While Adam was applauding this audacious feat, Chela stubbed it her cigar and said angrily, `Just think of it! Those young men risk their lives every night for a mere pittance, when they should have land enough to live out their lives in prosperity and safety.' Her bitter comment brought Adam sharply back from the halcyon existence he was enjoying, to the fact that he had pledged himself to play a leading role in a most dangerous undertaking, and that in a few days' time he might have to face the awful situation that, greatly as he loved Chela, it was his duty to betray her. Those last few days sped by more swiftly than a few hours spent on uncongenial tasks and, all too soon, their glorious honeymoon was over. On the evening of the second Friday after their arrival, Chela broke it to Adam that they must leave on the following morning to go down to Yucatan; but beyond that she could tell him nothing, as not until they got there would she receive further instructions. After a last hectic night in the little villa they reluctantly drove back to Mexico City. On the way they stopped for an hour to look round Textla, then lunched at Taxco, so it was not until half past five that Chela put Adam down at the El Presidente. As she did so, she said:
`You won't have any too long to rearrange your packing, because I put off leaving Acapulco until the last possible moment, and we have to fly down to Merida on the seven thirty plane. Take only your lightest things, darling, because it will be very hot down there. I'll call for you in a taxi in an hour.'
While down at Acapulco, Adam had had no possible opportunity to get in touch with Ramon; so the first thing he did on entering the hotel was to ring up the penthouse, but it was Saturday and Ramon was spending the week end at Cuernavaca. As Adam had stayed at the El Presidente and intended to return, the management courteously placed at his disposal a room to change in and promised to have the luggage he had left there sent up. As soon as he reached the room he put through a call to Cuernavaca, only to learn that Ramon had gone out.
To write him a letter seemed too dangerous, for Adam had heard it said that security officers carried out spot checks on Mexican mail. That might not be true; but if the letter did fall into wrong hands, some officious person might make a lot of trouble for Chela and himself before Bernardino or Ramon could intervene on their behalf. Moreover, Ramon had particularly stressed the importance of no action being taken against the conspirators until the leaders were in the net, so to commit anything about it to paper was obviously most undesirable. While he was repacking he decided that there was, after all, no real urgency about the matter, since as yet he had no definite information about the conspirators' plans that he could report.
It was only twenty minutes' drive to the airport, so they were in plenty of time to catch their plane. The aircraft was comfortable and their flight of one and three quarter hours uneventful. When they arrived at Merida they were met by a porter from the Pan Americana Hotel and taken there in the hotel bus.
As Merida was a provincial city, Adam had not expected the accommodation there to be superior to that of the Victoria at Oaxaca, so on entering the Pan Americana he got quite a surprise.
It had a spacious entrance hall, where a dozen lofty columns surrounded a pond out of which grew tall tropical trees and flowering shrubs. Beyond it was an even larger courtyard open to the sky, on the far side of that a cocktail lounge in which a dance could have been given for two hundred people and, above it, a restaurant that looked out on to a big swimming pool.
He was delighted to learn that Chela had booked adjacent rooms for them by telephone from Mexico City and, as there were no instructions awaiting her they would, at least for a day or two, to be able to continue their `honeymoon'. The bedrooms and bathrooms were spacious, with air conditioning and every comfort; but they were very tired after their long day so, for the first time since they had been together, they slept apart.
Next morning they hired a car to take them to Chichen Itza, where there is the greatest area of Maya ruins in Yucatan. By daylight Adam saw that, although Merida had two hundred thousand inhabitants, it showed no signs of modernization or prosperity, as was the case with the capital. The buildings were old and low; the streets narrow and dirty. As a precaution against motorists speeding and endangering the lives of the townsfolk, very few hundred yards there were rows of studs the size of half footballs, that drivers either had to slow down to avoid or risk their cars being thrown out of control by a violent bump. On their way out of the city, Chela pointed out to him a large plaster elephant, a jaguar and other animals on the roofs at street corners and told him that they had been put there to identify the streets for people who could not read; just as painted swinging signs had been used in mediaeval London and Paris. She also pointed out to him a large but decayed looking palace. It was the Town House', to which Indians coming in from the country with their produce could bring their hammocks and sleep free for the light.
The road led dead straight through the flattest country imaginable. For miles on end at either side of it were fields of sisal a spiky cactus from which rope is made almost Yucatan’s sole industry. Here and there cut bundles of the leaves lay waiting to be collected. Very occasionally there were patches of maize and lumps of charcoal, the making of which further impoverishes the fertility of the country by reducing its wooded areas, but which s the only fuel available to the Indians.
The land looked incredibly poor. There was little soil and everywhere rocks protruded from the surface. The villages were about fifteen miles apart. The dwellings in them were mostly one room about fifteen feet by eight, oval in shape, the walls made of
mud plastered on to a frame of cane and with openings both at the back and the front. In their dark interiors could be glimpsed native women with sagging breasts, naked children, goats and scrawny hens. About them grew a few mango, breadfruit and paw paw trees, but there were no flowers or cultivated plants.
About halfway on their two hour drive they passed out of the vast sisal area and jungle took its place at the roadside. But it was like no jungle that Adam had ever imagined. The soil was so poor and rocky that, but for an occasional palm, there were no trees over thirty feet in height. It was solid bush, low but dense, largely composed of mimosa, with here and there a kapok or bean tree. To a depth of about forty feet either side of the road it had been cut down, and they passed several groups of Indians at this work, dispiritedly wielding what appeared to be long swords. Adam had read that in the jungles of Yucatan there were to be seen many beautiful birds, but the only birds he saw were long lines of horrid looking black buzzards perched on the low stone walls.
By the time they reached Chichen Itza it had become very hot; but they decided that, instead of going into the hotel for a drink, they would do the ruins first, before it became still hotter. The ruins covered an area even larger than those at Monte Alban, the greater part of them being on the left of the road. It took them over two hours just to walk to each pyramid in turn and go up the largest one.
It had ninety one steps on each side, approximating to the three hundred and sixty five days of the year, and corners in thirteen stages to represent the fifty two weeks. On the top was a low, flat roofed temple; inside, at the back, was a three foot high stone platform upon which the Vestals had danced before one of them was chosen for sacrifice.