As soon as I entered, it became apparent the Captain was a sportsman as
well as a soldier.

The room was perhaps thirty by twenty feet in size. Midway of the
north wall stood a rude writing table on which were a few official
papers. Ranged about the room were a dozen or more rawhide-seated
chairs, each standing stiffly at "attention" against the wall
scrupulously equidistant order. Glaring at me in crude lettering from
a broad rafter facing the door was the grimly patriotic sentiment,
"Libertad o Muerte." (Liberty or Death!) In the southwest corner of
the room stood a low and narrow cot, beneath whose thin serape covering
a tall, gaunt cadaverous frame was plainly outlined. From the headpost
of the cot dangled a sword and two pistols. _And to every bed, table,
stand, and chair was hobbled a gamecock_--a rarely high-bred lot by
their looks, that joined in saluting my entrance with a volley of
questioning crows! It was, I fancy, altogether the most startling
reception visitor ever had.

In a momentary pause in the crowing, there issued from a throat riven
and deep-seamed from frequent floodings with fiery torrents of mescal,
and out of lungs perpetually surcharged with cigarette smoke, a hoarse
croaking, but friendly toned, "_Buenos dias, senor. Sirvase tomar un
asiento. Aqui tiene vd su casa!_" and peering more closely into the
dusky corner, I beheld a great face, lean to emaciation, dominated by a
magnificent Roman nose with two great dark eyes sunk so deep on either
side of its base they must forever remain strangers to one another.
The nose supported a splendid breadth of high forehead, which was
crowned with a shock of coal-black hair, while the jaws were bearded to
the eyes. It was the face of an ascetic Crusader, sensualized in a
measure by years of isolated frontier service and its attendant vices
and degeneration, but still a face full of the noble melancholy of a
Quixote.

Propping himself on a great bony knot of an elbow, the Captain made
polite inquiry respecting my journey, and then asked in what could he
serve me. But when I had explained that I wanted to meet the owner of
the Santa Rosa Ranch, and contemplated going out to see it, it was only
to learn, to my great disappointment, that it had been sold the week
previous to two Scotchmen. Fancy! in a country visited by foreigners,
as a rule, not so often as once a year.

Nor was I consoled when, noting my obvious chagrin, the Captain sought