The ranger was taken at once before General Carlo, the ranking
army officer at Chihuahua, and, after a sharp preliminary
examination, was committed to prison. The impression that
O'Connor got of Carlo was not a reassuring one. The man was a
military despot, apparently, and a stickler for discipline. He
had a hanging face, and, in the Yaqui war, had won the nickname
of "the butcher' for his merciless treatment of captured natives.
If Bucky were to get the same short shrift as they did--and he
began to suspect as much when his trial was set for the same day
before a military tribunal--it was time for him to be setting
what few worldly affairs he had in order. Technically, Megales
had a legal right to have him put to death and the impression
lingered with Bucky that the sly old governor would be likely to
do that very thing and later be full of profuse regrets to the
United States Government that inadvertently a citizen of the
great republic had been punished by mistake.
Bucky was registered and receipted for at the prison office,
after which he was conducted to his cell. The corridors dripped
as he followed under ground the guide who led the way with a
flickering lantern.
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