" and turned abruptly on
his heel.

"Stay, one moment, Senor, for the love of God!"

Some keen accent of agony in the old man's voice touched even Guest's
selfish nature. He halted.

"You are--a stranger here?"--faltered Pereo. "Yes?"

"I am."

"You do not live here?--you have no friends?"

"I told you I am a stranger. I never was here before in my life," said
Guest, impatiently.

"True; I am a fool," said the old man, hurriedly, to himself. "I am
mad--mad! It is not HIS voice. No! It is not HIS look, now that his
face changes. I am crazy." He stopped, and passed his trembling hands
across his eyes. "Pardon, Senor," he continued, recalling himself with
a humility that was almost ironical in its extravagance. "Pardon,
pardon! Yet, perhaps it is not too much to have wanted to know who was
the man one has saved."

"Saved!" repeated Guest, with incredulous contempt.

"Ay!" said Pereo, haughtily, drawing his figure erect; "ay, saved!
Senor." He stopped and shrugged his shoulders. "But let it pass--I
say--let it pass. Take an old man's advice, friend: show not your gold
hereafter to strangers lightly, no matter how lightly you have come by
it. Good-night!"

Guest for a moment hesitated whether to resent the old man's speech, or
to let it pass as the incoherent fancy of a brain maddened by drink.
Then he ended the discussion by turning his back abruptly and
continuing his way to the high-road.

"So!" said Pereo, looking after him with abstracted eyes, "so! it was
only a fancy. And yet--even now, as he turned away, I saw the same
cold insolence in his eye. Caramba! Am I mad--mad--that I must keep
forever before 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 have none of it; none, good Pereo. Come, come!"
He let his head fall slowly forward on his breast, and in that action,
seeming to take up again the burden of a score more years upon his
shoulders, he moved slowly away.

When he entered the fonda half an hour later, the awe in which he was
held by the half superstitious ruffians appeared to have increased.
Whatever story the fugitive Miguel had told 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