VI
THE ADVENTURE
[Illustration]
VI
THE ADVENTURE
I
One hot morning in early June, Dona Teresa took her washing down to the
river, and Tonio and Tita went with her. They found Dona Josefa and
Pedro's wife already there with their soiled clothes, and the three
women had a good time gossiping together while they soaped the garments
and scrubbed them well on stones at the water's edge.
Pablo and the Twins played in the water meanwhile, hunting mud turtles
and building dams and trying to catch minnows with their hands.
At last Pablo's mother said to him, "Pablo, take this piece of soap and
go behind those bushes and take a bath."
Then she went on telling Dona Teresa about a new pattern of drawn work
she was beginning and forgot all about Pablo. Pablo disappeared behind
the bush, and no one saw him again that day. He wasn't drowned, but it's
my belief that he wasn't bathed either.
However, this story is not about Pablo. It's about Tonio and Tita, and
what happened to them.
Dona Teresa said to them, "I wish you would get Tonto and go up the
mountain beyond the pasture and bring down a load of wood. Take some
lunch with you. You won't get lost, because Tonto knows the way home if
you don't. Get all the ocote[17] branches you can to burn in the
brasero."
The Twins were delighted with this errand. It meant a picnic for them,
so they ran back to the house and got Tonto and the luncheon and started
away down the road as gay as two larks in the springtime.
They both rode on the donkey's back and they had Tonio's lasso with
them. The luncheon was in Tonio's hat as usual. Tonio whistled for
Jasmin, but he was nowhere to be found, so they started without him.
They crossed the goat-pasture, and this time Tonio did not forget to put
up the bars. They passed the goat too, but Tonio rode right by and hoped
the goat wouldn't notice him.
From the goat-pasture they turned into a sort of trail that led up the
mountain-side, and rode on for two miles until they came to a thick
wood. Here they dismounted and, leaving Tonto to graze comfortably by
himself, began to search for ocote wood. Tonio had a machete stuck in
his belt.
A machete is a long strong knife, and he used it to cut up the wood into
small pieces. Then he tied it up in a bundle with his lasso to carry
home on Tonto's back.
The children had such fun wandering about, gathering sticks, and looking
for birds' nests that they didn't think a thing about time until they
suddenly realized that they were very hungry. They had gone some
distance into the wood, and quite out of sight of Tonto by this time.
II
They sat down on a fallen log and ate their lunch, and then they were
thirsty.
"Let's find a brook and get a drink," said Tonio. "I know there must be
one right near here."
They left their bundle of wood and walked for some distance searching
for water, but no stream did they find. They grew thirstier and
thirstier.
"It seems to me I shall dry up and blow away if we don't find it pretty
soon," said Tita.
"I've _almost_ found it, I think," answered Tonio. "It must be right
over by those willow trees."
They went to the willow trees but there was no stream there.
"I think we'd better go back and get the wood and start home," said
Tita. "We can get a drink in the goat-pasture."
"All right," said Tonio, and he led the way back into the woods.
They looked and looked for the bundle of sticks, but somehow everything
seemed different.
"I'm sure it must have been right near here," said Tonio. "I remember
that black stump. I'm sure I do, because it looks like a bear sitting up
on his hind legs. Don't you remember it, Tita?"
But Tita didn't remember it, and I'm afraid Tonio didn't either, really,
for the bundle of sticks certainly was not there. They hunted about for
a long time, and at last Tonio said, "I think we'd better go back to
Tonto; he may be lonesome."
But Tonto had disappeared too! Tonio was sure he knew just where he had
left him, but when they got to the place he wasn't there, and it
_wasn't_ the place either! It was very discouraging.
At last Tonio said, "Well, anyway, Tonto knows the way home by himself.
We'll just let him find his own way, and we'll go home by ourselves."
"All right," said Tita, and they started down the mountain-side.
They had walked quite a long way when Tita said, "I think we're high
enough up so we ought to see the lake." But no lake was in sight in any
direction.
Tita began to cry. "We-we-we're just as lost as we can be," she sobbed.
"And you did it! You said you knew the way, and you didn't, and now
we'll die of hunger and nobody will find us--_I want to go home_."
"Hush up," said Tonio. "Crying won't help. We'll keep on walking and
walking and we'll just _have_ to come to something, some time. And
there'll be people there and they'll tell us how to go."
