Half mad with delight, yet unable to believe my own eyes, I sought to follow, the blood drumming in my ears from the wild intoxication of my love. None too soon I heard behind me the sharp call of Don Pedro: "_Hola, amigo!_ Have you gone deaf, that you do not answer?" This, then, was why she had eluded me! It was his return which had robbed me of that moment of all moments. My look as I turned was as bitter as his was keen. My voice sounded to me like that of another man: "What! Back so soon, senor?" "Senor?" he repeated, taken aback by the formal address. "Yet it is as well, Juan. All our plans are blasted. Hereafter it would seem we are to be strangers. I have no faith in the promises of that man." "You do well to distrust him," I said. "I might have foreseen the outcome of plans in which he was to play a part." "Whom can we trust in this self-seeking age! I find myself doubting even the fair promises of your great statesman Burr." "Of our discredited politician Burr!" I cried. "Don Pedro, he has no claim upon me, and you have many. Let me tell you, I begin to doubt him, even as I doubt our pompous General. I have reason to believe that Colonel Burr plans to take your country from Spain, not for the benefit of you and your friends, but for his own aggrandizement. He thinks himself a second Napoleon." "_Por Dios!_ I see it now. He plots to sell us to Spain, that Spain may aid his plot to make himself king of your Western country,--king of all that part which extends from the Alleghanies even here to New Orleans and north and west to the Pacific. I know; for did he not enter into negotiations with Marquis de Casa Yrujo?" "With the Spanish Minister?" I exclaimed. "With Casa Yrujo, after the death of Pitt deprived him of the hope of British ships and money." "So--he is but a crack-brained trickster," I muttered. "We have chased his rainbows and landed in the mire. This is the end, senor. I go now. Tomorrow's sun will see me on my way up-river to St. Louis. May you find brave men enough in your own land to win freedom, without the costly aid of tricksters!" "There are others than tricksters that share my plans--true-hearted men at New Orleans. The Mexican Association stands pledged,--three hundred and more loyal workers in the cause of my country's freedom." "Creoles," I said. "You could count upon a hundred of my backwoods countrymen to do more, should it come to the setting of triggers." "We shall see. But there are others than creoles in the association. Already Senor Clark has made two voyages to Vera Cruz, to spy out the defences. I go now to tell him more. You know something as to the power of our religious orders. At New Orleans are two such. But what is all this to you now?" "Much, Don Pedro! My heart is with the success of your plans!" "_Muchas gracias, amigo!_ Would that you might journey with me to my people! But the gate at Vera Cruz is narrow for heretics. _Adios!_"