The lieutenant's shout halted the cavalcade just round the last corner, and Anita saw that the track ended at a small castle perched on the crest of a jagged ridge of rocks. Straight above the crumbling battlements the ridge soared up into a fantastic blade or pinnacle, whose pointed tip glowed like a flame in the sunset light, while below on the right a sea of milky cloud hid all but the upper hundred feet of a shaly cliff that dropped from the track's edge into the hidden gorge far below.
senorita," the lieutenant grinned, and pointed to the great blade of rock. "We are safe—under The Knife!"
El Cuchillo!"
"All's well,
Into Anita's mind flashed the name she had heard Father Pedro mention. Suspicion became frightening certainty as she heard behind her Sancho's startled mutter: "The Knife!
Anita turned swiftly. "Sancho," She began in a hurried whisper, "You must—" But Sancho was no longer there. With the quickness of a rabbit he had dodged round the back of the cart . . . Half a second later he was over the edge of the rack and plunging down the face of shale towards the cloud-sea below.
Sancho had been prepared to steal away to contact the English advancing up the Tagus even before Anita and her father, frail Don Claudio, realized how desperate their plight was; now it was more imperative than ever that Sancho get through. Ensign Peter Byrd and his friend Ensign the Honorable Charles Neville had helped Anita del Riego once before. It was to them that she now looked, not only for rescue, but also for aid in conveying something potentially crucial to the outcome of Spain and England's defiant stand against the mighty armies of Napoleon. Daring climbs and fiery battles, strange duels and affairs of honor, traitorous acts and faithful friendships abound in these two tales of the Flying Ensign's exploits.
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