N.) Admit Mr. Capper. [Exit
JACKSON.

Don Jose (rising with dignity). This is an insult, Don Alexandro.

Old Morton. You are wrong, Mr. Castro: it is BUSINESS; sought, I
believe, by yourself. Now that it is transacted, I beg you to dine with
me to-morrow to meet my niece. No offence, sir, no offence. Come, come!
Business, you know, business.

Don Jose (relaxing). Be it so! I will come. (Aside.) These Americanos,
these Americanos, are of the Devil! (Aloud.) Adios. (Going.) I hear,
by report, that you have met with the misfortune of a serious loss by
robbery?

Old Morton (aside). So our mishap is known everywhere. (Aloud.) No
serious misfortune, Mr. Castro, even if we do not recover the money.
Adios.

[Exit Don Jose.

Old Morton. The stiff-necked Papist! That he should dare, for the sake
of his black-browed, froward daughter, to--question the faith on which
I have pinned my future! Well, with God's blessing, I gave him some
wholesome discipline. If it were not for my covenant with Alexander--and
nobly he has fulfilled his part,--I should forbid his alliance with the
blood of this spying Jesuit.

Enter Mr. JACKSON, leading in CAPPER.

Jackson. Policeman, sir. [Exit.

Capper (turning sharply). Who's that man?

Old Morton. Jackson, clerk.

Capper. Umph! Been here long?

Old Morton. A year. He was appointed by my son.

Capper. Know anything of his previous life?

Old Morton (stiffly). I have already told you he is an appointee of my
son's.

Capper. Yes! (Aside.) "Like master, like man." (Aloud.) Well,
to business. We have worked up the robbery. We have reached two
conclusions,--one, that the work was not done by professionals; the
other, consequent upon this, that you can't recover the money.

Old Morton. Excuse me, sir, but I do not see the last conclusion.

Capper. Then listen. The professional thief has only one or two ways of
disposing of his plunder, and these ways are always well known to us.
Good! Your stolen coin has not been disposed of in the regular way,
through the usual hands which we could at any time seize. Of this we are
satisfied.

Old Morton. How do you know it?

Capper. In this way. The only clew we have to the identification of the
missing money were two boxes of Mexican doubloons.

Old Morton (aside). Mr. Castro's special deposit! He may have reason for
his interest. (Aloud.) Go on.

Capper. It is a coin rare in circulation in the interior. The night
after the robbery, the de