"We will start within a quarter of an hour; but in order that I may take my precautions, tell me what I have to do when I see the Señora?"
"You will hand her this scapulary, and say to her that the cavalier who wore it is lying at your house in danger of death. Pay careful attention to the expression which her face assumes, and manage to describe it to me. That is all I want."
"I understand."
And the landlord went down to make his preparations.
"In that way, I shall know whether she loves me," Leon exclaimed, so soon as he was alone.
Then, taking up his poncho and montera, he rolled a cigarette in his fingers, and went to join Crevel in the ground floor room.
"Do not be impatient, captain; I shall be with you in a moment," the banian said on perceiving him; "I only ask of you the time to run to my cellar."
"Make haste, for time is slipping away."
"Do not be alarmed; I shall be at the convent within half an hour."
On returning from the cellar the landlord brought with him three bottles covered with a thick coating of mould, bearing witness to the long stay they had made in the shadow of the sun, and adorned with a skullcap of pitch, whose colour time had changed.