Page:The Road to Monterey (1925).pdf/283

 "That man is I, Simon Villalobo. I am in the greatest danger that a man ever breathed."

"There is the whole world," said Pablo, sweeping his hand to embrace it. "Hide yourself from your enemies, Simon."

"I am weak; I suffer from a wound."

"Well, I can't carry you."

"You can help me, Pablo."

"I have helped many an honest man."

"I have broken from Don Abrahan's prison, curse him in the seven places! Because I helped the young American, Don Gabriel, escape, by a cunning plot between us it was, Pablo—have you not heard?"

"Would the wind tell me?" Pablo asked, indifference in his unmoved face.

"Of course it is impossible that you have seen him. I rave like a drunk man. Well, it was this way, Pablo, between Don Gabriel and me: I feigned that he struck me with the water pitcher, putting my head into his cell to take away his straw bed. We broke the pitcher against the bars, and I gave him my hands to tie, and opened my mouth for the silencer he put into it. But Don Abrahan is sharper than seven doctors. For the blow I pretended to receive he gave me this knocked head, he locked me in his prison, he swore he would hang me if Don Gabriel was not caught. Did they catch him? You have been to the pueblo, good Pablo—tell me if Don Gabriel has been caught?"

"There is life a mile long in a man who has so