Part 15 (1/2)

Inez and Lepine seated themselves near the fountain, and there, in trembling tones, Inez gave a full account to her companion of much that had pa.s.sed on that, to her, most eventful day. The maiden told of the discovery of the treasure, and pointed, as she did so, to the spot whence it had been dug out by herself and Chico. Inez did not dwell long on her own imprisonment; she did not care to fix the attention of her indignant hearer on what only concerned herself. Of Alcala's subsequent arrest his sister could only speak through tears. Inez lightly glanced at her own unsuccessful efforts to obtain the help of friends for Alcala, and would hardly have mentioned them at all, had she not, from maidenly instinct, wished to account for her own solitary wanderings so far from her home.

”And now that you know all, senor,” said Inez, raising for a moment her dark tearful eyes to the face of Lepine, ”can you--will you aid us?”

”If I do not, most a.s.suredly it will not be will but power that is wanting,” replied Lucius, who had been deeply interested both by the narrative and by the grief of the artless narrator.

”Will you not visit Alcala in his prison? will you not stir up your English friends to save him?”

Lucius was silent for a few seconds, revolving the difficulties before him, ere he returned an answer. The young man knew how utterly useless it would be to attempt to enlist the aid of Mr. Pa.s.smore, even were that aid of any value. It was more than doubtful whether any interference on the part of Englishmen would avail even to mitigate punishment inflicted on one who was not a British subject. Spanish jealousy might even resent a foreigner's intervention. Lucius could hardly bear to quench the hope which his presence had kindled, but it would have been more cruel to raise expectations which must end in keen disappointment. England might reprobate the way in which the Spanish government dealt with the Spanish people; she might view with indignation the cruelty of the oppressor; but when his arm was raised to strike an innocent victim, she had no right to cry, ”Hold! hold!”

Lucius felt that he could do nothing to free Alcala from his prison; it was doubtful whether he would even be permitted to see him there.

”I do not think that any stranger would be suffered to visit your brother to-day, senorita,” said Lucius at last; ”the evening is now coming on, and it is too late for me to obtain an order of admission.

I shall certainly do my utmost to procure one ere long. But it seems to me,” Lucius continued, ”that it is of the utmost importance to your brother that he should be furnished with the means of securing good legal advice, and that fair play which, I fear, is not always shown to those whose purses are empty.”

There was something almost reproachful in the sad tone of Inez as she replied, ”Think you, senor, that gold would be spared--if we had it to give?”

”There is, as you have told me just now, senorita, a considerable amount of valuable property of which you have been basely robbed. It appears to me that our first efforts must be directed to recovering that property.”

”I fear that its recovery is impossible--at least to us, senor,”

replied Inez. ”No one cares to take up our cause. I suspect that the alguazils themselves have been bribed. How can we, poor helpless ladies, track out a robber, as Alcala, if free, might have done?”

”Think you that this Chico will remain in Seville to bear witness against your brother?” asked Lucius.

”I should doubt it,” replied Inez. ”I believe that Chico only accused Alcala in order to prevent his being able to take any measures to recover the jewels and gold.”

”This is the conclusion to which I also have come,” said Lepine.

”Chico is not likely to stop long in Seville, where he could not, without awaking suspicion, dispose of such gems as you have described.

He will doubtless be leaving this city; but he was in it but a few hours ago, and cannot as yet be far off. Men cannot travel in Spain with the railroad speed that they do in my country. Have you any idea, senorita, whether Chico has any friends or connections in Seville, in whose house he might be likely to lurk for awhile with his ill-gotten spoil?”

Inez reflected for a brief s.p.a.ce. ”A cousin of Chico keeps the Posada de Quesada,” she said; ”it is in the entrance of the Dehesa, about a mile beyond the city.”

”I know it--I know it!” cried Lepine, who had often in his Sunday rambles noticed the lone picturesque little inn; ”it is in a lane that opens on the highroad to Xeres.”

”My brother once pa.s.sed a night there,” continued the maiden; ”from that inn he rode forth to the dreadful Plaza de Toros. Chico had mentioned the posada to Alcala, on account of having a relative there.

But Alcala has told me that he would never set foot in that place again, for that it had seemed to him like a haunt of robbers.”

”Which makes it all the more likely that the villain Chico may at this moment be lying concealed there!” cried Lucius eagerly. ”Senorita, I will sleep in that posada to-night!”

The face of Inez expressed anxiety and alarm. ”There might be danger, senor, in your doing so; you know not what things happen in Spain,”

she said, lowering her voice.

Lucius smiled, the free joyous smile of a light-hearted youth to whom anything would be welcome that might come in the shape of adventure.

He was one to whom

”If a path be dangerous known, The danger's self is lure alone.”

What an attractive episode in a life given to dull counting-house drudgery would be some exploit performed in a romantic Spanish posada!