l have to take him seriously after all!"
she soliloquised. "I wonder what I should do?"

She was left wondering and sorely perplexed, for within an hour she
found Don Carlos obviously carrying on a violent flirtation with
another girl, and at dinner, at which Tony Standish appeared looking
little the worse for his adventure, he was the life and soul of the
party.

After dinner he delighted the company by singing some Spanish songs,
accompanying himself on the guitar, and he was enthusiastically
applauded.

"Why, old chap, you ought to be the star baritone in Grand Opera!"
cried Tony. "Sing us another, please."

"Sorry, but I promised to sing to the crew in the fo'c'sle--and I
always keep my promises," responded Don Carlos, and flashed a smiling
glance at Myra as he went out.

He became as popular with the crew as with his fellow-guests during the
days that followed, and seemed to enjoy himself hugely, a fact which
somehow piqued Myra, who felt he had been, and was still, making mock
of her. She was forced to the conclusion that his passionate outburst
had been merely a clever piece of acting, for he made no further
attempt to make love to her during the cruise, and at times seemed to
shun her.

* * *

"Now that we are in Spain, dear people, you must permit me to try to
repay you in some small measure for the wonderful hospitality extended
to me in England," he said to Tony and his guests, when at last they
disembarked at Cadiz. "You are my guests from now onward."

That evening he entertained the whole party royally at the premier
hotel of the city, and next morning they found a fleet of luxurious
Hispano cars waiting to convey them through some of the most
picturesque parts of Spain to El Castillo de Ruiz, his ancestral home,
situated in a fertile valley amid the heights of the Sierra Morena.

It was a mediaeval-looking place, part of which had been built by the
Moors, and used as a fortress.

"It is still, to some extent, a fortress," Don Carlos had told his
guests in advance, "for always I have to be on the alert lest that
rascal El Diablo Cojuelo should raid the place again, and I employ an
armed guard. Let me warn you, dear people, that if El Diablo learns I
am entertaining a party of wealthy English people he may attempt
another raid."

The others had laughed, assuming that he was jesting. Most of them had
decided that Don Carlos had "invented" El Diablo Cojuelo and his
brigan