THE TAMING OF CALINGA THE TAMING of CALINGA BY C. L. CARLSEN NEW YORK E. P. BUTTON & COMPANY 681 FIFTH AVENUE COPYRIGHT, 1916, BT E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY Printed in the United States of America TO MILTON NEWMARK A TRIBUTE TO A LOYAL FRIEND A I \ f^, i~k CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. THE SONG OF THE TRIBE ... * 1 II. THE TEST OF A MAN S VALOUR ... 20 III. HE WHO STRADDLED A WOODEN SWORD 26 IV. WHERE THE FIRE-TREE BLOOMS . . 37 V. BECAUSE THE COCK CREW THRICE . . 42 VI. THE SIGN OF THE GLORIOUS ONE . . 52 VII. ANOTHER OF THE GREAT PEOPLE . . 58 VIII. THE MAGIC OF THE GREEN DEVILS . . 68 IX. WHEN "PONY TAIL" REMEMBERED . . 77 X. THE WOMAN WITH THE SMOULDERING BRAND . . ... . . . 85 XL TETHERED BESIDE A NOISY BIRD . . 93 XII. THE GOD OF THE BLACK-ROBED ONE . 102 XIII. THE TROPHIES OF A THIEF . . .107 XIV. THE MARKS OF A CIVILISED MAN . . 112 XV. THE MYSTERIES IN MANY BONDS . . 120 XVI. THE WATCHERS BESIDE THE MYSTERIOUS TRAIL 131 XVII. THE SPIRIT VOICE OF Li CHOY SANG . 133 XVIII. IN THE EYES OF THE STRANGE FURAO . 147 XIX. THE FLIGHT OF THE COMELIEST MAID . 160 XX. THE AMUSEMENT OF A LUNATIC . . 162 XXL HE THAT KNEW 180 XXII. THE GHOST IN THE GRAVEYARD .."" . 190 XXIII. THE CUSTOMS OF CIVILISATION . . 202 XXIV. THE Kiss OF JUDAS . . . . . 221 XXV. THE ESCAPE FROM THE LAND OF EN CHANTMENT . .-,- 235 THE TAMING OF CALINGA THE TAMING OF CALINGA CHAPTER I The Song of the Tribe SOMETIMES the venturesome spirit of a child manifests itself in a whole people. At such a time the sons of a nation so af flicted reveal towards dangers formerly be lieved in and reverenced and feared, a defi ance born either of genius or of ignorance. The simultaneous appearance of that spirit among the sons of alien races, to each other unknown, might well suggest the machina tions of a god of Recklessness, of a god un kindly mischievous. If there be such a god, whether imp or ogre, he must have tittered gleefully as he followed the westward and southward voy ages of the Discoverers, even laughed up roariously when Magellan, departing from THE NAMING OF CALINGA the course of Columbus, rounded the Horn. In those voyages was much to amuse a god of Mischief. Far to the East, or far to the West, as suited the fanciful whim of each individual European sailor, lay a Land of Mysteries, of Rumors, of Wonders; and the slant-eyed, yellow-skinned sons of that Land were stir ring, were rousing themselves from the leth argy of centuries. They, too, ventured over the sea southward and eastward. And com ing upon an Island Empire, they conquered it in the names of Tao, and of Kwang Fu She or Confucius, and of 0-mi-to-fu, their adopted Indian god, Buddha; and made that country tributary to the Great King. Li Choy Sang, master of warfare, became Viceroy of the New Province, and thither transferred himself, his household, his fa vorite pocket idol of 0-mi-to-fu, and all the other gods of his conglomerate religion. Li Choy Sang proved himself skilful, both in battle and in administration. But, above all, he was tactful in reconciling his troops to THE SONG OF THE TRIBE 3 their long exile from the Holy Land, the Land of their birth. Himself filled with religious fervor, he was punctiliously careful to re turn to China for burial the bodies of all who died, that their souls might arise from holy ground, and ascend into the Lotus Heaven of 0-mi-to-fu, and not be bound by an unhal lowed shroud of earth to wander in the dark caverns of the Underworld. This faithful ness in conserving for the humblest soldier a chance to enter the Paradise of the Glorious God, removed the last cause for dissatisfac tion that his troops might have harbored. But, being a young man, Li Choy Sang longed for the excitement of active warfare. He despised the puny efforts of the Savages who occasionally resisted his expeditions or attacked his stronghold. Since the monot onous routine of such an existence as his palled upon him, he petitioned the Great King for a detail with less of honor in it and more of service. Now, if there be a god of Recklessness, and that god had whispered to Li Choy Sang just 4 THE TAMING OF CALINGA the hint that the son of a strange race, sailing a strange type of ship, had come upon this Island Empire of the Great King and had hailed it as Las Islas Filipinas, or the Philip pines, he would have been filled with resent ment. But with such a pleasing prospect of battle before him, he would have given his thoughts to planning a stern reception to the interloper rather than to a petition for transfer. As it was, the wonderful, weird ships of the intruder, Magellan, sweeping down the Bay, like spirit materializations from nothingness, surprised Li Choy Sang. Yet for all of their enormous bulk, he failed to appreciate the threat they implied, and perfunctorily almost, roused the Chinese garrison, their Savage allies, and formed his battle-line upon the sands of the shore. A cloud of smoke belched forth from the side of the foremost ship, floated upwards, and a thunderous crash of sound boomed across the Bay. Though the Savage allies fled, though the explosion betokened the noisi- THE SONG OF THE TEIBE 5 est bomb Li Choy Sang had ever heard, he laughed. Then he despatched a squad of his Chinese troops to the storehouse for a super fluity of fire-crackers and bamboo-bound bombs, with the defiant retort of which he would warn the insolent invaders that the soldiers of the Great King held the shore, not base Savages who would flee from mere noise. The strange ships sailed nearer. A bang ing clatter, like the crackle of a pack of ex ploding fire-crackers, floated from them. Afterwards, as though at command of a com mon signal, countless balls of smoke again puffed simultaneously from the sides of the boats, and unrolled themselves into a murky, heavy veil that hid the vessels from sight. The combined thunder deafened. Smiling at the childish faith of the invaders in so transparent an artifice, at their belief that a simple cloud of bomb smoke could de ceive the soldiers of the Great King into fear ing a magical manifestation of the power of 0-mi-to-fu, Li Choy Sang glanced down the 6 THE TAMING OF CALINGA line of his men. His expressive sneer flashed away. He shivered. Here the limp form of a man sprawled upon the ground. There an other groaned. Terror limned the yellow, slant-eyed faces of the veteran troops. Li Choy Sang hesitated. Foreboding warned him of some wizardry. He gripped his sword, strode to the nearest still form, rolled it over. His puzzled eyes stared at a red, stained gash inflicted by neither sword nor spear, by no weapon of which he knew. Again he faced the silent ships. From the smoke cloud shot peculiar small boats, each one loaded with men. Strange, pale human beings ! 1 1 Green Devils ! " a Chinese voice chattered. Fearing that their opponents were really supernatural fiends, the troops stirred un easily, but their chief steadied them. As one man, the individual invaders in the first boat crouched low. A voice snapped. A crack, like that of a bamboo-bound bomb, replied. Little puffs of smoke drifted up ward. More men sprawled on the ground. THE SONG OF THE TRIBE 7 "The Sticks at their shoulders hurl the Magic of the Green Devils, " a Chinese officer screamed in warning, and led the flight of Li Choy Sang s veteran troops. Not a command, nor sneer, nor threat, nor prayer of Li Choy Sang could stay the rout. So the Viceroy hurried away for his favorite idol of 0-mi-to-fu, the Glorious God who had never failed him and in whom he trusted for the inspiration that should rally the fright ened soldiers and lead them back to their duty, and to victory. The survivors of the garrison fled north ward, and Li Choy Sang followed them. Dur ing the many days of the hurried flight north ward and ever northward, and for months afterwards, Li Choy Sang pleaded with his men and promised them great rewards in the names of the Glorious God and of the Great King. Everything, even the prospect of burial in unhallowed ground, failed to over come their terrors. So when the craven cow ards took unto themselves women of the Sav ages and settled down to till the soil and to 8 THE TAMING OF CALINGA rear their offspring, Li Choy Sang, being a devout man and hoping once more to see the Holy Land of his birth, abandoned the survivors of his command to their ignomini ous shame, and traveled farther northward in search of that point of land which was separated from his native country by the least expanse of sea. Though Li Choy Sang s descendants never knew what happened to him, they surmised that his bones rotted in unhallowed ground afar from the sacred soil of China. Genera tion after generation of them speculated upon the awful nature of the impiety for which 0-mi-to-fu had doomed so pious and so illus trious a man to such a terrible fate. In order that their piety might atone for his sacrilege, they redoubled their worship of the Glorious God, while at the same time, in order that the restless, wandering soul of Li Choy Sang might be pleased with them and aid them rather than haunt them, they installed him as the favored deity among all their an cestors. THE SONG OF THE TEIBE 9 But such a mystery as Li Choy Bang s dis appearance might well be nothing more than an essential incident to the machinations of an impish god, of a patient ogre. So it happened that, as many generations afterwards as there are days from moon to moon, the Old Chief of the Tribe led his son and successor to the family burial ground at the top of a tribal hill. There, among the bones of their Ancestors, the old man told the Strong Young Chief the strangest Family Tradition that Mountain Savage ever heard : about the wonderful distinction of their descent from the god, Li Choy Sang, mighty as three men, strong as a carabao, faithful as a bolo; about 0-mi-to-fu, the Glorious God, and his Great People, who live in the Unknown Land, the Holy Land of the distant, mysterious West; about Green Devils, who carry Magic Sticks that stab from afar, like a spear, and boom with the voice of the Thun der s Wrath, and flash like the Lightning. From a secret crevice in a rock, he drew a little, ugly idol with many lines scratched 10 THE TAMING OF CALINGA on its base. Bowing again and again above the Clay Image of 0-mi-to-fu and pointing at the tracings, ^ jgr H SfcfM^ he sur - rendered the sacred token into the keeping of his son, with the words, By that Sign you shall know the Glorious God, and by their god you shall know the Great People. Seek ye the Holy Land of that People, and carry back to it the bones of your forefathers and my bones that my soul and the souls of all your Ancestors may escape from wan dering in the Dark Caverns of Hell and may enter the blissful Lotus Heaven of 0-mi-to-fu. But when your search takes you among the Valley People, despise not their effeminacy, but heed this, my warning: Beware the Magic of the Green Devils I" The Strong Young Chief pledged his Sav age Oath to fulfil his father s solemn in junction. It might have been a coincidence that the Old Chief told his son the Legend just when the young men and maids of the Tribe were so eagerly watching for the first bursting bud THE SONG OF THE TEIBE 11 of the Fire-Tree, signal of the mating season of the year. The Faithful, no matter by what name they called upon Omnipotence, would have said that God had willed it so, for al ready the Strong Young Chief was impa tiently waiting for the time when the glisten ing, brilliant, crimson canopy of the full blown flowers, shrouding branches and young leaves from view, should send out upon the Sacred Hunt for a human head those youths who would win the Trophy that marks Man s Estate and gives the Eight to claim a Mate. Though some who went forth would never return from the Kaid among the Valley Peo ple, the Strong Young Chief loved the Fire- Tree, loved the rich, warm glow of its blood- red tint. But more than the symbolic Fire-Tree, more even than the Custom of taking a human head and the Tribal Eite of presenting the Trophy of Valor to the Chosen Woman as proof of manly worth, the Strong Young Chief loved the Comeliest Maid of the Tribe, her whom the Old Chief had designated as 12 THE TAMING OF CALINGA the fittest mother for a man s descendants. Though the Strong Young Chief knew that the Comeliest Maid recognized in him her master and expected him to win her, he was troubled. He had a Rival. His father s tale intensified his anxiety to meet the Test. Not that he feared the out come, for he believed in his own skill with the bolo, believed in his own prowess. Rather, he longed to triumph over his enemy. Then the Fire-Tree bloomed. Ah, the fascination in the Fire-Tree ! The crimson Fire-Tree! When its ruddy, flashy glow blends into the blood-red glory of the twilight clouds burning upon the mountain- tips afar, blends into the tinted sky above! When its full-blown flowers warn the effemi nate Valley People of the Mountain Villages to stay in their shacks at night and to spend their time in courting and being courted; warn those who travel to avoid the quick, short trails at the base of the hills, to avoid especially the night hours, and what the darkness may bring! In spite of the threat THE SONG OF THE TEIBE 13 of the Fire-Tree, even the Valley People sense the appeal of its beauty, as a dumb brute might sense the appeal, because the Fire-Tree blooms in the mating season of the year! But for the Strong Young Chief, the fascination in the first glorious blossoms was different. They promised him the Come- liest Maid, and stirred his savage soul into an exaltation that was not carabao-like, nor dull, nor slow, nor docile, but boar-like, wild, resistless, triumphant. On the very day that the young men of the Tribe had planned to set out upon the Long Trail down into the Land of the effemi nate Valley People, the Old Chief died. In that circumstance, the Prosaic Eeasoner would have found evidence that an animal- like sense of impending death had prompted the Old Chief to speak when he had, and fur ther, because of this latter coincidence, such an one would have scoffed at the suspicion that a god of Eecklessness had foreordained it all in order that the delay incident to his father s burial might goad the Strong Young 14 THE TAMING OF CALINGA Chief into a wrathful, frenzied determination. With one exception, the young men had deferred their departure upon the Sacred Hunt for the Trophy of Valor, until the last savage honors should have been paid to the Old Chief. That exception aroused the son to anger. With such a handicap as the Rival Savage had taken, he might frighten the Valley People into a caution so unusual that no other youth could take a Trophy, might win the Comeliest Maid, might even lay more than a single Trophy at her feet. Squatted beside his father s grave, uncon, scious of the lengthening shadows cast by the tombs of his Ancestors, the Strong Young Chief brooded Once again his hand caressed his father s Trophies. To him they were not merely hard. louiid, white balls, for from them he visualized the beautiful features of the Comeliest Maid He desired her. "Excel your fellows, even as I excelled the young men of my generation and won the Choice of the maids of the Tribe to wife," the Old Chief had commanded. THE SONG OF THE TRIBE 15 And how that father s fame had lived! The Strong Young Chief had heard the crones of the Tribe recount the wonders of the Old Chief s return from the Sacred Hunt when the blossoms of the Fire-Tree were falling and all had given up hope. As a child, he had learned the chant with which the Tribe had honored his father s prow ess. And now, from some recess of mem ory, the words, unbidden, entered his con sciousness, first in fragments but finally in entirety. Slowly he hummed the weird, drawling, nasal chant, which, though it scarcely varied from a monotone, seemed nevertheless, in its rise to a single, forceful accent upon the next to the last syllable of each line, to rush along between climactic pauses. Caught in the spell of the rhythm, of its fierce, exultant, savage spirit, he forgot all fears. Surrender ing himself to a wild, exalted abandon of determination, he droned the words, striking the ground with his bolo as he pronounced each emphatic syllable. 16 THE TAMING OF CALINGA "Let the Tribe assemble To honor the Great Chief. Bring the maids that are fairest, The maids fit for wedlock With him that excelleth, And them fit for others When he hath chosen. "Summon the aged, The strong, and the children. Let the maids stand before him, Young men wait upon him. The Trophies he hath gathered Come from the Father of Waters, And many their number. "Hail! The Fire-Tree fadeth And the suitors are waiting. Think not of the fallen ones, The strong-limbed who left us When the Fire-Tree was crimson, And return not when the blooms have withered. Hail! Hail to the Great Chief! THE SONG OF THE TRIBE 17 "Like the wild boar that rageth, And through the jungle crasheth, He hath harried the valley Where the Great River floweth, And hath filled the far places With the noise of his journey, With terror of his glory. "Now we who have waited, Like deer near the lair, For the Stranger who wandered On the trails of the mountains, And have fled with the Trophy At the sound of strange voices, Must wait until he hath chosen. "Hail! Hail to the Great Chief! Silent, he advances, Holds forth his Trophies, He lingers, and pauses; At her feet, he hath laid them, His Trophies of Valor. Hail the Maid he hath chosen !" 18 THE TAMING OF CALINGA Seeing in imagination another scene like it but with himself as the dominant, honored hero, the Strong Young Chief chanted the words again and again, chanted them until the sharp, distant wail of a carabao startled him. He glanced up. The twilight hour had faded, and his long war-bolo, a bar of polished silver in the darkness, flashed a reflected ray of moonlight into his eyes. Still athrill with emotion, he picked up the Image of 0-mi- to-fu and set it upon his knee. Unconsciously, he stared at the Glorious God. "Seek the Great People, and their Glorious God, among the Valley People towards the Eising Sun," he seemed to hear the Old Chief s Ghostly Voice command. Standing amongst the tombs and the Tro phies of his Ancestors, the Strong Young Chief turned his back to the Couch of the Sleeping Sun, and stared at the barrier of trees and shrubs and stringers below, through which only the mysterious Long Trail led. Perhaps the restless, wandering, unhappy THE SONG OF THE TRIBE 19 soul of Li Choy Sang charmed the vacant, distant intensity into the young man s eyes, charmed the silver lane of light through the jungle, so that the Strong Young Chief could look out over the shadowy Land of the Valley People, even down to the Great Eiver, Father of Waters. Why not seek the Great People, and in seeking, gather many Trophies from far places beyond the Father of Waters? Without a single word of farewell to the Comeliest Maid, the Strong Young Chief loped down the mysterious Long Trail, plunged into the Jungle. CHAPTER n The Test of a Man s Valor SCATTERED here and there along the roads in the Land of the Valley People, are thick jungles of guava brush. Only when necessary are the roads cut through the im penetrable shrubbery. Nevertheless, at ir regular intervals, there are trails into the depths of all such jungles, knee-high, tun nel-like passage-ways, the beaten paths of giant-lizards or of other Wild Things. Be cause the very iguana which had first crashed its way along such a trail might dash, faster than a pony could trot, in fear-inspired flight upon an intruder, no Valley Man ever ex plored those paths. But for the Strong Young Chief, skilled in Jungle Knowledge and in meeting Wild Things with his bolo in hand, the rushing charge of a frightened iguana had no terrors; while on the other hand, the 20 TEST OF A MAN S VALOR 21 Old Chief s dying injunction, "Beware the Magic of the Green Devils. Let Sleep, and the Night, and thy Bolo-skill be a snare to the unwary/ warned against the danger of meeting the Valley People in the Open and by day. The Strong Young Chief, overtaken by dawn, crawled so skilfully into the depths of such a jungle that no chance inspector of the entrance to the passage-way he had fol lowed would have surmised what sort of Wild Thing slept within the brush. The declining sun, sinking into line with a small opening in the shrubbery and the sleeper s eyes, finally aroused the Strong Young Chief, as he had planned that it should. He listened intently for any sound that might portend a danger. Hearing nothing but the drone of insects, he crouched in his lair, and examined his single Trophy, while he awaited the safe night hours. Now that he saw it by daylight, something about that yellow-skinned, slant-eyed Trophy challenged the Strong Young Chief, almost flaunted him. Instinctively, he recognized 22 THE TAMING OF CALINGA some flaw in his Trophy, although at first he could not tell what it was that chilled his satisfaction, his assurance. The nose, flat tened as though by a blow from the broad side of a bolo, and the Pony Tail on the head, certainly gave his Trophy a unique distinc tion, for no other had ever brought back such a head! But He glanced at the neck. The scrawny neck! A single stroke of his bolo had severed it. That neck was the chal lenge. Would not the Comeliest Maid feel, as instinctively as had he, that such a Trophy was an insufficient Test of Valor? Would the distinction of the Pony Tail and flat nose, though discounted by the scrawny neck, out weigh the merits of other Trophies ? And what if the Eival Savage should return with more than a single Trophy? The Strong Young Chief tossed his own Trophy aside, and glowered at it. Arising, he crept to the little aperture in the leaves through which the last of the sun light flickered into his temporary lair. Not even a crackle responded to the lover-like, TEST OF A MAN S VALOE 23 soft caress of his bare feet upon the earth and the twigs. Gently he worked his dark head in among the leaves, as though he would nestle it there, and his cautious, wary, intent, black-brown eyes sought a view of the outer world. The Image tied to one fringed end of his gaudy colored loin-cloth rapped against the stalk of a bush. With the startled halt of the Savage head, even the rustling of the leaves ceased, as though the wind were stilled. Poised, lithe, his hand gripping the handle of his bolo, his bare, brown skin out lining long, corded muscles tensed to meet any emergency, he waited for whatever an swering sound might threaten. Only the listless tread of laborers, passing along the road between the neighboring town and fields, replied. His free hand lifted the Image up against his body, his head moved for ward, and the leaves again rustled with those that the breeze stirred. And then he stood, motionless, while his eyes peered out towards the storm-ridden peaks of his mountain home. Last of the field-laborers, the Town 24 THE TAMING OF CALINGA Dawdler loitered along the road and admired the sparkling flashes of lightning that streaked the distant clouds, admired the night shadows that crowded upon the short twi light hour. The boar-like neck of that Valley Man, more massive than any a Savage had ever seen, fascinated the Strong Young Chief. His covetous, cool, gleaming eyes measured it in accurate terms. The total of four swing ing, powerful strokes of a bolo would be a task for an Artist. But the Strong Young Chief knew that he was an Artist, for the Old Chief had said it. The Loiterer lifted his eyes from a Fire- Tree to the bright Star that dominated the fading sky. Filled with a strange, reckless, daring dis regard of the Magic of the Green Devils, the Strong Young Chief plunged into a tunnel. An hour later he hid two Trophies in his mountain lair to await there his return from his dashing raid beyond the Great Eiver. The following morning found him hidden in TEST OF A MAN S VALOR 25 a clump of brush on the bank of the Cagayan Eiver. Because neither town nor shack was near, no carabao lunged down to the water s edge. And because the surrounding fields were bare, untilled, barren, no intruder dis turbed the restless, wary slumber of the hidden Savage. CHAPTER HI He Who Straddled a Wooden Sword SE&OR CALIMAG, Presidente of Badi, had heard of Li Choy Sang, the last Chinese Viceroy of the Philippines. So had every Filipino who could boast that he had been educated in Hong Kong. But Seiior Calimag had a greater interest in that illus trious Celestial than had most of his country men, for Ah Ching, leader of the local Chino faction and Seiior Calimag s shrewdest op ponent, claimed descent from Li Choy Sang. To that Ancestor, whom Ah Ching so de voutly worshiped, Seiior Calimag credited much of Ah Ching s ingenuity in escaping such penalties as the leader of the dominant town faction usually imposed upon the leader of another faction so despised and so small as the Chinos. Senor Calimag always resented Ah Ching s 26 HE WHO STRADDLED A SWORD 27 activities. When that Celestial, taking ad vantage of the absence of those Cagayannes who alone of the inhabitants of Badi had ac cepted Padre Antonio s invitation to the great fiesta in Mapia, ordered the Chinos to desert their own candidate for the office of presi- dente and to vote for Senor Guarrin, the Ilo- cano leader, Senor Calimag was terrified by the consequences that could follow the Ilo- cano s success. But since the Municipal Police saw to it that Senor Calimag was re- elected, with a majority of three votes, he felt it safe to become enraged at the sur prise his two opponents had sprung in the election. So intense was his anger that he forgot all finesse, and according to the well- known custom, ordered that both Senor Guar rin and Ah Ching be publicly flogged. Ah Ching, in particular, provided a great spectacle, an amusing spectacle that certainly delighted the people. With his queue tied to the tail of the Municipality s Brown Pony, and himself thumping upon the ground as that spirited animal pranced and jumped in 28 THE TAMING OF CALINGA fright, he proved a humorous illustration of what vengeance ought to be. Forever after wards, the Chino was doomed to be an object of ridicule. And the skill with which El Sargento applied the lash insured the Chino s future docility. Senor Calimag rubbed his hands together and smiled. Just then the door opened and admitted the puffing, corpulent Senor Gumila, faction lieutenant to Senor Calimag. Senor Gumila mopped his face with his red bandana, spat his chew of buja on the floor, and glared at his master. "El Sargento, whose querida serves in Senor Guarrin s household, reports that Senor Guarrin and Ah Ching are preparing their cascos for a trip down the river to the Coast, whence they proceed by steamer to Ma nila, where they will lodge a Complaint with the Spanish Government against Senor Presi- dente Don Miguel Calimag of Badi," he snapped. Senor Calimag threw out his shrunken chest, thus changing the curve of his shoul- HE WHO STRADDLED A SWORD 29 ders from the habitual spherical to the hyper bolical, hitched up his