Tonio seemed so sure of this that Tita was a little comforted. They
walked for a very long time--hours it seemed to her--before Tita spoke
again.
[Illustration]
Then she said, "There's a big black cloud, and the sun is lost in it,
and it's going to rain, and we aren't anywhere at all yet!"
They had got down to level ground by this time and were walking through
a great field of maguey[18] plants. The maguey is a strange great
century-plant that grows higher than a man's head. When it gets ready to
blossom the center is cut out and the hollow place fills with a sweet
juice which Mexicans like to drink. Tonio knew this and thought perhaps
he could get a drink in that way.
So he cut down a hollow-stemmed weed with his machete and made a pipe
out of it. Then he climbed up on the plant that had been cut and stuck
one end of his pipe into the juice, and the other into his mouth. When
he had had enough, he boosted Tita up and she got a drink too. This made
them feel better, and they walked on until they had passed the maguey
plantation and were out in the open fields once more.
III
The sky grew darker and darker, and there were queer shapes all around
them. Giant cacti with their arms reaching out like the arms of a cross
loomed up before them. There were other great cacti in groups of tall
straight spines, and every now and then a palm tree would spread its
spiky leaves like giant fingers against the sky.
[Illustration]
Suddenly there was a great clap of thunder, "It's the beginning of the
rains," said Tonio.
"Shall we--shall we--be drowned--do you think?" wept Tita. "It's almost
night."
Tonio was really a brave boy, but it is no joke to be lost in such
country as that, and he knew it.
Tonio was almost crying, too, but he said, "I'll climb the first tree I
can get up into and look around." He tried to make his voice sound big
and brave, but it shook a little in spite of him.
Soon they came to a mesquite tree. There were long bean-like pods
hanging from it. Tonio climbed the tree and threw down some pods. They
were good to eat. Tita gathered them up in her rebozo,[19] while Tonio
gazed in every direction to see if he could see a house or shelter of
any kind.
"I don't see anything but that hill over there," he called to Tita. "It
is shaped like a great mound and seems to be all stone and rock. Perhaps
if we could get up on top of it and look about we could tell where we
are."
"Let's run, then," said Tita.
The children took hold of hands and ran toward the hill. There were
cacti of all kinds around them, and as they ran, the spines caught their
clothes. The hill seemed to get bigger and bigger as they came nearer to
it, and it didn't look like any hill they had ever seen. It was shaped
like a great pyramid and was covered with blocks of stone. There were
bushes growing around the base and out of cracks between the stones.
Tonio tried to climb up but it was so steep he only slipped back into
the bushes, every time he tried.
"Oh, Tonio, maybe it isn't a hill at all," whispered Tita. "Maybe it's
the castle of some awful creature who will eat us up!"
"Well, whatever it is he won't eat me up!" said Tonio boldly. "I'll
stick a cactus down his throat and he'll have to cough me right up if he
tries."
"I'll kick and scream so he'll have to cough me up too," sobbed Tita.
Just then there came a flash of lightning. It was so bright that the
children saw what they hadn't noticed before. It was a hollow place in
the side of the pyramid where a great stone had fallen out, and the dirt
underneath had been washed away, leaving a hole big enough for them to
crawl into, but it was far above their heads.
At last Tonio climbed into a small tree that grew beside it, bent a
branch over, and dropped down into the hollow, holding to the branch by
his hands.
Poor Tita never had felt so lonely in her whole life as she did when she
saw Tonio disappear into that hole! In a minute he was out again and
looking over the edge at her.
"It's all right. You climb up just as I did," he said.
Tita tied the mesquite pods in the end of her rebozo and threw it up to
Tonio. Then she too climbed the little tree and dropped from the branch
into the mouth of the tiny cave.
A hole in the side of a queer pyramid isn't exactly a cheerful place to
be in during a storm, but it was so much better than being lost in a
cactus grove that the children felt a little comforted.
The rain began to fall in great splashing drops, but they were protected
in their rocky house. They ate the mesquite pods for their supper, and
then Tonio said: "Of course, no one will find us to-night, so we'd
better go to sleep. We'll play we are foxes. The animals and birds sleep
in such places all the time and they're not afraid."
So they curled down in the corner of the cave, and, being very tired,
soon fell asleep.
[Illustration]
[17] [=O]-k[=o]'teh.
