THE STORY OF DONA JOCASTA
Ramon Rotil stood a long minute after the clank of chains ceased along
the corridor; then he bolted the outer door of the chapel, and after
casting a grim satisfied smile at the screen of the faded canvas, he
opened the door of the _sala_ and went in.
Valencia was kneeling beside Dona Jocasta and forcing brandy between
the white lips, while Elena bustled around the padre whose head she
had been bathing. A basin of water, ruby red, was evidence of the fact
that Padre Andreas was not in immediate need of the services of a
leech. He sat with his bandaged head held in his hands, and shrank
perceptibly when the general entered the room.
Dona Jocasta swallowed some of the brandy, half strangled over it, and
sat up, gasping and white. It was Tula who offered her a cup of water,
while Valencia, with fervent expressions of gratitude to the saints,
got to her feet, eyeing Rotil with a look of fear. After the wounded
priest and the fainting Jocasta emerged from the chapel door, the two
women were filled with terror of the controlling spirit there.
He halted on the threshold, his eyes roving from face to face,
including Tula, who stood, back against the wall, regarding him as
usual with much admiration. One thing more he must know.
"Go you without," he said with a gesture towards the two women and the
priest. "I will speak with this lady alone."
They all moved to the door, and after a moment of hesitation Tula was
about to follow when he stopped her.
"You stay, girl. The Dona Jocasta may want a maid, but take yourself
over there."
So Tula slipped silently back into the niche of the window seat where
the shadows were deepest, and Rotil moved towards the center table
dragging a chair. On the other side of the table was the couch on
which Jocasta sat, white and startled at the dismissal of the woman
and priest.
"Be composed," he said gentling his tone as one would to soothe a
child. "There are some things to be said between us here, and too many
ears are of no advantage."
She did not reply; only inclined her head slightly and drew herself
upright against the wall, gathering the lace _rebosa_ across her bosom
where Valencia had unfastened her garments and forgotten them in her
fear.
"First is the matter of my debt to you. Do you know in your own mind
how great that is?"
"I--count it as nothing, senor," she murmured.
"That is because you do not know the great need, and have not made
count of the cases of rifles and ammunition."
"It is true, I never looked at them. Juan Gonsalvo in dying blamed
Jose Perez for the shot. It was fired by another hand,--but God alone
knows! So Juan sent for me, and Jose never knew. The secret of Soledad
was given to me then, but I never thought to use it, until----"
She ceased, shuddering, and he knew she was thinking of the
blood-stained priest whirled into her presence. Fallen though the
state of the priesthood might be in Mexico, there were yet women of
Jocasta's training to whom an assault on the clergy was little less
than a mortal sin. He knew that, and smiled grimly at the remembrance
of her own priestly father who had refused her in honest marriage to a
man of her mother's class, and was busily engaged haggling over the
gift price of her with Jose Perez when death caught him. The
bewildered girl was swept to the estate of Perez without either
marriage or gift, unless one choose to consider as gift the shelter
and food given to a younger sister and brother.
All this went through his mind as she shrank and sighed because he had
tossed a priest from his way with as slight regard as he would the
poorest peon. She did not even know how surely the destiny of her
mother and her own destiny had been formed by a priest's craft. She
would never know, because her mind would refuse to accept it. There
were thousands like her because of their shadowed inheritance.
Revolution for the men grew out of that bondage of women, and Rotil
had isolated moments when he dreamed of a vast and blessed freedom of
the land--schools, and schools, and more schools until knowledge would
belong to the people instead of to the priests!
But he knew it was no use to tell thoughts like that to women; they
were afraid to let go their little wooden saints and the jargon of
prayers they did not understand. The mystery of it held them!
Thus brooded Rotil, unlearned driver of burros and general of an army
of the people!
"We will forget all but the ammunition," he said. "It is as food to my
men, and some of them are starving there to the east; with ammunition
food can be commandeered. I knew the guns were on Soledad land, but
even a golden dream of angels would not have let me hope for as much
as you have given me. It is packed,--that room, from floor to roof
tiles. In the morning I take the trail, and there is much to be done
before I go. You;--I must think of first. Will you let me be your
confessor, and tell me any wish of your heart I may help you to?"
"My heart has no wish left alive in it," she said. "There have been
days when I had wish for the hut under the palms where my mother
lived. A childish wish,--but other wishes are dead!"
"There is no going back," he said, staring at the tiles, and not
looking at her. "It is of future things we must think. He said
things--Perez did, and you----"
"Yes!" she half whispered. "There is no way but to tell of it, but--I
would ask that the child wait outside. The story is not a story for a
girl child, Ramon."
He motioned to Tula.
"Outside the door, but in call," he said, and without a word or look
Tula went softly out.
There was silence for a bit between them, her hands were clasped at
full length, and she leaned forward painfully tense, looking not at
him, but past him.
"It is not easy, but you will comprehend better than many," she said
at last. "There were three of us. There was my little brother Palemon,
who ran away last year to be a soldier--he was only fourteen. Jose
would not let me send searchers for him, and he may be dead. Then
there was only--only Lucita and me. You maybe remember Lucita?"
