air God 114
XV. The Ritual 122
XVI. He of the Debonair Sceptre 131
XVII. Rather a Small Man 140
XVIII. Little Monarchs, Big Mistakes 149
XIX. A Tartar, _and_ a Tartar 156
XX. In the Wake of Princely Cavalcades 164
XXI. The Red Mongrel 173
XXII. "Equidad en la Justicia" 182
XXIII. A Curious Pagan Rite 188
XXIV. The Man Who Did Not Want to be Shot 193
XXV. The Person on the Other Horse 200
XXVI. The Strangest Avowal of Love 209
XXVII. Berthe 219
XXVIII. "Mike" 228
XXIX. The Whisper of the Sphinx 238
XXX. The Ambassador 242
XXXI. Carlota 253
XXXII. The Woman Who Did Not Hesitate 258
XXXIII. A Sponsor to the Fat Padre 266

PART II.

THE ROSE THAT WAS A THORN IN THE LAND OF ROSES

I. Meagre Shanks 273
II. The Black Decree 284
III. As Between Women 293
IV. The Lacking Coincidence 298
V. The Missourians 306
VI. If a Kiss Were All 315
VII. A Crop of Colonels 324
VIII. Royal Resolution 335
IX. Interpreter to the Almighty 344
X. Alone Among His Loving Subjects 351
XI. Fatality and the Missourian 359
XII. The Rendezvous of the Republic 369
XIII. A Buccaneer and a Battle 380
XIV. Blood and Noise--What Else? 391
XV. Of All News the Most Spiteful 406
XVI. Vendetta's Half Sister, Better Born 422
XVII. Under a Spanish Cloak 434
XVIII. El Chaparrito 443
XIX. In Articulo Mortis 459
XX. Knighthood's Belated Flower 465
XXI. The Title of Nobility 475
XXII. The Abbey of Mount Regret 484
XXIII. The Contrariness of Jacqueline 496
XXIV. The