"Oh, Howard!" cried Estella, "you are in imminent peril! Fly! fly!" Howard stood irresolute for a moment. Then he folded his arms. "No, Estella, I will remain. Remember--" and his eyes sought the ceiling, to remind her that Lieutenant Mazenas was still a prisoner up stairs. At this she shivered. There was no time for further words, for up dashed the four soldiers the lieutenant had had in waiting. "There is the escaped spy!" said Captain Nocolo. "Disarm him, and handcuff him well." The four soldiers fell upon Howard, and had an easy task, for the young war correspondent deemed it best to offer no resistance. They were in the midst of their work when a crash sounded overhead, and down the stairs rushed Lieutenant Mazenas, his attire in much disorder. "Mazenas!" cried General Corona and Captain Nocolo simultaneously. "Where is that American!" howled the lieutenant, wrathfully. "Ha! they have you!" he hissed into Howard's face. "'Tis well. Men, look to it that he does not escape again. He has much to answer for." "Whence did you come?" demanded Captain Nocolo, while the old general looked on with interest. "Whence? From an upper closet in which that infernal spy locked me!" fumed the lieutenant. "He is a--a devil in human form!" he went on. "Oh, but you shall suffer dearly for your doings, never fear!" he added, with increased passion, as he faced Howard. "He locked you up in my house!" ejaculated Estella's father--"in my house! Then he must have--" He paused and looked at his daughter. "I see it all," burst out Captain Nocolo, maliciously. "Estella aided him to escape, and brought him here. The lieutenant came to hunt him up, and was made a prisoner. We came in just in time to entrap this adroit American." "That's it!" cried General Corona. He turned to Estella. "Child, go to your room; I will speak to you later!" "I will go," said Estella, in a low voice. "But," she gazed full at Captain Nocolo, "ere I depart, let me say a word about that man. He is unworthy of your friendship, papa, for he openly and grossly insulted me the night we met near the scene of the railroad wreck." "You lie!" burst from Captain Nocolo's lips, and scarcely had the words been uttered when Howard's manacled hands struck him such a blow in the mouth that the blood was drawn. The soldiers promptly knocked down the young war correspondent, and he was about to be subjected to gross maltreatment when the general, who could not but admire Howard's action, interfered. "Stop!" he commanded. "You had better take him outside and march him back to prison; this is no place for such a scene. As for you, Captain Nocolo, I will interview you in private, after I have had a chance to talk with my daughter. Lieutenant Mazenas, have you anything further to say?" The face of the lieutenant was a study. He was full of rage, yet he had a part to play, and must play it.