GOD'S LITTLE DEVILS
I was back in that ancient temple of Tzin Piaôu. My old heathen
priest, half reclining on his hollowed slab of stone, was looking at
me with a spark of laughter in his keen old eyes.
"Have you seen for yourself?" he asked.
I nodded.
"And how," he asked me, "do you like to look at the Games of the
Little Gods?"
"I think," said I angrily, "that they are Little Devils. That black
man was a man. If they had given him half a chance--"
"Remember," said my heathen friend, quite calmly, "that I do not know
your black man, or what they did to him. Something unpleasant, it
appears. It does not matter. It is in the Game. But you think my
Little Gods are Little Devils?"
"I do," I said.
"I wonder," mused my heathen priest, smiling through me into vacancy,
"what he would think of Little Devils if he saw them." Suddenly his
eyes glinted into mine. He made a little imperative gesture with his
hand. "Go and see," he said. "This is the hour when I take another
nap. And would you mind," he added, "as you're going out, just
asking the porter to bring a jug of water?"
That night, when rice was eaten and the circle of darkness had shut
down about our fire, Fermin Majusay, the private of Native Scouts who
was my escort on the mountain, stretched out on his slim stomach and
gazed into the hypnotic flames.
"I am going to tell you about my teniente," he said suddenly, "my
lieutenant who is dead six months. He was a devil, that man.
Listen! You have sat in the Café Puerta del Sol and watched the two
old Spaniards who play forever the game called chess? Well, when the
little man of Don Antonio gets in front of the little horse of Don
José, does Don José say, 'Bad little man, go to another little
square'? No, he says 'Muerto!'--'Dead!'--and takes the little man
away. That is the game, to take all the little men off the board,
and it is just the same with fighting. But all the white men I have
seen, except my teniente, were afraid of the end. My teniente always
laughed when the end came. He was born to be a soldier, like me.
"I remember how he laughed at Don Augusto. We were in a very bad
province then. All the provinces are a little bad; that is why they
sent me to take care of you, because the mountains are not safe for a
white man. But that was an island in the south, and it was very bad.
All the middle of it was mountains where ladrones lived, and they
came down to the coast and made people give them food and money, and
they stole carabaos from the plantations and killed travelers, and
sometimes they burned a town and took the pretty girls away.
"We were sent there to catch them. It was very hard work. We chased
them in the mountains and killed some, but that did no good. When we
were in one place they were somewhere else, and when a man guided us
in a little while he was dead. We knew what was the matter. It is
always the same. The ladrones are in the mountains, but some man in
the towns is their leader, and he gets so rich and strong that every
one is afraid of him. In that island it was a planter named Augusto
de los Reyes. Three times my lieutenant arrested Augusto de los
Reyes and sent him down to San Pablo; and every time the judge said
there was no proof and he came back, and in a little while all the
witnesses against him were dead. And the ladrones in the mountains
always knew when we were coming.
"If my teniente had been like other white men, he would have given up
then. But he arrested Don Augusto once more. I remember the morning
very well. I was orderly that day, and we were in the guard-room
looking at some prisoners, and a guard came in, two in front and two
behind, with this Don Augusto. He was a big, fat Bisayan, and we all
looked at him, and he looked at us, and smiled. Then we didn't feel
very good, for we knew what he'd like to do to us.
"But my teniente laughed when he saw him. He stood up and shook
hands with Don Augusto, and he said: '_Buenos dias_, Señor Don
Augusto de los Reyes.' Like that, making fun. 'It is not very long
since we met,' he said, 'but I am very glad to see you again. I
trust you found the prison at San Pablo pleasant?'
"This Don Augusto knew how to play the game, too. He smiled with his
mouth and said: 'It is not bad, Señor Teniente. But it grows
tiresome to have the comedy of going there repeated so often. The
judge gets tired, too, deciding that I am not such a bad man as my
friend the teniente would have him think.'
"My teniente laughed again. 'These judges!' he said. 'If only they
could see us as we are, Señor Don Augusto de los Reyes. It is so
hard to make them understand.' Then he stopped smiling, and talked
very slow, more as if he talked to himself. 'I could send him down
to San Pablo again, and I could say to the judge, "Señor Juez, this
is the Señor Don Augusto de los Reyes whom the Swiss Bobin accused of
giving information to the enemy, so that he lay in San Pablo jail for
three weeks, till you said there was no proof." And I could say to
the judge: "Last week this innocent gentleman came back from his
trial, and last Sunday, as the Swiss Bobin rode on a narrow trail,
four men attacked him and cut off his hand as he drew his revolver,
and then killed him." But what would that amount to?'
"'Very little,' said Don Augusto.
