"Oh! Then America was the place of his exile?"
"So Frisco said; Mexico and Peru. The two had many adventures and used to tell me about them. I made up several stories out of the material I got from them."
"You called to see the Colonel again then?"
"Why not! He was always polite, and I wasn't a bit afraid of him. Oh, I know he had a dreadful reputation, but he was never rude to me. Poor man," said Bess letting her eyes rest pensively on the house which they were now approaching, "I think he was very weary of living alone."
"Were the Colonel and Frisco good friends?"
"The very best. Frisco adored the Colonel, who had saved his life. Both of them seem rather afraid of---" here Bess was silent.
"Of what?"
"I hardly know. But they hinted at some enemy who would kill the pair of them if he discovered their whereabouts. That was what Frisco meant at the public-house, when he hinted about his master not living long. If Frisco had given information, the enemy would have killed the Colonel."
"I wonder if Frisco did, and then went away to escape the consequences?"
"No!" said Bess thoughtfully. "Frisco would have been killed also. I think myself that the enemy found out the Colonel and murdered him; then Frisco ran away to save his own life."