“Then let me out the front way. The men are fighting, and perhaps they will not notice me if I go out that way, and make haste up the slope.”
“All women and children have been ordered to remain in the huts while there is fighting.”
“They will do no more than shriek at me to get inside again,” the señorita said. “I can pretend to be frightened, and run. I can get away, if you’ll let me out!”
“And I be blamed for it!”
“Not so!” she cried. “Bar this door. I’ll slip out the front, and they will think that I came around the building. You can pretend that you believe me to be in the store room. When they open the door and find me gone, find the window torn out, they’ll think that I did it, and got out that way. If anybody is punished, it will be the guards outside.”
“I am afraid!” the woman said.
“And are you not afraid, also, of seeing another woman in your place here?”
The face of Inez grew purple for an instant, and her eyes blazed. Suddenly she strode across to the door, opened it, and looked out upon the fighting. She closed the door again, and turned back to face the señorita.
“The fighting now is at some distance,” she said. “There is a chance. Wait!”