n hostility was madness, too. It would
render impossible a systematic search for that treasure, for that wealth
of silver which he seemed to feel somewhere about, to scent somewhere
near.

But where? Where? Heavens! Where? Oh! why had he allowed that doctor
to go! Imbecile that he was. But no! It was the only right course, he
reflected distractedly, while the messenger waited downstairs chatting
agreeably to the officers. It was in that scoundrelly doctor's true
interest to return with positive information. But what if anything
stopped him? A general prohibition to leave the town, for instance!
There would be patrols!

The colonel, seizing his head in his hands, turned in his tracks as if
struck with vertigo. A flash of craven inspiration suggested to him an
expedient not unknown to European statesmen when they wish to delay a
difficult negotiation. Booted and spurred, he scrambled into the hammock
with undignified haste. His handsome face had turned yellow with the
strain of weighty cares. The ridge of his shapely nose had grown sharp;
the audacious nostrils appeared mean and pinched. The velvety, caressing
glance of his fine eyes seemed dead, and even decomposed; for these
almond-shaped, languishing orbs had become inappropriately bloodshot
with much sinister sleeplessness. He addressed the surprised envoy
of Senor Fuentes in a deadened, exhausted voice. It came pathetically
feeble from under a pile of ponchos, which buried his elegant person
right up to the black moustaches, uncurled, pendant, in sign of bodily
prostration and mental incapacity. Fever, fever--a heavy fever
had overtaken the "muy valliente" colonel. A wavering wildness of
expression, caused by the passing spasms of a slight colic which had
declared itself suddenly, and the rattling teeth of repressed panic, had
a genuineness which impressed the envoy. It was a cold fit. The colonel
explained that he was unable to think, to listen, to speak. With an
appearance of superhuman effort the colonel gasped out that he was
not in a state to return a suitable reply or to execute any of his
Excellency's orders. But to-morrow! To-morrow! Ah! to-morrow! Let his
Excellency Don Pedro be without uneasiness. The brave Esmeralda Regiment
held the harbour, held--And closing his eyes, he rolled his aching head
like a half-delirious invalid under the inquisitive stare of the envoy,
who was obliged to bend down over the hammock in order to catch the
painful and broken ac