The Dead Command

day to

parency of the ruby. Then he sat down on the floor, clasping his hands about his knees, and kept very still. His teeth shone like lumino

a studying to become a

entrusted him to a professor in the Seminar

torture. There were no trees; no liberty; scarcel

he hill occupied by the Cathedral and the fort; pavements of blue stone, along the center of which rushed a stream of filth; snowy fa?ades half concealing beneath the whitewash escutcheons of the nobility and the outlines of ancient windows; the silence of a cemetery by the seashore, interrupted only by the distant murmur of the surf and the buzzing of flies above the stream. Now and then footsteps were hear

p. He wished to make a prodigy of him by the time he took up his classes again, and the blows grew more frequent. Besides this were the window grilles, which allowed glimpses of nothing but the opposite wall; the barrenness of the city, where not a green leaf was to be seen; the tiresome walks accompanying the priest through that port of dead waters that smelled of putrid mussels, and was entered by no other ships than a few sailing vessels that occasionally came for

blind with fury, and had used a club upon his back until

person was doomed! As he said this he straightened himself with the belligerent air of a race accustomed to seeing blood flow and to administering justice with their own hands. Pèp talked of taking his son back to the Seminary, but the boy put no faith in this

thought to obstacles when he believes he is doing right. Margalida should marry a peasant-farmer, and the house and land sh

devout and austere; they loved life with all its sweetness, and were attracted by danger with inherited enthusiasm. The island turned out hardy and venturesome priests. Those who remained in Spain became army chaplains. Others, more bold, no sooner had they sung their first mass than they embarked for South America, where certain republics boasting a large Catholic aristocracy were the Eldorado of Spanish priests who had no fear of the sea. They sent home generous sums of money to their families, and they bought houses and lands, praising God, who maintains his priests in greater ease in the new world than in the old. There were charitable se?oras in Chile

Treufoch had sent almost six thousand dollars home from America; another priest who lived in the interior among the Indians, in some very high mountains called the Andes, had bought a f

d proposed a compromise. He would become a priest; he would obey Se?or Pèp; but he wanted to be a man for a while first, to go out serenading with the other boys of the parish, go to the Sunday dances

ather!" implored the bo

venerable weapon his eyes glowed with admiration, and he described it to Febrer. A jewel! It was an antique steel blade, keen and burnished. He could cut through a coin with it, and in his grandfather's han

assistance. If only he would help him! If he should ask just once

n't give you that one, I'll buy one for you the next

se was soon to be visited by the bravest youths of the island. Margalida was now a woman, and the courting was going to

er in surprise. "Margal

s daughter was a woman. Could that child, that pretty, white doll, really care for men? He felt the strange sensation of the father who has love

Yes, she was a woman. The transformation pained him; he felt that h

are there?" he ask

ny, although they devoured Margalida with their eyes, were afraid to join the courting, giving themselves up for conquered in advance. There were few like his sister on the island; trim, merry, and with a good slice of dowry, too, for Se?or Pèp le

sland, the region of valiant men, where one avoided going out of the house after dark, well knowing that every hillock held a pistol and every tree was a lurking place for a firearm. They were capable, every man of them, of waiting for

ke a chum because he was the brother of the bride to be; but of all these future friendships the one which most flattered him was tha

f Iviza. Old barrels were sent to him from the Peninsula, and he mounted them to suit his fancy in stocks engraved with barbaric de

espect for Ferrer. He declared in a low voice, with

essive gesture from the Little Chaplain assisted his memory. A vèrro was a man whose valor was already demons

he skill with which the grandfather settled his affairs was still remembered in San José; a stab with his famous knife, and his well-laid plans sufficed, for people

he citizens of other parishes who received their vèrros with great demonstrations, and on the day of the arrival of the steamer even the most distant relatives of Ferrer, who composed half the town, went down to the port of Iviza to meet him, and the other half went out of pure patriotism. Even the alcalde join

f native herbs. They admired his new suit, a suit suggesting the fine se?or which had been made to his order on leaving the penitentiary; they inwardly marveled at his ease of manner, at the princely and condescending air with which he greeted his old friends. Many of them envied him. What wonderful things a man learns when he leaves the island! There is nothing like travel! The forme

ich he had spent eight years. He forgot the misery and hardship he had endured there

h the triangular white pediments of the farmhouses, and farther out stretched the Mediterranean, an immense blue expanse, behind which lay his native rock, the beloved isle; perhaps the breeze, laden with the salt smell and with the fragrance of vegetation, which filtered like a benediction through the malodorous cells of the penitentiary, had first passed over it. What more could a man desire! Life there was sweet; one dined regularly, and always had a hot meal; everything was orderly, and a man had only to obey and allow himself to be led. One made advantageous friendships; one associated with people of note, whom he would never have met had he remained on the island, and the Ironworker told of his friends with pride. Some had possessed millions, and had ridden in

o be a vèrro, to have gained celebrity and respect by killing an enemy in the darkness of night, and,

reat and enduring respect for the vèrro. He described the part

ale and waxy complexion, the complexion of a cloistered nun; but now he was dark like everybody else, with his face bronzed and tanned by the sea air and the African sun of the island. He lived in the mountain, in a hut at the edge of the pine woods near the charcoal-makers, who suppl

r's choice; that the vèrro, with his astonishi

hen Ferrer will give me one of his pi

in the black garb of long-past mourning; one of her eyes was watery, the other was shut. She would blow the bellows while her nephew hammered the red-hot iron. Ever workin

s, adorned with silk pompons, a friendly token from the unfamed artists who whiled away the time in their retreat in "Niza." When his sister should live at the forge Pepet would go to see her, a

ad undergone trying tests; Ferrer, however, was little skilled in agricultural affairs, and although all the Ivizans showed themselves equally predisposed to cultivating the soil, to casting a net into the sea, or to landing a cargo of smuggled goods, along with other little industries, skipping easily from one kind of work to another, he desired for his daughter a genuine farmer, on

ncline toward another, the fortunate one would be compelled to settle accounts with Pere, the glorious desperado, and must put him out of the way. Great things were going to be seen. The courting of

walked in her footsteps like a serving woman, not venturing to do anything without consulting her. Se?or Pèp hesitated before making a decision, scratching his forehead with a gesture of doubt and murmuring, "I must c

th admiration, and he enumerated her talents, dwel

smash the tambourine over his head before he would accept him as a brother-in-law. He would only claim as a relative of his a hero. Yet, as for making up songs and singing them interspersed with cries like the peacock's, there was no one to equal the Minstrel. One should be just, and Pepet recognized the youth's merit. He was a glory to the cuarton, almost to be compare

the following Sunday Margalida would reply with a romanza twice as long, criticizing the vanity and egoism of the men, while

... Pep

the dense silence of the early afternoon hours vibrant with heat

rom his encircling arms, and sprang to his feet. It was Margalida calling him

rasped

e said, smiling. "Prete

e. The young imp was pleased at this innocent duplicity, and he t

e?or Pèp for it-for my

f your father will not give it to you I wil

hands, his eyes glo

continued Febrer, "but you must not us

a decoration, nothing else! Yet his eyes darkened with a cruel doubt. A decoration it migh

ep

her coming, hoping to see Margalida's head, and then her figure, appear in the doorway;

l blue skirt and her straw hat with its streamers of flowered ribbons. The broad brim of her hat

called Febrer, smiling, but

n the se?or's lips a flush of color momentari

ut did such a gentleman interest

ead, and in her confusion stood fingering the corners of her apron, abashed, like a gir