er him.

"The pain is better, comment?" she asked gently. "See, Jose! I have
brought you broth and wine."

He stammered his gratitude with weak but fervent voice, then the elfin
face darkened.

"The Senor Wiley!" he muttered. "It was because I would not tell him
of the Pool! He is great and strong and he would crush me for that I
keep silencioso, but when I am cured of this hurt----"

"We will pay back the score to the Senor Wiley." The girl spoke
quietly, but a swift ominous light gleamed for a fleeting moment in her
eyes, turning their blue to steel. "We'll teach him what fair play
means in Limasito! But where is thy grandmother, Jose?"

The lad shivered in spite of the heat.

"She stirs her cauldron," he whispered. "She crept in at the dawn and
since she has muttered of strange things. There must have been a
warning, Senorita."

With a stifled exclamation, Billie straightened and crossed to the
door. A thin spiral of smoke rose like a gray wisp above the zapote
trees and a low-crooned, rhythmic chant was borne to her on the
stirless air. Without hesitation she followed the narrow, scarcely
discernible path toward the opening in the clump of trees.

A battered pot was slung above a blaze of dried wood and before it Tia
Juana sat upon her heels, swaying from side to side with half-closed
eyes and outstretched tremulous hands.

For a moment the girl paused, and then stepped forward.

"What is it, Tia Juana?" she asked softly in Spanish. "Would you brew
a cure for Jose or a curse for the evil which has befallen him?"

The swaying ceased and the arms dropped as the old woman turned swiftly.

"Neither, Senorita, but I would learn the truth," she responded
solemnly. "Last night I beheld a thing which passed my understanding,
but of it only evil can come, and I would know it now."

"What did you see?" asked Billie, seating herself on a moss-grown log.
"What was this evil thing, Tia Juana?"

"I went to the hacienda of the Senor Wiley." The old woman announced
simply. "He had harmed my Jose, child of my blood, and I would have
taken revenge upon him."

"Tia Juana, that was wrong!" Billie cried. "I have told my father and
he will see that justice is done. You--you found him?"

Tia Juana nodded and her thin lips compressed.

"Behind the casito where the carro is stored I came upon him in the
shadow. Beside him was a figure I could not see, to whom he talked low
and quickly, with many gestur