Beaten by this gentle conscientiousness, Aunt Maria endeavored to appeal the matter to Coronado. "I am so glad to see you enjoying your cigarito once more," she called to him with as sweet a smile as if she didn't hate tobacco. He left his smoking retreat amidships, took off his hat with a sort of airy gravity, and approached them. "Mr. Coronado, where do you propose to take us when we reach land?" asked Aunt Maria. "We will, if you please, go direct to my excellent relative's," was the reply. Aunt Maria held her head straight up, as if stiff-neckedly refusing to go there, but made no opposition. Coronado had meditated everything and decided everything. It would not do to go to a hotel, because that might lead to a suspicion that he knew all the while about the death of Muñoz. His plan was to drive at once to the old man's place, demand him as if he expected to see him, express proper surprise and grief over the funereal response, put the estate as soon as possible into Clara's hands, become her man of affairs and trusted friend, and so climb to be her husband. He was anxious; during all his perils in the desert he had never been more so; but he bore the situation heroically, as he could bear; his face revealed nothing but its outside--a smile. "My dear cousin," he presently said, "when I once fairly set you down in your home, you will owe me, in spite of all my blunders, a word of thanks." "Coronado, I shall owe you more than I ever can repay," she replied frankly, without remembering that he wanted to marry her. The next instant she remembered it, and her face showed the first blush that had tinted it for two months. He saw the significant color, and turned away to conceal a joy which might have been perilous had she observed it. Immediately on landing he proceeded to carry out his programme. He took a hack, drove the ladies direct to the house of Muñoz, and there went decorously through the form of learning that the old man was dead. Then, consoling the sorrowful and anxious Clara, he hurried to the best hotel in the city and made arrangements for what he meant should be an impressive scene, the announcement of her fortune. He secured fine rooms for the ladies, and ordered them a handsome lunch, with wine, etc., all without regard to expense. The girl must be perfectly comfortable and under a sense of all sorts of obligations to him when she received his _coup de théâtre_.