Kit was astonished at the effect of his words, and quite as much astonished to hear anyone of the Perez household refer to Rotil as "the Deliverer."

"Senora, if you saw him ride side by side with Rotil, drinking from the same cup in the desert, would you not also think it?"

Tula rose to her feet, and moved closer to Kit.

"I too was seeing them together, senora," she said. "It was at the Yaqui well; I drew the water, and they drank it. This man of the loud curses is the man."

Dona Jocasta covered her eyes with her hand, and she seemed shaken. No one else spoke, and the silence was only broken by the m.u.f.fled tones of Marto in the cell, and the brief bark of Clodomiro's dog at the corral.

"G.o.d knows what may be moving forward," she said at last, "but there is some terrible thing afoot. Take me to this man."

"It may not be a pleasant thing to do," advised Kit. "This is a man's game, senora, and his words might offend, for his rage is very great against you."

"Words!" she said with a note of disdain, and arose to her feet. She swayed slightly, and Valencia steadied her, and begged her to wait until morning, for her strength was gone and the night was late.

"Peace, woman! Who of us is sure of a morning? This minute is all the time that is ours, and--I must know."

She leaned on Valencia as they crossed the patio, and Tula moved a seat outside the door of Marto's room. Kit fastened a torch in the holder of the brick pillar and opened the door without being seen, and stood watching the prisoner.

Marto Cavayso, who had been pleading with Isidro, whirled only to find the barrel of another gun thrust through the carved grill in the top of the door.

"Isidro," said Kit, "this man is to answer questions of the senora. If he is uncivil you can singe him with a bullet at your own will."

"Many thanks, senor," returned Isidro promptly. "That is a pleasant work to think of, for the talk of this shameless gentleman is poison to the air."

"You!" burst out Marto, pointing a hand at Jocasta in the corridor.

"You put witchcraft of h.e.l.l on me, and wall me in here with an old lunatic for guard, and now----"

Bing! A bullet from Isidro's rifle whistled past Marto's ear and buried itself in the adobe, scattering plaster and causing the prisoner to crouch back in the corner.

Jocasta regarded him as if waiting further speech, but none came.

"That is better," she said. "No one wishes to do you harm, but you need a lesson very badly. Now Marto Cavayso,--if that be your name!--why did you carry me away? Was it your own doing, or were you under orders of your General Rotil?"

"I should have let the men have you," he muttered. "I was a bewitched man, or you never would have traveled alive to see Soledad. Rotil? Do not the handsome women everywhere offer him love and comradeship?

Would he risk a good man to steal a woman of whom Jose Perez is tired?"

"You are not the one to give judgment," said a strange voice outside the barred window.--"That I did not send you to steal women is very true, and the task I did send you for has been better done by other men in your absence."

Cavayso swore, and sat on the bed, his head in his hands. Outside the window there were voices in friendly speech, that of Clodomiro very clear as he told his grandfather the dogs did not bark but once, because some of the Mesa Blanca boys were with the general, who was wounded.

Kit closed and bolted again the door of Cavayso, feeling that the guardianship of beauty in Sonora involved a man in many awkward and entangling situations. If it was indeed Rotil----

But a curious choking moan in the corridor caused him to turn quickly, but not quickly enough.

Dona Jocasta, who had been as a reed of steel against other dangers, had risen to her feet as if for flight at sound of the voice, and she crumpled down on the floor and lay, white as a dead woman, in a faint so deep that even her heartbeat seemed stilled.

Kit gathered her up, limp as a branch of willow, and preceded by Tula with the torch, bore her back to the chamber prepared for her.

Valencia swept back the covers of the bed, and with many mutterings of fear and e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.ns to the saints, proceeded to the work of resuscitation.

"To think that she came over that black road and held fast to a heart of bravery,--and now at a word from the Deliverer, she falls dead in fear! So it is with many who hear his name; yet he is not bad to his friends. Every Indian in Sonora is knowing that," stated Valencia.

CHAPTER XIV

THE HAWK OF THE SIERRAS

"That is what we get, Tula, by gathering beauty in distress into our outfit," sighed Kit. "She seems good foundation for a civil war here.

