on, boy." Jondo was himself in a moment. "It
is another cruel act in the old tragedy of Ramero against Clarenden and
others."

"Will the Church be bribed by the St. Vrain estate and urge this
wedding?" I asked.

"The Church considers money as so much power for the Kingdom. I have
heard that the St. Vrain estate was left in Ramero's hands with the
proviso that if Eloise should marry foolishly before she was twenty-five
she, would lose her property. Do you see the trick in the game, and why
Ramero can say that if he chooses he can take her heritage away from
her? But as he keeps everything in his own hands it is hard to know the
truth about anything connected with money matters."

"Would Father Josef be party to such a transaction?" I asked, angrily.

"Ramero thinks so, but he is mistaken," Jondo replied.

"What makes you think he won't be?" I insisted.

"Because I knew Father Josef before he became a priest, and why he took
the vows," Jondo declared. "Unless a man brings some manhood to the
altar, he will not find it in the title nor the dress there, it makes no
difference whether he be Catholic, Protestant, Hebrew, or heathen.
Father Josef was a gentleman before he was a priest."

"Well, if he's all right, why did he bring Eloise back here into the
heart of all this trouble?" I questioned.

Jondo sat thinking for a little while, then he said, assuringly:

"I don't know his motive, unless he felt he could protect her here
himself; but I tell you, my boy, he can be trusted. Let me tell you
something, Gail. When Esmond Clarenden and I were boys back in a New
England college we knew two fellows from the Southwest whose fathers
were in official circles at Washington. One was Felix Narveo,
thoroughbred Mexican, thoroughbred gentleman, a bit lacking in
initiative sometimes, for he came from the warmer, lazier lands, but as
true as the compass in his character. The other fellow was Dick Verra,
French father, English mother; I think he had a strain of Indian blood
farther back somewhere, but he would have been a prince in any tribe or
nation. A happy, wholesome, red-blooded, young fellow, with the world
before him for his conquest.

"We knew another fellow, too, Fred Ramer, self-willed, imperious,
extravagant in his habits, greedy and unscrupulous; but he was handsome
and masterful, with a compelling magnetism that made us admire him and
bound us to him. He had never known what it meant to have a single wish
denied h