Captain Ramón’s face flushed and his eyes blazed for an instant. But he still had his game to play, the many-sided game that he hoped would result in great fortune.
“If you could only believe me!” he said.
“Perhaps—after you have demonstrated your loyalty.”
“Then I go now to talk to Barbados, then to San Diego de Alcála for the troopers. Guard yourself well until my return. I must pretend that I wish you watched, kept from escaping. A false move, señorita, and all of us are lost!”
“I can only do as you say,” she said. “I will be guarded in any case.”
“Come into the other room. I’ll call the hag! And I’ll return to you before I ride for San Diego de Alcála, if there are more plans you should know.”
Captain Ramón opened the door, bowed low as she passed through it, and looked after her with the corners of his lips curled. Then he hurried toward the front, calling for Inez.
CHAPTER XX.
THE UNEXPECTED.
Captain Ramón bade the woman guard the señorita well, and then hurried from the adobe building. Just in front of it he stopped to look over the scene. Dead men were scattered on the ground at a distance. There were more dead men around the huts, where the crew of the trading schooner had made their last stand.
The wounded were shrieking and groaning, and some of the pirates were giving them a rough surgery. Others were hurrying the caballero prisoners toward another adobe building, where they were to be kept. Women and children ran beside them, shrieking insults, hurling small stones. But the caballeros held their heads proudly, and laughed and jested with one another.