you
YOURSELF supplied the missing proof! Yes! you supplied it with the
NECKLACE that you wore that evening at Rosario, when you wished to do
honor to this young Hathaway--the guardian who had always thrown you
off! Ah!--you now suspect why, perhaps! It was your mother's necklace
that you wore, and you said so! That night I sent the good Pepita to
identify it; to watch through the window from the garden when you were
wearing it; to make it sure as the Creed. I sent her to your room late
that night when you had changed your dress, that she might examine it
among your jewels. And she did and will swear--look you!--SWEAR that
it is the one given you as a child by the woman at the convent, who was
your mother! And who was that woman--eh? Who was the mother of the
Arguello de la Yerba Buena?--who this noble ancestress?"

"Excuse me--but perhaps you are not aware that you are raising your
voice in a lady's drawing-room, and that although you are speaking a
language no one here understands, you are disturbing the hotel."

It was Paul, quiet, pale in the moonlight, erect on the balcony before
the window. As Yerba, with a start, retreated quickly into the room,
Don Caesar stepped forward angrily and suspiciously towards the window.
He had his hand reached forward towards the handle as if to close the
swinging sash against the intruder, when in an instant he was seized by
Paul, tightly locked in a desperate grip, and whirled out on the
balcony. Before he could gain breath to utter a cry, Hathaway had
passed his right arm around the Mexican's throat, effectively stopping
his utterance, and, with a supreme effort of strength, dragged him
along the wall, falling with him into the open window of his own room.
As he did so, to his inexpressible relief he heard the sash closed and
the bolt drawn of the salon window, and regained his feet, collected,
quiet, and triumphant.

"I am sorry," he said, coolly dusting his clothes, "to have been
obliged to change the scene of this discussion so roughly, but you will
observe that you can speak more freely HERE, and that any altercation
WE may have in this room will be less likely to attract comment."

"Assassin!" said Don Caesar chokingly, as he struggled to his feet.

"Thank you. Relieve your feelings as much as you like here; in fact,
if you would speak a little louder you would oblige me. The guests are
beginning to be awake," continued Paul, with a wicked smile, indicating
the