"My word to that!" I cried. "She's the most beautiful lady under heaven!"
"Santisima Virgen!" he exclaimed. "You know her?"
"I had the honor of meeting her in my own country."
By a flash of intuition he divined all on the instant. "Dios!" he murmured, and he swept me a wide bow. "A love that could draw a man across that vast desolation of desert and sierra! Most unjust the fate that would not requite the deed!"
"You have seen her. Do you wonder that I should have made the venture?"
"Less than a year has passed since I won my own lady," he said. "The Virgin grant that I may be the one to escort you to Chihuahua! I have not seen my señora since I marched north, last year."
When a Spaniard opens his heart to you, count on it you have found a friend. I nodded understandingly.
"Ah, my Dolores! my niña!" he sighed.
"But she is yours; you have already won her; while I—!"
He nodded, in turn. "My Dolores writes that every bachelor of Chihuahua, from the greatest haciendados to the youngest sub-lieutenants, are suitors for the hand of Señorita Alisanda. Yet take heart. At the last writing, not even Medina had won recognition from her."