Explore "The Harlequin Opal, Volume 1" by Fergus Hume on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Why, look you, Senor, thus the matter stands: When one is in a country dangerous, And night is round him everywhere -- 'tis wise To venture nothing till the morning's light, Lest, in the dark, some hidden pitfall lurk. Thus stands our fortune. Traitors full of guile Are in our midst -- yet, keeping quiet their plans, Would gull us into false security. We know not where to strike -- for here, and here, Danger may lurk, and yet we dare not strike.
The house of Don Miguel Maraquando was situate on one side of the Plaza de los Hombres Ilustres, opposite to the Cathedral, and near the Calle Otumba. Like the generality of Mexican mansions, it was built in the Hispano-Moriscan fashion -- a style of architecture peculiarly adapted to this equatorial climate. Walls of massive stone, impenetrable to heat, surrounded a patio paved with variegated tiles and brilliant with tropical flowers. From this patio doors opened into the various rooms of the house, while above were ranges of sleeping-chambers fronted by a light iron-railed balcony running round all four sides of the courtyard. The roof -- generally called the azotea -- was flat, and in many houses is used for family gatherings in the warm nights or during a temperate day. In this case, however, the Maraquando family made use of the patio, where the heat, particularly at noon, was not so great.