Janice and Marty managed to keep away from Tom Hotchkiss and spoke only in low tones. Perhaps the man with the red vest believed his fellow-passengers to be Mexicans, like Carlitos.
"Who owns all this land?" Hotchkiss asked.
Carlitos jerked his head out from under the car where he had been fumbling, and scowled.
"By the right of God, señor, I own part of it. All of Méjico is ours—the people's. We own. But the reech and the strong have taken away our lands—by goodness, yes!"
"Well, you haven't got anything on folks everywhere," declared Hotchkiss. "The strong and the shrewd get it all—you bet!"
"This," and Carlitos swept a gesture including all the valley, "is the ranchero of Señor Baldasso Nunez. He is a buzzard."
"Yes?"
"His father was a buzzard before him—the old señor. Look you!" cried Carlitos with growing excitement. "My grandfather was a boy in the old señor's time. He is past eighty now and still working for the present Señor Baldasso."
"A long while to keep one job," said Hotchkiss.
"Listen, señor! At sixteen my grandfather was a big, fine, strong man—like me. He wish to marry a certain girl—she is my grandmother. Well! It is so that the old señor hear about my grandfather's wish—by goodness, yes! He send to my grandfather and offer a hundred pesos so he may pay the priest for to marry him and my grandfather accept, señor."