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 were a good friend to me," Gabriel said. "But I must go; I am burning up my time."

"Soldiers were sent to hunt for you and Don Felipe. I saw them from the hill when I gathered in the goats this evening."

"Which way were they going, Liseta?"

"Toward the pass, Don Gabriel. I heard Don Abrahan say you would try to escape to the north."

"That is very good," Gabriel said, touching Felipe's arm in the dark. "Every one of them that's away will be one less for us to face in the pueblo. Are you ready, Felipe?"

"There will be a matter of an extra horse for Helena," Felipe said. "Who watches the stable, since Simon is in prison, Cecilia?"

"Old Vincente, the carpenter, has been around this evening. I doubt if anybody watches."

"There will be no difficulty," Felipe said.

Felipe left something in Cecilia's hand as they parted from her at the door, that was more than unemphasized thanks to the poor widow living out her hopeless peonage under the beneficent Don Abrahan's shadow.

"Don Felipe," she said earnestly, "tell me, is it true the Americans are coming to set free all the poor ones who are enslaved by unjust debts?"

"It is true, Cecilia."

"I pray the sun may not set three times before they come!" she said.

There seemed the very breath of romance in the night as Henderson and Felipe rode away toward