reath she showed her white teeth and
nodded merrily at the wounded boy; and then, as if she had grasped his
meaning, she turned to Pen, caught up the basket, and began rapidly to
take out its contents, which consisted first of bunches of grapes, a few
oranges, and from beneath them a piece of thin cheese and another cake,
which lay at the bottom in company with a rough-looking drinking-mug.

These were all arranged upon the bed close beside Punch, while the girl,
as she emptied her basket, kept on talking to Pen in a hurried way,
which he took to mean as an apology for her present being so common and
simple.

Upon this base Pen made what he considered a suitable reply, thanking
the girl warmly for her compassion and kindness to two unfortunate
strangers.

"I wish I could make you understand," he said; "but we are both most
grateful and we shall never forget it, and--What's the matter?"

For all at once, as the girl was listening eagerly to his words and
trying to understand them, nodding smilingly at him the while, a sudden
change came over her countenance as she gazed fixedly past the young
soldier at the little square opening in the hut-wall behind him which
served as a window, and then turned to snatch her basket from the bed.

"What is it?" cried Pen.

"Look out, comrade--the window behind," said Punch.

Pen turned on the instant, but the dim window gave no enlightenment, and
he looked back now at the girl, who was about to pass through the door,
but darted back again to run round the foot of the bed, so as to place
it between her and the swarthy-looking Spanish peasant-lad who suddenly
appeared to block the doorway, a fierce look of savage triumph in his
eyes, as he planted his hands upon his hips and burst out into an angry
tirade which made the girl shrink back against the wall.

Not a word was intelligible to the lookers-on, but all the same the
scene told its own tale. Punch's lips parted, his face turned white,
and he lay back helpless, with his fingers clenched, while Pen's chest
began to heave and he stood there irresolute, breathing hard as if he
had been running, knowing well as he did what the young Spaniard's words
must mean.

What followed passed very quickly, for the young Spaniard stepped
quickly into the hut, thrust Pen aside, stepped round to the foot of the
bed, and caught the shrinking girl savagely by the wrist.

She shrank from him, but he uttered what sounded more like a snarl than