"Good morning," answered the servant of the Dragon and Knight.
"I am looking for the wars. Would you like a new master, Morano?"
"Indeed," said Morano, "a good master is better to some men's
minds than a bad one. Yet, you see senor, my bad master has me
bound never to leave him, by oaths that I do not properly
understand the meaning of, and that might blast me in any world
were I to forswear them. He hath bound me by San Sathanas, with
many others. I do not like the sound of that San Sathanas. And so
you see, senor, my bad master suits me better than perhaps to be
whithered in this world by a levin-stroke, and in the next world
who knows?"
"Morano," said Rodriguez, "there is a dead spider on my bed."
"A dead spider, master?" said Morano, with as much concern in his
voice as though no spider had ever sullied that chamber before.
"Yes," said Rodriguez, "I shall require you to keep my bed tidy on
our way to the wars."
"Master," said Morano, "no spider shall come near it, living or
dead."
And so our company of one going northward through Spain looking
for romance became a company of two.
"Master," said Morano, "as I do not see him whom I serve, and his
ways are early ways, I fear some evil has overtaken him, whereby
we shall be suspect, for none other dwells here: and he is under
special protection of the Garda Civil; it would be well therefore
to start for the wars right early.
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