ht heart, and took
up his abode within half a dozen doors of the alley. That was but a
short time before the christening at Malpete's. There their paths
crossed each other for the first time since his flight.

She met him with a smile on her lips, but with hate in her heart. He,
manlike, saw only the smile. The men smoking and drinking in the court
watched them speak apart, saw him, with the laugh that sat so lightly
upon his lips, turn to his wife, sitting by the hydrant with the
child, and heard him say, "Look, Carmen! our baby!"

The woman bent over it, and, as she did, the little one woke suddenly
out of its sleep and cried out in affright. It was noticed that Carmen
smiled again then, and that the young mother shivered, why she herself
could not have told. Francisco, joining the group at the farther end
of the yard, said carelessly that Carmen had forgotten. They poked fun
at him and spoke her name loudly, with laughter.

From the tenement, as they did, came Luigi and asked threateningly who
insulted his wife. They only laughed the more, said he had drunk too
much wine, and shouldering him out, bade him go look to his woman. He
went. Carmen had witnessed it all from the house. She called him a
coward and goaded him with bitter taunts until mad with anger and
drink he went out in the court once more and shook his fist in the
face of Francisco. They hailed his return with bantering words. Luigi
was spoiling for a fight they laughed, and would find one before the
day was much older. But suddenly silence fell upon the group. Carmen
stood on the step, pale and cold. She hid something under her apron.

"Luigi!" she called, and he came to her. She drew from under the
apron a cocked pistol, and, pointing to Francisco, pushed it into his
hand. At the sight the alley was cleared as suddenly as if a tornado
had swept through it. Malpete's guests leaped over fences, dived into
cellar-ways anywhere for shelter. The door of the woodshed slammed
behind Francisco just as his old rival reached it. The maddened man
tore it open and dragged him out by the throat. He pinned him against
the fence, and levelled the pistol with frenzied curses. They died on
his lips. The face that was turning livid in his grasp was the face of
his boyhood's friend. They had gone to school together, danced
together at the fairs in the old days. They had been friends--till
Carmen came. The muzzle of the weapon fell.

"Shoot!" said a hard voice behind