[18] Mah-gay'[=e].
[19] Ray-b[=o]'s[=o].
[Illustration]
VII
WHILE THEY WERE GONE
[Illustration]
VII
WHILE THEY WERE GONE
I
Meanwhile what do you suppose had been happening at home? When she had
finished her washing and had dried the clothes on the bushes, Dona
Teresa folded them and carried them back to the house, and began her
ironing.
She didn't think much about the time because she was so busy with her
work, but at last she felt hungry and glanced out at the shadow of the
fig tree to see what time it was.
She was surprised to see the shadow already quite long and pointing
toward the east.
"Well," thought she to herself, "I'll get myself something to eat, and
by that time the children will be home and as hungry as two bears. I
think I'll get something especially good for their supper."
She hummed a little tune as she worked, and every little while she
glanced out the open door to see if they were not coming. By and by she
noticed that the sky was overcast and then she heard a clap of thunder.
It was the very same clap of thunder that had frightened the Twins in
the cactus grove.
"The holy saints above us!" cried Dona Teresa aloud. "The children
should have been home long ago. Where can they be!" She ran to the door
just in time to see Tonto come ambling slowly into the yard alone and go
to his own place in the shed.
Dona Teresa's eyes almost popped out of her head with surprise and
fright. She threw on her rebozo and ran over to Pedro's hut. Pedro's
wife was just examining Pablo's ears to see if he had really washed
himself in the river, when Dona Teresa arrived, quite breathless, at the
door.
"Whatever can be the reason that my children are not home?" she gasped.
"You remember it was morning when I sent them after wood. They have not
been seen since, and Tonto walked into the yard just now all alone, and
of course there's nothing to be got out of him! What can have happened
to them?"
"Now, never you mind, like a sensible woman," said Pablo's mother
soothingly. "They're playing along the way as likely as not and will be
at your door before you are. Who should know better than myself the way
children will forget the thing they're set to do."
She looked severely at Pablo as she said this, so I judge the
examination of his ears had not been satisfactory.
Dona Teresa didn't wait to hear any more, but ran back home, and when
the children still did not appear she walked down the road hoping to
meet them.
The clouds grew blacker and blacker, and the rain began to fall. Dona
Teresa called Jasmin, who had reappeared by this time, and gave him
Tonio's shoes to smell of.
"Go find him, go find him," she cried.
Jasmin whined and looked anxious, but just then came a flash of
lightning. Jasmin was afraid of lightning, so he crept into Tonto's
stall with his tail between his legs and hid there until the storm was
over.
II
At last it was time for Pancho to come home. Poor Dona Teresa kept her
supper hot and waited anxiously to hear the sound of Pinto's hoofs, but
no such sound came. Pancho would go with her, and together they would
find their children, she was sure, but six o'clock and seven came,
without either Pancho or the children.
It was quite dark when at last she put on her rebozo and ran as fast as
she could to the priest's house. The door was opened by the priest's fat
sister, who kept house for him.
"Oh, where is the padrecito?" Dona Teresa said to her. "I must see him."
"He is eating his supper," said the fat sister.
"Tell him I am in great trouble," sobbed Dona Teresa.
In a moment the priest appeared at the door, and Dona Teresa kissed the
hand he stretched out to her, and told him her anxieties all in one
breath.
The padrecito had just had his supper and was feeling very comfortable
himself, so he told her he was sure that everything would come out all
right. He patted Dona Teresa on the shoulder and said not to worry; that
probably Pancho had had to stay to mend a fence somewhere, and the
children--why, they had probably stopped to play!
"In pitch darkness and rain, holy father? It cannot be," Dona Teresa
moaned.
"Well," said the priest, "if they are not here in an hour we will search
for them, but they will surely come soon."
Dona Teresa had such faith in the priest that she went back home,
intending to do just what he said, but when she got there she found
Pedro's wife waiting for her.
The moment she saw Dona Teresa she cried out, "Has Pancho come?"
"No," sobbed Dona Teresa.
"Neither has Pedro," answered his wife. "I can't think what can be the
matter. He never stays out so late as this--especially in a storm.
Something dreadful has surely happened."
Dona Teresa told her what the priest had said, but neither one was
willing to wait another minute, so they ran together in the rain to the
other huts and told the news, and the men formed a searching-party at
once.
