The Secret of the Haunted Mirror - M. V. Carey [38]
The little man writhed and cursed again. “That one there!” he moaned. “That one gentleman in his fine clothes! He speaks of the good of the republic! He is the nephew of García, that proud one, that honest man who thinks he is saving Ruffino! A thief!
The uncle is a thief and the nephew too.”
Jupe cleared his throat. “When President García was elected twelve years ago, his opponent accused him of dishonesty, He said he had proof that García started his career as a criminal, But that opponent couldn’t produce the proof and García won the election. The proof! García must try for reelection this year, mustn’t he? Suppose someone could come up with the proof of those charges? What would happen?”
“It would be a tragedy for Ruffino,” said Santora.
“The police will be here any minute, Señor Santora,” said Jupiter. “We have sent for them. They will want to know why the mirror is so important that Mrs. Darnley’s grandson was kidnapped so Gómez could get it. I think I know why.”
Santora started up. “You know? But you cannot know!”
“It is a question of blackmail, isn’t it, Señor Santora?” said Jupiter Jones. “Isabella Manolos was innocent. She did not know how her husband attained his high position in the government of Ruffino. She didn’t know, but we can guess. He had the proof —
the proof that the charges against the president were true. He was blackmailing the president.”
Santora slumped. “Your police must not find it!” he said. “Before my uncle took office, the people of Ruffino suffered much. There would have been a revolution.
Under my uncle there has been peace and good times. There has been progress where before our poor people lived like serfs. We must go on with García. We cannot go back to the bad old ways. There has not been a single blot on my uncle’s record. He has surrounded himself with men of wisdom, of honour — except for Manolos, that villain.”
“A blackmailer?” Jupe persisted.
Santora nodded sadly. “Very well. I will tell you, and if you know where the mirror’s secret is, I think you will tell me.”
Santora looked towards Juan Gómez. “That pig on the floor, he was the servant of Diego Manolos. You know what he is — a pickpocket, a sneak thief. Now you tell me he is a kidnapper too. I am not surprised. He is dangerous, without pity and without heart. For ten years he served Manolos, so you can guess what Manolos was. Señora Manolos, the friend of Señora Darnley, she is a lovely lady, but women are sometimes foolish when they choose a husband. She has suffered much for her foolishness.”
“Stupid woman!” exclaimed Juan Gómez.
“Silence!” cried Santora. “In his youth my uncle was foolish too, for a time. Many young men are foolish. He was sent to Spain, to the university. There he met Diego Manolos who also was sent to Spain. Manolos had the glass of the magician Chiavo.
He had purchased it quite honestly, and perhaps that is the last honest thing he ever did. Chiavo did indeed have a son, and that son had a son and so on, until the last one. The last descendant of the magician was not a son. There was a daughter. She did not marry, and when Manolos found her she was an old woman, very poor, living in a little town in Castile. She had the goblin glass. She had the glass but no money, and money she needed.
“Manolos was poor himself, but young, and he had some imagination, that one.
He borrowed the money to buy the glass and he had the glass shipped back to Madrid. He talked of it everywhere — in the cafés and the lecture halls. He had the mirror of Chiavo. The story got round, and there was some wonderment. Could the glass really show the future? Manolos pretended that the power of the mirror was real.
He pretended that he could see the future in the glass.
“It did not take long. First some students came to him from the university and, he told them things that would happen. He said things that were not very precise, but the foolish young men wanted to believe. Sometimes what he