"_Muchas gracias_, senor!" he returned. "You pardon my stupid error? Yours is the act of a true _caballero!_ If the question does not trench upon delicate ground, may I venture an inquiry as to the possible relation of your daring journey--?" "I have reason to believe that the lady is at Chihuahua, Your Excellency," I explained. "Ah! ah! now I perceive! Yet what an _amor_ to bring any man across the vast desert!--above all, over the Sangre de Cristo in midwinter!" "It was the barrier which lay between myself and my lady, Your Excellency." "_Por Dios!_ You _Americanos!_ You will yet be flying to the moon! Malgares told me fully of the perils of the desert, and he had six hundred men, and it was in the pleasant season. But one man or a mere handful, however brave--_Santisima Virgen!_" "Malgares?" I repeated. "Lieutenant Malgares, who led the expedition to the savages of the East and North. On your way to Chihuahua you will have opportunity to learn that he is a true _caballero_." "Chihuahua?" I exclaimed. "Your Excellency will then permit me to go to Chihuahua?" "_Quien sabe?_" he smiled. "God alone knows the future! But I will send despatches, and it may well happen that they will not be in disfavor of your going. But as for the decision, that is with His Excellency, Don Nimesio Salcedo, the Commandant-General." A sudden thought aided me to rally from my disappointment. "Your Excellency," I asked, "if I should seal and address one article contained in my packet before your eyes, might I not ask the favor that it be delivered at Chihuahua to the lady addressed?" "_Santa Maria!_" he returned, "it is always a pleasure to aid a lover. Come now! We will seal your message with my own seal. There are those between us and your Dulcinea who might otherwise peer within the cover. The address you shall write upon it in private with my own quill, and none shall see the name of the senorita. She is not married?" (I signed that she was not.) "None shall see her name except my messenger when he opens the despatch-pouch for delivery at Chihuahua." "_Muchas gracias_, Your Excellency!" I murmured, overcome. "Ah! ah!" he murmured, leaning upon my bony shoulder as we started. "The years pass, but I, too, once had my romance, senor!" CHAPTER XXI HO FOR CHIHUAHUA! So it was that for the time being I found myself received into the society of the most powerful official of the North Province with a favor as cloudless and warm as the blue sky above his chief town. Yet, on the other hand, having been requested by His Excellency to prescribe for the dropsy with which he was afflicted, I laid myself open to trouble by giving a treatment different from that previously prescribed by the monk who was his regular physician. The result was soon evident in the poisoning of His Excellency's mind against the heretic.