of the
_cofradia_ to which he himself belonged--so that he could search for me and
Monica, without being seen by us.

Thrusting the girl behind me, yet keeping her close, I hurled him away,
but he sprang at me again, and this time something glittered in his right
hand. I fought with him for it, and pulled a slim length of steel up
through his closed fingers, so that the sharp dagger-blade must have cut
him to the bone. He gave a cry, and relaxed his grasp; but though he was
disabled for the instant a dozen men in the crowd, which swirled round us
now, caught and held me fast. Monica was wrenched from me; the dagger had
fallen to the ground (but not before I had seen it was of Toledo make);
the figure in the blue _capucha_ was swept out of my sight, and I was
fighting like a madman in a strait-jacket for freedom.

XXXII

ON THE ROAD TO CADIZ

It was a mouse who gnawed a hole in the net that entangled the lion.

Now, I am no lion in importance, nor was Colonel O'Donnel's messenger of
as little significance as a mouse; yet he was the last creature to whom I
would have looked for succour in a moment of stress. Nevertheless to him I
owed my rescue.

"A mistake, a mistake," he chirped, jumping about, bird-like, just outside
the circle of struggling men. "I am a verger here; this gentleman was with
me. He did nothing. He is a most respectable and twice wealthy person, a
tourist whom I guide. He is innocent--no anarchist, no free-thinker. That
other--that pretended brother--has made a practical joke. See, he has run
away to escape consequences. There is nothing against this noble senor;
you have it on the word of a verger."

Because it was bewilderingly dark, and they might have got the wrong man;
because, too, the verger was probably right, and it had been a joke played
upon them by a person who had now disappeared, the twelve or fifteen men
who surrounded me fell back shamefacedly, glad on second thoughts to melt
away before they could be identified and reproached for disturbing the
public peace, and spoiling the music to which their King listened.

I was free, but I would not leave the cathedral yet, for my hope was to
find Monica again. I wandered in every direction, while the verger went
off to bring Dick and the O'Donnels to meet me in the Orange Court.

Pilar's delight in the first part of my story was dashed by the sequel. Of
course, she said, it must come right in