Bound and helpless as he was, there was a
visible repugnance on the part of the men to touch him, so great
was the fear which his tremendous strength had excited. However,
six of them took him up and carried him into the hut--for it was
little more--and threw him down like a log in the inner room. I
walked in of my own accord, and sat down on the ground near him. I
heard Pedro give orders to some of the men outside to take away the
dead bodies and bury them, and for the rest to go down to their
campfires. Then he entered the house with his other four men.
"The house was just the ordinary Mexican hut. It contained two
rooms, or rather, one room partially divided into two, the inner
compartment forming the sleeping-room of the family. There was no
door between the rooms, nor was there any window; the light
entering through the wide opening into the outer room. The outer
room had no regular windows, only some chinks or loopholes, through
which a certain amount of light could come; but these were stopped
up with straw, for the Mexicans are a chilly people; and as the
door was always open, plenty of light came in through it. The house
was not built of adobe, as are most Mexican huts, but of stones,
with the interstices plastered with mud."
"Never in my life did I feel that the game was up as I did when I
sat down there and looked round.
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