The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1897-11-04
THE SHUTTING
OF A WINDOW.
BY "A. F. KAhFUS.

Il by "A. F. KAnFUS.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
DIAL CHICO was the son of Next
ID can matadore, and his early asso-
Citations were not of kind to develop
Q stable and law-abiding character. Bal
drank because lie saw everybody else
drink, and red wine brought into action
in Bal that courage which the matadorc
displayed in. the arena with sagacity
and prudence. Red wine does not ma
ture wisdom, theoretical or applied, and
without these, which are indeed sagaci-
ty and prudence, courage becomes but
pugnacity that amuses or offends. Balls
soon became offensive, and in brawl in
an indecent quarter of his native town
he had the misfortune to knife young
grandee of tastes and weaknesses sim
liar to his own, but of influential con-
nections. The wounded youth recov-
cred, but political influence was suf1i-
cient to cause his assailant's removal
to penal settlement for 20 years.
Bal obtained, no more red wine, but
the more he weighed the offense of
the knife attack, it's provocation and it's
punishment the clearer it seemed that
he was suffering out of all proportion
for his transgression. The sense of
foul wrong, done because it could be
done, burned in upon him as if a brand
iron were held against him, ever glow
ing and never lifted. For months after
he had discerned the immense range of
this injustice he lived in rage impede
mental to speech-he became inarticu-
late.
Slowly his good sense came to the
rescue and he became calm that he
might live, grow strong of body and
powerful through accumulation and
meet Don Pico as master. There were
men of different nationalities in the
settlement, and Bal found that he alb
sorbed words as a sponge absorbs wa
ter, and he learned Portuguese, more
than one patois of his own land and the
dialect of a Peruvian Indian sent from
his own province year before, whom
the hands of vicious fellow convict.
This Indian had virtue little known
to civilization-he was capable of graf
itude-and the two formed a mutual at
tachment that the friendships of CIV
ilization may scarcely parallel and
which was equaled but by their COM
mon hatred of all rulers, their own in
~ This TpSio,, Po1 In 70 ho
snake charmer of extraordinary ac-
complishments. His gift was not trans
ferable to the younger man, nor did
the latter soon discover its singularity,
but in time he found that Juan's power
over certain reptiles might be expressed
as hypnotic. He seemed to impress his
own masterfulness upon the serpents
and to exert his power upon them at
distance, or to send them to perform
some definite mission at distance and
return within a given time, after the
habit of human subjects.
Once Bal saw Juan with his pets at
recreation. No word was spoken, but
Juan looked meaningly at Bal and then
at the top of the wall. Bal looked and
saw lizard there, with it's head a-tilt
and the sun shining pink through it's
palpitant throat. Then something
slipped away from Juan, who watched
the top of the wall, as did Bal. BY and
by u bit of the wall moved-it seemed
bit of the wall-it moved and coiled
und leaped, and the little foray was
over. Then the devourer slipped back
and Juan snapped his fingers and whis-
pered to 1T.
''Was the lizard hypnotized, too?'' Bal
Chico asked himself.
This branch of his accomplishment
Juan never showed the prison officials
when they sent for him to exhibit for
their amusement.
The weary years rolled by. 1--WE will
live; we must live. We will get even
you and me-" Juan whispered to him
self over and over; and he whispered it
to Bal when he could, with the same i'm
perious suggestiEeness that he whis-
pered something to his snakes.
At last Juan's 20 weary years were
done; but the ~man-witch" had gotten
much power. Some. he amused when
tired Of the commonplace, but the many
feared him, and when he chose to wan
der around The settlement clad in
breeches, poncho and a viper, after he
was free to go far away, none objected,
and few wondered at the whims Of so
fantastic being.
When Bal, young man white-haired
V11onf. INIT old Tho tod +, Of
the prison gates, carrying close-woven
wicker crate, or basket, but neither
extra clothing nor the usual snakes
were visible, and from that day neither
appeared in all that country.
Among the stupendous mountains Of
Peru gold may be had for the seeking,
but death is for the white man who
seeks it. When old Juan went back to
his mountains and some old acquaint-
ances, with another swarthy man who
spoke only as he did and was his friend,
their right of occupancy of hut and
lands was unquestioned, as were their
bartering expeditions to the nearest
seaport. But Juan and Bal Chico did
not always exchange their nuggets for
commodities; oftener, with wisdom
learned abroad, did they demand coin.
Juan had come home with his old name
Of Casma, and Bal Chico had assumed
q new name for his new habitation, and
the singular fact became known at the
town bank that Casma and Chira were
thrifty Indian depositors and checked
against their account. Casma explained
that abroad he had been called Juan
Sanchez and Chira had been known as