"I'm going to take a look at that Cortinez," said the little Englishman,
nodding his satisfaction at my news as to the horse. "I'm not easy about
him."

"He'll sleep like a log until morning," Miss Emory reassured me. "I've
often stepped right over him where he has been on guard and walked all
around the garden."

"Just the same I'm going to take a look," persisted Westmore.

He tiptoed to the door, softly turned the knob and opened it. He found
himself face to face with Cortinez.




CHAPTER XIII


I had not thought of the English groom as a man of resource, but his
action in this emergency proved him. He cast a fleeting glance over his
shoulder. Artie Brower was huddled down in his armchair practically out
of sight; Miss Emory and I had reseated ourselves in the only other two
chairs in the room, so that we were in the same relative positions as
when we had been bound and left. Only the confusion of the papers on the
floor and the open safe would have struck an observant eye.

"It is well that you come," said Tim to Cortinez in Spanish. "The señor
sent me to conduct these two to the East Room and I like not the job