"What, another of your mysterious excursions?"
"Yes, but this one will not be long, and I shall be back soon?"
"All the better."
"¿Quién sabe?" the young man murmured in a sinister voice.
Doña Concha, who had heard the last words, was not mistress of her terror.
The visitors took leave one after the other, and Don Torribio Carvajal was at length left alone with his hosts.
"Señorita," he said on taking leave, "I am setting out on a journey in which I shall doubtless incur great dangers. May I hope that you will deign to remember the traveller in your prayers."
Concha looked at him for a moment in the face, and replied with a frankness which was natural to her:—
"Señor Caballero, I cannot pray for the success of an expedition whose object I do not know."
"Thanks for your frankness, mademoiselle," Don Torribio answered without the slightest emotion, "I shall not forget your words."