ugly smile.

'Yes, but I will know now!' I retorted, passion getting the better of
me. 'I have come so far with you. You will find it more easy to take me
farther if you tell me your plans.'

'You are a fool!' he cried with a snarl.

'Not so,' I answered. 'I ask only to know whither I am going.'

'Into Spain,' he said. 'Will that satisfy you?'

'And what will you do with me there?' I asked, my heart giving a great
bound.

'Hand you over to some friends of ours,' he answered curtly, 'if you
behave yourself. If not, there is a shorter way, and one that will save
us some travelling. Make up your mind, Monsieur. Which shall it be?'

CHAPTER VI. So that was their plan. Two or three hours to the southward,
the long, white, glittering wall stretched east and west above the
brown woods. Beyond that lay Spain. Once across the border, I might be
detained, if no worse happened to me, as a prisoner of war; for we were
then at war with Spain on the Italian side. Or I might be handed over
to one of the savage bands, half smugglers, half brigands, that held the
passes; or be delivered, worse fate of all, into the power of the French
exiles, of whom some would be likely to recognise me and cut my throat.

'It is a long way into Spain,' I muttered, watching in a kind of
fascination Clon handling his pistols.

'I think you will find the other road longer still,' the landlord
answered grimly. 'But choose, and be quick about it.'

They were three to one, and they had firearms. In effect I had no
choice.

'Well, if I must I must?' I cried, making up my mind with seeming
recklessness. 'VOGUE LA GALERE! Spain be it. It will not be the first
time I have heard the dons talk.'

The men nodded, as much as to say that they had known what the end would
be; the landlord released my rein; and in a trice we were riding down
the narrow track, with our faces set towards the mountains.

On one point my mind was now more easy. The men meant fairly by me, and
I had no longer to fear, as I had feared, a pistol-shot in the back at
the first convenient ravine. As far as that went, I might ride in peace.
On the other hand, if I let them carry me across the border my fate
was sealed. A man set down without credentials or guards among the
wild desperadoes who swarmed in war-time in the Asturian passes might
consider himself fortunate if an easy death fell to his lot. In my case
I could make a shrewd guess what would happen. A single nod of mea