An' Jim here, Jim says the young
man can have his gun an' his hoss."
"Wonderful! Laddy, what on earth did this stranger do to win you
cowboys in just one night?"
"I'll shore have to tell you. Me an' Jim were watchin' a game of
cards in the Del Sol saloon in Casita. That's across the line.
We had acquaintances--four fellows from the Cross Bar outfit,
where we worked a while back. This Del Sol is a billiard hall,
saloon, restaurant, an' the like. An' it was full of Greasers.
Some of Camp's rebels were there drinkin' an' playin' games.
Then pretty soon in come Rojas with some of his outfit.
They were packin' guns an' kept to themselves off to one side.
I didn't give them a second look till Jim said he reckoned
there was somethin' in the wind. Then, careless-like,
I began to peek at Rojas. They call Rojas the 'dandy rebel,' an'
he shore looked the part. It made me sick to see him in all that
lace an' glitter, knowin' him to be the cutthroat robber he is.
It's no oncommon sight to see excited Greasers. They're all crazy.
But this bandit was shore some agitated. He kept his men in a
tight bunch round a table. He talked an' waved his hands. He was
actually shakin'. His eyes had a wild glare. Now I figgered that
trouble was brewin', most likely for the little Casita garrison.
People seemed to think Campo an' Rojas would join forces to oust
the federals. Jim thought Rojas's excitement was at the hatchin'
of some plot. Anyway, we didn't join no card games, an' without
pretendin' to, we was some watchful.
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