The Law of the Bolo

rines of Law and Order, coupled with those of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity, as defined by the Declaration of Independence. In appearance, Felizardo was not unli

and inoffensive, [2]respecting, or at least fearing, the Law as represented by the Presidente and the Guardia Civil, and earning such money as he needed—which was not much—by an occasional day’s work in his hemp-patch up on the mountain-side. For the res

n and bred. Rumour in the village, which possibly spoke the truth, declared that Juan was connected with the local band of ladron

traces of her white ancestry. Felizardo, on the other hand, was a native

the man, lounging against [3]the timbers of the crude belfry, smoking the eternal cigarette, suddenly awakened to the fact that there were other things in life besides tobacco and native spirits and game-cocks. He did not follow Dolores into the church—that

iding-place up on the mountain-side; and, being able, he realised that there were latent possibilities in the rather shy young tao who was so obviously taken with Dolores; consequently

o Dagujob, a fierce little man, with two bolos strapped on his waist. The last-named had come in, unostentatiously, from the jungle [4]behind the house, after the two Guardia Civil, who had been sent to attend the fiesta, had gone off to k

auses of it with the flat of their sabres. That is their way—with the t

. “And how about you and the

ich they would not do without warning—you would be Dagujob, the ladrone chief, whom we had lured here

back into its wooden sheath, contemptuously. “Bah!” its owner growled, “you dare not. I should talk, and there is r

ds. “Don José Ramirez will be receiving three thousand pesos next mont

rd. “Don José, the Spanish m

grin: “His place is opposite the new gallows, whic

st remark; this was now a

ell shuttered; and, if we tried force, the noise would bring d

ions, which accorded ill with his calling; but the Teniente had no such scruples. “You must have som

ght not like to be so near your gallows; whilst your people here are fools, every one—just common tao. Then a man from Manila would get in one [6]of his own hands.

those last words, and nodded his head, apparently in approval of the sentiment; though possibly,

lowing my daughter, Dolores.” Father Pablo started slightly. “He is a tao, with brains. I know Don José wants a man to live in the house. If I send this young Felizardo to him, he will take him; and i

indow frame more tightly than a casual observer might have thought necessary; but the

geous uniforms, with their clattering sabres and horse pistols in vast leather holsters. Felizardo received a friendly nod from th

him,” the man

and, for the first time in his life, Felizardo felt the instinct to kill awaken in him. Unconsciously,

zardo very graciously. He was interested in the young man, and asked him many questi

—he was a hemp-buyer—“I started to learn in a Spaniard’s store, and made all this myself. I should be a very happy man, if only I had a son. As it is, the

ake any reply, his host had got up abruptly. “Come and see me again soon—the day

t was his whole record so far; but it should be different for the future. He turned into his little nipa-thatched house full of this good resolution, and awakened in the morning still of the same mind. There was a fiesta on in his own village that day, and he had saved five pesos in order to have an unusually large bet on his own favourite fighting-cock, hitherto the champion of the place; but, instead of doing so, [9]he donned his working clothes, took his working bolo, and started off towards his hemp-patch, two miles away, up the hillside. One or two women he passed—the men ros

emp on a fiesta-day?—but he walked past them all without appearing to notice them. He was not angry—there was no question of that; it was only that he seemed to have urgent, and

about business, the Teniente said cheerfully. He himself was likely to be fully occupied until evening. Let the visitor stay the night, and on

the following day, Felizardo took a reluctant farewell, they were perfectly sure they understood one another. Other people of t

you had to reach it by canoe—they met Father Pablo, apparently going to the Teniente’s. The Teniente stopped a

ame back to him, stronger [11]than ever. For a moment he hesitated, half inclined to go back; but he had not yet felt the full strength of that instinct; and so in the end he went on, reluctantly. Juan Lasara, thinking deeply over the priest’s words—“It will

te to the Teniente, as a white gentleman must be to

n Lasara, he hastened to add: “Of course, in any case, the recommendation of Senor Lasara would suffice. Still, in these days there are

ne of the loopholes of those same shutters, an arrangement satisfactory to himself, to the Spaniard, and perhaps most of all to his patron, the [12]Teniente of San Polycarpio.

