the beast that
came one night and destroyed my plants when ripe for cutting had taken
pumpkins and sweet potatoes instead, it would have been better for him,
if curses have any effect. And the plant grows slowly, sir--it is not an
evil weed to come to maturity in a single day. And as for other leaves
in the forest, I smoke them, yes; but there is no comfort to the lungs
in such smoke."
"My tobacco-pouch was full," I said. "You will find it in my coat, if I
did not lose it."
"The saints forbid!" he exclaimed. "Grandchild--Rima, have you got a
tobacco-pouch with the other things? Give it to me."
Then I first noticed that another person was in the hut, a slim young
girl, who had been seated against the wall on the other side of the
fire, partially hid by the shadows. She had my leather belt, with
the revolver in its case, and my hunting-knife attached, and the few
articles I had had in my pockets, on her lap. Taking up the pouch, she
handed it to him, and he clutched it with a strange eagerness.
"I will give it back presently, Rima," he said. "Let me first smoke a
cigarette--and then another."
It seemed probable from this that the good old man had already been
casting covetous eyes on my property, and that his granddaughter had
taken care of it for me. But how the silent, demure girl had kept it
from him was a puzzle, so intensely did he seem now to enjoy it, drawing
the smoke vigorously into his lungs and, after keeping it ten or fifteen
seconds there, letting it fly out again from mouth and nose in blue jets
and clouds. His face softened visibly, he became more and more genial
and loquacious, and asked me how I came to be in that solitary place. I
told him that I was staying with the Indian Runi, his neighbour.
"But, senor," he said, "if it is not an impertinence, how is it that a
young man of so distinguished an appearance as yourself, a Venezuelan,
should be residing with these children of the devil?"
"You love not your neighbours, then?"
"I know them, sir--how should I love them?" He was rolling up his second
or third cigarette by this time, and I could not help noticing that he
took a great deal more tobacco than he required in his fingers, and
that the surplus on each occasion was conveyed to some secret receptacle
among his rags. "Love them, sir! They are infidels, and therefore the
good Christian must only hate them. They are thieves--they will steal
from you before your very face, so devoid are
|