"Santa Maria del Rio de Guadaloupe!" he cried. "'Ow many time I got for to kill you to-day, any'ow? Now, damn to 'ell, mebbe you stay dead a while, eh?" He looked down at the shriveled form. And as of old he called to his henchman, "Pedro!" And Pedro was there. "_Si!_" he said. "Did I not tell you for kill zis man?" said Lopez, pointing in disgust to Morgan Pell. Swiftly in Spanish, and frightened almost out of his wits, poor Pedro muttered something wholly unintelligible. "Ees bum shooting! If she 'appen some more, zen I 'ave for get new Pedro. Should be too bad. Especially for you. You onnerstand?" Terrified at the thought, poor Pedro simply shivered. "_Si_," he whispered. Lopez indicated Pell's body, and took out a cigarette nonchalantly. "Take 'im away. Ees no use for nobody no more." Pedro started to lift the heavy form. "Save ze clothes and ze boots," he reminded his faithful man. "_Si_," the latter said, meekly. Venustiano appeared from the outer darkness, as if by magic, and rushed to Pedro's aid. They lifted the stricken Pell, and carried him away. The distasteful business finished, Lopez turned to Gilbert. "Now, zen, you all right some more, eh?" he asked. Gilbert could not understand. "I guess so," he said, "I--I thought you were captured!" "Me?" said Lopez in surprise, "It is not me, ees my double!" "Your double?" Gilbert, amazed, answered. "Ees idea what I get from ze moving pitchers." Gilbert and Lucia stared at each other; then at the bandit. "Then it wasn't you they captured?" Gilbert said. He flicked the ashes from his cigarette. "I should be capture by ze damn ranger? Ees a idea!" He roared with mirth. "No, no! Long time I 'ave fix zat." "But how? How do you work it?" Gilbert inquired, his brain in a tumult. "I pick from my men ze best rider. I make 'im for look like me. So when ze ranger wish for chase me, 'e go while I remain be'ind. It save me moch hexercise. Say, why you no kill 'im yourself? You got ze gun." Lopez was mystified. "I--I couldn't," Gilbert answered. "Ees no difference from us three--me, you, and 'im," Lopez explained. "You is afraid for kill. 'E was afraid for die. Me, I am afraid for neizer! Now zen, what you do, eh?" He patted Gilbert on the shoulder. "I don't know," the young man said. "We've got to go somewhere." Lopez was firm. "No. You shall stay right 'ere in your 'ome sweet 'ome." "But I've lost the place." He pointed to the little clock that was ticking out its relentless minutes. "It's after eight o'clock." "No," said Lopez, definitely. "For at 'alf-past six-thirty, what I do? I tell you. When I am chase by ze ranger what I follow, I sink for myself eight o'clock she soon come. Suppose moggidge of my frands he meet wiz accident? Would never do!" He waved his arms. "So I goes and pays 'er myself!" He handed Gilbert a paper. Gilbert could not believe his eyes. "What's that?" he wanted to know. "Ees recipe," Lopez affirmed.