"'Nothing,' said my teniente. 'And I could tell the judge: "That
Sunday night men came to the house of the late Swiss Bobin and took
his woman away, and her muchacha found her next morning staked by the
four hands and feet to an ant-hill." But that would be no charge
against the Señor Don Augusto de los Reyes.'
"'Precisely,' said Don Augusto, and he smiled. Oh, he was a big,
proud man, and he knew what he could do so well that he did not
pretend not to know.
"'Precisely,' said my teniente. 'And I could tell the judge: "The
two weeks' baby of the late widow of the late Swiss Bobin died that
Monday afternoon, so to-day there is not a soul alive of the family
of the man who charged an innocent gentleman unjustly, as you
yourself decided, Señor Juez."
"Don Augusto smiled and was going to speak, but my teniente only
moved his hand and went on, and all of us soldiers in the guard-room
held our breaths and listened, for we knew that he spoke the truth.
'We could tell the judge: "The four men who killed the man and the
woman and left the baby to starve live on the plantation of the
prisoner and owe him much money." But what does that prove? Even if
we tell him that all the enemies of the Señor Don Augusto de los
Reyes for twenty years have gone that way, and that no one any more
dares to be a witness against him for fear of his revenge, the judge
will not care about that. The judge wants proof, and we have no
proof. No matter how well we know each other, we have no proof. So
I shall not send my dear friend down to jail again. I am tired of
it, too.'
"All we soldiers looked at the ground, for we thought our teniente
was a fool, like the judge, and would let Don Augusto go again. And
Don Augusto looked at us as if we were dogs--I wanted to give him my
bayonet--and he smiled and said: 'I thank you so much, Teniente mio,
for sparing me another of the comedies. It is better for every one.
_Adiós_, Señor.'
"Oh, I told you that teniente of mine was a devil! He got up and
shook the hand of Don Augusto, and he smiled and said: '_Adiós_,
Señor Don Augusto de los Reyes. We shall not meet again for some
time, I think. I am getting very tired of it myself. But I will
give you a trustworthy escort. José!'
[Illustration: "_Adiós, Señor Don Augusto_."]
"We all jumped, his voice was so different, and the corporal of my
squad stepped out and saluted. 'You will be the Señor's escort as
far as he goes,' my teniente said. 'You will need only your
revolver.' He stopped a moment, and then he said: 'José, you must be
very careful that he does not escape.'
"You know what that order meant then? Jos knew, and his face went
like ashes--he was a baby anyway--and he could hardly say 'Si, mi
teniente.' And that big fat pig of a Don Augusto, _he_ knew, and he
dropped all together, as if he had no bones, and he went down on his
knees. But my teniente only laughed, and said: 'A pleasant journey
to you, Señor Don Augusto de los Reyes, and a relief from comedies.'
"And then he took the commissary reports and wrote on them till José
came back. José was shaking and green and my teniente looked at him.
'You are back quickly,' he said. 'What is the matter?'
"'The prisoner tried to escape, mi teniente,' José said.
"'That was very foolish of him,' said my teniente. 'Where is he now?'
"'Across the river, mi teniente,' José answered.
"'Sergeant,' said my lieutenant, 'send two men across the river with
shovels,' and then he tossed José a _peseta_ to buy _vino_, and then
he went on with the commissary reports."
Fermin Majusay had forgotten everything else in thinking of his hero,
and the fire was almost out. He brought it to a blaze and lay down
on his blanket again. "That night while we whispered together in
barracks, and that chicken-hearted José sat by himself and muttered
prayers and drank vino out of his bottle, we named our teniente El
Diablito--the Little Devil. Not because he was little, but because
we loved him. You know Angel Bantiling calls his wife Chiquita--Tiny
One--and she is big as a carabao. El Diablito, I named my teniente,
and we were afraid. If he had come down-stairs that night, we would
all have run away. But what would you have? That Don Augusto was in
the way, so my teniente took him off the board just like one of Don
Antonio's little men of chewed bread. That is the game. If one is
afraid of it, there are other games one can play. One does not have
to be a soldier. But he made us afraid, just the same.
"After Don Augusto was dead, all that part of the province was good,
so they sent us to another part. Barang was the name of the town
where we went. It was a better town; the people were good; we had
nothing to do but drill. And after drill, often, my teniente took me
to shoot with him. I would hold an empty bottle for beer in my hand,
like that, and my teniente would shoot it from twenty paces with his
revolver. Hoy, he was a devil at everything, my teniente! Hundreds
and hundreds we broke, and he never hurt me. And he took me to be
his servant in his quarters, and I was very happy, there in Barang."
Fermin Majusay gazed into the fire again, and his keen animal face
was wonderfully softened in the flickering light.
