Page:Pictures of life in Mexico Vol 2.djvu/173

Rh rudely before them as they retraced their way to the rancho.

Immediately on their arrival they mounted the poor officer on the table, among the bottles, cups, and platters; and held a drunken consultation as to what punishment should be inflicted on the prisoner.

"Swing him up to one of the beams, at once," shouted a brutal-looking-fellow with a thick neck, a bushy exposed throat, and a red handkerchief over his eyes.

"Make him stand in a keg of spirits, and set fire to it," exclaimed another, with a sly look, and an admixture of the humorous in his composition.

"Tie his limbs to a coil of rope, and let us pull both ends of it," quietly suggested a third, who could scarcely stand, from the effects of his potations.

"Hang him heels uppermost, and sprinkle his face with vitriol, till we see what he looks like," benevolently added a fourth member of the party.

They were accordingly about to haul him from the table in the rudest manner, to carry either one or other of these recommendations into effect, when the capitaz, Antonio