"No; take a score. We cannot tell whom we may fall in with on our road at this time of night. Suppose we were to be set upon by a couple of hundred Indians! We ought to be able to show them a front."
"Let it be a score, then, if you like," answered Don José, with perfect indifference; "and be good enough to choose them yourself."
"Make your mind easy," said Torribio.
With that he rode up to the guard, who had turned out on the governor's arrival, and picked out twenty horseman, whom he ordered to form behind them.
"Now," said he to the governor, "we are ready to march."
"Then let us go," said the latter, giving his horse his head.
The escort put itself in motion, and followed Don José Kalbris and Colonel Torribio Quiroga at about twenty paces' interval.
All went well for nearly an hour, when the governor began to grow restless, in spite of Don Torribio's lively conversation. The latter kept up a constant fire of jokes and sparkling repartees, laying himself out to amuse Don José, and had never before proved so agreeable a companion.
"Excuse me, colonel," said the governor, coming to a halt; "but is it not extraordinary that we see no signs of the troops we are going to meet?"
"Not at all, señor; perhaps the officer in command is waiting for my return, before he leads his men into roads with which he is unacquainted."