The doors were in place, the windows were being fixed and in the hall the half-landing was finished. Boxes of tiles were awaiting the tile layer. Out ...ront one of his men had started paving. I watched for a while as Aleksy explained. ‘Base of gritty sand, levelled, tampered and slight slope away from house. Setts are tapped in position. When many down the gaps are filled with a dry sand and cement mixture. Spray lightly with water and let the mixture harden then point before it’s set. .. '"You should be made aware, Mr ... Blacker," the man said, finally, "that the situation has changed during your journey to our ... beautiful country."He cleared his throat before continuing. "The, um, female ... the second one, I mean, has reunited with the original. They are both now at the Pestova residence. It seems that she and the Tabors went on a field mission last night and rescued the daughter of an associate of mine. Evidently, these 'X' file females also do field work for Tabor. Then she picked up the basket and the rolled blanket, and went to the corral. She gave Jack the basket and the blanket. He tied the blanket to her saddle. Ariel stood by Lady's head, petting her and talking softly to the horse while Jack saddled Cajun and tied the basket to the saddle.He helped Ariel up onto the saddle, adjusting the stirrups for her, his hand lingering lovingly on her thigh as she leaned down and kissed him. He broke the kiss, gave her thigh a gentle squeeze, handed her the. Unfortunately his prayers and hope had been in vain. Through his spy-glass he watched as the lead vessel of the small force turn and peel off from the others. It became clear to him immediately that the small xebec intended to try and intercept them. More interestingly was what the four larger vessels were doing. They too had changed course so that their transit would take them northeast of the San Fernando's current position. If matters continued the way Captain de Barceló envisioned it, the.