about him! I came from Italy
because--because of his trouble at college. Is he--is he----" she kept
telling herself that she was Honor Carmody, the tomboy-girl who never
cried or made scenes--Jimsy's Skipper--her dear Stepper's Top Step; she
was not a silly creature in a novel; she would not scream and beg them
to tell her--_tell her_--even if they stood there staring at her for
hours longer. And then she heard Richard King saying in a voice very
like his brother's, a little like Jimsy's:

"Why, the boy's all right! Ab-so-lutely all right! Isn't he, Madeline?
Steady as a clock. That college nonsense----"

And then Honor found herself leaning back in a marvelously comfortable
chair by an open window and Mr. King was fanning her slowly and strongly
and Mrs. King was making her drink something cool and pungent, and
telling her it was the long, hot drive out from Cordoba in the heat of
the day and that she mustn't try to talk for a little while. Honor
obeyed them docilely for what she was sure was half an hour and which
was in fact five minutes and then she sat up straight and decisively.
"I'm _perfectly_ all right now, thank you. Will you tell me where I can
find Jimsy?"

"I expect he's taking his nap down at the old well. I'll send for him.
You must be quiet, my dear."

She got to her feet and let them see how steady she was. "_Please_ let
me go to him!"

"But Josita will fetch him in less time, my dear, and we'll have Carter
called, too, and----" Mrs. King stopped abruptly at the look in the
girl's eyes. "Josita will show you the way," she said in quite another
tone. "You must carry my sunshade and not walk too quickly."

Honor tried not to walk too quickly but she kept catching up with the
Mexican serving woman and passing her on the path, and falling back
again with a smile of apology, and the woman smiled in return, showing
white, even teeth. It was not as long a walk as it seemed, but their
pace made it consume ten interminable minutes. At length the twisting
walk twisted once more and gave on a cleared space, meltingly green,
breathlessly still, an ancient stone well in its center.

Josita gestured with a brown hand. "_Alla esta Senorito Don Diego!
Adios, Senorita!_"

"_Gracias!_" Honor managed.

"_Te nada!_" She smiled and turned back along the way they had come. "It
is nothing!" she had said. Nothing to have brought her on the last stage
of her long quest! Jimsy was asleep in the deep grass in the shad