abbreviated white trousers, marched pompously into the far ther recesses of the room, and swore. As second thought reassured him, the shrill rasp of his voice in reply was normal; but his bony, long-nailed fingers twitched with rhythmic regularity. "It does not matter, " he asserted. Senor Gumila shrugged his shoulders. "Possibly," he conceded, "but Ah Ching thinks it strange that all the votes of the town were cast, since sixty of your supporters were in Mapia with Padre Antonio, the Ilo- cano. Perhaps " "The devil!" Senor Calimag s rasping voice shrilled. "The insolence! The devil! I ll teach the Chino pig!" Rage mastered Senor Calimag, overpow ered him, and he sank into a chair. Senor Gumila gloated over his leader s mental squirmings. His eyes narrowed to pudgy, cruel slits. "Ah Ching is no hard-head," he taunted; 30 THE TAMING OF CALINGA "Ah Ching hired the boats on which Padre Antonio took your followers to Mapia. * He shrugged his shoulders again. "But I warned you against flogging the Chino for it 11 Ujjin, Senor Calimag s favorite fighting- cock, crowed. The master snatched a slipper from his foot and hurled it at the bird. "Am I to lose my siestas because of the schemes and senseless plots of a pack of Chinos V 9 he snapped. "The centipede stings the bare foot that crushes it. Better to wear a slipper, " Senor G\umila hinted. "At least, we must also travel to Manila, to forestall Senor Guarrin. Senor Calimag snarled an oath. Perhaps if he had ever heard of the Family Tradition of a certain Mountain Savage, he would have regretted still more that he had ordered the flogging of Ah Ching. Perhaps, even, he would have been filled with greater fore bodings. With the light tread of a Mountain Sav- HE WHO STEADDLED A SWOED 31 age, with such a stealth as is permitted by bare feet that fall as noiselessly as though set on cushions, a Strange Figure glided into the room. Ki-yi-yah-ah-ah, " the Creature yelled, a wild, exultant, full-throated, rolling cry that rose through the tones of a major chord to a piercing "Ah" and dropped back a major third on the final syllable. Senor Calimag recoiled; his chair slid fully a foot across the floor. To make the sign of the Cross, to gurgle a rasping "Jesu!" proved beyond his powers of simul taneous accomplishment ; he could only choke and tremble. Although startled, Senor Gumila preserved his dignity; with a mere glance over his shoulder, he crossed himself. Earthy trousers with slashed ends hang ing in a fringe about strong, wiry muscles; a coat of old, soiled sacking with a large, yellow calico cross upon the breast; and a tattered Spanish army-cap, worn visor to the rear, through two rents of which protruded 32 THE TAMING OF CALINGA tufts of black hair twisted into the shape of horns: identified El Lunatico. Under his arm he carried his toy-bolo, a long, flat, broad, thick ebony-wood stick fashioned into the form of a sword, pointed at one end and deco rated at the other with a handle the magnifi cent carving of which would have honored a war-bolo. El Lunatico s roving, limpid brown eyes wandered from one to the other of the two men. Something about Seiior Calimag pleased him, and he crept towards that agi tated gentleman. Suddenly his empty laugh ter rang out, and throwing back his head, he yelled, Ki-yi-yah-ah-ah. The cry thus repeated seemed to jar Senor Calimag out of his benumbed terror. Curs ing vigorously, resentfully, he clambered to his feet. "Scat," he commanded. El Lunatico leered at him, drew his wooden sword, and with the correct military flourish, saluted. Expectantly, he waited for the proper answering courtesy the sign of the HE WHO STEADDLED A SWOED 33 Cross. Senor Gumila gave it, but Senor Cali mag only shivered, and sidled behind Senor Gumila s corpulent bulk. El Lunatico stamped his foot, and jabbered insistently at the delinquent. There were times when Senor Calimag, roused to an exceptional frenzy by some un toward intrusion of El Lunatico, forgot that awe of the Almighty s Power usually in spired in him by the sight of the "Accursed of God," forgot that the one so afflicted for his sins enjoys God s Protection. At such times, his carefully concealed resentment at the prerogatives accorded the "Accursed One" flared forth in some rash, retaliatory manifestation of his anger. But this was not such a time. Senor Calimag quailed be fore the stare in El Lunatico s limpid brown eyes, and shrank into a smaller compass be hind his bulky refuge. Again El Lunatico saluted. This time both Senor Calimag and Senor Gumila crossed themselves. The Accursed One laughed his pleased approval, danced excitedly about 34 THE TAMING OF CALINGA Seiior Calimag, and began to chatter, "Flog Ah Ching and Ah Ching plots. Flog Ah Ching and Ah. Ching plots. " Senor Calimag shuddered, but Seiior Gumila, barely glancing in triumph at his leader, soothed the Irresponsible One. "There, there, Pedro, " said he. "Bun along now and play soldier with the chil dren. We must work." "Flog Ah Ching and Ah Ching plots," El Lunatico chattered on. How long Senor Calimag could have en dured the torture of the Accursed One s per sistent attention, is a question. A diversion saved him from an utter collapse. Attracted by the disturbance, his eldest ignorante con cubine entered the room. Though her young- old, haggish face still revealed traces of the beauty which, such a few years ago, had cap tivated her master, her wrinkles and plead ing eyes could now charm none but the luna tic. At a word from her, at sight of her, El Lunatico forgot his senseless chatter. In HE WHO STEADDLED A SWOED 35 obedience to her command, he straddled his toy-sword and galloped out of the room. Senor Calimag fought for self-control. He turned to his lieutenant and dependent. "Perhaps you who are not nervous and have no aversion for El Lunatico could en tice him to favor your home instead of mine?" he pleaded. "I have been a good friend." Senor Gumila pondered mightily upon the request. He wrinkled his brow, while he narrowly studied his benefactor. "Strange how the Accursed One is fasci nated by him whom God saved from ven geance and death in the Afflicted One s last sane moment 1" he meditated, half -aloud. " Perhaps God reminds El Lunatico to punish him." Senor Calimag swore vigorously, but his oaths came from between chattering teeth. Though at first Senor Gumila shook his head dubiously, he smiled an assent, when the expectant light faded from his master s eyes. Yet something about that smile, a teasing 36 THE TAMING OF CALINGA smile that suggested so many things, discon certed Senor Calimag. Senor Gumila shrugged his shoulders. "Perhaps," he reasoned, "El Lunatico might be willing to come. Who knows?" He paused to laugh at Senor Calimag s eager ness. "Perhaps, if I had an attraction at my home " Senor Calimag swore, and threatened, and raged, until Senor Gumila s often repeated reminders recalled the angry man s thoughts to the urgent need of preparing at once for the long journey to Manila. Next morning, Senor Calimag and his indispensable travel ing companion, the Champion Gamester, Ujjin, together with Senor Gumila and a majority of the Municipal Police, took pos session of Ah Ching s casco, making the Chino a prisoner on his own boat, lest he create trouble during their absence from Badi. CHAPTER IV Where the Fire-Tree Blooms ANOTHER twilight hour drew near. Once more, the Strong Young Chief ventured forth from the security of a day time retreat, and reconnoitred. No living thing stirred, not even a lizard, but far to the South two specks on the surface of the Ca- gayan drifted toward him. Crouched low and poised on his toes, the twilight blending his brown-skinned, muscular figure with the clay of the earth and the brush behind him, one sinewy hand clasping the handle of the bolo stuck in the ground before him, his cheek nestled against the blade, a powerful fore arm resting on his knee, a hand holding the Image, he watched the spots approach. Sometimes he glanced at the Image, or care fully surveyed the Mark upon its base that he might fix in his memory the Sign of the Great People. 37 38 THE TAMING OF CALINGA The specks, growing larger, took the defi nite form of cascos, two boats that raced along as though each strove to outdistance the other. The Strong Young Chief was an in terested spectator of their contest. If he had been a man of the Valley People, he would have wondered why the crews rowed so strenuously when they could have drifted with the swiftly rushing current of the river. As it was, he counted the possible Trophies on each boat, and estimated the dimensions of the necks that such laborers would pos sess. One casco swept past. Later, a crunch ing thud below announced that the other had made a landing to tie up for the night. The Strong Young Chief promptly slipped back into the gloom of his daylight lair. But shortly, gaining assurance from the fact that none of the passengers labored up the steep incline of the winter rivulet nor sought to work the boat-cramp out of their limbs in a parade upon the bank, he risked the noise incident to parting the brush before him and crept to a vantage point at the edge of the WHERE FIRE-TREE BLOOMS 39 bank. The interlaced bamboo wickerwork covering of the boat forty feet below him shut off his view of the occupants. Through the little, central, side openings from which the flaps had been lifted, filtered the dim, yel low, smoky glare of oil torches, shafts of light so feeble that they scarcely pierced the black ness of night beyond the bamboo walkways along the sides of the boat. Now and then the Strong Young Chief caught a glimpse of a stooping figure, just a silhouette in the light, passing through an opening. At last no figures moved. But the oil- wick still burned, and the splash of water thrown at regular intervals of time from one open ing betokened wakefulness. Wakefulness carried a threat of the Magic of the Green Devils. So the Strong Young Chief watched and waited, with savage patience, for sleep and the soporific hour of the night to ensnare the defensive powers of every occupant of the boat. But when an exceedingly long period of inactivity on the part of the water-bailer and guard had reconciled the Strong Young 40 THE TAMING OF CALINGA Chief to daring the puny light, when only a few snores sounded in the silence, when he had stolen to the edge of the winter-rivulet that splash of water, a querulous voice, the slushy thud of a foot planted on clay mud, halted him. ^he Magic of the Green Devils might be threatening! He trembled. The awkward, uncertain scraping of climbing feet upon the harder clay of the rivulet s bed re assured him. Poised to spring if need be, every muscle tensed and ready to play its part, a triumphant gleam in his eyes, he clasped the handle of his bolo in both hands and threw it far back over his shoulder. Senor Guarrin stubbed his toe. The stiff, cramped condition of his muscles multiplied the pain. He paused long enough in his puff ing climb to the bank above to curse Senor Calimag s tyrannous conduct in Badi, paused long enough to swear at such a bed of rice- sacks as a riverman would have considered luxurious and at all the other discomforts of river travel. Noting that he had reached a more gradual incline in the ascent, he re- WHERE FIRE-TREE BLOOMS 41 sumed Ms awkward effort to attain the level ground above. Though Senor Guarrin had observed that the blossoms of the Fire-Tree burned crim son along the shores, he gave no thought to Head-Hunters, nor did the clump of brush ahead disturb him, for only once had a Savage dared to approach the Great River, and none had ever been known to cross it. As Senor Guarrin did not suspect that the son of that Single Exception was on the Sacred Hunt, he did not hesitate again. A swish ! Then the thud of a body falling prone upon the ground ! No observer could have described the scene j the time was that hour before the dawn in which darkness rules the night and the human eye is dull. With his new trophy, the Strong Young Chief fled northward down the river in pur suit of the other casco. CHAPTER V Because the Cock Crew Thrice SEftOR CALIMAG personally aroused the crew of his casco, urged them to hurry the preparation of their morning meal, even condescended to aid them by building a fire in the clay firebox while they gathered a sup ply of fuel. Senor Calimag did not propose to lose any advantage he had gained over Senor Guarrin in the race to Manila, espe cially when the river was falling and the loss of an hour might make the difference between drifting over the Upper Bar and the neces sity of spending hours in passing that ob struction. On the other hand, the crew were Ah Ching s men, and they could see no reason for such unseemly haste as their employer s enemy urged. It was bad enough to be roused before a hint of daylight tinged the eastern sky. They loitered. 42 BECAUSE THE COCK CREW 43 El Sargento, reconnoitring from the bank above, discerned a cluster of shacks at some distance from the river. Such a barrio sug gested the possibility of increasing the boat s larder of begung and rice by the addition of chickens. But chickens sometimes squawk, and thus arouse their owner in time for him to make a determined effort at rescue. El Sargento returned to the casco for his weight ed deer-thong, a strong cord with a heavy ball at either end, a harmless weapon, yet most effective in subduing recalcitrant owners and in silencing their protests. Returning with his spoils a half hour later, El Sargento was surprised to find that a squatty bush had grown, during his absence, upon the very brink of the bank. He halted and stared at it. In a measure, the discov ery gave him a sensation of creepy thrills. If he had not surmised at once that it was Senor Guarrin s spy crouched there, and leaning forward to listen, the sudden appari tion, merely a dark object against the faint trace of morning light, would have terrified 44 THE TAMING OF CALINGA him. As it was, El Sargento proposed to surprise the intruder, to frighten him, to punish him, to teach him a lesson. Very quietly, lest any slight noise give warning, he deposited the dead chickens on the ground. Grasping one iron ball in his hands and whirl ing the other above his head until it had at tained a momentum sufficient to entangle the interloper in the deer-thong, El Sargento aimed, released the weapon, and it shot through the air. The thong, catching the ill-balanced Strong Young Chief across the shoulders, toppled him over the bank. He crashed through the bamboo covering of the casco, and, stunned by the fall, sprawled at Senor Calimag s feet. Beside him, his blood-stained bolo clattered and jumped on the bamboo slats like a living thing. " Mercy, Jesu, mercy! Santa Maria y Josep! Such a f right !" Senor Calimag screamed, and crossing himself, sprang back from the petrified, mocking grin of horror upon the face of Senor Guarrin s head, BECAUSE THE COCK CREW 45 sprang far back into the casco s inner re cesses, which had been reserved for the pris oner, Ah Ching. Stumbling over the Chino, Senor Calimag cowered where he fell. The quiet Celestial puffed unconcernedly at his queer pipe, as though oblivious of the commotion, of the head of his ally, or of the powerful, sprawled figure of the Savage. In his first fright, the corpulent Senor Gumila squatted in a heap upon the floor. But he promptly clambered to his feet, reached for the bolo, and with scarcely a glance of admiration for the beautiful weapon, hurled it far into the night, to splash and to sink into the bosom of the Father of Waters. "It is well to dispose of that danger first," he chattered. Since the clamor suggested to Ujjin the turmoil about a combat in the cock-pit, he crowed a lusty, exultant challenge at the disturber. Before turning upon the huddled Policia and boatmen, Senor Gumila cuffed the offi- 46 THE TAMING OF CALINGA cious fowl, an attention that did not mend matters with the noisy, refractions gamester. "Bind the Head-Hunter. Quick, you hard heads before he revives," Senor Gumila commanded. The Strong Young Chief stirred, and opened his eyes. Defiance and hate lit them. Glaring at the braver spirits advancing to do Senor Gumila *s bidding, he reached for his bolo, but finding that weapon gone, he crouched warily. Then, when he located the black of the night, he gave one piercing, contemptuous, exultant yell, and sprang for escape. The impact of his massive physique indented the mob, even toppled some of the men into the river. But the very number of living units, their fear-inspired resistance, threw the attacker back, as though by the recoil of a spring. Senor Gumila skilfully tripped the Savage, throwing him head fore most into the earthen fire-box and rendering him unconscious. When the trembling Police had bound the Head-Hunter and the immediate danger was BECAUSE THE COCK CKEW 47 passed, Senor Gumila also found time to cross himself as Senor Calimag had done at the very first, found time to mutter, "Jesu, Santa Maria y Josep!" To steady their nerves before proceeding with a close examination of the Savage, every one took a drink of bino. Even then, with the exception of Senor Gumila, the spectators kept well away from the powerful, prostrate body of the Head-Hunter. But when one after another reached out a bare foot and poked at the limp Savage, El Sargento hap pened to discover the ugly Image of 0-mi- to-fu. Senor Gumila promptly picked it up. As though some vital connection between the Lump of Clay and the unconscious owner warned the Strong Young Chief of the dese cration of the Glorious God, he sat up. When he saw the idol in Senor Gumila s hand, he snarled. His legs bending at the knees and working back and forth with the regular sweep of piston-rods, his head rolling from side to side and his jaws snapping, yelling ferociously, the Head-Hunter threw himself 48 THE TAMING OF CALINGA about the floor, a wriggling, squirming, thong- bound mass that hurled the spectators hither and thither in surprised heaps. Incidentally, he sank his teeth into the leg of the careless El Sargento. But as soon as Seiior Gumila, muttering, Jesu ! The devil ! It s a maniac, dropped the Image, crossed himself, and stepped back to admire the spectacle, the Strong Young Chief laid quiet again, exhausted and panting. El Sargento, holding his injured limb and hopping about, suggested, "A flogging to the death would be a fit way to destroy the Savage." Seiior Gumila shook his head in denial. But the idea appealed to Seiior Calimag, who could think of no punishment more suit able for the fright he had suffered, for the spectacle he had made of himself. Besides, he dared to disagree with the judgment of his adviser, though others might not. "Jesu! Why not?" he quavered. Pointing at the forgotten head and speak- BECAUSE THE COCK CEEW 49 ing in a solemn voice, Senor Gumila an swered, "The Instrument of God! We need not proceed to Manila, nor face a Spanish investigation. " At the mere thought of that terrible pros pect, Seiior Calimag cowered. But that dan ger was passed. He glanced at the Head- Hunter. The Strong Young Chief was testing his bonds. Finding that they held him helpless, like a deer ensnared in thongs, he began to realize his real predicament. He, too, glanced about, glanced into Senor Calimag s specu lative eyes. Then he howled, an awful, sav age, vindictive yell of despair. Senor Calimag and every other Filipino on the boat recoiled. Only the impassive Ah Ching was deaf to the threat in that cry. Ujjin arched his neck, blinked saucily, and answered the defiant challenge with as bold an one. Senor Calimag shrugged his shoulders, shook his head. 50 THE TAMING OF CALINGA "The Instrument s work is done. Guard ing it will be a nuisance, he decided. But when Ujjin crowed again and re ceived a cuff from his master Senor Gumila started, and crossed himself. "The Cock crowed thrice, " he warned. "God grants His Protection to El Lunatico, to him whom He hath humbled with His Curse. Is the Instrument of God less than the Accursed of God?" As the omen, the three challenges just be fore the dawn, impressed Senor Calimag, the enthusiasm in his vindictive resentment waned, although he was not convinced. "The Cock crowed thrice," Senor Gumila repeated, and crossed himself again. Senor Calimag s meditative eyes studied the Savage. He shivered. "I will assume the responsibility," Senor Gumila offered. "The Instrument of God may some time be useful in dealing with a man s enemies," he added, as a persuasive afterthought. "Jesul" Senor Calimag exclaimed. "That BECAUSE THE COCK CREW 51 is true ! I myself will keep the Instrument of God, and civilize him." Then he, too, crossed himself. Ujjin hurled a defiant challenge to the de parting night, and retired to his roost within the shadows at the utmost limit of his tether. After a time the crew slept again, and all was quiet, except for the calculating, hard breathing of the fettered Savage, and the lazy puffing of the impassive Ah Ghing. CHAPTEE VI The Sign of the Glorious One LATE the following night a faint, pecul iar, unfamiliar odor assailed the Strong Young Chief s sensitive nostrils and brought his attention back to his surround ings. Then his ears distinguished a nasal, droning jabber. While El Sargento, his guard, slept, he worked himself into a sitting posture, and watched Ah Ching with fasci nated interest. The Strong Young Chief knew where was hidden a Trophy with a Pony s Tail. The Owner had been head and shoulders shorter than the Jabbering One, thinner like the bamboo, and had worn the loin-cloth instead of the flowing robes. But the same big ears, the forked eyes, the hollow cheeks, distin guished the captured Trophy. And a blow, as of the broad side of a bolo had flattened 52 SIGN OF THE GLOEIOUS ONE 53 the nose. The Strong Young Chief wondered if it were the Custom of the People with the Pony s Tail to strike flat the noses of the new born. One sweep of the bolo had been suf ficient to take the Hidden Head. He meas ured the neck of the Jabbering One. It fell short of that of the Trophy with the Carabao Neck by a single stroke of the bolo. Three sweeps would sever it artistically. Stretched to his full height, head uplifted, arms extended against the bamboo covering, sleeves piled upon his shoulders, Ah Ching kneeled. Beside him, four smouldering sticks wafted upward little cylinders of smoke that curled like the lash of the bejuco. The strange, kneeling figure crossed his bare arms upon his chest, and began to swing up and down, and to tap his forehead upon the slats with the regularity of a wood pecker, jabbering monotonously meanwhile. It was then that the Strong Young Chief noticed, between more smoldering sticks, an Image. Something about It held his strain- 54 THE TAMING OF CALINGA ing eyes. And slowly he distinguished the Mark. His joyful shout startled the silence, fright ened Ah Ching from his devotions, and aroused the casco to a frenzied, anxious ex citement. Ujjin crowed a protest, Senor Calimag cuffed El Sargento for sleeping, and the Policia, gesticulating wildly, chattering, gath ered ahout the Savage. Cautiously, prepared to dodge any sudden attack, they approached. But the Strong Young Chief had much to consider, a strange Trophy to ponder about, perhaps a sin against the Glorious God to repent of, and so he offered the men no re sistance, but, a docile Savage, permitted them to roll him upon his back. Stolidly smoking, eyes blinking, Ah Ching squatted in solitary state and ignored the Head-Hunter s every effort to attract the at tention of One of the Great People. But when exhaustion finally overcame the Savage, and he slept, Ah Ching finished his devotions. In the morning the Instrument of God SIGN OF THE GLORIOUS ONE 55 found himself free of thongs but wearing an iron ankle-ring fastened to a chain. He neg lected the food that the bugadores shoved to him at the end of bamboo poles, and started to crawl to the inner recesses of the casco, whither Ah Ching had retreated with his pos sessions. But the chain halted him halfway. Ah Ching, smoking in lonely dignity, ignored the captive s gestures and signs as he ignored the fascinated eyes of the curious faces peer ing into the casco. The Strong Young Chief squatted, and stared at One of the Great Peo ple. He wondered if his failure to win atten tion were a punishment for taking that Head with the Pony s Tail. On the other hand, the indifference of the Jabbering One might arise from inability to understand the peti tioner. The Strong Young Chief knew how the latter difficulty might be removed; the Universal Language of the Jungle had often served him as a means of communication with the members of alien Mountain Tribes. He unfastened from the tasseled end of his loin-cloth the Image of the Glorious God, 56 THE TAMING OF CALINGA and set it exactly where he had seen the other one the night before. Jabbering not that the chanted syllables conveyed the thought of sensible speech, but in imitation of him from whom he beseeched recognition and aid move for move, he repeated whatever he could remember of the queer antics that had accompanied Pony Tail s worship of the Glorious God, even to tapping the floor with his injured forehead. Ah Ching forgot to puff, his pipe went out, and he, in turn, stared. "When a careful scrutiny of the Mass of Clay had satisfied him that it was an old, old Image of 0-mi- to-fu, he understood that the Head-Hunter meant to plead for friendship. For the sake of that member of his race who, centuries before, had become lost in the wilds and whose bones rotted far from the Sacred Soil of China, he gave the Savage portions of his rice, of his fish, of his tea, and of his chop sticks. In the bowl of tea given by the Yellow Man to the Brown, the Strong Young Chief dis- SIGN OF THE GLORIOUS ONE 57 covered the Pledge of Faith. Believing that he had found the One who would tell him the Way to the Holy Land, he chattered his joy and his tale to the alien ear of the silent, impassive Ah Ching, who smoked uncon cernedly, and blinked his eyes, and pondered. CHAPTER VII Another of the Great People THE rumor that Senor Calimag s casco was returning with a Head-Hunter who, because he was the Instrument of God, had God s Protection, like El Lunatico, the Accursed of God, filled the inhabitants of Badi with awe and with wonder. Perhaps they, doubting the possibility of civilizing such a Savage, shivered at the thought of having him constantly in their midst. Perhaps they would have objected, had they dared oppose the Will of God as revealed by the Divine Judgment upon Senor Guarrin. Some, at least, of the unfortunate man s adherents re sented the interpretation that had been put upon the untoward accident. Senor Padre Antonio was one of these. But such realized that caution dictated a policy of silence and delay. 