“So you escaped the rancho?” he went on. “Very clever of you, señorita, though I cannot imagine why you should leave security and come to this place, where there has been grave danger. You may be glad to know that your escape caused three Indian guards to lose their lives. I had promised them death if you evaded them, and I always keep my promises. I handed them over to their chiefs—it was enough.”
“Oh!” Her cry was of horror, pity, loathing, a world of expression in a single syllable.
“We investigated the fireplace and chimney, and found an open window,” he continued. “It was beyond me that you and your duenna could open the chimney in that manner, for I thought at first, of course, that you had done so. Then I remembered the stampede of horses, knew you must have had a mount to make the journey to the mission, and realised there was help from another source. Who aided you, señorita?”
“A gambler, swindler and thief, a wronger of women and a worthless vagabond, according to the world’s estimate of him,” she replied. “Yet a man beside whom you are not worthy to crawl, Rojerio Rocha, despite the blood that flows in your veins.”
“I can imagine but one such contradictory paragon. So it was this man you call Captain Fly-by-Night?”
“It was, señor.”
“Did Señorita Anita Fernandez so far forget herself as to ride through the night, even with her duenna, in company with such a character?” he sneered. “I had it in mind to wed you, señorita, but if you have been consorting with such persons——”
“Señor!” she cried angrily, her face aflame.
“That touches you, does it? However, I am master now. As you are aware, the revolt has almost made a winning here at San Diego de Alcalá. Another quarter hour and my hostiles will be inside that church and attend to their enemies. An hour, and the mission and presidio will be black ruins, and we return to the rancho for a wedding feast and honeymoon, señorita mine. So your escape availed you nothing. Did you hope to escape me again by remaining in the guest house while the others fled into the church? Or, perhaps, did you hope I’d find you here, alone?”
“Renegade!” she taunted.