tion, were still numerous
in various parts of the country. Juana was well enough acquainted with
Indian customs to recognize at once that the savage was on some hostile
errand. He carried a bow in his hand, together with an arrow ready to
use without an instant's loss of time. This might have meant he was on
a hunting expedition, had not Juana known there was no game of any kind,
excepting jack-rabbits and rattlesnakes, within a radius of several
miles from the mission; for the neophytes had, long before, killed
everything near. This fact as well as his quick gait, showed her he was
not on any peaceful business.

With a prayer of thankfulness in her heart (for there was little doubt
the Indian would have killed her, had he seen her) Juana seized her
work, and, with the baby in her arms, made all possible haste to her
home. Her heart was in her mouth more than once, when she fancied she
saw a savage lurking among the trees, or behind some big boulder; but
she reached the house without further incident.

Diego, who had been away on one of his long absences, arrived home that
same night. When Juana related to him, almost at the first moment of
greeting, the incident of the afternoon, Diego listened in surprise and
alarm; and when she had finished said:

"Juana, you must not go there again; it is most dangerous. But I do
not think you will after what happened to-day. I must go back to the
mission, and tell the Father what you saw."

"Tell me, Diego," implored Juana. "I know there is some trouble with the
Indians. Is it very serious? Are we all in danger? Remember what they
did to Father Jaime at San Diego. But they could not do any harm to the
fathers now. We are too strong for them."

"No, Juana," answered Diego, "the fathers are in no personal danger, I
think. And the trouble is not here, so much as farther north, at Santa
Barbara, and the missions near there. But the fathers at all the
missions are on the watch, for no one knows just where or when the
trouble will break forth. The neophytes are dissatisfied, and will not
obey their masters. But you must say nothing of this to any one. The
Father wishes to keep it as quiet as possible, so as to alarm no one at
the mission, and to have none of the Indians think they are suspected. I
must go."

And Diego set out for the mission, from whence he did not return until
several hours later. The next day saw him off again on one of his long
absences, bearing letters from th