CHAPTER III.
THE CALLI.
Much as the unknown had hesitated in offering shelter to Don Pedrode Luna and his daughter,--and we know in what terms the offer hadbeen finally made,--he showed himself equally anxious, as soon ashis decision was made, to quit that part of the forest where thescene passed which we have recorded in our preceding chapter. Hiseyes wandered about continually with a disquietude he took no painsto conceal. He turned his head repeatedly towards the hillock, as ifhe expected to see some horrible apparition suddenly rising from itssummit.
In the state the girl was in, to awaken her would have been to commita grave imprudence, seriously compromising her health. In accordancewith orders delivered in a dry tone by the unknown, the _peones_ of DonPedro, and the _hacendero_ himself, hastened to cut down some branches,in order to fashion a litter, which they covered with dry leaves. Overthese they spread their _zarapes_, of which they deprived themselves inorder to make a softer couch for their young mistress.
These preparations finished, the girl was raised with greatprecaution, and gently placed upon the litter.
Of the three men who accompanied Don Pedro, two were _peones_, ordomestic Indians; the third was the _capataz_ (bailiff) of the_hacendero_.
The _capataz_ was an individual of about five feet eight, with broadshoulders, and legs bowed by the constant habit of riding. He wasextraordinarily thin; but one could truly say of him, he was nothingbut muscle and sinew. His strength was wonderful. This man, calledLuciano Pedralva, was devoted, body and soul, to his master, whom, andhis family, he and his had served for nearly two centuries.
His features, bronzed by the vicissitudes of the weather, althoughnot striking, had an expression of intelligence and astuteness, towhich his eyes, black and well opened, added an appearance of energyand courage beyond the common. Don Pedro de Luna had the greatestconfidence in this man, whom he considered more in the light of afriend than a servitor.
When the girl had been placed upon the litter, the _peones_ lifted it;while Don Pedro and the _capataz_ placed themselves one on the right,the other on the left of the patient, in order to guard her from thebranches of trees and creepers.
At a mute sign from the unknown, who had remounted, the little troopleisurely began its march.
Instead of reentering the forest, the unknown continued to advancetowards the hillock, the base of which was speedily attained. A narrowpathway serpentined along its side in an incline sufficiently gentle.The little troop entered upon it without hesitation.
They ascended in this manner fur some minutes, following ten or a dozenyards behind the unknown, who rode on in front by himself. Suddenly, onarriving at an angle of the road, round which their guide had alreadydisappeared, a whistle rent the air, so sharp that the Mexicans haltedinvoluntarily, not knowing whether to advance or retreat.
"What is the meaning of this?" murmured Don Pedro anxiously.
"Treachery, without a doubt," said the _capataz_ casting his eyessearchingly around.
But all remained quiet about them; no change was perceptible in thelandscape, which looked as lonely as ever.
Nevertheless, in a few minutes, more whistling, similar to the firstthey had heard, was audible in different directions at the same lime,answering evidently to a signal which had been made.
At that moment the unknown reappeared; his face pale, his gesturesconstrained, and a prey to the most vivid emotion.
"It is you who have willed this," said he; "I wash my hands of what mayhappen."
"Tell us, at all events, what peril threatens us," replied Don Pedro,in agitation.
"Ah!" said the other, in a voice of subdued passion,
"Do I know it myself? And what would it aid you to know? Would you bethe less lost for that? You refused to believe me. Now, pray to God tohelp you; for never danger threatened you more terrible than that whichhangs over your head!"
"But why these perpetual reservations? Be frank; we are men, _viveDios_, and, great as the peril may be, we shall know how to meet itbravely."
"You are mad! Can one man oppose a hundred? You will fall, I tell you;but it is to yourself alone you must address your reproaches; it isyourself who have persisted in braving the _Tigercat_ in his lair."
"Alas," cried the _hacendero_ in accents of horror, "what name is thatyou have uttered?"
