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The valley, already well-nigh deserted, was filled to the brim with smoke from burning fields and houses, and through it the sun showed like a copper shield. Refugees passed the bohio, bound farther into the hills, and Asensio told the two women that he and they must also go. So the three gathered up what few things they could carry on their backs and fled.
Sebastian won't believe it. He is praying. And Asensio O God! But what can they do to help me? You alone can save me. You won't let Don Pablo take me away? It would kill me." "Wait!" Esteban scrambled out of bed and stood beside his dusky nurse and playmate. "Don't cry any more. I'll tell papa that you don't like Don Pablo." Rosa followed. "Yes, come along, brother," she cried, shrilly.
I I " Unable to think of a parting speech sufficiently bitter to match his disappointment, Don Mario plunged out into the sunlight, muttering and stammering to himself. Within an hour the twins were on their way up the Yumuri, toward the home of Asensio and Evangelina; for it was thither that they naturally turned.
Asensio declared that he was too sick to be moved, and asserted that he would infinitely prefer to remain where he was, provided he was supplied with sufficient money to cover his needs. Evangelina agreed with him. Then, and not until then, did Rosa begin her preparations.
Then, recalling some of those stories about Colonel Cobo, he added, "There are two of them, you know, a boy and a girl." "Ah yes! I remember." "I can direct you to the house of Asensio, where they live." "Um-m!" Cobo was thoughtful. "A girl. How old is she?" "Eighteen." "Ugly as an alligator, I'll warrant." "Ha! The most ravishing creature in all Matanzas. All the men were mad over her."
But what is wrong with her? Look! She is ill " "She is often like that. It is the hunger. We have nothing to eat, senor. I, too, am ill dying; and Asensio Oh, you don't know how they have made us suffer." "We must get Rosa home. Where do you live?" Evangelina turned her death's head toward the city. "Down yonder. But what's the use? There is no food in our house and Rosa is afraid of those wagons.
She wanted, oh, so desperately, to believe in it, but the grinding misery of her situation made it hard to do so. Wonders like that came true only in fairy stories, she told herself; and certainly she had no cause to consider herself a favorite of fortune. More than once she was tempted to confide in Evangelina and Asensio, but she thought better of it.
"Don't be frightened, little dove; he has the makings of a great soldier. It's a good thing for the Spaniards that he isn't general. Cuba would be free in no time." "He's so reckless." "Oh, he knows what he's doing. Besides, Asensio wouldn't let him be hurt. I took pains to tell him that if ever he permitted Esteban to suffer so much as a scratch I would disembowel him with his own machete.
But in spite of his speed he made no difficult target. A bullet brought his horse down and the boy went flying over its neck. Nothing but the loose loam saved him from injury. As he rose to his feet, breathless and covered with the red dirt, there came a swift thudding of hoofs and Asensio swept past him like a rocket.
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.
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