rned to Dolores to find that good woman wearing an
expression of stupefaction. It was very queer; it made Alaire extremely
ill at ease.

Longorio opened his eyes and smiled. "It seems that I have seen you
before--as if we were old friends--or as if I had come face to face
with myself," said he. "I am affected strangely. It is unaccountable. I
know you well--completely--everything about you is familiar to me, and
yet we meet for the first time, eh? How do you explain that, unless a
miracle--"

"It is merely your imagination."

"Such beauty--here among these common people! I was unprepared."
Longorio passed a brown hand across his brow to brush away those
perverse fancies that so interfered with his thoughts.

In moments of stress the attention often centers upon trivial things
and the mind photographs unimportant objects. Alaire noticed now that
one of Longorio's fingers was decorated with a magnificent
diamond-and-ruby ring, and this interested her queerly. No ordinary man
could fittingly have worn such an ornament, yet on the hand of this
splendid barbarian it seemed not at all out of keeping.

"Dios! Let me take hold of myself, for my wits are in mutiny," Longorio
continued. Then he added, more quietly: "I need not assure you, senora,
that you have only to command me. Your ranch has been destroyed; your
cattle stolen, eh?"

"Yes. At least--"

"We will shoot the perpetrators of this outrage at once. Bueno! Come
with me and you shall see it with your own eyes."

"No, no! You don't understand."

"So? What then?"

"I don't want to see any one punished. I merely want your government to
pay me for my cattle." Alaire laughed nervously.

"Ah! But a lady of refinement should not discuss such a miserable
business. It is a matter for men. Bother your pretty head no more about
it, and leave me to punish the guilty in my own way."

She endeavored to speak in a brisk, business-like tone. "La Feria
belongs to me, personally, and I have managed it for several years,
just as I manage Las Palmas, across the river. I am a woman of affairs,
General Longorio, and you must talk to me as you would talk to a man.
When I heard about this raid I came to look into it--to see you, or
whoever is in charge of this district, and to make a claim for damages.
Also, I intend to see that nothing similar occurs again. I have delayed
making representations to my own government in the hope that I could
arrange a satisfactory settlement, an