III
The Tall Man stopped and waited for an answer. The fire flickered over the dark faces of angry men, and Pedro stirred uneasily as if he would like to say something.
“Speak out, Pedro. Tell us your story,” said the Tall Man.
Pedro stood up and shook his fist at the fire. “Every word you speak is true,” he said. “Who should know better than I? I had a small farm some miles from here, left me by my father. It was my own, and I tilled my land and was content. My father could not read, neither could I. No one told me of the laws.
“At last one day a rural[20] rode to my house, and said, ‘Pedro, why have you not obeyed the law? The law says that if you did not have your property recorded before [p 142] a magistrate by the first of last month it should be taken from you and given to the State.’
“‘But I have never heard of such a law,’ I said to him. He answered, ‘Ignorance excuses no man. Your farm belongs to the state.’ And I and my family were turned [p 143] out of the house in which I and my father before me had been born. All our neighbors were treated in the same way. In despair we went away to the hacienda of Señor Fernandez, and there we work for a pittance as you say. And our homes! That whole region was turned over by the President, not long after, to a rich friend of his, who now owns it as a great estate!
“Many of my old neighbors are now his peons—working for him on land that was once their own and that was taken from them by a trick—by a trick, I say,”—his voice grew thick, and he sat down heavily in his place.
Another man, a stranger to Tonio, sprang to his feet. “Ah, if that were all!” he said; “but even in peonage we are not left undisturbed! It was only a year ago that I was riding into town on my donkey with some chickens to sell, when an officer stopped me and brought me before the Jefe Politico.[21]
[p 144]
“‘Why have you not obeyed the law?’ said the magistrate. ‘I know of no law that I have not obeyed,’ I said. ‘You may tell me that,’ said the scoundrel, ‘but to make me believe it is another matter. You must know very well that a law was passed not long ago that every peon must wear dark trousers if he wishes to enter a town.’
“‘I have no dark trousers,’ said I, ‘and I have no money to buy them. I have worn such white trousers as these since I was a boy, as have all the men in this region.’ ‘That makes no difference to me,’ he said; ‘law is law.’ I was put in prison and made to work every day on a bridge that the Government was building! I never saw my donkey or the chickens again. My wife did not know where I was for two weeks.
“While I was working on the bridge five other men whom I knew were seized and treated in the same way. It is my belief that there is no such law. They wanted workmen for that bridge and that was the cheapest way to get them!”
[p 145]
“Where are those other five men who were imprisoned, too? Have they no spirit?” It was the Tall Man who spoke.
“They have spirit,” the man answered, “but they also have large families. They fear to leave them lest they starve. They are helpless.”
“Say rather they are fools,” said the Tall Man when the stranger sat down. “Why had they not the spirit like you to take things in their own hands—to revenge their wrongs? As for myself,” he went on, “every one knows my story.
“The blood of my Indian ancestors was too hot in my veins for such slavery—by whatever name you call it. I broke away, and my name is now a terror in the region that I call mine.
“It is no worse to take by violence than by fraud. My land was taken from me by fraud. Very well, I take back what I can by violence. The rich call us bandits, but there is already an army of one thousand men waiting for you to join them, and we [p 146] call ourselves Soldiers of the Revolution. We have risen up to get for ourselves some portion of what we have lost.
“Will you not join us? Our general is a peon like yourselves. He feels our wrongs because he has suffered them, and he fights like a demon to avenge them. Ride away to-night with me! You shall see something besides driving other people’s cattle—and being driven like cattle yourselves!”
The Tall Man stopped talking and waited for an answer. No one spoke. The men gazed silently into the fire as if they were trying to think out something that was very puzzling.
The Tall Man spoke again. “Sons of brave ancestors, do you know where you are?” he said. “Do you know what this great pyramid is?” He pointed directly up toward the cave, and Tonio and Tita, who had listened to every word, instantly popped their heads out of sight like frightened rabbits.
“This stone mountain was built by your [p 147] Indian ancestors hundreds of years ago. It is the burial-place of their dead. It is called the Pyramid of the Moon. Look at it! Have the Spaniards built anything greater? Mexico has many mighty monuments which show the glory which was ours before the Spaniards came.
“I have seen the ruins of great cities—cities full of stone buildings covered with wonderful carvings, all speaking of the magnificence of the days of Cuauhtemoc.[22] Here in this place the souls of those brave ancestors listen for your answer. There are many people who do not know—who do not feel—who are content to be like the sheep on the hillside; but you, you know your wrongs,—come with us and avenge them!”