"If you're a man, let's see your reata," roared Quartel, wheeling his trigueño toward the man and unlashing his 40-foot rope from his saddle.
The rider fought his excited buckskin around in a circle as he tore his own rope from the saddle, and when he had completed the circle, the rope was free and the two riders were facing each other about a hundred yards apart.
"Vamanos, Indita," shouted Quartel, his huge cart-wheel spurs gouging the brown into a headlong run toward the other man.
"Are they crazy?" said Huerta.
"Stay around the border much and you'll get used to it," Merida told him. "The vaqueros used to do the same thing on the rancho where I was born. They'd rather rope than eat."
"Duello," said Crawford.
"With ropes?" It caused Huerta distinct effort to evince even the dim incredulity.
"Lot of 'em would rather fight with ropes than guns," Crawford told him. "More than one lawman has been dragged to death here in the brush."
It had taken that long for the two riders to meet, passing one another not 10 feet apart. At the last moment Quartel made a pass with his rope arm. Indita's own throw caused him a hoarse exhalation that turned into a shout of triumph as he saw his loop settling over Quartel's head. Then it happened. As much as he had handled horses, Crawford did not think he had ever seen one turn so fast. One instant the trigueño was racing past the bayo coyote, the next it was facing in the opposite direction, Quartel's own involuntary grunt still hanging in the air to tell what a vicious effort he had put into the reining. The motion had carried Quartel from beneath Indita's loop in that last moment, and now he sat the trigueño perfectly still, facing after Indita's retreating buckskin.
Quartel's first pass had been a feint, and he still retained his rope. It was so slight a flirt of his hand that Crawford barely caught it. He did not spin the loop above his head. He tossed it underhand, the way he had thrown it with Africano in the corral. It was a hooley-ann, spinning flatly out above Indita, seeming to hover above him an instant, no bigger than the brim of his sombrero; then it was taut about his shoulders, and he was pulled over the back of his horse with a resounding thump.