"Look up," he said. "Do you see anything? Are not those men; soldiers?"

Roldan looked up to a ledge of the high mountain before the house. A
bend of the trail traversed a clearing. In this open were three men on
horseback, motionless for the moment.

"Adan!" shouted Roldan. He ran down the ladder.

"I cannot be sure that those are the soldiers," he called up to Don
Jose. "But I take no risks. We must go."

The others descended hastily. "My sons will have to hide too," said Don
Jose. "There is plenty of time. In a moment those men will be in the
forest again and can see nothing more for half an hour. We must do
nothing while they watch--there! they have gone."

He shouted to the vaqueros to saddle six fresh horses, and ordered the
house servants to pack the bags with food.

"There is a cave in the mountain on the other side which I defy anyone
to find," said Don Jose. "If there were a war my sons should fight, but
I need them now."

While the horses were saddling, Roldan and Adan consulted together. At
the end of a few moments the former went up to Don Jose.

"I think it would be wiser to separate," he said. "Adan and I will go
one way, your sons another. That will put them off the track; and the
cave, Carlos says, is not very large."