hat is your office to me?" asked Rotil coldly. "Do your duty and
confess him when the time comes if that is his wish. It is more than
he would have given to her or the foreman who stored the ammunition.
Him he had killed as the German had Miguel Herrara killed on the
border,--and Herrara had been faithful to that gun running for months.
When man or woman is faithful to Jose Perez long enough to learn
secrets, he rewards them with death. A dose of his own brew will be
fit medicine."

"But the woman,--she is safe. She is----"

"Yes, very safe!" agreed Rotil, sneering. "Shall I tell you, pious
Father, how safe she is? The cholo who took food to Perez and that
German dog has brought me a message. See, it is on paper, and is clear
for any to read. You--no not you, but Don Pajarito here shall read it.
He is a neutral, and not a padre scheming to save the soul of a man
who never had a soul!"

Kit held it to the light, read it, and returned it to Rotil.

"I agree with you, General. He offers her to you in exchange for his
own freedom."

"Yes, and to pay for that writing I had him chained where he could see
her enter the plaza as a queen, if we had queens in Mexico! You had an
unseen audience for your arrival. The guard reports that the German
friend of Perez seems to love you, Don Pajarito, very much indeed."

"Sure he does. Here is the mark of one of his little love pats with a
monkey wrench," and Kit parted his hair to show the scar of the
Granados assault. "I got that for interfering when he was trying to
kill his employer's herds with ground glass in their feed."

"So? no wonder if he goes in a rage to see you riding as a lady's
caballero while he feels the weight of chains in a prison. This world
is but a little place!"

"That is true," said Padre Andreas, "regarding Kit, for the story of
the horses was told to me by Dona Jocasta here in Soledad!"

"How could that be?" demanded Rotil. "Is it not true you met the lady
first at Mesa Blanca?"

"As you say," said Kit, alert at the note of suspicion, "if the lady
knows aught of Granados, it is a mystery to me, and is of interest."

"Not so much a mystery," said the priest. "Conrad boasted much when
glasses were emptied with Perez on the Hermosillo rancho, and Dona
Jocasta heard. He told the number of cavalry horses killed by his men,
also the owner of that ranch of Granados who had to be silenced for
the cause."

"Thanks for those kind words, Padre," said Kit. "I