''Do you think her pretty?'
''Pretty! Holy Virgin! she is lovely enough to make a man risk his salvation to win her.'
'Feeling that my presence might be one of those superfluities with which they would gratefully dispense, I was on the point of leaving, when there was a knock at the door. Again Adéle sought refuge in my room, and again Arthur advanced to the door:
''Open, it is I,' said a voice from the outside; 'I have come to inquire after my friend Pepito.'
''Señor,' exclaimed Pepito, 'that must be my compadre, Pedro.'
'On the door being opened, they flew to one another's arms, and gave a true Mexican embrace.
'The entrance of Pedro, which evidently annoyed Mr. Livermore, awakened in my mind strange suspicions. I resolved at the earliest opportunity I had of a private interview with him, to allude to what I had overheard on the Alameda. In the mean time I would keep an eye on these two cronies.
''Stand back, Pedro, and let me have a good look at you.'
''There! well, how do you think I look?'
''My dear fellow, you are growing decidedly coarse and fat.'
''Bah! but how do you like my new rig?'
''I can not admire the cut; but, of course, you bought them ready-madeone could see that with half an eye.'
''Well, Pepito, now that you are once more back in the city, I lack nothing to make me perfectly happy. You will spend the rest of the day with me?'
''Of course, my dear fellow.'
''Well, it is about dinner-time; let us be off.'
''Wait till I have first bid adieu to his excellency,' replied Pepito, turning toward Mr. Livermore. Then advancing a few steps, he whispered a few words to him, at the same time bowing very low. Arthur unlocked the drawer of his table and took out a roll of dollars, which he handed to the Mexican.
''Must you absolutely leave me so soon?' said he.
''Well, Caballero, after so long a journey, a man requires relaxation, and enjoys a social glass; so, with your permission, I will see you again to-morrow.'
'This answer was any thing but pleasing to Mr. Livermore, who turned to me, and addressing me in English, said:
''My dear sir, once more I must trespass on your good-nature. It is essential to the success of my plans, that these two men should not be left together. Will you, can you, tack yourself on to them, and keep close to Pepito until they separate?'
''Your request is as strange as it is difficult of execution; but I will do my best.'
''Gentlemen,' said I, to the two Mexicans, as we all three were going down the stairs, 'you were speaking of diningnow I want to visit a real Mexican fonda; I am tired of these French cafés; will you favor me by taking me to a first-rate house, for I am not acquainted with this city.'
''If you will accompany us to the Fonda Genovesa, Caballero,' said Pedro, 'I will warrant you will have no cause to repent it.'
''I am infinitely indebted to you, and shall gladly accept your guidance.'
'The Fonda Genovesa was certainly one of the vilest establishments I ever visited, and the dinner was, of course, detestably bad. However, I treated my two worthies to a couple of bottles of wine, which being to them a rare luxury, they declared they had fared sumptuously.
''But, look here, Pepito,' said Pedro, 'you have not yet alluded to your journey. Where have you been all this time?'
''Where have I been? Oh! well, that is a secret.'
''A secret! what, from me, from your compadre Pedro?'
''Even so, my dear Pedro, even so; I have sworn not to mention the object of my journey nor my destination.'
''Oh! I dare say; but look here, what did you swear bythe holy Virgin of Guadalupe? No? Well, was it the cross?'
''No, neither by the one nor the other.'
''What is there binding, then? nothing else ought to keep you silent when I am in question?'
''I pledged my sacred honor.'
''Your sacred honor! Give me your hand, you always were a wag, but you humbugged me this time, I confess; well, that is a good onethe best joke I have heard for an ageexcellent! well, go on, I am all attention, all ears.'
''Well, you won't hear much, for I am a man of honor, and bound not to speak; besides, I received a hundred dollars to keep mum.'
'Pedro for a moment appeared to be in a brown study; at last, gazing hard at his friend, he said:
''Would two hundred tempt you to speak?'
''If such a proposition were to come from a stranger, I might, perchance, accept it; but seeing it comes from younever.'
''Why?'
''Because, when you offer me two hundred dollars for any thing, it must be worth far more than you offer.'
''Well, now, admit, just as a supposition, that I am interested in this matter, what harm will it do you, if we both turn an honest penny?'
''That is just the point; but I don't want you to turn ten pennies to my one.'
