Gold

by Stewart Edward White

  CHAPTER VI

  THE VILLAGE IN THE JUNGLE

  At first there seemed slight chance of getting either. The place wascrowded beyond its capacity. The Hotel Francaise--a shed-and-tent sortof combination with a muddy natural floor--was jammed. The few nativehuts were crowded. Many we saw making themselves as comfortable aspossible amid their effects out in the open. Some we talked with saidthey had been there for over a week, unable to move because of lack oftransportation. They reported much fever; and in fact we saw one poorshaking wretch, wistful-eyed as a sick dog, braced against a tree allalone. The spirit was drained out of him; and all he wanted was to getback.

  While we were discussing what to do next, our muslin-cladex-_padrone_, who had been paid and shaken by the hand some timesince, approached smoking a longer cigar than ever. This he waved at usin a most debonair and friendly manner.

  "Bread on the water," commented Talbot after a short conversation. "Hesays we have treated him like a brother and a true comrade in arms;which means that _I_ did; you fellows, confound your spitefulsouls, wanted to throw him overboard a dozen times. And now he says tofollow him, and he'll get us a place to stay."

  "Some native pig-sty with fleas," I remarked skeptically, aside, toJohnny.

  "You com'," begged the _padrone_, with a flash of teeth.

  We came bearing our household goods, because we could nowhere see anyone to bear them for us. At that we had to leave the heaviest pieces onthe beach. Talbot insisted on lugging his huge bundle of newspapers.

  "They may come in handy," he answered us vaguely. "Well, they're mine,and this is my back," he countered to Johnny's and my impatience withsuch foolishness.

  The _padrone_ led us through town to the outskirts. There we cameto a substantial low house of several rooms, with a veranda andveritable chimneys. The earth in front had been beaten so hard that eventhe downpour of yesterday had not appreciably softened it. To oursummons appeared a very suave and courteous figure--that, it appeared,of the _alcalde_ of the place.

  "My fren'," explained the _padrone_ in English, for our benefit,"they good peepele. They wan' estay. Got no place estay."

  The _alcalde_, a portly gentleman with side whiskers and a greatdeal of dignity, bowed.

  "My house is all yours," said he.

  Thus, although arriving late, we stopped at the best quarters in thetown. The sense of obligation to any one but our boatman wasconsiderably relieved when next day we paid what we owed for ourlodging. Also, had it not been for Talbot and Johnny, I am sure Yank andI would have taken to the jungle. There seemed to be required so muchbowing, smiling, punctiliousness and elaborate complimenting that in ashort time I felt myself in the precise mental attitude of a very smallmonkey shaking the bars of his cage with all four hands and gibbering inthe face of some benign and infinitely superior professor. I fairlyached behind the ears trying to look sufficiently alert and bland andintelligent. Yank sat stolid, chewed tobacco and spat out of the window,which also went far toward stampeding me. Talbot and Johnny, however,seemed right at home. They capped the old gentleman's most elaborate andinvolved speeches, they talked at length and pompously about nothing atall; their smiles were rare and sad and lingering--not a bit like myimbecile though well-meant grinning--and they seemed to be able to stickit out until judgment day. Not until I heard their private languageafter it was all over did I realize they were not enjoying the occasionthoroughly.

  Toward sunset occurred a welcome break. A mob of natives suddenly burstinto view, from the direction of town. They were running madly, led by avery little man and a very big man. The two latter rushed up to the edgeof the veranda, on which we were all sitting, and began to talkexcitedly, both at once.

  "What's the row?" we asked Talbot in a breath.

  "Can't make out yet; something about a fight."

  The _alcalde_ commanded order. Then the matter became clear. Thevery large man and the very little man had had a fight, and they hadcome for justice. This much Talbot made plain. Then he chuckledexplosively.

  "The little man is making his accusation against himself!" he told us."He is charging _himself_ with having assaulted and beaten theother fellow. And the big one is charging _himself_ with havinglicked the little one. Neither wants to acknowledge he got licked; andeach would rather pay a fine and have it entered on the records that hewon the fight. So much for sheer vanity!"

