"Don Rafael! Now I know you! You are Don
Rafael. That is why I should kill you!"
"Great Scott, no, I am not Don Rafael!" shouted Billie as
Santiago again raised his rifle and the lad perceived that he had
to do with a crazy man. "I'm the boy that saved your life when
Don Rafael tried to kill you. Don't you remember?"
Again Santiago lowered his weapon, and again there came upon his
face that puzzled expression.
"Tell me, Santiago--I mean Prince Iztazil, or whatever you call
it, what are you doing here?"
Santiago eyed him suspiciously, but finally laid his rifle across
a table in the center of the room and approached nearer the lad.
"Listen!" he said in a whisper. "I am the guardian of the
treasure of Montezuma. It is to be used to free Mexico from the
Spaniard. He must be driven out. The land belongs to the Aztec."
"But where is the Aztec?" queried Billie. "I know him not."
"I am he. The peons are my people. The Spaniard--bah! He owns the
houses and he owns the lands; but he must be driven out."
"Isn't that what Villa says?"
"Villa? Villa?" again repeated Santiago, and again he lapsed into
silence.
For some minutes he remained motionless ere he stepped back,
picked up his rifle and started for a door leading to a stairway.
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