aid Dick.

"But there it comes!" answered the Captain.

"It's not the regular stage," returned Dick; "a party of tourists, most
likely! I see a lot of women!" he added, as the occupants on the outside
of the stage came more clearly into view.

Suddenly Captain Forest started, gasped, and gripped one of the veranda
pillars with his right hand. "No--it can't be!" he muttered, passing his
free hand across his eyes as though to dispel an illusion.

"What's the matter, Jack?" asked Dick.

"God in heaven! what can have brought them here?" he cried, ignoring his
companion's question and leaning out over the veranda rail, his gaze
riveted on the stage.

"Friends of yours?" asked Dick again.

"Friends? It's the whole family!"

Dick gave a prolonged whistle.

The women and _peons_, clamoring vociferously, instantly surrounded the
stage as it drew up before the _Posada_ with a great clatter of wheels
and hoofs; assisting its occupants to alight and carrying the luggage
into the house.

On the box beside the driver sat Blanch Lennox, looking a trifle pale
the Captain thought, and Bessie Van Ashton, his cousin, a pretty blond
with large violet eyes and small hands and feet that matched her
slender, willowy figure.

"Is this the infernal place?" came a voice from the interior of the
coach that sounded more like a snarl of a wild beast than a human voice.
"If ever I pass another night in such a damned ark--" came the voice
again, as its possessor, Colonel Van Ashton, enveloped in a much
wrinkled traveling coat, stepped with difficulty from the coach to the
ground. "I'm so stiff I can hardly walk! Ough!" he cried, and his right
hand went to his back as a fresh spasm of pain seized him.

"It's just what I told you it would be like! The country's
beastly--beastly!" and Mrs. Forest, white with dust and completely
exhausted by the journey, followed the Colonel, supported on either side
by her maid and her brother's valet.

"Merciful God! they must be very grand people to talk so foolish!"
ejaculated the Senora who knew enough English to grasp the import of
Mrs. Forest's words. Although she had never devoted much time to the
study of the language, she had picked up a smattering of English from
the Americans and Englishmen who annually stopped at the _Posada_ on
their way to the mines in the interior of the country in which much
foreign capital was invested.

"Why, there's Jack!" cried Bessie, dropping lightly from the box