  Each had his desire. The _alcalde_, with beautiful impartiality,fined them both; and nonchalantly pocketed the proceeds.

  At dusk millions of fireflies came out, the earth grew velvet black, andthe soft, tepid air breathed up from the river. Lights of the townflickered like larger yellower fireflies through the thin screen ofpalms and jungle; and the various noises, subdued by distance, mingledwith the voices of thousands of insects, and a strange booming from theriver. I thought it very pleasant; and wanted to stay out; but for somereason we were haled within. There the lamps made the low broad roomvery hot. We sat on real chairs and the stilted exchange resumed. I haveoften wondered whether our host enjoyed it, or whether he did it merelyfrom duty, and was as heartily bored as the rest of us.

  A half-naked servant glided in to tell us that we were wanted in thenext room. We found there our good _padrone_ and another, a finetall man, dressed very elaborately in short jacket and slit loosetrousers, all sewn with many silver buttons and ornaments.

  "He my fren'," explained the _padrone_. "He have dose_mulas_."

  With the gorgeous individual Talbot concluded a bargain. He was tofurnish us riding animals at ten dollars each per day; and agreed totransport our baggage at six dollars a hundredweight. The _padrone_stood aside, smiling cheerfully.

  "I ver' good fren'? Eh?" he demanded.

  "My son," said Talbot with feeling, "you're a gentleman and a scholar;indeed, I would go farther and designate you as a genuinelallapaloozer!"

  The _padrone_ seemed much gratified; but immediately demanded fivedollars. This Talbot gave him. Johnny thought the demand went far towarddestroying the value of the _padrone's_ kindness: but the rest ofus differed. I believe this people, lazy and dishonest as they are, arenevertheless peculiarly susceptible to kindness. The man had started bytrying to cheat us of our bargain; he ended by going out of his way tohelp us along.

  At supper, which was served very shortly, we had our first glimpse ofthe ladies of the establishment. The older was a very dignified, placid,rather fat individual, whose chief feature was her shining dark hair.She bowed to us gravely, said a few words in Spanish, and thereafterapplied herself with childlike and unfeigned zest to the edibles. Theyounger, Mercedes by name, was a very sprightly damsel indeed. She toohad shining black hair, over which she had flung the most coquettishsort of lace shawl they call a _rebosa_. Her eyes were large, dark,and expressive; and she constantly used them most provocatively, thoughwith every appearance of shyness and modesty. Her figure, too, was litheand rounded; and so swathed, rather than clothed, that every curve wasemphasized. I suppose this effect was the result of the Spanish moderather than of individual sophistication; just as the succession of lazyposes and bendings were the result of a racial feminine instinct ratherthan of conscious personal coquetry. Certainly we four red-shirtedtramps were poor enough game. Nevertheless, whatever the motive, theeffect was certainly real enough. She was alluring rather than charming,with her fan and her _rebosa_, her veiled glances, her languorous,bold poses, and the single red flower in her hair. And a great deal ofthis allurement resided in the very fact that no one could tell how muchwas simple, innocent, and unconscious instinct, and how much wasintended. An unpleasing note in both women was furnished by the powder.This so liberally covered their faces as to conceal the skin beneath adead mat white.

  Yank and I were kept out of it, or thought we were, by our ignorance ofthe language. This did not seem to hinder Johnny in the least. In fiveminutes he was oblivious to everything but his attempts to make himselfagreeable by signs and laughing gestures, and to his trials--withhelp--at the unknown language. The
girl played up to him well. Talbotwas gravely and courteously polite. At the close of the meal the womenrose suddenly, bowed, and swept from the room. Johnny turned back to usa good deal flushed and excited, a little bewildered, and considerablydisappointed. The _alcalde_ looked as though nothing unusual wereunder way. The rest of us were considerably amused.

  "You'll see her later," soothed Talbot mockingly.

