"I blow out your brains like a dog's!" he replied, as he drew a pistol from his belt, and hastily cocked it.
The soldier's eye flashed fire, but his features remained impassive, and not a muscle of his face stirred.
"Oh, oh, señor Captain," he said, in a sombre voice, "you have a singular way of questioning your friends."
"Who assures me that you are a friend? I do not know you."
"That is true, but you know the person who sent me to you; that person is your Chief as he is mine. I obeyed him by coming to find you, as you ought to obey him by following the orders he has given you."
"Yes, but those orders were sent me through you."
"What matter?"
"Who guarantees that the despatch you have brought me was really handed to you?"
"Caramba, Captain, what you say is anything but flattering to me," the guide replied with an offended look.
"I know it; unhappily we live at a time when it is so difficult to distinguish friends from foes, that I cannot take too many precautions to avoid falling into a snare; I am entrusted by Government with a very delicate mission, and must therefore behave with great reserve toward persons who are strangers to me."