Diego Luz tried to be calm and let this happen, what was going to happen. He wet his lips and tried not to wet his lips. He did not see the segundo motion or hear him speak, but now a rider dismounted, letting his reins trail, and came toward them.
He was an American, a bony man who had not shaved for several days and wore boots to his knees and spurs that chinged as he came forward. He moved past Diego Luz and took his son by the arm and brought him out several strides into the yard. He positioned the boy, moving him by his shoulders, to face his family as the boy looked up at him. The man glanced at the segundo. His gaze dropped slowly to the boy and when he was looking at him, standing a stride in front of him, he stepped in swinging his gloved right fist and slammed it into the boys face.
Diego Luz did not move. He looked at his boy on the ground and at the man who had struck him and at the segundo.
The segundo said, We ask you one time. Where is Valdez?
Diego Luz did not hesitate or think about it. He said, I dont know. He added then, No one here knows. And then, because he had said this much, he said, He hasnt been here
in four days. He saw the segundo looking at him and he wished he had said only that he didnt know.
The American with the bony face and the high boots walked over to the ramada. Diego Luz glanced aside and then half turned as he saw his small children out of the doorway. The American picked up the littlest girl, his three-year-old, and held her up in front of him. The man grinned with no teeth, with his mouth sunken. He said, Howre you, honey? The little girl smiled as he carried her out into the yard. The American looked out toward the mounted men and he said, Mr. Tanner, I could swing this youngn by her feet and bash her head agin the wall.
Diego Luz screamed, I dont know!
Now several men dismounted and came toward him. One of them pushed him aside and they brought his daughter out into the yard. She was wearing only a nightdress, and in the sunlight he could see the shape of his daughters hips and legs beneath the cotton cloth and saw the men by the ramada looking at her. The man who brought her out was behind her now. He took her nightdress at the neck and pulled down on it. The girl twisted, wrenching away from him, screaming. Some of the men laughed, staring at her now as she tried to hold up her shredded nightdress to cover herself.
The segundo said to Diego Luz, Maybe we take her inside and mount her one at a time. Or maybe we do it out here so your family can see.
I dont know where he is, Diego Luz said.
The segundo looked at Mr. Tanner, who was mounted on a bay horse. The segundo stepped out of his saddle. He took a plug of tobacco and bit off a corner as he walked up to Diego Luz, who watched him, feeling his hands hanging heavily at his sides.
He said to the segundo in Spanish, Tell him to put my little girl down.
Hes talking, the segundo said.
Not that one.
Hes a little crazy maybe.
Tell him to put her down.
I wont let him do it, the segundo said. Shes too young. Maybe she grow up to be something, like your daughter.
Diego Luz said, If you touch her youd better kill me.
We can do that, the segundo said.
I dont know where he is. Man, who do you think I put first, him?
We only asking you, the segundo said. Maybe you give us a lot of shit and we believe it. Thats a nice-looking girl, he said, looking at the mans daughter. I like a little more up there, but first one of the day, maybe its all right.
Shoot her first, Diego Luz said. Youd do it to a corpse, you filthy son of a whore.
The segundo said, Man, hold on to yourself if you can do it. Just tell us.
I dont know where he is, Diego Luz said.
Listen, leave Maricopa, you can ride for me.
I dont know where he is, Diego Luz said.
I dont care where he is, the segundo said. I mean it, ride for me.
Diego Luz said, Come here alone to ask me, Id try to kill you.
The segundo nodded, smiling. Youd try it, wouldnt you? Thats why I want you.
R. L. Davis came out of his saddle. He walked part way toward Tanner and stopped. He eased his funneled hat up and pulled it down again.
Mr. Tanner, Id like to ask him something.
Go ahead, Tanner said. He brought a cigar out of a vest pocket and bit off the tip.
I want to ask Diego about seeing him in town with Bob Valdezs clothes three days ago.
Tanner lit his cigar and blew out the smoke. You hear that?
Diego Luz nodded his head up and down. I was taking his clothes to him.
Where? Tanner said.
He was hiding.
I said where.
In the line shack. At the Maricopa pasture.
To the segundo Tanner said, They look in the shack?
Ill find out, the segundo said.
If he wasnt there, Tanner said to Diego Luz, youre a dead man.
He brought him his clothes, R. L. Davis said, and he mustve brought him his guns too.
Weve stayed long enough, Tanner said. Tend to the horsebreaker.
R. L. Davis was standing in the yard. He wanted to say more, but it was passing him by. Mr. Tanner, I could talk to him some-