"That is true. Where the deuce was my head? That will be much better."
Don Rufino looked at him ironically.
"You will deliver to me the sum this man is the bearer of," he said.
The bandit gave a start of alarm,
"I suppose the sum is large?"
"Fifty thousand piastres."
"¡Viva Dios! Surrender such a fortune? I would sooner be burned alive."
"You must, though,"
"Never, señor."
"Nonsense," the senator remarked, contemptuously. "You know you are in my hands. All the worse for you if you hesitate, for you will then lose two thousand piastres."