of men. "By our
Lady, I've a feeling of kinship for you in that you are a runaway
indeed--this note mentions the teaching of the priests--I'll warrant
they meant to make a monk of you."

"If such hopes are with them, they must wait until I am born again,"
decided the lad, and again Don Ruy laughed:--the lad was plainly no
putty for the moulding, and there was chance of sport ahead with such
a helper to Maestro Diego.

"It will be my charge to see that you are not over much troubled with
questions," said his employer, and handed back the letter of
commendation. "None need know when you were engaged for this very
important work. Jose over there speaks Spanish as does Ysobel his
wife. Tell them you are to have a bed of good quality if it be in the
camp--and to take a blanket of my own outfit if other provisions fall
short."

A muttered word of thanks was the only reply, and Don Ruy surmised
that the boy was made dumb by kindness when he had braced himself for
quips and cuffs--knowing as he must--that he was light of build for
the road of rough adventure.

"Ho!--Lad of mine!" he called when the youth had gone a few paces--"I
trust you understand that you travel with a company of selected
virtues?--and that you are a lucky dog to be attached to the most
pious and godly tutor ever found for a boy in Spain."

"It is to be called neighbor of these same virtues that I have come
begging a bed on the sand when I might have slept at home on a quilt
of feathers:"--the lad's tongue had found its use again when there was
chance for jest.

"And--"

"Yes:--your Excellency?"

"As to that pagan grandmother of whom you made mention:--her
relationship need not be widely tooted through a horn on the
journey--yet of all things vital to the honorable Maestro Diego and
his 'Relaciones,' I stand surety that not any one thing will be given
so much good room on paper as the things he learns of the heathen
worship of the false gods."

"A nod is as good as a wink to a mule that is blind!" called back the
lad in high glee. "Happy am I to have your excellency's permission to
hold discourse with him concerning the church accursed lore of our
ancestral idols!"

Then he joined Jose and Ysobel as instructed, and gave the message as
to bed and quarters. Jose said no word in reply, but proceeded to
secure blankets, one from the camp of Don Ruy. Ysobel--a Mexican
Indian--who had been made Christian by the padre ere she could be
included in t