e to do and did not do. He is a coward and a traitor."

"Oh, the pig! Did you pay him?"

"I had to pay him in advance--and then nothing done right," confessed
Coronado.

"Oh, the pig, the dog, the toad, the villainous toad, the pig of hell!"
chattered Garcia in a rage. "How much did you pay him? Five hundred
dollars! Oh, the pig and the dog and the toad!"

"Well, I have been frank with you," said Coronado. (He had diminished by
one half the sum paid to Texas Smith.) "I will continue to be frank. You
must not stay here. The question is how to get you away unseen."

"It is useless; I have been recognized," lied Garcia, who was determined
not to go.

"All is lost!" exclaimed Coronado. "The presence of us two--both possible
heirs--will rouse suspicion. Nothing can be done."

But no intimidations could move the old man; he was resolved to stay and
oversee matters personally; perhaps he suspected Coronado's plan of
marrying Clara.

"No, my son," he declared. "I know better than you. I am older and know
the world better. Let me stay and take care of this. What if I am
suspected and denounced and hung? The property will be yours."

"My more than father!" cried Coronado. "You shall never sacrifice yourself
for me. God forbid that I should permit such an infamy!"

"Let the old perish for the young!" returned Garcia, in a tone of meek
obstinacy which settled the controversy.

It was a wonderful scene; it was prodigious acting. Each of these men,
while endeavoring to circumvent the other, was making believe offer his
life as a sacrifice for the other's prosperity. It was amazing that
neither should lose patience; that neither should say, You are trying to
deceive me, and I know it. We may question whether two men of northern
race could have carried on such a dialogue without bursting out in open
anger, or at least glaring with eyes full of suspicion and defiance.

"You will find her changed," continued Coronado, when he had submitted to
the old man's persistence. "She has grown thinner and sadder. You must not
notice it, however; you must compliment her on her health."

"What is she taking?" whispered Garcia.

"The less said, the better. My dear uncle, you must know nothing. Do not
talk of it. The walls have ears."

"I know something that would be both safe and sure," persisted the old man
in a still lower whisper.

"Leave all with me," answered Coronado, waving his hand authoritatively.
"Too many cooks spoil the