It was now Ramón who seemed a little uncertain. ‘I … well, I suppose I would have done as you did. But it still doesn’t explain why you didn’t tip me off.’
‘Damn it, man, I’ve already told you! I was never left alone for a moment. If I had been caught telephoning to you I would have been rumbled. They would have smelled a rat, changed their plans and, perhaps, bumped me off. And this is all the thanks I get for risking my neck on your behalf! For ingratitude you take the cake. I had been counting on you to get me out of here.’
‘If I could believe you, of course I would. But I’m not certain that I do. Give me the names of the ringleaders in this conspiracy and perhaps I might.’
‘Don Alberuque is the king-pin. His principal lieutenant is a Father Lopéz.’
Ramón gave a cynical laugh. ‘Do you take me for a simpleton? Alberuque is a clever and important man, but he is not a Prince of the Church. This is an attempt by the Church to regain her temporal power in Mexico by using these half-baked Indians. It is the names of the prelates we want—the really big boys who are behind this thing.’
‘You are barking up the wrong tree,’ Adam replied earnestly. ‘I’m convinced that they are not involved. They know nothing about it. With a very few exceptions, this revolt is to be led by Mestizos and Indian clergy who are still half pagan and besotted with superstition.’
‘I very much doubt that. It’s much more likely that the wool has been pulled over your eyes and that those who stand to gain most if the revolution came off are still keeping under cover.’
Adam shrugged. ‘Well, you’ve got another fortnight or three weeks in which to find out. The party at Uxmal was only what they termed a ceremony of Recognition, held so that local leaders from all over the country could vouch for it that they had seen Quetzalcoatl in the flesh with their own eyes. They are back in their towns and villages by now, spreading the good word. But that is going to take time. The plan was that I should not appear again until everything was ready, and that when I did it should be the signal for the balloon to go up.’
‘Then it never will go up,’ Ramón gave a sardonic smile, ‘because, for a long time to come, you will be sweating it out as a convict in a labour gang. Having been idiot enough to incite these people to revolt, that is the price you will have to pay.’
‘Thanks,’ Adam retorted bitterly. ‘But at least I’ll have one consolation. That scheming bastard Alberuque will be wielding a pick beside me.’
‘Maybe; but quite possibly not. The government’s policy is the less said about this thing the better. Alberuque has not been pulled in yet, nor anyone else except yourself. And that was not intended. The Police Chief down at Mérida was a bit over-zealous. Information about your party reached him only at the last moment. He could not raise enough police on the nod to rope in the whole congregation; so he sent the few he could lay his hand on, with orders to ignore everything else and concentrate on bringing in the principal performer. As you were the star of the show, they naturally went all-out to get you.’
‘I see. Then I, although an innocent party, am booked to carry the can for all those who are really guilty?’
‘That’s what it looks like. If you are innocent—and I’m still inclined to doubt it. There will be no fuss or bother. You will be tried in camera and quietly put away for a term of years.’
‘You can’t mean that!’ Adam cried desperately. ‘You can’t. I am innocent, I swear I am.’
Ramón shook his curly head. ‘You may swear until you are blue in the face that you are; but you are not. I’ll grant that you may not have intended to provoke a civil war, but the fact is that you made a speech calling on the people to overthrow the government. You can’t laugh that off and, even if I would, I couldn’t help you to. What is coming to you is the price you must pay for having let Chela make use of you.’
Adam had gone white. In a low voice he said, ‘Chela; what has become of her?’
