THE CALLI.
Much as the unknown had hesitated in offering shelter to Don Pedro
de Luna and his daughter,--and we know in what terms the offer had
been finally made,--he showed himself equally anxious, as soon as
his decision was made, to quit that part of the forest where the
scene passed which we have recorded in our preceding chapter. His
eyes wandered about continually with a disquietude he took no pains
to conceal. He turned his head repeatedly towards the hillock, as if
he expected to see some horrible apparition suddenly rising from its
summit.
In the state the girl was in, to awaken her would have been to commit
a grave imprudence, seriously compromising her health. In accordance
with orders delivered in a dry tone by the unknown, the _peones_ of Don
Pedro, and the _hacendero_ himself, hastened to cut down some branches,
in order to fashion a litter, which they covered with dry leaves. Over
these they spread their _zarapés_, of which they deprived themselves in
order to make a softer couch for their young mistress.
These preparations finished, the girl was raised with great
precaution, and gently placed upon the litter.
Of the three men who accompanied Don Pedro, two were _peones_, or
domestic Indians; the third was the _capataz_ (bailiff) of the
_hacendero_.
The _capataz_ was an individual of about five feet eight, with broad
shoulders, and legs bowed by the constant habit of riding. He was
extraordinarily thin; but one could truly say of him, he was nothing
but muscle and sinew. His strength was wonderful. This man, called
Luciano Pedralva, was devoted, body and soul, to his master, whom, and
his family, he and his had served for nearly two centuries.
His features, bronzed by the vicissitudes of the weather, although
not striking, had an expression of intelligence and astuteness, to
which his eyes, black and well opened, added an appearance of energy
and courage beyond the common. Don Pedro de Luna had the greatest
confidence in this man, whom he considered more in the light of a
friend 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 the
branches of trees and creepers.
At a mute sign from the unknown, who had remounted, the little troop
leisurely began its march.
Instead of reentering the forest, the unknown continued to advance
towards the hillock, the base of which was speedily attained. A narrow
pathway 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 dozen
yards behind the unknown, who rode on in front by himself. Suddenly, on
arriving at an angle of the road, round which their guide had already
disappeared, a whistle rent the air, so sharp that the Mexicans halted
involuntarily, 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 eyes
searchingly around.
But all remained quiet about them; no change was perceptible in the
landscape, which looked as lonely as ever.
Nevertheless, in a few minutes, more whistling, similar to the first
they 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 gestures
constrained, and a prey to the most vivid emotion.
"It is you who have willed this," said he; "I wash my hands of what may
happen."
"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 be
the less lost for that? You refused to believe me. Now, pray to God to
help you; for never danger threatened you more terrible than that which
hangs over your head!"
"But why these perpetual reservations? Be frank; we are men, _vive
Dios_, and, great as the peril may be, we shall know how to meet it
bravely."
"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 is
yourself who have persisted in braving the _Tigercat_ in his lair."
"Alas," cried the _hacendero_ in accents of horror, "what name is that
you have uttered?"
"The name of the man in whose clutches you are at this very moment."
"What! the Tigercat? That redoubtable bandit, whose numberless crimes
have shocked the land for so long; that man who seems endowed with
a diabolical power to accomplish the atrocious deeds with which he
incessantly sullies himself;--is that monster near us?"
"He is; and I warn you to be prudent, for perhaps he hears you at this
moment, although invisible to your eyes and mine."
"What do I care?" energetically exclaimed Don Pedro. "Away with
caution, since we are once in the power of this demon; he is a man
devoid of pity, and my life is no longer my own."
"What do you know about it, Señor Don Pedro de Luna?" answered a
mocking voice.
The _hacendero_ trembled, and recoiled a step, uttering a stifled cry.
The Tigercat, bounding with the agility of the animal from which he
took his name, had leaped upon the summit of an elevated rock which
overhung the pathway some distance off, and now dropped lightly on the
ground two paces from Don Pedro.
There was an instant of terrible silence. The two men, thus placed face
to face, their eyes flashing, their lips compressed with rage, examined
each other with ardent curiosity. It was the first time the _hacendero_
had seen the terrible partisan, the fame of whose thirst for blood had
reached the most ignorant villagers in the land, and who for thirty
years had spread terror over the Mexican frontiers.
We will give, in a few words, the portrait of this man, who is destined
to play an important part in our history.
The Tigercat was a species of Colossus, six feet high; his broad
shoulders and limbs, from which the muscles stood out in marble
rigidity, showed that, though long past the prime of life, his strength
still existed in all its integrity; his long locks, white as the snows
on Coatepec, fell in disorder on his shoulders, and mingled with the
grizzly beard that covered his breast. His forehead was broad and
open; he had the eye of the eagle, under the brows of the lion; his
whole person offered, in a word, a complete type of the man of the
desert,--grand, strong, majestic, and implacable. Although his skin was
stained by every inclemency of weather till it had almost acquired the
colour of brick, it was nevertheless easy to recognise, in the clearly
defined 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 _zarapé_, his mitasses, in two pieces, worked
with hairs attached here and there, and his moccasins of different
colours, embroidered with porcupine quills and ornamented with glass
beads and hawks' bells, showed his preference for the Indians, to whose
customs, 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, were
slung 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,--a
white-headed eagle's plume was placed above his right ear, as if this
man 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 and
redskins had given the name of Tigercat; a name he deserved in every
respect, if hearsay had not belied him, and if only half the stories
reported of him were true.
