Exposition!
“We could not strike at Hampton in the capital,” Nacho said as he unrolled a map. “I could not enter Monterrey — excuse me; Calhoun — except in chains, and you might fare no better. His own fortress at Monclova is no weaker. But there is a better place for an attack.”
Bailey looked down. “You sure about that?” he said. “That looks like a railroad map. The Royalists guard their tracks better than they do their daughters’ virtue.”
“True. But only the rail lines they have finished. This one is the Grand Cavalier Railway, from Tampico to Guyamas. The line ends east of Chihuahua, and they don’t have enough reliable men to chase bandits and whip the slaves ever harder. So they hire bandits to do the whipping for them.”
“Right,” said Bailey. “Got it. There’s everybody from escaped slaves to renegado Yankees in the bandits, and they all got their own gear. We can just stroll right in, not get a second glance. But why would Hampton be there?”
“Because,” Nacho said with an evil smile, “your Comanche have been raiding south again. With captured US Army rifles and revolvers, although nobody knows who they captured them from. They have wrecked enough rails to draw Hampton out himself.”