nd silence fell,
broken only by Morano saying across the fire, "It is true," and the
captive's thoughtful eyes gazed into the darkness. And then he also
spoke.

"Senor," he said, "near to my rose-pink castle which looks into the
Ebro dwells a magician also."

"Is it so?" said Rodriguez.

"Indeed so, senor," said Don Alvidar. "He is my enemy but dwells in awe
of me, and so durst never molest me except by minor wonders."

"How know you that he is a magician?" said Rodriguez.

"By those wonders," answered his captive. "He afflicts small dogs and
my poultry. And he wears a thin, high hat: his beard is also
extraordinary."

"Long?" said Morano.

"Green," answered Don Alvidar.

"Is he very near the castle?" said Rodriguez and Morano together.

"Too near," said Don Alvidar.

"Is his house wonderful?" Rodriguez asked.

"It is a common house," was the answer. "A mean, long house of one
story. The walls are white and it is well thatched. The windows are
painted green; there are two doors in it and by one of them grows a
rose tree."

"A rose tree?" exclaimed Rodriguez.

"It seemed a rose tree," said Don Alvidar.

"A captive lady chained to the wall perhaps, changed by magic,"
suggested Morano.

"Perhaps," said Don Alvidar.

"A strange house for a magician," said Rodriguez, for it sounded like
any small farmhouse in Spain.

"He much affects mortal ways," replied Don Alvidar.

Little more was then said, the fire being low: and Rodriguez lay down
to sleep while Morano guarded the captive.

And the day after that they came to Aragon, and in one day more they
were across the Ebro; and then they rode west for a day along its
southern bank looking all the while as they rode for Rodriguez' castle.
And more and more silent and aloof, as they rode, grew Don
Alvidar-of-the-Rose-pink-Castle-on-Ebro.

And just before sunset a cry broke from the captive. "He has taken it!"
he said. And he pointed to just such a house as he had described, a
jolly Spanish farmhouse with white walls and thatch and green shutters,
and a rose tree by one of the doors just as he had told.

"The magician's house. But the castle is gone," he said.

Rodriguez looked at his face and saw real alarm in it. He said nothing
but rode on in haste, a dim hope in his mind that explanations at the
white cottage might do something for his lost castle.

And when the hooves were heard a woman came out of the cottage door by
the rose tree leading a sma