Patsy was indignant at the artfulness of Louise until she noticed that
Beth was quite content; then she laughed softly and watched matters take
their course, feeling a little sorry for the boys because she knew
Louise was only playing with them.
The trip across the Atlantic was all too short. On the fifth of April
they passed the Azores, running close to the islands of Fayal and San
Jorge so that the passengers might admire the zigzag rows of white
houses that reached from the shore far up the steep hillsides. On the
sixth day they sighted Gibraltar and passed between the Moorish and
Spanish lighthouses into the lovely waters of the Mediterranean. The
world-famed rock was now disclosed to their eyes, and when the ship
anchored opposite it Uncle John assisted his nieces aboard the lighter
and took them for a brief excursion ashore.
Of course they rode to the fortress and wandered through its gloomy,
impressive galleries, seeing little of the armament because visitors are
barred from the real fortifications. The fortress did not seem
especially impregnable and was, taken altogether, a distinct
disappointment to them; but the ride through the town in the low basket
phaetons was wholly delightful. The quaint, narrow streets and stone
arches, the beautiful vistas of sea and mountain, the swarthy, dark-eyed
Moors whose presence lent to the town an oriental atmosphere, and the
queer market-places crowded with Spaniards, Frenchmen, Jews and
red-coated English soldiers, altogether made up a panorama that was
fascinating in the extreme.
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