“I don’t see anything else to do,” said Don Rafael.
“Then you will send the men to help?” asked the man.
“Is that what Don Pablo wants?”
“Si, Señor!”
“Very well. Tell him I will have a dozen men on hand as soon as it is dark. I may come myself to see that he makes no more blunders.”
“That’s the only safe way,” said the general.
The messenger made no reply, but with a muttered “Hasta lluego,”[3] took his departure as fast as he had come and the three strangers soon followed his example.
Left alone, Don Rafael watched them as they slowly wound their way down the mountain path, and when they finally passed from view, turned and entered the mill. Quickly he ascended the dilapidated stone stairs to the second story, where, in a small room partitioned off from the rest of the mill, he had made him a habitation, and threw himself upon his crude bed.
“Pancho Villa!” he exclaimed with a mocking laugh. “Pancho Villa, indeed! It will be a long time before anyone sees Pancho Villa!”