d I'd jest as lieve
be back in Meadow Green. Dis don't look very scrumptious for a Mrs.
Princessess' plantation house."

"This is no castle, Rusty. This is only the halfway house."

Dolores could not understand their low conversation in English--and
Afro-Americanese! But she had studied the clear features, the
nonchalant bearing of the tall American. She turned toward the
sheep-like, staring villagers, and with an eloquent wave of her hand
she cried out resonantly:

"Gentlemen--_a man_!"

[Illustration: "_Gentlemen--a man_"]

Jarvis was lighting his cigarette, and he laughed, with a side-remark
to his valet:

"Rusty, as the Indians said to Columbus: 'We're discovered!'" He turned
toward the girl. "Did you by any chance address me, fair senorita?"

"I'm calling the attention of these valiant gentlemen of Seguro to the
only man with spirit and bravery enough to enter the haunted castle,"
she declared.

"How did you know?" and his eyes widened with surprise. This was a
queer place.

"All Seguro knows by this time, senor."

At these words, Don Robledo swaggered in through the door from the bar.
He pushed the villagers aside with contemptuous roughness. He even
thrust the girl out of his way as she tried to detain him. He laughed
insultingly into the bland face of Jarvis.

"So, you are the _brave_ American, are you?" he cried, surveying
Jarvis, with hands on hips and stocky legs well spread.

[Illustration: "_So, you are the brave American, are you?_"]

Jarvis puffed cigarette smoke at him and answered with ingenuous
modesty.

"I'm _an_ American. And here" (he waved his hand to Rusty, who saluted
with divination of the tenor of the interchange) "I present to your
notice another American. In fact, we're both Americans!"

"And you both want to die?" cried Don Robledo, drawing a stiff
forefinger suggestively across his brawny throat. Rusty was reading the
pantomime with perfect understanding. He made a wry face and rolled his
eyes at Jarvis, who responded with a droll wink.

"Well, now that you mention it, I'm in no hurry about it. I'm not at
all anxious on the subject."

He sat down in one of the carven chairs and continued to puff his
cigarette with provoking amiability.

Robeldo leaned forward toward him and snarled:

"You had better keep out of the castle then. It has a fatal climate."

Warren laughed, and flicked the ashes of the cigarette upon the sleeve
of his interviewer.

"Oh, you mean the