  Johnny gulped down his coffee without reply.

  After the meal we went outside. Fires had been built on opposite sidesof the hard beaten earth in front of the house. Four men with guitarssat chair tilted, backed against the veranda. Thirty or forty peoplewandered to and fro. They were of the usual native class; our host'sfamily, and one other, consisting of parents and three grown children,seemed to represent all the aristocracy. These better-class guests cameto join us on the veranda. The older people did not greatly differ fromour host and his wife, except in cut of masculine whisker, or amount offeminine fat. The younger members consisted of a young lady, tall andgraceful, a young girl in white, and a man of twenty or thereabout. Hewas most gaudily gotten up, for a male creature, in a soft white shirt,a short braided jacket of blue, a wide, red-tasselled sash, and trousersslit from the knees down. The entire costume was sewn at all places,likely and unlikely, with silver buttons. As he was a darkly handsomechap, with a small moustache, red lips and a little flash of teeth, theeffect was quite good, but I couldn't care for his style. The bulk ofthe villagers were dressed in white. The women all carried the_rebosa_, and were thickly powdered. We could see a number of theAmericans in the background.

  The musicians struck up a strummy, decided sort of marchlike tune; andthe dancers paired off. They performed a kind of lancer figure, verystately and solemn, seemingly interminable, with scant variation, smallprogressions, and mighty little interest to me. We sat in a stiff rowand shed the compliment of our presence on the scene. It was about asinspiring as a visit to a hospital ward. What determined the duration ofthe affair, I cannot tell you; whether the musicians' fingers gave out,or the dancers' legs, or the official audience's patience. But at lastthey ceased.

  At the beginning of another tune, of much the same solemn character, ouryoung visitor bowed ceremoniously to our host's daughter, and led herdown the steps.

  "Come on, Johnny, be a sport. Dance this one," said Talbot rising.

  "Don't know how," replied Johnny gloomily, his eyes on the recedingfigure of Mercedes.

  "The lady'll show you. Come along!"

  Talbot bowed gravely to the young girl, who arose enchanted. Johnny,with his natural grace and courtesy, offered his arm to the other. Shetook it with a faintly aloof and indifferent smile, and descended thestep with him. She did not look toward him, nor did she vouchsafe him aword. Plainly, she was not interested, but stood idly flirting with herfan, her eyes fixed upon the distance. The dance began.

  It was another of the same general character as the first. The couplesadvanced and retreated, swung slowly about each other, ducked and passedbeneath each other's arms, all to the stately strumming of the guitars.They kept on doing these things. Johnny and Talbot soon got hold of thesequence of events, and did them too.

  At first Johnny was gloomy and distrait. Then, after he had, in thechanges of the dance, passed Mercedes a few times, he began to wake up.I could make out in the firelight only the shapes of their figures andthe whiteness of their faces; but I could see that she lingered a momentin Johnny's formal embrace, that she flirted against him in passing, andI could guess that her eyes were on duty. When they returned to theveranda, Johnny was chipper, the visitor darkly frowning, Mercedesanimated, and the other girl still faintly and aloofly smiling.

  The fandango went on for an hour; and the rivalry between Johnny and theyoung Spaniard grew in intensity. Certainly Mercedes did nothing tomodify it. The scene became more animated and more interesting. A slow,gliding waltz was danced, and several posturing, stamping dances inwhich the partners advanced and receded toward and from each other,bending and swaying and holding aloft their arms. It was very pretty andgraceful and captivating; and to my unsophisticated mind a triflesuggestive; though that thought was probably the result of my trainingand the novelty of the sight. It must be remembered that many people seeharm in our round dances simply because they have not becomesufficiently accustomed to them to realize that the position of theperformers is meaninglessly conventional. Similarity the various ratherdaring postures of some of these Spanish dances probably have become soconventionalized by numberless repetitions along the formal requirementsof the dance that their possible significance has been long sinceforgotten. The apparently deliberate luring of the man by the womanexists solely in the mind of some such alien spectator as myself. I wasphilosophical enough to say these things to myself; but Johnny was not.He saw Mercedes languishing into the eyes of his rival; half fleeingprovocatively, her glances sparkling; bending and swaying her body inallurement; finally in the finale of the dance, melting into herpartner's arms as though in surrender. He could not realize that thesewere formal and established measures for a dance. He was too blind tosee that the partners separated quite calmly and sauntered nonchalantlytoward the veranda, the man rolling a paper cigarro, the woman flirtingidly her fan. His eyes glowing dully, he stared straight before him; aspot of colour mounted on his cheekbones.

