“Well?”

“Have you anything new?” asked the parliamentary Gashwiler.

“Much! a woman!” replied the stranger.

The astute Gashwiler, waiting further information, concluded to receive this fact gaily and gallantly.  “A woman?—­my dear Mr. Wiles,—­of course!  The dear creatures,” he continued, with a fat, offensive chuckle, “somehow are always making their charming presence felt.  Ha! ha!  A man, sir, in public life becomes accustomed to that sort of thing, and knows when he must be agreeable,—­agreeable, sir, but firm!  I’ve had my experience, sir,—­my own experience,”—­and the Congressman leaned back in his chair, not unlike a robust St. Anthony who had withstood one temptation to thrive on another.

“Yes,” said Wiles impatiently, “but d—­n it, she’s on the other side.”

“The other side!” repeated Gashwiler vacantly.

“Yes, she’s a niece of Garcia’s.  A little she devil.”

“But Garcia’s on our side,” rejoined Gashwiler.

“Yes, but she is bought by the Ring.”

“A woman!” sneered Mr. Gashwiler; “what can she do with men who won’t be made fools of?  Is she so handsome?”

“I never saw any great beauty in her,” said Wiles shortly, “although they say that she’s rather caught that d——­d Thatcher, in spite of his coldness.  At any rate, she is his protegee.  But she isn’t the sort you’re thinking of, Gashwiler.  They say she knows, or pretends to know, something about the grant.  She may have got hold of some of her uncle’s papers.  Those Greasers were always d——­d fools; and, if he did anything foolish, like as not he bungled or didn’t cover up his tracks.  And with his knowledge and facilities too!  Why, if I’d—­” but here Mr. Wiles stopped to sigh over the inequalities of fortune that wasted opportunities on the less skillful scamp.

Mr. Gashwiler became dignified.  “She can do nothing with us,” he said potentially.

Wiles turned his wicked eye on him.  “Manuel and Miguel, who sold out to our man, are afraid of her.  They were our witnesses.  I verily believe they’d take back everything if she got after them.  And as for Pedro, he thinks she holds the power of life and death over him.”

“Pedro! life and death,—­what’s all this?” said the astonished Gashwiler.

Wiles saw his blunder, but saw also that he had gone too far to stop.  “Pedro,” he said, “was strongly suspected of having murdered Concho, one of the original locators.”

Mr. Gashwiler turned white as a sheet, and then flushed again into an apoplectic glow.  “Do you dare to say,” he began as soon as he could find his tongue and his legs, for in the exercise of his congressional functions these extreme members supported each other,—­“do you mean to say,” he stammered in rising rage, “that you have dared to deceive an American lawgiver into legislating upon a measure connected with a capital offense?  Do I understand you to say, sir, that murder stands upon