l
it so, my friend,--and it would have been difficult for me to carry
it through without you. A moment ago I was in despair, wondering how I
should manage, and saying to myself anxiously, 'If I only had a friend
here, a good friend!'"

"A project, a plot, an adventure! One of two things, Senor
Mathematician: it is either the discovery of aerial navigation, or else
some love affair."

"It is serious, very serious. Go to bed, sleep a while, and afterward we
will talk about it."

"I will go to bed, but I will not sleep. You may say all you wish to
me. All that I ask is that you will say as little as possible about
Orbajosa."

"It is precisely about Orbajosa that I wish to speak to you. But have
you also an antipathy to this cradle of illustrious men?"

"These garlic-venders--we call them the garlic-venders--may be as
illustrious as you choose, but to me they are as irritating as the
product of the country. This is a town ruled by people who teach
distrust, superstition, and hatred of the whole human race. When we have
leisure I will relate to you an occurrence--an adventure, half-comic,
half-tragic--that happened to me here last year. When I tell it to you,
you will laugh and I shall be fuming. But, in fine, what is past is
past."

"In what is happening to me there is nothing comic."

"But I have various reasons for hating this wretched place. You must
know that my father was assassinated here in '48 by a party of barbarous
guerillas. He was a brigadier, and he had left the service. The
Government sent for him, and he was passing through Villahorrenda on his
way to Madrid, when he was captured by half a dozen ruffians. Here there
are several dynasties of guerilla chiefs--the Aceros, the Caballucos,
the Pelosmalos--a periodical eruption, as some one has said who knew
very well what he was talking about."

"I suppose that two infantry regiments and some cavalry have not come
here solely for the pleasure of visiting these delightful regions."

"Certainly not! We have come to survey the country. There are many
deposits of arms here. The Government does not venture, as it desires,
to remove from office the greater number of the municipal councils
without first distributing a few companies of soldiers through these
towns. As there is so much disturbance in this part of the country,
as two of the neighboring provinces are already infested, and as this
municipal district of Orbajosa has, besides, so brilliant a record