“Why?”
She shook her head angrily at what he dared show in his eyes. “Oh, keep still, listen!”
“I know you’d go, Nan,” he declared unperturbed. “But believe me, I never would let you.”
“I can’t go, because to do any good I must meet you with a horse outside.”
He only looked silently at her, and she turned her eyes from his gaze. “See,” she said, taking him eagerly to the back of the ledge and pointing, “follow that trail, the one to the east––you can’t get lost; you can reach El Capitan before dark––it’s very close. Creep carefully across El Capitan 208 on that narrow trail, and on the other side there is a wide one clear down to the road––oh, do be careful on El Capitan.”
“I’ll be careful.”
“I must watch my chance to get away from the corral with a horse. If I fail it will be because I am locked up at home, and you must hide and do the best you can. How much they will surmise of this, I don’t know.”
“Go now, this minute,” he said, restraining his words. “If you don’t come, I shall know why.”
She turned without speaking and, fearless as a chamois, ran down the rocks. De Spain, losing not a moment, hobbled rapidly up along the granite-walled passage that led the way to his chance for life.