"_Diós_," he sighed, "I was happy, there in Barang! Only one thing I
did not like,--that was Isidro Abelarde. He was the leader of the
town, the son of a very rich _haciendero_, young and handsome. And
he became the friend of my teniente. They would laugh and talk
together for hours, and ride together, and I did not like it. We
Macabebes have many enemies--all the Filipinos are our enemies--and
we have to be suspicious always. I began to wonder why Isidro
Abelarde wanted to be with my lieutenant. 'Mi teniente,' I said to
him, 'I do not like it that Don Isidro comes here. It is not good
that he can pass the guard at any time, as if he were a white man.
If he means harm--'
"My teniente laughed. 'You are more bother than a wife, Fermin,' he
said. 'Why should he mean harm to me?'
"'He is the _pariente_--the relative--of Don Augusto,' I said. My
teniente looked at me, and I saw that he did not like to hear the
name of Don Augusto. For a minute I was frightened--he had terrible
eyes when he was angry. 'How do you know that?' he asked me.
"I would not tell him--we have ways of knowing things--and he got
angrier, and struck me. It made my eye black, but I did not care.
He was my teniente, any way, and he had been drinking. Next day I
was glad of it, for Don Isidro came to dinner, and he looked at my
eye. Often, when he thought no one saw him, he looked at it. Then I
had an idea. My teniente was very short with me, because he was
sorry, and Don Isidro was so young it was not hard to make him think
that I was angry with my teniente. I scowled at him all the time
behind his back; you know how.
"After a few days Don Isidro met me in the _plaza_ and said: 'Fermin,
I am very sorry that the teniente struck you.'
"'Why are you sorry, Señor?' I asked him.
"'Because,' he said, 'the teniente is a friend of mine, and I hope
that no harm will come to him. I have heard that a Macabebe never
forgives a blow, but I hope you will be patient.'
"What a fool that young Isidro was! I looked very hard in his eyes,
and I said, 'If a Macabebe forgives a blow as easily as a Bisayan
forgets the death of his _pariente_, there is no danger for your
friend--from me.'
"He looked at me, and all at once his lips twitched, and I knew I had
him. He put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a little paper.
'Fermin,' he said, 'there is a sleeping-powder. The teniente will
not strike you again if you do not wish it.'
"That young fool knew nothing at all, like a baby! I took the paper
home and my teniente and I gave some of it to a monkey. The monkey
curled up and died, very quick. That was at night, and my teniente
stood for a while and looked at the dead monkey and the paper. And
he laughed just the way he did the morning the guard led in Don
Augusto.
"Next morning I was putting the breakfast on the table, and my
teniente was standing at the window of the sola, looking down at the
_plaza_. And all at once I heard him laugh, not very loud, and he
called: 'Hoy, Don Isidro! Have the complacency to come up, amigo. I
have news for you.' And soon Don Isidro came up.
"Jesus Maria, he was a _pisaverde_ that morning! White coat and
breeches, and high boots of black leather, and silver spurs, and long
gloves of soft white leather.
"'Have the good-heartedness to share my poor breakfast,' my teniente
said, and Don Isidro sat down, and they ate till I had no patience
left. But at last Don Isidro pushed away his plate and leaned back
in his chair and said, 'Now, teniente mio, what is this wonderful
news?'
"My teniente pushed back his chair and offered his cigarette-case to
Don Isidro. 'Take a long one, I beg,' he said.
"So Don Isidro selected an _entrelargos_, and I held a match for him,
and then he smiled at my teniente through the smoke, and said: 'Our
news, _amigo mio_. I die of suspense.'
"My teniente put the little packet which Don Isidro had given me on
the table, and he looked at Don Isidro. I think the young fool knew
then that the game was finished. But he was a brave one, I will say
that, if he was a fool. He looked at the packet, and he looked at
the teniente, and he looked at me and said, 'Traitor!'
"'As you were, Fermin,' my teniente commanded me. 'Let me urge you
as a friend, Don Isidro, to smoke slowly and without excitement, for
when that cigarette is finished you will be finished.'
"Don Isidro's hand trembled a little, but he was not afraid. 'My
compliments, Señor Teniente,' he said. 'You win again. Have our
traitor bring a little water, and when I am done smoking I will take
the sleeping-powder.'
"'I am sorry,' said my teniente, 'but a monkey ate it. And it would
be unlawful to help you to commit suicide, anyway. Fermin, tell
Raymundo to buckle on his revolver and be ready to escort Don Isidro
down to--San Pablo.'
"'_Dispensa_, mi teniente,' I said. 'Does one ask a Macabebe to kill
his officer, and call him a traitor, for nothing?'
