The Scalp Hunters Page 2

  "`Las ninas de Durango

  Commigo bailandas,

  Al cielo-!'

  "Ha! Are you ready, my bold rider?"

  "Not quite. Sit down a minute and wait."

  "Hurry, then! the dancing's begun. I have just come that way. What! that your ball-dress? Ha! ha! ha!" screamed Saint Vrain, seeing me unpack a blue coat and a pair of dark pantaloons, in a tolerable state of preservation.

  "Why, yes," replied I, looking up; "what fault do you find? But is that your ball-dress?"

  No change had taken place in the ordinary raiment of my friend. The fringed hunting-shirt and leggings, the belt, the bowie, and the pistols, were all before me.

  "Yes, my dandy; this is my ball-dress: it ain't anything shorter; and if you'll take my advice, you'll wear what you have got on your back. How will your long-tailed blue look, with a broad belt and bowie strapped round the skirts? Ha! ha! ha!"

  "But why take either belt or bowie? You are surely not going into a ball-room with your pistols in that fashion?"

  "And how else should I carry them? In my hands?"

  "Leave them here."

  "Ha! ha! that would be a green trick. No, no. Once bit, twice shy. You don't catch this 'coon going into any fandango in Santa Fe without his six-shooters. Come, keep on that shirt; let your leggings sweat where they are, and buckle this about you. That's thecostume du bal in these parts."

  "If you assure me that my dress will becomme il faut , I'm agreed."

  "It won't be with the long-tailed blue, I promise you."

  The long-tailed blue was restored forthwith to its nook in my portmanteau.

  Saint Vrain was right. On arriving at the room, a large sala in the neighbourhood of the Plaza, we found it filled with hunters, trappers, traders, and teamsters, all swaggering about in their usual mountain rig. Mixed among them were some two or three score of the natives, with an equal number of senoritas, all of whom, by their style of dress, I recognise as poblanas, or persons of the lower class,-the only class, in fact, to be met with in Santa Fe.

  As we entered, most of the men had thrown aside their serapes for the dance, and appeared in all the finery of embroidered velvet, stamped leather, and shining "castletops." The women looked not less picturesque in their bright naguas, snowy chemisettes, and small satin slippers. Some of them flounced it in polka jackets; for even to that remote region the famous dance had found its way.

  "Have you heard of the electric telegraph?"

  "No, senor."

  "Can you tell me what a railroad is?"

  "Quien sabe?"

  "La polka?"

  "Ah! senor, la polka, la polka! cosa buenita, tan graciosa! vaya!"

  The ball-room was a long, oblong sala with a banquette running all round it. Upon this the dancers seated themselves, drew out their husk cigarettes, chatted, and smoked, during the intervals of the dance. In one corner half a dozen sons of Orpheus twanged away upon harp, guitar, and bandolin; occasionally helping out the music with a shrill half-Indian chant. In another angle of the apartment, puros, and Taos whisky were dealt out to the thirsty mountaineers, who made the sala ring with their wild ejaculations. There were scenes like the following:-

  "Hyar, my little muchacha! vamos, vamos, ter dance! Mucho bueno! Mucho bueno? Will ye?"

  This is from a great rough fellow of six feet and over, addressed to a trim little poblana.

  "Mucho bueno, Senor Americano!" replies the lady.

  "Hooraw for you! Come along! Let's licker fust! You're the gal for my beaver. What'll yer drink? Agwardent or vino?"

  "Copitita de vino, senor." (A small glass of wine, sir.)

  "Hyar, yer darned greaser! Set out yer vino in a squ'll's jump! Now, my little un', hyar's luck, and a good husband!"

  "Gracias, Senor Americano!"

  "What! you understand that? You intende, do yer?"

  "Si, senor!"

  "Hooraw, then! Look hyar, little 'un, kin yer go the b'ar dance?"

  "No entiende."

  "Yer don't understan' it! Hyar it is; thisa-way;" and the clumsy hunter began to show off before his partner, in an imitation of the grizzly bear.

  "Hollo, Bill!" cries a comrade, "yer'll be trapped if yer don't look sharp."

  "I'm dog-gone, Jim, if I don't feel queery about hyar," replies the hunter, spreading his great paw over the region of the heart.

