and
jolting down the narrow street and so out into the country. There was a
drive of about sixteen miles farther inland and toward the Organ
Mountains before them ere they could arrive at the hacienda Montijo, and
although the road was abominable, and the heat intense, Jack declared
that he had never so thoroughly enjoyed a drive in his life. For the
country was somewhat rugged, and the scenery therefore very lovely, the
road being bordered on either side by fields of tobacco and sugar, and
here and there a patch of cool green Indian corn, divided from the road
by low hedges which were just then a perfect blaze of multi-coloured
flowers of various descriptions. It was a fairly busy scene, too, for
the tobacco was ripe, and the fields were alive with labourers of all
colours, from the full-blooded negro to the pure Spaniard, gathering the
crop. At length, when they had been travelling for about a couple of
hours, and when, despite the charm of everything that he saw around him,
Jack began to grow conscious of the fact that he was aching in every
joint from the rolling and jolting of the carriage, the vehicle turned
off the main road into a lane, access to which was gained through a pair
of massive timber gates hung upon piers of ancient, moss-grown masonry;
and Don Hermoso announced that they were now upon his own demesne. And
here at once Jack became conscious of a very great change in the
appearance of everything; for not only was the road upon which they were
travelling smooth and well kept, but the fields on either hand, instead
of being half-choked with weeds, as had been the case with most of those
that they had passed, were scrupulously clean, while the labourers,
instead of being picturesque scarecrows, were decently clad, and worked
as men do who are content and happy. Every man of them was clearly on
the lookout for the carriage, and had a word of respectful greeting for
his returning master, while--what was perhaps stranger still--Don
Hermoso seemed to intimately know every man, woman, and child on the
place, though there were hundreds of them.

At length a bend in the road brought the house in sight, at a distance
of about a mile, and Jack saw before him, perched on the shoulder of a
low eminence, a long, white, bungalow-like structure, with a high,
thatched roof, and a gallery and veranda running along the whole length
of the front, and apparently along the sides also. The building was of
one storey o