red boots or lily-white hands could
banish. Some disagreeable thought was pressing upon his mind, causing
him at intervals to make fitful starts, and look nervously around him.

"Bah! 'twas but a dream!" he muttered to himself. "Why should I think
of it? 'twas only a dream!"

His eyes were bent downward as he gave expression to these abrupt
phrases, and as he raised them again chance guided his look in the
direction of "La Nina Perdida." No, it was not chance, for La Nina had
figured in his dream, and his eyes were but following his thoughts.

The moment they rested on the cliff he started back as if some terrible
spectre were before him, and mechanically caught hold of the parapet.
His cheeks suddenly blanched, his jaws fell, and his chest heaved, in
hurried and convulsive breathing!

What can cause these symptoms of strong emotion? Is it the sight of
yonder horseman standing upon the very pinnacle of the bluff, and
outlined against the pale sky? What is there in such an appearance to
terrify the Comandante--for terrified he is? Hear him!

"My God! my God!--it is _he_! The form of his horse--of himself--just
as he appeared--it is he! I fear to look at him! I cannot--"

And the officer averted his face for a moment, covering it with his
hands.

It was but a moment, and again he looked upwards. Not curiosity, but
the fascination of fear, caused him to look again. The horseman had
disappeared. Neither horse nor man--no object of any sort--broke the
line of the bluffs!

"Surely I have been dreaming again?" muttered the still trembling
caitiff. "Surely I have? There was no one there, least of all--. How
could he? He is hundreds of miles off! It was an illusion! Ha! ha!
ha! What the devil is the matter with my senses, I wonder? That horrid
dream of last night has bewitched them! _Carrambo_! I'll think no more
of it?"

As he said this he resumed his pace more briskly, believing that that
might rid him of his unpleasant reflections. At every turn, however,
his eyes again sought the bluff, and swept along its edge with a glance
that betokened fear. But they saw no more of the spectre horseman, and
their owner began to feel at ease again.

A footstep was heard upon the stone steps of the "escalera." Some one
was ascending to the roof.

The next moment the head and shoulders of a man were visible; and
Captain Roblado stepped out upon the azotea.

The "buenos dias" that passed between him an