T. S. Stribling

“ No human pursuer could shift so suddenly from grove to jungle. My jumpines was caused, no doubt, solely from Señor Monan's danger. So I went on, at least fortified if not calmed by this intellectual assurance, to the Brazil tree, where L'wanna and I did most of our photographic work.
As I have said the Brazil tree was shrouded with vines, and night blossoms filled the warm gloom with a peculiar sweetness. L'wanna was a better climber than I. She still retained the agility of early girlhood. She used the vines as ratlines and I could dimly see her slender form climbing the perfumed tangle. ”

“ I cried with a slack jaw.
"Such a voice!" exclaimed the half-breed impatiently. "I was not trying to steal a dog or a pig or a bird wing, señor, nothing of value!" he defended sharply.
"But L'wanna!" I cried with a sinking heart. "Why, man, she's but a child!"
"Child!" scoffed Jesu. "Madre de Dios! What would you call a woman—one in the grave? She is sixteen—" He whistled. "She ought to be a grandmother."
There was an ophidian fascination in the half-breed's face as he went on. ”

“ That murmuring moon-shot jungle crooned over us as some passionate mother over her babes. I held L'wanna close, couched among the vines, filled with a vast restfulness.
As we lay, a sloth inched up the Spanish arbor, a dull black body amid the glimmer of the flowers. We watched it with dreamy indifference as it crept topsy-turvy under the bottom of a limb between us and the moon. Presently I saw its prey, some sort of large bird perched like a black ball. I watched them intently, sloth and bird. ”

“ From the wharf a series of stakes led into the river where boatmen moored their craft as the water rose and fell. Beyond these stakes were a sprinkling of reeds. In the moonlight I could see the reeds move in sinuous ripples as some manatee or crocodile browsed among them.
Sammu picked up his burden and waded gingerly to a stake that was perhaps thigh-deep to an ordinary man. Here he bound Diabolo in a sitting posture. Only the half-breed's head was exposed above the surface. It was a queer sight. ”

“ Above a wide undulating back, a thick neck peaked off into a trivial head. The negro sprawled about the bowl, and the muscles of his black arms swelled and slumped at each slight lift of the spoon to his gross mouth. As I looked I thoroughly regretted that I had not seen Sammu Tenko march into Taos with the tiger on his back.
Sin Fan the chilli-maker regarded the voracious belly-god as intently as I. Under his flowing shirt the Chinaman's bulk spread over his bean bags. His eyes gleamed at Saramu Tenko like slits of jet in the yellow expanse of his face. ”

“ As I waited, I became sure for no reason in the world that the light came from L'wanna's chamber. A dozen queries beseiged my heart. Was she ill or lonely or unhappy that she arose at such an hour? Did the languid night tease her into restlessness as it did me? Or did she keep some vigil of her faith?
A sudden strange impulse, a sympathy—yes, a sympathy moved me to call across the patio and acquaint the girl with my own wakefulness. I hardly knew what I would say. My heart beat with queer excitement. ”

“ What excuse had man for all his tremendous pride? What real difference was there between me and Jesu Diabolo and the gaudy heron in the mold, or even the coroner beetle, laying its eggs in the dead meat? Were we not all little vital mechanisms, evolved with prodigal purposelessness by the steaming painted jungle around us? ”

“ If I had not been sent from New York to Taos: if her father had not been exiled from Caracas; if I had not met Jesu Diabolo and the alcade: if her father had aimed an inch truer; even if she had not been caught in the trap. It is amazing to think on what frail chances men and women meet and mate and people the world.
THE broad branches of the Brazil tree tempted L'wanna and me to stay aloft long after her arms had recovered from the bite of the trap. The vines made a natural hammock where we could loll and watch the butterflies and birds float in and out among the foliage. ”

“ As I drew near a huge man bearing an enormous bundle moved out of the shadows and turned toward the river. Behind this giant came the ponderous baggy body of the chilli-maker. As the two crept slowly toward the landing, each bearing a great weight, I overhauled and passed them. Nobody spoke. I recalled for a second Sin Fan's intention to leave Taos. Now he was going.
Fifty yards further I smelled the dampness of the river. I checked my speed and went on more cautiously. To my right, as I turned down the river, lay the bamboo brake which guarded Jesu's camp. ”

