At length they
crossed the summit and worked down toward the Yumuri, but it
seemed as if daylight would never come.
"A weary ride," Esteban yawned. "I shall sleep for a week."
Asensio agreed. "That Cueto will be furious," said he. "Some day,
perhaps, he and I will meet face to face. Then I shall kill him."
Esteban reined in his horse. "Look!" said he. "Yonder is a light."
The other horsemen crowded close, staring through the darkness. It
was very still in the woods; dawn was less than half an hour away.
"What is Evangelina thinking about?" Asensio muttered.
"But, see! It grows brighter." There followed a moment or two
during which there was no sound except the breathing of the horses
and the creak of saddle leathers as the riders craned their necks
to see over the low tree-tops below them. Then Esteban cried:
"Come! I'm--afraid it's our house." Fear gripped him, but he
managed to say, calmly, "Perhaps there has been an--accident."
Asensio, muttering excitedly, was trying to crowd past him; for a
few yards the two horses brushed along side by side. The distant
point of light had become a glare now; it winked balefully through
the openings as the party hurried toward it. But it was still a
long way off, and the eastern sky had grown rosy before the dense
woods of the hillside gave way to the sparser growth of the low
ground.
Pages:
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150