his pocket, formed their meal.

Two years previous the Captain had rescued his companion from a street
mob in Hermosillo, the result of a feud that had broken out between her
citizens and the Yaqui Indians; Jose having been mistaken for one of the
latter. With his back against a wall and the blood streaming from his
wounds, he was making a desperate stand. Three citizens who had run upon
his knife, lay squirming at his feet; but the odds were too great. In
another moment all would have been over with him had it not been for the
Captain who chanced upon him in the nick of time. Snatching a club from
one of his assailants and accompanying each blow with a volley of
Spanish oaths, he rushed through the mob, scattering it in all
directions. Whether it was the oaths or the Captain's exhibition of his
fighting qualities that impressed Jose most it is difficult to say. Be
that as it may, from that hour he belonged to Captain Forest body and
soul. He was the grand senor, the _Hidalgo_, in comparison to whom
other men were as nothing.

The meal over, Jose with head and shoulders on one end of the _zerape_,
stretched himself at full length upon the ground and, as was his wont,
fell asleep almost immediately. Captain Forest swallowed a last draught
of liquor. Then leisurely rolling a cigarette he lit it, and with back
against the cliff and gaze fixed abstractedly on the mountains opposite,
smoked in silence.

II

Jack Forest's life was rich and full to overflowing with the things of
this world which are generally considered to make for happiness and
culture. Into the measure of his life, the comparatively short span of
thirty-five years, had been crowded a wealth of incident and experience
that seldom falls to the lot of the most fortunate men in this
commercialized era whose tendency is to pull nations like individuals
down to a common level of mediocrity, and seems bent upon extinguishing
even their few remaining national traits and characteristics.

Born in Washington and a graduate of Harvard, he had traveled to the
four corners of the earth, and hunted big game from the arctic circle to
the equator. During a winter's sojourn in Egypt he made the acquaintance
of Lord X----, then Consul-General of Egypt, upon whose advice he
entered the diplomatic service of his country. Five years were
subsequently spent as first Secretary of the American legations in
London and St. Petersburg. The enthusiasm with which he threw