At the same time he saw two tall dark-skinned men, armed to the teeth, standing guard on each side of the door.
Thereupon Sancho's words recurred to his memory, and what Pilar had said of the reinforcement expected by the bandits.
"I have tumbled into a wasp's-nest," he thought; "but I am disguised and they will take me for a little beggar. I must find out if my father is here."
So he put out his hand and began to beg, in the piteous tone that he had heard the gypsies adopt and had sometimes adopted himself, laughing in his sleeve, during his travels with that honorable company.
They released him at once, but ordered him to go away, and, when he pretended not to understand, they threatened him by going through the motions of taking aim at him.
He was about to go, being fully determined to return, when another voice, coming from the inn, issued an order in German; whereupon, instead of turning him out-of-doors, they seized him by the collar again and pushed him into the kitchen.
There, before he had time to collect his thoughts, he found himself confronted by a tall, thin, dark individual, in military costume, who said to him with an Italian accent:
"Come here, boy, and if you have a letter, give it to me."
"I haven't any letter," replied Mario, looking the stranger in the face with perfect self-possession.
"A verbal message then, eh? Speak!"