upward from the table. With his right hand, he started to tear her
beautiful face to shreds with the cruel spurs, forever to ruin her glorious
features, when, as if through a miracle, the door was thrown wide open, and
a strange figure stood on the sill--a Mexican in a great sombrero, a
flaming red kerchief at his throat, and eyes that gleamed and glistened,
teeth that were like the whitest ivory.

He stood, with arms crossed, surveying the scene. If lightning had struck
the adobe, Pell could not have been more dazed.

He released his wife. "What the devil!" he cried. "Who are you?"

"Hold up your hands!" yelled the bandit, stepping over the threshold. And
Pell's hands went up, like magic, the spurs jangling to the floor.

There was a noise without, and Uncle Henry was pushed in by a crude,
foul-looking Mexican, then came "Red," Angela, and Hardy, followed by
another Mexican bandit, and several Mexicans.

"Who is he? What does this mean?" Pell cried out.

"This is Pancho Lopez!" "Red" Giddings said. Everyone's hands were lifted,
and pistols were held by the Mexicans, ready to go off at the slightest
sign of rebellion.

"Pancho Lopez?" Pell repeated, frightened almost to the breaking point.

The bandit, a strange smile upon his lips, and hidden laughter in his eyes,
knew his power. The situation was one in which he reveled. He gazed around
him, triumphantly. His legs were spread apart, a cigarette drooped
nonchalantly from his lips.

"Senors, senoras!" he announced, in fascinating broken English, "you are
all my preesoner!"

CHAPTER VIII

WHEREIN THE BANDIT EXPOUNDS A NEW PHILOSOPHY, AND MAKES MARIONETTES OF THE
AMERICANS

"Put all ze men outside," Lopez ordered. Venustiano and Pedro, his chief
lieutenants, obeyed at once, forcing them to march ahead of them, and
standing guard over them near a great cactus bush a few feet from the
adobe. "Leave ze women with me," the bandit continued. "But first,
Alvarada, you find ze cook. I am 'ongry."

"_Si_," answered Alvarada; and after he had made certain that Pedro and
Venustiano could handle the three men, one of whom, after all, was but an
invalid in a wheel chair, he made his way to the kitchen. He knew there
were two other companions who would help in any emergency. They slunk in
the background, cigarettes between their lips, guns always ready for
action. The house was completely surrounded.

Lucia and Angela, left alone with Lopez, revealed the deep