interject.
‘While you will need only to devote your attention to ensuring the prisoner remains securely locked in jail until the trial is held.’
‘It’s one hell of a crazy way for me to taken on deputies,’ North muttered, obviously speaking aloud the thought rather than putting up what he said for discussion. Alvarez instructed the short, slightly built, bad complexioned man holding North’s gunbelt: ‘Tell him what you heard, Paco.’
The man was disconcerted to be suddenly at the centre of attention. But then he straightened his narrow shoulders, expressed determination and did what was asked of him. Spoke in more thickly accented English than the obviously better educated Alvarez.
‘My name, it is Paco Diego, Sheriff North. Awhile ago I was working on the Martinez ranch here in Texas. And when I was there I heard about the murder of the young girl at the fiesta in Red Rocks Canyon outside of Bishopsburg. How you arrested the Martinez boy for the terrible crime and then took the only witness to Railton City for safe keeping.’
‘We try always to have a man working for Martinez,’ Alvarez explained. ‘It is dangerous, but sometimes we get information that is useful to us.’
‘Sure,’ North said with an impatient gesture toward the squint eyed, bearded man. He did not look away from the smaller Mexican who clearly resented Alvarez’s interruption.
‘There was much talk about it at Hacienda El Blanco,’ Diego went on more confidently. ‘About how the old man wouldn’t ever allow his son to be tried and hung. And about how the judge who was coming down here to try the case wouldn’t live long enough to do it. And how the woman who witnessed the killing wouldn’t get back to town alive. I made sure to tell Raul everything that I heard a soon as I could, sheriff.’
North asked grimly: ‘How come you heard so much?’
Diego replied eagerly: ‘There’s a bunkhouse on the Martinez ranch. Where the Mexican worker spend much time when they are not working. Cooks and house servants. Ditch diggers and stable hands. But I am not going to name names, sheriff. Tell you who said what, you understand?’
North responded with a scowl and a shrug.
Isabella looked about to snarl a demand, but held her peace when Diego went on: 66
‘I saw two Americano strangers who showed up at the hacienda a week ago. Hard looking hombres. It was that same night, while we had supper, that talk of killing and the rest of it began.’
Alvarez said: ‘I realise why you are anxious to know the source of Paco’s information, sheriff. Judge Miller and the Bellamy family were shot down in cold blood. Even the two young boys were not spared. And you would like to have witnesses to the talk at Hacienda El Blanco that preceded such a terrible crime.’
‘Damn right,’ North growled.
Up on the roof, Edge carefully and silently shifted his prone position a little, a grimace that accompanied the move partly in response to the cramps in his muscles and partly triggered by irritation with North for delaying the end of the talk rather than trying to speed it up.
‘But that is not possible for the moment,’ Alvarez insisted. ‘There is more important business to attend to. Perhaps when the Martinez boy has paid the price for his crime and the peons who work for the family have seen Eduardo is not so all-powerful as he seems to be, some of those that Paco overheard will agree to give evidence?’
There were nods and grunts of agreement then looks that pleaded for North to accept what had been said.
The lawman muttered a reluctant acceptance of this and looked around at the men then said to Alvarez: ‘This isn’t your whole group. There were at least seven men at the ambush. Now there are just four in here and your farrier in the barn. That means two – ‘
Alvarez nodded. ‘ Si. Francisco Gonzales and Filipe Rodriges – who is the brother of Rubio – are at our usual hide out. A much safer place than this. But
‘While you will need only to devote your attention to ensuring the prisoner remains securely locked in jail until the trial is held.’
‘It’s one hell of a crazy way for me to taken on deputies,’ North muttered, obviously speaking aloud the thought rather than putting up what he said for discussion. Alvarez instructed the short, slightly built, bad complexioned man holding North’s gunbelt: ‘Tell him what you heard, Paco.’
The man was disconcerted to be suddenly at the centre of attention. But then he straightened his narrow shoulders, expressed determination and did what was asked of him. Spoke in more thickly accented English than the obviously better educated Alvarez.
‘My name, it is Paco Diego, Sheriff North. Awhile ago I was working on the Martinez ranch here in Texas. And when I was there I heard about the murder of the young girl at the fiesta in Red Rocks Canyon outside of Bishopsburg. How you arrested the Martinez boy for the terrible crime and then took the only witness to Railton City for safe keeping.’
‘We try always to have a man working for Martinez,’ Alvarez explained. ‘It is dangerous, but sometimes we get information that is useful to us.’
‘Sure,’ North said with an impatient gesture toward the squint eyed, bearded man. He did not look away from the smaller Mexican who clearly resented Alvarez’s interruption.
‘There was much talk about it at Hacienda El Blanco,’ Diego went on more confidently. ‘About how the old man wouldn’t ever allow his son to be tried and hung. And about how the judge who was coming down here to try the case wouldn’t live long enough to do it. And how the woman who witnessed the killing wouldn’t get back to town alive. I made sure to tell Raul everything that I heard a soon as I could, sheriff.’
North asked grimly: ‘How come you heard so much?’
Diego replied eagerly: ‘There’s a bunkhouse on the Martinez ranch. Where the Mexican worker spend much time when they are not working. Cooks and house servants. Ditch diggers and stable hands. But I am not going to name names, sheriff. Tell you who said what, you understand?’
North responded with a scowl and a shrug.
Isabella looked about to snarl a demand, but held her peace when Diego went on: 66
‘I saw two Americano strangers who showed up at the hacienda a week ago. Hard looking hombres. It was that same night, while we had supper, that talk of killing and the rest of it began.’
Alvarez said: ‘I realise why you are anxious to know the source of Paco’s information, sheriff. Judge Miller and the Bellamy family were shot down in cold blood. Even the two young boys were not spared. And you would like to have witnesses to the talk at Hacienda El Blanco that preceded such a terrible crime.’
‘Damn right,’ North growled.
Up on the roof, Edge carefully and silently shifted his prone position a little, a grimace that accompanied the move partly in response to the cramps in his muscles and partly triggered by irritation with North for delaying the end of the talk rather than trying to speed it up.
‘But that is not possible for the moment,’ Alvarez insisted. ‘There is more important business to attend to. Perhaps when the Martinez boy has paid the price for his crime and the peons who work for the family have seen Eduardo is not so all-powerful as he seems to be, some of those that Paco overheard will agree to give evidence?’
There were nods and grunts of agreement then looks that pleaded for North to accept what had been said.
The lawman muttered a reluctant acceptance of this and looked around at the men then said to Alvarez: ‘This isn’t your whole group. There were at least seven men at the ambush. Now there are just four in here and your farrier in the barn. That means two – ‘
Alvarez nodded. ‘ Si. Francisco Gonzales and Filipe Rodriges – who is the brother of Rubio – are at our usual hide out. A much safer place than this. But
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