at the
Fonda, where he is so useful to run errands, in that way he has of
skimming along the paths without displacing a stone."

Meantime he was busying himself with striking a fire to set alight a
small heap of dry sticks he had made ready beforehand on that spot which
in all the circuit of the Bay was perfectly screened from observation
from the land side.

The clear flame shooting up revealed him in the black cloak with a hood
of a Mediterranean sailor. His eyes watched the dancing dim light to
seaward. And he talked the while.

"The only fault you have, Senor, is being too generous with your money.
In this world you must give sparingly. The only things you may deal out
without counting, in this life of ours which is but a little fight and a
little love, is blows to your enemy and kisses to a woman. . . . Ah! here
they are coming in."

I noticed the dancing light in the dark west much closer to the shore
now. Its motion had altered. It swayed slowly as it ran towards us,
and, suddenly, the darker shadow as of a great pointed wing appeared
gliding in the night. Under it a human voice shouted something
confidently.

"_Bueno_," muttered Dominic. From some receptacle I didn't see he poured
a lot of water on the blaze, like a magician at the end of a successful
incantation that had called out a shadow and a voice from the immense
space of the sea. And his hooded figure vanished from my sight in a
great hiss and the warm feel of ascending steam.

"That's all over," he said, "and now we go back for more work, more toil,
more trouble, more exertion with hands and feet, for hours and hours.
And all the time the head turned over the shoulder, too."

We were climbing a precipitous path sufficiently dangerous in the dark,
Dominic, more familiar with it, going first and I scrambling close behind
in order that I might grab at his cloak if I chanced to slip or miss my
footing. I remonstrated against this arrangement as we stopped to rest.
I had no doubt I would grab at his cloak if I felt myself falling. I
couldn't help doing that. But I would probably only drag him down with
me.

With one hand grasping a shadowy bush above his head he growled that all
this was possible, but that it was all in the bargain, and urged me
onwards.

When we got on to the level that man whose even breathing no exertion, no
danger, no fear or anger could disturb, remarked as we strode side by
side:

"I will say this for us, that