“I do.”

“Get ready your thousand pesos.”

“They wait your acceptance.”

Carajo! I shall earn them in a trice. Adios! Adios!”

Santissima Virgen!” exclaimed the profane ruffian, as his visitor limped out of sight. “What a magnificent fluke of fortune! A perfect chiripé. A thousand dollars for killing the man I intended to kill on my own account, without charging anybody a single claco for the deed!

“The Comanches upon the war trail! Chingaro! can it be true? If so, I must look up my old disguise—gone to neglect through these three long years of accursed peace. Viva la guerra de los Indios! Success to the pantomime of the prairies!”


Chapter Thirty.

A Sagittary Correspondence.