through a shallow vestibule into a _patio_--the first we had seen on our
way south; and if it had not been slammed shut with a loud click, by some
person inside, half Manzanares would have poured after the fugitives.

Assured of the ladies' safety, the men of the two (outwardly) united
parties remained to help the chauffeurs and a bewildered landlord to take
down luggage. Overwhelmed by a wave of halfgrown children and a thick
spray of babies, Carmona's man lost his presence of mind. The two cars had
hardly stopped before the little creatures were in them, and on them, and
under them, trying to pinch the tyres, blowing the horn, squalling,
laughing, crying. "Mon Dieu, c'est un obsession!" wailed the unfortunate
Frenchman; and even the imperturbable Ropes showed signs of "nerves."

As fast as the thronging goblins were beaten off, they were up again in
redoubled force; but so merry they were, and so handsome was each bold
brown face, with its dazzling eyes, that it was impossible to be angry.
Somehow, we rescued the luggage, and with the aid of the landlord pitched,
or slid, or rolled it through the door, momentarily opened.

"For Heaven's sake, sir, see me through this!" implored Ropes, noticing
that the men of the party were on the point of following the luggage.
"Hate to trouble you, but I don't think my Spanish will run to it." In
pity I climbed into the car to go with him to the stable which the
landlord indicated as our garage. It was an experience to be remembered in
nightmares; yet there was in it a sort of schoolboy pleasure. We seemed to
have done battle against the whole force of the army out against us;
nevertheless when we returned to the _fonda_, swept along by a large
bodyguard, we found a regiment assembled round the door. How we got
through was food for another wild dream, but we did get through, to stand
panting on the other side of the grating, in the _patio_.

Dozens of dark faces were pressed against the bars, like tier above tier
of glowing pansies in a flower-bed; and we knew at last the sensation of
those who are the observed, not the observers, in a menagerie.

Everyone was in the _patio_, where electric lights hanging from the
balconies mingled with rich yellow lamplight and ruddy firelight streaming
from the kitchen. All the luggage was piled anyhow, in a chaotic heap
surging with suit-cases, boiling with dressing-bags; while near by, like
Marius and a friend or two at the ruins of Carthage,