begin to flow." And here the
hammock, with a final convulsion, gave birth to a beautiful young woman,
in a diaphanous silk dress and a white lace mantilla. She crossed the
veranda, and seated herself on the broad arm of her father's chair.

"Why, that's important!" said the general, arching his brows. "I wonder
if Kamaiakan is one of those who know the place? If so, it might be
worth his while to let me into the secret."

"Oh, you couldn't go there! It's enchanted, and people who go near it
die. There are bones all about there, now."

"This Kamaiakan appears to be a remarkable personage: where did you pick
him up?" inquired the professor.

"It was rather the other way," Trednoke replied, taking one of his
daughter's hands in his, and caressing it. "We are appendages to
Kamaiakan. You look so natural, sitting there, Meschines, that I forget
it's thirty years since we met, and that all the significant events of
my life have happened in that time,--the Mexican war, my marriage, and
the rest of it! I have been a widower ten years."

"And I've been a bachelor for over sixty!" said Meschines, with a queer
expression. "Your wife was Spanish, was she not?"

"Her father was a Mexican of Andalusian descent. But her mother was
descended from the race of Azatlan: there are records and relics
indicating that her ancestors were princes in Tenochtitlan before Cortez
made trouble there."

"And I've been losing my heart to a princess, and never realized my
audacity!" exclaimed the professor, laying his hand on his waistcoat and
making an obeisance to Miriam.

She tossed her free foot, and played with the fringe of her reboso.

"I will tell my maid to look for it," she said; "but I think you must
have left it in papa's curiosity-room."

"No: I'm an Aztec sacrifice!" cried the professor; and they all
laughed. "One would hardly have anticipated," he resumed after a pause,
addressing Trednoke, "that you would have made a double conquest,--first
of the men, and then of the woman!"

"The woman conquered me, without trying or wishing to, and then, because
she was a woman, took compassion on me. Whether my country has benefited
much by the Mexican annexation, I can't say; but I know Inez--made a
heaven on earth for me," concluded the general, in a low voice. His
countenance, at this moment, wore a solemn and humble expression,
beautiful to see; and Miriam bent and laid her cheek against his.
Meschines knocked the ashes out of his p