up and
down the room, wrapped in the warm folds of an ample cloak; his neck
and face swathed in mufflers to the eyes, arctics on his feet, and no
stove or fireplace in the room. As leading merchant of the town, he
soon supplied us with provisions and various articles, and with four
saddle and three pack horses for our journey.

The next day, while my men were busy arranging our camp outfit, I took
train for Monterey to get a letter from General Trevino, commanding the
Department of Coahuila, to the _comandante_ of the garrison at Musquiz.
On this short forenoon's journey I had my first taste of the disordered
state of the country.

About ten o'clock our train stopped at the depot of Villaldama, where I
observed six _guardias aduaneras_ (customs guards) removing the packs
from a dozen mules, and transferring them to the baggage car. Just as
this work was nearing completion, a band of fourteen _contradistas_
dashed up out of the surrounding chaparral, dropped off their horses,
and opened at thirty yards a deadly fire on the guards. With others in
the smoker, next behind the baggage car, I had a fine view of the
battle, but a part of the time we were directly in the line of fire,
for four of our car windows were smashed by bullets, and many bullets
were buried in the car body. Such encounters between guards and
smugglers in Mexico were always a fight to the death, for under the law
the guards received one-half the value of their captures, while of
course the smugglers stood to win or lose all.

As soon as fire opened, the guards jumped for the best cover available,
and put up the best fight they could. But the odds were hopelessly
against them. In five minutes it was all over. Three of the guards
lay dead, one was crippled, and the other two were in flight. To be
sure two of the smugglers were bowled over, dead, and two badly
wounded, but the remaining ten were not long in repossessing themselves
of their goods; and when our train pulled out, the baggage car riddled
with bullets till it looked like a sieve, the ten were hurriedly
repacking their mules for flight west to the Sierras. Later I learned
that early that morning the guards had caught the _conducta_ with only
two men in charge, who had shrewdly skipped and scattered to gather the
party that arrived just in time to save their plunder.

Mexican import duties in those days were so enormous that very many of
the best people then living along the border en