A Double-Dyed Deceiver 275
retained traces of the beauty peculiar to the Basque province. But, once you had seen her eyes, and comprehended the great sad- ness that was revealed in their deep shadows and hopeless expression, you saw that the woman lived only in some memory.
She bent upon the young man a long look of the most agonized questioning. Then her great black eyes turned, and her gaze rested upon his left hand. And then with a sob, not loud, but seeming to shake the room, she cried, "Hijo mio !" and caught the Llano Kid to her heart.
A month afterward the Kid came to the consulate in response to a message sent by Thacker.
He looked the young Spanish caballero. His clothes were imported, and the wiles of the jewellers had not been spent upon him in rain. A more than respectable diamond shone on his finger as he rolled a shuck ciga- rette.
"What's doing?" asked Thacker.
"Nothing much," said the Kid calmly. " I eat my first iguana steak to-day. They're them big lizards, you sabe ? I reckon, though,
�� �
