The Guillotine Squad by Guillermo Arriaga & Alan Page

Author:Guillermo Arriaga & Alan Page
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2007-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

Days went by and one afternoon, by mere chance, a soldier discovered the gringo’s notes. He took them to Colonel González, who looked them over. González found that in them were perfectly detailed, one by one, General Villa’s daily activities. Where he slept, where he ate, how he dressed, what he said, how much he spent, with whom he spoke, et cetera. The gringo was immediately linked to the assassination attempt. There was no doubt: he was the spy who had given the murderers the plan to wipe out Villa.

As soon as he found out, the general wanted to have the gringo hanged right in the Morelos Theater, the very site of the Aguascalientes Convention, but prudent voices advised that the killing be done quietly, in a discreet execution, so as to avoid an international scandal. The Centaur of the North ordered the gringo to be captured. At night, thirty men surrounded the little tent where the gringo was sleeping and apprehended him. The gringo said nothing and let himself be taken away. He was taken before Villa, who, furious, wanted to eat him alive. The gringo asked why Villa was acting the way he was and Villa almost killed him, because no one could ever ask him about his motives. Colonel González informed the gringo of the charge of having participated in the attempted murder of the head of the División del Norte, and of collaborating with foreign forces. The gringo just said that he would never betray Villa, or the Mexican Revolution. Nor would he be guilty of collaborating with his miserable compatriots. His arguments were useless, though. He was sentenced to death. It occurred to Colonel Rojas that he would be the perfect victim to reopen executions with the guillotine. And so it was. Feliciano had just finished emptying a pig’s guts when a soldier came up to him.

“Corporal Velasco, it is my duty to inform you that in a few minutes you’ll be brought a prisoner for execution.”

“They’re going to shoot him?” asked Feliciano without thinking.

“No, sir, we’re going to use that,” said the soldier, pointing at the guillotine.

A gleam of joy flashed in Feliciano’s eyes. In the distance he saw the condemned gringo approach, escorted by a couple of soldiers. There would be just three witnesses to the execution. Gone were the glorious days when such an act was observed by thousands of people. Velasco didn’t care. He was happy to be able to give the guillotine a dignified function.

When the gringo came up to him, he greeted Velasco kindly:

“Good morning.”

Velasco was surprised; condemned men were rarely in the mood for pleasantries, but, since he was a gentleman, Feliciano answered with another “Good morning.”

The gringo had not noticed the guillotine in Villa’s camp since he rarely came near the kitchen area. When he saw it, he was amazed.

“A guillotine?”

“Yes indeed, my friend,” Velasco answered without realizing that the man before him could, at that moment, be anything but his friend.

“Really?”

“Really.”

Feliciano noticed the prisoner had an accent.

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