e returned, with the loyalty of a true gentleman.

"I trust soon to repeat that last to your senora!" I exclaimed. "She was
the one to whom you called."

He bowed in confirmation of my surmise. "It is the house of Senor
Vallois. That other was Senora Marguerite Vallois, his wife. The house
of my wife's father is on the cross-street. She came to the house of her
friends to see me pass, for she knew I could not turn out of my direct
way to the _palacio_."

"What! Not a few moments to greet your lady after an absence of almost a
year?" I cried.

"This is not a free republic as is your country. Our ruler--" He checked
himself, and looked from me to Pike with an anxious glance. "Friends, I
have not darkened your journey with sombre anticipations. But now is the
time for warning. Do not be surprised if a few hours hence you find
yourselves in the _calabozo_."

"No!" said Pike, without raising his voice, but speaking in a tone of
indomitable resolution. "Your people may kill us, Don Faciendo, but they
shall neither disarm nor imprison us so long as there is breath left in
our bodies. My men have their orders."

Malgares shook his head sadly. "You free-born _Americanos_! You do not
yet know what it means to stand before a despot!" He glanced back over
his shoulder as if fearful of being overheard. The nearest of the escort
was beyond earshot. He drew in a deep breath, and murmured bitterly:
"You see what it means. I am not accounted a coward, yet I turn cold at
the very thought of the man who can dishonor me."

"Dishonor!" I repeated.

"Death is a little thing! But who does not fear a life--or death--of
disgrace?"

Our looks assured him of our sympathy. We came into the _alamo_, or
shaded ride, through the plaza. He pointed across at the fort-like mass
of the Governor's residence. "There lies the fate of all the Northern
Provinces, from the borders of Louisiana Territory to the Pacific, in
the grasp of one man!"

"You have an appeal to His Catholic Majesty," remarked Pike.

Malgares shrugged his shoulders in the manner of a Frenchman, a
gesture of which we would have considered his haughty pride incapable.
"It is a long journey to Old Spain to one who would oppose the
Commandant-General, and a far longer journey through the Court to the
Hall of Justice. No, _amigos_. Be advised. Discretion is sometimes the
better part of valor. Diplomacy wins many victories beyond reach of the
sword."

"You have our thanks, Don