The _cochero_ had but a confused idea of what he was carrying away with him. By the feel, watches, with chains and bracelets; besides some smaller articles wrapped in bits of paper. The uncertainty of his getting safe up the cliff hindered him from giving them even the most cursory examination, nor did he think of doing this till at sufficient distance from the card-playing party to feel sure he was beyond danger of pursuit. Then the temptation to have a look at the things, which had so strangely and unexpectedly come into his possession, became irresistible; and sitting down upon a ledge of rock, he drew them out into the light of the moon. Two watches were there, both gold, and one with a jewelled case. "_Carrai_!" he exclaimed, as his eyes fell upon the latter, and became fixed in a stare of blank amazement, "can it be! It is--the Condesa's watch--the very one she would have given me! But how came the hunchback to have it? Surely he must have stolen it. The other, too, with all these things!" He looked at the second watch, but as it had never been in his hands before, he was unable to identify it. Still, it resembled one he had seen his mistress wearing, and most likely was the same. The bracelets, chains, necklets, and brooches would be theirs, too; as also the rings and other bijouterie, which the dwarf had found time to do up in paper. "Stolen them?" continued the _cochero_ interrogatively, as he ran his eyes over the varied assortment. "How could he? The watches he might, but the other things? Why bless me, here are two pairs of ear-rings--and these grand pendants--I'm sure I saw them in the ears of the Condesa this very day. He couldn't have taken them without her knowing it. _Santo Dios_! How ever has he come by them?" As he thus questioned and reflected, a feeling of apprehension began to creep over him. A little before leaving the house to go after his horses he had observed his young mistress and the Condesa going into the ornamental grounds. And they went alone; Don Ignacio having repaired to a private apartment, where he was accustomed to shut himself up for the examination of State papers, what if the ladies _were_ still in the grounds, in some secluded spot, lying dead, where all these adornments had been stripped from their persons! This horrible tableau did the faithful servant in imagination conjure up. He could not help it. Nor was the thing so very improbable. He had some earlier acquaintance with the desperate character of the dwarf, which later experience confirmed. Besides, there was the state of the country--thieves and robbers all round--men who made light of murder! With a heaviness of heart--a painful fear that there had been murder--he stayed not to further examine the trinkets; but gathering all up again, and thrusting them back into his pocket, hurried on home.