58 ANOTHER OP THE GREAT PEOPLE 59 Despite fears, or shivers, or resentments, the fascination in the explanation advanced by Senor Calimag s "faction" attracted all but the immediate relatives of Senor Guarrin to the landing to see the famous Savage. The impressive, cautious preparations to land the captive, in no respect disappointing expectations, sent a delicious thrill through the spectators. With the chain from his ankle-ring fastened to a bamboo pole carried in the hands of five men, with the long steel spikes of as many river-poles manipulated by a second file of boatmen centred upon the vital spot in his back, the tasseled ends of his loin-cloth whipped by the wind, the Head- Hunter glared at the assemblage. His wild eyes seemed to pause upon, to measure, every neck. The casco grated against the bank and stopped. Muscles set, bodies poised to meet the shock of any sudden attempt at escape, the Policia gave the Savage just enough slack chain to 60 THE TAMING OF CALINGA permit of his stepping ashore, while the boat men prepared to prod him into motion. Often the unobtrusive, the unobserved fac tor, dominates a situation. Not an eye in all that gathering was focused upon the im passive Ah Ching. Not a spectator knew just at what moment that Celestial left the side of the captive or stepped off the boat. Great muscles vibrating, head thrown back, throat swelling in one exultant yell, the Head- Hunter sprang ashore. Following Ah Ching, he climbed the gradual incline to the top of the bank, trudged through the wide lane which the mob opened before his advance. Spectators, police, boatmen, Seiior Cali- mag, Seiior Gumila, were disappointed. No one had expected such a tame exhibition from so wild a Savage. Puzzled, the cavalcade moved along. El Sargento marched on one flank, where all might see the wound on his leg, and admire. Seiior Gumila waddled behind the boatmen. Beside him trudged Senor Calimag, carrying under one arm an exultant, noisy Ujjin, the ANOTHER OF THE GREAT PEOPLE 61 Fowl which had been the warning Voice of God. El Lunatico, with his toy sword upon his shoulder and leading a band of the bolder town youths, fell in behind them and marched pompously along, a part of the escort to that Instrument of God who likewise had God s Protection. Halfway down the lane through the crowd, Ah Ching turned toward his home. The Strong Young Chief turned also. Men scat tered before him, women screamed, but the chain, suddenly tautened, sprawled the cap tive upon the ground. A snarl, the wildly kicking feet, threw the nearer crowd surg ing back upon the massed people behind. Promptly, steadily, the Policia backed, drag ging the clawing, squirming, yelling Head- Hunter over the rock-like clods. The expected, the desired, had happened. Many an awed "Jesu!" expressed appre ciation of the spectacle. And Senor Gumila stepped aside that he might obtain an unob structed view. Ujjin sprang from his perch at the first outbreak, and pecked at the flying, 62 THE TAMING OF CALINGA unshackled foot. Well for that officious Fowl that his attempt failed! A much agitated Senor Calimag picked up his crowing pet, and restored it to the protection afforded by his arm. El Sargento, remembering the effec tiveness of savage teeth, limped behind the boatmen with the spike-tipped poles. His attention attracted by the commotion, the indifferent Ah Ching returned, leaned over the raging Head-Hunter, took a flaying arm, and helped the fallen captive to his feet. To the surprise of the onlookers, the Savage became docile again. One who, advancing from the crowd, had followed the Celestial, now spoke the words, "Pax vobiscum." The calm, quiet, reassur ing tone of voice drew the captive s flitting attention to the black-robed figure standing almost beside One of the Great People. The Strong Young Chief stared. His eyes roved from one to the other, from him that wore the Sign of the Pony Tail to him that had a round bald Spot in the same place. Finally, the keen, brilliant, savage eyes came ANOTHER OF THE GREAT PEOPLE 63 to rest upon the figure clothed in the loose, flowing, black robes so like the shimmery, lavender robes of One of the Great People. The differences he could distinguish left a doubt in his untutored mind, something of .**** distrust. But one test could not fail. The Strong Young Chief lifted the Image of the Glorious God between himself and the Black-Robed One, and with a bare arm crossed upon his chest, bowed again and again above 0-mi-to-fu. Puzzled, the Black-Robed One hesitated. " Worship, " droned the nasal voice of Ah Ching. The Black-Robed One glanced at the speaker. " Worship, " Ah Ching droned insistently, monotonously. The Black-Robed One bowed reverently over the Crucifix hidden in his hand. Then the Strong Young Chief smiled a greeting to him who had proved himself An other of the Great People, and permitted Ah Ching to place his hand in the Padre s. 64 THE TAMING OF CALINGA 66 Pax vobiscum," Padre Antonio answered to the Savage who had God s Protection. And he, too, smiled. Wide-eyed, awed in the Presence of a Mystery, Senor Calimag crossed himself again and again. "Jesu!" he muttered. " The Instrument of God recognizes the Servant of God!" * Ki-yi-yah-ah-ah, yelled El Lunatico, and laughed, and laughed, and laughed, until Padre Antonio, taking pity on the terrified Senor Calimag, drove the Accursed of God away. Padre Antonio delayed the progress of the cavalcade until Ah Ching had disappeared in his shack. When the priest, addressing the captive Savage by the name of the Mountain Tribe, said, "Come, Calinga," the Strong Young Chief obeyed, and followed Another of the Great People toward Senor Calimag s home. Chained in a corner of the room in which Ujjin was tethered, the Strong Young Chief angrily plastered the indignant gamester with ANOTHER OF THE GREAT PEOPLE 65 the rice and be gun g which his guards had tossed in through the window. Finally, hav ing vented some of his wrath at Another of the Great People for ignoring the plea made in the name of 0-mi-to-fu, he set the Image of the Glorious God upon the floor and wor shiped. When the exertion had tired him, he huddled down on the floor to sleep until either One or Another of the Great People should come to teach him how the Old Chief s dying command might be fulfilled. In the meantime, Senor Calimag and Senor Gumila sat in a front room of the house and discussed the best method of civilizing a Head-Hunter. It was a weighty argument, and revealed much wisdom. Senor Calimag reasoned that the Savage s labor in the fields would repay in part for the trouble of keeping him, "His spirit should be broken before taking such a risk," Senor Gumila maintained. Ki-yi-yah-ah-ah, El Lunatico yelled, a shrill, mocking hail in greeting that sounded almost in the ears of the disputants. 66 THE TAMING OF CALINGA They jumped, crossed themselves, and glanced around. Framed in the window, and against the background of the night, were two horns of black hair that protruded through rents in a tattered Spanish military- cap, and a yellow calico cross on a coat of sacking, with a grinning face between. Va cant eyes leered at the two, and a noisy tongue chattered senselessly. The Head-Hunter, roused from sleep by the Accursed One s cry, called a savage answer. El Lunatico leaned on the window-sill, and laughed helplessly. Again the Head-Hunter called, a question ing cry. El Lunatico grasped his nose firmly be tween thumb and forefinger, lifted his head far back, playfully hacked with his wooden sword at the tensed cords of his throat, and gurgled. Senor Gumila yelled, "Scat," and Senor Calimag hurled a slipper at the idiotic face. El Lunatico caught the missile on the point of his sword, and waving it, an improvised ANOTHER OF THE GEEAT PEOPLE 67 pennant, marched pompously into the night. The demand for the return of the foot-gear he answered with insane titters, with a jeer ing Ki-yi-yah-ah-ah. The Strong Young Chief listened. And when the call came again, faintly, from afar, and he was convinced that the cry had not been a hail from either One or Another of the Great People, he lay down again, and slept. CHAPTER VIII The Magic of the Green Devils IN Senor Calimag s field one ignorante laborer drove a carabao before the Strong Young Chief, while another placed in position a plough, just a pointed, mahogany timber fastened at an angle to a horizontal beam, the brace between the two pieces com pleting a triangle. A Mauser rifle in Senor Calimag s hands added to the precautions which had prevailed at the landing of the Head-Hunter, and insured the safety of his guards. Arms limp at his side, much interested in the amusement provided for him, Calinga ex amined the novel instrument. But he re fused to degrade himself. Not even the black- robed Senor Padre Antonio could persuade him to put a hand to the plough. His express ive face betokened a contemptuous disdain 68 MAGIC OF THE GEEEN DEVILS 69 for the laborers, for their docile obedience, for their submission to an animal s work, for the toil itself and now and then, when his keen eyes measured their necks, for their fear. After an hour of patient illustration on the part of his teachers, Calinga still stood in the same spot, limp of arm, disdainful. Though such an attitude on the part of so uncouth a savage won from his captors a certain measure of admiration, such defiance could not be tolerated. Besides, as Senor Gumila had proved, God had willed that the Head-Hunter s wild soul should be tamed crushed. At Senor Calimag s signal, the watchful, ready Policia promptly yanked the chain fastened to the Savage s ankle, sprawled the dignified Strong Young Chief on the ground, and backed. Steadily, re morselessly, they dragged his muscular, brown-skinned body over the jagged, sharp- edged clods. Though his defiant, vengeful yells chilled most of the spectators, Senor Gumila closely followed the kicking, fighting savage, that he might miss none of the thrills 70 THE TAMING OF CALINGA afforded by such contortions, by such facial fury. Senor Calimag fired the Mauser beside Calinga s head. The Voice of the Thunder s Wrath! "Beware the Magic of the Green Devils !" the Old Chief had warned; "and remember thy Jungle Knowledge !" And Cunning is the proper Jungle-Tool with which to meet an unknown danger ! Thought was instantaneous. The flaying arms and clawing fingers were stilled in mid air, the ferocious facial spasms flashed away, and with scarcely a touch of fear, his ex pression settled into a blank mask of vacancy. All day a passive, mild, docile Savage fol lowed the plow, and obeyed. But never did he fail to note, with eye or with ear, the whereabouts of him who carried the Stick that held the hidden Magic of the Green Devils. At night, when the terrible Instrument was gone, a sullen Savage raged in his cage, MAGIC OF THE GEEEN DEVILS 71 and tore at the chain that bound him, and planned escape from his ignominious fate, while 0-mi-to-fu, forgotten, dangled at the end of his loin-cloth; for the Strong Young Chief s thoughts were afar, with the Fire- Tree, with the Trophies secreted in the Moun tain Lair, with the Comeliest Maid of the Tribe. Even Ujjin s lusty, noisy clamor failed to distract his savage mind from such sweet memories. Later in the evening, Senor Calimag, car rying his gun and guarded by an escort of Policia, came to practice his gamester. With a joyous crow, Uj jin greeted his Master, and lovingly pecked Senor Calimag s brown ankle, and ruffled his feathers, charged an imaginary adversary, and strutted, as was his custom, at the Master s praises and caresses. In the opposite corner, a mild, blank-faced Calinga squatted and pretended to doze. But his eyelids were not quite closed. Through the slits between them, he observed every detail in the art of training a gamester, and 72 THE TAMING OF CALINGA measured the neck of every oppressor, espe cially of him who carried the Magic of the Green Devils. Against the day of reckoning, each calculation was tabulated and stored in his memory. But only his deep breathing hinted at the lust for vengeance that domi nated the turmoil of his mind. Vespers tolled. The solemn, majestic bell silenced Ujjin and the crowd. Reverently, Senor Calimag and the Policia gathered in a third corner of the room. Curiosity roused Calinga from his feigned lethargy, and his inquisitive eyes followed the movements of the men. They bowed, and scraped, and chanted. Calinga stared. And then, his eyes gaining a better focus for the dimmer twi* light, he discovered the object of their devcn tions. Such a strange, strange God ! Just a white, white, painted Image of a MAN ! A Man that hung by hands and feet from Crossed Sticks 1 And wore a Loop of Thorns upon His head ! And had dark blue Daubs upon His brow and palms and feet! And from the mark of an- MAGIC OF THE GEEEN DEVILS 73 other wound had a purple-edged streak of blue traced down his painted, white side! The Strong Young Chief sneered. He almost laughed aloud at such a God, at the ignorance of them that could not call upon the Glorious God, but must worship the painted Image of a hunted, dying Man. His hopes revived again. He exulted. Let them worship! What succor could that God give them against a vengeance inspired by a Ter rible God! Just wait! Pony Tail would come to release the Captive One, and would call upon the Glorious God to avenge the Descendant of the Great People, and his op pressors would learn of the Might of 0-mi- to-f u, and would cringe ! And the Fire-Tree still bloomed, would be blooming then! Ca- linga set the Image of the Glorious God upon the floor, and worshiped until he was alone again with the dozing Ujjin, and with the dull, dull white Daub. Something about that white, white Man- Image seemed to reach out, to grip the Strong Young Chief, to force Itself upon his atten- 74 THE TAMING OF CALINGA tion. Again and again It drew his eyes, al though he resented Its fascination. At last, in exasperation, he gave expression to his contempt for such a God; with deadly accu racy and vindictive sweeps of his arm, he slathered the Thing with boiled rice, until the blue Daubs were white. A noisy chatter, an empty, tittering laugh, startled him from this satisfying amusement. In the window an idiotic face, surmounted by two horns of hair, laughed and jabbered at Calinga! "One like me, with the Protection of God," El Lunatico declared in explanation of his fellow feeling. Though Calinga pointedly ignored the in truder, the senseless chatter, his indifference in no wise disconcerted the Accursed One. Besting his bared, brown, muscular forearms on the window-sill, El Lunatico held up his long, pointed, broad, wooden sword, the toy weapon with a handle that would have hon ored a war-bolo. MAGIC OF THE GEEEN DEVILS 75 Just then the Savage plastered the last handful of rice upon the face of the Daub. "Jesu!" El Lunatico exclaimed, and promptly, vigorously, crossed himself. But observing Calinga s interest in his sword, he forgot his agitation and proudly exhibited the beauty of the handle and of the carvings on the blade. That imitation bolo fascinated the Strong Young Chief ; especially so did the wonderful handle, the realistic handle. It recalled mem ories of his Trophies, of his prowess. El Lunatico remembered the gift he had brought for his new friend. From a hiding place w r ithin his coat of sacking, he drew a sprig of the crimson Fire-Tree, fastened it to the end of his sword, and with many a bow offered it to the Head-Hunter. Once more the Strong Young Chief thought of the Comeliest Maid, of the Mountain Tribe, of home. He accepted the gift and caressed the blooms. Then El Lunatico threw back his head and 76 THE TAMING OF CALINGA sawed at the tautened cords in his neck, and gurgled. Just then an angry guard dragged the protesting El Lunatico from his perch, and chased that individual away. "Ki-yi-yah-ah-ah," El Lunatico howled in derision, a wild, mocking cry. CHAPTER IX When "Pony Tail" Remembered PONY TAIL never came. Night after night, the Strong Young Chief paced and listened, but only the clank of his chain rewarded his patience. The absolute deser tion of Pony Tail and the Black-Eobed One baffled him. Nor could he understand why they and 0-mi-to-fu allowed the Stick that hid the Magic of the Green Devils to be al ways present, to threaten him, to mock his futile rage, to fill him with despair, to im press upon him a sense of utter helplessness. Sometimes he consoled himself with the hope that the Glorious God was only punishing him for his sin in taking the Trophy with the Pony Tail, and had not forgotten him, but would relent when he had suffered enough, and forgive him for that sin of ignorance. Because it is not in the savage nature to 77 78 THE TAMING OF CALINGA endure captivity, lie chafed at 0-mi-to-fu s delay in freeing him. He would have sur rendered his hope entirely, if El Lunatico s nightly gifts of the blood-red blooms had not been an Omen. But since the Strong Young Chief interpreted the flowers, what they sug gested to him, as a divine coumand from 0-mi-to-fu, he planned escape and ven geance. At the end of a month a few straggling red flowers still clung to the Fire-Tree, but most of them had withered and fallen. Those few, all that they suggested of the Comeliest Maid and of a Rival who might claim her, harried the savage soul of the Strong Young Chief, while the dead blossoms warned him of the flight of time. . Yet his guards, and others who came in contact with him, had no suspicion that his attitude of utter meek ness was a mask, a defensive weapon against dangers he did not understand, but feared. Senor Calimag attributed his docility to the efficacy of the methods employed in subduing him. But if Senor Calimag had ever heard "PONY TAIL" REMEMBERED 79 the Legend of the Magic of the Green Devils, he might have fathomed the bitter, seething, vindictive rage behind that quiet exterior, he might have suspected the occupation of the vacant, indolent eyes, he might have sur mised the import of the neck measurements stored up in the savage memory. And if he had guessed the truth, Calinga s meekness would never have been credited to a broken spirit, nor would Seiior Calimag have re moved from field duty the guard who carried the Municipality s sole Mauser rifle, nor would El Sargento, expert wielder of the weighted cord, have trusted himself and such a weapon alone with the Savage. Calinga immediately discovered the ab sence of the Stick that hid the Magic of the Green Devils. Just as soon as he had con vinced himself that the evil Charm was really gone, he grabbed the unsuspecting Sargento in his powerful arms, lifted the screaming figure high in the air, and hurled the guard to the ground, a senseless mass. El Sargento s terrified cries roused the 80 THE TAMING OF CALINGA town, but the racing Head-Hunter s exultant, threatening yells, adding to the confusion, scattered from his path such townsmen as had rushed out from their shacks to investi gate, or to interfere. The Policia, springing up from their siestas or idle games of chance, all jumped for the single Mauser rifle, and madly fought each other for possession of it, until Seiior Gumila s cool, satirical voice finally silenced the uproar. El Lunatico, safely hidden in a clump of brush at the time of the outbreak, sprang out into the road when the Savage had passed, and loped after the Head-Hunter, and yelled in imitation of the wild cries, and gurgled, and sawed his sword across his throat. Calinga raced towards a barricade of stores along the river bank. Unconcerned, impassive, Ah Ching lounged in the doorway of his shack, and watched the flight of the unarmed Savage. The Strong Young Chief hailed One of the Great Peo ple, and in supplication held aloft in a brown hand the Image of 0-mi-to-fu. That appeal "PONY TAIL" REMEMBERED 81 reached the Chino. For the sake of the Sav age s Chinese Ancestor, whose bones, like those of Li Choy Sang, rotted in unhallowed ground far from the sacred soil of China, Ah Ching opened the river-door at the rear of his store. Just as Calinga sprang for the street en trance, Sefior Gumila fired. Calinga clapped his hand to the spot upon his thigh where the Magic of the Green Devils had stabbed him, tumbled to the brick floor, and cowered. Ah Ching shoved the Savage into his secret money-vault, replaced the section of brick flooring, and threw a mat over the trap-door. When the Policia and Sefior Gumila, the latter carrying the Mauser cocked and ready to fire, cautiously entered, they were forced to drag a trembling Ah Ching from under the counter above the hidden vault. An Ching was a willing witness, but a badly frightened one. Talking incoherently, he told them all about it. The sum of his information was, * I have much fear, Senores. Through one door the Savage came. Out of the other and 82 THE TAMING OF CALINGA toward the river the Savage went, Senores; I have much fear, Seiiores." Since their careful search revealed no trace of Calinga within the shop, and the open door substantiated Ah Ching s chattered as sertion, they were forced to accept his state ment, despite Senor Calimag s certainty that no Savage had issued from the rear door. But later, when they placed the patrol of guards about the town, they surrounded Ah Ching s store. That night, when all was quiet, Ah Ching lifted the trap-door, helped Calinga out from the cramped quarters, washed and dressed the flesh wound, gave the Head-Hunter food and drink, and slipped the fugitive out of the river-door. El Sargento was waiting. Crouched in a crevice on the bank of the river, with only his head above the earth-line, he watched the Savage creep warily past a sentry and on toward the security of the open country. With a mixture of fear and uncertainty, of exultation and determination, El Sargento "PONY TAIL" EEMEMBEEED 83 clasped one iron ball firmly in both hands and swung the other over his head, slowly at first but with increasing speed, until like a razor the tautened, humming, deer-thong cord clipped the tips of the grass. Calinga was so intent upon avoiding the conspicuous sentries and the Magic Stick, upon suppress ing any outcry because of the pain of his wound, that he failed to detect the faint warning whirr and whizz. When at what he considered a safe distance, he stood erect, the cutting slash of the cord across his back surprised him. Before his tensed muscles could respond to his will, the thong, coiling and twisting about his body like a python, bound his arms to his sides. One iron ball thudded above his heart, the other upon the small of his back and Calinga dropped in an unconscious heap. El Sargento s triumphant summons brought all of the guards to his aid. In their estimation, the first requisite of the task be fore them was haste, great haste in returning the dangerous fugitive to his chains. Bind- 84 THE TAMING OF CALINGA ing the limp Savage s hands to his feet and suspending him from a bamboo pole, like a Chino s fruit-basket, the Policia swung the support upon their shoulders and carried the Head-Hunter back to the tether from which he had escaped that morning. Senores Calimag and Gumila stared at the bandage upon Calinga s thigh ; they pondered upon that incriminating evidence against Ah Ching. "So?" Seiior Gumila drawled. "It seems that Ah Ching is a wilful liar." "Ah Ching needs another flogging," Senor Calimag snapped, a decision of which his henchman approved, because the Chino had given sufficient provocation for it. El Sargento nursed his bruises ostenta tiously. "And the Savage, too?" he begged. Senor Calimag nodded. But Calinga did not care ; he did not under stand, and besides, he knew that Pony Tail had not forgotten him. CHAPTER X The Woman with the Smoldering Brand THE thong-bound Savage met the curious stares of the assembled people with a proud, contemptuous defiance. Idly he measured the Craning Necks, and puzzled over the Mystery involved in such a great gathering, puzzled over his own presence in its midst. It was all mysterious. But the whole trend of events since he had fallen into the hands of the effeminate Valley People, the details of his imprisonment, the labor in the field, the purpose of it all, had been mysteri ous. As he knew life and existence, a quick death should have been his portion. In what had been was contradiction, confusion, plain mystery. Even this great concourse of peo ple, his own bonds, might resolve themselves into another Mystery. Calinga could only surmise their meaning. If his inf erejice were 85 86 THE TAMING OF CALINGA correct, they were assembled to witness Ms death. That, at least, would be no Mystery, and he could meet such a fate witfi a stoical disdain that would deny the Craning Necks whatever gratification they had expected to gain out of the spectacle. The Strong Young Chief still hoped for 0-mi-to-fu s interposition in his behalf, and his eyes roved about in his search for Pony Tail, who had not forgotten him, or for the Black-Eobed One who had. He found neither One nor Another of the Great People. Though he was conscious of El Sargento sauntering so nonchalantly around him, Ca- linga seemed oblivious of that individual s presence. But as the coiling, twisting snake fascinates the bird, so the heavy laced-thong whip that El Sargento lazily swished, and curled, and snapped, fascinated the Savage. Calinga speculated upon what part that lash and its wielder would play in the perform ances of this day. Calinga s eyes rested upon a young girl. In her face was none of the anticipation he WOMAN WITH THE BEAND 87 had observed in those of the Craning Necks. Her dark, fathomless eyes spoke to him, like the Comeliest Maid s, of compassion, of pity, of something more, perhaps of admiration for his savage indifference to his fate, or for the magnificent physique. Calinga stared, stared until she, in confusion, dropped her eyes, stared until others, observing his in terest, sought for the object that attracted him. El Sargento swore. The Policia dumped the fettered AL. Ching beside the Strong Young Chief. The predica ment of One of the Great People puzzled Ca linga. He called, but the impassive Celestial studiously kept his back to the Head-Hunter. That Mystery discouraged the Savage, per plexed him. But he had little time for medi tation. The Policia cut Ah Ching s bonds, flung the Chino upon the top of the low brick wall before the church, and, two to each arm and foot, held him so that he could not escape the full fury of the blows. An intense silence 88 THE TAMING OF CALINGA settled upon the assemblage. Whip in hand, El Sargento advanced. The first blow fell. Calinga exulted. He sneered. In their ignorance, they dared inflict that indignity upon One of the Great People, upon Pony Tail, who was wise in the worship of the Glorious God ! And they defied the warning of the Black-Eobed One, who walked indig nantly away when they ignored his protest! Senor Gumila saw the expression of exul tation upon Calinga s face, but mistook it for an artistic appreciation of El Sargento s skill in laying on the lash. "Jesu! The devil! See how the Savage enjoys it!" he exclaimed. "But he ll wear another expression when he is feeling those blows," he laughed. On the other hand, Senor Calimag detected something of the intense hatred in Calinga ? s eyes. He shiv ered. The last blow fell. Calinga s muscular body, stretched at full length, quickly replaced Ah Ching s. His WOMAN WITH THE BEAND 89 savage, vengeful