by B. TRAVEN
“What do you say over there, hermanitos?” the uncle asked, undisturbed.
“I was mistaken, compadre,” one of them answered; “perdone, on looking closer I find it was not a C at all, and the second is not an R, not even the third seems to be either a C or an R. It can’t be even a bad B. Excuse me, compadre.”
All the villagers laughed. It was a great show. A few shouted: “Hey, compadre, you’d better go to school again to learn what a C is when you see a Z.”
The uncle, after the merriment had died down, asked in a loud voice: “Listen, all you ciudadanos de nuestro pueblo, all you citizens of this community, have you ever met in all your life with a man who wanted to sell you burros which he claimed were his and who didn’t even know their correct brands? Tell me of a single case if you can. Come on.”
The only answer was hearty laughter.
When the people were quiet again, the uncle went on: “I know where the burros came from and to whom they belong.”
Miguel looked round at his partners. They knew what he meant; they also were looking for a hole by which to escape.
“The burros were bred by doña Rafaela Motilinia in Avino, the widow of the late don Pedro León. I know his ranch and I know his brand. His brand is an L and a P. The P is set with its back against the L. Así correcto, hombres? Is that right, you men?” the uncle asked.
And the men standing by the burros shouted back: “Sí, don Joaquín, that is the brand.”
2
The uncle turned his head as if he wanted to find a certain individual. When he saw him he called: “Don Chuncho, come here!”
An Indian, simply dressed like all the other men and wearing only sandals on his feet, strode up, a shotgun in his hands and a cheap gun in a holster on his hip. He took his place near the uncle.
The uncle turned to the three rascals. “My name is Joaquín Escalona, constitutionally elected alcalde or mayor of this community, elected by all the citizens of this place and its vicinity, and legally recognized by the state legislature. This man here at my side is my police commissioner and his name is don Asunción Macedo.”
The three thieves on hearing this official statement knew why it was spoken so solemnly and what it meant when voiced on such an occasion. It was their last chance now to run away. No longer were they eager to take along their burros and their packs. They were willing to sell the whole lot for one peso, had anybody offered that much, and permission to leave the village. But they found now the men were closing in on them.
Miguel reached back to his holster to pull his gun, the one that had once been Dobbs’s, intending to try to shoot his way out.
To his surprise, he found the holster empty and his gun already in the hands of don Chuncho, who handed it to his deputy.
“What the hell do you want of us?” Miguel raged.
“Until now nothing,” don Joaquín, the uncle, answered, his voice calm. “We are most astonished that you want to leave us in such a hurry, without taking your burros and your packs with you. Why, friends? We haven’t harmed you. We are here to trade for your burros.”
Miguel, who understood the cold irony of the mayor, shouted: “We may do what we like with our burros. We may take them with us or leave them here and give them away for one peso if we want to.”
Don Joaquín smiled at Miguel. “With your burros you may, of course, do as you like. But these are not your burros. I know the whole story of these animals. Doña Rafaela sold them some ten or eleven months ago to three Americans who went into the Sierra to hunt big game.”
Miguel detected a hole by which he hoped to get out. He grinned and said: “That’s right, quite right, señor alcalde. Those are the three Americans we bought the burros from.”
“At what price, may I ask?”
“Twelve pesos apiece.”
“And you are so rich that you want to sacrifice these animals for four pesos apiece?”
The villagers broke into roaring laughter.
Don Joaquín went on with his cross-examination with all the shrewdness of an intelligent Mexican farmer. He proved that the citizens of the community were wise when they elected him for their alcalde.
“You told me only a half-hour ago that you have owned these animals for a long time. Isn’t that so?”
“Sure, señor.”
“How long would you say?”
Miguel thought for a few seconds, then blurted out: “Four months, I would say.” He remembered that not so long ago he had said that they had worked in a mine and that since then they had made a long journey.
Dryly the alcalde spoke. “Four months? Huh! This is certainly a very strange story. I might say it is even almost a sort of miracle. The Americans crossed the Sierra only a few days ago. Farmers out hunting and others working in their milpas saw them and reported them to me. When they were seen only a few days ago, they still had all the burros with them—the same burros you bought from them four months ago.”
Miguel tried his smart confidential smile again. “To tell you the truth, por el alma de mi madre, and cross my heart, señor alcalde, we bought the burros only two days ago from those Americanos.”
“That looks better.”
Miguel shot his partners a triumphant glance. They ought to be proud to have such a great leader.
Don Joaquín, however, did not let him get out of his net. “But there cannot have been three Americans, because I know that one of them is staying in a village on the opposite slope of the Sierra. He is a great doctor and medicine-man.”
“The fact is, señor alcalde, we bought the burros from one American only.” Miguel scratched his head and looked at his partners for assistance.
“Where did you buy the burros?”
“In Durango, señor, in a fonda where the American stopped for the night.”
“That seems rather unbelievable. The American could hardly have been in Durango when you were there to buy the burros. Not with these heavy packs and not plodding up the steep trails back up here, as you had to do. You can’t very well have met him in Durango and then already reached here again.”