Her question was wistful as if it would help her to even know he
remembered. He nodded his head in affirmation.
"A golden child," he said. "I have seen pictured saints and angels in
great churches since the days in the hills, but never once so fair a
child as little Lucita."
"Yes, white and gold, and an angel of innocence," she said musingly.
"Always she was that, always! And there was a sweetheart, Mariano
Avila, a good lad, and the wedding was to be. She was embroidering the
wedding shirt for Mariano when--God! God!"
She got up suddenly and paced the floor, her arms hugging her
shoulders tight as if to keep from sobbing. He rose and stood
watching, but uttered no word.
After a little she returned to the couch, and began to speak in a more
even tone.
"There is so much to tell. Much happened. Conrad was driving Jose to
do many things not at first in their plans. Also there was more
drinking,--much more! It was Conrad made plans for the slave raids. He
no longer asked Jose's permission for anything; he gave command to the
men and Jose had to listen. Only one secret thing was yet hidden from
him, the hiding place of the guns from the north. Jose said if that
was uncovered he might as well give up his ranchos. In his heart he
could not trust Conrad. Each had a watch set on the other! Juan got
his death because he made rendezvous with the German.
"That is how it was when the slave raid was made north of here, and
the most beautiful Indian girl killed herself somewhere in this desert
when there was no other way to escape the man;--the scar on the face
of Conrad was from her knife. It was a bad cut, and after that there
was trouble, and much drink and mad quarrels. Also it was that time
Juan Gonsalvo was shot and died from it. Juana, his sister, came in
secret for me while he could yet speak, and that was when----"
She halted, closing her eyes as if to shut out some horror. He thought
she shrank from remembrance of how the secret of Soledad was given to
her, for Juan must have been practically a dead man when he gave it
up. After a moment she went on in the sad tone of the utterly
hopeless.
"I speak of the mad quarrels of those two men, Ramon, but it was never
of that I had fear. The fear came each time the quarrel was done, and
they again swore to be friends, for in the new 'friend hours' of
drinking, strange things happened, strange wagers and strange gifts."
Again she paused, and this time she lifted her eyes to Rotil.
"Always I hated the German. I never carried a blade until after
his eyes followed me! He tried to play the prince, the great
gentleman, with me--a girl of the hills! Only once he touched my
hand, and I scoured it with sand afterwards while Jose laughed. But
the German did not laugh,--he only watched me! Once when Jose was
in a rage with me Conrad said he could make of me a great lady in his
own land if I would listen. Instead of listening I showed him my
knife. After that God only knows what he told against me, but Jose
became bitter--bitter, and jealous, and spies always at my back!
"So Lucita and Mariano and I made plans. They were to marry, and we
three would steal away in secret and cross the border. That was
happiness to plan, for my life--my life was hell, so I thought! But I
had not yet learned what hell could be," she confessed drearily.
"Tell me," he said very gently. Those who thought they knew "El
Gavilan," the merciless, would not have recognized his voice at that
moment.
"No, I had not learned," she went on drearily. "I thought that to
carry a knife for myself made all safe--I did not know! I told you
Juana Gonsalvo came for me very secretly to hear the last words of
Juan. But I did not tell you we lived in the _casita_, little Lucita
and I. It is across a garden from the hacienda, and was once a
priest's house; that was in the days of the mother of Jose. It is very
sweet there under the rose vines, and it was sanctuary for us. When
Jose and the German had their nights of carouse we went there and
locked ourselves in. There were iron bars on the high windows, and
shutters of wood inside, so we were never afraid. I heard Conrad tell
Jose he was a fool not to blow it up with dynamite some day of fiesta.
It was the night after their great quarrel, and it was a terrible
time. They were pledging friendship once more in much wine. Officers
from the town were at the hacienda with women who were--well, I would
not go in, and Jose was wild. He came to the _casita_ and called
threats at me. I thought the German was with him, for he said Conrad
was right, and the house would be blown up with the first dynamite he
could spare,--but threats were no new thing to us! I tried to soothe
little Lucita by talk of the wedding, and all the pretty bride things
were taken out of the chest and spread on the bed; one _rebosa_ of
white I put over her shoulders, and the child was dancing to show me
she was no longer afraid----!
"That was when Juana came to the window. I knew her voice and opened
the door. I did not want Lucita frightened again, so I did not let her
know a man was dying--only that a sick person wanted me for a
little--little minute, and I would be back.
"I knew Juan Gonsalvo had been killed because he had been trusted far
enough,--I knew it! That thought struck me very hard, for I--I might
be the next, and I wanted first to send those two children happily out
of reach of sorrow. Strange it is that because she was first, the very
first in my heart, I went out that door in the night and for the first
time left her alone! But that is how it was; we had to be so
quick--and so silent--and it was her hand closed the door after us,
her hand on the bolt!