They put on their grass coats to protect them from the rain, and started
off in the darkness and wet, carrying lighted pine torches, and calling
loudly, "Pancho--Pedro--Tonio--Tita," every few minutes.
[Illustration]
While they were gone Pedro's wife left the baby and Pablo with a
neighbor and asked her to send Pablo to the chapel if there should be
any news. Then she and Dona Teresa went there to pray.
The chapel door was open and candles were burning on the little altar,
as the two women crept in and knelt before the image of the Virgin and
Child.
"O Holy Mother," sobbed Dona Teresa, "help us who are mothers, too!"
All night long they knelt on the chapel floor before the images, sobbing
and praying, listening for footsteps that did not come, and promising
many candles to be placed upon the altar, if only their dear ones could
be restored to them.
It was long after the rain was over and the moon shining again that the
weary search party returned to the village without any news of the
wanderers.
VIII
THE SECRET MEETING
[Illustration]
VIII
THE SECRET MEETING
I
The children, meanwhile, were sleeping soundly in their hard bed. They
were so tired that they did not wake up even when a tiny stream of water
broke through a crevice in the rocks and splashed down on Tonio's head.
It ran off his hair just as the rain ran off the thatched roof of their
little adobe hut.
About nine o'clock the rain stopped and the moon shone out from behind
the clouds. An owl hooted; a fox ran right over the roof of their cave,
making a soft pat-pat with his paws that would have frightened them if
they had heard it, but they slept on.
At last, however, something did wake Tita. She sat up in terror. A
flickering light that wasn't moonlight was dancing about the cave! It
was so bright that she could see everything about them as plain as day.
She clutched Tonio, shook him gently, and whispered in his ear, "Tonio,
Tonio, wake up."
Tonio stirred and opened his mouth, but Tita clapped her hand over it.
She was so afraid he would make a noise. When he saw the flickering
light Tonio almost shouted for joy, for he was sure that his father had
found them at last.
The flickering light grew brighter. They heard the crackling of flames
and men's voices, and saw sparks. Very quietly they squirmed around on
their stomachs until they could peep out of the opening of their cave.
This is what they saw!
There on the ground a few feet in front of their hiding-place was a
fire, and two men were beside it. Their horses were tied to bushes not
far away. One of the men was broiling meat on the end of a stick. The
smell of it made the children very hungry. The other man was drinking
something hot from a cup. They both had guns, and the guns were leaning
against the rocks just below the cave where the children were hidden.
The man who was standing up was tall and had a fierce black mustache. He
had on a big sombrero, and under a fold of his serape Tonio could see a
cartridge-belt and the handle of a revolver.
"It's the Tall Man that Father and Pedro were talking to in front of the
pulque shop," whispered Tonio.
Tita was so frightened that she shook like a leaf and her teeth
chattered.
Pretty soon the Tall Man spoke. "The others ought to be here soon," he
said. "They'll see the fire. Put on a few more sticks and make it flame
up more."
The other man gave a last turn to the meat, handed it stick and all to
the Tall Man, and disappeared behind the bushes to search for wood.
[Illustration]
He had not yet come back, when there was the sound of horses' feet, and
a man rode into sight, dismounted, hitched his horse, and joined the
Tall Man by the fire.
One by one others came, until there were ten men standing about and
talking together in low tones. Last of all there was the thud-thud of
two more horses and who should come riding into the firelight but
Pancho on Pinto, and Pedro on another horse!
When they joined the circle, Tonio almost sprang up and shouted. He did
make a little jump, but Tita clutched him and held him back. He loosened
a pebble at the mouth of the cave by his motion and it clattered down
over the rock. The man who had gone for the wood was just putting his
load down by the fire when the pebble came rattling down beside him.
"What's that?" he said, and sprang for his rifle.
Tonio hastily drew in his head. The men all listened intently for a few
minutes, and looked cautiously about them.
"It's nothing but a pebble," said the Tall Man at last. "No one will
disturb us here. And if they should,"--he tapped the handle of his
revolver and smiled,--"we'd give them such a warm welcome they would be
glad to stay with us--quietly--oh, very quietly!"
The other men grinned a little, as if they saw a joke in this, and then
they all sat down in a circle around the fire.
II
Pancho and Pedro sat where the children could look right at them. The
Tall Man was the only one who did not sit down. He stood up and began to
talk.
