Nela wandered about alone all day, and at night she prowled round the house at Aldeacorba, creeping as near to it as she dared without running the risk of being discovered; whenever she heard footsteps she stole away like a thief. Then she went down into the crater of La Terrible, whose grewsome aspect somehow suited her gloomy mood; she lingered there some time looking up at the stone giants that stood round it, and then she climbed up one of them to see the lights of Aldeacorba. There they were, sparkling above the slopes of the mine against the dark background of earth and sky. After gazing at them for a while as if her hungry eyes had never seen lights before, she quitted La Terrible and went towards La Trascava. But before she reached it she heard footsteps, and turning round, she saw Master Celipin coming along the path at a brisk determined pace. He had a small bundle hanging from a stick over his shoulder, and his step, as well as his air and attitude, announced a full determination never to stop till he should have paced the whole circumference of the globe.

"Celipe!—Where are you going?" cried Nela, detaining him.

"Nela ... you out here! We thought you were with SeÑorita Florentina, eating ham, and turkey, and partridges all day long, and drinking lemonade and syrups. What are you doing here?"

"And you—where are you off to?"

"You ask me that, now? Why do you ask me since you know quite well," answered the boy, jerking the stick and bundle. "You know very well that I am going to learn all I can and make money. Did I not tell you it would be to-night?—And here I am, as glad as can be—a little sorry, too, when I think that father and mother will cry. You see, Nela, the Blessed Virgin favored us to-night, for father and mother began to snore sooner than usual; and I had my bundle ready, and I climbed up to the window and got out of it.—Now are you coming or not?"

"Yes, I am coming," said Nela with sudden decision, taking the arm of the adventurous Celipin.

"We will take the train, and we will go in the train as far as we can," said Celipin with liberal enthusiasm. "And then we must beg till we get to Madrid, where the King of Spain lives; and when once we have got there, you can go as a servant in the house of some Marquis or Count, and I will go into another, and at the same time I can study, and you can have a heap of fine things. And I can teach you a little of all I learn—only a little, not too much; for you women have no need to be as learned as we doctors must be."

Before Celipin had ended his speech, they had set out on their road, trotting on as fast as though they already saw in the distance the turrets of the city "where the King of Spain lives."

"Let us get out of the regular path," said Celipin, his practical talents rising to the occasion: "If they see us they will lay hands upon us and give us a good thrashing."

But Nela drew her hand away from her fellow-adventurer's, and sitting down on a stone, she said: "I am not going."

"Nela! what a little fool you are! You have not a brave heart like mine; a heart as big as the rocks in La Terrible!" said Celipin, with a braggart air. "What the devil are you afraid of? Why will you not come?"

"I—oh!—why should I?"

"Do not you know that Don Golfin said that the work here is turning us all to stones? I do not want to be a stone—not I."

"I—why should I go?" repeated Nela with disconsolate bitterness. "You have time enough—for me, it is too late."

And Nela's head sunk on her breast and she sat for some time insensible to the persuasive eloquence of the Hippocrates of the future. The idea that she was about to cross the boundary of the spot of earth where she had lived so long, and where her mother slept the sleep of the dead, made her feel as if she were being torn up by the roots. The beauty of the place in all its variety seemed to claim her by a sort of relationship; the rare and fleeting joys, nay, the very misery she had known there; the memory of her friend and of the happy hours when they had walked in the woods or sat by the spring at Saldeoro; all the feelings of admiration or of sympathy, of love or of gratitude, which had grown and blossomed in her soul among these scenes—these flowers—these clouds—these rustling trees—these frowning rocks—inseparable as it were from the loveliness or the grandeur, the progress and the immutability of all these works of nature, were so many roots from her heart, and dragging them up from the soil was bitter anguish.

"No—I am not going," she repeated.

And Celipin argued and talked as if, having by some miracle reached the goal of his career, he belonged to all the academies present and to come.

"You are going home then?" he asked, seeing that his oratory was as unavailing as that of the academies themselves commonly is.

"No."

"You are going to Aldeacorba?"

"No; not there either."

"Then you will go to where SeÑora Florentina lives."

"No, no—not there."

"The devil's in it—but where are you going then?"

