religion," thought Ned. "I'm
glad that Cortes and his men in armor came to put an end to it. Senora
Paez told me that in only a few years before he came, and her
great-grandfather and his father with him, those priests cut up more
than twenty thousand men, women, and children. He's a curious kind of
god, I should say, to sit there and grin while it was going on."

He could not linger too long over one picture, however, for he had
discovered that there were others in that volume which were as
brilliantly colored and as interesting. On the whole, it was not
necessary to hunt for anything better than this the first evening, and
it appeared as if he were asking a useless question of the steel-clad
warrior in the corner, when at last he turned to him to say:

"Did you ever see anything like this before? I never did. Were you
there, in any of these battles? This is the way that Cortes and his
cavalry scared the Indians, is it? They were awfully afraid of horses.
You can buy horses for almost nothing, nowadays, anywhere in Mexico.
I've learned how to ride 'em, too, but didn't I get pitched off by some
of those ponies! It would have scared mother half to death. I wish I
could see her to-night, and show her some of these pictures. I'd like to
see Bob and the girls, too. They never saw a book like this."

He had examined a number of the pictures, and the lamp was burning
fairly well, but a long time had elapsed since he came into that room,
and he was not at all aware of it.

"Senor Carfora?" called out a voice in the doorway. "Oh, you are here.
You did light the lamp. I was almost afraid you were in the dark."

"No, I'm not," said Ned. "I made it burn, and I've been looking at all
sorts of things. These pictures are just wonderful."

"Oh!" she said, "I would not be in this room in the dark for anything! I
know all those things in that book, though. They are hideous! But they
say that that suit of armor has the worst kind of ghost in it."

"Maybe it has," said Ned. "I don't believe he can get out, anyhow. He's
just stuck in it. I'd rather wear the clothes I have on."

"Well," she replied, "mother sent me to find if you were here, and it
is dreadfully late--"

"Oh, yes!" interrupted Ned. "I suppose it is time for me to go to bed.
I'll go, but I mean to see all there is in this library, senorita. I
won't try to read it all. I don't care for ghosts, but I'd like to see
one."

"I do not care for them in the daytime, eithe