ce that night and
wore evening clothes. He went directly to the Cameron building from
the restaurant, using a taxicab and speaking both French and Spanish,
as well as English, to the driver. He is a good dresser, and
ordinarily a discreet man, yet he left a schedule of firearms in the
Cameron suite when he left. He should have taken that with him."

Frank eyed his companion curiously, his face eager in the moonlight,
his right hand rubbing his forehead, as if trying to scour away the
cobwebs.

"Quit your kidding," he said.

"It is only a question of observation and inquiry," laughed Nestor.
"There is no Sherlock Holmes business about it."

"And you think this man in evening dress will come down here and mix
with these ragged bums?"

"I think he will come down here," was the reply.

Frank watched the small camp-fire below, just touching with red light
the tents Nestor had so successfully entered a short time before. The
logic of the case seemed to be sound enough. Any one of the three men
might have committed the crime with which Fremont was charged.

Two of the three were sleeping in that tent, while the third one was
expected. What connection could there be between the man in evening
dress and the sullen Scoby and the villainous Felix? What significance
could there be in the schedule of firearms he had left in the suite?

How were the attack on Cameron, the matter of the hidden mine, and the
matter of international importance associated together? These questions
and many others presented themselves to the boy as he watched the fire
die out and waited for Nestor to go on.

"This third man is a diplomat, is he?" he finally asked. "Does that
mean that he is in the diplomatic service of some government, and that
he is acting here in that capacity?"

"Something like that," was the reply, "though it might be difficult to
get any government to father the mission he is really on. He claims, I
understand, to be acting for a junta. At least, he has not brought any
government into the affair so far, that I know of."

"Well, what does he want?"

"His benevolent purpose is to bring on a war between Mexico and the
United States," was the astonishing reply.

"I don't think he's next to his job as a statesman, then," observed
Frank, "unless he wants to see Mexico cleaned out."

"However that may be, he believes that a raid on Texas soil from this
side of the river would provoke our government to an invasion,