CHAPTER 8THEY CROSSED the Border at Brownsville and drove south to Cuidad Mante where Route 170 swung southward toward Tampico, and eventually they left the main highway and jounced over a narrow rutted road, stopping frequently while Simpson consulted a hand-drawn map. Somewhere in the state of San Luis Potosi the road ended at a dry creek bed beside an adobe hut occupied by an old Mexican couple. Simpson spoke fairly fluent Spanish and by promising the couple some pesos, which he displayed, he secured their voluble and eager assurance that they would guard the station wagon with their lives until the party returned. Simpson then gave them some cigarettes and chocolate, as a sort of down payment for the car-watching, and the three men shouldered their packs and began their journey.
For a
