The Daughter of Doctor Moreau(40)
All of a sudden Cachito was roaring and leaping from the shadows. She clapped a hand against her mouth in shock. Carlota could not even tell where he came from or how long he’d been following them. Suddenly he was there, and he shoved Isidro against the ground with such force that the young man was unable to utter a scream. Cachito roared again before clamping his teeth on Isidro’s outstretched hand.
Isidro tried to wrestle the hybrid off him, and Eduardo kicked Cachito. Isidro let out a hoarse scream at last, and she grabbed Cachito by the shoulders, pulling him back.
“Stop!” she pleaded. “Let go, stop!”
Cachito released Isidro. The man lay on the ground moaning in pain, and Cachito was crouching down, blood dribbling down his mouth and his ears pressed back against his skull. As Montgomery stood up she noticed there was also blood on his left temple, where one of Eduardo’s rings must have cut him.
“What in God’s name is that?” Eduardo whispered.
Cachito let out a low hiss, and Carlota crouched next to him, pressing a hand against his arm, her fingers digging into his fur.
“My father’s patient,” she whispered.
Eduardo did not reply. Isidro was moaning and attempting to scramble back up to his feet. Montgomery stretched out a hand and helped him up. The young man stared at the older one, but Montgomery was expressionless.
“Cachito, clean yourself and go to sleep. We’ll get the doctor to look at your hand, Mr. Lizalde. Come on. Let’s head back to the damn house,” Montgomery said, then he spat on the ground.
The owl was still hooting in the distance, promising misery, as they began walking together. Montgomery had indeed cast a hex.
Chapter 12
Montgomery
They went into the laboratory, and the doctor had Carlota assist him, fetching gauze, rubbing alcohol, and other materials, while Isidro sat in a chair and the doctor examined him. Montgomery held up a lantern, and Eduardo lit two others, the shadows quickly receding and allowing a clear view of the patient.
“It’s not as bad as I first thought,” the doctor said, his voice calm. “Cachito is not a rabid animal. There will be no need to cauterize or rub the stick of lunar caustic into the wound. Cleaning and bandaging the hand will be enough.”
Both of the young men looked relieved. Montgomery lowered the lantern and set it on a table. There was a great deal of blood smeared on Isidro’s shirt, but the doctor was correct. The wound wasn’t terribly deep. In the end, Cachito had held back.
“The treatment is sound enough, but will you tell us what the hell was that creature outside?” Eduardo asked. “Your daughter claimed it was a patient, but it was not human.”
“Indeed not. It’s an animal hybrid, part of the experiments I run at Yaxaktun for your father. Normally Cachito is docile.”
“Docile! It almost ripped off my hand!” Isidro exclaimed.
“We were fighting. He must have been spooked by that,” Montgomery said. “He probably sought to defend me. The hybrids trust me. Seeing me in trouble—”
“Hybrids, plural? There are several?” Eduardo asked.
“Yes. We are seeking many important answers here at Yaxaktun, answers to medical mysteries, and the hybrids may assist us in finding them. I assume your father never hinted at the nature of my work.”
“No. Although that explains why he didn’t want us coming alone here,” Eduardo said. “I wrote to my father, telling him we’d be spending a few days with you, and he wrote back saying we shouldn’t go without him. That he’d be coming down from Mérida and would visit Yaxaktun with us, as he wanted to discuss an important matter with you. I found it odd that he’d insist we couldn’t proceed on our own. He hates leaving Mérida.”
And you couldn’t wait a few days for him, Montgomery thought. You simply had to rush back and take another look at the girl.
He had no doubts that had been the reason Eduardo had so eagerly grabbed a horse and set off to Yaxaktun. What other explanation was there? Montgomery looked at Carlota, who was deftly winding the bandage around Isidro’s hand, her motions careful and gentle. Despite the commotion she’d composed herself quickly.
“My father has said you are a genius and that your medical research is important, but I couldn’t have imagined it amounted to whatever that creature is.”
“A thing belonging to the devil,” Isidro said.
“Not the devil, a thing of science. I was going to show you the hybrids, but I thought it prudent to ease their introduction. We didn’t aim to keep this a secret from you eternally,” the doctor said. “I’d been planning a dinner to present them to you and to explain my methods.”
“So much for that! How do you intend to punish that hellish animal?” Isidro asked, flexing his fingers and testing the bandage. “It deserves a good lashing. Let me whip it a few times and it won’t have teeth to bite anyone ever again.”
Carlota gasped in surprise. Montgomery kept his face blank. There wasn’t anything he could say, and he was certain any intervention on his part would do more harm than good.
“We are all sorry. Please don’t whip him,” Carlota said with such breathless vehemence that a man would have to be made of stone not to be moved by her words.
All the same, Isidro didn’t seem impressed by that answer, and he immediately opened his mouth, but Eduardo clasped his cousin’s shoulder. “There must be an alternative,” Eduardo said.