All their proceedings were plainly visible
to Alfonzo. He noted everything
with the closest attention. In the meanwhile,
Ben Habib, his prisoner, was becoming
very restless, rolling about and
blowing noisely for breath. He saw that
it was necessary to silence him and getting
down from the stone he placed his
hands upon the now motionless slave as
he lay against a broken pillar curiously
carved with a capital of entwined asps
and said sternly,

`If you are not still you shall die.
You have heard what El Zegris has
said. If he hears you and discovers you
and me he will be sure to take your head
off as well as mine.'

`I know it, Effendi,' gasped the Moor,
succeeding in removing the turban from
his mouth. `Oh, do not let me die for
want o' breath. I have small nostrils, as
Allah knows, and I can't get wind enough
in and out at them for my body! If
thou wilt let me breathe and trust to me,
may the Prophet pull me out o' Paradise
by the hairs o' my beard if I speak above
my breath. I know well I am taller by
the head while I am in here than I should
be out there.'

Alfonzo reflected a moment. He
was convinced that he could safely trust
him, as he saw that he was fully convinced
his safety depended on being undiscovered.

`I will trust you, Ben Habib. But I
swear to you by your Prophet that if you
lift your voice above a whisper, or speak
when you are not spoken to, I will slay
you on the spot.'

With these words Alfonzo unbound
the turban from his mouth and returned
it to him to fold again about his shining
bald pate. Ben Habib was full of gratitude
and kissing the hem of Alfonzo's
robe, said he would be his slave and serve
him faithfully if he would deliver him
out of the hands of the fierce El Zegris.

The Moor seemed to think that the
young mountaineer, alone and surrounded
by foes as he was, would yet escape
his enemies in safety; and Alfonzo too
possessed this very kind of confidence in
himself. The idea of being taken prisoner
or slain by El Zegris did not give
him a moment's uneasy thought. He
felt strong in his own courage and energy.

He now returned once more to his
look-out, while Ben Habib climbed up to
the loop-hole to survey the depth below.
He measured it with his eye, and looked
by no means satisfied at the result of the
survey. He neverthless slid down again
to the floor, and began to unwind his kaftan,
and proceeded to tear it into pieces.
At the noise, Alfonzo called to know what
he was doing.

`I am making a rope to let myself
down the wall, Effendi. My sash and
turban, my kaftan and trousers, torn up
with economy, will reach full fifty feet,
and a jump of ten more may be saved if
thou wilt lend thy bernash to me to tear
up!'

`Hist! Let this be the last way of
escape when all others fail,' said Alfonzo.

`I would try this first. El Zegris may
take a notion to have all the empty rooms
looked into after me; and if he finds this
door fast on the inside, it is all up with
thee and me—whip would go off our
heads in the stoning of a date.'

`Make no more noise with that rending,
and be silent. I will devise a way
to get out of this. Worse come to the
worst we can fight our way out.'

`Allah forfend, good neighbor Effendi.
I am no man at the sword—I am better
at a spit. Let us have no fighting, I pray
thee!'

`Silence, Moor!' cried Alfonzo sternly.

He then directed his scrutiny into the
court with the closest attention. The
Moors, having dined, had thrown themselves
upon their mats and horse-cloths,
to sleep in the shade, and repose after
the fatigue of their morning's expedition.
In a little while all, except two, who were
still drinking wine by the fire, were
stretched at length in sleep. El Zegris
and his lieutenant still remained eating
dried dates, waited upon by the Ethiopian.
At length El Zegris rose and walked
slowly round the court-yard, gazed a
moment on the sleepers, glanced into the
stalls, examined the security of the gate,
and then ordered the two men by the fire
to take their scymetars and do guard duty.
The men murmured at being compelled
to leave their sour wine, but obeyed.—
The lieutenant Diego, without more ado,
threw himself at length on the divan upon
which he had taken his dinner, and

[figure description] Page 040.[end figure description]

shading his face with his turban, was soon
buried in deep rose.

El Zegris alone, with the two sentinels,
was awake and vigilant. For his men to
sleep after dinner was as customary, in
that climate, as to sleep in the night.
They were, moreover, better fitted by repose
in the heat of noon for the midnight
expeditions upon which El Zegris led
them.

At length, after walking round the
court and observing every thing thoroughly,
like a skilful chief, he stopped before
the door of the apartment in which the
maiden had been shut up. Alfonzo's
heart throbbed violently, and his grasp
was firmer upon the hilt of Ben Habib's
scymetar, which he held in his hand.
The Ethiopian came near him, and held
up before his eyes the bloody wolf-spear
which Alfonzo had dropped as he hurried
from the guard-room with his hold upon
the Moor's collar. The Ethiopian had
just found it in the corner whither it had
rolled aside, unheeded by its owner, who
did not miss it with the scymetar in his
grasp. He now saw it again with surprise,
aud closely observed the result of
the discovery.

`What is it?' impatiently asked El
Zegris, whose foot was already on the
step of the door which led to the apartment
of his beautiful captive.

`A mountaineer's wolf-spear. It has
blood on it still moist.'

`How came you by it?' asked El Zegris,
taking it in his hand and looking at
it closely.

`I found it just now in that room, upon
the floor. No doubt it will help to account
for Ben Habib's absence, and the
open gate.'

`By the beard of Mahomet, you say
well, Yussuf. This is strange! Is it a
man's blood on it?'

`No, a wolf's.'

`How can you tell?'

`Man's blood dries red: a brute's darkens
and becomes brown: this is brown.'

`It is not the slave's blood then! But
how came this spear here?'

`It must have been left here.'

`But by whom? If this place had been
visited by a herdsman, as it is not likely,
for they seldom venture this side o' the
Sierra, it would have been plundered.—
Nothing seems gooe. Yet the gate was
found open and this spear picked up;
and Ben Habib is no where to be found.
I will examine this matter by and by.
Guards, see that you keep vigilant watch,
and on no account open the gate. We
have enemies that have found us out.
Yussuf, keep awake, and if anything occurs
to cause alarm, sound the trumpet
call.'

With these words El Zegris threw
open the door of the apartment in which
the maiden had been imprisoned, and as
he entered, she darted past him with a
bound and a cry of mingled defiance and
terror. He caught her around the waist
and detained her, with a laugh of victory.

`No, no, my pretty bird. You do not
escape so easily. Do not be so cruel as
to fly me thus. There is many a maiden
that would gladly become the bride of
El Zegris, yet I choose only thee.'

`I would thank thee to put me to
death,' she cried imploringly. `I hate
thee, Julio.'

`Not half so much as I love thee.'

`Give me till to-morrow to decide,'
she cried ia despair.

`I see the ruse. Thou wishest to gain
time. But I will not be too hard with
thee. I will give thee till the sun go
down. Wilt thou decide by then?'

`I will,' she answered, half suffocated
with her emotions. `Leave me now. I
had hoped thou hadst relented. But
leave me now.'

`I had also hoped that thou hadst relented.
Say that thou wilt be my bride,
Genilla, star of my life, and I will ride
with thee to-morrow, in open day, into
Cordova, and at the Mosque there the
Mufti shall wed thee to me.'

`It is false what thou utterest. Thou
darest not appear in Cordova for thy
head, robber. But at sun-down thou
shalt have my answer. Leave me.'

`Cruel as beautiful, thou seest that I
am thy slave and obey thee,' he answered
with an air of haughty superciliousness,
while a scornful smile curved his
dark lip.

He then slowly withdrew and turned
the key as before, saying significantly as
he did so, `At sunset.'