"The name of the man in whose clutches you are at this very moment."
"What! the Tigercat? That redoubtable bandit, whose numberless crimeshave shocked the land for so long; that man who seems endowed witha diabolical power to accomplish the atrocious deeds with which heincessantly sullies himself;--is that monster near us?"
"He is; and I warn you to be prudent, for perhaps he hears you at thismoment, although invisible to your eyes and mine."
"What do I care?" energetically exclaimed Don Pedro. "Away withcaution, since we are once in the power of this demon; he is a mandevoid of pity, and my life is no longer my own."
"What do you know about it, Senor Don Pedro de Luna?" answered amocking voice.
The _hacendero_ trembled, and recoiled a step, uttering a stifled cry.
The Tigercat, bounding with the agility of the animal from which hetook his name, had leaped upon the summit of an elevated rock whichoverhung the pathway some distance off, and now dropped lightly on theground two paces from Don Pedro.
There was an instant of terrible silence. The two men, thus placed faceto face, their eyes flashing, their lips compressed with rage, examinedeach other with ardent curiosity. It was the first time the _hacendero_had seen the terrible partisan, the fame of whose thirst for blood hadreached the most ignorant villagers in the land, and who for thirtyyears had spread terror over the Mexican frontiers.
We will give, in a few words, the portrait of this man, who is destinedto play an important part in our history.
The Tigercat was a species of Colossus, six feet high; his broadshoulders and limbs, from which the muscles stood out in marblerigidity, showed that, though long past the prime of life, his strengthstill existed in all its integrity; his long locks, white as the snowson Coatepec, fell in disorder on his shoulders, and mingled with thegrizzly beard that covered his breast. His forehead was broad andopen; he had the eye of the eagle, under the brows of the lion; hiswhole person offered, in a word, a complete type of the man of thedesert,--grand, strong, majestic, and implacable. Although his skin wasstained by every inclemency of weather till it had almost acquired thecolour of brick, it was nevertheless easy to recognise, in the clearlydefined lines of his face, that this man belonged to the race of whites.
His dress lay midway between that of the Mexican and of the redskin;for although he wore the _zarape_, his mitasses, in two pieces, workedwith hairs attached here and there, and his moccasins of differentcolours, embroidered with porcupine quills and ornamented with glassbeads and hawks' bells, showed his preference for the Indians, to whosecustoms, by the by, he seemed to have entirely adapted his mode of life.
A large scalping knife, a hatchet, a bullet bag, and powder horn, wereslung from a girdle of wild beast's skin, drawn tightly above his hips.
One thing must not be forgotten,--a singularity in a white man,--awhite-headed eagle's plume was placed above his right ear, as if thisman arrogated to himself the dignity of chief of an Indian tribe.
Lastly, he held in his hand a magnificent American rifle, damaskeened,and most skilfully inlaid with silver.
Such is the physical portrait of the man to whom white hunters andredskins had given the name of Tigercat; a name he deserved in everyrespect, if hearsay had not belied him, and if only half the storiesreported of him were true.
As to the character of this strange being, we will abstain fromdwelling upon it for the present. We are persuaded the scenes whichfollow will enable us to appreciate it correctly.
Although struck with surprise at the apparition--as sudden as it wasunexpected--of the dreaded freebooter, Don Pedro was not long inrecalling his presence of mind.
"
You appear to know me much better than I know you," replied he coolly;"but if half the things I have heard reported about you be true, I canonly expect, on your part, treatment similar to that which all unhappypersons encounter who fall into your hands."
The Tigercat smiled sarcastically.
"And do you not dread this treatment?" he asked.
"For myself, personally, no!" answered Don Pedro disdainfully.
"But," continued the freebooter, with a glance towards the woundedlady, "for the young girl?"
The _hacendero_ trembled; a livid pallor overspread his features.
