Manners and customs -- Fiction; Short stories, American
“First in the calaboose at Santa Clara for two months, and then
in Cabanas. The Cubans who were taken when I was, were shot by the
fusillade on different days during this last month. Two of them, the
Ezetas, were father and son, and the Volunteer band played all the time
the execution was going on, so that the other prisoners might not hear
them cry ‘Cuba Libre’ when the order came to fire. But we heard them.”
The senator shivered slightly and pulled his fur collar up farther
around his face. “I’d like to talk with you,” he said, “if you have
nothing to do to-morrow. I’d like to go into this thing thoroughly.
Congress must be made to take some action.”
The young man clasped his hands eagerly. “Ah, Mr. Stanton, if you
would,” he cried, “if you would only give me an hour! I could tell you
so much that you could use. And you can believe what I say, sir--it is
not necessary to lie--God knows the truth is bad enough. I can give you
names and dates for everything I say. Or I can do better than that, sir.
I can take you there yourself--in three months I can show you all you
need to see, without danger to you in any way. And they would not know
me, now that I have grown a beard, and I am a skeleton to what I was.
I can speak the language well, and I know just what you should see, and
then you could come back as one speaking with authority and not have to
say, ‘I have read,’ or ‘have been told,’ but you can say, ‘These are the
things I have seen’--and you could free Cuba.”
The senator coughed and put the question aside for the moment with a
wave of the hand that held his cigar. “We will talk of that to-morrow
also. Come to lunch with me at one. My apartments are in the Berkeley
on Fifth Avenue. But aren’t you afraid to go back there?” he asked
curiously. “I should think you’d had enough of it. And you’ve got a
touch of fever, haven’t you?” He leaned forward and peered into the
other’s eyes.
“It is only the prison fever,” the young man answered; “food and this
cold will drive that out of me. And I must go back. There is so much to
do there,” he added. “Ah, if I could tell them, as you can tell them,
what I feel here.” He struck his chest sharply with his hand, and on the
instant fell into a fit of coughing so violent that the young man at
the carriage door caught him around the waist, and one of the policemen
supported him from the other side.
“You need a doctor,” said the senator kindly. “I’ll ask mine to have a
look at you. Don’t forget, then, at one o’clock to-morrow. We will go
into this thing thoroughly.” He shook Arkwright warmly by the hand and
stooping stepped into the carriage. The young man who had stood at the
door followed him and crowded back luxuriously against the cushions.
The footman swung himself up beside the driver, and said “Uptown
Delmonico’s,” as he wrapped the fur rug around his legs, and with
a salute from the policemen and a scraping of hoofs on the slippery
asphalt the great man was gone.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account