CHAPTER TWO.
A FRIEND IN NEED.
The young Kentuckian was half frenzied by the insult he had received.
The proud blood of his republican citizenship was boiling within his veins.

What was he to do?
In the agony of his dilemma he put the question to the gentleman who, beyond all doubt, had restrained him from committing manslaughter.
The latter was an entire stranger to him--never seen him before.

He was a man of less than thirty years of age, wearing a broad-brimmed hat upon his head, a cloth jacket, slashed _calzoneras_, and a red crape scarf around his waist--in short, the _ranchero_ costume of the country.
Still, there was a military bearing about him that corresponded to the title by which the lancer captain had addressed him.
"Caballero," he said in reply, "if your own safety be of any consequence to you I should advise you to take no further notice of the incident that has arisen, however much it may have exasperated you, as no doubt it has done." "Pardon me, senor; but not for all the world would I follow your advice--not for my life.

I am an American--a Kentuckian.

We do not take blows without giving something of the same in return.