d. While he hesitated,
Gil Perez saw his opportunity and darted in.

"I know Madrid too much," he said. "All the ways, all the peoples I
know. Imposs' you live 'appy in Madrid withouta me." He smiled all
over his face--and when he did that he was irresistible. "You try," he
concluded, just like a child.

Manvers, on an impulse, drew from his pocket the gold-set crucifix.
"Look at that, Gil Perez," he said, and put it in his hands.

Gil looked gravely at it, hack and front. He nodded his approval.
"Pretty thing----" and he decided off-hand. "In Valladolid they make."

"Open it," said Manvers; but it was opened, before he had spoken.
Gil's eyes widened, while the pupils of them contracted intensely. He
read the inscription, pondered it; to the crucifix itself he gave but a
momentary glance. Then he shut the case and handed it back to his
master.

"I find 'er for you," he said soberly; and that settled it.

CHAPTER XII

A GLIMPSE OF MANUELA

Gil Perez had listened gravely to the tale which his master told him.
He nodded once or twice, and asked a few questions in the course of the
narrative--questions of which Manvers could not immediately see the
bearing. One was concerned with her appearance. Did she wear rings in
her ears? He had to confess that he had not observed. Another was
interjected when he described how she had grown stiff under his arm
when Esteban drew alongside.

Gil had nodded rapidly, and became impatient as Manvers insisted on the
fact. "Of course, of course!" he had said, and then he asked, Did she
stiffen her arm and point the first and last fingers of it, keeping the
middle pair clenched?

Manvers understood him, and replied that he had not noticed any such
thing, but that he did not believe she feared the Evil Eye. He went on
with his story uninterrupted until the climax. He had found the
crucifix, he said, on his return from bathing, and had been pleased
with her for leaving it. Then he related the discovery of the body and
his talk with Fray Juan de la Cruz. Here came in Gil's third question.
"Did she return your handkerchief?" he asked--and sharply.

Manvers started. "By George, she never did!" he exclaimed. "And I
don't wonder at it," he said on reflection. "If she had to knife that
fellow, and confess to Fray Juan, and escape for her life, she had
enough to do. Of course, she may have left it in the wood."

Gil Perez pressed his lips together. "She got i