“I should say something had!” said Dick. “How dared you enter this room?”
“This room? Why, I have a right in my own room, have I not?”
“But this is not your room.”
“Not my room?”
“You know it’s not. This room is the one occupied by my brother and myself. How dared you enter it?”
“Is it possible I have made a mistake?” exclaimed Del Norte, lifting his eyebrows and looking very much surprised. “Why, I really believe I have! I trust you will pardon me.”
He made a move as if to leave the room.
“Stop!” cried Dick, planting himself squarely in the doorway. “You have made a serious mistake, Porfias del Norte. Now I know why you were in such great haste to reach the Sachem. You had a key by which you entered this room. You had another key by which you opened my brother’s strong box. You have stolen a paper from that box, but you must put it back. If you refuse——”
Del Norte exposed his beautiful teeth as he laughed in the boy’s face.
“If I do not,” he purred, “if I do not put it back, what will you do, señor?”