orenzo Sierra, here, is the alcalde and they
must be referred to him."

The captain favored Rennie with a last glare and was gone. Tobe Kells
spoke first.

"That one's chewin' th' bit an' gittin' ready to hump under th' saddle.
This business of tryin' to run out th' Rebs, it'll cause smokin'!"

"He has no right to give such an order," _Don_ Cazar was beginning when
the alcalde interrupted:

"_Compadre_, for a man such as that your talk of rights means nothing. He
is eaten by the need to impress his will here, and that will bring
trouble. I do not like what I have heard, no, I do not like it at all."

"You know what may be really eating at him this time, Hunt?" Topham spoke
from where he was leaning against the wall of Shadow's box stall. "Johnny
was throwing his weight around again last night. Had a set-to in the Jacks
with a trooper. Unless the kid quits trying to fight the war over again
every time he sees an army blouse--or until he stops pouring whisky down
him every time he hits town--there may be shooting trouble. There're some
equal hot-heads in Bayliss' camp, and if Johnny goes up against one of
them, a scuffle could become a battle."

"Yeah, an' that warn't all Johnny was doin' last night." Kells shifted his
tobacco cud from one cheek to the other. "Iffen Kirby here hadn't been to
hand, Johnny would have skinned th' Trinfan kid with his quirt--jus' 'cause
he dropped his purse outside th' Jacks an' th' kid followed him to give it
back. Johnny's meaner than a drunk Injun these days. That's Bible-swear
truth, Rennie."

"To lose a war makes a man bitter," _Don_ Cazar said slowly. "Johnny was
far too young when he ran away to join Howard. And after that defeat at
Glorieta, the retreat to Texas was pure hell with the fires roaring. It
seems to have done something to the boy--inside."

"Johnny wasn't the only boy at Glorieta. From what I've heard most of them
weren't old enough to grow a good whisker crop." Topham's voice had lost
its detached note. "And he sure wasn't the only Confederate to surrender.
Hunt, he's got to learn that losing a war doesn't mean that a man has lost
the rest of his life. But the way he's been acting these past months,
Johnny might just lose it. Bayliss' tongue is hanging out a yard or more
he's panting so hard to get back at you. That captain has heady ambitions
under his hat, maybe like setting up here as a tinpot governor or
something like. If he can discredit you, well, he probab