n smooth by much wearing.

Don Ruy blinked under the bandage and swore by Bradamante of the
adventure that he would search for it gladly if but the way was
shown.

"Where do we find this golden mistress of yours?" he demanded, "and
why have you waited long for a comrade?"

"The gold is in the north where none dare openly seek treasure, or
even souls, since Coronado came back broken and disgraced. I have
waited for the man of wealth who dared risk it, and--at whose going
the Viceroy could wink."

"Why wink at me--rather than another?"

"That is a secret knotted in the fringes of the silken scarf there--"
said Padre Vicente with a grim smile. "Cannot a way be found to clear
either a convent or a palace of a trouble breeder, when the church
itself lends a hand? You were plainly a breeder of trouble, else had
you escaped the present need of bandages. For the first time I see a
way where Church and the government of the Indies can go with clasped
hands to this work. In gold and converts the work may prove mighty.
How mighty depends whether you come to the Indies to kill time until
the day you are recalled--or improve that time by success where
Coronado failed."

"And if we echo his failure?"

"None will be the wiser even then! You plan for a season of hunting in
the hills. I plan for a mission visit by the Sea of Cortez. Mine will
be the task to see how and where our helpers join each other and all
the provisioning of man and beast. Mine also to make it clear to the
Viceroy that you repent your--"

"Hollo!"--Don Ruy interrupted with a grimace. "You are about to say I
repent of folly--or the enticing of a virgin--or that I fell victim to
the blandishments of some tricky dame--I know all that cant by
rote!--a man always repents until his broken head is mended, but all
that is apart from the real thing--which is this:--In what way does my
moment with a lady in the dark affect the Viceroy of the Indies? Why
should his Excellency trouble himself that Ruy Sandoval has a broken
head--and a silken scarf?"

Padre Vicente stared--then smiled. Ruy Sandoval had not his wits
smothered by the cotton wool of exalted pamperings.

"I will be frank with you," he said at last. "The Viceroy I have not
yet addressed on this matter. But such silken scarfs are few--that one
would not be a heavy task to trace to its owner."

"Ah!--I suspected your eminence had been a gallant in your time,"
remarked Don Ruy, amicably--"It is not easy