Page:Bat Wing 1921.djvu/174

166 “Nothing fresh, Mr. Harley, unless you yourself have observed anything.”

“Ah,” murmured Paul Harley, “let us hope that the threat will never be fulfilled.”

Colonel Menendez inclined his head gravely.

“Let us hope so,” he said.

On the whole, he was curiously subdued. He was most solicitous for our comfort and his exquisite courtesy had never been more marked. I often think of him now—his big but graceful figure reclining upon the settee, whilst he skilfully rolled his eternal cigarettes and chatted in that peculiar, light voice. Before the memory of Colonel Don Juan Sarmiento Menendez I sometimes stand appalled. If his Maker had but endowed him with other qualities of mind and heart equal to his magnificent courage, then truly he had been a great man.