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Late on the second day after the battle Asensio returned to his bohio Rosa and Evangelina, already frantic at the delay, heard hi to them while he was still hidden in the woods, and knew that the worst had happened There was little need for him to tell his story, for he eaponless, stained, and bloody He had crossed the hills on foot after a miraculous escape fro whatever; the mention of Esteban's name caused him to beat his breast and cry aloud He eak and feverish, and his incoherent story of the hly colored that Rosa nearly swooned with horror

The girl stood swaying while he told how the night had betrayed theht incredible feats of valor before the shifting tide of battle had spewed him out the end of the sunken road and left hirass Asensio had lain there until, finding hile of vines at the foot of a wall, where he had re ceased When the Spaniards had finally discovered their hts ca theled away, crossed the calzada, and hidden in the woods until dawn He had been walking ever since; he had come home to die

Rosa heard only parts of the story, for her mind was numbed, her heart frozen Her emotion was too deep for tears, it paralyzed her for the tilazed, her ashen lips apart Finally so more until hours afterward, when she found herself upon her coht she had lain inert, in a radually caress was really alarirl did rally herand, despite her fragility of for, it see How she ever survived those next few days, days when she prayed hourly to die, was a mystery And when she found that she could at last shed tears, what agony! The bond between her and Esteban had been stronger than usually exists between sister and brother; he had been her other self; in him she had centered her love, her pride, her ary word had ever passed between the, moreover, had been almost more than human, and where the one was concerned the other had been utterly unselfish To lose Esteban, therefore, split the girl's soul and heart asunder; she felt that she could not stand without him Born into the world at the same hour, welded into unity by their irl were of the same flesh and spirit; they were animated by the same life-current Never had the one been ill but that the other had suffered corresponding syay but that the other had felt a like reaction Personalities so closely knit together are not uncoerous