"In one word, you will either accept the conditions I offer, or any bargain between us will be impossible."
"Still, supposing, señor, I were to use the paper I hold, as you employ such language to me?"
"You would not dare."
"Not dare!" he exclaimed; "And pray why not?"
"I do not know the motive; but I feel sure that if you could have used that document, you would have done so long ago. I know you too well to doubt it, Señor Kidd; it would be an insult to your intellect, whose acuteness, on the contrary, it affords me pleasure to bear witness to. Hence, believe me, señor, do not try to terrify me further with this paper, or hold it to my chest like a loaded pistol, for you will do no good. Your simplest plan will be to accept the magnificent offer I make you."
"Well, be it so, since you are so pressing," he replied; "I will do what you ask, but you will agree with me that it is very hard."
"Not at all; that is just where you make the mistake; I simply take a guarantee against yourself, that is all."
The adventurer was not convinced; still, the bait conquered him, and, with a sigh of regret, he offered no further resistance. Don Rufino immediately wrote down the conditions agreed on between the two men —a sword of Damocles, which the senator wished to hold constantly in suspense over the head of his accomplice, and which, if produced in a court of justice, would irretrievably destroy them both. While the senator was writing, the bandit sought for the means to escape this formidable compromise, and destroy the man who forced it on him when he had received the money. We should not like to assert that Don Rufino had not the same idea. When the senator had concluded this strange deed of partnership, which rendered them mutually responsible, and riveted them more closely together than a chain would have done, he read in a loud voice what he had written.
"Now," he said, after reading, "have you any remark to offer?"
"Deuce take the remarks!" the bandit exclaimed, roughly; "Whatever I might say, you would make no alteration, so it is better to leave it as it is."