s looked. From
hummocky chimneys rose the smoke of hidden fires burning in the heart of
the earth; while down in the road a donkey or two, with their heads in
yellow bags and their forefeet tied together with rope, tried to hop away
up the steep hill, as if they were gigantic rabbits.

By the waterside stood pollarded trees, scraggy and black, ranged along
the shore like naked negro boys, big-headed, with shaggy lumps of wool,
hesitating before a plunge. The sandy roads were welcome after stones, and
suddenly the landscape began to copy Africa, with shifting yellow sand
deserts, brushed by purple shadows of the Sahara. Far away, the mountains,
rolling along the wide horizon, glimmered blue, rose, ochre, and white,
like coloured marble or a Moorish mosaic. Again we flashed past a
troglodyte village in a hillside; crossed a magnificent bridge, which even
Dick approved; wound through a labyrinth of strange streets like the
streets in a nightmare, and roads to match; smelt mingled perfumes of
incense, burning braziers, cigarettes, and garlic (the true and intimate
smell of country Spain); saw Duenas, where fair Isabel la Catolica met
Ferdinand in the making of the most romantic of royal courtships; spun
through Cabezon: and then, as we entered Valladolid, began bumping and
buckjumping over such chasms and ruts as had not yet insulted our wheels
in Spain.

"Heavens! What can the City Fathers be thinking about?" gasped Dick,
between the jolts which even the best springs could not disguise. On we
went, through that famous old town which Philip the Second chose for the
capital of Spain; and each street was a more awful revelation than the
last. The car pitched and rolled like a vessel in a choppy sea, shuddering
to right herself between breakers, though Ropes drove at walking pace.
"Who ever heard of roads being all right outside a town, and going to bits
in it?" Dick went on. "Why, in America--"

"But this is Spain," the Cherub reminded him.

We had left Burgos at half-past ten, and it was two when we plunged into
the town which Dick shortened to "Val." There I took advantage of the part
I played, and sought the hotel at which Carmona must lunch or perhaps put
up for the night; but to my astonishment he was not to be found at either
of the two possible _fondas_. I was hungry, for I had had no breakfast
except a cup of coffee at the Sign of the Cid; but I would not eat until
the mystery was solved.

The grey car had been s