"That is my opinion, too—so sign; and to soften any painful effect it may produce on you, I will give you one hundred ounces."
"Very good," he replied, with a smile; and taking the pen from Don Rufino's hand, he boldly placed his signature at the foot of this document, which might cost him his life. But the promise of the hundred ounces made him forget everything; and besides, Kidd was a bit of a fatalist, and reckoned on chance to liberate him from his accomplice ere long.
When Kidd had signed with the greatest assurance, the senator sprinkled gold dust over the paper, folded it, and placed it in his bosom.
"And here," he said, as he thrust his hand into a coffer, "is the promised sum."
He piled the ounces on the table, and Kidd pocketed them with a smile of pleasure.
"You know that I am at your orders, and ready to obey you," he said; "and, as a beginning, I restore you the pistols, which I no longer require."
"Thanks. Have you anything to detain you at Arispe?"
"Not the slightest."
"Then you would offer no objection to leaving the town?"
"On the contrary, I intend to do so as soon as possible."