“You do not find the women of this country sympathetic—though you dance our dances well?” he said.
Appleby was on his guard, and regretted he had figured in the many-stepped dances he had been taught at Algeciras at all, for he had hitherto deemed it wise to evince no close acquaintance with Castilian customs; and Espada Morales had very keen eyes.
“That is a little astonishing, unless it is the national courtesy which prompts you to tell me so,” he said.
Morales shrugged his shoulders. “The nice articulation of our ‘jota’ and ‘zeta,’ which are embarrassing to strangers, is even more astonishing. One does not overcome that difficulty in the two months you have spent in this country. Still, what is that to me? It is not my business to inquire where my friends acquired Castilian.”
Appleby wondered whether this was meant as a hint that the prosecution of such an inquiry might not be desirable to him. He had seen the Colonel Morales twice in battle, and while he had little fear of recognition in his present guise had been told a good deal which by no means pleased him about the man. Morales had, it was believed, the scent of a sleuth-hound and the jaguar’s voracity.
“It is at least an honor to be counted among a distinguished soldier’s friends,” he said.
Morales made a little gesture of deprecation. “Soldiering is an ill-paid trade, and you others are to be envied,” he said. “This is why I appeal to you as the Senor Harding’s superintendent and a well-wisher of Spain. Mine is a poor country, and our troops are short of clothing and necessaries. The loyalists of this district have responded to the appeal we made them generously, and it seemed only fitting to give you an opportunity.”
Appleby knew that the troops were wretchedly supplied with commissariat and drugs, and the affair was within the discretion Harding allowed him. Still, he decided to make an experiment.
“If a hundred dollars would be of any service they will be paid to the treasurer of the fund,” he said.
Morales fixed his dark eyes upon him for a moment, and gratitude was not exactly what he read in them. Appleby, however, met them steadily, and the officer smiled.