The aliens were disconcerted, and wilted. The owner picked up courage
and ordered the cook to prepare dinner. We loaned our horses to the
wrangler and another man, the remuda was brought in, and before we sat
down to the midday meal, every vaquero had a horse under saddle, while
two of them had ridden away to look after the grazing cattle. With
order restored, we set about systematically to lay away the unfortunate
man. A detail of vaqueros under Cederdall prepared a grave on the
nearest knoll, and wrapping the corpse in a tarpaulin, we buried him
like a sailor at sea. Several vaqueros were visibly affected at the
graveside, and in order to pacify them, I suggested that we unload the
wagon of supplies and haul up a load of rock from a near-by outcropping
ledge. Pablo had fallen like a good soldier at his post, I urged, and
it was befitting that his comrades should mark his last resting-place.
To our agreeable surprise the corporal hurrahed his men and the wagon
was unloaded in a jiffy and dispatched after a load of rock. On its
return, we spent an hour in decorating the mound, during which time
lament was expressed for the future of Pablo’s soul. Knowing the almost
universal faith of this alien race, as we stood around the finished
mound, Cederdall, who was Catholic born, called for contributions to
procure the absolution of the Church. The owner of the cattle was the
first to respond, and with the aid of my boys and myself, augmented
later by the vaqueros, a purse of over fifty dollars was raised and
placed in charge of the corporal, to be expended in a private mass on
their return to San Antonio. Meanwhile the herd and saddle stock had
started, and reloading the wagon, we cast a last glance at the little
mound which made a new landmark on the old trail.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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