As Coronado looked after the flying old man he heard himself called by Mrs. Stanley, who was by this time in great terror about Clara, trotting hither and thither after help and counsel.

“Oh, Mr. Coronado, do come!” she urged.  Then, catching sight of the galloping Garcia, “But what does that mean?  Has he gone mad?”

“Nearly,” said Coronado.  “I brought him news of pressing business.  How is my cousin?”

“Oh dear!  I am terribly alarmed.  Do look at her.  Will those doctors never come!”

Coronado, who had been a little in advance of Mrs. Stanley as they hurried toward Clara’s room, suddenly stopped, wheeled about with a smile, seized her hands, and shook them heartily.

“I have it,” he exclaimed with a fine imitation of joyful astonishment.  “There is no danger.  I can explain the whole trouble.  My poor uncle has these attacks, and he is extravagantly fond of chocolate.  To relieve the attacks he always carries a paper of medicine in one of his vest pockets.  To sweeten his chocolate he carries a paper of sugar in the companion pocket.  You may be sure that he has made a mistake between the two.  He has dosed Clara with his physic.  There is no danger.”

He laughed in the most natural manner conceivable; then he checked himself and said:  “My poor little cousin!  It is no joke for her.”

“Certainly not,” snapped Aunt Maria, relieved and yet angry.  “How excessively stupid!  Here is Clara as sick as can be, and I frightened out of my senses.  Men ought not to meddle with cookery.  They are such botches, even in their own business!”

But presently, after she had given Coronado’s explanation to Clara, and the girl had laughed heartily over it and declared herself much better, Aunt Maria recovered her good humor and began to pity that poor, sick, driven Garcia.

“The brave old creature!” she said.  “Out of his fits and off on his business.  I must say he is a wonder.  Let us hope he will come out all right, and soon return to us.  But really he ought to be seen to.  He may fall off his horse in a fit, or he may dose somebody dreadfully with his chocolate and get taken up for poisoning.  Mr. Coronado, you ought to ride into town to-morrow and look after him.”

“Certainly,” replied Coronado.  He did so, and returned with the news that Garcia had sailed to San Diego, having been summoned back to Santa Fe by the state of his affairs.  That day and the night following he slept fourteen hours, making up the arrears of rest which he had lost in watching his uncle.  Henceforward he was easier; he had a pretty clear field before him; there was no one present to poison Clara; no one but himself to court her.  And the courtship went forward with a better prospect of success than is quite agreeable to contemplate.