tch.

"I give you ten minutes with the prisoner, Don Diego. More, I cannot."

A little awed by the manner of the Commander, Hurlstone bowed and
followed him across the courtyard. It was filled with soldiers, and
near the gateway a double file of dragoons, with loaded carbines, were
standing at ease. Two sentries were ranged on each side of an open door
which gave upon the courtyard. The Commander paused before it, and with
a gesture invited him to enter. It was a large square apartment, lighted
only by the open door and a grated enclosure above it. Seated in his
shirtsleeves, before a rude table, Senor Perkins was quietly writing.
The shadow of Hurlstone's figure falling across his paper caused him to
look up.

Whatever anxiety Hurlstone had begun to feel, it was quickly dissipated
by the hearty, affable, and even happy greeting of the prisoner.

"Ah! what! my young friend Hurlstone! Again an unexpected pleasure," he
said, extending his white hands. "And again you find me wooing the Muse,
in, I fear, hesitating numbers." He pointed to the sheet of paper before
him, which showed some attempts at versification. "But I confess to a
singular fascination in the exercise of poetic composition, in instants
of leisure like this--a fascination which, as a man of imagination
yourself, you can appreciate."

"And I am sorry to find you here, Senor Perkins," began Hurlstone
frankly; "but I believe it will not be for long."

"My opinion," said the Senor, with a glance of gentle contemplation at
the distant Comandante, "as far as I may express it, coincides with your
own."

"I have come," continued Hurlstone earnestly, "to offer you my services.
I am ready," he raised his voice, with a view of being overheard, "to
bear testimony that you had no complicity in the baser part of the late
conspiracy,--the revolt of the savages, and that you did your best to
counteract the evil, although in doing so you have sacrificed yourself.
I shall claim the right to speak from my own knowledge of the Indians
and from their admission to me that they were led away by the vague
representations of Martinez, Brace, and Winslow."

"Pardon--pardon me," said Senor Perkins deprecatingly, "you are
mistaken. My general instructions, no doubt, justified these young
gentlemen in taking, I shall not say extreme, but injudicious measures."
He glanced meaningly in the direction of the Commander, as if to
warn Hurlstone from continuing, and said gently, "But