Book Description

Excerpt from The Overland Monthly, Vol. 8: Devoted to the Development of the Country It is not to be supposed that this bloody deed occurred entirely unsuspected. Pedro, the gatekeeper, lay half-stunned upon the stones, where he had been cast by the man who called himself Planillos, and listened with strained ears to every sound. No indication of a struggle reached him, but his horrified imagination formed innumerable pictures of treacherous violence, in which one or the other of the men who had left him figured as the victim. He dared give no alarm; indeed, at first he was so unnerved by terror that he could neither stir nor speak. At length, after what appeared to him hours, but was in reality only a few minutes, he heard the shrill neigh of the horse, and the sound of rearing and plunging, followed by the dull thud of retreating footsteps, and shrill whistles in challenge and answer from the watchmen upon the hacienda roof, who, however, took no further steps towards investigating the drunken brawl, which had taken place, almost out of hearing, and quite out of sight, and which therefore, as they conceived, could in no wise endanger the safety or peace of the hacienda. Their signals, however, served to arouse Pedro, who, shaking in every limb, his brain reeling, his heart bursting with apprehension, crawled to the postern, and after many abortive efforts managed to secure the bolts. He then staggered to the alcove in which he slept, and searching beneath the sheepskin mat which served for his bed, found a small flask of aguardiente, and taking a deep draught of the fiery liquor, little by little recovered his outward composure. No more for that night, however, did sleep visit his eyes; and he spent the hour before dawn in making to himself wild excuses for his treason, in wilder projects for flight, and in mentally recapitulating his sins, and preparing himself for death; so it can readily be imagined that it was a haggard and distraught countenance that he thrust forth from the postern at dawn, when with the first streak of light came a crowd of excited villagers to the gate, to beat upon it wildly, and with hoarse groans and cries to announce that Don Juan had been found murdered under a mesquite tree! About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.