eyes glared a denial of his fascination in the cutting, humming, whis tling swish of the lash. It stung the breadth of the bare shoulders. Other than a spasmodic tension of the great muscles, a twitch, a quiver, there was no response. The gritted jaws gave forth no sound. El Sargento stared. "Jesu!" he exclaimed. He stepped further back, and swung with greater power. But the blow, though more effective than the first, though it bit a bloody, purpling, swelling welt across the bare back and won Senor Gumila s appreciative applause, earned no more than the first. El Sargento stared again. "Jesu! Is not that an expert blow?" he demanded. And, although he exhausted himself with his exertions, and left the unconscious Ca- linga s back a checkered mass of fiery, flam ing, awesome burns, his best efforts won no 90 THE TAMING OF CALINGA more than a twisting quiver, a twitching ten sion of the muscles. El Sargento confessed his chagrin. He glanced over the silent crowd in acknowledg ment of his failure to win one scream, and met the contemptuous eyes of the girl like the Comeliest Maid. Behind her, El Luna- tico leered. That harmless individual im mediately threw back his head, gurgled, and began to hack industriously at the cords in his throat. When El Sargento hurled the heavy, bloody whip at the mocking face, El Lunatico received the much prized lash with a vacant Ki-yi-yah-ah-ah, and made off with it. That night a wrinkled hag, she whom they called "Ana," and that once had been Seiior Calimag s favorite ignorante mistress, slipped into the room where they had left Calinga chained. In her hands she brought water and the soothing lotions which Padre Antonio had given her to apply to the Sav age s wounds. Squatted between basins and the Head-Hunter, she who had known sorrow WOMAN WITH THE BRAND 91 and pain, turned the limp form upon its face and washed the raw wounds clean. The vague Shadow in her eyes gave them a keener vision to detect suffering, and what she had known of existence gave an added tenderness to the touch of the gentle fingers. El Lunatico, peeking through the window and discovering her there, promptly stole in and crept toward the pair. Though the click of his toy sword upon the slat floor betrayed his presence, the woman ignored his stealthy approach. He squatted beside her and stared in silent awe at the flaming raw streaks. When his curiosity led him to poke his finger into them, the woman slapped the unruly hands, and chided the Irresponsible One. But the indefinable pathos in the tone of her voice turned the reproof into a caress. El Lunatico laughed, and chattered a sense less jumble of little nothings remembered from other days. Since Ana ignored him, since she failed to appreciate the humorous possibilities that pleased him, his busy, idle hands began to hack in pantomime at his 92 THE TAMING OF CALINGA corded throat. The woman caught them in her own, and again rebuked the Accursed One. "No, no, Pedro, not that; not that, poor lad," she said, and gave him a damp cloth with which to bathe the fevered face, and taught him how to moisten the lips. Calinga s first conscious sight fell upon these two. He studied first one face and then the other. As he knew the Man with the Bolo, as the ministrations of the Stranger were soothing, he permitted the Woman with the Smoldering Brand in her Mouth to rub his wrists and ankles where the thongs had deadened them, until he slept. CHAPTEE XI Tethered Beside a Noisy Bird FOB a week Calinga tossed in a fever. During it, grim phantoms came to tor ment him. Sometimes the Old Chief chased him with the Magic of the Green Devils, until, screaming a protest, he started up and chafed his wounds. Or it would seem to him that the Wielder of the Lash belabored him with the Pony Tail on the Trophy hidden in the Mountain Lair. Again, the Trophy with the boar-like neck would be transformed, even while he boasted of his prowess in taking it, into the head of the Comeliest Maid of the Tribe. Or the Girl that was like the Comeliest Maid, she whom he had seen among the spec tators, would smash the Glorious God with a sprig of the Fire-Tree, and a white, white Image of a Man that hung from Crossed Sticks would spring up out of the fragments. 93 94 THE TAMING OF CALINGA Throughout his delirium, he was conscious of three visitors, either of whom always broke the spell of the phantoms. Sometimes the Woman with the Smoldering Brand in her Mouth came at night to bathe his wounds. Sometimes the Black-Eobed One brought the soothing Charms. The Man with the Bolo always came. Calinga never forgot the im pression of their visits. But on the morning when he awakened to consciousness, he was alone, and his eyes opened upon the Image of that Man-God Who had so often dominated his delirious mo ments. Calinga shuddered at the shock, and it was some time before he could regain his composure. Then he regarded the dull Daub with a sullen, dignified, silent hatred. As far as any active manifestation of his contempt was concerned, he could afford to ignore the False God of the effeminate Valley People. Had not they inflicted an unpardonable in dignity upon One of the Great People? And would not Pony Tail call upon 0-mi-to-fu? "The vengeance of the Glorious God is ter- BESIDE A NOISY BIRD 95 rible," the Old Chief had taught. So a sav age exultation filled the Strong Young Chief. And whenever Ujjin rolled forth a joyous, defiant, exultant crow, Calinga laughed ex pectantly, and contemplated the beautiful curve and stretch of that worthy Fowl s neck, and recalled the measurements of every op pressor s neck. Day after day Calinga waited for some sign of the Glorious God s vengeance. None came. He waited for his fellow victim, and he never came. But Another of the Great People always came, and held his arms above Calinga s head, and said, "Pax vobiscum," and then kneeled in his black robes beside the captive, and soothed the wounds with the strange Charms. And the Man with the Bolo brought dead sprigs of the Fire-Tree. And sometimes the Woman with the Smoldering Brand brought his food. And occasionally the Master came to visit the Noisy Bird. It was all mysterious to Calinga. There was Mystery in the visits that were made, and 96 THE TAMING OF CALINGA Mystery in the failure of Pony Tail. The mysterious depressed Calinga. Then one night the Black-Kobed One brought many flat images in which One Man stood alone, and the others knelt, and every figure wore colored robes like those of the Great People. And the Lonely Figure with the bright Moon-Circle above His head was the same in every flat image! The Lonely Figure was the white, white Man that hung upon the Crossed Sticks! That puzzled Calinga. But the Mystery of the Black-Eobed One s relation to the Dying God was quickly settled. Vespers tolled, and the Black-Eobed One knelt before the strange, white Man-God. Fascinated, Calinga ob served the devotions and listened to the quiet voice. His savage, untutored ear failed to distinguish the differences between Ah Ching s nasal chant and this telling the Beads of the Rosary. Somber-hued robes and a kneeling worshiper were sufficient to impress upon his mind a similarity to the devotions of One of the Great People. Yet, without BESIDE A NOISY BIRD 97 distinguishing its nature, he felt that a dif ference existed, that in spite of the likenesses in the devotions of Pony Tail and the Black- Robed One, their Gods were not the same. And instead of the name, 0-mi-to-fu, repeated over and over, he heard another, Jesu Christo. Because of what the Black-Robed One had been to him, and of what One of the Great People had failed to be, Calinga began to doubt the Glorious God. Yet he felt himself tricked ; he felt that his discovery had taken the Black-Robed One away from him, and he resented the loss. Deserted, a prisoner, chained in a cage at night, like a Noisy Bird, he raged and stormed. And always Ujjin crowed, and always the Man that hung from Sticks stared down upon him with a dull, dull- white indifference. That contemptuous dis dain maddened Calinga. He shook his fist at the False God. In a frenzy of despair he set 0-mi-to-fu upon the floor, and his devo tions transformed themselves into a Prayer for Vengeance. 98 THE TAMING OF CALINGA Ujjin flapped his wings and crowed in scorn. Calinga stretched forth his muscular arm and clinched his wiry fingers as though he would wring the scoffer s neck. Ujjin blinked, and crowed again, con temptuously. Next day Calinga received double proof of the futility of his prayers. In the morning Pony Tail deliberately avoided the Lonely Captive, and later his guard repaid a piece of wilful insubordination with a few stinging cuts of the lash. The utter absence of fear on the part of the flogger impressed Calinga, and he pondered the whole day through, con trasting the False God of the effeminate Val ley People with the Glorious God of the Great People. Pony Tail submitted to a disgraceful in dignity without a single effort to retaliate. And the Glorious God had not intervened to defend One of the Great People. That God even had allowed the Green Devils to anni hilate his Servants with the Magic of the BESIDE A NOISY BIRD 99 Green Devils. Calinga felt the fresh scar on his own thigh. But this False God of the Valley People taught His Servants to strike their enemies, as they had stricken him. And He gave the Magic of the Green Devils to the effeminate Valley People that they might master their enemies, even the Sons of the Great People ! Perhaps this Jesu Ckristo was a more powerful God than 0-mi-to-fu ! That night the Black-Robed One found Ca linga absorbed in studying the pictures of the Lonely Figure with the outstretched, beckoning arms, and the Image of the Suffer ing God. Extending his hands above the crouching Savage, just as the Lonely Figure extended His above those that knelt, Seiior Padre spoke a solemn "Pax v obi-scum." Awed, he knew not why, Calinga crouched closer. Later he placed the Image of the Glorious God upon the floor, and stuck a withered stalk of the Fire-Tree in its arms. Then he compared the grinning, hideous face of 0- 100 THE TAMING OF CALINGA mi-to-fu with the white, white face of Jesu Christ o. The Woman with the Smoldering Brand found him so. The vague Shadow of Sorrow in her eyes, the indefinable Pathos in her "Pobre Calinga," soothed him, and gave him confidence in her. He tried to make her un derstand, tried to tell her that he did not want the food she had brought, tried to tell her that the Mysteries tormented him, tried to beg her for an explanation. Again and again the pathetic voice re peated, "Pobre Calinga," until he obeyed her signs and ate his food. When she had gone, he turned bitterly to his contemplation of the white, white Man- Image and of the grinning idol. Later he relegated the Image of 0-mi-to-fu to an abid ing place upon a log under the floor. With the early moon, the Man with the Bolo crawled through the window and squat ted beneath that opening in the wall. For hours the chattering, jabbering Accursed One, whom God protected, and the silent BESIDE A NOISY BIRD 101 Savage, who also had the Protection of God, stared at one another. A withered, crimson sprig of the Fire-Tree, extended on the point of the toy-sword, was El Lunatico s parting gift, his pledge of friendship. As a seal of the common bonds between them, of their alliance, Calinga accepted the gift. When he was alone again, he cuddled the beloved dead blooms to his cheek. Sad and lonely, deserted by all but the Helpless Ones, he dreamed and pondered through the night. Sometimes he longed for the com panionship and good- will of the wild, defiant Bird. CHAPTER XII The God of the Black-Robed One A MONTH of abject meekness on the part of the Head-Hunter had convinced his captors that his spirit was broken, and had won him an extension of chain that allowed him the freedom of the room in which he was caged at night. But Sefior Calimag did not again make the mistake of removing the guard with the Mauser. Calinga stood in the window and watched the sun sink into the black, misty Mass upon the crest of the West Coast Mountains. The clouds welcomed the Fiery Wayfarer, veiled it, and its dull, blood-red face seemed to grin and to mock with that color of the Fire- Tree s blooms. The crimson hue brought the memories, and the regrets. The Comeliest Maid of the Tribe was lost. The god of his forefathers, in whose service 102 GOD OF BLACK-ROBED ONE 103 he had undertaken his perilous journey, had deserted him in his need and had left him a captive in the hands of the effeminate Val ley People. And the Man with the Pony Tail, he who served the Glorious God, had forgot ten him. Compassion came from the Black- Robed One that served the white, white God upon the Crossed Sticks, and from the Man with the Sword, him who brought the twigs of the Fire-Tree, and from the Woman with the Smoldering Brand in her Mouth, her that said "Pobre Calinga," and soothed him. A cracking "Boom" startled Calinga. He crouched. But the flash of Lightning indicated the Thunder s wrath, not the Voice of the Magic of the Green Devils, and he stood erect again. Then came the shower, a rattling fusillade, and Calinga stepped back from the window to the protection within the shack. He crept to his own corner and huddled upon the floor, and listened to the sad, droning song of the rain upon the rapidly forming puddles. 104 THE TAMING OF CALINGA Vespers tolled solemnly, and the town was stilled, save for the voices that worshiped the white Man-God. Calinga gazed upon the Image that hung from the Crossed Sticks. A Flash of Light suffused the strange Man- God and blended the colors of the white, white, painted body and of the purple-blue Daubs into one soft, harmonious hue. Calinga crouched upon his toes, leaned for ward upon his finger-tips, and stared into the dense blackness. The flaring Light of another Flash tinted the Quiet God a faint, delicate green. The eyes of the Savage widened. The Mys tery awed him. The Lightning flashed again, and its yel low Glare painted that God a beautiful, liv ing green. The Strong Young Chief suspected the Truth and trembled. Each successive Flash but accentuated the greenish hue, until the Image glowed like the leaves of the trees in springtime. The Strong Young Chief saw the Truth. GOD OF BLACK-EOBED ONE 105 The God of the Green Devils! The God that had given them the victory over the Great People! The God that gives all His People the Magic that booms with the Voice of the Thunder s wrath and stabs from afar like the spear! And then the Lightning made the God to glow with a white, white Charm that sur passed the beauty of all mankind. He lived, He breathed, a white, a fascinatingly white- skinned Man! The indifferent Veil melted from the Face, and the white Man-God looked upon Calinga with that vague Shadow of Sorrow which lived in the eyes of the Woman with the Smoldering Brand. The God of the Black-Eobed One! The God of the Outstretched Arms, Who says, " Pax vobiscum," to the Lonely and Suf fering and Captive Ones! Calinga saw the Beckoning Arms of the Sad-Eyed God, and heard a sweet Voice say, with the indefinable pathos of the Woman, "Pobre Calinga, pax vobiscum. Venga." Calling, "Jesu Christ o," the Strong Young 106 THE TAMING OF CALINGA Chief crawled to the God of the Faint and Weary and Lonely. Kneeling before the Im age that smiled so tenderly, so serenely, al though He hung from Crossed Sticks, he wor shiped as he had seen the Black-Robed One worship. And so the Black-Robed One found him. CHAPTER XIII The Trophies of a Thief IN a dell of the West Coast Mountains the Comeliest Maid of the Tribe, she whom the Old Chief had chosen to become the mother of his grandchildren, waited through the days of the Fire-Tree s bloom for the return of the Strong Young Chief. All the long hours she brooded, and stared down the Trail that led to theLand of the effeminate Valley People. One by one the young men returned with the Trophy that marked Man s Estate, and each claimed his chosen mate. And many a maid that had waited anxiously was happy. The Comeliest Maid heard their laughter, and her heart grew bitter. The crimson flowers faded and withered. Then the old women of the Tribe, who had seen the Fire-Tree bloom times beyond mem ory, came to her and said, "Sometimes it is 107 108 THE TAMING OF CALINGA so, and he that has gone forth to prove his manhood never comes again. And none know where he has fallen. It is meet for the maid that has waited to mourn a space for the Master that might have been. But it is right for another to claim her. Let her forget. " The Comeliest Maid smiled and answered, The Strong Young Chief lives. He has but gone far that his prowess may be known. Did not his father do ven so ? These others that are less than he have returned. The Strong Young Chief lives, and he will bring many Trophies to prove his prowess." The old women shook their heads and de parted. After many more days, after the last with ered blossom had fallen, the Comeliest Maid grew sad. Yet she hoped, and whispered to herself, even while she stared into the misty veil down the Trail, "The Strong Young Chief lives." On a day, watching alone, waiting alone, she saw the Last Straggler toil out of the Jungle below and climb the steep path. Her THE TROPHIES OF A THIEF 109 wild cry summoned the Tribe. Maids that had mourned, and forgotten, hurried forth expectantly, and were disappointed. Old women, who scarcely dared to glance at the Late Comer, tottered to the Trail, and one of their number found her son again. And for the number of the Trophies that the Last Straggler brought, and for the Tale he told, and for the Might of him, the Tribe made him the New Chief in the place of the Strong Young Chief that should have been, and spec ulated upon the maid he would choose. The New Chief brought his three Trophies to the Comeliest Maid. "The Strong Young Chief sought the Trophy that would give him the Comeliest Maid, but the Fire-Tree has bloomed and faded, and the Strong Young Chief comes not. Let the Comeliest Maid put aside her mourn ing and be chosen by another," said the New Chief, and laid his Trophies at her feet. The Comeliest Maid stared long, very long, at those Trophies. Then she smiled, and stared again. One caressing bite of the bolo 110 THE TAMING OF CALINGA had severed the strange, withered head with the Pony Tail, and only the arm of the Strong Young Chief had the strength to de liver such a blow! Her eyes passed beyond that one to another. A marvelous Trophy! And more marvelous still the Art of its tak ing! It fascinated her. Never, within the memory of the Tribe, had a man returned with such a head! The Massive Neck was stronger, bigger, than the neck of the wild boar ! The sweeps of the bolo that had taken it had been an Artist s! and of all the Tribe, only the Strong Young Chief pos sessed that Art! She glanced at the last Trophy of the three. The crude, bungling work it exhibited won her disdain. Two hacking blows had severed the shriveled head with the scrawny neck and the thin gray hair. The Comeliest Maid laughed. A great hope shone in her eyes, and she flaunted the suitor and his gifts. "The New Chief brings more Trophies than any young man that has ever returned THE TBOPHIES OF A THIEF 111 from a single Hant. But he brings not Tro phies of his own valor. He brings the one head that he took from a tired old man. But the others reveal a skill that he does not possess. The New Chief found them where he who has traveled far to gather many more had hidden them. That other will re turn and claim them, and challenge the New Chief to show his skill upon the puny neck of a deer. Let the New Chief bring his own Trophies, and worthy Trophies that will tell of his own prowess," she taunted. The New Chief took his Trophies and de parted, and the Comeliest Maid told the Tribe, The Strong Young Chief but sleeps. So the Tribe knew that she still had faith, and would not be chosen by another. Many times in the days that followed, when doubts assailed her assurance, she told her heart, "The Strong Young Chief but waits to gain other Trophies in place of those he has lost to the Thief. He will bring as many Trophies as there are fingers upon a hand. He sleeps." CHAPTER XIV The Marks of a Civilized Man BECAUSE Senor Padre offered fifty pe sos for tlie Head-Hunter, because he really desired to possess that Savage, Senor Calimag hesitated. Fifty pesos was a goodly sum. Such an offer recalled to Senor Cali mag s mind the motive which had prompted him to assume the care of the Instrument of God. Although Calinga had become docile enough under the treatment he had received, especially after the flogging, Senor Calimag saw no prospect of winning the captive s al legiance, and it would be a relief to be rid of the trouble involved in keeping him. Yet he hesitated. He was puzzled. If Ah Ching had made such an offer, Senor Calimag would have suspected that wily Celestial of plan ning some covert vengeance upon an enemy. "What will you do with the Head-Hunter ? What do you want him for!" he inquired, 112 MARKS OF A CIVILIZED MAN 113 "I. will teach him the Faith, and send him back to the Mountains to teach his Tribe," Padre Antonio declared. Senor Calimag and Senor Gumila laughed. A faint "Ki-yi-yah-ah-ah" floated to their ears. The cry silenced Senor Calimag s cackling mirth. He shivered. Senor Gumila suppressed his chuckles and winked at Senor Calimag. Then he faced the Black-Eobed One. " And you believe your efforts might meet with success ! he inquired, placing upon the "might" an emphasis which ridiculed any belief in such a possibility. Senor Padre nodded his head. His digni fied, calm assurance rebuked the scoffer. "Last night I found Calinga worshiping before the Crucifix, he explained. "Jesu!" Senor Calimag exclaimed. "Who taught him!" Senor Gumila asked. Padre Antonio crossed himself. "The inspiration of God," he answered. In the presence of a divine Mystery, the two men were silenced. Both of them re- 114 THE TAMING OF CALINGA membered a similar incident, were thinking of a former Mystery. They had seen the savage Instrument of God recognize in Senor Padre the Servant of God. And so they ad mitted the possibility that the Almighty, through His Inspiration, was the Teacher of the Savage with His Protection. "Ki-yi-yah-ah-ah," El Lunatico shouted, as he galloped by, astraddle his wooden sword, to which he industriously applied a guava switch. Senor Calimag jumped. "How will you guard him?" Senor Gumila inquired. "A Christian proselyte needs no guard," Padre Antonio declared. The two skeptics laughed. "We should have some fine excitement in Badi, Senor Calimag sneered. It will take more than a whim to convince me that I should leave such a danger unguarded in the town. I cannot risk the lives of the people. Of course, I appreciate your motives, Senor MAEKS OF A CIVILIZED MAN 115 Padre; we expect faith and trust from the Servant of God," he apologized. "The responsibility shall be mine," Senor Padre affirmed. Senor Calimag shook his head. "Not for my neck," he assured Padre An tonio. "But Senor Padre s head will be the more convenient," Senor Gumila added, a jest which amused only himself, and he chuckled over it. "Ki-yi-yah-ah-ah," came El Lunatico s faint, mocking call. Senor Calimag *s eyelids narrowed. "Jesu!" he exclaimed. Then he pondered upon the suggested possibility. "Unh," he grunted, and slyly measured Senor Padre s neck. As an afterthought, he rebuked his lieutenant. "That was a very poor joke, Senor Gumila," he stated. But he meditated further upon it. "The danger is too great," he decided; "I cannot risk having an un chained savage in Badi." <r Go with me to-night at Vespers and see 116 THE TAMING OF CALINGA for yourselves, " Senor Padre proposed, a suggestion to which the others agreed. Neither Senor Calimag nor Senor Gumila had been in the room with Calinga since he had been confined to it the whole day through by the fever following the flogging. And in view of the fact that the longer chain gave him the freedom of the room, neither one cared to enter it without guards, despite his reputed docility. Both found convenient chinks in the wall through which they might observe whatever transpired within. Un believing, speechless, almost doubting what they saw, both men stared. Calinga squatted in Ujjin s corner and held that worthy Champion perched upon one bare knee. His long finger poked the red-brown breast. When horn-like spur dug against the sinewy wrist and the beak pecked the tanta lizing finger, Calinga grabbed the proud head and shook it. Over and over the routine was repeated until Ujjin charged the pestering hand. Then Calinga laughed, and gathered the MAEKS OF A CIVILIZED MAN 117 beruffled, crowing Ujjin in his arms and fondled the Bird till they were friends again. "Jesu!" Senor Calimag exclaimed as soon as he had recovered from the stupefaction of his surprise. Such appreciation of a skilful Bird is marvelous! Calinga has the intui tion of a born trainer. Before that indisputable evidence of ap proaching civilization, Senor Calimag lost his doubts. It convinced him. His enthusiasm even made him forget his fears, and he fol lowed Padre Antonio into the room. Senor Calimag decided to keep Calinga, to train the captive for his own purposes. But the sullen stare with which Calinga greeted him was a reminder of Senor Gumila s joke, a reminder that Calinga still was a Head- Hunter. "You may take him on condition that the Policia surround your house with a guard at night, and accompany the Head-Hunter when he is out," Senor Calimag finally consented. "The Head-Hunter fears a rifle." Padre Antonio unlocked the ankle-ring, 118 THE TAMING OF CALINGA dropped it and the chain between the floor- slats to the ground beneath the house, turned toward the door, and beckoned to Calinga. Calinga s eyes wandered back and forth between the Black-Eobed One and Senor Ca- limag, who carried the Magic of the Green Devils. Then he moved to the stand of the white, white Man-God that hung from the Crossed Sticks, yet had given comfort to the Captive One. Every art of persuasion failed to entice him from his mute and pleading devotions. But when the Black-Robed One took up the Green Devil s God, Calinga hunted out the Image of 0-mi-to-fu and the withered spray of the Fire-Tree, and followed the Servant of the White-Skinned God with many wounds. In a rear room of the priest s home, a room like that from which Calinga had come, Padre Antonio installed his convert. "How will you secure him?" asked Senor Calimag from behind Senor Gumila s broad back. Senor Padre smiled. Very reverently he MARKS OF A CIVILIZED MAN 119 chained the forty-inch Crucifix to a log sup port of the house. Then he smiled again. "So," he answered. "So God will secure His Chosen One." "Jesu!" the two spectators commented. The unchained Savage worshiped. CHAPTER XV The Mysteries in Many Bonds rTlHROUGHOUT the passing months Ca- JL linga proved a patient, obedient stu dent, anxious to please his benefactor, ad mirably attentive to the long, tedious instruc tions in the Catechism and in reading and writing the