Some unscrupulous persons wished to obtain water for irrigation without paying for it.

A key was made that fitted the padlocks of the little wooden gates leading from the zanja.

By night some one must open these gates and close them again before morning.
It was thieving, of course, and the Zanjero or his deputies might catch the person who did it.

But the sick neighbor's husband, wanting money to buy more mescal, had been induced to undertake the task of stealthily opening the gates.

His wife, suspicious of his errand, had followed him on the first night of his attempt.