horley, mind you, miles and miles away!"

"They are more like camp-fires behind the hills," commented Etienne,
from his larger experience. "I think we had better clear out of Sarria
to-night."

"That," said Rollo, firmly, "is impossible so far as I am concerned. I
must wait at the mill-house for the papers. But do you three go on, and
I will rejoin you to-morrow."

"I will stay," said El Sarria, as soon as Rollo's words had been
interpreted to him.

"And I," cried Etienne. "Shall it be said that a Saint Pierre ever
forsook a friend?"

"And I," said John Mortimer, "to look after the onions!"

The mill-house was silent and dark as they had left it. They could hear
the drip-drip of the water from the motionless wheel. An owl called at
intervals down in the valley. Rollo, to whom La Giralda had given the
key, stooped to fit it into the keyhole. The door was opened and the
four stepped swiftly within. Then Rollo locked the door again inside.

They heard nothing through all the silent, empty house but the sound of
their own breathing. Yet here, also, there was the same sense of strain
lying vague and uneasy upon them.

"Let us go on and see that all is right," said Rollo, and led the way
into the large room where they had found Luis Fernandez. He walked up to
the window, a dim oblong of blackness, only less Egyptian than the
chamber itself. He stooped to strike his flint and steel together into
his tinder-box, and even as the small glittering point winked, Rollo
felt his throat grasped back and front by different pairs of hands,
while others clung to his knees and brought him to the ground.

"Treachery! Out with you, lads--into the open!" he cried to his
companions, as well as he could for the throttling fingers.

But behind him there arose the sound of a mighty combat. Furniture was
overset, or broke with a sharp crashing noise as it was trampled
underfoot.

"Show a light, there," cried a quick voice, in a tone of command.

A lantern was brought from an inner room, and there, on the floor, in
the grasp of their captors, were Ramon Garcia, still heaving with his
mighty exertions, and Rollo the Scot, who lay very quiet so soon as he
had assured himself that present resistance would do no good.

"Bring in the others," commanded the voice again, "and let us see what
the dogs look like."

Mortimer and Etienne, having been captured in the hall, while trying to
unlock the outer door, were roughly haled into the roo