"Our father will not know your movements. I take on myself to prevent him noticing them."
"Good!" the young man remarked, half convinced; "but I do not know where the maiden is hidden."
"I will tell you, if you swear to do all in your power to save her."
There was a moment of silence.
"I swear to obey you, Ellen. If I do not succeed in carrying the girl off, I will at any rate employ all my intellect to obtain that result. Speak, then, without fear."
"Doña Clara is confined at the Rancho del Coyote: she was intrusted to Andrés Garote."
"Ah, ah!" the young man said, as if speaking to himself, "I did not fancy her so near us."
"You will save her?"
"At all events I will try to free her from the hands of the man who guards her."
"Good!" the maiden remarked; "I now recognise you. Lose no time: my father's absence alarms me. Perhaps at this moment he is preparing a safer hiding place for his prisoner."