Kit exchanged a long look with the old Indian.
"The house is yours, señor," said Isidro. "By the word of Señor Whitely, you are manager of Mesa Blanca."
"Many thanks," replied Kit, and sat with his elbows on the table and his hands over his eyes, thinking--thinking of the task he had set himself in Sonora, and the new turn of the wheel of fortune.
"You say the lady is a prisoner?" he asked.
"Sure," returned Clodomiro promptly. "She broke loose coming through a little pueblo and ran to the church. She found the priest and told him things, so they also take that priest! If they let him go he will talk, and Don José wanting no talk now of this woman. That priest is well cared for, but not let go away. After awhile, maybe so."
"She is bright, and her father was a priest," mused Kit. "So there is three chances out of four that she can read and write,--a little anyway. Could you get a letter to her?"
Kit got up, took one of the candles from the table and walked through the rooms surrounding the patio. Some of them had wooden bars in the windows, but others had iron grating, and he examined these carefully.
"There are two rooms fit for perfectly good jails," he decided, "so I vote we give this bewitched Don Marto the open door. How many guns can we muster?"
"He promised to give me one, and ammunition."
"Well, you get it! Get two if you can, but at least get plenty of ammunition. Isidro, will your wife be brave and willing to help?"
The old Indian nodded his head vigorously and smiled. Evidently only a stranger would ask if his Valencia could be brave!
The two brothers came in, and conversation was more guarded until Clodomiro had finished his supper, and gone a little ways home with them to repay them the long wait for comradeship.
When he came back Kit had his plans fairly settled, and had a brief note written to Señora Jocasta Perez, as follows:
One chance of safety is yours. Let yourself be persuaded to leave Soledad with Marto. You will be rescued from him by
"I reckon that will do the trick," decided Kit. "I feel like a blooming Robin Hood without the merry men,--but the Indians will play safe, even if they are not merry. When can you get this to Elena?"
"In time of breakfast," said Clodomiro promptly. "I go tonight, and tomorrow night he steals that woman. Maybe Elena helps."