"But how do you find the window of the fair one?" I asked.
"That is to be seen, señor doctor," put in Medina. "My way is to station myself across the street and sing the first verse. That never fails to lure the coyest of coquettes from her secrecy."
"But, then, you have the voice," I mocked.
"It is true," he replied, taking me seriously.
"But what if the señorita's chamber is located in a remote part of the house?" I questioned.
"You are in truth a stranger to the women," he jeered. "Count upon it that every señorita in Chihuahua, however ugly, has a balconied chamber, either upon the front or the side street."
"Muchas gracias, Don Lieutenant," I said, and turned to Pike. "Hola, Don Montgomery! Would you keep the ladies waiting for their serenade?"
This raised a polite laugh, in the midst of which Pike, Walker, and I essayed the prolonged ceremony of leave-taking. At the door of the sala an attendant relieved me of the guitar, and for a little I thought Zuloaga's presentation had been a mere formality. But as we passed the gate into the street the attendant returned the instrument, in a handsome case.
"You are in fortune, doctor," remarked Walker. "That is as fine a guitar as is to be found in Chihuahua."
"So?" I said. "Then I really believe I will try it to-night."