"Have you ever cared for a woman, Silas?"
He smiled, and shrugged his shoulders as he said—
"Too busy and too poor for luxuries of the kind."
"Ah, well, everything comes to those who wait. If you haven't, you don't know how I felt in this; if you ever do, you'll understand me. I'm ready now, and feel fit. I'm off to the hotel."
"You'd better see the chief and tell him. He can do more than you."
"He can't save Sarita from Quesada, and I can, and will. Of course, there's the chance that these agents of his will lay me by the heels, and we must reckon with that. I don't know what's going to happen; but I do know this, that where Sarita goes, I follow; and so long as I'm outside a gaol I'll try and communicate with you twice a day. If a day passes and you don't hear from me, then tell the chief what's wrong; and if he can't get me out of any bother, then let the people at the Palace know. So much for emergencies. As for the rest, I'll cut the knots as I find them."
"You'll come out on top, Ferdinand, I'm sure of that. I wish to Heaven I had your energy."
With that we parted for the time, and a good deal was to happen before we shook hands again.
As I drove to the Hotel de l'Opera I saw the city was as full of soldiery as if it had been under siege; but no one interfered with me, and at the hotel the marks of increased respect with which I was received evidenced the influence of the previous night's message from the King.
Everything else was wrong, however.