"You cannot mean what you are saying," was his answer; "for the honourof humanity, I will not think so. The Apaches themselves, fierce asthey are, feel their rage vanish before the feebleness of woman."
"Have I not among the dwellers in cities the reputation of beingfiercer than the fierce Apaches,--even than the very beasts?"
"Let us end this," replied Don Pedro haughtily; "since I have been foolenough, in spite of repeated warnings, to place myself in your hands,dispose of me as you think fit; but deliver me from the torture Iundergo in conversing with you."
The Tigercat frowned; he struck the ground forcibly with the butt ofhis rifle, muttering some unintelligible words; but, by an extremeeffort of his will, his features instantaneously resumed their habitualimperturbability, every trace of emotion vanished from his voice, andhe answered, in the calmest tone:
"In beginning the conversation, about which you seem to care so little,_caballero_, I said to you, 'What do you know about it?'"
"Well?" said the _hacendero_, surprised and overcome, in spite of hisefforts, by the strange change in the dreaded speaker.
"Well," replied the latter, "I repeat the phrase, not, as you maysuppose, in mockery, but simply to elicit your frank opinion of me."
"That opinion can be of little value to you, I presume."
"More than you may imagine. But why these words? Answer me!"
The _hacendero_ remained mute for a time. The Tigercat, his eyes fixedsteadily upon him, watched him attentively.
As to the hunter who had been almost forced to consent to serve DonPedro de Luna as guide, his astonishment was extreme. Believing himselfto be thoroughly acquainted with the character of the freebooter, hecould not understand the scene at all, and inwardly asked himself whatthis feigned courtesy of the Tigercat would end in.
Don Pedro himself argued quite differently on the bandit's sentiments;right or wrong, he fancied he had perceived an accent of sad sincerityin the tone in which the last words had been addressed to him.
"Since you absolutely desire it," said he, "I will reply frankly: Ibelieve your heart to be not so cruel as you would have it supposed;and I imagine that this conviction, which you inwardly possess, makesyou extremely unhappy; for, notwithstanding the barbarous acts withwhich they reproach you, other crimes have entered your thoughts,before the execution of which you have recoiled, in spite of thepitiless ferocity they attribute to you."
The Tigercat seemed about to speak.
"Do not interrupt me," continued the _hacendero_ hastily; "I know thatI am treading upon a volcano; but you have my promise to speak frankly,and, willing or not willing, you must hear me to the end. Most ofmankind are the architects of their own fortunes in this world; youhave not escaped the common lot. Gifted with an energetic character,with vivid passions, you have not sought to overcome these passions;you have suffered yourself to be overcome by them, and thus, fallafter fall, you have reached that depth in which you are now lost; andyet all good feeling is not utterly dead in you."
A smile of contempt flickered over the lips of the old man.
"Do not smile at me," the _hacendero_ went on; "the very question youhave put proves my assertion. Leading in the wilderness the life ofthe plundering savage, hating society, which has cast you off, youstill hanker after the opinion the world forms of you. And why? Becausethat sentiment of justice, which God has planted in the hearts of all,revolts in you at the universal reprobation heaped upon your name. Ithas roused your shame. The man who can still be ashamed of himself,criminal as he may be, is very close to repentance; for the voice thatcries aloud in his heart is the voice of awakening remorse."
Although Don Pedro had ceased speaking for some time, the Tigercatstill seemed to be listening to his words; but suddenly lifting hishead proudly, he cast a mocking glance around him, and burst into alaugh, dry and hard as that which Goethe ascribes to Mephistopheles.
This laugh cut the _hacendero_ to the heart. He comprehended that theevil instincts of the freebooter had resumed their sway over the betterthoughts which, for a moment, had seemed to assert their mastery.
After this bout of laughter, the countenance of the Tigercat resumedits usual rigid immobility.
