"Never!" they cried, tragically placing their hands on the place where there ought to have been a heart.
"Then perhaps, it is the smallness of the sum that I allow you which induces you to leave me. If I were to double the money?"
"We should be very sorry to do so, caballero, but we should refuse."
"If I were to triple it?" he pursued, looking them full in the face.
The bandits felt compelled to lower their eyes before the flashing look of the young man.
"We should refuse still, caballero," said they, turning away their heads.
"If I were to quadruple it?" resumed he, in the evident intention of pushing them to their last intrenchments.
They hesitated a moment; their eyes darted a momentary flash of covetousness, and Mataseis, after having exchanged a look with his companion, at last answered, in a voice strangled by the emotion which he vainly strove to suppress:
"It would be detestably annoying, caballero, but we should still refuse."
"Then you have decidedly made up your mind?"