er completely.

The plaza was swarming with a strange rabble of peons and soldiery; of
dark, lowering faces, odd-looking weapons and costumes, mules, mustangs,
and cattle--a heterogeneous mass, swayed by some fierce excitement. That
she saw none of the Excelsior party among them did not surprise her;
an instinct of some catastrophe more serious than Mrs. Brimmer's vague
imaginings frightened but exalted her. With head erect, leveled brows,
and bright, determined eyes she walked deliberately into the square.
The crowd parted and gave way before this beautiful girl, with her bared
head and its invincible crest of chestnut curls. Presently they began
to follow her, with a compressed murmur of admiration, until, before
she was halfway across the plaza, the sentries beside the gateway of the
Presidio were astonished at the vision of a fair-haired and triumphant
Pallas, who appeared to be leading the entire population of Todos Santos
to victorious attack. In vain a solitary bugle blew, in vain the rolling
drum beat an alarm, the sympathetic guard only presented arms as Miss
Keene, flushed and excited, her eyes darkly humid with gratified pride,
swept past them into the actual presence of the bewildered and indignant
Comandante.

The only feminine consciousness she retained was that she was more
relieved at her deliverance from the wild cattle and unbroken horses of
her progress than from the Indians and soldiers.

"I want to see Mrs. Markham, and to know by what authority she is
arrested," said Miss Keene boldly.

"The Senor Comandante can hold no conference with you until you disperse
your party," interpreted the secretary.

She was about to hurriedly reply that she knew nothing of the crowd that
had accompanied her; but she was withheld by a newly-born instinct of
tact.

"How do I know that I shall not be arrested, like my friend?" she said
quickly. "She is as innocent as myself."

"The Comandante pledges himself, as a hidalgo, that you shall not be
harmed."

Her first impulse was to advance to the nearest intruders at the gate
and say, "Do go away, please;" but she was doubtful of its efficiency,
and was already too exalted by the situation to be satisfied with its
prosaic weakness. But her newly developed diplomacy again came to her
aid. "You may tell them so, if you choose, I cannot answer for them,"
she said, with apparent dark significance.

The secretary advanced on the corridor and exchanged a few words wi