s flat on the
ground again, drawing the saddle along after him. Not a sound had he
made, that the most watchful of sheep-dogs could hear.

"Ha, old Capitan, caught you napping this time!" said Alessandro to
himself, as at last he got safe to the bottom of the terrace, and,
springing to his feet, bounded away with the saddle on his shoulders.
It was a weight for a starving man to carry, but he felt it not, for
the rejoicing he had in its possession. Now his Senorita would go in
comfort. To ride Baba was to be rocked in a cradle. If need be, Baba
would carry them both, and never know it; and it might come to that,
Alessandro thought, as he knelt by the side of his poor beast, which was
stretched out on the ground exhausted; Baba standing by, looking down in
scornful wonder at this strange new associate.

"The saints be praised!" thought Alessandro, as he seated himself to
wait. "This looks as if they would not desert my Senorita."

Thoughts whirled in his brain. Where should they go first? What would be
best? Would they be pursued? Where could they hide? Where should he seek
a new home?

It was bootless thinking, until Ramona was by his side. He must lay
each plan before her. She must decide. The first thing was to get to
San Diego, to the priest, to be married. That would be three days' hard
ride; five for the exhausted Indian pony. What should they eat on
the ways Ah! Alessandro bethought him of the violin at Hartsel's. Mr.
Hartsel would give him money on that; perhaps buy it. Then Alessandro
remembered his own violin. He had not once thought of it before. It lay
in its case on a table in Senor Felipe's room when he came away, Was it
possible? No, of course it could not be possible that the Senorita would
think to bring it. What would she bring? She would be wise, Alessandro
was sure.

How long the hours seemed as he sat thus plotting and conjecturing; more
and more thankful, as each hour went by, to see the sky still clouded,
the darkness dense. "It must have been the saints, too, that brought me
on a night when there was no moon," he thought; and then he said again,
devout and simple-minded man that he was. "They mean to protect my
Senorita; they will let me take care of her."

Ramona was threading a perilous way, through great difficulties. She had
reached her room unobserved, so far as she could judge. Luckily for her,
Margarita was in bed with a terrible toothache, for which her mother had
given her a strong