a nice game on you.' I thereupon furnished
him with a brief outline of the intended amusement.

"As I proceeded I noticed the same look on his face that I had observed
on a previous occasion. Had the jokers seen it, I fancy they would have
treated him with more respect than they had hitherto done.

"'It was certainly good for me that you were there,' he replied, 'and I
am very grateful to you, Senor, for the service you have rendered me.'

"After that he went to a corner of his hut, and having fumbled about for
some time, produced a small leather bag. Taking his place once more on
the log beside me, he unlaced the bag, and tilted half a dozen
medium-sized stones into the palm of his hand. If the others he carried
about with him, and of which he appeared to be proud, were only
glittering pebbles, these were undoubtedly diamonds. Possibly they were
not as valuable as he supposed, but, at any rate, they were worth quite
enough to show me that what I had suspected was correct, namely, that
his supposed ignorance was only a blind to cover his real cleverness.
'If the Senor will honour me by accepting one of these stones, he will
add to the debt I already owe him,' he observed with a certain quiet
dignity. 'It may remind him, in days to come, of his kindness to an old
man who had no sort of claim upon him.'

"But I was not to be caught napping. The old fellow wanted me to believe
that these few stones were the collection of a lifetime, stored as a
provision against a rainy day. I knew better, however. My common sense
told me that he wouldn't have been so ready to give them away if they
had been the sole result of so much misery and toil. I accordingly
declined his generous offer, taking a high hand, and stating that I had
no desire to be paid for doing what was, after all, only a friendly act.
The old fellow pretended to be hurt by my decision, and stowed the
diamonds away once more in their hiding-place. Well, to make a long
story short, I kept in close touch with him for the next fortnight. The
practical jokers in the neighbourhood had had a lesson, and, seeing that
I had constituted myself his protector, they left him severely alone.
Presently I saw that he was contemplating some important step. A couple
of fresh mules had made their appearance in his _corral_, and there were
evident signs in the hut itself that he intended clearing out. I
wondered what this could mean, and, since he had said nothing to me on
the subjec