"Caspita!" Andrés replied, impudently, "Do you think I amuse myself o' nights by watching the moon? I was asleep, compadre, when you came to arouse me with your infernal hammerings."
"That is possible," the squatter remarked; "but that was no reason for keeping me so long at your door."
"Prudence is the mother of security. We must not let every comer enter the rancho."
"Certainly not; I approve of that. Still, you must have recognised my voice."
"True. Still I might be mistaken; it is difficult to know anyone through the thickness of a door; that is why I wished you to give your name."
"Very good, then," Red Cedar said, as if tired of combating arguments which did not convince him. "And where is Fray Ambrosio?"
"Here, I suppose."
"He has not left the rancho?"
"No; unless he took advantage of your arrival to do so."
"Why should he do that?"