"Because we have reached the rock, and should break our picks, without getting any further."
"What! Reached the rock? Impossible!"
The Marquis leant over the excavation.
"It would be madness to try and get any further," he said; "it is plain that we have reached the rock." Doña Marianna gave an angry start.
"I tell you again that it is impossible," she continued.
"Look for yourself, sister."
The young lady took a lantern and looked; then, without answering her brother, she turned to Paredes and the tigrero.
"You," she said, "are old servants of the family, and I can order you without any fear of being contradicted; so obey me. Remove, as rapidly as possible, all the stones round that supposed rock, and when that is done, I fancy I shall convince the most incredulous."
The two men resumed work; and Don Ruiz, piqued by his sister's remark, imitated them. The Marquis with folded arms and head bowed on his chest, was overcome by such persistency, and began to hope again. Ere long the stones were removed, and the mass of rock stood solitary.
The young lady turned to the Marquis.