ges, and then
they were in a room which was worth looking at. It was not so very
large, only about fifteen feet by twenty, but it was unusually high, and
it had but one tall, narrow slit of a window. Close by this, however,
were a finely carved reading chair and table, ready to receive all the
light which the window might choose to let in. Ned was staring eagerly
around the room, when his pretty guide remarked:

"You had better see all you can before it gets any darker. Take down as
many books as you want. I don't care much for those fusty-musty old
histories. I must go away now--"

"Hullo, senorita!" exclaimed Ned. "There is a lamp on the table. I have
some matches--"

"I don't believe you can make it burn," she said, "but you can try. It
has not been lighted for this ever so long, and the oil may have dried
up."

Around she whirled and away she went, leaving Ned to his own devices.
His next thought was almost impolite, after all, for he was more than
half glad that she did go, so that he might have the library all to
himself to rummage in. He did not instantly examine the lamp, for he had
never before been in just this kind of room, and it fascinated him. All
its sides were occupied by high bookcases, every one of them crammed
full of volumes of all sorts and sizes. He thought that he had never
seen larger books than were some of the fat folios on the lower shelves.
There were great, flat, atlas-looking concerns leaning against them, and
out on the floor stood several upright racks of maps. Old Senor Paez may
have been what is called a book-worm. At all events, Ned had understood
that he was a very learned man, with a strong enthusiasm for American
history.

"Heavens and earth!" suddenly exclaimed Ned. "What is that?"

He darted forward to a further corner of the room, as if he were in a
great hurry to meet somebody who had unexpectedly come in. It certainly
was something almost in human shape, but it had been standing there a
long while, and the hand which it appeared to hold out to him was of
steel, for it was nothing in the wide world but a complete suit of
ancient armor. It was so set up in that corner, however, that it almost
seemed alive, with its right hand extended, and its left holding a long,
pennoned lance. Its helmet had a barred vizor, so that if there had been
any face behind that, it would have been hidden. Ned went and stood
silently before it for a moment, staring at that vizor.

"I say," he