weight of sand. Sheets of gr rse, official paper

bestrewed the floor. It must have been a room oc- cupied by some higher official of the customs, because a qge leathern arm-chair stood behind the table, with other high-backed chairs scattered about. A net ham- mock was swung under one of the beams for the oflfi- gfal's afternoon siesta, no doubt. A couple of candles stuck into tall iron candlesticks gave a dim, reddish ght. The colonel's hat, sword, and revolver lay l>e- reen them, and a couple of his more trusty officers lounged gloomily against the table. The colonel threw himself into the arm-chair, and a big negro with a sergeant's stripes on his ragged sleeve, kneeling down, pulled off his boots. Sotillo's ebony mustache con- pasted violently with the livid coloring of his cheeks. mas eyes were sombre and as if sunk very far into his Lad. He seemed exhausted by his perplexities, lan- guid with disappointment; but when the sentry on the landing thrust his head in to announce the arrival of a prisoner he revived at once. " Let him be brought in," he shouted, fiercely. The door flew open and Captain Mitchell, bare- Haded, his waistcoat open, the bow of his tie under his ear, was hustled into the room. Sotillo recognized him at once. He could not have hoped for a more precious capture. Here was a man who could tell him, if he chose, everything he wished to know; and, directly, the problem of how best to make him talk to the point presented itself to his mind. The resent- ment of a foreign nation had no terrors for Sotillo. The might of the whole armed Europe would not have

protected Captain Mitchell from insults and ill-usage so