activity; already is Chihuahua
armed and eager. Already have the thousands of Yaquis listened and
agreed; already have I made them large promises of ancient tribal lands
restored and money. A Yaqui guards my door yonder. But you did not
know that he was the son of Chief Pima, nor that in ten days the son
will be Chief after having served in the household of Zoraida! And
Sonora and Chihuahua and the Yaqui tribes are pledged to one thing: To
an independent Lower California over which I shall rule."

"Wild schemes," muttered Kendric. "Foredoomed, like other mad schemes
in Mexico. And if your great plannings are feasible, which I very much
doubt, has your feathered companion failed to remind you that talk with
a stranger is rash?"

"You are no stranger," she said coolly. "Nor have I spoken a word to
you that is not known already to all about me. My cousin, Ruiz Rios,
whom I distrust and detest; the Captain Escobar who is a small man and
a murderer, the other men whom I have gathered about me, they all know,
for in this, if in nothing else, I can trust them all."

"But if I went away," he asked, "and talked?"

"You are not going away."

He lifted his brows quickly at that.

"I go where I please," he reminded her. "When I please. I am my own
man, Senorita Castelmar."

"Large words." She smiled at him curiously.

"You mean that my going would be interfered with?"

"I mean that you may make yourself free of the house; that you may walk
in the gardens; that, if you sought to pass the outer wall, you would
be detained. You remain my prisoner, Senor Kendric, until you become
my trusted captain!"

"You're a devilish hospitable hostess," he remarked. She was watching
him shrewdly, interested to see just how he would accept her ultimatum.
He returned her look with clear, untroubled eyes.

"You will think of what I have told you," she said slowly. "My wealth
is very great; the fertile lands which I have inherited and those which
I have purchased, embrace hundreds of thousands of acres; the barren
lands which are mine, desert and mountain, stretch mile after mile.
There is no power like mine in all Mexico, though until now it has lain
hidden, giving no sign. It is in my heart to make you a rich man and,
what you like more, Jim Kendric, a man to play the biggest of all games
and for the biggest of all stakes. And further--further----"

"Further?" He laughed. "What comes after all that, Queen Zoraida?"

"