"My teniente looked at me, and laughed. 'Get your own revolver then,
Fermin,' he said.
"When I came back, Don Isidro's cigarette was very short. They both
stood up, and my teniente said: '_Adios_, Don Isidro. An easy
journey to you in Fermin's friendly company, and a welcome in--San
Pablo. Remember me particularly to your _pariente_, Don Augusto. I
need not tell _you_, Fermin, that you must be very careful that he
does not escape.'
"'I will be very careful, mi teniente,' I said, and we went away, and
my teniente never knew that I made Don Isidro carry along a spade I
saw in the guard-room. One does not call a Macabebe a traitor for
nothing.... There is no more wood, and it gets late and cold. Shall
we sleep, or will you hear the rest of my story while our fire dies?
"_Bueno_. I will not be long. Some of this story got out, not much,
for only I and my teniente knew it all, but it frightened the other
Americans, and they said my teniente was crazy. _Sangre de Diós_!
He was not crazy then, but only one of God's own little devils. He
was crazy afterwards, perhaps, but they made him so. Listen while I
tell you what they did to him.
"There is a little place very far back in the hills, Santo Spirito
they call it, where the _frailes_ used to go for a retreat. There is
nothing there, just a big convent of stone where no one lives, and a
few little dirty houses, and the mountains behind, and the jungle all
around, and the only people are lazy Bisayanos who do no work and are
half drunk with opium. And they sent my teniente there to eat his
heart!
"Oh, he was brave! He was very brave, but there was nothing to do.
That's why they sent us there; they knew we could do no harm. The
mountain was empty, and there was no one in the jungle, and the
people of Santo Spirito were too lazy to be bad. But he was brave;
he made work. We drilled long every day, and we made a parade-ground
of the _plaza_ in front of the convent, with culverts of concrete at
the corners to carry off the water in the rainy season. That took
many hours. But always there was the evening coming, when my
teniente had to sit in the big _sola_, with the rats and the lizards
squealing above him, and drink and drink and drink, and wait for the
time when he could sleep.
"Hoy, that drinking! It frightened me, and I spoke to him about it.
I could always speak to him, until the very end. He laughed at me.
'Give me something else to do, then,' he said. 'Shall I go and say a
mass in the chapel?'
"So he would sit and drink aguardiente for hours, and look at his
boots. Sometimes he would be like himself for a little while, and
then he would go for a ride, or shoot some bottles from my hand. But
not for long. One day his hand was not steady, and he shot too
close--Aí, mi teniente! He just dropped the revolver on the ground
and said, 'That's the end of it at last, Fermin,' and he walked back
to the convent, and his shoulders were like the shoulders of an old
man.
"After that he went out no more, and I took my blankets into his room
and slept on the floor, and all night long I could hear him tossing
on his cot. Sometimes he would say, 'Are you there, Fermin?' and I
would say, 'I am always here, mi teniente,' and then he would rest
for a little while.
"But one night I woke and he was not on his cot. I got up to look
and he came in from the balcony--there was one of those closed
balconies all around the convent, outside the rooms--and he was
dressed in his full uniform, and had his two revolvers and his
shotgun. He did not seem to see me.
"'Mi teniente!' I said.
"He looked where I was, and still he did not seem to see me. 'Keep a
good lookout,' he said. 'They may come at any time.' He went out
into the balcony again, and I could hear his feet--tramp, tramp, very
slow--while he went down to the far end and came back on the other
side.
"Aí, but I was scared! We were all scared, for every night after
that we could hear his feet, and he never seemed to see us, but
sometimes he would call: 'On guard, there! They may come at any
time.' We were all scared, but we did all we could, if we were
frightened. Not one of us ran away, not even that baby José.
"And then the end came, the end of the game for my teniente. Five
days I brought his food and he never touched it, only drank
aguardiente instead. And five nights, all night long, we heard him
marching round and round the balcony, with his two revolvers and his
shotgun. The last night I was so tired that I fell asleep. I do not
know how long I slept, but all at once I heard my teniente call
'Halt!' and then I heard him laugh, and then his feet, quick, as if
he ran, and then a crash on the ground outside. I ran, and some of
the guard ran, and we found him lying on the flagstones of the patio,
dead where he had fallen.
"That is the way they killed my teniente,--my teniente who might have
been Governor-General of the world if they had let him play the game.
He was not afraid of the end of it. Even when he was crazy, and
heard the enemies we could not see coming, he only laughed and ran
out to meet them."
A last ember of the fire flamed up, and Fermin Majusay turned his
face quickly from the telltale light. "It was a long story," he
said, and loosened his revolver in the holster. "Sleep without fear,
Señor," he said. "No one will trouble us while I am here."