like to see it, Alessandro," she said gently.

"Oh, no, no, Majella!" he cried; "you would not. It is terrible; the
houses all unroofed,--all but my father's and Jose's. They were
shingled roofs; they will be just the same; all the rest are only walls.
Antonio's mother threw hers down; I don't know how the old woman ever
had the strength; they said she was like a fury. She said nobody should
ever live in those walls again; and she took a pole, and made a great
hole in one side, and then she ran Antonio's wagon against it with all
her might, till it fell in. No, Majella. It will be dreadful."

"Wouldn't you like to go into the graveyard again, Alessandro?" she said
timidly.

"The saints forbid!" he said solemnly. "I think it would make me a
murderer to stand in that graveyard! If I had not you, my Majel, I
should kill some white man when I came out. Oh, do not speak of it!" he
added, after a moment's silence; "it takes the strength all out of my
blood again, Majella. It feels as if I should die!"

And the word "Temecula" was not mentioned between them again until dusk
the next day, when, as they were riding slowly along between low, wooded
hills, they suddenly came to an opening, a green, marshy place, with
a little thread of trickling water, at which their horses stopped, and
drank thirstily; and Ramona, looking ahead, saw lights twinkling in the
distance. "Lights, Alessandro, lights!" she exclaimed, pointing to them.

"Yes, Majella," he replied, "it is Temecula," and springing off his pony
he came to her side, and putting both his hands on hers, said: "I have
been thinking, for a long way back, Carita, what is to be done here. I
do not know. What does Majella think will be wise? If men have been sent
out to pursue us, they may be at Hartsel's. His store is the place where
everybody stops, everybody goes. I dare not have you go there, Majella;
yet I must go. The only way I can get any money is from Mr. Hartsel."

"I must wait somewhere while you go!" said Ramona, her heart beating as
she gazed ahead into the blackness of the great plain. It looked vast as
the sea. "That is the only safe thing, Alessandro."

"I think so too," he said; "but, oh, I am afraid for you; and will not
you be afraid?"

"Yes," she replied, "I am afraid. But it is not so dangerous as the
other."

"If anything were to happen to me, and I could not come back to you,
Majella, if you give Baba his reins he will take you safe home,--he and
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