"Well, men," he said. "I knew I could count on you! Brave fellows like
you know well when a blow must be struck, and where is the true Mexican
who was ever afraid to strike a blow when he knew that it was needed?
"We came of a race of fighters! And once Mexico belonged to them! Our
Indian forefathers did not serve a race of foreign tyrants as we, their
sons, do! Look about you on Mexico! Where in the whole world can be
found such a land? The soil so rich that it yields crops that burden the
earth, and mountains full of gold and silver and precious stones! And it
is for this reason we are enslaved!
"If our land were less rich and less beautiful, if it bore no such
crops, if its sunshine were not so bright, and its mountains yielded no
such treasure, we should be free men to-day.
"But the world envied our possessions. You know how Cortez, long ago,
came from Spain and when our forefathers met him with friendliness he
slew men, women, and children, tore down their ancient temples, and set
the churches of Spain in their places!
"The Spaniards turned our fathers from free and brave men into a
conquered and enslaved people, and worst of all they mixed their hated
blood with ours. From the days of Cortez until now in one way or another
we have submitted to oppression, until the spirit of our brave Indian
ancestors is almost dead within us!
"And for what do we serve these aristocrats? For the privilege of
remaining ignorant! For the privilege of tilling _their_ fields, which
were once ours! For the privilege of digging _our_ gold and silver and
precious stones out of _their_ mines to make them rich! For the
privilege of living in huts while they live in palaces! For the
_privilege_ of being robbed and beaten in the name of laws we never
heard of and which we had no part in making, though this country is
called a Republic! A Republic!--Bah!--A Republic where more than half
the people cannot read! A Republic of cattle! A Republic where men like
you work for a few pence a day, barely enough to keep your body and soul
together--and even that pittance you must spend in stores owned by the
men for whom you work!
"The little that you earn goes straight back into the pockets of your
masters! Do you not see it? Do you not see if they own the land and the
supplies they own you too? They _call_ you free men--but are you free?
What are you free to do? Free to starve if you will not work on their
terms, or if you will not strike a blow for freedom. Are not my words
true? Speak up and answer me! Are you satisfied? Are you free?"
III
The Tall Man stopped and waited for an answer. The fire flickered over
the dark faces of angry men, and Pedro stirred uneasily as if he would
like to say something.
"Speak out, Pedro. Tell us your story," said the Tall Man.
Pedro stood up and shook his fist at the fire. "Every word you speak is
true," he said. "Who should know better than I? I had a small farm some
miles from here, left me by my father. It was my own, and I tilled my
land and was content. My father could not read, neither could I. No one
told me of the laws.
"At last one day a rural[20] rode to my house, and said, 'Pedro, why
have you not obeyed the law? The law says that if you did not have your
property recorded before a magistrate by the first of last month it
should be taken from you and given to the State.'
[Illustration]
"'But I have never heard of such a law,' I said to him. He answered,
'Ignorance excuses no man. Your farm belongs to the state.' And I and my
family were turned out of the house in which I and my father before me
had been born. All our neighbors were treated in the same way. In
despair we went away to the hacienda of Senor Fernandez, and there we
work for a pittance as you say. And our homes! That whole region was
turned over by the President, not long after, to a rich friend of his,
who now owns it as a great estate!
"Many of my old neighbors are now his peons--working for him on land
that was once their own and that was taken from them by a trick--by a
trick, I say,"--his voice grew thick, and he sat down heavily in his
place.
Another man, a stranger to Tonio, sprang to his feet. "Ah, if that were
all!" he said; "but even in peonage we are not left undisturbed! It was
only a year ago that I was riding into town on my donkey with some
chickens to sell, when an officer stopped me and brought me before the
Jefe Politico.[21]
"'Why have you not obeyed the law?' said the magistrate. 'I know of no
law that I have not obeyed,' I said. 'You may tell me that,' said the
scoundrel, 'but to make me believe it is another matter. You must know
very well that a law was passed not long ago that every peon must wear
dark trousers if he wishes to enter a town.'
"'I have no dark trousers,' said I, 'and I have no money to buy them. I
have worn such white trousers as these since I was a boy, as have all
the men in this region.' 'That makes no difference to me,' he said; 'law
is law.' I was put in prison and made to work every day on a bridge that
the Government was building! I never saw my donkey or the chickens
again. My wife did not know where I was for two weeks.