T. S. Stribling

“ He gave a great sigh as if he were about to melt into the piquante girl's arms, then shrugged and said:
“Now I must go back and dicker over the mules with those Americanos. No doubt they are caballeros (gentlemen) in their cold fashion, but they think of nothing but mules.”
All the girls lifted their eyes to the foreigners and smiled faintly before they returned to their task of collecting droppings for their pots.
Balthasar's philandering vaguely annoyed Lassiter, yet the agent was a trifle amused at Balthasar's Latin notion that kisses in Heaven tingled with piquante. ”

“ BALTHASAR'S bit of blackmail turned out, on the whole, rather a stroke of luck for the expedition. The Colombian was very useful in translating the Quichua dialect of the Indians. When the mules and their Bible packs were in the mountains, Lassiter found his Castilian of little service. Not only did the Indians not understand pure Spanish, they distrusted every one who spoke the language. Four centuries of slavery, peonage and inquisition have crushed out of the Indian the last shred of faith in the Spaniard.
Undoubtedly the Quichuas are the most wretched human beings on the globe. ”

“ The Colombian nodded.
“Certainly—spreading the Word—muy bien——”
Here he took each of his prospective employers by the edges of their ponchos, and with a confidential nodding of the head led them farther away from the crowd. The smell of mules again wafted to Lassiter. When at a safe distance, the muleteer glanced around and began in a half tone:
“Señores, men do not risk their lives in the Rio Vampiro without a cause. You come from America to go to the Rio Vampiro—to distribute Bibles—that is your cause, is it not?” ”

“ In this land where work is held in low esteem, men realize best the dignity of simple existence apart from the ability to grab.
On the south side of Plaza San Francisco is a heavily built feed stable of adobe, fronted by an arcade. In the western end of the long arcade half a dozen Indian girls, wrapped in brilliant mantillas, sold piquante at little tables. ”

“ By this time, Birdsong was harrying his mule in his eagerness to reach a post of genuine danger and miraculous service. The expedition was soon on its way again.
One of the Bujeans, an Indian named Chombo Meone, attached himself to the colporteurs for several hours. As they ascended the rising slopes of the eastern range of the Andes, Chombo told Lassiter a most fantastic tale, which he hoped would turn back the adventurers. This was the tale:
WHEN Chombo was a boy his mother died. ”

“ He consulted a monk as to the state of her soul and was shocked to find that she was probably still in purgatory. Ten masses might win freedom for her.
Unfortunately, Chombo did not have enough money to pay for ten masses, so he took three.
Now every one in Bujeo knew that the Rio Vampiro was lined with nuggets of gold the size of a man's head, but the difficulty was, it all belonged to the King of the Jivaros, or that is to say, the devil. ”

“ By the time the expedition had camped two nights on the trail, word, somehow, had passed ahead of their penitent and benevolent mission, and the colporteurs found the Indians eager for the Testaments. ”