As to the character of this strange being, we will abstain from
dwelling upon it for the present. We are persuaded the scenes which
follow will enable us to appreciate it correctly.
Although struck with surprise at the apparition--as sudden as it was
unexpected--of the dreaded freebooter, Don Pedro was not long in
recalling 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 can
only expect, on your part, treatment similar to that which all unhappy
persons 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 wounded
lady, "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 honour
of humanity, I will not think so. The Apaches themselves, fierce as
they are, feel their rage vanish before the feebleness of woman."
"Have I not among the dwellers in cities the reputation of being
fiercer than the fierce Apaches,--even than the very beasts?"
"Let us end this," replied Don Pedro haughtily; "since I have been fool
enough, in spite of repeated warnings, to place myself in your hands,
dispose of me as you think fit; but deliver me from the torture I
undergo in conversing with you."
The Tigercat frowned; he struck the ground forcibly with the butt of
his rifle, muttering some unintelligible words; but, by an extreme
effort of his will, his features instantaneously resumed their habitual
imperturbability, every trace of emotion vanished from his voice, and
he 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 his
efforts, by the strange change in the dreaded speaker.
"Well," replied the latter, "I repeat the phrase, not, as you may
suppose, 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 fixed
steadily upon him, watched him attentively.
As to the hunter who had been almost forced to consent to serve Don
Pedro de Luna as guide, his astonishment was extreme. Believing himself
to be thoroughly acquainted with the character of the freebooter, he
could not understand the scene at all, and inwardly asked himself what
this 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 sincerity
in the tone in which the last words had been addressed to him.
"Since you absolutely desire it," said he, "I will reply frankly: I
believe your heart to be not so cruel as you would have it supposed;
and I imagine that this conviction, which you inwardly possess, makes
you extremely unhappy; for, notwithstanding the barbarous acts with
which they reproach you, other crimes have entered your thoughts,
before the execution of which you have recoiled, in spite of the
pitiless ferocity they attribute to you."
The Tigercat seemed about to speak.
"Do not interrupt me," continued the _hacendero_ hastily; "I know that
I 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 of
mankind are the architects of their own fortunes in this world; you
have 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, fall
after fall, you have reached that depth in which you are now lost; and
yet 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 you
have put proves my assertion. Leading in the wilderness the life of
the plundering savage, hating society, which has cast you off, you
still hanker after the opinion the world forms of you. And why? Because
that sentiment of justice, which God has planted in the hearts of all,
revolts in you at the universal reprobation heaped upon your name. It
has 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 that
cries aloud in his heart is the voice of awakening remorse."
Although Don Pedro had ceased speaking for some time, the Tigercat
still seemed to be listening to his words; but suddenly lifting his
head proudly, he cast a mocking glance around him, and burst into a
laugh, dry and hard as that which Goethe ascribes to Mephistopheles.
This laugh cut the _hacendero_ to the heart. He comprehended that the
evil instincts of the freebooter had resumed their sway over the better
thoughts which, for a moment, had seemed to assert their mastery.
After this bout of laughter, the countenance of the Tigercat resumed
its usual rigid immobility.
"Good!" cried he in a tone of apparent glee, which did by no means
deceive Don Pedro; "I expected a sermon, and find I was not mistaken.
Well, at the risk of sinking in your estimation,--or, to speak more
truly, in order to flatter your self-esteem by leaving you in the
belief that you judge my feelings correctly,--I decree that you and
your followers return to your Hacienda de las Norias de San Antonio,
not only without the loss of a hair, but even as partakers of my
hospitality. Does not this decision astonish you? You were far from
expecting it."
"Not so; it is exactly what I anticipated."
"Indeed!" said he, with astonishment; "Then if I offer you the
hospitality 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 need
fear any injury on my part."
"I follow you," said Don Pedro.
But the unknown had watched with increasing anxiety the erratic course
of this conversation, and advancing abruptly in front of, and extending
his arms towards, the _hacendero_--
"Stop, as you value your life!" he cried in a voice trembling with
secret emotion. "Stop! Do not let yourself be deceived by the assumed
benevolence of this man; he is spreading a snare for you; his offer
conceals a treason."
The Tigercat drew himself up to his full height, stared disdainfully
at 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 have
suffered no one to doubt,--my word,--my word, which I have given to
this _caballero_. Come! Let us pass; the young woman whom you have
succoured so opportunely is not yet out of danger; her state demands
attentions which are beyond your power to afford."
