Free TOM MIX AND PANCHO VILLA: A Novel of Mexico and the Texas border by Clifford Irving

to the herd, he loosened his black string tie and began to chuckle.
    “What’s so funny?”
    “You are, Tomás. Why didn’t you take the hot bath and the bed? The ground is hard. A bed is soft. Maybe he would have found a woman for you. Then you could have told Candelario and driven him mad.
    “You understood?” I asked, more than a little surprised. “You speak English?”
    “Naturally. When the revolution’s over, I’m going to be a businessman. Did you think I was a peasant like Candelario and the others? The best part of business is to shut up and let someone else do the talking.”
    He leaned across his saddle and patted my shoulder, and his fat face creased with a smile. “But you did well, asking for more bullets. I didn’t t think of that. You could be a businessman too. Maybe we’ll be partners. Would that interest you?”
    “I wouldn’t mind that at all,” I said, feeling less like a fool than before.
    “In that case,” Hipólito said, “make sure you don’t get killed, and then you’ll have a future.”

Chapter 5
    “It is the purpose
    that makes strong the vow.”
    That night, after we had made sure the cattle were snugged down under the watchful eyes of the vaqueros, we trotted out of Columbus on the north road to Deming. Candelario was looking forward to the evening’s entertainment, and he let out a yell that might have made a wolf hunt for cover. But when Hipólito jingled the coins in his leather purse and announced that our first stop was going to be the gambling hall, Candelario’s howl ceased and his head snapped round. His one good eye glared in the moonlight.
    “What did I hear you say? You want to gamble before you fuck?”
    “I’m feeling lucky,” Hipólito explained.
    “You’ll lose all the money! Nothing will be left for the women.”
    “If we fuck first,” Hipólito said, “we’ll be too tired to gamble. I’m worn out already. Fucking makes me sleepier.”
    I could hear Candelario’s teeth, like galloping hoofs, grinding and gnashing in his jaw. “Listen, my fat friend,” he sputtered. “Let me enlighten you as to your nature, which you should know already, but apparently you’ve forgotten. You’ll gamble all night until there’s nothing left. If you’re lucky you’ll lose it quickly. And what then? Where should I put my pecker, in my horse’s ear?”
    “Whose money is it?” Hipólito demanded.
    “It belongs to the revolution.”
    “Is the revolution meant to pay for you wallowing in the cunt of some French whore?”
    “Is it meant to pay for you at the roulette wheel?”
    “Candelario, you’re a peasant. In harder times I may have been a bandit, but in my soul, as I’ve told Tomás, I’m a businessman. I think ahead. I can read the eyes of the men sitting across the poker table from me, and I can see which numbers turn up more frequently on the wheel. Don t worry so much. I’ll win the price of both those whores for the whole night.”
    “Then divide the money.”
    “There may not be enough,” Hipólito admitted.
    “Coño!”
    “Imbecile!”
    Mad enough to gnaw a gap out of an axe, Candelario leaned across his saddle horn and gripped my arm with fingers that were like iron bars. “Tomás, you decide. But bear this in mind—he plays poker like a Mexican, which means he can’t believe the next card isn’t going to give him a magnificent hand. So he raises every bet. Now, choose! The gambling first, or the women first.” He snarled at Hipólito, “Does that suit you?”
    Hipólito leaned close to me too, and the evening breeze brought me a full whiff of him, all stale sweat and cattle and sour river mud. “You’re sensible,” he said. “Never mind that I called you crazy. And you like money. One day you’ll be my partner. You don’t let your cock lead you around by the nose, do you?”
    At the time I thought not, so I shook my head.
    I said, “You’ll both abide by me?”
    “You have my word,” Hipólito