They watched Clodomiro circle over the mesa trail and follow the women down the slope of the little valley. It was fully three miles away, yet the women could be seen running in fear to the top of the mesa where they cast themselves on the ground resting from fright and exertion.
Quite enjoying his spectacular dash of rescue, Clodomiro cantered back along the trail, and when he reached the highest point, turned looking to the southeast where, beyond the range, the old Yaqui trail led to the land of despair.
He halted there, throwing up his hand as if in answer to some signal, and then darted away, straight across the mesa instead of toward the buildings.
"Tula has come!" said Doña Jocasta in a hushed voice of dread. "She has come, and Señor Rhodes is needed here. That coming of Tula may bring an end to quiet days,--like this!"
She sighed as she spoke, for the week had been as a space of restful paradise after the mental and physical horrors she had lived through.
In a half hour Clodomiro came in sight again just as Kit rode in from the west.
"Get horses out of the corrals," he called, "all of them. That trail has been long even from the railroad."
It was done quickly, and the vaqueros rode out as Clodomiro reached the plaza.
"Tula is as the living whose mind is with the dead," said the boy. "Many are sick, some are dead,--the mother of Tula died on the trail last night."
"Good God!" whispered Kit. "After all that hell of a trail, to save no one for herself! Where is Marto?"
"Marto walks, and sick ones are on his horse. I go back now that Tula has this horse."
"No, I will go. Stay you here to give help to the women. Bring out beds in every corridor. Bring straw and blankets when the beds are done."
Doña Jocasta put out her hand as he was about to mount.
"And I? What task is mine to help?" she asked, and Kit looked down at her gravely.
"Señora, you have only to be yourself, gracious and kind of heart. Also remember this is the first chance in the lands of Soledad to show the natives they have not alone a padrona, but a protecting friend. In days to come it may be a memory of comfort to you."
Then he mounted, and led the string of horses out to meet the exiles. While she looked after him murmuring, "In days to come?"
