And now the house of the big captain loomed black before him. Riego stole up the front steps. He knew behind which of the long, closed windows the señorita slept, and he approached and tapped fearfully upon it. It was a frightened voice that called: "Who is _that_?" Riego was not conscious how he answered, but he knew that a wave of relief flowed over him when the blind of the long window opened and he was drawn into the dark room by a pair of familiar hands. The blind was closed after him and a light was struck. The señorita's eyes were disclosed big and startled; her face was as white as the long robe she wore. "What _is_ it, Riego?" she gasped. "They are coming!" he whispered. "Who?" she exclaimed, catching him by the shoulders, "_Who?_" "Alva," the boy answered, "and three hundred with him. They are going to surprise--our soldiers--and kill them while they sleep!" The señorita sprang to the telephone. She pulled down the lever many, many times, then she staggered back against the wall. "They have cut the wires!" she cried. "Riego, you and I must take the warning!" "To the camp?" the boy cried in dismay. "Yes, there's no one within a mile of here that could take it but us!" "But the Mexicans have spies over there," the boy moaned. "They will find us in the dark with their knives!" She had flung on a long cloak, and was hurriedly fastening her shoes. "Then you stay here and I'll go," she said. "_You?_" cried the startled child--then--"It is dark out there, my lady; I'll go with you." They extinguished the light and stole out together to the stable, but the horses were gone! Desperate now, they started out afoot. The treacherous sand again and the black dark! But they crept along together. Then suddenly the boy's courage gave way and he clung to the cloaked figure, sobbing: "Señorita! Señorita! I am _afraid_!" The señorita was trembling, too, and her voice broke as she whispered: "You and I don't make very good heroes, do we?" They had come to a standstill and were clinging together in the dark. Suddenly there was a sound of something approaching---the velvet tread of an unshod pony in the sand! The rider passed. When they breathed again the señorita took him strongly by the shoulders. "Riego," she whispered--and there was no break in her voice now--"we must separate. One of us must go straight to the ford and warn the patrol, the other to camp." "But it is near the ford that Pacheco is hiding," the boy replied. "I'll go to the ford," she said simply. "No, my lady, _I_ go--you take the news to camp." And before she could detain him the boy turned at a sharp angle and plunged into the deeper blackness of the chaparral. * * * * * A long nightmare intervened between their parting and the time when the half-dead boy clung to the saddle of the patrol and whispered to him: "Keep to the open, señor; there are men with knives in the chaparral! Help is coming!"