"Of course they're cruel, vindictive, treacherous, but after all
there are only a hundred and forty generations between us and
Adam; only a hundred and forty lifetimes since the Garden of Eden.
We civilized peoples are only a lap or two ahead of the
uncivilized ones. When you think that it takes ten thousand
generations to develop a plant and root out some of its early
heredities, you can see that human beings have a long way yet to
go before they become perfect. We're creatures of environment,
just like plants. Environment has made the Mexican what he is."

Certainly this was an amazing speech to issue from a sun-browned
cowboy sitting cross-legged under a mesquite-tree.

From under her hat-brim Alaire Austin eyed the speaker with a
curiosity into which there had come a vague hostility. For the
moment she was suspicious and piqued, but Law did not appear to
notice, and as he talked on her doubts gradually subsided.

"You said, last night, that you were born on the other side?" She
inclined her ruddy head to the west.

"Yes'm. My father was a mining man, and he done well over there
until he locked horns with the Guadalupes. Old Don Enrique and him
had a run-in at the finish, over some land or something. It was
when the Don was gobbling all the property in the state, and
laying the foundation for his big fortune. You know he had
permission from the president to steal all the land he cared to,
just like the rest of those local governors had. Well, Guadalupe
tried to run my people out."