though attractive and well-mannered, had never made the acquaintance of
even slate and pencil. On bidding them good-night, I asked whether I
might breakfast with them (on the strict understanding of payment for
the meal), and was glad when they willingly agreed.

When I left the house, Leandro said he would walk with me to my camp,
and I took the opportunity of asking about the chest. "I will tell you,
senor," he said, "though it is bad fortune, and I wish I had never seen
it. See what it has done to my brother!" "Was it the box that hurt your
brother?" I asked. "How? did it fall on him?" "Oh, no, senor, nothing
like that," he replied. "It was his horse that hurt him; but all the
same it was the box that did it. My wife says so, and I say so, too.
Pedro, I do not know what he thinks, but then, he is as you see. This is
how it happened, senor.

"It was many years ago, yes, nearly twenty years. We were both young
then, and we worked on the Escorpion, for Don Guillermo. My father used
to work for him too: he was a foreman on the ranch: and when Pedro and I
were old enough to ride after the cattle he made us vaqueros. Pedro was
strong in those days, yes, stronger than I am now, and quite tall. There
was no one who could ride like Pedro on the Escorpion. To see him now!
ay de mi! Well, senor, one day some steers were missing, twelve or
fifteen or more, and my father sent us, Pedro and me, to find them and
bring them in. We hunted for them one day, two days, and could not find
them. The range was getting poor on the Escorpion, but it was still good
in the hills, and my father said the cattle must have gone up to the
Sim'. So the next morning we started toward the Sim', and it was not
long before we found their tracks, coming toward the hills. We followed
them all that day, and nearly at night we found them. It was in a little
valley that is quite near here: you will go through it to-morrow, senor.