“Oh, yes you are, and if you are not you must be, for I am perfectly sure we don’t want to spoil our fun by any silliness. Just peep around the rocks and see if they have started yet. If they have we will follow. I hope the _inxanos_ will be good to us. You see I am doing this--I mean I wanted to wait here as a sort of propitiation to the _inxanos_, so they would know I am really in earnest. Do you think there could be any _inxanos_ there in that cave? I see some little shadowy thing.” Tomás fell in with her mood. “Shall we go see?” “If you like. They do appear to people, you know.” This conversation carried on partly in Spanish and partly in English was not perfectly understood on either side, but each managed to get the gist of what the other was saying. They clambered down the crags to enter the caves, a lofty aperture in the rocks, open on two sides. The shadowy form resolved itself into gray stone as they approached. They passed through to the pebbly-strewn stretch of sand on the further edge of which they had left Doña Martina. The four were standing there parleying. As the two figures came out from the cave Doña Martina called to them, “We are going.” “So are we,” returned Patty. “Don’t wait. We will follow.” And the party took up its tramp back through the woods by the winding stream. Robert Lisle did not tarry when the house was reached, but cutting his adieux short at the gate, strode off down the road. Patty looked after him pensively. “It was so romantic,” she remarked. “I wish Don Felipe had been there.” “Patty,” her sister began. “What, dear,” said Patty sweetly. “I am displeased with you.” “Dear me, what have I done?” Her sister took her arm and walked with her to the house. The others had gone on ahead. “Don’t you know it wasn’t the thing for you and Tomás to go flocking off by yourselves in that way?” “I asked him.” “So much the worse; it was very marked.” “And who was there to criticize?” “Mr. Lisle and Paulette.” “Oh, they don’t count. When you go seeking _inxanos_ you can’t be conventional, Tina. There is no sense in getting vexed over a little thing like that. Wait till I do something really outrageous.” “Which I suppose you are bound to do if you keep on.” “Rather than disappoint you, I will try, my dear. At present I don’t feel the least ‘compuncted,’ as Tomás said to-day. He is getting on, that Tomás.” “You mean--?” “With his English. We begin to understand each other at last.” “Oh, Patty, why will you?” “What will I?” “Flirt with Tomás.” “My dear girl, just because I say we are beginning to converse intelligently you put that construction upon the matter. Such a suspicious old gooseberry as you are.” “I wish I could believe there were no grounds for my suspicion.”