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He is too good, too considerate, too honorable to bring pain to any one. He will be grieved when I tell him the truth, as I shall lose no time in doing, and will hasten to repair the injustice. So let us kiss again, and say and think no more about it." True to her promise, Señorita Estacardo took the first occasion to explain frankly the situation to her uncle.
In the momentary reaction, Señorita Estacardo smiled: "You have full faith in your countrymen." "So have you; so has every one who knows them, and who does not? So will General Yozarro and his barbarians, if they ever rouse the anger of my people. But why do we speculate? It seems we can do nothing but wait. Manuela, can we not steal away when night comes?"
Señorita Estacardo sprang up, turned the key and drew open the massive structure for a few inches. Then she recoiled at sight of the soldier in the blue jacket standing before her, bowing low with hat in hand. After his "buenas noches," he uttered the amazing words: "I have come for the American Señorita." "Who are you?"
However, all was satisfactorily arranged and Señorita Estacardo was thrown into transports of delight by the receipt of a letter saying that by the time it reached the young woman, a Miss Rowland would be out on the ocean in the charge of their old friend, Major Jack Starland, and well on their way to the home of the Señorita, where they intended to make a good long visit, before resuming their long voyage around the southern point of the continent and then up the western coast to San Francisco.
They had been talking of their strange experiences, of Manuela Estacardo, of Captain Ortega and of those whose memories were much less pleasant. You can imagine the trend of that low, delightful conversation, for the scene, the surroundings, the time, indeed all the circumstances tended to draw them closer.
Do you not see which way the wind blows? General Yozarro does not wish his relative, Señorita Estacardo to come to him, because she would be troublesome; you know of some of the General's conquests among the other sex; he is in love with the beautiful Señorita from the North, but she has friends and he must protect every step.
"And that, my dear friend, is the one thing that troubles me; I do not understand it; do you?" Señorita Estacardo drew her chair beside the snowy couch and faced her friend, who did the same regarding her. Reaching out her hand, she lovingly inclosed that of Miss Starland, just as she used to do in the dear old days at the Seminary.
"No need of that; I have questioned him; I know that your real business with General Yozarro was to meet the Señorita, your sister, and I know all that Martella knows." "And what is that?" "Señoritas Starland and Estacardo were passengers on the boat, but ten miles down the river they went ashore, and, under the escort of two soldiers, set out for the summer home of General Yozarro."
From Zalapata the yacht steamed to Atlamalco, the home of Manuela Estacardo. There the party was received by the other impressionable type of the tropics, General Pedro Yozarro, who left nothing undone to make their visit pleasant in the highest degree.
"It is fully three centuries old," explained Señorita Estacardo to her friend, "and is unlike anything I have ever seen in this part of the world. I suppose there are plenty of similar buildings along the Rhine and perhaps on your own Hudson, which has been called the Rhine of America." "How came it to be built?" "I can only repeat the legends that have come down to us.
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