sash had been unwound and he'd been tied up as neat as an express
package. All he lacked to go on the wagon was an address tag and a
"Prepaid" label gummed on his tummy.

"Sorry," says Yohness, rollin' him into the shrubbery with his toe, "but
you mustn't act so mussy when the young lady has a caller."

"Ah! Eso es espantoso!" says Donna Mario, meaning that now he had
spilled the beans for fair. "You must fly. I must--we must both flee."

"Oh, very well," says Yohness. "That is, if the fleeing is good."

"Here! Quick!" says she, grabbin' up the long cloak Uncle had been
wearing before he started something he couldn't finish. "And this also,"
she adds, handin' Yohness a military cap with a lot of gold braid on it.
"We will go together. The guards know me. They will think you are my
uncle. Wait! I will call the carriage, as if for our evening drive."

"Now that," says I, as Don Pedro gets to this part of the yarn, "was
what I call good work done. Made a clean getaway, did they?"

He nods, and goes on to tell how, when they got to the city limits, El
Capitan chucked the driver and footman off the box, took the reins
himself and drove until near daybreak, when he dropped the fair Donna
Mario at the house of an old friend and then beat it down the pike until
he saw a chance to leave the outfit and make a break into the woods.

"And I expect he was willin' to call it a night after that, eh?" says I.
"Reg'lar thrill hound, wasn't he? What became of him?"

"Ah!" says Don Pedro. "It is for that I come to you."

"Oh, yes, so you have," says I. "I'd most forgotten. Yes, yes! You still
have the idea I can trace out Yohness for you? Suppose I could, though,
how would you be sure it was the same one, after so many years? Got any
mark on him that----"

"Listen," says Don Pedro. "El Capitan Yohness possesses a ring of
peculiar setting--pale gold--a large dark ruby in it. This was given him
that night by the Senorita Donna Mario. He swore to her never to part
with it until they should meet again. They never have, nor will. She is
no more. For years she lived hidden, in fear of her life. Then the war
came. Her uncle was driven back to Spain. Later her friend died, but she
left to Donna Mario her estate, many acres of valuable sugar plantation,
and the house, Casa Fuerta. It is this estate which Donna Mario in turn
has willed to her valiant lover. I am one of the executors. So I ask you
where is El Capitan Yohness?"

"Yes, I k