reason the father always kept his _aguardiente_ carefully hidden.
Their worst propensity was a passion for white girls. There were two or
three _mestizo_ families in the village, some of whom were whiter, or
rather, less coppery than the others, and from these the _misterios_ would
select and carry off the best-looking maidens; for what purpose Fray
Ignacio could not tell, but, as he feared, to sacrifice to their gods.

When I heard that these troublesome visitors generally numbered fewer than
a score, I asked why, seeing that the valley contained at least a hundred
and fifty men capable of bearing arms, the raiders were not resisted. On
this the father smiled and answered, that no earthly consideration would
induce his tame Indians to fight; it was so much easier to die. He could
not even persuade the _mestizoes_ to migrate to a safer locality. It was
easier to be robbed of their children occasionally than to move their
goods and chattels and find another home.

I asked Fray Ignacio whether he thought these robbers of white children
were likely to pay him a visit soon.

"I am afraid they are," he said. "It is nearly two years since their last
visit, and they only come in summer. Why?"

"I have a curiosity to see these; and I think I could save the children
and give these wild fellows such a lesson that they would trouble you no
more--at any rate for a long time to come."

"I should be inexpressibly grateful. But how, senor?"

Whereupon I disclosed my scheme. It was very simple; I proposed to turn
one of the most likely houses in the village into a small fortress which
might serve as a refuge for the children and which Gahra and I would
undertake to defend. We had two muskets and a pair of double-barrelled
pistols, and the priest possessed an old blunderbuss, which I thought I
could convert into a serviceable weapon. In this way we should be able to
shoot down four or five of the _misterios_ before any of them could get
near us, and as they had no firearms I felt sure that, after so warm a
reception, they would let us alone and go their way. The shooting would
demoralize them, and as we should not show ourselves they could not know
that the garrison consisted only of the negro and myself.

"Very well," said the priest, after a moment's thought. "I leave it to
you. But remember that if you fail they will kill you and everybody else
in the place. However, I dare say you will succeed, the firearms may
frighten them,