Country of the Bad Wolfes

THE HARROWING

Esmeraldo Lopez took with him a party of twenty men, all of them former soldiers, all of whom had worked for him before. The train carried their mounts as well. They arrived in Veracruz early the following evening. As instructed by the general, Lopez rented a room in the Hotel de las Palmas, which had a telegraph office through which the general could contact him. He posted a man there to serve as a message runner if necessary and he and the others then rode north in the light of the moon through most of the remaining night. The Veracruz road on which they arrived at the boundary to Buenaventura—marked by an arched gateway of lime rock—was one of the two roads into and out of the hacienda. The other, the road to Jalapa, was fifteen miles farther inland. Two miles west of the Veracruz road ran the hacienda rail track.

Lopez divided his force into two groups and sent one bunch to encamp within sight of the Jalapa road entrance and himself stayed with the group near the hacienda’s Veracruz gateway. He unpacked his tailored black suit and sprinkled it with water and hung it with care on a tree to smooth out the wrinkles. He slept for an hour and woke at daybreak. Then bathed in a creek and gave his nails a quick cleaning, then shaved his neck, then put on the suit. He had recently been to a Durango barber and his hair and beard were close-cropped and neat. Then he mounted up and rode to the hacienda compound to call on its new patron.

By Sunday evening John Samuel was berating himself for having omitted the graphic details from his cable to Mauricio. It was now very important that Mauricio know the particulars of what the twins did to Alfredo. So he went again to the telegrapher’s office, intending to send Mauricio a wire explaining his oversight and his view that it would be dishonest to keep the full facts from him, repugnant as they were. When the young telegrapher read the message, he told John Samuel that several other persons had already provided the particulars to General Espinosa. I see, said John Samuel. Very well then. He thanked the telegrapher for saving him the needless transmission and returned to the casa grande.

Sipping a glass of brandy before bed, he regarded the wastebasket holding the ashes of the unregistered deed. After its burning he’d had the alarming thought that there might be some other record of it somewhere, some mention of it in his father’s papers, maybe, or in a letter he sent to someone. Maybe more than a mention. Maybe a specific statement of his bequeathal. They had taken a document case with them and what looked like a ledger. What information did those contain? The possibility was unbearable. This place was his. All of it. His by right. He was the eldest, goddammit! It was unjust—unjust!—that his father should have wanted to give a share of it to those two, who had never given him anything but trouble. Those insolent, arrogant, reckless killers of his mother! Of his child!

Unjust, yes! A fact plain and simple. It could not be permitted any chance to happen.

John Samuel did not know Mauricio Espinosa personally. He was eight years old when Mauricio left for the army, and he had been away at the Rancho Isabela on each of the rare occasions when Mauricio came to visit his family at the compound. But he had all his life heard much about him. The man had supped with Father in the casa grande and Father had thought highly of him. Mauricio was by all accounts a man of principles and honor, and was said to be very fond of his little brother. He would doubtless be enraged by the twins’ degradation of him. Sufficiently enraged, it was John Samuel’s hope, to seek retribution. A retribution that would incidentally remove all possibility of the twins ever returning to Buenaventura with some legal paper in hand to claim a portion of the estate. His estate.

His hope was well-founded, John Samuel believed, but in order for the hope to be realized, Mauricio’s response would have to be swift. The man was hundreds of miles away and the twins had said they would not be at the cove for long. What did that mean? A few days? A week? Surely no longer than that. If they were to leave the cove before Mauricio got there it would most likely be on that boat they so often prattled about at the dinner table. And once they were out on the open sea, who was going to find them?

John Roger was interred at sunrise. The rest of Monday passed without word from Mauricio. And then early Tuesday morning Lopez arrived.

He presented himself at the compound gate as a courier from Durango with an important and confidential message for the patron, John Samuel Wolfe. When John Samuel was told of him, he was certain that he was from Mauricio. He had the man brought to his office.

Lopez settled into a chair across the desk from John Samuel, his smile warm. The only incongruities with his grooming and good manners were a white jag of scar that bisected an eyebrow, and the absent little finger of his left hand, severed just below the top joint. On the ring finger of the same hand he wore a thin band of gold. Despite the man’s articulate and polite demeanor John Samuel had no difficulty envisioning him in an army uniform or the rough clothes of a guerrilla.

Because John Samuel had introduced himself by his American name, Lopez addressed him as Don John and seemed somewhat amused by the intonation of the title. He said he was in the employ of General Mauricio Espinosa, who had directed him to present his deepest sympathies to Don John on the death of his father, a man the general had greatly respected.

I thank the general, John Samuel said. Please convey my appreciation to him.

Lopez said he certainly would. Then said the general wanted to meet with Don John’s brothers, who by all accounts were the ones most familiar with the facts pertaining to the deaths of their father and his brother. He has engaged me, Lopez said, to escort your brothers to him. And then of course to escort them back.

Lopez’s manner was pleasant, his smile unchanged. But it was clear enough to John Samuel that Mauricio’s desire to have the twins brought to him was less request than directive. He had to restrain himself from smiling. He could not have arranged the whole thing better himself.

Well, John Samuel said, I quite understand the general’s wish to hear from my brothers whatever they can tell him about the, ah, tragic occurrence. I regret to inform you, however, that they are not here. I mean, not here at the compound. They left immediately after the, ah, the terrible event. They went to the coast. The hacienda extends to the coast, you see. There is a little cove there. And a house. It’s where they live.

Perhaps, Lopez said, you can send a man to retrieve them.

John Samuel cleared his throat. To be quite frank, Mr Lopez, if I send for them, I do not think they will come. You see, my brothers and I are not, ah, very close. That is one of the reasons they live at the coast house rather than here at the casa grande. In fact, now that my father has, ah, passed away, they really have nothing to keep them on the hacienda. They told me they would not be staying at the cove for very long. They have a boat there, you see.

Oh? Lopez said. He studied John Samuel’s eyes. And did they say where they would be going when they left this cove?

No. I asked but they wouldn’t tell me. I don’t believe they have told anybody.

I see. Tell me, how far is this cove?

Fifteen miles or so, I would guess.

And the terrain is jungle, is it not?

That’s correct. But there’s a trail, you see. A little rough, I’m told, but still, a trail.

Let me see if I have a proper understanding of the situation, Don John. Your brothers confided to you that they were going to a residence at the seaside. Yet they pay you no heed and so they will not come at your summons. Therefore I myself must collect them from a place more than fifteen miles away and on the other side of the jungle. A trip that I estimate will consume most of a day. And I must leave for that place at once, because, as they also confided to you, they may soon be gone from there. Gone for good. And if they are gone, nobody knows where to. Is that an accurate assessment? Tell me. Lopez smiled as if he had just told John Samuel a quirky anecdote.

Yes, John Samuel said. And began to sense how the man might be interpreting things.

I wonder, Don John. Is it possible your brothers told you that they were going somewhere other than this cove, but for the moment it has slipped your mind?

No, that’s not possible.