ughed loudly, nodded at the scowling driver and again felt
of the canvas cover of the cart: "The city is full of vermin," he
chuckled. "There's not much difference between Texans and Americans, and
these sotted Indians. Tomorrow we will be well rid of many of the gringo
dogs and we will attend to these strange Indians when this present
business has been taken care of. But there is one gringo who will remain
with us!" He laughed until he shook. "_Captain_ Salezar today;
_Colonel_, tomorrow; _quien sabe_?"

He looked at two of his soldiers, squat, powerful half-breeds, and
laughed again. "Jose is a strong man. Manuel is a strong man. Perhaps
tomorrow we will give each one of them two Indians and see which can
flog the longest and the hardest; but," he warned, his face growing hard
and cruel, "the man who bungles his work today will have no ears
tomorrow!"

The Delaware, his right hand thrust into his shirt under the dirty
blanket, crouched in the doorway and was making the fight of his life
against the murderous rage surging through him. The words of the officer
reached him well enough, but in his fury were unintelligible. Wild, mad
plans for revenge were crowding through his mind, mixed and jumbled
until they were nothing more than a mental kaleidoscope, and constantly
thrown back by the frantic struggles of reason. He had nursed the
thought of revenge, mile after mile, day after day, across the prairies
and the desert; but for the last half month he had fought it back for
the safety his freedom might give to the woman he loved.

The grotesque, ungainly cart rumbled and bumped, clacked and screeched
down the street, farther and farther away and still he crouched in the
doorway. The sounds died out, but still he remained in the sheltering
niche. Finally his hand emerged from under the blanket and fell to his
side, and a wretched Indian slouched down the street toward the _Plaza
Publica_. In command of himself once more he shuffled over to the guard
house in the _palacio_ and leaned against the wall, the welt on his back
burning him to the soul, as Armijo's herald stepped from the main door,
blew his trumpet and announced the coming of the governor. Pedestrians
stopped short and bowed as the swarthy tyrant stalked out to his horse,
mounted and rode away, his small body-guard clattering after him. The
Delaware, to hide the expression on his face, bowed lower and longer
than anyone and then slyly produced a plug of smuggle