Chapter 16 Summary

Juan makes friends with the owner of the gambling hall in Carlsbad named Archie Freeman, and Archie agrees to let Juan manage the card games during the festival of the Stringbeans. Archie is also the deputy sheriff of the area.

At the same time, in the tomato fields nearby, Carlota and Lupe are invited by some boys to accompany them to the dance that evening at the festival in Carlsbad. While they are waiting to enter the dancehall, Lupe looks across the street into the gambling house. In an instant she sees a well-dressed man in a clean white shirt, and she feels that she has seen him somewhere before. Not long after, a fight breaks out between her Mexican friends and three rowdy white boys. Archie goes to break up the fight, and at the same time Juan spots Lupe, and is...