“Our captain wants money.”
“Who, pray, is your captain?”
“Captain Alfred. He sends word that the señoritas must be paid for.”
“If I did right, I would shoot you down, you dog.”
“Then they would kill the señoritas.”
“And what would happen to the murderers?”
The bandit shrugged his shoulders. “We are forty and you are six,” he said.
“So many as that!” General Matajente was heard to murmur; then aloud he said, “What do you propose?”
“The captain wants twenty thousand pesos (dollars), señor commandante, and he will release the señoritas unharmed.”
“And if he is refused?”