"I know," replied the major-domo, "that you rose, that you saddled your horse, and that you went to meet one of your friends who was waiting for you at the Isle de los Pavos."
"What!" cried Don Fernando, scarcely repressing his rage; "You dared to follow me?"
"¡Vive Dios! I should think so; it is my way of thinking to fancy that a man who has been all day long on horseback does not take another ride through the whole of the following night for mere pleasure, particularly in a country like this, which, dangerous enough by daylight, is doubly so when night has fallen. Moreover, I am inquisitive by nature—"
"You are a spy!" broke in Don Fernando, in a fury.
"Fie, caballero! What a strange expression you use! I a spy! No, no; only as the simplest way of learning what I wanted to know was to listen, I listened."
"Then you were present at the conversation on the Isle de los Pavos?"
"I will not deny it, caballero; indeed, I was very close to you."
"And heard everything that was said there?"
"To be sure; yes, very nearly all," replied Don Estevan, still smiling.
Don Fernando threw himself upon the major-domo, but was stopped by him with a strength the former hardly expected to meet with.