show me
she was no longer afraid----!

"That was when Juana came to the window. I knew her voice and opened
the door. I did not want Lucita frightened again, so I did not let her
know a man was dying--only that a sick person wanted me for a
little--little minute, and I would be back.

"I knew Juan Gonsalvo had been killed because he had been trusted far
enough,--I knew it! That thought struck me very hard, for I--I might
be the next, and I wanted first to send those two children happily out
of reach of sorrow. Strange it is that because she was first, the very
first in my heart, I went out that door in the night and for the first
time left her alone! But that is how it was; we had to be so
quick--and so silent--and it was her hand closed the door after us,
her hand on the bolt!

"Juan Gonsalvo had only fought for life until he could see me, and
then the breath went. No one but I heard his whispers of the door of
the picture here in Soledad. He told me his death was murder, and his
last word was against Perez. It was only minutes, little minutes I
was there, and the way was not far, but when I went back through the
garden the door of the _casita_ stood wide and light streamed out! I
do not know how I was sure it was empty, but I was, and I seemed to go
dead inside, though I started to run.

"To cross that garden was like struggling in a dream with bands about
my feet. I wake with that dream many nights--many!--I heard her before
I could reach the path. Her screams were not in the _casita_, but in
the hacienda. They were--they were--terrible! I tried to go--and then
I knew she had broken away--I could see her like a white spirit fly
back towards the light in the open door. The man following her tripped
in some way and fell, and I leaped over him to follow her. We got
inside and drew the bolt.

"Then--But there are things not to be told--they belong to the dead!

"Perez came there to the door and made demands for Conrad's
woman,--that is how he said it! He said she had gone to Conrad's
apartment of her own will and must go back. Lucita knelt at my feet in
her torn bridal garment and told how a woman had come as Juana had
come, and said that I wanted her. The child had no doubt, she
followed, and--and it was indeed to that drunken beast they took her!

"Jose was also drunk, crazy drunk. He told me to stand away from that
door for they were coming in, also that he had made gift of Lucita to
his friend, and she must