One door of the _sala_ opened from the patio, and another into a room used as a chapel after the old adobe walls of the mission church had melted utterly back into the earth. Rotil had selected it merely because its only window was very high, an architectural variation caused by a wing of the mission rooms still standing when Soledad hacienda was built. A new wall had been built against the older and lower one which still remained, with old sleeping cells of the neophytes used as tool sheds, and an unsightly litter of propped or tumbling walls back of the ranch house.

The door from the _sala_ was slightly ajar, and the voice of Fidelio was heard there. He asked someone for another candle, and another chair. And there was the movement of feet, and rearrangement of furniture.

Rotil entered the _sala_ from the patio, and stood just inside, looking about him.

With a brief word and gesture he indicated that Elena and Valencia vacate. At Tula he glanced, but did not bid her follow. He noted the folded paper in the hand of Dona Jocasta, but did not address her; it was to Kit he spoke.

"The door will be left open. I learn that Conrad distrusts Perez because he paid German money, and shipped the guns across the border, but Perez never uncovered one for him. They are badly scared and ready to cut each other's throats if they had knives. Dona Jocasta may overhear what she pleases, and furnish the knives as well if she so decides."

But Dona Jocasta with a shudder put up her hand in protest.

"No knife, no knife!" she murmured, and Rotil shrugged his shoulders and looked at Kit.

"That little crane in the corner would walk barefoot over embers of h.e.l.l to get a knife and get at Conrad," he said. "You have taste in your favorites, senor."

He seemed to get a certain amus.e.m.e.nt in the contemplation of Kit and Tula; he had seen no other American with quite that sort of addition to his outfit. Kit was content to let him think his worst, as to tell the truth would no doubt lose them a friend. It tickled the general's fancy to think the thin moody Indian girl, immature and childlike, was an American's idea of a sweetheart!

Voices and the clank of chains were heard in the patio, and then in the next room.

"Why bring us here when your questions were given answer as well in another place?" demanded a man's voice, and at that Dona Jocasta looked at Rotil.

"Yes, why do you?" she whispered.

He stared at her, frowning and puzzled.

"Did I not tell you? I did it that you might hear him repeat his offer. What else?"

"I--see," she said, bending her head, but as Rotil went to the door, Kit noted that the eyes of Dona Jocasta followed him curiously. He concluded that the unseen man of the voice was Jose Perez.

Then the voice of Conrad was heard cursing at a chain too heavy. Rotil laughed, and walked into the chapel.

"I can tell you something, you German Judas!" he said coldly. "You will live to see the day when these chains, and this safe old chapel, will be as a paradise you once lived in. You will beg to crawl on your knees to be again comfortably inside this door."

"Is that some Mexican joke?" asked Conrad, and Rotil laughed again.

"Sure it is, and it will be on you! They tell me you collect girls in Sonora for a price. Well, they have grown fond of you,--the Indian women of Sonora! They say you must end your days here with them. I have not heard of a ransom price they would listen to,--though you might think of what you have to offer."

"Offer?" growled Conrad. "How is there anything to offer in Sonora when Perez here has sent the guns south?"

"True, the matter of ransom seems to rest with Senor Perez who is saving of words."

"I put the words on paper, and sent it by your man," said Perez. "What else is there to say?"

"Oh, that?" returned Rotil. "My boys play tricks, and make jokes with me like happy children. Yes, Chappo did bring words on paper,--foolish words he might have written himself. I take no account of such things.

You are asked for the guns, and I get foolish words on paper of a woman you would trade to me, and guns you would send me."

"Well?"

"Who gives you right to trade the woman, senor?"

"Who has a better right? She belongs to me."

"Very good! And her name?"

"You know the name."

"Perhaps, but I like my bargains with witness, and they must witness the name."

"Jocasta--" There was a slight hesitation, and Rotil interrupted.

"She has been known as Senora Jocasta Perez, is it not so?"

"Well--yes," came the slow reply, "but that was foolishness of the peons on my estates. They called her that."

"Very good! One woman called Jocasta Perez is offered to me in trade with the guns. Jose Perez, have you not seen that the Dona Jocasta Perez is even now mistress of Soledad, and that my men and I are as her servants?"

Jocasta on the other side of the door strangled a half sob as she heard him, and crept nearer the door.

"Oh, you are a good one at a bargain, Ramon Rotil! You try to pretend the woman cannot count in this trade, but women always count,--women like Jocasta!"

"So? Then we will certainly take count of the woman--one woman! Now to guns and ammunition. How many, and where?"

"At Hermosillo, and it will take a week."

"I have no week to waste, and I do not mean the guns at Hermosillo.

You have five minutes, Jose Perez. Also those playful boys are building a nice warm fire for the branding irons. And you will both get a smell of your own burning hides if I wait longer for an answer."

"Holy G.o.d!" shouted Conrad. "Why burn me for his work? From me the guns have been hid as well as from you;--all I got was promises! They are my guns,--my money paid, but he is not straight! Here at Soledad he was to show me this time, but I think now it was a trick to murder me as he murdered Juan Gonsalvo, the foreman who stored them away for him."

"Animal!" growled Perez. "You have lost your head to talk of murders to me! Two murders at Granados are waiting for you, and it is not far to ship you back to the border! Walk with care, senor!"

"You are each wasting time with your truth telling," stated Rotil.

"This is no time to count your dead men. It is the count of the guns I want. And a sight of the ammunition."

"Give me a guide to Hermosillo, and the price of guns can be got for you."

"It is not the _price_ of guns I asked you for, it is guns,--the guns Conrad and Herrara got over the border for you. Your time is going fast, Jose Perez."

"They are not to be had this side of Hermosillo, send me south if you want them. But it is well to remember that if an accident happens to me you never could get them,--never! I alone know their hiding place."

"For that reason have I waited for your visit to Soledad,--you and your carts and your pack mules," stated Rotil. "Do not forget that Marto Cavayso and other men of mine have been for weeks with your ranchmen. Your pack train comes here empty, and means one thing only--they came for the American guns! Your minutes are going, senor, and the branding irons are getting heat from the fire. One more minute!"

"Write the figures of the ransom, and grant me a messenger to Hermosillo. You have the whip hand, you can make your price."

"But me? What of _my_ ransom?" demanded Conrad. "My money, and my time paid for those guns--I have not seen one of them this side of the border! If no guns are paid for me, money must be paid."

"No price is asked for you. I told you the women have named no ransom."