Silencio passed the night in wakeful watching and planning. Raquel slept the innocent sleep of a careless child. Gil had promised that all would come out well. She trusted him.

Very early in the morning the scouts whom Silencio had placed along the boundaries of his estate were called in, and collected within the patio of the casa. The outer shutters of the windows were closed and bolted; the two or three glass windows, which spoke of the innovation which civilization brings in its train, were protected by their heavy squares of plank. The doors were locked, and the casa at Palmacristi was made ready for a siege.

Silencio awakened Raquel as the first streak of dawn crept up from the horizon. Over there to the eastward trembled and paled that opalescent harbinger which told her that day was breaking. She looked up with a child's questioning eyes.

"It is time, sweetheart. Now listen, Raquel. Pack a little bag, and be ready for a journey."

Raquel pouted.

[Pg 247]

"Cannot Guillermina pack my bag?"

"No, not even Guillermina may pack your bag. When it is ready, set it just inside your door. If you do not need it, so much the better. You may open your windows toward the sea, but not those that look toward Troja."

Silencio flung wide the heavy shutter as he spoke. Raquel glanced out to sea.

"Oh, Gil! where is the Coco?"

"I wish I knew. She should be here."

"Are we to go on board, Gil?"

"Unfortunately, even should she arrive now, she is a half-hour too late. Now hasten, I will give you fifteen minutes, no more."

"We might have gone out in the boat, Gil. Oh! why did you not call me?"

Silencio pointed along the path to the right. Some of Escobeda's men, armed with machetes and shotguns, stood just at the edge of the forest, where at any moment they could seek protection behind the trees. They looked like ghosts in the early dawn.

"And where is your friend, Beltran?"

Silencio shook his head.

"He cannot have received my message," he said.

"And are the men of Palmacristi too great cowards to fight those wretches?"

Silencio started as if he had been struck. He did not answer for a moment; then he said slowly:[Pg 248] "Raquel, do you know what we should be doing were you not here?—I and my men?"

He spoke coldly. Raquel had never heard these tones before.

"We should be out there hunting those rascals to the death, no matter how they outnumber us; but I dare not trust you between this and the shore. My scouts tell me that they have kept up picket duty all night. Escobeda expected the Coco back this morning; at all events, he was ready for our escape in that way. The orders of those men are to take you at any cost. Should I be killed, your protection would be gone. I am a coward, but for you only, Raquel, for you only."

The young wife looked down. The colour mounted to her eyes. She drew closer to her husband, but for once he did not respond readily to her advances. He was hurt to the core.

"Get yourself ready at once," he said. "I will give you fifteen minutes, no more. We have wasted much time already."

Raquel hardly waited for Silencio to close the door. She began to dress at once, her trembling fingers refusing to tie strings or push the buttons through the proper holes. As she hurriedly put on her everyday costume, she glanced out of the window to see if in the offing she could discover the Coco. The little yacht was at that very moment[Pg 249] hastening with all speed toward her master, but a point of land on the north hid her completely from Raquel's view.

"Although he will not own it, he evidently intends to carry me away in the yacht." Raquel smiled. "So much the better; it will be another honeymoon."

When Silencio left Raquel, he ran out to the patio. On the way thither he met old Guillermina with a tray on which was her mistress's coffee. Upon the table in the patio veranda—that used by the servants—a hasty meal was laid. Silencio broke a piece of cassava bread and drank the cup of coffee which was poured out for him, and as he drank he glanced upward. Andres was standing on the low roof, on the inner side of the chimney of stone which carried off the kitchen smoke. He turned and looked down at Don Gil.

"The Se?or Escobeda approaches along the gran' camino, Se?or."

Silencio set down his cup and ran up the escalera. He walked out to the edge of the roof, and shaded his eyes with his hand.

"Yes, Andres; it is true. And I see that he has some gentlemen with him." He turned and called down to the patio.

"Ask Guillermina if her mistress has had her coffee."

[Pg 250]

As he faced about a shot rang out. The bullet whistled near his head.

"Go down, Se?or, for the love of God!" said Andres.

The company of horsemen were riding at a quick pace, and were now within hearing.

Silencio waved his arm defiantly.

"Ah! then it is you, Se?or Escobeda! I see whom you have with you. Is that you, Pedro Geredo? Is that you, Marcoz Absalon? You two will have something to answer for when I report this outrage at the government town."

Escobeda had ridden near to the enclosure. His head was shaking with rage. His earrings glittered in the morning sun, his bloodshot eyes flashed fire. He raised his rifle and aimed it at Silencio.

"You know what I have come for, Se?or. Send my niece out to me, and we shall retire at once."

"How dare you take that name upon your lips?" Silencio was livid with rage. Another shot was fired. This time it ploughed its way through Silencio's sleeve.

"Shall I kill him, Se?or?" Andres brought his escopeta to his shoulder; he aimed directly at Escobeda. "I can kill him without trouble, Se?or, and avoid further argument. It is as the Se?or says!"

Silencio looked anxiously seaward. No sign of the Coco!

[Pg 251]

"Not until I give the word, Andres." And then to Escobeda, "I defy you! I defy you!"

Shots began to fall upon the casa from the guns of Escobeda's impudent followers. Escobeda leaped his horse into the enclosure; his men followed suit. Silencio saw them ride in lawless insolence along the side of the building, and then heard the hollow ring of the horses' hoofs upon the veranda. He ran down the escalera. The mob were battering at the front door with the butt ends of their muskets.

