"What is to be done?" grumbled the officer.
"Let ourselves be killed," was the reply.
"By Heavens! A comfortable piece of advice! We can but do that at the last extremity."
"We might try something else."
"But what? Speak, in Heaven's name!"
"Is everything prepared as we agreed?"
"It is. But what do you propose?"
"Give me twenty-five vaqueros, whom you can trust."
"Take them; you will lead them?"
"That is my affair, major. I will not answer for success; for these red devils are numberless as the sands; but you may depend on my thinning their ranks."