"I think," said Ana, speaking softly and watching her, "that he told you Felipe Estevan's daughter had saved Rafael Arteaga a treasure that night."
"Anita! So he did; and you know the words, the very words he spoke to me!"
"I know more, Raquel mia; I know what the treasure was."
"It is not nice to tell," and Ana hesitated. "But he saw you there that evening with his own eyes."
"Yes, the priest. He saved you from being carried to the hills by the Juan Flores robbers, while Capitan took others of the men and secured the chests of wedding gifts from the old Mission. Oh, it was all planned for the one big revenge on Rafael Arteaga. But he saw you, and so--"
"And that priest saved me from them, Anita?"
"Yes, he saved you--the priest--and sent you back to your friends, and sent the men across the mesas--because you were Estevan's daughter. But he did not try to save Rafael's horses; that night many of the finest were headed eastward and never came back."
"And if--if the padre had not been there at the right moment, I--"
"It is not a nice story, at all," acknowledged Ana. "They are rough men. One of them would have married you, and you would never have cared to see your friends again, and Rafael never would have found you."
"Mother of God! He hates Rafael like that, yet lets him live?"
Ana laughed a little and shrugged her shoulders.
"Capitan is like that," she observed. "No one is like him. If Rafael's life were in danger this hour, Capitan would ride to save him. Oh, he does not mean that he shall die while young, and handsome, and rich, and beloved!"
Her tone had a little hard ring for a moment; her eyes were sparkling with a certain admiration for the character she was describing. The story had brought the color back to Raquel's face, and she listened feverishly. What strange, strange things could be possible in the smiling valleys of San Juan! For the moment she forgot the dull ache in her heart which had driven her to ride alone back to sanctuary.
"And you know all this, Anita; even the words of the padre! How?"
She caught Ana's hands in hers impetuously, and made her look in her eyes.
"Then you know him? You see him sometimes?"
"Padre Libertad--the Liberated? I never have heard him spoken of. Where can I find him? Anita, I will go alone, but this feud shall be ended. He will help me. And I--I never knew what he saved me from that night. I scarcely thanked him. He was so strange, so abrupt, so masterful, I accepted all he did, and never knew! Tell me. Anita. I will go to him--I will--"