They ran down the tunnel. It was wide and high, built for flying priests, should the Mission be besieged and captured by savage tribes. The air was close and heavy, but free from noxious gases. Bats whirred past and rats scampered before them. Roldan paused after a moment and lit his lantern. Its thin ray leaped but a few feet ahead, but would frighten away any wild beast of the forest that might have wandered in. The tunnel was straight. It also appeared to be endless. "We have walked twenty leagues," groaned Adan, at the end of an hour. "Two," said Roldan. "Without doubt this tunnel ends at the mountains, and they are four leagues from the Mission. But you have taken longer walks than this, my friend. Do you remember that night in the mountains?" "I had forgotten it for one blessed week. Rafael, to what have we brought you? Your poor muscles are soft, where ours are now as hard as a deserter's from an American barque--ay, yi!" "If they have but the chance to become soft once more after they too are hard!" muttered Rafael, who was panting and lagging. "That priest! that priest!" "It is true," said Roldan, pausing abruptly. "You will not dare to return home at present--nor we. It is flight once more--to Los Angeles. We will stay there--where he would not dare touch us if he came--until he repents or makes sure that we will have told if we intend to tell. Will you come?" "Will I? I would go to Mexico if I could. I feel that there is not room in the Californias for those hands and myself." "I will take care of you," said Roldan, proudly, anxious to rout the memory of his recent humiliation. "But come." And Rafael, too weary and bewildered to resent the authority of his erst-while rival, trudged obediently in the rear. "It grows colder," said Adan, significantly. "Yes," said Roldan. "We near the mountains." Adan stopped. "Is it the mountains again?" he asked. "If it is, then I, for one, prefer the priest." "The mountains never scared you half as badly as the priest did," said Roldan, cruelly. "And to say nothing of the fact that we need never get lost in the mountains again, the embrace of a grizzly would be no harder and more death-sure than one in the great arms of that fiend that wears a cassock." "True. You are always right. But promise that whatever happens you will not lead us into the Sierras." "I promise," said Roldan, much flattered by this unconscious tribute to his leadership. "Do you think that priest is really a devil?" asked Rafael, in an awestruck voice. "When a man has insulted you, you do not know what you think of him," said Roldan, flushing hotly. "If he only were not a priest I'd fight him, big as he is. But at least I can outwit him. It consoles me to think of his fury when he goes to the cave and finds us gone." "We'd better get out of this tunnel before we talk about having the best of the priest," said Adan. "Suppose he returns to kill us himself--"