  "Don't be skeert, man; it's a nice gal, anyways."

  "Hooray for old Missouri!" shouts a teamster.

  "Come, boys! Let's show these yer greasers a Virginny break-down. `Cl'ar the kitchen, old folks, young folks.'"

  "Go it hoe and toe! `Old Virginny nebir tire!'"

  "Viva el Gobernador! Viva Armijo! Viva! viva!"

  An arrival at this moment caused a sensation in the room. A stout, fat, priest-like man entered, accompanied by several others, it was the Governor and his suite, with a number of well-dressed citizens, who were no doubt the elite of New Mexican society. Some of the new-comers were militaires, dressed in gaudy and foolish-looking uniforms that were soon seen spinning round the room in the mazes of the waltz.

  "Where is the Senora Armijo?" I whispered to Saint Vrain.

  "I told you as much. She! she won't be out. Stay here; I am going for a short while. Help yourself to a partner, and see some tun. I will be back presently.Au revoir !"

  Without any further explanation, Saint Vrain squeezed himself through the crowd and disappeared.

  I had been seated on the banquette since entering the sala, Saint Vrain beside me, in a retired corner of the room. A man of peculiar appearance occupied the seat next to Saint Vrain, but farther into the shadow of a piece of furniture. I had noticed this man as we entered, and noticed, too, that Saint Vrain spoke to him; but I was not introduced, and the interposition of my friend prevented me from making any further observation of him until the latter had retired. We were now side by side; and I commenced a sort of angular reconnaissance of a face and figure that had somewhat strangely arrested my attention. He was not an American; that was evident from his dress; and yet the face was not Mexican. Its outlines were too bold for a Spanish face, though the complexion, from tan and exposure, was brown and swarth. His face was clean-shaven except his chin, which carried a pointed, darkish beard. The eye, if I saw it aright under the shadow of a slouched brim, was blue and mild; the hair brown and wavy, with here and there a strand of silver. These were not Spanish characteristics, much less Hispano-American; and I should have at once placed my neighbour elsewhere, but that his dress puzzled me. It was purely a Mexican costume, and consisted of a purple manga, with dark velvet embroidery around the vent and along the borders. As this garment covered the greater part of his person, I could only see that underneath was a pair of green velveteen calzoneros, with yellow buttons, and snow-white calzoncillos puffing out along the seams. The bottoms of the calzoneros were trimmed with stamped black leather; and under these were yellow boots, with a heavy steel spur upon the heel of each. The broad peaked strap that confined the spur, passing over the foot, gave to it that peculiar contour that we observe in the pictures of armed knights of the olden time. He wore a black, broad-brimmed sombrero, girdled by a thick band of gold bullion. A pair of tags of the same material stuck out from the sides: the fashion of the country.

  The man kept his sombrero slouched towards the light, as I thought or suspected, for the concealment of his face. And vet it was not an ill-favoured one. On the contrary, it was open and pleasing; no doubt had been handsome beforetime, and whatever caused its melancholy expression had lined and clouded it. It was this expression that had struck me on first seeing the man.

  Whilst I was making these observations, eyeing him cross-wise all the while, I discovered that he was eyeing me in a similar manner, and with an interest apparently equal to my own. This caused us to face round to each other, when the stranger drew from under his manga a small beaded cigarero, and, gracefully holding it out to me, said-

  "Quiere a fumar, caballero?" (Would you smok
e, sir?)

  "Thank you, yes," I replied in Spanish, at the same time taking a cigar from the case.

  We had hardly lit our cigarettes when the man again turned to me with the unexpected question-

  "Will you sell your horse?"

  "No."

  "Not for a good price?"

  "Not for any price."

  "I would give five hundred dollars for him."

  "I would not part with him for twice the amount."

  "I will give twice the amount."

  "I have become attached to him: money is no object."

  "I am sorry to hear it. I have travelled two hundred miles to buy that horse."

  I looked at my new acquaintance with astonishment, involuntarily repeating his last words.

  "You must have followed us from the Arkansas, then?"

  "No, I came from the Rio Abajo."

  "The Rio Abajo! You mean from down the Del Norte?"

  "Yes."

