“Señorita,” he said, “I swear to you by all the saints, by my dead mother’s honour, by whatever you will, that I mean you no harm, and that my sole object is to rescue you from this place and take you to the mission, there to hand you over to your padre. I have come here to-night at much risk, since both white and red men seek me. I have used subterfuge and device to reach you safely. And you must allow the rescue!”
Señora Vallejo would have spoken, but he silenced her with a wave of his hand and looked at the girl again.
“And I say to you I am no traitor, señorita,” he went on. “Never have I raised my hand against His Excellency the Governor, never have I conspired with Indians. In time, things may be explained; for the present I ask you to believe me.”
“Yet you are Captain Fly-by-Night—gambler, swindler, wronger of women!”
“Which has nothing to do with this present rescue.”
“Save this,” she added, quickly, “that Señorita Anita Fernandez does not trust herself with Captain Fly-by-Night, no matter what the circumstances.”
The caballero sighed and turned on one heel to walk back to the fireplace, there to stand for a moment in thought.
“It is, in a word, a difficult proposition,” he confessed. “Here I am in this house after having difficulties, trying to be a hero and rescue a damsel in distress, also her duenna, and the damsel refuses to be rescued.”
“Then depart as you came!” the señorita said.
“The damsel,” he went on, scratching his head and not even looking at her, “does not fully appreciate the condition of things. She does not realise in other words, what is for her own good in this matter. The duenna, not having spoken, naturally leaves things to the caballero——”