oldan fancied that those
terrible eyes were holding his own. He recovered himself and dragged
Adan out of bed.

"The priest!" he said. "Help me to wash these dishes--quick. It will
take him some time to get down."

Adan stumbled across the room, plunged the dishes into a pail of
drinking water, then handed them to Roldan, who dried them hastily and
piled them on the shelf. Then he flung the water across the clay floor
of the hut.

"Get up the ladder," he commanded. Adan scrambled up. Roldan followed,
and pulled the ladder after him. The garret was very low, and half full
of skins. They could not stand upright. It was also bitterly cold. Each
hastily wrapped a skin about his body, and lay full length, Roldan on
his face, his eyes applied to a chink in the rough floor.

A few moments later the door was flung aside and the priest strode in.

Roldan shuddered, but not with personal fear. The priest looked like a
man who had just left the rack of his native Spain. His hair--the hood
had fallen back--stood on end, his face and tightened lips were livid,
his eyes rolled wildly.

"Jim!" he said hoarsely. "Jim!"

He left the hut as abruptly as he had entered it.

"He has gone to look at the mouth of the tunnel," whispered Roldan.
"What fools we were not to cover it up again. Then he would have walked
its length to find us, and the horses might have come before he
returned. Well, he cannot get us until he pulls the roof down."

"He could do it," whispered Adan, grimly. "Those hands! Dios de mi
alma!"

"He will think we have gone somewhere with Don Jim."

The priest returned in less than half an hour. His face, if anything,
was still more terrible to look upon. There was a touch of foam on his
lips. His great hands were clinched. He strode over to the bunk and
lifted the heaped-up bearskin. Suddenly he pressed his face into the
fur.

"Perfume--Dona Martina's," he exclaimed. "They have been here."

He raised his face to the ceiling, and the boys held their mouths open
that their teeth might not clack together. They closed their eyes:
instinct bade them give heed to visual magnetism. Roldan immediately
wanted to cough, Adan to scratch his nose. The next few moments were
the most agonised of their lives. They felt the priest lift his hands
and pass them slowly along the ceiling, they felt those eyes searching
every crevice. Then they felt him grip the edge of the aperture and
lift himself until his eyes were above th