iness, and held out to me her sympathy.

"It is true," I said, and in a few words I told them of my shattered
plans,--how I had hoped to gain fame by leading an expedition of
exploration to the West, as Lewis and Clark were exploring the
Northwest, and as my friend Pike had explored the headwaters of the
Mississippi; and how the statements of Colonel Burr had led me to hope
for still greater fame as a sharer in the freeing of Mexico.

Don Pedro leaned toward me, his eyes glowing with friendly fire. "_Por
Dios!_ Your one thought was to help us break the yoke! You would give
your life for the winning of liberty!"

I looked across at Alisanda, and the soft loveliness of her beauty in
the moonlight filled me to overflowing with the bitterness of my blasted
hopes.

"Do not think me so noble!" I replied. "I thought to fight for the
freedom of your country, but it was in hope of a reward a thousandfold
greater than my service!"

Alisanda raised her fan and gazed at me above its fluted edge with
widened eyes,--I feared in resentful wonder at my audacity. But Don
Pedro was too intent upon his own thoughts to perceive the meaning of my
words.

"_Por Dios!_" he protested. "Those who have risen against Spanish
oppression have ever met with short shrift. Shall not they who brave
death in our cause look for glorious reward in the hour of victory?"

"That is true of those who may be blessed with the chance to join your
ranks. As for me, the opportunity which I had thought to be golden has
turned to ashes in my grasp."

"_Sabe Dios!_" murmured Alisanda in so soft a tone that the words came
to me like a whisper of the evening breeze. Was it possible that after
all I still had cause for hope?

Chita's voice, drawling the usual Spanish phrase, summoned us to the
table. We rose, and Alisanda accepted my arm with a queenly
graciousness of manner which in the same moment thrilled and
disheartened me. I read it to mean that she was in a kindly mood, but
that the kindliness was due to the condescension of Senorita Vallois,
and not to the frank companionship of my fellow-traveller Alisanda. This
surmise was borne out by her manner at table, where she rallied her
uncle and myself upon our gravity, and with subtle skill, confined the
talk to the lightest of topics. The Don was as abstemious as most of his
countrymen, and Mickie's wine was a libel on the name, yet he soon
mellowed to the gay chit-chat of his niece.

It was beyond me t