The unknown trembled; his dark-blue eyes flashed, his lips parted as if
to answer; but he remained silent, and retired a few paces, knitting
his brow in concentrated passion.
"Moreover," imperturbably continued the freebooter, "whatever force
may lie at your disposal in other parts of the wilderness, you know
that here I am all-powerful, and that here my will is law. Leave me to
act as I please. Do not force me to measures I should abhor; for if I
raised but a finger I could tame your fool's pride."
"I know," said the young man, "that I am powerless; but beware how you
treat these strangers, who placed themselves under my protection; for I
shall know how to take my revenge."
"Yes, yes," said the Tigercat drearily; "I know you would not hesitate
to revenge yourself even on me, if you fancied you had a cause. But I
care not; I am master here."
"I shall follow you even into your haunt; think not I intend to desert
these 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 footsteps
of the old freebooter, close to whom rode their former guide.
After some turnings and windings in the path, of more or less
abruptness, some of which caused the Mexicans no little difficulty, the
Tigercat turned towards the _hacendero_, and addressed him in a voice
perfectly 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 at
hand; 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 hardly
an hundred paces from the end of our journey; and I can assure you the
abode to which I am leading you would harbour a hundred times our
present numbers."
"I have not much idea where this dwelling is to be found, unless it be
subterranean, as I begin to suspect."
"You have almost guessed it. The place I inhabit, if not subterranean
in the strict sense of the word, is at least a dwelling covered by the
ground. Few have entered it to leave it again safe and sound, as you
shall."
"So much the worse," retorted roundly the _hacendero;_ "so much the
worse for them--and for you."
The Tigercat frowned, but immediately replied, in the light and
careless tone he had affected for the last few minutes:
"Look you, I will clear up this mystery. Listen; the story is
interesting enough. When the Aztecs quitted Azlin, which signifies
'the country of herons,' to conquer Anahuac, or 'the country between
the waters,' their peregrinations were long, extending over several
centuries. Disheartened at times by long travel, they halted, founded
cities, in which they installed themselves as if they never intended
to abandon the place they had chosen; and, perhaps with the object
of leaving behind them ineffaceable traces of their passage through
the wild countries they traversed, they constructed pyramids. Hence
the numerous ruins littering the soil of Mexico, and the _teocalis_
one meets with occasionally,--last and mournful vestiges of a people
that has disappeared. These _teocalis_ built on a system of incredible
solidity far from crumbling under the strenuous embrace of time, have
ended in becoming a part of the ground which supported them, and so
completely, that there is often difficulty in recognising them. I can
give you no better proof of my assertion than what you have now before
you. 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 have
elapsed since the day it was built, that, thanks to the vegetable
matter incessantly conveyed by the winds, nature has apparently resumed
her rights, and the Aztec watchtower has become a green hill. You are
doubtless 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, we
have reached it. Allow me to show you the way into it."
In fact, the travellers had arrived at a kind of coarse portal--a
Cyclopean construction--which gave admittance to a subterranean
building, in which a profound obscurity prevailed, forbidding any
estimate of its dimensions.
The Tigercat stopped, and gave a peculiar whistle. Immediately a
dazzling light broke forth from the interior, and illuminated it in all
its vastness.
"Let us enter," said the freebooter, preceding his companions.
Without hesitation Don Pedro prepared to follow, after making a sign to
his 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, "Be
prudent; you are entering the tiger's den."
Saying this, he rapidly left them, as he feared the freebooter might
perceive that he was giving a last word of warning to the stranger.
But, good or bad, the advice came too late: hesitation would have been
folly, for flight was impossible.
On all sides, on every jutting rock, appeared as by enchantment, the
dark shadows of a host of persons, who had started up around the
strangers without their understanding whence they came, so stealthy had
been their approach.
The Mexicans entered, then, although not without feelings of dread,
into the terrible cavern, whose mouth opened yawning before them. The
building was vast, the walls were lofty.
After proceeding for about ten minutes, the Mexicans found themselves
in a species of rotunda, in the centre of which a huge brazier was
flaming; four long corridors crossed the rotunda at right angles. The
Tigercat, still followed by the travellers, entered one of these. He
stopped on reaching a door formed of a reed hurdle.
"Make yourselves at home," said he; "your lodgings consists of two
chambers, which have no communication with the rest of the cave. By my
orders you will be supplied with food, with wood to make a fire, and
torches of ocote to give you light."
"I thank you for these attentions," replied Don Pedro. "I had little
reason to expect them."
"And why not? Do you think that I do not know how to practise Mexican
hospitality, 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 for
the night. Sleep in peace; nothing shall disturb your rest. In an hour
I will send you a potion for the lady to drink. We shall meet again
tomorrow." And, bowing with an ease and courtesy little expected by
Don Pedro from such a man, the Tigercat took his leave and quitted the
chamber.
For a few seconds the step resounded under the dark vault of the
corridor; then it was silenced. The travellers were alone, and the
_hacendero_ determined to investigate the chambers prepared for them.