The Press., 1892-06-23

ther, used uncOnSc1OuSly pernapS CO play upon the weak side of the old mans na- ture. Tales of cunning, of sInartness, of various ways in which mankind had been cheated and money gained came most readily to his lips, and were rel ished by an eager listener. l could not help one night remarking upon it when my father had gone out of the room. laughing hoarsely and vibrating with amusement over some story of how the Biscayan peasants will strap lanterns to bullock's horns, and, taking the beast some distance inland on stormy night. will make it prance and rear so that the ships at sea may imagine it to be the lights of vessel and steer fearlessly in that direction, only to find themselves on rock bound coast.
 "You shouldn't tell such tales to an old man." said.
 'My dear fellow" he answered very kindly, '.you have seen nothing of the world yet You have formed fine ideas, no doubt. and notions of .delicacy and such things. and you are very doginatio about them. as clever men of your age always are. l had notions of right and wrong once. but it has been all knocked out of me. It's just sort of varnish which the rough friction of the world soon rubs off started with a whole soul, but there are more gashes and seams and scars in it now than there are in my body, and that's pretty fair, as you'll allow"-with which he pulled open his tunic and showed me his chest.
 kkfY earth did you get those?"
 "This was a bullet" he said, pointing to deep bluish pucker underneath his collar bone 'I got it behind the barri- cades in Berlin in eighteen hundred and forty-eight. Langenback said it just missed the subclavian artery. And this," he went on, indicating a pair of curious elliptical scars upon his throat, twas bite from Sioux chief. when r was under Custer on the plains-I've got an arrow wound on my leg from the same party. This is from mutinous Lascar aboard ship, and the others are mere scratches-California vaccination marks. You can excuse my being little ready with my own irons, though, when I've been dropped so often"
 Whats this?" l asked, pointing to a little chamois leather bag which was hung by strong cord around his neck "It looks like charm"
 He buttoned up his tunic again hasti- ly, looking extremely disconnected. "It is nothing" he said brusquely. Il am a Roman Catholic, and it is what we cali 8 scapular.' could hardly get another word out of him that night, and even next day he was reserved and appeared to avoid me. This little incident made me very thoughtful, the more so as mo- ticed shortly afterward. when standing over him, that the string was no longer around his neck. Apparently he had taken it off after my remark about it. What could there be in that leather bag which needed such secrecy and precau- ton! Had but known it, 1 would sooner have put my left hand in the fire than have pursued that inquiry.
 One of the peculiarities of our visitor was that in all his plans for the future. with which he often regaled us. he seemed entirely untrammeled by any monetary considerations. He would talk in the lightest and most offhand way of schemes which would involve the outlay of much wealth. My fathers eyes would glisten as he heard him talk carelessly of sums which to our frugal minds ap- peared enormous. It seemed strange to both of us that man who by his own confession had been 8 vagabond and ad- venturer all his life should be in posses sion of such fortune. My father was inclined to put it down to some stroke of luck on the American gold fields. l had my own ideas even then-chaotic and half formed as yet. but tending in the right direction.
 It was not long before these suspicious began to assume d more definite shape, which came about in this way. Minnie < and made the summit of the Combera cliff favorite trysting place, as think mentioned before, and it was rare for a day to pass without our spending two or