The Mouse in the Mountain, Norbert Davis [best e reader for android .TXT] 📗

they had been robbed by this Ruggles criminal until she told them. But she knows. She knows everything about people from the United States because she came from there herself."

"You mean, your mother is an American?"

Captain Perona looked at her. "That is a very disgusting habit your countrymen have. Calling themselves Americans as though they were the only ones. I will have you know that Mexicans are Americans. We are more Americans than people from the United States are, because we came to America before they did."

"I'm sorry," Janet said meekly.

"You should be. Kindly be more careful of your language in the future. My ancestor, Emile Perona, was one of the first men to come to this continent. That is why we wish Gil De Lico's diary. It was presented to our family by the family of Gil De Lico three hundred-odd years ago. I can show you the presentation letter if you wish to see it, although you could not read it, of course."

"Yes, I could."

"No," said Captain Perona patronizingly. "It is in old-fashioned Spanish and written in script."

"I could still read it. How do you think I read Gil De Lico's diary?"

Captain Perona stared at her. "You read the diary? Really read it? All of it?"

"Why, yes."

"It is incredible," said Captain Perona, respectfully though. "No one in our family ever read it. It was so very difficult. Only professors can read such old-fashioned script."

"I'm a professor."

"Oh, no. You are a woman."

"I'm--a--professor!"

"How strange. Well, if you are a professor and really did read the diary, then you must know what it says about the first Emile Perona--where he went and all the things he saw and did."

"Yes, I do."

"Then tell me, please."

"But there's so much of it!" Janet protested. "Why, it would take days and days!"

"Good," said Captain Perona.

"But I haven't time! I'm leaving on the bus!"

"I am, too," said Captain Perona.

"There still wouldn't be enough time. I'm only going to stay at the Hotel Azteca another two days, and then I'm going to Mazatlan."

"I am too," said Captain Perona.

"Why?"

"It is a military matter."

"It is not! You're just going to follow me!"

"Please, senorita," said Captain Perona severely. "Are you accusing me of being a--a--What is that fascinating word? I have it! Masher! Are you accusing me of being a masher?"

"Yes."

"I will have you know, senorita, that I am a gentleman and an officer of the Mexican Army. I have many important and confidential duties. Do you think I would waste my time following a mere woman around--even a very pretty one?"

"What?" said Janet, surprised.

"Oh, yes," said Captain Perona. "You are very pretty, indeed. Has not anyone told you that before? What is the matter with the men in the United States?"

"Why, I--I don't--"

"You blush, too," said Captain Perona. "That is very attractive, I think."

Janet swallowed hard. "Well... Please tell me some more about Ebenezer Ruggles being a thief. That's very hard for me to believe."

"A long time ago he was traveling in Mexico. He was invited to the home of my grandfather and grandmother. He was their guest, you understand? He collected books at that time--old books."

Janet nodded. "I knew he did. He left his collection to the school. It's enormous."

"No doubt. My grandfather and grandmother showed him the heirlooms of my family. We have a great many. They are very precious to us. This Ruggles villain saw the diary of Gil De Lico. He was fascinated. He could not take his hands off it, although he could not read it, of course. He wanted it for his own. He hinted and hinted, and finally he asked my grandfather for the diary."

"Well?" Janet inquired.

"So my grandfather said he could have it. And he took it, the thief!"

"But why?" Janet asked, puzzled. "If your grandfather gave him the diary, how does that make him a thief?"

"Ah!" said Captain Perona. "That is the whole trick! We did not understand until my mother explained. She was very angry when she heard about it. You see, when you are a guest in Mexico everything in the house is yours. That is the custom here. When you enter, the host says: 'This house is yours.' He means it."

"That's a very beautiful custom," Janet said.

"Certainly. Unless dishonest foreigners take advantage of it. Like that thief, Ruggles. He knew he could not buy the book, but he also knew--since he was a guest--that if he asked for it my grandfather could not think of refusing him because that would be a violation of hospitality. My grandfather was very sad, but he thought he could do nothing else but present the diary to Ruggles. He thought Ruggles would do the same thing in the same circumstances. My mother says he would not have."

"She's right," said Janet.

"So that makes Ruggles a thief," said Captain Perona. "A swindler. A trickster. He takes advantage of a custom in which he does not join or believe. He abuses his privilege as a guest to rob my family. But I will fix things. I will go to this school and swindle the book back. I will offer to buy it and then pay in counterfeit money or with a bad check."

Janet stared at him. "You can't do that!"

"Oh, yes. I am very clever at swindling, and I understand the people in the United States are exceedingly stupid about such things."

"You'll be arrested!"

"All right," said Captain Perona. "I have heard there is no justice in the United States, but I will get the diary back for my family, so I will be contented in prison."

Janet cleared her throat. "The--the diary isn't at the school now."

Captain Perona sat up straight. "What? Have you been lying to me?"

"No! I said I found it there and read it there. Mr. Doan was the one who told you it was there now. I didn't."

"Where is it?"

"In my suitcase at the hotel Azteca."

"Good!" Captain Perona chortled triumphantly. "You can give it to me!"

"No, I can't. The school doesn't know I have it. If I didn't bring it back, they'd say I stole it and put me in jail."

Captain Perona shook his head. "I cannot understand this at all. It seems very weird that they put people in prison in the United States for taking things from thieves. A thief does not own what he steals. It should be perfectly all right to take such things away from him and return them to their real owners. It must be that there are so many thieves in the United States that they have gotten laws passed to protect themselves from honest people."

