"Ah, Meester Tansee," he said, with a sultry fire in his silky, black eyes, "I give myself pleasure to see you this evening. Meester Tansee, you have many times come to eat at my table. I theenk you a safe man--a verree good friend. How much would it please you to leeve forever?" "Not come back any more?" inquired Tansey. "No; not leave--_leeve_; the not-to-die." "I would call that," said Tansey, "a snap." Torres leaned his elbows upon the table, swallowed a mouthful of smoke, and spake--each word being projected in a little puff of gray. "How old do you theenk I am, Meester Tansee?" "Oh, twenty-eight or thirty." "Thees day," said the Mexican, "ees my birthday. I am four hundred and three years of old to-day." "Another proof," said Tansey, airily, "of the healthfulness of our climate." "Eet is not the air. I am to relate to you a secret of verree fine value. Listen me, Meester Tansee. At the age of twenty-three I arrive in Mexico from Spain. When? In the year fifteen hundred nineteen, with the _soldados_ of Hernando Cortez. I come to thees country seventeen fifteen. I saw your Alamo reduced. It was like yesterday to me. Three hundred ninety-six year ago I learn the secret always to leeve. Look at these clothes I war--at these _diamantes_. Do you theenk I buy them with the money I make with selling the _chili-con-carne_, Meester Tansee?" "I should think not," said Tansey, promptly. Torres laughed loudly. "_Valgame Dios!_ but I do. But it not the kind you eating now. I make a deeferent kind, the eating of which makes men to always leeve. What do you think! One thousand people I supply--_diez pesos_ each one pays me the month. You see! ten thousand _pesos_ everee month! _Que diable!_ how not I wear the fine _ropa_! You see that old woman try to hold me back a little while ago? That ees my wife. When I marry her she is young--seventeen year--_bonita_. Like the rest she ees become old and--what you say!--tough? I am the same--young all the time. To-night I resolve to dress myself and find another wife befitting my age. This old woman try to scr-r-ratch my face. Ha! ha! Meester Tansee--same way they do _entre los Americanos_." "And this health-food you spoke of?" said Tansey. "Hear me," said Torres, leaning over the table until he lay flat upon it; "eet is the _chili-con-carne_ made not from the beef or the chicken, but from the flesh of the _señorita_--young and tender. That ees the secret. Everee month you must eat of it, having care to do so before the moon is full, and you will not die any times. See how I trust you, friend Tansee! To-night I have bought one young ladee--verree pretty--so _fina, gorda, blandita!_ To-morrow the _chili_ will be ready. _Ahora si!_ One thousand dollars I pay for thees young ladee. From an _Americano_ I have bought--a verree tip-top man--_el Capitan Peek_--_que es, Señor?_"