BORDER SERCH 16

del was starting to think he made a mistake. he let his temper get the best of him and shot off his mouth about going to elias. twenty miles into mexico could be fatal. his bravado got away from him. he sat athis camp fire with harry and maxine staring at him. harry had stated he didnt want to return to his mine because of the bandits, maxine had been berateing them both for being cowards. even after seeing five bandits in front of the store she was still determined to go to the mine. harry told her he had brought all the silver that was mined in the past week with him. he would gladly split it with her but she needed to stay in ruby or better yet return to tucson. to the she simply dug her heels in. both del and harry for the life of then could figure out why she was determined to go there. harry thought without paying elias his portion he could start a modest ranch on the arizona side of the line. he explained that to maxine and asked her to join him. del saw harry biting his lip with the invitation but understood that it was a attempt to get her off the mine issue. the sound of walking horses broke up the conversation. over in the roaad through ruby a group of horse men were passing in the moon light. del moved his rifle closer. one of the group rode over to the camp fire. "hola gringo" he called. " i am the corprol of the rurales, we are moveing to the united stated. the revolutionists are near. they are opposed to the rurales. we dont want to fight them. we dont want to fight with you. where may we camp and not be a problem?" del stood up and steped up to the corprol"you may camp where you wish. you are welcome with us. zapata is near?" " not zapata, he is in the south. these are villas forces, the lion of the north. they are breaking the haciendos up and returning the land to the poor peones. they will not be slaves to the rich men any longer. we as rurales are federal police. the villaistas are opposed to anything federal or affiliated with maduro who is now el presedente. we will move down the road to camp. beware, elias may come this way to avoid villa. elias is a bad man with no match." the corprol turned his horse and rode away. " well there you have it, we can go to the mine now. the revolutionists........." maxine didnt get to finish. "NO! we would be in a shooting gallery. elias on one side villa on another. no!" del jabed his rifle butt into the ground to emphasise his point. harry sat there nodding. " but there could be more silver to mine at our mine. we need to go there" maxine continued to argue. harry turned to her , fire in his eyes"its not our mine any more! its the mexicans mine. dont you under stand?. its a hole in the ground. thats all it is. we are not going back period!" maxine crossed her arms and pouted. looking away into the dark. del shook his head.