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"4 MAN FOR BREAKFAST." 143

curling, yellow German hair of the Doctor s, that grew on the sides of his naked head there was not to be found another lock of hair like this in the mountains.

The dead man had not been robbed. That was a point in the Doctor s favour. He had been met in the front, had not been poisoned, or stabbed or shot in the back ; that was another very strong point in the Doctor s favour.

In some of the northern states of Mexico, particu larly at Guadalajara, I remember some years ago it was a pretty good defence for a man charged with murder, if he could prove that he had not plundered the dead, and that he had met him from the face like a man. These Mexicans held that man is not natu rally vicious or bloodthirsty, and will not take life without cause : that if he did not murder a man to rob him, he had some secret and perhaps sufficient wrong to redress, to at least give some show of right ; then if, added to these, he met his man like a man and he came off victor, although he slew the man, the law for that would hardly take his life.

Thorp, was smnptln iig of this feeling in the camp lere had been an alcalde at The loubt the Doctor had been at

once arrested ; but as there was nothing of the kind nearer than a day s ride, nothing was done. Besides, the Judge had made himself particularly odious to the miners, and gamblers are the last men in the world to meddle with the law. They settled their