The survival of Juan Oro

the long version

"Juan Oro would never know who his parents were or where he had come from. He had been raised by Yaqui Indians, and as a youth he was captured in a battle by the men of Don Jose Fontana, a wealthy Spanish grandee in northern Mexico. The don is advised to apprentice him to the notorious outlaw, Matias Bordi, who had a long-standing truce with Fontana. Who better to turn Juan Oro into a true master of weapons and battle? But Don Jose, whom Juan has come to admire greatly, asks one promise from the boy before he is released to Bordi: once his tutelage has finished, he will slay his mentor, the outlaw leader. Juan Oro promises the [don] he will do this ... until the time comes, and he finds that it is not so simple."--Back cover.