Grace said she was not bored and Kit, gaining confidence, narrated how
they bumped the _Rio Negro_ across the surf-swept shoals, landed the
guns, and met Alvarez. His own part in their adventures was lightly
indicated, but the girl's imagination supplied what he left out. She felt
strangely interested as Kit's portrait of his uncle grew into shape,
although her thoughts dwelt largely on the artist. Then the
background--the steamy swamp, old presidio, and dazzling town--had a
romantic fascination, and when he told her about the journey to the
mission and the church where the candles that Adam sent burned before the
Virgin's shrine, her eyes shone.

"Ah," she said, "I am glad you told me! One thinks better of human nature
after hearing a tale like that. In a way, it's a rebuke. Are such men
numerous?"

"I have known two. Perhaps it's a coincidence that both were my
relations. They're commoner than people think."

"You're an optimist, but one likes optimists," Grace remarked with a
gentle smile. "However, what had the president done to deserve the
sacrifice your uncle made?"

"I never knew, but suspect it was something against the laws of his
country. If I told my story properly, you would understand that both were
buccaneers."

"But they had their code! I like the president and your uncle was very
fine. One feels moved when one thinks about the shabby little altar and
the candles love had lighted that never went out--all those years! Adam's
wife loved him. She went to nurse him, although her friends warned her
and she knew the risk."

Grace mused for a time and Kit thought her face disturbed. Then she
looked up quietly.

"One needs courage to know the risk and not to hesitate. But you will
keep those candles burning?"

"Yes," said Kit, "I promised. Besides, I like to think they're burning.
It means something."

"It means much," Grace agreed, and after a pause resumed: "You had no
doubt about taking up your uncle's engagement with the president,
although you saw what it might cost?"

"Of course not," Kit replied. "There was nothing else to be done."

Grace smiled and got up. "No," she said, "there was nothing else you
could do. Well, I must go home."

Kit went back with her for some distance. They talked but little on the
way, but when she left him she gave him her hand and a look that made his
heart beat.

Soon after Grace reached Tarnside, Osborn crossed the lawn to the
tea-table where she and Mrs. Osb