erve your thanks till I have done you some service beyond the simple
duty of a gentleman, who sees another gentleman in a dilemma he had no
hand in creating. But enough, senor; we have no time to spend in
talking. Even now there may be a couple of poignards preparing for us.
Get your things ready at once, as I start two hours before sunset. In
this sultry weather we are accustomed to travel in the cool of the
evening."

"I shall be ready."

That same afternoon, two hours before the going down of the sun, a party
of horsemen, wearing the uniform of Mexican dragoons of the line, issued
from the _garita_ of Chihuahua, and took the northern road leading to
Santa Fe, by El Paso del Norte. Colonel Miranda, his ranchero dress
changed for the fatigue uniform of a cavalry officer, was at its head,
and by his side the stranger, whose cause he had so generously and
gallantly espoused.

CHAPTER THREE.

THE COLONEL COMMANDANT.

Six weeks have elapsed since the day of the duel at Chihuahua. Two men
are standing on the _azotea_ of a large mansion-like house close to the
town of Albuquerque, whose church spire is just visible through the
foliage of trees that shade and surround the dwelling. They are Colonel
Miranda and the young Kentuckian, who has been for some time his guest;
for the hospitality of the generous Mexican had not terminated with the
journey from Chihuahua. After three weeks of toilsome travel, including
the traverse of the famed "Dead Man's Journey," he was continuing to
extend it in his own house and his own district, of which last he was
the military commandant, Albuquerque being at the time occupied by a
body of troops, stationed there for defence against Indian incursions.

The house on whose roof the two men stood was that in which Colonel
Miranda had been born--the patrimonial mansion of a large estate that
extended along the Rio del Norte, and back towards the Sierra Blanca,
into territories almost unknown.

Besides being an officer in the Mexican army, the colonel was one of the
_ricos_ of the country. The house, as already said, was a large,
massive structure, having, like all Mexican dwellings of its class, a
terraced roof, or _azotea_. What is also common enough in that country,
it was surmounted by a _mirador_, or "belvedere." Standing less than
half a mile distant from the soldier's _cuartel_, the commandant found
it convenient to make use of it as his headquarters. A small guard in