fallen into a mood of deep abstraction.

"Are we to listen to naught but the champing of food?" Mrs. Parker
inquired presently.

"Hello!" her husband declared. "So you've come up for air, eh, Katie?"

"Oh, I'm feeling far from chatty, John. But the silence is oppressive.
Miguel, are you plotting against the whites?"

He looked up with a smiling nod. "I'm making big medicine, Mrs.
Parker. So big, in fact," he continued, as he folded his napkin and
thrust it carefully into the ring, "that I am going to ask your
permission to withdraw. I have been very remiss in my social duties.
I have been home twenty-four hours and I have passed the Mission de la
Madre Dolorosa three times, yet I have not been inside to pay my
respects to my old friends there. I shall be in disgrace if I fail to
call this evening for Father Dominic's blessing. They'll be wondering
why I neglect them."

"How do you know they know you're home?" Parker demanded, suspiciously.
He was wondering if Don Miguel's excuse to leave the table might have
some connection with Bill Conway and the impending imbroglio.

"Brother Flavio told me so to-night. As we rode down the valley he was
ringing the Angelus; and after the Angelus he played on the chimes,
'I'm Nearer Home To-day.' May I be excused, Mrs. Parker?"

"By all means, Michael."

"Thank you." He included them all in a courteous nod of farewell.
They heard the patio gate close behind him.

"I wish I dared follow him," Parker observed. "I wonder if he really
is going down to the Mission. I think I'll make certain."

He left the room, went out to the patio gate, opened it slightly and
peered out. His host's tall form, indistinct in the moonlight, was
disappearing toward the palm-lined avenue, so Parker, satisfied that
Don Mike had embarked upon the three-mile walk to the Mission, returned
to the dining-room.

"Well, Mr. Sherlock Holmes?" Kay queried.

"I think he's headed for the Mission, after all, Kay."

"I never doubted it."

"Why?"

"Because he wouldn't tell a trifling lie to deceive when there was no
necessity for deceiving. His plans are fully matured and he will not
act until morning. In that three-mile walk to the Mission he will
perfect the details of his plan of attack."

"Then he is planning?--but you said his plans are fully matured. How
do you know, Kay?"

"He told me all about them as we were riding in this evening." Both
Parker and his wife raised interrogato