“What do you mean by Zapatists?” asked Adrian.
“Followers of the robber, Zapata. You must have heard about him.”
“Now that you explain, I believe I have. So these men are followers of Zapata?”
“Yes; and before the days of President Madero they were a part of what was known as the Las Cruces robbers.
“Well, ever since my father was a young officer he has always had trouble with these pirates.”
“Do they ever try to break into your house?” queried Billie.
“They did once, and that is part of the story. It happened when Guadalupe was a baby and I was only a little more. My father was away at the time with almost all the rurales in the district, and the robbers must have known that there were only a few peons left to guard the house.
“Three of them came to the gate and demanded that my mother give them five hundred dollars. She
refused, and they threatened to come and get it. Mother was not much afraid, as our house is very strongly built of stone; but still she took every precaution to see that they could not break in; but that night about twenty-five of them surrounded the house and sat down to a regular siege.”
“Couldn’t you shoot them from the windows?” asked Billie.