Juan grinned. “Kill them all and let God sort ’em out—Amary, at Beziers.”
Nick shook his head. “Pretty overeducated for a Mexican redneck, aren’t you?”
“No stranger than a Yankee painter with an arctic falcon. Brother.” He raised his glass again. “To the old ways! Prairie chickens forever… and Comanches and cowboys…”
“Grizzly bears and wolves!” Jim.
“Lions and tigers and bears.” This from Cecilia. “Well, our own tigre, anyway.”
She stared darkly at Nick who felt compelled to raise the ante. “Imperial mammoths and dire wolves!”
“Thunderbirds and moonhorn buffalo!” Jim again.
“Revive the Pleistocene!” hollered Nick, remembering a poem. They all raised their glasses to that one, yelling and hooting as the prairie wind rattled the windows.
When he made his way to the guest house under
