cher
smiled to show that he could still do so, but did not say, as he might
have said, that self-control, suppressed resentment, disappointment, and
occasional hunger had done something in the way of correcting Nature's
obvious mistakes, and shutting up a kindly mouth. He only took off his
threadbare coat, rolled up his sleeves, and saying, "We've got lots of
work and some fighting before us," pitched into the "affairs" of the
"Blue Mass Company" on the instant.

CHAPTER VIII

OF COUNSEL FOR IT

Meanwhile Roscommon had waited. Then, in Garcia's name, and backed
by him, he laid his case before the Land Commissioner, filing the
application (with forged indorsements) to Governor Micheltorena, and
alleging that the original grant was destroyed by fire. And why?

It seemed there was a limit to Miss Carmen's imitative talent. Admirable
as it was, it did not reach to the reproduction of that official seal,
which would have been a necessary appendage to the Governor's grant. But
there were letters written on stamped paper by Governor Micheltorena
to himself, Garcia, and to Miguel, and to Manuel's father, all of
which were duly signed by the sign manual and rubric of
Mrs.-Governor-Micheltorena-Carmen-de-Haro. And then there was "parol"
evidence, and plenty of it; witnesses who remembered everything about
it,--namely, Manuel, Miguel, and the all-recollecting De Haro; here were
details, poetical and suggestive; and Dame-Quicklyish, as when his late
Excellency, sitting not "by a sea-coal fire," but with aguardiente and
cigarros, had sworn to him, the ex-ecclesiastic Miguel, that he
should grant, and had granted, Garcia's request. There were clouds of
witnesses, conversations, letters, and records, glib and pat to the
occasion. In brief, there was nothing wanted but the seal of his
Excellency. The only copy of that was in the possession of a rival
school of renaissant art and the restoration of antiques, then doing
business before the Land Commission.

And yet the claim was rejected! Having lately recommended two separate
claimants to a patent for the same land, the Land Commission became
cautious and conservative.

Roscommon was at first astounded, then indignant, and then warlike,--he
was for an "appale to onst!"

With the reader's previous knowledge of Roscommon's disposition this
may seem somewhat inconsistent; but there are certain natures to whom
litigation has all the excitement of gambling, and it should be born