“My little box will be staying put, safe and sound, right here.”

Herbert Dunton “Yes,” Marta continued, “A big hole in the ground, then you can have all your men gather ‘round the hole. Then they could drop their trousers and shit in it. That would be a more fitting home for you I think.” She puffed on her cigar and looked him in the eye. She continued.  “My mother, she always taught me, before you kill a man, she would say, always offer him a way out. Always offer him his life. That’s the Christian way. That’s what Jesus would do. Well, general, I’m offering you and your men your lives. Go ahead out of here now, just ride away and you may live.” She regarded him and smiled. “No. I see it on your arrogant, stupid face, you aren’t going to ride. You choose to die, here and now.”

He smiled and then lost the smile and looked at her, stared through his bookish round glasses. “Before this day is done, I will make you cry like an infant, and you will wish that you’d been properly prostrated before me when I rode up here today. I will make a tobacco pouch of your womb and decorate the entrance to my new home with your head.”

“I’m sorry, general, but I disagree.”  She reached down with her free hand and patted below her belly. “My little box will be staying put, safe and sound, right here.” She leveled the shotgun and fired, hitting Tolkenhorn through the head, spraying brain and blood on the men behind him. The lawyer pitched over, onto the ground as the others looked on. She glared at the general. “I’ll kill you last, pig. I want you to see what Emiliano Zapata does to your army before I send you on to hell.” The Mule Tamer III, Marta's Quest