plained the foreman. "See! The wood is like leather. With this cane I can beat twenty men to death and yet it will be good for twenty more!"
In the slave kitchen of the same ranch we found two girls of seventeen, both with refined and really beautiful faces, grinding corn. Though their boss, Pla, stood menacingly by, each dared to tell her story briefly. One, from Leon, State of Guanajuato, declared that the "labor agent" had promised her fifty pesos per month and a good home as cook in a small family, and when she discovered that all was not right it was too late; the rurales compelled her to come along. The other girl was from San Luis Potosi. She had been promised a good home and forty pesos a month for taking care of two small children!
Wherever we went we found the houses full of fine furniture made by the slaves.
"Yes," explained Antonio Pla, "some of the best artisans in the country come right here—in one way or another. We get carpenters and cabinet-makers and upholsterers and everything. Why, on my ranches I've had teachers and actresses and artists and one time I even had an ex-priest. I had one of the most beautiful actresses in the country one time, right here on 'Hondura de Nanche.' She was noted, too. How did she get here? Simple enough. A son of a millionaire in Mexico City wanted to marry her and, to get her out of the way, the millionaire paid the authorities a good price to kidnap her and give her to a labor agent. Yes, sir, that woman was a beauty!"
"And what became of her?" I asked.
"Oh." was the evasive reply. "That was two years ago!"
Truly, two years is a long time in Valle Nacional,
