th us--quietly--oh, very quietly!"

The other men grinned a little, as if they saw a joke in this, and then
they all sat down in a circle around the fire.

II

Pancho and Pedro sat where the children could look right at them. The
Tall Man was the only one who did not sit down. He stood up and began to
talk.

"Well, men," he said. "I knew I could count on you! Brave fellows like
you know well when a blow must be struck, and where is the true Mexican
who was ever afraid to strike a blow when he knew that it was needed?

"We came of a race of fighters! And once Mexico belonged to them! Our
Indian forefathers did not serve a race of foreign tyrants as we, their
sons, do! Look about you on Mexico! Where in the whole world can be
found such a land? The soil so rich that it yields crops that burden the
earth, and mountains full of gold and silver and precious stones! And it
is for this reason we are enslaved!

"If our land were less rich and less beautiful, if it bore no such
crops, if its sunshine were not so bright, and its mountains yielded no
such treasure, we should be free men to-day.

"But the world envied our possessions. You know how Cortez, long ago,
came from Spain and when our forefathers met him with friendliness he
slew men, women, and children, tore down their ancient temples, and set
the churches of Spain in their places!

"The Spaniards turned our fathers from free and brave men into a
conquered and enslaved people, and worst of all they mixed their hated
blood with ours. From the days of Cortez until now in one way or another
we have submitted to oppression, until the spirit of our brave Indian
ancestors is almost dead within us!

"And for what do we serve these aristocrats? For the privilege of
remaining ignorant! For the privilege of tilling _their_ fields, which
were once ours! For the privilege of digging _our_ gold and silver and
precious stones out of _their_ mines to make them rich! For the
privilege of living in huts while they live in palaces! For the
_privilege_ of being robbed and beaten in the name of laws we never
heard of and which we had no part in making, though this country is
called a Republic! A Republic!--Bah!--A Republic where more than half
the people cannot read! A Republic of cattle! A Republic where men like
you work for a few pence a day, barely enough to keep your body and soul
together--and even that pittance you must spend in stores owned by the
men for whom you work!