The Gaucho Juan Moreira: True Crime in Nineteenth-Century Argentina by Eduardo Gutierrez

Author:Eduardo Gutierrez
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781624663413
Publisher: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.
Published: 2014-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

xii

Gondra believed that Moreira was there to enjoy the fun, and despite the calming words that Moreira spoke to him, he continued to insult the rough-looking stranger in uglier and uglier terms. The stranger, too, believed that Moreira was on Gondra’s side, and by this time he was having difficulty suppressing an angry reaction to the stream of insults. Nonetheless, he paid for his bottle of cane liquor without opening his mouth, and walked away unhurriedly, measuring Gondra up and down with a deadly look.

Gondra laughed uproariously, and turning to Moreira, he said:

“Better step aside, partner, or this fellow with the cane liquor might just eat you up!”

The rough-looking stranger had had enough. He tossed the bottle into the yard of the pulpería and drew his facón.

“If you’re a man,” he said to Gondra, tilting his head toward the door, “come out here so I can have the pleasure of splitting you open,” and turning to the others, especially Moreira, he added: “And that goes for the rest of you bunch of cowards, too. Any that wants to fight can come on . . . or all of you, one at a time.”

Moreira had his back to the counter of the pulpería and was leaning against it. He didn’t budge, and nor did anyone else. Everyone there assumed that the famous Juan Moreira would accept the challenge to fight.

“Come on out, coward,” shouted the challenger, now standing outside. “Come out, and I’ll teach you to laugh at people.”

Gondra started out the door, but he was a worthless gaucho, the sort that they call “all mouth,” and the challenger’s resolute attitude struck fear into his heart. He stopped in the doorway.

“I knew you were all mouth,” shouted the challenger at Gondra. “So where’s your pal who came to take your part? Somebody else come out, or I’m going in after you.”

At that point, without even looking out at the challenger, Moreira took Gondra firmly by the arm.

“This isn’t anybody’s fight but yours,” he said. “Now that you’ve started it, you’d better go finish it, because if you don’t, you’ll never hear the end of it.”

At first, Gondra thought that Moreira was joking, but one look in our hero’s eyes wiped the smile off his worthless face. As much as he feared the challenger standing outside, he feared Moreira more, especially when Moreira, too, drew his facón, and said:

“Now, get out there, or I’ll have your guts all over the floor.”

Feeling the sharp point of Moreira’s blade against his back, Gondra pulled his own weapon and moved toward the stranger. Once the fight had started, Gondra looked a little better, giving as good as he got, but within a few minutes his arm and his chest were bloody, and he began to back away. He stopped when his felt the point of Moreira’s facón between his shoulder blades.

“Get back in there, coward!” snarled Moreira. “If he kills you, it’s only fair.”

Gondra leapt forward just as the stranger, glancing over at Moreira, dropped his guard momentarily.

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