I was tweaking the flotation setup up at the mill while this was occurring, igorant of any trouble until one of the worker arrived bug eyed, and out of breath, After he had regained his breath, he then repeated what was going on, I immediately took off on the run, yep for the mile or so between the mill site and Bert's office , no one was going to put MY Bert in harms way. only stopping outside of her office to regain my composure and breath. --- I was in quite good shape then, see picture .
As I entered the office, I greeted some by their name, several removed their hats as a gesture of respect. This was very encouraging.
I then asked the ring leader , the one with the .380 pistol, just what was their complaint, that we were always open to legitiment complaints. He said " he cheated us, we have to shoot him as a point of honor" "Oh ?" I replied, "that is a serious matter, as you all know we do not tolerate that here at the Mine, while we pay good, we expect a full day's work. How did he cheat you?" "he told us that we would get double time pay, but he only gave us regular pay" " hmmm" I replied "how did this happen?"" He produced a worn piece of paper which tha forman had signed stating that for every hour overtime that they were worked it would be at double pay. After checking it carefully I told him that the agreement appeared correct, that the foreman was in the right "no way" he responded, " it says right here that we were to be paid double" "That is correct" I replied, "but you never worked overtime" I tried to explain to him what overtime consisted of, but they just couldn"t understand and continued to believe that the foreman had cheated them and demanded a blood revenge..
They had sent for the Curendero (a bronco Indian who posed as a doctor because he carried around a bottle of Aspirin and some Penicillin shots and also acted as a killer for hire. In this case, besides the money, he also wanted one of the foreman's 13 year old daughters. They were waiting for him, he had said that he would be down in about 3 / 4 days.So we were waitihng for him to clarify the situation -- I was going to try to outbid the men.
But in the meantime, I had to get ready for any eventuality, we had to gotten rid of also as potentual witnesses. I contacted the State Police in Culiacan, Sinaloa by our radio to see what protection they could offer us - remember we were not allowed to legally have any frearms - They said that it was a sort of no man's land up there and they had no authority and and that only the Army could give permission to have arms. Another radio call to the Durango state police resulted in the same answer, so I called the Military only to find that the Officer in charge of permits was away on official busines, and no one else would take the responsibility, so effectually every one had wiped their hands of US, we WERE on our own.
So i commenced to look around for anything to defend ourselves, when i spotted ---
cont
