the
blue June sky arched overhead, unscarred by a single cloud-fleck, the
yellow plain winding between the high picturesque cliffs, where silence
broods all through the long hours of the sunny day; the pictured rocks
with their furnace-blackened faces white--outlined with the story of the
dim beginnings of human strivings. And standing alone and defenseless on
the little table of stone, as if for sacrifice, the tall, stalwart young
plainsman and the beautiful girl with her golden hair in waving masses
about her uncovered head, her sweet face white as the face of the dying
nun beside the sandy arroyo below us, her big dark eyes full of a
strange fire.

"I order you to close in and take these two at once." The imperious
command rang out, and the rocks across the valley must have echoed its
haughty tone.

"And I order you to halt."

The voice of Father Josef, clear and rich and powerful, burst upon the
silence like cathedral music on the still midnight air. The priest's
tall form rose up on a great mass of rock across the cleft before
us--Father Josef with bared head and flashing eyes and a physique of
power.

Ferdinand Ramero turned like a lion at bay. "You are one man. My force
number a full dozen. Move on," he ordered.

Again the voice of Father Josef ruled the listening ears.

"Since the days of old the Church has had the power to guard all that
come within the shelter of the holy sanctuary. And to the Church of God
was given also long ago the might to protect, by sanctuary privilege,
the needy and the defenseless. Ferdinand Ramero, note that little table
of rock where those two stand helpless in your grasp. Around them now I
throw, as I have power to throw, the sacred circle of our Holy Church in
sanctuary shelter. Who dares to step inside it will be accursed in the
sight of God."

Never, never will I live through another moment like to that, nor see
the power of the Unseen rule things that are seen with such unbreakable
strength.

The Mexicans dropped to their knees in humble prayer, and Ferdinand
Ramero seemed turned to a man of stone. A hand was gently laid upon my
arm and Jondo and Rex Krane stood beside us. A voice far off was
sounding in my ears.

"Go back to your homes and meet me at the church to-morrow night. You,
Ferdinand Ramero, go now to the chapel yonder and wait until I come."

What happened next is lost in misty waves of forgetfulness.

XVI

FINISHING TOUCHES

"_Yet there