DC03 - Though Mountains Fall Read Online Free

friend said it might be a month before El Pantera is well enough to ride this far, let alone fight.”
    “But what if we’re in the fields working when they come?” Levi said. “They would be on us before we could get our families out.”
    “If you post sentries in the high places they can see the bandits coming ten miles away,” Domingo said. “That would buy you a little time.”
    “Jah, and then what? He could still burn our houses and barns, and what will stop him from coming again and again? Will we live our whole lives at the mercy of this animal? The Coblentzes were smart, if you ask me. Maybe we should all go back—to a more civilized country.”
    Caleb nodded gravely. “We are faced with a hard choice. We must decide whether to go or stay. If we stay, we must find a way to keep our families safe.”
    “But we can’t leave now!” Noah Byler said. “We sold everything we have to come to this place, and my son is buried in this earth. Caleb, all we want to do is live in peace. Is there no law in this country? Does no one protect the innocent?”
    Caleb looked him in the eye. “Only Gott,” he said quietly.
    They walked a ways in silence, each of them weighing the question in his own mind, but in the end Caleb knew they would all look to him for an answer. He was the oldest and had been here the longest. He was also the only one whose child had died at the hands of the bandits.
    It was John Hershberger who finally asked, “What do you think, Caleb? Should we give up and go back to Ohio?”
    Caleb shook his head slowly. “I won’t tell another manwhat he should do, but as for me, I don’t want to leave. From the beginning I felt Gott led us here, and that has not changed. Whatever befalls me—and I have already paid a great price—I still think it is Gott’s will that I should stay. And if Gott wants us here, then Gott will deliver us. Somehow.”
    Ira Shrock’s face, always red, grew redder as Caleb spoke, until at last he could not keep silent.
    “We need to find a way to get troops to come,” he said. “These bandits should pay for their crimes. It’s not right to let them feast on the innocent. They should pay !”
    Caleb cleared his throat. “We already tried to get them to send troops, Ira. I practically begged the government official in Monterrey, but he wanted money—a lot of money. More money than we have.”
    “Hidalgo is rich,” Domingo said. “Perhaps you can persuade him to pay for the troops.”
    They talked at great length, walking the fields of Paradise Valley, but in the end they could see no other choice. They would not take up arms against the bandits themselves, and none of them had the money to bribe the official to send troops to the valley. Most of them had spent their last dime to buy the land. Domingo was right. Their only option was to appeal to Don Hidalgo. After all, he was the one who sold them the land in the first place.
    One by one they grudgingly assented, nodding and mumbling among themselves until John Hershberger summed it up for them. “We don’t have much choice. If we leave now we lose everything we have. There is no one to buy our farms.”
    “Then it is decided,” Caleb said. “Tomorrow morning I will go talk to Hidalgo and ask him if he will pay the bribe. In the meantime we will trust Gott.” With a glance back toward his home he added, “I’ll thank you men not to talk about this tothe women. My Martha doesn’t need something else to worry about just now.”
    Domingo raised an eyebrow. “Will you at least put sentries on the heights?”
    “Jah,” Caleb answered, with a wry smile. “We will trust Gott, and post lookouts.”

Chapter 3
    A fter breakfast on Monday morning Caleb hitched a horse to the buggy and took Domingo with him to Hacienda El Prado. The village at the feet of the hacienda was buzzing with activity, as usual whenever the haciendado was present on his estate. Don Hidalgo only visited El Prado for a few weeks at