“Well, if what?” he asked as she crossed herself, and dropped her head.
“I am not wanting to say that thing. It is a scare on the heart when it is said.”
“I’d rather be prepared for the scare if it strikes me,” he announced, and after a thoughtful silence while she padded along beside him, she lowered her voice as though to hide her words from the evil fates.
“Then will I tell it you:––a knife in the back is what they fear for him, or poison in his cup. He is hated by strong haters, also he makes them know fear. I hearing all that in the patio at Palomitas, and old Tio Polonio is often saying all saviors are crucified. How you think?”
Rhodes replied vaguely as to the wisdom of Tio Polonio, for the girl was giving him the point of view of the peon, longing for freedom, yet fatalistic as the desert born ever are. And she had known the rebel leader, Ramon Rotil, all the time!
He had no doubt but that she was right. Her statement explained the familiar appearance of the man he had not met before, though he had seen pictures in newspapers or magazines. Then he fell to wondering what Ramon Rotil was doing in a territory so far from the troops, and–––
“Don José is one of the strong men who are hating him much,” confided the child. “Also Don José comes not north alone ever anymore, always the soldiers are his guard. Tio Polonio tells things of these soldiers.”
“What kind of things?”
“They are killing boys like rabbits in Canannea,––pacifico boys who could grow to Calendrista soldiers. Such is done by the guard of Don José and all the friends of the Deliverer are killed with a quickness. That is how the men of Don José Perez please him most, and in the south there are great generals who work also with him, and his hand is made strong, also heavy, and that is what Tio Polonio is telling us often.”
When they reached the mouth of the little cañon of the Yaqui well where the trails divide, Pike shook hands and climbed into the saddle of Pardner.