Part 54 (1/2)

Don Julio asked many more questions, starting again with the first time I saw the naualli and going over everything I saw from when I watched the mock battle between the indio knights to the cut on the naualli's face.

When I was drained of information, Don Julio smiled at me. ”You have an amazing memory. No doubt that is the secret of your ability with languages and with scholarly matters when you never went to school. You're a mestizo, of course, not an indio.”

I shot a glance at Mateo, but as usual, his eyes revealed nothing.

”A mestizo, but you can affect the manners and speech of an indio.” Don Julio patted his beard. ”And a Spaniard. If you had been dressed as a Spaniard when I talked to you among the ruins, I would have not doubted you were born in Seville or Cadiz. Mateo, you could have used this young man in your acting troupe before the viceroy sent them to the Filipinas.”

Mateo visibly shuddered at the mention of the dreaded islands. Ah! I understood the hold Don Julio had on the picaro. Troublemaking Spaniards were not sent to the northern mines, but were vanquished to a place equally feared, a land Spaniards in New Spain without humor called the Infierno. The trip across the Western Sea that took a couple of months was so terrible that only half the prisoners on a galleon survived. After they landed, half of those who survived the voyaged died in the first few months from fevers, snakes, and pestilence as bad as that found in the jungles of the Veracruz coast and Yucatan.

Eh, the rope that jerks my amigo Mateo is banishment to this espanol h.e.l.l on the other side of the great waters. He and his actors really must be muy mal hombres to deserve such a fate. And the women? Were they doing the deshonesto zarabanda dance for Filipinas crocodiles? What was the actress letting into her tent at night now?

”Only your generosity and kind spirit has kept me from joining my amigos, Don Julio. Because of your brilliance, insight, and wisdom, you recognized that I was as innocent as a newly ordained priest.” Mateo spoke without a trace of sarcasm.

”Si, as innocent as the two mestizo tomb robbers we will be hanging-and this one whose fate has not yet been decided.”

I smiled humbly at Don Julio. ”My kindly old uncle is half blind and nearly helpless. I must care for him, or he will perish.”

”Your uncle, if that's what he is, is a fake and a fraud who has cheated people from Guadalajara to Merida. You are also an incorrigible liar and thief. Even facing a rope around your neck, you dared to lie to me about the fact the treasure mask was in easy reach. Had I accepted your story, you would have returned to break into the tomb again to recover it. Do you deny this?”

”Don Julio,” I whined, ”you are a prince among-”

”Be quiet while I decide your punishment.”

”I think the little scoundrel should get a hundred lashes,” Mateo said. ”It would teach him to have respect for the king's law.”

”And how many lashes would teach you to respect the law?” Don Julio asked.

Mateo pretended to be examining a scuff on his boot.

The don cursed the workers at the wall and went to them, shouting that their ancestors were turning over in their graves at the sight of their sloppy work.

I glared at Mateo. ”A hundred lashes, eh, amigo. Gracias.”

”I'm not your amigo, you little street cur.” He showed the point of the sword. ”Call me that again, and I will cut off one of your ears.”

Dios mio. Still the desire to slice me up.

”Your pardon, Don Mateo. Perhaps I will tell Don Julio that you told me to hide the treasure so you could come back for it later.”

Mateo stared at me for a moment. I thought for certain that my ears were lost. His face convulsed and then he burst-into laughter. He slapped me on the shoulder so hard that I went over sideways.

”b.a.s.t.a.r.do, you are a man after my own black heart. Only a true rogue would have thought of such an outrageous lie. There is no doubt that someday you will come to a bad end. Eh, but the stories you will be able to tell before they hang you.”

”You will both end up making your last confession to a priest when you have a rope around your necks.” Don Julio had returned from threatening the indios with everlasting d.a.m.nation if they did not do better work. ”But in the meantime, I have an a.s.signment for both of you.”

Mateo looked crestfallen. ”You told me-”

”I told you that a very bad transgression against the king would be worked off if we caught that bandito Sancho. Do you see her in chains?”

”We saved a great treasure for the king.”