The record-union., 1894-01-20

some substantial food. AS the don raw
enously began his meal, the outlaw
started to withdraw, but his guest, now
that the genial influence of wine and un.
grudging hospitality was upon him,
begged him patronizingly to remain.
Where might he be? How many folk
were in the outlaws band? How far
could it be to Cienfuegos, to Trinidad, to
Guines, TO Havana? Would Juanita
spare him some OF her specimens? Were
there strange and peculiar beasts, rep
tiles, insects, birds and flora near the
camp? Indeed would not Matagas per-
init him to uDpack his panniers that his
host might enjoy view of his splendid
specimens there at once? These and
countless other questions fell garrulously
from the Professors ready lips.
Many were deftly parried, some were
answered unhesitatingly, others were
silently tolerated, until with a kindly
shrug of his shoulders, as though the old
don's childish simplicity and endless
contemplation of his single life aim had
put him quite outside the metes and
bounds of other mems measurement, ne
bade the absorbed scientist a kindly
"Bueno noche," and took his way to his
own little hut.
There, in the freight moment later,
he could have been seen explaining it all
to TOmaSa and Juanita, tapping his Shag-
/
merry and derisive gestures toward Ju-
anita's bird cages, his stout sides shaking
with laughter, while old Tomasa's face
slowly changed from merriment to some-
thing akin TO passive reflection. and the
face of the girl beside her, lat firstas mirth-
full as her mothers, settled gradually into
a grave, glowing look of indetinable hum
ger and desire that had never before
touched it in her whole wildwood life.
The Professors elevated bunk, laid
with the silvery-white and dOwny lengua
de vaca grass, was where he had an al
most unobstructed view, through an
aperture in the palmetto side of the cabin,
of the carboneros' picturesque camp. If
he reflected upon aught besides the Won
derful promise his situation gave of
increasing his scientific store, the strange
scene before him, what the outlaw had
with perfect trankness disclosed, and
what he must himself have known, could
not but give a marvellous interest to his
surroundings.
Here were hundreds of families living
in the forest in true communistic man
| ner. Their common OutlaWry, in the
eyes Of hated and merciless Spanish law,
had brought them all together. The end
less heart-sob OF Cuba for freedom, ever
strangled by Spanish tyranny, ending
again and again in uprlsiDgs. revolution,
butchery and despair, was their one tie of
brotherhood. CarbOneroS and labradors,
| charcoal burners and wood choppers,
they were now. here and there in the
countless and almost inaccessible Cuban
forests, mountain forests surely inacces-
sible to the coward Spanish soldlery,
with now and then a daring fellow like
Matagas at their head. who terroriZed
only Spanish hirelings, and those most
through the frenzy of their own guilty
fear, but all living lives OF Arcadian
! peace and simplicity, until anew should
| be raised that glorious standard of white
and blue and red, gemmed with single
star, which had waved such terror to
Spaniards over the blood-swept fields OF
Camaguay.
All this is what the Professor could
| have known or knew.
AS it was still early evening, what he
heard was the tuneful thrum Of the guitar,
the tremulous notes of the bandurria, the
Ginning tWang of the mandolin and the
sharp click of castanets in soft accompan-
iment to Cuban songs OF love. of daring
and of war. Now and then these rose TO
startling choruses among the huts and far
| out beyond, where the night watches
were busy at the smoldering pyres.
! At last the spell of the melody brought
! them all together before Matagas' hut
| There these half-wild, happy-hearted
men and women, big-eyed and half naked
muchachos and ninas, loutish guarda-
! bosqueros and coquettish maidens, danced
upon the grimy, smooth-worn earth such
hilarious zapatecOs, such outlandish Ha-
| baneras, and such grotesque fandangoes
as would have caused even a plaster
| Spanish saint to wink, and so dazed the
old don's eyes that he turned them with a
| sigh toward the glowing stars pulsiDg in
| their tropic fires above, and then fell
softly to his slumbers. wherein he was
haunted by swarthy forms, huge ma
chetes and one deep forest peauty's face
starred roundabout with marvellous speci-
mems and unknown birds, throughout
the livelong summer night