lla whispered back.

War Paint turned purple, her cheeks swelled. Without a word she went
out to get her horse that Blondie was saddling.

IX

A whirlwind of dust, scorching down the road, suddenly broke into
violent diffuse masses; and Demetrio's army emerged, a chaos of horses,
broad chests, tangled manes, dilated nostrils, oval, wide eyes, hoofs
flying in the air, legs stiffened from endless galloping; and of men
with bronze faces, ivory teeth, and flashing eyes, their rifles in
their hands or slung across the saddles.

Demetrio and Camilla brought up the rear. She was still nervous,
white-lipped and parched; he was angry at their futile maneuver. For
there had been battles, no followers of Orozco's to be seen. A handful
of Federals, routed. A poor devil of a priest left dangling from a
mesquite; a few dead, scattered over the field, who had once been
united under the archaic slogan, RIGHTS AND RELIGION, with, on their
breasts, the red cloth insignia: Halt! The Sacred Heart of Jesus is
with me!

"One good thing about it is that I've collected all my back pay," Quail
said, exhibiting some gold watches and rings stolen from the priest's
house.

"It's fun fighting this way," Manteca cried, spicing every other word
with an oath. "You know why the hell you're risking your hide."

In the same hand with which he held the reins, he clutched a shining
ornament that he had torn from one of the holy statues.

After Quail, an expert in such matters, had examined Manteca's treasure
covetously, he uttered a solemn guffaw.

"Hell, Your ornament is nothing but tin!"

"Why in hell are you hanging on to that poison?" Pancracio asked
Blondie who appeared dragging a prisoner.

"Do you want to know why? Because it's a long time since I've had a
good look at a man's face when a rope tightens around his neck!"

The fat prisoner breathed with difficulty as he followed Blondie on
foot; his face was sunburnt, his eyes red; his forehead beaded with
sweat, his wrists tightly bound together.

"Here, Anastasio, lend me your lasso. Mine's not strong enough; this
bird will bust it. No, by God, I've changed my mind, friend Federal:
think I'll kill you on the spot, because you are pulling too hard.
Look, all the mesquites are still a long way off and there are no
telegraph poles to hang you to!"

Blondie pulled his gun out, pressed the muzzle against the prisoner's
chest and brought his finger against the trigger slowly ... slow