He stood still and looked about him. The road followed the curve of a hill, at the foot of which flowed a tiny brook. Ahead, it passed through a little colony of houses, perhaps twenty in all. The hamlet had an air about it that marked it from numerous others we had walked through that afternoon. The cottages appeared brighter and there were gardens among them that seemed unlike the others we had passed. No hotel or public house of any kind was to be seen.
"I wonder what this place is," said Henderson. "It doesn't look especially alluring."
I looked up from the task of rubbing my ankle.
"No," I commented, "it doesn't seem alluring, and I suppose ninety-nine hundredths of the people that pass through here look at it the same way. But to you, Fred, I'm pretty sure it would be rather attractive, and I know that it would be to me with this beastly foot."
"What! Stay here all night? I guess not."
"If you only knew what it was," I ventured.
"Probably another of Washington's headquarters, or the site of the
Battle of—."
"Wait a minute before you explode, and give me a chance. This is the
Spanish colony."
"What?"
"The Spanish colony."