CHAPTER IX

THE QUARRY
Sarrion called at the convent school of the Sisters of the True Faith the
next morning, and was informed through the grating that the school was in
Retreat.

"Even I, whose duty it is to speak to you, shall have to perform penance
for doing so," said the doorkeeper, in her soft voice through the bars.

"Then do an extra penance, my sister," returned Sarrion, "and answer
another question. Tell me if the Sor Teresa is within?"

"The Sor Teresa is at Pampeluna, and the Mother Superior is here in the
school herself. The Sor Teresa is only Sister Superior, you must know,
and is therefore subordinate to the Mother Superior."

Sarrion was a pleasant-spoken man, and a man of the world. He knew that
if a woman has something to tell of another she is not to be frightened
into silence by the whole Court of Cardinals and eke, the Pope of Rome
himself. So he drew his horse nearer to the forbidding wooden gate, and
did not ride away from it until he had gained some scraps of information
and saddled the lay sister with a burden of penances to last all through
the Retreat.

He learnt that his sister had been sent to Pampeluna, where the Sisters
of the True Faith conducted another school, much patronised by the poor
nobility of that priest-ridden city. He was made to understand, moreover,
that Juanita de Mogente had been given special opportunities for prayer
and meditation owing to an unchristian spirit of resentment and revenge,
which she had displayed on learning the Will of Heaven in regard to her
abandoned, and it was to be feared, heretic father.

"Which means, my sister?"

"That neither you nor any other in the world may see or speak to her--but
I must close the grille."

And the little shutter was sharply shut in Sarrion's face.

This was the beginning of a quest which, for a fortnight, continued
entirely fruitless. Evasio Mon it appeared was on a pilgrimage. Sor
Teresa had gone to Pampeluna. The inexorable gate of the convent school
remained shut to all comers.

Sarrion went to Pampeluna to see his sister, but came back without having
attained his object. Marcos took up the trail with a patient thoroughness
learnt at the best school--the school of Nature. He was without haste,
and expressed neither hope nor discouragement. But he realised more and
more clearly that Juanita was in genuine danger. By one or two moves in
this subtle warfare, Sarrion had forced his adversary to unmask hi