"But old Barradas either slept like a top, or he was too wary to open; for he heeded them not. "Then I heard Juan and Martin muttering curses as they deliberately forced open the door; next there came a terrible cry of-- "'Help! Pedrillo, help! Ayuda, por amor de neustra Señora Santissima!' "This was followed by sounds like those made by a sheep when the knife of the carnicero is in its throat; and, in the meantime, Martin's two daughters were singing as loud as they could, and dancing a bolero in the passage, to conceal these terrible sounds, which froze the blood within me." Here Pedrillo paused. "Go on," said Jack Hall, impatiently; "and how did you escape?" "If the noble señors would help me to refresh my memory----" "Ah, I comprehend," said I, tossing a peseta to him; "now fire away, Pedrillo." "You should not encourage this young picaro, Señor Caballero," said the Spaniard, whose face was now darkened by a terrible frown; "for it is my belief that he was the mere decoy, who led poor old Pedro Barradas to that villanous posada." Instead of being angry, Pedrillo lifted up his hands, and prayed that Heaven and our Lady of the Seven Sorrows would forgive the speaker for his vile suspicions. "I never closed an eye that night. In the morning I was told by Inez the Patrona, that old Barradas had departed across the hills of Antequera without me. Martin Secco asked me how I had slept? I said, like a dormouse; and as soon as I was free, I ran like a hare back to Malaga; and to make up for the loss of my last night's rest, slept like a torpedo under the trees of the Alameda." "You acquainted the magistrates--the alguazils, of course," said Hall, knocking the ashes from his third cigar. "I was only a poor, ragged, little picaro," replied Pedrillo, in a whining voice; "and who would believe me? Besides, old Barradas was a stranger from Cordova or Jaen; and a man, more or less, is nothing in Granada; but since that time Martin's two daughters have been sent to the galleys at Barcelona, by the captain-general of the kingdom, for intriguing in many ways with the contrabandistas of Jaen. Now, señors, the noon is past; and if it please you, 't is time we were moving, if you wish to reach the Sierra." While we were placing fresh caps on our rifles, and preparing to start, the Spaniard with the patch, who had listened to Pedrillo's story with great impatience, now seized that young gamin by the arm, and grasping it like a vice, gave him a savage scowl, and said something in Spanish; but so rapidly, that I could only make out that he was reprehending him severely for telling us "a succession of falsehoods." So I thought at that time; afterwards I was enabled to put a different construction upon his indignation, at which Pedrillo seemed to be considerably alarmed.