oad-brimmed, grey sombreros de Cordoba, and the horses or
mules were harnessed with gay splashes of red and blue colour, and bobbing
tassels.

We had talked of Linares, the lead-mining town, as a halting-place for the
night, as we were pledged not to track down the Lecomte; and on the
outskirts of Bailen, as twilight fell, the Gloria was brought to a sudden
stop in the midst of a pulsating crowd, that we might ask the way.

If we aroused their curiosity, they piqued us to the same emotion, for
most of the men, and there were hundreds, not only wore upon their legs a
kind of divided pinafore, but carried on their backs an apparatus which
would have excited wonder in any other than this fairy country.

The machine reminded me at first glance of a fire-extinguisher; then of
some appliance used by miners to hold a supply of oxygen. One part of me
wished to know what the instrument was; the other preferred to remain in
ignorance, lest the explanation should prove too commonplace. But Waring
had all my curiosity, and none of my scruples; so he asked a question with
a gesture more intelligible than his Spanish; and just as I had feared,
the weird union of reservoirs and nozzles was no more than a contrivance
for spraying vines to protect them from phylloxera.

As always, we brought the fascinations of the Cherub to bear upon the
crowd, as one trains the latest gun upon the enemy; and his crooning
brought out facts which made Dick think it high time he got things into
shape, and his motor service to running. It seemed that once upon a time a
good road had been made from Bailen to Linares, but the road was crossed
by a river; and when the masonry supports for a bridge had been built, it
turned out that girders had been forgotten. Somehow, it was nobody's place
to jog anybody else's memory, and there the matter had ended, so long ago
that grass and flowers had sprouted among the futile stones.

It appeared the most natural thing in the world to the people of Bailen,
who were accustomed to ford the river, when they wanted to cross, with
horses; but though the weather had been dry for the last few days, the
recent torrents which had fallen in the mountains, still swelled the
volume of water to such a height that it might "put out the fire in the
automobile."

I was glad to hear this, because if it would put out our fire, it would
put out Carmona's; and as he was prudent in matters concerning his car, he
would probably have sto