THE INSURGENCE
of CHAN
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CHAPTER ELEVEN |
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By two
hours to midnight, the celebration... having been inaugurated some hours
previously and, hence, involving the opening of some dozen cases of champagne Celestina and cognac Choizant...
had reached that state which, in the conversation and the estimation of the montes (who looked East towards all which sparkled with
sophistication), could justly have been called Parisian.
Esteban
Chan, still accustoming himself to unfamiliar work, had never seen the likes of
this before. Removing three glasses from a table, he was position to view the competition
of a pair of dandies for a powdered, painted lady of some years and girth; her
suitors comparing the attributes of the señora with
exotic fruits and animals... plums, pomegranates, the eyes of the deer, tail of
the quetzal. He tried to conceive of such a beast and found this image
formidable. Perhaps the laughing lady was uayak,
one of those sorceresses with the power to change shape into their animal of
aspect. Such things had been hinted at by Mariano Chable.
Holding
one of the glasses towards the chandelier to view a smear of rouge with an
expression of distaste... as he had come to learn would satisfy the cook or any
of his spies... Esteban stole an opportunity to glance out of the window and
spotted a green glow, which was the lantern of a passing policeman. He
collected two more glasses and returned these to the kitchen, passing by the
closed door behind which don Antonio had disappeared some minutes before.
Sometimes a benefit could be obtained through a chance comment overheard. But
the patron and his guests were speaking of things known only to the whites, and
he proceeded to the kitchen.
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– “THE INSURGENCE of CHAN SANTA CRUZ”
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