"What shall I tell you, Don Keith?" she asked, softly. "I am sorry you have been so ill and the bad dreams have come. This is Padre Libertad; he has nursed you very well. We must all obey him and let you sleep." "But not to dream again," he protested. "Be kind, as you were in the hills of the temple,--give me your hand again,--then I will sleep without the hell of dreams." At the command of the padre, she obeyed, and he took her one hand in both of his and drew it across his lips. A shudder passed over her at his touch, and she rested her other hand against the whitewashed wall for support. "Courage, my daughter," said the man with the book, gently; and the man on the bed looked at him and smiled. "Courage?" he said. "You should have seen her when she faced that mob of Indians and saved us. We had not meant to spy on their ceremonies, and we paid dearly for getting lost in the wilderness. Still, it was worth it, Dona mia! It was worth going through it all, even the hell of dreams, to find you again like this, and your hand in mine." She did not speak, only turned imploring eyes on the padre. "You need not mind him," continued Bryton. "I like him better than the old padre, and he shall marry us when I come back. Now I can go to sleep." He held her hand in his, and when she tried to draw it away, he smiled with closed eyes, and whispered, "You remember how we watched all the stars cross the sky? And then the morning star, the star of the Holy Spirit, that was yours, Dona mia; and then--then--you remember all--all of our one night?" "All of it--always!" He smiled with his eyes still closed, and released her hand, and did not see her as she swayed toward the door and was caught in the strong arms of the man she called Padre Libertad. When she knew where she was again, she found her face and hair wet with cold water, and all the women about with cordials and cures. "It is a fever; she will get it next," prophesied Dona Maria. "A woman who neither eats nor sleeps gets ready for the graveyard." But Raquel waved aside all their cures and sent for Padre Libertad. "You broke your vow of silence there just now for him," she said, abruptly. "Break it now for me. You know?" "God help you, Raquel Estevan! I know. No one else ever shall, and whatever you want done shall be done." "God help me, indeed!" Raquel moaned. "To the soul of Rafael I am bound all the days of my life. I want nothing done. I dare want nothing." * * * * *