Don Fernando Carril, as we have already related, after his conversation with the vaqueros, had taken, at a gallop the route to the pueblo; but when he was within a hundred yards of the first houses, he slackened his pace to a walk, and cast glances right and left, as if in the expectation of meeting some person he wished to see. But if such were his thoughts, it seemed as if he were doomed to disappointment; for the road was completely deserted in all directions as far as his eye could reach.
[CHAPTER X.]
EL AS DE COPAS (THE ACE OF HEARTS).
Don Fernando checked his steed, and remained motionless as an equestrian statue on a marble pedestal.
"He will not come," he muttered, after a while.
"Can he have deceived me?—It is impossible."
Casting, as a last hope, one more look around him, he dropped the reins, but seized them again an instant later with a suddenness which made his horse perform a curvette and wince with pain. Don Fernando had just seen two cavaliers advancing towards him—one approaching from the pueblo, the other riding down the road he had himself taken.
"Come, come, it is all right," he said to himself; "This one is Don Torribio Quiroga. But who is this other cavalier?" he added, turning to the man who had just left the pueblo.