yes were set close to his fine Roman nose. The mouth was so
tightly compressed that its original curves were quite destroyed, and
the intellectual development of the brow was very marked. His hands
exerted a peculiar fascination over Roldan. They were of huge size,
even for so big a man, lean and knotted, with square-tipped fingers.
The skin on them was fine and brown; it looked as soft as a woman's. He
used them a good deal when talking, and not ungracefully; but they
seemed to claw and grasp the air, to be independent of the arms hidden
in the voluminous sleeves of the smart brown cassock. Other people
watched those hands too--they seemed to possess a magnetism of their
own; and every one showed this priest great deference: he was one of
the most successful disciplinarians in the Department of California, a
brilliant speaker, an able adviser in matters of state, and a man of
many social graces.

"More agreeable to meet in the sala of the Mission than in a cave at
midnight," thought Roldan. "Still--" His scent for danger, particularly
if it involved a matching of wits, was very keen.

The word was given. The race began. The dons shouted, the lovely faces
between the bright folds of the rebosos flushed expectantly. From the
black mass of Indians opposite came a mighty gurgle, which gradually
broke into a roar,--

"The black! Fifty hides on the black!"

"The little bronze! She is a length ahead! Madre de dios! Six doubloons
of Mexico on the little bronze!"

The priest pushed his way to the speaker, a wealthy ranchero who had
been more than once to Mexico.

"The white against the bronze, senor," he said. "Twenty otter skins to
the six doubloons of Mexico."

"Done, your reverence. I am honoured that you bet with me. But the
white--have you thought well, my father?"

"She breathes well, and her legs are very clean."

"True, my father, but look at the muscles of the little bronze. How
they swell! And the fire in the nostrils!"

"True, Don Jaime; and if she wins, the skins are yours."

As the horses darted down the track almost neck to neck, the excitement
routed Spanish dignity. The dons stood up in their saddles, shouting
and betting furiously. The women clapped their white idle hands, and
cheered, and bet--but with less recklessness: a small jewel or a
second-best mantilla. As they could not remember what they had bet when
the excitement was over, these debts were never paid; but it pleased
them mightily to m