The Little Red Peg, senor? Ah! It is not wonderful you notice that.
There are eight bullet-holes in that zarape"--he pointed to the
wall--"there are eight holes in the wall for the Little Red Peg. Well,
of the eight men who fired on my brother, two are left, as you may see.
The others are all gone, this way or that." Sherry shrugged a shoulder.
"There are two left, eh, Becodar? How will they die, and when?" Becodar
was motionless as a stone for a moment. Then he said softly: "I do not
know quite how or when. But one drinks much mescal, and the other has
a taste for quarrel. He will get in trouble with the Rurales, and
then good-bye to him! Four others on furlough got in trouble with the
Rurales, and that was the end. They were taken at different times for
some fault--by Gerado's company--Gerado, my cousin. Camping at night,
they tried to escape. There is the Law of Fire, senors, as you know.
If a man thinks his guard sleeps, and makes a run for it, they do not
chase--they fire; and if he escapes unhurt, good; he is not troubled.
But the Rurales are fine shots!"

"You mean," said Sherry, "that the Rurales--your Gerado, for
one--pretended to sleep--to be careless. The fellows made a rush for it
and were dropped? Eh, Becodar, of the Little Red Peg?"

Becodar shrugged a shoulder gently. "Ah, senor, who can tell? My Gerado
is a sure shot."

"Egad," said Sherry, "who'd have thought it? It looks like a sweet
little vendetta, doesn't it? A blind beggar, too, with his Gerado to
help the thing along.

"'With his Gerado!' Sounds like a Gatling, or a bomb, or a diabolical
machine, doesn't it? And yet they talk of this country being
Americanised! You can't Americanise a country with a real history. Well,
Becodar, that's four. What of the other two that left for Kingdom Come?"

Becodar smiled pensively. He seemed to be enduring a kind of joy, or
else making light of a kind of sorrow. "Ah, those two! They were camping
in a valley; they were escorting a small party of people who had come to
look at ruins--Diaz was President then. Well, a party of Aztecs on the
other side of the river began firing across, not as if doing or meaning
any harm. By-and-bye the shot came rattling through the tent of the
two. One got up, and yelled across to them to stop, but a chance bullet
brought him down, and then by some great mistake a lot of bullets
came through the tent, and the other soldier was killed. It was all a
mistake, of course."

"Yes,