"Ask it; and I will answer it, if I can."
"Do you know the name of the man who treated you with this cordial hospitality?" And he laid considerable stress on the last words.
"I confess that I not only do not know it, but that I did not even take the pains to ask him."
"You were wrong, señorita: for he would have answered that his name was 'the Tigercat.'"
"The Tigercat!" she exclaimed, turning deadly pale; "The execrable miscreant who for years has spread terror over the frontiers! You are wrong, Estevan; it could not be he."
"No, señorita, I am not wrong; I know the truth of my assertion. I can have no doubt, after what I have gathered from your father."
"But how did it happen that this man should have received us so kindly, and that he should have profited by the accident which placed us in his power?"
"No one can penetrate into the dark windings of that man's heart. Besides, who can prove he was not laying a snare for you? Were you not pursued by the redskins?"
"We were; but we escaped from them, thanks to the devotion of our guide." And she spoke with a little uncertainty of voice.
"You are right again," said Don Estevan ironically "But the guide himself—do you know who he is?"