his face,
deprived him of his place of vantage. The rest of the officers,
moreover, burst into hilarious mirth and holding their sides with
laughter begged the colonel to pardon the deserter. The colonel,
therefore, instead of sentencing him to be shot, kicked his buttocks
roundly for him and assigned him to kitchen police.

This signal insult was destined to bear poisonous fruit. Luis Cervantes
determined to play turncoat; indeed, mentally, he had already changed
sides. Did not the sufferings of the underdogs, of the disinherited
masses, move him to the core? Henceforth he espoused the cause of
Demos, of the subjugated, the beaten and baffled, who implore justice,
and justice alone. He became intimate with the humblest private. More,
even, he shed tears of compassion over a dead mule which fell, load and
all, after a terribly long journey.

From then on, Luis Cervantes' prestige with the soldiers increased.
Some actually dared to make confessions. One among them, conspicuous
for his sobriety and silence, told him: "I'm a carpenter by trade, you
know. I had a mother, an old woman nailed to her chair for ten years by
rheumatism. In the middle of the night, they pulled me out of my house;
three damn policemen; I woke up a soldier twenty-five miles away from
my hometown. A month ago our company passed by there again. My mother
was already under the sod! ... So there's nothing left for me in this
wide world; no one misses me now, you see. But, by God, I'm damned if
I'll use these cartridges they make us carry, against the enemy. If a
miracle happens (I pray for it every night, you know, and I guess our
Lady of Guadalupe can do it all right), then I'll join Villa's men; and
I swear by the holy soul of my old mother, that I'll make every one of
these Government people pay, by God I will."

Another soldier, a bright young fellow, but a charlatan, at heart, who
drank habitually and smoked the narcotic marihuana weed, eyeing him
with vague, glassy stare, whispered in his ear, "You know, partner ...
the men on the other side ... you know, the other side ... you
understand ... they ride the best horses up north there, and all over,
see? And they harness their mounts with pure hammered silver. But us?
Oh hell, we've got to ride plugs, that's all, and not one of them good
enough to stagger round a water well. You see, don't you, partner? You
see what I mean? You know, the men on the other side-they get shiny new
silver coins whi