this heartless coquette?
"You are not very gallant," she said, with a slight laugh, as I was
hesitating, and turned away with her escort before I could frame a
reply. But at least Enriquez was now accessible, and I should gain some
information from him. I knew where to find him, unless he were still
lounging about the building, intent upon more extravagance; but I
waited until I saw Miss Mannersley and Briggs depart without further
interruption.

The hacienda of Ramon Saltillo, Enriquez' cousin, was on the outskirts
of the village. When I arrived there I found Enriquez' pinto mustang
steaming in the corral, and although I was momentarily delayed by the
servants at the gateway, I was surprised to find Enriquez himself lying
languidly on his back in a hammock in the patio. His arms were hanging
down listlessly on each side as if in the greatest prostration, yet I
could not resist the impression that the rascal had only just got into
the hammock when he heard of my arrival.

"You have arrived, friend Pancho, in time," he said, in accents of
exaggerated weakness. "I am absolutely exhaust. I am bursted, caved in,
kerflummoxed. I have behold you, my friend, at the barrier. I speak not,
I make no sign at the first, because I was on fire; I speak not at the
feenish--for I am exhaust."

"I see; the bull made it lively for you."

He instantly bounded up in the hammock. "The bull! Caramba! Not a
thousand bulls! And thees one, look you, was a craven. I snap my fingers
over his horn; I roll my cigarette under his nose."

"Well, then--what was it?"

He instantly lay down again, pulling up the sides of the hammock.
Presently his voice came from its depths, appealing in hollow tones to
the sky. "He asks me--thees friend of my soul, thees brother of my life,
thees Pancho that I lofe--what it was? He would that I should tell him
why I am game in the legs, why I shake in the hand, crack in the voice,
and am generally wipe out! And yet he, my pardner--thees Francisco--know
that I have seen the mees from Boston! That I have gaze into the eye,
touch the hand, and for the instant possess the picture that hand have
drawn! It was a sublime picture, Pancho," he said, sitting up again
suddenly, "and have kill the bull before our friend Pepe's sword have
touch even the bone of hees back and make feenish of him."

"Look here, Enriquez," I said bluntly, "have you been serenading that
girl?"

He shrugged his shoulders without the least emba