ld be only one "she," the
little man nodded violently.

"Tell her," whispered Roddy, "I have seen her father, that he knows
what we are trying to do. I must talk with the _senorita_ at once. Ask
her if she will come to the steps leading from the gardens to the
wharf at any hour this evening. From my own house I can row there
without being seen."

Again Pedro nodded happily.

"I will ask the _senorita_ to be there at nine o'clock," he answered,
"or, I will come myself."

The alternative did not strongly appeal to Roddy, but the mere fact
that Inez was now in the same city with him, that even at that moment
she was not a hundred yards from him, was in itself a reward.

He continued on down the Alameda, his head in the air, his feet
treading on springs.

"Three hours!" his mind protested. "How can I wait three hours?"

In some fashion the hours passed, and at nine, just as over all the
city the bugles were recalling the soldiers to the barracks, Roddy was
waiting on the narrow stretch of beach that ran between the harbor and
the gardens of Miramar.

VI

At the last moment Roddy had decided against taking the water route,
and, leaving his rowboat at his own wharf, had, on foot, skirted the
edge of the harbor. It was high tide, and the narrow strip of shore
front on which he now stood, and which ran between the garden and the
Rojas' private wharf, was only a few feet in width. Overhead the moon
was shining brilliantly, but a procession of black clouds caused the
stone steps and the tiny summer-house at the end of the wharf to
appear and disappear like slides in a magic lantern.

In one of the moments of light the figures of a man and a woman loomed
suddenly in the gateway of the garden. Pedro came anxiously forward,
and Roddy leaped past him up the steps. He recognized Inez with
difficulty. In the fashion of the peasant women she had drawn around
her head and face a fringed, silk shawl, which left only her eyes
visible, and which hung from her shoulders in lines that hid her
figure. Roddy eagerly stretched out his hand, but the girl raised her
own in warning and, motioning him to follow, passed quickly from the
steps to the wharf. At its farther end was a shelter of thatched palm
leaves. The sides were open, and half of the wharf was filled with
moonlight, but over the other half the roof cast a black shadow, and
into this Inez passed quickly. Roddy as quickly followed. His heart
was leaping in a deligh