Vagabond life in Mexico/Manner of taking Possession in Mexico
CHAPTER IV.
Manner of taking Possession in Mexico.—Tragical End of the Assassin of the Paseo.
A month passed away without Don Tadeo giving any signs of life. At last a note, that he had sent me by his clerk Ortiz, explained the reason of his long delay. There were two causes that hindered my case from being proceeded with according to his customary activity. "One of these you may probably guess," he said. "The passing-bell that we heard tolling was for her! After the first burst of grief I was about to take up your case, when I received a dagger-stab from an invisible hand, the effects of which forced me to keep my bed for a considerable time. However, I am happy to be able to announce to you that your case is now progressing favorably. I succeeded in discovering, not without some trouble, the abode of Dionisio Peralta, and have set upon his traces the three knaves whom you saw the other night. Good-by; take no step without consulting me, and in a short time you will receive more satisfactory news."
Eight days had scarcely elapsed when I received another note from the licentiate. This letter contained a detailed account of the campaign which he had conducted against Dionisio Peralto, and its happy termination. Pepito Rechifla, John Pearce the Yankee, and Navaja the Mexican, went, one after the other, to the house of Dionisio Peralta, claiming, as they said, the recovery of a debt with which they had been intrusted by their friend the licentiate, Don Tadeo. Dionisio Peralta, in spite of his gentlemanly airs, was, to speak the truth, a knave of their own stamp, and received them at first with all the arrogance of a bully; but the significant threats of the three ruffians soon brought him to terms. Peralta knew but too well the character of the men with whom he had to deal, and the influence of the licentiate, who directed these bullies, rendered the odds decidedly against him. He at last ended by proposing a compromise, which the licentiate had been constrained to accept. Peralta had a small villa in the little village of Tacuba, about a league from Mexico, the value of which was almost equal to the amount of the debt. He consented, in lieu of payment, to deliver up this house to Don Tadeo, who had taken possession of it from the very first. There remained nothing now to wind up the affair but to receive the house from the hands of its new owner. Don Tadeo invited me to wait upon him the following day. We proposed to go together to the domain of my old debtor, of whose property he would install me as rightful owner.
Next day we set out together on horseback for the village of Tacuba. I was somewhat curious to see my new property, and, above all, to witness the ceremonies which, in Mexico, ordinarily accompany the act of taking possession. On the road I congratulated the licentiate on the lucky star which seemed to favor him, and that had on a recent occasion saved his life a second time. I expressed at the same time my regret that perhaps he had drawn upon himself the vengeance of Dionisio Peralto; but he replied that I was wrong in my supposition, and that, to all appearance, the man who had attempted his life was no other than the same wretch who had assaulted the Creole lady in the Paseo of Bucareli. "Be that as it may," he added, "my suspicions of Navaja have not hindered me from employing him in this business of yours, in which his zeal has been very conspicuous. Men of this class, when not in their cups or in a sullen mood, are blindly obedient to the person who has made them feel his superiority. In a letter which Peralto wrote me, announcing his acceptance of my terms, I read without regret the terrible menaces which he launched against this ruffian, whom I strongly suspect to have attempted my life, and who has shown himself the most active of the three in pursuit of your debtor. Peralta is hardly a man that will threaten in vain, and I fear his vengeance will follow quickly."In conversation like this, we soon left the town behind us and got into the country, if the desert and arid plains that we crossed at full gallop could be so termed. The heat was stifling, and a deep silence lay around. All at once a horse's hoof broke the stillness, and we were joined by a cavalier, in whom I could hardly have recognized Pepito Rechifla. The ruffian had attired himself with some degree of elegance; he wore a blue manga lined with yellow cotton, and his horse's equipments were of a character thoroughly Mexican. He saluted us with an air at once courtly and patronizing. "You will pardon me," he said, "Señor Licentiate, if I take the liberty of traveling in your company; but, aware of your intention to take a short ride to-day, I thought you would not be the worse of having an additional companion. This road does not bear a very good character;" and, casting an expressive look at the arm which the lawyer carried in a sling, he added, "it is not always prudent to run into dangers at a distance from home. I am, however, pretty sure that we shall not need to draw upon any body to-day."
