e,
where we stay all day, and see our friends, and it's such fun visiting the
booths and side-shows! But maybe next spring you'll come back for the
_feria_ with your bride, Don Ramon; and as for you, Senor Waring--"

"As for me?" repeated Dick, anxiously. "Am I not to come back before
that?"

"You're to come back when you like, and--papa will be glad to see you," she
answered, just as any conventional little senorita might have answered.
But at least she had the kindness to blush; and I would have moved away to
give Dick a last chance if at that moment the Cherub had not come out of
his room.

Instantly Pilar dashed into explanations, and between the three of us he
soon had the history of events.

No one on earth looks less practical than the dreamy-eyed, soft-voiced
Cherub; yet it was he who thought of practical details which we had
forgotten. He it was who reminded us that it would not be prudent to take
Ropes away from Seville. As the man who said he had discovered the bomb,
his evidence would be wanted, and if he disappeared it would look
mysterious. His real connection with the Marques of Casa Triana might be
unearthed by the police; and because of that miserable affair at
Barcelona, whose consequences were continually cropping up, some hideous
story might be concocted and believed.

Dick and I unhesitatingly decided to take the Cherub's advice, and leave
Ropes behind. He was engaged in getting the car ready, and would no doubt
be disappointed to hear that he was to be temporarily abandoned; but he
would see the wisdom of such a course, and might be trusted to guard my
interests. As for Dick, he might turn his back on the proceedings in
Seville without danger, for he posed only as the employer of a man who had
found the bomb; besides, as I suggested without glancing at Pilar, he
could come back in a few days in case he were wanted to give evidence.

Thus it was settled; at eight o'clock we had said good-bye to Pilarcita
and the Cherub, softening the farewell with a hopeful "_au revoir_"; and
with Ropes staring disconsolately after us, we flashed out of the Plaza de
San Fernando.

I drove, with Dick beside me, for there was no longer need for subterfuge.
Carmona knew me for what I was, and I could help Monica more by defying
him than by playing the old waiting game, of which I was tired.

It seemed strange to be racing across country again in the car, after
those fevered days in Seville. With the steering-w