ion. A fellow with a lot of bluff, I think. I don't
believe very much in bad men. He's managed to terrify the Mexicans somehow
or other." He had not noticed that her voice had become dull and low.

"Fectnor!" she breathed to herself. She rocked to and fro, and after a
long interval, "Fectnor!" she repeated.

He hitched his chair so that he could look at her. Her prolonged silence
was unusual. "Are you getting chilly?" he asked solicitously.

"It does seem chilly, doesn't it?" she responded.

They arose and went into the house.

CHAPTER XI

Antonia went marketing the next morning, and when she came back Sylvia met
her with fearful, inquiring eyes. She was terribly uneasy, and she was one
of those creatures who must go more than half-way to meet impending
danger. She was not at all surprised when Antonia handed her a sealed
envelope.

The old servant did not linger to witness the reading of that written
message. She possessed the discretion of her race, of her age. The senora
had been married quite a time now. Doubtless there were old friends....

And Sylvia stood alone, reading the sprawling lines which her father had
written:

"_Fectnor's here. He wants to see you. Better come down to the house. You
know he's likely to make trouble if he doesn't have his way._"

She spelled out the words with contracted brows; and then for the moment
she became still another Sylvia. She tore the missive into bits. She was
pale with rage--rage which was none the less obsessing because it had in
it the element of terror. Her father dared to suggest such a thing! It
would have been bad enough if Fectnor had sent the summons himself; but
for her father to unite with him against her in such an affair!

She tried to calm herself, succeeding but illy. "Antonia!" she called.
"Antonia!" For once her voice was unlovely, her expression was harsh.

The startled old woman came with quite unprecedented alacrity.

"Antonia, where did you see my father?"

"On the street. He seemed to have waited for me."

"Very well. You must find him again. It doesn't matter how long you
search. I want you to find him."

She hurriedly framed a response to that note of her father's:

"_I will not come. Tell Fectnor I never will see him again. He will not
dare to harm me._"

As she placed this cry of defiance into an envelope and sealed and
addressed it certain words of Harboro's came back to her. That night of
their wedding he had lifted he