THE INSURGENCE of
CHAN SANTA CRUZ
BOOK EIGHT:
THE SECOND of the BOOKS of CHANGE
CHAPTER FORTY
NINE
But the
footsteps of this unseen lord were still small and distant in that summer as
the Mexicans deliberated the fate of their dubious prize. With the wire he had
lain back to Peto, Colonel Plank hastily telegraphed
to Alvarado his estimate of the cost to rebuild Santa Cruz del Bravo and
protect it from the sublevados. A malicious rumor,
one without provenance but useful as to estimating the size of this sum, holds
that Alvarado, receiving this telegram, called to his aide for whiskey...
causing a special delegation to be sent to Merida's cathedral.
Drunk
or not, the Governor wired Plank: "Find one of the Maya Oficiales, sign over that odious city and return to
Merida." And, this time, Plank was luckier, finding a man either ambitious
or too addled by his advanced age... or by the beginnings of sickness... to
understand the consequence of making his mark as the new Governor of Quintana Roo... Chief Poot.
"Will
you, upon your honor, uphold a Prohibition of hurtful spirits and respect the
integrity of women?" Plank asked, reading Alvarado's orders. "As
representative of the territory, will you support the Constitution and
recognize the authority of Don Venus Carranza, the First Chief, President of
Mexico?"
"Of
Mexico?" Poot asked. "Why not!"
The
Mexicans, for all he cared, could name a horse their President and, considering
what Poot had heard of those contending for the
position, might do well by this.
"Will
you operate the schools?"
"Yes,"
replied the jefe. If it took a small lie to be rid of these diseased Mexicans,
so be it.
Plank
now ordered a trunk set down before the sublevados.
"It is gold," Silvestro hoped, "or,
more likely, only some of those false, dzulob
Bibles." The trunk was opened and the mazehualob
beheld a dozen tapered, polished clubs and a like number of white spheres.
"Governor
Alvarado, in his concern for the physical fitness of the territory, has decreed
that the rules of baseball be taught and materials provided. You shall be
instructed before we depart. Do you accept this condition?"
Chief Poot frowned and stared down at the trunk. He had heard
sounds, footsteps, but there were no new arrivals. Every man stood silent,
waiting.
"If
the Governor pleases, I will be pleased to have my people learn this game of
ball."
"Then
I hereby appoint you Governor of Quintana Roo,"
Plank said, securing the chief's mark on Alvarado's document and taking flight,
that very evening, back to Peto. So abrupt had his
departure been, so sudden and dreamlike the entire re-occupation that, in the
turmoil and the mud, and in the cries of horses and the hurried explanation of
the duties of the catcher and why batters were permitted only three strikes
while it took four balls to make a walk; in the whispers of a few soldiers who
knew these indians had gold and silver and had
brought items in their saddlebags to sell, and the oaths of the greater number
of Mexicans... who had marched all the way from Merida and would now march back
without even a day of rest... in this tumult, the small footsteps of Lord
Blood-vomit passed, hesitant, meek, entirely unnoticed.
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