''Your scruples, my dear Pepito, display a cautious temperament, and evince deep acquaintance with human nature; you see through my little veil of mystery, and I own your sagacity; now I will be honest with youwith a man like you, lying is mere folly. It is true, I am to have four hundred dollars if I can find out where you have been. I swear to you by the holy Virgin of Guadalupe, I am making a clean breast of it. Now, will you take that amount? Say the word, and I will go and fetch it right away.'
'This proposition seemed to embarrass the scrupulous Pepito extremely, and he remained some time lost in thought.
''But, if you only receive four hundred, and give me four hundred, what the deuce will you make out of such an operation?'
''Trust entirely to your generosity.'
''What! leave me to do what I like! I take you upby Jupiter! Pedro, that is a noble trait in your characterI take you up.'
''Then it is a bargain. Will you wait here for me, or would you prefer to meet me at our usual Monte in the Calle de los Meradores?'
''I prefer the Monte.'
''You will swear on the cross, to relate fully and truly every particular relating to your journey?'
''Of courseevery thing.'
''I will be there in a couple of hours.'
'After his friend's departure, Pepito sat silent; his brow was knit, and yet a mocking sneer played around his lips; he seemed to be pursuing two trains of thought at once; suspicion and merriment were clearly working in his mind.
''This is a droll affair, Caballero; I can't clearly see the bottom of it'
''There is nothing very unusual in it that I see,' I replied, 'for every day men sacrifice honor for gold.'
''True, nothing more common, and yet this proposition beats all I ever met with.'
''In what respect?'
''Why, the interest that these folks who employ Pedro, take in this journey that I undertook for your friend, Señor Pride.'
''But, if this journey has some valuable secret object in view?'
''Valuable secret!' repeated Pepito, bursting into a fit of laughter; 'Yes, a valuable secret indeed! Oh! the joke of offering four hundred dollars for what, 'twixt you and me, is not worth a cent. But who can it be that is behind Pedro, in this matter? He must be some rival doctor, or else a naturalist, on the same scent.'
''Is Señor Pride,' I inquired, 'a doctorare you sure of that?'
''Yeshe must bebut I don't know,' exclaimed Pepito; 'I am at my wits' end. If he is not, I have been working in the dark, and he has deceived me with a false pretext; I am at a lossdead beat. But one thing is plainI can make four hundred dollars, if I like.'
''And will you betray your employer?' said I indignantly.
''Time enoughnever decide rashly, Caballero; I shall deliberatenothing like sleeping on important affairs; to-morrowwho knows what to-morrow may bring forth?'
'So saying, Pepito arose, took his traveling sword under his arm, placed his hat jauntily on his head, cast an admiring eye at the looking-glass, and then brushed off some of the dust that still clung to his left sleeve.
''The smile of Heaven abide with you, Señor,' said he, with a most graceful bow. 'As for your friend's secret, do not be uneasy about it; I am not going to meet Pedro to-night. I shall take advantage of his absence to make a call on my lady-love. Pedro is a good fellow, but shockingly self-conceited; he fancies himself far smarter than Iperhaps he isbut somehow I fancy, this time he must be early if he catches me asleep.'
'On his departure, I paid the bill, which both my friends had overlooked, then walked out and seated myself on the Alameda, which at that hour was thronged with promenaders. Isolated, buried in thought, in the midst of that teeming throng, the various episodes in the drama of which my mysterious neighbor was the principal character, passed before my mind. I again and again reviewed the strange events which, by some freak of fortune, I had been a witness to. What was the basis on which my friend, with two sets of names, founded his dream of inexhaustible wealth, this mission he had intrusted to Pepito? What the mission which the agent laughed at, and which to gain a clue to, others were tempting him with glittering bribes? And again, why the deceit practiced on Pepito, by assuming the guise of a doctor? Each of these facts was a text on which I piled a mountain of speculation.
'Vexed and annoyed at finding myself becoming entangled in this web of mystery, as well as piqued at my failure to unravel it, I determined to avoid all further connection with any of the actors; and full of this resolve, I wended my way homeward, to have a final and decisive interview with Mr. Livermore.
'The worthy Donna Teresa Lopez confronted me as I entered the inner door:
''Plenty of news, is there not?' she asked; 'I heard a good deal of squabbling, last night; that man in the cloak was noisy.'
''Yes; they had an interesting discussion.'
''You can not make me believe that was all. Discussion, indeed! When there is a pretty woman in the case, and two men talk as loudly as they did, it generally ends in a serious kind of discussion. 'When love stirs the fire, anger makes the blood boil.' Tell me, now, will they fight here, in the Señor Pride's room?'
