During the Mexican Revolution, a penniless Norwegian and a drifting Irishman meet in an El Paso bar and are hired by a Pittsburgh con-man to fix a gold mine in Mexico with parts which, they discover too late, purposely don't fit.
The Norwegian is focused on fixing the mine and needs the money to propose to his girl in El Paso. The Irishman is focused on the local women, is fresh from Ireland's bloody Easter Uprising, and needs to redeem a painful guilt and find a new life. They both are at gunpoint to perform or not perform. Their mutual distrust fades in the face of guns from the warring sides and they must work together to survive and escape back to Texas. Complicating their mission is a mysterious black-suited man selling guns to both sides in the Mexican war, part of Germany's intrigue to keep America out of World War I-and a German and Brit are there to spy on each other. Texas is far away.
Based on a true story.
Some years ago, over beans and tacos in a Phoenix restaurant, my septuagenarian father told me this story of his escapades in the Mexican Revolution. I was born and raised in El Paso and close to my dad, but I had never heard this story before and wondered what else he never told me. I had him repeat the tale several times and recorded it. Of course, details changed as his memory or imagination caught fire. In the story, some names have been created to fit the characters who are all real, including the mysterious man selling guns to both sides, my grandfather for whom I am named (re: the Zimmerman telegram.)