ay?" repeated Kit thoughtfully. "Is he
then an American?"

"Not at all, senor! He is Aleman _commandante_ for the border. His
word is an order for life or death, and Jose Perez is of his circle.
The guns buried by Perez are bought with the German money; it is for
war of Sonora against Arizona when that day comes."

"Shucks! that day isn't coming unless the Huns put more of a force
down here than is yet in sight," declared Kit, "but that 'Diego'
bothers me. I know many James',--several at Granados, but not the sort
you tell of, senora. Will you speak of that murder again, and let it
be put on paper for me? I have friends at Granados who may be troubled
about it, and your help would be as--as the word of an angel at the
right hour."

"A sad angel, senor," she said with a sigh, "but why should I not help
you to your wish since you have guarded me well? It is a little thing
you ask."

The Indian women at the far end of the _sala_ had lowered their
voices, but their gossip in murmurs and expressive gestures flowed on,
and only Tula gave heed to the talk at the table of wars and guns, and
secrets of murder, and that was no new thing in Sonora.

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 scare