"Whither was your master bound?" he asked.

"Him?" said the guide, with a shrug of his shoulder. "Who knows? No
sooner does he reach one town than he is off for another. It is his
life, the madman, to bore a hole through this world of Christ. Just now
we were headed for the ranch of Dom Francisco. After that, who knows?
But he pays, friend. Gold oozes from him like matter from a sore."

They came to a spring. The stranger ordered up the fly of a tent. From
his baggage he took two wonderful folding-chairs and a folding-table,
opened them, and placed them under the fly. "Sit down," he said to
Lewis.

The stranger took off his helmet and tossed it on the ground. Lewis
pulled off his hat hurriedly and laid it aside. The stranger looked at
him long and earnestly.

"Are you hungry?"

Lewis shrugged his shoulders.

"One can always eat," he said.

"Good," said the stranger. "Please tell these loafers to off-load the
mules and set camp. And call that one here--the black fellow with a
necklace of chickens."

Lewis did as he was bidden. The man with the chickens stood before the
stranger and grinned.