The Net: A Novel | Page 9

is better to
make a clean breast of it now. I have enemies, my friend, and I assure
you I do not cherish them."
"The Countess Margherita is a famous beauty, eh? Well! It is not
remarkable that you should have rivals."
"No, no. This has nothing to do with her, unless our approaching
marriage has roused them to make a demonstration. Have you ever
heard of--Belisario Cardi?"
"Not until this morning. Who is he?"
"I would give much to know. If you had asked me a month ago, I
would have said he is an imaginary character, used to frighten
people--a modern Fra Diavolo, a mere name with which to inspire
terror--for nobody has ever seen him. Now, however, he seems real
enough, and I learn that the carabinieri believe in his existence." Martel
pushed back the breakfast dishes and, leaning his elbows upon the table,
continued, after a pause: "To you Sicily is all beauty and peace and
fragrance; she is old and therefore civilized, so you think. Everything
you have seen so far is reasonably modern, eh?" He showed his white
teeth as Blake assured him:
"It's the most peaceful, restful spot I ever saw."
"You see nothing but the surface. Sicily is much what she was in my
grandfather's time. You have inquired about La Mafia. Well, there is
such a thing. It killed my father. It forced me to give up my home and
be an exile." At Norvin's exclamation of astonishment, he nodded."
There's a long story behind it which you could not appreciate without
knowing my father and the character of our Sicilian people, for, after
all, Sicilian character constitutes La Mafia. It is no sect, no cult, no
secret body of assassins, highwaymen, and robbers, as you foreigners
imagine; it is a national hatred of authority, an individual expression of
superiority to the law."
"In our own New Orleans we are beginning to talk of the Mafia, but
with us it is a mysterious organization of Italian criminals. We treat it
as somewhat of a joke."
"Be not so sure. Some day it may dominate your American cities as it

does all Sicily."
"Still I don't understand. You say it is an organization and yet it is not;
it terrorizes a whole island and yet you say it is no more than your
national character. It must have a head, it must have arms."
"It has no head, or, rather, it has many heads. It is not a band. It is the
Sicilian intolerance of restraint, the individual's sense of superiority to
moral, social, and political law. It is the freemasonry that results from
this common resistance to authority. It is an idea, not an institution; it is
Sicily's curse and that which makes her impossible of government. I do
not mean to deny that we have outlawry and brigandage; they are
merely the most violent demonstrations of La Mafia. It afflicts the
cities; it is a tyranny in the country districts. La Mafia taxes us with
blackmail, it saddles us with a great force of carabinieri, it gives food
and drink and life to men like Belisario Cardi. Every landholder, every
man of property, contributes to its support. You still do not understand,
but you will as I go along. As an instance of its workings, all
fruit-growers hereabouts are obliged to maintain watchmen, in addition
to their regular employees. Otherwise their groves will be robbed.
These guards are Mafiosi. Let us say that one of us opposes this
monopoly. What happens? He loses his crop in a night; his trees are cut
down. Should he appeal to the law for protection, he is regarded as a
weakling, a man of no spirit. This is but one small example of the
workings of La Mafia; as a matter of fact, it permeates the political, the
business, and the social life of the whole island. Knowing the
impotence of the law to protect any one, peaceable citizens shield the
criminals. They perjure themselves to acquit a Mafioso rather than
testify against him and thus incur the certainty of some fearful
vengeance. Should the farmer persist in his independence, something
ends his life, as in my father's case. The whole country is terrorized by
a conspiracy of a few bold and masterful men. It is unbearable. There
are, of course, Capi-Mafia--leaders--whose commands are enforced,
but there is no single well-organized society. It is a great interlocking
system built upon patronage, friendship, and the peculiar Sicilian
character."
"Now I think I begin to understand."
"My father was not strong enough to throw off the yoke and it meant
his death. I was too young to take his place, but now that I am a man I

intend to play a man's part, and I have served