"How many laigs have yo' got?" says Curly, "'cause that's ample. Catch me some water."
Jim reached down the hanging jar, and Curly drank. "I been waiting hours for that," says he; "now sluice my arm."
Jim threw cool water on the wound. "Is it very bad?" he asked.
"It's sure attracting my attention, Jim."
"Yes, next time you're falling around don't use my laigs--they're private. Whar is this place?"
Jim looked up at a window-gap, high in the 'dobe wall, and saw the starlight checkered with iron bars; then listening, he heard a muttering of Spanish talk, and noticed the door of the cell lined out with a glimmer from the guardroom.
"It smells bad, like a trap," said Curly.
"I wonder," says Jim, "what time they feed the animals? I'm starving."
"My two sides," says Curly, "is rubbing together, and I'm sure sorrowful. We done got captured somehow."
"I remember now. They gave us coffee. They must have been Frontier Guards--so this is La Morita."
"Why did they gather us in? We didn't spoil any greasers."
"It was not their grass--we set fire to Arizona."
"I don't think they mind," says Jim, "whose grass we burned. They've got us, and they won't worry about the details. You see, they've got to make a play at being useful, old chap, or else their Government would get tired and forget to send their wages."
"Keep us three days to cool, then find us guilty, and send us down to Fronteras."
"I remember," says Curly, "when I was riding that year for Holy Cross I saw----"
"Yes, everywhere on the Mexican side of the line--the little wooden grave signs by the trail."
Curly and Jim sat there in the dark, and thought of the wooden crosses. They understood, but I believe it's up against me to explain for folks who don't know that country. You see, there used to be only two industries in old Mexico, silver mining and stealing, but most of the people made a living by robbing each other. Then the great President Diaz came along, who had been a robber himself. He called up all the robbers he'd known in the way of business, and hired them as a sort of Mounted Rangers and Frontier Guards to wipe out the rest of the thieves. That made the whole Republic peaceful, but when there were no more robbers to shoot, the Rangers and Guards began to feel monotonous, the country being plumb depleted of game.