Raquel appeared in the patio, pale and terrified.

"Gil! Gil!" she cried, "they are coming in! They will take me!"

"Coward! Come out and fight," was the cry from the outside.

"I am a coward for you, dear." He seized her wrists. "To the counting-house!" he whispered, "to the counting-house!" As they ran she asked, "Is there any sign of the Coco?"

"None," answered Silencio; "but we could not reach her now."

Together they flew through the hallways, across the chambers, where the blows were sounding loud upon the wooden wall of the house, upon the shutters, and the doors. They ran down the far passage and reached the counting-house door. Silencio stumbled over something near the sill.

[Pg 252]

"Ah! your bag," he said. "I told Guillermina to set it there."

He opened the door with the key held ready, and together they entered. Silencio tore the rug from the middle of the room, and disclosed to Raquel's amazed eyes a door sunken in the floor. He raised it by its heavy ring. A cold blast of air flowed upward into the warm interior. Raquel had thought the room cool before; now she shivered as if with a chill. Silencio pushed her gently toward the opening. "Go down," he said.

Raquel gazed downward at the black depths.

"I cannot go alone, Gil." She shuddered.

"Turn round, dear Heart; put your feet on the rungs of the ladder, so! Ah! what was that?" Silencio glanced anxiously toward the open doorway. A heavy cracking of the stout house-door showed to what lengths Escobeda and his followers were prepared to venture.

"Go, go! At the bottom is a lantern; light it if you can, while I close the trap-door."

Raquel shrank at the mouth of this black opening, which seemed to yawn for them. The damp smell of mould, the cold, the gloom, were sudden and dreadful reminders of the tomb which this might become. She imagined it a charnel house. She dreaded to descend for fear that she should[Pg 253] place her feet upon a corpse, or lay her fingers on the fleshless bones of a skeleton.

"Courage, my Heart! Courage! Go down! Do not delay."

At the kindness of his tone, Raquel, taking courage, began to descend. Terrible thoughts filled her mind. What if Escobeda and his men should discover their retreat, and cut off escape at their destination? What that destination was she knew not. Her eyes tried vainly to pierce the mysterious gloom. It was as if she looked into the blackness of a cavern. She turned and gazed for a moment back into the homelike interior which she was leaving, perhaps for all time. The loud blows upon the house-door were the accompaniment of her terrified thoughts.

Raquel descended nervously, her trembling limbs almost refusing to support her. She reached the bottom of the ladder, and by the aid of the dim light from above, she found the lantern and the matches, which Silencio's thoughtful premonition had placed there, ready for her coming. As she lighted the lantern she heard a terrific crash.

Silencio, with a last glance at the open door of the counting-house, which he had forgotten to close, now lowered the trap-door, and joined Raquel in the dark passage. He stood and listened for a moment. He heard a footstep on the floor[Pg 254] above, and taking Raquel's hand in his, together they sped along the path which he hoped would lead her to safety.

"Oh, child!" he said, in sharp, panting words, as they breathlessly pursued the obscure way, "for the first time I have given you proof of my love."

Raquel turned to look at him. She saw his dark face revealed fitfully by the flashes of the lantern swinging from his hand.

"Here am I flying from that villain, when I ache to seize him by the throat and choke the very breath of life out of him. Here am I running away, running away!—do you hear me, Raquel?—while they, behind there, are calling me coward. But should he take you—"

Raquel stumbled and almost fell at these dreadful words.

"Gil, Gil, dearest! do not speak of it; perhaps he is coming even now behind us."

At the dreadful suspicion she fell against the wall, dragging him with her. She clung to him in terror, impeding his progress.

"This is not the time to give way, Raquel." Silencio spoke sternly. "Call all your will to your aid now. Run ahead of me, while I stand a moment here."

Raquel gathered all her resolution, and without further question fled again upon her way. Silencio[Pg 255] waited a moment, facing the steps which they had just descended, and listened intently. But all that he heard was the sound of Raquel's flying feet. When he was convinced that no one was following them, he turned again and ran quickly after Raquel. He easily gained upon her.

"I hear nothing, Raquel. Do not be so frightened."

At these words the changeable child again regained confidence.

"You have heard of a man building better than he knew," he said. He waved the lantern toward the sides of the tunnel. "There were wild tales of smuggling in the old days—"

The colour had returned to Raquel's cheek. She laughed a little as she asked:

"Did your grandfather smuggle, Gil?"

"He was no better and no worse than other men; who knows what—we will talk later of that. Come!"

He took her hand in his, and again together they fled along the passage. As no sound of pursuing feet came to their ears, confidence began to return. They were like two children running a race. Silencio laughed aloud, and as they got further from the entrance to the passage he whistled, he sang, he shouted! The sound of his laughter chilled the heart of Raquel with fear.

[Pg 256]

"Gil," she pleaded, "they will hear you. They will know where we have gone." She laid her fingers on his lips as they ran, and he playfully bit them, as he had seen her close her teeth upon El Rey's.

The passage was a long one. Raquel thought that it would never end.

"Have we come more than two miles, Gil?" she asked.

Raquel was not used to breathless flights in the dark. Silencio laughed.

"Poor little girl! Does it seem so long, then? When we have reached the further end we shall have come just three hundred feet."

At last, at last! the further door was reached. Silencio unlocked it and pushed it open. This was rendered somewhat difficult by the sand which had been blown about the entrance since last he had brushed it away. A little patient work, and the two squeezed themselves through the narrow opening.<............