ert!--above all, over the Sangre de Cristo in midwinter!"

"It was the barrier which lay between myself and my lady, Your
Excellency."

"_Por Dios!_ You _Americanos!_ You will yet be flying to the moon!
Malgares told me fully of the perils of the desert, and he had six
hundred men, and it was in the pleasant season. But one man or a mere
handful, however brave--_Santisima Virgen!_"

"Malgares?" I repeated.

"Lieutenant Malgares, who led the expedition to the savages of the East
and North. On your way to Chihuahua you will have opportunity to learn
that he is a true _caballero_."

"Chihuahua?" I exclaimed. "Your Excellency will then permit me to go to
Chihuahua?"

"_Quien sabe?_" he smiled. "God alone knows the future! But I will send
despatches, and it may well happen that they will not be in disfavor of
your going. But as for the decision, that is with His Excellency, Don
Nimesio Salcedo, the Commandant-General."

A sudden thought aided me to rally from my disappointment.

"Your Excellency," I asked, "if I should seal and address one article
contained in my packet before your eyes, might I not ask the favor that
it be delivered at Chihuahua to the lady addressed?"

"_Santa Maria!_" he returned, "it is always a pleasure to aid a lover.
Come now! We will seal your message with my own seal. There are those
between us and your Dulcinea who might otherwise peer within the cover.
The address you shall write upon it in private with my own quill, and
none shall see the name of the senorita. She is not married?" (I signed
that she was not.) "None shall see her name except my messenger when he
opens the despatch-pouch for delivery at Chihuahua."

"_Muchas gracias_, Your Excellency!" I murmured, overcome.

"Ah! ah!" he murmured, leaning upon my bony shoulder as we started. "The
years pass, but I, too, once had my romance, senor!"

CHAPTER XXI

HO FOR CHIHUAHUA!

So it was that for the time being I found myself received into the
society of the most powerful official of the North Province with a favor
as cloudless and warm as the blue sky above his chief town. Yet, on the
other hand, having been requested by His Excellency to prescribe for the
dropsy with which he was afflicted, I laid myself open to trouble by
giving a treatment different from that previously prescribed by the monk
who was his regular physician. The result was soon evident in the
poisoning of His Excellency's mind against the heretic.

B