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Rh swayed, doubled up, whirred, thrashed his arms beneath the avalanche. Resonant whang-angs of his headgear announced particularly brilliant shots; dull thuds more vital ones. At last, with a parting shower of little potted cheeses, the widow's ammunition ran out. She folded her arms, drew herself up to her full height, and, her eyes shining humorously beneath her shaggy brows, "Well, boys," she asked, "what is it you want?"

Gomez was coming up the stairs again, under safe escort.

"We are ladrones, madam," he explained, politely. "We want—we want" he stammered, uneasy, before that great dominating figure. "We want—ah—the dinero, the money" he stopped, then with a vague apologetic shrug of his shoulders: "the dinero, and you."

"Ah?" sang the widow, sardonically, "you want me, do you?"

Gomez hesitated. He was not at all sure about that. But his orders were imperative.

"Papa Gato wants you," he said, with more precision.

"Ah—it's your papa wants me, is it? Very well" her lips tightened into a line ominously straight—"he shall have me; oh, yes, indeed!"

Thus it was that an hour later the widow, erect