  With an exclamation Talbot Ward arose swiftly but quietly and moved downthe veranda, motioning me to follow. He bent over Johnny's chair.

  "I want to speak to you a moment," he said in a low voice.

  Johnny looked up at him a moment defiantly. Talbot stood above him,inflexibly waiting. With a muttered exclamation Johnny finally arosefrom his chair. Ward grasped his arm and drew him through the wanderingnatives, past the fringe of American spectators, and down the hardmoonlit path to the village.

  Johnny jerked his arm loose and stopped short.

  "Well, sir!" he demanded, his head high.

  "You are on your way to California," said Ward, "and you are stoppinghere over one night. The girl is pretty and graceful and with muchcharm, but uneducated, and quite empty headed."

  "I will thank you to leave all young ladies out of this discussion,"broke in Johnny hotly.

  "This young lady is the whole of this discussion and cannot be leftout."

  "Then we will abandon the discussion."

  "Also," said Talbot Ward irrelevantly, "did you notice how fat all theirmothers are?"

  We were wandering forward slowly. Again Johnny stopped.

  "I must tell you, sir, that I consider my affairs none of your business,sir; and that I resent any interference with them," said he with heat.

  "All right, Johnny," replied Talbot sadly; "I am not going to try toadvise you. Only I wanted to call your attention to all the elements ofthe situation, which you probably had forgotten. I will repeat--and thenI am done--she is nothing to you, she is beneath you, you are stoppinghere but one day, she is charming but ignorant--and her mother is veryfat. Now go have your fool fight--for that is what you are headedstraight for--if you think it at all worth while."

  Johnny's generous heart must have been smiting him sorely, now that hisheat and excitement had had time to cool a little. He followed us a fewsteps irresolutely. We came to the large tree by the wayside. The manwith the fever still sat there miserably indifferent to hissurroundings.

  "Here, this won't do!" cried Talbot. "He mustn't be allowed to sit thereall night; he'll catch a chill sure. My friend, give us your arm. We'llfind you some sort of a bunk."

  The man was dead.

  We carried him to the village and raised a number of our compatriots.Not one knew who the man might be, nor even where his belongings hadbeen stored. He had no mark of identification on his person. After adiligent search, we were forced to give it up. The body we buried withall reverence at the edge of the jungle. I wanted to place the matter onan official footing by notifying the _alcalde_, but Talbotnegatived this.

  "I know this people," said he. "Once let the news
of a man's death getabroad, and it's good-bye to any chance of finding his effectsto-morrow. And that's our only show to identify him. Best say nothing."

  We returned slowly to the _alcalde's_ house. The fandango was stillin progress. Mercedes flashed her bright eyes at Johnny as we mountedthe steps; the Spaniard scowled and muttered an imprecation. Johnnybowed gravely and passed into the house.

  We told Yank the circumstances.

  "Poor devil," said I. "Like the rest of us, he was so full of hope soshort time ago."

  Ward nodded.

  "And his death was so unnecessary, so utterly and completely useless."

  "I don't know," spoke up Talbot musingly. "It seems to us unnecessary,but who can tell? And useless? I don't know. If we hadn't happened tostumble on that poor chap just then, Johnny Fairfax might be in his fixright this minute, and Johnny Fairfax seems to me likely to prove a veryvaluable citizen."

  "And what did the blame critter mean by that?" Yank asked me later.