"Good!" cried he in a tone of apparent glee, which did by no meansdeceive Don Pedro; "I expected a sermon, and find I was not mistaken.Well, at the risk of sinking in your estimation,--or, to speak moretruly, in order to flatter your self-esteem by leaving you in thebelief that you judge my feelings correctly,--I decree that you andyour followers return to your Hacienda de las Norias de San Antonio,not only without the loss of a hair, but even as partakers of myhospitality. Does not this decision astonish you? You were far fromexpecting it."
"Not so; it is exactly what I anticipated."
"Indeed!" said he, with astonishment; "Then if I offer you thehospitality of my _calli_, you will accept it?"
"And why not, if the offer is made in good faith?"
"Then come without fear; I pledge you my word that you nor yours needfear any injury on my part."
"I follow you," said Don Pedro.
But the unknown had watched with increasing anxiety the erratic courseof this conversation, and advancing abruptly in front of, and extendinghis arms towards, the _hacendero_--
"Stop, as you value your life!" he cried in a voice trembling withsecret emotion. "Stop! Do not let yourself be deceived by the assumedbenevolence of this man; he is spreading a snare for you; his offerconceals a treason."
The Tigercat drew himself up to his full height, stared disdainfullyat the speaker, and replied, in an accent of supreme majesty:
"Your senses wander, boy; this man runs no risk in confiding in me.Granted that there are many things I do not respect in this world,still there is at least one which I have always respected, and havesuffered no one to doubt,--my word,--my word, which I have given tothis _caballero_. Come! Let us pass; the young woman whom you havesuccoured so opportunely is not yet out of danger; her state demandsattentions which are beyond your power to afford."
The unknown trembled; his dark-blue eyes flashed, his lips parted as ifto answer; but he remained silent, and retired a few paces, knittinghis brow in concentrated passion.
"Moreover," imperturbably continued the freebooter, "whatever forcemay lie at your disposal in other parts of the wilderness, you knowthat here I am all-powerful, and that here my will is law. Leave me toact as I please. Do not force me to measures I should abhor; for if Iraised but a finger I could tame your fool's pride."
"I know," said the young man, "that I am powerless; but beware how youtreat these strangers, who placed themselves under my protection; for Ishall know how to take my revenge."
"Yes, yes," said the Tigercat drearily; "I know you would not hesitateto revenge yourself even on me, if you fancied you had a cause. But Icare not; I am master here."
"I shall follow you even into your haunt; think not I intend to desertthese strangers now they are in your hands."
"As you please; I do not forbid you to accompany them; on the contrary,I should regret your leaving them."
The unknown held his peace, smiling disdainfully.
"Come," resumed the Tigercat, turning to the _hacendero_.
The troop began again to ascend the hillock, following in the footstepsof the old freebooter, close to whom rode their former guide.
After some turnings and windings in the path, of more or lessabruptness,
some of which caused the Mexicans no little difficulty, theTigercat turned towards the _hacendero_, and addressed him in a voiceperfectly free from embarrassment:
"I beg you to excuse my guiding you over such villainous roads;unfortunately they are the only ones leading to my dwelling. It is athand; in a few minutes we shall be there."
"But I see no traces of habitation," replied Don Pedro, vainly,scanning the country in all directions.
"True," said the Tigercat, with a smile; "nevertheless, we are hardlyan hundred paces from the end of our journey; and I can assure you theabode to which I am leading you would harbour a hundred times ourpresent numbers."
"I have not much idea where this dwelling is to be found, unless it besubterranean, as I begin to suspect."
"You have almost guessed it. The place I inhabit, if not subterraneanin the strict sense of the word, is at least a dwelling covered by theground. Few have entered it to leave it again safe and sound, as youshall."
"So much the worse," retorted roundly the _hacendero;_ "so much theworse for them--and for you."
