Santiago was gasping for air feinning unconsciousness. coally shook him like a rag doll and started his head back to the water. suddenly with a gasp, his arms windmilling  Santiago looked wildly around with his crossed eyes and screamed a threat in Spanish. the last of it caused a froth of bubbles as his head submerged .  again coaly held him under to the brink of drowning. then brought him back to air. once again sam asked a question. gasping for air the shooter screamed the farmer would kill them all.
   " now who the hell is that?" coaly asked    with that he he straightned the shooter to stand before sam who sat on the edge of the water trough.
   the little man was a sorry sight. his cloths were soaked and the green moss from the trough hung in his dripping hair and on patches of his face that were un shaven. " who is this farmer?" sam asked n Spanish.
      the killer only shook his head and screamed another curse and said the farmer would kill them all.   while coaly held the little man still sam searched his pockets for some form of identification. finding nothing but a few rounds for the old rifle sam thought for a few moments. then making up his mind he walked to the truck and returned with a bundle of hay twine. spinning Santiago around coaly stood facing him as sam tied the little mans hands and feet. when he was done coaly shoved him backwards into sams hands and they carried him to the truck and dumped him in the back.
    " lets find how he got here. maybe it will have some way of tracing this little  grubby bum." sam sid
    coaly and sam split up walking a big circle around the area that Santiago had been found in.  about a hundred yards west of the shooters position they found the battered truck parked in a mesquite thicket. pulling the key sam started back to their rig.
     after covering rigsby s body with a tarp and weighing it down with rocks and brush they headed to a phone. later that afternoon when a sheriff deputy and eppi Moreno had arrived they turned over the spitting and cussing Santiago cruz and returned to the scene  of the ambush. after loading the murdered agent in a ambulance eppi and the deputy opened the pack and saw that it was full of counterfeit money. rigsby s blood had run down inside staining much of it.  the deputy shoved the pack to eppi " I don't know nothing about this . you take it. all I know is theres a dead man here." he turned to his car and left.
  " what do you make of that?" sam asked as the deputy left in a cloud of dust.
  "I think some one is on the take and scared as hell, that's what I think!" eppi pointed toward the disappearing car with his chin. " did you see the way he acted when I asked who the farmer was? it scared hell out of him."
    "now what ?" sam asked
  " ime taking this to the FBI in Tucson. I think the locals are dirty and the DEA in the area is too.  in the meantime you two keep a low profile.  this isn't going to get any better. if I find out something on this farmer ill let you know. ill turn this little shooter over to the fed in Tucson. shooting a federal agent is not  a smart thing to do. maybe they can get him to talk." eppi turned and went to his car. Santiago was hand cuffed and strapped in the back seat of the waggoneer.  he was spitting and cussing in Spanish as eppi got in behind the steering wheel.  eppi uncerimoniusly reached back and back handed   him across the mouth telling him to shut up.
 as eppi drove away  coaly turned to sam" now what?"
   sam shrugged and started to the truck" I guess we wait."
" what about the old truck in the thicket? it  isn't worth much but we cant leave it there." coaly asked.
 tossing the key to coaly  sam grinned" take it home. eppi thinks the plate is bad anyway. we ll hold it awhile. "