Language of Civilization. The discovery that his lessons were concerned with the worship of the White-Skinned God transformed him into an enthusiast. He quickly learned to make the Sign of the Cross, to tell the Beads of the Eosary, to observe Matins and Vespers. Calinga ate his meals at the proper times of the day, because they were given to him then. He slept in a bed, because his bene factor wanted him to. He dished his food from the larger bowls and pans to his own, squeezed it into a lump, and with his thumb 120 MYSTEEIES IN MANY BONDS 121 placed behind it, shoved it from the trough of his fingers into his mouth, because Padre Antonio had taught him that that was the correct usage in eating and insisted that he observe it. He took his siesta naturally dur ing the heat of the day. But when it came to substituting the calico trousers and the cot ton coat and undergarments for his loin cloth, he was in difficulties; they were un comfortable, hampered his movements, and the trousers needed many a hitch. In his free time, Calinga became the de voted servant of Sefior Padre s game-birds. Among these was an undersized, skinny fowl which Calinga appropriated for his very own and upon which he lavished an infinite care and affection, because its white, white feath ers reminded him of the white, white God, and its crimson comb burned as brilliantly as the blossoms of the Fire-Tree. Otherwise, Furao, or the White, was an unprepossessing Bird. Those who could not appreciate how Furao s white feathers should be reverenced and envied, frequently ridiculed Calinga, both 122 THE TAMING OF CALINGA for his patience in training the gamester and for the peculiar style the fowl was acquiring. Juan Danga, policeman, openly sneered at the scrawny proportions of Calinga s pet. 1 But perhaps its bones will turn the blade of a spur so that it cannot be killed, Gerardo Felix suggested to Juan, and so we had bet ter bet upon the Bony Fowl. When do you match it in the cock-pit?" he asked of Ca- linga, a mock concern only too evident in both manner and voice. Calinga grunted a timid, protesting "Unh," as one grunts a contradiction to an equal. But among the frequent visitors at Senor Padre s home was one who took the unpre tentious Furao seriously. Ah Ching, a shrewd judge of gamesters, was always in terested enough in the training of fighting- cocks to spend valuable time in studying the efficacy of a new method. In the marvelous skill with which the Wiry Bird crouched be neath the charge of an adversary and dodged the spur, and then in counter-attack delivered MYSTEEIES IN MANY BONDS 123 a snappy, powerful, ripping blow from under the opposing gamester, Ah Ching recognized a style of fighting so novel that it might be wilder, even defeat, such a Master as the Un- conquered Ujjin. Ah Ching shrugged his shoulders like a Filipino, and spoke after the manner of that race in accepting the best of unsatisfactory alternatives. "Who knows? As God wills it," he mut tered. "Surprises often win. The unex pected. It s worth trying." What it was that was worth trying, Ah Ching confided in no one, not even in young Seiior Guarrin nor in Senor Padre, his con federates in plots against the peaceful con tinuation of Seiior Calimag s tyranny in Badi, nor to that Other, whose share in whatever happened, though unsuspected by his two allies, was credited by Seiior Calimag to the restless, wandering soul of Li Choy Sang. Although Seiior Padre was greatly pleased with his convert s progress, one matter caused him considerable worry. As Calinga s 124 THE TAMING OF CALINGA desire to wear his Crucifix outside his cloth ing in imitation of the yellow calico cross upon El Lunatico s coat of sacking, could be credited to pride in the Faith, that habit did not trouble Padre Antonio. Since Ca linga s former guards had become his friends, his companions, his equals, their constant, ostentatious attendance upon him with their rifle no longer continued, as a reminder of the past. El Lunatico was the problem. Day after day the Accursed of God brought portions of the Fire-Tree, and first fastening them to the point of the wooden sword, pre sented them to Calinga, who likewise en joyed God s Protection. Sometimes El Lunatico s gift was the crimson flowers, and sometimes a spray of withered leaves. Again it was but a bare, dead twig. Usually Calinga accepted the present, indifferently, but occa sionally the ceremonious presentation seemed to plunge him into a morose, gloomy mood. As the taciturn Calinga had never mentioned to his patron the village Girl whose eyes sometimes spoke to him like the Comeliest MYSTERIES IN MANY BONDS 125 Maid s, Padre Antonio placed the entire blame for the recurrence of that mood upon El Lunatico. Whenever the Accursed of God charged into the yard, and pranced, and wheeled his play-horse into position beside Calinga, the good Padre frowned, and shook his head, and muttered a wish that his prose lyte would abandon that comradeship. Remonstrances to Calinga proved futile. With all the deference due Senor Padre from an inferior, he listened to what was said, answered with the "Wen, Seiior," of assent at the proper times, bowed and scraped, waited upon his patron s pleasure, and in all respects exhibited his good breeding. But the request that he desert his first friend for those newer ones who formerly had been his guards, he met with a sullen, defiant silence. Padre Antonio resented El Lunatico s in terference with his convert. Besides, he was puzzled by the Accursed One s daily visits, by the lunatic s evident fondness for Ca linga s society. Before the Head-Hunter had been brought to Badi, El Lunatico had spent 126 THE TAMING OF CALINGA all of his time at Senor Calimag s home. Padre Antonio knew just what attraction in Senor Calimag s household was responsible for such constancy. Because Senor Padre Antonio Kiachu knew why the power of that attraction was so intense, he could not under stand what consideration had led El Luna- tico, just as soon as the convert was moved to a new home, to spend several hours daily away from Senor Calimag s household and in the company of Calinga. But Padre Antonio Kiachu had suspicions. As the ignorante brother of Juanita Kiachu, unwilling ignorante mistress of Senor Cali- mag s father, Antonio Kiachu knew what the uncle of Senor Calimag s ignorante half- brother, Pedro Kiachu, might be expected to know; he comprehended the quality of the rage which had tempted Pedro Kiachu to attack Senor Calimag and to murder Senor Calimag s principale son, and then to desert from the Army of Spain and to seek refuge among the outlaws of the Mountains. The fact that Antonio Kiachu was as young as MYSTERIES IN MANY BONDS 127 his nephew, Pedro Kiachu, did not mean that he had no personal resentment because of his sister s fate and had not suffered through it; Padre Antonio had heard, on the day of his ordination, that his sister had died from the flogging that El Sargento, at Sefior Calimag s command, had administered to her for bear ing such a son as Pedro Kiachu had proved to be. And Padre Antonio inferred all that might be inferred by a brother who had ultimately paid the debt of peonage which the enforced sale of his sister was supposed to have reduced. Besides, if Antonio Kiachu had not forsworn the world, he would have loved the woman who had plighted her troth to Pedro Kiachu. In the name of his inferences and suspi cions, Sefior Padre remonstrated with El Lunatico. But although the Accursed of God usually heeded the Servant of God, he in this case only laughed and laughed, and yelled " Ki-yi-yah-ah-ah, " and galloped away, astraddle his wooden sword. Calinga was not prepared for baptism until 128 THE TAMING OF CALINGA the new buds were upon the Fire-Tree. As Padre Antonio had first named the captive Savage Calinga, after the Tribe, so like wise he chose the name to be given at the sacrament. But symbolical of Divine For giveness, young Senor Guarrin, son of the Head-Hunter s victim, agreed to stand sponsor for the convert. When the impassive Ah Ching heard of that arrangement, he blinked his eyes and pon dered upon it. Although he could not fathom the mystery in it, and was extremely curious, he finally decided that it would be wiser not to ask for the explanation of the puzzle ; for whenever young Senor Guarrin and Senor Padre were ready to execute the plot that they were evidently concocting, they would undoubtedly inform him of the details and assign him his share in it. Senor Calimag was present at the cere mony, and felt strange, creepy thrills crawl ing up his spine to his neck, a sensation that did not cease even with Senor Padre s deep- toned, solemn pronunciamento : " Pedro. MYSTERIES IN MANY BONDS 129 Upon this rock God shall build His Church among the Peoples of the Mountains. " Far away, El Lunatico, who had been barred from the service by Padre Antonio s orders, straddled his toy sword, and howled "Ki-yi-yah-ah-ah." Teresa, who always reminded Pedro Ca- linga of the Comeliest Maid, remembered the masterful eyes that had stared into her own on the day of the flogging, remembered, too, the chagrin of the wielder of the lash. Often she glanced inquisitively at El Sargento. Once, his eyes meeting hers, he smiled at her. The convert, waiting for her in the door way and wondering if his new status in so ciety would make a difference to her, saw that smile. Although Teresa promptly turned her back upon El Sargento and pursed up her nose, the incident plunged Pedro into a morose, gloomy mood. He feared that his savage past made him unworthy of her, and her fancied favor to the despised Sargento filled him with a presentiment that he would never come to know her, much less win her. 130 THE TAMING OF CALINGA As soon as Pedro could escape from his friends, he wandered far into the hills, wan dered until he found a single Fire-Tree in bloom, from which he gathered great bunches of the fiery blossoms. Senor Padre found the suggestive flowers scattered about Pedro Calinga s room. As something of abstraction, of meditation, in Pedro s tense face suggested that his thoughts might be dwelling on the savage Mountain Woman who had waited for the gift of a human head, Seiior Padre shuddered. If Senor Padre had known about Teresa, or even the mating season of the year, he would not have been so disturbed. Padre Antonio glanced at the altar in the room. Just behind the Crucifix sat the hideous Chinese idol of 0-mi-to-fu. Its arms held a fresh sprig of the Fire-Tree, El Lunatico s daily gift. CHAPTEE XVI The Watchers Beside the Mysterious Trail AGAIN the Fire-Tree bloomed and the young men sought the Trophy that should give them Man s Estate and a maid to bear them children. And still the Comeliest Maid hoped and waited for the Strong Young Chief. The young men came back again, and the light of the great joy burned in many a maiden s eyes. When the last, faded, withered, crimson flowers fell from the Fire-Tree, a very few of those who had gone forth had not returned. As many young maids mourned for a space, and forgot. At night, as many old women stared down the Mysterious Trail whither their sons had gone. The old women that mourned in silence came to the Comeliest Maid, and waited with her that had the Great Faith to say, "The 131 132 THE TAMING OF CALINGA Strong Young Chief sleeps, but lie will come again." And her words comforted them* For the third time, the Comeliest Maid re fused the New Chief s Trophies. And to silence his protest, she threatened him with exposure. CHAPTER XVII The Spirit Voice of Li Choy Sang IT was one of Ah Ching s plots. But it had its inception in El Sargento s courting. Teresa refused El Sargento. The levity with which she received his impassioned protestations constituted, in his estimation, an insult. A quality of disdain in her ex pressive eyes reminded him of the contemp tuous stare she had bestowed upon him just after he had completed the public flogging of the Savage. Although the incident was almost three years in the past, memory of it so enraged El Sargento that he forgot the part of wisdom, and taunted her. He pointed out the budding flowers of the Fire-Tree, shrugged his shoulders, and sneered, "Perhaps Teresa, like a Mountain Woman, waits to be claimed with a gift of a head. 133 134 THE TAMING OF CALINGA Teresa understood. She understood both the jeer at Pedro Calinga s antecedents and the accusation that she cared for the man. She shuddered. And yet? With a sensa tion akin to a shock, she confessed an interest in Pedro Calinga, an interest the realization of which had been forced upon her by the suggestion. She, too, recalled Pedro Calinga as he had appeared on that day, the wild, beautiful power of the man, recalled the ap peal he had made to her then and had made ever since. She resented the hint at that Mountain Woman who had been the incentive for the trip that had ended with Calinga s capture. The mere thought of that Other Woman aroused her jealousy, filled her with cold chills, and she shuddered again. Then she wondered how El Sargento had guessed what she herself had not realized, what had never been intimated. Pedro Calinga had never spoken to her except with his eyes, and they were always eloquent. How many had read the Tale those eyes told 1 The pos sibility troubled her. SPIRIT VOICE OF LI CHOY SANG 135 Consciousness that she was staring at her own little feet startled Teresa. She tried to think of a suitable retort, of any sort of a lash that would hide her own confusion. De fiantly she raised her eyes. For a moment she stared at El Sargento s neck. That was suggestive. Then she, too, shrugged her shoulders. "If it could be one head," she admitted. "But it is not the Custom to take a con temptible head, 7 she mourned, "so perhaps poor Teresa must always remain unclaimed. El Sargento also understood. He sput tered, and his clenched fist drew back. But Teresa was not his woman not yet and so his blows might not repay her for the affront. He could only threaten, and bluster, and stride away with whatever masculine dignity he could sustain. He almost ran in his haste to request Senor Calimag s assistance. He planned revenge, planned to make her his woman, planned to inflict upon her, in the near future, a full measure of just, retaliatory blows. The most 136 THE TAMING OF CALINGA attractive little Teresa should petition, and plead, and beg for mercy from her lord and master! Though her beauty thrilled him, the scornful flash of her eye, her cruel retort, maddened him. He found Senor Calimag in the yard, but the illustrious man was preoccupied and El Sargento waited for a propitious moment to make his request. Senor Presidente was worried. He could not fathom Ah Ching s purpose in inviting the Spanish Provincial Officials to visit Badi during the great ball in honor of Senor Calimag s sixtieth birthday, and the absence of an apparent motive perplexed the local celebrity. The Chino had not been actuated by a desire to confer upon the famous baile such a luster as only the presence of the Spaniards could give. Clearly, Ah Ching was engaged in some subtle intrigue aimed at Senor Calimag. Senor Calimag had so fre quently become involved in shrewd Oriental traps that he feared Ah Ching s plots. A town cur which El Lunatico was driving SPIBIT VOICE OF LI CHOY SANG 137 about the yard in pursuit of first one and then another chicken, suddenly dashed among the Policia guards gathered near their Mas ter. The Accursed One found some difficulty in soothing his snarling, frightened "pony," and in extricating it from the crowd. But the commotion did not disturb the trend of Senor Calimag s meditations. Senor Calimag recognized one awkward complication, a mere incident but neverthe less a complication for which there was noth ing but an awkward solution. The Spaniards could not be invited unless their host were included in the invitation, and every social leader of Badi would resent the Chino s pres ence. Senor Calimag swore. Then he turned upon El Sargento, glared at that inoffensive ignorante, and grunted a questioning "Unh?" El Sargento made his request, and Senor Calimag promptly, curtly refused. Though El Sargento remembered the witchery of the little Teresa s taunting eyes, remembered, too, the heavy debt of gratitude 138 THE TAMING OF CALINGA his Master owed, lie maintained due defer ence in his rigid, military pose. Yet some* thing, perhaps the shrug of his shoulders, carried a threat. " Never, in all the years that have passed since Pedro Kiachu murdered Seiior Cali mag s son, and fled, has your unworthy serv ant told that he was ordered to flog and flog the murderer s mother until she was dead, nor has he claimed his promised reward " he paused " until now." Senor Calimag shuddered, and glanced hastily about. The preoccupation of his body guard in their noisy controversy with El Lunatico reassured him. "Sh-h-h," he warned. "I acknowledge the obligation. The matter shall be arranged as you wish. "Ki-yi-yah-ah-ah," El Lunatico yelled, and charged out of the yard in a mad effort to recapture his escaped "pony." Senor Calimag recoiled, and crossed him self again and again, and muttered many 3, fervent "Jesu!" The Policia found it nee- SPIBIT VOICE OF LI CHOY SANG 139 essary to aid his trembling footsteps into the house. Later Ah Ching called. Though Senor Calimag warily and intently searched the impassive Celestial features for some hint of the part the Spaniards were to play in the plot, he found none. "I have trained many Birds in an effort to defeat the famous Ujjin" Ah Ching smiled blandly "and have lost heavily in wagering upon them. I have another that I would like to match against the Undefeated Champion for a suitable wager say on the Sunday "before the great baile." The reference to that social function re minded Senor Calimag of his dilemma. As he had no intention of losing such an oppor tunity to extricate himself gracefully, he promptly invited Ah Ching. With just the indifference that would have marked the manner of an intimate friend, or of one who had but received an expected courtesy, Ah Ching accepted, and expressed a conventional pleasure. 140 THE TAMING OF CALINGA "I should like to present to my illustrious guests the bird that had conquered Ujjin," Ah Ching explained. What connection, other than the one stated, there could be between the visit of the Span iards and a combat between fighting-cocks, puzzled Senor Calimag. He shrugged his shoulders. "If the stakes make it worth while," he agreed. "A hundred pesos a side for the public to talk about?" Ah Ching suggested, and Senor Calimag nodded. "But between our selves, to make the affair of interest to men of wealth? 7 He paused, hesitated, seemed to ponder. Senor Calimag found something fascinating in the steady, unblinking stare of the expressionless, slant eyes. Ah Ching s pidgin Spanish intensified the nasal drone of his speech. i The peon, Vicente Balisi, owes you three hundred pesos, and he owes me a hundred and two" Ah Ching s innocent, impassive eyes stared at his host "and Vicente has a daughter." Senor Calimag SPIEIT VOICE OF LI CHOY SANG 141 started. "I will stake my claims in him against an equal part of yours. If I win, I will own more than half of him, and if you win, you will own all of him. So if you win, El Sargento shall have the little witch, Teresa, but if I win" he paused again and smiled "if I win, she shall be free for one year to marry Senor Padre s man, Pedro Calinga." Senor Calimag trembled. Ah Ching s knowledge of El Sargento s affair with the woman was uncanny. It was ominous, and carried a threat of the catastrophe that might result from a refusal of the wager. Nevertheless, Senor Calimag had no inten tion of antagonizing El Sargento. That ignorante, if enraged by a delay in gaining possession of the woman, and especially if he should suspect a ruse to cheat him out of her, might seek revenge, even might tell Ah Ching and Senor Padre Antonio Kiachu how the mother of Pedro Kiachu had hap pened to die! What El Sargento could tell of deeds in Badi would stir all the North 142 THE TAMING OF CALINGA Provinces from one end of the Great Cagayan Valley to the other ! Senor Calimag refused the bet. Ah Ching bowed. "Perhaps Seiior Presidente prefers to ac cept the same terms from Senor Padre," he suggested, and started for the door. Senor Calimag protested. He much pre ferred dealing with an irate El Sargento to dealing with a polite, insistent Padre An tonio, who knew what he knew and suspected more. Besides, Ujjin always won, and El Sargento could be convinced that the wager meant no more than a slight delay in get ting possession of the woman and was un avoidable under the circumstances. One other consideration urged acquiescence. Ah Ching was a good sport, a good loser, and the acceptance of the wager would insure his silence ever afterwards. "And the Bird!" he asked. Ah Ching bowed again. "I have not made my choice as yet, but SPIRIT VOICE OF LI CHOY SANG 143 I will name the Challenger to-morrow/ he promised. After Ah Ching had gone, Senor Calimag pondered upon the situation. He was per plexed as well as terrified. No traitor among his guards could have carried such full de tails of the plan to Ah Ching, for not a per son had been near enough to hear the prom ise to El Sargento ; the Policia were engaged at the time in a noisy controversy with El Lunatico. Nevertheless, Senor Calimag questioned the guards, and bullied the women of the household. He did not mention the bet, nor its terms, but he dropped hints con cerning the coming Combat and the beau tiful Teresa, hints so suggestive that they would have startled a traitor into self-be trayal. Only his former favorite, Ana, revealed even the slightest trace of nervousness and her agitation was evidently due to the chat tering Accursed One s roughness in his game with her baby boy. Senor Calimag finally concluded that this was just another case in 144 THE TAMING OF CALINGA which the Ghost of Li Choy Sang, that omnis cient spirit, had betrayed his plans to Ah Ching. But that supposition did not explain what ulterior, hidden advantage would accrue to Ah Ching from saving Teresa for Pedro Calinga. Senor Calimag did not suspect Pedro of having a Chinese Ancestor, and if he had, he would not have appreciated the strength of such a tie. Because Ah Ching s plots were always aimed at one target, because their conse quences were invariably disastrous to the victim, because this present situation was baffling to any sane .solution, Senor Calimag surrendered himself to those torturing per plexities and worries that imagination builds from the material supplied by a guilty con science. In the meantime, Ah Ching pattered over to Senor Padre s home and made certain ar rangements with Pedro Calinga. As a gen erous compensation for the services of Furao, the Chino presented Pedro with a fortune of fifty pesos to wager on the combat. But he SPIRIT VOICE OF LI CHOY SANG 145 kept his faith with Senor Calimag; he said nothing of the other stakes, the novel stakes, for which the gamesters would fight. A very proud Calinga tenderly returned Furao to his fellows, while the former scoff ers quickly spread the news of the match, a match that gave both the Bird and its trainer such a transient fame as may be re flected by the reputation of a Champion Gamester like Ujjin. When Ah Ching named Furao the White, Senor Calimag sighed his relief. After all, there had been nothing to fear in Ah Ching s plot. The choice of such a Challenger was amusing. The only unpleasant feature about the match was the possibility that Ujjin might suffer ridicule for meeting the Bird that was the town joke. Senor Calimag laughed. i l The devil ! he sneered, and laughed again. " Ujjin the Bed, will certainly be ready for this Scrawny Wonder, this Furao ! " he assured Ah Ching. Ah Ching pattered home, and promptly forgot all about the incident. He had re- 146 THE TAMING OF CALINGA ceived his invitation to the great bails f and had no other interest at stake, since the out come of the contest involved the factional prestige of the Ilocanos and Cagayannes but did not concern the Chinos. Of course, Ah Ching could enjoy the satisfaction of Furao s success, should 0-mi-to-fu grant it. As for Teresa and her fate, that concerned only Pedro Calinga and El Sargento and 0-mi-to-fu, Ah Ching believed, would also look after that. It was several days before the diabolical ingenuity of Ah Ching s plot occurred to Seiior Calimag and then Senor Gumila pointed it out. Ah Ching had selected a Bird that was the property of the Chosen of God ! Would the Inspiration of God guide Furao s spur? CHAPTER XVIII In the Eyes of the Strange Furao SENOR PRESIDENTE, as Official Judge of Combats, announced the match of the day. The reeking, steaming mob packed itself against the circle of bamboo poles about the pit. The Cagayan faction were gathered to shout, to boast, to see their scarred, old, vet eran Champion, Ujjin, chase the scrawny, presumptuous Novice from the pit. The Ilo- canos, more silent partisans, only hoped. Within the enclosure, Senor Calimag stood over the trainers, to insure that all was fair, to settle disputes, while Senor Padre leaned against the boundary staves and kept a shrewd eye on the final arrangements. Though Pedro Calinga and his strange Bird were the objects of many a humorous sally, of requests to exhibit the skill of the 147 148 THE TAMING OF CALINGA ridiculous Fowl, of quips that provoked the uproarious merriment of the Cagayannes, the indifferent Pedro ignored the taunts. But when he discovered the little Teresa, a change came over him. For her benefit, he demonstrated Furao s art, although she was nothing but a woman. Of course, he ad dressed his explanations to his friend, El Lunatico, who had heard them many times and could not be expected to comprehend sen sible distinctions. But his eyes spoke to Teresa. Their message startled Senor Padre. A muttered "Jesu!" expressed his sudden en lightenment. In Pedro s interest in Teresa, Padre Antonio saw a factor that would de stroy the fascination of the blossoms of the Fire-Tree and steady the convert in the Faith. Not that Calinga needed any support in the Faith, but that a woman like Teresa would finally reconcile Pedro to civilization. Senor Padre busied his thoughts with plans for their future. But those plans depended upon Teresa, upon her will, upon her desires. IN THE EYES OF THE FUEAO 149 He studied her. From the wistful, uncon scious expression in her eyes, it was evident that she was less interested in the gamester, in its novel skill, than she was in its trainer. Senor Calimag laughed, but Senor Padre failed to detect the cynical, vindictive amuse ment in the cackle. Despite the preoccupation of his adviser, Pedro Calinga lost no advantage in the long contest of claim and counter-claim concern ing the conditions of the combat. In nimble wit, in ready argument, he so thoroughly outgeneraled El Sargento that he gained every concession he desired without grant ing any in return. Senor Calimag cursed the stupidity of his henchman and remembered how Ah Ching had planned that the Inspira tion of God should