Having finished this last sentence with a drawling affectedness, Pepito whispered into the ear of the licentiate some words which I could not make out. I only remarked that he pointed out to Don Tadeo a group of hillocks on our left, over which hovered a flock of great black vultures. Without replying to Pepito, the licentiate stopped his horse a moment, and looked in a different direction. His face had a painful expression in it. He then signed to us to continue our route, spurred his horse vigorously, and a few minutes after we clattered through the streets of the village in which my new property was situated.The house which Don Tadeo had gained (for he had at first taken possession in his own name) was situated at the extremity of the village. Crowds of villagers, who had assembled to share in the largesses which are usually distributed on an occasion of this kind, stood before the house, and assisted us in recognizing it. It was a little building of a very sorry appearance, with a small porch before the door, supported by brick pillars. Numerous cracks furrowed the walls in every direction, clearly indicating a sad state of disrepair. Behind the house was a garden choked with weeds, surrounded by a wall thickly covered with moss, and crowned with pellitories. The porter, whom the licentiate had put in charge of the house, opened the door. "You are in your own house," said Don Tadeo to me. We entered. The interior of the house was as desolate as the exterior. The ceilings were gaping with chinks, the disjointed boards in the stairs creaked sadly under foot, and the garden was nothing more than a collection of sentern, nettles, and thistles, in the midst of which rose some sickly-looking fruit-trees. This wretched house and garden, however, were almost equal to the debt, and that was sufficient; the more in the case of such a debtor as Peralta was, with whom one could not be too exacting.
After visiting the ground floor and the garden, we went up stairs. The room which we first entered seemed to have been a dining-room, and had not been entered for many years, if one could judge from the musty smell which pervaded the apartment. We hastened to let in the air and light by opening the strongly-barred window-shutters. A collection of spiders' webs, thickly matted together, covered the entire ceiling. We looked into the presses, but they were all empty; one only contained a large dusty tome, in an antique binding, which the licentiate put under his cloak after hurriedly glancing over its contents. Our inspection was over. "Let us call the witnesses," said Don Tadeo to Pepito, whom we have constituted upon this solemn occasion master of the ceremonies. The lépero, magnificently dressed in his blue manga, advanced to the casement, and made a short speech to the worthy people in rags, who were collected in groups beneath the windows. The eloquence of Pepito had the desired effect, and a few minutes afterward the court was filled with a far greater number of witnesses than the law required. I had never seen such a rich collection of gallows-birds. Preceded by Pepito, we descended into the court, and thence into the garden, followed by the crowd. "Señores," cried Pepito, in a loud voice, "you are witnesses that, in the name of the law, his lordship here present," and Pepito pointed to me, "takes regular possession of this estate. Dios y Libertad!" Don Tadeo then came forward. By his instructions I first plucked a handful of grass and threw it over my head, and then pitched a stone over the garden wall. These, by the terms of the Mexican law, are the ceremonies which accompany the act of taking possession. A general hurrah now burst from the throats of the respectable company assembled in the garden. All that now remained, according to national usage, was to present some gratuity to the dirty ruffians who had crawled from every corner of the village to wish me joy of my new possession. I gave them a few piastres to drink, and, headed by Pepito, they went to spend them in the neighboring cabaret.
"Well," said the licentiate to me, when we were alone, "you see you have got payment of your debt.What do you think of my plan for making stubborn debtors pay?"
"I fear, Don Tadeo, that you are playing a very dangerous game for yourself; and, if you would take my advice, you would give up business immediately as redresser of wrongs, as I think the losses exceed the profits."
"You see, however, that I am fortunate in my enterprises. Never mind. But as I may prematurely receive a dagger-thrust some day or other, I would like you to keep some remembrance of me. Here is a book which was not comprised in the inventory of the house. It is an old work, and not without its value."
"Thank you," said I to the licentiate, taking the dusty tome. "The story that you told me on the azotea of the house in the Callejon del Arco will ever live in my recollection. One can not easily forget such revelations; and I was very fortunate indeed in listening to such a romantic history."
The time had now come when we must return to Mexico. Without waiting for Pepito, who would probably finish the day at a wine-shop, we pushed along. The heat was as insupportable as before. The flock of vultures that Pepito had pointed out to Don Tadeo had evidently increased, and a fetid odor was wafted by the wind in our direction from the little mounds above which the birds were fluttering. The licentiate drew up suddenly.
"If you are curious to read the last page of the history of which we were just talking," said he, "go over to these hillocks; but I fear your nerves are not strong enough."
"And what shall I see among these rocks?"
"A corpse; you observe that at this very moment the birds are pecking at it. One of the three ruffians whom I employed to recover your debt has paid for all the others. God is just! The man who fell under the dagger of Peralta was the perpetrator of the outrage on the Paseo of Bucareli. The romance is now complete, is it not?"
"Assuredly; and the sight of the vultures will add to the impression your story has made upon me."
"Come," said the licentiate, spurring his horse, "I see you are getting nervous. To town, then."
We parted on the Plaza Mayor in the hope of seeing one another again, but fortune decreed otherwise; and a few weeks after my installation in Peralta's house I quitted Mexico.
During my absence the gambling-house in the Callejon was closed. On my return, Tio Lucas informed me that the licentiate had returned to Spain. Since that time I have made many ineffectual attempts to procure some information about him. The only souvenir that was left me of this extraordinary man is the manuscript of Alonso Urbano, now in the Nation al Library at Paris.