boat returning," continued
Perkins, rising gently from his seat as the sound of oars came faintly
alongside, "and no doubt with Winslow's messenger. I am sorry you won't
let me bring you together. I dare say he knows all about you, and it
really need not alter your opinions."

"One moment," said Hurlstone, stunned, yet incredulous of Perkins's
revelations. "You said that both the Comandante and Alcalde had arranged
to send away certain ladies--are you not mistaken?"

"I think not," said Perkins quietly, looking over a pile of papers on
the table before him. "Yes, here it is," he continued, reading from
a memorandum: "'Don Ramon Ramirez arranged with Pepe for the secret
carrying off of Dona Barbara Brimmer.' Why, that was six weeks ago, and
here we have the Comandante suborning one Marcia, a dragoon, to abduct
Mrs. Markham--by Jove, my old friend!--and Dona Leonor--our beauty, was
she not? Yes, here it is: in black and white. Read it, if you like,--and
pardon me for one moment, while I receive this unlucky messenger."

Left to himself, Hurlstone barely glanced at the memorandum, which
seemed to be the rough minutes of some society. He believed Perkins; but
was it possible that the Padre could be ignorant of the designs of his
fellow-councilors? And if he were not--if he had long before been in
complicity with them for the removal of Eleanor, might he not also have
duped him, Hurlstone, and sent him on this mission as a mere blind;
and--more infamously--perhaps even thus decoyed him on board the wrong
ship? No--it was impossible! His honest blood quickly flew to his cheek
at that momentary disloyal suspicion.

Nevertheless, the Senor's bland revelations filled him with vague
uneasiness. SHE was safe with her brother now; but what if he and
the other Americans were engaged in this ridiculous conspiracy, this
pot-house rebellion that Father Esteban had spoken of, and which he had
always treated with such contempt? It seemed strange that Perkins had
said nothing of the arrival of the relieving party from the Gulf, and
its probable effect on the malcontents. Did he know it? or was the news
now being brought by this messenger whom he, Hurlstone, had supplanted?
If so, when and how had Perkins received the intelligence that brought
him to Todos Santos? The young man could scarcely repress a bitter smile
as he remembered the accepted idea of Todos Santos' inviolability--that
inaccessible port that had within six weeks secret