Seneca Book 4: De Dos Del Nortes
Copyright© 2026 by Zanski
Chapter 12. 1880: The Eye, El Paso, Texas
“Ray, I can’t do that. It may be legal but it just doesn’t seem right.” Dugan and I were alone in the office. I’d waited until the others were out to talk to him.
I was at my desk. He was in front of his, his butt propped against it, legs outstretched, his arms folded across his chest. He was looking at me with a worried expression.
He said, “The Agency’s state superintendent is coming with them, Judah. It’s his show. He knows who’s on the roster out here. Hell, I’ve got to go on this one, too.”
The Eye was bringing in twenty men for the purpose of driving the locals off the salt beds once and for all. They’d be looking for some Tejano to make an example of.
A salt mining company had hired the Pinkertons for a job supposedly too insignificant for the Rangers. That, and the governor didn’t want to further sour his chances with Mexican voters. But the governor also needed the contributions from the owner of the company that had purchased much of the playa. Word was that state funds had contributed to the Pinkerton contract.
The men being brought in were recruited just for this purpose. They were promised twenty-five dollars, plus room and found, for two weeks work. Ray had told me about the special guards who the Eye would sometimes hire to break strikes or drive away protesters. They were ruffians and ne’er-do-wells plucked from the gutter specifically for their aggressive manner.
None of it boded well for the poor farmers and laborers who always depended on the playa for their salt. Up until recently, the playa had always been a shared resource. There were those who still treated it that way. They were about to be shown that the playa was now private property
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