Maruja

th less of a shuffle in his gait; but whether this was owing to his having cast the old skin of garments adapted to his slouch, and because h

reviving and stirring into greater activity a certain dogged sentiment that, through long years, had become languidly mechanical. He was no longer a beaten animal, but one roused by a chance success into a dangerous knowledge of his power. In his h

roadway before it, and a primitive trough of roughly excavated stone stood near it. Through a broken gate at the side there was a glimpse of a grass-grown and deserted courtyard piled with the disused packing-cases and barrels of the tienda, or general country shop, which huddled under the same roof at the other end of the building. The opened door of the fonda showed a low-studded room fitted up with a r

the door with a look of inquiry, which Guest answered by a demand for lodging and supper. When the landlord had vanished again in the cigarette fog, the seve

dress indicated. This, added to his surliness of manner and expression, strengthened a growing suspicion in the mind of the party that he was a fugitive from justice-a forger, a derelict banker, or possibly a murderer. It is only fair to say that the moral sense of the spectators was not shocked at the suspicion, and that a more active sympathy was only withhe

the keeper of the tienda, who had appeared at his door in time to

of knives h

es, S

e that," he said, making an imaginary d

ed with three or four dirks in red leather sheaths. Guest

w m

s pe

ts sheath in his boot. When he had received his change from the shopkeeper,

ut not insinuating, interference. In a few m

her for the road

did no

repeated, in broken English, rubbin

no r

come from S

ha'a

and so opulent. He pushed the inquisitor aside, with a few hasty words, and, after Guest had finished his meal, offered to show him his room. It was a dark vaulted closet on the ground-floor, gaining light from the

lord. "The Padre Vincento will

; "that door don't." He pointed to the w

er! Are we not

al fear of his disreputable neighbors, though he was fully alive to their peculiarities, but from the nomadic instinct which was still strong in his blood. He felt he could not y

hway arrested his attention, and he sat upright. The moon was slowly lifting itself over the limitless stretch of grain-fields before him on the other side of the road, and dazz

body of the char-a-bancs, and Maruja seated on the box. Much to his own astonishment and that of some others of the party, Captain Carroll was among the riders. Only Maruja and her mother knew th

e on the bench in the veranda. Surely that was the face of the tramp she had spoken to! and yet there was a change, not only in the dress but in t

and a declaration that she could stand her cramped position no longer, she leaped from t

said, laughingly, "just to see what it is that attracts Pereo there so often."

d his knees, and the flowers in her girdle left their perfume in his face. But he neither

and on the door-post. "What a horrid place, and what dreadful people!" she said in audible English as she gl

on down the road before them, and, by the time they were ready to start, he was slowly sauntering some hund

ruja. "Blessed San

ing on the road, directly in the track of the sauntering stran

aid Maruja; "that man

h her veil thrown back, her graceful hand extended, her eyes and mouth tremulous with an irresistible smile. The str

ivil gentleman of the road! Here, sir;" but, before she could continue, Carroll wheeled to her side, and interposed. "Pray collect yourself, Miss Saltons

her gloved hands, tossed it into the highway. "You are right-it smells of the fonda-and the road. Thank you, again. You are so thoughtful for me, C

d the highway, and, striking a trail through the meadows, diverged to the right, where the low towers and brown walls of a ruined mission church rose above the plain. This would enable him to escape any direct pursuit on the high road, besides, from its slight elevation, giving him a more extended view of the plain. As he neared it, he was surprised to see that, although it was partly dismantled, and the roof had fallen in the central

n, and had even succeeded in gaining the shadow of the wall behind him; and it was this figure, and not his own, that eventually attracted the attention of the tall stranger. The pursuing figure was rapidly approaching

o thou wouldst murder a man for a few pesos!" he said, pointing to the knife which

nly, yet with unmistakable fear of the old man. "Besides, it was only to frighten

against the wall. "Fearest! sayest thou. I, Pereo, fear? Dost thou think I wou

ughly alarmed at the old man's awakened passion

that opportunity to increase his distance from the old man's arm. "I know him? Thou shalt see. C

r his own relation to it, came forward impatiently. As he did so, Miguel took to his heels. The act did not tend to m

of the young man confronting him was clearly illuminated by the moonlight. Pereo'

he gasped, in u

, savagely, "One who has enough of this d-d nonsense, and will stand no

nt, Senor, for

old man's voice touched even Gu

ger here?"-falte

a

ve here?-you h

never was here before in my l

es. I am crazy." He stopped, and passed his trembling hands across his eyes. "Pardon, Senor," he continued, recalling himself with a humility tha

Guest, with incr

ed his shoulders. "But let it pass-I say-let it pass. Take an old man's advice, friend: show not

it pass as the incoherent fancy of a brain maddened by drink. Then he ended the

e my eyes, night and day, the image of that dog in every outcast, every ruffian, every wayside bully that I meet? No, no, good Pereo! Softly! this is mere madness, good Pereo," he murmured to himself; "thou wilt hav

his companions regarding Pereo's protection of the young stranger, it was certain that it had its full effect. Obsequious to the last degree, the landlord was so profoundly touched

nt young stranger that was here. A spice of wickedness about him, truly-a kind of Don Caesar-but bearing himself like a ve

r the potent fires of flattery and aguardien

Antonio," interrupted the landlord. "Scarcely di

his nervousness that it was with difficulty he could mount his horse again. The exaltation of liquor, however, appeared only to intensify his characteristics: his face became more lugubrious and melancholy; his manner more ceremonious and dignified; and, erect and stiff in his saddle from the waist upward

ee my bl

nuel's

med to keep time with the refrain, and he occasionally w

hich led to the summerhouse of the old Mision garden, and, throwing his reins on his mustang's neck, let the animal precede him to the stables. The m

wolfish-looking animal had stopped half-way down the mound on encountering his motionless figure. Frightened by his outcry, and unable

d into a fixed look of insane exaltation. His white lips moved; he advan

izzy? that he is no longer fit to do thy master's work? Ay, gnash thy teeth at him! Curse him!-curse him in thy throat! But listen!-listen, good friend-I will tell thee a secre

snap, it swiftly bounded by his side, and vanished in the thicket; and Pereo, t