That thing you are smoking, little one, I’ve smelled better steaming dung heaps

Maria dressed for dinner and joined Alejandro del Toro on the veranda. She sat down and finished her cigar. The big man handed her a better one. “That thing you are smoking, little one, I’ve smelled better steaming dung heaps. Try this.”
She did and it was heavenly, too. She sat, barefoot and cool and more beautiful than she’d ever been in her life.  She was wearing the lovely dress and had just had a proper bath. She certainly was enjoying this Jefe and his hospitality.
“Jefe?”
“Uncle.”
“Uncle?”
“Yes, you call me uncle. I am your uncle forever.” They ate together and he began telling her the story of Alejandro del Toro but, more importantly, he told her the famous story of the beautiful wild creature who’d bested the gringos and Emilio Kosterlitzky, the most famous rurale officer of the time.
Maria was pleased. She did not know that she was famous and it tickled her to think that what she had done would make her that way. She found it all a bit of a lark. It was the easiest thing she’d ever done, evading and leading the posse on a wild goose chase, yet it seemed very important to the Jefe. No wonder he was being so good to her. Maria's Trail.
Image Source ~ Daughter of the Golden West