“Señorita, los caballeros!” the man leading the horse exclaimed. It was clear he was eager to be leaving, as were the rest of the Guajolotes.

Katie and Joe were looking north. I looked north too and saw a dust cloud on the uttermost rim of the prairie.

I don’t think Billy noticed—he was still lolling on the grass, his mind on Katerina.

“Here comes Old Whiskey,” Joe said. “And not only that, here comes Tully, too.”

He pointed to the west, where a lone horseman was racing toward the Pecos at breakneck speed.

Billy Bone stood up and reclaimed the pistol I had been about to fire.

“That Tully, he’s always in a hurry,” he remarked, knocking the empties out of his gun. He dug some loose bullets from his pocket and began to reload.

“Tully’s a little jumpy,” he added.

Katie Garza hung her cartridge belt over the saddle horn and swung onto the white mare. She allowed the mare to prance for a bit as she studied the dust to the north.

“I’m getting in the mood to go to Mexico for a while,” she said. “You boys want to come?”

“Well, we told Tully we’d wait,” Joe Lovelady said. “I don’t want to leave until I hear what Tully’s got to say.”

“How about you, chapito?” Katie asked, looking down at Billy.

“Why, I can’t go off and leave Joe, not with this army coming,” Billy said.

“I thought Joe was a grown man,” Katie said.

Billy was looking a little flat—often after a long laugh or a temper fit he seemed to lose all energy. Katie’s remark surprised him—I doubt that it had occurred to him until that moment that he could travel the world with Katie Garza instead of Joe Lovelady. The thought startled him so much that he promptly changed the subject.

“Tully’s running that horse flat out,” he said. “Now, that can’t be good for the horse.”

Indeed, the approaching horseman was fairly flying over the grass.

I think Katie Garza knew Billy wasn’t quite ready to ride off with her, but it amused her to press her point, anyway.

“Come see the world, chapito,” she said. “We’ll go down to San Isidro and eat a fat goat.”

Billy looked to Joe for help. He was obviously not accustomed to having women try to lure him away.

Joe Lovelady was watching the large dust cloud to the north. He didn’t appear to be alarmed—just observant. Perhaps he had not even heard Katie invite Billy to Mexico; but if he had heard, he obviously had no interest in ruling out the invitation.

“I think your pa’s coming, Katie,” Joe said.

17.

That was when I learned that Katie was Isinglass’s daughter.

“Señorita, it’s nice weather in El Paso today, I bet,” one of the caballeros said.