d the company with
snatches of salt song. Fixed as the Sphinx and unfathomable, she sat
on broodingly until, piqued by her indifference, maybe, or swayed by
some wave of desire, he caught her round the waist and buried his face
in her neck; and then, all at once, she awoke, shivered and collected
herself, without warning shook herself free, and hit her bully a blow
on the nose with all her force.

He reeled back, with his hands to his face; the blood gushed over his
fingers. Then all were on their feet, and a scuffle began, the most
unequal you can conceive, and the most impossible. It was all against
one, with stones flying and imprecations after them, and in the midst
the tawny-haired girl fighting like one possessed.

A minute of this--hardly so much--was more than enough for Manvers,
who, when he could believe his eyes, pricked headlong into the fray,
and began to lay about him with his crop. "Dogs, sons of dogs, down
with your hands!" he cried, in Spanish which was fluent, if
imaginative. But his science with the whip was beyond dispute, and the
diversion, coming suddenly from behind, scattered the enemy into
headlong flight.

The field cleared, the girl was to be seen. She lay moaning on the
ground, her arms extended, her right leg twitching. She was bleeding
at the ear.

CHAPTER IV

TWO ON HORSEBACK

Now, Manvers was under fire; for the enemy, reinforced by stragglers
from the town, had unmasked a battery of stones, and was making fine
practice from the ruins of the wall. He was hit more than once, his
horse more than he; both were exasperated, and he in particular was
furious at the presence of spectators who, comfortably in the shade,
watched, and had been watching, the whole affair with enviable
detachment of mind and body. With so much to chafe him, he may be
pardoned for some irritability.

He dismounted as coolly as he could, and led his horse about to cover
her from the stones. "Come," he said, as he stooped to touch her, "I
must move you out of this. Saint Stephen--blessed young man--has
forestalled this particular means of going to Heaven. Oh, damn the
stones!"

He used no ceremony, but picked her up as if she had been a
dressmaker's dummy, and set her on her feet, where, after swaying
about, and some balancing with her hands, she presently steadied
herself, and stood, dazed and empty-eyed. Her cheek was cut, her ear
was bleeding; her hair was down, the red handkerchief unc