'Ah, that is what has been puzzling me all this time,' observed Malandris.
'That is my secret for the present,' returned Malto. 'It is a little secret which would interest Kazzaro even more than it does you, if he happened to be aware that I had such a key.'
'What has been puzzling me,' said Alondra, addressing Malandris, 'is how you came to be in that cage, and in such an extraordinary dress—if one can call it a dress. I suppose some one must have placed you there. Who could have been guilty of such an atrocious act?'
Malandris, who was a tall, elderly man, with grizzled hair and a worn, haggard-looking face, shook his head with a sigh, as he answered, 'That you should wonder, young sir, only shows that you must be a stranger hereabouts—one who knows not the master we serve, or what he is capable of.'
'Hark! what is that?' exclaimed Malto suddenly. 'I 'm afraid they 've got upon our track! Do you see that tower yonder?'
Before them lay a wide, grassy expanse, at the end of which was a sort of ornamental pavilion or small tower.
'That is the place we have to make for,' he went on. 'If we can reach it, we shall be safe—at all events, for a time—till assistance comes. If necessary, we must run for it.'
As he spoke, the low murmur which he had noted behind them grew into a clamorous shouting, and a moment later a crowd of pursuers came running through the gateway they had so recently passed through.
CHAPTER XXIV.
AT THE PAVILION.