Bandit Love

"Dolores seemed to be insisting that I must come here for my coffee,"

explained Myra, recovering her composure.

"I instructed Madre Dolores to ask you to do me the honour of returning

here to have a talk with me before you retired, señorita, forgetting

that you do not understand much Spanish," responded Cojuelo. "I hardly

hoped to find you in négligé. You are a vision of beauty to ravish the

heart of any man, sweet lady."

"Thanks for the compliment, señor," said Myra coldly. "If I had

understood you wished to talk to me, I should not have prepared to

retire. Surely anything you have to say will keep until to-morrow.

Meanwhile, I shall be thankful for a cigarette."

"Pardon!" exclaimed Cojuelo, turning quickly to pick up the silver

cigarette-box from the table, and proffering it. "Your favourite

brand, you perceive. You will give El Diablo Cojuelo credit, I hope,

for making provision for your comfort."

"You certainly seem to be something of a magician," commented Myra, as

she helped herself to a cigarette and accepted a light. "Perhaps you

are in league with the Devil, and that is why you are known as El

Diablo Cojuelo! I should be interested to know how you managed to get

some of my clothes here, together with my toilet requisites."

"That was not the work of the devil, señorita," the hooded figure

answered, with a muffled laugh, "El Diablo Cojuelo thinks of

everything, and had made his preparations in advance. Did I not tell

you all the servants of El Castillo de Ruiz were in my pay? It was a

simple matter, therefore, to have some of your things smuggled out of

the castle before the raid. Pray be seated, señorita."

He waved his hand invitingly towards the couch which was drawn up close

to the electric heater, and Myra, reflecting that it was in keeping

with the rest of the fantastic, dream-like adventure that she, clad

only in a nightdress and dressing-gown, should be talking to a hooded

bandit in an electrically-lighted room in the heart of a mountain,

seated herself.

"I suppose I should thank you for being so thoughtful," she remarked,

with a tinge of irony in her sweet voice. "Am I to understand that

even the English-speaking maid at the Castillo de Ruiz is in your pay?"

"Even she, señorita, and I reproach myself--I who have boasted that I

think of everything--for not having kidnapped her at the same time as

you, so that we should have had no language difficulty such as has

occurred with Madre Dolores. If you wish it, I will kidnap her

to-morrow."