leadership has fallen to my friend Lieutenant Pike, I have nothing to
ask of you."

"You will remain in Natchez a day or two?" he inquired.

"I cannot say."

"It might prove to your interest to delay over. I may again send for
you, notwithstanding your reluctance to receive other favors than the
one I cannot grant."

I bowed and withdrew, leaving him in the act of pouring a third drink of
whiskey.

CHAPTER XII

AU REVOIR

It was not with a light heart that I returned to Mickie's Hotel. I had
made my cast, and fortune was against me. In the afternoon I had left
Alisanda smiling down upon me from the balcony of her inn window; I was
returning at nightfall to meet--Senorita Vallois. Though to the last she
and Don Pedro might hold to the familiar "Juan," how little might even
her smiles lighten the shadow of a hopeless parting!

As I entered the inn door, Mickie bustled forward to inform me, with an
air of vast importance, that at the request of the Spanish grandee, he
had arranged to serve the evening meal to the senor's party above
stairs. When he added that a plate was to be laid for myself, I hastened
to my own room for a change of linen.

My heart was too heavy for me to linger over foppish details of dress.
It was not long before I found myself at the door of the room set apart
for the private dining-parlor. Chita, who was overlooking the spreading
of the cloth by the negro attendants of the inn, conducted me through to
the balcony, where I found the don indolently puffing at his _cigarro_.

Before I could take the seat to which he waved me, Alisanda floated out
into the moonlight from the window behind him. She was a vision all
heavenly white but for her scarlet lips and sombre eyes and brows. Even
the soft tresses of her hair were hidden beneath the gauzy white drape
of tulle and lace which took the place of her black mantilla.

"_Buenas noches_, Juan," she greeted me, in a tone of liquid silver.

"God be with you, Alisanda!" I responded.

"Be seated, _amigo_," urged Don Pedro. "You have a weary look."

"I bring what to me is heavy news," I replied.

"You had in mind to ask a favor of General Wilkinson," said Alisanda.
"You have asked the favor, and--he has refused it?"

The note of sympathy in her voice soothed my despairing anger. I did not
stop to wonder at the intuition by which she had divined the object of
my visit to the General. It was enough for me that she had perceived my
heav