ig at him ami tin- bullet-speckled walls of the

ite lightly veiled by a sunny haze of dust. Tin- w>rd " I'< )RVKNIR." in immense Murk capitals,

iting with broken windows, stared at him across

the vast space; and he thought with delight of the hour of vengeam-e. because he was very sure of laying his hands upon Decoud. On his left hand, Gamacho, big and hot. wiping his hairy, wet face, uncovered a set of yellow fangs in a grin of stupid hilarity. On his right, r Fuentes, small and lean, looked on with coin- ed lips. The crowd stared literally open-mouthed,

n eager stillness, as though they had expected the

i guerrillero, the famous Pedrito, to begin scatter- ing at once some sort of visible largesse. What he be- gan was a speech. He began it with the shouted word izens!" which reached even those in the middle of the Plaza. Afterwards the greater part of the citizens remained fascinated by the orator's action alone his tiptoeing, the arms flung above his head with the fists clinched; a hand laid flat upon the heart; the silver gleam of rolling eyes; the sweeping, pointing, embrac- .resture?; a hand laid familiarly on Gamacho's shoulder; a hand waved formally towards the little, black-coated person of Señor Fuentes, advocate and politician and a true friend of the people. The vivas of those nearest to the orator, bursting out suddenly, agated themselves irregularly to the confines of rowd. like flames running over dry grass, and ex- Aired in the opening of the streets. In the intervals, over the swarming Plaza brooded a heavy silence, in which the mouth of the orator went on opening and

shutting, and detached phrases "The happiness of