“We marched the whole night through, señor. Didn’t we, compañeros?”
His two partners vehemently admitted this.
“What I cannot understand,” the alcalde said, searching the faces of the three, “is that this American should have sold you his burros while he was in Durango, where he could find enough buyers and could wait a few days until he could get the price he expected. In Durango he would not have had to sell such good animals for twelve pesos.”
Nacho, who wanted to show his cleverness and perhaps even to outsmart Miguel, came close to the mayor. “How do we know the reason why that god-damned gringo sold us the burros and didn’t want to trade with anybody else?”
Said Miguel: “Yes, how can we know? Gringos are funny that way, they sure are. They don’t act at all as we do. They are often cracked in their brains, see?”
“All right. If the American sold you the burros, where is the bill of sale? You must have it with the brands of the animals written in, the sex, the color, and the name they are called by, if any. If you have no bill of sale doña Rafaela may at any time claim the burros as her own, since they carry the registered brand of her ranch.”
To this Nacho answered: “He didn’t write out a bill of sale because he didn’t want to pay for the stamps on the document, as required by the government.”
“That’s right,” Miguel said, and Pablo nodded his head.
“In that case you would have paid the few centavos for the stamps yourself, just to avoid any complications. What are a few centavos compared with the many pesos you paid for the burros?”
“Well, we hadn’t the centavos to buy the stamps in the public tax office.”
“You mean to tell me you could buy the burros and pay, let’s say, in the neighborhood of about ninety pesos, and that you hadn’t the one peso and eighty centavos left to pay for the stamps? You mean to tell me this?”
Miguel, realizing that the net in which he and his partners were caught was tightening, flew into a rage. He yelled like mad: “Damn it to hell and chinganse sus madres and I don’t know what else! This is going too far. What do you want of us?” He swung both his fists and looked at the men around him as if he were threatening them all. “We are walking peacefully on our way, pass this place quietly, and you people come up, surround us as if we were funking bandits, and keep us by force from going on our way. What does this mean? We’ll send in our complaints to the state governor and make him dismiss you from office for abusing your authority, that’s what we’re going to do.”
“Well, this is beyond my comprehension.” The alcalde smiled at the villagers, then turned again to the three thieves: “You come here to our village without having been invited and offer us burros for sale. We are willing to buy the burros and we are agreed upon the price. Don’t you think we have the right to investigate your ownership of these animals? If we did not and should buy them and they should later prove to be stolen, we might have the federal soldiers here in no time and they would shoot every man found to possess one of these burros as a just punishment for rustling and banditry. We might even be accused of having killed the former owner of the animals. What then?”
Miguel gave his partners a quick glance. “We don’t want to sell the burros at all. Not even for ten pesos each. We want to be on our way.”
“You might sell us the hides and the tools?” the alcalde suggested cunningly.
Miguel hesitated. He was not sure that another trap was not being laid for him. Then he remembered that the hides and the tools carried no brand. “All right, señores, if you wish to buy the hides and the tools. What do you say, compañeros?” he asked his partners, hoping to shift attention from himself.
“We might,” they answered.
“They belong to you?” the alcalde asked.
“Of course, what do you think?” Miguel replied.
“Why didn’t the American sell the hides in Durango? Why did you bring them up here to sell? Do you also carry water to the river?”
“The prices were not so good in Durango.”
“So you thought they might be better up here in the mountains, where we can get them without paying for them in money?”
Miguel was trying to think of an answer, but before he succeeded the alcalde said curtly: “Did the American go to the depot naked?”
“What do you mean by that crack?” Miguel’s face paled until it was a dirty gray.
“Don’t you have on your feet the American’s boots? And isn’t this man by your side wearing his pants? Why is no one wearing the American’s shirt, which was fairly good, as I know from the reports? It was far better than any of yours.”
None of the three rascals spoke.
“Why didn’t one of you three take his shirt? Well, I can tell you why.”
The thieves did not wait for the next sentence. With one jump they broke through the circle formed by the villagers and escaped down the main street of the village.
The alcalde gave a signal and in half a minute a group of villagers were after them, not even waiting to saddle their horses. The thieves did not get far. Their pursuers caught them before they passed the last huts and marched them back to the plaza in front of the house of the mayor. Here they were allowed to squat under the trees, lashed together and guarded by five Indians sitting close, with their machetes on their laps.
The alcalde came out, leading his horse, which had been saddled in the meanwhile. Before mounting he spoke to the thieves. “We shall go now and look for the American and ask him at what price he sold you the burros, and why he stripped himself to give you his boots and his pants. We shall bring with us his shirt and find out why none of you wanted that. Make yourselves comfortable here; we won’t be gone long. We won’t have to go to Durango.”
The men who were to form the posse had gone for their horses. They put some tortillas and cooked beans wrapped in corn leaves in their little bags, made of bast, hung the bags on their saddles, mounted, and went on their way.
