of surprise mingled with alarm on the robber's face told that
he had recognised Lawrence, but he also laid restraint on himself, and
drew one of the bandages lower down on his eyes.

Feeling his pulse, Lawrence asked him about his food.

He got little, he said, and that little was not good; the people of the
farm seemed to grudge it.

"My poor man," said Lawrence in his bad Spanish, "they are starving you
to death. But I'll see to that."

He rose and went out quickly. Returning with a basin of soup, he
presented it to the invalid, who ate it with relish. Then the man began
to relate how he had been attacked a few days before by a party of
robbers in one of the mountain passes, who had cut the throats of all
his party in cold blood, and had almost killed himself, when he was
rescued by the opportune arrival of some travellers.

Lawrence was much disgusted at first by the man's falsehood. Observing
the poor fellow's extreme weakness, however, and his evident anxiety
lest he should be recognised, the feeling changed to pity. Laying his
hand gently on the man's shoulder, he said, with a look of solemnity
which perchance made, up to some extent for the baldness of the
phraseology--

"Antonio, tell not lies; you are dying!"

The startled man looked at his visitor earnestly. "Am I dying?" he
asked, in a low tone.

"You are, perhaps; I know not. I will save you if possible."

These words were accompanied by a kind look and a comforting pat on the
shoulder, which, it may be, did more for the sick man than the best of
physic. At all events the result was a sudden grasp of the hand and a
look of gratitude which spoke volumes. The robber was about to give
vent to his feelings in speech when the door opened, and the burly host,
putting his head in, announced that supper was ready.

Giving his patient another reassuring pat, the young doctor left him and
returned to the banqueting-hall of the mountain farm, where he found
that Manuela, Pedro, and Quashy were more or less earnestly engaged with
the contents of the iron pot.

CHAPTER FIVE.

LAWRENCE AND QUASHY BECOME "FLOSUFFICAL," AND THEY CAMP OUT BESIDE THE
"GIANT'S CASTLE."

While the party were at supper the first gusts of a storm, which had for
some time been brewing, shook the little hut, and before they had all
fallen into the profound slumber which usually followed their day's
journey, a heavy gale was howling among the mountain gorges with a nois