d come in the guise of a friend,--and I trembled at the
prospect of such friendship.

Nevertheless I was right glad when the fetters were struck from my dear
love and his companions, and we were taken upon the Spanish galley and
served like Christians.

At the earliest opportunity Mr. Rivers hastened to make things clear to
me. "Our deliverer"--so he termed him, whereat I marvelled
somewhat,--"our deliverer assures me that Padre Ignacio's action is
condemned greatly by his uncle, Senor de Colis, the Governor and
Captain-General at San Augustin. Don Pedro has been sent to transport us
thither, where we will be entertained with some fitness until we can
communicate with our friends."

"Says he so? 'Twill be well if he keeps his word; but to my thinking he
has not the face of an honest man."

Mr. Rivers looked at me gravely. "That is a hard speech from such gentle
lips," he said. "Don Pedro is a Spanish gentleman of high lineage. His
uncle, Senor de Colis, is a knight of the Order of St. James. Such hold
their honour dear. Until he gives us cause to distrust him, let us have
the grace to believe that he _is_ an honest man."

I looked back into the frank gray eyes of my true and gallant love, and
I felt rebuked. 'Twas a woman's instinct, only, that made me doubt the
Spaniard; and this simple trust of a noble nature in the integrity of
his fellow man seemed a vastly finer instinct than my own.

From that moment I laid by my suspicions, and met the courteous advances
of Senor de Melinza with as much of graciousness as I knew how. But, as
we spoke for the most part in different tongues, little conversation was
possible to us.

I marvelled at the ease with which Mr. Rivers conversed in both Spanish
and French. Of the latter I was not wholly ignorant myself,--although in
my quiet country life I had had little opportunity of putting my
knowledge to the test, seldom attempting to do more than "prick in some
flowers" of foreign speech upon the fabric of my mother tongue; so it
was with great timidity that I essayed at first to thread the mazes of
an unfamiliar language.

The Spaniard, however, greeted my attempts with courteous comprehension,
and after a time I was emboldened to ask some questions concerning the
town of San Augustin, and to comment upon the vivid beauty of the skies
and the blue waves around us. Upon that he broke into rapturous praises
of his own land of Spain--"the fairest spot upon the earth!" As I
lis