ng, and they did their
best not to disappoint me. I saw that if anybody was going to do the
Sherlock Holmes' act, it must be Ropes and me. We sat tight at the
Washington Irving, and looked around; but at the end of a fortnight no one
was any wiser than at the beginning. Then what should happen but the dear
old Colonel and Pilar popped down to see if they could help. Oh, and I
forgot to tell you that meanwhile the people at Carmona's palace had
cleared out. They'd gone back to Seville again by train; and what should
happen but the Colonel and Pilar met Carmona face to face in the station."

"Not Monica?" I broke in.

"No. I suppose the others had got into a carriage; he was lingering behind
to give a valet directions about luggage. And then there was a scene.
Pilar told me all about it. Carmona bowed; and before the Cherub could
pull the little girl away, as he tried, seeing danger in her eye, she gave
the Duke a piece of her mind. Said he was a villain, or some kind words of
that sort. He retorted by saying to her father that he could make a lot of
trouble for Cristobal if they didn't take care. Pilar said they could
accuse him of worse things than he could them; and somehow or other, in an
evil moment, the subject of Corcito, a grey bull Carmona was once nasty
about, came up. Then, before she knew what she was doing, Pilar flashed
out the name of Vivillo, the beast she wanted to buy, you know. And from
that minute the fat was in the fire as far as she was concerned. But about
that later. What with you and the bull, she was in a dreadful state of
mind when she got here, poor child. However, she put on her thinking cap,
and said she, 'Try the gypsies. See if they don't know something.'

"That was enough for me. I took a sudden fancy to Captain Pepe, the chief
of the gypsies, and went every night to see a dance in his cave. But I
soon saw he was straight; and they weren't a bad lot of people in the
colony. The nasty ones he kicked out, and they had to hustle for
themselves. Captain Pepe told me about one fellow, Juan Castello, who'd
got himself disliked, though he was a nailer with the guitar; and when he
said the chap had a sister who had a fine position in the house of a
titled person, because she was the best seamstress in the country, I
pricked up my ears. You can bet, after I'd heard the titled person was
Carmona, I turned my attention to Mr. Castello, dropped in on him one day,
named a big price, and asked him to g