"We shall be gone at daybreak, and we have a guard." Blanca paused and resumed with an air of relief: "It was fortunate you did not pass the house."
"That's a sure thing," Walthew agreed. "However, I guess I know what you mean. When I pulled up I fancied your friends were watching for me, and I'd have found the road blocked if I'd gone on. Don't you think you had better tell me what it's all about?"
Blanca hesitated with some color in her face, but just then Father Agustin returned.
"I have warned the men," he informed the girl.
"Señor Walthew wishes to know what is going on," she said.
"It might be better that he should know, and he is to be trusted; but you must decide whether you will tell him or not."
Blanca was silent for a moment, and then began in a rather strained voice:
"We have a spy in the President's household, and word was sent us that a man would leave Villa Paz with some important despatches for Gomez. We believe they contain instructions about what he must do when the fighting begins, but, to avoid suspicion, Altiera is sending a foreign trader to whom he has given some privileges. We expect him to stop and change mules here, because the hacienda belongs to one of the President's supporters."
"I see!" said Walthew. "He would not have carried the despatches past this house. But where is its owner?"
"Hiding at a hacienda some distance off. He is a timid man, and we had him warned that the rebels were coming to burn the place. An hour after he left with his family we took possession."