The Senor Montefalderon was earnestly engaged in what he conceived to be the cause of his country.  It was scarcely possible to bring together two men impelled by motives more distinct than Spike and this gentleman.  The first was acting under impulses of the lowest and most grovelling nature; while the last was influenced by motives of the highest.  However much Mexico may, and has, weakened her cause by her own punic faith, instability, military oppression, and political revolutions, giving to the Texans in particular ample justification for their revolt, it was not probable that Don Juan Montefalderon saw the force of all the arguments that a casuist of ordinary ingenuity could certainly adduce against his country; for it is a most unusual thing to find a man anywhere, who is willing to admit that the positions of an opponent are good.  He saw in the events of the day, a province wrested from his nation; and, in his reasoning on the subject, entirely overlooking the numerous occasions on which his own fluctuating government had given sufficient justification, not to say motives, to their powerful neighbours to take the law into their own hands, and redress themselves, he fancied all that has occurred was previously planned; instead of regarding it, as it truly is, as merely the result of political events that no man could have foreseen, that no man had originally imagined, or that any man could control.

Don Juan understood Spike completely, and quite justly appreciated not only his character, but his capabilities.  Their acquaintance was not of a day, though it had ever been marked by that singular combination of caution and reliance that is apt to characterize the intercourse between the knave and the honest man, when circumstances compel not only communication, but, to a certain extent, confidence.  They now paced the deck of the schooner, side by side, for fully an hour, during which time the price of the vessel, the means, and the mode of payment and transfer, were fully settled between them.

“But what will you do with your passengers, Don Esteban?” asked the Mexican pleasantly, when the more material points were adjusted.  “I feel a great interest in the young lady in particular, who is a charming senorita, and who tells me that her aunt brought her this voyage on account of her health.  She looks much too blooming to be out of health, and if she were, this is a singular voyage for an invalid to make!”

“You don’t understand human natur’ yet, altogether, I see, Don Wan,” answered Spike, chuckling and winking.  “As you and I are not only good friends, but what a body may call old friends, I’ll let you into a secret in this affair, well knowing that you’ll not betray it.  It’s quite true that the old woman thinks her niece is a pulmonary, as they call it, and that this v’y’ge is recommended for her, but the gal is as healthy as she’s handsom’.”

“Her constitution, then, must be very excellent, for it is seldom I have seen so charming a young woman.  But if the aunt is misled in this matter, how has it been with the niece?”