he repents or makes sure that we will have told if we intend to tell.
Will you come?"

"Will I? I would go to Mexico if I could. I feel that there is not room
in the Californias for those hands and myself."

"I will take care of you," said Roldan, proudly, anxious to rout the
memory of his recent humiliation. "But come." And Rafael, too weary and
bewildered to resent the authority of his erst-while rival, trudged
obediently in the rear.

"It grows colder," said Adan, significantly.

"Yes," said Roldan. "We near the mountains."

Adan stopped. "Is it the mountains again?" he asked. "If it is, then I,
for one, prefer the priest."

"The mountains never scared you half as badly as the priest did," said
Roldan, cruelly. "And to say nothing of the fact that we need never get
lost in the mountains again, the embrace of a grizzly would be no harder
and more death-sure than one in the great arms of that fiend that wears
a cassock."

"True. You are always right. But promise that whatever happens you will
not lead us into the Sierras."

"I promise," said Roldan, much flattered by this unconscious tribute to
his leadership.