"I am."
"Where from?"
"From away yonder."
"What news?"
"A letter for the Señor Reconquistador."
"He is very busy, is it anything urgent?"
"I have orders to deliver it immediately, and into his own hand."
"Then follow me."
In a large upper room the members of the Cabildo were met together in consultation. Don Gregorio Lopez was the only native member of that body, and had been only recently appointed, the others were all Spaniards. Don Gregorio had just read to them part of a letter he had received some days previously from Don Carlos Evaña.