k the wrong turning years ago. He abandoned the Church in
order to ask a woman to marry him. But she had scruples. She thought, or
she was made to think, that her duty lay in another direction. And Mon's
life ... well ...!"

He shrugged his shoulders.

"I know," said Juanita quietly ... "all about it."

CHAPTER XXX

THE CASTING VOTE
There is in one corner of the little churchyard of Torre Garda a square
mound which marks the burial-place, in one grave, of four hundred
Carlists. The Wolf, it is said, carried as many more to the sea.

General Pacheco completed his teaching at the mouth of the valley where
the Carlists had left in a position (impregnable from the front) a strong
detachment to withstand the advance of any reinforcements that might be
sent from Pampeluna to the relief of Captain Zeneta and his handful of
men. These were taken in the rear by the force under General Pacheco
himself and annihilated. This is, however, a matter of history as is also
the reputation of Pacheco. "A great general--a brute," they say of him in
Spain to this day.

By sunset all was quiet again at Torre Garda. The troops quitted the
village as unobtrusively as they had come. They had lost but few men and
half a dozen wounded were left behind in the village. The remainder were
moved to Pampeluna. The Carlist list of wounded was astonishingly small.
General Pacheco had the reputation of moving quickly. He was rarely
hampered by his ambulance and never by the enemy's wounded. He was a
great general.

Cousin Peligros did not appear at dinner. She had an attack of nerves
instead.

"I understand nerves," said Juanita lightly when she announced that
Cousin Peligros' chair would remain vacant. "Was I not educated in a
convent? You need not be anxious. Yes--she will take a little soup--a
little more than that. And all the other courses."

After dinner Cousin Peligros notified through her maid that she felt well
enough to see Marcos. When he returned from this interview he joined
Sarrion and Juanita in the drawing-room, and he looked grave.

"You have seen for yourself that there is not much the matter with her,"
said Juanita, watching his face.

"Yes," he answered rather absent-mindedly. "There is not much the matter
with her."

He did not sit down but stood with a preoccupied air and looked at the
wood-fire which was still grateful in the evening at such an altitude as
that of Torre Garda.

"She will not stay," he said a