"Done," agreed the Governor, hastily. CHAPTER XLIV THE TRUCE IS BROKEN On the Garvez ranch, at sunset, the 17th of May, David Broderick found a gracious interval of peace. It seemed almost incredible to be dining in the patio with Benito and Alice against a background of fragrant honeysuckle and early roses. The long sloping mesas were bright with golden poppies; fleecy white clouds bedecked the azure of a western sky, flushing now with carmine tints. Cowbells tinkled musically faint with distance and from the vaquero quarters came a herder's song, a woman's laughter, the tinkle of a guitar. "What are you dreaming of, my friend?" asked Alice Windham, gently. "It is very like a dream," he smiled at her, "this place of yours. So near the city. Yet so far removed in its enchantment.... "Down there," he pointed toward the town, where lights were springing up out of the dusk, "a man lies dying ... and a mob plots vengeance." "Oh, come," Benito voiced a protest, "we're not a mob, Dave. You know that." He laid a hand upon the other's arm. "I understand how hard it's been for you.... You're suffering for the sins of underlings unfit to lace your boots." "Against whom you warned me not long since," said Broderick to Alice. "Casey, Mulligan. Yes, I remember ... you resented it a little, didn't you?" "No," he said, his eyes upon her with that eager look, repressed and yearning, which she could not always meet. "No, dear lady; it was not resentment.... But it hurt." Alice turned from him to her husband. "Tell me what they've done today, Benito." Windham's eyes shone. "You should see Will Coleman. Ah, he's a leader incomparable. We've got nearly 6,000 men. Infantry, artillery, cavalry. A police force, too, for patrolling the streets day and night." "And what is the other side doing?" Alice asked. "They've got the Governor wobbling," said Benito. "Sooner or later he'll call out the militia...." "But they've got no ammunition, no guns, I understand," responded Broderick. "Sherman tried to commandeer those flintlock muskets from the Mexican war--several thousand of them--but Coleman got them first." "Yes," affirmed Benito. "The Sheriff's seized some scattered arms. But that is not what Coleman fears. It's Federal interference. They're trying to get General Wool to give them rifles from the arsenal at Benicia, perhaps a gunboat from the navy yard." "That means--civil warfare," Broderick said, aghast. Alice Windham rose and the two men with her. She took an arm of each. "Come," she pleaded, "let us put it all away--this turmoil of men's hatred ... let us walk here in the sweet-scented evening and forget." "I wish we might," said Broderick quickly. "What will happen in the next few days may never be forgotten." Swiftly, Alice turned to him; looked up into his face. "Do you think," she asked, so low that he could scarcely catch the words, "do you think, Dave, that you're safe?"