As usual, the old fellow, who loved to be urged, could for sometime think of nothing to tell about, but he finally decided on his subject and settling back in his chair, began. I noticed, however, that he carefully scrutinized the faces of his audience, that is, of all except one. But this one was really of little importance as he was a late arrival in town and scarcely known to any one. As I have said, his face was free from the scrutinizing eye of old Juan Cordo, for, coming in late, he had quietly seated himself behind the story-teller without attracting his attention. "My story begins back in the early seventies," began the old man in a thoughtful and his usual hesitating tone. "The capital was the scene of crimes, of immorality and of all sorts of disorders. There were good men, of course, but even these were often corrupted. An instance of this was young Pedro Delvarez, a soldier, who had enlisted in the army when he was but seventeen. He had had chances which most of his associates had not--fine parents, an education, money; but he proved unworthy of them all. He turned to gambling and fast living, finally marrying a young girl, far below him in social rank, who married him merely for his money. His love for this girl, however, partly cured him of his wild life and helped him to be a better fellow. "Although he might have had an officer's rank through his father's influence, he had enlisted as a mere common soldier due to some fool book-notion of working his way up. But his habits retarded his progress and at the end of six years of service he found himself still in the ranks. He made many enemies among his rough associates and chief among them was a great, strong, dastardly fellow named Torcas." There was a stir behind the old storekeeper as the stranger leaned forward with a gleam of interest in his eyes, but I thought with a twitching of anger around his mouth. The old man apparently did not hear him for he continued without looking around. "How this enmity began I do not know, but it increased daily and finally reached the boiling point when Torcas ran off with the flighty young wife of his enemy. Young Delvarez was heart-broken and attempted suicide, but was luckily saved from such an untimely death through the intervention of good Padre Suarez. This priest had for some reason or other taken a great liking to the young soldier and had endeavoured in every way to help him. It was due to the efforts of his clerical friend that Delvarez was led back into the straight road and it was the kindly advice of this same person which kept him from a search for, and probably the murder of, his enemy.