“I hope you will be happy now, Edward,” said Mr. Austin, when the two Mexicans came.  “You are a good boy, but it seems to me that you have been making an undue fuss about your hair.”

“I’m quite sure I shall recover fast,” said Ned.

It was hard for him to hide his happiness from the others.  He felt a thrill of joy every time the steel of the scissors clicked together and a lock of hair fell to the floor.  But Joaquin Menendez, the barber, had a Southern temperament and the soul of an artist.  It pained him to shear away—­“shear away” alone described it—­such magnificent hair.  It was so thick, so long and so glossy.

“Ah,” he said, laying some of the clipped locks across his hand and surveying them sorrowfully, “so great is the pity!  What senorita could resist the young senor if these were still growing upon his head!”

“You cut that hair,” said Ned with a vicious snap of his teeth, “and cut it close, so close that it will look like the shaven face of a man.  I think you will find it so stated in the conditions if you will look at the permit approved in his own handwriting by Colonel Sandoval y Dominguez.”

Joaquin Menendez, still the artist, but obedient to the law, heaved a deep sigh, and proceeded with his sad task.  Lock by lock the abundant hair fell, until Ned’s head stood forth in the shaven likeness of a man’s face that he had wished.

“I must tell you,” said Mr. Austin, “that it does not become you, but I hope you are satisfied.”

“I am satisfied,” replied Ned.  “I have every cause to be.  I know I shall have a stronger appetite to-morrow.”

“You are certainly a sensitive boy,” said Mr. Austin, looking at him in some wonder.  “I did not know that such a thing could influence your feelings and your physical condition so much.”

Ned made no reply, but that night he ate supper with a much better appetite than he had shown in many days, bringing words of warm approval and encouragement from Mr. Austin.

An hour or two later, when cheerful good-nights had been exchanged, Ned withdrew to his own little room.  He lay down upon his bed, but he was fully clothed and he had no intention of sleep.  Instead the boy was transformed.  For days he had been walking with a weak and lagging gait.  Fever was in his veins.  Sometimes he became dizzy, and the walls and floors of the prison swam before him.  But now the spirit had taken command of the thin body.  Weakness and dizziness were gone.  Every vein was infused with strength.  Hope was in command, and he no longer doubted that he would succeed.

He rose from the bed and went to the window.  The city was silent and the night was dark.  Floating clouds hid the moon and stars.  The ranges and the city roofs themselves had sunk into the dusk.  It seemed to him that all things favored the bold and persevering.  And he had been persevering.  No one would ever know how he had suffered, what terrific pangs had assailed him.  He could not see now how he had done it, and he was quite sure that he could never go through such an ordeal again.  The rack would be almost as welcome.