eeply than she believed was disturbing--one might easily
learn to fear Longorio. As a suitor he would be quite as embarrassing,
quite as--dangerous as an enemy, if all reports were true.

Alaire tried to banish such ideas, but even in her own room she was not
permitted entirely to forget, for Dolores echoed the teniente's
sentiments.

In marked contrast to Jose Sanchez's high and confident spirits was the
housekeeper's conviction of dire calamity. In the presence of these
armed strangers she saw nothing but a menace, and considered herself
and her mistress no more nor less than prisoners destined for a fate as
horrible as that of the two beautiful sisters of whom she never tired
of speaking. Longorio was a blood-thirsty beast, and he was saving them
as prey for his first leisure moment--that was Dolores's belief.
Abandoning all hope of ever seeing Las Palmas again, she gave herself
up to thoughts of God and melancholy praises of her husband's virtues.

In spite of all this, however, Alaire welcomed the change in her daily
life. Everything about La Feria was restfully un-American, from the
house itself, with its bare walls and floors, its brilliantly flowering
patio, and its primitive kitchen arrangements, to the black-shawled,
barefooted Indian women and their naked children rolling in the dust.
Even the timberless mountains that rose sheer from the westward plain
into a tumbling purple-shadowed rampart were Mexican. La Feria was
several miles from the railroad; therefore it could not have been more
foreign had it lain in the very heart of Mexico rather than near the
northern boundary.

In such surroundings, and in spite of faint misgivings, it was not
strange that, after a few days, Alaire's unhappiness assumed a vaguely
impersonal quality and that her life, for the moment, seemed not to be
her own. Even the thought of her husband, Ed Austin, became indistinct
and unreal. Then all too soon she realized that the purpose of her
visit was accomplished and that she had no excuse for remaining longer.
She was now armed with sufficient facts to make a definite demand upon
the Federal government.

The lieutenant took charge of the return journey to the railroad, and
the two women rode to the jingling accompaniment of metal trappings.
When at last they were safely aboard the north-bound train, Alaire
mildly teased Dolores about her recent timidity. But Dolores was not to
be betrayed into premature rejoicing.

"Anything