Juana gave a little gasp and looked around at us and then she straightened her shoulders and came close to me. “No!” she said to Or-tis. “I will never go. This is my man—he has taken me. Ask him if he will give me up to you. You will never have me—alive.” “Don’t be too sure of that,” he growled. “I believe that you are both lying to me, for I have had you watched and I know that you do not live under the same roof. And you!” he glared at me. “Tread carefully, for the eyes of the law find traitors where others do not see them.” Then he turned and strode from the yard. A minute later they were gone in a cloud of dust. Now our happiness and peace had fled—it was always thus—and there was no hope. I dared not look at Juana after what I had said; but then, had she not said the same thing? We all talked lamely for a few minutes and then Father and Mother rose to go, and a moment later Jim and Mollie went indoors. I turned to Juana. She stood with her eyes upon the ground and a pretty flush upon her cheek. Something surged up in me—a mighty force, that I had never known, possessed me, and before I realized what it impelled me to do I had seized Juana in my arms and was covering her face and lips with kisses. She fought to free herself; but I would not let her go. “You are mine!” I cried. “You are my woman. I have said it—you have said. You are my woman. God, how I love you!” She lay quiet then, and let me kiss her, and presently her arms stole about my neck and her lips sought mine in an interval that I had drawn them away, and they moved upon my lips in a gentle caress, that was yet palpitant with passion. This was a new Juana—a new and very wonderful Juana. “You really love me?” she asked at last—“I heard you say it!” “I have loved you from the moment I saw you looking up at me from beneath the hellhound,” I replied. “You have kept it very much of a secret to yourself then,” she teased me. “If you loved me so, why did you not tell me? Were you going to keep it from me all my life, or—were you afraid? Brother Or-tis was not afraid to say that he wanted me—is my man, my Julian, less brave than he?” I knew that she was only teasing me, and so I stopped her mouth with kisses and then: “Had you been a hellhound, or Soor, or even Or-tis,” I said, “I could have told you what I thought of you; but being Juana and a little girl the words would not come. I am a great coward.” We talked until it was time to go home to supper and I took her hand to lead her to my house. “But first,” I said, “you must tell Mollie and Jim what has happened, and that you will not be back. For a while we can live under my father’s roof; but as soon as may be I will get permission from the teivos to take the adjoining land and work it and then I shall build a house.” She drew back and flushed. “I cannot go with you yet,” she said. “What do you mean?” I asked. “You are mine!” “We have not been married,” she whispered.