overnor pleasantly, "do you expect me to do?"

"I thought, sah," Kid Wolf replied, "that yo' would let me return to
them with a company of yo' soldiers."

"My dear senor," the governor said with suave courtesy, "the people you
wish to rescue are not subjects of mine."

Kid Wolf tried not to show the irritation he felt. "Surely, sah, yo'
are humane enough to do this thing. I thought I told yo' theah's women
and children in the wagon train."

Quiroz rubbed his chin as if in thought. His eyes, however, seemed to
smolder with an emotion of which Kid Wolf could only guess the nature.
The Spaniard's face was that of a hypnotist, with its thin,
high-bridged nose and its chilling, penetrating gaze.

"Your name, senor?"

"Kid Wolf, from Texas, sah."

Spanish governors of that day had no reason to like gunmen from the
Lone Star State. From the time of Santa Anna, Texas fighters had been
thorns in their sides. But if Quiroz was thinking of this, he made no
sign. He smiled with pleasure, either real or assumed.

"That is good," he said. "Senor Wolf, to show your good faith, will
you be kind enough to lay your weapons on my desk? It is a custom here
not to come armed in the presence of the governor."

Suspicion began to burn strongly in the back of the Texan's brain. Was
Quiroz playing a crafty game? He was supposed to be friendly toward
those from the States, but once before, in California, Kid Wolf had had
dealings with a Spanish governor. Instantly he was on his guard,
although he did not allow his face to show it.

"I am an American, sah," he replied. "Some have called me a soldier of
misfohtune. Anyway, I try and do good. What good I have done fo' the
weak and oppressed, sah, I've done with these." The Kid tapped his
twin Colts and went on: "I've twelve lead aces heah, sah, and I'm not
in the habit of layin' 'em down."

"We're not playing cards, senor." Quiroz smiled pleasantly.

"No." Kid Wolf's quick smile flashed. "But if a game is stahted, I
want a hand to play with."

His eyes were fixed on the carved front of the governor's desk. There
seemed something strange about the carved design. He was seated
directly in front of it, in the chair Quiroz had pointed out to him,
and for the last few minutes he had wondered what it was that had
attracted his attention.

The desk was carved with a series of squares chiseled deep into the
dark wood. In one of the squares was a black circle about the