though they had the garrotte at my neck. What is
more, the secret is out. I have already confessed my connection with the
expedition to Lieutenant Malgares, who, though a Spaniard, has proved
himself a true friend. I could no longer endure the thought of
concealment from him. It has not cost me his friendship; and I am
prepared to risk the worst his superiors can inflict upon me."

"No, no, John!" he protested. "We shall all come through safely, and you
shall win your lady."

"Ah! Alisanda! My thanks for the good wish. But you?" I demanded. "Are
you and the men also prisoners in the hands of that capricious
Governor?"

"Prisoners!" he repeated, dropping his hand on his sword-hilt. "Does
this look like it? No! They lured us into Santa Fe with false promises.
But my men still carry their guns and ammunition. Let the tyrants so
much as raise a finger against us, and we will flee to their enemies the
Apaches, and lead the savages against their settlements!"

"We could do it!" I cried. "Yet first--"

"First you would go to Chihuahua; and so would I," he assented, his blue
eyes twinkling. "I made a loud protest when this over-wise Governor said
it was necessary for me to go south. But we are going as 'guests under
constraint'--not as prisoners, please note, John. The addle-pated don
did not know enough to send us packing the shortest way out of the
country, to the Red River,--which, it seems, lies far to the eastward,
in the Comanche nation. No! he must needs march us down through the
heart of the Northern Provinces. Could we ask more?"

"Not if Salcedo sets you free."

"Sets me free? No less yourself, John!"

I shook my head dubiously. But at the moment there entered a Captain
D'Almansa, whom I had met at Santa Fe, and who, I now learned, was
conducting down the Lieutenant and his men to place them under the
escort of Malgares. When Pike explained to him that I had been a member
of the expedition, the old captain smiled knowingly. Few among the
Spaniards had doubted my connection with the mad _Americanos_ after the
party was brought in.

We left D'Almansa in the house, seated over a bottle of ardent spirits
with my host, and went out to where the six privates who had come with
the Lieutenant from the stockade were in waiting. I was rejoiced to see
that, though still for the most part clad in their tatters, their
rounding cheeks showed the welcome effects of Spanish hospitality, and
that the ones worst frosted now