"Upon my word, I don't know," declared Decoud, in

a slightly surprised tone. "He certainly promised me that, but, now you ask me why, I certainly could not tell you his reasons. He talked with his usual carelessness, which, if he had been anything else but a common sailor, I would call a pose or an affec- tation." Decoud, interrupting himself, looked at Mrs. Gould "Upon the whole," he continued, "I suppose he expects something to his advantage from it. You mustn't forget that he does not exercise his extraor- dinary power over the lower classes without a certain amount of personal risk and without a great profusion in spending his money. One must pay in some way or other for such a solid thing as individual prestige. He told me after we made friends at a dance, in a posada kept by a Mexican just outside the walls, that he had come here to make his fortune. I sup- pose he looks upon his prestige as a sort of invest- ment." "Perhaps he prizes it for its own sake," Mrs. Gould said, in a tone as if she were repelling an undeserved aspersion. "Viola, the Garibaldino, with whom he has lived for some years, calls him the incorrupt- ible." "Ah! he belongs to the group of your proteges out there towards the harbor, Mrs. Gould. Muy bicu. And Captain Mitchell calls him wonderful. I have heard no end of tales of his strength, his audacity, his fidelity. No end of fine things. H'm! incorruptible?

It is indeed a name of honor for the capataz of the