s. You
have not yet told me--"

"I wrote of your danger from His Excellency, Juan. Be prudent. Make as
few enemies as you can. You have many friends."

"Walker has intimated that I shall gain more friends if I tame this
Andalusian bull."

"_Nada!_ If the swashbuckler challenges, you must fight, Juan. I know
that. But do not force the matter yourself. He stands high in the favor
of His Excellency."

"Alisanda," I replied, "you, like all others here, are far too much in
fear of this tyrant Governor-General. But rest assured Lieutenant Pike
and I comprehend the man and the situation. Should we show the slightest
sign of weakness, I at least will at once be flung into prison, if not
garrotted. The only course which will avert the blow is for us to show a
bold front."

"Yet a little diplomacy--"

"Trust Lieutenant Pike to attend to the diplomacy. In his direct
communications with Salcedo, he will flourish the steel blade in a
velvet sheath. Aside from that, we have decided that the bolder our talk
and bearing the better."

"Yet consider his absolute power--I fear for you, Juan!"

"What odds of the danger, if I have your love--Alisanda?"

A quick blush leaped into her pale cheeks, and she looked down, in sweet
confusion.

"No, no, dear friend," she murmured. "Do not speak of that now. It would
be too cruel, if later--Juan, you must see Father Rocus!"

"At once!" I assented.

"Go, then, now! You will find him at the _Parroquia_."

"But first, dearest one--"

"No, no! Go at once. We approach my uncle's house, and it is as well he
should not see you."

"Then, if you bid me go, _au revoir!_" I said, stopping short.

She gave me a lingering glance which told all that her lips refused to
speak. Dona Dolores dropped her beads and looked up at me with one of
her bright, mischievous glances.

"_Santa Maria!_ but you do not leave us, senor? You have been so
entertaining!"

"And you, senora,--I could not have asked for a kinder duenna."

She muffled a peal of girlish laughter beneath the folds of her
_rebozo_, and hurried Alisanda away, fearful, I suppose, that we had
attracted too much attention. I wheeled in the opposite direction, and
returned to the _Parroquia_. Aside from a few women kneeling here and
there before the wall shrines, the great church Was now empty. But a
young acolyte who came in to arrange the altar very courteously
directed me to the parsonage, where, he said, I should find Father
Rocus.