"Juan Gonsalvo had only fought for life until he could see me, and
then the breath went. No one but I heard his whispers of the door of
the picture here in Soledad. He told me his death was murder, and his
last word was against Perez. It was only minutes, little minutes I
was there, and the way was not far, but when I went back through the
garden the door of the _casita_ stood wide and light streamed out! I
do not know how I was sure it was empty, but I was, and I seemed to go
dead inside, though I started to run.
"To cross that garden was like struggling in a dream with bands about
my feet. I wake with that dream many nights--many!--I heard her before
I could reach the path. Her screams were not in the _casita_, but in
the hacienda. They were--they were--terrible! I tried to go--and then
I knew she had broken away--I could see her like a white spirit fly
back towards the light in the open door. The man following her tripped
in some way and fell, and I leaped over him to follow her. We got
inside and drew the bolt.
"Then--But there are things not to be told--they belong to the dead!
"Perez came there to the door and made demands for Conrad's
woman,--that is how he said it! He said she had gone to Conrad's
apartment of her own will and must go back. Lucita knelt at my feet in
her torn bridal garment and told how a woman had come as Juana had
come, and said that I wanted her. The child had no doubt, she
followed, and--and it was indeed to that drunken beast they took her!
"Jose was also drunk, crazy drunk. He told me to stand away from that
door for they were coming in, also that he had made gift of Lucita to
his friend, and she must be given up. Then they began to fire guns in
the lock! It seemed a long, long time she held to me there and begged
me to save her, but it could not have been.... The lock gave way, and
only the bolt held. I clasped her close to me and whispered telling
her to pray, but I never took my eyes off the door. When I saw it
shaking, I made the sign of the cross over her, and the knife I had
carried for myself found her heart quickly! That is how I took on me
the shadow of murder, and that is why the priest threatens me with the
fires of hell if I do not repent--and I am not repenting, Ramon."
"By God, no!" he muttered, staring into her defiant eyes. "That was a
fine thing, and your mother gave good blood to her children, Jocasta.
And then----?"
"I laid her on the bed among her bridal laces, all white--white! Over
her breast I folded her still hands, and set a candle at her head,
though I dared not pray! The door was giving way.
"I pushed back the bolt, also I spoke, but it did not seem me! That is
strange, but of a truth I did not know the voice I heard say: 'Enter,
her body is yours--and she no longer flees from you.'
"'Ha! That is good sense at last!' said Jose, and Conrad laughed and
praised himself as a lover.
"'I told you so!' he grunted. 'The little dear one knows that a nice
white German is not so bad!'
"And again I heard the voice strange to me say, 'She knows nothing,
Jose--and she knows all!'
"Jose stumbled in smiling, but Conrad, though drunk, stopped at the
door when he saw my hand with the knife. I thought my skirt covered it
as I waited for him--for the child had told me enough--I--I failed,
Ramon! His oath was a curious choked scream as I tried to reach him.
I do not know if it was the knife, or the dead girl on the bed made
him scream like that, but I knew then the German was at heart a
coward.
"Jose was too strong for me, and the knife could not do its work. I
was struck, and my head muffled in a _serape_. After that I knew
nothing.
"Days and nights went by in a locked room. I never got out of it until
I was chained hand and foot and sent north in a peon's ox-cart. Men
guarded me until Marto with other men waited for me on the trail. Jose
Perez could have had me killed, yes. Or he could have had me before
the judges for murder, but silence was the thing he most wanted--for
there is Dona Dolores Terain yet to be won. He has sent me north that
the General Terain, her father, will think me out of his life. One of
the guards told an alcalde I was his wife, he was sure that story
would be repeated back to Hermosillo! These are days in Sonora when no
one troubles about one woman or one child who is out of sight, and we
may be sure he and Conrad had a well-made story to tell. He knows it
is now all over with me, that I have a hate of which he is afraid, so
he does not have me shot;--he only sends me to Soledad in the
wilderness where fighting bands of the revolution cross all trails,
and his men have orders that I am not to go out of the desert alive."
"I see!" said Rotil thoughtfully, "and--it is all gone now--the love
of him?"
"All the love in the world is gone, amigo," she said, looking away
from him through the barred window where the night sky was growing
bright from the rising moon. "I was a child enchanted by the glory of
the world and his love words. Out of all that false glitter of life I
have walked, a blackened soul with a murderer's hand. How could love
be again with me?"
He looked at her steadily, the slender thing of creamy skin and
Madonna eyes that had been the Dream of Youth to him, the one devotee
at an altar in whom he had believed--nothing in the humanity of the
world would ever have faith of his again!
"That is so, Jocasta," he said at last, "you are a woman, and in the
shadow. The little golden singing one is gone out of your life, and
the new music must be different! I will think about that for you. Go
now to your sleep, for there is work of men to be done, and the night
scarce long enough for it."
He opened the door for her and stood with bent head as she passed. His
men lounging in the patio could see that manner of deference, and
exchanged looks and comments. To the victor belong the spoils in
Mexico, and here was a sweeping victory,--yet the general looked the
other way!
"Child, accompany the senora," he said kindly to Tula at the door.
"Chappo, bring Marto to see me. The new American capitan said he was a
man of value, and the lad was right. Work of importance waits for him
tonight."