her, and so by a back stairway into the alley in the rear.
Within a few minutes they were a quarter of a mile from the El Tovar.

Sebastian, still suspicious, yet aware that for some reason Don Manuel
was unexpectedly on his side, awaited explanations.

"_Dona_ Valdes is quite right, Sebastian. She means well, but she is,
after all, a woman. This is a man's business, and you and I can settle
it better alone." Manuel smiled with an air of frank confidence at his
former prisoner. "You are in a serious fix--no doubt at all about that.
The question is to find the best way out."

_"Si, Senor"_.

Pesquiera's bright black eyes fastened on him as he flung a question at
the man. "I suppose this Gordon is still alive."

Sebastian nodded gloomily. "He is like a cat with its nine lives. We
have beaten and starved him, but he laughs--this Gringo devil--and tells
us he will live to see us wearing stripes in prison."

_"Muy bien."_ Manuel talked on briskly, so as to give the slower-witted
Mexican no time to get set in obstinacy. "I should be able to arrange
matters then. We must free the man after I have his word to tell
nothing."

"But he will run straight to the sheriff," protested Sebastian.

"Not if he gives his word. I'll see to that. Where have you him hidden?"
The young Spaniard asked the question carelessly, almost indifferently,
as if it were merely a matter of course.

Sebastian opened his mouth to tell--and then closed it. He had had no
intention of telling anything. Now he found he had told everything
except their hiding-place. The suspicion which lay coiled in his heart
lifted its head like a snake. Was he being led into a trap? Would Don
Manuel betray him to the law? The gleaming eyes of the man narrowed and
grew hard.

Manuel, intuitively sensing this, hurried on. "It can be a matter of
only hours now until they stumble upon your hiding-place. If this
happens before we have come to terms with Gordon you are lost. I have
come to town to save you and Pablo. But I can't do this unless you trust
me. Take me to Gordon and let me talk with him. Blindfold me if you
like. But lose no time."

As Sebastian saw it, this was a chance. He knew Manuel was an honest
man. His reputation was of the best. Reluctantly he gave way.

"The _Americano_ is at the Valdes house," he admitted sulkily.

"At the Valdes house? Why, in Heaven's name, did you take him there?"

"How could we tell that the _Senorita_ would come to town?