They all, the Americans, viewed it curiously. The houses were low and one-story, of yellowish mud, with flat roofs; grouped close together so that they made an open square in the middle of the town and their rears formed a bare wall on the four sides.
“’Tis like a big brick-kiln, by jinks,” remarked Freegift. “Now I wonder do they build this way for fear o’ the Injuns?”
The people here numbered about five hundred—mainly Indians themselves, but tame Indians, Pueblos who lived in houses, with a mingling of Mexican blood. From the house-tops they welcomed the column; and thronging to meet it they brought out food and other gifts for the strangers. That night there was a dance, with the Americans as guests of honor.
“If this is the way they treat prisoners,” the men grinned, “sure, though some of us can’t shake our feet yet, we’re agreeable to the good intentions.”
The same treatment had occurred all the way down along the Rio Grande del Norte, through a succession of the flat mud villages. There had been feasting, dancing, and at every stop the old women and old men had taken the Americans into the houses and dressed their frozen feet.
“This feet-washin’ and food-givin’ makes a feller think on Bible times,” William Gordon asserted. “The pity is, that we didn’t ketch up with that Spanish column that was lookin’ for us and gone right home with ’em for a friendly visit. They’d likely have put us on the Red River and have saved us our trouble.”
“Well, we ain’t turned loose yet, remember,” counseled Hugh Menaugh. “From what I l’arn, the Melgares column didn’t aim to entertain us with anything more’n a fight. But now we’re nicely done, without fightin’.”
“Yes, this here politeness may be only a little celebration,” Alex mused. “It’s cheap. For me, I’d prefer a dust or two, to keep us in trim.”
There had been one bit of trouble, which had proved that the lieutenant, also, was not to be bamboozled. In the evening, at the village named San Juan, or St. John, the men and Stub were together in a large room assigned to them, when the lieutenant hastily entered. He had been dining at the priest’s house, with Lieutenant Bartholomew; but now a stranger accompanied him—a small, dark, sharp-faced man.