Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1899-09-23
LAS PALABRAS.

He was an Englishman and had been fnl
many years an extensive owner of prop
erty in the Argentine, which. however. h,
had sold, and was now returning hOm:
for good.
One evening he told me a great dea
about South America and its customs.
Il hate the place" ne remarked medi
tatiyely, putting at his cheroot, mot only
because of sad associations, but because
of kind of half superstitious horror
with which it is invested in my eyes anC
which can scarcely define. Had it moi
been for the cursed native customs of ths
| place my elder brother Tom. my partner
| there for many years. who died moi
long ago, would have been alive at the
present moment aud probably coming
home with me now
/ suppose that | looked surprised, fol
the don continHd:
"My brother Tom came up to my place
one day, about five years ago now, and
told me that he had resolved to discon-
| tinue giving the ordinary remedies to
ailing cattle.
| 1ndeed:' l returned. Well, what dc
| you intend to use instead|
| Las Palabras.' he replied, laughing
I have got the secret
"'You are joking said Surely you
don't believe in that humbug?'
Il didn't once, but | do now he re-
| piled quietly, for | have tried it and
| found it works admirably
We'll, Mike, my boy he said. smil-
ing, laugh away, but come down and see
for yourself. You won't laugh if save
our medicine bill on the estancia every
year, will you?'
The end of it was that did go down,
and / was convinced against my own will
| by what l saw. So would any one have
been. There was no mistake, no possibil-
| ity of it, in the experiments my brother
conducted before me.
How did you get it?-the secret, |
mean-for l suppose it's no use asking
you what the words are
"That is the curious part of it, he
returned. You know Pedro Viejo-Pe-
| dro the peon? Well, he was very i'll
lately-thought he was dying, and so
did every one else. In return for GER
tain provision to be made for his widow
he offered to reveal TO me the. secret of
Las Palabras, of which he alone in the
neighborhood was possessed. con-
sented, handed over the number of ami
mails he demanded, and. in return, he
impaired TO me the formula, which, as
told you, works uncommonly well.
But
"'But what?'
Well, you see, old Pedro didn't die
after all. He got better and soon was
all right again. Now he wants his pow
er back again-which, of course, he can't
have
"'Can't have?' echoed.
"'No, Of course not! Once you COM
municate the formula to any one, you
lose the power yourself, and also the
ability to impart it to others. Pedro
can't cure a single animal now, other
wise he wouldn't bother about getting
back the power, would he? And have
the power which he had and use it every
day. The only chance of his ever re-
gaining the power is that l should die
before him. In that event it is said that
he would recover the faculty of curing
"'He doesn't want money, he says; he
wants his power back again, which is
just the one thing he cannot have. 1
can't give it back to him if l wished to
| do So.
st flashed upon me that, though my
pAOthCi Hot stt II III tifdt
light, he had given Pedro the peOn
direct interest in his death.
81 didn't say anything to Tom then
but when l went again to Las Palmas
had long talk with him, pointing ont
where l thought his danger lay, but he
only laughed at me. Finally l advised
him to impart the blessed thing to some
one else.
"'Whatr gasped Tom, and pay $3.50 a
year for medicines once more? No,
thank your'
"As we parted at the gateway a man
followed closely at our heels, whom l
knew to be Pedro could see that Tom
instinctively stunned him, but he follow
ed us doggedly nevertheless.
"'Well, Pedro. what is it?' said my
brother at length, turning round upon
him.
"'Las Palabras, senior, Las Palabrasv
repeated the peon. with pitiful gesture
of entreaty. Las Palabras.
Don Miguel paused so long at this
stage that | thought his narrative had
ended, but he went on again after little
in a somewhat altered voice:
about four months after this l went
down to Las Palmas. When 1 arrived,
my brother was absent. He had ridden
over in the morning to an estancia out
Frayle Muerto way. so his housekeeper
informed me.
81 waited his return hour after hour.
Then ! grew anxious. At last l saddled
my horse and set out in the direction in
which he had gone. l cannot tell what
possessed me to do this; perhaps it was
because that ceaseless refrain. Las Pala
bras. Las Palabras" kept ringing in my
head.
Il had ridden about 10 miles when !
suddenly caught sight of Toms black
horse. 1t was riderless and grazing.
Then knew there was something wrong.
"Close by the riderless horse two bodies
were lying motionless. They were those
of my brother and Pedro. The peon was
quite dead, with a bullet wound in his
forehead. Tom was dying from internal
bleeding, having been shot in the chest,
and was quite unconscious. Having tried
in vain to revive him, galloped back for
assistance. When we returned, my
brother had passed away.
Can you wonder that l hate the Ar
gentine and everything connected with
it? Buenas noches, senor!"
have only to add to Don Miguers
narrative that l have recently made in
Quiries regarding the formula of Las
Palabras as used in the Argentine Re
public and find the facts to be substan-
tally as above related. Can any one
afford rational explanation of them?-
London News.