“ When men are married, they should forgive each other their bachelor deeds, eh?"
A mirthless smile twisted the half-breed's lips. I knew quite well he was thinking of our chase through the jungle. My reluctance was unconcealed.
"We do need a skilful trapper over there——"
"Señor," said Jesu disengaging his arm and lifting himself slightly, "I understand now that Arawaks are not Spaniards. I, who am both, could not realize that—there is a line. Now I understand where Señorita Monan would be miserable where Pechita is happy. ”

“ I don't know what—perhaps something about the pallor of my face, my unsteady breathing, suggested to the half-breed that I sympathized with him in his mania. Or perhaps Jesu Diabolo, like Señor Monan, was a lonely man, isolated from his kind by the ridicule of the village. At any rate, through clay-colored lips, the Indian began a molten outpouring in my ear.
"Dios, one mistake, señor, one little mistake and a man regrets it forever. I lie awake all night when the moon is full, thinking of what might be if I only had her, if only I had clung to her when I gripped her in my arms! ”

“ Men have been gregarious for too many millions of years; he has communicated his thoughts and emotions for too many epochs for any individual in this era of grace to place a seal upon his heart.
During the evenings, Señor Monan and I played at cribbage or dominoes and sometimes his daughter L'wanna sat in our games or made lace near us at another table. Very slowly the señor began to unfold himself, a little bit at a time, until within perhaps a week of evenings, I discovered why he had hesitated to receive me into his home—an extraordinary thing amid the uniform hospitality of Venezuela. ”

“ We stood in the edge of a little savanna near a pau d'arco tree in which I had set a number of fine cat-gut snares. The trunk of the giant with its network of vines and shoots formed an easy climb. I indicated a tree, caught hold of a liana and began working my way up through the furry leaves.
Odd to say the last of my snares were unset. I reformed their loops with an irritated thought of monkeys. Below, I Could hear Jesu carelessly jingling his traps or breaking little twigs, awaiting my descent. After a bit he hushed these slight noises. A thought of treachery fluttered through my brain. ”

“ Presently Jesu said again with a queer quality coming into his voice—
"Sammu, if you will put me down we can get along faster—good Sammu."
The negro might have been stone deaf as he strode on with his two captives. What he meant to do with them I had not the slightest idea. Pechita made no sound, but presently with a wrist movement she tossed the knife into the bamboos. I felt the impulse that moved her. To carry a knife around Sammu Tenko was an absurdity. Every moment my wonder grew stronger and stronger. I was about to question the negro myself when we passed out of the brake. ”

“ He is a giant, señor, this Sammu Tenko. He brought it in on his back. You should have seen that mottled beauty hanging over his huge dark shoulders—a picture!"
"What did he do with it?" I inquired.
"He gave it to Jesu Diabolo to skin for the glands. I believe the half-breed is down at the river now. You might go see."
"Skinning it for the glands?" I repeated curiously.
"Yes, to make his animal scent—his lure. The fellow is uncanny at it. He can drive an animal mad. One sniff dispels all caution, all timorousness—why, I know a dozen marvelous anecdotes." The alcalde meditated a moment. ”

“ He became reflective and I anticipated L'wanna's youth as an objection, but he did not mention it.
"If you were a Venezuelan, Señor LeFever," he began again, "I would impress it upon you that my social standing is gone. If you were a Spaniard, I would say that my fortune is confiscated, but as you are an American——"
I got to my feet. This could mean only assent. I began to burble a confusion of thanks and relief when Señor Monan stopped me.
"As you are an American, I must tell you that I have killed a man. I am a murderer, Señor LeFever." ”

“ His voice retreated to a dry whisper even in the silence of the sleeping jungle.
IT SUDDENLY struck me, as I I stared at him, that a serpent crawling toward a dove's nest is moved by no immoral impulse. It acts from a simple powerful desire without any complication of conscience. To Jesu Diabolo, obtaining L'wanna was no more a question of morals than plucking a mango. ”

