“A pretty gel, not?” was the Don’s comment.
“I wonder what her name is?” said Patsy. “Dolores, Pepita? It was worth the price of the journey just to see her face!” He was silent during the rest of the walk, keeping well ahead of us and singing snatches of an old song:
“vous connaissez que j’ai por mie
une Andalouse a l’oeil lutin——”
We left Algeciras before daylight for Ronda. If the Spaniard sleeps late at home, on his travels he must be an early bird,—the trains all seem to start between midnight and cockcrow. Don Jaime remained behind. Some night, he explained, when he felt particularly fit, he would omit going to bed; otherwise he must pass all his life in Algeciras; to get up in time for that hobgoblin train was not possible.
Across the bay we could make out the faint silhouette of Gibraltar against the ashen sky, a black lion asleep under the pallid day-star. The swift-coming dawn little by little transformed it to a gray lion dormant on an amethyst sea. Long after the great caved mountain was lost to sight, a distant growl shook the air.
“Morning gunfire at the Rock,” said Patsy, “that’s the last we shall hear of the British Lion for some time.”
Sunrise came while we were in the heart of a dark forest. The hoary old trees had mighty, wide-spreading boughs, covered thick with small, gray-green leaves like the ilex; the trunks were old and frail—some of them mere hollow shells that might have housed a dryad or a satyr. They stood well apart from each other, the undergrowth and dead wood carefully trimmed away from their roots.
“See how well cared for the forest patriarchs are,” said Patsy. “They must be kept alive as long as possible, like some old people, because they are the main support of the community.”
Gold-tipped arrows of sunlight now began to pierce the thick green shadows of the forest, and striking the old trunks and the heavy lower branches brought out their wonderful tints.
“Look at those gorgeous rainbow trees! See the colors,—mother of pearl, carmine, violet, lavender,—what does it mean?” I cried.