The soldier made a salute less cringing because more hurried, and precipitately retired from the apartment. Roblado continued-- "By Heaven! this is a piece of luck! Who ever failed to catch a fool when love was his lure? This very night, too, and at midnight! I shall have time to prepare. Oh! if I but knew the place! 'Tis not given here." Again he read over the note. "Carajo, no! that is unfortunate. What's to be done? I must not go guessing in the dark! Ha! I have it! _She_ shall be watched!--watched to the very spot! Vicenza can do that while we lie somewhere in ambush. The girl can bring us to it. We shall have time to surround them. Their interview will last long enough for that. We shall take them in the very moment of their bliss. Hell and furies! to think of it--this low dog--this butcher of buffaloes--to thwart me in my purposes! But patience, Roblado! patience! to-night--to-night!--" A knocking at the door. Sergeant Gomez was admitted. "Gomez, get ready twenty of your men! picked fellows, do you hear? Be ready by eleven o'clock. You have ample time, but see that you be ready the moment I call you. Not a word to any one without. Let the men saddle up and be quiet about it. Load your carbines. There's work for you. You shall know what it is by and by. Go! get ready!" Without saying a word, the sergeant went off to obey the order. "Curses on the luck! if I but knew the place, or anything near it. Would it be about the house? or in the garden? Maybe outside--in the country somewhere? That is not unlikely. He would hardly venture so near the town, lest some one might recognise him or his horse. Death to that horse. No, no! I shall have that horse yet, or I much mistake. Oh! if I could find this place before the hour of meeting, then my game were sure. But no, nothing said of the place--yes, the _old_ place. Hell and furies! they have met before--often--often--oh!" A groan of agony broke from the speaker, and he paced to and fro like one bereft of his senses. "Shall I tell Vizcarra now," he continued, "or wait till it is over? I shall wait. It will be a dainty bit of news along with supper. Perhaps I may garnish the table with the ears of the cibolero. Ha! ha! ha!" And uttering a diabolical laugh, the ruffian took down his sabre and buckled the belt around his waist. He then armed himself with a pair of heavy pistols; and, after looking to the straps of his spurs, strode out of the room. CHAPTER FORTY FOUR. It wanted but an hour of midnight. There was a moon in the sky, but so near the horizon, that the bluff bounding the southern side of the valley threw out a shadow to the distance of many yards upon the plain.