They drank and threw themselves before the fire in the larger room.

The repose of the building was intensified that night, and I even fancied that the footsteps on the corridor were lighter and softer.

The old Spaniard's habitual gravity was deeper; we might have been shut out from the world as well as the whistling storm, behind those ancient walls with their time-worn inheritor.
Before I could repeat my inquiry he retired.

In a few minutes two smoking dishes of CHUPA with coffee were placed before us, and my men ate ravenously.

I drank the coffee, but my excitement and weariness kept down the instincts of hunger.
I was sitting sadly by the fire when he reentered.
"You have eat ?" I said, "Yes," to please him.
"BUENO, eat when you can--food and appetite are not always." He said this with that Sancho-like simplicity with which most of his countrymen utter a proverb, as though it were an experience rather than a legend, and, taking the riata from the floor, held it almost tenderly before him.
"It was made by me, senor." "I kept it as a clue to him, Don Altascar," I said.