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114 Tamale Ridge by: Chuck Cusimano

best that she could and told her not to worry. Everything would be all right. Rosemarie was not

so sure.

Unknown to her at that very minute, her father and some other men were looking for her

brother. Also, at that very time, Ramon was regaining conciousness.

Ramon woke up looking into the barrel of his own rifle. He tried to move and found that he

was tied hand and foot.

“You better let me go now, or my father will kill you!” Ramon said

“Your father will not save you! Your father will be dead soon.”

“Why are you with these common lathrones? Miguel?” Ramon referred to them as thieves.

“Your father and the other Rico’s have always looked down upon us common peones,” said

Miguel.

“I thought you were my friend!” Ramon said weakly.

They all heard the gunshots, between them and the cattle herd, maybe a half-mile away. Ramon

knew that his father would come for him. Again he strained against the rawhide strips he felt on

his wrists.

The bullet hit Francisco Guerra in the upper chest on the left side. He fell to the ground from

the buckskin horse. Raul was at his side almost immediately, dragging him to safety behind a

big boulder.

“Patron!” said Raul, “are you hit bad?”

“I will be alright, Raul. See to the other men.”

Raul surveyed the area. The other three men with them had scrambled to the strewn rocks lying

around the desert floor. One man was down and trying to get to a rock for cover when the

bullet slammed into his body and he quit moving.

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