The terrified girl, watching, saw them disappear over the low ridge.
Presently she saw the outlaw coming back over the hill.
Leisurely he approached, and bowing low, said gently:
“I’m sorry, Señorita, you got so scared. It ain’t goin’ to be so no more.”
All night they rode and in the gray light of the early morning came to that small adobe ranch house near the Mexican border.
Save for a half-starved dog that slunk from sight behind the house as they approached, there seemed to be no life about the place. But when Sonora Jack, riding to within a few feet of the door, shouted, “Buenos dias, madre,” the door opened and an old Mexican appeared. He greeted the outlaw with a cordial welcome and came forward to take the horses. At the same moment an ancient crone hobbled from the house.
“Hijo mio! Gracias a Dios que volviste sin novedad,” she cried. “My son! Thanks to God you have returned without mishap.”
“Si, madre, sin novedad--Yes, mother, without mishap.”
“You found the Mine with the Door of Iron?”
“No, Mother, but I found something else that will bring much gold to me.”
He turned toward Marta and bade the girl dismount.
“We must eat and go on over the line quickly. Feed and water the animals but do not remove the saddles.”
Then leading Marta into the house, he took her to a little room and told her to lie down and rest until their breakfast was ready, and left her.
When she was alone, the girl looked about with wondering interest. She had felt, even as they were approaching the house, that there was something strangely familiar about the place. She seemed to have been there before or else to have seen it all in some dream. That corral--the well--the water trough--the adobe building--the hard-beaten yard--the pile of mesquite wood--the heap of old tin cans and rubbish. Surely, she had seen it all before. The interior of the house, too, was familiar in every detail. The bed upon which she was lying--the old rawhide bottom chairs--the cracked mirror on the wall and that print of the Holy Family. How strange it all was! She was certain that once before she had been shut in that room, and, lying on that bed, had heard those voices talking in Mexican on the other side of that door.