"It is Agueda, is it not? Agueda from San Isidro?"
Raquel whispered her words. Agueda, seeing that there was need for secrecy, also let her voice fall lower than was usual.
"Yes," she smiled, "I am certainly Agueda from San Isidro."
"Ah! you happy girl," said Raquel, in a cautious tone, "to be riding about alone." Agueda's head was almost on a level with Raquel's.
"I am a prisoner, Agueda," said Raquel. "My uncle has shut me up here. He means to take me away in a short time. It's a dreadful thing which is to happen. Can you carry a note for me, Agueda?"
"I will carry a note for you," said Agueda. "Is it ready, Señorita?"
"I will write it in a moment. Agueda, good girl, you know the plantation of the Silencios, do you not? Palmacristi?"
"I can find it," said Agueda. "It is down by the sea. It is not much out of my way."
"If it were miles and miles out of your way, Agueda, dear, you must take my letter."
There was a noise inside the room, at the door of the chamber.
"Ride on to the clump of coffee bushes where the roads meet," whispered Raquel. "The fog will help hide you, too. I will drop the note."
As she tried to guide the chestnut softly over the turf, Agueda heard a loud call from within. It was a man's coarse voice. She heard Raquel answer drowsily, "In a moment, uncle; I was just asleep. Wait until I--"
Agueda halted for some minutes behind the concealment of the coffee bushes. She grudged this delay, for she had still some distance to travel, and must make a detour because of Raquel's request. "But," she argued, "had I walked, I should have been much longer on the way." She watched the window at the back of Escobeda's house, then, presently, from the front, saw a man mount and ride away in the opposite direction. Then, as she still awaited the fluttering of the note, the shutter was flung wide, and an arm encased in a yellow sleeve beckoned desperately. Agueda struck her spur into the chestnut, and was soon under the window again.
"He has gone," said Raquel, "and I am locked in the house alone. All the servants have gone to the fair."
"You can climb down," said Agueda. "It is not high."
"Where should I go then, Agueda?" asked Raquel. "No, he would only bring me back. Now I will write my note, and I will ask you to take it to Don Gil." As Raquel said this name her voice trembled. She coloured all over her face.