Tiburcio crept behind the sofa, and bending to Lopez's ear, he whispered, "Si, si, mi coronel, she is the one you have in mind, and she is his daughter." Lopez swung round and searched the blackmailer's face. "And now----" "You will let him come," said Tiburcio. "But bring two guards. And have four others with--well, with a stretcher." Again Lopez searched the dark crescent that was Tiburcio's eye, and again Tiburcio nodded with deep significance. "Bring him," he repeated, "but tell him nothing. Seeing will be enough." Murguia went, unknowing. He would see her, thanks to some freakish kindness in Don Tiburcio. He was torn between the joy of the meeting and the sharp grief of the parting that must follow. At the time he never noticed that they led him up the chapel walk instead of toward the hacienda house. Tiburcio was ahead with a lantern, but when near the top of the hill he turned back to them, yet not before the expectant Lopez had seen a black something on the pavement under the swinging light. "You first, mi coronel," said Tiburcio. "I, you mean!" cried Murguia, "I, senor!" "But we wish to see first if she is here," said Lopez. "Don Tiburcio thought she might be at vespers." "Vespers? There are no vespers to-night. Yet we come here! Why? Why do we come here?" Tiburcio motioned to the guards. "Hold him until we return," he ordered. A Dragoon reached out a hand indifferently to Murguia's collar, and that second the old man's ten fingers were at his throat. They overpowered him at last, but they would have fared better with a wildcat. Tiburcio and Lopez went alone. They stopped before the covered thing near the church door. "So," mused the colonel, "she ended it _this_ way." "From the tower," Tiburcio grimly added. "His----" "Well, say it. You mean His Majesty?" "His Majesty need know nothing of the--of the finale." "Who is there to tell him, por Dios? I won't. You won't." "But you forget a third, Don Tiburcio. I mean the man who was with you several evenings ago, when you----" "When I was carrying off the padre's sweetheart?" "When somehow you two happened in this desolate neighborhood. Since you took his name out of my mouth just now, you must have recognized that it was His Majesty whom you saw talking to her almost where she now lies. I was near by, guarding his privacy, but you both escaped before I could stop you. Now then, who was that other intruder?" The other was Rodrigo Galan, but Tiburcio replied, "The other will not have much to say. Poor Captain Maurel!" "Bueno, bueno!" "Not yet, mi coronel. Only we two know of Maximilian's part in this, but we must keep it from her father above all others. I am a loyal Imperialist, Don Miguel." "What difference does that make?" "The Empire faces a crisis."