n undiminished audacity.

It was on his second visit that the sceptical, non-committal policy of
Senor Mateo was sorely tried. Arriving at the posada one night, Ezekiel
became aware that his host was engaged in some mysterious conference
with a visitor who had entered through the ordinary public room. The
view which the acute Ezekiel managed to get of the stranger, however,
was productive of no further discovery than that he bore a faint
and disreputable resemblance to Blandford, and was handsome after a
conscious, reckless fashion, with an air of mingled bravado and conceit.
But an hour later, as Corwin was taking the cooler air of the veranda
before retiring to one of the miraculous beds of the posada, he was
amazed at seeing what was apparently Blandford himself emerge on
horseback from the alley, and after a quick glance towards the veranda,
canter rapidly up the street. Ezekiel's first impression was to call to
him, but the sudden recollection that he parted from his old master on
confidential terms only three days before in San Francisco, and that it
was impossible for him to be in the pueblo, stopped him with his fingers
meditatively in his beard. Then he turned in to the posada, and hastily
summoned Mateo.

The gentleman presented himself in a state of such profound scepticism
that it seemed to have already communicated itself to his shoulders, and
gave him the appearance of having shrugged himself into the room.

"Ha'ow long ago did Mr. Johnson get here?" asked Corwin, lazily.

"Ah--possibly--then there has been a Mr. Johnson?" This is a polite
doubt of his own perceptions and a courteous acceptance of his
questioner's.

"Wa'al, I guess so. Considerin' I jest saw him with my own eyes,"
returned Ezekiel.

"Ah!" Mateo was relieved. Might he congratulate the Senor Corwin, who
must be also relieved, and shake his respected hand. Bueno. And then he
had met this Senor Johnson? doubtless a friend? And he was well? and all
were happy?

"Look yer, Mattayo! What I wanter know ez THIS. When did that man, who
has just ridden out of your alley, come here? Sabe that--it's a plain
question."

Ah surely, of the clearest comprehension. Bueno. It may have been last
week--or even this week--or perhaps yesterday--or of a possibility
to-day. The Senor Corwin, who was wise and omniscient, would comprehend
that the difficulty lay in deciding WHO was that man. Perhaps a friend
of the Senor Corwin--perhaps only one who LOOKED