e of such efforts."

Aunt Maria's Olympian head nodded, and her cheerful face, glowing with tea
and the camp fires, confessed "Certainly!"

"What nonsense, Coronado!" said Clara. "I was horribly frightened, and you
know it."

Aunt Maria frowned with surprise and denial. "Absurd, child! You were not
frightened at all. Of course you were not. Why, even if you had been
slightly timorous, you had your cousin to protect you."

"Ah, Mrs. Stanley, I am a poor knight-errant," said Coronado. "We Mexicans
are no longer formidable. One man of your Anglo-Saxon blood is supposed to
be a better defence than a dozen of us. We have been subdued; we must
submit to depreciation. I must confess, in fact, that I had my fears. I
was greatly relieved on my cousin's account when I heard the voice of our
military chieftain here."

Then came more flattery for Ralph, with proper rations for the two
privates. Those faithful soldiers--he must show his gratitude to them; he
had forgotten them in the basest manner. "Here, Pedronillo, take these
cigaritos to privates Kelly and Shubert, with my compliments. Begging
_your_ permission, Lieutenant. _Thank_ you."

"Pooty tonguey man, that Seenor," observed Captain Phineas Glover to Mrs.
Stanley, when the Mexican went off to his blankets.

"Yes; a very agreeable and eloquent gentleman," replied the lady, wishing
to correct the skipper's statement while seeming to assent to it.

"Jess so," admitted Glover. "Ruther airy. Big talkin' man. Don't raise no
sech our way."

Captain Glover was not fully aware that he himself had the fame of
possessing an imagination which was almost too much for the facts of this
world.

"S'pose it's in the breed," he continued. "Or likely the climate has
suthin' to do with it: kinder thaws out the words 'n' sets the idees
a-bilin'. Niggers is pooty much the same. Most niggers kin talk like a
line runnin' out, 'n' tell lies 's fast 's our Fair Haven gals open
oysters--a quart a minute."

"Captain Glover, what do you mean?" frowned Aunt Maria. "Mr. Coronado is a
friend of mine."

"Oh, I was speakin' of niggers," returned the skipper promptly. "Forgot we
begun about the Seenor. Sho! niggers was what I was talkin' of. B' th'
way, that puts me in mind 'f one I had for cook once. Jiminy! how that man
would cook! He'd cook a slice of halibut so you wouldn't know it from
beefsteak."

"Dear me! how did he do it?" asked Aunt Maria, who had a fancy for kitchen
mysteries.