s,
while he was knelt to as a god by the simple people of the ranges, and
held power of life and death over a wide land!

Kit could not even guess at all the tempestuous background of the
drama enacted there in the chill of the chapel at sunrise, but the
clash of those two outlaw souls suddenly on guard before each other,
thrilled him by the unexpected. Rotil, profane, ruthless, and jeering,
had suddenly grown still before the face of a woman from whom he
turned away.

"Late! An hour late!" he grumbled, hobbling back to the plaza. "What
did I tell you? Hell of women! Well, your damned little crane got what
she started after--huh! Why did she lie?"

"Well, you know, General," said Kit doubtfully, "that the enmity
between you and Jose Perez is no secret. Even the children talk of it,
and wish success to you--I've heard that one do it! Dona Jocasta is of
a Perez household, so it was supposed you would make prisoner anyone
of their group. And Tula--well, I reckon Tula listened last night to
some rather hard things the senora has lived through at Soledad, and
knew she would rather die here than go back there."

Kit realized he was on delicate ground when trying to explain any of
the actions of any of the black and tan group to each other, but he
sought the safest way out, and drew a breath of relief at his success,
for Rotil listened closely, nodding assent, yet frowning in some
perplexity.

"Um! what does that mean,--rather die than go back?" he demanded. "No
one has told me why the lady has come to Mesa Blanca, or what she is
doing here. I don't see--What the devil ails you?"

For Kit stared at him incredulous, and whistled softly.

"Haven't you got it _yet_?" he asked. "Last night you joked about a
girl Marto stole, and we stole from him again. Don't you realize now
who that girl is?"

"_Jocasta!_"

It was the first time he had uttered her name and there was a low
terrible note in his voice, half choked by smothered rage.

"But how could Marto,--or why should--" he began and then halted,
checked by various conflicting facts, and stared frowningly at Rhodes
who again strove to explain that of which he had little knowledge.

"General, I reckon Marto was square to your interests about everything
but the woman Perez and Conrad sent north into the desert, and it was
Marto's job to see that she never left it alive. Evidently he did not
report that extra task to you, for he meant to save the woman for
himself. But