He now adopted a severe tone. "You are aware, senora," said he, "that when I captured this castle there were several prisoners." Katie nodded. "I suppose so," said she. "I don't know." "Very well. Among them was your dear friend--" "My dear friend? Who? Not 'His Majesty?'" Lopez laughed bitterly. "How transparent that little trick is," he said to himself. "By 'your dear friend,'" said he, "I mean, of course, Mr. Ashby." "Mr. Ashby! Oh!" said Katie. To tell the truth, by this time Katie had almost forgotten his existence. She seemed to herself to have lived years since last she spoke to Mr. Ashby. So she said, in an indifferent tone, "Mr. Ashby? Oh!" Lopez, of course, thought this a part of her assumed indifference, and smiled at his own penetration. He could see through her little arts; and he knew something which would soon force her to tear away her mask. "He is arrested as a spy," said Lopez, abruptly. "A spy!" said Katie; "Mr. Ashby a spy! Why, he hasn't been a spy. I don't understand." "Whether he is one or not," said Lopez, harshly, "will soon appear, as he will be tried by court-martial to-day. In times like these no mercy is shown to spies. The country is swarming with them. They have a short trial, a quick sentence, and a summary execution." "Still," said Katie, "I don't see how you can make out that Mr. Ashby is a spy." Katie showed no horror at all, no excitement whatever, and Lopez was proportionally amazed. He had not expected this. "I can't tell," said he; "the court-martial will deal with him. I dare say he is a spy, and I fully expect that he will be shot." "Well," said Katie, "I dare say he must be. You seem to hate him so, and you say he has insulted you, so you will take this way of being revenged. All the same, I shouldn't like to deal that way with my enemy. Poor Mr. Ashby! It's very, very sad! Oh, what would "His Majesty" think if he were to hear this!" Once more Lopez was struck dumb. He had counted with certainty upon producing a strong effect on Katie. By holding Ashby's doom over her head, he hoped to influence her. But this tremendous blow had fallen, and had evidently not been felt. For Ashby and for his fate Katie had nothing but the most commonplace expressions of pity--no horror, no grief, no despair, nothing of the sort. In fact, so completely overcome was Lopez by this unexpected result of his interview with Katie that he left abruptly. He was full of wonder. "Is it possible," he thought, "that this is her English stubbornness? Can she have so much of that infernal English stolidity as to be able to conceal so perfectly her deepest feelings? Impossible! Does she love Ashby? She cannot! Does she love anybody? No! Can she love? I don't believe it! What a girl! what a girl! And she seems so gentle, so timid, but in reality she's as bold as a lion, and as fierce as a she-tiger. By heavens! she shall be mine, if she's the Evil One himself.