guide the tongue of His Chosen One while the hopes of the Ilocanos rose accordingly. But best of all, Teresa danced, and clapped her hands, and laughed exultantly, although she had no suspicion of what was staked upon the combat, of what the outcome might mean 150 THE TAMING OF CALINGA to her. She thought of the possibilities that a hundred pesos might suggest to Pedro Ca- linga, of all the household furnishings so much wealth would buy, and a gentle light lurked in her dark eyes. Enraged almost beyond the limit of self- restraint, El Sargento glared at her and barely choked back the muttered threat, "Fll beat you for that, after the fight. Teresa could not distinguish the mumbled words, but the scowl on El Sargento s face betrayed his annoyance over her delight in his opponent s success in outwitting him. She openly, pointedly, tauntingly exulted. "Ujjin, the Unconquered, humbles pre sumption," El Sargento growled. Only Senor Calimag discerned the double inter pretation that could be put upon the remark. " Ki-yi-yah-ah-ah, " yelled El Lunatico, and galloped around the pit. Senor Calimag shivered, and crossed him self, and gave the signal. For just a moment, Calinga cuddled his IN THE EYES OF THE FUEAO 151 white, white pet. Then he dropped the eager Challenger to the ground. Silent, necks stretched and feathers stand ing out, their bodies swaying slightly back and forth, the Eed and White crouched low and glared at one another. Their trainers urged them on with crooning words and sharp calls, with snapping fingers. El Sargento paused in his exhortations just long enough to give Teresa one vindic tive, triumphant glance, to gloat over the terror that should drive the soft light from her eyes when she should learn how he had won her, and could beat her for her taunts and insults. Ujjin sprang. Although the flap of his wings scarcely warned of his attack, Furao dropped in time, and dodged the swinging, vicious sweep of the powerful limb, and then, jabbing from beneath in his own peculiar way, gashed Ujjin s red breast. Teresa hid her eyes until she heard the cheers of the Ilocanos, the answering, gasp ing groans of the Cagayannes. Then she 152 THE TAMING OF CALINGA joined in urging the White on to victory, in pleading with that worthy Bird to win a hun dred pesos for her Silent Lover. El Sar- gento glared at her, and raged, and cursed the veteran Ujjin for his slovenly work with the spur, and consigned Ah Ching and his wagers to Eternal Torment. The Hocano shouts for the Chosen of God, after such evidence of Divine Aid, did not reassure El Sargento. Nor did the noisy demonstration of El Lu- natico, that other with God s Protection. The Accursed One yelled, and whooped, and yelled again. "Wait, wait, my Furao," Calinga s calm, tense voice begged. "Wait for the Craven One, and stab far back." Furao disobeyed. He rushed in, and his steel spur ripped to shreds a wing of the red. Teresa thrilled at the certainty of Furao s victory, at the vision of her dreams come true. And then it happened. It may have been an accident, and the rules of the pit would call it such. As Senor Calimag stepped aside, IN THE EYES OF THE FUEAO 153 his heel toppled Furao over and drove the Bird s own keen-edged spur through a leg, severing the muscles from its body. Ujjin stood to his full height, crowed lustily, and strutted before his dying, help less adversary. At first Calinga stared dazedly at the birds. And neither the challenge in El Lu- natico s familiar yell nor the little branch of the budding Fire-Tree that the Accursed One hurled into the pit aroused Calinga from his stupor. Then his lips began to move strangely. And then he leaned forward on his toes, and crouched low, and the tensed muscles of his arms quivered. Teresa cried quietly, wept in protest at the postponement of all the dreams, sobbed for fear that Calinga might not think of the pos sibilities unless a fortune suggested them. El Sargento started out of the pit to choke her into silence, to beat her for her grief, for humiliating him so. But some instinct drew his eye, drew every eye, to Calinga, to Calinga s strained pose, 154 THE TAMING OF CALINGA to his moving lips. The exultant cheers of the Cagayannes died in their throats, and the mob subsided into a painful, awed silence. And then they heard Calinga calling, calling, calling, faint at first, not Christian words but a savage prayer that swelled louder and louder a wild, weird, fierce, droning chant. Furao heard that insistent plea, heard, too, the boastful, triumphant crow, and flopped around to face his foe. He glared unquench able hate and defiance at Ujjin. Such audacity surprised Ujjin. He forgot to crow, and ceased his proud strutting be fore Furao s fast glazing eyes. Puzzled, in quisitive, he cocked his head from side to side. Such insolence from a dying, conquered Bird angered Ujjin. He crouched low, and prepared to deliver the final death blow. Something shook Ujjin s courage, perhaps the insistent voice calling, calling, perhaps the savage, undimmed, defiant fighting spirit in the eyes of the strange Furao. And never before in a battle had Ujjin been so faint, nor received so many terrible slashes. Ujjin IN THE EYES OF THE FUEAO 155 dodged Furao s unconquered eyes, and stole around to the side to sneak in a blow. Though his head was sinking lower and lower, Furao turned too, a flopping, floun dering, terrifying motion. Ujjin paused. More intense, more urgent, swelled the droning chant, the call, the prayer! Wings beating the ground wildly, like drum-sticks beating the long roll, Furao lifted himself to his single foot and, shoving him self along with those flapping wings, lum bered straight at Ujjin. Ujjin fled, and the Victor, his last spas modic effort expended, sank to the ground. Not a cheer hailed Furao. The silent spec tators could only stare at the gore-dyed, white lump that Calinga gathered in his arms and crooned over. Then El Lunatico yelled. At that familiar cry, the tension snapped, and factions for gotten, the whole assemblage cheered the heroic, dead Furao. El Sargento did not join his voice in the 156 THE TAMING OF CALINGA general shout of acclamation, but slunk out of the pit and away from public view. He had no desire to witness the little Teresa s tears; they were tears of expectation. The outcome of the combat changed the public attitude toward Calinga, It made him the personality, Pedro Calinga. He ceased to be merely the civilized Savage, Calinga. And more, he became a personage, accepted and greeted by all as a famous man, trainer of Furao, the Conqueror of Ujjin, for years the Undefeated Champion of all the North Provinces. Pedro did not recognize the dif ference, as a thought formulated and ex pressed in his own mind, but he felt it. Wherever he strolled through the crowd, peo ple spoke to him, and sought his acquaint anceship. In all matters pertaining to cock fights, his judgment was accepted as final. Even in affairs with which he had had no experience, like the great baile, his opinion was asked for, and received the deference accorded to authority. Though the adula tion was the reward of Success, and Pedro IN THE EYES OF THE FURAO 157 enjoyed it, he would scarcely have repeated as his own so many judgments borrowed from Senor Padre s chance remarks, if he had not suffered from three other stimulants. Most wonderful of all, Teresa smiled at him, and requested him to explain the intri cacies of the combat. Some witchery in her dark eyes fascinated him. Almost before he realized what he was doing, he offered her, as a gift, the body of Furao. His own audac ity so terrified him that he trembled in fear of her refusal, of her resentment at the public attention thus attracted to her. Her confu sion chilled him. And then the reaction, his exaltation upon her shy acceptance of the gift, so thrilled him that he almost over looked the desirability of retaining Furao s severed leg as a memento of that faithful gamester. After that event, nothing seemed strange. When Senor Calimag stopped him for a few kindly words, and invited him to attend the great baile, Pedro saw nothing unusual in the distinction, although but few of his caste, and 158 THE TAMING OF CALINGA those from the Cagayannes, were similarly honored. Everywhere Pedro met adulation. Here an admirer pressed upon him a cigar, an other a chew of buja. Others insisted upon him joining them in a drink of bino. Pedro took many drinks of bino, and so, when Senor Padre escorted him home, his gait, though solemnly dignified as in the early afternoon, had lost much of its surety, his eyes their keenness. Pedro sought the altar in his room. A long time he pondered before it. Then he hid the image of 0-mi-to-fu in a crevice beneath the floor, and put the foot of Furao in its place. Remembering Teresa, he sauntered out into the fields, and gathered the blossoms of the Fire-Tree. Later in the evening Padre Antonio dis covered the substitution of Furao s foot for the Chinese idol. He smiled, and rubbed his hands together. But noticing the fresh, crimson mass of the flowers that crowded upon the chained, white, white Crucifix with IN THE EYES OF THE FUEAO 159 the purple-blue marks, he frowned, and shook his head. "Teresa will put an end to that foolish ness, " he muttered. Again he stared at the too vivid reminder of the past. CHAPTER XIX The Flight of the Comeliest Maid FOE the fourth time the New Chief came to the Comeliest Maid. In his wild eyes burned a resolution that defied the threats of exposure with which she had so often silenced him. "The Fire-Tree blooms again," said he, "and its fresh young shoots call to the Sa cred Hunt. I go. And when I come again, I will bring many Trophies with thick black hair. Let the Comeliest Maid put aside her mourning for him that has never returned, and choose him who has succeeded the Strong Young Chief." "The Strong Young Chief sleeps," the Comeliest Maid answered. "He will come again, and bring many Trophies of his prowess." The Strong Young Chief sleeps forever, 160 FLIGHT OF COMELIEST MAID 161 the New Chief replied, "and the Comeliest Maid must choose another." The Comeliest Maid bowed her head, and answered nothing to that command. But when the crimson of the Fire-Tree burned the most brilliantly, the Comeliest Maid stole down that Mysterious Path which the young men followed when they sallied forth to hunt among the effeminate Valley People the Trophy of Man s Estate. In the flat land, she knew no fear of the Valley Peo ple, whose men had only the courage of women, and, war-bolo in hand, she crept boldly through their fields, and wandered hither and thither in search of the Strong Young Chief that had not come again. CHAPTER XX The Amusements of a Lunatic THRILLS! Thrills! Thrills insure the success of any function/ Sefior Gumila gushed. l Only the shrewdest of men, my dear Calimag, would have discerned so promptly the thrills the Spaniards will find in the presence of the Civilized Head-Hunter at the great baile." Senor Calimag shrugged his shoulders, and grunted a rasping, self -laudatory "Unh." At the house they found confusion and wild excitement. Ana s baby-boy tossed on the floor with the fever of smallpox, and she, wringing her hands in dry-eyed agony, knelt beside the child. Almost stupefied by such a misfortune at such a time, Sefior Calimag glowered at the ignorante boy, his own son, and yet accord ing to that Inexorable Law which gives the 162 AMUSEMENTS OF A LUNATIC 163 mother s inferior caste to the child born out of wedlock, only a despised ignorante. Then came realization of all that was threatened. "Damn the ignorante brat," he howled. "Why must he bring the plague into the house when it is not due for another month? Perhaps, even, the Spaniards may stay away from the great baile," he wailed. Senor Gumila shrugged his shoulders. "Pacencia, Senor, pacencia," he soothed. " As God wills it. " Disappointment and rage mastered Senor Calimag. Again and again he struck the crouching woman with his cane. Ana only shrank closer to the floor, closer to her sick child with her body over it, above it, pro tecting it and no sound of protest or of pain escaped from her set lips. The beating ceased when Senor Gumila succeeded in overpower ing the infuriated man. "Fool!" the cool-headed Gumila hissed. "Pedro Kiachu did murder for " He shrugged his shoulders expressively. And then Senor Calimag shivered, and 164 THE TAMING OF CALINGA cowered, and his eyes fearfully searched the room for a Presence that was not there. When he had recovered his composure and had pondered sufficiently upon the predica ment, Senor Calimag arrived at a solution; he banished mother and child to an old shack in the yard, and set the Policia to guard it, lest El Lunatico discover the whereabouts of the Woman with the Smoldering Brand in her Mouth and frighten the guests with his senseless chatter. The shack in the yard fascinated El Lu natico. Again and again he tried to pass the guards, but every attempt met with failure. Neither a resort to ruses, nor appeals to their superstitious fear of interfering with one having God s protection, availed to beguile them from their watchful caution. Though they crossed themselves many times and cursed Senor Calimag for assigning them to such a detail, they withstood even the vicious administrations of the wooden sword. So AMUSEMENTS OF A LUNATIC 165 El Lunatico abandoned his effort to get into the old building. With far better results, the Accursed One gave his attention to usurping the functions and prerogatives of the Master of Cere monies. At first, El Sargento resisted El Lunatico s assumption of the distinction and its authority, but he quickly succumbed be fore the Accursed One s assaults, and fled. As an insane mind is never actuated by a logical motive, El Lunatico, in his usurpation of El Sargento s prerogatives, could not be suspected of an attempt to divert attention from an ulterior motive, but rather of a childish desire to enjoy a novel sensation. Nevertheless, El Lunatico appreciated the importance of his position. No grand ~baile can be really distinguished, unless a skilful Master of Ceremonies directs the efforts of the ignorante guests and makes sure that they give reasonable attention to the roast- ing-fire and to the preparation of the feast. El Lunatico proved a Success ; he was impar tial in so far as he compelled every one, even 166 THE TAMING OF CALINGA members of the Policia, to labor. But lack ing discrimination, he sometimes set men at such women s tasks as cleaning the fowls and insisted upon their performing the odious duty in public. Pedro Calinga was bored. The monotony of repeated exhibitions of Tadday, Furao s understudy and successor, deprived his ef forts of either vim or interest. But when the beautiful Teresa came to see the Birds, Pedro found a renewed pleasure in illustrating the art of training a gamester. Not that he dared to talk to her at first ! But her shy, furtive glances thrilled her handsome admirer. Pedro missed the first summons to the feast. Possibly El Lunatico, flustered and excited over the sensation of mustering the revelers, forgot his friend. Or he may have appreciated the fascination in dark, fathom less, feminine eyes. At least, they were not disturbed until the Old Crone, much im pressed by such preoccupation, boisterously announced, "It is easy to see why Senor Padre is building a new shack on his land. AMUSEMENTS OP A LUNATIC 167 Soon Pedro Calinga will have a home, and take Teresa to it." The guilty, confused couple jumped. Pedro promptly drove two Birds into harm less conflict with one another, while Teresa lost herself in the crowd. El Lunatico straddled his sword and gal loped after the offender. With the panto mime of spanking a naughty child, he es corted an intensely dignified Pedro to the head of the line. 1 If you must wait for the women and chil dren, lead them, he scolded, a joke that won vociferous applause from the spectators. He placed the abashed Teresa behind Ca linga, and whacked the shins of those whose noise and protests at the position assigned the girl, delayed the proper formation of the line. Satisfied at last, he signaled to the band, and supervised the parade to the tables. Sefior Calimag, who never interfered with the precedences established by the ignorantes among themselves, personally placed the chair for Pedro. Turning to welcome his 168 THE TAMING OF CALINGA other humble guests, he caught sight of the girl with the bowed head. Senor Calimag stared. "Jesu! n he exclaimed, speaking in Span ish, a language which the ignorantes did not understand, "little Teresa has grown to be a greater beauty than was her sister Ana ! He studied her with a covetous admiration, but her bashful, intense reserve discouraged him, while the placid smile of the wily Ah Ching reminded him of the wager he had lost. Senor Calimag began to plan some comment with which to humiliate her success ful ignorante suitor, but that which he saw in Calinga s steady eyes strangled the words in his throat, and he could only mutter another disappointed "Jesu!" Senor Gumila laughed. "Can you not see that Teresa means to give her enticing little self to him who sits at the head of the table T he sneered. Senor Calimag shrugged his shoulders and laughed. But before he could voice his boast, his threat, El Lunatico trotted up to him, AMUSEMENTS OF A LUNATIC 169 halted, and stared into his face. The action disconcerted Senor Calimag. It suggested that something was amiss, and he passed his hand over his perspiring face. The white powder adhering to his finger-tips gave as surance that his complexion still resembled a Spaniard s in whiteness. "Jesu!" El Lunatico exclaimed. "Such pretty brown streaks up and down!" Then he stuck his finger in his mouth and poked it at the illustrious Seiior Don Miguel Calimag. The Senor Don crossed and recrossed him self, but before he could back away El Lu natico very deliberately passed his finger twice over the scrawny cheeks. He examined the additional brown streaks, examined the white lump on his finger, thumped the floor with his sword, smeared a checker-board decoration on his forehead and cheeks, and turned a somersault. Before he could recover his balance and continue with his objectionable antics, a gen try persuasive but firm Pedro Calinga took charge of El Lunatico, seated the Irrespon- 170 THE TAMING OF CALINGA sible One at the foot of the table, and com manded him to keep silent. In El Lunatico s passive submission to the Chosen of God was something more than obedience to a recognized master. There was surprise that his outbreak was treated with such indifference! There was disappoint ment over the failure of some expected out come to materialize! There was a hard, de termined glitter in his roving, limpid eyes ! Feeling a certain responsibility for the ac tions of his afflicted friend, the famous trainer of gamesters glanced across the table as soon as he was again seated at its head. Pedro Calinga s hands clattered on the board before him he leaned forward he stared. In a doorway behind El Lunatico stood a group of white, white-skinned men in white clothes. Only their black hair, their eyebrows, broke the harmonious unity of white ! Green Devils! Spaniards! The People that owned the Magic of the Boom-Boom! AMUSEMENTS OF A LUNATIC 171 And each Green Devil carried one of the Charmed Sticks! In that instant, Pedro Calinga, the Strong Young Chief, understood the fate of Li Choy Sang and his Great People. Green Devils were the Spaniards, the People who had given their God the white, white-skinned God to the poor Filipino ! If an interruption had not broken the spell, the Strong Young Chief would have crawled to the white-skinned men as once he had crawled to the Image of the white, white Man-God that hung upon Crossed Sticks. Toned with hatred, El Lunatico s wild, triumphant, expectant laughter rang out, and challenged the Savagery in the civilized Head-Hunter. The whole company shivered, and made the Sign of the Cross, and glanced fearfully back and forth between the two who stared so strangely at one another. El Lu- natico grasped his nose with thumb and fore finger, tilted back his head till the cords of his neck stood out, and gravely hacked at his throat. 172 THE TAMING OF CALINGA Pedro Calinga s muscles tensed, Ms jaws set. El Lunatico gagged and gurgled, and gloated over the fires that raged higher and higher in Calinga s eyes. Senor Padre s strained, furious voice broke the silence. He pointed at the door and held the Crucifix on high. "Get thee hence, thou Accursed One, lest we forget that God protects thee for thy af fliction," he commanded. "Go," he threat ened, when El Lunatico indicated his inten tion of uttering a retort. "Ki-yi-yah-ah-ah," El Lunatico yelled. But he obeyed the Servant of God and charged out of the house. Only the Power of the God of the Lonely, the appeal of His Image and of His gentle, soothing Spirit Voice saying, "Pax vobis- cum," transformed the Strong Young Chief back again into Pedro Calinga, and steadied him. But his hands clasped and unclasped, spasmodically. And no banter could relieve the strain that El Lunatico left behind him. AMUSEMENTS OF A LUNATIC 173 Thoroughly pleased with his desired expul sion from the house, El Lunatico chased the pigs, the curs, the women, and the chickens, as he was expected to do, until the members of the Policia were assured of his satisfaction with such tame sport, and returned to the interrupted feast. But when he became con vinced that no stray watcher lurked in a win dow, he gave his attention to the faint sounds in the previously well-guarded shack. He listened. Sword on his shoulder, he marched over to investigate. Stealthily he climbed to a window and peeked through. His conven tional hail gurgled in his throat, unuttered. He stared. In the centre of the room, Ana knelt above the body of her boy. The quiet, rigid form of his favorite playmate awed El Lunatico. He wondered if the stiff, still hands clasped in one of the mother s would ever again reach out and beg for a loan of the Spanish mili tary cap. Though her cramped throat choked over the words of the lullaby, Ana crooned to the sleeper. Her hand smoothed the child s 174 THE TAMING OF CALINGA coarse, matted hair from out the wide, vacant eyes. El Lunatico slipped into the shack and squatted beside the woman. When his hand also touched the boy, he whispered, "Dead." The woman neither saw nor heard him. Deaf, indifferent, she rocked on, and crooned. The laughter of the guests suggested to El Lunatico the blasphemous sayings with which he so often horrified her. i Hear them laugh, Ana ! Hear the princi- pales laugh at the Will of God," he jabbered. But there was hatred in the snap of his voice. "Why call upon the God of the principales, Ana! Their God is mean to an ignorante girl." His blasphemy failed. It neither reached her consciousness nor turned her from her grief to a scathing reproof of himself. El Lunatico stared at the woman s dry, hot eyes, at the bony, gentle hand, and he heard the pain in her crooning voice. It may have been a lucid interval that led him to understand her need, or it may have been chance. AMUSEMENTS OF A LUNATIC 175 Another uproar of laughter burst upon them, and the woman cringed. "Pobre Ana, Poire Ana/ El Lunatico repeated over and over, until the droning, soothing words won her attention, and her dumb eyes appealed to the Accursed of God. "Pobre Ana," he comforted. Possibly the memory of the man El Lu natico once had been, perhaps only the chord of sympathy in his voice, accounted for the influence of his words. She ran her claw- like fingers through her hair and rent it, and convulsive sobs shook her frame. Yet their very violence soothed her. El Lunatico consoled her until her first, wild grief subsided. Then he stole out and left her alone with her dead. Straddling his wooden sword and yelling, 6 Ki-yi-yah-ah-ah, " he galloped around the house until the bitter hatred in the cry had overawed the guests, and had silenced them. Then, laughing insanely, he charged into the house from which he had so recently been expelled. Setting his cap at the proper mili- 176 THE TAMING OF CALINGA tary tilt and twisting his horns into shape, he marched up to Senor Calimag, chucked that illustrious individual under the chin, took his arm and dragged him toward the door. "Come, Senor, come," he urged. "Your son is dead, and the beautiful Ana that you stole from her true lover, is dying. Come, Senor, come and see beautiful Ana and her still child." Senor Calimag trembled, and the words of his protests, his pleas for assistance, gurgled in his throat. Despite his struggles and much crossing of himself, the maniac dragged him along. No one, not even Senor Padre, dared to interfere with the Accursed One, nor to lay hands on him. El Lunatico s mood changed. He halted Senor Calimag and swung him around. 4 Poor Ana might think the devil had come to laugh at her," he snarled, and shoved Senor Calimag back amongst the guests. "Poor Ana needs nothing but the good Padre," he mumbled, and stalked out of the house. AMUSEMENTS OF A LUNATIC 177 Senor Calimag cowered. He licked his parched lips. "Such an unfortunate occurrence !" he apologized. i One could do no more than re move the disease from the house. The arrival of a messenger with the news that Senor Gumila s woman had also died with the smallpox turned the departure of his guests into a rout. Only Ah Ching s placid smile and bland good humor remained un affected. So Senor Calimag, enraged at the Chino s apparent triumph, blamed the whole misfortune upon Ah Ching s diabolical in genuity, and began to ponder upon retalia tion and upon the binding quality of an oath passed to a Heathen Chino in sealing some bets. Chattering and jabbering, yet with the military precision of one who, in other days, had seen service with the Army of Spain, El Lunatico paraded before the shack and guarded the woman s sorrow from curious eyes, until Senor Padre arrived. Then he himself clambered up to the window. Hang- 178 THE TAMING OF CALINGA ing half through it, he dangled his feet with out and played a tattoo upon the interlaced bamboo wall, and sympathized with her in whose eyes always lurked the vague Shadow of Sorrow. Such a desecration of Padre Antonio s Office in offering religious consolation to the Woman of the Smoldering Brand, incensed Pedro Calinga. He grabbed the kicking feet and yanked the intruder from the window. "Fool! Take your folly to scenes of mirth," he commanded. The commotion brought Senor Padre to the doorway. " Pedro, " he snapped. "Fool! Would you add to the burden of the Sad? Home with you and pray for f orgiveness. Pedro hung his head and went. In the early evening, Sefior Padre found the masses of the crimson, brilliant blossoms of the Fire-Tree tramped in the earth. Be side them Pedro squatted in the yard, and with a shake of his head declined El Luna- tico s daily gift of the Blooms. And only AMUSEMENTS OF A LUNATIC 179 Furao s withered limb reposed beside the Crucifix in Pedro s room. Padre Antonio exulted. And later that night he appointed Pedro sexton. CHAPTER XXI He That Knew PEDRO dug the grave for Senor Gumila s woman. He wondered when he would be called upon to dig a little grave. That there was anything sublime in death had never before occurred to him. Within his experience, death had been either an un pleasant phenomenon of existence or a neces sary adjunct to courtship. Not until he leaned upon his spade and stared into the hole he had dug did he suspect that death was solemn and worthy of pondering upon. Even then he failed to realize its full import. But when the slow tolling of the cathedral bell announced the approach of the funeral pro cession, strange thoughts suggested them selves to Calinga s mind. Pedro had often heard that measured, taunting toll, but never while standing beside an unfilled grave. 