Dolores!
Dolores! Dolores!... There, senor, she will come at once."

"And, Pedro--if that rat-infested larder of yours is empty, get it
filled before the Duke arrives," added Robledo. "Yes ... the Duke. He
is coming to-night. Don't stand and stare, but hurry up and see to my
horse."

"Yes, senor!... Yes, yes!"

And he tottered away on his errands.

Dolores had entered in response to the call. At first she did not
observe the newcomer, whose back was toward her.

"Yes, father," she began. "Why do you wish me?"

"Dolores," Robledo turned toward her impatiently. "Did you not know I
had come?"

"Oh, it's you?" and there was a scornful sniff from the girl.

"Well, well, can't you say you're glad to see me?"

The jade was hard to impress, where others showed abjection before the
terrorist.

"I can, but I won't. Where's my father?"

"Never mind your father--I want to talk to you."

"Is it so, Senor Robledo? Well, you won't in that tone."

He intercepted her in the center of the room, catching her wrist and
turning her about to face him.

"What do you want to say to me?"

"You little devil!... Come here, don't try to get away." The girl was
tugging to release herself. "What's come over you these days? You are
about as fond and sweet-tempered as a tigress. Anyone would think that
you didn't care for me at all. What have I done, Dolores?"

"It is what you have not done. For fifteen days your Prince has been in
need of you, and you have not had the courage to go to him. Let go my
wrist."

Don Robledo laughed, yet with a quaver in his voice, for there was a
depth of passion here, intensified by the spirited resistance of the
girl.

"Who's the little spitfire trying to tear to pieces now?"

"You!" she snapped back. "Don Robledo--sword-fighter--toreador--fire-eater
--hero of a hundred duels!... You--Don Robledo--_coward_!"

He clumsily chuckled her under the chin.

"I asked you to-day," she continued, as she threw his hand away from
her face, "I begged you to go into the castle and rescue your Prince. I
ask you now to answer the signal that I just saw in the tower window,
where he can see our lights. Perhaps he has burned something, a scrap
of paper, in the hope that some of you, his retainers, would notice it
and come to his assistance. But--he doesn't know what a pack of cowards
you all are, or he would have saved his matches. So, it's Don
Robledo--_coward_!"

The big man snarled.

"Coward--never a c