For an instant the Indian seemed to flinch with fear; then courage returned to him, for he thought the man before him misunderstood. “I am no hostile,” he said proudly. “I came to help protect the Señorita Anita. Ask her if I have offered harm.” “Out!” came the command again. “I am loyal. The hostiles will slay me!” “Go out, I say!” The man’s manner seemed to flash a warning to the neophyte. He turned swiftly and glanced at the _señorita_, and observed that she was clutching the poniard and staring at the man in horror. “If the _señorita_ commands--” the neophyte began. “Will you go out, dog?” “No--no, Pedro!” the girl implored. “This man----” But the roar of rage from the throat of the white man drowned the remainder of her sentence, and the neophyte did not hear. Standing against the wall he beheld the other man bearing down upon him with poniard ready. “I am loyal!” he cried. “I will help you! You do not understand! I am Pedro, and I have----” A hand clutched at his throat, the point of the blade was at his breast. He was hurled to the doorway, staggered, stumbled when the other man threw weight against him. “Here is a loyal man--attend to him!” he heard his antagonist shriek. Then he fell full length into the plaza, and shrieking hostiles rushed upon him. “Do not--understand!” he gasped; and died from a pistol shot. And a laughing renegade hurled the door shut, barred it securely, and still laughing turned to face the terror-stricken girl crouching at the corner of the big fireplace. CHAPTER XXII “COMMAND ME, SEÑORITA!” He ignored her a moment longer, running to the window and looking out across the plaza. The doors of the church were closed, but from the windows streamed hot lead, and from all parts of the plaza, and from the rear outside, hostiles were firing at every aperture. “’Twill not last much longer,” he said, laughing again, and then turned from the window and confronted the girl. “So you escaped the rancho?” he went on. “Very clever of you, _señorita_, though I cannot imagine why you should leave security and come to this place, where there has been grave danger. You may be glad to know that your escape caused three Indian guards to lose their lives. I had promised them death if you evaded them, and I always keep my promises. I handed them over to their chiefs--it was enough.” “Oh!” Her cry was of horror, pity, loathing, a world of expression in a single syllable. “We investigated the fireplace and chimney, and found an open window,” he continued. “It was beyond me that you and your _duenna_ could open the chimney in that manner, for I thought at first, of course, that you had done so. Then I remembered the stampede of horses, knew you must have had a mount to make the journey to the mission, and realised there was help from another source. Who aided you, _señorita_?”