The Blood of the Conquerors

by Harvey Fergusson

  CHAPTER XII

  The murder of Don Diego Delcasar, which occurred about three weeks later,provided the town with an excitement which it thoroughly enjoyed. Althoughthere was really not a great deal to be said about the affair, since itremained from the first a complete mystery, the local papers devoted agreat deal of space to it. The _Evening Journal_ announced the event in agreat black headline which ran all the way across the top of the firstpage. The right-hand column was devoted to a detailed description of thescene of the crime, while the rest of the page was occupied by a pictureof the Don, by a hastily written and highly inaccurate account of hiscareer, and by statements from prominent citizens concerning the greatloss which the state had suffered in the death of this, one of its oldestand most valued citizens.

  In the editorial columns the Don was described as a Spanish gentleman ofthe old school, and one who had always lived up to its highest traditions.The fact was especially emphasized that he had commanded the respect andconfidence of both the races which made up the population of the state,and his long and honourable association in a business enterprise with aleading local attorney was cited as proof of the fact that he had beenabove all race antagonisms.

  The morning _Herald_ took a slightly different tack. Its editorial writerwas a former New York newspaperman of unusual abilities who had beendriven to the Southwest by tuberculosis. In an editorial which wasdeplored by many prominent business men, he pointed out that unpunishedmurderers were all too common in the State. He cited several cases likethis of Don Delcasar in which prominent men had been assassinated, and noarrest had followed. Thus, only a few years before, Col. Manuel Escuderohad been killed by a shot fired through the window of a saloon, and stillmore recently Don Solomon Estrella had been found drowned in a vat ofsheep-dip on his own ranch. He cited statistics to show that thepercentage of convictions in murder trials in that State was exceedinglysmall. Daringly, he asked how the citizens could expect to attract to theState the capital so much needed for its development, when assassinationfor personal and political purposes was there tolerated much as it hadbeen in Europe during the Middle Ages. He ended by a plea that the MountedPolice should be strengthened, so that it would be capable of coping withthe situation.

  This editorial started a controversy between the two papers whichultimately quite eclipsed in interest the fact that Don Delcasar was dead.The _Morning Journal_ declared that the _Herald_ editorial was in effect acovert attack upon the Mexican people, pointing out that all the casescited were those of Mexicans, and it came gallantly and for politicalreason to the defence of the race. At this point the _"__Tribuna delPueblo__"_ of Old Town jumped into the fight with an editorial in which itwas asserted that both the gringo papers were maligning the Mexicanpeople. It pointed out that the gringos controlled the political machineryof the State, and that if murder was there tolerated the dominant race wasto blame.

  Meanwhile the known facts about the murder of Don Delcasar remained few,simple and unilluminating. About once a month the Don used to drive in hisautomobile to his lands in the northern part of the State. He always tookthe road across the _mesa_, which passed near the mouth of Domingo Canyonand through the scissors pass, and he nearly always went alone.

  When he was half way across the _mesa_, the front tires of the Don's carhad been punctured by nails driven through a board and hidden in the sandof the road. Evidently the Don had risen to alight and investigate when hehad been shot, for his body had been found hanging across the wind-shieldof the car with a bullet hole through the head.

  The discovery of the body had been made by a Mexican woodcutter who was onthe way to town with a load of wood. He had of course been held by thepolice and had been closely questioned, but it was easily established thathe had no connection with the crime.

  It was evident that the Don had been shot from ambush with a rifle, andprobably from a considerable distance, but absolutely no trace of theassassin had been found. Not only the chief of police and severalpatrolmen, and the sheriff with a posse, but also many private citizens inautomobiles had rushed to the scene of the crime and joined in the search.The surrounding country was dry and rocky. Not even a track had beenfound.

  The motive of the murder was evidently not robbery, for nothing had beentaken, although the Don carried a valuable watch and a considerable sum ofmoney. Indeed, there was no evidence that the murderer had even approachedthe body.

  The Don had been a staunch Republican, and the _Morning Herald_, alsoRepublican, advanced the theory that he had been killed by politicalenemies. This theory was ridiculed by the _Evening Journal_, which wasDemocratic.

  The local police arrested as a suspect a man who was found in hiding neara water tank at the railroad station, but no evidence against him could befound and he had to be released. The sheriff extracted a confession ofguilt from a sheep herder who was found about ten miles from the scene ofthe crime, but it was subsequently proved by this man's relatives that hewas at home and asleep at the time the crime was committed, and that hewas well known to be of unsound mind. For some days the newspaperscontinued daily to record the fact that a "diligent search" for themurderer was being conducted, but this search gradually came to an endalong with public interest in the crime.