“Remember, sir,” said the General, “this is no occasion for untimely jest; these sallies may cost you more dearly than you think for.”
“If I am to speak the truth,” said I, boldly, “I must answer as I have done. If you want fiction, I 'm ready for you at a moment's notice.”
“Make a note of that, José!—' says that he is perfectly indifferent whether he tells truth or falsehood.'”
“And add, by way of parenthesis,” said I, “that the General is precisely of my own way of thinking.”
“Write down,' insults the commission,'” said the General, boiling with rage.
The paragraph seemed a full one, for the interrogating was not resumed for some minutes.
“Now, sir,” resumed the General, “state your object in coming to the country.”
“To get out of it as fast as I could.”
“For whose use were the arms provided,—the horses and horse equipage with which you embarked?”
“My own.”