The Ur-Version

[Jordan Krug]

Found a passage in the novelization that somewhat describes this supposed Baxter/Rojo dinner scene (the Fistful novel unlike the other two books stays pretty close to the script- probably because it's a different author than the other two) - I can certainly picture it being intercut with the graveyard scene (placing the bodies) the same way Joe exploring the Rojo compound is intercut with the graveyard gunfight later..

from the novel:

'The Rojos have asked us to come to dinner,' she said after examining the nervous faces of the men. 'And we must go. I don't like it any more than you. Not at all, even if they granted all the guarantees we demanded.'

Her husband seemed about to speak but she hurried on, not allowing him the opportunity to voice an opinion.

'So we'll go along with it.' Her voice abruptly became threatening. 'But don't touch a thing in that house. You must not eat. You must not drink. You must keep your eyes open and your wits about you. It is not yet time for me to die, and if it were, I would not choose to end my life in that evil house.'

With this, and without awaiting for a reaction to her words, she strolled decisively down from the porch and the men stood aside, allowing her passage to the buggy which Antonio had brought from the back of the house. The gang fell in behind the buggy as Antonio drove his mother down the street towards a dinner party that not one of them wished to attend.

But, to the bewilderment of them all, the occasion passed without incident, for Ramon was as good as his word. His gun, and those of his brothers and their men, really were hung on the walls of the big house. And as the evening wore on the initial atmosphere of tension was dissipated and the mood of relaxation evident in the Rojo gang was communicated to the Baxters so that when the time came for parting it was as if the two groups had been life-long friends. And those citizens of San Miguel who witnessed the return of the Baxters to their house looked on in amazement at the smiling faces and boisterous behaviour of the gang members. Almost all went to their beds that night feeling that peace had at last come to the town.