"The school didn't steal your book!" Janet protested.

"If it is Ebenezer Ruggles' school--and you said it was--then it certainly did. He stole it for the school. It is all the same thing."

Janet moved her hands helplessly, giving it up.

Captain Perona said: "And what are you doing with our diary, if you please? Why did you steal it from the school?"

"I didn't steal it!"

Captain Perona shrugged. "All right. But what are you doing with it?"

"I was interested. I wanted to go to the places that were mentioned in it and see what they looked like now. I wanted the diary for reference."

"What places?" Captain Perona asked suspiciously.

"The places that Lieutenant Perona went."

"Why?"

"To see them!"

"Why?"

"Stop saying that! It's none of your business!"

"It is," Captain Perona corrected politely. "It is my ancestor, hence it is my business. Why, please?"

"I won't tell you!"

"Hmmm," said Captain Perona. He sat for a moment watching Janet in thoughtful silence, and then he said: "Did you know that Lieutenant Perona, my ancestor, was a very immoral man? That he forced his attentions on hundreds of poor, innocent, helpless Indian maidens?"

"That's a lie!" Janet snapped indignantly.

"Ha!" said Captain Perona. "I thought so! You are not interested in where my ancestor went. You are interested in him personally."

Janet got up and started to walk away from him. She walked determinedly, holding her head high, clicking her heels hard. After she had gone about fifty yards, Captain Perona said from behind her:

"Senorita."

"Go away. Leave me alone."

"Senorita, it is said that I resemble my ancestor very closely."

"That's a lie, too. He was a gentleman. You stop following me! Go away!"

"Senorita, unless you give me my diary it will be my sad duty to arrest you."

Janet stopped short. "What?"

"Yes," said Captain Perona.

"You wouldn't dare! Why would you arrest me?"

"I do not know," Captain Perona admitted. "But I will think of some reason."

Janet stuttered with fury. "Why, you--you--"

"Want me to poke him one for you, dearie?"

Janet whirled around, startled. The woman who had spoken was watching them, looking grimly amused. She had gray, frizzy hair that floated around her weather-beaten face like a lopsided halo, and she was wearing an orange smock. She had a bundle of sticks that Janet identified as a collapsed easel tucked under one arm.

"So it is you, again," said Captain Perona sourly.

"Yeah, baby. And I'm going to tell Colonel Callao that you're annoying tourists."

"That greasy pig!" said Captain Perona.

"I'll tell him you called him that, too. And mind your manners. Introduce me to the little lady."

Captain Perona said awkwardly: "Senorita, may I present to you Amanda Tracy?"

"Hah!" said Amanda Tracy. "I thought so! You don't even know her name! What is it, dearie?"

"Janet Martin."

"Howdy, Janet," said Amanda Tracy. "Want to come along with me? I'm looking for a sucker to sell one of my smears to. Don't let Perona worry you. If he tries to arrest you, I'll push him in the puss with this easel."

"You are flouting military authority," Captain Perona warned her. "Besides, I am escorting the senorita on a sight-seeing tour."

"Is he?" Amanda Tracy asked Janet.

"Well, he started to."

"I will continue it," said Captain Perona stiffly.

"To the jail?" Janet asked.

Captain Perona cleared his throat. "Not at the moment. To the museum. It is very beautiful, senorita. Full of many ancient treasures."

"I'd like to go," said Janet, "but not if you're going to threaten me and--and accuse me--of things."

"If he does," said Amanda Tracy, "just come and tell me. I'll run him clear out of town."

"Bah!" said Captain Perona. "Good day." He took Janet's arm firmly and started to lead her away.

"Hey, Perona," said Amanda Tracy. "There's another tourist wandering around you'd better keep an eye on. A little fat number called Doan. He's a crook if ever I saw one."

"Mr. Doan's a detective," Janet told her.

Amanda Tracy shrugged husky shoulders. "Maybe so. That wouldn't mean he wasn't a crook. Better watch him, Perona. He's a tough cookie, and that dog of his is a bad dream."

"I am watching him," said Captain Perona. "Kindly attend to your painting and leave my business to me."

"From me to you--phooey." said Amanda Tracy. "So long, dearie. See you later." She walked on into the market square, easel trailing behind her.

"She is an artist," Captain Perona told Janet. "She lives here and paints and paints, and everything she paints is most horrible, but tourists buy it and pay good sums for it. I think tourists are crazy, myself."

"I'm one," Janet reminded.

"Senorita, you are trying to trick me into insulting you, as I understand is the custom of women from the United States. They trick a man into insulting them, and then they threaten to have the man arrested unless he marries them. They are so unattractive they cannot get a husband in any other way. But it is useless for you to try that method on me. I refuse flatly to marry you."

"Why, you--you arrogant, ignorant--"

"Never mind," Captain Perona comforted. "Perhaps you can find someone more stupid and marry him. Shall we proceed?"

Janet was speechless. She tried to drag back, scuffling her heels, but Captain Perona pulled her along with no effort at all. They turned a corner and followed a straggling street down the steep slope of the mountain.

"This is the older part of the town," Captain Perona explained. "Some has been rebuilt, of course. But some is very ancient, indeed."

The buildings here looked lower and thicker, and their windows were mere slits. Their walls were not white, either,