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232 here, I had used the place as if the owner had been a civilian."

That the inn was kept by an officer was not at all astonishing to one, like me, well acquainted with Mexican manners, but that an officer had ventured to give credit to a comrade appeared a piece of the most inexplicable rashness.

"Halloo! Juanito," cried the lieutenant to his asistente. The man soon made his appearance in a costume still more picturesque than the one I had seen him wear an hour before. His peakless shako still trembled on the top of his frightful mop of hair, but he had donned the horseman's jacket instead of the foot-soldier's coat; and it being too short for him, a large portion of his copper skin was exposed to view above the waistband of his trowsers. The fellow was evidently in a bad humor.

"What's the matter, muchacho?" asked Don Blas.

"The deuce!" cried Juanito, sharply; "you called me away at the very moment I was going to receive a dragoon's helmet for my shako; and who do you think would be pleased with that?"

"Request the huesped to come here," said Don Blas, affecting not to perceive the rough reply of the soldier.

Juanito wheeled half round, and went out without saying a word.

"That is a man devoted to my interests, and I overlook the liberties he takes in consideration of his devotion," remarked the lieutenant, by way of apology; "devotedness is such a rare thing in this world."

The host was not long in appearing, and I immediately explained to him the position in which the lieutenant stood. The huesped was a man of Herculean proportions, with broad shoulders and a florid