Page:Vagabond life in Mexico.djvu/43

Rh aside, ran down a neighboring lane. To my great surprise, the alcalde and the celadores, like men who dread a snare, instead of following him, ran off in quite an opposite direction. Almost at the same moment a hand was laid on my shoulder. I started and turned about. Perico and my host stood before me.

"That whistle sounds wonderfully like the call of my chum Navaja, when out on an expedition," cried the former, stooping to peer through the window, while the latter, with bleared eyes, his legs tottering like a man who had too conscientiously fulfilled his duties as master of the house, offered me a glass of liquor, that his shaky hand allowed to run over. Then, with the irritability peculiar to drunkards,

"One may say, señor," said he to me, "that you despise the society of poor people like us; you don't play, you don't drink; yet, in certain cases of conscience, gambling and brandy give great relief. Look at me now! To gratify my friends, I have eaten and drunk what I have and what I haven't: well, I am happy, although I don't possess a tlaco in the world; and, if you like, I will play with you for my child's body! It is a stake," continued he, in a confidential tone, "which is as good as another, for I can let it out, and well too, to some lover of a velorio."

"Play for the body of your child!" I cried.

"Why not? That is done every day. Every body hasn't the good fortune to have an angel aloft, and the body of this dear little one brings luck here."

I got rid, as well as I could, of the entreaties of this tender-hearted father, and cast my eyes once more into the street, but the approaches to the canal were now silent and deserted. I was not long, however, in discovering that this quiet, this solitude, were only