his private office, whilst the other clerks, all mestizos, looked on what they called “a wild tao” as a fitting subject for jests and practical jokes. But Felizardo thought of Dolores, who could only be won by his success in t

,” Don José remarked to the

each them our secrets and make them more dangerous than ever.” He sighed heavily, and twirled his huge, dyed moustache. “Thirty years I have been out here, D

; “I have some choice wine which came in the other day, wine of Spain; and some cigars such as you could n

headland to San Polycarpio. Dolores was waiting for him. “I knew you would com

mmercial career, and very severe on the subject of ladrones and the injury they did to trade, which was perhaps not very pleasant hearing to his host, for after the guest had g

e will open it, because he is

at?” demand

est well, he was not really uneasy in his own mind. Certainly, they would eventually share those five thousand pesos of Don José’s, and if, as was probable, Do

hurried up, thrust a note into his hand, and disappeared as suddenly as he had come. Felizardo read the letter slowly, and forthwith forgot all about the pesos; for Dolores was in trouble; Dolores had fled from her father’s house, fearing a forced marriage with a wealthy cousin, who had unex

him secretly, in the dead of night—no one, that is, except the person who actually gave her shelter until he could marry her openly, in the light of day. Yet who would give her shelter? Who would not talk? He racked his brains for an answer, and then it came to him—the good Sisters at the little convent on the far-side of the pla

warehouse again and searched for a bolo, a particularly fine and keen weapon, which, only that afternoon, one of his fellow-clerks had bought from a hill-man. [16]Felizardo found it, strapped it round his waist, saw that it was loose in its sheath,

to the door, he was facing them, shouting, “The ladrones, the ladrones

ardo had then been in hundreds. Be that as it may, the fact remains that he had killed two ladrones, and mortally wounded two more, himself recei

illed out of hand, and four more, including Cinicio Dagujob himself, they han

htest premeditation, he made the mistake of his life. He slipped away in the darkness, down to the beach, launched a canoe, and began frenziedly to paddle towards

s of Don José half an hour later, after the p

he alarm?”

was fighting in the doorway when we ru

e must have opened the door h

an old man, and his nerves were upset. “Felizardo is gone, they tell me. They have

s fingers. He was not very brilliant, and he was trying to const

[18]back with a crumpled slip of paper in hi

old, and one does not take spectacles when one is on service. “Will you read it, Don José, read it aloud slowly?”

thump which made all the wine-glasses dance. “A love affair, as I think I said, or ra

. He is a good, sensible boy,

and would doubtless save their souls, if they have any—but books and learning are not for them. When I get back to Spain I shall make a journey to Rome to tell his Holiness these things. Doubtless, [19]he will listen to an old soldier of Spain?…. No, Don José, your Felizardo will never come back here. Yet”—he sighed regretfully—“he is a fine fighter.

e palm grove; and only one mangy dog, which relapsed into silence after the first stone, noted his arriv

not want to alarm Dolores—about himself. Then, bolo in hand, he made his way to the house, clambered cautiously on to the veranda, and peered in through a tiny hole in the matting blind. He could see very li

return of the messenger Cinicio Dagujob was to send, and the native sp

rish priest? I would get rid of the other. Answer me, Juan Lasara. Will you agree, or shall I denounce you as Cinicio’s partner?” There was a snarl in his

e room. Dolores gave a scream and fainted; Lasara fumbled drunkenly for his knife, and, failing to find it, seized a bo

dealt with Lasara, whom he maimed for life; and after that he gathered together the remains of the [21]food and the win

red the hanging of two others, and then, possibly because, as the corporal said, he was a savage