ng his way through the crowd, only a few yards in
front of me,--a square-set figure, in the holiday clothes of a respectable
workman. I saw only his back now, every muscle tense in his desire to
escape the vengeance on his track; but I had seen his face for an instant,
and could identify it anywhere.

What if, in his desperation, he turned, and in the hope of saving himself
accused me of the crime he would have committed? It but needed that to
ruin me--after Barcelona, and this long journey to Seville, where the King
was due. Would any explanation I might make be credited, when the bomb was
in my hand?

I pushed the crowding thoughts out of my mind. There were other things to
think of--the bomb itself, what to do with it; and the man to be followed.

Meanwhile I was moving on after that broad back of which I must not lose
sight, and away from the neighbourhood of the royal box. I was in the lane
of the procession, close in front of the long ranks of occupied chairs,
and opposite the tribune. There were only two persons abreast in the
moving line which carried me along, driven on by the police, but we were
tightly packed, pressed against on one side by the knees of people in the
chairs, on the other by the purple brotherhood preceding another _paso_.
The situation seemed desperate, since to give an alarm would endanger the
crowd as well as jeopardize my future; and a panic would be a calamity.

Suddenly the cry of a water-seller struck my ear sharply. "Agua!--clear as
crystal and cold as mountain snow. Agua!"

He was just before me with his earthen vessel. "Sell me your jar," I said.
"No, I don't want a glass of water. I want the jar--for a curiosity. Twenty
pesetas for it."

This offer saved questionings. The vessel with its contents was worth two
pesetas to the vendor, perhaps, and, lest I should change my mind, its
owner hastily handed over his jar and pocketed my silver. Even now I had
to wait for an opening in the throng, till I had been pushed on as far as
the lane leading from the square to the Plaza de San Fernando; and there,
to my joy, I jostled against Ropes. Without a word of explanation, I said,
"Follow that man in the cloth cap with the black coat and red tie. Get
hold of him; take care he doesn't knife or shoot you. Don't let him go--and
wait for me."

This was all Ropes needed. "Right, sir," said he, and forged after the
black back, which in this freer space was gaining distance.

Unexpectedly rel