By then the two first pigs had been roasted and the man with the long moustache came into the barn carrying an earthen platter with a portion of the cooked meat on it. The priest took the platter from him and, kneeling, presented it to Adam.
With renewed disgust he saw that he was expected to eat the pigs' testicles. His stomach almost revolted, but he fought down his nausea. Then, with sudden inspiration, he leaned over, took
the knife from the priest's sash, cut off only a small portion of the neat and put it in his mouth. To his surprise, the taste was very pleasant. Having swallowed the piece of flesh, he stood up and said:
`It is enough. I have many other places to visit; so I go now, and I desire no escort to accompany me back to the town.'
No one attempted to stay him. They all went down on their knees. Swiftly he discarded the Indian robes which he had put in over his own clothes, and threw them on the table. Then, with a dignified step, he walked unhurriedly out of the barn.
The scene outside was like a witches' Sabbath, except that all the participants were male. They were crowded round the big Bonfire over which the pig he had slain was still roasting. The other two pigs had been torn in pieces. Groups of men held lumps of the hot flesh in their bare hands as they gorged themselves on it, and gulped down from raised bottles draughts of tequila or the raw, local wine.
Within two minutes of leaving the barn Adam was back on the road. His relief at having regained his freedom had caused his tiredness to drop from him. His mind still filled with the revolting scenes he had witnessed, he hurried towards the town.
In less than twenty minutes he arrived there. He felt as though many hours must have passed since he had left it, so he was surprised to find a number of people still sitting about in the square; but it was only a little after midnight and, as his hands were dyed red with blood, he was thankful not to have to knock up someone to let him into his hotel.
Putting his hands into his trouser pockets, he went straight up to his room and scrubbed them again and again until he had got the last trace of dried blood from under his finger nails. By then reaction had set in and he again felt so exhausted that he could not raise the energy even to ring for a drink or have a bath. Pulling off his clothes, he flopped into bed and, five minutes later, was sound asleep.
When he awoke he could hardly believe that he had not had a ghastly nightmare; but there were bloodstains on the shoes beside his bed and, as the ceremonial robe had been much too short for him, also on the lower part of the legs of his trousers. Realising that he really had been through that seemingly incredible experience, he fervently thanked God that he was still alive.
As he sat up in bed, he gave an `ouch' of pain and his body began to ache all over. That made him wish that he could stay in bed all day to recover from his beating up, but he had already decided to get away from San Luis Caliente as soon as he possibly
could, in case the evil priest came round and sought to involve him in further horrors.
The mirror in the bathroom down the passage showed his body to be black and blue and one of his ribs pained him badly; but, in view of the ferocity of the attack on him, he considered that he
had got off lightly. Bathed, shaved, dressed in clean clothes and after a hurried breakfast, he felt somewhat better. By nine o'clock he was on his way down to Taxco.
It was again a Sunday and, on arriving at the famous silver town, he found the shops that sell beautiful silver work shut. He was not sorry about that, as he felt like anything but going sightseeing. On the contrary, he was a little concerned about his rib; so after he had lunched, he went to bed and sent for a doctor. The doctor told him that his rib was only strained or, at the worst, slightly cracked so it was nothing to worry about, and advised him to spend the rest of the day in bed. He charged the equivalent of three pounds for his visit, which Adam thought excessive, but he gladly took the advice.
During his trip Adam had spent most of his waking hours talking to scores of different people. That had helped to keep his mind off Chela, but it could not prevent him from thinking about her during his drives in the car from town to town, when he woke each morning and before he went to sleep every night.
Those two nights they had spent together at Oaxaca had been a truly wonderful experience for him. In his mind's eye he could still visualize her lovely, laughing face and faultless body. Without effort he could recapture the rich tones of her voice and the satin texture of her skin. Added to all this, there had been the perfect ease with which they could communicate their inmost thoughts to each other, or just remain silent side by side in absolute contentment. He felt certain that in this life he would never meet another woman to compare with her. Yet she seemed horrifyingly unpredictable and, after one lightly spoken sentence deliberately calculated to deceive him, had left him flat.
As he lay in bed, turning over from time to time to ease his bruised body, he wondered what to do about her. He had long since given up puzzling over her reason for having abandoned him, bitterly accepting that the only possible explanation was his refusal to help her in her crusade. And now, with ample cause, he was more opposed than ever to doing so. The ten days she had told her family she would be away had expired on Saturday. As they spent every week end at Cuernavaca, the odds were that she would now be there and back in Mexico City on the following day, Monday.
Unhappily, he faced the possibility that, having made her attempt to secure his help and failed, she might refuse to have any pore private meetings with him. But, in view of their powerful attraction for each other and, even more, the strength of the past link between them, he thought that unlikely. It would be against any passionate woman's instincts to allow a political difference of opinion entirely to override her physical desire; and there could be no doubt about Chela being a passionate woman. It therefore seemed well on the cards that he could win her back, and even possible that, after their separation of ten days, she was looking forward eagerly to resuming their affaire immediately she got back to Mexico City.
His intention had been to return there himself the following morning after a quick look round Taxco. But it now occurred to him that, if she was expecting him to be waiting on the mat for her, it might be no bad thing to disappoint her, leave her kicking her heels for a couple of days wondering what had become of him, then reappear and tell her that he had not hurried back because he regarded their brief affaire as finished.
The inference that he had already got her out of his system might make her more eager; on the other hand, she might resent it so strongly that he would lose her for good. As that was the last thing he wanted, he decided not to risk it, but to stay in Taxco only over Monday then, when he did get back, leave it to her to make the first move. Or, anyhow, wait until he could bear no longer the suspense of not knowing how she felt towards him.
He spent the next morning making the rounds of the silversmiths, admiring their beautiful work. Somehow, he got through he rest of the day and returned to Mexico City on the Tuesday. He had left the bulk of his luggage at the El Presidente and was considerably relieved to learn that the rooms he had reserved here for his return had not been let to someone else.