180 HE THAT KNEW 181 The funeral procession turned into the cemetery, and the band toned its dirge to a sadder pitch. The quivering wail of the clarionets and the warning boom of the bass drum seemed the lamentations of Spirit Voices. Pedro thought of the heads he once had hidden, of the other one that had floated down the river, thought of them, and crossed himself, and wondered if their souls still wan dered hither and thither and moaned for Christian burial. The slow advance over the bare, flat, un adorned ground, the whole pomp and cere mony of the funeral parade, impressed Pedro. His conscience insisted upon reminding him of those hidden heads. Senor Padre gave the signal, and Pedro turned the earth back into the hole, scooped the soil upon the coffin. Hollow thuds an swered the blows of the falling clods. Pedro paused many times to cross himself ! When the rounded mound was finished and the bamboo cross was properly set, he hurried home for his wealth. On his return, he met 182 THE TAMING OF CALINGA Seiior Padre at the church, and knelt, a peni tent, before the Servant of God. This day I have thought much of my evil deeds, and of the Headless Ones that fell by the wayside. Take this, my money, and say many Masses for the repose of their souls/ he begged. Afar off, there floated a weird Ki-yi-yah- ah-ah," and Padre Antonio crossed himself. "The strong young man and the old one received Christian burial. For the heathen Chino, we will say a few Masses that you may pay a worthy penance. He raised his Cruci fix above the bowed head. "Go in peace/ the reverent voice commanded. Senor Padre pondered for hours, and counted the pesos that had been entrusted to him, and debated with himself all that those pesos could do for that other funeral which was to be conducted at night and in secret. As Padre Antonio Kiachu was a poor man, just the Servant, and could not do himself what he desired, he summoned Pedro Calinga. "To-night you must dig a little grave, in HE THAT KNEW 183 the potter s field, because Senor Calimag refuses to pay for the burial of the son that Ana bore him," his calm, sad voice droned. Calinga started. His breath came in short gasps, and his eyes burned with a tense fury. He spoke with the angry intensity that man uses in addressing his equal man. "Senor," said he, "this day I gave you many pesos, and I shall earn more, until there are enough to pay for all I shall ask. Toll the bell, and bury in a fine grave the child of the Woman with the Smoldering Brand in her Mouth, and buy a beautiful white coffin, and carry it on the magnificent bier, and march before them in your robes, and read many Prayers. Do all that a principals would do," he begged, spreading wide his arms. Senor Padre smiled a kindly, sad smile. "Some of those things cannot be, but you may choose for the grave whatever spot of ground you wish, and the Prayers can be said. I can even buy the coffin, and you can carry it to the grave that you choose. But 184 THE TAMING OF CALINGA there are secrets that you do not know, there is one who might be betrayed, and the Po- licia may follow us to the cemetery. So you must await the woman and her child in the potter s field. After we have pretended to make the burial there, we can go to the real grave. I shall do in all things the best that may be done. And there will be still many pesos left." "For Masses, Senor Padre, for many Masses ?" Pedro questioned. "Else the "Woman will be denied them." Padre Antonio shook his head. "No, son. I who have seen the beautiful Ana Balisi pine away for sorrow at the loss of her lover, may do that little to console her." Calinga started at that name, and stared at the Servant of God. "Yes," said Senor Padre, "Ana is the eld est sister of the charming little Teresa." Pedro shrugged his shoulders and an swered, As God wills it, and went out into the silent night. HE THAT KNEW 185 In a far corner of the cemetery, near the foothills, where idle feet would not desecrate it, Calinga dug the grave. And when he crept back to the meeting-place in the pau per s field, only the moon guarded the white, white coffin that stood beside the newly turned earth. Three silhouettes advanced across the bare, flat ground toward the potter s field. Padre Antonio, repeating over and over the Prayers for the Dead, led the little column. The Woman, dry sobs racking her, came last. And between them the child. A man walked between the two, a silent man, who leaned forward as though he carried a weight upon his back. The cavalcade halted beside Pedro Calinga, and the Middle One resolved itself into two, El Lunatico and the body of the child he had carried in the old " play-horse " way, that its mother might gaze into its eyes and find it easy to follow. From the passive arms of the Woman of the Smoldering Brand, Senor Padre took the matting shroud, just a rice- 186 THE TAMING OF CALINGA sack ripped wide, and spread it on the ground. Then he lit a candle. Pedro stared at the treasures in her hands, at the military cap and the wooden sword, toys which, until then, none other than El Lunatico and her baby boy had ever touched. Sometimes her eyes wandered from her little one to the handle that would have honored a war-bolo. And sometimes she kissed that wonderfully carved adornment, a passionate, lingering, prayerful kiss. El Lunatico knelt and gently lowered the child upon the shroud. Then he took charge of his toys, that the Woman might sob her grief over her dead. With his cap stuck upon the point of his wooden sword, he stood at a rigid, military attention, while Padre Antonio read the Last Bites. Pedro, his head bared, leaned upon his spade. Senor Padre closed the Book and extin guished the flickering light. At that signal, El Lunatico knelt beside the Woman, and Pedro prepared to scoop the mound of earth back into a shallow, HE THAT KNEW 187 empty hole. The spade crunched, and the Woman moaned. The soil thumped into place, but the shroud and its burden still lay on the ground. The kneeling couple stared. El Lunatico s roving eyes, wandering here and there about the cemetery, discerned a stooping figure stealing away from a neigh boring mound. Once El Lunatico had known all that Senor Padre knew. Promptly he straddled his wooden sword and galloped after the spy. "Ki-yi-yah-ah-ah," he yelled, and chased El Sargento to the very door of the Policia s quarters. And when he re turned, no inquisitive eyes were near to re port what transpired. Wrapping the shroud close, Calinga lifted the child in his strong arms and led the way to the other grave. Spade under one arm and sword in hand El Lunatico supported Ana. At first she stared dumbly at the white, white coffin and her bony fingers clutched convulsively, covetously. But not until El 188 THE TAMING OF CALINGA Lunatico laid out the body did she realize what it all meant. Then relief from the hor ror that had oppressed her, from the specter of an earthy shroud for her child, a veritable joy in her anguish, mastered her. She threw herself upon the ground and gathered the cold coffin in her arms, and crooned to her baby in its beautiful bed, and wept, until the indefinable pathos in her moaning cry seemed a prayer of thanksgiving. Standing side by side at the edge of the little grave, El Lunatico and Pedro Calinga leaned, one upon his spade, the other upon his wooden sword. While Padre Antonio again said the Service, The Accursed One s soothing voice repeated, "Poire Ana," till the fever of agony was banished from those eyes in which Calinga had first discovered the vague Shadow of Sorrow, and the woman glanced gratefully up at the Irresponsible One. Calinga closed the coffin, and the two strong men gently lowered it into the grave. The thump of the falling earth blended HE THAT KNEW 189 with El Lunatico s soothing "Poire Ana." "Come, Pedro," said Padre Antonio; "we must leave the woman to her sorrow." But he did not drive El Lunatico away. From the cathedral Calinga glanced back at the two figures crouched side by side in the moonlight. And no man might know the thoughts that flashed through Pedro s most Christian mind. Late at night, when the familiar "Ki-yi- yah-ah-ah" floated to him, he wondered if a new hatred toned it, or if he only imagined the change. CHAPTER XXII The Ghost in the Graveyard SEftOR CALIMAG glared at Senor Gu- mila. "So?" he sneered. "Suppose the woman is promised to that ignorante! What right has he that the Presidente of Badi must re spect? Besides, a man has a right to collect his just debts, even though he must take a beautiful woman because there is nothing else. What is to prevent?" he demanded. "Vicente Balisi is my peon." Senor Gumila smiled a dry smile. "Pedro Kiachu was a bungler, and so Senor Calimag still lives," he suggested. "But this other Pedro," he shrugged his shoulders, "this Pedro Calinga, Head- Hunter, may not bungle. Senor Calimag shuddered. Yet he main tained a defiant, reckless pose, and snapped his fingers. 190 GHOST IN THE GEAVEYAED 191 "A flogging will silence Vicente s objec tions, because he will know how another one would feel," he declared. Ki-yi-yah-ah-ah, El Lunatico yelled, and charged out of the house. Senor Calimag jumped, and crossed him self. The chattering El Lunatico galloped to Ah Ching s store. Then he galloped out into the fields. Later Ah Ching pattered down the street on his way to visit Senor Padre. Ah Ching confided to his political ally the terms of a certain bet. He also confided some other secrets, and among them, about the spirit voice of Li Choy Sang s Ghost, that told him things. And he proposed a plot. Then he pattered home again. Ah Ching was serene, for Ah Ching had great faith in 0-mi-to-fu; he was certain that 0-mi-to-fu would take care of that bet. Padre Antonio summoned Pedro Calinga for a conference, after which both men went for a visit to Vicente Balisi. As Senor Padre had several personal matters to discuss with 192 THE TAMING OF CALINGA Vicente, among them the terms of a loan from Ah Ching sufficient to cover any balance due Senor Calimag after the prospective sale had been made, Teresa was left to entertain Pedro. Pedro shifted his weight from one foot to the other and stared his admiration. Be fore that ardent gaze, Teresa dropped her head. Her long lashes hid the story in her eyes. "Most beautiful, most desirable one," Pe dro faltered. Teresa moved a step nearer. "The new shack is mine. To-day I have won three pesos, and I shall win another fifty when Tadday fights Senor Calimag s Black," he quavered. Teresa s head sank lower, lest her face and eyes betray her desire. Such lack of interest discouraged Pedro. But her shy beauty tempted him beyond re sistance, and he continued, "In the service of the Church I receive ten pesos each month." He paused. Then he held his GHOST IN THE GEAVEYAED 193 breath and stared. Could the most attrac tive little Teresa have approached? That was impossible! t Ten pesos each month is more than most men can offer a woman, but I can offer many more, for I win many in games of chance. Clothes and powder and rouge and jewels and all things to match your beauty, will I give you." But his wonderful promises did not win her consent. Less hopeful, he added, "And though my evil deeds have been many, I have been con firmed, and serve the Blessed Maria and the Child Jem" Teresa clasped her hands behind her and raised to his face eyes that reproached him for bargaining with her. Pedro faltered just the three words, "I love you." Teresa flew to him, surprised him into si lence. She took one great strong arm in her little hands, and laid her head upon his pow erful chest. 194 THE TAMING OF CALINGA "I love you," she murmured. Though he slipped his free arm about her, though the precious burden in his arm thrilled him, he still failed to interpret the reproach he had read in her eyes. "I will give all that I have for the most beautiful one," he told her. Teresa s eyes searched his. She pouted. "Hard-head, you! A woman does not al ways sell," she protested. "Sometimes she gives. Pedro did not know wherein he had erred, but he knew a Magic Charm. "I love you," he repeated. "Ask," she commanded. "Will the most beautiful one come to the home I have prepared for her?" The woman s head fell back upon the man s shoulder, and their eyes met in a lingering, searching caress. "Yes," she whispered. And so Padre Antonio found them. A fer vent "God bless you, my children," voiced his approval. But he lost no time in hurry- GHOST IN THE GEAVEYAED 195 ing them home to the new shack. Later he loaned Pedro a wondrous, magical Manser rifle, and taught his servant the mysteries of using it. Pedro s steady nerves and keen eyesight made him an apt pupil. In the morning Senor Calimag brought the Policia to take Teresa. "I have bought Teresa Balisi, whom you harbor, from her father, for the hundred and fifty peso note that I have held against his crops, " Senor Calimag pompously ex plained. Senor Padre was surprised, so surprised in fact that he summoned his household serv ants to hear the news. They laughed an ex pectant amusement, and Senor Padre shook his head dubiously. "Last night she became the woman of Pedro Calinga," he drawled. A wave of his arm indicated that person squatted upon the platform of the new shack. "Perhaps you might interview Pedro concerning your claim?" Senor Calimag studied the ready Mauser in 196 THE TAMING OF CALINGA Pedro Calinga s hands. He studied the war like array of the attentive household servants clustered beneath the window. And occa sionally he glanced at a second Mauser that dangled between Padre Antonio s most cleri cal knees. Two Mausers against one ! "Jesu!" he muttered, and mopped his scrawny face, and stared again at the signifi cant preparations. "But Balisi shall have his flogging for this," he hissed, "and his note shall be raised to three hundred pesos." Seiior Padre drew the note from his pocket, and tore it into shreds before Seiior Cali- mag s bulging eyes. He was solicitous. "Too bad, too bad," he sympathized, "but so the debt goes, and Balisi stays with me, in my house, where the Policia cannot come. And Ah Ching gathers his crops. El Lunatico laughed and laughed. And then he yelled a wild, fierce " Ki-yi-yah-ah- ah," and galloped over the fields into the- hills. There was something strange, weird, a suggestion of disappointment and rage, in the maniacal sounds. GHOST IN THE GRAVEYARD 197 Even Padre Antonio crossed himself. But Pedro Calinga squatted on, impassive, till the last figure of the retreating cavalcade was out of sight. Then he signaled to the cowering woman within the shack, and car ried to Senor Padre the pesos which should pay for the burial of the Woman with the Smoldering Brand in Her Mouth. That night Pedro dug a grave beside the child s. A similar funeral procession ap- prdached, but only two silhouettes were drawn by the moonlight against the shadow of the night, and El Lunatico crooned to the bur den in his arms, and rocked it, and soothed it with his babbling chatter. Very gently the Accursed One laid the body in the white, white coffin. Then the men gathered about and gazed upon her whose wonderful patience had given her a strange power to comfort them. From the wide open eyes, Peace had driven the vague Shadow of Sorrow. The white, glim mering moonlight blended the horrors that might have been into a calm repose, and 198 THE TAMING OF CALINGA toyed with the finest garments Ana had ever worn. Senor Padre stooped over and placed his Crucifix in her open hand, and El Luna- tico dropped at her feet his Spanish military cap, the last relic of his other, saner days. And Pedro, who knew nothing and surmised nothing of her past, followed their example and laid a Rosary upon her heart. Antonio spread his arms above the Woman that had known Sorrow. Though his voice quavered on the words, they yet possessed the full power of assurance. "Pax vobiscum," said he. "Thy sins are forgiven." When Pedro s shovel crunched into the earth, El Lunatico howled a wild curse: "Ha-ha! Some day the devil will get his own. Pedro recoiled, and crossed himself, and stared at the two tufts of hair on the Ac cursed One s head. A clod thumped upon the coffin. El Lunatico laughed and laughed. Wav ing his sword above his head, he fled over GHOST IN THE GRAVEYARD 199 the hills, a diminishing speck. But a con tinuous stream of the faint and fainter, fierce, familiar cries floated back, until the succes sive, hollow thuds ceased and the mound was well-rounded. In the early morning that same vengeful cry startled Pedro, and he hastened to the window of his shack. He saw a wild Figure gallop over the brow of a hill and disappear on the far side. Pedro crossed himself and hurried to the white, white Crucifix, and told the Beads of the Rosary many times that he might forget whom the devil would wel come 1 Later he found the crimson flowers of the Fire-Tree massed above the new mound. Pedro stared long at those blossoms. Their blood-red hue called to him, urged him to send the devil his own! Pedro raced home, and hurried before the Crucifix, and told the Beads of the Rosary, prayerfully, patiently. At night Teresa s quavering voice called him to the window. She trembled so that she could not point at what she saw. But Pe- 200 THE TAMING OF CALINGA dro s keen eyes quickly distinguished near the new grave a dark object against the background of the moonlit hills, a Specter in human form, a wild Figure that sometimes danced, sometimes kneeled, sometimes stood quietly at the head of the grave. Calinga might have explained to her, might have told her about his own conflict, and have received from her the support of her en couragement. Instead, he calmed her with the embrace of his strong arms. Shortly afterward a faint i Ki-yi-yah-ah- ah" floated from far down the river. As El Lunatico could not dance in the cemetery and immediately thereafter howl his fiendish shriek among the hills where the Fire-Trees grow, no one who saw the Apparition could suspect him of one of his crazy pranks. Next day Calinga found upon the grave new masses of the Symbol of blood, and their glittering, crimson glow fascinated him even more than before. Not until the God of the Lonely had answered his Prayer and had IX THH (IKAVKYARP broken the Spoil, could ho race homo to the Crucifix and the Kosary. Teresa came home that night in a furor of excitement. "The Ghost in the graveyard is Ana s Soul come back to haunt, Sonor (^aliinag; every one says it is, and Scfior Calimag has El Sar- gento and all the Policia at his house, and never goes out at night " Pedro s amused laugh Interrupted her frightened patter, and he soothed her in his strong arms until she slept. On his own account, he crossed himself, and thanked his Patron Saint that some suggestive things \\onkl henceforth make a less appeal. 1 lei- need of his support, of assurance, of comfort, gave him an over increasing mastery of self. When Calinga ceased going to the grave, the Ohost ceased his antics, and the town for got its fright. But each day El Lunatico spent some time in the cemetery, and Pedro s devotions gained in fervor. CHAPTER XXIII The Customs of Civilization MANY have died with the smallpox, and the plague is virulent this year," Teresa began one night shortly after the last appearance of the Apparition. "As God wills it, my very dearest one," Pedro answered. The woman dropped her embroidery and laid her head on his shoulder, compelling him to put aside the spur which he was sharpen ing. "But perhaps there are things we can do to appease the wrath of the Father of Wa ters, so that he will spare us," she pleaded. "If my beloved fears, she must teach me," Pedro suggested. "My man buries all that die with the smallpox, and there are very many, yet he does nothing to guard himself," she pro- 202 CUSTOMS OF CIVILIZATION 203 tested. "I trust to the Child Jesu," he re minded her, "and I will do anything you teach me." She pondered for a moment, and then made a timid, tentative inquiry. "We have much money?" she asked. "Tadday fought on Sunday for fifty pesos, and won. There is a little more from play ing for copper clackers," he specified. "But the men will no longer shoot clackers with me," he grumbled. She nestled closer to him, and the light of pride burned in her fathomless brown eyes. "They fear to lose," she consoled. So he fondled her for her compliment. "The Holy Paper that Padre Antonio has blessed gives God s Protection to them that wear it, and it would be beautiful on the walls between the many pictures of Jesu, she sug gested. "Jesu!" he exclaimed. "That is a good idea! I will buy much Holy Paper." "The crocodile s tooth worn at the throat, and a ring of the crocodile s bone upon the 204 THE TAMING OF CALINGA thumb, drive the evil Spirit to one that is unguarded," she explained. She shyly unclasped her little fist, and showed him the ring upon her tiny thumb. Pedro kissed her hand, but scarcely looked at the talisman. She put her arm about the bowed head, and pressed her cheek against his. Then she un tied the string that held her crocodile s tooth, and fastened it about his neck. " Until we have another pair," she whis pered in his ear. "The ring is better, for the Evil Spirit cannot fail but see it. I give the tooth only because my man s hand is too large and strong to wear my tiny ring." A kiss rewarded her. More contented than she had been since the fear for her man had begun to grow upon her, she nestled in the arms that held her. "Is there nothing more that my most pre cious one can teach her humble pupil I" Pe dro bantered. The woman buried her face upon his chest. "A crocodile s head over the gate to a CUSTOMS OF CIVILIZATION 205 home and high up on a bamboo pole warns the Evil One to pass by; the skull guards the home as the tooth and the ring guard the person who is away," she answered. "But it is difficult to get a skull. There are many teeth, and much bone, but only one skull," she added regretfully. Pedro reached for Padre Antonio s Instru ment that hid the Magic of the Green Devils. "Perhaps I can kill a crocodile, and get a skull," he proposed. She trembled in his arms. Then we would have to make many sacri fices to the Father of Waters to appease him for the death of his Sacred Beptile," her awed voice pondered. "But I could cook much rice and begimg to send out upon the little rafts. And we could fill them with bino to drink, and with cigars to smoke, and with buja to chew, and with candles to give light for the feast, it is dark in the Castle of the Father of Waters, and with clackers to buy many things." Pedro jingled the clackers in his pocket, 206 THE TAMING OP CALINGA glanced at the pile of cigars, the buja nuts, the almost empty bino-jug beside the altar. "We can buy whatever we lack, and the rafts are easily made," he declared. Teresa clasped her hands and smiled. "The river will carry the gifts to the Father of Waters, and the pleasure of the feast will make him forgive the death of his Pet," said she. In their purchase of Holy Cards, Teresa and Pedro were extravagant. The brilliant red paper appealed to Pedro, while the beauty of the yellow and green and blue and pink and purple stars and crosses she could fashion, by slipping the ends beneath the edges of the interlaced bamboo walls, tempted Teresa. They bought one hundred and fifty. Senor Padre was pleased with their de- voutness, but he disapproved of Pedro s choice of twenty red cards. "Fifteen pesos worth, my children !" he questioned. l Fewer would be enough. They are merely a Symbol of Faith in God." They insisted upon the full purchase. Pe- CUSTOMS OF CIVILIZATION 207 dro i^nmediateily fastened upon his calico shirt ten of his red Cards in the form of a Cross, like the yellow cloth cross upon El Lunatico s coat of sacking. The other ten he handed back to Senor Padre. "For El Lunatico, who has not the money to buy," he explained, and received a bless ing for his generosity. "A wise precaution is to burn fires in the road before the house," Seflor Padre told the departing couple; "they disinfect the at mosphere." So for three hours each night Pedro and Teresa burned a mixture of dry and green brush, and thus raised much smoke. Pedro s first efforts in hunting along the river for crocodiles, though they failed of success, gave him excellent practice in marks manship, and taught him the importance of locating the vital spots. On the fifth day he discovered the vulnerable point behind the forearm, and killed one of the Sacred Kep- tiles. Before the next morning, the skull re posed in state upon a bamboo pole at the 208 THE TAMING OF CALINGA yard gate. Pedro cut a ring for himself, and fixed a tooth for his neck. But when he re turned Teresa s gift, tears filled her eyes. "Keep that one," she requested, " because I gave it to you, and let me have the new one." Pedro was well versed in all the Customs of Civilization, and an adept in the practice of most of them ; he was a skilful liar. Pedro had no intention of exposing to Teresa his lack of comprehension, his failure to under stand her gift. * I thought the older tooth was the better, he declared, "but since one is as beneficial as the other, I want to keep yours." The happy light in Teresa s eyes flashed a brilliant, shimmering radiance through her welling tears. To her it was immaterial whether she received the old or the new tooth. In disposing of the bones and teeth and claws of the crocodile, Pedro revealed both his benevolence and a business acumen hith erto unsuspected. For the three classes of CUSTOMS OF CIVILIZATION 209 merchandise he established prices determined by their relative scarcity, their desirability, and the purchasing power of his prospective patrons. Pedro became a Capitalist. But he did not accumulate as much wealth from the enterprise as he might, for he turned no body away without some sort of a talisman. The season was one of general public calam ity, and smallpox was as dangerous to one human being as to another. To those who could not afford to pay his established prices, Pedro gave. His unrestricted benevolence, the knowl edge of his growing fortune, his fame as a trainer of gamesters, won from his ignorante fellows the deference they gave a principals, and from the dominant caste of Society less of condescension. For Pedro to gain from the principales acceptance among their num ber, there remained nothing but for him to engage in some occupation in which there was no suggestion of labor, to wear a long nail on his little finger, to assert his power over others. 