uestion when the tramp of horses
was heard. It was the troop returning.

"Softly!" whispered Dulaurier as he crept towards the window. "Yes,
these are my friends. Where will you hide me?"

Stephano regarded him with a savage gleam in his eyes and muttered to
himself, "This man comes here to blast my happiness, and I must protect
his life at the peril of my own."

"What am I to do?" repeated Dulaurier.

"Take this dagger," said Stephano, "put on your mantle and follow me."
He unfastened a little door which opened upon a staircase which led into
the garden, and descended, followed by Dulaurier. They stole along
behind a thick hedge of hawthorn until they came to the trees of a
little orchard, from which rose the roof of a ruined summer-house. On
reaching this spot Stephano installed the lieutenant so that he could
watch both the road and the garden; then having arranged upon the course
they should take, Stephano hastened back to the house.

[Illustration: "THEY STOLE ALONG."]

Don Pedro was in the lower hall, alone, when his son entered.

"I have a request to make to you," said the young man, clasping his
father's hand convulsively. "I want you to let me start at once to join
my brothers and to fight for Spain."

"Can you then leave your cousin?" said Don Pedro, sadly. "And you do not
know----"

"I know more than you, father, more than Rosita herself about this
affair," interrupted Stephano. "Is not Rosita betrothed to a French
volunteer in Don Carlos's army, and is this not the secret she confided
to you on harvest day?"

"It is true. But how have you discovered it?"

"From a man flying from the pursuit of guerillas; no other than the man
himself, Lieutenant Charles Dulaurier!"

"Is it possible?" exclaimed the stupefied old man.

"You see, father, that it is absolutely necessary for me to go," cried
Stephano. "I cannot wait until Rosita and Dulaurier are united. Their
happiness would be more than I could bear, and I have thought of a plan
by which the lieutenant can be saved without putting off my departure. I
shall join the troop of guerillas who are seeking Dulaurier in the
village. Seeing me become one of themselves their suspicions will be
lulled, and I shall save my rival by departing with his enemies."

"You are right," replied his father, after a painful pause, but he could
not utter a word more.

The young man proceeded to take down from the wall his pistols and his
gun; he placed the former in