Helen of Troy,--a lady of an eastern clan!--started a war on less, and the cards are stacked against us if they start sc.r.a.pping. When Mexican gentry begin hostilities, the innocent bystander gets the worst of it,--especially the Americano. So it is just as well the latest Richard in the field does not know whose bullet hit him in the leg, and brought his horse down."

Tula, who since their entrance to the civilized surroundings of Mesa Blanca, had apparently dropped all initiative, and was simply a little Indian girl under orders, listened impa.s.sively to this curious monologue. She evidently thought white people use many words for a little meaning.

"The Deliverer says will you graciously come?" she stated for the second time.

"Neither graciously, gracefully or gratefully, but I'll arrive," he conceded. "His politeness sounds ominous. It is puzzling why I, a mere trifle of an American ranch hand, should be given audience instead of his distinguished lieutenant."

"Isidro and Clodomiro are talking much with him, and the man Marto is silent, needing no guard," said Tula.

"Sure,--Rotil has the whole show buffaloed. Well, let's hope, child, that he is not a mind reader, for we have need of all the ore we brought out, and can't spare any for revolutionary subscriptions."

Kit followed Tula into the _sala_ where a rawhide cot had been placed, and stretched on it was the man of Yaqui Spring.

One leg of his trousers was ripped up, and there was the odor of a greasewood unguent in the room. Isidro was beside him, winding a bandage below the knee. A yellow silk banda around the head of Rotil was stained with red.

But he had evidently been made comfortable, for he was rolling a cigarette and was calling Isidro "doctor." Two former vaqueros of Mesa Blanca were there, and they nodded recognition to Kit. Rotil regarded him with a puzzled frown, and then remembered, and waved his hand in salute.

"Good day, senor, we meet again!" he said. "I am told that you are my host and the friend of Senor Whitely. What is it you do here? Is it now a prison, or a hospital for unfortunates?"

"Only a hospital for you, General, and I trust a serviceable one," Kit hastened to a.s.sure him. "More of comfort might have been yours had you sent a courier to permit of preparation."

"The service is of the best," and Rotil pointed to Isidro. "I've a mind to take him along, old as he is! The boys told me he was the best medico this side the range, and I believe it. As to courier," and he grinned, "I think you had one, if you had read the message right."

"The surprises of the night were confusing, and a simple man could not dare prophesy what might follow," said Kit, who had drawn up a chair and easily fell into Rotil's manner of jest. "But I fancy if that courier had known who would follow after, he would have spent the night by preference at Soledad."

"Sure he would,--h.e.l.l's fire shrivel him! That shot of his sc.r.a.ped a bone for me, and put my horse out of business. For that reason we came on quietly, and these good fellows listened at the window of Marto before they carried me in. It is a good joke on me. My men rounded up Perez and his German slaver at Soledad today--yesterday now!--and when we rode up the little canon to be in at the finish what did we see but an escape with a woman? Some word had come my way of a Perez woman there, and only one thought was with me, that the woman had helped Perez out of the trap as quickly as he had ridden into it! After that there was nothing to do but catch them again. No thought came to me that Marto might be stealing a woman for himself, the fool! Perez made better time than we figured on, and is a day ahead. Marto meant to hide the woman and get back in time. It's a great joke that an Americano took the woman from him. I hope she is worth the trouble,"

and he smiled, lifting his brows questioningly.

"So that was the 'trap' that Marto raved and stormed to get back to?"

remarked Kit. "I am still in the dark, though there are some glimmers of light coming. If Marto knew of that trap it explains----"

"There were three others of my men on the Soledad rancho, drawing pay from Perez. It is the first time that fox came in when we could spread the net tight. To get him at another place would not serve so well, for if Soledad was the casket of our treasure, at Soledad we make a three strike,--the cattle, the ammunition, and Perez there to show the hiding place! It is the finish of four months' trailing, and is worth the time, and but for Marto running loco over a girl, there would have been a beautiful quiet finish at Soledad ranch house last night."

"But, if your men have Perez----"

"Like that!" and Rotil stretched out his open hand, and closed it significantly, with a cruel smile in his black, swift-glancing eyes.

"This time there is no mistake. For over a week men and stout mules have been going in;--it is a _conducta_ and it is to take the ammunition. Well, senor, it is all well managed for me; also we have much need of that ammunition for our own lads."