210 THE TAMING OF CALINGA The most spectacular evidence of Pedro s wealth came from the number and frequency of his sacrifices to the River-god. Night after night, with many strange incantations and chanted formulas, he and Teresa set ten lit tle rafts or boats adrift, and watched them float down the river. Many could not afford to sacrifice a single boat, and few could af ford to load a solitary gift with such valuable cargoes as all of Pedro s carried. Yet their devoted observance of all the precautions of which they had ever heard availed them nothing. A day soon came when a high fever kept Teresa at home. In her fear, she clung to Pedro. 4 * Send fifteen rafts to-night," she begged, "lest the Father of Waters punish us for the death of his Sacred Reptile." "Assuredly, my precious one," he prom ised. Though he spent long hours before the Crucifix and told the Beads assiduously, a premonition of a great, overshadowing deso lation oppressed him, and he was sad of CUSTOMS OF CIVILIZATION 211 heart. The fever increased, and Pedro called upon the more competent Senor Doctor Caro- man and the women of Senor Padre s house hold to take charge of Teresa. Except for her rare lucid intervals, when he was with her and comforted her, and for the twilight hour, when he sent off the rafts, Pedro re mained before the Crucifix. But in spite of his devotions and prayers through the nights, from Vespers to Matins, in spite of the sacri fices, in spite of the care bestowed upon Te resa, the disease encroached more and more upon her vitality, until all but he had given up hope for her. He only redoubled his de votions and increased his purchase of rafts, until they numbered twenty each night. Though he paid well for them, he could not have gotten that many if El Lunatico, who alone dared defy Padre Antonio s disap proval of the superstition, had not helped himself to all he saw. El Lunatico presented them to Pedro, as gifts, at the tip of his wooden sword, as he had formerly presented the sprigs of the Fire-Tree. 212 THE TAMING OF CALINGA One night, just as Pedro was starting with twenty-five rafts, Teresa beckoned him to her. How many r she asked. "Twenty-five. All I could get." She reached for his hand. He took hers in both of his. Her eyes burned into the somber veil that shadowed his. " Perhaps it is good-bye," her hoarse voice gasped. "Send them all for me, and come again." Pedro bought ten more at a cost of fifty pesos. In his anxiety to return to her, he hurried through the incantations incident to setting them adrift, and waited only until the mid-stream current took charge of the little fleet. Hurrying up the bank, he glanced back once more. A horrible sight halted him. A river-pilot had steered his casco into the midst of the flotilla. Baft after raft the Ilocano boatmen speared with their steel-tipped poles and drew to the side of the casco, emptied them of their contents, and smashed them with CUSTOMS OF CIVILIZATION 213 their oars. To those wild rovers of the river, it seemed a glorious amusement. But the desecration of the sacred offerings transformed Calinga into a god of Fury. A red fire, like the setting sun sailing upon the storm-clouds above the mountain tips, seemed to burn his brain. Every tree, every shrub was shrouded with the crimson glow of the Fire-Tree. Pedro s wild, savage yell threat ened those who had defiled the sacrifices to the Father of Waters, and had doomed his Teresa to all of her agonies. They should die. Calinga raced back to the river landing. Crouched to spring, his bolo gripped in his knotted hands, he hid upon the bank as once before he had hidden. The boat drifted toward the shore, and Calinga discerned, in the twilight gloom, a strange figure upon the bamboo covering of the casco. Yet, about its savage wildness, was something familiar. It arose, and moved, and the jangle of chain-links accom panied its steps. 214 THE TAMING OF CALINGA A Woman of the Tribe 1 Tethered to the mast, as once he had been chained, she came to a sudden, jerky halt. Surprised into in ertia, Calinga dropped his bolo on the ground, and stared. The casco crunched upon the sand. The defiant, untamed eyes of the Comeliest Maid of the Tribe, of her whom the Old Chief had chosen as the worthiest mother for his grandchildren, glared at Calinga. But in the effeminate Man of the Valley People, who stared so helplessly, the Comeliest Maid could not recognize the "Strong Young Chief that slept." Calinga grabbed the Crucifix that hung from his neck, and held it tightly. But, rec ognizing Senor Calimag s voice, he listened. "And what may you name it?" Senor Calimag inquired. Pilote Guillermo Babas glanced at the woman, and shook his head dolefully. "A Savage that we caught up the river," he explained. "And a merry fight she gave us ! Jesu! It was fierce I Not until she had CUSTOMS OF CIVILIZATION 215 chopped four oars into pieces, could we club her into submission. But she didn t get any of the men." Calinga pressed the Crucifix to his cheek, and his fingertips caressed the red cross on his chest. "So fierce a Savage must be troublesome to guard. I know. I had one once," he sympathized. "So why do you stop when the river is high and you are sure to pass the Bars? But perhaps you have merchan dise for some one in Badi?" Pilote Guillermo laughed. "Jesu!" he exclaimed. "Must we always have an errand? That is not hospitable. Perhaps our curiosity led us to stop." He bowed to Senor Calimag. "We have heard that Senor Presidente is a most excellent judge of a woman s figure, said he, pointing at the captive Savage. An amused laugh rippled over the crowd and over the crew of the casco. But Senor Calimag was not offended. The recognition of his judgment flattered him. 216 THE TAMING OF CALINGA Civilization had changed Calinga. Once the storm that raged within him would have flared forth in a fit of sudden anger. From experience he had learned that restraint suc ceeds where a wild outbreak fails, and civili zation had taught him to reason. Though he foresaw that Senor Calimag would buy the Comeliest Maid at a bargain, he knew that her very savagery would protect her long enough for the wily Ah Ching to devise some scheme for thwarting the tyrant. The Come liest Maid had to be saved from the fate of Senor Calimag ? s women. She stirred in Calinga dormant instincts, instincts that dif fered from those to which Teresa appealed. The emotions which the Comeliest Maid aroused exhilarated him, and for the mo ment put Teresa out of his mind. He even forgot her parting request, and waited, a cool, calculating witness. One hundred pesos is a small value, the boatman suggested. Senor Calimag cackled. "Five pesos plus the trouble she would CUSTOMS OF CIVILIZATION, 217 give, would be about right/ he countered. Guillermo s face expressed indignation. "Look at the woman, " he commanded. "Strong and healthy! She can do much work. A hundred pesos is too little. " "So?" Senor Calimag s rasping voice drawled. "If the Savage is so valuable, and my offer does not please you, why bother ?" Guillermo laughed. "I have no place to keep her on the trip. So I would sell her. She has cost me some thing. Four oars! Make it ninety pesos. If I had her in Aparri, I would not sell her for that sum," he claimed. Senor Calimag studied the woman. He shook his head. "A lot of trouble to train her to work. I know. I had a Savage once," he remarked. "A bother to me, Senor, who have no facili ties for guarding her. If I had her in Apar ri I can get eighty pesos lower down the river." "The Policia trained one Savage," Senor Calimag pondered. "I might give you tea. 218 THE TAMING OF CALINGA pesos. But if you can get eighty lower down the river, you had better keep her. Guillermo laughed again. Sixty pesos," said he. "Some boasts do not pay." Senor Calimag rasped a cackle. "So Pilote Guillermo knows he asks too much," he teased. What will you give 1 Guillermo asked. Senor Calimag weighed all the considera tions. "She is a woman, and she must be fed until she pays for her keep. She is a Savage, and she must be guarded until she is tame. I think twenty-five pesos is what you can get for her. But perhaps I ought not to buy her," he meditated. Leisurely, Guillermo considered the offer, and discussed it with his men. Finally he said, "Take her." With an expertness born of experience, the Policia took charge of the woman. A quick jerk on the chain, a twist, and she hung over the side of the boat. Despite her struggles, CUSTOMS OF CIVILIZATION 219 a chain fastened to a bamboo pole was quickly snapped on the ankle-ring. A few methodical topplings upon the ground, accompanied by the torture of being dragged over the hard earth, and the prod of the steel spikes at the end of the long boat-poles, subdued her. Snarling, she went whither they drove her. Calinga remembered. Only the Crucifix, the Cross of Holy Paper upon his chest, and the name, * Jesu, upon which he called again and again, gave him the power, the sanity, to control himself. El Lunatico squatted near by. Silent, ex ultant, a sardonic smile playing over his face, he watched the struggles of his friend, and toyed with his wooden sword. Catching sight of the Irresponsible One, Calinga thought of Teresa, of her request. Sobbing, he fled homeward. Behind him El Lunatico trotted, and howled a wild, joyous, mocking "Ki-yi-yah- ah-ah" that drove the delinquent faster. Calinga dashed into the house and dropped 220 THE TAMING OF CALINGA upon his knees beside Teresa. He stared into her glazed, vacant eyes. Then he grabbed her little hands. She was dead. CHAPTER XXIV The Kiss of Judas EL LUNATICO stood beside Ana s grave at the base of the Sloping Hill and, through an open window of the shack, watched Calinga pace rapidly to and fro, to and fro. El Lunatico laughed, a noiseless laugh, just a momentary sardonic facial spasm. "The time comes soon, Ana, soon, soon," he muttered, "for though I, who once was Pedro Kiachu and hoped with you, failed to break through the Policia guards with whom Miguel Calimag surrounded himself after he had stolen you, and I only succeeded in kill ing his principale son before I fled to the Mountain Outlaws, this Pedro Calinga," he paused to kiss the carved wooden blade of his toy-bolo, a passionate, reverent, prayerful kiss, "this Pedro Calinga, with 221 222 THE TAMING OF CALINGA Ms Savage Stealth, shall send the devil his own." When the door of Calinga s shack, suddenly opened, shot a bar of light over the ground, El Lunatico raced to the top of the Sloping Hill. "And Antonio has wondered," he panted, "why I who had learned in the Mountains what the Art of Stealth could do, would de sert you, my Ana, for so many hours each day, since all that I did failed to arouse the Savage ! But the time comes soon, Ana, and I shall laugh." El Lunatico smiled at the stealth of the prowler who, tracing a snake s path in his effort to avoid the crosses, crept over the bare, flat cemetery to Ana s grave, and gath ered in his arms the branches of fresh, full blown, crimson flowers so conveniently massed there on the mound. "Better to have wondered why, after the months in the jungles, I ever came again! Or why in my exile I became the Irresponsible One that straddled a wooden stick and THE KISS OF JUDAS 223 played soldier with the children, and chased the pigs and the women and the chickens at ba/iles, and laughed and chattered and laughed again, and filled the air with howls, and was satisfied with such amusements ; and for my sins was the Accursed of God, even to my Ana, and for my affliction en joyed the Protection of God!" When the prowler, crouched as close to the ground as the burden in his arms would per mit, had stolen away from the grave, El Lunatico returned to it. "Ah Ching could tell Antonio what An tonio has only guessed, for the Chino is no hard-head; he knows the heart of a Savage. To-morrow, when the devil shall have wel comed his own," he shook his toy sword towards Senor Calimag s home, "I will dance over there, and when Ah Ching patters by with the crowds, he will blink his eyes, and ponder, and perhaps he will guess who helped to send the devil his own," he hissed. Just as the prowler, merely a shadow in the beam of light, vanished through the door- 224 THE TAMING OF CALINGA way, El Lunatico howled in farewell, a full- throated, fierce, wild, mocking "Ki-yi-yah- ah-ah," and then, straddling his wooden sword, galloped straight back into the hills, and on, and on, unto the Lair of Weapons. In the shack Calinga knelt beside Teresa and draped her in garments so fine that they would have honored a woman of a princi- pale. He arranged the massive combs in her hair, the crocodile-tooth at her throat, and fastened a cross of red Holy Paper upon her camisa. For a moment he stared at her. Then he exchanged his own metal Crucifix and Eosary for hers. Once her closed eyes would have smiled her thanks, and the little hands that clasped the gifts would have caressed the giver. Calinga left her. Standing before the al tar, he banked the crimson blossoms thick and high and deep upon the stand, a brilliant arbor about the white, white Man-Image that hung from the Crossed Sticks. When the shimmering, fiery hue of the flowers had dulled the red-tinged, purple-blue daubs upon THE KISS OF JUDAS 225 thorn-crowned brow and hands and feet, had painted out the blue streak down the side, he stepped back. With the Instrument that hid the Magic of the Green Devils hugged tight between his knees, Calinga crouched upon his toes and stared at the array before him. The Fire-Tree said, "The Comeliest Maid waits for as many Trophies as the years that have passed " and Tadday, roosting upon the crocodile skull beneath the altar, flapped his wings sometimes and crowed, "There is no Eight, except the Law of the Spur and the Glorious God, nestling amongst the blos soms at the feet of the Green Devils God, grinned and grinned and grinned and mocked "He hath harried the Valley Where the Great River floweth, And hath filled the far places With the noise of his journey, With terror of his glory. " But high above 0-mi-to-fu towered the God of the Lonely and Sad, a White, White Man 226 THE TAMING OF CALINGA that stood unscathed in a furnace of scorch ing fire, and looked down with compassionate eyes upon the tormented convert and be hind the altar, the Man with the Moon-Circle above His Head, He Whose outstretched arms blessed the Kneeling Ones, seemed, in the dancing shadows cast by the smoking, flicker ing light of the wicks in the bowl of oil, to spring out from the clusters of gaudily col ored pictures on the wall, and to say "Pax vobiscum," and to jump back again. At midnight a weird Figure, with its mas sive brown body bared to the waist and its trousers tatter-fringed at the knees, stalked through the door and deposited upon the bamboo slat-flooring a burden wrapped in an old coat of sacking. For a moment the in truder stared at the little Teresa. "Ana! Ana!" he moaned, and his wild eyes gleamed fitfully, "once you were as beautiful as was the little sister there ; and I " He twisted and re twisted his horns of hair until he had mastered himself again. Calinga s wide-open eyes wandered back THE KISS OF JUDAS 227 and forth between the altar and the Man with the Bolo. With his matted head thrown back and his eyes focused in vacancy, El Lunatico leaned upon his toy-sword, until Calinga forgot the altar and stared fixedly at the wonderful handle of the wooden sword. "When they brought One that hunted heads, I hoped that the devil would get his own, for the Captive had the Art of Stealth. "Jungle Skill I" flashed into the brain of the attentive Calinga. El Lunatico shrugged his shoulders and sighed. "But he had the heart of a lizard, and not even the Fire-Tree could touch it!" Calinga glared at the haunter. "They chained a Man of the Mountain Tribe, and shot him, and flogged him, and murdered the child of the Woman with the Smoldering Brand in her Mouth, of her that had succored him, and sold the Woman of his Tribe into slavery; and yet they live, although the little Teresa sleeps forever. 228 THE TAMING OF CALINGA Seiior Calimag lives, and Sefior Gumila lives, and El Sargento lives, and Pilot e Guillermo Babas lives," El Lunatico sneered, Awhile a Man of the Tribe hesitates, and cowers, and hugs a Gun, because he may hide afar with it and hurl a missile that boasts its prowess with the snarl of a cur. But the Gun captures no Trophies ; it speaks with the Voice of the Thunder. " Leaning forward upon the tips of his fin gers and dropping the Magic Stick on the bamboo slats, the crouching Savage stared at the muscular brown body of the Accursed One, stared until the tattered trousers were transformed into a loin-cloth and he saw in El Lunatico an Incarnation of the Old Chief s Soul. And then it seemed as though he heard the Old Chief s voice, instead of El Luna tico s, lingering upon the words, "Beware the Magic of the Green Devils, that booms with the Voice of the Thunder s Wrath and flashes like the Lightning." Fascinated, the Strong Young Chief crept, as once he had crept to an Image, towards him through THE KISS OF JUDAS 229 whom spoke the Old Chief s restless spirit. El Lunatico s smoldering eyes measured the soul of the Savage. As he stepped back he kicked aside the coat of sacking. The Strong Young Chief pounced upon the weapon thus exposed to view, a weapon with a wondrously carved handle, an exact dupli cate of the handle of the toy-sword. But the blade was single-edged, dull, crude, rusted from exposure in the Lair of Weapons ! Dis appointed, he glared his resentment at El Lunatico. The Accursed One clasped the handle of his toy-bolo in his right hand, the blade in his left, and gave a wrench, a jerk, a pull, and a long, keen, polished, double-edged war-bolo flashed from the wooden sheath. He threw the sham blade beside the old working-bolo, bent the war-weapon into the form of a deep crescent, released the point, and it vibrated like a bow-string. He held it to his ear. "Beautiful, beautiful, silent Song of Death!" he murmured. He squatted beside the Head-Hunter and 230 THE TAMING OF CALINGA toyed with the burnished blade, twisted it, turned it, that the reflected, yellow glare of the smoking light might flash, like the yel low sun, across the Savage s eyes. "Beautiful Bolo! I love Thee, for Thou art the only Faithful Friend!" his sly voice purred. 1 1 The Arrow may fly from the Bow like the swoop of a vulture, but its poisoned Death is slower than the lumbering march of a carabao, and the humming Song of the String sounds loud in the silent Jungle ! And the Spear may spring upon its Prey, but it crashes through the underbrush like a fright ened iguana in flight, and its Death is slow as the poison of cholera ! But Thou, my Judas, art an Artist, for thy kiss clingeth like the worm with an hundred legs ! El Lunatico warily watched the tense poise of the crouching, listening Savage. "When Thou waitest in thy Lair thy Si lence is that of the Hidden Pit in the Path of a deer ! or of a woman ! the voice of the Tempter purred on. And when Thou creep- est on a Trophy, thy Stealth is that of the THE KISS OF JUDAS 231 Snake in the Jungle I But when the Hour to strike hath come, thy Blow falleth like the Lightning Flash and cutteth like the needles in a crocodile s mouth I Though the Prey in thy Embrace squirmeth like the wild boar in the python s folds, his Dying Gasp is Noiseless Music in thine Ear! And thy Tongue is silent forever, for Thou art dumb!" The Head-Hunter snarled, but before he could pounce upon the tempting weapon, the watchful El Lunatico sprang over to the al tar and, with a foot on the forgotten gun, stood ready. In the Accursed One s eyes the Strong Young Chief detected a promise and waited. "Thou art Thirsty again, my Bolo!" El Lunatico sympathized. "But soon thy Thirst shall be quenched, for the Fire-Tree calls, and as many Trophies as there are fin gers on a hand await Thee ! The purring voice ceased. With a parting, tender, passionate kiss, El Lunatico laid the glittering blade among the crimson blossoms 232 THE TAMING OP CALINGA on the altar. He put on his coat, drove the rusted blade of the old, dilapidated working- bolo into the wooden sheath, and slipped out of the shack. Astride his toy-sword, he gal loped down the street, and far, far from town. Out in the hills behind Ana s grave he howled a wildly joyous, full-throated, mocking "Ki- yi-yah-ah-ah" ; but the cry did not arouse the sleeping people, for the dissipations of the night, the hour preceding the dawn, held their heavy, dulled senses enthralled. Eeverently the Strong Young Chief lifted up the beautiful war-bolo, and laid it down again. Once he stooped over the still, silent form of the little Teresa, clasped her tiny hands in his own, and planted a long, long kiss upon the cold, quiet, closed eyes. Before he finally extinguished the smoking wick he placed a heavy purse beside her. The door opened, and the moon threw upon the ground the shadow of a Figure, nude but for a loin-cloth, a Figure that carried a burnished bolo in hand, and slipped stealthily to a house, and from there with a Companion THE KISS OF JUDAS 233 Savage to another, and to a third, and to a casco at the river, and back to the shack for certain forgotten valuables, and away. In the morning many discoveries were made. Because of the excitement attendant upon them it happened that El Lunatico alone welcomed the Spanish Military Officer who had come to inspect the town for contraband arms. Babbling of the Ghost in the grave yard, the Accursed One escorted that Digni tary to Senor Calimag s house. Later, when the hastily gathered posse set out upon the trail to the mountains, El Lunatico straddled his wooden sword and galloped along beside the Spanish Officer and the mounted leaders of the pursuit. CHAPTER XXV The Escape from the Land of Enchantment AT that hour of the day when the sun rolls upon the storm-clouds beyond the Mountain Home of the Tribe, the two fugi tives halted beneath a Fire-Tree on the sum mit of the Last Hill on the Mysterious Trail that the young men travel. Below them lay a wilderness that nothing but Jungle Skill could penetrate. Hands shading their eyes, they gazed into the Mist Beyond, gazed towards the Holy Land of the Great People, towards the Tomb of the Old Chief. Despite her exhaustion from the toil and hurry of the steady, unceasing climb upwards and upwards, the Comeliest Maid was still impatient at the slightest delay in their es cape from the Land of the Strong Young Chief s Enchantment. Though she, and she alone, had broken his Charmed Thralldom, 234 ESCAPE FROM ENCHANTMENT 235 had recalled him to his own, she feared the Spell of that Land. She lifted her burdens again and urged him to hurry, to follow her, to gain the safety of the Jungle. The Strong Young Chief shrugged his shoulders, swung about, plunged the point of his beautiful bolo into the ground and, lean ing upon the Magic Stick, stared down the steep Backward Trail at the end of which lay the little Teresa, stared as though the inter vening mountains did not hide the weird Land of Sleep and Wondrous Dreams from his straining eyes. Perched precariously upon a bare, brown shoulder, Tadday flapped his wings and crowed exultant, defiant challenges at the four Trophies hanging down the Strong Young Chief s broad back. Now and then the game ster lustily crowed a threat at the grinning Image of the Glorious God, who swung from the tasseled end of the master s loin-cloth. Sometimes Tadday arched his long neck in quisitively, cocked his head from side to side, and tentatively, disapprovingly examined the 236 THE TAMING OF CALINGA God of the Green Devils, who rested upon the master s other brown shoulder. And some times, for want of another opponent to pun ish, the Bird pecked the uplifted, scratched, brown arm which supported the Favored Bival high above all other treasures, and had defended Him from every branch and twig along the Trail. Once, when jealousy mas tered prudence, Tadday stretched his neck across the master s head and drove his beak viciously into the side of the God of the Lonely and Sad. Promptly the Strong Young Chief cuffed Tadday, as that worthy Fowl had never be fore been cuffed. A boom, like the Thunder s Wrath! an other flash, as of Lightning, on the summit of the Mountain Behind ! and a Magic Missile hummed by. The Comeliest Maid sprang down the Mys terious Trail, and implored the Strong Young Chief to follow her. But jbattle-lust and vengeance also summoned the Strong Young Chief. ESCAPE FROM ENCHANTMENT 237 "Jesu!" he exclaimed, and dropped to his knees, laid his burdens on the ground, crawled behind a boulder, and measured the distance across the gorge between the two hills. Rest ing the Magic of the Green Devils upon the boulder, he took careful aim at one of the pursuing Policia. The Magic Voice spoke. In answer Juan Danga leaped convulsively through the air. Again and again the Charmed Instrument hurled its missile, until all but four of the pursuers had either fallen or fled. The white, white Green Devil stood boldly on the brow of the Mountain Behind and beckoned frantically to the routed Policia; but for his white, white skin the Strong Young Chief spared him. The Black-Robed One lifted high the little metal Image of the Green Devils God, and commanded, "Pax vobiscum" ; and for the sake of his God the Strong Young Chief spared him. Off to one side the impassive Ah Ching blinked his eyes, and pondered; and in the name of Li Choy Sang s bones, the Strong Young Chief spared 238 THE TAMING OF CALINGA him. But to the One who straddled a wooden sword and galloped in a circle and pranced and howled and twisted the horns of hair the Strong Young Chief shouted a savage, friendly thanks. Down the Mysterious Trail the Comeliest Maid waited. She gazed long at the bundle of brands that smoldered and glowed in the mouth, at the nuts that made the lips red like the Fire-Tree flowers, and at the yellow liquid that burned the tongue. As she did not know which of these Charms had filled the Strong Young Chief with the Babbling Mad ness of the earlier day, or with the Present Folly of Delay, she scattered brands and nuts to the many winds, and hurled the bottle far down the Trail, where it crashed among the rocks and spilled the burning liquor. The Strong Young Chief gathered up his treasures, glanced once more at the four fig ures, and followed the Comeliest Maid. A faint, joyous, farewell * Ki-yi-yah-ah- ah" floated from the far distance. Tadday s ESCAPE FROM ENCHANTMENT 239 exultant challenge answered the cry. Then the night and the Jungle welcomed the Come- liest Maid that had had so great Faith, and the Strong Young Chief that had slept. THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY WILL INCREASE TO SO CENTS ON THE FOURTH DAY AND TO $1.OO ON THE SEVENTH DAY OVERDUE. MAR 22 1934 DEC 9 8 193B vi JifcA^* \\w ; <,D _, : -_ . _ ftrR /57 ( LD 21-100w-7, 33 YB 32334 40230 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY