DON JOSÉ PAREDES.
Several days had elapsed since the return of Don Ruiz and his sister to the hacienda, and Don Rufino had not said a word about the money which occasioned his visit. The hacendero, while employing all the means in his power to procure the necessary sum to pay his debt, had been careful not to allude to the conversation he had held with his creditor on the first day; the more so because Don Rufino seemed to have forgotten the pressing want of money he had at first given as his excuse for not granting any delay.
At the hacienda everything had returned to its old condition. Don Ruiz went out on horseback in the morning with José Paredes, in order to watch the peons and vaqueros, leaving to his father and sister the care of doing the honours to Don Rufino. For the first two or three days Doña Marianita had been considerably embarrassed by their guest's obsequious smiles and passionate glances; but she soon made up her mind, and only laughed at the craving look and absurd postures of the stout gentleman. The latter, while perceiving the effect he produced on the young lady, appeared to take no heed of it, and conscientiously continued his manoeuvres with the tenacity that formed the basis of his character. Probably in acting thus, and by openly paying his court to Doña Marianita, in the presence of her father and brother, Don Rufino was carrying out a pre-arranged plan, in order to gain an end which may be easily guessed.
It was evident to everybody that Don Rufino was seeking to obtain the hand of Doña Marianita. Don Hernando, in spite of the secret annoyance this pursuit caused him, for this man was the last he would have desired as his son-in-law, did not dare, however, let his vexation be seen, owing to his delicate position, and the sword of Damocles which Don Rufino held in suspense over his head. He contented himself with watching him closely, while leaving him free to act, hoping everything from him, and striving to collect all his resources in order to pay him off as speedily as possible; and once liberty was regained, to dismiss him. Unfortunately, money was difficult to obtain. Most of Don Hernando's debtors failed in meeting their engagements; and it was with great difficulty he obtained at the end of a fortnight one quarter the sum he owed Don Rufino, and this sum even could not be employed in liquidating the debt, for it was indispensable for the continuation of the works at the hacienda.
Since his arrival at the hacienda, Don Rufino had sent off messengers in several directions, and received letters. One morning he entered Don Hernando's study with an easy air, where the latter passed nearly the day, engaged in the most abstruse calculations. The hacendero raised his head with amazement on seeing the Senator; it was the first time the latter had come to seek him in this room. He suffered a heart pang; but he succeeded in hiding his emotion, and good-humouredly invited his visitor to take a seat.
"My dear Señor," Don Rufino began, as he comfortably stretched himself out upon a butaca, "excuse me for pursuing you into your last entrenchments, but I want to talk seriously with you, and so I frankly knocked at this door."
"You have done well," Don Hernando answered, with ill-dissembled agony: "you know that I am entirely at your disposal. How can I be of any service to you?"
"I will not trouble you long: I am not fond of lengthy conversations, and have merely come to terminate the affair which we began on the day when I arrived at the hacienda."
The hacendero felt a cold perspiration stand on his temples at this brutally frank avowal.
"I had not forgotten you," he replied: "at this very moment I was making arrangements which, I trust, will enable me to discharge the debt in a few days."
"That is not the point," Don Rufino remarked, airily: "I do not want the money, and request you to hold it for me as long as you possibly can."
Don Hernando looked at him in amazement. "That surprises you," the Senator continued, "and yet the affair is very simple. I was anxious to prove to you that you had in me not a pressing creditor, but a truly devoted friend. When I saw that it would greatly embarrass you to repay me this trifle, and as you are a gentleman I am anxious to oblige, I turned to another quarter."
"Still," Don Hernando, who feared a snare, objected: "you said to me—"
"I believed it," Don Rufino interrupted him. "Fortunately it was not so, as I have recently acquired the proof: not only have I been able to meet my payment, but I have a considerable sum left in my hands which I do not know what to do with, and which I should feel much obliged by your taking; for I do not know a more honourable gentleman than yourself, and I wish to get rid of the money, which is useless to me at the moment."
Don Hernando, confounded by this overture, which he had been so far from expecting from a man who had at first been so harsh with him, was silent, for he knew not what to answer, or to what he should attribute this so sudden and extraordinary change.
"Good gracious!" continued Don Rufino, with a smile; "During the few days I have been with you, my dear Señor, I have been enabled to appreciate the intelligent way in which you manage your immense estate; and it is evident to me that you must realize enormous profits. Unfortunately for you, you are in the position of all men who undertake great things with limited resources. You are short of capital just at the moment when it is most necessary; but as this is a common case, you cannot complain. You have made sacrifices, and will have to make more before obtaining real results. The money you want I have, and I offer it to you. I trust you will not insult me by doubting my friendship, or my desire to be of service to you."
"Certainly, Caballero. Still," Don Hernando stammered, "I am already your debtor to a heavy amount."
"Well, what matter? You will be my debtor for a larger amount, that is all."
"I understand all the delicacy and kindness of your conduct, but I fear—"
"What?—That I may demand repayment at an inconvenient moment?"
"I will not conceal from you—"
"You are wrong, Don Hernando. I wish to deal with you as a friend, and do you a real service. You owe me seventy thousand piastres, I believe?"
"Alas, yes!"
"Why that 'alas?'" the senator asked, with a smile. "Seventy thousand piastres, and fifty thousand more I am going to hand you directly, in six bills payable at sight, drawn on Wilson and Co., Bankers, at Hermosillo, will form a round sum, for which you will give me your acceptance payable—come, what date will suit you best?"
Don Hernando hesitated. Evidently Don Rufino, in making him so strange a proposal, had an object; but that object he could not see. The Senator's love for his daughter could not impel him to do such a generous act: this unexpected kindness evidently concealed a snare; but what was the snare? Don Rufino carefully followed the different feelings that were reflected on Don Hernando's face.
"You hesitate," he said to him, "and you are wrong. Let us talk candidly. You cannot possibly hope to realize any profit within eight months, so it will be impossible for you to pay me so large a sum before that period." Then, opening his pocketbook and taking out the six bills, which he laid on the table, he continued: "Here are the fifty thousand piastres; give me an acceptance for one hundred and twenty thousand, payable at twelve months' date. You see that I give you all necessary latitude to turn yourself round. Well, supposing—which is not probable—that you are unable to pay me when the bill falls due; we will renew it, that is all. ¡Cuerpo de Cristo! I am not a harsh creditor. Come, is the matter settled, or must I take the bills back?"
Money, under whatever shape it presents itself, has an irresistible attraction in the eyes of the speculator and embarrassed man. Don Hernando, in spite of all his efforts—in spite of all the numerous sacrifices he had made, felt himself rapidly going down the incline of ruin, on which it is impossible for a man to stop; but time might save him. Don Rufino, whatever his wishes might be, rendered him an immense service by giving him, not only time, but also the money he required, and which he despaired of obtaining elsewhere. Any longer hesitation on his part would therefore have been unjustifiable; hence he took the bills, and gave his acceptance.
"That's settled," Don Rufino said, as he folded the document and carefully placed it in his pocketbook. "My dear Señor, you are really a singular man. There is more difficulty in getting you to accept money than there would be in getting another to pay it."
"I really do not know how to thank you, Don Rufino, for the service you have rendered me, and which I am now free to confess has arrived very opportunely."
"Money is always opportune," the Senator replied, with a laugh; "but let us say no more about that. If you happen to have a safe man, send him off at once to cash these bills at Hermosillo, for money is too scarce to be allowed to lie idle."
"This very day my majordomo, Don José Paredes, shall set out for the ciudad."
"Very good. Now I have one request to make of you."
"Speak, speak! I shall be delighted to prove to you how grateful I am."
"This is the matter: now that I am, temporarily at least, no longer your creditor, I have no decent pretext for remaining at the hacienda."
"Well, what does that matter?"
"It matters a great deal to me. I should like to remain here a few days longer, in order to enjoy your agreeable society."
"Are you jesting, Don Rufino? The longer you remain at the hacienda, the greater honour you will do us; we shall be delighted to keep you, not for a few days, but for all the time you may be pleased to grant us."
"Very good; that is what I desired. Now, I shall go away and leave you to your business."
When the majordomo returned to the hacienda at about eleven o'clock in the morning, Don Hernando sent for him. Without taking the time to pull off his vaquero boots or unbuckle his heavy spurs, José Parades hurried to his master.
"Have you a good horse?" the hacendero asked, so soon as the majordomo entered the study.
"I have several, Excellency," he answered.
"I mean by a good horse, one capable of going a long distance."
"Certainly, mi amo; I have a mustang on which I could ride to Hermosillo and back without giving it any further rest than that of the camping hours."
"I want to send you to Hermosillo."
"Very good, Excellency; when must I start?"
"Why, as soon as possible after you have rested."
"Rested from what?"
"The ride you have taken this morning."
The majordomo shrugged his shoulders with a smile. "I am never tired, Excellency; in half an hour I shall have lassoed my horse, saddled it, and mounted, unless you wish me to defer my journey."
"The hours for the siesta will soon be here, and the heat will be insufferable."
"You are aware, Excellency, that we half-Indians are children of the sun; its heat does not affect us."
"You have an answer for everything, Don José."
"For you, Excellency, I feel myself capable of performing impossibilities."
"I know that you are devoted to my house."
"Is it not just, Excellency? For two centuries my family has eaten the bread of yours; and, if I acted otherwise than I am doing, I should be unworthy of those from whom I am descended."
"I thank you, my friend; you know the esteem and affection I have for you. I am about to intrust an important commission to you."
"Be assured that I shall perform it, Excellency."
"Very good. You will start at once for Hermosillo, where you will cash these bills for fifty thousand piastres, at the bank of Wilson and Co."
"Fifty thousand piastres!" the majordomo repeated, with surprise.
"It surprises you, my friend, to whom I have confided my most secret affairs, that I have so large a sum to receive. You ask yourself, doubtless, in what way I managed to obtain it."
"I ask nothing, Excellency; it does not concern me. I am here to carry out your orders, and not permit myself improper observations."
"This money has been lent me by a friend whose kindness is inexhaustible."
"Heaven grant that you are not mistaken, Excellency; and that the man from whom you have this money is really a friend."
"What do you mean, Don José? To what are you alluding?"
"I make no allusion, mi amo; I merely think that friends who lend fifty thousand piastres from hand to hand—pardon my frankness, Excellency—to a man whose affairs are in such a condition as yours, are very rare at present; and that, before forming a definite judgment about them, it would be wiser to wait and learn the cause of such singular generosity."
Don Hernando sighed. He shared his majordomo's opinions, though he would not allow it. Following the tactics of all men who have not good reasons to allege, he suddenly turned the conversation.
"You can take three or four persons with you," he said.
"What to do, Excellency?"
"Why, to act as escort on your return."
The majordomo began laughing.
"What use is an escort, Excellency? You want your money here? I will buy a mule at Hermosillo, and load the money on it, and it will take a very clever fellow to rob me, I assure you."
"Still, it would be, perhaps, better to have an escort."
"Permit me to remark, Excellency, that it would be the best way of setting robbers on my track."
"¡Viva Dios! I should be curious to know how you arrive at that conclusion."
"You will easily understand me, mi amo. A single man is certain to pass unnoticed, especially when, as at this moment, the roads are infested with bandits of every description and every colour."
"Hum! what you are saying is not re-assuring, Don José, do you know that?" Don Hernando remarked, with a smile, for his majordomo's reasoning amused him.
"On the contrary, the bandits to whom I am referring, Excellency, are clever, too clever, and it is that which ruins them; they will never imagine that a poor devil of a half-breed, leading a sorry mule, can be carrying fifty thousand piastres. Deceived by my appearance, they will let me pass, without even pretending to see; while if I take persons with me, it will arouse their suspicions, they will want to know why I am guarded, and I shall be plundered."
"You may really be right, Don José."
"I am certain I am, Excellency."
"Well, I will not argue any longer; do what you think proper."
"All right, Excellency; I will deliver the money to you, without the loss of a real, I promise you."
"May Heaven grant it: here are the bills, and now—you can start whenever you please."
"I shall be gone within an hour, Excellency," the majordomo answered.
He took up the bills, hid them in his bosom, and, after bowing to his master, left the study. José Paredes went straight to the corral, where in a few minutes he had lassoed a mustang with small head and flashing eye, which he began saddling, after he had carefully rubbed it down. Then he inspected his weapons, laid in a stock of powder and ball, placed some provisions in his alforjas, and mounted. But, instead of leaving the hacienda, he proceeded to a separate building, and twice gently tapped a window before which he pulled up. The window opened, and Don Ruiz appeared.
"Ah! Is that you, Paredes; going back to the plantations already?" he said; "Well, wait a minute, and I will be with you."
The majordomo shook his head.
"Do not disturb yourself, Niño," he said. "I am not going to the plantations, but on a journey."
"A journey?" the young man asked, in surprise.
"Yes; but only for a few days. The Marquis has sent me, and I shall soon be back."
"Can you tell me the reason why you are going, and whither?"
"The master will tell you himself, Niño."
"Good! But I suppose you have some other motive for coming to wish me good-bye?"
"Yes, Niño; I wished to give you a piece of advice before leaving the hacienda."
"Advice?"
"Yes; and of a serious nature. Niño, during my absence, watch carefully the man who is here!"
"Whom do you mean, Paredes?"
"The Senator, Don Rufino Contreras."
"For what reason?"
"Watch him, Niño, watch him! And now, good-bye for the present."
And without awaiting the question the young man was about to ask him, the majordomo dug his spurs into his horse's flanks, and left the hacienda at a gallop.