"Thanks for your frankness, chief; I am delighted to meet an Indian who is not an utter scoundrel. Good-bye till tomorrow."
"Tomorrow!" the chief repeated, courteously, and involuntarily affected by the old gentleman's noble bearing.
The major withdrew slowly to the barricades, where the colonel, alarmed by the long interview, had made all preparations to avenge the death of his old friend.
"Well?" he said, as he pressed his hand.
"They are trying to gain time," the major answered, "in order to play us one of their demon's tricks."
"What do they demand, though?"
"Impossibilities, colonel, and they are well aware of it, for they appeared to be laughing at us, when they submitted their absurd demands to me. The Negro cacique, they say, had no right to sell his territory, which they also say we must return to them in twenty-four hours, and then came the bede-roll of their usual threats. Ah! That is not all; they are ready to repay us all that the Negro cacique received for the sale of his lands."
"Why," Don Antonio interrupted, "the fellows must be mad."
"No, colonel, they are robbers."
At this moment, tremendous shouts were heard at the barriers, and the two officers hurried up in all haste.