"That certainly is a curious thing," Dick responded. "And it also furnishes a reason good enough to satisfy anybody for abandoning the mine. Well, Frank," he went on, "this looks like the end of our expedition. We've done what we set out to do:—found the King Philip mine; and now, I suppose, there's nothing left but to turn round and go home again."
"I suppose so," I assented, regretfully. "I hate to go back; but I'm afraid we have no excuse for remaining."
"You think you must go back, do you?" asked our friend. "I'm sorry you should have to do so, but if you must, why shouldn't we travel the first stage together? I start back to Santa Fé to-morrow, and from there home to Washington."
"You live in Washington, do you?" said Dick. "Then, why do you go round by way of Santa Fé? It would be much shorter to go to Mosby—and then we could ride all the way together."
"I wish I could, but I have to go the other way. I left my baggage there, for one thing; and besides that I have some inquiries to make there which my mother asked me to undertake."
Dick nodded. "And then you go straight back to Washington?" he asked.
"Yes. Then I must get straight back home as fast as I can and report to my father. I had two commissions to perform for him:—one was to look into the matter of this old mine; the other concerned the present condition of the Hermanos Grant. The first one I consider settled, but the other, I find, is a matter for the lawyers: it is too complicated a subject for me, a stranger in the land and a foreigner."
"A foreigner!" I cried. "Why, we supposed you were an American."
"No," said he. "I am a Spaniard."