eculiar
to the Basque province. But, once you had seen her eyes, and
comprehended the great sadness that was revealed in their deep shadows
and hopeless expression, you saw that the woman lived only in some
memory.

She bent upon the young man a long look of the most agonized
questioning. Then her great black eyes turned, and her gaze rested upon
his left hand. And then with a sob, not loud, but seeming to shake the
room, she cried "_Hijo mio!_" and caught the Llano Kid to her heart.

III

A month afterward the Kid came to the consulate in response to a message
sent by Thacker.

He looked the young Spanish _caballero_. His clothes were imported, and
the wiles of the jewelers had not been spent upon him in vain. A more
than respectable diamond shone on his finger as he rolled a shuck
cigarette.

"What's doing?" asked Thacker.

"Nothing much," said the Kid calmly. "I eat my first iguana steak
to-day. They're them big lizards, you _sabe_? I reckon, though, that
frijoles and side bacon would do me about as well. Do you care for
iguanas, Thacker?"

"No, nor for some other kinds of reptiles," said Thacker.

It was three in the afternoon, and in another hour he would be in his
state of beatitude.

"It's time you were making good, sonny," he went on, with an ugly look
on his reddened face. "You're not playing up to me square. You've been
the prodigal son for four weeks now, and you could have had veal for
every meal on a gold dish if you'd wanted it. Now, Mr. Kid, do you think
it's right to leave me out so long on a husk diet? What's the trouble?
Don't you get your filial eyes on anything that looks like cash in the
Casa Blanca? Don't tell me you don't. Everybody knows where old Urique
keeps his stuff. It's U. S. currency, too; he don't accept anything
else. What's doing? Don't say 'nothing' this time."

"Why, sure," said the Kid, admiring his diamond, "there's plenty of
money up there. I'm no judge of collateral in bunches, but I will
undertake for to say that I've seen the rise of $50,000 at a time in
that tin grub box that my adopted father calls his safe. And he lets me
carry the key sometimes just to show me that he knows I'm the real
little Francisco that strayed from the herd a long time ago."

"Well, what are you waiting for?" asked Thacker angrily. "Don't you
forget that I can upset your apple cart any day I want to. If old Urique
knew you were an impostor, what sort of things would happen to you? Oh,