“Enter!” the comandante called, and a corporal hurried into the room.
“There has been trouble at the mission,” he reported, standing at salute. “Rojerio Rocha, who is to wed the Señorita Anita, rebuked this Captain Fly-by-Night for his conduct, and they fought.”
“The result?”
“Señor Rocha was wounded. The neophytes attacked Captain Fly-by-Night then, but he mounted his horse and escaped. He has gone up the cañon. Rocha demands that he be pursued; some others think this should not be, since it was a fair duel.”
“Escaped!” Sergeant Cassara cried, getting half up from the stool. “He will be with his Indians within the hour—perhaps he has been warned. He’ll strike the blow earlier!”
But the lieutenant was already rushing toward the door.
“Sound the trumpet!” he cried. “Into the hills after that man! Get him, dead or alive—remember that! Let only two men remain here at the presidio. I have kept my hands off the dog because I had no orders to the contrary—but I have orders now! Here—one of you give aid to this exhausted sergeant who brought the news!”
But Sergeant Cassara had no need of aid at that moment. He had sprawled over the end of the table as if a man had run him through from behind, his head pillowed upon his arms, and he was snoring.
CHAPTER X
OUTLAWED
The caballero stopped his horse on the crest of a hill a mile from the mission and looked back at the valley. For more than an hour he had been riding aimlessly, aware that it would be worse than useless to return at the present time and face the angered neophytes—angered not so much because of their love for the man he had wounded, since they never had seen him until this day, as because of the pain, they thought, his defeat would cause Señorita Anita Fernandez, whom they had learned to adore.