"You said one thousand."
"I made a mistake."
"And when will you give them to me?"
"At once."
"Have you the amount about you?"
"Yes."
Suddenly the bandit's eye gleamed with a sinister flash; he drew himself up, and leaped, knife in hand, upon the senator. But the adventurer had a powerful adversary. Don Rufino had long known the man he was treating with, and, while conversing, had not once taken his eye off, and attentively watched all his movements. Hence, though Kidd's action was so rapid, Don Rufino was before him; he seized his arm with his left hand, while with the right he placed a pistol to his chest.
"Hilloh, my master," he said, coldly, and with the most perfect tranquillity, "are you mad, or has a wasp stung you?"
Abashed by his failure, the bandit gave him a savage look.
"Let me loose!"