at Senor Zuloaga's.

CHAPTER XXX

THE DUEL

Upon our return to Walker's quarters, the Lieutenant, who had been
working hard all day, at once retired. I remained up long enough to load
my pistols, and write, first, a farewell letter to my lady, and second,
a note to my friend explaining that I was to start early on a coach ride
with Malgares. This I left with old Caesar, whom Walker had already
instructed to rouse us before dawn.

Faithful to orders, the old black had us out a good hour before sunrise,
and a biscuit and pot of chocolate ready for our refreshment. We dressed
and ate and made off, leaving Pike still fast asleep. Walker fetched his
horse from the stables in the rear of the courtyard, and conducted me as
far as the street. The expected coach was just wheeling into sight,
preceded by a pair of outriders with torches, for the night was as black
as Egypt.

At once Walker sprang into the saddle and rode off through the gloom to
join his principal, while I ran up to the coach and slipped in beside
Malgares. With that the gilded carriage swung about and rumbled off
along the first street which led northward. Having taken possession of
my pistols and loading outfit, Malgares asked if I had any word to be
given to Senorita Vallois, in the event of any misfortune. I handed him
the letter, with the request that it be returned to me if all went well.

"For her sake, you must see that it does go well!" he urged.

"It is for her I fight. In any event, I must have struck him for what he
said. For whether or not it is true General Wilkinson is or has been a
traitor, in the pay of your Government, Lieutenant Medina intended his
remark as a deliberate insult. But we are alike fully aware that it is
because of the senorita we now meet."

"God grant that for her sake you may win!--You will win, _amigo_!"
exclaimed my friend; and with that, to divert my thoughts, he fell to
chatting about various light subjects.

Presently the coach turned eastward, and, after a time, southward. The
gray dawn now broke the darkness, and the outriders, at an order from
our coach-man, flung down their torches and rode back into the city. The
ruddy gleams of the full dawn shot swiftly up the sky. Our driver put
the lash to his horses, and we spun along through a dense cloud of dust,
in a race with the sun.

Just as the upper rim of the blazing orb of day peered over the low
mountains to the eastward, the coach drew up beneath o