at either of them will deserve readmission to the Convent of the Holy
Innocents!"

More than once Rollo endeavoured to extract from Concha to what place
her self-assumed mission was taking her, and at what point she would
leave them. It was in vain. The lady baffled all his endeavours with the
most consummate ease.

"You have not communicated to me," she said, "the purport of your own
adventures. How then can I tell at what place our ways divide?"

"I am forbidden to reveal to any save General Cabrera alone my secret
instructions!" said Rollo, with such dignity as he could muster at short
notice.

"And I," retorted Concha, "am as strictly forbidden to reveal mine to
General Cabrera or even to that notable young officer, Colonel Don Rollo
of the surname which resembles so much a _borrico's_ serenade!"

That speech would have been undoubtedly rude save for the glance which
accompanied it, given softly yet daringly from beneath a jetty fringe of
eyelash.

Nevertheless all Rollo Blair's pride of ancestry rose insurgent within
him. Who was this Andalucian waiting-maid that she should speak lightly
of the descendant of that Blair of Blair Castle who had stood for Bruce
and freedom on the field of Bannockburn? It was unbearable--and yet,
well, there was something uncommon about this girl. And after all, was
it not the mark of a gentleman to pay no heed to the babbling of women's
tongues? If they did not say one thing, they would another. Besides, he
cared nothing what this girl might say. A parrot prattling in a cage
would affect him as much.

So they rode on together over the great tawny brick-dusty wastes of Old
Castile, silent mostly, but the silence occasionally broken by speech,
friendly enough on either side. Behind them pounded La Giralda, gaunt as
the sergeant himself, leather-legginged, booted and spurred, watching
them keenly out of her ancient, unfathomable gipsy eyes.

And ever as they rode the Guadarrama mountains rose higher and whiter
out of the vast and hideous plain, the only interruption to the circling
horizon of brown and parched corn lands. But at this season scrub-oak
and juniper were the only shrubs to be seen, and had there been a
Cristino outpost anywhere within miles, the party must have been
discerned riding steadily towards the northern slopes of the mountains.
But neither man nor beast took notice of them, and a certain large
uncanny silence brooded over the plain.

At one point, indeed,