“ I pushed my own chilli aside. What a prodigious animal! I attempted no more conversation with either of them. The three of us differed racially from one another until we were almost of different species. By what epochs of culture I surpassed the negro! As for Sin Fan.
I studied that inscrutable off-shoot of the world's oldest civilization. Was he far down the road my own race would one day tread? Would my great, great grandsons sit as this fat chilli-maker, indifferentists, ultimate pacifists, husks of dead souls waiting for extinction? ”

“ I remember I kept twisting my head from side to side, because a vision of L'wanna shrinking before the tiger tortured my eyes. I could still hear her screaming my name. I grew deathly sick, dizzy. I almost fell. I clutched the vines with a swimming head, but a moment later I decided I would fall deliberately. A moment's stunned thought, however, told me I should climb higher, as high as possible, and crush myself.
The Brazil tree offered dizzy heights. I got myself together like a man weakened from long sickness. I lifted myself very carefully and took the branch above me. ”

“ I am just what I seem, a bird-catcher, and nothing more."
"Oh, I did not mean that at all," protested the alcalde, "but Señor LeFever, the envelope was thin, very thin, indeed, and I distinctly saw the impression of a coat of arms on a bit of paper, and with it a letter, in barbarous handwriting saying:
In Taos, in the department of Rio Tigre, there hides a man who calls himself Monan, who is wanted for some crime. Here is his coat of arms. I know any one who bears a coat of arms must come from Caracas. There will be a wedding in the house of this Monan on the twentieth of this month. ”

“ Once or twice I even glanced back through the hazy palms. They lay quite empty. I repeated to myself that we were not criminals. Till a month ago, I had never even heard of the murder. If the officers were on the trail, they would never follow me, an ornithologist, nor this innocent girl.
I shook my shoulders and attempted to throw off my apprehensions; nevertheless, for the first time since I came to Taos, I was filled with misgivings.
BY THIS time the last glimmer of day had faded and the moonlight had strengthened into brilliancy. Everywhere lay dense shadows and placid high lights. ”

“ He removed his sombrero with a grace of which no misfortune deprives a South American.
"Pardon, señor, do you sell traps?" he inquired in Spanish.
I shook my head.
"Señor Americano is not a trapper himself?" he asked in surprize.
"I trap birds," I replied in his tongue.
"Then we are brothers, señor." He swept his broad hat in a bow so low that his bluish flap hung perpendicularly from his swart face. "I am a fur-trapper and a trader. ”

“ Apparently our giant has replaced Pechita with Sin Fan. Yesterday I saw Sammu pick up an enormous pot of boiling chilli in his bare hands, move it ten or fifteen feet for the Chinaman and sip it on the way. When he put it down he slapped his palms together as one does, when one has handled a too hot poker. I do not ask you to believe this, friend of my soul. It is quite impossible, but it is true. There was a great wailing among the mestizos last night. Martilino, the boy who fished with a spear, was devoured by a cayman at the wharf. The boatmen succeeded in recovering an arm and a foot. ”

“ What you feel and believe on it will be of vital interest to your wife, and L'wanna is all I have on earth." He paused sadly, then said, "I hope you will be very tender with her, Señor LeFever."
I jumped up and grabbed his hand.
"Then what you have just said doesn't represent your heart!" I cried in great relief.
"Only my brain, and that doesn't influence a man's belief." He paused, then added: "A tiger caught one of my goats last night. Angela was greatly excited over it." ”

“ The alcalde shrugged.
"Bah, what a fuss over nothing. There must be some political end to it."
"It was a political murder, I believe."
"I thought so. A mere man—we have too many men at best. The fewer the men, the greater the plenty." He took my lapel. "Do you know what I say? I say the murderer is the real patriot and the police are the real enemies of a country."
I suppose he meant to pay a sort of compliment to my future father-in-law.
At that moment I heard L'wanna calling from the entrance of the estancia where she had missed me on her return. ”

“ At the time Señor Monan delivered the message we were alone in a goat lot where old Angela milked. Only the night before something had killed one of these animals, and my host and I had gone down to look over the scene. The señor stood leaning against the fence where we had found some big feline tracks. He seemed amused that L'wanna should recall the Arawak girl.
"The droll part to me is the objection that L'wanna presses against Pechita's morals," said I.
"Most men are ready to condone women," observed my host slyly. ”