CHAPTER VIII.
TRAPPING A KING'S COURIER
But for a promise he had given, to remain in his uncomfortablehiding-place until summoned by his friends, and but for the awfulpenalty they must have paid had their connection with him beendiscovered, Huetzin would long since have left the old water-pipe. Hisposition in it was so painfully cramped that, as the long hours draggedslowly away, it became well-nigh insupportable. When he finally heardthe welcome summons, and issued from the narrow opening, he was sostiff he could hardly stand. A brisk rubbing of his limbs soon restoredtheir circulation; and, after partaking of a hearty meal in the cabinof his humble protectors, he was once more ready to venture forth. Awallet well filled with tortillas, provided by the woman to whom healready owed his life, was given him, and, bidding her a loving andgrateful farewell, he followed the lead of the old mountaineer out intothe darkness.
Making many detours to avoid dwellings, and after a narrow escape froma patrol of soldiers, suddenly encountered, who passed so close towhere they crouched in a thicket by the wayside that they could havetouched them, the fugitives finally reached the fresh-water lake ofChalco. Here Huetzin alone would have wasted much precious time, buthis guide knew where to find a canoe. This he speedily drew forth fromits hiding-place, and a half-hour of silent paddling set them acrossthe lake. Although they approached the shore with the utmost caution,they were hailed from out its shadows, as they were about to land, by ahoarse challenge that sounded like a voice of doom. As they hesitated,irresolute, an arrow flew by their heads with a venomous hiss, and theold man cried out, in a tremulous voice:
"Hold thy hand, my lord, it is only I, a poor slave of Iztapalapan,seeking to catch a few fish for the morrow's food."
"Come hither, slave, at once, that I may examine thee, ere I drive anarrow through thy miserable carcass," cried the voice.
Making an awkward splashing with his paddle, under cover of whichHuetzin slid into the water, the old man obeyed. He found but a singlesoldier awaiting him, though others, who came running up from eitherside, demanding to know the cause for shouting, showed that he formedbut one of a cordon guarding the whole lake shore. These carefullyexamined the old man and his canoe. At length, satisfied that he wasalone and bore no resemblance to the one whom they sought, they lethim go, bidding him not to venture near the shore again as he valuedhis life. As he humbly thanked them for their forbearance, and slowlypaddled away, they moved up the beach in search of other suspiciouscharacters.
Huetzin, who had been standing in water up to his neck, where he wouldhear every word that passed, now attracted the Tlascalan's attention bya low hissing sound, grasped his hand in token of farewell, and madehis way to the spot just vacated by the soldiers, correctly assumingthat, for a short time at least, it would be safer than any other.Cautiously and noiselessly he crept up the bank, nor did he dare tomove at more than a snail's pace until a good quarter of a mile hadbeen put between him and his enemies. Then he set forth at such speedthat, before morning, he had left the valley of Mexico behind, and wasclimbing the rugged slope of the mountains bounding it on the east.
At the coming of daylight the fugitive sought a cave, near which issueda spring of clear water; and here he passed the day, having no foodsave the water-soaked tortillas, already sour and mouldering in hiswallet. When night came he again ventured forth, and found a field,from which he procured a few ears of half-ripened maize.
Thus for a week he hid by day and travelled by night, rarely daringto set foot on the highway by which the mountains were traversed, butscrambling through the dense forests that bordered it, and havingnarrow escapes from wild beasts and wilder men. His clothing and skinwere torn by thorns, his feet were cut and bleeding from rude contactwith jagged rocks, his blood was chilled by the biting winds of thelofty heights to which he climbed, and his body was weakened andemaciated by starvation. Only an indomitable will, the remembrance ofhis father's death, and the thought of Tiata with no one in the worldto care for her save him, urged the young Toltec forward.
Often during the day, from some hiding-place overlooking the publicroad, he watched with envy the king's couriers, hurrying east or westwith the swiftness of the wind. Each of these, as he knew, ran at fullspeed for two leagues, at the end of which he delivered his despatchesto another who was in waiting at a post-station, and was then allowedto refresh himself with food, drink, and a bath, before being againsummoned to duty. Such was the swiftness of these trained runners,and the perfection of the system controlling them, that despatcheswere transmitted with incredible rapidity, and on the king's table inTenochtitlan fresh fish were daily served, that were taken from theeastern ocean, two hundred miles away, less than twenty hours before.