The Tigercat frowned, but immediately replied, in the light andcareless tone he had affected for the last few minutes:
"Look you, I will clear up this mystery. Listen; the story isinteresting enough. When the Aztecs quitted Azlin, which signifies'the country of herons,' to conquer Anahuac, or 'the country betweenthe waters,' their peregrinations were long, extending over severalcenturies. Disheartened at times by long travel, they halted, foundedcities, in which they installed themselves as if they never intendedto abandon the place they had chosen; and, perhaps with the objectof leaving behind them ineffaceable traces of their passage throughthe wild countries they traversed, they constructed pyramids. Hencethe numerous ruins littering the soil of Mexico, and the _teocalis_one meets with occasionally,--last and mournful vestiges of a peoplethat has disappeared. These _teocalis_ built on a system of incrediblesolidity far from crumbling under the strenuous embrace of time, haveended in becoming a part of the ground which supported them, and socompletely, that there is often difficulty in recognising them. I cangive you no better proof of my assertion than what you have now beforeyou. The elevation you are now ascending is not, as you might suppose,a hill caused by some perturbation of the earth,--it is an Aztec_teocali_."
"A _teocali!_" exclaimed Don Pedro, in astonishment.
"It is, indeed," continued the freebooter; "but so many centuries haveelapsed since the day it was built, that, thanks to the vegetablematter incessantly conveyed by the winds, nature has apparently resumedher rights, and the Aztec watchtower has become a green hill. You aredoubtless aware that the _teocalis_ are hollow?"
"I am aware of it," answered the _hacendero_.
"It is in the interior of this one I have fixed my dwelling. See, wehave reached it. Allow me to show you the way into it."
In fact, the travellers had arrived at a kind of coarse portal--aCyclopean construction--which gave admittance to a subterraneanbuilding, in which a profound obscurity prevailed, forbidding anyestimate of its dimensions.
The Tigercat stopped, and gave a peculiar whistle. Immediately adazzling light broke forth from the interior, and illuminated it in allits vastness.
"Let us enter," said the freebooter, preceding his companions.
Without hesitation Don Pedro prepared to follow, after making a sign tohis attendants, warning them to conceal their rising fears.
For a moment the unknown found himself, so to speak, alone with the_hacendero_, and bending swiftly down, whispered softly in his ear, "Beprudent; you are entering the tiger's den."
Saying this, he rapidly left them, as he feared the freebooter mightperceive that he was giving a last word of warning to the stranger.
But, good or bad, the advice came too late: hesitation would have beenfolly, for flight was impossible.
On all sides, on every jutting rock, appeared as by enchantment, thedark shadows of a host of persons, who had started up around thestrangers without their understanding whence they came, so stealthy hadbeen their approach.
The Mexicans entered, then, although not without feelings of dread,into the terrible cavern, whose mouth opened yawning before them. Thebuilding was vast, the walls were lofty.
After proceeding for about ten minutes, the Mexicans found themselvesin a species of rotunda, in the centre of which a huge brazier wasflaming; four long corridors crossed the rotunda at right angles. TheTigercat, still followed by the travellers, entered one of these. Hestopped on reaching a door formed of a reed hurdle.
"Make yourselves at home," said he; "your lodgings consists of twochambers, which have no communication with the rest of the cave. By myorders you will be supplied with food, with wood to make a fire, andtorches of ocote to give you light."
"I thank you for these attentions," replied Don Pedro. "I had littlereason to expect them."
"And why not? Do you think that I do not know how to practise Mexicanhospitality, in its fullest extent, whenever it suits me?"
"Sir!" said the _hacendero_, with a gesture of deprecation.
"Silence!" said the bandit, interrupting him; "You are my guests forthe night. Sleep in peace; nothing shall disturb your rest. In an hourI will send you a potion for the lady to drink. We shall meet againtomorrow." And, bowing with an ease and courtesy little expected byDon Pedro from such a man, the Tigercat took his leave and quitted thechamber.
For a few seconds the step resounded under the dark vault of thecorridor; then it was silenced. The travellers were alone, and the_hacendero_ determined to investigate the chambers prepared for them.