'This question, which Donna Teresa put in the most matter-of-fact sort of way, staggered me considerably, and confirmed me in the resolution to avoid the whole business.
''I sincerely trust, Señora, that such an event is not probable. On what do you base your supposition?'
''There is nothing so very astounding in rivals fighting; but it is all the same to me. I only asked that I might take precautions.'
''Precautions! what, inform the police?'
''No, no! I thought it might be as well to take down the new curtainsthe blood might spoil them.'
'Need I say I terminated my interview with my hostess, more impressed with admiration of her business qualities than of her sympathetic virtues? But let me do the poor woman justice; life is held so cheap, and the knife acts so large a part in Mexico, that violence and sudden death produce a mere transient effect.
IX
'Instead of going to my own apartments, I went direct to Mr. Livermore's, intending thus to show him that I wished no longer to be looked upon as the man in the next room.
''We were dying with anxiety to see you,' he said, as I entered; 'walk into the other room, you will find Adéle there.'
''Well, Mr. Rideau,' said she, with intense anxiety visible on her countenance, 'what passed between those two men?'
''Little of importance. Pedro offered Pepito four hundred dollars if he would divulge the particulars of his journey; to which offer Pepito has acceded. That is about all.'
'I was far from anticipating the effect my answer would produce on my hearers. They were overwhelmedthunderstruck. Adéle was the first to recover.
''Fool! fool that I was,' she exclaimed, 'why did I select in such an enterprise a man worn down by sickness and disease?'
'The look she cast on Arthur, rapid as it was, was so full of menace and reproach, that it startled me.
''Well, Arthur,' she said, laying her hand on his arm; 'do you feel ill again?'
'Roused by the sound of her voice, Arthur placed his hand on his heart, and mutely plead excuse for the silence which his sufferings imposed on him.
'As for me, I spoke no word, but mentally consigned my mysterious neighbors to a distant port, whence consignments never return.
''My dear sir,' I replied at length, 'Pepito's treachery, which appears so deeply to affect you, is not yet carried into execution, it is only contemplated. I will give you word for word what transpired.'
'When I had concluded my narrative, to which they listened with breathless attention, Adéle exclaimed:
''Our hopes are not yet crushed, the case is not utterly desperate; but alas! it is evident our secret is suspected, if not known. Arthur,' she continued, 'now is the time to display all our energy. We have some enemy to dread, as I have long suspected. If we do not at once steal a march on him, then farewell forever to all our dreams of happiness, of wealth, or even of subsistence.'
''Sir,' said she, again addressing me; 'your honor alone has kept you in ignorance of our secret. You could easily have tempted and corrupted Pepito. We prefer you should learn it from us rather than from an accidental source. We merely request your word of honor that you will not use it to your own advantage, without our joint consent, nor in any way thwart our plans.'
''I am deeply sensible, madame, of the confidence you repose in me; but I must beg you will allow me to remain in ignorance.'
''You refuse, then, to give us the promise?' exclaimed Adéle, 'I see it all! you will thwart us; you would preserve your liberty of action without forfeiting your word.'
'If you had known me longer, such a suspicion would not have crossed your mind. However, as I have no other means of proving it unjust, I will give the pledge you desire, I am now ready to hear whatever you have to communicate.'
'Mr. Livermore resumed the conversation:
''The secret which Adéle imparted to me will, I dare say, appear at first very extravagant, but before you laugh at it, give me time to explain. It is the existence of a marvelous opal mine in the interior; the precise location of which is known to no one save Adéle and myself.'
'In spite of the greatest effort, I could not suppress a smile of incredulity, at this announcement. Mexico is so full of strange stories of fabulous mines, that this wondrous tale of opals looked to me like some new confidence game, and I felt sure my neighbors were duped or else trying to dupe me.
''Oh! I see you think we are deceived?'
''I admit,' I replied, 'it strikes me as possible that you have been the victims of some crafty scheme. Did you hear of this mine before or since your arrival in Mexico?'
''Before we left New-Orleans.'
''And yet it is not known to the natives?'
''It was from a Mexican we had our information.'
''Why did not this Mexican himself take advantage of it?'
''He could not, for he was banished. He is now dead. But what do you think of these specimens?'
'He took from a drawer ten or twelve opals of rare size and brilliancy. I examined them with care; they were, beyond all doubt, of very considerable value. My incredulity gradually gave way to amazement.
''Are you certain these opals really came from the mine of which you speak?'
''Nothing can be more certain; you saw Pepito hand me a package; you heard his remark that he could have brought a mule-load; these are a few of what he did bring.'