"
"We are many good miles from the Inn of the Dragon and Knight,"
said Rodriguez.
"Master, when they have eaten and slept and asked questions they
will follow on horses," said Morano.
"We can hide," said Rodriguez, and he looked round over the plain,
very full of flowers, but empty and bare under the blue sky of any
place in which a man might hide to escape from pursuers on horse
back. He perceived then that he had no plan.
"Master," said Morano, "there is no hiding like disguises."
Once more Rodriguez looked round him over the plain, seeing no
houses, no men; and his opinion of Morano's judgment sank when he
said disguises. But then Morano unfolded to him that plan which up
to that day had never been tried before, so far as records tell,
in all the straits in which fugitive men have been; and which
seems from my researches in verse and prose never to have been
attempted since.
The plan was this, astute as Morano, and simple as his naive mind.
The clothing for which Rodriguez searched the plain vainly was
ready to hand. No disguise was effective against la Garda, they
had too many suspicions, their skill was to discover disguises.
But in the moment of la Garda's triumph, when they had found out
the disguise, when success had lulled the suspicions for which
they were infamous, then was the time to trick la Garda. Rodriguez
wondered; but the slow mind of Morano was sure, and now he came to
the point, the fruit of his hour's thinking.
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