But there came up from the bottom of the ravine, the lantern-jawed Sergeant, long, silent, lean, parched as a Manchegan cow whose pasture has been burnt up by a summer sun. With one beckoning finger he summoned La Giralda apart, and she obeyed him as readily as the boy had obeyed her. They communed a long time together, the old gipsy speaking, the coffee-coloured Sergeant listening with his head a little to the side. At the end of the colloquy Sergeant Cardono went directly up to Rollo and saluted. "Is it permitted for me to speak a word to your Excellency concerning the objects of the expedition?" he said, with his usual deference. "Certainly!" answered Rollo; "for me, my mission is a secret one, but I have no instructions against listening." The Sergeant bowed his head. "Whatever be our mission you will find me do my duty," he said; "and since this cursed plague may interfere with all your plans, it is well that you should know what has befallen and what is designed. You will pardon me for saying that it takes no great prophet to discover that our purposes have to do with the movements of the court." Rollo glanced at him keenly. "Did General Cabrera reveal anything to you before your departure?" he asked. "Nay," said Sergeant Cardono; "but when I am required to guide a party secretly to San Ildefonso, where the court of the Queen-Regent is sojourning, it does not require great penetration to see the general nature of the service upon which I am engaged!" Rollo recovered himself. "You have not yet told me what you have discovered," he said, expectantly. "No," replied the Sergeant with great composure--"that can wait." For little Concha was approaching; and though he had limitless expectations of the good influence of that young lady upon the military career of his officer, he did not judge it prudent to communicate intelligence of moment in her presence. Wherein for once he was wrong, since that pretty head of the Andalucian beauty, for all its clustering curls, was full of the wisest and most far-seeing counsel--indeed, more to be trusted in a pinch than the _juntas_ of half-a-dozen provinces. But the Sergeant considered that when a girl was pretty and aware of it, she had fulfilled her destiny--save as it might be in the making of military geniuses. Therefore he remained silent as the grave so long as Concha stayed. Observing this, the girl asked a simple question and then moved off a little scornfully, only remarking to herself: "As if I could not make him tell me whenever I get him by himself!" She referred (it is needless to state) not to Sergeant Cardono, but to his commanding officer, Senor Don Rollo Blair of Blair Castle in the self-sufficient shire of Fife. CHAPTER XXVI DEEP ROMANY