Part 42 (1/2)

”Let us go and see it,” said the old man, rising. ”Take us there.”

”Don't go!” cried Sister Pute, seizing him by the s.h.i.+rt.

”You'll get into trouble! He has hanged himself? Then all the worse for him!”

”Let me see it, wife! Go to the tribunal, Juan, and report it. Perhaps he is not dead yet.”

And he went ino[typo, should be into?] the orchard, followed by the servant, who kept hid behind him. The women and Sister Pute herself came along behind, full of terror and curiosity.

”There it is, Senor,” said the servant stopping him and pointing with her finger.

The group stopped at a respectful distance, allowing the old man to advance alone.

The body of a man, hanging from the limb of a santol tree, was swinging slowly in the breeze. The old man contemplated it for some time. He looked at the rigid feet, the arms, the stained clothing and the drooping head.

”We ought not to touch the corpse until some official has arrived,”

said he, in a loud voice. ”He is already stiff. He has been dead for some time.”

The women approached hesitatingly.

”It is the neighbor who lived in that little house; the one who arrived only two weeks ago. Look at the scar on his face.”

”Ave Maria!” exclaimed some of the women.

”Shall we pray for his soul?” asked a young girl as soon as she had finished looking at the dead body from all directions.

”You fool! You heretic!” Sister Pute scolded her. ”Don't you know what Father Damaso said? To pray for a d.a.m.ned person is to tempt G.o.d. He who commits suicide is irrevocably condemned. For this reason, he cannot be buried in a sacred place. I had begun to think that this man was going to have a bad ending. I never could guess what he lived on.”

”I saw him twice speaking with the sacristan mayor,” observed a girl.

”It couldn't have been to confess himself or to order a ma.s.s!”

The neighbors gathered together and a large circle surrounded the corpse which was still swinging. In half an hour some officers and two cuaderilleros arrived. They took the body down and put it in a wheelbarrow.

”Some people are in a hurry to die,” said one of the officers, laughing, while he took out the pen from behind his ear.

He asked some trifling questions; took the declaration of the servant, whom he tried to implicate, now looking at her with evil in his eyes, now threatening her and now attributing to her words which she did not say--so much so that the servant, believing that she was going to be taken to jail, began to weep and finished by declaring that she was looking for peas, but that ... and she called Teo to witness.

In the meantime, a peasant with a wide hat and a large plaster on his neck, was examining the body, and the rope by which it was hanging.

The face was no more livid than the rest of the body. Above the rope could be seen two scars and two small bruises. Where the rope had rubbed, there was no blood and the skin was white. The curious peasant examined closely the camisa and the pantaloons. He noted that they were full of dust and recently torn in some places. But what most attracted his attention were the ”stick-tights” [22] on his clothing, even up to his neck.

”What do you see?” asked the officer.

”I was trying to identify him, senor,” stammered the peasant, lowering his hat further from his uncovered head.