When the Owl Cries Part 42

"h.e.l.lo, Lucienne, what seems to be wrong?" asked the Baroness, curious that she had come to Petaca, aware of some kind of excitement.

Lucienne explained briefly and sat down with Gabriel on the veranda, out of the sun. Removing her glove, she said: "I'd like a drink.

Would someone get me a drink?"

Others had crowded round her and she had to repeat in detail the Refugio tragedy.

Father Gabriel put a drink in her hands.

"There, my dear."

"Thank you.... No, I didn't ride here alone.... No, Francisco wasn't disliked at the hacienda ... but of course...."

"Who knows what was behind the killings?" said the Baroness, in a harsh voice.

"We're all in grave danger," said de Selva.

"You can rely on us to help," said Cerro, behind Lucienne. "I'll inform General Matanzas."

"Yes, yes, do that," the Baroness said.

"Diaz has gone ... that's the reason for this situation," said Roberto, his calm words peculiarly distracting.

"If he hadn't left us ... if he had chosen a successor, there would be no rebellion," said Armand Guerrero.

"No, no ... it's revolution," said de Selva.

"We must protect ourselves," said someone.

"How do you fight hate?" asked Lucienne.

"With hate," said de Selva. "I've been telling you. It's coming.

It's here now. The new priest at Refugio is dead. Francisco Goya and his sons are dead. What more do you need to hear?"

Federicka Kolb and her cousin overheard de Selva, and Federicka began to sob, for she had known the Goyas for years.

"Why ... why?" she asked.

"The men who killed them cried _Down with the haciendas!_" said Lucienne.

Raul returned and said: "I have sent men to Refugio. I'll go there later myself."

Felipe Meson, an _hacendado_, in his fifties, st.u.r.dy, gray-headed, sunburned, with the face of a crippled hawk, gestured toward Raul.

"You're making a mistake at Petaca," he exclaimed. "You can't pacify the peons. You can't trust them. They'll kill you now."

"I haven't tried to pacify them," Raul explained. "I've tried to help them."

Everyone was crowded on the veranda, with servants going about, serving drinks and putting ice in gla.s.ses.

"How can one man help at such a time as this?" asked the Countess.

"I simply want to look after my people when they're sick, see to it they have enough to eat, stop floggings and killings. Could Matanzas know about Refugio?" Raul asked Captain Cerro.

"I'll see, when I ride back. We'll be leaving shortly," said Cerro.

"You'd better supply us with escorts," said de Selva.

Lucienne finished her drink, stood up, and arranged her hair and beret; pulling on a glove, she said: "Raul, you must take care of Petaca.

It's walled and you can post guards."

Raul did not reply: a question began in his brain: What about Palma Sola, wholly unprotected? What about de Selva's place, the Radziwill hacienda, the Meson house?

Shortly, luncheon was served in the garden, and they tried to talk of other things. Nothing seemed to go right, however; some of the food was missing, some of the drinks. The servants were confused and whispered among themselves. De Selva talked of fleeing to Mexico City, where he owned a house. "You should have had a town house, Raul." The Baroness mistrusted almost everyone at her hacienda, yet could not make up her mind to desert her property. Roberto and Dr. Velasco drank together. Lucienne, Gabriel and Raul ate at a small table under a chinaberry tree.

One by one, the families drove away, Raul seeing them off. The Count, coughing badly, leaned from his carriage window and told Raul how to defend Petaca. Roberto rode off on a magnificent black he had borrowed from a Colima friend.

Already mounted, Lucienne called goodbye: "I'll be with some of Captain Cerro's men. Be careful when you go to Refugio."

"I'll be careful. Will you stay in Colima until I can send men to help at Palma Sola?"

"Yes--Federicka has asked me to stay with her."

"Right. Stay with her. I'll see you there."

"All right, Raul."

Lucienne's horse backed away, swung around, and she waved.

Raul sent Vicente back to his Colima school in the rurales' care.

He did not get to go to Refugio, for that night Angelina returned on the train--her carriage rolled up to the house, accompanied by a guard of rurales. Greeting her calmly, Raul discovered that she was also calm, calm in an indrawn way, as if pain sucked at her, chilled her from deep within. Something dead shadowed her face. Something dead underlined her voice. She said she was ill, but this was more than the fatigue of travel. No one had told her about Refugio; that was easy to determine. She clung to his arm and asked him to have a snack with her, and yet she could eat very little. She sipped some brandy, her gaze on window, candles, door, servants, nothing for long.

He planned to tell her about Refugio in the morning, hoping she might sleep an undisturbed sleep. He would break the news as undramatically as possible.... Had something tragic happened to her in Guadalajara?

Certainly something had precipitated this long train trip--to the place she hated most.

It was not until Sunday that he learned the reason for her return. She did not confide in him. He found a partly finished letter on her desk; seeing it addressed to Maria, he read it, hoping for a clue to her state of mind.

Dated Sunday morning, it began:

"Dear Maria,

"I have come back to Petaca for a while because I have quarreled with Estelle, a bitter, bitter quarrel and all because she says I see a dog following me about. But I didn't, I don't see a dog. Why does she say that, Maria? I beg you to go and speak to her, for me. She has another friend right now, but surely she will listen to me. I want to make up with Estelle...."

Without reading any further, Raul knew what was happening to her. An icy sensation closed over his brain, a fear for her sanity, a fear he had never experienced before ... a fear tied in with a dog with bones of gla.s.s. What could he say to her? What could he do to help her?

Gabriel? Velasco? Maria? Perhaps Maria could care for her in Guadalajara. He would confide in Maria. He must get her away from Petaca, as soon as possible. But how? With trains running irregularly.

That Sunday was the longest day in his life. He could not eat. He went about shrouded in anguish. He tried to resolve problems of defense for the house. He tried to talk normally with Manuel, Gabriel, Salvador, Velasco, and Angelina. He tried to hide in his room, tried to hide in the garden. He tried to reinterpret Angelina's letter differently, calling his deduction an error.