His pathetic supplications touched the hearts of his young captors, but they did not feel it would be right to let him go.
"If you are innocent you can prove it," said Ronie. "I know you are in sympathy with the insurgents, but I promise you shall have a fair opportunity to prove your innocence of being a spy if you are not one."
During these words of Ronie he bent a closer look upon him, and he suddenly recognized our hero as one of the couple who had saved him from the jaguar. He saw that Jack was another of his captors.
"I remember you, señors," he said. "You saved my life, but it would have been better for me to have been eaten by the jaguar than to fall into the hands of Castro. I will tell you something, señor, that will be worth more to you than my miserable life if you will let me go."
"It is of my mother!" exclaimed Ronie. "You had her photograph. Tell me where she is."
"If you will spare my life."
"I am a soldier under Castro; you know a soldier's duty, señor."
"I thought you were one of us," he murmured. "But I am going to tell all I know. She was taken prisoner by some of El Capitan's men. As the angels are my witness I had nothing to do with that. Her portrait fell upon the ground during the struggle and I picked it up. That is all I had to do about it."
"Where is she now?" demanded Ronie, with extreme earnestness.
"She is held as a prisoner at the old convent in Durango under command of El Capitan."