  "Then, my dear sir, it is a mistake. You think you are talking to somebody else, and bidding for some other horse."

  "Oh, no! He is yours. A black stallion with red nose and long full tail, half-bred Arabian. There is a small mark over the left eye."

  This was certainly the description of Moro; and I began to feel a sort of superstitious awe in regard to my mysterious neighbour.

  "True," replied I; "that is all correct; but I bought that stallion many months ago from a Louisiana planter. If you have just arrived from two hundred miles down the Rio Grande, how, may I ask, could you have known anything about me or my horse?"

  "Dispensadme, caballero! I did not mean that. I came from below to meet the caravan, for the purpose of buying an American horse. Yours is the only one in the caballada I would buy, and, it seems, the only one that is not for sale!"

  "I am sorry for that; but I have tested the qualities of this animal. We have become friends. No common motive would induce me to part with him."

  "Ah, senor! it is not a common motive that makes me so eager to purchase him. If you knew that, perhaps-" he hesitated a moment; "but no, no, no!" and after muttering some half-coherent words, among which I could recognise the "Buenos noches, caballero!" the stranger rose up with the same mysterious air that had all along characterised him, and left me. I could hear the tinkling of the small bells upon the rowels of his spurs, as he slowly warped himself through the gay crowd, and disappeared into the night.

  The vacated seat was soon occupied by a dusky manola, whose bright nagua, embroidered chemisette, brown ankles, and small blue slippers, drew my attention. This was all I could see of her, except the occasional flash of a very black eye through the loophole of the rebozo tapado. By degrees, the rebozo became more generous, the loophole expanded, and the outlines of a very pretty and very malicious little face were displayed before me. The end of the scarf was adroitly removed from the left shoulder; and a nude, plump arm, ending in a bunch of small jewelled fingers, hung carelessly down.

  I am tolerably bashful; but at the sight of this tempting partner, I could hold in no longer, and bending towards her, I said in my best Spanish, "Do me the favour, miss, to waltz with me."

  The wicked little manola first held down her head and blushed; then, raising the long fringes of her eyes, looked up again, and wits a voice as sweet as that of a canary-bird, replied-

  "Con gusto, senor." (With pleasure, sir.)

  "Nos vamos!" cried I, elated with my triumph; and pairing off with my brilliant partner, we were soon whirling about in the mazy.

  We returned to our seats again, and after refreshing with a glass of Albuquerque, a sponge-cake, and a husk cigarette, again took the floor. This pleasurable programme we repeated some half-dozen times, only varying the dance from waltz to polka, for my manola danced the polka as if she had been a born Bohemian.

  On one of my fingers was a fifty-dollar diamond, which my partner seemed to think wasmuy buenito . As her igneous eyes softened my heart, and the champagne was producing a similar effect upon my head, I began to speculate on the propriety of transferring the diamond from the smallest of my fingers to the largest of hers, which it would, no doubt, have fitted exactly. All at once I became conscious of being under the surveillance of a large and very fierce-looking lepero, a regular pelado, who followed us with his eyes, and sometimesin persona , to every part of the room. The expression of his swarth face was a mixture of jealousy and vengeance, which my partner noticed, but, as I thought, took no pains to soften down.

  "Who is he?" I whispered, as the man swung past us in his chequered serape.

  "Esta mi marido, senor," (It is my husband, sir), was the cool reply.

  I pushed the ring close up to the root of my finger, shutting my hand upon it tight as a vice.

  "Vamos a tomar otra copita!" (Let us take another glass of wine!) said I, resolving to bid my pretty poblana, as soon as possible, a good-night.

  The Taos whisky had by this time produced its effect upon the dancers. The trappers and teamsters had become noisy and riotous. The leperos, who now half-filled the room, stimulated by wine, jealousy, old hatreds, and the dance, began to look more savage and sulky. The fringed hunting-shirts and brown homespun frocks found favour with the dark-eyed majas of Mexico, partly out of a respect for, and a fear of, courage, which is often at the bottom of a love like theirs.

  Although the trading caravans supplied almost all the commerce of Santa Fe, and it was clearly the interest of its inhabitants to be on good terms with the traders, the two races, Anglo-American and Hispano-Indian, hated each other thoroughly; and that hate was now displaying itself on one side in bullying contempt, on the other in mutteredcarrajos and fierce looks of vengeance.

