Captains of the Sands by Jorge Amado Page A

leave the old horses who never grow tired in their endless run. Others get on the mounts and the race begins again, the lights spinning, all the colors making one single strange tone, the Pianola playing its ancient music.Loving couples are also going around on the benches and while the carrousel spins they whisper words of love. There are even those who exchange a kiss when the motor fails and the lights go out. Then Nhôzinho França and Legless lean over the engine and look for what’s wrong until the spinning begins again, drowning out the protests of the children. Legless has already learned all the mysteries of the motor.
    At a certain moment Nhôzinho França sends Legless to take Dry Gulch’s place selling tickets. And he has Dry Gulch ride the carrousel. And the boy takes the horse that was used by Lampião. And while the ride lasts he goes along pulling on the reins as if he were riding a real horse. And he makes motions with his arms as if shooting at those in front of him and in his imagination he sees them dropping, bathed in blood, under the shots of his repeater. And the horse runs and runs faster and faster and he kills them all because they’re all soldiers or rich ranchers. Then he possesses all the women on the benches, sacks villages, towns, trains, riding his horse, armed with his rifle.
    Then it’s Legless’s turn. He goes along silently, a strange commotion overcomes him. He goes along like a believer to mass, a lover to the breast of his beloved, a suicide to death. He goes pale and limping. He mounts a blue horse that has stars painted on its wooden rump. His lips are tight, his ears don’t hear the music of the Pianola. He only sees the spinning lights, and he comes to the realization that he’s on a carrousel, spinning on a horse like all those children who have fathers and mothers, a home and someone to kiss them and love them. He thinks that he’s one of them and he closes his eyes to hold the certainty better. He no longer sees the policemen beating him, the man with the vest who’s laughing. Dry Gulch killed them on his ride. Legless is tense on his horse. It’s as if he were running over the sea toward the stars in the most wonderful trip in the world. A trip such as one the Professor had never read about or made up. His heart is beating so hard that he holds his hand tight against it.
    That night the Captains of the Sands didn’t come. Not only did the carrousel ride on the square end very late (at two o’clock inthe morning men were still spinning around), but many of them, including Pedro Bala, Good-Life, Outrigger, and the Professor were busy on different matters. They made a date for the next day, between three and four in the morning. Pedro Bala asked Legless if he knew how to run the engine all right now:
    “It’s no good causing any damage for your boss,” he explained.
    “I know it backwards and forwards. It’s a snap.”
    The Professor, who was playing checkers with Big João, asked:
    “Wouldn’t it be good if we stopped by the square in the afternoon? It might just be worth something.”
    “I’ll go,” Pedro Bala said. “But I don’t think a lot of us should go. The crowd might get suspicious seeing so many together.”
    Cat said he couldn’t go in the afternoon. He had something to do since he’d be busy on the carrousel that night. Legless teased him:
    “A day can’t go by without your mixing it up with that bag, right? You’re going to end up a dish of mush…”
    Cat didn’t answer. Big João wasn’t going in the afternoon either. He had to meet God’s-Love to go have some black-bean stew at the house of Don’Aninha, the
mãe-de-santo
. Finally it was decided that a small group would work the square that afternoon. The others would go wherever they wanted to. Only at night they’d all get together to ride on the carrousel. Legless warned them:
    “You’ve got to bring some gasoline, for the motor.”
    The Professor (he’d already beaten Big