he change in his tone. "_Madre de
Dios!_ You would go to Chihuahua?"

"No offence to Your Excellency," I hastened to protest, affecting to
believe him alarmed for himself. "It may well be that your authority is
so limited that you cannot satisfy my claim. My complaint against your
refusal will be purely formal. In truth, I prefer to have the decision
of the Governor-General, if only to obtain a precedent in the
adjudication of similar claims which may be presented in other provinces
under his rule."

"_Por Dios!_ You wish to go to Chihuahua!" he repeated. I believe he
would have been less amazed had I urged him to let me go to the gallows.
"To Chihuahua! to Salcedo!" he murmured.

"Why not, Your Excellency?" I inquired.

His sallow cheeks darkened with a sudden return of his suspicions, and
he sought to transfix me with his glance.

"_Caramba!_" he muttered. "Tell me clearly how you came across all that
vast desert. You came from the northward. Did you then cross the
mountains?"

I described briefly that terrible march south and west from the Grand
Peak. He listened with growing wonderment.

"_Poder de Dios!_ It is impossible!" he cried. "Malgares has told me of
that gigantic peak and the sierra you crossed. It is not possible! The
Sangre de Cristo, and in midwinter--afoot!"

"Yet it is true, Your Excellency."

Again his eye sought to pierce me with its suspicious stare.

"Your party?" he demanded. "You have spoken of hunters. Who are
they?--and where?"

Having now some of the details of Pursley's adventures to copy, I told a
connected tale of having accompanied some Osages from St. Louis to the
Pawnee country, in search of the recreant Le Lande, when, learning of
his flight to New Mexico, I had wandered westward with a small party of
hunters to the Grand Peak and then southwest over the mountains, until
we came to what was supposed to be the Red River, where my companions
had stopped to hunt.

At the end of my recital, he sat for some moments studying me. Then,
with a most disconcerting suddenness: "Senor, you will honor me with
your presence at table."

He rose at the words, and leaving all the others gaping, conducted me
down a corridor to his dining-room. It was now high noon, and we found
the table already spread for the midday meal, which is the principal
repast of the day among the Spaniards in Mexico.

A plate was laid for myself opposite His Excellency's, and we sat down
in civilized fashion