  I was still chatting with my lively partner. We were seated on the banquette where I had introduced myself. On looking casually up, a bright object met my eyes. It appeared to be a naked knife in the hands ofsu marido who was just then lowering over us like the shadow of an evil spirit. I was favoured with only a slight glimpse of this dangerous meteor, and had made up my mind to "'ware steel," when someone plucked me by the sleeve, and turning, I beheld my quondam acquaintance of the purple magna.

  "Dispensadme, senor," said he, nodding graciously, "I have just learned that the caravan is going on to Chihuahua."

  "True, there is no market here for our goods."

  "You go on then, of course?"

  "Certainly, I must."

  "Will you return this way, senor?"

  "It is very likely; I have no other intention at present."

  "Perhaps then you might be willing to part with your horse? You will find many as good in the great valley of the Mississippi."

  "Neither is likely."

  "But, senor, should you be inclined to do so, will you promise me the refusal of him?"

  "Oh! that I will promise you, with all my heart."

  Our conversation was here interrupted by a huge, gaunt, half-drunken Missourian, who, tramping rudely upon the stranger's toes, vociferated-

  "Ye-up, old greaser! gi' mi a char."

  "Y porque?" (And why?) demanded the Mexican, drawing in his feet, and looking up with astonished indignation.

  "I'm tired jumpin'. I want a seat, that's it, old hoss."

  There was something so bullying and brutal in the conduct of this man, that I felt called upon to interfere.

  "Come!" said I, addressing him, "you have no right to deprive this gentleman of his seat, much less in such a fashion."

  "Eh, mister? who asked you to open yer head? Ye-up, I say!" and at the word, he seized the Mexican by the corner of his manga, as if to drag him from his seat.

  Before I had time to reply to this rude speech and gesture, the stranger leaped to his feet, and with a well-planted blow felled the bully upon the floor.

  This seemed to act as a signal for bringing several other quarrels to a climax. There was a rush through all parts of the sala, drunken shouts mingled with yells of vengeance, knives glanced from their sheaths, women screamed, pistols flash
ed and cracked, filling the rooms with smoke and dust. The lights went out, fierce struggles could be heard in the darkness, the fall of heavy bodies amidst groans and curses, and for five minutes these were the only sounds.

  Having no cause to be particularlyangry with anybody, I stood where I had risen, without using either knife or pistol, my frightened maja all the while holding me by the hand. A painful sensation near my left shoulder caused me suddenly to drop my partner; and with that unaccountable weakness consequent upon the reception of a wound, I felt myself staggering towards the banquette. Here I dropped into a sitting posture, and remained till the struggle was over, conscious all the while that a stream of blood was oozing down my back, and saturating my undergarments.

  I sat thus till the struggle had ended. A light was brought, and I could distinguish a number of men in hunting-shirts moving to-and-fro with violent gesticulations. Some of them were advocating the justice of the "spree," as they termed it; while others, the more respectable of the traders, were denouncing it. The leperos with the women, had all disappeared, and I could perceive that the Americanos had carried the day. Several dark objects lay along the floor: they were bodies of men dead or dying! One was an American, the Missourian who had been the immediate cause of the fracas; the others were pelodos. I could see nothing of my late acquaintance. My fandanguera, too-con su marido- had disappeared; and on glancing at my left hand, I came to the conclusion that so also had my diamond ring!

  "Saint Vrain! Saint Vrain!" I called, seeing the figure of my friend enter at the door.

  "Where are you, H., old boy. How is it with you? all right, eh?"

  "Not quite, I tear."

  "Good heavens! what's this? why, you're stabbed in the hump ribs! Not bad, I hope. Off with your shirt and let's see."

  "First, let us to my room."

  "Come, then, my dear boy, lean on me-so, so!"

  The fandango was over.

  * * *

  In two hours we reached the crossing at Fra Cristobal. Here the road parts from the river, and strikes into the waterless desert. We plunge through the shallow ford, coming out on the eastern bank. We fill our "xuages" with care, and give our animals as much as they will drink. After a short halt to refresh ourselves, we ride onward.