Since Demetrio believed in the barber's knowledge
implicitly, when Luis Cervantes came to treat him on
the next day he said:

"Look here, do your best, see. I want to recover
soon and then you can go home or anywhere else you
damn well please."

Discreetly, Luis Cervantes made no reply.

A week, ten days, a fortnight elapsed. The Federal
troops seemed to have vanished. There was an abun-
dance of corn and beans, too, in the neighboring ranches.
The people hated the Government so bitterly that they
were overjoyed to furnish assistance to the rebels. De-
metrio's men, therefore, were peacefully waiting for the
complete recovery of their chief.

Day after day, Luis Cervantes remained humble and
silent.

"By God, I actually believe you're in love," De-
metrio said jokingly one morning after the daily treat-
ment. He had begun to like this tenderfoot. From then
on, Demetrio began gradually to show an increasing in-
terest in Cervantes' comfort. One day he asked him if
the soldiers gave him his daily ration of meat and milk;
Luis Cervantes was forced to answer that his sole nour-
ishment was whatever the old ranch women happened to
give him and that everyone still considered him an in-