"But he came and more bad will come from his visit,
more and more of evil things. One knows. _Seguro que si_; one knows.
But I will tell you and the senorita; no one else knows of it. It was
while in the Casa Blanca men are shooting, while Roderico Nortone will
make his arrest of poor Vidal who is dead now." He crossed himself and
drew a thoughtful puff from his cigarette. "I run fast to ring the
bells. I come into the garden and it is dark. I come under the bells.
And while my hand cannot find the rope . . . _Si, senor y
senorita_! . . . before I touch the rope the Captain begins to ring!
Just a little; not long; low and quiet and . . . angry! And then he
stop and I shiver. It is hard not to run out of the garden. But I
cross myself and find the ropes and make all the bells dance. But I
know; it was the Devil who was before me."
CHAPTER XV
THE KING'S PALACE
Not only was Galloway back in San Juan but, as Norton had predicted of
him, he appeared to have every assurance that he stood in no unusual
danger. There had been a fight in a dark room and one man had been
killed, certain others wounded. The dead man was Galloway's friend,
hence it was not to be thought that Galloway had killed him. Kid
Rickard was another friend. As for the wound Rod Norton had received,
who could swear that this man or that had given it to him?
"The chances are," Galloway had already said in many quarters, "that
Tom Cutter, getting excited, popped over his own sheriff.
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