er of it," she said, in a low voice; "since for the next
meal there will be nothing. The last _centavo_ is spent." She pressed
closer against the grating.

"Sell the goods in the shop--take anything for them."

"Have I not tried? Did I not offer them for one-tenth their cost? Not
even one _peso_ would any one give. There is not one _real_ in this
town to assist Dickee Malonee."

Dick clenched his teeth grimly. "That's the _comandante_," he
growled. "He's responsible for that sentiment. Wait, oh, wait till
the cards are all out."

Pasa lowered her voice to almost a whisper. "And, listen, heart of my
heart," she said, "I have endeavoured to be brave, but I cannot live
without thee. Three days now--"

Dicky caught a faint gleam of steel from the folds of her mantilla.
For once she looked in his face and saw it without a smile, stern,
menacing and purposeful. Then he suddenly raised his hand and his
smile came back like a gleam of sunshine. The hoarse signal of an
incoming steamer's siren sounded in the harbour. Dicky called to the
sentry who was pacing before the door: "What steamer comes?"

"The _Catarina_."

"Of the Vesuvius line?"

"Without doubt, of that line."

"Go you, _picarilla_," said Dicky joyously to Pasa, "to the American
consul. Tell him I wish to speak with him. See that he comes at
once. And look you! let me see a different look in those eyes, for I
promise your head shall rest upon this arm to-night."

It was an hour before the consul came. He held his green umbrella
under his arm, and mopped his forehead impatiently.

"Now, see here, Maloney," he began, captiously, "you fellows seem to
think you can cut up any kind of row, and expect me to pull you out
of it. I'm neither the War Department nor a gold mine. This country
has its laws, you know, and there's one against pounding the senses
out of the regular army. You Irish are forever getting into trouble.
I don't see what I can do. Anything like tobacco, now, to make you
comfortable--or newspapers--"

"Son of Eli," interrupted Dicky, gravely, "you haven't changed an
iota. That is almost a duplicate of the speech you made when old
Koen's donkeys and geese got into the chapel loft, and the culprits
wanted to hide in your room."

"Oh, heavens!" exclaimed the consul, hurriedly adjusting his
spectacles. "Are you a Yale man, too? Were you in that crowd? I don't
seem to remember any one with red--any one named Maloney. Such a lot
of college men se