”
Then Barbara asked a question which had been on her lips since the moment she arrived. She did not expect an answer, for Sir Archie’s objective had been Pacheco and Janet’s kidnapping had naturally not been made public in the army.
“Have you heard anything of Sir Archibald Roylance?” she asked.
Escrick shook his head. “He came here five days back. I wasn’t here, but he saw Lowson, my Chief of Intelligence. He was going to General Peters and he left a message that he was flying close to the mountains. He never turned up at Pacheco, and our planes have been all over the ground and can’t find any trace of him.”
A small cry was wrung from Barbara’s lips. The Gobernador got to his feet and walked to the door. The fatigue of yesterday had returned to him and was shown in his cramped movements, but there was no weariness in his voice and eyes.
“Where is Lord Clanroyden?” he asked.
“At Pacheco. General Peters is having the heavy end just at present. Yesterday he had quite a show at the Universum.”
“Telegraph to him that I am coming. Can you send Miss Dasent and myself by air?”
“Sure. One of Captain Latimer’s men is going there this afternoon, for we’re concentrating for another try at the railway… But hadn’t you better stay here, sir? Pacheco soon won’t be too safe for civilians.”
The Gobernador smiled. “I suppose I am a civilian, but I’m not