There on the ground a few feet in front of their hiding-place was a fire, and two men were beside it. Their horses were tied to bushes not far away. One of the men was broiling meat on the end of a stick. The [p 135] smell of it made the children very hungry. The other man was drinking something hot from a cup. They both had guns, and the guns were leaning against the rocks just below the cave where the children were hidden.
The man who was standing up was tall and had a fierce black mustache. He had on a big sombrero, and under a fold of his serape Tonio could see a cartridge-belt and the handle of a revolver.
“It’s the Tall Man that Father and Pedro were talking to in front of the pulque shop,” whispered Tonio.
Tita was so frightened that she shook like a leaf and her teeth chattered.
Pretty soon the Tall Man spoke. “The others ought to be here soon,” he said. “They’ll see the fire. Put on a few more sticks and make it flame up more.”
The other man gave a last turn to the meat, handed it stick and all to the Tall Man, and disappeared behind the bushes to search for wood.
He had not yet come back, when there was the sound of horses’ feet, and a man rode into sight, dismounted, hitched his horse, and joined the Tall Man by the fire.
One by one others came, until there were ten men standing about and talking together in low tones. Last of all there was the thud-thud of two more horses and who should [p 137] come riding into the firelight but Pancho on Pinto, and Pedro on another horse!