Herrick interposed. "Did Mrs. Joyce know that Frisco was with Carr?"
"Oh, dear me no. She thought she was a widow."
"That is true," said Robin gloomily, "my mother always said that my father had died in America. I could not believe that Frisco was my father until he convinced me."
"I think we both convinced you," said the Mexican with a laugh, "but it strikes me Dr. Herrick that we are beginning the story at the wrong end. Let me tell it in my own way. It will be much clearer."
"I hope it will be true."
"Oh, as to that I have no reason to conceal anything now," said Don Manuel with a shrug, "you may as well know all. The money is lost and I shall return to Mexico as poor as I set out. Well?"
"Tell the story in your own way," growled Herrick disliking the coolness of the man yet half admiring his nerve. "Well then," said Santiago placing a cigarette in his mouth and crossing his legs, "it is this way. Twenty years ago I met Colonel Carr. He was in the war between Chili and Peru, and a brave soldier he was. A brute also. There was nothing he would not do to get money. He had left his home a pauper, and he swore he would go back a millionaire. But when the war was at an end, he had not got the fortune he wanted. It was about that time that Frisco fell in with Carr."
"And Frisco introduced himself as a cousin?"
"Just that," said Santiago briskly. "They soon found out the relationship. Joyce--I am speaking of your father my friend," this in an aside to Robin, "Joyce came from San Francisco, so the Colonel one day being drunk, called him Frisco--the name stuck to him. After that they were what you English call pals, and hung round Lima trying to make money. I was in the army then and saw much of them. Frisco was as anxious as Carr to be rich. He said he had left a wife and son in California."
"That was you Robin," put in Herrick much interested.