CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

LIFE FOR LIFE.

"_Gracias_!" cried the young Mexican, "_mil gracias, caballero_! That's all I can say till I get back my breath."

He stopped. I could hear his respiration, quick and heavy, as that of a horse halted after a rapid run.

"I hope you have not received any serious injury?" I said, on becoming a.s.sured that the only Red Hat remaining in the street was the one lying along the kerb-stone. "Are you wounded?"

"Nothing to signify, I think. A cut or two, perhaps. They're only scratches."

"You're sure?"

"Not quite, caballero; though I fancy I'm all right. I don't feel disabled--only a little fatigued. It was rather quick play, keeping guard against all five at once. I had no chance to get a thrust at them, else I might have reduced the number. You've done that, I perceive. Once more let me thank you for my life."

"There is no need. It is simply a debt paid in kind; and we are now quits."

"Senor, your speech mystifies me. I cannot tell whether I have the honour of knowing the brave man who has done me such signal service.

Your voice sounds like one I've heard before. You'll excuse me. It's so dark here--"

"You and I are so much in the habit of having encounters in dark places, I begin to think there's a fatality in it."

"_Carrambo_!" exclaimed the Mexican, still further mystified by my remark. "Where have we had these encounters? Pray tell me, senor?"

"You don't remember capitan Moreno?"

"It is my name! You know me?"

"I have good reason."

"You astonish me. If I mistake not, you are in uniform--an American officer?"

"I am."

"May I ask where we have met? At the _monte_ table?"

"We have met at _monte_ more than once. It was not there, however, that I had my first introduction to you, but--"

"Where?"

"In your house."

"_Una burla, senor_! No matter; you are welcome."

"No jest, I a.s.sure you. Our first exchange of speech was under your own roof."

"_Caspita_! You confound me."

"'Tis true, I did not go inside--only just over the doorstep. There we met and parted--both a little unmannerly. For the first I was to blame.

The last, I think, you ought to share with me. By your abrupt closing of the door, you gave me no chance of showing politeness; else I should have stayed to thank you for doing, what you say I have just done for you. I intended to seek an opportunity some day. It seems I have found it without seeking."

"_Santissima Virgen_! you, then, are the gentleman--"

"Who on a certain night so unceremoniously made entrance into the house of Don Francisco Moreno, in the Callecito de los Pajaros; who went in head-foremost, and no doubt would have been carried out feet foremost, but for the fortune that gave him such a generous host. Ah! captain Moreno," I continued, in the ardour of my grat.i.tude grasping the young soldier's hand, "I said we were quits. Far, far from it; you owe me perhaps your life. To you I am indebted for mine; and--and much more."

"_Por Dios, caballero_! you continue to mystify me. What more?"

Under the dominion of a sweet excitement, I was on the point of confessing my _amourette_ with Mercedes, and telling him how he had interrupted it--in short, telling him all. No longer rivals, but fellow-suitors for two fair sisters, we were journeying along the same road. A common motive--each having a different object--instead of estranging, ought rather to unite us?

And yet there was a doubt. Something counselled me to reticence. My secret remained unspoken; not even mention being made of the Calle del Obispo.

"Oh!" I answered, taming down my tone of enthusiasm, "Much more depended on my life. Had I lost it--"

"Had you lost it," interrupted the young Mexican, relieving me from the necessity of further explanation, "it would have been a sad misfortune for me: since this night I should have lost mine. Five minutes more, and these footpads would have overpowered me. As for my having saved _your_ life, that is scarcely correct. Your own comrades did it. But for their timely arrival, we might not have been able to withstand the a.s.sault of the angry _patriotas_; who were led by a man of no common kind."

"So much the greater reason for my grat.i.tude to you."

"Well, you have amply acquitted the debt. But for your interference here--the more generous that you did not know for whom it was exerted--I might now be lying in the place of that red-hatted, red-handed wretch; who has been alike a traitor to his country and his G.o.d!"

The last words were p.r.o.nounced with a scornful emphasis, as if the speaker's patriotism had become fired at the sight of the renegade robber.

"But, caballero!" he continued, changing to a more tranquil tone, "you say we have also met at the _monte_ table. Lately?"

"Our latest meeting has been to-night."

"To-night!"

"About an hour ago. Perhaps a little less."

"_Carrambo_! You must have been there at the time I left the saloon.

You saw me go out?"

"Every one saw you. More than one remarked it as strange."

"Why strange, senor?"

"It is not usual for a player to run away from such luck as you had-- without a very powerful motive. Something of the kind carried you off, I presume?"

"_Par Dios_! Not much of that. Only a little errand that required punctuality. I executed it; and was on my way back, when these _picarones_ attacked me. Thanks to you, sir, it may still be in my power to gain another _onza_ or two; which I intend doing, if the luck has not been drawn out of me along with these drops of blood. But come, caballero! are you going back yourself? 'Tis not too late to have another _albur_."

"I shall go with you, to see whether you've received any wounds that require looking after."

"Thanks, thanks! They're nothing; else I should have thought of them before now. No doubt they're scarce worth dressing. A little soap and water will set them all right. Are we to leave _him_ here?"

"If dead, yes. He don't deserve even the scant honour of being carried upon a stretcher."

"You are not partial to your red-hatted a.s.sociates?"

"I detest them; and so does every officer in our army who cares for its escutcheon. They were regular professional robbers, these renegades-- were they not?"