"Practically nothing."
"I beg pardon, señora. You must have misunderstood me. I——"
"I understood you perfectly."
"Well, then, señora, think of your reply."
"My reply was that Commodore Billings said practically nothing from which I thought haste necessary. It was from what he palpably refrained from saying that I made my inference."
Farquharson drew his bridle-rein. His horse curveted over the turf, under pressure of the curb-bit. He drew the animal back to the woman's side. "Señora Valentino, what does Billings intend to do?"
"To seize Monterey for the United States if——"
"If what?"
"If he can find reasonable excuse, in the attitude of the hacenderos here, for such a move."
"But can he?"