Nela did not answer; she sat looking at the ground with an expression of dismay, as if she saw there the fragments of the most beautiful and precious thing on earth—fallen and lying broken at her feet.

"Well then, Nela," said Celipin, exhausted with his long harangue, "I must leave you and be off, for they might follow me, and find me. Would you like me to give you a peseta as a parting gift to-night?"

"No, Celipin, I want nothing.—Go, you will be a rich man yet. Take care of yourself and do not forget Socartes and your father and mother."

The traveller had a sensation highly improper in a man of so much importance and dignity—a strong disposition to cry; but swallowing down this inopportune emotion, he said:

"How should I ever forget Socartes? You need not have said that—I shall never forget my father and mother, nor you, for you helped me to do this.—Good-bye, Nelilla—hark! I hear footsteps!"

Celipin shouldered his staff with a resolution that symbolized his courage to defy all the dangers of the wide world; but his valorous display was wasted, for a dog only came running up to them.

"It is Choto," said Nela, trembling all over.

"A bad sign!" muttered Celipin, setting forward; and he disappeared in the darkness.

A stone was lost to geology, and the world would be the richer by a great man!

Nela shivered as the dog leaped upon her and caressed her. The affectionate creature, after jumping round and round her, whining and barking with so much expression that it was almost like speaking, set off running as fast as he could towards Aldeacorba. You might have thought he was in chase of some wild game. Choto—unlike some orators—seemed to speak when he barked.

Just at this time Teodoro Golfin was coming away from the PenÁguilas'. He was met by Choto, who, with voluble haste, told him—I know not what. It was a fervent, fitful address, delivered between his gasps for breath and gushes of eager anxiety. Golfin, though he understood several languages, was not strong in the canine tongue, and paid no particular heed. Choto leaped up and round him, jerking out barks from his moist jaws, some short and sharp as insults, others soft and coaxing, and then again threats. Teodoro meanwhile stood still, his attention was struck by the dog's manner; and Choto, seeing that he had made himself understood to a certain extent, began to run in a contrary direction to Golfin's homeward road. The doctor followed him. "Very well," he muttered, "that way then."

Choto retraced his steps, as if to make sure that Golfin was following him, and then he trotted on again. At some little distance from the house Golfin heard a voice saying:

"Well, Choto, what is it you want?"

He suspected at once that it was Nela. He paused and listened, hidden in the shadow of a beech-tree, and soon perceived a little figure standing out from the stone wall and walking very slowly. The shadows of the brambles prevented his seeing her very distinctly. He set out to follow her at some little distance, quitting the path and walking on the turf, so as to make no noise. Beyond a doubt it was Nela. He recognized her perfectly when they got upon open ground, where there were no dark shadows cast by trees or shrubs.

The girl now went faster and faster; at last she began to run, and Golfin ran too. After this unequal race had gone on for some distance, Nela sat down on a stone. At her feet was the sloping basin of La Trascava, black and hideous in the gloom. Golfin waited a moment; then he very softly went nearer to the girl. Choto was seated in front of her, squatted on his hind quarters, with his fore paw stretched out, and gazing at her with the gravity of a sphinx. Nela stared into the depths below, and suddenly starting to her feet she began to go quickly down the slope—slipping rather than running. With one bound Teodoro stood by the abyss, roaring in stentorian tones: "Nela! Nela!"

He looked down, but could see nothing in the dark chasm; he could hear Choto whining as he ran round and round the ridge, lower and lower in spirals, as if he were being sucked in by some eddy in the dreadful gulf. Teodoro thought of going down himself and cautiously took a step or two; then he called again, and a voice from below answered: "SeÑor."

"Come up this minute."

No answer.

"Come up, I say."

Presently he could just see the child's face in the lowest visible depths of the horrible chasm. Choto, after snuffing at the opening, came up again, round and round the basin as before; Nela too was climbing up, but very slowly. Indeed, she stopped, and repeated feebly: "SeÑor?..."

"I tell you come up. What are you doing here?"

Nela came a little further.

"Come—quickly. I have something to tell you."

"To tell me?"

"Yes—something I must tell you at once."

Nela crawled up; but Teodoro did not feel sure that he had triumphed till he had seized her hand and held it tightly to lead her away with him.