member--do not let them out of your sight a moment.
I am putting far more than my own life into your hands."

"I will cherish them as the most precious thing in the world. And now,
I will go and show them to the Lady Superior."

"Not till you have taken in my Dolores as you promised," came the voice
of El Sarria, "or by Heaven I will burn your convent to the ground. She
shall not be left here in the damp dews of the night."

"No, no," whispered Concha, "she shall be laid in the lodge of the
portress, and La Giralda shall watch her till her own chamber is
prepared, and I have eased the mind of the Lady Superior."

The great bars were drawn. The bolts gave back with many creakings, and
through the black gap of the main gate they carried Dolores into the
warm flower-scented darkness of the portress's lodge.

She was laid on a bed, and the moment after Concha turned earnestly upon
the four men.

"Now go," she said, "this instant! I also have risked more than you
know. Go back!"

"Can I not stay with her to-night?" pleaded El Sarria, keeping the limp
hand wet with chill perspiration close in his.

"Go--go, I say!" said Concha. "Go, or it may be too late. See yonder."

And on a hill away to the west a red light burned for a long moment and
then vanished.

The three young men went out, but El Sarria lingered, kneeling by his
wife's bedside. Rollo went back and touched him on the shoulder.

"You must come with us--for _her_ sake!" he said. And he pointed with
his finger. And obediently at his word the giant arose and went out.
Rollo followed quickly, but as he went a little palm fell on his arm and
a low voice whispered in his ear--

"You trust me, do you not?"

Rollo lifted Concha's hand from his sleeve and kissed it.

"With my life--and more!" he said.

"What more?" queried Concha.

"With my friends' lives!" he answered.

And as he went out with no other word Concha breathed a sigh very softly
and turned towards Dolores. She felt somehow as if the tables were being
turned upon her.

* * * * *

Outside there was a kind of waiting hush in the air, an electric tension
of expectation, or so at least it seemed to Rollo.

As they marched along the road towards the mill-house, they saw a ruddy
glow towards the south.

"Something is on fire there!" said John Mortimer. "I mind when Graidly's
mills were burnt in Bowton, we saw a glimmer in the sky just like yon!
And we were at C