‘Oh, Chela’s all right.’ Ramón shrugged. ‘I had to fly up to Monterrey on Wednesday, otherwise I would have come to see you yesterday. But I got back last night and saw Chela dancing at the Jacaranda. She may be a bit peeved about having lost your services, but she didn’t show it.’ After a moment he pressed a bell and added, ‘I don’t think there is any more to be said, so I’ll have you taken down to your cell.’ Utterly stricken, Adam allowed himself to be led away. As soon as the door of his cell had been locked behind him, he sat down on his-truckle bed and buried his head in his hands. Too late, he realised what a lunatic he had been not to let Ramón know that he had agreed to act as Quetzalcoatl. If he had really set his wits to work on the problem he could surely have found some excuse to use the telephone which would have fooled Chela. It occurred to him now that he could have said that he had to phone the British Embassy have got on to Jeremy Hunterscombe and asked him to give Ramón a simple message, such as ‘Gordon has agreed to play principal lead’. In retrospect, it also seemed probable that his fears of the postal censorship had been greatly exaggerated and he could easily have got off a letter before setting out for Mérida. But the fact was that he had been too absorbed in his love affair with Chela to give the matter serious thought or realise its importance. Then, when it was too late, he had been pushed into his act without even five minutes’ warning.
The thought of a ten-year sentence in a Mexican prison was too awful to contemplate; but Ramón had been right in saying that, even if his intention had been to make a further report on the progress of the conspiracy as soon as he had a chance, the fact remained that he had made a speech to its leaders from all over the country, inciting them to revolt.
He wondered for a moment whether he could plead insanity, but dismissed the idea at once. He could not bring a tittle of evidence to show that he had ever been abnormal, so no doctor would certify him.
Added to his tormented speculations concerning his future was what Ramón had said about Chela. How could she go out and dance at a night club, knowing him to be in prison and about to face a trial the outcome of which was almost certain to be that they would never see one another again?
He recalled their bitter quarrel when, after his rescue by Father Suaréz, he had flatly refused to continue playing the part of Quetzalcoatl. It must be that she had decided to break with him on that account. Yet from the fierce passion of her embraces and unvarying sweetness towards him at Oaxaca, Acapulco and at Uxmal, he could have sworn that she loved him. Perhaps she had, but only in so far as was possible to her on account of her nature. She was twenty-six and had freely admitted that she had been the mistress of other men. If the reason for Chela’s conduct was that she was secretly a nymphomaniac, it followed that, having lost one lover, she would soon seek another. Perhaps then, knowing that an arbitrary end had been put to their affair, although she had loved him after her fashion, she had decided that the best way to get him out of her mind was to go dancing with some other man. It was even possible that she had slept with him.
The mental picture of her doing with some new lover the sort of things she had done with him caused Adam suddenly to be stricken with almost insane jealousy. He wrung his hands and groaned aloud. The long hours of the day that followed were the worst he had ever spent.
Night fell at last, but he could not sleep. In vain he endeavoured to quieten his mind with thoughts of other things; but persistently it returned to himself, spending endless months in prison, barely existing on coarse, monotonous food, forced to slave at some uncongenial task and, for his only companions, ignorant, brutalised felons from among the scum of the earth. Alternatively he thought of Chela, moaning with passionate enjoyment beneath some muscular young man.
The hours dragged on until, close on midnight, a key grated in the lock of his cell. Starting up as the door opened, he saw the battered face of the gorilla-like warder. The man told him in a gruff voice that he was wanted upstairs.
With a sigh, he left the bed, tidied himself as best he could and went out into the passage, wondering
why he had been summoned. It could hardly be that they wanted to interrogate him again, as Ramón already knew all there was to know about his case.
Then he hit upon it. Ramón had said that there was to be no publicity and he was to be tried in camera. Evidently such secret courts were held at night. There would be no prolonged arguments; at best only a stooge would have been nominated to plead on his behalf. He could ask to be allowed to get in touch with the British Embassy, but he thought it unlikely that his request would be granted. The odds were that, within an hour, he would be back in his cell: tried, convicted and with his life in ruins.