Not only did Huetzin, barely existing on the few tunas or acrid wildfigs that he occasionally found, envy the king's couriers the comfortsof the post-stations, to which he dared not venture, and which seemedso desirable as compared with his own surroundings, but he longedto know the purport of the despatches that so constantly passed andrepassed. That most of them contained information concerning thewhite conquerors, whose movements and intentions he was so anxious todiscover, he felt certain. He knew that the penalty for molesting ordelaying a king's courier was death; but that meant nothing to him, forthe same fate would be his in any case if he should be captured. Thus,being already outlawed, he would not have hesitated to attack a courierand strive to capture his despatches, but for the fact that they werestrong, well-fed men, while he was weak from starvation. Moreover, theywere armed, while he was not, even his dagger having been broken off atthe hilt in an attempt to cut for himself a club early in his flight.At length, however, he contrived a plan that promised success, andwhich he at once proceeded to put into execution.
He had saved the broken blade of his dagger, and transformed it intoa rude knife by binding one end with bark. With this he cut a tough,trailing vine, nearly one hundred feet in length, and, coiling it ashe would a rope, made his way, cautiously, just at dusk, to the edgeof the highway. He had chosen a place from which he could see for somedistance in either direction; and, after making certain that no personwas in sight, he fastened one end of his rope-like vine to the rootsof a small tree. Then, carrying the other across the road, he stretchedit as tightly as possible, and made it fast. The rope, so arranged, waslifted some six inches above the surface of the road. Having thus sethis trap, Huetzin concealed himself at one side and impatiently awaitedthe approach of a victim.
Ere he had waited a half-hour there came a sound of quick foot-falls,and the heart of the young Toltec beat high with excitement. Now hecould see the dim form of a man speeding forward through the darkness,and hear the panting breath. Now the flying messenger is abreast of theplace where he crouches. Now he trips over the unseen obstacle, andplunges headlong with a startled cry and outstretched arms. Huetzinleaped forward and flung himself bodily upon the prostrate form. Hehad anticipated a struggle, and nerved himself for it, but none wasmade. The man's forehead had struck on the rocky roadbed, and he layas one dead. Huetzin wasted no time in attempting to revive him;but, unfastening the green girdle that held the precious packet ofdespatches, and at the same time distinguished its wearer as beingin the royal service, and securing the bow and arrows with which thecourier was armed, he plunged again into the forest and disappeared.
That night he was so fortunate as to discover a corn-field, for he hadnow passed the range of the great volcan, and descended to the fertiletable-land on its eastern side. At daylight he had the further goodfortune to shoot a wild turkey, and though, having no fire nor means ofprocuring one, he was forced to eat the meat raw, it greatly refreshedand strengthened him. By the time he had finished this welcome meal,and selected a hiding-place for the day, the sun had risen, and heeagerly opened the packet of despatches.
HUETZIN WASTED NO TIME.]
For an hour he pored over them, and when it was ended the young Toltecwas wiser, concerning some matters of vital importance, than the kinghimself. He had
not only learned, as well as pictured likenesses couldteach him, what manner of beings the white conquerors were, but asecret concerning them that might have altered the fate of the kingdomhad Montezuma been aware of it at that moment. It was that the terriblebeings who accompanied the conquerors, and were described as combiningthe forms of men and fire-breathing monsters, were in reality twodistinct individuals, a man and an animal, also that they were mortaland not godlike. These facts were shown by pictures of a dead horse,and two of the white strangers, also lying on the ground, dead andtransfixed by arrows. Near them stood a number of men, and severalhorses without riders, but all pierced by arrows, showing them to bewounded. It was evidently a representation of a battle-scene betweenthe white conquerors, and-- Could it be? Yes! There was the whiteheron, the emblem of the Tlascalan house of Titcala, the token of hismother's family! The white conquerors were at war with Tlascala!
This was a startling revelation to the son of Tlahuicol. He knew thathis warrior father had deemed a union of the forces of Tlascala withthose of the powerful strangers the only means by which the Aztecnation and its terrible priesthood could be overthrown. What couldhe do to stop the war now so evidently in progress, and bring aboutthe desirable alliance? He could at least bear his father's lastmessage, with all speed, to Tlascala, and he would. It should be heardby the council of chiefs ere the set of another sun. Thus deciding,and fastening the green girdle of the courier, the badge of royalauthority, about his waist, Huetzin hastened to the highway, and setout boldly upon it, with all speed, in the direction of Tlascala.