"At the chapel."
Gabriel had taken an injured girl just inside the chapel door, and was working over her by a vigil lamp.
"Can you find Velasco for me?"
"I haven't seen him!" Shall I tell him about my father, Raul thought? No, that can wait. I'll go for help.
"I'll see if I can find Velasco. I'm looking for Manuel."
Flames from the mill transfixed him as he went out the chapel door; the light seemed to spout above Petaca, threatening every wall, the forecourt, the chapel. Gabriel, in the doorway beside the girl, tried to give her water.
Was the earth shaking again? Raul thought. Was everything to be lost? Flames blazed over the dining room now; rifle shots came from the same direction. Petaca....
Petaca, 1619, Indian land, Medina land.... He began to run toward the back of the house, toward the tienda de raya, thinking he would get a rifle from the gun case and then find Manuel.
He ran inside, wrenched a carbine from the case and loaded his pockets with ammunition.
Petaca—the name sounded in his blood—they were burning Petaca, the mill, the dining room, then....