“She was at Granada, and she hurried to me at once.  For a whole fortnight she never left me for a single instant.  She never closed her eyes; she nursed me with a skill and care such as no woman ever showed to the man she loved most tenderly.  As soon as I could stand on my feet, she conveyed me with the utmost secrecy to Granada.  These gipsy women find safe shelter everywhere, and I spent more than six weeks in a house only two doors from that of the Corregidor who was trying to arrest me.  More than once I saw him pass by, from behind the shutter.  At last I recovered, but I had thought a great deal, on my bed of pain, and I had planned to change my way of life.  I suggested to Carmen that we should leave Spain, and seek an honest livelihood in the New World.  She laughed in my face.

“‘We were not born to plant cabbages,’ she cried.  ’Our fate is to live payllos!  Listen:  I’ve arranged a business with Nathan Ben-Joseph at Gibraltar.  He has cotton stuffs that he can not get through till you come to fetch them.  He knows you’re alive, and reckons upon you.  What would our Gibraltar correspondents say if you failed them?’

“I let myself by persuaded, and took up my vile trade once more.

“While I was hiding at Granada there were bull-fights there, to which Carmen went.  When she came back she talked a great deal about a skilful picador of the name of Lucas.  She knew the name of his horse, and how much his embroidered jacket had cost him.  I paid no attention to this; but a few days later, Juanito, the only one of my comrades who was left, told me he had seen Carmen with Lucas in a shop in the Zacatin.  Then I began to feel alarmed.  I asked Carmen how and why she had made the picador’s acquaintance.

“‘He’s a man out of whom we may be able to get something,’ said she.  ’A noisy stream has either water in it or pebbles.  He has earned twelve hundred reals at the bull-fights.  It must be one of two things:  we must either have his money, or else, as he is a good rider and a plucky fellow, we can enroll him in our gang.  We have lost such an one an such an one; you’ll have to replace them.  Take this man with you!’

“‘I want neither his money nor himself,’ I replied, ’and I forbid you to speak to him.’

“‘Beware!’ she retorted.  ’If any one defies me to do a thing, it’s very quickly done.’

“Luckily the picador departed to Malaga, and I set about passing in the Jew’s cotton stuffs.  This expedition gave me a great deal to do, and Carmen as well.  I forgot Lucas, and perhaps she forgot him too—­for the moment, at all events.  It was just about that time, sir, that I met you, first at Montilla, and then afterward at Cordova.  I won’t talk about that last interview.  You know more about it, perhaps, than I do.  Carmen stole your watch from you, she wanted to have your money besides, and especially that ring I see on your finger, and which she declared to be a magic ring,