"and
your saddle waits."

The priest held the stirrup for Jose Perez, who took the courtesy as a
matter of course, turning in the saddle and casting a bitter look at
the sun-flooded walls of Soledad.

"To marry a mistress and set her up as the love of another lover--_two_
other lovers!--is not the game of a man," he growled moodily. "If it was
to do over, I----"

"Take other thoughts with you," said Padre Andreas sadly, "and my son,
go with God!"

He lifted his hand in blessing, and stood thus after they had turned
away. Perez uttered neither thanks nor farewell.

The men, busy with the final packing, stared after him with much
curiosity, and accosted the priest as he paced thoughtfully back to
the portal.

"Padre, is this ammunition a gift of Don Jose, or is it magic from the
old monks who hid the red gold of El Alisal and come back here to
guard it and haunt Soledad?" inquired one of the boldest.

"There are no hauntings, and that red gold has led enough men astray
in the desert. It is best forgotten."

"But strange things do come about," insisted another man. "Marto
Cavayso swore he had witchcraft put on him by the green, jewel eyes of
Dona Jocasta, and you see that since she follows our general he has
the good luck, and this ammunition comes to him from God knows
where!"

"It may be the Americano knows," hazarded the first speaker. "He took
her from Marto, and rides ever beside her. Who proves which is the
enchanter?"

"It is ill work to put the name of 'enchantment' against any mortal,"
chided the priest.

"That may be," conceded the soldier, "but we have had speech of this
thing, and look you!--Dona Jocasta rode in chains until the Americano
crossed her trail, and Don Ramon, and all of us, searched in vain for
the American guns, until the Americano rode to Soledad! Enchantment or
not, he has luck for his friends!"

"As you please!" conceded the priest with more indifference than he
felt. The Americano certainly did not belong to Soledad, and the
wonder was that Ramon Rotil gave him charge of so beauteous a lady.
Padre Andreas could easily perceive how the followers of Rotil thought
it enchantment, or any other thing of the devil.

Instinctively he disapproved of Rhodes' position in the group; his
care-free, happy smile ill fitted the situation at Soledad. Before the
stealing away of Dona Jocasta she had been as a dead woman who walked;
her sense of overwhelming sin was gratifying in that it gave