15
In the Toils
The warder took Adam upstairs to the room in which he had first been interrogated. The squat, bald Police Chief was there behind his desk and with him was Ramón, seated in an armchair smoking a cigar. He nodded to Adam, waved a hand towards his companion and said, ‘I think you have already met General Gómez, our Chief of Police for the Federal District.’ Gómez then greeted Adam with ominous politeness, told him to sit down and went on:
‘You must be aware, Señor Gordon, that you are facing a very serious charge. For subversive activities a sentence can be given of up to ten years, with, I may add, hard labour. Of your guilt there can be no possible doubt. My colleague in Mérida infiltrated two Mestizos and a mulatto into your organisation. They will testify to the speech you made, inciting to rebellion the considerable number of people who attended the meeting. Our prisons in Mexico are efficiently run, but I cannot too strongly stress that an educated man like yourself, who has been accustomed to every comfort, will find life in one of them almost unbelievably unpleasant.’
When he paused, Adam said bitterly, ‘As a writer with some imagination I do not need to be impressed about that. However, before you bring me to trial, I demand that my Embassy should be informed. Without inviting serious trouble, you cannot ignore the right of a British subject to receive advice from a lawyer appointed by his Embassy and to be defended by him.’
The General smiled. ‘We do not intend to bring you to trial, señor—at least, not yet. I was speaking only of possible eventualities.’
Having let that sink in, he went on, ‘I have discussed your case very fully with Señor Enriquez. It was only this evening that I learned from him about the tour through several of our towns that you made a few weeks ago, and that during it you voluntarily gathered such information as you could for him about the conspiracy. Of course, I already knew all about the affair at San Luis Caliente; but through some oversight our Foreign Office failed to inform me of how you came to participate in it.’
New hope surged up in Adam. Hardly able to believe that after all there was a chance of his escaping imprisonment, he held his breath while Gómez took his time over lighting a cigar.
When the end was burning evenly, he said:
‘The fact that at San Luis you nearly lost your life while working for us, and were compelled to act as a sacrificial priest in order to save it, puts a different complexion on matters; and I now take a much more favourable view of your case.’
‘You …’ Adam choked. ‘You mean you’re going to let me go?’
‘Well; we shall see about that.’
‘Su Excellencia, I beg you to! I swear that I was equally innocent in the affair at Uxmal. I had to go through with it if I was to stand any chance at all of securing further information for Señor Enriquez.’
‘But you haven’t,’ Ramón put in. ‘Except for that of Don Alberuque, which was known to us already, you have not furnished us with the name of a single person of importance.’
‘I couldn’t; because there are none,’ Adam flung at him. ‘No Bishops and very few white priests are involved. I’m certain of that.’
‘You cannot be certain. You may be lying or your informant may have been lying to you.’
‘It was divulged to me during a highly-emotional scene, in which there could have been no premeditation to deceive me.’
The Police Chief held up a plump, beringed hand. ‘Enough, señores. Let us get back to the present situation. As I see it, to begin with Señor Gordon, being convinced that as a humanitarian, it was his duty to do what he could to save this country from the horrors of a civil war, worked loyally to that end. Later there is reason to believe that he was persuaded to change his views and allow his likeness to the god Quetzalcoatl to be used by the conspirators. But we have no proof that his explanation for having done so is not the truth. Should we not, therefore, give him the benefit of the doubt?’
‘Yes. Ramón nodded. ‘I think we should.’
Adam was almost sobbing with relief. ‘Oh God be thanked!’ he exclaimed. ‘And thank you both. As soon as I’m free—tomorrow if there is a seat on a plane—I’ll leave Mexico. I meant to stay a good while longer, but I’ll willingly cut short my visit so that you can be quite certain that these people have no chance to use me again.’
‘Señor Gordon, you go too fast,’ Gómez said smoothly. ‘As the Señor Enriquez has just remarked, we are by no means satisfied that none of the higher clergy are involved in this. We are going to rely on you to find out for us if that really is so, and any further plans the conspirators may have.’
‘No, please!’ Adam violently shook his head. ‘I’ve had enough of this. More than enough. Think what I’ve suffered already as a result of getting mixed up in this business.’
