Dennis Wheatley - Unholy Crusade

`It's common knowledge. Ask anyone. The Indians are so riddled with paganism that they don't even bother to hide it. Right here in the middle of Mexico City there is a Witches' Market.'

`Oh, come! You're pulling my leg.'

`I'm not, I assure you. I'll take you to it after lunch if you like.'

`I'd be most intrigued. But what do you deduce from all this?'

`That the Church is planning the overthrow of our agnostic government by inciting the peasants to rise in a jacquerie. If it succeeds, all hell will be let loose. The Indians and Mestizos have always hated our guts. By “our” I mean Mexicans of pure Spanish descent and the many Americans and Europeans who live here for business reasons. Perhaps one can't blame the Indians, but they are not a pleasant people. Most of those in central Mexico are descended from the Aztecs and they were about the cruelest race the world has ever known… If they did get the bit between the teeth there would be wholesale arson, pillage, rape; and anyone who had any money would be hideously tortured to make him hand it over.'

`What are the chances of nipping this threat of revolution in the bud?' Adam enquired.

`It's hard to say. The damn' thing is so nebulous. So far we have not got a line on any of the leaders. It seems to be like a sort of epidemic and is a general movement right through the country. I suppose it might be stymied if we pulled in all the priests and put them behind bars. That has been done before in part at least. On one occasion when the Jesuits were getting above themselves their quarters were simultaneously surrounded and every single one of them was arrested overnight. But an operation of that kind now could prove the fuse to set off the dynamite and launch ten million Indians on the warpath.'

For a few moments Ramon's brown eyes were lowered, as he stared unhappily down into his balloon brandy glass; then he

said, `I suppose the chaps you talked to down at Oaxaca didn't mention any names?'

Adam shook his head. `No, it was just general grumbling about the awful conditions in the small towns and villages, and the sort of vague, sullen threats of the discontented that one does not take very seriously.'

Ramon looked up. `But it is serious, believe me. That's why I have decided to ask your help. It only occurred to me a while back when we spoke of this week's tour you have decided to do. As I mentioned, the ordinary people are very cagey with anyone they feel might report what they say; but they talk pretty freely to foreigners. In the evenings you will be sitting about in cafes and, no doubt, talking to people. You might pick up quite a lot. Should you hear anything worth while, I'd be awfully grateful if you'd let me know.'

Adam considered the matter for a long moment. When down at Cuernavaca, while eavesdropping under the bridge, he had assumed that Bernadino was involved. That night, the fact that Chela had purloined Ramon's briefcase to let Alberuque see his papers had indicated that, although the capitalists and the Church might both be planning a revolution, they probably had different aims and were certainly not working hand in glove. Yet Hunterscombe had been of the opinion that both were involved and had asked him to spy on Chela, Alberuque and Bernadino. But now, from what Ramon had just said, it was clear that Hunterscombe was mistaken. The capitalists might not like the government, but regarded the Church and the Indians as a menace, so would do all they could to maintain the status quo. Therefore, when Bernadino had spoken of warning certain people, he had not been referring to fellow conspirators but, most probably, telling the principal executives in his organization to keep their eyes open or signs of coming trouble. This new assessment put the Enrique’s, father and son, in the clear; but it still left Chela vulnerable if the part she was playing was discovered.

He had never subscribed to Chela's belief that if the masses rose everywhere the government would be overwhelmed in a matter of hours. The Mexican regular army might be small, but it had tanks. There was, too, an air force that would probably obey orders to machine gun mobs, and the police could be counted on to use their pistols and tear gas. Against even a small minority so equipped, the largest force of malcontents could not swiftly prevail ferocious fighting must result. Many thousands of innocent people caught up in it would lose their lives or have their property destroyed

All that Hunterscombe had said supported that belief, and Adam now decided that he could not possibly refuse to do what he could to prevent such tragic happenings. As far as Chela was concerned, he thought it highly improbable that during his proposed trip he would meet anyone who had even heard of her and, should her name be mentioned in connection with the conspiracy, he could suppress it.

Ending his long silence, he said, `All right. I don't suppose there is much chance of my picking up anything of value, but I'll keep my ears open and get in touch with you on my return if I have anything of importance to report.'

`Many thanks,' Ramon smiled. As by then they had finished their coffee and liqueurs, he added, `Now let's go to see the Witches' Market.'

Adam had expected the market to be hidden away in some building and that they would be questioned by watchers before they were allowed to enter it; or, at least, that it would be in some narrow street in the heart of a noisome slum. On the contrary, although it was in a poor part of the city, it faced on to a broad boulevard and several cars were drawn up in front of it.

The market consisted of two avenues lined with, in all, some thirty or forty small shops. In front of each was an array of a score or more sacks open at the top to display a variety of dried herbs. Beside each array of sacks sat a witch. Most of them were fat and elderly, but none of them looked particularly evil, and with cheerful greetings they cried their wares.

But it was the windows of the shops that at once caught Adam's eye. They were filled with grotesque masks, dried bats, rats and other animals, the bald, fleshless heads of vultures; toads and newts in jars of spirit, rosaries made from the skulls of small animals and glass bottles partly filled with most sinister looking concoctions.

`Apart from practicing witchcraft,' Ramon told Adam, `these old beldames do a big trade in herbs. Most of us tend to forget that nearly all modern medicines are derived from herbal remedies of the distant past. Many, too, have never been studied by our research chemists, so are not available to qualified practitioners. For example, you see that pile of nuts over there. If you always carry two of them a male and a female in your pocket, should you be a victim of piles you will never suffer from them again.'

`Thank goodness I don't. But is that really so?'

`Yes; many people swear by them. A European Ambassador who left here some months ago found them so efficacious that he recently wrote to a chap in our Foreign Office asking to have half a dozen pairs sent him for friends of his who were sufferers.'

Adam pointed to a string, from which dangled several vegetables looking like carrots, but having roughly the form of a man, with legs ending in points. `I imagine those are mandrakes. What do they use them for?'

`Oh, they grind them up with other horrors to make potions. For quite a small sum they will sell you a concoction that will bring your rival out in boils: and under the counter they keep stuff that, if you pay them well enough, will ensure your old aunt's dying a pretty painful death, apparently from natural causes, so that you can inherit her money.'

`But do they really cast spells?'

`Indeed they do. As I've told you, the mentality of the Indian peasants has hardly advanced at all since Cortes arrived here. They are so devil ridden with superstition that if they think they have been bewitched they develop the ill that they have been cursed with. There is no scientific explanation of how such physical changes take place, but there is no doubt that they do.'