the night, and give warning if the enemy
comes,--other guards will watch the trail of the canyon. Thus we cover
much ground,--no one can pass to the villages of the river;--and
quickly can all camps help the one where the enemy comes."

"Not so bad is the generalship in spreading their net," said Don Ruy.

"Nor in excluding the stranger from the hiding place of their pretty
maids," added Chico with amusement. "Ysobel--ride you close to me.
This is the place where they herd their women, and guard them,--and
you are not so ill favored in many ways as some I have seen."

Ysobel whimpered that it was not to follow war she had left Mexico and
her own people, and like Don Diego she could see no good reason to
search for trouble in the hills.

"Then why not stay behind safe walls with the padre?" asked Don Ruy,
and Ysobel went dumb and looked at Chico--and the lad shrugged and
smiled.

"Has she not married a man?" he queried, "and does not the boy Cupid
make women do things most wondrous strange in every land? Jose would
fare as well without her watchful eye, but no power could make her
think it,--so come she would on a lop-eared mule despite all my fine
logic!"

"You--yourself--would come!" retorted Ysobel, "so what--"

But Chico prodded the mule so that it went frisky and sent its heels
in the air, and but for Don Ruy the beast might have left the woman on
the ground.

"What imp possesses you to do mischief to the dame?" he demanded--"and
why laugh that she follows her husband? When you have more years you
may perhaps learn what devotion may mean!"

"Never do I intend to strive for more knowledge of it than I possess
at this moment!" declared Chico--"see to what straits it has led that
poor girl, who, but for this matter of a man, would have been good and
safe working in a convent garden. Small profit this marriage business
is!"

"A selfish Jack-a-napes might you be called," remarked Don Ruy, "and
much I wonder that the woman bears patiently your quips. Give us ten
more years, and we'll see you mated and well paid for them!"

"Ten years!"--and the lad whistled,--"let me wait ten of my years and
I can wait the rest of them!"

"Name of the devil!" laughed Don Ruy--"if you grow impatient for a
mate, we'll charge yon citadel and capture one for you!"

"Oh, my patience can keep step with your own will, Excellency,"
retorted the lad. "I've no fancy for halting the expedition, or of
making a winning through another