An uncovered wagon trundled across the rutted plain, two outriders accompanying it. Inside half a dozen Asian men, bare-headed, dressed in rough, dark work clothes. One sat slightly detached from the rest, taking in the passing countryside, lost in thought. The others were locked in conversation with each other, the occasional guffaw breaking out to shatter the silence of the surroundings.
Late afternoon and the sun blazed down. Bent over the reins, the driver wore a wide-brimmed straw sombrero, chewing tobacco as he stared at the ground, twisting his head every now and then to send a stream of dark brown spit into the air.
“We"ll take a rest amongst that outcrop,” said one of the outriders, pointing a leather-gloved finger towards a group of towering rocks some fifty or so paces off to
