Macarios Noche Buena - 1702 Words

Nobody knew anything about Macarios early life; but everybody knew that he was a robber, the chief of a gang which used to haunt the country about the shores of Laguna De Bay and rob merchants coming from Manila. It was in the days when no railroad line existed in the Philippines, when all trips by water had to be made by bancas, cascos, and small, slow steamboats, and all overland journeys had to be made in carromatas, carts, or on horseback. Macario was known to be the fiercest among the highwaymen. He had foiled all attempts of the guardias civils to capture him. A price was set on his head. It was nine oclock on a Christmas eve. The past week macario and his gang had had plenty to do, for it was the week when many merchants went to†¦show more content†¦Other Christmas pictures came up before his mind in quick succession-picture in which he saw himself, each time older and grown larger. Then came one scene, the scene he had always dreaded, the scene which he would not have recalled for all the treasures he had stolen during his robber life and for what he might yet steal. It was Christmas eve again. He was now a tall young man. He was lurking among some trees near a path in a country district. He was mad, his blood was boiling; his long sharp bolo was thirsting for blood as his heart thirsted for vengeance. The wind was blowing among the leaves of the trees; it incited him to more furious thoughts. Then his strained ears heard a sound, a snatch from an old country song. Ah! It was his enemy, singing; he who made this Christmas eve miserable for him. Macario aske d nothing, explained nothing, he simply dashed forward to his enemy and made the long bolo work out his revenge. He saw his enemy fall, saw the body steeped in its own blood. He ran, ran†¦. The dreaded tulisan, stopping with his head in his hands, stood up and ran, ran out of the shack into the fields, into the