ng overheard.

"Well, _ayadante_," he begins, as soon as they are safe beyond earshot,
"what's your opinion of things now?"

"I think we've done the thing neatly, though not exactly the way you
wanted it."

"Anything but that. Still, I don't despair of getting everything
straight in due time. The man Manuel has learnt from his fellow-servant
that our American friends have gone on to the settlements of the Del
Norte. Strange if we can't find them there; and stranger still if, when
found, I don't bring them to book at last. _Caraja_! Neither of the
two will ever leave New Mexico alive."

"What about these two--our Mexican friends?"

"For them a fate the very reverse. Neither shall ever reach it alive."

"You intend taking them there dead, do you?"

"Neither living nor dead. I don't intend taking them there at all."

"You think of leaving them by the way?"

"More than think; I've determined upon it."

"But surely you don't mean to kill them in cold blood?"

"I won't harm a hair of their heads--neither I, nor you, nor any of my
soldiers. For all that, they shall die."

"Colonel, your speech is somewhat enigmatical. I don't comprehend it."

"In due time you will. Have patience for four days more--it may be
less. Then you will have the key to the enigma. Then Don Valerian
Miranda and the old rascal Don Prospero shall cease to trouble the
dreams of Gil Uraga."

"And you are really determined on Miranda's death?"

"A silly question for a man who knows me as you. Of course I am."

"Well, for my part, I don't care much one way or the other, only I can't
see what benefit it will be to you. He's not such a bad sort of a
fellow, and has got the name of being a courageous soldier."

"You're growing wonderfully sentimental, _ayadante_. The tender glances
of the senorita seem to have softened you."

"Not likely," rejoins the adjutant with a grim smile. "The eyes that
could make impression upon the heart of Gaspar Roblez don't exist in the
head of woman. If I have any weaknesses in the feminine way, it's for
the goddess Fortuna. So long as I can get a pack of playing cards, with
some rich _gringo_ to face me in the game, I'll leave petticoats alone."

In turn the colonel smiles. He knows the idiosyncracy of his
confederate in crime. Rather a strange one for a man who has committed
many robberies, and more than once imbued his hands in blood. Cards,
dice and drink are his passions, his habitual