"I will not be certain, but I think so."
"Very well; we will join them. That will be neither long nor difficult, as we have only to retrace our steps—which we are going to do this very evening—for we by no means care to pass the night in the place in which we are."
"Well put, my master."
"When our mission shall be terminated, we shall probably have to give you an account of it, if it is only—"
"To take your money," interrupted Don Pablo.
"It is not that that I wished to say," quickly replied Mataseis, whose concealed thought, however, it was—for he was not sorry to see the prospect of the promised reward. "If it be only, I was saying, to give you an account of what has happened—to give you up the prisoners, if we have them—or, at least, to give you the proofs that you wish of their arrest."
"Just so; we must see each other again. Oh! That will be very easy; why cannot you go as far as Casa-Frama?"
The gauchos made a grimace. This proposition by no means pleased them; it was putting themselves under the paws of the lion.
"It is very far," observed Mataseis. "The roads are very bad; the journey would occasion us an irreparable loss of time."
"Yes, and then," said the Pincheyra, smiling, "great as is the confidence you have in me, it does not go so far as to induce you to place yourself entirely at my mercy. I understand your hesitation."