"To carry out your orders, father."
"There is no hurry; the day is not very advanced yet, and I want to talk with you; so return to your chair."
The young man obeyed. Thunderbolt reflected for a moment, and then said—
"How do you call this hacienda?"
"El Toro."
"Let me see," the old man continued, as if striving to remember; "it is not built on the exact site of the ancient Cosala?"
"So people say, father."
Doña Esperanza listened to this conversation with considerable anxiety. In vain did she try to discover her husband's meaning, and ask herself why he thus obstinately brought the conversation back to so hazardous a subject.
"Is it not a strong place?" the sachem continued.
"Yes, father; substantially built, and crowned with almenas."