"Yes, ¡canarios! One need not be a wizard to do that!"
"Well, make haste! I give you five minutes to obey my orders: in ten we shall be gone."
The wounded man had indeed recovered a good deal of his strength. As the chief had declared, his wounds were not severe, and the loss of blood alone had occasioned the prostration in which he was lying.
Little by little he had recovered his senses sufficiently to know into whose hands he had fallen; and although too feeble to offer the slightest opposition whatever to the bandits at his side, his presence of mind had returned in a degree to enable him to comprehend that the greatest circumspection was necessary, to avoid arousing the suspicions as to his state in people who would not for a moment hesitate to sacrifice him to their safety.
So, when Carlocho, according to the injunctions of Pablito, passed a folded handkerchief over his eyes, and bound his hands, he feigned entire insensibility, and allowed them to do as they pleased with him, secretly rejoiced at these precautions, which indicated that his life was safe for the present.
"Now, what is to be done?" asked Carlocho.
"Two or three of you take up the wounded man, and carry him carefully to the boat I have in waiting close by. And pay particular attention to him, you fellows; for, at the first jolt, I will blow your brains out."
"Caray!" was all the vaquero could utter, for surprise.
"Ah!" said Pablito, with a shrug of his shoulders; "As you were fools enough not to kill him when you might have done so, so much the worse for you: now you shall mount guard over him. That shall teach you to introduce courtesy, or, if you like it better, clumsiness, into an ambuscade the next time."
Carlocho opened his eyes wide at this rodomontade, which he could not understand, but hastened to obey the order.