The Opelousas courier., 1900-01-20
once more and go ploughing down to

IT was the same old routine-o,
walking up and down the long, curl
ing, crooked street of the town be
tween the Governors ''palace" ant
the Quartet on the hill overlooking thu
lagoon. Zalezzo walked up and dow1
in an aimless and really unguided waJ
for a dozen days, just as he had done
in a dozen previous campaigns. The
white people, who had come to live Ii
IBluefields for the sake of trading and
getting rich, laughed at him and spoke
of the unlaundried condition Of his
shirt The Jamaica Africans, glory.
ing in the fact that they were British
subjects and therefore free from con.
scription by the President, lounged
g%rinningly past and asked him about
his gun-whieh he did not carry, guns
being forbidden to soldiers. Zalezzo
walked and walked, and tried to feel
HE a b~are-footed hero in ragged
clothes, but he was not On amateur at
this thing and could not muster up
the Illusion.
On the thirteenth night a girl named
Ghoza came to him as he was loaing
in a military way past the hotel-the
English hotel-and said to him:
do you know Of Kisti?"
mo- said Zalezzo.
"She has married the %rubber-fbre
company's clerk-the big young man
who came up the last Yulu."
The measure of time is not by years
or months or week in that region, but
by steamer trips. "The last Yulu"
meant the last time the Yulu had come
from GreytoWn.
The girl went away, and Zalezzo
continued to walk his aimless, unplan-
ned beat. AS he walked he thought.
He remembered the wars, the revolts,
the terms of his service, the frequent
near approach to the price of the IL
cense-and the loss to him of Kisti.
Now, the ordinary man placed as
was Zalezzo would have bent most of
his thoughts toward the white clerk
who had come up on the last Yulu, but
with Zalezzo it was different. He
looked beyond the mere supericiality
of the case and found the bassic rea-
soning.
WARS" he said, "~bloodless but busy
wars, have kept me sixteen times from
getting money enough to get that IL
cense. This white clerk is a. mere in
c.dent. The wars are the thing. Yes,
and who is back of the wars? You
cannot stab a wal or shoot a war if
you are injured by a war; but you can
go deeper and see who caused the war,
and make it even with him."
He walked up and down and up and
down in his bare feet, with his bayonet
sticking out almost rectangularly from |
his cartridgeless belt.
The moon came up, and 1t shone on
the white palace of the Governor.
with Its weedy yard and it's dirty,
muddy steps Of entry. Zalezzo sat up
on an old, foolish, rusty cannon and
thought of his situation and of the au-
thor of his wrong. He turned at last
and caught the cleaning of the moon
the window of the Governors room.
It was but two stories-the white
frame "palace'-and the window was
within the reach of any man
who could get a good ''boost."
The man who makes war Is In
said Zaiezzo. "What do I care
for the white clerk? Did he make the
war OF last year, when | was within
seven soils of the license, or of the year
before, when / had but four to win2 /
Not he. I'll do it,"
He looked about for a ladder or
something which could be used as
'uch, but the prudent house guard had
put all such things away at the out
break of the war. The only thing
which could be of help was the can
on-ten feet long, and old and rusty.
looked at IL. It weighed over
NO tons dead metal. The spirit of in
ury within him. however, knew moth
ng OF muscles or horsepower.
. . = . . .
It was the strangest thing! The
Governor had been stabbed to death as
e slept-evidently by means of a bay
net. But how the assailant got into
window was a marvel beyond the
sicaraguan army's comprehension. i
there was no ladder. no plank, MOTH !
ng. And, above all, the old cannon, !
eavy and unwieldy, stood there in its
lace to intimidate any stranger who
come with offensive purpose. s
The murder OF the Governor ended /
he war. Some great event like that {
needed to bring the thing to- a
lose. Ialezzo went back to the plan
alton, and afterWard he never both
red about Kisti, for be realized that d
was quite right for the white clerk
, have her. 1