As he scrambled through the window--as I let him down by his hands, so that, with the length of his arm and mine together, his feet were not more than a yard from the ground--I heard those others outside the door. Heard also the woman shriek:
"There is none in here, I tell you--pigs, idiots! If they have escaped, 'tis to the street or to the roof. Search those rooms first. This is my chamber. Diôs! Are you men to enter thus a woman's apartment!"
"So be it," the leader said. "We will. But, remember, if we find them not we will search this room. Remember!" and we heard him and the others striding off to some other part of the house.
By this time I was myself half out of the window. From the creature I had felled to the floor there came no sound; but from the door outside I heard the woman whisper:
"Renato, come forth. Quick, I say! If they find you here you are lost. You will be taken--sent to the colonies. Come forth!"
Then I waited to hear no more, understanding clearly enough that the woman had herself been sheltering in her own room some malefactor, probably some lover. And, doubtless, he had thought we were seeking for him, had found him in that darkened room--that we were the alguazils. His presence was explained.
Taking Juan by the hand, I passed rapidly by the stables as we went away from the street and up into the garden beyond--a small place, neglected and dirty, in which I had noticed, when we arrived, numbers of enormous turnips growing--vegetables much used in the country.
Then, a moment later, we were close by a low, whitewashed wall--'twas not so high as my head--over which I helped Juan, following instantly myself.
"Heaven knows," I said, "where we are now, except that we have left the inn behind. This may be the garden of some great residéncia, or of another inn. Well, we must get through somehow into the street beyond."
"And afterward?" Juan asked, his face close to mine, as though trying to see me in the dark of the night. "Afterward?"