The woman finished her account of what she had seen and heard the night before.
“Why did the señorona and Manos Duras talk so much about my little mistress?... What has my little white dove to do with them?... As I’m nothing but an old fool who can’t understand anything, I said to myself, ‘I’m going to see don Manuel who knows everything. He can tell me....’”
But Robledo was not listening now. He seemed absorbed. Suddenly he made a gesture as though he had just discovered a terrible truth. Abruptly he turned his back on Sebastiana, and went rapidly back to the place he had just come from.
Then to the half-breed’s astonishment the engineer began running, with increasing speed, as though her words had made him fearful of arriving too late. While he was still a distance away from the other men he began to shout and gesticulate to don Carlos and the comisario who were still talking just where he had left them a few minutes earlier. Uncomprehendingly they looked at one another when they heard him say, pantingly,
“Get on your horses ... at once! That story about the cow was a ruse of Manos Duras to get you away from the ranch! I’m afraid something has happened to Celinda ... we must get out there as soon as possible ... if it isn’t already too late....”
Don Roque, recovering from his momentary stupefaction, rushed to his house to get out his gun and mount his horse. His four policemen, whom he summoned at once, rushed around in an attempt to follow their leader’s moves, but only three of them succeeded in finding mounts and borrowing a few guns from the neighbors. Obviously their sabres would be more useless than ever on this occasion!
Meanwhile Robledo had gone back to his house and while the servant was saddling his horse, he strapped on his revolver holster and a cartridge belt, and sent for all the overseers of the works who lived near by and had guns. In addition he borrowed the Gallego’s American rifle which the proprietor of the boliche kept hidden under his counter.
In addition to carrying on his own preparations, Robledo kept an eye on don Carlos Rojas for fear he might escape. He had obliged Celinda’s father to come back to the house with him, and now he was urging him to be prudent.
“Getting there half an hour sooner isn’t going to change what has already happened. All you’ll do is to let the bandits get you too into their clutches ... if nothing worse. We’ll all go together ... just be patient a few minutes longer!”
But the rancher received these admonitions with grunts of protest, trembling all the while with rage and anxiety. Robledo, standing on guard in his doorway, stepped forward to greet the men he had sent for and explain to them what he wanted of them. The Gallego came up to the group, his American rifle in his hand, and, with a solemnity befitting the handing over of his entire family, entrusted it to Robledo, his fellow countryman.