He regarded her keenly for the first time. Would
she help? Perhaps the romantic nature of his enterprise would appeal
to her, even though he was fighting against her father. Well, it would
do no harm to try.
"You asked who I am," he said, "and why I am here. Well, I shall tell
you."
And speaking rapidly in his fluent Spanish, in a few brief statements,
he laid before her the main fact that Mr. Hampton, whom she doubtless
knew, was his father, and that he had come to the rescue in an
airplane.
"Only now," he concluded mournfully, "I have been discovered. I expect
my chum will be forced to fly away. And it looks as if I were bound to
fail."
During his recital, the girl's eyes had grown bright with interest.
She leaned forward, listening with eager attention. As Jack ceased,
apparently she was about to speak, but there came a tattoo of
knuckles on the door which caused her to halt abruptly.
"Our deliverers," murmured Donna Ana, who had never entirely ceased
trembling, and she cast a spiteful glance at Jack. To the duenna,
young men, and especially one so unceremonious, were terrible
creatures.
"Silence," hissed the girl, and the old duenna in evident fear of her
imperious young mistress, trembled the more.
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