"I don’t believe you," I said, bluntly. "I know you are lying, indeed, and if you don’t tell me the truth on the spot, the first use I’ll make of this authority will be to have you clapped into gaol yourself, and the whole of your private papers searched. And you know as well as I what we shall find among them. I’ll give you two minutes to choose." "I don’t know, senor, I don’t, upon my soul; and, by the Holy Saints, I swear I don’t," he cried, eagerly, panic-stricken by the threat. "One of your minutes is gone. Silas, call up a couple of the gendarmes;" and Mayhew turned to the door. "Stop, senor, stop for the love of Heaven. I don’t know. I wish to help you; I swear I do. But I’m innocent of everything. Give me time to think." "Your innocence wears a strange dress, Rubio, and I won’t give you another second." "I can tell you what I think, senor," said the bully, trembling like a child. "It is most likely his Excellency would have had the senorita taken to a house at Escorias, which I believe he had prepared for her." "If your thoughts are wrong you’ll find yourself in a hole. Now, a last question. Is it possible that Colonel Livenza can have found this out in any way?" "Mother of Angels, I believe I see it now," he exclaimed, excitedly, and then was silent. "You are either hiding some fact or hatching another lie," I said, sternly. "I should have thought you could see the danger of that with me." "I will tell you, senor, I will, indeed, everything. I came to this house this afternoon in consequence of a message from his Excellency. He had for some time had a suspicion that Colonel Livenza had played him false—there was, I believe, something in which you yourself were concerned with the colonel. A warrant was made out and handed to me, and I was to wait for further instructions before making the arrest. This afternoon his Excellency rang me up on the telephone—his instrument is on the table here, you see—and he was speaking to me when the message broke off suddenly. He had got as far as this—’Go to Escorias and execute the warrant I gave you recently to arrest——’ There it stopped, and I remember now there was a sharp noise I could not understand. I thought something was wrong with the wires. I waited for him to speak again, and when nothing came through I spoke to him and rang the bell. But I could get no answer, and in the end thought it best to come to the house for further instructions. I thought he might wish the senorita removed again, and came up to see." "Then you did know where she was," I said, pointedly. "And I’m glad you see the prudence of treating me frankly. How do we get to Escorias?"