e passage into the inn-yard.

All the easy assurance I could put on did not convince myself that my
fears were not written in my face as I rode forward. To be sure, I did
swagger to the top of my bent; and as I flung myself from the saddle, I
made my rifle, my brass scabbard, my sabretache, and my spurs perform
a crash that drew many a dark eye to the windows, and set many a fan
fluttering in attractive coquetry.

"What a handsome Caballero! how graceful and well-looking!" I thought
I could read in their flashing glances; and how pleasant was such an
imaginary _amende_ for the neglect I had suffered hitherto.

Having commended my beast to the hands of the ostler, I entered the inn
with all the swaggering assurance of my supposed calling, but, in good
earnest, with anything but an easy heart at the vicinity of Seth and
his followers. The public room into which I passed was crowded with
the dealers of the fair in busy and noisy discussion of their several
bargains; and had I been perfectly free of all personal anxieties, the
study of their various countenances, costumes, and manners had been
most amusing, combining as they did every strange nationality,--from
the pale-faced, hatchet-featured New Englander to the full-eyed, swarthy
descendant of old Spain. The mongrel Frenchman of New Orleans, with
the half-breed of the prairies, more savage in feature than the
Pawnee himself, the shining negro, the sallow Yankee, the Jew from the
Havannah, and the buccaneer-like sailor who commanded his sloop and
accompanied him as a species of body-guard,--were all studies in their
way and full of subject for after-thought.

In this motley assemblage it may easily be conceived that I mingled
unnoticed, and sat down to my mess of "frijoles with garlic" without
even a passing observation. As I ate on, however, I was far from pleased
by remarking that Seth and another had taken their seats at a table
right opposite, and kept their eyes full on me with what in better
society had been a most impudent stare. I affected not to perceive this,
and even treated myself to a flask of French wine, with the air of a man
revelling in undisturbed enjoyment. But all the rich bouquet, all the
delicious flavor, were lost upon me; the sense of some impending danger
overpowered all else; and let me look which way I would, Seth and
his buff-leather jacket, his high boots, immense spurs, and enormous
horse-pistols rose up before me like a vision.

I read