“May I see you home, Señorita?” he leaned above her persuasively. “My aide can bring your horse to the door. The duenna may follow.” Her eyes flashed consent. “I must go now,” she whispered. “I have come without permission”--and that’s true enough, thought she. “My little _sirviente_ waits outside. Let her go with your man to show him our horses. Come, I will call her.” The lieutenant was carried away. He stepped with Raquel out into the patio. At Raquel’s call, an obedient little figure rose from a corner, a bundle under its arm, and was despatched through a side room with a soldier summoned there. It had all worked out too beautifully! Raquel requested the lieutenant in a low voice that the horses be brought to the back gate. It would be better were she not observed. Sensing intrigue, the daft youth consented. It was all to his liking. He felt that he had indeed made a conquest. She led him through the patio, within the arbor, where her dignity held him off, and then they passed through the gate, through the outer court, the second gate--Raquel drew a breath of infinite relief. The horses, led by a black-topped little girl, and followed by a peón _soldado_, came round the corner and stood before the house. Raquel spoke to the pinto and he pricked up his ears and came close. She stroked his head, and nuzzled his chin. “Come,” said her escort, “let me put you up.” “The little girl first,” said Raquel, “she does not ride so well, and must go astride.” What would happen when her little wild Paintbrush felt the flap of skirts upon his flanks for the first time? Many a good horse had gone crazy with less, especially at night. She spoke again to Paintbrush, softly, as she allowed the lieutenant to lift her up on the saddle sidewise. The pinto leaped as a skirt struck his flank, came down trembling. “Es broncho,” Raquel called out to the astonished _teniente_, as she brought down her quirt unobserved on the other flank, “he is afraid of my ruffled skirt.” And she shot ahead into the darkness with her small handmaiden following, and disappeared from sight before the startled and angry youth could dash over and grasp the reins of his own mount. He followed hot on their trail, taking the road toward Moctezuma, but they were gone, gone into the darkness, though he searched the streets till after midnight and made inquiries. CHAPTER XV WHAT BECAME OF RAQUEL Where was Raquel? When she realized, as Paintbrush raced through the darkness, that she had outdistanced not only the _teniente_ but Georgie also, she stopped and gathered the flimsy skirts tightly about her waist so that they would no longer terrify the pinto. Making a wide circle, she returned in the direction from which she had fled.