3
The posse did not follow the trail by which the thieves had come. They looked for the one Dobbs had used when he had passed by this village at a distance. Soon the posse found the trail of the American. The tracks left by the hoofs of the burros could still be seen, as there had been no rain.
Since the men were riding animals used to these hard trails, they soon reached the place where Dobbs had rested under the trees. Here they noted that not all the burros had strayed down the road to town. It was plain that the burros had been led back to the trees and from there had returned to the mountains.
The Indians realized that at this place something must have happened to prevent Dobbs from keeping his burros together. The tracks left by Dobbs’s boots going from the trees half a mile toward town were found to be different from those on the road coming from the mountains and ending near the trees. The boots could not well leave the same imprint as before, because the feet inside them were shorter.
The alcalde decided that the boots had been changed near the trees. He sent a man to look for footprints on the road to town—Dobbs’s footprints. They would be of naked feet, for he no longer had his boots. There were no such prints.
“Then the body must be near here somewhere,” the alcalde said.
“They may have taken the body along and hidden it in the woods at the base of the mountains.”
“I don’t think, don Chuncho, that they would have dared do that. Many people travel over this road, small merchants and peasants going to market or coming from there. It would be dangerous to carry the body on this road. Let’s look around here. It must be here. If not, we may still follow the whole trail of these thieves. Somewhere along this trail we’ll have to look again for the body. Anyway, let’s try here first, since we are here. I am positive we’ll find him here.”
So the men went searching about the place.
No sign of any digging was found under the trees or near them. The men circled the place, going farther and farther. There was a cornfield near by, where the ground was soft. They had looked about this field hardly fifteen minutes when one of the men shouted: “I’ve got it, don Joaquín. Here he is.”
The body was taken out. It was still fresh and the features could easily be recognized.
“It’s the Americano all right,” the alcalde said. “He was the stockiest of the three, the fair-haired one. Get his shirt off. We’ll take it along for evidence.”
The body was carried back near the trees. The alcalde ordered his men to dig a grave for the dead man some twenty feet away from the trees, yet not in the field. With their machetes the men dug a deep hole and lowered the body into it. All the men took off their huge hats and knelt at the open grave. The mayor said a dozen Ave Marias for the soul of the slain. Then he cut off a twig and made a little cross held together by a few threads, kissed it and blessed it, and laid it on the naked body. Thereupon the grave was covered and the ground leveled, so that the place should not reveal a grave. But the mayor made now another cross slightly bigger than the first one, blessed it and kissed it, put it into the ground where the head lay, knelt down again, prayed, made the sign of the cross over the grave and three times over his own face and heart, and said: “Let’s go now. The Holy Virgin in heaven will protect him and bless his eternal soul!”
4
The men returned to their village early next morning.
They went right to the thieves. The alcalde showed them the shirt and said: “We found it.”
“So I see,” Miguel answered. He shrugged his shoulders lazily and rolled himself another cigarette. His two partners grinned. Miguel chuckled as if all this were a joke on him and he meant to take it without offense. He had known long before that one can do nothing against his fate; one can’t even marry the right girl, or get rich, or make a fair living by decent work, if fate does not decree it. Why worry?
The alcalde had already sent word the d
ay before to the nearest military post, and during the forenoon twelve federal soldiers led by a captain came to take charge of the prisoners.
The captain on seeing Miguel said: “We know him. We’ve been looking for him and his two amigos. Last week on a lonely ranch he killed a farmer and his wife. All he could get was about seven pesos, because there was no more in the house. These two birds were with him.”
The captain gave orders to his sergeant. Then he turned again to the mayor: “What are you going to do with the burros and the packs, señor alcalde?”
“I know the rightful owners of these donkeys and of the packs they carry,” the mayor replied. “One of those Americans is a great doctor, just now on the other slope of the mountains staying with my brother-in-law, that is my hermano politico, whose son he has awakened from the dead. They don’t want to let him go yet because he can perform miracles of all sorts. I’ll take the burros and the packs over to him, for I’ve wanted, anyhow, for a long time, to pay a visit to my sister, who has her Santo next week.”
“Right,” said the captain. “Then I have nothing to do with the goods. We’ll shuffle off now. I want to be back at the post by midnight. My woman is always a bit scared if I stay away too long.”
The soldiers took their prisoners without binding them and marched them off.
5
The trail the soldiers followed was hard, and they cursed having to guard the prisoners as if they were virgins.
Night fell while the little troop was still five miles from the post.
“Let’s rest here,” commanded the captain. “We need a good deep breath after these god-damned steep trails.”
The soldiers settled down and had a smoke.
“Sergeant De La Barra!” the captain called.
“A sus ordenes, mi capitán!” The sergeant stood before his captain waiting for orders.
“Take three men and get the prisoners over to those bushes for a few minutes. But I warn you, sergeant, don’t let them escape. I make you responsible. If they escape, I shall have you put into the guardhouse for three months, on tortillas and water. If they try to make their get-away, shoot to kill and don’t come back telling me that you missed. You have your orders. Repeat them, sergeant!”
