she called my gallantry;
and I was so taken up by her words that I hardly noticed the scowl
Garcia gave as he came in. In fact, just then my heart felt so large
that in my joy I could have shaken hands with him so warmly that I
should have made the bones of that fishy fin of his crack again.

But there was no handshaking: Garcia walking to the window and lighting
a cigar, while Lilla hurried from the room, as was now her custom when
Garcia came.

The first flush of joy passed and I was alone with the half-breed, to
feel how impossible any friendly feeling was between us; and seeing that
he was disposed to do nothing but stare at me in a half-sneering,
half-scowling fashion, I strolled out, paying no heed to the burning sun
as I made for the woods, where the trees screened me; and then on and on
I went, mile after mile, through the hot steamy twilight, amidst giants
of vegetation hoary with moss. Beast or reptile, harmless or noxious,
troubled me little now, for I was in pursuit of the golden idol of my
thoughts, winning it from its concealment, and then, with everything
around gilded by its lustre, living in a future that was all happiness
and joy.

But I was not always dreaming. At times I searched eagerly in places
that I thought likely to be the homes of buried Peruvian treasure;
without avail, though, for I had no guide--nothing but tradition and the
misty phantoms of bygone readings.

To the people at the hacienda my wanderings must have seemed absurd, for
though I took my gun I never brought anything back. This day game was
in abundance, but I did not heed it--only wandered on till I came to a
rugged part of the forest far up the mountain-side, and seated myself on
a lump of moss-grown rock in a gloomy, shady spot, tired and discouraged
by the thought that I was pursuing a phantom.

What should I do, then? I asked myself. Go, as my uncle advised, to
Texas? That meant separation; and yet I knew that I could not stay,
and, in spite of all my golden hopes, the future looked very black to
me. I kept putting it off, but it would come. I must look the
difficulty in the face--the end must arrive; and I laughed bitterly as I
thought of my prospect--even if such treasures as I had heard of did
exist--of finding either of them in the vast wilds spread for hundreds
of miles around.

My meditations were interrupted by the sharp crackle made by a dry twig
trampled upon by a foot; there was a rustling noise clos