noring and in turn woke
up.

"What in the name of ... Now you're at it again, damn it. I tell you
there aren't ghosts any more," Anastasio muttered out of a half-sleep.

"I heard a shot, Montanez!"

"Go back to sleep, Quail, or I'll bust your nose."

"Hell, Anastasio I tell you it's no nightmare. I've forgotten those
fellows they hung, honest. It's a shot, I tell you. I heard it all
right."

"A shot, you say? All right, then, hand me my gun."

Anastasio Montanez rubbed his eyes, stretched out his arms and legs,
and stood up lazily.

They left the hut. The sky was solid with stars; the moon rose like a
sharp scythe. The confused rumor of women crying in fright resounded
from the various huts; the men who had been sleeping in the open, also
woke up and the rattle of arms echoed over the mountain.

"You cursed fool, you've maimed me for life."

A voice rang clearly through the darkness.

"Who goes there?"

The shout echoed from rock to rock, through mound and over hollow,
until it spent itself at the far, silent reaches of the night.

"Who goes there?" Anastasio repeated his challenge louder, pulling back
the lock of his Mauser.

"One of Demetrio's men," came the answer.

"It's Pancracio," Quail cried joyfully. Relieved, he rested the butt of
his rifle on the ground.

Pancracio appeared, holding a young man by the arms; the newcomer was
covered with dust from his felt hat to his coarse shoes. A fresh
bloodstain lay on his trousers close to the heel.

"Who's this tenderfoot?" Anastasio demanded.

"You know I'm on guard around here. Well, I hears a noise in the brush,
see, and I shouts, 'Who goes there?' and then this lad answers,
'Carranza! Carranza!' I don't know anyone by that name, and so I says,
'Carranza, hell!' and I just pumps a bit of lead into his hoof."

Smiling, Pancracio turned his beardless head around as if soliciting
applause.

Then the stranger spoke:

"Who's your commander?"

Proudly, Anastasio raised his head, went up to him and looked him in
the face. The stranger lowered his tone considerably.

"Well, I'm a revolutionist, too, you know. The Government drafted me
and I served as a private, but I managed to desert during the battle
the day before yesterday, and I've been walking about in search of you
all."

"So he's a Government soldier, eh?" A murmur of incredulity rose from
the men, interrupting the stranger.

"So that's what you are, eh? One of those damn half-breeds,"