as
good as a dead man, and I believe it. But now," and she shook her head
fatefully, "now he is sure to get it!"

"But he swears he must get back to Soledad by sunrise for a trap is
set. A trap for whom?" persisted Kit.

Dona Jocasta shook her head uncomprehendingly.

"God forbid he should get free to put those wolves on my track; then
indeed I would need a knife, senor! He held them back from me on the
trail, but now he would not hold them back."

"But the trap, senora?" repeated the puzzled Kit. "That man was in
earnest,--dead in earnest! He did not know I was listening, his words
were only for an Indian,--for Isidro. Who could he trap? Was he
expecting anyone at Soledad?"

Dona Jocasta looked up with a little gasp of remembrance.

"It is true, a courier did come two days ago from the south, and
Cavayso told me he meant to take me to the desert and hide me before
Don Jose arrived. Also more mules and wagons came in. And Elena
scolded about men who came to eat but not to work. Yes, they smoked,
and talked, and talked, and waited! I never thought of them except to
have a great fear. Yesterday after the lad brought me that letter I
had not one thought, but to count the hours, and watch the sun. But it
may be Cavayso told the truth, and that Don Jose was indeed coming. He
told me he had promised Perez to lose me in the Arroya Maldioso if in
no other way, and he had to manage that I never be seen again."

"Arroya Maldioso?" repeated Kit, "I don't understand."

"It is the great quicksand of Soledad, green things grow and blossom
there but no living thing can cross over. It is beautiful--that little
arroya, and very bad."

"I had heard of it, but forgot," acknowledged Kit, "but that is not
the trap of which he is raving now. It is some other thing."

Dona Jocasta did not know. She confessed that her mind was dark and
past thinking. The ways of Don Jose and Conrad were not easy for other
men of different lives to understand;--there was a great net of war
and scheming and barter, and Don Jose was snared in that net, and the
end no man could see!

"Have you ever heard that Marto Cavayso was once a lieutenant of
General Rotil?" Kit asked.

"The Deliverer!" she gasped, leaning forward and staring at him. A
deep flush went over her face and receded, leaving her as deathly pale
as when the bullet had been forced from the white shoulder. Her regard
was curious, for her brows were contracted and there was domination