and waterbottle on the spot.
Sergeant Cardono paid no attention whatever to the other three, whom he
evidently regarded as very subordinate members of the expedition.

As soon as they arrived at the village where they were to part from the
command of Cabrera, Sergeant Cardono promptly disappeared. He was not
seen for several hours, during which Rollo and El Sarria wandered here
and there endeavouring in that poor place to pick up some sustenance
which would serve them in lieu of a dinner. They had but poor success. A
round of black bread, a fowl of amazing age, vitality, and muscular
development, with a few snails, were all that they could obtain by their
best persuasions, aided by the money with which Rollo was plentifully
supplied. John Mortimer looked disconsolately on. He had added a little
ham on his own account, which last he had brought in his saddle-bags
from the venta of Sarria. But everything pointed to a sparse meal, and
even the philosophic Etienne shrugged his shoulders and departed to
prospect at a certain house half a mile up the road where, as they had
ridden rapidly by, a couple of pretty girls had looked out curiously at
the tossing Carlist _boinas_.

Rollo and El Sarria were carrying their scanty provend to a house where
a decent-looking woman had agreed to cook it for them, when their gloomy
reveries were interrupted by a sudden apparition which burst upon them
as they stood on the crest of a deep hollow.

The limestone hills had been rent asunder at the place, and from the
bare faces of the rocks the neighbouring farmers and villagers had
quarried and carried away such of the overhanging blocks as could easily
be trimmed to suit their purposes.

Part of what remained had been shaped into a _hornito_, or stone oven,
under which a fire had been kindled, and a strange figure moved about,
stirring the glowing charcoal with a long bar of iron. On a smaller
hearth nearer at hand a second fire blazed, and the smell of fragrant
cookery rose to the expectant and envious nostrils of the four.

It was Sergeant Cardono, who moved about whistling softly, now attending
to the steaming _olla_, now watching the rising bread in the _hornito_.

Perceiving Rollo, he saluted gravely and remarked, "Dinner will be
served in half an hour." The others, as before, he simply ignored. But
in deference to his new commander he stopped whistling and moved about
with his lean shoulders squared as if on parade.

When the b