“The men without shame—that’s what it means in Spanish—an insurgent legion. They took the town in which my father and I were staying—a handful of ragged men, with two companies of drilled troops against them—and I lost my father in the crowd of fugitives. Then I hid in a church, and some drunken brigands were chasing me through the dark streets when I met the Englishman, who took care of me. The Sin Verguenza were breaking into the houses, and I was alone, horribly frightened and helpless, in that Cuban town. He was one of their officers, and he took me to the house they had made their headquarters.” “You went with him?” asked Hester Earle. “Yes,” said Nettie slowly, while a faint flush crept into her face, “I did. Nobody was safe from the Sin Verguenza then, and I felt I could trust him. There are men who make one feel like that, you know.” For no apparent reason she glanced at Violet Wayne, who sat with a curious expression in her eyes, looking—not at Tony, as Miss Harding noticed—but across the valley. “Yes,” she said, “there are. Go on, please!” “I went with him to the rebel headquarters, and then very nearly tried to run away again, because it was like walking into the lion’s den. The patio was littered with the furniture they had thrown out of the windows, and I could hear the men roystering over their wine. Still, when I looked at the man with me, I went in.” She stopped and sat silent a space of seconds, while none of the others spoke. They felt it might not be advisable to ask questions. “Well,” she continued, “he hid me in a room, and then sat down on the veranda that ran round the patio outside it where I could see him from the lattice. The city was in a turmoil, the insurgent leaders were carousing in the house and you will remember they were the Sin Verguenza. There was only that man and his American comrade between me and those horrors. I think he fancied I rested, but all that awful night I scarcely took my eyes off him. He was very like the marble knight just then.” “Isn’t that a little rough on the effigy?” said Tony with a smile. “The man was, I think you told us, a leader of shameless brigands.” Violet Wayne saw the gleam in Nettie’s eyes, and noticed the faint ring in her voice as she said, “There are not many men who could lead the Sin Verguenza, but you would understand what I mean if you had seen him. He was ragged and very weary, and had been hurt in the fighting, but he sat there keeping himself awake, with his rifle across his knees, and every time I looked at his face it reassured me. It was haggard, but it was grim and strong—and I knew that man would have to be torn to pieces before any harm could come to me. He was keeping vigil with something entrusted to him which he would guard with his life—and that, I think, is the fancy that stirs one when one looks at your marble knight.”