’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 Senor 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, Senora, 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 curtains—­the 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 Adele 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 overwhelmed—­thunderstruck.  Adele 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?’