He strode forward to the table and touched a bell, and almost
immediately an ancient woman with a wrinkled monkey-like, nut-brown
face, tanned by wind and weather, appeared through an opening concealed
by a curtain in the further wall. She was obviously of great age, but
her eyes were bright and sparkling with intelligence, and she was
active in her movements.
"This is Mother Dolores, who will attend you," Cojuelo explained, after
giving the woman some instructions in her native tongue. "She has a
change of clothing and refreshments in readiness for you. I will leave
you in her charge while I attend to the disposal of my other captives."
He disappeared through the aperture in the wall, and Mother Dolores,
after inspecting Myra appraisingly and admiringly, gabbling away in
Spanish idioma meanwhile, indicated to the fair prisoner that she
wished her to accompany her.
She led the way through a regular maze of crooked passages, and Myra
saw that Cojuelo's mountain lair was a strange freak of nature,
probably the result of a volcanic upheaval or an earthquake in some
prehistoric age. It was a series of caves connected with fissures, a
sort of irregular honeycomb of rock.
"Apartiamento--dormitorio," were the only words Myra understood of the
flood Dolores let loose as she ushered her into one of the cave-rooms,
and by pantomime indicated that she wished Myra to undress.
The rocky walls of the cave-bedroom were hidden beneath hangings of
moire silk, the floor was thickly carpeted, and the place was equipped
with an oak bedstead and some small pieces of roughly-constructed
furniture. But what made Myra gasp in amazement was to see her own
silk dressing-gown and the nightie she had worn the night before lying
on the eiderdown bedspread, together with other garments, while on the
primitive dressing-table stood her dressing-case.
"Incredible!" she exclaimed. "These things were in my bed-room at the
Castillo de Ruiz only an hour or two ago!"
"Si, si, señorita, El Castillo de Ruiz," said Dolores, nodding her head
and showing her toothless gums in a grin. "Maravilloso! Etra vez el
bueno maestro Cojuelo."
"Cojuelo boasted that all the servants of Don Carlos are in his pay,
and it must be true," thought Myra. "These things must have been taken
from my room before the raid, and the servants probably knew El Diablo
Cojuelo was going to kidnap me.... Surely I have nothing to fear from
a man who takes such trouble to ensure that I shall be comfortable?
And yet..."