It was for my sake and that of her country that she aided you; for she is a devoted patriot, and my _fiancee_.

We were to be married as soon as an American army landed.

She would have it so.
Now if she dies, I cannot bear it." While he spoke, the grief-stricken man, in whom there was slight resemblance to the debonair bandit of the day before, laid his burden gently down, and mounted the horse that Ridge had recovered.
"Now give her to me," he said; and, tenderly lifting the light form, Ridge placed it once more in his arms.

The girl had been shot in the back, and the cruel Mauser bullet, long but slender as a lead-pencil, had passed through her body.
"My only hope is to get her to the nearest camp of refugees, and that is still five miles away," said del Concha.
After that they rode in silence, the sorrowing lover, with his precious burden leading the way, and the young American oppressed by the sadness of the incident for which he felt wholly, though unwittingly to blame, following with the spare horse.

Mingled with our hero's self-reproach was also a decided curiosity as to how del Concha would explain the double part he had played the evening before.
As they advanced into the heart of the mountains, ever climbing, their road grew rougher and narrower, until finally it was a mere trail.
Although they passed occasional ruins of huts, they did not see one that was inhabited or habitable.