"What would you have me answer, Caballero," the young man said, with a delightful smile, "since you know all?"
"Then, you confess that you are the Jaguar, the Chief of the Freebooters!"
"Canarios, I should think so."
"You also allow that you came here with the intention of seizing the city?"
"Incontestably," the other said, with an air of mockery; "it does not allow the shadow of a doubt."
"Take care," the General remarked drily; "it is a much more serious matter than you seem to think."
"What the deuce would you have me do General? It is not my fault. You enter my house, without giving me notice, with a crowd of officers and soldiers; you surround my residence, carry it by storm, and when you have finished this pretty job worthy of an alguazil, without showing me the slightest scrap of paper authorising you to act in that way, you tell me to my face that I am the Chief of the bandits, a conspirator, and Lord knows what; and then you request me to prove it. On my faith! Any other in my place would act as I am doing; like me, he would bow to the weight of so great a military force and such an entire conviction. All this seems to me so extraordinary and novel, that I am beginning to doubt my own identity, and I ask myself if I have not been hitherto deceived in believing myself, Martin Gutierrez, the ranchero of Santa Aldegonida, in the State of Sonora, and if I am not, on the contrary, the ferocious Jaguar, of whom you speak to me, and for whom you do me the honour of taking me. I confess to you, General, that all this perplexes me in the highest degree, and I should feel greatly obliged if you would kindly bring me to some settled conviction."
"Then, Caballero, up to the present you have been jesting!" the General said hastily.
The Jaguar began laughing.
"Cuerpo de Cristo," he replied. "I should think so. What else could I do in the face of such accusations? Discuss them with you? You know as well as I do, General, that it is useless to attempt to overthrow a conviction. Instead of telling me that I am the Jaguar, prove it to me, and then I will bow to the truth. That is very simple, it appears to me."