Page:The Road to Monterey (1925).pdf/251

 ter," Cecilia said. "Simon is still in the prison where you locked him, Don Gabriel. No key can be found to let him out. I pray God it is lost forever!"

"What does it mean when they wouldn't permit her aunt to go with her, Felipe? What do you suppose they've done, or design to do?"

Gabriel's concern was great. In his agitation he went to the door, closed in Cecilia's caution, opened it and stood gazing toward the pueblo as if for his answer out of the dark.

Cecilia came softly, pushed him back into the room, and closed the door.

"There will be somebody passing," she said.

As for the window, that did not seem to trouble her. It opened upon the goat corral; the strong scent of the animals came in with the slow breeze.

"It has a bad color, that," Felipe said, trouble in his tone.

"I'm going to the pueblo to find out," Gabriel declared.

"Don Gabriel, Don Gabriel! It would be death—to go!"

Liseta sprang from her cot as she made this protest, the first word she had spoken since the visitors entered the door.

"She speaks the truth," Cecilia whispered.

"I heard Don Roberto swear he would burn you, tied to the very cross where you tied him today," Liseta said.

"Thanks for your warning, Liseta; you always