and remember I am here to keep watch and ward. Then stand a
while in the shadow to recover your breath, and when you hear me
whistle thrice like a swallow's twitter underneath the eaves, duck down
as low as you can and make straight for the thickest of the underbrush
over there. I have watched it for an hour and have seen nothing move.
Yet that signifies less than nothing. There may be a score, aye, or a
hundred gipsies underneath the branches, and the frogs croaking
undisturbed upon the twigs above all the while. Yet it is your only
chance. If you find anything there in shape of man, strike and cry
aloud, both with all your might, and in a moment I will be with you,
even as I was before."

Rollo grasped the Sergeant's hand and thanked him silently as brave men
thank one another at such times.

"Nay," said the Sergeant, "let us wait till we return for that. It is
touch and go at the best. But I will stay here till you are safely among
the bushes. And then--I shall have some certain words to speak to Senor
Don Fernando Munoz, Duke of Rianzares and grandee of Spain, Consort in
ordinary to her Majesty the Queen-Regent!"

Even as he spoke, Rollo, whose ears were acute, turned quickly and
dashed into the ante-chamber. He thought he had heard a footstep behind
them as they talked. And at the name of Munoz a suspicion crossed him
that some further treachery was meditated. But the little upper hall was
vague and empty, the scanty furniture scarce sufficient to stumble
against. If any one had been there, he had melted like a ghost, for
neither Rollo's swift decision nor the Sergeant's omniscient cunning
could discover any trace of an intruder.

Rollo attempted no disguise upon his adventure. He wore the same
travel-stained suit, made to fit his slender figure by one of the most
honest tailors in Madrid, in which he first appeared in this history. So
with no more extent of preparation for his adventure than settling his
sombrero a little more firmly upon his head and hitching his waist-belt
a hole or two tighter, Rollo slipped over the edge of the iron balcony
and began to descend by the great twisted vine-stem.

He did not find the task a difficult one. For he was light and agile,
firmed by continuous exercise, and an adept at the climbing art. As he
had been, indeed, ever since, on the east-windy braes of Fife, where
swarming rookeries crown the great hog-back ridges, he had risen
painfully through the clamour of anxious p