"Well!" rather impatiently.
Alvarado made a dash at it.
"I want you to beg the post of hangman."
Montoro started back with a cry of horror. It was bad enough to him to kill men in fair fight, but to destroy a fellow-creature in cold blood was a thing too horrible to be thought of. He felt stunned, and it was not until his companion had broken into a short, smothered laugh that he could recall his scattered senses.
"Why, Diego," muttered Don Pedro, "you could not look more horror-struck if I had asked you to murder the man, instead of only——"
"Don't, don't," gasped Montoro. "To me, hanging the man would be like murdering him."
"Doubtless. But I intend not that you should do either, if you please."
Montoro began to breathe more freely, but also to look somewhat angry.
"Don Pedro, this is no time for speaking in riddles, to my thinking."
"Nor to mine either," replied the Captain, with a half-smile. "But to tell you the truth, I am a trifle afraid of you, friend Diego, and I well know that my present proposition must be somewhat unpalatable. But mark you, I only wish that you should request the post of hangman on the present occasion, and not that you should fulfil the duties of the office, when you have it, to its usual end."