Ramón smiled at him. ‘Yes, I’m afraid you’ve been through some very nasty experiences since you agreed to give me your help; and I’m sorry about that. But I’m afraid, Gordon, that you don’t realise your position.’
‘Exactly,’ added the General, his voice suddenly hardening, ‘and I had better make it clear. We can bring and prove a charge of subversive activity against you that will send you to prison for ten years. And that is what we shall do if you refuse us your aid.’
Adam’s shoulders sagged and he said unhappily, ‘Then I’ve no alternative.’
‘I’m glad, señor, that you realise it. And, after all, if you have been telling the truth, you have never deviated from your wish to help prevent an outbreak that would inevitably lead to the loss of many lives.’
‘That is so, Excellencia. Very well. Tell me how you want me to set about it and I’ll do my best. But wait a minute! Surely my hands are tied by the fact that they know I have been arrested? If you let me go, it’s certain they’ll tumble to it that your price for releasing me was my agreeing to act as your stool-pigeon.’
The Police Chief drew heavily on his cigar, then said quietly, ‘We shall take measures to guard against that. At a conference this evening it was agreed to modify our policy of hushing things up. In the circumstances arising from your arrest, we decided that the severest blow we could deal the conspirators would be to treat their movement with contempt. But it would be unrealistic to turn you free at once, so I am afraid you will still have to go to prison.’
As Adam’s face fell, he went on, ‘But not for long. You will be tried in camera to protect our agents who will give evidence against you. In your defence it will be stated that you are a crazy Englishman with a love of practical joking, and that some of your friends having remarked on your likeness to descriptions of Quetzalcoatl, you decided to play a prank on some gullible Indians. The charge will be reduced to one of “disturbing the peace”, and you will be sentenced to fourteen days in the upper division. As you will already have served four, you will be out in ten. The Press will be given a hand-out of your trial, and its publication should result in discrediting the rumour that the Man-God has returned to Mexico. That will put a damper on all but the most fanatical of the potential revolutionaries and greatly reduce their following. It will then be up to you to make contact at once with Alberuque and find out all you can for us.’
Having no option but to co-operate, Adam felt that he could do himself no good by sulking; so to ‘show willing’, he said, ‘I congratulate you, Excellencia, on your plan. It will not only give me a clean bill, but shoul
d do great damage to the movement.’
Ramón stood up, laid a hand on Adam’s shoulder and said cheerfully:
‘Now, Gordon, feeling confident that you would be sensible and accept the situation, we have a little surprise for you. I’m sure that in these past few days you must have found the prison food far from agreeable; but at least we can provide you with one good meal. We would like you to join us for supper.’
The Police Chief threw open the door to an adjoining room, smiled and gestured to Adam to precede him. It was a conference room. At one end of the long table three places had been laid, and on a sideboard against one wall was set out an admirable cold collation. At the sight of it Adam suddenly felt ravenous, but when he helped himself he controlled his impulse to be greedy. Noticing his restraint, Ramón laughed and piled more food on his plate, while Gómez poured him a glass of French burgundy.
Within a few minutes the whole atmosphere had changed. Quite suddenly, it came upon Adam that, although he had been coerced into helping the authorities, it was the right thing to do. At first sight he had intensely disliked Alberuque and there could be no question about his being a trouble-maker of the first order. At all costs he must be prevented from misleading the wretched Indians, Negroes and Mestizos into throwing their lives away in clashes with well-armed troops.
As they ate and drank, the three of them discussed the situation freely as friends willingly united in a cause. Urged on by the others, Adam ate supper enough for four and, when he rose from the table, carried a whole bottle of good wine beneath his belt.
Returning to the other room, they all shook hands, then Gómez rang for the warder. Before he arrived, Ramón took Adam out into the passage and said to him in a low voice, ‘Don’t worry about Chela. She has been absolutely miserable since she returned from Uxmal. I can’t possibly let her in on it that you will be free in ten days, but I can assure you she will be overjoyed at seeing you.’
Unholy Crusade Page 27
