"Life?" Lopez smiled. "To be 'ere--zat is life. Not to be 'ere--" he gulped down some steaming coffee--"zat is death. Life is a leetle thing--unless it is one's own." He put the big cup down and put in four spoonfuls of sugar, stirred it diligently, and looked around him, the wonder of a child in his face. "You do kill your prisoners, then?" Lucia brought out. "Sure!" laughed Pancho. Could she have heard aright? "You do?" she cried, and her cheeks took on an ashen hue. "_Ciertamente!_" the bandit stated, as though they were talking of the weather. "You capture ze preesoner. You 'ave no jail to put 'im in. You pack him around wiz you. If you let 'im go, 'e come back to fight you again. So you kill him. Eet is very simple." "But it seems so cold-blooded!" Lucia said. "Ah! to you, perhaps! It is ze difference between zose who live in safety and zose who live in danger. In safety you 'ave ze bill to pay. You pay it and you forget it. In danger you 'ave enemy to kill. You kill 'im an' you forget 'im. _Save?_" And another heaping knifeful of the chile con carne went into his mouth. "It's too horrible!" said Lucia; and she turned away. "Ees life too horrible?" Pancho wanted to know. "I never knew life was like that!" she said. "Because you 'ave never really lived," the bandit explained. "Because you 'ave been always protect by ozzers. I kill only men. And only evil men. And when I kill evil man, it make me very 'appy. For I 'ave did a good deed." His simple philosophy pleased him. "But who decides whether a man is good or evil'" "I do!" answered Lopez, quick as a flash, and wondering how she could have asked so stupid a question. "Oh, do let me pour some more coffee for you!" Angela begged. "If you wish," Lopez said, indifferently. It mattered little to him now who waited upon him. His inner man had been partially satisfied. He leaned back in his chair, at peace with all the world. One spurred and booted foot was on the table. "Oh, thank you!" Angela was all smiles. She was making headway with this evil man. "Thank you so much," she followed up, and, standing sweetly at his left, she poured the brown stuff into his cup. "Lovely weather, isn't it?" she remarked. The cook took the pot from her, and went back to the kitchen with it. "_Si_," Lopez said. "Sit down. Sit down." Angela thought of course he was speaking to her, and being kind to her because of her girlish attentions. So she promptly seated herself. "No, not you!" Pancho said roughly, putting six spoons of sugar in this second cup. "You, I mean," indicating Lucia once more. Angela pouted, and turned her back on this bad, bad man. Pancho never even noticed her. The more opulent beauty of Lucia appealed to the sensuous in him. "You," he repeated. "Tell me, senora, 'ave you never been to a free country?" Lucia was surprised at his question. "A free country?" she said. "Yes; like Mexico, for instance." "Don't you call the United States a free country?" Lucia asked him.