into the interior of the country.

Life at Gorgona resembled life at Cruces so nearly that it does not
need a separate description. Down with the store and hotel keepers
came the muleteers and mules, porters and hangers-on, idlers and
thieves, gamblers and dancing women; and soon the monte-tables were
fitted up, and plying their deadly trade; and the dancers charmed the
susceptible travellers as successfully in the dirty streets of Gorgona
as they had previously done in the unwholesome precincts of Cruces.
And Dr. Casey was very nearly getting himself into serious trouble,
from too great a readiness to use his revolver. Still, he had a better
excuse for bloodshed this time than might have been found for his
previous breaches of the sixth commandment. Among the desperadoes who
frequented his gambling-hut, during their short stay in Gorgona, was
conceived the desperate plan of putting out the lights, and upsetting
Casey's table--trusting in the confusion to carry off the piles of
money upon it. The first part of their programme was successfully
carried out; but the second was frustrated by the Doctor promptly
firing his revolver into the dark, and hitting an unoffending boy in
the hip. And at this crisis the Gorgona police entered, carried off
all the parties they could lay hands upon (including the Doctor) to
prison, and brought the wounded boy to me.

On the following morning came a most urgent request that I would visit
the imprisoned Doctor. I found him desperately angry, but somewhat
nervous too, for the alcalde was known to be no friend to the
Americans, owed Casey more than one grudge, and had shown recently a
disposition to enforce the laws.

"I say, Mrs. Seacole, how's that ---- boy?"

"Oh, Dr. Casey, how could you shoot the poor lad, and now call him bad
names, as though he'd injured you? He is very ill indeed--may die; so
I advise you to think seriously of your position."

"But, Madame Seacole," (this in a very altered tone), "_you'll_ surely
help me? _you'll_ surely tell the alcalde that the wound's a slight
one? He's a friend of yours, and will let me out of this hole. Come,
Madame Seacole, you'll never leave me to be murdered by these
bloodthirsty savages?"

"What can I do or say, Dr. Casey? I must speak the truth, and the ball
is still in the poor lad's hip," I answered, for I enjoyed the
fellow's fear too much to help him. However, he sent some of his
friends to the boy's father, and bribed him to